"Victor," he said, leaning back in his chair like we were old friends. "You made it. I was beginning to think you'd gotten lost in my little maze downstairs."
"Your 'little maze' is full of corpses now." I stepped into the room, feeling the fifty percent of godly adrenaline humming beneath my skin. "Just like you're about to be."
He stood up slowly, straightening his tie. "Oh, you sweet, naïve little mortal. You think your parlor tricks are going to work on me? I've been watching you train, watching you struggle to reach even half of your potential. Do you know what I am?"
"A dead man."
That made him laugh harder. "I'm what your kind used to worship. What you used to sacrifice virgins to appease. I'm the shadow that falls when gods walk the earth." His form began to shift more dramatically now, suit melting away to reveal something that hurt to look at directly. "And you... you're just a man playing with power he doesn't understand."
I lunged at him, fifty percent fully activated. My fist should have gone through his chest, but instead it met something that felt like hitting a mountain. The impact sent shockwaves through the office, shattering every window, reducing the furniture to splinters.
He caught my wrist with one hand. "Too slow."
His backhand sent me flying through the office wall, through the building's exterior, and into the street below. I hit the asphalt hard enough to crater it, cars swerving to avoid the debris raining down. I rolled to my feet, spitting blood, as he stepped out of the hole I'd made in his building like he was taking a casual stroll.
"You know what the problem is with you humans?" he called down to me, his voice carrying despite the distance. "You think power is about how hard you can hit. But real power..."
He raised his hand, and I felt something grab me—not physically, but something deeper. My very soul being pulled upward against my will.
"Real power is about control."
I slammed into him at the fifteenth floor, both of us crashing through office after office. Cubicles exploded around us as we grappled, my enhanced strength barely letting me keep up with his casual movements. I drove my elbow into his ribs, heard something crack, but he just smiled and headbutted me with enough force to send me through three more walls.
We fell together, locked in combat as we plummeted toward the street. I managed to get my legs under me and kicked off his chest, sending him crashing into a parked truck while I landed in a crouch. The truck exploded on impact, flames licking at his silhouette as he emerged unharmed.
"Is that all?" he taunted, brushing imaginary dust off his shoulders. "I've fought toddlers with more conviction."
I charged him again, moving faster than sound. My fist connected with his jaw, the sonic boom shattering every window in a three-block radius. He staggered back a step—the first time I'd actually moved him—but then he was smiling again.
"Better. But still not enough."
His counterattack was like being hit by a freight train. I flew backward through a storefront, through the building behind it, and into the next block. I tasted blood, felt ribs crack, but the adrenaline was already healing me as I rolled to my feet.
We clashed in the middle of the street, moving so fast that to anyone watching we'd be nothing but blurs of violence. Each impact created craters in the asphalt, sent cars flying like toys. I grabbed a fire hydrant and swung it at his head—he caught it one-handed and used it to clothesline me through a bus.
"You're getting slower," he observed, walking through the wreckage toward me. "That little boost of yours is finite, isn't it? How much longer can you keep this up?"
I didn't answer. I was too busy trying to breathe through what felt like a punctured lung. The fifty percent was keeping me alive, but barely. Every hit he landed felt like it was designed to break something fundamental inside me.
He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground. "I'll tell you what—I'll make this quick. You've provided decent entertainment, but—"
I drove both fists into his sides, the impact sending us both flying in opposite directions. I crashed through a restaurant, he went through a bank. We met again in the middle of the street, trading blows that shook the foundations of nearby buildings.
That's when he got serious.
His next punch didn't just hit me—it sent me flying across the city. I crashed through building after building, each impact sending debris raining down on innocent people below. I finally came to rest in what used to be a shopping mall, my body embedded in the food court's floor.
"You want to see real power?" his voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Let me show you what a false god can do."
He appeared above me, dark energy crackling around his hands. I rolled away just as he brought his fist down, the impact vaporizing the entire mall and creating a crater that went down to the bedrock. The shockwave leveled six city blocks.
I staggered to my feet at the crater's edge, watching him rise from the destruction like some primordial force of nature. The fifty percent was failing me. I could feel it flickering, my body starting to shut down from the abuse.
"Disappointing," he said, floating toward me with casual malevolence. "I expected more from—"
His casual blast missed me by inches as I dove away, but I watched in horror as it continued its path, cutting through the earth like it was paper. The ground split, the crack spreading faster than the eye could follow. I felt the continental plate shift beneath my feet.
The crack spread for thousands of miles in both directions, bisecting the continent. Cities fell into the chasm. Millions of people screamed as they plummeted into the abyss. The earthquake that followed would be felt around the world.
"Oops," he said without a trace of remorse. "Collateral damage. But don't worry—you'll be joining them soon enough."
Something inside me snapped. Not just broke—shattered completely. The fifty percent wasn't enough. It had never been enough. All those people, dead because I couldn't protect them. Dead because I was too weak.
I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling for that deeper well of power I'd always been too afraid to touch. The entity had warned me—my body couldn't handle the full surge. It would tear me apart from the inside.
But what was my life compared to the millions I'd failed to save?
"One hundred percent," I whispered, and opened the floodgates.
The pain was indescribable. It felt like every cell in my body was being torn apart and rebuilt, like liquid fire was replacing my blood. I screamed, and the sound shattered windows for miles around. I could feel my skin beginning to crack, hairline fractures appearing along my arms and face. My bones were grinding against each other, my muscles tearing from the sheer force they were trying to contain.
But the power...
I looked up at Black Exodus, and for the first time since this fight began, I saw something other than amusement in his eyes. I saw concern.
"That's impossible," he breathed. "No human can—"
I moved faster than thought itself. IVE HIT 100% OF MY CURRENT POTENTIAL! ILL FUCKING KILL YOU! One moment I was standing in the crater, the next my fist was buried in his stomach. The impact created a sonic boom that leveled what remained of the surrounding buildings. He doubled over, black ichor spilling from his mouth.
"Three minutes," I said, my voice distorted by the power coursing through me. "That's all I need."
He tried to grab me, but I was already gone, appearing behind him to drive my knee into his spine. The crack was audible even over the chaos. He stumbled forward, turning to face me with genuine anger in those void-black eyes.
"You don't know what you're doing!" he snarled, dark energy swirling around him like a hurricane. "That power will kill you!"
"I know." I could feel my body continuing to deteriorate, cracks spreading across my skin like a broken mirror. "But it'll kill you first."
We clashed again, but this time I was the one setting the pace. Every punch I threw hit with the force of a nuclear weapon. Every kick sent shockwaves through the earth's crust. I grabbed him by the throat and drove him down through the planet's surface, through bedrock, through the mantle itself.
We fought in the earth's core, surrounded by molten rock and impossible pressure. I could feel my body failing—bones turning to powder, organs shutting down—but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. Two minutes left.
I wrapped my hands around his head and squeezed. His skull began to crack, that perfect façade finally showing damage. He screamed, and the sound made reality itself shiver.
"This is for everyone you killed," I said, and drove my fist through his chest.
My hand came out the other side, clutching something that might have been a heart if hearts were made of crystallized darkness. He looked down at the hole in his chest, then back at me with something that might have been respect.
"Impressive," he wheezed. "But you're dying, Victor. Was it worth it?"
I crushed whatever I was holding. He screamed one last time and dissolved into shadow, then nothing at all.
I collapsed to my knees in the molten rock, feeling the hundred percent finally begin to fade. My body was failing completely now—I could see bone through the cracks in my skin, feel my heart struggling to beat with what little blood I had left.
But I was smiling.
One minute left, and Black Exodus was dead. The city was in ruins, the continent was split in half, and I was dying. But the monster was gone. That had to count for something.
I closed my eyes and let the power fade, feeling my consciousness slip away as my body finally gave in to the damage.
It was worth it.