18 Scuffle! (10)

Relovan quieted down as the pair unleashed even more Essence Powers. He watched on in silence while occasionally looking around to see if any of his fellow Enforcers were around or at least approaching his position.

"This is Relovan again." He said, getting on the radio again after a few minutes. "Things are escalating. Now would be a great time to confirm whether or not you're close."

The cold silence he had been receiving since he started giving status reports did not bug Relovan more than it did at this exact moment. At first, he figured his fellows were either preoccupied with subduing the other Personal Knights or something like that, but the more he asked for confirmation on positions and such, the stronger the sense of abandonment hit him. Things continued to get worse and worse down in front of the Hotel, and more weather effects ripped the buildings and the ground around them to shreds. Eventually, Relovan pressed the tape below his earlobe once and spoke in a wrath filled whisper.

"This is Relovan. Things have reached the point where I cannot wait any longer, so I am going down to engage the Void Lords by myself. Fucking cowards."

Relovan took the deepest of breaths as he stared at the Void Lords down below. These were beings that possessed the power to destroy all of the planets and the station with relative ease, and the Enforcer seemed to be taking a moment to steel himself in order to confront them. The moment passed fairly quickly and soon, Relovan began making his way down towards the Hotel.

Meanwhile, down in front of the building and right in the centre of the craziness, Juxtae and Vox continued to fight. Vox was still going at Juxtae with the Dragon Fist technique, and she raised both of her hands, from which a rather impressive Essence Power known as Chain Lightning shot out and struck the large Void Lord directly. Streaks of lightning would splinter off and bounce off of something before darting straight back at Vox and hitting him in the back, the sides, everywhere. The attack never seemed to end, and this caused Vox to let out a roar which was followed by a flame dome pushing its way out from inside the lightning, dissipating the lightning and freeing the Void Lord from it. He grinned at Juxtae and snorted.

"You're weak, Juxtae. You have no right to deny me what I seek."

"The Lady says she has the right to deny you whatever she feels like denying you." One of her assistants yelled from a distance.

This prompted Vox to scowl and lob a fireball in the direction the voice came from before glaring at Juxtae.

"How many times have I told you not to speak to me using those whelps of yours!!" The Void Lord absolutely boomed.

Before the conversation could continue, a loud voice interrupted them.

"Void Lords Vox and Juxtae, this is Police Enforcer Relovan. By engaging in combat here in this Neutral Zone, you two have knowingly contravened our laws. I request that you both disengage and leave one another alone. If you do that, then out of respect for your positions, I will not cuff you."

The bold claim actually caught the attention of both Void Lords and caused them to actually look in the direction the voice came from. Relovan was standing on the edge of a wall that was rather high above the sunken parking lot of the Hotel. He stood with his arms down by his side, although the left arm dangled limply more than anything. There was a brief silence as the two looked Relovan over before they actually recognised him – well, Juxtae recognised him as a person, and Vox recognised him as a Human. Juxtae actually backed off of Vox a bit, and all of the weather effects, at least from Juxtae's side, started to die down.

"Enforcer Relovan?" Vox asked, sounding somewhat amused. "If we willingly stop, you won't cuff US?"

"That's right, Void Lord. I repeat, I am requesting that you both stand down. The planet we are currently on will not survive if you two continue to engage in this battle. That will result in casualties and create issues between you and the Council. Please, stand down."

Juxtae looked at Relovan in what seemed like silence for a while, before her two assistants suddenly teleported in and flanked her.

"The Lady says she will do as you ask." One of the women said.

"Surprisingly." The other added as she looked at Relovan as well.

Relovan nodded his appreciation at Juxtae, however her willingness to cooperate with him only seemed to incense Vox, who glared at the Enforcer as flames began to pulse from his eyes.

"Don't think for even a second that I care about the Council and it's laws. I only follow and answer to the voice of Da-Xa, and He tells me to do whatever it is I want, whenever I want to do it. Right now, what I want to do is crush this Void Lord and her two worms."

"…that is unfortunate, Void Lord Vox." Relovan said as he reached down for his stun baton. "Am I correct in assuming this means you will not stand down like Void Lord Juxtae?"

Void Lord Vox just snorted as he looked at the three women and launched a volley of fireballs in their direction. The two assistants simultaneously raised their hands and created a wall of lightning which blocked the attack.

A few seconds later, Vox noticed Relovan jump down from the wall into the sunken parking lot below, before slowly standing up and looking at the large Void Lord.

"I would ask that you refrain from attacking Void Lord Juxtae, Void Lord Vox. She has submitted herself to the law, and thus attacking her further will only worsen your charges. I will give you one more opportunity to stop this and come with me willingly."

"What will happen if I refuse this final offer?" Vox asked.

"I will have to subdue you and bring you in." Relovan replied with conviction.

This drew a massive bout of laughter from Vox, who genuinely looked amused. The Void Lord laughed until he was actually in tears, and as the laughter became progressively more boisterous, the weird weather effects from before returned, with flames appearing from nowhere and dancing around him. Relovan strained his eyes a bit as he tried to ignore the immense heat being generated by the laughter and everything else that happened. After a bit more laughter, the Void Lord eventually calmed down and wiped his tears away. Those tears that managed to drip to the ground were so hot, along with the ground below them, the moment they hit the floor, they boiled and turned to steam.

"Oh, that was fantastic." Vox said as the smile on his face slowly disappeared. "You Humans are such an interesting race, transient little things that you are. You love to zip around to every corner of the Void, strutting around with your little chests puffed out like Valuvian Cave Birds, clucking about. You are all about as insignificant candles in a snow storm. Just look at you… you walking corpse. A single glance at you reveals all I need to know about your current physical state. Blood leaking from every orifice on your little head, bones so broken your torso looks like it will fall apart at any time. Your breathing so ragged, you sound like a Void Slug. A weak, pathetic creature that is on the verge of death like you thinking that it has any authority over a being such as I, is hubris of the highest order, as funny as it may be."

Vox suddenly glared at Relovan, and as he did, the Enforcer felt a great amount of weight and pressure on his body. It felt as though a small planet was trying to squash Relovan and it was taking all he had not to buckle under the weight and be reduced to a smudge on the ground. The struggle against the pressure was causing Relovan to bend his knees.

'Don't let them see you struggle!' Relovan chanted internally like some kind of mantra.

As if in an effort to prevent the Void Lords from seeing just that, Relovan seemed to use every bit of strength he had left to stand up straight and upon doing so, attempted to look at Vox with a scowl of determination. He was instead met by the sight of the Void Lord staring at him with a scowl filled with such intensity, it almost caused the Enforcer to recoil. The look in Vox's eyes was one of pure disdain and his face was warped with disapproval. He body emitted intense heat that was made worse by the fact that it was accompanied by a shockwave-initiated gust of wind. The heat was almost too much to take, and Relovan was alerted to just how much he had been sweating by a few beads that rolled down his cheek.