A/N Song for this chapter: NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [The End Of Data] (It's a playlist of 21 songs, that should be it)
Chapter 12:
Tony Stark vs Hephaestus part 3:
Ghost in the Machine
A bright light spread across the heavens. A white mark upon the canvas of reality, all consuming and unavoidable. Everything the light touched would turn into dust and this light was so bright, no darkness would ever be able to hide from it.
Six cannons lined up around Iron Man and kept supercharging. The sun's power supercharged their internal batteries and thanks to the Mobius loop circuit they all fed into each other, cannibalizing their own energy to create more energy in an infinite recursive loop.
Other forces internalized within the suit fed into the supply. Arc reactors, virtual batteries, gamma absorbers and everything else the inventor could think of or had encountered within his life had been incorporated into the cannon's design.
The Phoenix Cannon was the culmination of 7000 years of human technology. Humanity went from sticks, to cannons towards atomic bombs and now, the final weapon has finally arrived, supercharging and ready to deliver death from above.
Iron Man's own visors shut down to protect his retinas and despite him being in the darkness of his own suit, he could feel the light tearing through the plates and surfaces of his suit. This light was ferocious, divine and it wanted to eat it all.
"Target locked on," a feed displayed tracking software targeting the god of smithing.
The god looked up with an eager smile. He mouthed something but Svipul failed to pick up what it was.
"We're about to unleash the power of a thousand nuclear bombs, any last words?" Svipul asked.
Iron Man snapped. "Let there be light."
White.
ㅤㅤ
Hot blinding emptiness.
ㅤㅤ
Light so bright it devoured itself.
ㅤㅤ
A blank storm of nothingness without an end.
ㅤㅤ
Light that made you forget the dark ever existed.
ㅤㅤ
The energy of a thousand nuclear bombs bled into the arena. Every inch of the world was engulfed by it. As if it was water, the light relentlessly pushed itself into every corner and even further to extinguish the void.
In that instance life wasn't a particle or a wave but mere primal everything.
At some point the light faded. No one could tell when it had or how long it had taken, for the light devoured even the concept of time itself temporarily.
But light doesn't last forever, and although it could shine and cause all of the gods in existence to blink for a brief moment, the dark would always return.
Eventually the white spots faded and color, although muted, faded back into the world.
"Ahem," Heimdall was still rubbing the white spots out of his eyes. "AHEM! The humans detonated their own star and left behind nothing but a field of devastation."
"Did he do it?" Göll asked. "Please tell me it worked."
Brunhilde's eyes scanned the arena, looking for a blackened corpse resembling Hephaestus. She didn't find any.
The audience on humanity's side started to murmur hopefully. The seconds ticked by and the god was nowhere to be seen.
They looked up. Iron Man was still flying in the sky, looking like a god. It was easy to forget how this was a mere human. No, not a mere human, this was a mere human wielding human technology.
Heimdall put the horn to his mouth and took a deep breath. "Well, I think the outcome is clear. THE THIRD BOUT OF RAGNAROK GO-"
"N-n-not yet!" Out of the rubble stumbled a god. His skin was burned red and black. Scars and charred flesh decorated his skin but he was still standing. "I am still able to fight!"
The gods roared in approval. They pushed their fist into the sky and chanted the god's name.
"NEVERMIND THAT! HEPHAESTUS IS BACK AND READY TO FIGHT!"
Brunhilde didn't know how ready he was. He was swaying left to right. He looked horribly and the metallic arm had molten off. Tied to his other arm was…Brunhilde's eyes snapped open.
Tied to his right arm was a metal disc. The edges of it were molten and curled inward, the pattern on the front was scorched with black ash.
Hephaestus raised his fist into the air. "Don't count me out just yet!"
The gods cheered.
He dropped the metal disc to the ground.
"..." Brunhilde stared blankly at the disc. Although her expression was blank, the marble underneath her hands was shattering under the weight of her fury.
"..."
"Hahahahahahhahahha!" Hugin and Munin chattered loudly upon Odin's shoulders.
Odin merely frowned upon seeing the shield, he didn't find it merely as amusing as his companions.
But despite his disapproval, he was glad the boy didn't die. It would be an utmost shame for the gods to lose again against humanity.
"That's…" Ares murmured. "That's…that's…that's…"
"Svalinn," Hermes finished his brother's sentence. "A legendary shield that stands between the sun and the earth, protecting the earth from the sun's wrath. The sea and the mountains would be set ablaze if it were to fall."
"But it's Norse!" Ares cried out.
Hermes chuckled. "Well, some of us have to scrape together what we can to make a name for ourselves."
Hephaestus' body ached, itched and felt numb all at the same time. His flesh seared and his hair was most likely still on fire.
The shield Svalinn lay discarded next to him. It had been a last moment decision to bring it with him but it paid off. The shield needed some repair after this fight was done though.
"Impressive," Hephaestus shouted up. He was hurting like hell but he had to pull through. "The power of humanity truly is amazing, you managed to mangle the shield."
He had no clue if Iron Man heard him but he continued regardless.
"You have my respect Tony, but I can not let you win this fight."
The cannons around Tony Stark began to light up again. Like stage lights they lit up one by one, ready to fire their white death once again.
Hepheastus nodded approvingly. His eyes gleamed with power as he was dismantling the components of Iron Man's suit with his bare eyes. He could see all the technology inside the suit. Extremis kept Iron Man alive for a bit longer, the nanomachines were trying to clean his wounds in a vain attempt to keep up the veil.
Iron Man's life force was tied to the suit, or rather the Valkyrie co-piloting it, and they just expended 90% of their energy with that attack.
"You and I are not too dissimilar Stark, we both use whatever we can find to pull ourselves ahead." Hephaestus reached inside his weapon's stash and reached out for a bronze pair of wings.
They had been neatly folded together for travel but once they felt the air they spread out.
A set of beautiful bronze wings expanded from his back. The wax had been replaced by divine gold, the wings had been made even lighter thanks to Hephaestus' golden wires and every flaw the original creator created Hepaestus had improved upon.
Hephaestus spread out his wings fully and then shot up into the sky.
"Where did he go?" Tony asked.
"Behind you," Svipul said. She tried to turn around his suit to prepare a counter attack but the god was already above him.
The wings glowed in the light of the sun. Each feather's detail was rimmed with the golden light and the craftsmanship of this piece of machinery, no work of art, was put into full display as golden rays spread out across the arena.
For once, the crippled god looked divine.
"I am so happy I got to use these wings at least once," Hephaestus beamed gratefully at the inventor. "Thanks for that."
The god of Smithing threw a package towards him.
Before Tony could react the package expanded into a thousand gold laced wires, each one of them snaked towards his suit and coiled around it until it had wrapped Iron Man inside his net.
He began to fall.
"Release explosive gas!" Tony yelled. The ground began to spiral. Rapidly it came closer, he tried to wiggle himself free but the net restrained all his movement.
"I can't!" Svipul screamed. "The wires cut off all our power."
On screen one of the meters informed him of how fast he was falling down. It was something he didn't want to know at all.
"Do somethin-"
The ground hit him hard.
"I think it's over people," Heimdall tentatively said. "This is the end for humanity's third fighter.
Zeus chuckled as the man hit the earth like a sack. There was no explosion or dramatic effect. Tony Stark just collapsed like the flesh and meat he was.
A sickening crunch ran through the arena and silenced the spectators. Both sides, no matter who they were rooting for, were silent out of respect, horror and awe.
Hephaestus landed softly next to the heap of scrap metal lying on the ground. Red blood and blue liquid leaked from the miserable pile.
The arc reactor on the chest failed to light up.
"I am sorry it had to end this way," Hephaestus said. "I would have loved to see more of your tricks."
"Then how about one last trick?" The visors lit up. The arc reactor came to life for one last time. "Svipul, blow it all up."
"It was an honor," Svipul whispered.
Hephaestus looked wide eyed as pieces of the suit came off. Propelled by magnetic forces and tiny repulsors each part of the suit pulled itself free from the creator and floated up into the air. First the gloves, then the legs, the boots and the helmet.
The suit without her creator looked like a shell, pulled up by strings and possessed by a ghost. In a sense, it was.
Underneath Tony Stark lay in a pool of blood. His chest cavity was crushed, bones all over his body bent into the wrong direction or had parts of suit molten into them.
He was coughing, struggling to breathe but as he lay there, looking into the sky, Tony couldn't help but smile.
"Heh, I always assumed that my armor was going to be my coffin."
The armor, now free from her creator, charged at Hephaestus, her core glowing with power and ready to embrace him with all her remaining life force.
A desperate push, a final attack, a last bit of hope puppeteered the suit.
But the wings Daedalus once designed were fast, faster than the suit could ever hope to match. The suit stumbled and hit the ground, the metal scattered.
The god flew back, out of her reach and watched as the metal burned white and the core inside lit up.
"Goodbye Stark," Hephaestus averted his eyes.
The suit exploded alongside the ghost contained within it. A beautiful explosion that forced all the gods once again to blink.
Tony Stark's gaze remained locked onto the sky. It didn't falter or blink when the explosion rocked the arena.
It didn't blink when the god blocked his view of the heavens.
They did when Hephaestus softly closed them for him.
Heimdall silently paid his respect and waited a full minute. It seemed appropriate that way and nobody in the arena was urging him to announce the end of the match.
But when Tony Stark's essence started to scatter in the wind, he couldn't put it off any longer.
Heimdall blew the horn. "The third round of Ragnarok goes to Hephaestus."
A/N And another one bites the Dust. 2-1 for the Gods now. Seems that the weapons of the gods are still more powerful than the weapons of men.
I wonder who's next.
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-CaptainMoonShine-