A.N.: This was a fun one... Thank you all for the kind reviews, I hope you enjoy!
The imperial camp was as quiet as it ever could be. Oh certainly, there were still the usual sounds of engines humming as tanks, chimeras and hydra batteries held themselves at the ready, and the nervous shuffling of the numerous guardsmen deployed all along the defensive line as they prepared themselves for the foe.
But there was an eerie stillness to the air as the various officers marched back and forth near their designated units, giving last minute orders and frantic commands.
In the distance they could see plumes of fire and smoke detonating in the ruined city as basilisk artillery bombarded it from afar, high-yield explosives reducing as many of the buildings as possible to rubble. Thunderhawks came screaming down from above followed by an escort of valkyries, firing at some unseen target below. They rose back up, coming down for another pass.
A brilliant crimson ray of death answered their strafing run, the first thunderhawk finding itself cut in twain, both halves plummeting to the city below and detonating on impact. And still, the target was nowhere to be seen.
Two valkyries suffered the same fate before high command ordered the retreat of aerial assets, the remaining thunderhawk flying back up towards the massive battle barge in orbit whilst the valkyries flew back towards the improvised resupply base installed in the past day.
The sound of artillery firing was a welcome distraction from the nerves gripping the troops, explosions rocking the ground in the distance.
Radios crackled all along the line. "Brace. Orbital bombardment incoming."
Pale faces glanced at each other as men and women alike immediately hunkered down, hiding behind sandbags and deployable bunkers, huddling together as the sky turned bright.
A dozen magma bombs came screaming down from orbit, impacting the surface of the planet with a brilliant flash of light. The ground shook and quaked, dancing like water at the point of impact as the projectiles annihilated all within a massive radius around themselves; Consuming skyscrapers and buildings alike in a blazing inferno. When the guardsmen dared look back to the city, a solid fifth of it was either gone or consumed by flame.
"Interference detected in weapons systems. Bombardment interrupted." Silence. "Target missed."
The horror that lit on the guardsmen face at those words was enough to make the various commissars along the line cautiously reach for their bolt pistols, ready to restore discipline should any of them even consider running.
"BLOOD!"
The word was screamed at such a loud volume it made the guardsmen wince even as the various tanks and vehicles started opening fire on the rapidly approaching foe.
"BLOOD!"
The guardsmen soon rallied, opening fire in the tens of thousands, the sky illuminating with the sheer brightness of millions of las bolts surging as a solid wall of light towards the incoming enemy.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
The figure descended upon them without a sound, the shockwave registering only after it had begun moving as it sent the nearest guardsmen flying backwards from the sheer force it had landed with. The tank it had landed upon was crushed on impact as it moved at speeds impossible for the human eye to register, claws and wings carving a bloody trail through the line of guardsmen.
Screams began to fill the air; Screams of pain, of panic, screamed orders from officers desperate to maintain some form of order as the abomination began tearing through the guardsmen like paper.
"FIRE!" A thousand weapons answered the call, firing at a target they could not hope to track.
"KILL! MAIM! BURN!" Screamed the thing in response, dashing through a hundred guardsmen with its wings open, tearing them to pieces in a single motion. Its claw opened as it grabbed a commissar by the head, lifting it high and crushing it to pulp, drinking from the blood it created. Its tail lashed out, impaling through the skull the ogryn that had roared in anger and tried to protect its master, tossing the body of the giant like a ragdoll into a group of guardsmen, crushing them on impact.
It turned to face the remaining guardsmen, a snarl of rage on its face, a burning red X shining ominously from its visor.
One man started to run. Then another. Like a flood it spread through the army, guardsmen running away in terror at the sight of a thing that could survive an orbital bombardment treating their commanding officers like particularly fragile chewtoys.
Commissars began firing blindly into the panicked mass, getting fired upon in return. And still the thing moved, relentlessly, massacring any that came under its claws. It grabbed the barrel of a leman russ tank, lifting it above its head as it flew before tossing it into a basilisk artillery, the detonation powerful enough to start a chain reaction that made the chaos even greater.
Suddenly it flew into the air, a shockwave slamming into the fleeing guardsmen as it broke through the sound barrier. One man dared look back, eyes widening as he saw it pierce through the cloud layer…
And come falling back down at greater and greater speed.
When it impacted on the ground, the ground danced like the waves of the ocean as it hit it as hard as a falling meteor, sending vehicles crashing to the side and debris flying into the fleeing guardsmen.
In under a minute, the entire camp was destroyed, its troops either dead or fleeing as the thing relentlessly hunted them down.
And high in orbit, Victoria Blackstar felt the first grips of fear clutch at her chest.
Daran Solidaus. Chapter master of the Burning Steel space marine chapter. A veteran of a hundred battles across more than five dozen worlds.
Never before had a single opponent turned the tide of a campaign so ruthlessly. This was the work of titans, not infantry.
And yet he was forced to accept that such was the case as the maddened Khorne possessed Abominable Intelligence massacred his men before turning the imperial guard base into a slaughterhouse. A hundred thousand men, dead in a matter of minutes.
He'd made the call to order the orbital bombardment when the thing had finished dispatching the few space marines remaining within the city. He could not simply stand back and watch as the brave men and women of the guard tried to stand against that which could massacre even his greatest warriors.
He'd known the risks. Heard of them from the mouth of Victoria Blackstar herself, who'd described with haunted eyes as cruisers filled with perfectly loyal servants of the Emperor turned their weapons on each other, destroying one another in the orbit of this death world.
Even as the weapons had begun priming themselves, interference had struck. The servitors had started seizing up, the tech priests panicking as the machine spirit of the barge seemed to lose itself in terror, the engines activating themselves as it tried to flee from the world. They had managed to force the bombardment through, but it hadn't been as precise as it should have been. And as a result, the thing had been free to wipe out the remaining imperial assets on the world.
There were others, of course. Smaller bases established at different spots to prevent just such an event from eliminating their presence on the world entirely. But these were smaller in scale and fewer in numbers; And if a hundred thousand troops, dozens of space marines, aerial assets, artillery and armored brigades could not kill that thing…
Daran could not lie to himself. The men and women left on this world were all dead. It was only a matter of time.
"Chapter master." He turned, finding one of his brother in arms standing at attention. "The marshall requests your presence for a high command meeting to discuss the recent events."
"Thank you brother." He turned to the rattled ship crew. "Pull us away from orbit. If whatever caused the interference can force our guns to fire, the last thing I want is to condemn the few remaining troops we have to our own fire." He could feel palpable relief as the ship began to move away from the world, the planet growing smaller and smaller from the viewing bay. He made his way to the communication room, finding his second in command, captain of the first company, already present. Their expression was grim; Not that Daran could blame him. Losing a dozen terminators of the first company was a massive loss, no matter how close to success they'd come.
"Chapter master." The captain greeted him respectfully.
"Put us through, if you will." An instant later, the flickering holograms of five individuals came to life in the room.
The first was Victoria Blackstar, the marshall in charge of the Horin Fourth Army. The reason he and his men came here, suspecting possible heresy and a gathering of traitorous troops. The truth was somehow worse.
The second was Victoria's resident lead tech-priest, one still showing some signs of human flesh and skin. Not nearly as lost to the path of the machine as Daran had seen before from other tech-priests.
The third was that damnable condemned inquisitor. He only carried the rosette as a technicality. And it was he who had first brought the suggestion of Men of Iron to Daran, only confirmed by Daran's dear friend.
The fourth was the planetary governor in charge of the formerly only inhabited world of this system, Gormand. Daran had nothing but contempt for the man, who was so typical of your usual politician that he knew better than to expect any genuine aid from him unless extracted through coercion.
And the fifth was a figure unknown to Daran; A tall man with a gaunt, exhausted expression.
"Chapter master. Thank you for answering my request." The marshall began, keeping her tone respectful. Good. The marshall had proven herself a reasonable individual so far, respectful of Astartes strategic autonomy in such campaigns.
"It is of no concern." He said dismissively. "I see a new face amongst us?"
The man cleared his throat, nodding. "Renauld, my lord, from the Stellar Institute. We were the first to inform the governor of the presence of the new planet in the system, and have been leading the research in all aspects relating to it since."
A man of science, and one not affiliated with the Adeptus Mechanicus. This could be either very good, or very very bad.
"I see. I will ask this. Are you all aware of the latest developments planetside?"
"Yes. I've briefed them before you joined in chapter master." The marshall said with a grim expression. "As of now, we only have a couple of regiments down there, and they're sitting ducks. I'm organising an evacuation, but I'm not holding my breath that we'll get there in time."
"This is preposterous. What sort of madness are we dealing with?!" The governor said with an angry scowl. "You are telling me a single xenos was enough to defeat an entire army? And your own astartes, chapter master?"
"Yes." The words from the ancient spare marine seemed to surprise the governor. "I am. One of my aides has been compiling all information we have managed to gather on our foes so far. I come with his conclusions so we may decide on a plan of action."
"I see." The marshall said, giving a nod. "Then by all means chapter master. We are listening."
Daran pressed a button on the display, an image of one of the abominable intelligences appearing on each of the participant's displays. This one wore a coat and a hat; The very first entity they had encountered planetside. "As part of his work, my aide has taken the liberty of naming that which has remained until now nameless. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you an until now unknown type of Abominable Intelligence: The Steel Reaper." He let the name settle for a time, but it was the words that preceded it that got the strongest response.
"Abominable Intelligence." The tech-priest said in a harsh buzz. "You are certain of this?"
"No. But I am quite confident in these findings. The observed patterns fit. Regardless, this entity has been designated as 'Unit-1'." He pressed another button, the display changing to the steel reaper with its wings opened and its claws out, a yellow X on its face as it grinned. "It is capable of feats of speed and strength that are, quite honestly, horrifying. Supersonic flight, capable of keeping up and even outpacing valkyries. On the ground they are slower, but only just. Their reflexes make anything save for concentrated fire from hundreds, if not thousands of different weapons all but useless. We do not have any soldier or machine that has proven to be able to catch them off guard save when they were previously injured, or subjected to a number of attacks that made dodging all but impossible. Their strength is on par with what I would expect from an imperial knight, if not a scout titan, rather than an infantry sized unit. This, combined with the variety of weaponry they are able to switch to…" He switched between multiple displays showing the steel reaper with its arms in a number of different combinations. "Has made them incredibly lethal and dangerous opponents."
"Then just bomb them and be done with it!" The governor snarled. "If they are as dangerous as you state, sending our troops down there, astartes or otherwise, is just feeding meat to the grinder."
"You are wrong governor. For despite this, we actually were winning." He changed the display to one of a steel reaper, clearly heavily injured, flying through the air as it held another in its arms. "We have observed four different models of steel reapers so far. Their main distinctive features are clothing, hair, and visor color. One in particular displays a purple visor, and was only present during the attack on the initial landing of imperial guard. It should not be discounted, but so far these three in particular have proven the most aggressive in their assaults on our forces. And we sent two on the run." A cold smile came to his face. "They got greedy. Their hit and run tactics were proving effective, but when the castellan chose to march out to meet them, they got bogged down, which is when our aerial assets, combined with a surprise assault from my astartes, successfully injured one and crippled another." He sighed. "Unfortunately, our foe has proven capable of regeneration, but we were winning. Outpacing them. Even the arrival of the third steel reaper was enough to shift the tide. A squad of terminators from the first company was about to put them down… when this happened."
He pressed a button, and the display was changed to one that elicited a startled gasp from the governor and a sharp intake of breath from the scientist.
"What… is that?" The governor said, eyes wide.
"Demonic possession." Daran said grimly. "I am afraid that I am limited in what I can share with civilians here." He said, giving the marshall a significant look.
"Governor. Sir Renauld. Please depart from this communication."
"What! I am the governor, you cannot…"
"I can and I will. Leave."
There was some more spluttering, but eventually the governor left. The scientist remained a moment longer. "Chapter Master. I merely wanted to highlight an approaching warp signature heading to the system. I was unsure if the governor had relayed this to your forces yet."
"The warning is appreciated. We were made aware thankfully."
"Of course. If you will excuse me." With that, the silhouette flickered out.
"Demonic possession." The inquisitor sighed. "Never mind that, a demonically possessed man of iron. Emperor preserve us."
"We are unsure of that, inquisitor. An abominable intelligence, certainly, but a man of iron? That remains to be seen." Daran reminded him. "As you can see, this is a clear sign of Khornate influence."
The figure stood at nine feet tall, wings opened wide behind itself. Its mouth was open in a snarl, jagged teeth dripping with blood. Its visor displayed a blood red X.
"I have seen worse." Victoria commented, her eyes narrowed. "But if the capacities you describe are accurate… and from what I have seen myself, they are, then we have a big problem on our hands." She shook her head. "With orbital bombardment not being an option, we are limited in the firepower we can bring to the ground. Any concentration of force will doubtless attract its attention, and will result in us being unable to bring enough to reach the critical point where it is overwhelmed."
"Indeed. However, that is not the worst of it."
"It isn't?" The inquisitor asked.
"No. Show them." With that, the first captain displayed the next picture, a chilling silence following it.
For the display showed the spire the creature had run to, now covered in bloody corpses, an ominous red glow at its heart.
"Emperor save us… it's doing a ritual." The inquisitor said. "This… this is too much. We must request additional forces. This isn't something that can be dealt with by conventional forces."
"Agreed." The chapter master said, nodding to the group. "Which is why I have already taken the liberty of sending out a distress call. One baring the mark of the Adeptus Astartes." He grinned. "If this doesn't get some attention, nothing will."
"And in the meantime?" Victoria Blackstar asked. "Are we to do nothing? Inaction ill suits us."
"We observe. We prepare. And if we get a chance, we strike. My brothers will remain in a state of readiness so that drop pods may be deployed at a critical juncture if required." He turned his eyes to the inquisitor. "Do you believe you can obtain aid from the wider Inquisition?"
The inquisitor was silent, staring at the display before him for a long, long moment. "...Perhaps. They would not listen to me before, but with these images… perhaps they will see reason."
"Then it is decided." Daran said with a firm nod. "I will return to my forces."
"Understood. This war council is dismissed." Victoria said, the holograms fizzling out of existence.
V's sensors were flashing alarm after alarm as she regained consciousness, her processor finishing its enforced reboot from an outside source.
She groaned, slowly getting up to her legs, freezing at the sight before her.
The corpse spire was bleeding red. Covered in thousands and thousands of human bodies, each impaled violently on the bodies of the worker drones that had composed it, a strange, eerie red glow pulsating from the heart of the spire.
"What…" She said, the memories of the recent events flashing. "N!" She yelped, looking around with hollowed out eyes.
"He's gone." The voice made her whirl, finding J leaning against the spire, her expression tired. "Went hunting the remaining humans." The former leader gave her a tight smile. "He was worried about you, warbling like some lost bird."
"J…" V snarled. "What the hell happened?! N, he… he became… red?" She said, though it sounded more like a question than she liked.
"Unclear." J said with a shrug. "I regenerated to a point of being conscious at some point before you arrived. Moron bot apparently tried to get us out of danger when things went south." She chuckled without humor. "Unsurprisingly, he didn't even think of leaving me behind. Typical." She sighed.
"Yeah, about that, why the hell were you fighting the humans?!" V said, stomping over to J and tapping her chest with a claw. "We said not to engage! We were meant to wait till we knew more, and oh I don't know, MAKE SURE ALL OF US WERE THERE!"
J snarled, slapping the hand away. "Oh get off your high horse miss genocide! You and I both know what it's like when you get in the thick of it! Not my fault the dumbass lost himself so thoroughly! We were just meant to hit and run, and he got stuck in deeper than he should have!" She rolled her eyes. "Regardless, we got here, some big ass humans in armor showed up, and then you did. Seeing you about to get killed must have pissed him off something fierce, because next thing I know he's screaming bloody murder and I've got some solver program running to prevent outside influence."
V's tail flicked, agitated. "Get to the point!"
"I was! Jeez, I thought he was the one with a crush on you, not the other way around!" J said mockingly."
"J…"
"Fine, fine." The pigtailed robot said, though she looked somewhat unsettled as she continued. "Moron bot… I'm not sure what happened. He grew bigger. Tougher. Started absolutely massacring the humans, then he went off to their base. Next thing I know a chunk of the city gets blown up from space, there's explosions everywhere, and N comes back dragging corpse after corpse to the spire, nailing them to it. I tried to confront him, but he just… ignored me." J softly said. "Just walked up to you, tried to wake you up, and when that failed he fucked off. Seemed pissed, so I'm assuming he went after more humans." She gestured to the spire. "Oh yeah, and THIS thing started glowing ominously red, so no clue what that's about… can't be good though."
"...Damnit." V said, her eyes widening. "Damnit! I have to go find him!"
"Wow, why? He seems to be doing more than alright. Got rid of our human problem too." J said with a grin.
"You cannot tell me you believe any of this is normal." V said with a glare. "N is… he's not like us. He doesn't actually like killing."
"Uh, duh it's not normal. But as much as I hate to say it, moron bot has always been strong. And whatever this is, it's made him even stronger. I'm not fancying our chances to make him stop."
"Well I'm not going to just… sit back and wait!" V said with a snarl. "Like hell! I'm going after him." She froze as she tried using the team tracker. "Wha…"
"Yeah, about that. Tracker isn't working anymore. No clue where he is. And with how fast he moves? He could be anywhere on the planet at this point." J said with a sigh.
"Uzi." V suddenly said. "She's our admin. She could find him."
"What, the toaster?" J let out a snort. "SHE'S your admin? Oh man, no wonder Cyn is pissed at her." She nodded. "Alright. Let's go find her."
V opened her wings before stopping, turning to look back at J. "Wait, you're coming too?"
J looked away. "Much as I hate to admit it, N got into this shit trying to get me away from this mess. A mess he caused mind you, so he's still a fuck up." She sighed. "And that's not even getting into how pissed off Cyn would be if I let something happen to him without at least putting a token effort to help."
"How generous." V said sarcastically, but a part of her couldn't help but be relieved at J's support. No matter their issues with each other, for a very long time… it had been just the three of them.
With that, they both took to the air, V tracking down the admin signal towards Uzi.
Uzi was scared.
Scratch that, she was terrified.
N's signal had suddenly dropped off; The connection to him, whilst not severed, was heavily muffled. She couldn't get a solid read on his location. And those error messages…
The hell foreign interference?! Cyn?! No, that didn't fit, she knew what Cyn's interference looked and felt like, having had to fight it when restoring V's and N's memories, and that wasn't it. So it must have been something else.
The only question was what?
And who did she have to kill?
"Calm down." Doll said as she once more teleported mid air next to her, seemingly immune to the effects of gravity as she floated on top of a solver symbol. "You are losing yourself."
"Calm down?! You're telling me something possessed N, turned him into a mega murder drone on a rampage, and you want me to CALM DOWN?! Uzi snarled. "I am going to find whatever did this and rip it into pieces!"
"Uzi. Calm. DOWN." Doll said with a snarl. "You are of no help to anyone in this state. You didn't even let me finish my explanation!"
Uzi finally allowed her wings to stop propelling her forward, descending towards a roof. "Bite me! Alright, fine, what do I need to know?"
"I believe the entity currently messing with your pet murder drone is one local to this universe. An entity known as Khorne." Doll said with a disdainful tone. "Some sort of god of violence, blood and war. You can imagine why it would be interested in a tool of destruction like a murder drone."
"N isn't a pet or a tool!" Uzi angrily retorted. "And what do you mean a god?! Gods are real here?!"
"By a definition of god. I certainly disagree with it. But their power is obvious." Doll simply stated. "Regardless, what this means is that it is likely that the murder drone is in a borderline feral state. From what I briefly saw, that was certainly the case."
"Alright, so angry N, got it. I can handle it." She remembered the few times N had been trying to kill her, Uzi barely surviving through a combination of luck, quick thinking and N's own overly kind personality. "...I think."
"It would be unwise to do so."
"If you think I'm not going to do anything, you've got another thing coming Doll." Uzi said confidently, her wings opening. "Now either stay out of my way, or follow me."
"You edgy…" Doll sighed. "Whatever. I'll at least try and make sure you don't get…" Doll paused, turning behind them, her sneer growing. "Oh lovely. The other two are here."
"V!" Uzi said with some relief at the sight of the two disassembly drones as they landed next to them. "Oh, and J too I guess."
J scowled, crossing her arms. "Screw you, you union leader."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Uzi said, grinning fiercely.
"Bicker later, save N now!" V snapped. "Uzi! You're N's admin right? Can you find him?"
"So you guys know what's happening?"
"Berserker N." J simply said. "He's red and pissed off. That's about what we know."
"Right. We think he's possessed by some kind of god." Uzi said, receiving twin expressions of disbelief in return. "I know. I know. But it's the best lead we have right now."
"...Right, whatever!" V said with a hysterical laugh. "First Cyn, now some gods! Sure! Why not! What matters right now is getting N back to normal! Uzi, lead the way!"
"About that…" Uzi said nervously. "I'm not… sure where he is?"
"What."
"Something's messing with our connection. I can't get a read on it." Uzi said with a frustrated growl. "The best I can do is an approximate area, but that's still not very accurate."
"It'll have to do. We can disperse and track him down once we get close enough." V said firmly.
"Fine." Uzi said, her eyes narrowing. "Let's move."
The world was red.
N felt… strange. Like his body wasn't quite in lockstep with his thoughts, his mind always a little off what he was doing.
He saw the fear and terror in the eyes of those he slaughtered and whilst a part of him hesitated at that, wanted to back off, his body continued to massacre all in sight. And worse, there was a blanket of rage, of pure fury, layered over his entire emotional range, overpowering all that wasn't those two emotions entirely.
It was a terrible state to be in for him, and one he was hardly used to. Oh he'd felt anger before certainly, but this… this was different. Abnormal.
A rage not entirely his own.
And yet he continued. And yet he killed.
He descended from above onto another group of humans who screamed in fear at the sight of him, firing their weapons ineffectually. He picked the first up effortlessly, tearing them in half with barely a thought before using his tail to impale another through the chest. By the time that was done he was already splitting another in half, ripping through a fourth's chest with his teeth, and squeezing the head of a fifth.
They were so slow. So painfully slow. It was like the world was near frozen, and he was the only thing still moving.
It was finished all too soon. The corpses around him oozed that precious warm red that he felt a strange compulsion to bathe in. And yet, another compulsion, one even stronger, overrode it. Dictating his next move.
Bring the bodies back to the Spire. Add them to the pile.
And then…
Then what?
He wasn't sure.
He just knew he needed to.
He needed…
"You seem upset. Big brother N."
N froze. Then, slowly, he turned around, finding…
Her.
She looked identical to the last time he'd seen her, when Uzi had been upgrading him in preparation for the humans. Identical to what she had looked like in the mansion.
When she had…
When she…
Tessa.
Fury began building in him again, the X on his visor glowing even brighter. "You…" He growled.
"Me." Cyn said, her ever present small smile on her face. "Annoyed expression. I should have known better than to leave you alone. You always were the susceptible sort."
"I won't let you hurt them."
"Confused. Hurt who? Uzi and the others?" She tilted her head, her hand reaching up to grab it. "I am not the threat here, big brother. What happened to you?"
N took a step towards her, his wings opening wide as his claws twitched. "I needed… I needed strength. I couldn't protect them. I was too weak. It… it offered strength."
"Reproachful. You accepted a deal from one of these… things?" Cyn's expression glitched for a moment. "Extremely annoyed expression. If it was strength you needed. You could have simply asked."
He couldn't help himself. He laughed. "Ask who? YOU? The one who made me into this… thing in the first place! You killed everyone! You made us into killing machines to massacre the worker drones! You're trying to possess Uzi!" He snarled. "YOU ARE THE THREAT!"
Cyn did not move. "Concerned. Are you… that reluctant to accept my help?" She took a step forward. "Am I… unwanted, big brother N?"
He clenched his hands, the claws nearly cutting at his metallic skin. "You were never unwanted, Cyn. Not by me. But you ruined it. You ruined ME." He leaned forward. "I won't let you ruin anything else."
Cyn stared at him. "Regretful. I do not like this. I do not like you looking at me like this." Then, an eerie smile spread on her face. "Angry. Do not worry big brother. I will fix this. I will get this thing out of you, and then we can have a nice, proper family talk."
N snarled, lunging forward at full speed, a shockwave following him as he broke the sound barrier multiple times over, claws at the ready…
Only for Cyn to disappear from sight right before he could touch her, his strike impacting the ground with a resounding crack as the earth split open, dirt and debris flying around him. He did not give himself a second to pause, his optics already scanning for his target.
He found her floating a few dozen meters away, her normal calm smile back on her face. Around her were dozens of massive rocks ripped straight from the ground, each highlighted by a solver symbol. With a flick of the finger they were flung at N, the disassembly drone howling in rage as he dashed towards her, dodging the rocks with expert movement. Cyn watched him arrive with a placid expression, raising a hand illuminated with the solver symbol towards him before an annoyed tick appeared on her visor, the maid disappearing once more right before N could hit her.
"STOP DOING THAT!" N shouted, whirling to face her as she reappeared some distance behind him.
"Annoyed expression. Of course. Uzi is your administrator now. You are non-interactive. This makes this… harder."
She had barely finished speaking when N seemed to almost appear behind her with his fist raised, swinging it down with incredible strength only for it to be caught in the maid's smaller hand. The shock of that was enough to snap N from rage to confusion for a second as the maid's head twisted one hundred eighty degrees, a wide smile on her face.
"You forget big brother. I made you." She swung him around, throwing him hard enough to create a sonic boom as he was flung at supersonic speed from her, N desperately trying to use his wings to regain control of his movements only for Cyn to appear above him. "Everything you can do, I gave you the capacity to." She swung her fist down, sending him cratering into the ground. She landed in front of him, N extracted himself from the hole in the ground she'd created by smashing him down. "And everything you can do, so can I." She opened her hand, a small rock floating behind her as it started seemingly vibrating faster and faster, N's sensors displaying a number of warnings at the sight. "And more so even. Tell me big brother, are you familiar with the concept of a relativistic kill vehicle?" N flew up, firing a laser at her which she deflected with the solver. "Giggle. Let's start at one percent of the speed of light."
N's visor flickering to hollow red eyes as the rock was flung at him.
The impact shattered through his right arm, annihilating it in an instant. His sensors were freaking out over how absurd what they had just witnessed was, watching an object go from completely standstill to a speed of three thousand kilometers a second, only for the impact of the rock against a building in the distance to create a massive detonation that sent him flying forward uncontrollably.
This was insane. Cyn's power was insane. She…
N watched in disbelief at the absolutely nonsensical amount of debris floating above him ominously. There must be tens of thousands of tons of rock. How did she? Without him noticing?
He knew the solver could create objects out of thin air, he'd seen Doll do as much by duplicating a single knife into multiple during the prom, but this much?!
He needed more power.
More!
A flood of red surged through him, his entire visor glowing red as he let out a roar, flying upwards and smashing through the rocks directly towards Cyn who gave him for the first time in their fight a surprised expression.
She disappeared, as he expected, but he was already pouncing on her as she reappeared. And just as he suspected, she wasn't able to teleport immediately after already doing so. His claws wrapped around her wrist, his lips stretching into a vicious grin as he crushed it, growing annoyed as Cyn failed to react to the damage.
"Got you." He growled, his tail flicking forward towards her.
She dodged, moving out of the way and severing her own arm to escape his grasp. He watched in annoyance as she regrew it near instantaneously.
He didn't waste a second as he pursued her, his downward strike getting intercepted by her arm. For a few seconds they began exchanging blow after blow at ridiculous speed, the air trembling and shaking with each impact as they clashed. The more he failed to do any progress the more frustrated he grew. Why was he so damn weak?! Why couldn't he do even this one thing right?!
This was why J mocked him.
This was why V had been forced to play a role she'd hated for years.
This was why Tessa…
He screamed in pure rage, the sound so powerful it cracked Cyn's visor. Slowly, but surely, he began to gain the upper hand in their clash.
He punched her in the stomach, feeling the metal crunch under his fist. He slammed her across the face, another crack across her visor. A chainsaw hand cut off one of her legs, and a kick sent her flying backwards into a nearby hill, creating a crater from the impact.
He flew right after her, slamming above her as she dodged, her body already regenerating.
"Surprised. You are stronger than expected big brother."
"BLOOD!"
"Ah. Of course. The parasite." Cyn said, dodging out of the way of a claw swipe. "Annoyed."
"BLOOD!"
"Bored expression. Do you not have any other lines?"
"YOUR SKULL WILL LINE THE SKULL THRONE!"
"Amused smile. I do not have a skull, idiot." She opened her hand, another rock appearing before her. "Ten percent."
The explosion that resulted from the rock going from no speed to ten percent of the speed of light blinded N, his body shattering from the sheer power of the impact, the land being torn apart from the rock slamming into the dirt below.
Even as he regenerated, Cyn appeared in front of his broken body. "Problematic. I believe I will need the help of Uzi and her admin permissions." She said, her smile back in place. "This is proving harder than expected."
"...I loved you, you know." N said quietly, Cyn freezing in her motion. "That wasn't a lie. I loved you as much as I loved all the others."
"...Confused. Big brother?"
"But you've done too much. I can't risk it." He rose to his full height, regeneration complete. "This will hurt me as much as it will hurt you."
Cyn stared at him for a moment. "...Furious expression. When I am done with this, I am going to make Khorne wish it had never so much as looked at you."
"You will try."
And in the distance, four figures watched in a mixture of fear and disbelief as the two entities clashed against each other, the world shaking underneath them as they did.
"...What the fuck am I watching?" J said with a strangled voice.
"That…" Doll seemed intimidated. "That is her. The Absolute Solver."
"I knew Cyn was strong, but this is…" V said with a trickle of fear in her voice. "How in the world is N keeping up?"
"He is not. She is still holding back." Doll said grimly. "She has not used her strongest ability."
"The hell can she do that's worse than all of that?!" Uzi exclaimed, her wings twitching as she registered the urge to just plunge down and help N as Cyn slammed him into a cliffside.
"Null." Doll quietly stated. Somehow, the word resonated with Uzi. The end of all things. Annihilation to a level unmatched. Something that could destroy that which should be untouchable.
…Was she capable of that?
Something told her she could.
She glanced at her hand. Willed for it to appear. And for the briefest of flicker, an orb of pure darkness, surrounded by a halo of purple with the word [NULL] appeared in her vision before flicking out of existence.
None of the others had noticed. Had it even been real?
"...Alright, here's the plan, idiots." J suddenly spoke up. "V and I are going to go in there and play distraction."
"What?!" Uzi cried out. "Absolutely not! You'll get yourselves torn apart!"
"Let me finish!" J snarled. "Cyn is beating him up, but that's all she can do, otherwise she would have fixed this already. If my theory is correct, N won't try and hurt me. And he certainly won't want to hurt V. We can keep him unbalanced. Between that and Cyn's ability to lay the smackdown on him, we can keep him pinned down for long enough for Uzi to get close and try and use her admin permissions to do something about this."
"Risky plan." V said, a smile on her face. "Not like you to put yourself in the line of fire like this J."
"Shut it."
Uzi stared at the red stained form of her best friend. For some time, her only friend.
N had been the one to help her get out of that spiral of despair she'd found herself stuck for so long after her mother's death. He'd been by her side through all of the craziness of her strange powers.
Like hell was she about to leave him behind.
"Let's do this." She said, her eyes glaring down at N.
Whatever it was that was fucking with her friend, it could bite her.
She was going to kick its ass for messing with him.