Main Event Right Hand of the Magic God

[Ver]

With a devious smirk, when Phil asked just what Lessar was supposed to be, she felt inclined to answer him first. "The former of the two, if you really must know."

Toward Max, she simply shrugged. "So what if I could? You need an excuse to be a Good Samaritan all of a sudden?" She asked with a sinister laugh. When Mason shot at her, she hardly reacted to that, just as she hardly seemed impressed by Giorno's Gold Experience. She merely looked Mason's way with a slow, deliberate pace, tilting her head slightly. "Oh, shut up, won't you? You talk too much."

"... You're not really Lessar, are you?" Touma suddenly asked with a darkened expression, discarding all of his doubts now.

"We've really got to stop meeting like this, Touma Kamijou. Especially if I have to run into your strange friends," the individual in front of everyone spoke.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, in an almost blinding flash, a swift fist smashed into Giorno's face at staggering speeds, knocking him back a few. Where the girl that Touma and Leivinia knew as Lessar once stood, a slender, feminine looking blonde man stood, a cocky grin on his face as he drew his arm away from Mason's other bullet faster than it could reach him, pocketing it securely on his form. With a shocked look, Touma let out a soft gasp.

"Thor...?!"

View attachment 3320

"Don't look so surprised, Touma Kamijou. I've used this trick on you before, after all, or did you forget? So sorry to deceive you as well, Leivinia Birdway, but worry not. Wherever she is, I'm sure your Lessar is perfectly fine. She is of no concern to us," the man whom Touma identified as "Thor" spoke, remaining confident despite how surrounded he was, having shed his disguise as Lessar.

Looking toward Mason, he gave a small wave. "Guess now that the cat's out of the bag, I may as well ask... Weren't you there at your precious organization's little civil war a while back? Guess I shoulda beat you to Hell while I was there. How's it going for them though? Are you still crushing on that Kirigiri? Or was it more for Ilona?" He asked teasingly, recognizing Mason from the Coalition Civil War, when he had spent his time there disguised as Leia Rolando of the Coalition.

"Is that...?!" Kyoko's voice rang out over the comm link, also seeing to recognize Thor if only by his voice, either not hearing or not caring about the man's remark.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Yun Lee]

Oh great, so bratty half-pint Lessar was actually some bratty half-pint named Thor. "He says his name is Thor or something," Severa told Kirigiri over the channel. "What, do you guys know him? Does he have some sort of affinity for dressing up like little girls?"

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Lucky]

Rita Hanson

Rita started to hum a tune under her breath, before she did a surprisng thing, she started to sing.

On and on and on, you stumble on.
Towards the Evening sun,
She waits for you with open arms
You stare right there her.

On and on, you fall towards her
Cold embraced in shadowed doorway
Offers nothing, still she draws you
Ever to her.

On and on and on, you stumble on
Towards the sinking sun
Turn a blind eye, fight or run
Rest assure, the night will come

On and on you grasp and guess
And search for patterns in the mess
Of what has been and what is left
To yet endure

The jester shrugs and plays his part
The fearful see only dark
The pious with their hope-filled hearts
Sing Hallelujah

On and on and on, you stumble on
Towards the cooling sun
Turn a blind eye, fight or run
Rest assured, the night will come.

All the love and all the gold
All you built and all you sold,
All the power you may hold,
You won't evade her

All the steel, all the bricks,
All the math and magic tricks,
All the carrot and all the sticks,
Will not dissuade her.

On and on and on, you stumble on,
Towards the fading sun,
Turn a blind eye, fight or run,
Rest assured, the night will come.

Rest assured, the night will come.

As for that, the rest is just a test of your endurance.

Rita properly collapsed at the end of the line endurance, leaving an unanswered question on how the song ended.

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren

Phil Connors

Phil cursed under his breath and looked over at him. He watched him catiously before determining on how to attack. I imagine that he isn't exactly a friend.," Phil muttered under his breath.

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City

 

[Jeremi]

With a devious smirk, when Phil asked just what Lessar was supposed to be, she felt inclined to answer him first. "The former of the two, if you really must know."

Toward Max, she simply shrugged. "So what if I could? You need an excuse to be a Good Samaritan all of a sudden?" She asked with a sinister laugh. When Mason shot at her, she hardly reacted to that, just as she hardly seemed impressed by Giorno's Gold Experience. She merely looked Mason's way with a slow, deliberate pace, tilting her head slightly. "Oh, shut up, won't you? You talk too much."

"... You're not really Lessar, are you?" Touma suddenly asked with a darkened expression, discarding all of his doubts now.

"We've really got to stop meeting like this, Touma Kamijou. Especially if I have to run into your strange friends," the individual in front of everyone spoke.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, in an almost blinding flash, a swift fist smashed into Giorno's face at staggering speeds, knocking him back a few. Where the girl that Touma and Leivinia knew as Lessar once stood, a slender, feminine looking blonde man stood, a cocky grin on his face as he drew his arm away from Mason's other bullet faster than it could reach him, pocketing it securely on his form. With a shocked look, Touma let out a soft gasp.

"Thor...?!"

View attachment 3320

"Don't look so surprised, Touma Kamijou. I've used this trick on you before, after all, or did you forget? So sorry to deceive you as well, Leivinia Birdway, but worry not. Wherever she is, I'm sure your Lessar is perfectly fine. She is of no concern to us," the man whom Touma identified as "Thor" spoke, remaining confident despite how surrounded he was, having shed his disguise as Lessar.

Looking toward Mason, he gave a small wave. "Guess now that the cat's out of the bag, I may as well ask... Weren't you there at your precious organization's little civil war a while back? Guess I shoulda beat you to Hell while I was there. How's it going for them though? Are you still crushing on that Kirigiri?" He asked teasingly, recognizing Mason from the Coalition Civil War, when he had spent his time there disguised as Leia Rolando of the Coalition.

"Is that...?!" Kyoko's voice rang out over the comm link, also seeing to recognize Thor if only by his voice, either not hearing or not caring about the man's remark.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

"The fuck?" Jolyne replied in surprise as Thor revealed himself. "Is he another pretty boy that we have to beat up? 'Cause I'm not actually against that one bit." She still let her string linger however. Lessar, Thor, whatever their name was, the arrow wasn't for them.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City

 

[Crow]

With a devious smirk, when Phil asked just what Lessar was supposed to be, she felt inclined to answer him first. "The former of the two, if you really must know."

Toward Max, she simply shrugged. "So what if I could? You need an excuse to be a Good Samaritan all of a sudden?" She asked with a sinister laugh. When Mason shot at her, she hardly reacted to that, just as she hardly seemed impressed by Giorno's Gold Experience. She merely looked Mason's way with a slow, deliberate pace, tilting her head slightly. "Oh, shut up, won't you? You talk too much."

"... You're not really Lessar, are you?" Touma suddenly asked with a darkened expression, discarding all of his doubts now.

"We've really got to stop meeting like this, Touma Kamijou. Especially if I have to run into your strange friends," the individual in front of everyone spoke.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, in an almost blinding flash, a swift fist smashed into Giorno's face at staggering speeds, knocking him back a few. Where the girl that Touma and Leivinia knew as Lessar once stood, a slender, feminine looking blonde man stood, a cocky grin on his face as he drew his arm away from Mason's other bullet faster than it could reach him, pocketing it securely on his form. With a shocked look, Touma let out a soft gasp.

"Thor...?!"

View attachment 3320

"Don't look so surprised, Touma Kamijou. I've used this trick on you before, after all, or did you forget? So sorry to deceive you as well, Leivinia Birdway, but worry not. Wherever she is, I'm sure your Lessar is perfectly fine. She is of no concern to us," the man whom Touma identified as "Thor" spoke, remaining confident despite how surrounded he was, having shed his disguise as Lessar.

Looking toward Mason, he gave a small wave. "Guess now that the cat's out of the bag, I may as well ask... Weren't you there at your precious organization's little civil war a while back? Guess I shoulda beat you to Hell while I was there. How's it going for them though? Are you still crushing on that Kirigiri?" He asked teasingly, recognizing Mason from the Coalition Civil War, when he had spent his time there disguised as Leia Rolando of the Coalition.

"Is that...?!" Kyoko's voice rang out over the comm link, also seeing to recognize Thor if only by his voice, either not hearing or not caring about the man's remark.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

Oh great, so bratty half-pint Lessar was actually some bratty half-pint named Thor. "He says his name is Thor or something," Severa told Kirigiri over the channel. "What, do you guys know him? Does he have some sort of affinity for dressing up like little girls?"

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

Grandpa Max has his hands on the Null Void Projector around his belt.

"Thor, like the mythical Nordic God Thor? I knew something was fishy here. What's your agenda? You're working for her, aren't you?"

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Kaykay]

"A trick based on the legend of Thor taking upon the appearance of Freyja. I see. You have a lot of nerve appearing against me twice, Thor. And to imitate her of all people."

Leivinia spoke casually despite him revealing his true form. It wasn't as if she'd "known it all along" or anything like that, but after a certain point it'd been clear it wasn't Lessar. If Thor hadn't revealed himself, she'd have simply begun to peel away the disguise herself anyway so this was just a welcome time saver.

Even if Thor himself wasn't exactly a welcome party.

"What are you here for?"

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Sark]

"Aha... What a droll, boring answer. But maybe I should have expected as much from a wishful hero of justice like you fancy yourself as," Marian spoke with a shaky voice, yet it was light and soft, as though that reliable kind of answer was something she took solace in. Something so single-mindedly driven by something in spite of the pain he'd went through... Yes, it reminded her of someone from her past. Gone was the sadistic edge of a villain who seemed able to inflict suffering upon others without a second thought. Now, she was merely just a girl, at the edge of death, with nothing to her name. No family to speak of, nothing to leave behind. Just Marian Slingeneyer as herself.

As Ben spoke in turn, Marian giving herself up, her very memories and experiences, to him, she only had but a similar sentiment as with Libra. "S-Stupid hero... What good are those kinds of heroics if... f-for all of your power, there will always be more people that need to be saved? No matter what you do... There will always be someone wishing... calling..." She couldn't even finish her sentence before she coughed up more blood, breathing raggedly now.

"Try as you want to understand me... but it's no use. I could tell you... a-all about where I'd come from, the one I fell for, whom I had to sacrifice for Othinus... but what's the point? I only hope you will soon realize that everything you've fought for, everything you've ever struggled for... Othinus will make it all irrelevant, for better or for worse."
​

Pesky Bloxx couldn't think of a quip to say to Jiren.

"Your loss fuels you, it saddens you, it enrages you, how do you think others will feel when they lose their allies in your plight? No, I'm not just referring to warriors, I'm talking about innocents wrapped in our war - helpless innocents and civilians that you and I once were!

You may have prevented me from achieving my heavier hitters, but nothing you do can stop me from being the same Ben Tennyson on the inside. You on the other hand - the power you got from the Omnitrix, the instincts that come with it seem to be eating away at you. Will you let it absorb you, or will you overcome it? Or did you always have a god complex that wasn't too obvious to me?"​

"Do not think... for one... moment...that losing that toy of yours gives you the smallest shred of understanding about what I have been through!" Jiren roared, his sanity slipping into rage with every passing moment. His fingers locked themselves into fists. His eyes shifted into a glare that could split worlds down the center. Everything he had once stood for- everything he had once been willing to die for- had now dissolved completely. Justice. Freedom. Equality. None of it mattered anymore. There was only the Grand Plan. Only Revenge.

"I have seen worlds burn. I have watch children slaughtered in the name of conquest. I watched helplessly as man turned on man again and again and again. And through all that Hell. Through all that bloodshed and misery, I learned one thing; this world is sick. People kill. People die. I tried to stop it. But I couldn't change it. For every one evil you prevent, hundreds more happen far beyond your reach. Atrocities happen across the Multiverse on an hourly basis. We can't change it. No matter how Strong we become. Because humans are weak. Humans are filthy. They steal and they kill and they infest every blessed place in the universe and corrupt it with their filth and I have long since ground tired of their scourge. I am tired of watching you take. I am tired of watching you take from each other. I doubt I can endure anything else being taken from me. I've given you chance after chance to prove yourself, Ben, but you've proven yourself to be just as sick as the rest of your kind. I do not regret a single thing I have done. Not. One. I do not regret destroying your Omnitrix. I do not regret turning away from the Coalition. I do not regret sowing the seeds of your demise. It's high time that your kind faces retribution for its sins. The Rebirth will cleanse this world of its passion and evils. Things will be right again. You will be made to suffer for your sins and lack the twisted motivation to commit more! There will be no love. No hate. THE GRAY WILL COME"

Jiren's face screamed one word: madness

"THE GRAY WILL COME AND THE GRAY WILL CLEANSE!"​

As Rita electrocuted her, Marian was too weak to even yelp out in pain, before she was taken to Jiren's side, the small woman looking up at the alien with weak eyes, and yet... They were also warm eyes.

"Aha... Are you... crying for someone like me? Sorrow and passion... for me... You really are... just like the one I fell for so long ago," Marian uttered, her strength slowly fading the more she spoke, reaching up and stroking Jiren's cheek with her gloved hand gently as he held her, before her hand trailed down and balled into a fist, laying atop her own heart as though making her last vow.

"I give you everything I am, everything I have. Use it for whatever you want. This objective, your own needs here and now... Take all of it. Fight for your people, for me, for yourself... Anything. Do... what you believe is right... Jiren...!"

With a sharp gasp, her eyes suddenly went blank, and Marian Slingeneyer ceased to move forever, her limp arm falling to her own side.

As Marian died before Jiren's eyes, with only a vague awareness of the brief relationship they had together, Fiamma of the Right could only warily purse his lips, stepping back with a tense look on his face.

"... This doesn't look good," he merely said.

@Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"Marian..." Jiren muttered weakly, the softness of her hand slipping away from his face. He tried to fold it their for as long as time allowed him too. He wanted her to hold on just a moment longer- just for one single second more. For all she had done, she deserved just that. She deserved to hear how much she meant to him. She deserved to hear how much he had needed her to fight beside him at Knowhere and to give him something to protect. She deserved to hear how her voice had anchored him during his greatest fights, granting him the purpose his defeat had robbed from him. She deserved to hear his thanks. Out of all the years, he had lived and all the souls he had met, none had shown him the kindness of Marian. She never used him. She never commanded him. With her, we weren't a god and he wasn't a man, he was an equal. The brief moments they shared- that snowball in the summer- had granted him a lifetime of memories. In spite of his cries, he could not wake her. He watched her eyes go white.

Jiren sat there for a moment watching time go by. The battlefield went quiet. The roar of battle had died down to a bittersweet whisper. He heard nothing. Only the lapping of waves. Only the song of the wind. Only the beating of 5 hearts. His breathing slowed to a metronomic lul. In a room filled with people, he was completely alone again. The silence was enough to soothe him. Beyond meditation, that brief moment of peace had reminded him of their envisioned paradise. Peace. In a few moments- in life or in death- he would find it again.

A large white hand let her eyelids slide shut. Her body was laid down on a bed of rubble, her open grave marked by a single grey droplet.

He breathed.

"Goodbye... My friend... I'll be soon"
​

Libra took the time as Marian spoke to quietly retrieve Sorey. Holding him in his arms, the priest brought the boy to Fiamma. "I fear that my return pad is out of commission, but perhaps you can create a portal to send him back to Knowhere?" He asked. As tragic as this situation was, they were still on a mission, and it was going to get far more dire if Jiren responded so strongly to the loss of Marian.

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

The air between Sorey and Libra erupted in a wave of force, a collum of dust and sand thrust into the air by a sonic boom. A broken Jiren slowed his pulsating palm and returned it to his side, barely looking in her direction.

"No one..." He whispered in weakness "No one here..." His neck began to twitch "No one here... No one... here" He felt himself slip away again. None of it mattered. Nothing. They had taken his only friend from him... and they would all suffer for their crime. A sinister calm clung to his words "No one here... leaves... alive. Not you. Not the boy... Not the boy... I will... I will make you.... all of you... all of you... suffer"​

You may have prevented me from achieving my heavier hitters, but nothing you do can stop me from being the same Ben Tennyson on the inside. You on the other hand - the power you got from the Omnitrix, the instincts that come with it seem to be eating away at you. Will you let it absorb you, or will you overcome it? Or did you always have a god complex that wasn't too obvious to me?"​

"No... no... no.... no... no...." Jiren crowed in chorus, turning around stiff as a corpse "These... These powers... Powers... I won't need them anymore... No more... No more distr--actions"

In a primal cry, Jiren's Frost Demon modifications seemed to shatter away like glass, their broken pieces crumbling off into the air. His tail shattered like china. His arm guards crumbled into sands. His head-dress faded away. By force of will, he banished the will of the Frieza Clan from his system. He had seen what it had done to him. He had felt the savage ignorance it filled him with. He had no intention of letting it interfere with his path of vengeance. A flicker of that other side of him still called to him. It gave him a parting message.
View attachment 3322
"They will die..." The voice whispered in his ear. It spoke with an air of peace and innocence "Please... let them die. Free them. Avenge them. Please...Jiren please"

A silver aura burst out from within his own, dancing crystals of ki stalking every twitch. A hurricane of light surged from him. His power level dropped, but his rage more than made up for the difference. Ferocity filled his eyes.

In a fit of rage and anguish, Jiren charged forward, more beast than man. No more power levels. No more Transformations. He was a creature of pure power. Pure strength. Pure fury.

"YOU TOOK HER FROM ME! AND I WONT YIELD UNTIL I'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM YOU!!"​

 

[Crow]

"Aha... What a droll, boring answer. But maybe I should have expected as much from a wishful hero of justice like you fancy yourself as," Marian spoke with a shaky voice, yet it was light and soft, as though that reliable kind of answer was something she took solace in. Something so single-mindedly driven by something in spite of the pain he'd went through... Yes, it reminded her of someone from her past. Gone was the sadistic edge of a villain who seemed able to inflict suffering upon others without a second thought. Now, she was merely just a girl, at the edge of death, with nothing to her name. No family to speak of, nothing to leave behind. Just Marian Slingeneyer as herself.

As Ben spoke in turn, Marian giving herself up, her very memories and experiences, to him, she only had but a similar sentiment as with Libra. "S-Stupid hero... What good are those kinds of heroics if... f-for all of your power, there will always be more people that need to be saved? No matter what you do... There will always be someone wishing... calling..." She couldn't even finish her sentence before she coughed up more blood, breathing raggedly now.

"Try as you want to understand me... but it's no use. I could tell you... a-all about where I'd come from, the one I fell for, whom I had to sacrifice for Othinus... but what's the point? I only hope you will soon realize that everything you've fought for, everything you've ever struggled for... Othinus will make it all irrelevant, for better or for worse."

As Rita electrocuted her, Marian was too weak to even yelp out in pain, before she was taken to Jiren's side, the small woman looking up at the alien with weak eyes, and yet... They were also warm eyes.

"Aha... Are you... crying for someone like me? Sorrow and passion... for me... You really are... just like the one I fell for so long ago," Marian uttered, her strength slowly fading the more she spoke, reaching up and stroking Jiren's cheek with her gloved hand gently as he held her, before her hand trailed down and balled into a fist, laying atop her own heart as though making her last vow.

"I give you everything I am, everything I have. Use it for whatever you want. This objective, your own needs here and now... Take all of it. Fight for your people, for me, for yourself... Anything. Do... what you believe is right... Jiren...!"

With a sharp gasp, her eyes suddenly went blank, and Marian Slingeneyer ceased to move forever, her limp arm falling to her own side.

As Marian died before Jiren's eyes, with only a vague awareness of the brief relationship they had together, Fiamma of the Right could only warily purse his lips, stepping back with a tense look on his face.

"... This doesn't look good," he merely said.

@Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"Maybe being a hero is futile from your perspective," Ben's regular voice sounded out as the flash of green light stayed, "but know this - I'm making my every effort count, and I'm not the only hero in the cosmos. It's a neverending, bottomless mission, a path of infinite length - but that's just part of the job, an occupational hazard, and a neccessity that someone has to assume to prevent chaos from consuming innocents. It's not hopeless, even if the endgoal can never be reached. Even if it is ultimately impossible to care for and value all who deserve it, I want to try, and that's why I'm going to carry your memories to my death."

The light continues to shine, and soon fades... a somewhat visible face appearing and a vocal change occuring. This tone was serious & stern - not a tinge of a humour left, as if his funny bone had turned into cinders.

"And that's why - it's hero time!"
​

"Do not think... for one... moment...that losing that toy of yours gives you the smallest shred of understanding about what I have been through!" Jiren roared, his sanity slipping into rage with every passing moment. His fingers locked themselves into fists. His eyes shifted into a glare that could split worlds down the center. Everything he had once stood for- everything he had once been willing to die for- had now dissolved completely. Justice. Freedom. Equality. None of it mattered anymore. There was only the Grand Plan. Only Revenge.

"I have seen worlds burn. I have watch children slaughtered in the name of conquest. I watched helplessly as man turned on man again and again and again. And through all that Hell. Through all that bloodshed and misery, I learned one thing; this world is sick. People kill. People die. I tried to stop it. But I couldn't change it. For every one evil you prevent, hundreds more happen far beyond your reach. Atrocities happen across the Multiverse on an hourly basis. We can't change it. No matter how Strong we become. Because humans are weak. Humans are filthy. They steal and they kill and they infest every blessed place in the universe and corrupt it with their filth and I have long since ground tired of their scourge. I am tired of watching you take. I am tired of watching you take from each other. I doubt I can endure anything else being taken from me. I've given you chance after chance to prove yourself, Ben, but you've proven yourself to be just as sick as the rest of your kind. I do not regret a single thing I have done. Not. One. I do not regret destroying your Omnitrix. I do not regret turning away from the Coalition. I do not regret sowing the seeds of your demise. It's high time that your kind faces retribution for its sins. The Rebirth will cleanse this world of its passion and evils. Things will be right again. You will be made to suffer for your sins and lack the twisted motivation to commit more! There will be no love. No hate. THE GRAY WILL COME"

Jiren's face screamed one word: madness

"THE GRAY WILL COME AND THE GRAY WILL CLEANSE!"​

"Marian" Jiren muttered weakly, the softness of her hand slipping away from his face. He tried to fold it their for as long as time allowed him too. He wanted her to hold on just a moment longer- just for one single second more. For all she had done, she deserved just that. She deserved to hear how much she meant to him. She deserved to hear how much he had needed her to fight beside him at Knowhere and to give him something to protect. She deserved to hear how her voice had anchored him during his greatest fights, granting him the purpose his defeat had robbed from him. She deserved to hear his thanks. Out of all the years, he had lived and all the souls he had met, none had shown him the kindness of Marian. She never used him. She never commanded him. With her, we weren't a god and he wasn't a man, he was an equal. The brief moments they shared- that snowball in the summer- had granted him a lifetime of memories. In spite of his cries, he could not wake her. He watched her eyes go white.

Jiren sat there for a moment watching time go by. The battlefield went quiet. The roar of battle had died down to a bittersweet whisper. He heard nothing. Only the lapping of waves. Only the song of the wind. Only the beating of 5 hearts. His breathing slowed to a metronomic lul. In a room filled with people, he was completely alone again. The silence was enough to soothe him. Beyond meditation, that brief moment of peace had reminded him of their envisioned paradise. Peace. In a few moments- in life or in death- he would find it again.

A large white hand let her eyelids slide shut. Her body was laid down on a bed of rubble, her open grave marked by a single grey droplet.

He breathed.

"Goodbye... Old friend​

The air Sorey and Libra erupted in a wave of force, a collum of dust and sand thrust into the air by a sonic boom. A broken Jiren slowed his pulsating palm and returned it to his side, barely looking in her direction.

"No one..." He whispered in weakness "No one here..." His neck began to twitch "No one here... No one... here" He felt himself slip away again. None of it mattered. Nothing. They had taken his only friend from him... and they would all suffer for their crime. A sinister calm clung to his words "No one here... leaves... alive. Not you. Not the boy... Not the boy... I will... I will make you.... all of you... all of you... suffer"​

"No... no... no.... no... no...." Jiren crowed in chorus, turning around stiff as a corpse "These... These powers... Powers... I won't need them anymore... No more... No more distr--actions"

In a primal cry, Jiren's Frost Demon modifications seemed to shatter away like glass, their broken pieces crumbling off into the air. His tail shattered like china. His arm guards crumbled into sands. His head-dress faded away. By force of will, he banished the will of the Frieza Clan from his system. He had seen what it had done to him. He had felt the savage ignorance it filled him with. He had no intention of letting it interfere with his path of vengeance. A flicker of that other side of him still called to him. It gave him a parting message.
View attachment 3322
"They will die..." The voice whispered in his ear. It spoke with an air of peace and innocence "Please... let them die. Free them. Avenge them. Please...Jiren please"

A silver aura burst out from within his own, dancing crystals of ki stalking every twitch. A hurricane of light surged from him. His power level dropped, but his rage more than made up for the difference. Ferocity filled his eyes.

"I will end all of you!"​

"Uprigg! Oh finally, just the guy I was looking for."

That was when a spark of green, the Omnitrix energies that once inhabited Jiren, returned to Ben's Omnitrix via sheer force of will.

"Well, at least you're the same old Jiren, albeit... uh... let's just say we're all a bit closer to toast, unless I do THIS."

Uprigg, as it was called, wrapped its hands about the Omnitrix emblem, its liquid metal body merging with it temporarily.

"Fix fix. Fix fix fix. Fix fix fix fix! Sorry Jiren, but I don't think a World of Gray is the right place for a guy who can be pretty much every colour ever. Soon, we will see who truly needs redemption - those who hold a rainbow at their fingertips, or those who lie in the blur between black & white, only to vanquish all other hues. Is it you who needs to punish us, or us who needs to punish you? Maybe either, maybe none, maybe both!"

After that, a great flash of green light engulfed Uprigg, initiating yet another transformation - this form slick, seemingly made of fabric. Its body was most hollow in nature, and it had an appearance most strange. He seemed to appear to be some kind of living clothing set.

"Woah, new alien! How do I use this guy? And where are my hands? Did Jiren burn them off?"

Ben looks at his hands- or rather- sleeves. He looks at Toppo, then at Schala, seeming to come to a conclusion.

"Hmmm... Schala, is it possible to try to put me on? I don't really know what this guy can do, but I'm guessing he only does what he does if he's donned like armour."

Even though the Omnitrix was presumably fixed, it seemed that everyone who got their powers from it kept them for now.

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

 

[Macy Moretti]

With a devious smirk, when Phil asked just what Lessar was supposed to be, she felt inclined to answer him first. "The former of the two, if you really must know."

Toward Max, she simply shrugged. "So what if I could? You need an excuse to be a Good Samaritan all of a sudden?" She asked with a sinister laugh. When Mason shot at her, she hardly reacted to that, just as she hardly seemed impressed by Giorno's Gold Experience. She merely looked Mason's way with a slow, deliberate pace, tilting her head slightly. "Oh, shut up, won't you? You talk too much."

"... You're not really Lessar, are you?" Touma suddenly asked with a darkened expression, discarding all of his doubts now.

"We've really got to stop meeting like this, Touma Kamijou. Especially if I have to run into your strange friends," the individual in front of everyone spoke.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, in an almost blinding flash, a swift fist smashed into Giorno's face at staggering speeds, knocking him back a few. Where the girl that Touma and Leivinia knew as Lessar once stood, a slender, feminine looking blonde man stood, a cocky grin on his face as he drew his arm away from Mason's other bullet faster than it could reach him, pocketing it securely on his form. With a shocked look, Touma let out a soft gasp.

"Thor...?!"

View attachment 3320

"Don't look so surprised, Touma Kamijou. I've used this trick on you before, after all, or did you forget? So sorry to deceive you as well, Leivinia Birdway, but worry not. Wherever she is, I'm sure your Lessar is perfectly fine. She is of no concern to us," the man whom Touma identified as "Thor" spoke, remaining confident despite how surrounded he was, having shed his disguise as Lessar.

Looking toward Mason, he gave a small wave. "Guess now that the cat's out of the bag, I may as well ask... Weren't you there at your precious organization's little civil war a while back? Guess I shoulda beat you to Hell while I was there. How's it going for them though? Are you still crushing on that Kirigiri? Or was it more for Ilona?" He asked teasingly, recognizing Mason from the Coalition Civil War, when he had spent his time there disguised as Leia Rolando of the Coalition.

"Is that...?!" Kyoko's voice rang out over the comm link, also seeing to recognize Thor if only by his voice, either not hearing or not caring about the man's remark.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

View attachment 3323
"I... I wasn't... I wasn't crushing on... How would you even know..." Mason stuttered. His cheeks grew a bright red. He lowered his weapon and his head. Kirigiri wasn't affected by Thor's remark, but he was. For a short moment, he was caught off guard.

However, embarrassment burned into anger and Mason fueled it into resolve. He rose his head and the weapon in his hands changed shape to that of a sword. He held it to his side. He glared at Thor and watched the man like a hawk as he marched in closer to the struggle for the Arrow. His aura flared, glowing around him like a purple flame; it was a fire fueled by his embarassment and frustration.

View attachment 3324
He began a retort, "I talk too much? You're the chatterbox wasting time teasing Touma and taunting us. Yeah, I was in that Civil War. It was like my debut onto the multiverse's stage. Before coming to the Coalition, I had know idea how big the multiverse was. Then a threat arrived that was on an equal scale. You caused a lot of hell, but you were still only a lackey.

"I got out of the Coalition. I thought I needed a break from constant danger. I guess I must be cursed, as trouble seems to keep finding me anyway. Maybe I never should have left, because I'm still ending up in situations like this.

"Don't worry though. I'm more than happy to pay back the hell you caused that while ago."

Mason raised the sword high and slashed at Thor. Whether he hit or missed, the weapon in his hand would change shape, becoming a scythe. Again he would slash. Again the weapon would change. An axe. A dagger. A sickle. Anything Mason could think of that could slash and slice, he'd summon in cycle. He would keep going, aiming to detach either Thor's arm or his head, whichever came first.

"You can dodge bullets, but how well can you dodge and still hold onto that Arrow?"

Meanwhile, Macy pushed her barrier forwards, allowing her, Severa, and Touma to safely get a bit closer to the action. She readied herself to assist in cade the group took damage, which was almost certain with Mason's risky, berserker assault.

View attachment 3325
"Severa, think you can add in a bit of your own swordplay?"

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Takumi]

Jiren used Ben as a shield once more, but just as Will's strikes could hit the Omnitrix holder, which they actually did, a great flash of green light, followed by more sparks from the Omnitrix that affected more people in the zone. These bursts of energy seemed to favour those who did not contain the Omnitrix's energy in them.

---

Chise would acquire the power of Diamondhead, granting her crystal manipulation over solid ground, as well as to launch said crystals from her body.

Ruth would gain the power of Big Chill, which would primarily consist of intangibility, invisibibility, flight & frost breath.

Rita would gain the power of Buzzshock, which consisted of levitation, dissipating into electricity and manipulating & consuming electricity itself. If she found a way to consume enough electricity, she could make more Ritas.

Cordelia would attain the power of Armodrillo, which allowed her to vibrate her arms like jackhammers to create tremors on any surface, even her opponent's hearts! Her steed, too, was affected, acquiring the power of Jetray, allowing it to fire neuroshock blasts out of its eyes and fly at an even greater speed than it already was, thus allowing it to travel at its original maximum speed in a casual manner!

This also caused something else - two more beams emerged from the Omnitrix, materialising a laboratory white mouse & a bottlenose dolphin, on the platform where Marian was being fought and in the waters respectively. Both of them had on Omnitrix emblem on their chest, and green eyes. They must've been Ben's aliens, escaped from the Omnitrix!

While the dolphin just kind of hung around doing nothing but staring at the fights and making dolphin sounds, the mouse squeaked with great intensity, causing white mice from all over Academy City to swim towards the area. The tenacious little fellows - surviving floods like their cousins, those germ-infested rats.

And now, here's the best part.

The platform in which Marian & her attackers stood was now infested with mice, mindlessly scampering about the floors of the battlefield!

---

When that was all done, Will's attack struck Ben in another form - a form that exploded into what appeared to be toy bricks, toy bricks that when broken, released an odd powder that made Jiren, who was too close to Ben, a bit sleepier.

Some of these bricks conveniently landed beside Schala & Toppo, before they rebuilt themselves into...

"Pesky Bloxx! Prrrrr~ OK, what is this?"

Pesky Bloxx, as it was called, was puzzled.

"I could work with this."

As he saw Jiren fire his blasts at Schala, he only said, "I'm counting on you, Schala, so count on me too!"

Pesky Bloxx created many duplicates. While easy to fool most, Jiren would know that these were but lifeless decoys if he were to sense their ki. These decoys fluttered their wings and charged at Jiren. With each one that made contact with him, more of the odd powder would explode in his face. The more he had contact with it, the drowsier he got, and Pesky Bloxx would be able to use his powers to gaze into Jiren's dreams, most particularly his nightmares.

"Now, let's see if you have any right to say all that to Schala!"

@Ver @Yun Lee @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Donder172 @Gummi Bunnies @Takumi @Minerva @Lucky @Cromartous
@Marian-Jiren​

"W-wha?!" Chise gasped, her left arm, now not only draconic in appearance was...covered in crystals? Meanwhile, Ruth emerged from her shadow, his breath frosty as he spoke to her.

"Are you okay Chise?" he asked, but earned a nod.

"Oho, that's so cute! I could just pinch your cheeks and rip them right off!" Marian cackled toward Libra (though despite her laugh, she still seemed visibly agitated), still doing her best to hold off her opponents at bay. Her eyes widened as Libra was suddenly able to pull her golden pliers away from her, attempting to run forward to catch it, only to fall victim to Dlanor's projectile and Chise's and Ruth's attacks, clicking her tongue and trying to smack the latter away, before Jotaro's subsequent barrage of Star Finger did her in.

SHRRK!

The girl coughed up blood as her body was impaled by Jotaro's Star Platinum and its many copies. A force to be reckoned with, she might have been, but it seemed that at the end of the day, she was still no tougher than a human. To that end, perhaps it was astonishing that she was still standing and conscious, but it was the end of the line for here.

As she stood there, finally done in and nearing her end, all she could do was look at everyone with complete and utter disdain, even in her state as more blood began trickling out of her mouth.

"F-Fuck... I fucked up..." She uttered, her body struggling to even remain standing, her expression for once holding a more subtle, subdued one, even if it was of fear and regret, "But it's okay... As long as I was able to help Othinus achieve her goal in the end... I did it. My life... finally meant something," Marian spoke, a jarringly abrupt shift in tone from how she'd carried herself before, a bittersweet smile appearing on her lips despite the pain.

"Tell me something, you all... What was the most important thing that ever happened in your life? I want to know that everything you've based your life upon will be crushed and rendered obsolete... when she has her way..."

@Gummi Bunnies @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee

@Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

The most important thing in their life? Chise blinked, thinking it over...the most important thing would be...

Elias.

That's right...without Elias, without her decision made with the suggestion of that man on the school's rooftop, her and the Thorn Mage would of never met. She wouldn't be who she is now.

But more importantly, without her mother letting go that day...she wouldn't even be alive to experience all of this.

This information, wouldn't reach Marian, and Chise didn't intend for it to.

"Do not think... for one... moment...that losing that toy of yours gives you the smallest shred of understanding about what I have been through!" Jiren roared, his sanity slipping into rage with every passing moment. His fingers locked themselves into fists. His eyes shifted into a glare that could split worlds down the center. Everything he had once stood for- everything he had once been willing to die for- had now dissolved completely. Justice. Freedom. Equality. None of it mattered anymore. There was only the Grand Plan. Only Revenge.

"I have seen worlds burn. I have watch children slaughtered in the name of conquest. I watched helplessly as man turned on man again and again and again. And through all that Hell. Through all that bloodshed and misery, I learned one thing; this world is sick. People kill. People die. I tried to stop it. But I couldn't change it. For every one evil you prevent, hundreds more happen far beyond your reach. Atrocities happen across the Multiverse on an hourly basis. We can't change it. No matter how Strong we become. Because humans are weak. Humans are filthy. They steal and they kill and they infest every blessed place in the universe and corrupt it with their filth and I have long since ground tired of their scourge. I am tired of watching you take. I am tired of watching you take from each other. I doubt I can endure anything else being taken from me. I've given you chance after chance to prove yourself, Ben, but you've proven yourself to be just as sick as the rest of your kind. I do not regret a single thing I have done. Not. One. I do not regret destroying your Omnitrix. I do not regret turning away from the Coalition. I do not regret sowing the seeds of your demise. It's high time that your kind faces retribution for its sins. The Rebirth will cleanse this world of its passion and evils. Things will be right again. You will be made to suffer for your sins and lack the twisted motivation to commit more! There will be no love. No hate. THE GRAY WILL COME"

Jiren's face screamed one word: madness

"THE GRAY WILL COME AND THE GRAY WILL CLEANSE!"​

"Marian" Jiren muttered weakly, the softness of her hand slipping away from his face. He tried to fold it their for as long as time allowed him too. He wanted her to hold on just a moment longer- just for one single second more. For all she had done, she deserved just that. She deserved to hear how much she meant to him. She deserved to hear how much he had needed her to fight beside him at Knowhere and to give him something to protect. She deserved to hear how her voice had anchored him during his greatest fights, granting him the purpose his defeat had robbed from him. She deserved to hear his thanks. Out of all the years, he had lived and all the souls he had met, none had shown him the kindness of Marian. She never used him. She never commanded him. With her, we weren't a god and he wasn't a man, he was an equal. The brief moments they shared- that snowball in the summer- had granted him a lifetime of memories. In spite of his cries, he could not wake her. He watched her eyes go white.

Jiren sat there for a moment watching time go by. The battlefield went quiet. The roar of battle had died down to a bittersweet whisper. He heard nothing. Only the lapping of waves. Only the song of the wind. Only the beating of 5 hearts. His breathing slowed to a metronomic lul. In a room filled with people, he was completely alone again. The silence was enough to soothe him. Beyond meditation, that brief moment of peace had reminded him of their envisioned paradise. Peace. In a few moments- in life or in death- he would find it again.

A large white hand let her eyelids slide shut. Her body was laid down on a bed of rubble, her open grave marked by a single grey droplet.

He breathed.

"Goodbye... Old friend​

The air Sorey and Libra erupted in a wave of force, a collum of dust and sand thrust into the air by a sonic boom. A broken Jiren slowed his pulsating palm and returned it to his side, barely looking in her direction.

"No one..." He whispered in weakness "No one here..." His neck began to twitch "No one here... No one... here" He felt himself slip away again. None of it mattered. Nothing. They had taken his only friend from him... and they would all suffer for their crime. A sinister calm clung to his words "No one here... leaves... alive. Not you. Not the boy... Not the boy... I will... I will make you.... all of you... all of you... suffer"​

"No... no... no.... no... no...." Jiren crowed in chorus, turning around stiff as a corpse "These... These powers... Powers... I won't need them anymore... No more... No more distr--actions"

In a primal cry, Jiren's Frost Demon modifications seemed to shatter away like glass, their broken pieces crumbling off into the air. His tail shattered like china. His arm guards crumbled into sands. His head-dress faded away. By force of will, he banished the will of the Frieza Clan from his system. He had seen what it had done to him. He had felt the savage ignorance it filled him with. He had no intention of letting it interfere with his path of vengeance. A flicker of that other side of him still called to him. It gave him a parting message.
View attachment 3322
"They will die..." The voice whispered in his ear. It spoke with an air of peace and innocence "Please... let them die. Free them. Avenge them. Please...Jiren please"

A silver aura burst out from within his own, dancing crystals of ki stalking every twitch. A hurricane of light surged from him. His power level dropped, but his rage more than made up for the difference. Ferocity filled his eyes.

"I will end all of you!"​

"You're not the only one who's faced hardships, no matter how astronomically different our suffering is, unlike you I understand that...that suffering and happiness can-need to go hand in hand! One can't be without the other!" Chise hissed, moving to stand near Libra and Sorey (and in turn Fiamma I guess) protectively. She knew Jiren wouldn't listen, he stopped listening long ago.

@Ver @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Donder172 @York @Cromartous @Hahli Nuva @Jiren

 

[Yun Lee]

"!!!!" Libra was knocked to the ground from the force of Jiren's attack, but he wouldn't let this stop him from saving Sorey. He made an orbit around himself of the dust and sand in the column, primarily to ensure that no one got hurt by the debris from the attack. He dropped it to the ground, instead going for a new target: Jiren.

Jiren would feel himself freeze in place, unable to move forward or back, as his gravity was now under Libra's control. "Jiren! Please stop!" There had to be a way to reach him. There had to! "Listen to me, please. I've seen the horrors of humanity just as you have. The sins, the evils, the depravity...but you cannot think of humanity as being only those things! There is a beauty in many people...a light. Maybe you cannot see it yourself, but there is! I have seen it, just as I have seen darkness and evil! The idea that destroying all conflict will create peace...it won't. There is nothing to gain from the destruction of all things but misery!" He kept his hands raised, doing all he could to keep Jiren at bay. "I refuse to fight you, Jiren. Instead...I offer you my friendship. Please. Allow me to show you the good in humanity, if you just turn from this path, and join us once more."

@Cromartous @Ver @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT@Donder172 @York @Cromartous@Hahli Nuva @Jiren​

 

[Ver]

"I don't think he'll quite let me make a portal," Fiamma of the Right said to Libra as he bit his lip, eyeing Jiren warily. "Outnumbered as he is, I don't doubt he'd be able to juggle keeping myself and the boy here at bay, looking at this logically and considering his speed. You may have to... put him down before I can do anything," he suggested, as the tides turned upon Jiren.

"His malevolent aura is powerful... We've really done it now, eh?" Ollerus said with a ginger tone, stepping back as he helped Sorey out of Libra's hands to keep the boy out of harm's way.

@Cromartous @Takumi @Lucky @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Donder172 @York @Cromartous @Hahli Nuva @JirenFight​

 

[Ver]

View attachment 3328

"Haha, guilty," Thor shrugged in response to the inquiries about who he was as he tossed the Arrow in the air for the briefest of moments, before just as quickly catching it out of the air to pocket it again, a casual gesture as though he were having a pleasant conversation, "This little Arrow looks like Othinus could make some use out of it. I don't suppose you'd all mind if I kept it?"

When Severa inquired more about who he was, Touma cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah... You could say something like that."

"A long time ago, he was a part of a deep cover infiltration mission, gathering classified intel, all the while disguised as our operative, Leia Rolando, for an unknown period of time and wasn't exposed until the civil war," Kyoko explained to Severa and the others who weren't in the know, "As you can see, he managed to escape even so, but to think he was still active...!"

To Leivinia, Thor merely shrugged. "I'll let you hazard the guess on what I'm doing here if it isn't already clear. Regardless, both you and Touma Kamijou know perfectly well how this could go down. When the Almighty Thor can let loose in an open area like this, nothing good will happen to his enemies."

Indeed, Touma at least seemed to have a grasp of how powerful Thor was, even more apprehensive to even approach him than he was with Pucci before. "Tch...! You...!"

As Mason slashed rampantly at Thor, each attack handily missed its mark. It was a bizarre phenomena, as Thor could hardly be said to have moved at all to have deliberately dodged. It was more like... the entire world itself had shifted to maneuver him away from each attack.

"Wait, stop!" Touma called out to Mason, "You can't--!"

THWACK!

View attachment 3329

"I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that to fire me up."

Keeping his casual demeanor, his hands situated on his hips, Thor performed a staggeringly strong and blindingly fast crescent-arc kick with the intent of getting Mason off of him, before diverting his gaze over to Macy, a sinister smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he began walking toward her, and by extension, those protected by her barrier.

"So you're the support of the team... and you've even got the Imagine Breaker himself in tow. My first two targets on a silver platter," he grinned, clenching his fists eagerly.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Yun Lee]

"If you want either of them, you're gonna have to go through ME."

Severa stepped outside of the barrier, sword in one hand, gun in the other. She wanted to fight, sure, but hey, even just causing a distraction was fine. "I am SO TIRED of you brats running around and causing us trouble! Just give up already!"

@Ver @AtWorkOrz​

 

[Jeremi]

View attachment 3328

"Haha, guilty," Thor shrugged in response to the inquiries about who he was as he tossed the Arrow in the air for the briefest of moments, before just as quickly catching it out of the air to pocket it again, a casual gesture as though he were having a pleasant conversation, "This little Arrow looks like Othinus could make some use out of it. I don't suppose you'd all mind if I kept it?"

When Severa inquired more about who he was, Touma cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah... You could say something like that."

"A long time ago, he was a part of a deep cover infiltration mission, gathering classified intel, all the while disguised as our operative, Leia Rolando, for an unknown period of time and wasn't exposed until the civil war," Kyoko explained to Severa and the others who weren't in the know, "As you can see, he managed to escape even so, but to think he was still active...!"

To Leivinia, Thor merely shrugged. "I'll let you hazard the guess on what I'm doing here if it isn't already clear. Regardless, both you and Touma Kamijou know perfectly well how this could go down. When the Almighty Thor can let loose in an open area like this, nothing good will happen to his enemies."

Indeed, Touma at least seemed to have a grasp of how powerful Thor was, even more apprehensive to even approach him than he was with Pucci before. "Tch...! You...!"

As Mason slashed rampantly at Thor, each attack handily missed its mark. It was a bizarre phenomena, as Thor could hardly be said to have moved at all to have deliberately dodged. It was more like... the entire world itself had shifted to maneuver him away from each attack.

"Wait, stop!" Touma called out to Mason, "You can't--!"

THWACK!

View attachment 3329

"I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that to fire me up."

Keeping his casual demeanor, his hands situated on his hips, Thor performed a staggeringly strong and blindingly fast crescent-arc kick with the intent of getting Mason off of him, before diverting his gaze over to Macy, a sinister smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he began walking toward her, and by extension, those protected by her barrier.

"So you're the support of the team... and you've even got the Imagine Breaker himself in tow. My first two targets on a silver platter," he grinned, clenching his fists eagerly.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

"Ugh, good grief." Jolyne groaned and rolled her eyes. It was always something. "Look can we just cut the crap and skip to the part after we've kicked your ass? Or runaway like a little bitch. I know that's going to happen. Ermes knows that's going to happen-"

"It's true, I do."

"Everyone else knows what's going to happen. Even you deep down know what's going to happen. So hand over the arrow and fuck off, yeah?"

@Ver
@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City

 

[Crunch]

View attachment 3328

"Haha, guilty," Thor shrugged in response to the inquiries about who he was as he tossed the Arrow in the air for the briefest of moments, before just as quickly catching it out of the air to pocket it again, a casual gesture as though he were having a pleasant conversation, "This little Arrow looks like Othinus could make some use out of it. I don't suppose you'd all mind if I kept it?"

When Severa inquired more about who he was, Touma cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah... You could say something like that."

"A long time ago, he was a part of a deep cover infiltration mission, gathering classified intel, all the while disguised as our operative, Leia Rolando, for an unknown period of time and wasn't exposed until the civil war," Kyoko explained to Severa and the others who weren't in the know, "As you can see, he managed to escape even so, but to think he was still active...!"

To Leivinia, Thor merely shrugged. "I'll let you hazard the guess on what I'm doing here if it isn't already clear. Regardless, both you and Touma Kamijou know perfectly well how this could go down. When the Almighty Thor can let loose in an open area like this, nothing good will happen to his enemies."

Indeed, Touma at least seemed to have a grasp of how powerful Thor was, even more apprehensive to even approach him than he was with Pucci before. "Tch...! You...!"

As Mason slashed rampantly at Thor, each attack handily missed its mark. It was a bizarre phenomena, as Thor could hardly be said to have moved at all to have deliberately dodged. It was more like... the entire world itself had shifted to maneuver him away from each attack.

"Wait, stop!" Touma called out to Mason, "You can't--!"

THWACK!

View attachment 3329

"I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that to fire me up."

Keeping his casual demeanor, his hands situated on his hips, Thor performed a staggeringly strong and blindingly fast crescent-arc kick with the intent of getting Mason off of him, before diverting his gaze over to Macy, a sinister smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he began walking toward her, and by extension, those protected by her barrier.

"So you're the support of the team... and you've even got the Imagine Breaker himself in tow. My first two targets on a silver platter," he grinned, clenching his fists eagerly.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

CRASH!

Gold Experience easily outsped Thor's sudden face-strike from before, appearing as a pair of golden fists from Giorno's shoulders that threw themselves upward in a defensive motion and absorbed the force behind his blow. The blonde was sent skidding back into the rest of the group with his footing intact. He clicked his tounge, briefly exchanging a glance with Diego before looking back to the now-revealed Thor. Gold Experience appeared in full from Giorno's body, glowering alongside Giorno at the God of Thunder.

"You make a terrible first impression. How annoying... I suppose I will have to find another way to to show you my resolve. Allow me to test something first!"

Giorno's darted his eyes to the concrete Thor was standing on, raising his hand into the air and clenching his fist like he was pressing a detonator. As Thor took his next step, the ground beneath him violently shuddered before being blown upward like a geyser, revealing a entire tree which focibly tore itself from the concrete as if it was soil, either throwing Thor aside or carrying him into the air.

Giorno broke into a sprint, buckling his legs before leaping over Macy's barrier with Gold Experience's powerful feet. The young don descended upon the God of Thunder with his Stand at the helm, throwing a hailstorm of punches in his direction that melted into a brilliant golden blur.

MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!

As Gold Experience hung in the air and continuously threw punches in Thor's direction like an automatic turret, Giorno himself landed on his feet and pushed his back up to against barrier behind him, calmly and intently watching Thor's reaction to his attack like a pensive researcher.

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City

​

 

[Macy Moretti]

View attachment 3328

"Haha, guilty," Thor shrugged in response to the inquiries about who he was as he tossed the Arrow in the air for the briefest of moments, before just as quickly catching it out of the air to pocket it again, a casual gesture as though he were having a pleasant conversation, "This little Arrow looks like Othinus could make some use out of it. I don't suppose you'd all mind if I kept it?"

When Severa inquired more about who he was, Touma cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah... You could say something like that."

"A long time ago, he was a part of a deep cover infiltration mission, gathering classified intel, all the while disguised as our operative, Leia Rolando, for an unknown period of time and wasn't exposed until the civil war," Kyoko explained to Severa and the others who weren't in the know, "As you can see, he managed to escape even so, but to think he was still active...!"

To Leivinia, Thor merely shrugged. "I'll let you hazard the guess on what I'm doing here if it isn't already clear. Regardless, both you and Touma Kamijou know perfectly well how this could go down. When the Almighty Thor can let loose in an open area like this, nothing good will happen to his enemies."

Indeed, Touma at least seemed to have a grasp of how powerful Thor was, even more apprehensive to even approach him than he was with Pucci before. "Tch...! You...!"

As Mason slashed rampantly at Thor, each attack handily missed its mark. It was a bizarre phenomena, as Thor could hardly be said to have moved at all to have deliberately dodged. It was more like... the entire world itself had shifted to maneuver him away from each attack.

"Wait, stop!" Touma called out to Mason, "You can't--!"

THWACK!

View attachment 3329

"I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that to fire me up."

Keeping his casual demeanor, his hands situated on his hips, Thor performed a staggeringly strong and blindingly fast crescent-arc kick with the intent of getting Mason off of him, before diverting his gaze over to Macy, a sinister smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as he began walking toward her, and by extension, those protected by her barrier.

"So you're the support of the team... and you've even got the Imagine Breaker himself in tow. My first two targets on a silver platter," he grinned, clenching his fists eagerly.

@Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

"If you want either of them, you're gonna have to go through ME."

Severa stepped outside of the barrier, sword in one hand, gun in the other. She wanted to fight, sure, but hey, even just causing a distraction was fine. "I am SO TIRED of you brats running around and causing us trouble! Just give up already!"

@Ver @AtWorkOrz​

CRASH!

Gold Experience easily outsped Thor's sudden face-strike from before, appearing as a pair of golden fists from Giorno's shoulders that threw themselves upward in a defensive motion and absorbed the force behind his blow. The blonde was sent skidding back into the rest of the group with his footing intact. He clicked his tounge, briefly exchanging a glance with Diego before looking back to the now-revealed Thor. Gold Experience appeared in full from Giorno's body, glowering alongside Giorno at the God of Thunder.

"You make a terrible first impression. How annoying... I suppose I will have to find another way to to show you my resolve. Allow me to test something first!"

Giorno's darted his eyes to the concrete Thor was standing on, raising his hand into the air and clenching his fist like he was pressing a detonator. As Thor took his next step, the ground beneath him violently shuddered before being blown upward like a geyser, revealing a entire tree which focibly tore itself from the concrete as if it was soil, either throwing Thor aside or carrying him into the air.

Giorno broke into a sprint, buckling his legs before leaping over Macy's barrier with Gold Experience's powerful feet. The young don descended upon the God of Thunder with his Stand at the helm, throwing a hailstorm of punches in his direction that melted into a brilliant golden blur.

MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!

As Gold Experience hung in the air and continuously threw punches in Thor's direction like an automatic turret, Giorno himself landed on his feet and pushed his back up to against barrier behind him, calmly and intently watching Thor's reaction to his attack like a pensive researcher.

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City

​

Thor's kick connected squarely with Mason's jaw, sending the young adult flying sideways. His face got a nice taste of concrete as it smacked against the roof they stood upon.

As he picked himself up off the ground, blood could be seen running down the side of his face. He closed his eyes and gripped his forehead, hoping to stop the stars that clouded his vision. As they cleared, he noticed his hands becoming stained red and he could taste metal. Blood added new red trimmings to his white coat, but all this didn't stop him yet. His powers summoned a new sword in his left hand. He staggered over to Severa's side.

View attachment 3333
"I won't let you hurt Macy either, you slick fluggahhxkssh..." Mason tried to speak through a mouthful of blood. He spat onto the ground, leaving a dark red stain.

View attachment 3332
"Gimme this shit," Mason said, taking away Severa's gun with his right hand before his mouth filled with blood again. As Gold Experience continued its barrage of attacks, Mason fired a couple shots from the gun. Perhaps he could catch Thor off guard while he was dodging all of the punches.

View attachment 3330
"That isn't going to work," Macy whispered worriedly to Touma, "Some kind of magic is making him impossible to hit, right? Touma, if I lower my barrier, can you get an Imagine Breaker in on Thor before he breaks us? I think I need to get on healing duties quick."

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[Kaykay]

"...You're kidding, right?" Leivinia gave Macy an incredulous look. "A spell that makes one impossible to hit is the exact condition to make Imagine Breaker useless. How will he touch a target with his right hand when that target cannot be hit? Not to mention Thor himself is already aware of that right hand."

However, despite her words Leivinia didn't really have any better cards to put into play right now. From her knowledge, it wasn't as though the spell affected Thor himself. Instead, it acted more like a spell that affected the world itself. No matter how fast Giorno's Stand was or how many bullets Mason fired, it was, as Giorno himself was saying, useless.

The question then was what the condition of Thor's godlike spell was. It wasn't as though attacks themselves veered away from Thor, it was only the world that shifted beneath them. Therefore it was possible for him to take a hit if his spell didn't move the world properly. But what conditions would cause such a thing?

"The Almighty Thor really is an opponent I wouldn't want to fight suddenly and out in the open like this. But what if we make it a little less open?"

With a smirk on her face and a simple gesture, huge white explosions surrounded Macy and Touma. The two of them were already together with Macy whispering to Touma, so completely covering any blind spots between them through sheer attack radius was simple. Though Thor and her own allies alike would have to quickly scamper out of the way if they didn't want to get hit.

It was a test of sorts.

Thor had declared those two his target, so if his spell was to move the world to allow him to reach them then he shouldn't be able to just suddenly create a space that didn't exist between them. So first, she made sure it wasn't a spell as impossible to deal with as that.

Second, where then would he move to avoid her attacks? The attacker's own blind spot? Or somewhere else entirely? There had to be some sort of pattern to it. There was no way Thor could easily calculate every space on Earth and simply have himself moved there as he pleased. So she watched for the next step of the Almighty Thor.

@Ver @Hood Rat @Kaykay @Jeremi @Yun Lee @Lucky @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Alex Azure @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @City​

 

[York]

Spoiler: Replies

As Marian made her last request, Libra paused, hesitating on whether or not to grant it. He was a prisst, after all, and was it not one of his duties as a man of the cloth to offer last rites? Even for someone as twisted as Marian...it is what the Gods would want, mercy even for those who had wronged them, no matter how.

"...if you would like to know, Marian...my faith." He took a deep breath, ready to give his story. "I was abandoned by my own parents as a child, left to be on my own. I spent most of my youth a street urchin, until I discovered Naga and the Gods of Ylisse, my home. From that point on, I have done all I could to help those who were once like me, and to walk in a path of righteousness myself. I'm but a man, of course, so I always sin, and even try to justify it some of the time, but...I do try."

He matched her sad smile with a smile of his own, though his was one of resolve. "I have met many on my travels, some who have lived in more fortunate circumstances than myself, and some less. Everyone responds differently, and that is ultimately what decides what path we take. I could have very well cursed the Gods, given into despair, and taken up a life of self indulgence and wrath. But I didn't. Instead, my goal in life is to leave things better when I exit this world than they were when I entered. Othinus and DIO are extraordinarily powerful, yes. But I know that myself, and all these people here, can stop them. My faith extends to all of us here, and I know we can succeed in stopping this catastrophe."

His piece said, Libra's smile faded. "But...what about you, Marian? All this time, and you've yet to answer my one question: why do you follow Othinus? What do you have to gain from her achieving her goals?"

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Takumi@CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee

@Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous@Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"You are a miserable little girl aren't you?" Jiren cried, firing of a Destructive Eye Beam directly between the eyes of his attacker, giving her a single ultimatum: pull out of her rush, or be split down the middle "You scream. You cry. You leave yourself painfully open"

With Jiren's armor at full capacity and his mouth shields sealing his lips, the powder bombs were rendered ineffective against Jiren but were more than enough to steal his attention. The moment this first bomb struck him, Jiren was sent into a fit, a sea of flying limps and a tail swatting everything unlucky enough to be within striking distance away. He had no intention of finding out what else those damn insects were capable of

"I have the right. I hold the right to all I see! I sit at the Right Hand of a Magic God! You gaze upon Jiren the Final Prophet! Before his power... You shall kneel!" Summoning the strength of Lord Cooler, Jiren reached out with his mind, raising a whirlwind of rubble from beneath the ways. Lifted by his will alone, a thought commanded them to hone in on the new life signatures. As swiftly as the idea had entered his head, he planned to crush them under a mountain of concrete and steel.'

"I. Said. Kneel!"


A crippled tail caught the spear mid-strike, the tipless appendance wrapping its away around its handle like a biblical snake, its growing golden strength commanding to move against the will of its holder. With a sudden wave of power, Jiren forced the edge of the spear upwards into its owner's underarm, seeking to use it as a level from which he could raise her into the air.

"Stab me once shame on me... But stab me twice..."


"To hell with the laws of confrontation!" Jiren growled, commanding a sea of debris to Schala in her distracted state "There is too much at stake now! Don't expect honor or Pride in a duel for worlds!"

A sudden energy fluctuation caught Jiren's attention; a soul was flickering out... and it was not one of his foe's. The Ki was familiar, forged in rage and purpose, and it called out with a voice that reminded him of home.

"Marian..." Jiren muttered, his black eyes opened wide "No... Not you!" In a flip and a flash, Jiren arrived at her side, basking in his own failure. The powers of the Frieza clan had clouded his mind and ripped away from his focus, and now she- and more importantly, that Grand Plan- would pay the price. How could he have been so blind?

A pain surged within him. Maybe he had grown more attached to the dwarf than he cared to admit. And why shouldn't he? Her strength of will and indomitable resolve were enough to rival his own; She always did what needed to be done without so much as a second time thought, providing him with some much-needed clarity in her final days. He stirred. He wasn't accustomed to relying on others, especially those physically weaker than he was; it had always saved him from the pain of grief. Perhaps Toppo was right. Perhaps his betrayal had changed him. Perhaps it had made him weak...

Holding her head in his hands, Jiren. Spoke directly to his last companion "Marian... my... friend" He spoke with an inhuman hesitation, or perhaps such hesitation was the only thing that made him human "I am sorry. I shouldn't have let this happen... I shouldn't have been so weak...it's-" His head started to spin, his tense brow frantically trying to anchor it "It's happening all over again... just like home" His Ki spiked. His heart rolled him his chest. Beyond anger. Beyond loathing. This was righteous fury "I let another mortal die on my watch... I have failed us all!"

His free hand became a blazing ball of light, his bones glowing from beneath his newfound armor. Perhaps the right thing to do would be to lend her some of his power and give her some more strength in her final moments... but Jiren had long since walked away from right and wrong "I swear... I swear I will avenge you! You... you don't need your strength any longer" His voice rang cold, his dead eyes staring into hers. "You're dying. Give me your power... and I will avenge you... I'll make them suffer... they'll beg for death. Give me every shred of strength, Marian! Marian!!"​

One of Pesky Bloxx's decoys shot towards Marian and burst into powder, chasing any mice running over her almost-corpse away and allowing Pesky Bloxx to access her dreams - her nightmares, her desires. Via her eyes, she would percieve illusions of these very dreams replacing the environment, and Ben as Pesky Bloxx was the only other one able to percieve them.

Pesky Bloxx spoke for all to hear.

"The event that changed my life, the most important event - obtaining the original Omnitrix. At first, I thought it was just a toy - much like Jiren is believing it is now. But the obtaining the Omnitrix gave me power. Maybe it was unearned at first, but I soon grew, I soon grasped the responsibilities of a hero with allies by my side - from my world & others.

The Omnitrix's true purpose was to keep peace, allow its holder to see life through the eyes of other races. First, it was every race in the galaxy, then the universe, and soon, the multiverse.

Maybe you could argue that I'm weaker - powerless - without the Omnitrix. You'd be right. The Omnitrix pressured me with responsibility, it instilled into me the Ben Tennyson of today - a Ben Tennyson who wants to be a hero, who wants to protect as many people no matter how impossible. The watch may have shaped me, but it's never the device that makes the hero, or his every shape or size or suit, it's the hero himself, his heart and mind.

Until today, I'm still finding out what it truly means to be a hero, until today... well...

... some answers are best left for tomorrow. For today, I will use the powers granted by my Omnitrix to preserve your memories with Othinus. You may be evil to my eyes, but I know that even the evil has resolve and motivation. That which motivates you to fight alongside your master Othinus, I will preserve it in my head."​

Pesky Bloxx couldn't think of a quip to say to Jiren.

"Your loss fuels you, it saddens you, it enrages you, how do you think others will feel when they lose their allies in your plight? No, I'm not just referring to warriors, I'm talking about innocents wrapped in our war - helpless innocents and civilians that you and I once were!

You may have prevented me from achieving my heavier hitters, but nothing you do can stop me from being the same Ben Tennyson on the inside. You on the other hand - the power you got from the Omnitrix, the instincts that come with it seem to be eating away at you. Will you let it absorb you, or will you overcome it? Or did you always have a god complex that wasn't too obvious to me?"

Pesky Bloxx continues the decoy assault upon Jiren, the dust just kept coming.

The Omnitrix sparked again, ready to transition into the next form...

@Gummi Bunnies @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee

@Ver @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"Aha... What a droll, boring answer. But maybe I should have expected as much from a wishful hero of justice like you fancy yourself as," Marian spoke with a shaky voice, yet it was light and soft, as though that reliable kind of answer was something she took solace in. Something so single-mindedly driven by something in spite of the pain he'd went through... Yes, it reminded her of someone from her past. Gone was the sadistic edge of a villain who seemed able to inflict suffering upon others without a second thought. Now, she was merely just a girl, at the edge of death, with nothing to her name. No family to speak of, nothing to leave behind. Just Marian Slingeneyer as herself.

As Ben spoke in turn, Marian giving herself up, her very memories and experiences, to him, she only had but a similar sentiment as with Libra. "S-Stupid hero... What good are those kinds of heroics if... f-for all of your power, there will always be more people that need to be saved? No matter what you do... There will always be someone wishing... calling..." She couldn't even finish her sentence before she coughed up more blood, breathing raggedly now.

"Try as you want to understand me... but it's no use. I could tell you... a-all about where I'd come from, the one I fell for, whom I had to sacrifice for Othinus... but what's the point? I only hope you will soon realize that everything you've fought for, everything you've ever struggled for... Othinus will make it all irrelevant, for better or for worse."

As Rita electrocuted her, Marian was too weak to even yelp out in pain, before she was taken to Jiren's side, the small woman looking up at the alien with weak eyes, and yet... They were also warm eyes.

"Aha... Are you... crying for someone like me? Sorrow and passion... for me... You really are... just like the one I fell for so long ago," Marian uttered, her strength slowly fading the more she spoke, reaching up and stroking Jiren's cheek with her gloved hand gently as he held her, before her hand trailed down and balled into a fist, laying atop her own heart as though making her last vow.

"I give you everything I am, everything I have. Use it for whatever you want. This objective, your own needs here and now... Take all of it. Fight for your people, for me, for yourself... Anything. Do... what you believe is right... Jiren...!"

With a sharp gasp, her eyes suddenly went blank, and Marian Slingeneyer ceased to move forever, her limp arm falling to her own side.

As Marian died before Jiren's eyes, with only a vague awareness of the brief relationship they had together, Fiamma of the Right could only warily purse his lips, stepping back with a tense look on his face.

"... This doesn't look good," he merely said.

@Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

Libra took the time as Marian spoke to quietly retrieve Sorey. Holding him in his arms, the priest brought the boy to Fiamma. "I fear that my return pad is out of commission, but perhaps you can create a portal to send him back to Knowhere?" He asked. As tragic as this situation was, they were still on a mission, and it was going to get far more dire if Jiren responded so strongly to the loss of Marian.

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"Do not think... for one... moment...that losing that toy of yours gives you the smallest shred of understanding about what I have been through!" Jiren roared, his sanity slipping into rage with every passing moment. His fingers locked themselves into fists. His eyes shifted into a glare that could split worlds down the center. Everything he had once stood for- everything he had once been willing to die for- had now dissolved completely. Justice. Freedom. Equality. None of it mattered anymore. There was only the Grand Plan. Only Revenge.

"I have seen worlds burn. I have watch children slaughtered in the name of conquest. I watched helplessly as man turned on man again and again and again. And through all that Hell. Through all that bloodshed and misery, I learned one thing; this world is sick. People kill. People die. I tried to stop it. But I couldn't change it. For every one evil you prevent, hundreds more happen far beyond your reach. Atrocities happen across the Multiverse on an hourly basis. We can't change it. No matter how Strong we become. Because humans are weak. Humans are filthy. They steal and they kill and they infest every blessed place in the universe and corrupt it with their filth and I have long since ground tired of their scourge. I am tired of watching you take. I am tired of watching you take from each other. I doubt I can endure anything else being taken from me. I've given you chance after chance to prove yourself, Ben, but you've proven yourself to be just as sick as the rest of your kind. I do not regret a single thing I have done. Not. One. I do not regret destroying your Omnitrix. I do not regret turning away from the Coalition. I do not regret sowing the seeds of your demise. It's high time that your kind faces retribution for its sins. The Rebirth will cleanse this world of its passion and evils. Things will be right again. You will be made to suffer for your sins and lack the twisted motivation to commit more! There will be no love. No hate. THE GRAY WILL COME"

Jiren's face screamed one word: madness

"THE GRAY WILL COME AND THE GRAY WILL CLEANSE!"​

"Marian..." Jiren muttered weakly, the softness of her hand slipping away from his face. He tried to fold it their for as long as time allowed him too. He wanted her to hold on just a moment longer- just for one single second more. For all she had done, she deserved just that. She deserved to hear how much she meant to him. She deserved to hear how much he had needed her to fight beside him at Knowhere and to give him something to protect. She deserved to hear how her voice had anchored him during his greatest fights, granting him the purpose his defeat had robbed from him. She deserved to hear his thanks. Out of all the years, he had lived and all the souls he had met, none had shown him the kindness of Marian. She never used him. She never commanded him. With her, we weren't a god and he wasn't a man, he was an equal. The brief moments they shared- that snowball in the summer- had granted him a lifetime of memories. In spite of his cries, he could not wake her. He watched her eyes go white.

Jiren sat there for a moment watching time go by. The battlefield went quiet. The roar of battle had died down to a bittersweet whisper. He heard nothing. Only the lapping of waves. Only the song of the wind. Only the beating of 5 hearts. His breathing slowed to a metronomic lul. In a room filled with people, he was completely alone again. The silence was enough to soothe him. Beyond meditation, that brief moment of peace had reminded him of their envisioned paradise. Peace. In a few moments- in life or in death- he would find it again.

A large white hand let her eyelids slide shut. Her body was laid down on a bed of rubble, her open grave marked by a single grey droplet.

He breathed.

"Goodbye... My friend... I'll be soon"
​

The air between Sorey and Libra erupted in a wave of force, a collum of dust and sand thrust into the air by a sonic boom. A broken Jiren slowed his pulsating palm and returned it to his side, barely looking in her direction.

"No one..." He whispered in weakness "No one here..." His neck began to twitch "No one here... No one... here" He felt himself slip away again. None of it mattered. Nothing. They had taken his only friend from him... and they would all suffer for their crime. A sinister calm clung to his words "No one here... leaves... alive. Not you. Not the boy... Not the boy... I will... I will make you.... all of you... all of you... suffer"​

"No... no... no.... no... no...." Jiren crowed in chorus, turning around stiff as a corpse "These... These powers... Powers... I won't need them anymore... No more... No more distr--actions"

In a primal cry, Jiren's Frost Demon modifications seemed to shatter away like glass, their broken pieces crumbling off into the air. His tail shattered like china. His arm guards crumbled into sands. His head-dress faded away. By force of will, he banished the will of the Frieza Clan from his system. He had seen what it had done to him. He had felt the savage ignorance it filled him with. He had no intention of letting it interfere with his path of vengeance. A flicker of that other side of him still called to him. It gave him a parting message.
View attachment 3322
"They will die..." The voice whispered in his ear. It spoke with an air of peace and innocence "Please... let them die. Free them. Avenge them. Please...Jiren please"

A silver aura burst out from within his own, dancing crystals of ki stalking every twitch. A hurricane of light surged from him. His power level dropped, but his rage more than made up for the difference. Ferocity filled his eyes.

In a fit of rage and anguish, Jiren charged forward, more beast than man. No more power levels. No more Transformations. He was a creature of pure power. Pure strength. Pure fury.

"YOU TOOK HER FROM ME! AND I WONT YIELD UNTIL I'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM YOU!!"​

"Maybe being a hero is futile from your perspective," Ben's regular voice sounded out as the flash of green light stayed, "but know this - I'm making my every effort count, and I'm not the only hero in the cosmos. It's a neverending, bottomless mission, a path of infinite length - but that's just part of the job, an occupational hazard, and a neccessity that someone has to assume to prevent chaos from consuming innocents. It's not hopeless, even if the endgoal can never be reached. Even if it is ultimately impossible to care for and value all who deserve it, I want to try, and that's why I'm going to carry your memories to my death."

The light continues to shine, and soon fades... a somewhat visible face appearing and a vocal change occuring. This tone was serious & stern - not a tinge of a humour left, as if his funny bone had turned into cinders.

"And that's why - it's hero time!"
​

"Uprigg! Oh finally, just the guy I was looking for."

That was when a spark of green, the Omnitrix energies that once inhabited Jiren, returned to Ben's Omnitrix via sheer force of will.

"Well, at least you're the same old Jiren, albeit... uh... let's just say we're all a bit closer to toast, unless I do THIS."

Uprigg, as it was called, wrapped its hands about the Omnitrix emblem, its liquid metal body merging with it temporarily.

"Fix fix. Fix fix fix. Fix fix fix fix! Sorry Jiren, but I don't think a World of Gray is the right place for a guy who can be pretty much every colour ever. Soon, we will see who truly needs redemption - those who hold a rainbow at their fingertips, or those who lie in the blur between black & white, only to vanquish all other hues. Is it you who needs to punish us, or us who needs to punish you? Maybe either, maybe none, maybe both!"

After that, a great flash of green light engulfed Uprigg, initiating yet another transformation - this form slick, seemingly made of fabric. Its body was most hollow in nature, and it had an appearance most strange. He seemed to appear to be some kind of living clothing set.

"Woah, new alien! How do I use this guy? And where are my hands? Did Jiren burn them off?"

Ben looks at his hands- or rather- sleeves. He looks at Toppo, then at Schala, seeming to come to a conclusion.

"Hmmm... Schala, is it possible to try to put me on? I don't really know what this guy can do, but I'm guessing he only does what he does if he's donned like armour."

Even though the Omnitrix was presumably fixed, it seemed that everyone who got their powers from it kept them for now.

@Ver @Gummi Bunnies @Lucky @Takumi @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Yun Lee @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Cromartous @Donder172 @York @Marian-Jiren​

"W-wha?!" Chise gasped, her left arm, now not only draconic in appearance was...covered in crystals? Meanwhile, Ruth emerged from her shadow, his breath frosty as he spoke to her.

"Are you okay Chise?" he asked, but earned a nod.



The most important thing in their life? Chise blinked, thinking it over...the most important thing would be...

Elias.

That's right...without Elias, without her decision made with the suggestion of that man on the school's rooftop, her and the Thorn Mage would of never met. She wouldn't be who she is now.

But more importantly, without her mother letting go that day...she wouldn't even be alive to experience all of this.

This information, wouldn't reach Marian, and Chise didn't intend for it to.

"You're not the only one who's faced hardships, no matter how astronomically different our suffering is, unlike you I understand that...that suffering and happiness can-need to go hand in hand! One can't be without the other!" Chise hissed, moving to stand near Libra and Sorey (and in turn Fiamma I guess) protectively. She knew Jiren wouldn't listen, he stopped listening long ago.

@Ver @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Donder172 @York @Cromartous @Hahli Nuva @Jiren

"!!!!" Libra was knocked to the ground from the force of Jiren's attack, but he wouldn't let this stop him from saving Sorey. He made an orbit around himself of the dust and sand in the column, primarily to ensure that no one got hurt by the debris from the attack. He dropped it to the ground, instead going for a new target: Jiren.

Jiren would feel himself freeze in place, unable to move forward or back, as his gravity was now under Libra's control. "Jiren! Please stop!" There had to be a way to reach him. There had to! "Listen to me, please. I've seen the horrors of humanity just as you have. The sins, the evils, the depravity...but you cannot think of humanity as being only those things! There is a beauty in many people...a light. Maybe you cannot see it yourself, but there is! I have seen it, just as I have seen darkness and evil! The idea that destroying all conflict will create peace...it won't. There is nothing to gain from the destruction of all things but misery!" He kept his hands raised, doing all he could to keep Jiren at bay. "I refuse to fight you, Jiren. Instead...I offer you my friendship. Please. Allow me to show you the good in humanity, if you just turn from this path, and join us once more."

@Cromartous @Ver @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT@Donder172 @York @Cromartous@Hahli Nuva @Jiren​

"I don't think he'll quite let me make a portal," Fiamma of the Right said to Libra as he bit his lip, eyeing Jiren warily. "Outnumbered as he is, I don't doubt he'd be able to juggle keeping myself and the boy here at bay, looking at this logically and considering his speed. You may have to... put him down before I can do anything," he suggested, as the tides turned upon Jiren.

"His malevolent aura is powerful... We've really done it now, eh?" Ollerus said with a ginger tone, stepping back as he helped Sorey out of Libra's hands to keep the boy out of harm's way.

@Cromartous @Takumi @Lucky @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Donder172 @York @Cromartous @Hahli Nuva @JirenFight​

Schala Zeal
@Cromartous @Takumi @Lucky @Yun Lee @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Donder172 @Ver @Hahli Nuva @JirenFight

Schala fell silent for a while, allowing Jiren a moment to grieve over the loss of Marian.

Truth to be told... She had hoped she could have spared her life... Alongside Jiren's, somehow.

Despite how many times those who she had fought ended up dying, in one form or another, she always strove to try and preserve as many lives that she could on both sides.

Understandably, what had happened angered Jiren... Tore him apart.

Each time she failed someone... Each time a life was extinguished despite her best efforts... There was this indescribeable feeling of anguish... Followed by frustration, and anger.

But in the end... She always forced those feelings back, forced herself to smile... To keep moving... Fighting... In hopes of one day preventing things like that from happening all-together.

In a way... Jiren was attempting to do something similar... Except, he was willing to destroy countless lives in the process. To him, the end justifies the means... But to her... It wasn't just the end result that mattered; it was how that result was achieved.

"Jiren... Your drive... Your passion... You almost remind me of my brother... Janus..." She said, a sad, distant look on her face.

Dropping her guard for the briefest of moments, she spoke... From the depths of her heart, perhaps hoping to bring him to his senses at last, for whatever it was worth.

He still was... Him, but his reasoning was flawed, fatally so. The way he was going, he would destroy everyone, and himself in one fell swoop... He would fail the promise he had strived so hard to keep... Tempted by his vision of paradise.

"Long ago... I watched helplessly as my Kingdom was destroyed. Both by my mother's arrogance.... And by a being that held us all prisoner; Lavos. He tore me from my timeline... And left me stranded in a place beyond time... But even there... I found no end to my pain. It was there, in my depths of my despair... As my powers were exploited once more... That I wished for the end of existence... So this suffering could finally end..." Her voice wavered, as she seemed to be blinking away tears.

"Once I was freed from that nightmare... I began to understand the value of emotions... The value of... Color." A sad smile sprung across her face before she continued.

"But even then... There are things I find difficult to understand... Loving to hate... Hating to love... Why are we born? Why do we die?Evolution? The 'survival of the fittest? What is there to be achieved from harming one another... Killing one another...''

There was a pause before Schala abruptly raised her guard once more, a melancholy expression on her face now as she stood, her dark magic coated blades ready to meet Jiren.

"In the end... I still can't grasp the answer... But I know now... It lies within our innate nature to feel... To fight... For our own beliefs and causes, selfish... Or otherwise. Even you... Jiren, are willing to fight... To kill for your cause..."

By now, Schala was eerily calm, like she had been facing Jiren in that vault... And during that moment she had unleashed a series of dark bomb on him underwater.

Her hands no longer trembled, her gaze no longer wavered... She was ready to finish this battle, just as Jiren was, but she wasn't ready to kill; if she could... She would at least temporarily, put an end to this vicious cycle of death that was their quest to protect the Multiverse... The end does not always justify the means after all.

Though, she was briefly snapped to reality when Ben mentioned something about... Putting him on. Glancing to one side, she noticed that he had apparently become some kind of... ... Dress. It didn't look like the most dignified thing to wear, but on the other hand... Other than fighting defensively, she didn't have too many options.

Wordlessly, she reached over, deciding to try... Ben on.​

 

[Ver]

"I've been called bastard many times before, but brat is new! And by a child herself no less!" Thor laughed in response to Severa as though taking glee in this whole situation. With even more adversaries stepping in between him and Macy, recognizing everyone before him as targets, the long-haired man brushed a thumb over his nose, before suddenly performing a handstand and spinning his legs around with his momentum, hoping to kick the swordswoman -- along with Jolyne and Ermes -- away!

With that, just in time, Thor leaped back to his feet to contend with Gold Experience, astonishingly able to trade punches with it and keeping up with it better than one might expect, even if Giorno was able to get a few punches in. As Mason opted to shoot at him from afar, the bizarre phenomena happened once again, as Thor's position suddenly shifted without any obvious gesture that he physically moved at all. He suddenly disappeared from in front of Giorno, snaking behind the young don and delivering a staggeringly powerful punch at Macy's barrier, easily shattering it as though it were of little consequence.

"C-Crap!" Touma exclaimed, unable to answer Macy's question in the moment (though fortunately for her, Leivinia was able to make up for that), now exposed.

"Very good, Leivinia Birdway! But how depressing is it?! Even when scouring through the greater multiverse, I can still hardly find anyone who can best the Almighty Thor! Defeats the principle that there's always someone stronger, is there not?!" He exclaimed in the heat of battle, just as Touma began to run toward him, fist poised.

"Hooooaa--auughh!"

KRAKK!

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Touma had attempted to go forward to punch Thor despite knowing what a futile gesture it might have been, and paid the price, facing a powerful punch right in the face that knocked him to the edge of the rooftop, putting him out of commission for the time being.

From there, he turned to Macy without missing a single beat, maintaining his cocky grin. "No hard feelings, but it's time for you to say good night!" He exclaimed, swinging his fist once again right toward Macy!

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