[Death To Normality – Part 3]

The battle started immediately. Although, to call it a battle would be like calling someone attempting to stomp on a bug a couple of times before succeeding, a battle; which wasn't true.

Luz was quick to understand how Limitless worked. All she had to do was will the energy to her palm and fire it off. And so as Jonah transformed himself into that purple smog to close the distance between herself and him, Luz fired off a single Red at Jonah.

Just in time for Red to collide with Jonah, the Smog-user expanded his body out to avoid the red orb of energy, reforming as he gathered the same black smog around his fist, slamming it into Luz's face. Luz's head turned with the punch, specks of blood flying in amongst the saliva she spewed from her mouth, before grabbing Jonah by the scruff of his shirt.

In that same moment, she activated Zero Gravity, removing Jonah's gravity from his person, and making his eyes go wide. Luz was seconds away from point black hitting him with Red, only for him to disperse his body.

Once again, Red passed through the smog, making Luz narrow her eyes. Jonah reformed beyond Luz, round-house kicking her in the side of the head with the same black smog-forming around his ankle and foot. This time, it actually made Luz stagger.

Before Luz could do anything in retaliation, Jonah's eyes narrowed, as a massive gathering of black smog pooled in front of him. When it did, several hands formed out of the black smog. Luz noted that it was almost like his own version of Multiply, though more restrictive.

The black hands balled into fists, launching toward Luz as they impacted her body. The punches had more oomph to them, scraping away skin as she grit her teeth, experiencing pain from the attacks as she jumped back, activating Multiply and Forcefield Projection to use Forcefield Cannon.

The assassin sneered, pressing a finger to his ear before snapping his fingers, almost like calling out a signal, shouting out a command. "CHARLIE! DO IT NOW!"

Jonah had an idea. It was foolproof. Sure, Camila Noceda was already dead, but Luz didn't know that. If he made her think that she had been the one to kill her mother… well, that would leave her open. And so, as the black glue-like substance spewed from his mouth and converged on him, just as Luz was about to fire off that, quite frankly, bullshit attack, he got out of there and was repositioned to the roof of a nearby building, swapping his place with the corpse of Camila.

Next to him was Charlie, whose dark brown hair with red streaks was brushed to the right, the shaved sides of her head dyed red, and her black, empty eyes glaring down at the town below. She was wearing a white robe with a cross around her neck, her hands covered by the sleeves of the robe. The robe had gold lining around the collar and cuffs of the sleeves.

Beside her, a pile of black gunk enveloped the body that Jonah had Charlie take with her, the transport beginning. Her expression was void of anything. Behind her was a veritable mountain of weapons that she had stockpiled just in case they needed to be used.

If Jonah's plan were to succeed, then this would be all that was needed.

As for Luz, she didn't know of the switch-up, and by the time it happened, it was already too late when she fired off the attack. The second user of All For One saw her mother in place of Jonah, and her eyes widened. It was too late to stop the attack, as the first forcefield collided with her body, and it was quickly followed by the other seven.

"MAMA!"

It hardly mattered at that point, as an explosion of blood and gore splattered everywhere. Luz stared, her body shaking as her mouth was left agape. She fell to her knees, her body slumped over as she clenched her hands into fists, tears welling up in her eyes.

"No… No… No, no, no, no! T-That… that wasn't…. that couldn't have been…!"

"Calm yourself. Focus… You can grieve later. Channel that anger and despair you are feeling, and use it against your enemies. Push past this, and bring your wrath down on your foes!"

Shigaraki's voice echoed in the back of her mind. She wanted to curse him out, to tell him to shut up and to leave her alone. But his words, yet again, held a lot of truth. Her body trembled, her anger simmering as she gritted her teeth.

He was right. Of course, he was. At this point, she had all but accepted that Shigaraki was right more often than he was wrong. And so, with that in mind, Luz took a deep breath, calming herself, focusing on the anger and despair she was feeling as her eyes narrowed, her eyes shifting colours from dark brown to a permanent crimson red.

This anger… This despair… this hatred she felt. She would never let it go. It was one thing to imprison her in a camp meant to kill them all like Governor Maxwell had. It was another hurt her friends—to kill them, like Kennedy had. But it was another thing to trick her into killing her mother.

In the distance, she heard a sickening laugh. Her blood boiled, as it became evident that she had been duped. Not only that but she… she had killed her mother. And it wasn't even on purpose. It was on complete accident.

She looked in the direction of where Jonah and his accomplice were, her eyes filled with nothing but hate as they glowed a downright demonic crimson.

"Now ain't that just the funniest shit I've ever done seen!" Jonah laughed, cackling as several black sludge-like portals opened up all around Luz, surrounding her in a circle, as several militaristic weapons, most of which were high-power weapons, all pointed at Luz. Machine guns, assault rifles, anti-tank rifles. If it could be found on a military base, it was pointed at Luz. "Now… while her defences are lowered… Charlie, FIRE!"

Every single explosive went off, as well as a hail of heavy-duty gunfire, along with three flamethrowers, several grenade launchers, and multiple rocket launchers. They were all continuing to rain down on Luz, and Luz alone.

Jonah watched with a victorious glint in his eye, the smile underneath his mask cracking the sides of his face. "HAHAHAHA! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR GETTING IN THE WAY, BRAT!" Jonah declared, cackling as hard as he possibly could before abruptly stopping, snapping his fingers, making Charlie stop her assault.

As the dust settled, Jonah smirked as he saw that there was nothing there. Nothing but the scorched and destroyed ground. "Hmph! All Sophia had to do was be unrelenting. It seems the all-powerful All For One was nothing but a joke!" Jonah said as he raised his hand to his earpiece and was about to speak to report on a job well done. It might have cost the life of Sophia, but the Job was done.

That was, until, he heard a choking sound off to his immediate right. When he looked in that direction, his eyes widened as he saw practically nothing but a charred flesh arm sticking through Charlie's chest, heart in its crispy hand as muscle and skin began to regrow.

Charlie's eyes were wide and in pain, as her still-beating heart spurted blood on top of the roof's ground. Just as Charlie went limp, the hand crushed the vital organ, while at the same time, the hand had been completely restored of skin.

Jonah looked over his shoulder and saw the regenerating form of Luz Noceda, aka All For One. Black lightning sparked and jumped off of her body, and as her body regenerated, her expression twisted into one of pure hatred with a visible sneer, her eyes a searing, demonic crimson, and her hair had turned almost completely snow white.

Jonah stumbled back, tripping over himself as Luz placed her hand on the back of Charlie's head, taking her power while at the same time charging up a ball of Red. The moment she was finished stealing Charlie's power, she fired off Red point blank at Charlie's corpse, desecrating her corpse further.

"You can hunt me down all you want…" Luz growled, nothing but pure hatred seeping from her voice as she turned to look at Jonah, who was on the floor, staring up at her with abject fear in his eyes. "But you dragged my mama through this… Mama watched a movie in our native tongue once, and it had this saying I really liked. But I never said it because she said it was bad and would get me in trouble at school…"

She inched closer toward Jonah, who fired off black smog punches as if they were nothing. Luz didn't so much as flinch, as the black lightning continued to spark and jump off of her body, glazing the ground and causing small charred spots. "But I don't go to school anymore. I don't have to worry about getting in trouble. And you've pissed me off. So I think it goes without saying, but…"

A panicked gleam was within Jonah's eyes as his attacks picked up in speed, not that it affected Luz. And just as she got within two feet of his downed form, Luz spoke. "Puedes huir. Puedes esconderte. Puedes llamar a las autoridades todo lo que quieras. Pero nada menos que Dios mismo me impedirá encontrarte y hacerte pagar por tus crímenes. Y en este mundo sin Dios, ese Dios soy yo."

Faster than Jonah could react, Luz stomped down on his head, crushing it like a grape. Blood, skull fragments, and grey matter spilled atop the concrete roof.

It was over. They were dead. The Assassins were dead. At least, she hoped so, anyway. She really didn't want to fight anymore. She was emotionally exhausted, and now that she had fourteen out of the fifteen Quirks she could hold, she could feel her body begin to strain just by using an ability.

She remembered a while ago that Shigaraki said something about how as she got closer to the limit of Quirks that she could hold, her body would begin to strain, and when she hit her limit, it would feel like she was carrying more of a great weight on her back. Any more than that, and she would be bursting at the seams.

That didn't matter. If she hit her limit, then so what? She'd just make her body stronger. Maybe she could live in a cabin in the woods after this? Seclude herself away from society and never show her face ever again? Maybe then she could have some semblance of peace.

Once she killed Wittebane, of course. Then… then she'd go into hiding. Because after all the destruction she caused, the interstate police would be definitely looking for her. As a matter of fact, she could hear the news helicopters from above.

It was only a matter of time before some sort of law enforcement was here.

Luz looked down at the road below, where all the carnage had taken place. It looked like a warzone. The blood, the fires, the destruction, and the bodies that lined the floor. She only realized now that the fighting had killed more than just Sophia, her mother, Jonah and Charlie. There were more than over a dozen bodies, and it made Luz's stomach knot.

She didn't mean to kill all of those innocent people. Really, she didn't. They were all caught in the crossfire, none of them deserved that. And yet, here they were.

Blood coated her hands, a heavy sin, and her body shook. She was fine with killing her enemies—current circumstances forced that to happen. But the blood of the innocent? It was never meant to touch her hands.

And yet, here it was.

She felt a hand touch her shoulder. Luz looked over her shoulder, and saw… "You…" Luz hissed, staring at Riley with narrowed, crimson-red eyes. Riley looked at her with a concerned look in her eyes, her body trembling.

"Luz… I… I know y-you're probably very, very mad at me… but you have to understand that I w-wasn't given a choice…" Riley said, staring back at Luz. It was like she was staring directly into her soul. Her eyes then narrowed, before Luz's hand jutted out to Riley's head. Riley gasped, though she should've seen this coming.

"Shut up. This is your fault… all of this. Everything that happened today… It was all on you. So do me a favour, and die."

Luz activated All For One, beginning the power-sapping process. Riley screamed in pain, her hands grabbing onto Luz's wrist as the teenager ripped away Riley's Quirk. The moment she did, and the moment Luz got her hands on the Quirk, Luz activated Bomb Touch and created a detonation charade with her free hand.

At that moment, Luz pressed down on the charade. Riley blew up into pieces, and unlike what Luz did, the traitorous cousin would never come back.

However, wherever Riley was, she knew that there would be another to follow. After all, that strange child was with her the last time. It wasn't a stretch to conclude that she would be here too.

Her eyes scanned the area, and as she swept the area, a giant collum of purple gunk slammed into Luz's side, knocking her off of the roof and dragging her through the already destroyed streets, except it extended into a newer, less destroyed part of the town.

Luz snarled as she both regenerated and had her skin and muscle torn away from her arm, hand, and left side of her face. That was until she started to form Blue in her left hand, absorbing the purple gunk like a vacuum. It eventually stopped, but that wasn't the end of the attack. Luz leapt out of the hole in the ground, narrowly avoiding a collum of fire, caused by a giant circle above her.

Luz looked up and just as she assumed, she saw the same strange child from the store earlier today that had been with Riley. She was flying on a staff of sorts with an animal insignia on the tip, that of a bullfrog of sorts with horns sticking out of its head. She was still wearing the same outfit, and this time, she had a pissed-off expression on her face.

The child didn't say a thing, she simply continued to attack, sending down a flurry of lightning bolts in Luz's direction. The second user of All For One activated Multiply and Forcefield Projection, creating a massive barrier around Luz, and protecting herself from the attack.

"THIS IS FOR RILEY!" The child screamed, anger in her voice as Luz narrowed her eyes. Snapping her fingers, Luz fired off the forcefield, launching the massive yellow oval toward the strange child. However, the strange child flew out of the way faster than Luz had expected, just as the forcefield hit one of the helicopters in the sky, knocking the flying contraption down to the ground and into several buildings, causing a massive explosion.

Luz narrowed her eyes as the small child created yet another circle with her finger, this time, however, it was green. Several vines launched toward Luz, all of which were the size of tree trunks. Luz dodged and weaved past the vines, all the while she touched as much rubble and debris as she could, all of which beginning to float with a pinkish aura around them, using Zero Gravity to do so.

To make things faster, she also activated Multiply along with Zero Gravity. Using Multiply, she created ten arms, all of which were sprouting out of her back. Five of them were using Zero Gravity, whereas the other five were using Limitless, creating balls of red energy.

The myriad of vines coming out of the ever-growing circle that the child was creating increased in volume and size, making large Venus flytraps to try and snap and grab Luz, The aforementioned teenager jumped up onto one of the vines, running along them as a wall of debris followed behind her.

With her two main hands, Luz pressed the two hands together and shouted. "RELEASE! LIMITLESS GRAVITY VOLLEY!" Luz shouted. The countless waves of debris and Red rained upward at the strange child, whose eyes widened. She flew as high up as she could, dodging as much of the chaos as she could.

The result of the attack caused several of the larger chunks of debris to crash down on other buildings, even crushing a few fleeing people, one of whom was a creepy-looking dude with a beard, glasses, and a brown duster.

As for the balls of Red, they all barely missed their mark, but their explosions knocked the child off of her staff, falling to the ground, but not without the child creating another green ring, making a mushroom cushion her fall. All the while Shigaraki's voice in the back of her head snickered.

"Named attacks? I heard that kind of thing in my world. I even had a few. You're quite the natural."

Luz ignored the vestige in her mind, focusing on the fight she had gotten herself into… again. Standing atop the massive vines that the child created, Luz stared down at the child, glaring as her eyes burned with annoyance and anger.

"Are you done yet!? Seriously! What did I ever do to any of you!? What did my mama ever do to any of you?! We just wanted to be left alone!" Luz shouted as the child slowly stood up, glaring up at Luz.

"You brought this on yourself, All For One! You might look different from before, but this is all your fault! You should've never got in his way!" And with that cryptic declaration made, the child created yet another circle, except, it wasn't just one circle. It was multiple.

Several golems, about 10 of them, made out of the purple sludge that the child was shooting formed out of the ground. They were bulky, and their eyes were a yellowish-gold colour. She could smell them from all the way over here, and Luz was not exactly a fan of them.

They were tall, easily as tall as a lamppost, and they looked more than capable of punching a hole through a wall. "ABOMINATIONS! GET HER!"

The army of monstrosities rushed up the vines, as Luz activated Spear Fingers while Multiply was still active, creating a maze of spear-like fingers. They rained down on the approaching monsters, stabbing through their heads, necks, and chests, but they continued regardless.

"I knew that wouldn't work. Oh well, worth a try!" Luz thought as she recalled the Quirk, her fingers snapping back as she undid Multiply, the arms harmlessly returning to her body as she touched her legs while Zero Gravity was active, allowing herself to fly.

The Abominations continued onward anyway, aiming their arms upward and spewing their gunk upward at Luz. Activating Limitless, Luz created a Blue orb to absorb the gunk, before firing it down toward the small group of them on the left vine. Blue connected, blasting them off of the vine with a powerful explosion, dispersing the creatures and turning them into puddles. That seemed to do the trick, as they didn't get back up.

With the blue orb gone, though, the remaining Abominations on the right vine continued attacking her. Notably, it was far weaker than the gunk that the child herself created. It didn't tear away at her skin—it didn't even bruise her. It was more annoying than anything.

In response, the second user of All For One created a ball of Red with Limitless, fired it at the group on the right vine, and hit them square in the center, blasting them apart. With them taken care of, she looked back to where the child was, only to not see them.

Luz narrowed her eyes, and just as she was about to scan the area, she felt something wack up against the back of her head, making her stagger forward.

Turning around, she saw the child riding on her staff, standing atop it, who had punched her in the back of the head. It didn't even hurt. It was actually kind of funny, all things considered. When the child saw that all it did was annoy her, Luz narrowed her eyes, cocked back her right fist, and smirked as Super Strength and Springlike Limbs made her arm look like a canon of flesh.

"Nice shot, too bad it was weak. My turn."

The punch connected, and from the sickening crunch Luz heard, along with the stream of blood coming from the child's face, nose, and mouth it was clear that she was basically done for. As the child fell to the ground, thudding against the concrete below, Luz followed suit, gently landing on the ground with the help of Air Walk.

Millie rasped, her breathing heavy and strained as she looked at the approaching All For One. Her eyes were full of hate, though her expression was completely neutral. Millie's nose was broken, her lips and gums were split, and she had a killer headache, meaning she might have gotten a concussion.

"Are we done yet?" All For One demanded, a hint of anger in her voice as her neutral expression morphed into a sneer. "Because I'm really starting to get fed up with all of this. Gravesfield is in dire straits because of this crap. All I want is to find the Wittebanes and get rid of them. If you tell me where they are, I'll spare you. The last thing I want to do is become a hypocrite."

Millie spat up blood, glaring at Luz with a smirk on her face, blood dripping down the side of her mouth. "I-If you think… I-I'll ever tell you where t-that is, you have another thing c-coming…. Besides… they're not even in the state anymore. They're long gone. They left! And they're in a place where you never find them!"

As Millie said that, she coughed up more blood. Luz glared at Millie, before outstretching her right hand. Millie's eyes widened. "H-Hey! Y-You said that y-you'd spare me if I t-told you!"

"You didn't tell me anything," Luz spat. "Besides. If what you said is true, that means they're not in Gravesfield. That's all I care about. But you? Whose after my head? I still have to get rid of you. Besides, I'm not killing you. I'm just making sure you can never pursue me again."

A single Spear Finger launched out from Luz's index finger, aiming to hit her in the lower abdomen and paralyze her from the waist down. However, just before she was able to connect the hit, a golden blur grabbed Millie off of the ground, jumping away to the left as Luz's eyes tracked the new arrival.

"I swear to God… If that's another assassin, I'm going to lose my mind!" Luz snarled in her head, as she looked over to her left. Standing there was a person completely kitted out in some kind of armour. They were wearing a white cloak, which was held together by a golden triangle clasp, just like the strange child.

Unlike the strange child, the person in question had an owl-shaped golden mask with black, empty sockets. It was too dark to see within the mask, so she couldn't identify who it was. Underneath the cloak, the person was wearing a golden chest plate, underneath which was a golden tunic, and a pair of black pants, and it was all held in place by a brown belt with a golden buckle. Then came the boots, which went up to just below the knees. He also had a pair of brown leather gloves over his hands.

And while his outfit was strange, there was something even stranger about this newcomer, and only she could see it. Most people had a single or no string connected to them. The strange child who could use some sort of power had no string connected to them. She would've asked questions about that once she had made sure she could never attack her again, but that was beside the point now.

Because the newcomer… he didn't have just one string. He had four strings.

"Uh… Shigaraki, you want to explain?!"

Shigaraki snickered, as the person before them lowered the strange child to the ground, before standing up, back facing them.

"You remember when I told you about The Demon Realm? This boy is from there. And he was one of the people I came into contact with during my time there. Be on your guard. I may or may not have given him four very, very powerful Quirks, and locked them into his body using a special technique I know. You can't steal them, his body won't allow it. They're bound to his very soul."

"Why would you do that?!"

"Let's just say that before my departure from the land of the living, I had plans for The Demon Realm. But thanks to my death, it ended before it ever began. Think of him as a future potential ally, at least, if he remembered what I told him all those years ago. My guess now is that he's going to test you should my assumption be correct. Be prepared. I don't know what kind of training he's been through. It's been a decade since I saw him. Good luck!"

With that, Shigaraki stopped talking, as the armoured boy turned to look at Luz. She felt as if she was being judged as if the boy was narrowing his eyes at her. Finally, he spoke. "I take it you're All For One, correct?"

Luz nodded as the boy sighed. "Very well. Let's make this quick, shall we?" As the boy said that, a pair of bright golden wings sprouted from his back, and in his right hand, a golden short sword appeared. "I am the Golden Guard of Emperor Belos. And you, All For One, will not be leaving this place."

-To Be Continued in – AFO verus of Golden Guard – Part 1-

For those wondering what Luz says to Jonah, here is the translation: "You can run away. You can hide. You can call the authorities all you want. But nothing less than God himself will stop me from finding you and making you pay for your crimes. And in this godless world, that God is me."