157 Chapter 145: Independence Day - Part 10

[ Happy Independence Day... ]

The world fell silent as Zero's voice announced this, it was as if they expected some disaster to immediately begin the second the countdown ended.

The silence was broken however by a news helicopter that began flying not too far from the skyscraper Arias was hovering close to.

[ To all our viewers watching, we are reporting live at the scene where the man known as Arias Zagaroth, the leader of the Leviathan has personally came to the tower in which the president is said to be residing in along with other high ranking officials for what we can only assume to be murder ]

The woman residing within the helicopter didn't delay in reporting what was happening and even had a few soldiers within the chopper with their guns aimed at Arias.

"Hoh? You even went as far as to higher a news chopper to deliver live news about what's going on. Trying to pass me off as the villain so you can win the hearts of the people maybe? What does it matter anyway time is up." Arias looked in the direction of the chopper and spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"Leviathan, no Arias... let's not do this the hard way. You gain nothing by spilling more blood! Why can't you understand this?!." The president pleaded but Arias wasn't one to easily change his mind. He showed a small smirk before looking up at the clouds and making another declaration.

"Members of Leviathan, the timer has ended and the time for Independence is now. Kill any who show resistance or stand in the way without hesitation.... Like so." Arias's gaze turned cold and he raised his hand towards the chopper before forming a claw with his fingers.

The chopper immediately began to crash under an invisible pressure until it looked more like a jagged ball of metal with blood oozing out of its cracks.

"Open fire!" The guards who stood atop the skyscraper was and watched helplessly as the chopper got crushed quickly reacted and began firing at Arias. He of course didn't bother to even dodge as the projectiles went around him as if being repelled.

"You should have known full well that this much was useless against me. All you did was send these men and women to their graves." Arias flicked his wrist and the bullets suddenly changed directions and fired towards the very men and women that shot them.

The situation was quickly deteriorating and the mutants present were about to make their moves as well but felt they couldn't move. A bone crushing pressure had descended upon them all and even caused all the building's windows to shatter before it starting creaking.

'They genuinely believed they could stop father with such a force?' Nearíthea observed from above in disbelief as the force gathered to stop Arias was beaten in practically an instant.

Arias observed the numerous corpses with no remorse before raising his hand towards the building again and destroying it completely.

He then extended his hands forward as if gripping the air itself, next he literally tore through reality like ripping apart a piece of paper. This phenomenon caused the entire city of Manhattan to start trembling as if there was an earthquake happening.

Arias paid no mind to this and walked through the ripped part of reality he had created while Nearíthea began flying around preventing casualties.

On the other side of the ripple, Arias found what looked to be the White House surrounded by nothing but dark space.

"A pocket dimension." Arias muttered and looked at the front of the state house where the president himself was standing. "A trap, I see." Arias quickly realized this upon sensing no other presence within the pocket dimension.

The president didn't respond to this as his body began to ripple like a mirage before revealing his true self... The Hulk.

"It ends here!" Hulk roared out as he looked at Arias with absolute fury. His large green body could even be seen radiating a subtle green mist.

It was then that Arias understood they purposefully baited him there, as for why they specially chose to use a pocket dimension he could only guess it was to trap him as these sort of dimensions responded only to the laws of the caster.

"Not a bad plan, had it been anyone else it may have worked, however..." Arias trailed off as the dimensions shape began to change drastically.

From Deserts to underworld worlds to even the vacuum of space itself, each second that passed the dimension continued to change shape.

"You look rather disoriented Bruce, is this all you could amount to?" Arias asked as he stood casually even as the dimension shifted rapidly. Hulk however found himself thrown around and unable to get any footing making any attempt to fight utterly useless.

"Grr! Stop this!" He cried out angrily as he found it impossible to even make one attack against Arias. "I'll take that as a yes." Arias replied before vanishing and reappearing right in front of Bruce.

He then thrust his hand forward and gripped Bruce by the face roughly. Cracking noises soon followed as his skull began to fall under the pressure.

No matter how much he tried to fight back, his blows simply bounced off Arias's body like they were nothing. Bruce soon began to feel weak all over as his consciousness slowly started to slip away.

It was only when Bruce stopped moving entirely did Arias finally let go and let the body drop to the ground. 'Now then, let's go to see the real president.' Arias thought before leaving the dimension through a portal he opened up there and then.

When he walked out he found himself in the yard of what looked to be the White House at first glance. "Another pocket dimension I see." Arrows glanced around for a moment and quickly reached that conclusion before focusing his gaze forward.

There stood a figure who was blocking the entrance to the interior of the building like a guard.

"Looks like they've placed all hope in you... Sentry"