Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

213. Chapter 213

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 213:

Is there really nothing I can do but watch him? Midoriya's fists shook at his sides, his eyes narrowed and intense as he had long gotten over his shock of how Zach was fighting down below. It had been twenty minutes already, and there were dozens of assassins unconscious around the lower surface of the ravine. Chunks of stone pillars and spikes were scattered as much as the bodies. Some flames lingered about but there was little down there to burn so the Quirk-produced fire flickered and waned, before blowing out when someone especially fast would sprint or fly by them.

Zach clashed with an enemy in midair, swinging his black sword forward into his enemy's blade again for the third time in a row. He pushed into it, but Nuomo leaned forward and then slashed hard back against him when some darkness shot out of Zach's chest and between their blades at the assassin who was one of his fastest and most-skilled enemies. All-Directional Acceleration, Zach determined his enemy's Quirk and brainstormed countermeasures while scanning the area behind him where he was bouncing back towards after that last clash. Not just the Poison Gums. It's just a composite, All For One isn't here. Off to his right something caught his eye that made an earlier pit in his chest reappear, as a villain wearing white gripped the boulder on his right and dragged himself to his feet while that huge rock cracked under his fingers digging into it. He's back up too quickly. Nuomo's returning. Two others trying to get a good shot in a moment they think my body isn't Death through and through.

Rhino Chick and two other heroes are off to my right. Premier Slavenko of Yugalvenia looks more nervous than anyone else down there. He's been avoiding me so far, but I'm nearing him now. Rush him. Zach spun and he kicked off the air behind him while flapping his wings, shooting towards the ground ahead of Slavenko to give himself options of how to attack in his next movement. There were eight different paths he saw as his legs bent upon his feet touching the ground. 'Help me,' the Yugalvenian Premier mouthed at Zach while hesitantly rushing forward himself at the boy, see-through but strong tape holding the pistol to his right hand.

Zach shot forward in an instant and his right hand wrapped around the Premier's throat. He lifted Slavenko off the ground by his neck and crushed inwards, the man making choked sounds of pain and panic as Zach closed his windpipe. "I don't believe you," Zach growled. The wisps of darkness came out of his right palm while the long razor blade was still shoving out of Slavenko's left hand he was moving up with blood splashing out his palm. That hand fell limp, and Zach tossed the head-of-state's unmoving body to his right unceremoniously. He jumped up in the air and flew away without looking back towards Nuomo who assumed Zach was going to spin around and try to hit him while he was flying at the teen's back right there. Nuomo adjusted after pushing backwards through the air in a moment that tripled the distance between him and his target as Zach had gone the other way, just giving him a wider gap away from Nuomo where he could focus on other assassins and get Nuomo frustrated.

Why did the Premier join Eziano? Or was he a sleeper agent from the very beginning of his political career? That seems more likely considering everything else, but why Yugalvenia? Why would he- what are all these people fighting for? Zach grit his teeth at the questions he asked himself even in the middle of this intense combat. Why do they follow Eziano? It's not all fear. The fanaticism is religious in nature, I think. Unless J-1 mentioned "Our Lord" to Edward McMillan knowing that I would capture the Canadian and make him talk- That's not good.

Midoriya noticed what Zach had just seen too, and his eyes widened at the sight of the movement from the large villain in white. As Nuomo shot over Zach's head and spat black ahead of him to force Zach to stop, Zach's eyes were still more focused on the villain he saw off to his right than Nuomo. The swordsman with black gums and very quick movements shot down to the ground ahead of Zach then bounced back up in the air where he stopped and just hovered in place. "I like you, Death! You're exciting! Never a dull moment in your life I'm sure."

Zach's red eyes shifted towards Nuomo's dark brown ones that did not waver at all when Death stared into them. "Around us stand the murderers with more kills under their belts than anyone else in the world. It should feel like home to you! With Death here, we can be sure of that fact now," Nuomo added with a wider smirk at the teenager who he suspected may have killed more people than he himself.

Zach knew Nuomo was trying to get under his skin and did not let it bother him. Instead he just moved towards Nuomo in the moment the rock spike on his right blasted apart. Nuomo was too quick though and even while reacting to that eruption of rocks he still had his gaze locked on Zach's and dodged him perfectly. The black spikes that shot up out of the ground while Zach was running and raising his arms like he was only just starting an attack moved too slowly to catch up to Nuomo's feet that flew over twenty meters up in the air in an instant.

Nuomo's eyes did shift more towards the villain wearing all white as he rose out of Zach's range of easy attack. Zach was already more turned and focused on that enemy who was back up on his feet, and who he had to fully concentrate on considering how fast that man just sprinted across the ground that tore up below his large feet. The smash apart of the stone spike caused some of the shrapnel to pierce a thinner villain standing between the spike and Death, looking for a moment to catch Zach off guard during his confrontation with Nuomo. That thin villain had not noticed the larger white villain standing back up as Nuomo and Zach both had, making them more ready than the guy who was almost killed by the rocks that blew apart into him at insane speeds. He was killed as the white villain in all white whose costume expanded for his slightly larger body than when Zach first faced him, swung his left arm to the side into the man getting pierced by rocks moving just as fast as he was still sprinting through the hail of them.

His left arm broke the man getting shredded by sharp stones in half and splattered him in the next millisecond because of the force of the swing that just sent pieces of the assassin flying away to his left side with some chunks of stone spike that got sent soaring by the quick swing of the assassin's arm. Zach sprinted towards this powerful villain whose every step tore a hole in the ground and then ripped up the ground behind that step into a longer trench from the force following behind him. How did he get back up? Several viable reasons. Zach's body snaked up in the air twenty feet and arced over the top of his villain who continued rushing at his lower half that remained looking less like Death than his top half which looked more like a thin pillar of darkness with a face at the top now.

The rest of his body shot up after his top smoke half while his hands emerged from the pillar and planted on the upturned stone behind his charging villain. Retracting the Death that quickly was not hard when he had most of his Death already focused at the very top of himself just below his emerging arms, though he did split some off from his legs and send it straight ahead at the charging man instead of rising it up and around him. His opponent hopped up though while spinning 180 degrees, allowing part of the darkness coming straight at him to pass below while the rest of Zach's quicker body moved up over his head. Zach lifted his right hand off the ground while still doing a handstand as his body pulled back together, and five black shurikens flew out towards his enemy who had hopped in midair and would not be able to dodge easily now.

The villain's bulky body did not hinder his agility though, nor his reaction time. His body twisted in midair and caused all five of Zach's attacks to miss, though Zach's throws were not reliant on being on target from his initial throw. Each of his attacks going by this villain's side pulled back towards him and collided on the man's back while he was getting ready for landing and instantly charging at Zach again. Zach narrowed his gaze as the man took the five hits of shurikens that were not too large but each had a good amount of Death in them. The man landed and groaned, then the groan turned into a growl with his eyes narrowing and a furious look spreading over his face as he shook his head around to regain some composure.

It's taking more Death than the first time. His enemy leaned forward and curled his fists tightly while locking eyes with Zach who stared back and then leaned forward as if preparing to charge right back at him like they just did. His villain kept leaning forward though and then fell forward onto his face with his arms dropping limp, as the ground below his feet had turned black without him noticing and just wrapped up his lower legs. Zach had already started spreading the Death there when his shurikens were pulling back into his opponent who he had suspected might be able to keep standing after getting hit by them. This isn't good. I can't use much more or he'll die, based on normal projections of how much Death to use. Normal projections don't seem to mean much here though, as he got back up within twenty minutes while I'm using enough Death to knock everyone out for over a day, as there's no need for any interrogation after this as long as Eziano's here.

Two enemies attacked right as the villain in all white had collapsed, choosing the moment at the end of Zach's intense but short fight against that powerful enemy as a good time to ambush him when he may have dropped his guard. Zach had already turned all of his insides into Death though in preparation for an attack to come as he made his guard appear to be dropped so he could catch a few hiding assassins in a trap. He kept Nuomo in his peripheral vision where that powerful assassin had not chosen to attack foolishly like two of his comrades, yet stayed close showing he was getting ready for a moment Zach's guard was actually lowered.

He's getting worried about it. He should be, Nuomo kept his eyes locked on his enemy, yet he could still see his fellow villain laying not far from where Death was fighting. He himself had kept a close eye on that large man before the fight began, and his lips curled down as he thought about him now. He's got my interest as much as Death does, though I'm not sure about Eziano bringing in someone potentially stronger than us all. After this fight too- Nuomo's brown eyes narrowed and he snapped his sword out to his right side while propelling forward and opening his mouth of sharp teeth that dripped black down them from his gums.

Zach did a sideways twist while still facing forward, and he slashed a katana of Death that was forming in his hands behind him. His blade connected with Nuomo's but passed right through it. Nuomo slashed his sword to the side quicker with his arms suddenly accelerating even faster, but his blade passed through the side of Zach's head as well. Nuomo had to release his weapon and shoot backwards as fast as he could, and the tip of Zach's black sword went by the front of his face missing by only inches. Zach still grimaced as he was unable to finish, yet Nuomo shot back forwards even after retreating so quickly right there it looked like he would be moving farther away.

Zach did not know if it was his grimace or if Nuomo had planned to return that fast beforehand, but Nuomo was suddenly shooting at him before the right side of his skull had even reformed after being cut into by the sword there. Forward, Zach had barely any time to dodge or react to Nuomo's attack, and he did not have the time to redirect his sword with his momentum still moving it to his left past where Nuomo was approaching him from slightly to his right. He moved forward though and to his right, trying to dodge on Nuomo's right side instead of his left where Nuomo would clearly slash his blade as it was the only way Zach could potentially dodge to while jumping backwards to give him more time to prepare. By moving forward while also going to the right side, to Nuomo's left, it forced Nuomo to change the direction of his own blade's swing in order to hit his enemy who did not want to turn his insides fully to Death again and waste more of it.

"Move left."

SHIT! Zach did not see where Danny The Devil had come from, yet his renowned enemy just emerged on his right side in range of both Zach and Nuomo who moved left in unison while Zach was attempting to go to the right of the swordsman. His body yanked to the left while Nuomo's did the same, just enough in that moment where the two were already moving towards each other that Nuomo's initial swing was now still perfectly on target to hit Zach, and Nuomo accelerated his arms that he was slowing right there to get a chance to re-maneuver.

The blade connected on Zach's stomach between his bellybutton and ribs, cutting through his sweatshirt, shirt, and some skin before slicing through the rest of his body and back that all turned to Death in that moment. Tapping into Limiter 1 too early! Zach knew it and yet there was nothing else he could do as he was cut in half at his stomach. Nuomo shot to his own left side after he pushed his feet down and made a light movement to that side which he accelerated a hundred times as fast. As Zach tapped into Limiter 1 though, he flooded Death into his mind and his eyes flared more vibrantly red than they had through the fight. Everything seemed to slow down even more including Nuomo's movements away from his back.

Nuomo did not know that Danny's intervention was coming. He looked more surprised than I was, but that was the only way The Devil was going to get me. Zach was pissed and his lips curled down farther at the corners. His right arm snapped towards Danny who was retreating to get a safe distance even with a small smirk as he had seen red splashing with the Death wisps that came out of Zach's back when he was bisected. Danny's smile vanished though while Zach's body reconnected in the middle, and while his right arm extended out with a long thin whip of darkness that shot at the assassin too fast and wrapped around his face and mouth. The whip wrapped twice to cover Danny's eyes and mouth on the second wrap around, tightening hard as a gag into the villain's mouth that had opened at the last moment when his eyes were first being covered.

Danny was still conscious, as the whip was almost completely a solid with how condensed all the Death Zach shot out of his right hand that fast was. The younger boy ground his teeth while swinging his right arm across the front of his body, his head snapping towards Nuomo and his flaring red eyes glaring menacingly into Nuomo's. He swung Danny's body from forty meters away up into the air and then across the sky like a ragdoll, while Nuomo shot in all-directional movements away from Zach as quickly as possible after the miniature explosion of Death came out of Zach's body in his direction. Death sent a half dozen tendrils of darkness slicing through the air at him and making short-angled cuts wherever he was dodging.

Nuomo continued to grin even as the fight got more intense than ever. He thought he was leading the cuts though and moving with them chasing him, but he realized it when he saw The Devil in his peripheral vision with a black whip wrapped around his head and the two of them on-track for an imminent collision. He must have planned it, Nuomo's realization came in fear too late with his eyes refocusing fully back on those red ones glaring back at him. For me to be in this spot, in this moment, he led me here-

The whip broke apart right before Danny would collide with Nuomo, and Zach sent the broken pieces of the whip along with the long tendrils of darkness chasing Nuomo to all collide with the two men who crashed into each other. Zach took down two of his strongest enemies at once, but as they were falling out of the air he only felt dread.

Again?! Midoriya spotted the villain in white dragging himself up off the floor with his body shaking and pulsating every moment. His muscles bulged and his neck cracked to either side as he stood up. Then he turned and glared straight towards Death with his face looking insane but a huge smile crossing it that made Zach feel a deep sense of unease inside him.

Only a minute that time, Zach thought, while retreating across the ravine and into the air more towards other enemies watching from afar. As he was flying backwards though, focused on the enemies he was moving towards and the one he was fleeing from, a few chunks of stone scattered around the floor got pulled together into the shape of a sphere not ten meters to his left. Center of gravity is shifting, Zach thought, and he shot to the ground and picked up a few bodies of enemies he had defeated already, before racing across the ground and grabbing a few more, then zipping even farther away from the sphere in the air pulling him with an even stronger tug.

Hopefully it works, Zach glanced back as some darkness he left behind flew up with help from the gravity and surrounded the sphere. The gravity continued to shift stronger towards that floating rock ball though, with his Death doing nothing to knock out the one who had created it but was not actively controlling it. Not great, Zach thought, with a glance back in the direction he heard a familiar roar in. "DEATH! You can't keep me down!" That's not good either. Worse, actually. His eyes darted up towards Midoriya for a second who spun his direction from the figure he was watching there for a moment with a great sense of unease matching Zach's.

Could be quick recovery, Zach thought as he dropped to the ground due to the air being oddly thin up where he rose to. Or time advancement from one of his comrades who keeps bumping him a day into the future where his body would have woken up. He could be stronger than I gave him credit for, but getting up the second time quicker despite how I used more Death that time counters that. A third time is too risky now. I can't kill him though. I need another way. If I use Death on him again though it'll have to be insta-kill, or after the next time he gets up even insta-kill may not work.

"DEATH!" Zach did a backflip and spun at the sound of that roar coming from behind him. There was a sixteen foot tall man rising up out of the floor, mud pouring off his body and his skin turning more solid to look like rock instead. He was nearly eight feet broad at his shoulders when he arose, and his hair turned red after losing the mud that poured off of it and stuck straight up in a crazy spiky position. The hunchbacked figure snapped his head forward and screamed in a deep and booming voice, "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO DANNY?! RAA-"

Zach was just landing while facing the villain ahead of him, when he yanked his body to the left as hard as he could. The right side of his shirt and sweatshirt were still ripped off by the force of the object flying past his right side almost faster than he could follow. His eyes darted back forward after the object that passed him, and he stared through the hole in the center of the spiky-haired giant to a distant wall where the rock hit and created a massive crater that broke off a half dozen of the stalactites coming off the slant.

Zach turned his head to the right and looked back behind him, the rest of his shirt and sweatshirt falling off his scarred body as The Devil's henchman fell lifeless ahead of him. Zach glared sideways and back past two rock spikes that each had round holes in them, neither fully completed as they were too much to the side of the stalagmites. Those spikes still could not keep standing and fell inwards into the small gap between them even though they were separated in distance from Zach and the villain in all white whose arm that was swung forward moved back to his side finally. That villain smirked towards Zach as the pillars fell between them, blocking him from sight for a moment in which both he and Zach moved towards each other.

The spikes continued to fall, and Zach reached one while the larger villain in a white costume that was stretching to his new bulging size hit the other. That villain kicked the falling pillar with a hole in it that shattered into pieces flying at Zach, while Zach's huge third arm that swung around his right side spun the spike he caught like a baseball bat. Before those shards that the villain kicked could gain any speed, Zach slammed them all right back into him and knocked him backwards while he was reeling back from the debris slamming into him. The villain was lifted off his feet and sent flying back, though he flipped backwards recovering in under a second- only for Zach to be above his head finishing a flipping kick down into the eyes of the villain that went wide as he saw Death had appeared there in the moment he closed his eyes while wincing.

Zach did not have any Death on his leg as he smashed it into the villain's face at his eye-level. He did however force out a huge amount of Death out the back of his right calf to speed up his leg tremendously before the bone-crushing kick into his enemy's face. The villain slammed into the ground, then Zach caught two chunks of rubble still flying his way as he had moved faster than all the debris he sent flying with his baseball bat stone spike. He used the two huge black arms sticking out of his back to throw the chunks of stone down at where he just kicked the villain into the floor, but the man on the ground lifted his fists up from his sides just a bit then smashed them into the ground below him so hard that dust rose up past the debris and completely engulfed Zach too.

The dust on Zach's right moved, and he spun that way only for his red eyes to widen as a rock was flying up past him there. Much more of the smoke parted behind his back and between the thick black arms he still had back there, as the villain rose up much more sane than Zach thought he was to come up with that tactic for his attack. Zach spun his head 180 degrees with his neck turning into Death fully to give him that kind of movement without twisting the rest of his body, and he opened his mouth with the entire inside of it filling with Death. His enemy was punching forward at the back of his head, but before Zach could unleash the roar of Death out into the fist about the blow his Death-filled head apart, a blur dropped through the dust and slammed his enemy out of the air and into the ground with a bigger explosion of dust that fully covered the two teens in the air even more.

Zach and Deku each flew out of the explosion of dust though in the same direction. They dropped out of the air and skid away from the collision point of their enemy who despite Midoriya's hard kick, neither of them thought was down for the count. "What are you doing down-"

"He was killing too many people," Midoriya replied with a dark and focused look over his face. Zach grimaced as he had not even cared about this villain's rampaging actions enough to realize that Deku would come down, even though he had been trying to keep the villains from killing each other earlier as he had done with the Subspace Devils. It's because he's not someone I can hold back against, Zach knew, as he saw the silhouette rising back inside that dust cloud. "Plus, your Quirk isn't working on him anymore."

"It could still work," Zach countered. Now that Deku was down there with him he had to try it, and he shifted his head a bit to give his comrade a look into his eyes as seriously as he could. "If I use my right hand at this moment, it could still kill him. If I knock him out with Death again he might become resistant to it, and then we'll be screwed-"

"There has to be another way," Midoriya replied, taking his eyes off Zach's and staring back forward to where all the dust suddenly parted in all directions to clear the air around their enemy. "What do you think his Quirk is?" Midoriya wondered, while their enemy faced the two of them and grinned more at the sight of both Deku and Lifebringer facing him. As they stared his way, the boys saw his busted nose and blackened eyes returning to normal. His nose unbent without him even wincing, and the bruises under his skin seemed to just fade away as he recovered completely only panting to show that he had even been fighting so far. Zach looked worse off than the villain did, which was now clear without any clothes on his upper body to cover up the shallow gash across his midsection.

Zach's getting hurt down here, and this villain almost got a drop on him. I've never seen Death stop working on an enemy like this though. Midoriya's eyes scanned the villain whose Quirk he had been hypothesizing on as well. If he can get resistant to my strength as well, then we could be in real trouble here. There are ways to stop him though.

"His Quirk is impressive," Zach started, his voice raised louder than Midoriya had just questioned him. "I think it has something to do with, Evolution. That might be what it's called." Zach stared towards the villain who looked right back across a thirty meter gap at him as he was saying this aloud. "Survival of the fittest as a Quirk, giving him the ability to change based on how he was defeated the last time. The second time I hit him with Death it took a lot more-"

"You're close, Death!" The villain yelled across the gap, his voice bellowing towards the boys who saw their enemy's body seeming to shake with excitement as he faced the two of them. "My Quirk, is Adapt! Every attack you make on me will only make me stronger. And I am Matthew Umburt! Remember it when I send you to meet God!"

"Are you just another religious fanatic like the rest of them?" Zach asked, his tone getting more disappointed along with his expression as he lost some of the intensity and anger in his glare.

"God is real," Umburt replied with a knowing smirk back at the boys. Midoriya glanced confusedly to his side, while Zach just glared harsher at the villain again who lifted his arms out at his sides with his palms facing the sky. "And Eziano is his messenger. And I," he tilted his head back down after looking up to the sky, and he leaned his body forward with the toes of his feet cracking the ground below him. "Shall become his fists." The ground behind the adaptable villain broke apart, but Zach and Midoriya both shot up in the air in different directions away from where Umburt raced to.

Zach's plan worked, Midoriya thought while staring down at the villain whose body blurred for most of those people still standing around the area but not as much for Deku or Lifebringer. He bragged about his own Quirk.

He seemed like the kind of guy to tell me, Zach thought while staring towards his enemy whose Quirk was more impressive than his mind. But his fighting ability is high. His reflexes and skills are heightened to a level surpassing most of the other assassins, and with his Quirk making him stronger every time I attack him, and more resistant to Death, he's seeming more like someone I have to kill each second. Zach could see Midoriya rising up with him in a slightly different direction away from Umburt. If Deku hadn't dropped down here I could have just hit him with an overwhelming amount of Death and killed him while pretending to knock him out. It wouldn't have been perfect but I could have acted as if I did it on accident even just because I knew it would take more Death. He wouldn't have felt I killed intentionally again. He may have dropped knowing that I would try that though, which is why I had to ask him.

Zach pushed Death out of the soles of his feet instead of creating wings, sending him in a short burst of speed up in the air above where Umburt was approaching from. Umburt saw how Midoriya changed directions in the air though, and seemingly on instinct alone he tried kicking the air as Zach dodged him, readjusting in midair and flying after Zach who had to force out a much larger amount of Death from above him this time to drop past his enemy starting his punch too late. As Umburt had to finish his punch and then flip up to kick again for his new redirecting move, Zach continued his thought process while dropping below the villain he did not want to attack recklessly here. Midoriya knows it too. He can't just start bashing away at him or this man will become far too powerful to stop. Dodging him is our best course- Zach's intended landing position was no longer where he was dropping to.

His eyes darted to the side as he saw Umburt was moving across the air in a strange way too before kicking himself back down. Midoriya was shooting across the sky towards the other two in the fight, but his eyes locked farther past them towards a floating sphere of rocks that was now the size of an SUV. It was flying across the sky closer to Zach and Umburt, with the bald sixty year old CEO of a hero support item company running across the ground after it. His Planets did not affect him with their gravity pulls, so he was able to stay close to it while still with his full mobility, giving him a huge advantage against anyone who tried getting close to him under his Planet to try and stop him from using it. Those who came at him would have to both fight against a skilled martial artist and the tug of gravity yanking them up in the air so much harder when they were closer to his "My World" attack.

That man will only grow stronger, so there's no need to worry about him, Santiago Hernandez thought with a sly smirk on his face untouched by wrinkles despite his older age. The assassin in his earlier sixties was in peak physical condition, and he sprinted below his spinning sphere of rocks that pulled up debris and slammed the rocks hard into the Planet only growing larger and tugging Lifebringer and Umburt towards it with a stronger pull. A mass of Death flew in his direction though, and Hernandez stopped moving the Planet for a moment to leave it hovering and disconnected from him. Close enough.

I have to take him out first. Letting Umburt get resistant to this kind of intense gravity will put us at even more of a disadvantage. Zach saw where the gravity-disrupting enemy had just gone into hiding after his failed Death attack towards the now-unmoving mass of rocks floating in the sky. As he flew that way though, Midoriya slamming into Umburt's back when the hulking villain in white tried to give chase through the air, a woman sent a pillar of rocks flying towards him.

Vectress, Zach saw the woman whose Quirk he knew as he had seen it in action before. One of the only ones who got away with Eziano that day, Zach thought about the attack on his ship, and he saw faces in his mind and felt pain in his neck. Most of the villains in that attack he had captured that day, even if they had escaped later on. There was a woman who got away with Eziano Mozcaccio that day though. One who Gentle had been fighting and whose barrier did nothing to stop her from stabbing him in his right arm and in his gut. Luckily the same people who had managed to stop him from dying from a cut throat had been able to seal up Gentle's wounds as well.

She used the shifted gravity to her advantage, sending debris in an arc making it look like it was nowhere near on target to hit her enemy. It curved in though as the strength of the Planet increased, pulling the debris in curves straight at where Zach was moving towards. He redirected himself away from Hernandez who sprinted from his cover to closer directly beneath his Planet. Zach flew faster towards the center of gravity himself and left behind the debris that passed behind his back and continued a curve so it was more on his left side now. Even though he dodged the rubble though, in the right corner of his eyes he saw Vectress herself flying at him using a jetpack and two swirling funnels of wind coming off her back so strong that they were visible behind her.

Her wind funnels were pulled by the gravity as much as she was, and yet she threw two short blades towards Zach in perfect angles that the gravity took them and pulled them straight into the side of his neck and lower ribs. Her throws sent the blades flying faster than bullets in the first place, but she curved them using Hernandez's gravity in a perfect way based on where Zach had started flying towards. They trained together, Zach decided, realizing that her skills to perfectly match the increasing pull of gravity towards that Planet were too high to be spontaneous. For me, Zach added to himself, and he stopped short instead of continuing to the center of gravity after those blades passed through his body he filled with Death to prevent even getting cut.

Vectress continued to fly at him, and Zach shot straight at her this time only for the Planet to fly after his back and slow him down as it pulled him harder back. It sent Vectress flying towards him faster too which she saw coming earlier than Zach did as the one facing Zach and the Planet behind him. She slammed her open right hand forward as Zach punched a swirling left fist of Death ahead into her. SHIT! Zach tried yanking his arm backwards at the last second, but he did not have the timing right and was blasted backwards as all his force immediately reversed. Trying to pull back the other way just increased the speed in which he was sent reeling backwards, his left arm ripping apart fully as he did a backflip towards the sphere of rocks now over the size of a small one-story building.

As he flipped backwards so rapidly towards that source of gravity though, one of his arms ripping apart, he spotted Umburt fully distracted by Midoriya who was on that villain's other side and looking his way after seeing him get damaged like that. Zach was hoping Midoriya would look to him in that moment which was why when he spun backwards from the force, he let his arm get fully ripped apart into a swirling mass of Death looking like Vectress had torn his arm up with her Quirk. The instant Midoriya stared into Zach's red eyes, two pairs of wings flapped out of Zach's back and a mass of Death exploded out behind him to add to the force sending him racing forward.

Midoriya shot towards Umburt who punched but was too slow for the teenager who ducked below his right arm and then continued right past him and towards Vectress who tried to get in Zach's way as he seemed to be flying away from the huge sphere of gravitational pull behind him. Her eyes started dropping down and to her left though while Death passed by her too quickly for her to stop, as she saw a blur in the bottom of her vision charging across the ground and keeping his feet low to the ground to avoid being pulled up in the air. He was crouching as he sprinted too, while Zach arced up first and drew Hernandez's eyes up after him. By the time Santiago looked back down at the sounds of Vectress' yell and the ground breaking apart just ahead of him, Deku was too close for him to drop the world and slow the boy's attack.

"DALLAS…" Midoriya slammed his left fist into the gut of his enemy so hard that his fist was visible on the man's back. His right foot slammed down though as it was still in mid-step when his punch collided, and Vectress' eyes shot open huge as Deku stomped his foot on the ground to his right and twisted his whole body with his arm swinging upwards. "SMAAAASSSHH!" He sent Hernandez flying up in the air straight towards Vectress who dodged up higher to avoid her comrade flying her way. The huge sphere of collected debris started falling out of the air at that moment too though, and Vectress was too adjusted to dealing with it so she rose that much faster up in the air, straight into Deku's path as he predicted that she was already fighting the pull of gravity and would not be ready to adapt as quickly as the one taking Hernandez down in the first place.

Vectress' eyes snapped up above her, but there was no time to ready her Quirk before the leg of the student flipping over her slammed down into her skull and sent her flying straight down into the ground. Midoriya had seen Zach's arm get ripped apart just by touching the woman, all of his Death blown backwards so it did not affect her even, and he knew the same could be said with his own strength and force if he went too soft on her. He still stared down uneasily towards where the woman collided with the ground, hoping that the assassin was strong enough to withstand that kind of attack. His eyes were dragged towards where Zach had flown to however, bulging as he finally saw what it was Zach did when they suddenly switched enemies without a word said between them.

Zach had flown at Matthew Umburt before the Adapting villain had fully turned around. The Death arm that had ripped apart fully reformed once Deku had passed behind him, but the arm was not in the shape of an arm when he made it reappear. Instead his arm was in the shape of a nine foot long curved blade, which he used while flipping like a spinning top over the left shoulder of Umburt who was turning to the right and did not even see Death until Zach had spun over his other side. Umburt's left arm rose up in the air and was still flipping around when the other teenager turned after moving with such immense speed that he had taken down both of the other enemies already.

Zach passed by Umburt's other side and slammed into the ground, skidding away and making his left arm emerge out of the curved arm-blade. His weaponized arm faded in an instant with the villain's blood on it falling to the ground with no Death blade to stay coating. Some of that blood fell onto his exposed left arm though, an arm with some scars on his skin despite there only being steel below it. The Death faded on his dark pants as well that were ripped below the knees, and it faded from over parts of his torso though left strange designs and patterns crossing over his scarred skin. Swirling patterns of Death made spirals over his chest, under his arms, and around his sides just above his waist. The teenager's helmet re-spiked up over his head, his red eyes flaring and his bloody left arm lifting up in front of his mouth as he smirked towards his enemy.

Let's see your regenerative abilities, Zach thought as Umburt just smirked back at him after losing the pained expression that seemed fake by how quickly he wiped it from his face. Muscle and skin bubbled around Umburt's left shoulder that was no longer bleeding, and a white bone protruded through the middle with all that muscle and skin wrapping down it. His arm reformed in only seconds, muscles and tendons wrapping around his bones and then skin sliding down from his shoulder where the tight white fabric of his costume was now ripped to reveal the veins that showed on his reforming skin, pulsing to be visible through his skin and so dark they looked purple. Based on the speed of regeneration, I'll adjust the next attack based on having less time than this one because of Adapt. Let's assume 1/20th as an overestimation to base the next attack on with how quickly I'll need to follow-up. It's do-able, but now I need to figure out what kind of next attack to do that I can follow through with successfully.

Did Zach know he could regenerate? It doesn't matter, Midoriya focused his thoughts back away from his anger at how Zach removed their enemy's arm. His strength and speed increased. His resistance to Death is up. Taking off his limbs doesn't even work. I know Zach wants to kill him right now. There are other ways though. I'll show you, Zach. There's always another option! Midoriya shot forward so hard that the shockwave created by his movement made a blast in the air as he far exceeded mach speed. The soundwave hit Umburt, after Midoriya's right hand grabbed him by the back of the head and took him off his feet.

Zach leapt up in the air and looked down as Midoriya passed below him dragging Umburt through the air behind him. "What are you doing?" Zach shouted after Midoriya while the wind force slammed into him of Deku shooting past.

Attacks on him make him stronger. He Adapts, but does that mean it's only when he's hurt? Not because of the need to get stronger, but it's a defeat that- Midoriya felt his enemy yanking his head down, tearing his skull out of the younger boy's grip and then continuing with the front flip to try and kick the person above him. Midoriya turned sideways in the air, and he caught Umburt by both legs that he yanked upwards to force away the man trying to bend his body and swing fists inwards too. As quickly as Umburt moved and reacted to Midoriya catching his legs, Midoriya reacted just as quickly to his enemy's follow-up attack that prevented Umburt's fists from colliding with him.

The villain twisted his legs though as MIdoriya held them, and once again Midoriya released his grip rather than let Umburt hurt himself by breaking his legs in an attempt to twist himself with more force than his body could handle. His body is getting stronger though, and despite how strong he is it's hard for him to just break himself down. He still feels pain too. Midoriya dropped down and then ran backwards as Umburt landed and sprinted forward at him with the air behind him pushing back in a funnel and breaking down two stone pillars fifty feet behind him each.

Umburt sprinted after the teen backpedaling away. He jumped forward and came down with both feet pushed together trying to do a flying kick down into Deku. Midoriya stopped moving backwards at the last second before that kick was going to hit where he had just been standing though, almost leading him but slow enough that Umburt would hit the ground just behind where Deku was running. If he had kept moving back at the speed quick enough to avoid his enemy, all the debris sent flying up by Umburt's collision with the ground would either be used as weapons sent flying towards him or at the least a smokescreen to separate them for a moment. Deku shot the other way so fast that Umburt could barely see how the boy had stopped and gone back the way he just came from. It was too late for the man to change his own momentum, so he wound up creating a wall of weapons and an explosion of dust that all pushed the opposite direction as his opponent behind him who turned and glared at his back through a gap in all the dust.

He's as fast as All Might, Umburt thought while looking back at the boy he knew was a certain distance behind him, only for his eyes to have to raise as the eighteen year old was already rising straight up above his head.

Midoriya grit his teeth in frustration while glaring down at the villain. The boost up to ninety percent still strains my legs too much. I can only use 85% normally, and I can't risk any more here knowing that Eziano's ahead. Midoriya took in a deep breath that still looked sharp as he did so quickly considering how fast he was moving that the rest of the world seemed to be slower in comparison. Though I don't need any of it now. Midoriya pointed both hands down below him, and he flicked all five fingers of his left hand at once. "Delaware Smash: AIR FORCE!"

The villain who just raised his head was taken off his feet and slammed back-first into the ground by a funnel of wind force that cracked the surface all around him and made Zach stumble around where he was watching from. Zach turned his head to the left and spotted a group of five others who could not keep their balance at the miniature earthquake Deku just created. Several cracks over the surface of the ravine's lower section grew wider, and chunks of rubble and debris bounced on the ground along with unconscious bodies of assassins. Zach refocused solely on Deku and not on the scattered and few enemies they had left down there, I don't need to worry about you. As much as I thought I did, at least. Even though you say you can't use all your power, I can see it here, Midoriya. You've already surpassed All Might.

100% of your power, is more than 100% of what his was. I don't know if you realize it yourself, Zach stared at the hole in the ground with cracks that spread so far out across the rock surface despite Midoriya not even using a full swing of his arm, despite him not even colliding with the ground itself but just flicking the air twenty five feet over the ground. You're stronger than he ever was. And you've also got that, Zach cracked a smirk as he finally saw what it was Midoriya was doing, as Deku's right hand erupted with a darkness that shot in five long whips out of his fingers.

Deku's enemy who was stuck into the middle of the crater ripped his arms out of the ground where they were indented. He leaned upwards and pushed his feet down to get up, growling and glaring up through the dust that had rose around him when the ground broke apart. Darkness dropped into the dust though, and Umburt smirked for a moment as it raced at him. "Haven't you realized yet?! THAT WON'T WORK ON-" One of the black tendrils shot at him and wrapped around his face as he was yelling and giving away his position.

Midoriya wrapped up Umburt's eyes and mouth in the first instant, stopping his enemy from dodging the following four black tendrils he controlled to fly towards the brute. He flicked only one finger down on his left hand with less force than before to blow away all the dust that had flown up from the harder crater-inducing Air Force. "Blackwhip: Binding Cage!" Midoriya's other four Blackwhips wrapped around Umburt's torso and his legs. Two whips pulled Umburt's legs together so hard that the insides of his legs crunched together near the knees and he lost balance. At the same time, he was unable to use his hands to help himself on his landing, as his arms were bound to his sides and tightened there so there was no wiggle room at all. His elbows and wrists were pressed into his sides so hard his ribs were squishing together. Though Midoriya gave him no room for movement, he made sure not to start crushing his enemy who he had to use almost all of the force of his Blackwhips on, though not all of it thanks to using four separate ones all at once.

He finally unwrapped the final Blackwhip that was around his enemy's eyes, one that had also wrapped up his ears so he had not heard Deku's shout of his attack. Umburt still thought that somehow this was Death just using his Quirk in a way preventing it from actually knocking him out, or maybe that he had just adjusted to the Quirk enough to not be affected by it in that way anymore. He stared up from where he lay on his right side though, struggling against his binds that would not bend or break.

Zach ran up to the edge of the wide crater he looked down into where Umburt was laying on his side and growling in fury up towards them. "Will it hold?" Zach wondered, glancing to his left side as Midoriya dropped down into a crouched position and then stood back up straight there. The two muscular boys each over six feet tall stared down at Umburt together as he roared at them and started rolling back and forth to try and struggle harder against the binds. That secondary Quirk of his is so strong, Zach thought while seeing his enemy who had been taking both his and Midoriya's powerful attacks unable to break free from it. I could slip right out of it. And if I used Death while wrapped in them it might knock out Midoriya- stop. Stop that.

Zach turned to his friend who he stopped planning out counters against. Midoriya kept looking down at their enemy for another few seconds. "I think it should, based on what you got him to say about his Quirk."

Umburt's eyes shot open wide and his teeth bared so much harder as he glared towards the teenagers he could hear from the middle of the crater. "RAAAA! I will get out of this! I WILL- ESCAPE-" he pulled his arms as hard as he could away from his sides, but he did not even have the room to start straining himself to rip them free. He had so little mobility due to the way Midoriya had tied him up, that he could not even hurt himself by struggling any harder. Umburt screamed out in frustration and rose his head off the ground, and he smashed it down into the rocks below him creating a hole below his face with blood splashing into it from his newly broken nose.

"Blackwhip!" Midoriya yelled out, swinging both arms ahead of him and creating another ten long whips of darkness. He wrapped a few of them fully around his enemy and rolled him closer across the ground to a flatter area with less cracks on it, then he used all ten emanating from his hands to flatten over the enemy he rolled to be face-up on his back. Whips went around the top of his head, around his neck, over his torso and the arms still tightened to his sides, over his legs, and over his ankles to keep them pressed strongly into the ground so there would be no room for him to raise them up and smash them down. The whips stuck into the ground on either side of him, piercing through the ground like stakes being driven in to keep him in place.

Umburt twitched, and flinched, and when he let out another roar it was not even as loud as the others, as trying to get louder pushed his neck into the whip around it and choked him off. When Umburt felt that he tried to lean upwards and push his neck so hard into the Blackwhip that it would choke him out and hopefully kill him, making him strong enough to break free of all these weapons that were not actually harming him enough to make him stronger. The other Blackwhips on his upper chest and over the top of his head prevented him from pushing his neck up into the Blackwhip strong enough to strangle himself though.

"Nice," Zach said. He witnessed what Umburt just tried to do after hearing his scream of lower volume, and the fact that Umburt was trying to strangle himself meant that their assumptions on how his Quirk worked had confirmation. "Don't want anyone releasing him though, so I'll leave this here for a little while as we finish off the rest." Zach swept his right hand towards Umburt while turning his back to the villain who could only dart his eyes in Zach's direction rather than turn his whole head. A black cage of Death with thick walls keeping Umburt impossible to see from the outside wrapped on all four sides of Umburt and above him.

Midoriya gave Zach a hesitant look, but he decided not to assume the worst of his friend. The fact that his Blackwhips were wrapped all over Umburt gave him a safer feeling about if Zach was doing anything to the villain inside that Death cage as well, as neither he nor Zach knew if Death would knock him out if used on his Blackwhips.

If he gets out of there, Zach started thinking to himself, but he cut off his own thoughts and forced the inner walls of his Death cage to flatten back out. The wisps that were pulling off the inside and towards the villain bound in the middle of the pitch black box sucked back into the walls and ceiling to recreate the gap between them and Umburt. Midoriya's here. Don't make the backup plans. Believe in Plan A. Every second I spend thinking about what could be is a second I take away from planning a perfect victory, which is the only kind of victory I can have with Deku alongside me.

"We've got under twenty of them left," Zach started while looking in the direction of the skull face in the farthest wall from where they were standing now. They were close to the center of the ravine far from the glowing mouth of that skull, and it was a lot darker around them now as many of the torches and lanterns had fallen or gone out. Zach could see through his red-tinted vision some enemies up on the reverse-slanted mountain slopes that seemed to defy physics considering how much weight those protrusions had to weigh. Those enemies hung off the ceiling or hid on top of spikes, and he wondered if any of them were planning on releasing Umburt after seeing him put his cage of Death around it. Not many of them should have the ability to get through or below the cage. I'll keep an eye on them all though and make sure to keep him in there.

"You're not going to tell me to go away?" Midoriya wondered. He was not planning on leaving even if Zach told him to, but he was a bit surprised Zach said "we" instead of telling him to get back to where he was before.

"No," Zach replied with a small shake of his head. "There'd be no point. In another minute we have to head inside anyway." Zach started walking forward and he broke into a jog, Midoriya quickening a pace behind him into a quick jog as well. "I'm sure that's where we'll find Eziano. And more traps," Zach added as an aside.

"Don't worry," Midoriya said in a reassuring voice. He sounded grim. Attacks pass through him, but I'm fast enough to dodge… I will be. I won't make you die for me. Midoriya promised that internally to his friend running ahead of him. I won't make you watch me die, Midoriya thought that second, wondering if that would be worse for Zach than having to feel himself die again. He imagined what Zach would look like if he died fighting here, after what Zach shouted at him in the sky before about how he would kill people if there was even a chance Midoriya could be killed by them. "…fought and died for me, or even killed for me." As many people as he's killed, he wasn't just talking about how bad it was for his soldiers to kill. How badly they didn't want to kill and yet they would; I know that's still how you feel too. So if you would be willing to go that far for me, then I cannot let you feel like that would have been the right decision by dying here today.

"I've got them," Zach said, his voice sounding like he was offering to do it on his own to his friend behind him.

Midoriya was going to reply, but he saw the group of six people they were rushing towards now as he moved a bit to the right side while running at Zach's back. Looking past Zach he could see the half dozen assassins ahead of them were wearing costumes he recognized despite them being darker versions of those people's usual uniforms. Midoriya slowed down, but he grit his teeth and pushed his feet down harder to run after Zach towards the group of heroes facing off against them.

Zach did not think Midoriya's hesitation would last anyway, so while Midoriya was just speeding back up to his last speed, Zach shot forward five times as fast for Rhino Chick and the others gathered with her. Pharaoh was the only other American hero in the group. The Egyptian American man was dressed in black but had gold highlights and supposed jewelry on his wrists and around his neck. Those bracelets and necklaces started to move though as he ran to the left side as the center of the group. Advanced gadgets, Zach thought as he saw the technology moving on its own in preparation for some sort of attack.

The shirtless teen's body covered in more wisps of darkness, and then all of the Death vanished from around his body at once and he came to a short stop between the heroes. Across from Pharaoh was Twin Rivers, an Iraqi heroine who had a dark blue visor on her helmet that covered up most of her head but left some of her dark brown hair flowing out the bottom of it. She had been flanking on Zach's other side, while Rhino Chick ran straight forward at where Zach was charging at her. Behind Rhino Chick using her larger body for cover of what they were doing were two others who Midoriya did not recognize, though Zach did know the two more obscure heroes from small towns in Kenya and Moldova. The sixth hero in the group was The Spear, who stayed farther away from the rest of the group but who Zach had kept an eye on for a long time now due to his enemy's powerful and very far-ranged attacks.

Above! Midoriya darted his eyes to his back right as he was still running after Zach to take part in this fight against the heroes. Zach seemed to be fully focused on whatever team attack they had planned on him, providing two of the other non-hero assassins with their moments to drop from high above on the under-slope of Mt. Sankatsu. Midoriya bent his knees and shot up into the air, moving so fast that the attacking villain who dropped first had barely gone down ten meters and was still far from being ready to change targets or defend himself from Deku's sudden appearance in front of his eyes.

Good. Don't want you fighting heroes here. Zach smirked as Deku flew off behind him, and his enemies glared harder at him before they all attacked at once. He did not have any Death on his body at the moment, as if he was taunting them with the fact that he was not even using his Quirk to take them on. This is different than Broom Man, Zach reminded himself as the coordinated assassins used their Quirks and teamwork and support items in conjunction to attack him from three sides at once.

His enemies were rushing at him quickly, but Zach's eyes retained a low red glow in them even when the rest of his body lost its black aura. His eyebrows narrowed inwards and his lips curled down at the corners. Twin Rivers stopped short and Pharaoh jumped into the air. The ground from Twin Rivers past Zach and below Pharaoh all got swept over by a fast-moving stream that poured out of her legs all directed straight forward fast enough that it did not all just spill out to the sides. Pharaoh's wrist support items dropped when he was jumping up though, and one of them electrified the water while the other sped upwards through the stream towards Zach's legs.

Twin Rivers grit her teeth from farther away but still in range of the powerful electricity that zapped her as well. Zach focused more on Rhino Chick ahead of him than the shooting pain in his legs as his feet were standing in shin-deep electrified water. He stomped forward and reached his arms in front of him- then he pulled to the left side but still had to turn his insides into Death as Covenant leapt out from Rhino Chick's right side and fired something at him he caught a partial glimpse of. His eyes returned to a brighter glowing red while darting to the other of the two heroes just behind Rhino Chick who was doing something with her hands, but Covenant dropped the device he had just fired from and clenched both fists as fast as he could right as Zach was being impaled.

Shit, Zach tried turning more of his body into Death to pull away fast, but the other of the two behind Rhino Chick disrupted his movement the second his body was turning to a gaseous state. I'm not gas! I'm intangible! Zach screamed it at himself while trying to yank away from the point pulling his black body back into a more solid form, then he snapped his head forward in rage. His body zapped with a much stronger burst of electricity due to the black spike currently stuck in the middle of his body, having been stopped in the moment that it pierced through him so that it would not keep going so fast that it passed out his back. In the moment he was more focused on the pain, his body returned to a more real form enough that the second bracelet Pharaoh had been wearing clipped to his right ankle and locked on.

Pharaoh grabbed Zach by his back in the instant after his support item attached to the teenager who had several different attacks to focus on. The hero started to use his Quirk on the boy whose entire back flared with darkness and shot back into him, and Atmos added to her comrade's plan to push that gaseous Death even faster at Pharaoh. Zach felt his Death leaving his own control to push harder into his enemy who had been attacking him but who would not be able to handle that much Death. Instead of pulling it back towards himself, Zach sent it flying up in the air and dispersing to avoid-

His hands snapped inwards and he grabbed Rhino Chick by her horn, but the heroine leaned her head down and then snapped it up, her horn pushing through Zach's arms and knocking them aside to slam her horn straight into his chest. She pierced through his body and ripped upwards, tearing a wave of Death up in the air that Zach's body had filled with. That Death yanked hard away from Rhino Chick and pulled back into Zach's body that was spiraling away, only to disperse out all towards Twin Rivers at once who Zach was falling towards. Twin Rivers' eyes shot open huge as did Covenant and an injured Rhino Chick's, as they thought Atmos had Death's power hindered based on the way his Death splash just pulled back towards himself when it looked like it was going to try and wrap around Rhino Chick.

Rhino Chick darted her eyes backwards while panting heavily from the small amount of Death she took that was not enough to knock her out. She saw that it was not Atmos who stopped that though, as there was a spike of Death removing itself from her chest and sliding back into a crack in the ground ahead of her that it had shot out of. Twin Rivers slammed her arms ahead of her and made a much stronger stream than the last one blast at almost point blank into Death's body and his cloud of darkness. Water isn't great with Death, Zach thought while submerged in the wave he could not push his Death through very easily with as hard as the current was pushing him backwards. And it washes me too far apart from myself, especially at this strength. I'd waste too much just getting out of this.

Zach let himself get washed through the air then rolled across the ground thirty meters from Twin Rivers, though his counterattack on her failed and he wound up just standing up out of the fading river without taking down his enemy. Rhino Chick had yelled a warning out to Twin Rivers, and so her comrade was able to avoid the Death that came her way after taking out Atmos. That second attack was all that mass of Death had left in it, and it faded away into little wisps that vanished only a second after the failed attack. As Zach was standing up out of the river losing strength however, seeing his enemies regrouping in one direction of him with Rhino Chick slow on her feet, and Pharaoh and Atmos down, his guard was let down the amount his sixth enemy needed.

His body had used little Death during Twin Rivers' last attack suggesting the fast-moving water made it difficult for him. Two of the enemies who had just been doing a combo attack on him were down and he had just been moved a fair distance from the other three still in the process of attacking him. The Spear fired when Zach was standing up out of the river, while his body was washed away of the Death with only some blood trickling out of him now in a new wound on his upper chest. His drenched body twisted as he saw movement to his right side, and to the left of the three heroes who intentionally pushed their other hero comrade from their thoughts to forget about his existence and completely ignore his presence.

The Spear, Zach thought while staring over towards where his enemy really would have gotten a good shot on him. Too much of my insides were organs right there. His shots move fast, but I probably still could have reacted quick enough to avoid a fatal blow. Thanks though, Zach added while refacing his three enemies who were much more enraged as they stared towards Deku who was standing on top of The Spear.

Midoriya let out a deep breath and then turned his head towards the remaining three enemies in this group facing Zach. After defeating the two back behind them and up high in the ravine, he had to carry them to the ground level to place them down without dropping them to their deaths. On his way down to drop them though, he had spotted the movement of The Spear who had been heading in a strange direction considering where Zach was fighting from. Twin Rivers' turned though before sending out her second blast of water, pushing Zach to a position where once he stood facing them The Spear would be too far to his right and out of his peripheral vision that in a good angle, he would have a perfect shot.

The pro heroes are as good as any assassin, Zach thought. Maybe because they're assassins and heroes. Experienced some of everything. Zach glared harder at the villains ahead of him even as he gained a smirk on his face, the corners of his lips moving up this time as he stomped towards them.

Deku started jogging forward as well, going to take them on from another side. Rhino Chick spun her head though while the other two moved in front of her and closer to Zach, "Stay out of this Deku!" Midoriya slowed down and his eyes grew wider at the look on the Texan hero's face. She looked angry. Her eyes darted back towards Sazaki who stopped himself after the single stomp, looking interestedly towards his enemies and specifically between Covenant and Twin Rivers straight at Rhino Chick. The woman he had met before darted a look his way to see what he was doing, before glaring back towards Deku and shouting over at him, "You know that he's Death, don't you?!"

Midoriya stood frozen and stared at the three heroes in darker versions of their costumes. His eyes narrowed and his glare grew harsher as he stared into Rhino Chick's eyes, but the woman with a large body and big gray horn on her forehead stood up on her back thick legs and yelled his way, "He's killed more people than anyone! He'll be the end of the world!"

"You're with Eziano Mozcaccio," Midoriya started. "Whatever Zach's done, you have no right-"

"Eziano isn't what you think he is!" Rhino Chick snapped at the curly-haired teenager, shaking her head frustratedly then turning back towards Death who she saw take another stomp in their direction that seemed to make her vision shake for a second. She darted her eyes back Deku's way and saw him glancing in Zach's direction as well, gaining an uneasy look at the smirk on Zach's face as he stared down the heroes before him. "He knows that Death is going to kill us all. He's a balancing force in the world. A force of nature rather than a man!" Rhino Chick yelled at him, making Midoriya look straight back at her with his eyes wider as he thought of what All Might had told him the last time they had a conversation about this.

"But Death is… he's chaos incarnate!" Rhino Chick yelled it and Zach lowered down his smirk. He stopped where he stood and stared towards the woman whose voice shook with rage but also a fear in it, yet the fear did not sound as much for herself as for what she was saying. "He has killed more people than any of us, and you stand by his side and fight with him?"

"Eziano called us here because he knew that we cared about stopping Death as much as anyone," Covenant snapped, his expression steadying and getting darker as he glared Zach down while speaking to Deku. Midoriya turned to that hero with his eyes wide as the man rose up a pair of strange-looking pistols he pointed at Sazaki. "Even if it means Death, we have to prevent a world where he gets any stronger. You've seen it, Deku. You must have, being around him all the time." Covenant's teeth ground and he growled while glaring down Death, "He's more of a villain than Eziano. The greater of two evils."

They can't be… Are they just heroes, here to stop Zach? Midoriya's eyes shifted around the three of them, then back behind him and down to the hero he had just taken out.

"You're not our enemy Deku," Twin Rivers called out. "So stand down."

"You're a great hero," Rhino Chick agreed, fully facing Zach and dropping down on all fours to glare furiously at him and in her most intense way. "The world needs you. What it doesn't need, is a mass murderer to look up to."

"You can't take the moral high ground while fighting with assassins…"

"They know that your friend's death is the only way to keep the balance of power in the world!" Covenant shouted.

"He's too strong to be left alive," Rhino Chick agreed. "He's killed too many heroes already. Too many villains. Too many… people."

Midoriya lowered his gaze to the floor. He shook his head, then he rose it and said with his voice steady and his eyes glaring towards the three of them, "I don't believe you." The group of three did not take their eyes off Zach now as their dark-haired enemy smirked big at them. Zach stepped forward, then took another step as Midoriya told the heroes, "You just want to turn me against Zach. You didn't just get 'called' here by Eziano. You became heroes because he ordered you to." Midoriya called them out and not one of the three looked away from Death who was marching towards them now and chuckling under his breath. Midoriya darted his gaze to Zach who was unnerving him and making it harder to say this with such confidence, but he knew he was right anyway and he was so assured of it that the villains were not even trying to argue with him as they could tell he would not be convinced.

"You're assassins. You've always been assassins before being heroes. So maybe the things Zach has done are bad, but I'll never make my decision based on what you say." Midoriya said that firmly and then stood back, as Zach ran forward at his three enemies who moved towards him with Covenant and Twin Rivers each moving to the sides to try and flank him this time.

Death's body grew twice in size suddenly though. It made Covenant stumble as Zach's body rippled and shot to twelve feet tall, leaning forward with two more arms ripping out below the huge ones his normal arms had just grown into. Four black blades appeared gripped in the large hands of Death, and Zach yelled out while turning fully towards Covenant, "What's wrong?!" Zach jumped up in the air, his two huge legs bulking around his thighs and calves to send him fifty feet up in the air with his jump. He rose up all four blades, and Covenant rose shaky arms and fired while Twin Rivers sent a force of water right at her comrade.

Zach dropped down into the river and slashed at nothing since Covenant was thrust away by the force of the stream. Rhino Chick was still charging at him though, and his upper body twisted with his lower body solidifying so that the water did nothing to him despite the heroes' experience telling them that Zach should have been trying to use less Death once submerged in some water. Zach was up to his four-foot high thighs though in a fast-moving current, and he just slashed his swords towards Rhino Chick in four different spots so that even when she tried to dodge, she was hit in the side by a huge black sword that cut straight through her. The blade passed through her and looked to retain its shape on her other side. It passed her without cutting her, yet the huge woman hit the ground and rolled unconscious across it after being cut.

"You've fought against villains your whole lives," Zach continued while turning fully into the direction the current was coming from. He started walking up through the river, his steps slow but pushing through with ease as he brought back up two of his swords and held the other two out to his sides. "Thank you for that," Zach continued. His large black face grimaced and then started snarling down at the woman who put all of her force into sending rivers crashing forward at Death who had to stop for a moment and lean forward into them. "And yet because of Deku's presence I'm unable to just kill you and allow your citizens to go on believing that you were truly heroes that whole time. The idea that I'm going to make them have to feel so much despair at the thought of their heroes being assassins, sickens me."

Zach slammed his four swords in with them expanding in length and thickness. There was nowhere for Twin Rivers to go, except diving into the back of her river and trying to take the strong current between Zach's legs. Zach broke apart his huge thick legs though into the water, flooding the river with black and making the woman inside open her mouth and breath in the slowing water that she choked on to start drowning. The river dropped down into the ground and poured out in every direction, mostly just falling into cracks around the area.

Squish. Splsh. Splt. Slquish. Zach stomped through the shallow water with his footsteps making squishing noises under his bare feet. He glared towards Covenant who stood up drenched, coughing, and panting as he rose his gaze to see Death walking his way. Zach's eyes stayed red and his fists flared with darkness, as he lifted up his left foot next to the woman laying still on the ground next to him. He stomped down, making Covenant and Midoriya both flinch as Zach stomped on the already unmoving figure. Zach stomped on her chest though, then kicked her to the side so the water poured out of the unconscious woman's mouth and throat where it had just splashed up from her lungs.

"You're heroes?" Zach asked, rage laced in his calm voice as he glared down Covenant. "So how could you…" his tone turned so fucking disgusted, and he tilted his head back while glaring in seething hatred towards the hero who took two full steps back from him despite already being thirty feet away. "You've fought against villains your whole lives. You're assassins pretending to be heroes. Yet you've never seen anything so horrifying before." He moved as a black blur so fast forward that he was in front of Covenant only three feet away in a second. His body leaned upwards and over the villain who looked up and into the flaring red eyes glaring down at him, Zach's body erupting in darkness yet leaving parts of his scarred-up figure visible.

Then he vanished, his whole body blowing away as if in the wind. Zach appeared on Covenant's right side sprinting forward at him, yet when Covenant swung his arms at Death they went through nothing but an after-image. The hero was too confused to realize it was just martial arts, making it feel more like some kind of demonic magic or something. Covenant's eyes darted around, and then that darkness that had seemed to fade before started spinning around the floor in a circle surrounding him. That circle rose up twenty feet and spiraled around him like a tornado-

"Zach! Stop!"

Zach turned his head and looked towards Deku who was watching him do this. What the hell am I doing? He pulled his tornado back into his body, completely ignoring Covenant who part of that swirling tornado just passed through and knocked out behind him. He started walking in Deku's direction with a steady look on his face and his eyes going back to a low red glow returning some of the whites to his eyes. "Sorry," Zach shrugged up his right shoulder in apology as he neared Deku, though he did not sound very sincere about it. Can't tell if the public humiliation and shame and prison will actually affect these kind of villains. They need punishment, and I'm the only one- Midoriya won't understand that. He couldn't.

Dipped into Limiter 1 occasionally up here. Not a great move. I have to reign it in. "Eziano, his sons, Red, and possibly dozens of others are certain to still be around here."

Midoriya frowned as Zach walked past his side, but he started moving himself without stopping Zach to talk about what just happened. There was a lot he wanted to say, but instead he just asked, "What's Red's power?" He figured if Zach mentioned him by name then he had to be one of the stronger assassins he knew about that they had yet to face.

Zach started to explain as the two began running in the direction of the skull made of stone. As Zach explained though, Midoriya's thoughts could not stay on Red and what Zach was discussing about him.

Midoriya watched Zach in the corner of his vision and recalled what he was thinking about just a minute ago. His eyes shifted from Zach's back he was chasing to the bodies of the fallen heroes they ran past, barely moving at all though Midoriya did see movement from them. His eyes rose from those heroes up to the scar-covered back ahead of him, You hate killing, yet you came out here ready to kill them all because that's what you thought you had to do. That's horrible. I don't know how I can convince you of that. That doing something so horrible, so against your nature, that you hate to do, is actually wrong… Why is that something difficult for you to understand? Why, is the only reason you're sparing them because I'm here with you, right now?

People are going to learn that their heroes were fakes. That so many heroes were fakes. Many will refuse to believe it. They'll lie. People will call Deku a liar. And me. It's not fair that they get to cause so much grief and chaos even after they're defeated. No one gets justice by them being revealed. It's only heartache that awaits us. Zach's eyes narrowed and his own heart ached for a moment as he glared at the figure ahead of him standing in the way of him and Deku and the entrance to some lower cave system illuminated brighter than the darkness of the ravine.

Zach sped up while Deku was just spotting this enemy. He had seen a small shift in Zach's expression before Zach sped up, and he kept his same pace to allow Zach to take on this single large villain seemingly guarding the entrance of the skull mouth. "È bello vederti, amico mio. Cadi."

The world spun around in Zach's vision, so he closed his eyes and continued sprinting straight forward to find the ground still where it was supposed to be. He jumped up and spun around his right leg, surrounding his lower leg in darkness and colliding the roundhouse kick with the side of Vinny's head. It did not matter how much the fat man weighed. The mafioso who Zach had been led to believe was Quirkless hit the ground and bounced, rolling away as he fell unconscious. Zach opened his eyes and landed with his vision no longer impaired, and he released a heavy breath while keeping his eyes forward and on the inside of the cave. He could finally see the inside was illuminated by strange orange lights that glowed through thin glass strips going across the walls of the tunnel.

Midoriya slowed down and he got to Zach's side but was looking towards where the final assassin on the surface had just rolled to a stop. The two of them started walking into the cave, but Midoriya looked back to Zach and stared at the side of his face. He asked after hesitating for a moment, "Was that, a friend of yours?"

Zach kept his eyes forward and did not reply for a second. Then he muttered back under his breath, "Apparently not. Stay focused."

The two of them were inside Eziano's base now. The entrance was slanted downwards and into a deeper cave below a mountain range. There were strange lighting fixtures inside the walls, and the boys knew there were traps laid ahead of them. Midoriya knew he had to focus and yet could not help but feel a pang of sadness in his chest at Zach's intense and uncaring expression after what he just said. The response was affirmative towards what Midoriya had asked, which he had wondered because of the familiar tone that man had spoken to Zach in Italian.

The path down into the cave was long and winding. It remained lit by the strange orange lights all the way inside. Neither Midoriya nor Zach hesitated as they continued heading down at a steady pace. They stayed silent and more focused on their surroundings now that they were in a confined space. Zach knew he could turn to Death to slip through cracks and Midoriya knew he could blast away everything around him if the walls started pulling in towards them, or if the ceiling collapsed, or a hundred different traps the two were preparing for. Nothing had happened so far though, and they reached an intersection on a lower part of the cave that had just flattened out a bit from the winding path behind them.

Only on their left was there a darker area the hallway led to. The boys looked that way and then at each other, but Zach frowned and shook his head while looking ahead of him instead. He glanced the other way rather than the darker path. Eziano wouldn't be down that way. Something else is over there though that he doesn't want me to see. It wouldn't be slaves and hostages though, he'd want me to see them. "Well," Zach turned the way of the dark route and he rose up his left hand, making the center of his palm glow blue.

Two enemies emerged out of the dark hallway and shot towards the two boys who each eased backwards and took defensive stances as they readied to figure out their enemies' Quirks first. Being this far in suggested some kind of trap, though Zach also wondered what was behind the two that they rushed out when he suggested the idea of firing a blue blast of energy out of his arm in that direction. Something they care about. Whatever it is, they didn't want me shining a light towards it. So what if I…

Zach separated the two enemies. He rushed past them and into the dark tunnel behind the two guards, making one of them turn and race after him while leaving the other to face off against Deku. Midoriya watched Zach disappear into the darkness which had a hesitant look forming on his face again though he had to focus on this powerful assassin he was facing himself. "Full Cowling, 85%," Midoriya bent his knees, and he shot to the wall on his right, then the ceiling, then the wall to his left and back down to the floor. He started slowing down at only certain moments while he bounced around on all the walls around his enemy whose body had tiny purple holes all over it that could fire projectiles or just pierce out points from his skin to impale enemies who attacked him. It was a great defensive and offensive Quirk, especially when combined with his superior skills as a martial artist and assassin.

His spikes were passing through the versions of Midoriya he could see though, only after-images left being by the teenager moving too fast between the blurs that it was starting to look like there were over six, then seven different Dekus jumping about. Midoriya sped up further, and all the different versions of himself that were appearing started to move the same direction while more versions appeared at the same time. He saw the limit to how many spikes and projectiles his enemy could fire at once, and he made it look like he was attacking from all sides while shouting, "Clone Wars!" The blurred teenager raced in behind his enemy and punched into his spine between two different defensive spiking protrusions, while ducking under a Quirk projectile spike to the right of one of the protrusions too.

As Midoriya made his precise attack, his eyes darted down the dark hall to where he heard a scream come from the other assassin. A flash of blue came from down that hall, and Midoriya caught a glimpse of Zach looking much darker than he had during their entry to the cave and yet smirking as he yanked his enemy's arm farther back behind him in a way dislocating it. He slammed his glowing blue palm into the side of Red's face when the villain was turning and stopping his scream to get a look at his opponent. Zach's enemy yelled out in pain, only to fall silent as darkness jumped off Zach's wrist and took down the villain whose face he was burning. One fatal error on your part, was facing me in the dark, Zach thought as everything remained visible in a red tint even after his blue glow had faded.

Now what are those? Zach stared towards a glass case on the wall in the darkness that was tinted. A spike of Death flew off his body into the dead end and slammed into the dark glass, then he rose his left hand and fired a blast of blue energy into it too. Not a scratch. It's probably a trap. Shouldn't have Deku break through it for no reason. Eziano's down the central route. Whatever's in there is interesting but unimportant.

"What's in there-"

"Doesn't matter," Zach said while walking towards Izuku who stopped heading his way when Zach said that. Despite Zach's attempts that said differently, Zach seemed to lose all interest and just motioned towards the central path they should keep heading down. "It's not Eziano. Let's finish this."

"It's only just beginning," Midoriya warned Zach, and Zach glanced to his side at his comrade whose intense expression returned. Midoriya's look relieved his friend who was glad to hear him say that. He nodded in agreement back at Midoriya showing he understood that as well, then the two of them continued down the middle path and pushed that glass case behind them out of their minds for now.

Does he enjoy hurting them? He starts smiling like… Midoriya hated the feeling in his gut and the thoughts he was having. Zach didn't kill him… but if I wasn't there then he may have done so. Those heroes outside, I know they were lying and that they're just Eziano's- but they might have actually believed that too. I know they're wrong though. No matter what I've seen from him, I'm never going to be afraid of Zach destroying the world. Midoriya's eyes stayed focused ahead of him and not on his friend at his side who he was thinking on in a calm way.

Zach purposely kept all his achievements secret despite how much good he did, in order to protect the world. I know that Zach cares more about the world than anything. More than fame, or glory, or his own codes, his own body, or even the lives of his friends. He put us in mortal danger to stop someone like Kurogiri. I know he cares so much about us, and yet even though he cares more for us than nearly anything, I know that he has hurt us before in order to better protect the world. The Lifebringer Incident is just one piece of proof that Zach would trade anything, do anything, if it meant better protecting the world. As he sees protecting the world to mean, though.

That's a dangerous outlook to have, Midoriya thought as they continued ahead together. It leads Zach to make poor decisions and kill people, and yet that mindset also led Zach here. It led him to take down this organization of assassins that no one, not even All Might, had ever been so close to defeating. Midoriya's eyes focused ahead and towards a wide set of open doors that had a darker room on the other side that did not seem to have a floor. Eziano is just ahead, Midoriya believed, and he admitted to himself, and Zach is the only one who could have done this. Gotten this far. I've been amazed by the things Zach's done before, and by the things he's told me he had done as Death, but it's here. In this cave in Eziano Mozcaccio's base where we could finally stop him… you're the most impressive hero in the world. Despite the bad things you've done, you've accomplished more than anyone. You are more capable at combatting evil than anyone alive. I envy you…

Not for the life you've lived, Midoriya's eyes stayed focused on the entrance he and Zach were only twenty feet from reaching. The two of them were each slowing down and preparing themselves more, and yet Midoriya could not help but think on his friend next to him who looked so serious and focused on this mission alone. But for who you are able to become when the world requires it of you. I saw a version of Zach not a few hours ago who was on the verge of despair and hopelessness. And yet here you are. He is able to compartmentalize and become the weapon that can do this without dragging in his baggage. Separating himself in battle from who he is and what he's going through. A man able to solely focus on the task at hand, and be the best suited to take on that task at any given time. It's… amazing. Inspiring, even. Yet you need me here too. Because someone who can do that to themselves, to make themselves into a perfect weapon, has lost something important inside. I don't know if you're stronger than I am, Zach. But I know you lack the restraint to spare Eziano without me. I can't let you kill him.

If you kill him… then I have to arrest you. Like I would anyone else.

Zach and Midoriya stepped up to the ledge of a room dimly lit by two torches hanging on opposite walls to Zach and Midoriya's left and right sides. Those torches were also down ten meters, on the sides of the floor at shoulder level of the man down there and across the large throne room they just entered. The entranceway had no floor on the other side of it, only a drop down to a floor below made of some black material that Eziano stood on thirty meters ahead of them right in front of a small black stone staircase that led up to the throne.

The throne was made of stone looking more like the regular stone of the ravine outside or walls of the cave. The rock throne looked almost natural, worn down by time and yet in a shape that would not naturally occur. Yet most of this cave looked naturally occurring as well, like the stalactites up on the ceiling that lowered down from a perfectly curved dome of a ceiling and only dipped a couple meters down from it. The domed ceiling had some bumps on it too, new protrusions like the forming of new stalactites that in thousands of years could extend to the lengths of the other ones.

This place is old, Zach thought, while he stared straight towards Eziano Mozcaccio across the black floor that he hesitated before dropping down to. "Let me take him first," Zach started.

Midoriya dropped down and landed at the same time Zach did. "We fight together," Midoriya replied.

Eziano had been alone in the lair awaiting the two boys. He faced them with his arms crossed behind his back, still in the sleeves of his purple cloak that he wore with the hood down. Zach had seen that cloak Eziano was wearing before, and he had seen the back of it and the white cross there that Midoriya had seen before as well. When Zach faced Eziano on equal level though his first remark to the assassin was, "You can remove that cloak of yours." Midoriya thought Zach might try to argue with him but was glad he did not and that they were just getting right into this. He tried to keep his concentration solely on their enemy though, even as Zach continued, "I know you're no Christian."

"I don't remember claiming to be Christian," Eziano replied to the boy before him who was covered in so many scars there was less un-scarred tissue than scar tissue revealed on his body. Unlike Midoriya who appeared untouched, Zach had marks on his skin given to him recently and almost his whole body was bare other than the space between his waist and knees. Eziano continued to his enemy, "Is that all you imagine the cross can mean?"

"Eziano Mozcaccio," Midoriya started, and his enemy's gaze turned onto him. The assassin had tanner skin than the boys and dark eyes that were shadowed over naturally but also had dark brown irises. His gaze was like none Midoriya had ever felt before, and yet he stood there before this enemy unafraid and unwavering. Midoriya had last seen this man at the Sports Festival two years ago, and he remembered what Eziano had said that day. He had not seen Eziano's face that day as the villain had worn a mask, but he imagined that voice when the man looked straight at him, "…It's not enough yet. It's not enough, and it won't be fast enough."

"Deku, Sazaki," Eziano began to the boys in front of him. Neither moved carelessly. Not against this man. "You've both made it here without much trouble. That is impressive."

"Your army is destroyed, don't act like that doesn't bother you," Zach remarked back. His voice was cold and his eyes glaring dangerously into Eziano's with the red glow bright and every possibility of how this fight was going to start racing through his mind. "All your sleeper cells and agents. They all came here to stop me or at the least weaken me before I faced you."

"I didn't think you would bring Deku into this," Eziano remarked back.

"He came on his own," Zach replied.

"You're under arrest, Eziano. Surrender peacefully…" Midoriya closed his mouth as he saw Zach turn his head to the right with a skeptical look on it. Eziano himself just rose his eyebrows, taking what Deku said more seriously than Zach who cracked a smile at what Midoriya was saying. "You always have to give them a choice," Midoriya said firmly, his eyes staying locked on Eziano and no joking tone at all filling his voice when he saw that look showing Zach thought Midoriya saying that was like a joke. Zach's smile flattened back out and his head turned forward with a renewed intensity on it and an even darker look on his face now. "Surrender, or we will capture you and take you in by force."

"All Might's protege, all grown up." Eziano said it in no joking tone himself as he stared at the young hero who was far more mature than the last time they had been in contact. Even then, Eziano recalled this child taking down Saberclaw, his sons, and Inhuman all in one day. "You have grown even more," Eziano continued. "And yet you were too slow. I was not wrong." Midoriya's teeth grit behind his closed lips, and Zach shifted his gaze for a moment to his friend on his side thinking back on what Eziano had said that day. Midoriya also thought on the person next to him who made him wonder, Maybe I didn't get strong fast enough. Maybe taking my time as I did, forced Zach to do it himself while I sat in school. He held off the world from destruction long enough. Now, it's my turn.

"Shut up, Eziano," Zach said. His tone was dark and his voice low and cold. He stared down his enemy across the gap in the room that did not have any obvious traps laid there for him. That still left the non-obvious traps that could be hiding under the ground in the direction Eziano knew he would move in first, whichever way that would wind up being. Zach spoke in a cold voice to his enemy, "Your assassins were too weak to slow us down. Now, you are all that remains."

"Too weak?" Most of those villains up there were stronger than any I had seen before. Many were as strong as the leaders of villain groups, and most of them were as strong as executives of the League of Villains or Radians. More powerful even. Midoriya said nothing even though he felt Zach was talking down how powerful all those enemies were up above to have put so much damage on him and to have forced them to use their full power at times. We should have come up with a strategy for this fight. Maybe Zach knows that he could potentially hear our plan though. Maybe, we both just have to fight our hardest to stop him. Midoriya spread his feet out and turned his body side-face into more of a readied fighting stance for this kind of enemy. The last time he had seen Eziano he took his eyes off the man for a moment and never saw him again, as Eziano had disappeared with his sons and Midoriya had to focus on defeating Inhuman rather than chasing them down.

"You called your full force back and we still defeated it," Zach continued to his enemy who he sounded like he was taunting to no reaction from Eziano. "Exactly as I planned. You did what I wanted you to do every step of the way," Zach remarked and glared at Eziano but with a victorious grin forming over his face. Eziano did not try to argue. He did not attempt to bluff even though Midoriya found himself confused as he continued to stare at their enemy while listening to Zach on his side. Zach continued as much as a taunt to Eziano as to explain to his friend at his side, "Unlike All Might, I would not have stepped back or stopped my rampage if Eziano had his forces start killing innocents around the world."

"That's what stopped All Might from capturing you," Zach continued with the presumption he had had from long ago. Midoriya's eyes widened though as he had never told Zach certain things that he was certain All Might had not told him either. Zach continued right to his enemy, "He let you go, after he had defeated you. All Might could never let all those innocents die. I know the bigger picture though." Zach's lips flattened and he glared murderously at his opponent. "I would have let the innocents die, because you would kill for centuries more. So one day of massacres would have been horrible but something I would have accepted for the good of humanity… And you know this about me. You know exactly how much I'm willing to sacrifice for this world."

"I do," Eziano replied to all Zach had said so far. "Which is why your bringing of Deku to our battle confounds me."

Zach stayed quiet for a moment, as he had already told Eziano that Midoriya came on his own and that it was not his decision to bring him along. Eziano's repeated statement implied confusion as to why he would not just knock out Deku and leave him behind. "Deku is just being a hero, preventing me from killing anyone. Even you." Zach paused as Eziano looked at him in mild surprise, because he could tell that Zach meant what he just said. Zach took in a deep breath and then with a calmer and less angry look on his face he said, "I need people like Midoriya."

Zach's voice had a knowing tone in it, and his expression stayed steady and flat even as he surprised the teen on his right side by what he just said. "I've always needed them," Zach continued. "And so I surrounded myself with them to make sure I never strayed-"

"And what about the times when they were all killed?" Eziano interrupted. Zach closed his mouth and his expression darkened. "When you were all that remained?" Eziano finished, and Zach stared him down silently with Midoriya's expression getting darker too though Eziano could see in his eyes that Deku already knew what he was referring to. "Interesting," Eziano remarked.

He'll stop trying to turn Midoriya against me now. That was the start of an attempt and the realization that it would not work. Where will he come from? Do we move first or will he make the first move? He knows...

Every move we make could have been planned for. If he sets off a trap and we make our moves to avoid it, he could rush at where we dodge knowing how we'll do so. I trust Zach to guard my back, and I can guard his too, but I will not underestimate Eziano here. Midoriya's muscles clenched and his body filled with strength as he prepared to move in this deep cave filled only with dim light from the entrance connecting the hall above, and the flickering flames of a few torches on the walls. Midoriya did not suspect those flames would remain lit for long once they started moving at speeds that would create too much wind for the small room. The room was not actually small compared to most rooms, in fact it was rather large, but for the fight Midoriya saw coming it started to feel like a confined space.

"PLEASE NO!"

"Have mercy! Please! MERCY! AHHHH!"

Zach heard screams in his head and his teeth bared at his enemy dragging up some things that were pushed far down for this. He knows. His focus strayed from his enemy's attack pattern, as he could see Eziano was waiting for him to make the first move now. "You know, you're the one in my trap?" Zach wondered to his enemy he did not want to rush at considering where he was.

"Am I now?" Eziano wondered back.

"Yes," Zach answered. "I told you to tell me where you are, and to bring all your forces, so that I could destroy you all in one swift blow. Look at what's happened, Eziano."

"None of my forces are dead," Eziano replied right away. "And when the two of you are dead, I will regain-"

"You can't win," Zach countered. "We've fought before, Eziano."

"And I cut your throat," Eziano remarked, making Midoriya's eyes so focused on his enemy dart towards Zach's neck for a moment and the scar cutting across the front of it.

"You did, and then you fled because I was too much for you," Zach continued. "And we both know how much stronger I have gotten since then."

"Why don't you show me just how much stronger then?" Eziano wondered back. "If you can, with your friend here-"

Zach's right foot dragged across the floor in front of him and kicked up with a slash of darkness flying straight at Eziano. It was perfectly aligned with the center of his enemy's body, not purposely shifted to one way where his enemy could dodge easier. He split it straight down the middle, and then he predicted Eziano moving to his right side closer to Midoriya so he was already crossing the cut ground behind his black slash by the time Eziano was finishing his first step to that side. Midoriya meanwhile bounced off a stalactite in the center of the room up above them, and he broke it off by how hard he smashed into it with his feet. Midoriya reached down between his legs and grabbed the broken off spike of stone, and he thrust it down to Eziano's left side where the assassin's momentum was looking like he would continue a dodge away from Zach.

As Midoriya was releasing the spike though, Eziano's body faded in front of his eyes. Zach shot off the ground and intercepted the figure who Midoriya saw again only as Eziano threw a pair of knives at his attacking friend. Zach reached forward and caught the blades- Boom

Zach's hands ripped apart and he dropped down to the ground with them reforming in instantaneous swirls of darkness. The knives had explosives inside them and blew up as soon as Zach caught them by the hilts, but when he landed and reformed his hands, Eziano stabbed him through the back with a katana. Zach's back erupted out not that he expected to catch Eziano in his attack, and instead he started running the direction he did predict his enemy was going to run. He removed the blade from his own body and swung it twice, creating an X-shaped black slash with the weapon that cut across the ground and expanded wider and larger as it started spinning and expanding with different points. The X crossed over with another X to have eight different lines coming off it spinning faster and then connecting with a net-like pattern so there was nowhere for Eziano to dodge to in the entire room.

The only place without the netting, was high up where Midoriya was. So Eziano rose up like he was going to use that, and then he immediately bounced off the air into a hole that Zach's Death made as he tried to redirect a large amount of it to protect his friend. Midoriya shot down right towards the other side of that hole though where Eziano just went through, as Deku expected him to, and as Zach expected Midoriya would when he gave Eziano the hole. Eziano also knew it was a possibility the boys were thinking about that in advance though, and he stopped short in midair so Deku flew past his front where he was going to attack the assassin by leading him.

Eziano rose his right hand and fired a pistol straight at Midoriya's face, but Midoriya flicked his fingers in the moment he saw Eziano pulling the trigger. His body bounced up and just over the bullet that was already aimed higher than where he was but not high enough as Eziano did not predict the strength of Midoriya's flicks. Midoriya could see that Eziano knew which direction he was going to dodge though and that the bullet passed closer to him than he had planned on.

Midoriya hit the ceiling and bounced farther away from the assassin who almost just killed him, though he told himself it was less a retreat when he had the thought that he only backed away because of fear. Instead he believed that he moved back so that Zach had room for the swirling blades of Death that formed an arsenal in the air behind Eziano where his net had broken apart. Eziano flew through the air though while those weapons hovered behind him, and Zach's eyes narrowed more at the villain who flew without any kind of gear on him. "Are you having trouble identifying my Quirk?" Eziano wondered to the boy who hesitated before attacking him.

Zach sent his black swords flying forward and he shot the opposite direction to catch Eziano between his frontal attack and all the Death weapons coming at his back. "You couldn't understand it," Eziano continued, and he shot down to the ground level and then over towards the wall on the left side of the room. Midoriya bounced away from that wall to give all of Zach's Death attacks more room. He could see Zach trying to give him a wide berth, and he knew that Zach could not use his full Death powers while he was inside the room, but he had to remain here and fight as he could already see Eziano was by far the most powerful enemy he had ever faced before.

Eziano was running to one side of the room, when Zach stopped chasing him and spun around in a full three-sixty spin before snapping his head up in the air. Is it sound? Zach wondered as he did not know how he lost his enemy who was disappearing better than he knew how to do despite all the methods and techniques he had learned over the years. Or are my eyes playing tricks on me? It could be his Quirk- but he can fly. Did he meet All For One a hundred years ago and get transferred several abilities… What is it?

Zach split his body in half vertically and then wrapped around where he saw Eziano in the air. Eziano's body that he surrounded flew up into the ceiling though and hid behind one of the stalactites that Zach sent all his Death flying in towards at the same time.

Midoriya spun his head to the right as he saw Eziano appear out of nowhere in a full sprint towards him. Can he teleport?! His sons can, so- Midoriya kicked off the ground towards his enemy instead of away from him. Midoriya rushed Eziano and so the two of them collided before Zach could drop out of the air above where he was confused at how he had lost his enemy again. He moved behind Eziano though, in preparation for Midoriya to push him back.

Deku failed to hit Eziano though despite how fast he punched at his enemy's head. Eziano's eyes shifted one way, and his feet pointed another, and yet he dodged in no way that Midoriya had predicted. Midoriya had kept a close eye on his hands though and saw when Eziano rose the pistol from inside his cloak to fire at him again. So in that moment, Midoriya shot past where Eziano was leaning away in a dodge, moving so quickly that the force of wind that blew off him ripped off Eziano's cloak too. Midoriya dove into a somersault that he rolled out of just as Zach landed on his other side, and they both looked towards Eziano who had a white tank top under his cloak and wore a pair of heavy black pants.

Eziano wore weapons connected on black straps to his arms, his waist, and crossing over his chest and back. His thick black pants seemed to be hiding more inside his pant legs. Eziano's unclothed arms had scars on them, though not as many as Zach's. He shrugged his shoulders back and then turned his body from side-face as he looked to his enemies he thought were going to attack right away. In the moment the boys paused to get a good look at him, Eziano turned his body to look straight forward at them across an eighteen foot gap. "You cannot defeat me, Death. Deku." Eziano's muscles suddenly bulged without him seeming to move an inch, his arms just flexing and looking bigger as his legs filled out his pants more. Eziano took in a deep breath and let it out, his chest puffing out and then staying that way as his fingers curled out and then back into fists that made the ground below each fist shake upon his clench.

What kind of Quirk does he have? Midoriya thought, wondering how these things were possible for him to do considering what he had already seen from the assassin.

"I can defeat you. There is no way for you to kill me," Zach said. "And all it would take is for me to go all out for a few seconds, and it would be all over for you-"

"I am sure that is what Mark thought as well," Eziano replied. Eziano stared down his opponent whose expression just dropped with a deep frown emerging. Eziano just continued while Zach glared at him and Deku found his heart racing at the comment Eziano made, "You will fail to protect Deku as you failed to protect your allies that day in the Tusukan Desert. And as you failed to save Mark."

"Or as you failed to save yours, like the last time we saw each other," Zach remarked back in a colder voice sounding more taunting and personal now. His eyes narrowed but his lips curled up in an angry way despite his smile, "At the Battle of the 6 Armies."

"Is that what you call it? It has a nice ring," Eziano admitted with a small grin forming on the assassin's face as well that just made Zach snarl in rage to see.

"Don't let him get to you," Midoriya started to his friend who he wanted to stay calm here despite the history he had with their enemy.

"You were standing there with over a hundred of your assassins," Zach remarked, his voice calming but his tone still taunting as he talked down to Eziano. "On a plateau watching the war rage. When I got my comms back up, you were what I told everyone to target first and foremost. I smashed apart your plateau myself. Exodus blasted over and I know he killed many of yours." Zach smirked more and his fists clenched so much harder at his sides as he held back his seething rage to just taunt his enemy instead of charging him recklessly. "And my comrades told the other thousands of villains that the assassins were planning on turning them all into their subordinates, but the League of Shadows were almost destroyed. They thought of you as just lingering remains of a dead group, and the ones who did not know of Eziano Mozcaccio were willing to go try to kill him. Your own anonymity was your downfall!"

"Death's strategy on that day was impeccable," Eziano admitted. He gave Zach the credit in an impressed tone that made Zach bare his teeth harder, as he did not want to hear praise from this man. "I had gone to witness the end of Death," Eziano continued. "The end of an amazing feat that I knew could not survive that coming battle. Then to be forced to flee like thousands of others from Death's might?" Eziano posed the question in a tone like it was shocking even to him.

"You talk too much," Zach said, and he rose his hands with Death swirling over his palms. Doing that did not make Eziano fall for the idea of a frontal attack, and he dodged very quickly and easily from the Death spike that just shot up from the already black floor behind him Zach had camouflaged his ambush into. Eziano landed and then started walking to his right, keeping his head turned and his eyes on the boys whose heads turned left and right to follow Eziano while also watching his body that lagged behind it, and then the body behind that one too. "Cheap tricks won't do anything," Zach growled over, and he rushed at the figure doing some kind of assassination technique he ignored with his whole body shrouding in Death.

Eziano lifted a remote from his belt using his left hand, and a pair of squares on the wall behind him on either side of the throne opened up to show a space behind them. Turrets emerged from the wall and pointed towards Zach, only for Blackwhips to wrap around them and point them towards each other right as they started firing. Zach smirked as those Blackwhips went over his head for that attack, but Eziano only meant for Zach to get distracted by the turrets which he did even with Midoriya taking care of them. Another hole had opened, only in the ground directly in front of where Eziano was standing. Zach was reminded of how he took down Faith inside Tartaros, and he leapt up in the air and threw down two spears of Death from his palms swirling with darkness to stop Eziano from what he was doing.

Eziano lifted up the thick gun that just popped out of the floor where he was standing and into his hands though, and he pointed the wide opening of it up and fired right into the Death Spears falling at him. Those spears broke apart and the pulse cannon slammed into Zach and knocked him straight up into the ceiling. The full force of the gun caused Zach to cough and wince, and the gun dropped to the ground down below him with a clank that his eyes darted to. There was a glowing low orange light on the side of it that was slowing brightening and spreading back along the gun that needed to recharge after using such an attack that it could blow Zach all the way into the ceiling.

It was the moment Zach looked down towards the gun though, when he coughed to show that parts of his insides were real, that Eziano appeared directly above and behind him. "Zach!" Midoriya yelled up, bending his knees and shooting into the air as fast as he could.

Eziano did not stab Zach. He knew the boy would turn his insides into Death the second a blade touched him, and the earlier blade attacks were just to make Zach think that was what was coming for him. Eziano's index and middle fingers on both hands jabbed Zach in several different places before Zach surrounded his whole body in Death again. "Ahh-" Zach tried to spin around, and his eyes shot open wide as he could not do that on his own. He forced out some Death below him to spin himself around, and Midoriya's eyes shot open huge and he had to swing his arms to the side when he was almost up and reaching Eziano. Even doing that he still just barely dodged the slash of darkness that flew out his way.

I can't properly control my Quirk, Zach thought as he fell down to the ground, his body spinning out of control as he would not try to use Death again after whatever Eziano just did to his nervous system and Quirk control ability. "What did you, do to me?" Zach asked, then he hit the ground and winced as even filling his own body with Death at the moment was dangerous as he could not tell where he was directing his Quirk when he forced it into use. If I try any harder, I might accidentally release it all straight at Midoriya! I can't even control which direction I send it, so how much I use could be out of whack too. Careful. Gain back control slowly. Midoriya won't let you die.

Midoriya dropped down right in front of where Zach was laying even after Zach just showed he could not control his Quirk. "What's wrong?" Midoriya asked his friend while keeping his full focus on Eziano who he was not going to let escape his vision for even a second. Eziano was floating down towards them, and Zach just groaned behind Midoriya as he tried moving harder.

"I am 352 years old," Eziano began, lowering down then stopping so he hovered ten feet over the ground only twelve feet ahead of Midoriya who did not want to move any farther away from Zach even just to keep Eziano from getting any closer.

Hearing this villain say that made Midoriya's teeth grind in anger instead of in fear or shock. "In all that time," Midoriya said through a pained voice. "All you've done, is hurt people."

Eziano stared down the boy glaring up at him. "You are so much alike. You and your predecessor. He managed to defeat me on his own," Eziano admitted, though he looked down on the eighteen year old after saying it. "You will not be able to do the same."

"Watch me," Deku retorted, and he slid his right foot out and back behind him. He rose his hands and curled them into a fighting stance, and Zach's eyes opened up wide where he lay on the ground testing out movements of his fingers and toes and his Quirk little by little to gain back control of his body. He stared with wide eyes at the fighting stance Midoriya just got in, because it was one he knew so well. That's… It was one he remembered showing Midoriya before the first Sports Festival, when the two of them were training together in Ground Beta. Three years had almost passed, and Zach's heart raced as he watched his friend get into that fighting stance while facing down the most powerful villain in the world.

Grappler, Zach closed his eyes, and a smile formed over his face. His fingers slowly curled together and he gripped the ground below him. His eyes opened and were full of focus, but no more rage as he solely concentrated on getting himself back up. If his attack doesn't wear off, then adjust to fight with your body obeying different commands. If right means left, then learn to fight like that! Zach started leaning upwards, but his dedication did not make him move fast enough to join in on the fight that was starting back up without him.

Midoriya flew at Eziano who shot backwards and increased the amount of time it took for Midoriya to hit him, making Midoriya give away how he was going to attack too early as he started moving the arm he was going to punch with. Midoriya knew Eziano would be prepared for it now after the milliseconds Eziano had to adjust, so instead he twisted his body in midair and kicked his right leg across the front of his body. The force of the kick alone sent Eziano smashing into the wall between broken turrets over his own throne. Midoriya slammed into that wall directly above where he smashed Eziano, breaking through it and then attacking Eziano from the one direction the assassin was not expecting him, from farther inside the wall he had already indented into.

Midoriya hit him so hard that he was sent flying over Zach who rolled out of the way of some debris flying out towards him too, allowing Midoriya to focus solely on another follow up attack. Unfortunately, Eziano was not going to be hit again, and that last blow did little to Midoriya's enemy he was shocked to see barely even reacted despite an 85% punch into his side. He can ignore the pain, but his body must have been damaged. It was a direct blow and his Quirk isn't… I don't know what his Quirk is. Midoriya tapped his feet on the air and sent huge forces under the soles of his bare feet, as he did not have shoes on and his socks had long ripped apart from how hard he was kicking his feet.

Deku rushed past rocks Eziano sent flying back at him. His enemy vanished, and Deku flew back towards Zach who he landed with a foot on either side of, his eyes darting around and locking with his enemy's when Eziano was mid-sprint towards him on his right. Midoriya shot that direction instead of staying on the defensive and allowing Eziano to escape again, using his superior speed to catch his enemy right as Eziano was cutting to the left and leaving an after-image running forward. Midoriya guessed correctly which way Eziano was actually moving though, and despite his enemy staying low and seeming to be smaller than life as he dodged, Midoriya got closer and closer to him.

"All Might had already become the Number 1 hero when we faced each other," Eziano said while still leading Midoriya around the room in a circle. He moved closer to the wall and then slammed both hands back into it and made it start collapsing over him. He spoke through the noise of the collapsing wall and while Midoriya tried to rush him before any dust or debris could block them from each other. "You are nothing but a child." Eziano reached out and caught Midoriya's right arm by the wrist, redirecting his punch to the side of the villain's head so that it kept moving and pulled Midoriya's own face close up amidst the falling rocks to see Eziano's head only inches to the left of his own. "A child who sat in class while Sazaki bled for this world."

He knows what gets to me, Midoriya slammed his head into Eziano's without reacting to the fear or regret he already felt that Eziano was taunting him with. The fact that it so closely mimicked his own thoughts told him that Eziano was not just coming up with this on his own but actually saying it intentionally to make him feel that Eziano had just come up with it too. He is right, but he knows that it would get to me and said it because of that, not because it's what he believes. Midoriya calmed himself and glared towards his enemy who backflipped off the headbutt and glared towards his heroic opponent. He kicked up, and a rock flew at Midoriya and slammed him in the chest as the boy had not even seen that a rock was resting on Eziano's right foot for him to send flying that fast.

Midoriya eased backwards and then yanked to his left side and dodged a knife that flew at him and slashed across his shirt on his right shoulder. The blade clearly missed, then a second later a slash opened up on his arm and blood splashed off of him. "Nn," Midoriya winced and leapt backwards. How?! He knew for sure he had pulled away fast enough, but there was no more time to think about what Eziano had done as the leader of the assassins was already sprinting at him. Midoriya bent his knees, then a noise banged on the wall on his right that dragged his eyes away for a part of a second. It was just a rock hitting the wall though, obviously a ploy by Eziano. He knew that taking his eyes off his enemy for just that long was too long anyway though, and he jumped up in the air… exactly as Eziano thought he would.

Deku's eyes shot up and to his left towards where his enemy was already moving towards his throat with a butterfly knife flicking out of its hilt. The blade was centimeters from his neck, when an even thinner blade of blade shot through the knife and shattered it while ripping it out of Eziano's hand. Eziano spun with his eyes widening, to see Zach up on his wobbly feet but glaring towards him with control over Death again. His shaking legs steadied and his red eyes flared as a pair of black wings ripped off his back wisping more than usual.

Such a fast recovery, Eziano flew backwards, but Zach flew at him ten times as fast so that his retreat back did not give him the extra time that pulling back like that usually would. Midoriya's eyes widened more as Zach did not just destroy the blade coming for his neck when Eziano got a drop on him, but his friend was also back up and rushing at Eziano harder than ever. Zach slammed both hands forward from his right side and fired an inordinate blast of Death at his enemy he approached quicker than he knew the assassin was ready for. Eziano still was able to dodge it though, suddenly dropping after making an indication that he would dodge upwards and hide behind the spikes above that Zach knew he would have to focus his Death to curve around.

Fuck, Zach knew he had misread Eziano's dodge as his whole mass of Death fired above his enemy who rushed at his legs that had stopped shaking but that he had gotten off of before starting his attack. Eziano knew that Sazaki's legs were likely not responding fully to his own commands yet which was why he was up in the air, which also meant there was a strong possibility those legs were not full of Death and were vulnerable targets he could cut up.

"Midoriya wait!" Zach yelled, as it was too obvious that his legs were easy targets. He knew that Midoriya was about to rush in and protect him by intercepting Eziano, but the fact that that was so obvious told him that Eziano's rush for his legs was more a trap for his friend who was about to protect him in an obvious maneuver.

"Too slow," Eziano said, while dragging Midoriya's right fist across the front of his body and completely pushing the boy off balance in midair. Midoriya's legs were turned to his left, his left arm was blocked by his own right arm that Eziano pushed across and down to keep that other arm away, and Eziano wrapped his own left arm around Midoriya's neck after half-turning him to put the teenager in a stranglehold. He spun towards Sazaki after grabbing Deku like that, and he clenched tighter with his left arm around Midoriya's neck while pushing the other way harder with his right to keep his hostage from making a move.

"You should have taken him out before coming," Eziano said condescendingly to his true enemy who faced him in midair with a dark look but not one overly panicked. "Now you are-"

Midoriya's right hand suddenly yanked back out to the side it was normally on, swinging Eziano's arm back across his own body and making the man tighten his grip on Midoriya's neck. Deku just slammed his own chin down and crushed Eziano's forearm with his neck and chest, flipping the assassin over the top of his head and then backflipping as hard as he could to nail Eziano in the right shoulder with his own right foot. He had been trying to kick Eziano on the top of his head, but Eziano was able to pull away at the last second so only his right shoulder was hit, but even that Midoriya still heard the crack as his foot collided with his enemy's upper arm at 90%.

Eziano hit the floor and a huge crater blew apart in the black surface. The ground seemed harder than normal rock or steel after Eziano blew a hole in it only as wide as it was, when the two teenagers above expected something larger after how hard Midoriya hit him down. "You're a fucking fool," Zach said, his smirk rising up and the teen seemingly laughing down at his enemy in the hole. "Midoriya's even stronger than All Might. And All Might beat you," Zach glared down at the figure standing up on the floor and looking back up at him with a straight expression, rolling his shoulder and reconnecting his arm without even wincing. Zach continued to just smirk though despite his harsh glare, and he said tauntingly, "All Might beat you, I beat you, and Deku's beaten you."

"You're a loser."

Zach dropped down fast with a hard flap of his wings behind him. Eziano opened his jaw to reveal that he had put something inside his mouth when he hit the ground. Zach maneuvered out of the way of the dart that fired from Eziano's lips rather than let it go through him, as he had had a bad experience now with that outside and he did not know if Eziano was watching every second of those fights. As he dodged away though and landed on the ground, his legs steady again, Eziano kicked something up towards Zach while starting his sprint towards the boy.

A flash filled the cave and made Midoriya bounce himself up towards the ceiling as he was unprepared for it. Zach suspected it as a possibility though, and everything just glowed brighter red in his vision as he charged at his enemy who rushed through the flash and kicked up and to the right at him. Zach's upper left side turned completely into darkness that pulled towards Eziano's right leg. but Eziano swung his left arm in front of him while Zach focused that way. A cloud of silver dust flew out of Eziano's left fist that opened in front of Zach's face, and Zach completely turned his head into Death and then exploded it and his whole upper body backwards.

Eziano snapped his left fingers and an explosion ripped apart the floor underneath the blast where part of Zach's body remained and was trying to catch Eziano with a Death kick even while most of him pulled back. Zach had to yank away the rest of his body as the explosion caused by that mysterious dust was larger than he had thought and hurt his lower half that had already turned mostly into Death. His lower body reformed below the top half of him that just had darkness pouring out under his stomach to keep him floating. The black wind pulled back and recreated legs below him, while Zach lifted his hands in front of his body and created a long black staff seven feet high.

He lowered the staff down to his right side and tapped the bottom of it on the floor once, twice, then a third time that he lowered it a little ahead of where he put it down the last two times. He pushed down on the staff and kicked his legs out in front of him, vaulting towards Eziano who awaited him and then threw a smoke bomb in his clenched right fist down at the floor under his feet. Zach spiraled as he entered into the smoke, spinning the cloud around and dispersing it while checking where the movement in the spinning smoke was to indicate which direction Eziano had run off in. There was no indication though. At first Zach thought that meant Eziano was motionless in the smoke or had dropped down to the floor, but a quick flood of Death around him did not result in any more movement in the smoke of his enemy fleeing.

A pair of stone spikes from the ceiling flew down to Zach's right, and he internally thanked Midoriya who was up above and just told him where his enemy was. He shot that direction and saw where the assassin was dodging easily away from those attacks. A burst of Death blew out of his back- and Eziano flew back towards him in that moment. He knows! Zach swung his arms forward and he caught Eziano's right fist, while pushing the assassin's left hand away in midair. Eziano kicked up his right leg and Zach intercepted with his own right knee that he started pushing Death out of, but Eziano bounced backwards before he could do that while ripping his right fist out of Zach's tight grasp even in his steel left hand.

"Are you so confident?" Eziano wondered to his enemy, while landing and grabbing a spike that was falling towards him by the lower and thinner part of it. He flipped it around and then threw it straight back at the one who just sent it towards where he was leaping back to. Midoriya shot off the ceiling as fast as he could, barely dodging the spike that flew back at him faster than he threw it as Eziano was trying to kill him unlike the other way around. Eziano continued while Midoriya recovered down on the ground behind Zach, "That you can hold back your Quirk while facing me?"

"You say that like you aren't holding back yourself," Zach replied. His eyebrows narrowed and he smirked at his enemy who did not make the same expression, "Unless you aren't, and this is your full power. I still haven't figured out your Quirk which makes me think you still have something more to give. No matter what it is though, you cannot surpass me." Zach glared harder through his red eyes at his enemy who stared him down motionlessly and without reacting to what he was saying. "I've prepared for every eventuality. I won't lose to you."

"I am sure that is what Mark believed as well," Eziano said back.

Zach's look darkened again, but he focused fully on his next moves he plotted with his red eyes boring into Eziano's.

"It wasn't quick you know. When I killed him," Eziano's voice was calm and did not change tone fro anything else he had said. Zach's face remained steady and emotionless, even as his heart started racing like crazy in his chest. "I know you must think that I caught him off guard, due to how powerful his Quirk was. Liquid Control. An unbeatable Quirk, or so he assumed."

Don't do it. Zach held himself back. Even if you can remain calm, the next thing out of his mouth could make you slip up. Don't move in while he's just trying to mess with you-

"I cut out Mark's eyes before he could see me and target me with his Quirk," Eziano continued. Zach's fists twitched at his sides, and Eziano continued, "Sure, I could have killed him instantly, but Mark thought that it was either instant death or that he would kill me. Instead," Eziano's head leaned forward and bowed to put shadows over his eyes as his voice echoed around the room. "I made him experience Hell itself."

Midoriya kept himself calm and his breathing steady. His eyes stayed locked ahead on their enemy who was trying to mess with Zach here, and yet he could not help but think back himself on something Zach had told them in such an emotional voice back on Inazuma. "I died…I collapsed in the Pit and they dragged me to the operating table. But I was dead. I died on the operating table, and for twenty minutes I was dead. Longer than, the first time… When my heart stopped, my friends didn't give up on me. They- Mark pumped my blood through my body to keep oxygen going to my brain so I wouldn't have brain damage despite how long I was dead for without being brought back by Death. He didn't even know he could do it… He had never done something so precise before, but he told me he needed to do it, so he just did it…"

"Don't ask him about it, Midoriya… Whoever the Mark guy that Hagakure read aloud was killed, Zach really cared about him. He couldn't keep it together. The guy, Zach talked about him like he was his closest friend. And the letter said that EM had killed him…" Eziano, Midoriya glared harder at the villain who would not stop but who he could not sprint at recklessly when it was so clearly a trap. Stop this!

"…He fought even after the loss of his eyes. Barely made a noise of pain, staying quiet instead to keep track of my position through sound. He acted as if he was disoriented and panicked though, slashing in random directions with sharp whips of water, giving me a path towards him that he hoped I would attack him from. They were all remarkable. Your army, was far superior to my own. How they convinced my assassins that your comrade was an assassin himself who they should bring into our ranks… The powerful backers your Army has to fake hire him. The things Mark was willing to do in order to make an assassin's reputation for his alias. All for the chance of seeing me, so that he could assassinate me with a single look. And so even without his eyes, he knew that it was I who took them from him. He yelled as much as he attacked me blindly, yet more composed than any other man would have been in his place."

"So I cut through his eardrums," Eziano continued and paused as he stared down the boy who tried to see a sign that Eziano was lying to him. "He could not target me and rip apart my body, as I was silent as I approached him. Yet even without his sight or hearing, he continued to fight. Rapid and seemingly random patterns of the water he brought with him in defensive slashes around his body. He filled the surrounding air with water vapor to catch movements close to him. Astounding the will he possessed, which I was determined to break. I am sure you know, that Mark is able to stop himself from bleeding. It got harder and harder for him though, to hold in all his blood from the cuts I inflicted through the gaps in his defenses. He could not hold himself together and continue to fight and defend himself all at the same time, not after fifty cuts had been made. Not after a hundred. Yet he would not fall."

Zach's eyes remained cold and steady as he glared straight ahead at his enemy whose face was just as cold and his voice no longer taunting as much as just recalling the past aloud. "I cut him so many times, and yet he refused to bleed. Pulled his blood back in from sense of touch alone." Eziano even rose his tone in a way suggesting he was impressed, as he added, "Some of the cuts I made were so close together that it was easy to flay off pieces of skin between the gashes. He screamed the most at those moments. His will held firm though. Maybe he thought someone would come save him. Or that every second would count, because once he was dead he had the possibility of being revived should his comrades inform you in Tartaros… But those hopes vanished the longer we fought. He screamed, until his lungs gave out. He could not even keep up a single spinning scythe of water to keep me from moving around him and cutting him over and over again."

"And so, he tried his last ditch effort. As I gave him the final slash, he ripped himself apart into one spike of blood he forced out of his back as fast as he could… It almost touched me," Eziano finished.

Midoriya felt his heart ache at the sound of such a horrible death. The idea that this man had saved Zach's life too, and was Zach's friend, he had to shift his gaze and look to his side at his comrade. The sight of Zach's unemotional expression shook the boy next to him who had no idea how Zach could keep that kind of look on his face after hearing all of that. Zach took in a deep breath though and released it calmly while his enemy stared him down and watched this reaction. "I could have gone on the rest of my life assuming Mark had died instantly," Zach admitted. "As I knew he had to have been killed, or he would have killed you for sure. Getting emotional about this is what you want though, so I won't."

He said that in a determined voice and just stared down Eziano in the same concentrated and calculated way he had been before. He was even surprising himself by how calm he was remaining here, and he continued to his enemy, "That's all there is to it. Mark did not die for nothing, because what you just told me will only make me stronger. You cannot make me get reckless and sloppy, because I'm better than you. That's all there is to it. And in this fight, I'm not going to lose. I control the pace."

"I called you out on television, and that's why we're here right now," Zach continued without pause and with his voice raising as he stared down condescendingly at the old villain before him. "You giving me the coordinates was what I wanted. It's not that I'm here because you called me into a trap- I am the one who built the trap!" Zach yelled it and his voice bounced around the room in a booming tone. His eyebrows narrowed in and he growled at his enemy, "You think I'd fall for something like that? I wonder how often in all those centuries you claim to have lived that you've taken part in battles? Not assassinations, but war." Zach glared at the assassin and spoke down to him, "Why did you flee so quickly from The Cloak that day, as I held my own throat shut after you had slit it? I chased you down and made you run away with my doctors at my back and my friends taking down your weak fucking assassins."

"Why did you run from the Battle of 6 Armies?" Zach continued without giving Eziano a moment to respond. "It's why we're here now, because you didn't take the initiative and strike at that moment we were at our weakest," Zach taunted it at his enemy who was there that day. "I forced you to run before you would have had the chance. The chance at the end of the battle, that you and your men did not stay for because heroes were there, because I had attacked you and dragged you into the fight that you wanted no part of!" Zach rushed forward, and he screamed at his enemy while bursting Death out of his feet to speed up at him, "I turned all those villains against you and forced your army to scatter!" Zach swung his right arm down in front of him and smashed the huge war hammer he created down into the ground. "Because I am the better commander!"

The head of the hammer blasted upwards in a pillar of Death chasing after Eziano and then breaking apart into ten thin black lines. Zach flew up with four wings coming out of his back and flapping rapidly, claws forming over his hands that he slashed upwards and sent waves of Death flying out of them. He moved as fast as Eziano was dodging, but his enemy was not panicked or flustered in the least and stopped short during the flight to instead rush straight at Zach. Bang bang bang- Eziano tapped a button on the side of the pistol he just fired into showing skin on Zach's upper right side, and instead of a fourth bullet flying into Zach's skin and only making Death burst out like he was full of it, a flash of yellow came out the muzzle on the fourth pull.

Zach followed after Eziano without being slowed by the flash, swinging his left hand down after the villain who dropped below him and cut at both his legs that fully shrouded in Death but had not been full of it on the insides so Zach actually did have to yank them backwards. He sped after Eziano though, and he kept his Death flooded around him even as they moved towards Midoriya who instead of running just bent his knees and jumped up at them. Zach dispersed his body in two directions and swirled down through the air past Eziano and Midoriya to appear below them, so when Eziano refocused on his other enemy after dodging Midoriya, he was now falling right to where Zach had reappeared and was kicking upwards with a leg covered in black.

Eziano did a spin in midair as he had seen in his peripherals Zach dropping below him, and as he spun he stuck out his arms and then twisted them to speed himself up further. Zach had not fully reformed his body yet, and Eziano changed up the movements of his gaseous Death with a weird shift in the air. Zach pulled himself together fast instead of trying to adapt to the air's shifting movements, as Midoriya had flipped around and flicked the air above him. Zach reformed more fully as just a human-shape covered in darkness in the air, and he shot up between the Blackwhips that Midoriya sent down on either side of Eziano.

Eziano grabbed all six of the whips though, three on either side of him, and he yanked down so hard that it pulled Midoriya down in front of his body. He kneed into the teen's chest and sent him down straight in Death's path which caused Zach to turn off much of his Death so as not to knock out Midoriya. Doing so meant that Midoriya slammed into him that hard though with him unable to turn to darkness to avoid the pain, and the two of them crashed down into the ground and rolled over it a few times before flipping up to their feet and knees. Zach darted his eyes ahead of him, above him, and to his left. Midoriya did the same but to his right from just on Zach's right side, and Deku shouted, "Up!"

Zach swung his left hand up in the air while his dark hair waved over his head with dark tendrils wisping out of it. A black sphere shot off his left palm all the way to the ceiling, and when it exploded Zach yelled, "Death Grenade!" He focused all the shrapnel in one direction though, cutting pieces of it around the spikes on the ceiling all in Midoriya's side of the room. Eziano kicked the largest of the stalactites on the ceiling and made a perfect cut with the tap of his foot. He grabbed the flat top of the spike and shot out of the air while holding it, then he thrust his right hand forward and sent that spike moving twice as fast as he was already flying.

Midoriya shot up and spun around while swinging his right foot in a roundhouse across his body. "St. Louis, SMASH!"

Zach punched his right hand up and surrounded the breaking apart spike with Death. "Death Storm!" He fired out much more Death and sent the rocks covered in it flying up like a reversed meteor shower. Those rocks flew all the way up into the ceiling and broke apart more of the stalactites and even just chunks of the domed ceiling.

Eziano dodged all that debris and Death, but he realized that Deku was the only one below him now as he finished dodging it. Zach had risen up behind one larger chunk of the spike Midoriya just shattered before it could hit him. As Deku landed from his roundhouse smash, he looked up to see Zach dropping down and slamming his left fist into the side of Eziano's face. Eziano pulled away so it was more of a graze than anything, but then Zach's right leg kicked up with all the Death that was missing from that punch bulging and bubbling as he had to force it inside while kicking up like this. All of the Death he had was focused on his knee, and Zach's enemy reached down and grabbed him by his upper thigh that he pushed slightly to the side.

A huge mass of Death exploded out from Zach's knee and went just to the left side of Eziano and all the way up into the ceiling that so many rocks were falling from now. Zach slammed his head forward though when his huge attack of Death missed instead of redirecting the mass to the side as Eziano thought he would with his full control of his ability. Zach adjusted his headbutt to where Eziano would dodge his extra Death, while swinging his left hand back after only grazing Eziano's cheek before to try and grab him by the throat.

Eziano took the headbutt with his head already leaning partially back, so that it more just continued his own momentum to a certain point away while he used his right knee to keep the distance between the two as he jammed it into Zach's gut. All of that Death Zach just kneed up was pulling to the side now even as Zach focused more on close combat than the use of his Quirk, but his gut still opened up after Eziano's knee with darkness swirling around his stomach and stretching out to catch Eziano.

Eziano dodged both the thick pillar pulling towards him and yanked his knee away fast enough not to get caught by Zach's opening body. The way he pulled back though, had him move into a position in midair directly below some falling rocks that had Death transferred onto them from the condensed Death Zach had covered the earlier debris he sent flying up with his Death Storm. That condensed Death he punched up from the spike Midoriya blew apart had spread to all the different rocks that broke apart on the ceiling. The only lights in the room came now from the hallway connected to it, which meant all Zach had to do was block that hall with his upwards knee that he suspected Eziano would avoid in a direction which would keep that pillar of Death in between him and the door. That kept the shade of the darkness falling from above from being noticeable to the villain, and considering how they were already up in the air, any rocks falling from the ceiling would not gain enough speed on their own to be dangerous enough to Eziano Mozcaccio for him to care.

A few pebbles fell in the left corner of Eziano's vision with darkness covering them and little black wisps coming off. He could see that the rocks were black even in the darkness of the throne room, and his eyes darted up right as a larger rock hit him on top of the head. He dropped down, realizing that the rock that hit him was probably covered in Death as well- Zach landed both of his kicks into Eziano's chest and sent him flying across the room. The instant his enemy was distracted by his previous attack three back, he changed the fight's momentum completely, and Eziano coughed as he was imbedded into the wall he quickly had to rip himself out of to dodge the flying black axes.

Zach was already flying towards where the assassin just jumped out of the wall though, and this time his legs coated in Death that had pulled back into him from all the attacks he had filling the room already. Debris rained around them still as seconds were passing slowly in their battle, and Zach sped straight through it all without having to worry if the pieces were covered in Death like Eziano did have to concern himself with. "I'm not just a better leader," Zach spun his right leg at Eziano before reaching the man he was going to kick, he continued flying forward and nearly passed the black slash that Eziano started to dodge already. He aimed down below Eziano now to try and force him up into his last attack, which made Eziano pick an entirely new direction then have to do a spin as he dodged that way as Zach spiked an arrow of Death out of him in that direction. The arrow was just meant to make Eziano dodge below a chunk of ceiling though that hit the assassin in the upper right of his back and made the villain wince before he flew off faster. Zach called after him though while soaring close behind, "I'm the better fighter. I'm more composed than you-"

Eziano spiraled in midair and was holding something in his hand that he aimed down below him. His other enemy was not down there though for him to fire the wide-barreled gun full of something Zach suspected would have killed Midoriya, if Midoriya had not moved locations a few seconds ago when he knew Eziano did not have his eyes on him. Eziano was still focused on Zach even as he realized his mistake, but the one arm he had to defend against Sazaki while he planned a different attack to force Zach to fly down and in the way of it, was not enough to defend or even redirect himself in a good enough way. All he could do was dodge in any direction with his flight ability, but that alone was not enough as Zach was moving faster already and had the reactiveness to adjust his flight and then flip over Eziano's turning body and spin his leg up over himself.

Eziano rose his right arm and was bringing up his left too, pointing the gun ahead of him and firing right before Zach's leg was going to collide with his other arm. He could not get it aimed all the way up, but just that high still made Zach focus on what came out of the gun for a split millisecond. In that instant, Eziano released the gun and swiped his right hand across his left arm. Zach's red eyes shot open wide as did Midoriya's up above him, as Eziano's left arm was sliced off in a perfect cut in the middle of his bicep. Zach's flipping kick was completely covered in overwhelming Death, but when he collided with Eziano's arm he was expecting resistance to push him back which was why he put so much force into it.

His eyes trailed back from the canister that just started releasing purple gas in mid-flight, to the disconnected arm his leg was colliding with and turning paler as he killed the living cells inside it. The arm broke from the force he put into the kick, but there was no resistance whatsoever which flipped him around more in midair while a huge amount of the Death he was using expelled out through the arm and missed the assassin already dodging it. Zach turned his head to the side Eziano was moving, but his enemy was gone and he felt the blade in his right temple an instant later. He turned his skull to darkness and his head got blown apart by Eziano who finished swiping his right hand through it with the knife splashed with blood.

Eziano grit his teeth and spun out in midair, attempting to keep flying only to have to raise his blurry vision up as a blur dropped towards him. He flipped the bloody knife and flicked it up by the blade, but Midoriya smacked the knife away with one hand and kicked Eziano in the chest with his whole right leg and 90% of One For All coursing through him. Eziano had never felt force like it in his life, and the blow actually shook him from the tiredness he was feeling after his hand had passed through Death's head.

Midoriya sent Eziano flying down into the floor he cracked apart and skid through over towards his throne. Then Deku spun and shot down to the ground where Zach just hit on his hands and knees, Death swirling around over his neck and reforming a round shape there. His head regained its form and then the color and hair started to return to it, but Midoriya's relief did not last as he saw the heavy blood trail coming down from the right side of Zach's head down over his ear and to his chin where it was dripping off. "I'm fine. It didn't go too deep. Head wounds just bleed a lot," Zach said as he saw Midoriya's reaction to seeing his wound. He pushed up off the ground and stood up next to his comrade, then he swept his right arm to the side and created a mass of Death that flew over to a canister releasing gas in the air.

"He might be immune to it," Zach said. "And I don't have lungs right now. But you might want to get out of here," Zach's Death swirled up some of the gas in the air and pulled it over to the canister he was containing with his Quirk.

"Can you keep it from spreading?" Midoriya asked back. "Keep it from spreading," he corrected himself. He figured asking the question might make Zach say no so as to get him out of there. After what he heard Eziano saying about Mark though, he felt he had to stay in there more than ever.

"I'll try," Zach replied, then he refocused solely towards his enemy who stood back up on sturdy legs despite the fact that it took him a little longer this time to get up.

Zach spoke across the gap to his enemy who had taken a lot of Death now but was still not someone to just "finish off" or take lightly because of the damage done to him. Zach was the one bleeding heavily from the head, though even Midoriya knew after the last clash that Zach had taken the victory when he got ahead in his attacks. Eziano had lost his own arm, even if it was self-inflicted and helped him get his blow in on Zach. The villain reached up to his upper left arm though and he smacked just below his shoulder at the stub of arm remaining there and bleeding heavily. The flat section of arm suddenly tensed up in his right hand's grasp, his muscles convulsing and his skin tightening. Eziano's face stayed stone cold and stoic as he glared down the boys who watched with wide eyes as his arm closed itself and stopped bleeding.

What the heck is his Quirk?! Midoriya thought as he watched another amazing ability come from this assassin.

"Eziano," Zach started again, while walking to his right side and making a motion to his left back at Midoriya. Midoriya did not argue and just followed Zach's direction to move. "When you called me 'green,' I took that to heart. You were right." Zach spoke down to his enemy who he was circling and glaring at intensely without even acknowledging the blood dripping off his chin. "I came to learn that in the following weeks, and months… and then I wasn't green anymore. Then, I had more experience than anyone in the world."

"The only one who had more, was Eziano Mozcaccio," Zach finished, stopping where he was which made Midoriya stop on the opposite side of the room as him. Each of them stood diagonal to Eziano who was in the center of the room, now having to look Zach's way with Midoriya barely in his view. He could just stare forward to keep both in vision at the same time, but then he would not have great focus on either and he was hoping that Midoriya would continue following Sazaki's directions as he just did. Yet he also knew that Deku had acted so far without consulting with Zach first too, as the two of them knew that any plans they made together he might see through. It was a simple movement a bit apart from each other, and yet there was a new tactical advantage his young enemies had on him that Zach saw so clearly as an opportunity before he had started moving.

"You should have used that experience to help out King more, or Fergus, or the other Shadow Bosses before I finished them," Zach told his enemy who watched him carefully, unsure whether Zach would start rushing in like he had last time he was speaking. Eziano could not know if Midoriya was going to be the one to attack first. And Zach knew that his enemy had no indication of when he would move for his next attack or if that attack had already started. Zach's tone was confident as he continued speaking down to the one-armed assassin standing there lightly panting in front of him, "Did you not see my strategies coming? Or were you just too busy being a mystical supernatural untouchable super-assassin who cared more about being mysterious than you did about how I was destroying everything you had built across the world?"

Does he really think he'll be able to get Eziano to get sloppy? Midoriya knew that it was likely a strategy on Zach's part, but the thought of how unlikely this strategy was to work on a man like him made Izuku wonder if this was not just Zach's grudge talking. It could be both, Midoriya admitted to himself. Things he wants to say, and has convinced himself are worthwhile saying because there's a chance he makes Eziano upset here.

"If you destroyed everything, then who were they on the surface who faced you?" Eziano wondered.

"The lingering dregs of your army," Zach replied as if what Eziano asked was laughable. "How many of your assassins have I thrown in prison over the past year? In the past few months alone, you've lost valuable assets trying to kill me, and now today? This was everyone!" Zach shouted at his enemy. "This, was your full force come to get me. And I know it is, because you wouldn't be able to do to me what you did to All Might. Because I would kill you anyway even if the whole world was your hostage!" Zach yelled, then he smirked violently and insanely towards the villain who Midoriya could see past to that crazed expression on Zach's face. "And unlike with All Might, your forces wouldn't carry out your will if you had been killed by Death. Because they fear Eziano Mozcaccio. Most of them are terrified of you, and I could see that terror every time I questioned villains about Eziano."

"Somehow Eziano's name was unknown to the whole world but could still strike terror into the hearts of Shadow Bosses like Bolivar at the idea of ratting on you," Zach said it smugly but with so much malice laced in his voice. Eziano's expression remained flat, though there was a movement in the right corner of his lips that made Zach's eyes get much darker. Zach snarled at the man whose lips just curled up the smallest amount at what he was saying, "That's what Eziano Mozcaccio managed with three hundred years of experience, and now Death strikes that same terror into the hearts of even more villains! While my activities and what I've done for this world are still unknown to the billions of its residents!"

"Even if you killed me," Eziano began. "If my men were out there preparing a massacre, they would carry it out without fail. It is not fear alone that unites us."

"Because you don't just kill for money, is that right?" Zach wondered. He did not sound like he cared though even as he asked it. "Well whatever your reasons, whatever your fanaticism, your organization dies here today. It falls with you."

"Nothing will end here," Eziano replied back with a shake of his head. He had a knowing look on his face, and he took in a deep breath before bending his legs and making the floor crack below either of his feet. "This is only my beginning. I am chosen." He bent his right arm inwards and curled his fist tightly in front of his body, then turned side-face with the bump of his left arm raising up a bit too. "Destined to lead this world and guide it in the Lord's path. As my father did before me, and his father before him-"

"And what about your own children?" Zach asked, while Midoriya was still focusing on what Eziano just said with his eyes growing huge. Those eyes darted back towards Zach though as his friend asked that in such a low and menacing voice. Eziano's readied position stalled, the assassin staying in place after Zach's question to him. "I didn't see them here. I've never seen them before, but I would have recognized their Quirks based on what Midoriya told me. I haven't seen them… But they're not just somewhere else," Zach continued as he watched Eziano's stoic expression. Zach bared his teeth at the villain looking at him like that, and he snarled towards him, "Just as you have taken things from me, I've taken things from you."

"Where are your children, Eziano? The Twin Assassinos?" Zach asked. He demanded to know it and then snapped, "Was it Mark- no," Zach stopped himself. "You would not brag so much about that day if Mark had been able to kill your sons first. My other comrades then?" Zach shook his head and his eyes flared but a darker red with a swirling black color in the middles of them. His lips twisted up at the corners, "Odd, it feels like it was me myself who did it, but I don't remember…" Zach's eyes scanned Eziano's unmoving face, and he wondered aloud, "In the Pit?"

He smirked after wondering it to Eziano in a surprised voice. Eziano glared harder at the boy as his expressions were not changing so they should not have been giving anything away to Zach for him to be able to connect dots like this. Eziano's silence was all Zach needed though, and his bared teeth showed more as his blackening lips curled higher up at the corners. Midoriya heard mention of The Pit though and he found his heart rate skyrocketing at the kind of look on Zach's face after he brought it up. Zach grinned at his enemy who he snarled at, "There was only one match in The Pit where I did not show my enemies any mercy. Where I did not feel bad for those two fucking retards who voluntarily put themselves in the arena. The only two fools to challenge the Champion of their own accord." Zach's voice was scratchier as he spoke and as taunting as it could get as he glared down the villain before him.

"I know now why I didn't realize it sooner. They couldn't use their Quirks, but they were masters with their weapons. They thought they could come in there, while I was already injured, and finish me off? They couldn't even beat a second-year Midoriya at the SFI." Zach lifted his right hand and moved it across his body to the upper left side of his chest where he tapped over a circular scar, "The smaller of the them impaled me here with his rapier, and when he buried it to the hilt in his downward thrust, I snapped my head forward and tore his throat out with my teeth." Zach snapped his teeth forward like he was biting down to replicate the action he had made to take one of Eziano's son's lives.

"They did not plan on dying that day. They were competing to see who could kill me first, probably to prove something to you," Zach remarked it colder with his lips flattening out while Eziano stared at him in the same way, dark and expressionless. "The first one's death was quicker than the larger of the two. After I ripped the stupider one's throat out, watched the life drain from his shocked eyes…" Midoriya stared horrified towards his friend who was saying this in a taunting voice despite the disgust that flashed on Zach's own face. "The other got more serious in fighting me. He thought his brother had just let his guard down, but he would come to realize his mistake. He had put on Umbuju's collar though. And I could see it, the regret in his eyes near the end. Though, I supposed he was more afraid to give up and flee knowing what his dad might do to him. Either way, you talked about how long it took you to kill Mark? How strong Mark's will was until the end?! Well your son was weaker than Mark, yet I made it last longer! He was afraid! PATHETIC! AND I BUTCHERED HIM!"

Zach screamed that in rage and disgust as he imagined the fight that day that had so long evaded his thoughts. Even as he first brought it up in his head to Himazuri, he avoided thinking of what he had done to the second competitor that was even worse than biting the first man's throat out. "Yes you killed many of my children in the war, but I killed sons of yours too!"

"They underestimated you. Foolishly, and they showed their weakness-"

"Weakness? I'm stunned that trash like them were related to the great Eziano," Zach interrupted the assassin who started touching on it himself. "They died like animals. Like all the gladiators in that Pit, except they were the only ones stupid enough to die in the arena because they put themselves there. The stupidest deaths I've ever seen. Cowards who came at me while I was injured and could not use my Quirk, and who still couldn't kill me."

Zach spoke to Eziano in a way that the older man had done to too many enemies to fall for it and attack recklessly because of. That being said, it did make the assassin very, very angry. "They thought they could fight me in non-Quirk combat? Even two on one. Even with both of them having weapons and me none…" Zach smirked and he pushed his right foot down hard on the ground, "I put them down like dogs." The red glow vanished from Zach's eyes and he sprinted forward with no darkness erupting from his feet this time.

"Quirkless combat?" Eziano wondered, while standing in place and allowing Zach to run at him. "Why give yourself a disadvantage that I cannot match?"

"Stop using your Quirk and fight me hand to hand then," Zach replied as he clashed with Eziano, swinging his left arm across the front of his body to where Eziano would have been able to block better with a left arm.

Eziano kicked his right leg straight up though and redirected Zach's arm higher. The teen hopped up at the same time though and spun his body, swinging his right leg out around behind him with his heel aimed for Eziano's head. Eziano rose his right arm and caught Zach by the ankle that he pushed away quickly, though the foot did not instantly break apart into Death as if Zach was just playing him and trying to lull him into this fight. As Eziano pushed Zach's leg away and leaned his body forward though towards Zach's off-balanced form turning in midair, Zach's right hand clenching and the toes of his left foot curling in… Eziano replied, "But I haven't been using my Quirk."

Midoriya was about to rush at his enemy who Zach was taking on hand to hand and foot to foot. Hearing that made him freeze though, and Zach pushed off the ground when one foot touched down to bounce fast away from his enemy who did not sound to be lying. "How?!" Zach yelled out, able to tell from Eziano's expression and knowing look that this was no bluff. What is his Quirk? He's pushed us this far without it- and- "That's impossible. You've been using powers-"

"Would you like to know what my Quirk is called?" Eziano wondered to the boys. Midoriya held his breath as this mysterious figure of unimaginable power posed that question. Even Zach had a bead of sweat rolling down the right side of his face, but neither of the teenagers responded to the villain who spoke the name in a deep voice: "Longevity."

"My Quirk, is solely the ability to live many times the average length of a human life." Eziano claimed that and the two boys facing him could not believe it. They were in disbelief and narrowed their gazes at the assassin who was clearly lying.

"You were flying before," Midoriya said to the villain. "And your arm…"

"It's impossible," Zach denied the villain who he was not going to humor by taking his words seriously.

Eziano just replied in a calm voice though, "Human limitations are just excuses the weak invented." The assassin stepped backwards, moving slowly and stepping up on the first step closer to the throne. He stared down at the boys who moved slowly towards him at the pace he was stepping back, getting closer to the villain who was saying things they could hardly believe. "All of my power and speed was just accomplished through training of the human body." His feet lifted off the floor as he floated into the air again, "Yet in the thousand years my father lived, he never reached the pinnacle of strength. I myself have yet to reach that point, as I believe that humans are capable of far more than anyone comprehends."

He's not even using a Quirk? Midoriya imagined Toga and Shigaraki. The two of them had skills and speed, strength and ability beyond their Quirks. Their Quirks alone were not what made them so dangerous. And yet this, This is the next level. So far beyond anything I could… His Quirk is just, his immortality? His seeming immortality- his father lived a thousand years?! How? Quirks haven't been around for that long!

"I knew that you would have a vast wealth of knowledge on the true history," Zach started. Midoriya's breath hitched as Zach did not sound surprised but instead calm and replying in a knowing tone. "Records of the truth lost to time."

"You passed those records on your way here," Eziano replied to his greatest enemy. Zach knew what Eziano was talking about as he thought back on the tinted glass case he had been unable to break through easily. "But you do not need those records to see the truth of the world. There exist many ancient texts describing the precursors to Quirks. Stories left behind by history." Eziano glared down at the boy staring up calmly at his floating form as if he knew all of this already. "Figures seen throughout time to have Quirks. Their existence shrouded in mystery…" Eziano stopped talking at the look on the teen's face so uncaring and even bored.

"I guess you don't have a spy in Shiketsu," Zach said, mentioning it off-handedly and just remaining calm as he noted certain things in his head. "But you are not the only one to know that truth, Eziano. I have long known-"

"You know nothing," Eziano's words sliced through the air and gave Midoriya chills. The declarative way in which Eziano said that as if Zach thought too highly of his own knowledge, suggested an amount of secrets about the Earth that Midoriya could not begin to imagine. Zach himself frowned deeper at the statement, but he rose up his hands into a fighting stance and once again had no Death around his body. Eziano's lips curled farther down for a moment before flattening out like Zach's did in an intense way. "You know that I was not using my Quirk to face you with Death on your side, yet you would still attempt to face me without it?"

"Maybe," Zach replied back, shrugging his shoulders but staying in a fighting stance otherwise. He bit down and darted his eyes around his enemy's body looking for gaps in his stance, but even with the missing arm Eziano was the epitome of a master. "I won't have the chance to figure out which of us would win though," Zach added, right before he sprinted forward at his enemy who had to snap his body backwards and to the left to dodge Midoriya's first two attacks.

Is he really not going to use Death? Midoriya wondered, before regretting that decision to lose focus for even the shortest of instants. Zach threw a knife from out of nowhere though, surprising Midoriya who had no idea where he had been storing it all this time with most of his body laid bare. Eziano did not have to pull away his hand, only open it and catch the knife by the hilt. In that moment he changed from a punch to catching the knife and finishing a swipe to cut Midoriya instead though, Deku was already ducking below it and kicking his legs at Eziano's.

The assassin hopped up in the air and curled his knees up, his upper body barely rising at all so Zach's blue beam fired above him. He only really hopped his legs, and he kicked those out into Deku who spun to him and crossed his arms only for the drop kick to still knock him skidding backwards. Eziano hit his back on the ground but kicked his right leg above him and spiraled on his upper spine, spinning out of it into a kick that Zach blocked with his left arm he was about to fire from point blank at the ground under Eziano. He curled his fist as he blocked the kick and stopped another blast of blue energy from firing, then he punched his right fist forward and collided it with Eziano's that the assassin punched up into his glove. It was the only article of clothing Zach had on other than the top of his pants. And when their knuckles collided, Zach pushed harder into the punch than Eziano who had to worry about the force of their blows ripping through the material.

Zach bent Eziano's arm back, then he yanked his head to the right which made Eziano pull his to the left. Zach's eyes had flicked behind the man for the brief instant before he pulled his head away. It was less he actually looked back there as much as he was trying not to look at the punch that was coming and that he had to dodge. Eziano dodged Midoriya's attack too, only he dodged into it and got an elbow in the back of his head that smashed his head into Zach's head. Zach opened his right fist and grabbed Eziano's hand with it, falling backwards and yanking up over his own head to use Midoriya's attack's momentum to his advantage.

He flipped Eziano over the top of his own head that splashed off some blood from that hard hit, but Midoriya was not worried about his friend who he pulled his punch to a weaker elbow because of Zach's strategy to get Eziano hit by it. Zach smashed Eziano down on the opposite side of him as Midoriya, but Eziano twisted his body and slammed both legs down. He bent them at his knees so right when his back was about to hit the floor, the soles of his feet stomped down instead and prevented him from a hard landing. Midoriya flipped over Zach and came out of his spin with his right hand pulled back at his side, "DETROIT-"

Eziano's right leg kicked up leaving him only barely standing on his left leg with his whole body bent backwards. He kicked so high up it seemed impossible because of how flexible he would need to be, slamming his foot into Zach's face and making the dark-haired boy pull his head back to avoid getting such a heavy blow. Zach traded only getting grazed for having to release Eziano's right hand though, and Eziano reached up with that hand as he yanked it from Zach's grip to grab onto Midoriya by the front of his shirt instead. Midoriya punched faster and without putting as much strength in as he had to do it in a rush, but Eziano yanked down faster and rolled his body out of the way. He used the hand he had on Midoriya's shirt to flip himself around Midoriya's side and right past the punching fist that hit the ground instead and sent huge cracks breaking apart much of the room.

Cracks ran up the walls after splitting the floor in nine different directions. Midoriya turned his head while his fist was still slamming harder into the floor, and the villain who released his shirt now had a knife in that hand he was bringing straight for Midoriya's turning face. Midoriya felt a new hand on his shirt this time, or what was left of his shirt as all of the right side had just gotten ripped off like his pant legs had been from earlier kicks. He still looked better for the wear than Zach, but despite Zach suddenly yanking him out of his finished Smash, away from the blade slashing at his face, Eziano redirected it at the sight of Zach's hand pulling Deku away.

Midoriya tugged his face away from the cold steel nearing his left eye, making the slash cut up diagonally across from his cheek to his hairline on the side of his eye. Blood splashed off his face as he was thrown backwards, Zach using his weight as a slingshot to substitute Midoriya's position with his own. He saved Midoriya while at the same time moving in for an attack on the man whose knife started swinging back for the teen who slammed his left hand up and blocked the blade with his own forearm. Clank! Zach gripped Eziano's only arm using his fake steel one so tightly that he was not going to let go. Then his right hand that was flaring with flames of Death tightened harder into a fist on his right side, while Midoriya landed behind him already with his legs crouched and his right fist rising.

That knife got too close, it's time to finish this, Zach's right fist erupted in even more Death. Midoriya's feet pushed down and broke in half the section of the floor he had already split from the rest with his missed Detroit Smash. His left fist pulled back this time as he shot up on Zach's left side the same moment that Zach stomped forward. Eziano tried to rip his right arm out of Zach's left hand that just pulled down hard on his wrist to prevent him from getting away. The assassin's attempts and movements were too slow and weak though, and Eziano could see there were already wisps of Death slipping between the fake fingers of Zach's left hand gripping onto his arm.

"This is where it ends!" Zach slammed his right fist forward with a swirling mass of Death around it. He punched at the same time as his friend on his left so he could not make a massive explosion of darkness on the collision, but there was far more than enough there to knock a man out. His fist collided with Eziano's upper left side just below his shoulder, splashing blood out of the tightened muscles of his left sealed arm bump that Eziano lost control over. Midoriya's fist hit Eziano in the right side of his face, denting into his head and splashing blood and spit and teeth out of the assassin's mouth as it took him off his feet. Zach had to let go of Eziano's right arm as the blow from Midoriya was so strong he could not hold him any longer or he too would be thrown along with it. Even letting go, Zach still found his feet sliding on the ground below him just being in the close vicinity of Deku during such a strong blow. Wind pushed his hair and his Death away, but Zach was certain he had connected most of it with Eziano before Midoriya's wind could send it fading.

Eziano flew backwards so fast and hard he collided with the wall ahead of the boys in the same second they punched him. The top of the throne broke apart as did the right armrest, along with a huge crater of the wall behind and above it. Eziano did not get stuck in the wall as too much of it cracked and then started falling, dropping the assassin down to the cracked throne he bounced off onto his face and stomach. Midoriya was panting and he rose his right arm, wiping it across the left side of his face and then glancing down at all the blood he got on his forearm. A dart of his eyes to his side showed him that blood was not dripping off Zach's chin anymore, but there was still marks of blood streaks down the right side of his head and to his chin, even down his neck. The blood on Zach's stomach seemed more dry, and Zach was not panting even as badly as he was so he tried to stop himself too while refocusing solely towards Eziano who was barely moving ahead of them.

It could be a trick, Midoriya thought. Even his not having a Quirk- one that helps with fighting. He could have been messing with us to… for what? What reason would he have to get beaten like this?

You're an assassin. Not the strongest warrior I've ever faced. Not, someone who could beat me, Zach stared down at Eziano's body. The boy panted but slowly as he watched his enemy's slow-moving form. As strong as you are…

"I can't," Eziano began, his elbows pushing down and his legs curling up at his knees. The man face down on the floor dragged himself to his hand and knees, but he was shaky and barely able to raise his voice. "It's not you… My story, still has so much longer…" Eziano's voice was raspy, and he turned his head while pushing up harder. He froze though as he glared towards the teenage boys a fraction of his age. The two eighteen year olds stood firm and fearless in front of him. The anger and determination on his face wiped at the sight of them, and he leaned down to the left where he did not have an arm to support him and just had blood spilling from the messed-up stub of a bicep still protruding there.

He can barely stay up, Midoriya thought, his breathing heavy but steadying as he stared down their enemy. His eyes shifted for a moment to Zach to see what he thought, then he refocused straight on their enemy who Zach was still looking at with complete concentration.

Is there no contingency? That's all- That's all? He's been sniping me, blowing me up, ambushing me all over the place. He had me shot in the back a week ago, and fired a fucking missile at me a few days back! But… but even with all that, and all his forces up on the surface- Umburt! He was dangerous, right? Zach's hands shook at his sides as he stared down his defeated enemy who continued muttering to only himself for a few seconds in more disbelief than Zach felt at the moment. I thought he had something hidden away. He showed off powers here I never knew he had. But, in the end it's all just his ability as a fighter. The weapons he could use… "Did you really think, you would beat me?" Zach wondered.

Eziano's eyes clenched shut and his teeth bared in rage. His right hand shook on the floor though and his arm was wobbly, barely holding him up. Closing his eyes made him feel too close to passing out too, and those eyes had to snap open to avoid that from happening. "This isn't how it was supposed, to go…"

"You really thought that highly of yourself," Zach whispered, though his tone was degrading and he continued to speak down to the assassin kneeling there. As they all realized it was Eziano's defeat, as the villain knelt there fully at their mercy. Whatever influence he had around the world meant nothing. Zach already said that the use of hostages would not deter him. Midoriya was already determined to arrest him. And Eziano had exhausted his resources.

The sons Midoriya had worried were still in hiding and waiting for a moment to attack, were long dead. He stared down at the man who Zach had taunted with the murders of his sons. He tried to justify the dark tone Zach used while bragging about killing them, telling himself, They went to the Pit to fight him. That place Zach was forced to kill everyone. Innocent people… To him, the two of them entering that match means that two less innocent people were in there for him to have to kill. Thinking of it in that way just made Midoriya pity his friend on his side, and it helped him from getting too upset about those things Zach had shouted before.

"I am, the most prolific killer in the world," Eziano started. He shook his head, pushing up harder with his right hand and then leaning back so he was just on his knees. He was turned sideways in front of the boys facing him, and his head just tilted up so he stared at the cracked ceiling high above him. "I've fought thousands of heroes, faced armies and… Two, children-"

"Your time is over," Zach interrupted the man's confused thoughts. Eziano sounded like he could not understand how he was beaten so readily, and Zach just shook his head as he glared at this villain, I thought… I thought you were the only one, who could compete with me. The only one strong enough- but it was just your age. Your age and resources… and you yourself may not have even been the one to accumulate all those resources. If your father did this as well, you just inherited it. You didn't build up anything, did you? Eziano Mozcaccio… You're a fucking weakling.

Zach and I together are the strongest team, Midoriya thought while giving his old classmate another look. To have taken down Eziano like this, Midoriya reached up and rubbed over a bloody scratch on his face again that Zach saved him from being any worse. Though I wonder, Midoriya lowered his hand back down and wiped the blood off on part of his shirt that remained on the left side of his stomach. He stared at Eziano who as he knelt there with one arm and his head tilted back to mutter in his misfortune, Midoriya could not help but lose the feeling of any intrigue he had for the man. This mysterious assassin with so much power who he and Zach had been afraid of on their way here, despairing at his defeat… Could either of us have taken him on our own too? Even without each other's help, I think it was possible. Zach held back with me here and I was, I didn't necessarily hold back but I was trying to protect Zach when I fought Eziano one on one. If either of us fought him with just the goal of taking him down…

"On the surface, Eziano," Zach started, stepping forward closer to the assassin. He spoke darkly to the figure who lowered his head but did not turn to the ones who had defeated him. "Is that really all you have left? Or are there others out there, who will come after me even after you're put away?" Zach asked his questions in an insulting voice and as if what was coming next was now inevitable for the villain on his knees. Eziano started shaking his head, a strange look on his face as his right hand shook down at his side. Zach snapped at him from ten feet away, "I'm asking you a question! Did you give them orders-"

"Zach, it's over," Midoriya started from behind his friend. Zach froze and he closed his mouth, gritting his teeth as this was not how heroes did things. Zach turned his head partially to the side and glared back at Midoriya, who just gave him a soft look in response.

"I'm sorry."

The two teenage boys turned their heads and looked back towards Eziano. The villain on his knees there had his head bowed, but he turned it to the throne behind him and gasped out again in a defeated tone, "I'm sorry."

What is he doing? Zach's eyebrows curved up and his heart pounded at the tone he never expected to hear from Eziano's mouth. "I failed you," Eziano's voice cracked, and Zach and Midoriya each leaned their heads back. Even though Eziano Mozcaccio was turned away from them, the two boys had to glance at each other to confirm that they had just heard the man sound like he was, crying. "Thousands of years, and I- ah, it was me. I thought I was, the strongest to-"

"Are you serious?" Zach muttered, raising his voice towards the end as he wanted Eziano to hear him. The villain just winced though at the sound of Zach's voice behind him, and he shook his head harder with a defeated expression covering his face.

"Thousands of years?" Midoriya asked, taking a step forward so he was closer to Zach though still farther from Eziano's devastated form. "What do you mean by that? How long, have you assassins been-"

"From the be-ginning," Eziano said, his voice cracking as he responded. "And I! I failed them. I failed you, my Lord," Eziano said that in a broken voice sounding so despondent, so full of self-hatred and loathing through the absolute shock that he had failed to this degree. The realization of his defeat had made way for these emotions, as he came to understand that there was no way for him to beat the boys behind him now. He stared at the cracked throne in front of his bloodshot eyes, and he gasped out, "All this time, hiding our appearances throughout human history. Yet we did our part in guiding it, and controlling it… and making sure historians never revealed our actions."

Zach's eyebrows narrowed back down. A dark feeling swirled in his chest, but he ground his teeth in dread as it was not just the similarity between Eziano's tactics and his own that he found unsettling. Zach's eyes darted to his right and left, and Midoriya caught the change in aura radiating from his friend next to him. Zach lost some focus on Eziano even as that villain continued talking. Midoriya was too focused on every stunning word out of the assassin's mouth, but he also felt a weird pit in his gut that sank deeper as Eziano rasped hoarsely back at the throne, "The foundations of war, of society, even the Quirks they all have without understanding where they come from… We controlled it all. I was supposed, to lead us! And instead I have led to our destruction. He was right, I made mistakes. I let him grow too powerful."

"No… You did well, Eziano."

"My Lord?"

FUCK! Zach's eyes bulged huge and then narrowed in under a second, his fists balling and exploding with darkness at the sound of that voice, and more specifically the wording of Eziano's response.

Midoriya's eyes just grew wider from the initial confusion into shock and then horror as he put together things slower than the teen at his side already glaring behind the throne at the wall that voice seemed to radiate out from. The two of them stared at the wall as it crumbled behind the throne. A hole opened in a long jagged crack cutting vertically behind the crater and falling rubble as the wall lost structure. The cave around them shook from loss of support, as footsteps echoed into the room from the pitch black emptiness behind that wall. The hole ripped open six and a half feet tall, a few inches taller than the shadowy figure walking forward through it. He stepped out and right through the throne that fell apart as he walked into it. The figure barely seemed to notice he hit it as his body just broke straight through to the top of the steps and stopped in front of Eziano Mozcaccio.

Zach stared up those two black steps to the platform this man just emerged onto. His heart was racing but his breathing stayed steady, unlike his friend's which was getting more ragged each second as he stared at the being looking back down on them. More specifically, the figure stared straight into Zach's eyes. Zach's eyes stayed their normal hazel shade and his body was not covered in any Death at all. He took in deep breaths and hardened his expression. This was the whole point of the contingency. Holding back power. Just in case, this happened. Zach released a heavy breath out his nose and then asked in a deep and unwavering voice, "Who are you?"

Some rocks that had been falling from the shaking of the cave fell past the tunnel exit across the cave and above that cast light down into the room. The rocks fell and dim orange light shone on the man's light-brown face, and the smile he had as he looked down at Zach. He had blue eyes and ashy blond hair that fell behind his head down to his shoulders. The man was muscular but no more than Zach or Midoriya. His facial appearance gave off the look of a man in his forties or fifties, yet there was a youth to his eyes as he stared at the black-haired teen below. He wore a black t-shirt, and a pair of baggy dark blue sweatpants. His smile showed off white teeth, and his arms were unmarked other than a strange tattoo on his right forearm of a cross over a name.

The name 'Aurellio' was underneath the cross written upwards below the longer vertical crossbeam going along his forearm. His appearance was less physically menacing than many of the assassins and Eziano himself. Something about him made Midoriya's heart race faster than it ever had before though. Izuku's face was covered in sweat, and he gulped as he stared at the man who Eziano just called his "Lord." Midoriya's right foot slid back on the ground then stopped short, his teeth baring behind his lips as he realized what he was doing. No! If this- if this is… What is this?! Does Zach know-

"You came," the smiling man said. He looked and sounded happy, then he turned his head down and looked at Eziano who had twisted his knees to better face the figure who had walked right up to him. "Eziano," this man spoke down to the kneeling assassin as if he were a child, "you were defeated."

"I am so sorry, master," Eziano gasped out. His expression was horrified but in his own failure, not of the man before him. "I failed you-"

"Did I not just say, you did well?" The 'master' questioned the man down on his knees. "Now I-"

"I let them-"

The man standing behind Eziano had been raising his eyes back up towards Zach when Eziano cut him off. Eziano stopped speaking quickly as if realizing what he had just done. He stared up at the figure who lowered his eyes back down in surprise and then anger. He leaned back down in front of Eziano and reached his right hand forward. "You may not have failed me here, as you believe," he started. His right hand reached to Eziano's chest and did not stop moving at its steady pace as he pushed inside and then out Eziano's back with his heart in hand. "But you are a failure." Eziano's mouth opened and blood spilled out as his eyes stayed locked on the man's in front of him, while that man crushed Eziano's heart behind his back in full view of the teenagers watching the organ squish out between his fingers.

Zach snapped his left hand to the side with his palm turned backwards. "Get out of here, Deku," Zach said. His voice was low and his eyes did not move from the man he was watching to the boy he was talking to. Midoriya spun to look at the side of Zach's face, but Zach just watched as their new enemy pulled his arm back out of Eziano's torso as slowly as he had put it through. He used his left hand to steady Eziano by his right shoulder as he removed his other hand, then he lightly pushed Eziano to the side afterwards and let the dead assassin fall. He put his arms down and interlocked his fingers in front of his waist, blood from his right hand getting all over his left as he stared straight to Zach with the smile he had when he walked out of the wall and first saw Zach standing there looking at him.

"I'm not leaving," Midoriya said in a low tone back after hesitating for a few seconds from what Zach told him. He glared back forward himself at the villain who had not once even acknowledged his presence, let alone looked in his direction. He was just staring right at Zach as if Zach was a long lost friend, or a plate of delicious food, Midoriya could not tell which. He could not read the expression that seemed genuinely excited though withdrawn, and just hopeful as Zach looked right back at him with a much more serious and scary look.

I need him to go. Zach watched the figure who just killed Eziano and did not seem to care like it was an unimportant action.

Zach opened his mouth, but Midoriya spoke up first beside him and made Zach's eyes snap open wide again, "You killed him." Midoriya glared at the man who did not seem to want to take his eyes off of Zach, slowly turning his head a bit and glancing at Midoriya with his smile lowering a little. "He was your own, subordinate, wasn't he?" Midoriya's voice was frustrated, and angry. I can't treat him different than any other villain! No matter how, how afraid I am! Midoriya knew something was seriously wrong with the man he was looking at, but that feeling could not affect his judgement as a hero.

"So this is One For All," he began while looking at the one who just said that to him. "This is a hero," he wondered to himself. His eyes turned back towards Zach and he regained his smile again. His attitude shifted and he spoke without acknowledging Midoriya's presence anymore, "Death, or should I call you Zach?"

"Either one is fine," Zach responded. Midoriya darted him a look again in confusion and anxiety at the calm way in which his friend was talking to this murderer. "And what should I call you?"

The man Zach asked it to just smirked a little more with the right corner of his lips lifting up higher. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day. Zach… You are the one I've been waiting for, all my life."

"Really now?" Zach wondered back. Control. Power. Speed. I can't tell how strong he is. It's insane. This is insane. Keep him talking. I need Midoriya to get out of here. Zach glanced to Eziano's body that had been discarded to the side, and he asked the new villain confronting him, "Why did you kill Eziano?"

"Eziano was… He had his moments. Unlike his father, and his grandfather, Eziano cared very much about his own strength," this mysterious man spoke as if he had known Eziano's father and grandfather. Midoriya and Zach each had heard Eziano talk about his Quirk being Longevity, along with his father's age, and the two of them could not help but in that moment wonder if his grandfather also had a Longevity Quirk. "The others were more content with simpler power. Eziano, truly revered me however. His idolization caused him to attempt to be as much like myself as he could. He also had his theories though on how to better create wars than his ancestors had. Interesting theories. Some worked, others did not."

This is unreal! Midoriya's fists tightened harder at his sides to keep from shaking. There's no point in saying how it's impossible though. It's happening! "How old are-"

"Are you that invested in the struggle between All For One and One For All?"

Zach glared harshly at the villain who was asking him this question. The man spoke over Midoriya but in the same tone and volume as he completely ignored the other of the teenagers in the cave. "And why shouldn't I be? All For One is trying to destroy the world," Zach responded.

"Yes yes, so I've heard. That may be something we have to deal with at some time, but in the future. You're too concerned about that though. To have based your current life around that insignificant goal," he shook his head in a disappointed way. "That is why you went to Tartaros in the first place, wasn't it?"

Zach did not reply. Midoriya gulped again as he thought of the first thing Zach needed to tell him and Bakugo in the hospital after getting out of prison. "But that man never showed up," Eziano's killer continued. "You gave Eziano all the time he needed to kill you as you awaited the one who would never show. And he failed." The older man looked down to the corpse on his right side. "He has failed over and over in the past few years. Even here where he thought he had brought in powers enough to handle you. He did not understand what I do. What I have known for some time now. You're special-"

"And yet you allowed him to come after me?"

"I knew he couldn't hurt you- or, I knew you would defeat him," the villain corrected himself, and Zach's eyes shot open wide for a moment as he had felt angry in the split second before the villain's correction. This strange man sighed and said to the surprised boy, "I am sorry for what he did to your landlord. You will get over that though. One day." The man took in a deep breath and he smiled again in a bright way. "Our first meeting," he said to Zach in almost a nostalgic tone that confused the boy he was talking to.

Midoriya spoke up again with his fists curling tighter and his body filling with power. "I don't know who you are, but if you were in charge of the assassins-"

"Who do you think I am?" He wondered, not losing his smile this time as he was in too good a mood to. He glanced towards Deku and asked the boy who had frozen with his mouth open, "What do you think I am?"

"Why don't you tell us?" Zach requested.

"Where is the fun in that?" Was the reply that made Zach close his mouth and just examine the figure closer now. The man saw what Zach was doing and grinned at his actions. "That's right, think back. You've put together the pieces. Those ancient texts always speaking of men who have amazing powers. For thousands of years these men appeared around the world." He rose his voice and continued down to the teenagers watching him, "Most times they were hacks, or they were considered witches and warlocks, to be killed by regular humans. Yet there were those who avoided those deaths. Even with a few survivors though, how could Quirks revive so often throughout history. It must have been the work of higher powers. Of… Gods."

"And that's what you are?" Zach started.

"Yes."

The one-word response was still the most powerful thing Midoriya had ever heard before. Zach found himself momentarily frozen in place before glaring in rage again at the figure who just declared that before him. That man stepped forward though so he was just at the top of the steps where Eziano had been kneeling, closer to the boys now who leaned back when he took those steps towards them. "My name, is Ares. I am the God of War."

"You are no God," Zach responded while Midoriya was still holding his breath and staring with shaking eyes at the self-declared God before them. Those shaking eyes shifted to Zach who just got an angrier look on his face as he snarled at the villain, "You're a human."

"I was, once," Ares replied with his face losing that intensity it just gained as he gave Zach his name. He smiled at the teen who spoke to him in a knowing way, and he continued, "I am glad you are already open to the idea. That you know, what I am. How I became a God."

"I just told you-"

"What else would be a God? An immortal being, with vast power and knowledge," Ares pondered to Zach. "One who no one else could kill. Whose power allows them to live forever. Like mine, and like yours," Ares stopped for a moment and grinned wider as Zach's teeth clenched hard and his fists suddenly balled in rage. "Do you see now why I have wanted to meet you?" Ares wondered with some of his excitement coming through his tone. "God of Death, you have felt it haven't you-"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zach growled furiously, his rage so seething that it confused his friend on his side who turned his head more with his eyes growing huge at that level of hatred.

"Yes you do," Ares remarked back at the clear sound of that hate. "You-"

"Did you create the assassins?!" Zach yelled, interrupting the so-called God with his shout. "You built this whole thing? Sent Eziano off to start wars around the world?"

"He did that without me ordering him to," Ares replied. He continued to speak in Japanese to the two teens ahead of him for whom it was their native language. "He did so in reverence of me. As tribute, an offering to grant me more power."

"What do you mean by that?" Midoriya asked. Everything happening right now was happening too fast. Too much was being said and it was hard to absorb, but the look on this villain's face as he shifted his attention back to him made Midoriya's entire body tense up as he caught eye contact with this man. He brought his arms up into a fighting stance instantly at the look on Ares' face.

"Did you ever wonder why Eziano let All Might live that day at your Sports Festival?" Ares wondered. Midoriya's eyes stayed steady as he expected the villain was just trying to get him off his guard. Ares continued to him though, "He told me that he allowed All Might to live because you were not enough yet to get the world back on track once it was in the darkness. He believed that you would not reach that point without All Might's continued teachings."

"Why, would you want out of the darkness?" Midoriya asked, panting but still snapping that at the villain saying seemingly contradictory things here.

"Eziano acted under your orders," Zach added in a dark and accusing voice.

"He acted in what he believed to be my interests. I have long since lost any interest in this world, however," Ares replied while looking back to Zach. "And as for why he would want it to rise back out of the darkness. That is because only out of darkness could he plunge it back in again. An endless cycle harder to move one way than the other, that way being back to peace through men like your friend." Zach's eyes narrowed at the villain speaking only to him while Midoriya tried to follow along but was lost as to this man's reasoning. "The Mozcaccio bloodline has followed me for generations. The first man I ever met who had an ability like my own, was Eziano's grandfather, Aurellio Mozcaccio."

"The only man older than myself at the time. I searched him out, as I had questions about who I was. Who we were, that men revered us as Gods." Ares stepped down to the step below the platform, then to the lower one, then down to the same level as Zach and Midoriya though he had to step to the left as the ground was cracked. He stepped to his left and stood more straight in front of Zach who he was speaking to instead of speaking to both boys as if they were equal in confronting him. "I left my home of the old cities of Greece and traveled to Rome where I had heard rumors of another like myself. I was already hundreds of years old, but Aurellio had wisdom and knowledge I did not possess. An amazing man who had traveled the world, while I had spent my years fighting and warring and leading a single land. It was through him that I came to understand my power. The origin of my vast abilities and why they continued to grow stronger. Why my power never stopped growing…"

"Never stopped growing?" Midoriya's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. This was a question he asked, how long ago? Ares… he can't mean. Rome? Greece? This isn't… This isn't possible!

"If I were to name my ability under the current accepted conception of Quirks," Ares continued, standing ten feet in front of Zach and staring straight ahead into his eyes. "My Quirk would be called, War. Like your own, Zach Sazaki, War is an ability that grows in strength with each war that passes. As you kill, and each death adds to your own strength." Zach's eyes trembled while as wide as saucers. Midoriya stared to his side at his friend for a moment and gained a nervous and scared look at the sheer panic that flashed over Zach's face.

"The world was constantly at war back then, but the wars were small. I was a warrior of renown across the lands. I grew stronger and stronger after each passing battle. They called me a hero at first, then revered me as King, then a God. As my power grew more I continued to fight wars that I was undefeated in. I stopped getting hurt by blades that bounced off my skin. Arrows could no longer pierce my body and spear shafts broke when they were thrust into me." Ares paused and then he spoke lower, "I came to realize that I did not have to be in the war myself for it to make me stronger. War, any war, gave me strength."

"Midoriya," Zach started, his voice raising as he saw a glint in Ares eyes right there with his lips curling up into a more deadly smirk. "Grab those two in the hall and get out of here!" He shouted louder, "They'll die otherwise! You don't want that, right?!"

Ares' fingers that had been interlocked in front of his waist separated. Midoriya saw the movement from the villain, God, monster right before them and his eyes darted from Zach back to the tunnel behind and above them and then to the God again. "I can't leave you to face-"

"I have to face him alone," Zach growled, his voice furious but sounding so different than when Zach was talking about fighting Eziano before. The tone was personal this time. It was not a simple goal to stop the assassins and end Eziano's reign of terror. It was solely personal, and Zach was not trying to hide it as he told Midoriya to get out of there. "Save those two or they'll die. Everything's about to collapse."

"This will be an interesting first meeting, Death." Ares spoke without referencing the other person still in there. A white translucent veil surrounded his body, and the ground started to rumble as he stood there with both fists curled and a huge smirk crossing his face.

"Zach you-"

"Drop Limiter 1," Zach said aloud. His teeth clenched and he forced down the darkness that threatened to explode out of him. "GO MIDORIYA!" Zach yelled, while red filled his hazel eyes and the whites of them blackened. Finally, Zach's clenched teeth parted and a thin black steam slipped out of his mouth in a single breath. I can release it all.

I can't leave him here! This isn't a villain Zach can take on his own!

"Good," Ares bellowed and started laughing. "At least now I know you're serious. If you were not holding back at all against Eziano, this wouldn't be a good-"

"Drop Limiter 0."

Ares froze with his mouth open and his eyes actually widening this time. His arms snapped up at his sides and the stone ceiling above them ripped to pieces. At that same moment, Midoriya's body twisted and he shot for the tunnel behind him as fast as he could. He bounced off the walls of it that got destroyed under his feet and hands as he sped towards an intersection he barely stopped at for a second. He scooped up the pair of villains while the entire cave around him shook and the walls broke apart. The tunnel's ceiling cracked, and Midoriya yelled out, "AhhhhHHHH!" He sped up while dragging the two assassins behind him, and he shot out of the entrance of the cave that was collapsing behind him.

Midoriya spun around as he dropped the villains to his sides and flipped over in the air. He bounced himself up and away from the cave and the dipped valley below it as well as the protrusion of a cliff sticking out above. The roof of the cave and everything above and surrounding it was blowing upwards. The protrusion of the mountain got slammed into by massive chunks of rock that caused its protruding section to crack and a few pieces to rip off. They had ran pretty far forward in the cave before fighting, so most of the villains were behind Midoriya while the range ahead of him exploded up into the air around a massive black pillar of spiraling Death.

A glowing blur of light flew up through the sky with the rising pillar of black that just shot up into the clouds. Midoriya suddenly realized that the clouds were much lower down now too. They were darker and there was a rumbling coming from them he had not heard inside the collapsing tunnels, though he did not know if he could not hear them from inside or if they only just started. Light crackled from inside those clouds and the sky illuminated brighter as a massive white aura pressed against that curling pillar of darkness that pushed right back into it. Lightning fell out of the clouds as dark waves ripped through them. Flashes lit up the sky and illuminated what that massive black pillar was shifting into the shape of, making Midoriya's jaw drop farther while the ground trembled below him in an earthquake that seemed to shake the world.

Deku's eyes darted to his left as he heard a loud cracking sound. The heavily panting teen lifted his gaze and saw cracks under the protruding part of the mountain on his left side, the diagonal slopes that pushed out and then back in splitting apart and dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of rock. Midoriya glanced around and saw at the bottom of the cracking ravine hundreds of unconscious foes he and Zach and taken down. His head spun around and he looked back up at the divided sky. He was holding back. That entire time… When you told me how many people you killed I didn't realize it, Zach. It wasn't until he talked about each War making him stronger. Seeing the way you reacted… Midoriya's eyes shook as he stared up towards the five hundred foot tall giant of Death reaching up into the clouds. Twenty huge black arms ripped off Zach's sides at once and swung forward. As they swung in though, a huge beam of white flew through his chest and ripped a fifty foot hole in diameter right through him.

There never was any question about who's stronger between us. Your power is out of this world! So why? Midoriya leaned backwards, then he spun and he shot as fast as he could for some of the knocked out villains at risk of dying in this dangerous environment. Midoriya heard a deep and thunderous roar of agony scream out from that massive figure of Death in a voice he barely recognized but knew the origin of. Why don't I think you can win?!

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A/N Thanks for reading! Eziano's dead. His master revealed. Zach drops Limiter 0 for the first time... which he technically didn't lie to Kotsumura about before: "But, Limiter 1? How high do your limiters go?" "Just 1." ;) He's been holding back this whole time, and he's finally got an enemy to go all out against... Ares, the God of War. Quirk: War. Spent all of yesterday jumping right into the next chapter, and I wanted to write more of it today but just editing this chapter has taken me the last 6 hours. Another 40,000 word chapter is tough to get through, especially with it nonstop action I've gotta keep up with an imagine and try to make vivid. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and the sudden turn of events. I'll put some review responses below. And as for the next chapter... might be just as long away as this one, so sorry about the long updates this has transitioned into. Got work and people visiting for the long weekend, but I'll be writing this on all my time off so I'll get the next one out soon as I can!

QuestingforBitches chapter 212 . Jan 5

Ezaino is basically the Demon King of planet Earth.
Spooky mountain base? Check.
Long-lived? Check.
Super evil? Double check.

Yeah... Eziano might take second fiddle to the real Demon King... ;) Thanks for reviewing.

Guesssst chapter 212 . Jan 5

Amazing as always. Is it bad I'm kinda hoping some of the assassins go after Deku so Zach can stop holding back? Thank you for your work and time as always!

Midoriya jumps in during the early fights as Umburt kills too many of the other assassins while trying to get Zach, making him jump in (and to prevent Zach from killing the villain getting resistant to his Quirk). The two of them manage to capture that Adapting villain and take down all the rest, and Eziano too, but only now is Zach unleashing it all... XD Thanks for the review!

DaddyBathSoap chapter 212 . Jan 11

Continue please.

Yeah yeah, takes a little time with chapters as long as these. Hope y'all enjoyed though, and thanks for reading, following, faving, and reviewing!