The Guardian Of The Multiverse: A Hero's Burden

Playing God

(Marvel, DC, images, manhuas, and every anime that will be mentioned and used in this story are not mine. They all belong to their respective owners. The main character "Karito/Adriel Josue Valdez" and the story are mine)

The aftermath was worse than the fight.

Not because of noise.

Because of the silence after it.

When Adriel finally returned to the sealed office entrance, Vi, Jinx, and Isha were already pressed close to the small opening he had left behind. All three of them had heard the fight. The screams. The impacts. The stone breaking. The voice of the other man. The way Adriel's breathing had changed by the end.

They hadn't seen most of it.

That almost made it worse.

Adriel stood on the other side of the makeshift wall, shoulders tense, his red suit still shifting over him like it was alive and unhappy. One hand lifted toward the blockage of stone, metal, and debris.

"Fucking domes," he muttered under his breath.

His fingers curled.

The gesture looked small. Almost lazy.

But the pressure around the cave changed.

It felt like something invisible cracked between his fingers.

The sealed wall tore itself apart.

Metal bent backward. Stone crumbled. The debris folded inward and peeled away from the entrance piece by piece, clearing the path until the office stood open again.

Vi was the first one to step forward.

Then she stopped.

Jinx froze beside her.

Isha tried to peek around Jinx's hip, but Jinx immediately covered the little girl's eyes with one hand.

"Don't," Jinx said quickly, voice tight. "Don't look."

The smell hit them next.

Gore.

Not just blood. Blood they knew. Blood was almost normal in Zaun.

This was worse.

The air was thick with torn flesh, burnt meat, exposed organs, wet stone, and smoke. It crawled into the back of the throat and stayed there. The glowing mushrooms along the walls pulsed dimly beneath streaks of red, making the entire tunnel look like the inside of something dead.

Vi's stomach twisted.

Jinx went very still.

Both of them had seen horrible things. Done horrible things. Lived through the kind of violence that left marks no mirror could show.

But this?

This was different.

Because Adriel stood in the middle of it like he had done this before.

Not proudly. Not happily.

But familiarly.

His suit moved across him in slow, liquid motions, sealing cuts and closing wounds. A slash across his side disappeared under the symbiote's red surface. A deep bruise on his jaw faded beneath shifting armor. Blood that wasn't his slid off him and vanished into the suit like it had been absorbed.

He looked tired.

Not victorious.

Just tired.

Jinx swallowed. "Adriel..."