Fate of Realities

Episode 35: Strikeback

"Why are we suddenly outside?" asked Neos in confusion, scratching his head and standing up from the ground.

"Just run away from the school!" yelled Styx, already making a break for it.

However, just as the others began to run, it happened yet again. Time was slowed down to the extent that time itself seemed stopped. Not only was the ability just like Styx's time stopping, it also seemed to have a longer duration; Just enough that the man, or the shadow, could walk out of the window and come over to Styx, holding her up by her collar.

As time resumed, Val called attention to Styx, "Let go of her!"

"It has been quite a while since I've met someone who has some sort of time manipulation ability such as my chronostasis," stated the shadow, ignoring Val's shout, "You are definitely much weaker. However, I'm not coming for you. You having such an ability shows that there is indeed the reality manipulator amongst all of you. Tell me who they ar—"

"Get off of her!" yelled Jazz as she teleported in between Val and the shadow, kicking him away and teleporting Styx out of there.

"Hey, who is this guy?" Jak asked, running up to Styx and Jazz.

"Stay back!" yelled Styx, "He's after you the most!"

"What? Why?"

"Then let's just team up on this guy and beat his ass," suggested Brian.

"Wait, we have to be careful!" mentioned Val, "We really don't know how powerful this guy is! Not only that, but I could see it! He had the ability to slightly move even when Styx had stopped time!"

"Then we'll just have to take him down quickly," cockily said Kaleb, instantly running up to the shadow and punching him with a barrage of fast punches, that when paired together, created enough force to send him launching to the wall.

The shadow slowly got up from the wall, and dusted the debris from his vest. He stared at the gods as if he wasn't phased from the attack, but there were wounds in his face. Slowly, the wounds seemed to disappear as his flesh grew to cover it all. He could regenerate injuries at ease.

"If he's just going to regenerate his wounds," said Val as she thought up of a plan, glancing at Neos, "Then we just have to blow him up so that he doesn't regenerate from any part of his body!"

Neos caught a look at Val's glance and already knew what she was thinking. However, before they could even react..

Crash!

Jazz, Val, and Kaleb were launched backwards away from the school, hit with such an immense power that was on a greater level than Law did. Unlike most opponents, this shadow had sacrificed endurance and toughness for sheer power and lethality. Endurance isn't even a problem due to the high regeneration that this man had. Jak ran back to the three, using his reality manipulation to create cells to heal their injuries. Jak has noticed that they all had a single bruise, as if it only took a single punch for the enemy to hit them that far.

"Neos, charge straight on!" yelled Brian as he ran in, already thinking up of strategies to take him down.

Neos followed shortly after. Brian began to dodge the shadow's fists as he looked for openings to strike him back.

"This guy..." said Brian as he quickly dodged yet another punch and kick, "He's not letting me touch him! He's just way too fast for me when I use force to make an opening. He's definitely combat oriented and had experience in this before.."

Suddenly, the shadow stopped moving in his tracks. When he glanced down, he noticed that his legs were molded into the ground, preventing him from moving from his position!

"Use that to your advantage!" yelled Jak, cupping his mouth with his hands.

Brian, hearing Jak loud and clear, hit both of the shadow's fists away, causing such a small opening that Brian had to act. He reached in, and touched the shadow's forehead with his fingernail, trading a blow to the stomach that ended up launching Brian back.

"That wouldn't mater," yelled Brian in anger due to his injuries, "You're under my control! Stay still and reveal your name!"

Just like Brian had commanded, the shadow stayed still. After a few moments, he finally spoke.

"I am a spirit named Jukkon," stated the shadow, "I have possessed the body of Ivan Dekul, a descendant from the Ramuri bloodline, and have been using this body to take revenge on those who have wronged me in the past. I wish to steal the abilities of a reality manipulator in order to harness the power to control Fate."

"Creepy," scoffed Brian, "He's here to steal Jak's abilities. Just blow him up already, Neos. He's pretty weak compared to the others we fought. Law and Yuri were more difficult. This guy just feels like a discount Law without the other overpowered abilities."

Neos walked over and tapped Jukkon's head with his fingers. Brian and Neos then backed away so that they wouldn't get caught up in the explosion.

"Rest in pieces," said Neos.

BOOM!!!

In less than a second, Jukkon's body began to light up and glow as cracks began forming throughout his entire body. Once the cracks reached everywhere, they began to separate, causing a burst of explosions. Jukkon had turned into a bomb, and blew up, no trace of him ever appearing. Even the ashes had disappeared from existence.

"Finally over.." sighed Val in relief.