The God of Gravity part 3: Apocalypse

Dead, Beautiful Sky

The goddess is right there in the distance, kneeling and her hands are on the ground. She looks very injured while the man with the golden mask is unscathed. Hyun is barely holding on too. If he doesn't have the ability to insanely regenerate, he would've died. Darius and I scramble to take him on in different directions while Hyun is keeping him busy. A heavy punch decimates his body and the shock wave almost hits me. 

“Crap!” I say. 

We went on and Darius is a little bit far from me. Let's do it.

Jumping from the top of the building to the next, I hear the man say, “All of you are weak!” while grabbing Hyun's throat. “Pathetic,” he scoffs.

Sayuri goes to save him but takes another punch, sending her back to a quarter of a mile. Hyun gets out of his grip and retreats. I nearly miss my jump when the rumbling happens. She's so tired that she's not even trying to make a strategy to attack. How strong is this man?

I'm getting near. I better prepare myself. I go down the building but then he pursues Sayuri and the others! He's not aware we are here yet. I have a good sense of where each of their comrades is but where's Philip and those two humans? I'll think about that later.

-

*

“Go, Philip!” shouts Hiroki through the radio.

“Here I go!” he answers.

The calmness of the atmosphere above the clouds is so sickening because of how it contrasts what is happening below. He begins to dive. His boots give him a boost as well as the jetpack he wears. When he goes through the clouds, it dissipates, making a hole in it for Dragunov to see. Philip is quickly gaining speed, going faster than the speed of sound ten-fold.

“Interesting,” says Dragunov grinning under his mask. Clenching his fist, he looks up saying, “Come here, kid!”

“ARGH!!!” Philip screams in exertion.

“He's taking you head-on, Philip!” says Hiroki. “Prisha, do it now!”

“Still charging the laser g*n!” she says on her end.

*

-

Philip? Is that him falling from the sky? He looks like a meteor! And the man won't run away. Maybe he is sure he can take it just like what happened to my attack earlier. Philip's in trouble! I gotta help him. I'm too late!

The last thing I see before the impact is a bright laser shining from the mask of the man. Philip heel-kicks him and the whole area explodes. The buildings are already crumbled but the tremor makes them collapse even more. I have to take precautions getting deep into the dust storm if I don't want to get crushed by the flying debris. Damn, Philip is so powerful now.

The dust clears up after a blow. Philip goes through the buildings! Did that man take that powerful attack? No, he is breathing hard he must be hurt. Sayuri and Hyun as well, they are completely wasted. 

Darius goes by himself to attack the man. He lets out combos and the man couldn't keep up. He knocks the man back for a few feet. I jump up, reach out my right hand, and use my power to pull the man off of the ground.

“What?” he asks in confusion. 

Knowing I give him this opportunity, Darius charges but a flying gauntlet hits him in the face. It's from the man's left hand. He sends the other one after me.

So… the gauntlets are his relics.

I wait for the right gauntlet. It comes to me and stops when I control it with my power. I put it on while in midair, descending upon the man. I feel so much strength coming from the gauntlet. His mask is broken so I see his face. He's not surprised.

“ARGH!!!” I scream, delivering the punch on his chest. 

The blast separates me from him but I keep on attacking him. His left gauntlet returns to him and spits blood before charging to attack me. Darius appears at his side. He marked him earlier. No time for the man to dodge so he absorbs Darius's Fist of Two. I hear him grunt in pain. He swings his left elbow to hit Darius but he misses. I kick his face and he barely even move. 

Then a sudden punch from him sends me back crashing through the ground. I sense Philip helping Darius but both of them are not enough. Philip gets thrown away, Darius gets pinned down under the man's foot. He escapes by using his dagger. Crap! I've never taken a powerful punch such as that! My ribs are broken.

“You annoy me!” he spats at Darius. 

I finally got out of the rubble. My left shoulder is broken. Nonetheless, I have to help them! Just when I started to run, I never expected him to appear in front of me suddenly! I'm too late to dodge!

His form of preparing to attack me becomes a form to defend his left with the use of his gauntlet. A violet s***h blinds me and when I open my eyes again, the goddess is in front of me, heaving her every breath. Her face is full of blood coming from her scalp. Then she collapses in front of me. Jasper comes to aid her. Hyun trips from the distance. He has no strength left. Philip is injured too. I can still fight and I see Darius is starting to lose more blood. Every second, he becomes unbelievably strong. We can do this.

I look at Jasper as he picks up Sayuri. He looks like he's having fun. “All of you escape from here,” I tell him. “Darius and I can defeat him.”

“Being brave and being a fool has a blurry line, God of Gravity,” he says. “You can't defeat him in a million years but you can stall for us then both of you guys can escape on your own.”

“Okay, we'll do that,” I nod, looking at Sayuri. She's unconscious.

“Don't die until we meet again, Leonide,” he says with a smirking face before transforming into a griffin.

Hyun grabs their goddess and rides on Jasper. Flying low, he grabs the unconscious Philip with his claws. Then they escape, going faster than the speed of sound in a matter of seconds. 

That leaves me and Darius—who gave us enough time for Jasper to escape with his allies.

“You brat!” curses the man, trying to contest Darius with speed and strength. He's annoyed.

Darius is in his mode where he loses himself and fighting is the only thing in his mind. I come to assist him because he is losing badly in trading blows but his will to fight keeps him going. Focusing my mind, I look into the future five seconds in advance. He kills Darius in the future. I will change it!!!

Approaching from behind, I activate, “Demigod Mode!!”

Knowing that he's going to hit me with his elbow, I suddenly control my powers to make me dodge downward. He misses and gives me enough time to plant my feet on the ground, use his relic along with my seventh DT, and use his power against him. 

“Strength of the Universe:” My right hand clad in his gauntlet is ready. “HEAVY CANNON!!!” 

It's at the same time that Darius squeezes the man's hand to get out of his grip. My punch lands on his cheekbone. It sounds like huge metal against huge metal. Explodingly, I send him away, creating a huge and mile-long ridge. I could barely keep standing on my feet as the ground shakes very violently. It also occurs in long seconds before calming down for a bit. 

I kneel, breathing hard. Damn… that was very exhausting! I can't move my feet! I feel pain everywhere on my body… Crap…

“Argh!!!” screams Darius out of control. All covered in blood, he walks like a zombie with his tired knees. 

“Darius, stop!” I yell at him. “We need to escape!”

“Kill!!” he roars. My ears feel numb because of it.

I grab his shoulder but he punches me in the stomach instead. “Ugh!!” I grunt in pain. “Darius!”

I have no choice but to choke him from behind. The gauntlet of the man is under his chin and saves me from being crushed by his insane grip strength. 

To contest his strength, I must use “Hold of Seven!!” for a long time until he gives up.

We lie on the ground, and my arms are about to give up. I must not! 

I just look at the sky, concentrating my strength into my arms to restrain him. It makes me calm. This moment that the fight opened a hole in the clouds to make us see the blue sky again.

“Look at the sky, Darius,” I say to him. “Did you forget how beautiful it is?” He's still struggling, elbowing my side, and thrashing. We're running out of time but I feel no worries. “Do you remember the sky in Hades District? It's beautiful like this, isn't it?” Slowly, his struggle becomes infrequent and weaker. It's working. I have to keep going. “I miss seeing this sky.” A tear flows out from my eye. “I want to bring it back for everyone to see. Do you want to do that too?” He stops. “Maybe Guiria misses it more than I do. Would you like to show it again to her?” He nods. “I'm going to let you go now. Answer me if you're fine now.”

I hear nothing but both of our heaving breaths, smell nothing but our sweat and blood, and see the dead but beautiful sky.

“I'm fine now, Leo,” he says so I let go.

He lies beside me at the left and we look at the sky for one more moment. Suddenly, I feel as if the rubble I feel under the back of my head is grass. I feel how beautiful Olympus once was.

“This sucks, Leo,” he says to me.

“Yes… it is.”

“I want to bring everything back. I want to bring everyone back although I hate all of them.”

“Me too. But if only there's a way we can do it.”

“I hate everything…”

I sigh because I feel the same way he does. “Well, we gotta-” I grunt, sitting up. “keep going. Let's get out of here before that maniac gets to us.”

Without a fuss, he nods and I help him stand up. “Where's… my dagger?” he asks.

I point where I think it is. It is inside a building on our left. He digs it out of the rubble while I watch the ridge that I made. That punch could be my most powerful one. Then I look at the gauntlet. It's old and has many dents. 

“He could be the God of Strength,” I mutter just when Darius stands beside me, looking at the sight I'm seeing.

“Could be…,” he agrees.

“He's still alive…. That punch is not enough to kill him. I better… I better take this off so he can't find us.” 

I take it off and we turn to the southeast. We run.

“Wait…,” he says, panting. “Why are we going south?”

“We need to if we don't want to telegraph our destination.”

“Okay,” he sighs.

-

*

“I'm impressed,” says Dragunov, rising from the rubble unexhausted. “Rai and Enzo raised two new excellent warriors. As expected of them!” He smirks then laughs. “Things are getting interesting!”

On the other end, Jasper in his griffin form carries all of his comrades to safety. They retreat far into the east away from the Olympus Capital to avoid the “feisty guests.” In the countryside, he feels much safer. An hour later, he lands beside a shack that miraculously survived the explosions. 

He gasps for air when he returns to his original form. On the ground, he lies facing the grey sky. “I hope those boys are okay,” he says.

“Let's go inside,” says Hiroki, pulling him to the door.

“I'll Cloak everyone from the radiation for now,” says Hyun. “Lady Sayuri is unconscious.”

Jasper chuckles like a kid as he sits on the floor and his back against the wooden plank wall. “When did you learn that?” he asks.

“Not too long ago. Alright,” he says, making his eyes glow red. “I'll heal the three of you the best as I can.”

“I'm fine. Heal Lady Sayuri and Philip except me. I'm just tired but not injured.”

Hyun nods and starts to heal Sayuri and Philip at the same time. Both of them lie on the ground at each of his sides.

*

-

Our running is reduced to walking. I'm so tired… Darius is so tired… It's hard to even lift my feet to stop dragging them when I walk. I trip forward. Behind me, Darius sits and leans against a large concrete slab. 

This is a dangerous place to be. We must keep going if we want to survive. We must… 

Who is that? Someone is approaching. The footsteps keep going louder and louder with the coldness getting colder and colder… We must fight… I must fight… to survive… but….

I can't move….