The Godslayers had been shockingly busy. Everyone slipped into their assignnts like they’d lived in Markend for years. Abner got into the SRC with no issues at all, then imdiately pulled a tough mission investigating a new assassination group that popped up in the city and had been offering outside jobs, too. Diane and Jacob struggled at first with school stuff, but they pushed through it with stubborn pride. Jacob got himself into Fine Arts and started calling drawing his “quiet ti,” while Diane dove into Fashion Design like it was her calling. At this rate, I hoped they wouldn’t forget they were supposed to infiltrate Mirch University, not actually beco students. Alia, on the other hand, worked overti trying to fix her standing with the hero community. And Keegan… well, Keegan turned Markend’s criminal underbelly into his personal gym.
We hit one of the bigger facilities today, a ceramics factory that doubled as a chop shop for stolen cars. He wore kevlar and a black bonnet he stitched together himself. He told proudly, “I based it on your look, boss.” I wasn’t sure whether I should feel flattered or worried. The mont he kicked in the door, the workers panicked.
“Shoot him! Shoot him! He’s one guy!” a goon yelled.
“Yeah, try it!” Keegan barked back, already weaving between crates.
He grabbed a stripped sedan with both hands, lifting it like it weighed nothing. Bullets ricocheted off the tal with sharp pings. Keegan chuckled, then swung his arms and threw the entire car into a packed group of thugs.
The crash shook dust from the rafters.
I had told him specifically not to kill anyone unless absolutely necessary. Judging by the red sar under that tossed sedan, he wasn’t listening. But Keegan was a battle maniac. In his world, he only picked life-and-death fights for fun. Without his world’s limiter, his power had evolved too quickly with super strength, durability, weight control, and explosive movent. Every week, he unlocked sothing new just from fighting.
In fact, he was also growing in mass and his muscles had even beca thicker than Abner’s.
The surviving thugs backed away, trembling.
“It’s Brute! He’s gonna kill us!”
“Run! Run!”
Keegan stomped on a crate, launched himself upward, then slamd into another goon so hard the floor cracked. He shouted, “Co on! Isn’t there anyone stronger?!”
I sighed. “He’s enjoying this way too much.”
And then soone answered.
A slim guy stepped out from behind a forklift, wearing a cheap goblin mask and a green jacket two sizes too big.
“I’ll take you on,” the masked man said, glaring up at Keegan.
“Finally! Soone with spine!” Keegan grinned wide and spread his arms. “Hey, greenie. What’s your na?”
The masked man answered without hesitation. “Goblin.”
I recognized him imdiately. One of Marker’s mid-tier capes. That ant this chop shop belonged to the Markers after all. Keegan and I had been smashing bases nonstop to build infamy and draw their leaders out and probably New Vanguard.
Keegan laughed. “Goblin, huh? Alright then!” He blurred forward with explosive strength, vanishing for a blink, only to reappear behind Goblin, except Goblin had teleported too, flickering three feet away.
A crackling hum filled the room as Goblin drew a photon sword. The hard-light blade shimred green. He slashed at Keegan in a fast arc.
Keegan’s expression shifted from excitent to calm recognition. “Oh. These toys again. You must be from Marker! I heard your group had a talented researcher!” He slipped under every swing with practiced ease. I frowned. This might get ssy fast.
I stepped out from behind a tall steel beam, only to find my entire body freezing solid mid-motion. Not ntally. Physically. A localized ti stop.
A voice echoed from the rafters. “So this is the Eclipse pretender…”
A man with a towering pompadour stepped into view, hands in his pockets like he owned the room. Clock. The boss of the Enders. His power let him lock a body in ti as long as it was within his sight.
He waved an envelope lazily. “Imagine my surprise when this appeared on my bedside. A letter demanding my allegiance. Signed by Eclipse. You think I’m stupid?”
Before I could respond, another presence dropped through the cracked window fras, a muscular man with dark skin and an absurd flat-top haircut. Ironflesh. The leader of the Markers. His skin could harden into a tal-like density on command.
He also held an envelope. “Before anything else,” Ironflesh said, “was this you? Did you really put this in my room? Are you truly Eclipse?”
Their powers were interesting. I had studied them already. I even wanted them as my own. As provocation, I’d slipped into each base and hand-delivered letters demanding they bend the knee. George insisted it would help “revitalize Markend”—sothing about turning the city into a controlled tropolis under my shadow. Personally, I cared more about convenience. If these idiots behaved, life would be easier for .
Clock scoffed. “You can’t be Eclipse. You didn’t kill a single one of my n today and every other day. Eclipse kills everyone.” He looked at Ironflesh. “Where’s the rest of your capes? We agreed to bring troops.”
Ironflesh shrugged. “I brought Goblin. His mobility keeps him alive. If this is really Eclipse, I’m not letting the rest die for nothing. I still rember Seamark, the entire docks leveled by one guy.”
Clock bristled. “You arrogant bastard! We agreed—”
“No. We had a truce,” Ironflesh corrected calmly. “I never promised to bring all of them.”
As he spoke, I finally matched Ironflesh’s face to an old mory to a certain goon and a tax collector. One who used to visit my old place and beat the hell out of , because they could.
I pushed my intangibility into my muscles. The frozen field shattered around like thin glass. I turned my head toward Ironflesh.
Clock’s eyes widened. “How did you… how did you just break my ti stop?!”
The air grew heavy.
I looked at Ironflesh and said, “I rember you. You used to collect ‘tax’ from my house. You beat the shit out of sotis.”
His face drained of color.
Ironflesh reacted imdiately. “It’s fucking Eclipse! Don’t hold back!”
He launched himself at in a single jump, the concrete buckling under his feet. His raw strength hit the sa league as Keegan’s, maybe even above it. Clock shouted behind him, “Idiot! Don’t block my line of sight!” but Ironflesh didn’t care. His muscles bulged, his skin shifting into dull tal as he aid to crush with a shoulder tackle.
I dropped straight through the floor, phasing into the ground, reappearing several ters away. Clock imdiately snapped his gaze toward and tried to freeze again.
“Stay still, you freak—!”
Ironflesh swung his massive arm at , the tal on his skin darkening further into null tal, the dangerous part of his power. Null tal canceled powers on contact. Even my intangibility would fail if it touched long enough.
I forced my body out of the creeping ti stop with sheer will and technique, pushing my power until the frozen field cracked like ice. I leaned backward, narrowly avoiding Ironflesh’s swing. He followed with brutal kicks and punches, mixing real martial skill with wild lunges. Every strike was a death sentence.
Clock cursed behind him, “What the hell?! Why does the ti stop keep slipping?! Hold still!”
Gun-toting goons heard Ironflesh’s shout and opened fire. Bullets cut through the air. Constant ti stops and constant dodging ate at my stamina, draining faster than usual. I tapped into biokinesis, forcing my muscles to produce more energy. Electricity rippled across my nerves. My empathy stabilized my heartbeat. Enhancer discipline shaped every motion.
I moved how I wanted.
While dodging, I kept an eye on Keegan. Goblin was giving him trouble, but I didn’t step in. My hands were full enough.
I turned my attention back to Ironflesh. “I forgive you, you know.”
He blinked. “Forgive—?”
I phased downward, vanished, and reappeared right behind his gunn. I drove my boot against a thug’s gun and phased the tal into his torso. The weapon half-sank into his body before rupturing him from within. I grabbed another by the skull and slamd him into his partner. Their bodies folded like wet cardboard, perforated by their own twisted weapons.
Clock imdiately turned tail and ran, shouting into his earpiece, “Backup! Backup! Eclipse is here, send everyone!”
Ironflesh roared, “You’ll pay for killing my people!”
I shrugged. “You don’t mind sending them to die against , but you get angry when I kill them? Hypocritical.” I gestured casually. “I’m disappointed, though. You had the sense not to bring your actual capes.”
He punched at with a full, null-tal fist. It smashed into the ground, cracking the factory floor like it was porcelain. His eyes widened as his fist passed through my chest harmlessly.
“W–what?”
At a high enough level, you could push past null tal. Light did it. And now I could do it too, but barely. The resistance shaved chunks of stamina out of , but it worked.
I stepped back, watching Ironflesh’s expression twist.
I asked him, calm and clear, “One last ti. Will you bend the knee or not?”
Ironflesh’s jaw trembled, and slowly, he bent his knee. His tal skin receded, leaving him human again. His head stayed down, shoulders tight with sha.
Clock spun around from halfway across the ruined factory. “Ironflesh! You traitor! What the hell are you doing?!”
Everyone in Markend thought the two gangs were polar opposites, but they had more in common than they liked to admit. Marker ca from the remnants of Seamark. The day I destroyed their docks, not all of them died; many pulled instead, too terrified to face again. They rebranded, clung to their old ideals of citizenship and community as Markend-first pride.
Ender was the radical half. They advertised themselves as Marker’s “true enemy,” yet built their entire culture around idolizing , the monster from the city’s nightmares.
Two gangs. Sa city. Different delusions.
I looked down at Ironflesh. “You made the right choice.”
I turned toward Clock, but Ironflesh suddenly wrapped his arms around from behind, a bear trap snapping shut, while his null tal body turned back in full.
“Clock! Now!” he shouted, voice cracking.
Clock whipped around, eyes wide and glowing. Blood leaked from his tear ducts as he focused every ounce of his power on . My intangibility hit a wall as Clock’s power forced into solidity. Clock laughed like a lunatic. “We’re about to surpass the legend of Eclipse! I’ll be the one they revere, !”
The ceiling shattered above . A woman with a halo dropped through the dust, wings made of raw plasma. She fired a focused beam of light straight at my chest.
To my right, a man in a sleek suit and half-mask flickered into place, a top hat tilted on his head. He tossed handfuls of miniature grenades that expanded midair into full-sized explosives.
To my left, a cape dressed in a ridiculous pink bunny mascot suit hopped into view with a bazooka bigger than his torso. Three payloads burst from the tube in a rapid, impossible sequence.
I couldn’t phase. Couldn’t boost my body. Could barely move.
But I wasn’t defenseless.
The beam, grenades, and rockets slamd into at once, detonating in a blinding chain of explosions. The heat and pressure swallowed Ironflesh with . I triggered the charged electrokinesis within my helt, sending a violent shock into him just as the blasts tore through the room.
When the dust finally settled, I stood in the crater. I adjusted my porcelain mask, dedicating most of my intangibility to protecting it. My suit was ruined in patches, null-tal interference burning holes through fabric that should’ve been invulnerable.
Ironflesh lay on his back, fully human again. Blood spilled from his mouth, his lungs collapsing from the internal damage.
Clock stumbled forward. “W-what…? What happened? Ironflesh, get up! Get up!”
I flicked my fingers.
A tarot card, once intangible, materialized between my fingers with teleportation. The card had been lodged inside Ironflesh’s chest the mont he tried to tackle . It had been very subtle on my part, but it wouldn’t have worked if everyone else had just been a little more observant.
The tarot card was a Wheel of Fortune. Upright, it ant choice. Reversed, it ant ruin. If I could push my own body past null tal, I could force my external intangibility through it too, at a cost.
I held the card between two fingers and looked straight at Clock.
“Your turn,” I said. “Bend the knee, or follow him.”
His eyes trembled, and I patiently waited.
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