From Meditat's perspective, high in the air, he just stares at the colossal mushroom cloud that's devoured the black tree, which had devoured the headquarters defining so much of his life. He watches as several blocks surrounding the tree are similarly eviscerated, the skyscrapers collapsing from the sheer strength of the explosion, as knowing the district is evacuated has made such a dangerous act easy to execute without a second thought.
In fact he doesn't glance at any of those buildings, but rather keeps his sharp glare straight at the center of the mushroom, waiting in the air, seeking out a single entity. His starry eyes don't shutter from the wind, the cold doesn't bother him as snowflakes plant themselves on his shoulders, for in this moment he's entirely concentrated on the one being he's been waiting for all since he's woken up.
Through his vision, centered on the frosty mushroom cloud, at the very center of the cloud appears a strange black dot, one that's hardly registerable even against the bright background, and therefore Meditat immediately detects it.
Without waiting, Meditat aims his hand towards the dot and ignites his palm, but before he could deploy a construct, he watches as from that dot grows a titanic black smoke –a pure darkness manifested over light–, one that swiftly grows over the entire mushroom cloud, encasing it entirely within a couple second along with the surrounding blocks of destroyed towers. Just as it reaches those blocks, the fog disperses at an instant, revealing the complete absence of the mushroom cloud.
Even from much further away, Kokei watches the mushroom cloud vanish into the black fog that then vanishes, bewildered as her head tilts, unable to make sense of the sight.
Up in the air, Meditat just stares blankly at where the headquarters once stood, where the tree once stood, where the mushroom cloud once stood, and where now there's nothing left but the foundation of the block, the plot of land, for not even the rubble remains. It's as if the entire chunk of space within the area had been simply and totally erased.
Yet what's baffling most is how it wasn't just physical material that was erased, but the raw energy output of the explosion itself, like his attack had been nullified. That's what keeps Meditat staring in disbelief with a hanging mouth, hovering in the air, the white light of the sky behind him as the explosion no longer dominates the area. But that white light reaching his cape is blocked at an instant upon the appearance of the brute clad in jagged dark green stone plating residing over the black abyss crawling with white caustics, its stature notably vastly greater, about ten feet tall as it towers over him.
Immediately, Meditat's befuddled expression shifts to horror, his eyes popping wide as he turns around, raising his right arm which breathes fire to form a crystal circular shield just as the Fallen backhand slaps it, propelling Meditat like a meteor straight towards the barren block where the tree had stood.
Even though Meditat reacts within a fraction of a second after the strike to airbrake with a countering boost, by that time he's already lost more than half of his altitude, the skyscrapers around him now towering over him. He notices the shield attached to his arm utterly shattered, thus he erases it while raising his head to where he just was, only for that view to be blocked up close by the body of the fallen again, catching just a brief glimpse of those hollow sockets where the eyes would be, defined only by the space between plates. Those sockets stare straight back between the curved stone spikes that protrude from the sides of the face, resembling ears, similar to the three taller spikes that rise above the head to resemble a demented crown.
Meditat instinctively crosses his arms over his chest as his forearms breathe a flame to construct a crystal wall just as the Fallen throws another physical punch, that one punch alone shattering the wall and furthermore expelling a gust strong enough to again launch Meditat backwards at bullet speed; he's sent straight into a skyscraper, the silver metallic exterior caving in on impact to let him be flung through an office room, crashing into an interior wall made of a thinner metal, carrying him into a corridor where his body bounces off the floor several times before he finally suspends himself with a pair of cables to stop himself inside a lobby at the end of that hallway.
His body rests upright, letting him plant his feet on the ground as he faces down the hallway which ends with a gaping hole leading to the office room that features another hole leading outside to the snowing city. That exit is then obstructed by the sudden appearance of the Fallen, before it reappears in front of the hole leading to the hallway, and as Meditat detaches his cables and leaps backwards, the stone giant appears directly in front of him, throwing a punch for his face.
Meditat extends his arms forward as his hands release a connecting fire that manifests a spear with a crystal head, and as his hips shoot cables to ground him once more he begins rapidly stabbing the Fallen's abdomen in exactly one spot, each stab shattering the head thus requiring a replacement he makes swiftly between strikes. The Fallen reaches for the long handle past the head, yanking it and Meditat towards itself while throwing an uppercut, one that Meditat narrowly dodges under the fist, all as his forearms manifest a pair of crystal gauntlets to reinforce his own fists while weaving in front of the Fallen's left ribs.
Reciprocating physicality, Meditat initiates a flurry of punches into the Fallen's ribs, rebuilding his gleaming gauntlets upon every punch, every strike accelerated with a propulsive boost to his arms enough to make his arms a blur. The Fallen growls again before raising its arm, using it to throw a downward punch to beat Meditat into the ground; Meditat is quick however to spin into a strafing leap, evading the punch which strikes the ground with such strength that the entire lobby floor crumbles, dropping that rubble onto the floor beneath though the Fallen's body remains in place, hovering. Also kept in the air is Meditat, who erases his gauntlets in favor of a pair of long daggers, and he propels himself in an arc under the Fallen's arm and around its back while spinning with both blades out, slashing its stone body like a human saw. Upon reaching behind the Fallen's nape, Meditat replaces his blades with a pair of nunchucks similar to the ones utilized earlier, letting the ends he doesn't hold be made entirely of crystal along with the chain, and he speedily swings both nunchucks directly at the nape which alone is broad enough to be a target. At the speed of his spins, the nunchucks blur into spirals of frosty luminescence, prompting the Fallen to bend slightly forward.
While executing this brutal beatdown, Meditat had briefly paused his own movement, a mistake that costs him as the Fallen suddenly flickers, teleporting not to change its position but its rotation, directly facing Meditat with its arm already winded back, throwing it on sight at Meditat's exposed head.
Eyes widening in terror at the immediate retaliation, Meditat's entire face ignites in a fire that materializes into a replication of his mask, the same groves present with meticulous sculpting for the parallelogram lenses, though the entire construct is crystallic, absorbing the punch directly though the man's body is still hurled backwards.
Once again, Meditat's body flies out of control, crashing through the lobby wall, flinging him into a row of cubicles one by one, his body bouncing off desks until reaching the last cubicle where he flies through a larger office room featuring a desk he bounces over in front of a lavish window screen stretched over the wall, one that Meditat collides straight through, punching out the digitized stream to expose the genuine view that does indeed perfectly match the screen.
Spinning as his body flies in the open air, Meditat –whose mask had entirely shattered– heals the several cuts in his face while airbraking again, his hands flaming in anticipation for the next strike. His breaths are heavy, having been thrown off by the aggressive physicality different from their first encounter where physical strikes were rare, for Meditat had anticipated more ranged attacks. In this brief moment distant from the enemy, his eyes bounce around to absorb the view of the city as far down the streets as he can see.
While currently he is by the center of the evacuated region, which itself is quite massive as an entire district had to evacuate with more neighbors leaving, he's aware that if the fight were to move too far it could reach populated portions of the city. Perhaps now he could strike with little worry for civilian casualties, but if they move too far in any direction, he wouldn't be so confident, potentially placing him in a difficult position of needing to weaken his attacks while protecting the civilians nearby.
That is, Meditat ponders, unless once again their battle is relocated, perhaps to an unpopulated area like before. In that case there wouldn't be any civilians for as far as he'd have to be concerned for, and he could focus exclusively on defeating this monster. It'd even be best if they relocate away from the Superverse entirely like before, as Meditat considers that he was able to enter that strange tunnel space that he may be able to use to return home after the battle's conclusion. He however reminds himself that it is absolutely paramount that he doesn't even think about attempting to open a gateway until the monster is absolutely defeated, for he can't stomach the thought of making a clumsy mistake that exploits him in a way that could result in another tragedy. No, he'd only even attempt to enter the tunnel once the monster is defeated, permanently, even if it means marking his first kill.
This series of thoughts occurring in a brief fraction of a second, Meditat's contemplation is interrupted by the emergence of the Fallen right in front of him, throwing its hand at him. Meditat's teeth clench as his first instinct is to dodge the strike, though he recalls that these punches have activated teleports to these other remote spaces. Meditat considers that perhaps the aggressive use of fists is an attempt to relocate their battle like before, and by fighting against it whether by dodging or blocking, he was avoiding those teleports when now he understands that it'd be best for the sake of civilians. So in a decision against his instincts, he doesn't boost away nor does he manifest a shield, instead he just lets himself hover in place, bracing himself for pain, knowing it's ultimately for the best. And so the stone fist does strike Meditat's right breast, launching his body backwards and blowing off an entire chunk of his body from his shoulder to his chest, blood and guts flinging into the air in front of Meditat's bewilderingly agonizing expression.
Crashing into the edge of a skyscraper, Meditat doesn't break through but rather bounces along the exterior wall, leaving minor craters that dent the material but nothing more. He groans in pain through gritted teeth, quick to regenerate the injury with a flame to patch the body, though he's left perplexed to find himself still in the city. Before reaching the end of the skyscraper, his eyes dart to the side to find the Fallen appearing next to him, its arm once again primed.
While Meditat's instincts again yearn to evade or block the incoming attack, especially after the first hit, he reminds himself that there were a few physical strikes he endured in the first encounter that didn't teleport him, and so he shouldn't give up just because the first contact failed. Keeping his teeth clenched, Meditat once more chooses not to boost away or construct walls, instead letting the winded arm unravel and punch him in the shoulder. Once again, his body is propelled, flung into the building he was bouncing off of, the entire right side of his torso blown off as he's hurled through offices, conference rooms with long tables, and lobbies until smashing through the other side of the building entirely, breaking out of the silver metallic exterior. His face tenses more against the brutal pain inflicted on his body which he once more regenerates, once again finding himself not teleported from the city or at all for he didn't detect that black flash.
Behind his flung body reappears the Fallen, which Meditat spins around to face. Two hits, and neither of them moved him. But for the sake of avoiding potentially massive casualties, two hits isn't nearly enough to draw conclusions, especially when in the first encounter he was dragged across so many locations in a brief span of time. Now he just needs a single relocation. As the Fallen's hand moves towards him again, Meditat notices the hand opening up from a fist, instead becoming a reach, indicating that it's now trying to grab him instead of punch him. Now more than before, this seems to be an attempt to relocate him, especially since this contact couldn't directly be registered as a strike. Against his mind and body's wishes, Meditat takes the bet again, leaving himself vulnerable to being grabbed by the chest.
Held by the chest, Meditat watches as the Fallen raises its arm holding him only to then throw him straight down with incredible strength.
His mouth gaping open in utter bafflement, Meditat just stares as his body is lobbed all the way down the skyscrapers around him, all the way down into the intersection below, making impact with a crater that consumes the entire intersection, causing him to cough out in pain, though at least the suit absorbs the fall's impact for him.
However, as metallic chunks of the black road are flung out of the intersection, the suit is unable to absorb the Fallen's fist as it along with the body appears right in front of Meditat, not standing upright but rather tilted parallel with him, able to punch down into his abdomen with ease.
That one punch immediately sinks Meditat deeper into the ground while simultaneously shattering the ground of both the crater and past, deepening the crater whilst widening it by double as it extends into the blocks where skyscrapers stand atop, destabilizing the foundation enough that the four towers around the intersection begin to collapse.
At the center of the deep crater, Meditat grits his teeth as hard as he can, enduring the pain as he glances down to find his entire torso gone, reduced to a red splat, leaving only the rim of his shoulder up to his head as well as his knees intact. He glances back up upon hearing the horrifying collapse, shadows quickly swarming the crater from the towers dropping on him, tilted into each other which results in a fourway collision that spills debris to fall straight for him.
Acting fast, Meditat regenerates his body from the shoulder down, letting his knees be erased in an open flame. It takes only about half a second for his full body to be rebuilt along with the suit, letting him stand back up as the rubble enters past the ground level, falling straight for him.
Watching the four silver skyscrapers collapse in on each other, their intersection leaving a rain of rubble crashing into the center crater from which a dense cloud of dust rises from, the Fallen hovers over an adjacent intersection from the collapse, comfortably high in the air. It doesn't move in its idle state, it just stands atop the air before the slow crumbling.
Gentle white snowfall descends upon the Fallen, though upon touching the stone shoulders where spikes protrude, it instantly melts or rather vaporizes as it leaves not even liquid.
Silently the beast observes the source of the loud booming, its face impossible to register emotion from due to its inflexibility, if it truly has a face to begin with as there are no eyes nor other facial features. Yet it doesn't seem like a mask either, the stone plating is the only solid material of the body, beneath that there is no other material to form a compartment, it's just a void, one that sizzles with white caustic light but a void nonetheless.
Dust forming a basin around the crater no doubt filled with rubble, the four towers have little left intact, as the roofs of each can be seen from the beast, much of it merged into a mass of falling debris, the last remnants nearing ground collision.
The tops of those towers soon descend past the beast, which is when from that amalgamated wreckage at the center of the four towers emerges a beacon of blue light, one that immediately tilts straight forward into the observer; the head of the beacon throws its fist at the Fallen's face, reinforced with a heavy gauntlet made of frosty crystal, only for the Fallen to catch the hand with its own. The impact releases an explosion of frosty energy in the form of bright radiance, enough that the Fallen's body slides slightly backwards before reappearing about fifteen feet back, distancing from the arisen hero.
Hovering in place, his pose remaining in follow through, Meditat stands too in the air as his suit uplifts him with a gentle, constant boost, though his eyes shift upon noticing that his entire forearm has been eviscerated. He simply chuffs and shakes his arm as from the bleeding wound emerges the blue fire that manifests into a new arm, reconnected with the suit. He opens and closes his hand while shaking his arm before returning focus to the Fallen, fury in his eyes after the sequence of punches leading him to the ultimate conclusion that the being had no interest in moving their fight elsewhere.
The pain endured through holding his hand out for that possibility reflects in his radiating eyes, and it does in his voice too as he shouts: "Hey, you wouldn't shut up about utter nonsense before, I'm shocked that I haven't heard a word from you!"
What seems to be an attempt at triggering a vocal response leads to nothing, as the Fallen just stares back at Meditat in silence, its face lacking any animated emotion. It is clearly attentive, even choosing to pause its onslaught of attacks to listen, though it doesn't speak back.
Noticing this silence, Meditat grins, though rather than out of any genuine delight it's instead out of irritation for the seemingly incomprehensible behavior of the being. He lets out a mixture of a chuff and chuckle before admitting, "Alright then, I won't complain. And I also figure you're content keeping the fight here, I guess there's nobody else to threaten you so why bother, right? I admit I'd have preferred a different arena, but it's fine."
Again, the Fallen doesn't visibly react, its body completely still like a statue with no changing expression, and again it doesn't speak in response. It just watches and waits.
That second provocation having failed, Meditat accepts and shakes his head, clicking his tongue. He opens and closes his hands as if exercising them, glaring straight at the Fallen to whom he declares to: "I'll destroy and rebuild this entire city if it means ridding you," before his hands are set ablaze.
With a single boost, Meditat thrusts himself straight at the Fallen and throws forward his right hand as both unleash fires that broaden immensely, both manifesting into titanic fist-shaped constructs with silver wrists and crystal hands resembling boxer gloves that extend his reach by about five feet, not attached physically to his wrists but instead levitating by those silver wrists featuring their own propulsion. The finished materialization occurs within less than a tenth of a second before making impact with the Fallen, hitting hard enough to knock its body back in the air, leaving an opening for Meditat who lowers his right arm to throw a punch with his left, the gloves following the movements of his own hands with perfect coordination as if it were an extension of himself. The left glove does make contact with the Fallen, however the beast throws a punch of its own into the glove, a clash that, despite the difference in size, results in the glove's crystal shattering as it is knocked backwards, same with Meditat who is flung down the street.
While flying towards the ground, Meditat spits out a flame straight to the street directly behind him. A second later he airbrakes and his back projects a cable to yank him backwards, just in time for the huge silver artillery cannon positioned on the street to thunderously fire its shot.
Due to Meditat's position and distance from the Fallen, that cannon was obstructed right until the zip, leaving about a quarter of a second from that zip to when the released crystal armament is a foot in front of the Fallen, effectively the same size.
But instead of the armament's tip striking the Fallen's body, the Fallen's reappeared body grabs onto the back of the armament before hurdling it, shaking its hand as if having just touched an active stovetop.
That armament now soars straight for Meditat, who swiftly boosts up to narrowly dodge the huge bullet, but as it begins to pass him the Fallen appears standing nearly atop the bullet, within reach to punch Meditat in the chest, though he manifests a vest over his suit to absorb the direct damage.
He's still knocked back far, crashing into a blocky skyscraper where he's knocked into cubic apartments, being flung through wooden hallways and bedrooms and crashing through a thin silver wall leading to another hallway until he's able to suspend himself inside a bedroom with whitish pink walls, just in time for the Fallen to appear in front of him to throw a backhanded slap for his face which he bobs underneath. He then boosts to slip around the Fallen as his arms and knees ignite before constructing a pair of gauntlets and boots, both sets featuring claws for the fingers and claws. Meditat leaps onto the Fallen's back, slashing it a few times, triggering the Fallen to swing its arm around and for Meditat to dash away, letting the arm instead strike empty white shelves along the wall, for the entire room was far too cramped for itself. Those shelves are blown away along with a chunk of the wall behind it, but Meditat doesn't pay mind to that as he instead thrusts himself at the Fallen to make a sweeping kick for the exposed neck, landing his hit to which the Fallen swings its arm again; Meditat dashes backwards onto the bed with white and pink embedded pillow cushions, his clawed feet gripping the mattress before he launches himself back at the beast, causing the bed to be pushed into the wall. He attempts a slash at the face with that launch, however the Fallen does successfully grab his forearm, raising its own arm to then throw him into the floor below, leaving another hole in the bedroom.
Meditat this time recovers much faster, only smashing through that floor before suspending himself inside the kitchen at the center of the floor before instinctively leaping to the side, anticipating the Fallen's next appearance trying to throw a punch that's already missed. Meditat regenerates his forearm which has been crushed entirely while his feet grab onto the white cabinets above the kitchen islands, letting himself again spring himself straight for the beast, once again prompting the Fallen to counter by swinging its arm. Meditat however boosts in a meticulous manner such that he circles around the beast's body, all as he runs his claws against the armor.
The attack is only successful until the Fallen simply thrusts its shoulder, enough to throw Meditat through the refrigerator and out the kitchen, flung into the open gray living room. His back bounces off a white leather couch before smashing into a row of white shelves. Colliding against it, he instinctively crosses his arms over his face just as the Fallen punches it, blowing Meditat through the wall and ultimately sending him hurtling back out of the building.
Without arms, Meditat flies away from the apartment building, but before he's able to regenerate them, the Fallen once again appears to deliver another strike. Meditat raises both of his feet which release a flame that forms a crystal wall, letting him kick off of them using his crystal boots one more time just before that wall shatters from the punch. Safely distant away, Meditat simultaneously regenerates his arms while erasing his crystal boots, and now that there's more space between him and the enemy, he throws forward both flaming hands which spread a wild blaze that reaches the ends of the streets before materializing into a massive fleet of pods with predominantly crystal bodies except for the silver underbody and trimming. That fleet –consisting of a variety such as bikes, SUVs, but most significantly semi trucks– immediately drives straight down the street at staggeringly great speed like bullets, recreating the city's traffic in a sense.
That traffic collides with the being in the middle of the road, who backhands the first bike off to the side, sending it flying away before raising its foot to kick back the next SUV, simply pushing them away from itself, though the semi truck that follows after does crash into its body, knocking it back slightly before it reappears a few feet to the right to dodge it. However there isn't a single lane, as more semi trucks drive straight for the Fallen, prompting it to uppercut the truck to send it flying upwards, yet again more continue to come: an endless barrage.
Growling under its breath, the Fallen faces another semi truck upon which suddenly a huge black ball of darkness like smoke appears in front of it, driving straight through the traffic in the other direction, wide enough to consume every pod in its path regardless of size. That smoke reaches the end of the traffic, approaching Meditat who hastily boosts back away from it before dashing down to evade it entirely.
Eyes wide, Meditat is initially stunned by the use of not just a ranged strike but one different from the black flashes he fought against previously, as this was something different, akin to what had extinguished his first attack on the tree. Whereas the black flashes seemed like a sudden annihilation of anything in a specific point in space, the fog was a slower but larger attack, able to encompass a larger space in a single strike. There were also the black streaks fired from the tree that were far quicker, like the flashes, but they had a longer path, making them far deadlier albeit easier to anticipate. He isn't even sure if those streaks were only possible due to the tree or if they can be used whenever desired, unknowns that leave uncertainty within Meditat.
He does then however dial his eyes upon reminding himself that he at least anticipated the black flashes and knew how to best counter them, and for the other variations, they at least could be registered before reaching him, meaning he could more easily evade them. He begins to turn his head towards where he last saw the Fallen, only for it to appear directly in front of him, throwing a punch which he dashes back to evade, though then from the fist releases a black streak into Meditat's ribs, penetrating directly through to leave a wound the size of the Fallen's fingers, about double his.
Shocked by the use of the streak, its radius notably significantly thinner but its application still usable and quick enough that he couldn't easily anticipate it, Meditat recovers the hole in his ribs just as the Fallen appears in front of him to throw another punch which he tries to block with the raise of his arm, forming a medieval shield to at least prevent piercing damage, successfully blocking that hit yet another streak fires from the Fallen's other hand, straight into his left breast.
Needing to regenerate this new wound, Meditat is hardly able to think before the Fallen throws another punch for Meditat's left shoulder, forming a wall in front of him to protect his whole body, only for the Fallen's fist to fire a fist-sized streak that breaches through that wall to let his fist pass through, an attack that feels familiar.
Before the fist can reach the chest, Meditat hastily manifests armor around his torso, featuring a tough chestplate along with other plates formed in a way that doesn't seem incredibly flexible but at least would have enough spacing for movement, and certainly trades flexibility for durability as that fist makes contact with the chestplate, breaking a hole through but leaving no injury underneath.
Meditat repairs the chestplate as the Fallen appears around the wall, and a black streak flies into Meditat's thigh, opening another wound to which Meditat first constructs a pair of armor around his legs. The Fallen then throws a punch for his face while a streak shoots his foot, prompting Meditat to simultaneously build a helmet and boots, covering his body in heavy armor.
Even then the Fallen doesn't stop but continues this barrage of punches along with streaks to attack different points on his body, forcing Meditat to constantly repair his armor everywhere, almost making it appear as if the armor is set ablaze whenever it's struck. His body rockets backwards with every punch yet the Fallen simply appears in front of him to deliver each next one, sending them crashing through several more skyscrapers as he's unable to easily slip out due to the multidirectional attacks.
But it's upon crashing into another building –featuring a large lobby area– that Meditat notices that every streak happens to fire from the Fallen's hands as though they require more precise control as opposed to the flashes and black smoke that seem to be triggerable without body motion. Realizing this, Meditat makes the dangerous move to erase all of his clunky armor in favor of a single crystal blade paired with a buckler shield used to anticipate and block the next streak which he does while swinging the blade into the Fallen's shoulder, making contact.
The Fallen stumbles back slightly from the strike, and so Meditat initiates a flurry of his own, swinging the blade repeatedly which the Fallen attempts to counter with more streaks, only for him to block them with the buckler shield, its vastly smaller size making it more maneuverable, the tradeoff fine either way given how he can much more easily anticipate each shot.
Each swing makes contact, letting Meditat start to pressure the Fallen who seems unable to puncture an opening in his barrage. Meditat in fact nearly tunnels onto the Fallen without noticing the appearance of a black fog beside its head, not until that smoke suddenly moves strangely in an arc, or rather a swing directly for him, prompting him to dash backwards with uncertainty of how well he can block that type of attack.
That dark smoke persists for an extra moment like a follow-through, as if a swing had been made through the air without any input from the Fallen's hand. It fades away, but before that Meditat has already moved to his next attack, dashing back again and erasing his sword and buckler, instead replacing them with a pair of handguns resembling desert eagles in size, but rather than using magazines contained in the handle they instead are fed by long belts hanging off the sides, belts that wave in the air. Extending his arms forward, Meditat's hips begin firing cables to start zipping him around the lobby before holding down the trigger to fire those guns at a speed like a minigun, causing those belts to be fed through quickly as cases eject out of the handguns with the speed of water spraying. The Fallen is noticeably agitated by the gunshots, but bears through it to face Meditat as black streaks –as wide as Meditat's face– appear from its hands before firing at him, only for him to dodge them with ease, for he is practically untouchable when on cables. Black flashes begin to appear near him too like mines, yet they're all dodged just the same, doing little but grazing chunks off the walls he bounces off of.
Realizing the struggle to land any strikes with precision, the Fallen clenches its fist before a bubble of black smoke appears beside it which is then drawn towards Meditat in a curve, who of course can evade it as it extends slower than the streaks. That fog passes him again, razing through the walls.
In fact, that smoke is drawn far enough that it reaches the other end of the tower, burning a hole through the silver exterior before then vanishing.
Unsuccessful with the first, the Fallen begins deploying a barrage of fog strokes one at a time as if using an eraser to try erasing a mistake off a page. Every stroke misses, cutting through the walls of the office building instead. The Fallen follows this up with one more black smoke stroke, however this one is remarkably wider, as if trying to cover its own vision before drawing it towards Meditat who finally empties his guns, tossing them away while making a sharp dash straight through the middle past the Fallen before spinning around to find that one stroke demolishing the entire half of the building on multiple floors.
With that half utterly destroyed along with the excessive cuts on the other side from the prior attacks, the structure is no longer able to hold itself, leading to the remaining walls crushing under the pressure, resulting in the ceiling falling down along with the many more floors above.
Glancing up towards that falling ceiling, Meditat returns his focus to the Fallen, igniting his hands as a fire bursts off his shoulders to construct an umbrella that unfolds above his head, not made of crystal but instead a silver frame that emits a repulsive energy field. The umbrella hovers independently as the handle has its own propulsors, letting Meditat keep his hands free to pull back the compound bow he manifests, equipped with three crystal arrows against the physical string, primed upon construction. Letting go, he fires those three arrows at the Fallen who dodges them by appearing directly in front of Meditat, throwing a punch which Meditat blocks with the rim of another chainsaw shield he constructs, just as the ceiling drops on them.
Neither of the two are affected by the ceiling as Meditat's protected by the umbrella and the Fallen simply pays no mind to it, and so as Meditat retaliates with a slash using that chainsaw shield only for the Fallen to grab it, leading to Meditat firing a sawed off shotgun point blank though most pellets are erased by a black flash yet some land, the entire upper half of the building falls through them, walls crashing on their heads along with desks, chairs, and miscellaneous stationary equipment.
Back and forth, Meditat constructs new weapons, swinging a mace towards the Fallen's head which is blocked as it severs the handle with its hand while simultaneously unleashing a small black flash in Meditat's ribs, stunning him for a punch to the face which he blocks with an oversized manifested helmet resembling a large yellow bear that uses a mechanical jaw equipped with crystal teeth to chomp down on the hand, stopping it in place for Meditat to exploit that extended arm and uppercut it with a glove that extends three long crystal blades off the knuckles, though those blades don't pierce as they're parried by a small black fog drawn over to sever them in once stroke. The Fallen yanks its arm back out of the bear helmet while firing another black streak that grazes Meditat's cheek and throwing a punch with its other hand, all happening fast enough for Meditat to only block that punch with a buckler head on, thrusting him with enough knockback to slam him out of the collapsing building.
Out in the open, Meditat notices the roof approaching before concentrating on the point of the building he was knocked out from. He winds his arm as his entire body is set ablaze, and as he throws his arm with a grabbing motion, his body explodes with a wide fire that manifests into a titanic giant about fifteen stories tall, its head just shy above the roof. The fully constructed giant is primarily encased with white artificial skin, though reinforced with armor plating around the body, a practically innumerable amount of plates shaped intricately to resemble the musculature of the human body, using nature to protect whilst maintaining flexibility. That flexibility is needed for the titan to land onto the side of the building by the top and reach inside just under the roof, grabbing the Fallen and ripping it out of the building as it slides down the collapsing tower.
It then pivots and pounces off of the skyscraper, raising its arm before slamming the Fallen straight into an intersection like it did to him previously, leaving a crater in the middle of the road.
One knee on the ground, the titan holds its pose in hopes to keep the opponent smothered underground, only for that opponent to reappear in front of the titan's face and punch it in the cheek, knocking the entire titan off the ground though it manages to land on its feet, just in time for the Fallen to appear in front of it again.
A brief exchange of fists is cast between the titan and Fallen, as the titan throws a flurry of punches with its crystal-armored hands at the Fallen who blocks them with its arms, where in one of those blocks it shoves the titan's arm off to the side, opening it up to a retaliatory punch in the chest.
The punch knocks the titan back down the street but only by about twenty feet, able to hold its ground as its feet cling to the road despite tearing it apart doing so. The Fallen continues its advance, appearing in front of the titan to clash blows back and forth despite fighting an opponent many magnitudes larger than itself yet still seeming to command stronger attacks. Among the flurries, the titan's right hand breathes a huge blaze that constructs a crystal knife that's swung at the Fallen, who backhands the blade, shattering it in pieces, but leaving itself open for a landing jab that knocks the Fallen back. That knock opens a window for the titan to follow with another punch, though one that's evaded as the Fallen instead grabs its extended arm to spin and hurdle the entire titan into a skyscraper, causing it to fly directly through, collapsing that building at once.
Emerging from the other side, the titan stops its flight by grabbing onto the side of the next tower, bending the silver exterior but managing to avoid breaking through. Facing forward, the titan's blue eyes –the only part of its body glowing with an azure shade instead of frosty– locks onto the Fallen who appears in front of the collapsing building, leaving distance between the two.
To close that distance, the titan leaps off the building as in its right hand it manifests an entire sword, just as a barrage of black smoke strokes slash at its limbs at different angles, chopping all four off one after another, though each stroke extends far longer than needed, cutting deep into the next building. One more stroke is made straight through the hips, cleaving the titan in half but doing the same to the tower behind it.
Just as the titan reacts to the cuts that severed its body despite the armor, the Fallen closes the distance itself to knock the giant back into the collapsing building with just enough force to leave it within the block, left to endure the entire collapse.
But as the severed titan lays there, just its torso and head being rained on by the falling tower, a flame bursts in its chest from which a comet fires from, blazing through the hailing debris to charge straight at the Fallen who reaches out for it in anticipation, prompting the head of the comet to strafe to the right, the excess energy dissipating off Meditat as he fires a flame towards the Fallen, though it flies past its shoulder, seemingly missing. No mind is paid to it as the Fallen throws a punch that Meditat blocks with a shield, angling it such that it dissipates the energy well enough to keep him from being knocked back again, just in time for that flame he shot past to finish constructing into a large spherical drone attached to a long cannon –the size of a semi truck– made of many barrels that all swivel independently, aiming down on the Fallen before unleashing a rapid barrage of bullets each sized like cannon ammunition but fired at the speed of a machine gun. The first few shots strike the Fallen's back, warranting a grunt, spinning around as a fog stroke slashes through the gun, disabling it, before trying to throw a punch at Meditat who dashes backwards and up, boosting away from the Fallen while manifesting more similar cannons in its path, which each aim and fire at the Fallen.
As his hips project a cable onto one of the buildings, Meditat begins zipping around the city while constructing more turrets, watching barrages fire at the Fallen who appears at each of them to punch their sides, each single punch smashing the gun in one strike, moving with enough speed to only need half a second between destroying another weapon.
It's a fight of speed as Meditat swings around another building off cables while manifesting more cannons attached to drones, however these ones differ in that they only have a single, wider barrel, and from those barrels fire rockets with their own propulsive systems, their bodies mostly silver except for the crystal heads, which hone in on the Fallen even around that building before exploding with booms leaving frosty flashes.
Though the next missiles don't need to travel as much as the Fallen quickly works its way through the cannons, appearing in flicks with each one destroying another weapon, all until it can get a clear line of sight with the builder.
Realizing that there's a straight line between him and the Fallen, Meditat's eyes widen as he begins building his next turret, but the Fallen is its own turret as it unleashes a barrage of black streaks into each of the turrets as well as the actively deployed missiles, all hitting in the span of half a second. They go on to pass them and the turrets, piercing through the skyscrapers behind, enough to destabilize the two buildings between the one behind Meditat. They both drop down a layer from the insufficient integrity, breaking through that layer to begin collapsing.
Stunned by the immediate counterattack, Meditat only thinks to deploy a shield in front of himself in anticipation, though the Fallen instead appears behind him to grab his arm to chuck him straight at that middle building still standing.
Meditat brakes before reaching the building, pointing his finger forward to fire a flame that constructs a missile whose head is consumed by a black flash just before the Fallen appears in front of him to punch him in the stomach which he reinforces with another vest, sending him hurtling back again but he brakes even quicker, swiping his flaming hand at the Fallen to manifest a volley of smaller missiles that are all slashed by a single horizontal fog stroke right before the Fallen reappears to throw another punch, this one landing without any shielding, blasting Meditat straight into that building between the two collapsing.
Crashing through several walls, Meditat's two halves reach another large lobby space, this one spanning several stories as there's several platforms connected to bridges to allow for a far more open design, for even the largest platform leaves generous space between its edges and the lobby's own bounds.
Regenerating his lower half, Meditat spins and dashes up just as the Fallen appears at the center of that platform, trying to reach for him. After evading that grab, Meditat's hip fires a cable towards the far edge of that platform and boosts himself towards it while snapping two whips one after the other, each strengthened with crystal spikes at the Fallen who blocks them with its arm.
It faces Meditat and draws a smoke stroke to try cutting him in half, only for him to dash downwards and underneath the platform, vanishing from the Fallen for a moment.
That blue suited opponent then rises up from the other side of the platform behind the Fallen, extending its arm forward as its cape and shiny hair waves in the breeze of its own speed, its other hand connected to a translucent wire attached under the platform as it wraps around the edge. The rising fighter's extended hand lights up before breathing a blue fire straight at the Fallen, which passes its body and strikes the ground, leaving sparks and cinder in its path. The Fallen counters with another dark smoke stroke, this time successfully slashing the body diagonally from the shoulder to the hip, though the Fallen lowers its gaze at the cinders left behind, puzzled by that property.
It then raises its sights back to the sliced body, which it realizes is sparking from the wounds, as there isn't a splash of guts but rather node chains and metal components, as while from the outside it appears to be Meditat, its insides reveal a robot.
In truth, beneath the Fallen's feet, under the platform floor, the real Meditat remains suspended by two wires, his hands flaming as they construct a brightening crystal bomb as tall as himself, planted under the floor itself. That bomb reaches luminosity bright enough that it's nearly blinding, and the Fallen just then lowers its head as Meditat's back projects two cables.
In an instant right after a blue streak flies out of the silver tower, the entire lobby erupts or rather that entire portion of floors, as the frosty explosion reaches outside, revealing the chunk it blew off before the half of the building above descends to close that empty space, beginning its collapse.
As the two halves near collision, a black fog spreads over that space and expands to about twenty stories in height, vaporizing that entire chunk of the building and all the collapsing rubble for just a moment. The upper half continues to descend, but there's enough time for the Fallen to appear outside of the building, levitating at the same altitude, standing tall as the two halves only then make contact and begin dropping.
The Fallen takes notice instead to a huge array of drones carrying cannons in all directions he can see, which all fire volleys of small missiles at once, prompting the Fallen to face back at the building to then reappear on the other side, only to find the same sight of cannons in all directions, all firing.
Raising its head to find even more, the Fallen instinctively begins rapidly activating black flashes around its body to decimate the missiles before they could land, covering its body in flickers while it just stands and gazes around, drawing a fog stroke that devours the cannons around itself. It draws several strokes to try clearing the skies of these turrets, but then a stream of blue fire soars down in front of its gaze, constructing another set of four turrets that aim and fire again, but the Fallen turns to find nobody where that fire came from.
As the tower behind him collapses underneath his altitude, the cannons behind it are able to open fire, more than doubling the amount of missiles being fired at a given time, requiring that the Fallen starts covering its back with flashes too. Stuck in place, it begins spinning as it draws more smoke strokes over several cannons at a time in an attempt to rid them again. But as it turns its back from a cleared space, more blue flames fire into that open area, manifesting more cannons that once again fire to which the Fallen takes notice with a head turn with an irritated grunt.
Expanding its radius of flashes to better defend itself from the endless volley, the Fallen draws a stroke with a far wider fog, destroying many more turrets in one motion. As it begins to turn its head, it notices a blue streak flash between two towers ahead, and from that streak branches a fiery stream that reconstructs three more cannons in the cleared area.
Realizing what's going on, the Fallen fires a burst of black streaks at the blue flash, many of them penetrating through the tower it passed behind. Yet just a second later, that flash is noticed between another two towers from the corner of its eyes, firing another flame to which the Fallen faces it as another burst of black streaks is fired at it, though it watches the blue streak weave around them, all as that flame constructs another two cannons, almost fully recovering the area that was wiped out.
Grunting in annoyance, the Fallen then spins around as a black smoke is drawn with the radius of about twenty stories, which is drawn in a full circle through every tower around the Fallen, cutting a wide hole through each of them which causes all of them to simultaneously start collapsing.
Stopping in place, the Fallen again returns its focus to the missile launchers, drawing another smoke stroke to decimate another batch while the skyscrapers fall around it, clearing the air which would theoretically prevent the man from hiding. Yet as the Fallen destroys another line of drones, it's stunned to find more being constructed well behind that initial ring, many of them being built over a wider radius in front of the buildings behind those that have been destroyed. Like the first ring, those distant cannons begin firing armaments though not missiles as they're entirely made of flaring crystal, shot out so quickly that their travel time is nearly instantaneous, each of which prematurely detonates outside of the Fallen's protective bubble, splattering shrapnel over its body with many more cannons being constructed as flaming streaks fire off between those further towers every couple seconds.
Growling in rising anger, the Fallen clenches its fists as it's surrounded by countless explosions getting nullified by the flashes protecting its body. Raising its arm, the Fallen makes a sweeping gesture with its hand as it finally orders: "Stop hiding," its deep extraterrestrial voice not raised yet it carries as if spoken through speakers, reverberating as if not spoken from a single source but rather directionless. As it sweeps its arm, a black fog is drawn, however this one has a radius of more than double the previous, nearly covering the skyscrapers itself. Not only that, but as it sweeps with the Fallen's hand, it isn't only being drawn over the closest towers, but extends far past, miles past.
Swinging around one of the towers, Meditat turns his head to notice that colossal black beam pass him, and in horror he spins to follow the path of the beam, watching it just about reach the wall of traffic where the evacuation continues well past the former infected zone. He then notices the beam rotate towards approaching him rapidly –moving in a circle spun around the Fallen–, prompting him to detach his cables and boost himself straight up, unsure of if he could even block against a force so deadly, for its scale was so insurmountably greater than what he experienced before that he couldn't confidently assert his understanding of its limits.
All in the gesture of a single hand sweep, the fog spreads across the district, incinerating every building in its path, leaving only the tops of certain skyscrapers as many were wholly devoured, not leaving even rubble to collapse.
Those fields of silver blades composing the metropolis, the Superverse's center, are all mowed through by the black wave under the white sky, wiped away with no bombastic explosions, just an ominous hum.
Her eyes widening, Kokei watches the black smoke begin enveloping the city in the direction opposite from herself, but begin to rotate towards her. She drops her gaze to Ekitai's corpse lying on her lap, wincing in anguish, her eyes on the verge of tears again. Reluctantly, she grabs hold of Ekitai and gently places him off her lap, back on the ground. She then rises up to her feet, stumbling back a couple steps while staring at him miserably, feeling horrible for this choice but knowing she couldn't afford anything better.
Pushing down her pain, she raises her head to the sky as her entire body begins sparking with pink lightning, and she launches herself into the sky like a bullet, soaring up with incredible speed only possible by moving only herself.
Climbing in the air as her whole body wraps itself with pink arcs, Kokei's glowing eyes keep to the skies, though upon hearing the hum grow louder, she can't help but glance forward to which she finds the tsunami approaching quickly, still towering over her.
She grits her teeth, accelerating as fast as she can push herself, racing up the silver towers surrounding her, towers acting as her road, the end of which draws ever closer but not quickly enough, for it still feels so far away.
Shaking her hands and increasing the size and brightness of the lightning sparking off her body, almost transforming her into a plasma ball again, Kokei speeds up for the final sprint, reaching past the towers around her just before the wave washes over her.
Within a second, she rises just past the black wave as it races beneath her, able to finally come to a stop now that she's above danger.
After the brief sweep, the black wave reaches its starting line, forming a complete circle encompassing the entire infected zone that the whole battle has occurred within.
Only then does the wave dissipate with the drop of the Fallen's stone hand, resting at its side.
Breathing heavily after the rather intense chase for survival, Meditat steadily relaxes himself, no longer ascending as he now just levitates in the air. Now safe, he lowers his head after noticing the fog vanish, and he's then greeted to the sight of a complete flattening of the area, rubble sparsely scattered from the few buildings tall enough to not be completely consumed. The whole battlefield spanning districts has been floored, as if erasing it entirely, leaving only the black road acting as a frame among the gray foundation blocks where the skyscrapers stood, not a single story left up.
Wide eyed, Meditat stares at the complete annihilation, baffled by just how quickly it occurred. He raises his gaze to find the edge of the flattening being just by the edge of the evacuated zone, as if it was just slightly wider, it could've claimed thousands of lives at once. Judging by the precision from that edge, he can only conclude that the radius wasn't a limit, but a deliberate choice, a threat.
Panting in exhaustion to the near death experience, Kokei huffs to steadily control her breathing. She lowers her head to find that same sight of complete decimation, and noticing the absolute flatness of the blocks, she frowns knowing it's most likely that her friend was caught in the wave too.
Having her head low, she has sights on her own lower body, which is where she notices that past her thighs is nothing, for her knees and feet have vanished completely.
Her pink eyes widening, Kokei clenches her teeth in the delayed agonizing sting of the injury, her mind jumbled by the rest of the sight that she hadn't even focused on herself. She winces and begins breathing heavily again, for she couldn't simply construct another pair of knees for herself. Her face begins to sweat from the dawning comprehension of her injury, so focused on her legs below that she doesn't notice the red comet soar past her above.
Mouth hanging open, Meditat just stalls as he stares at the complete destruction laid out in front of him. He's then quick to recenter his focus, clenching that mouth and sharpening his eyes as he spins around to find the Fallen appeared in front of him again, not close enough to punch him, but with a fifteen foot distance.
Glaring with fiery starry eyes, Meditat ignites his hands with flames and boosts himself at the enemy, for as long as the enemy stands, the fight isn't over.
"This was useless," the Fallen utters in a tone almost disappointed, and suddenly two black streaks strike Meditat's arms, severing them at once, but it's the words that strike dread in Meditat whose eyes widen upon hearing them.
Strafing hard to the right with a strong boost, Meditat avoids the Fallen with enough distance to regenerate his arms, armoring them with crystal gauntlets once again, pairing with crystal boots. Through those gauntlets rise blue fire, but upon turning to face the Fallen, his eyes widen again.
For between him and the Fallen is a wall of black fog wider than himself, ready to be extended at any moment. It isn't that he hasn't faced these attacks before, he just did on one of a much grander scale, but it's those words uttered that change his perspective, as if his opponent wasn't truly trying the whole fight and now all the sudden has chosen it isn't worth extending it. All he can think about at this moment is: Is this fight going to start and end all at once?
If his mind isn't already being overloaded with such horrors, nothing could be worse than hearing the roar of a familiar man coming from behind and above him. Under most circumstances he'd remain fully focused on the fight, but it was the voice of a single man he can immediately recognize, the only man who could be threatening enough for him to break his attention. Turning and raising his head, Meditat looks away from the fog that might very well claim his life, and instead sets his gaze on that of the Crimson Devil, the man in the dark red suit, his black cape waving in the air torn up at the bottom, his exposed long hair waving in the air above the dropped hood.
Those familiar bright red streaks course through the body from the central eraser insignia under the dark gray pauldron reaching down to the arms, a demented reflection of Meditat's own suit. His hands extended forward, red flames are released from his palms, the same ability as Meditat's yet always used to hurt. Those chains made of jagged material resembling obsidian, incredibly dark red, wrap around his neck and forearms, their clangs itself a siren attached to many of Meditat's worst memories.
Under the black bangs of the man's groomed hair, those two crimson starry eyes glare above clenched teeth, and those red flames materialize into a dense swarm of countless viking-style axes made of that signature obsidian-like material, the signature weapon for the killer. So many are constructed all at once that it nearly covers the one creating them, but there's just enough space to glimpse at the face, raw hatred radiating off his expression.
Hatred that has utterly wrecked Meditat's life for so long. Hatred that had taken everything away from him, everything good that has happened to him, everyone good he had.
It took away his former team, a memory still fresh.
Razi in the sky, held up by a stake straight through his body.
Juno's mutilated corpse spread over the street.
Flynn's body razed in half with a hole in his head.
Calypso's chest blown through.
Dana's body vaporized before his eyes.
Ekitai dead just minutes after.
Regardless of him trying to suppress this sequence of thoughts earlier, the sight of that man has flooded it all in too fast for him to stop. The worst day of his life previously was all caused by that devil, the devil that took everything.
Now he's lost everything all over again, his only friend left from his younger days, the friends he had made after, he's lost everything left to lose, all on the day that the devil shows himself.
It's him.
It's always him.
One objective overwrote the other, and without a second thought, Meditat raises his flaming hands to counterattack against the swarm of axes which flare up red hot.
Meditat readies to block the axes whereas the Fallen doesn't, yet it's the Fallen who's struck by the swarm of axes like a train rammed into its body, completely burying it as more are constructed, knocking the Fallen down which causes the black fog to cease behind Meditat.