Second Genesis

Apollo’s eyes widened, his heart—or what was left of it—shuddering just a single time. But that last pulse of light sent fragments and shredded pulp of flesh flooding his body.

He toppled over slowly, slamming to the ground.

Grey exhaled a breath, cracking his neck in one direction, and then the other. His blood blade hadn’t reacted the same way to Apollo’s body as it had to Zara’s. So that probably meant there was little to gain from his blood.

It either meant that Grey had already reached the limit of potential that was possible for snatching blood from other people—or at least these people. Or, the Imperial Family was the only family with blood that was useful to him.

Whatever the answer was, Apollo himself was useless to him.

"... Zara..."

The echo of Apollo’s last words barely reached Grey’s ears and he couldn’t help but scoff. He came here for that bitch? Well deserved death.

Grey looked up to find that many of those still left alive had pressed themselves against walls as far from him as possible, and those were only the ones that hadn’t already turned tail to flee.

They stomped and bumped into one another, energy flashing and churning as they tried to force their ways through. The building shook on its foundations and it felt as though they would rather bring it all down with them than let someone else leave a single second before them.

"Jeez, am I that scary?" Grey laughed and turned his head toward the distance. He peered out of the windows and his gaze landed on a pair of young men staring at him with constricted pupils and wide eyes.

They were even more stunned when he saw them. There had to have been at least a kilometer of distance between the two parties, yet Grey seemed like he had known they were there the entire time.

Grey turned toward the exit and made a move to stroll out. The civilians who had been trampling over themselves to get out suddenly started screaming and doing the opposite, pushing and shoving a path as far away from Grey as possible.

The concentrated beam of sun landed on Grey from above. He took a deep breath, his butterfly wings growing more and more saturated with every passing moment. He was starting to wonder just how much of the sun’s energy he could take.

His cells were brimming, his heart combusting, his blood feeling like it was rolling through his veins like liquid fire.

’Me against the world, huh?’ Grey thought as he sensed several powerful auras surging toward him at once. ’You know, this is even better than my dreams. This shit is so badass.’

Grey’s grin was almost wider than his face could accommodate. He held a palm over his face, shadows leaking out as he activated his Skrill Mask within his Helm Frame.

If he was about to fight an army on his own, he might as well do it in style.

He looked toward the Goddess who still hovered in the air and held up his middle finger.

"If you’re so strong come fight yourself. What are you afraid of? That I’ll cop a feel?"

The Goddess only looked at him.

BOOM.

A man who looked like a bulldozing tank smashed through a building to Grey’s right. His head was covered in a dome of white gold metal that looked heavy beyond reason.

’Fucking juggernaut wannabe.’

Despite Grey’s thoughts, he had no desire to be met head on by whatever that was.

The man leapt into the air and smashed down.

Grey flickered, his body splitting into three.

BOOM.

A crater opened up where he had once stood and all three clones shot forward, burning through the air like solar sails across the starry skies.

In a blinking instant, he had slashed out several times at the man’s neck.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

The echo of blades and shattering glass filled the air.

Grey clicked his tongue as he slid to a stop behind the man, his three shadow clones snapping back together with an almost satisfying pop.

Cutting down energy with his black light was easy. Cutting through heavy metal was a completely different matter entirely.

The juggernaut wannabe raised up two spiked maces, his roar causing the building he had just run through to collapse the rest of the way.

The siren made Grey’s blood feel like it was boiling.

"Can you just shut the fuck up?!" Grey vanished.

DENG.

The Turning Shield became a round shield on Grey’s arm. He slammed it down, punching at the bastard’s head.

He vanished and dodged as the man spun around, his maces swinging wildly.

Grey landed on the ground, sprang forward, and drove a heel into the back of the man’s knee. The latter’s leg buckled, but he stood tall, swinging his maces back again.

With a leap and curl of his body, Grey just barely managed to dodge a spike and avoid a disembowelment. He regained his balance long before the man did.

With one side step, he kicked at the same knee again, this time to the side.

Already destabilized, the man fell to his knee and Grey slammed his shield into his helm again.

DENG. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

DENG.

DENG.

Grey moved like the wind, his body splitting into shadow clones and then snapping back together. Every shift felt calculated, every dodge dancing on the edge of life and death, every thrill pumping through his veins and adding to the wide, jagged, crimson digital grin that coated his features.

DENG.

The man swayed, trying to get back up, but feeling as though the world was swaying around him.

Grey’s laughter filled the air, the unhinged, manic wildness of a man drunk on battle booming across the skies with a momentum that almost seemed to rival the Goddess hovering above.

The man fell toward Grey as Grey unleashed just one more uppercut with his shield, his hips torquing, his pivot foot grinding into the ground, a violent power surging from the tips of his toes up and through his punch.

DENG!

The helm of the man cracked and then shattered, the edge of the shield driving through his nose and then half of his head before he crumbled to the ground.

Blood covered Grey as he roared, a rhythm of wildness filling his ears.

BANG.

Grey left a crater in his wake as he vanished, streaking across the air so fast he shattered windows with the whistling wind of a speeding missile.

"COME ON!"

He cut a path right toward the Imperial Palace.