A/N: Sorry for the delay, I am just focusing on the other story for a little while to get it going and there are just so many games in March… okay, it's Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord and TW: Three Kingdoms. Also, stay safe people.

Beta by Yuilhan.

Beta note: Stay safe, and please wash your hands!

Beyond and more

Main teleported back to his group. The others were already waiting for him with the exception of Phoenix. On his back, he was carrying the frozen Eraser.

"How did this happen?!" Ragamuffin yelled, gesturing wildly at the frozen Izuku.

"Cryo," Reverse said coldly. "I underestimated his judgment; I thought his logical mind would work to our advantage, not hinder it." He ignored a mumble from Pixie-Bob saying 'serves you right' and looked to Main. "That attack took Eraser by surprise and now Katsuki can rejoin the main fight. We have two choices: make Phoenix join up with us or…" Reverse trailed off and spared a gaze at Admiral.

Main held his chin in contemplation before turning toward Admiral. "You can start preparing, but don't engage until I order you to, or unless you're the last person standing."

"Are you sure? It's a little unfair," Weekender voiced his opinion.

"Hmph, 'fair'? As if ten against nineteen was fair from the beginning," Admiral pointed out. "No use keeping on arguing in any event. Main has made up his mind. I will get to it then." Main nodded in affirmation.

Without as much as another word or discussion of a plan, Admiral's entire body turned into some kind of white substance, before melting away and disappearing into the ground.

"...his Quirk is weird," Ragamuffin said, shivering at what she had just seen.

"Not arguing with that," Tonkinese agreed.

"Let him do his thing," Main ordered. "Now then," he turned to Reverse. "What shall we do with Phoenix?"

"Well…" Reverse looked over at the clashing of fire and ice. "We've got a few options."

"Hey," Kan called to Mic, who was startled by his fellow commentator. "You forgot to comment throughout the whole match."

"Wah! Oh, shoot!" Present Mic cleared his throat before leaning toward the microphone. "Holy mother of God, ladies and gentlemen! What happened back there was crazy! But how can Izuku multiply himself?! What's going on!?" Truth be told, Mic was as confused as everybody else, but he had to keep up the appearance of a commentator.

As their teacher continued with the commentary, the students finally grouped up together again.

"We have to help Shoto!" Uraraka urged.

"Absolutely not!" Katsuki denied. He then pointed at the battle between Todoroki and Phoenix, of ice and fire, and the fire was winning. "He is helping us by keeping that bitch busy. We have to take this chance and take down the rest of them."

"But Todoroki is our heaviest hitter," Kendo argued. "Without him, we won't have anyone to help deal with those earth beasts or another wave of dirt."

Katsuki was silent at that, but finally he replied; "No, he's the only person who was capable of holding that bitch at bay. Anyone else wouldn't have lasted this long. We have to use this opportunity to take Main out before she can rejoin the fight or else we are fucking sc-"

"Katsuki!" Setsuna, who was missing an eye, shouted. "They are ganging up on Todoroki!"

"Ugh, of course, why would any-fucking-thing go my way!" With his cursing done, the blond took off toward the half-and-half boy. "Split up! Momo and Monoma, you two take your team and find Main! The rest with me!"

A good amount of them ran along with him, while the other half pursued their given orders.

While Todoroki himself wasn't doing so hot before, now he was outright on the verge of losing — both the match and his consciousness.

"I don't need your fucking help!" Phoenix yelled. It appeared that Main had decided that his alternate self had had enough fun and had sent the others to help with finishing Todoroki off for good.

"Like I want to help you, you bitch! Just send Todoroki out of the ring already!" Pixie-Bob shouted back, while Weekender and Pantera had to hold her back.

"Until he uses his fucking fire, he won't be leaving the goddamn stage!" the flaming-Izuku replied.

"Gosh! She's such a-" Pixie-Bob was interrupted when Phoenix sent a wave of flames to the right of Todoroki. After the wave had passed, they saw something akin to burning roots in its wake.

"Ibara!" They heard a shout and all eyes were immediately drawn to the arriving group of students. The Izukus and Izumis could clearly see Ibara Shiozaki crouching down in pain as several of her hair-vines were charred black.

"Katsuki," Phoenix hissed. The color of her hair began to change, as the orange strands began to overtake the green. "Stay out of this."

Bakugou, quickly realizing what was going on, turned to the others. "Uraraka, Tsuyu, get ready." The blond then turned back to the opponents in front of him. "Ah? Like hell, if I care. I'm just here to fight them." The explosive teen said casually and pointed at the gathering of Izukus and Izumis on the opposite side. "But if they are gonna drag you and Todoroki into this, we will be happy to take on all of you."

Phoenix was fuming. Other students thought she was going to lash out at them, instead, she shot a fireball toward her team. It deliberately missed, but the other Izukus and Izumis were shocked at the display nonetheless. With his trickery done, Katsuki signaled the gravity girl and frog girl to proceed.

"The hell are you doing, you bitch?!" Pixie-Bob yelled back. (At this point, U.A.'s censoring robot was having a hard time filtering out all the cursing from the live broadcasts.)

"Go away," Phoenix said with a disturbingly calming tone. Her eyes were wide and stared with burning malice at her alternate selves. "Todoroki is my prey."

"For God's sake," Pixie-bob groaned, scrubbing at her face with her hands like she was going to tear it off. She turned away and put her hand on the muscular Izumi's shoulder beside her, "Pantera, talk some sense into her."

"Phoenix, I know you have this… tendency... to prove that your fire burns the brightest-"

"Because it does!"

"Yes, I am not arguing about that, but we need your help to take out other U.A. students. There just isn't enough of us who are as strong as you are. We need you," Pantera finished. She knew there was no way she could get Phoenix to comply with them without appealing to the flaming Izumi's pride. "So please, at least take Todoroki out and- Hey!" Pantera was turning to look at Shouto when she saw that Uraraka and Tsuyu were helping him escape with their Quirks.

Upon seeing this, Phoenix gritted her teeth before roaring up into the sky as the ground around her melted into the slag. An orange glow began to overtake her green hair which soon turned into something akin to solid fire.

"Welp, time to run," said Katsuki, and took off with the others following suit. The Izuku and Izumi, upon seeing this, decided to follow his example, and retreated back to the safety with Reserve.

Two thin lines of flame expanded from Phoenix's back. Her eyes seemed to shine with a brilliant orange glow. She exhaled her breath, releasing flicking embers into the air. One by one, each ember turned into a feature that connected onto the wing-like protrusions on her back. They kept on expanding until they rivalled, or were perhaps even larger, to those of Hawks, the Number Two Hero.

Phoenix soaring into the sky, like a beautiful crane displaying its wings. Once she reached a decent height, the fiery Izumi spanned her wings wide and shadowed the stage under them.

"This can't be good," Mic commented.

"UOOOOOOO! Burn! My blood, my bones, my life! Typhoon of a Thousand Phoenix Feathers!"

The feathers shot forward from the wings and grew in size, the spears of flame raining down on the students from heaven. The first lance of heat hit the ground and exploded, then another, and another. Yet it didn't stop. The flaming feathers relentlessly kept shooting downwards until everyone wholeheartedly believed that there would indeed be a thousand of them.

"There's no way they could dodge all of that!" Mic screamed at the staggering size of the attack. The audience could only stare in silent awe and horror at such displays of power, and wondered if all of this was some kind of grand illusion Quirk.

"Incoming!" Katsuki shouted, trying to evade as many attacks as he could. "Dammit!"

Ibara tried to shield people closest to her from the raining fire, though it didn't prove to be too efficient as the fire attack hit her shield and burned a hole through her defense. Those who were not close enough to the vine girl were forced either to dodge or withstand the attack, such as Mei, whose riot shield could barely live up to the task of defending her and Monoma from the attack, or Setsuna who split herself into smaller pieces in hope that the explosive spikes would miss.

Some were not so lucky to have either means of defense or cover, however, like Shinso, who was essentially trapped in the middle of the attack, or Iida who were left exposed in the open part of the arena.

Eventually, everything turned black for them.

"For God's sake! Do something!" Mount Lady screamed at Valkyria while shaking the Izumi by her armor's collar.

"I can't!" the golden warrior yelled.

"Why not?!" Yu shouted back.

"I can't even scratch her!" The revelation seemed to send a shockwave through the people in the booth, including Yu who let go of Valkyria's collar in surprise. "If you believe that I am among the strongest of all the Izukus and Izumis, then let me tell you right now that there are those among our ranks that are more powerful than I could ever be. So sit down, stay put, and have some faith in Main that he will make sure no one dies."

"...we… should stop her," Barrier, now fully awake due to how much focus he now had to put into his barriers, said to Wire.

The glasses-wearing Izuku could feel the glare of the parents boring into him, but he would have to disappoint them.

"Both of us knew that our efforts wouldn't make any difference. Phoenix wasn't among Main's most trusted aides for no reason."

"C-Can't you at least do something?" Fuyumi begged him, worried for her little brother.

"...even if I wanted to, nothing would work on her. Though take solace, Main will make sure no one dies," Wire reassured, but the anxiety in the air wasn't eased even a little.

"Oi, you-"

"Shhh!" Witcher cut Kirishima off. "She's stopping. Something is not right."

"What do you mean by that?" Juzo questioned.

Witcher put his hand over his mouth as he thought on the answer. "Phoenix doesn't know the definition of holding back even if it hit her in the face. She must be preparing something more potent."

"What could be worse than that?!" Kaminari asked.

Everyone frowned.

"Never. Say. 'What could be worse'," Witcher warned with a scrawl on his visage.

Indeed, he shouldn't, even if no one could see what had become of the students due to the smoke and dust that fogged the battlefield.

Phoenix stopped her attack, but not because she was done—oh no, she was not even close to being finished. Whenever she fought, she did not hold back because it would be an insult to both her opponent and her own ability.

So, she would finish this with something grand.

A ball of pure energy materialized in her palm and continued to absorb heat particles. It grew until it was the size of a basketball. The flaming Izumi aimed the orb at the arena down below. She made her fingers into the shape of a gun.

"Bang," she whispered, then motioned her thumb like she'd just pulled the trigger.

The orb blazed its way down from heaven like a God-sent meteor. Once it made an impact, the world turned white.

"Ooo, that is one creative usage of his horns!" Nezu commented on the current match. While he truly wanted to see the fight between Mister Midoriya and the First Years, it was still his duty to observe the Third Years and give them some final advice before sending them off into the world of Pro-Heroes. Though he had to admit, a royal rumble was more enjoyable than the regular 1V1 match-ups; perhaps shaking things up once in a while from now on wouldn't be so bad?

His co-commentator, Hound Dog, just growled into the microphone.

"Oh really, I thought th-" His words were interrupted when the ground began to shake as if they were an earthquake—and guessing from how much the world shook it felt like it was likely between two to four in magnitude.

"What's going on!" Hound Dog immediately yelped. However, they could soon see their answer.

Beyond the stadium dome, they saw a pillar of fire spearing the sky, the clouds parted in its wake. It was a scene they would not expect to see at the U.A. Sports Festival. While they were shielded by their booth's glass and walls, they could see a strong gust of wind as it washed over the building and likely everything within a few kilometers of the fiery pillar.

Nezu quickly realized the direction which the pillar had materialized, the First Year Stadium. Without a shadow of a doubt that was definitely Midoriya's doing, or one of his alternate selves.

"Sir?" Hound Dog turned to his leader. He checked if the microphone was off before speaking his next words. "Should we evacuate?"

'Absolutely not' would be what the principal had wanted to say the most at that moment. He had already upset a lot of people already with how much he had changed things, and to give in to panic and fear right after a trust-shaking incident in his school would literally destroy any faith the public had in U.A.

Still, he couldn't just pretend like there wasn't a pillar of flame right there.

"Put a time limit on all the matches, about ten minutes would do. Also, tell the Second Years' commentator to inform the audience that it was a student's doing, no need to hide that," Nezu commanded. Hound Dog grunted and hurried out of the commentator booth.

Nezu turned back to the third year matches. He waited until the gust of wind and the pillar of fire had dispensed. The mouse-cat-dog-thing turned the microphone back on.

"Mind, would you look at the weather."

Phoenix smiled at the chaos below. She didn't care who was hurt, or how much they were hurt, but as long as her enemies were defeated by her power—and her alone—she was satisfied. The fiery Izumi scanned the battlefield, expecting to see all her foes lying broken and defeated. She made an irritated noise after discovering that the arena was still clouded by smoke and dust.

Izumi beat her wings and sent a powerful gust that dispensed all of the elements obscuring her view. Upon the dust parting, however, she found something littering the stage, several… domes made of… darkened steel?

In Izumi's confusion, she didn't notice something creeping up behind her. Only once the shadow had fallen over her did she turn around. It was too late though, and a giant hand, made of steel just like the domes, swatted her out of the sky; crashing down toward the arena.

The flaming Izumi tried to get up, but the steel hand clenched into a fist and punched down onto Phoenix. The blow caused the entire stadium to quake and sent debris of stone into the air.

It was at this moment that the dome 'dissolved' into the ground, showing the audience that the students and even Izuku's team were safe from the previous blast. Most people breathed a sigh of relief, but some were still concerned about that giant fist.

As for the U.A. teams, they were still very confused as to what was going on. First, it was raining fire, then everything went black, and now there was a giant fist in the middle of the arena?

Katsuki, however, suddenly realized who was the one that had protected them from Phoenix and he paled. The blond felt a hand on his shoulder, and it startled him. He twisted his head around and saw an Izuku with an aura of intimidation emitting from the greenette.

"I will take care of her, you go and prepare your team," Admiral leaned in close. "I expect a decent fight." The stoic Izuku gazed into Katsuki's eyes with his own cold, emerald stare.

"Ah, just come take us on if you dare," Bakugou challenged back, but Admiral looked unimpressed. Izuku turned away from the blond and walked over to where the fist was. "Guys, I am on the left side of the stage. Momo, Kendo, take your team and rendezvous with me here. Monoma, you and your team go on with your mission; take Mei with you if you want," Katsuki talked into his earpiece and received a chorus of response.

After that, he swallowed a lump of terror lodged in his throat. Truth be told before the match started, he wasn't sure who should he be more concerned with between Phoenix and Admiral. Now he knew the answer to that.

Kendo was the first to arrive along with Ibara, Mina, Mineta (who had a slap mark on his face), and Kamakiri. "What's going on?" the orange-haired girl asked as soon as her group was close enough.

"That," Katsuki said and pointed at Admiral. "He happened."

At this point, Admiral was standing before the fist. The steel limb lifted up and showed him Phoenix: down and bloody, but certainly not out. "You son of a bitch," she cursed with a trickle of blood spilling from her mouth. Izumi's flames began to reignite. "I'm going t-"

The fist came crashing down again.

It soon lifted up again, this time much higher. Phoenix glared upwards, continuing to stare in defiance even as her limbs were clearly crushed and broken by the hammered fist. "Fuck you…" she breathed out. The fist came down again. This time you could hear a few gasps from the audience.

Again, the fist lifted after the attack. This time the fire was shot front from underneath and the folded hand crushed down again.

Admiral used one of his hands to motion something upwards. Soon another shadow fell over the arena and a new steel hand joined its brethren. The first fist lifted up again to allow Izuku to check on his alternate self. He was a little surprised when the flaming Izumi leaped from underneath and came straight for him. Now Phoenix was engulfed in flame and everything under her path was melted into the lava. Fortunately, Admiral's 'steel' fist could resist temperatures as high as his will would allow.

The fiery Izumi didn't get far before one of the fists struck her down again. This time it quickly retreated and let its partner pound down in its place. The cycle then repeated, minus Phoenix being able to resist. Each time the fist lifted up to show the broken Izumi underneath, the other one would rain down again, and again, and again, and again. On and on they went, uncaring about his alternate self.

At this point, if there had not of been a fog of concrete dust obscuring Phoenix pummeled form, several networks would have cut the feed; even then the people watching it live in the arena were still having a hard time watching this brutality—Mic couldn't muster up a comment at this point.

One person, however, wouldn't stand for this.

Admiral suddenly felt something wet hitting the back of his head. A burning sensation soon followed, though he could withstand it just fine. The stoic Izuku could immediately guess who had attacked him.

Izuku quickly brushed off the acidic goop from his hair and turned back to where Katsuki was. His group had grown, but a few were still missing, namely Shinso, Ochako, Shouto, Tsuyu, Mei, and Monoma's entire team. In front of the U.A. student team was none other than Mina Ashido, with a trace of acid in one of her hands.

"Leave her alone!" the pink-skinned girl shouted. "Your fight is with us!"

Admiral mused that she did have a point. He had wasted enough time. With a wave of his hand, the two fists retreated beyond the stadium and thus beyond their view. He took one last glance at Phoenix. Despite all those attacks, she was still staring at him with one defiant orange eye, though at this point her body was just a bloody heap of broken limbs; she would not be a threat against their victory.

"Sorry about that." The Izuku turned around and apologized to Mina. "But I have been waiting for a long time to shut her up and I won't get an opportunity like this again."

Admiral snapped his fingers.

The entire stage suddenly morphed into a spongy white substance and began to shift. Some of Katsuki's teammates couldn't brace themselves in time and slipped because the ground had turned surprisingly soft and springy.

"Wh-why is everything turned into mochi?" someone suddenly cried. The U.A. team turned to find Ochako and Tsuyu had arrived with Shouto.

"Mochi? Are you sure these are…" Reiko trailed off, as she wasn't sure what the substance was either.

"Of course, I can remember the smell of sweet rice flour anywhere!" Uraraka insisted.

The U.A. students realized that the shifting had stopped. They looked around to discover that the stage had returned to its previous, flat and concrete-white state. They could now see everything on the stage again including Monoma's team and the rest of the Izukus and Izumis. However, they couldn't find the referees, Midnight and Cementoss. What happened to them?

"Well, U.A.," the Admiral spoke up and drew their attention. "Now that the stage has been set..." The greenette's arms turned into mochi for a moment before a coating of darken steel overtook them, mimicking the previous giant fists. "Let us fight."

A/N: Short chapter but I… feel like the original plan would drag the whole arc out for far too long. I am in a process of rethinking the second half of this arc and this chapter is something of a byproduct of that.

Also, I have finished reading 'Cursed Blood' by Magnus9284, so expect to see him at some point; probably going to have a fight with Necromancer Izuku and friendly conversation with Immortal Izuku.