172 The only way it could go

{futuristic world}

*BANG*

A 10 meter long yellow metallic container flew off from the port to the sea crashing against a very long transport boat in a deafening crash, as Nicole gave an excitedly furious roar and continued to rampage through the port.

Romeo, who was standing at the port's entrance interpreted that as the signal to start his solo mission to save Victoire, while Sansoul kept his mother occupied.

The blond teenager walked from container to container, making sure to stay hidden and silent mostly out of paranoia, fearing that, even in the middle of her rampage and almost a kilometer away, she could still notice him.

Once in the general area he had seen her come from he started looking around for a modern boat in a good state, jumping from deck to deck, checking the cabins one by one for a little girl either hiding behind a blanket or sleeping on a couch, which turned out to be neither as, after entering 8th ship's cabin he found Victoire sitting on a large white chair, her head laid down against a dark blue table with a few light blue dots spread around.

Romeo started to cautiously walk toward her while carefully looking all around, checking for any trap or surveillance device, which there were in fact none off, making the teenager very confused, as shown by his eyebrow's raising, since he most likely believed that Nicole would put some, any defense mechanism and that he couldn't just walk in, get Victoire and walk out.

But, as he reached the little girl's level he stopped one last time, to check around, before looking back at Victoire, who was still sleeping soundly, knelt to get to the same height as her and extended his arm to pat her head.

-Aware of your surroundings, more, you should be." Said a voice coming from his rear

The teenager jumped up and spined around toward the voice while taking a defensive stance, waiting to be hit by a barrage of attacks; however, what he saw destabilized him even more, as he realized that the menacing figure that stood behind him was in fact the very old men in charge of opening the Colosseum's gates.

-What?" He let out, completely dumbfounded by this very stupid revelation before dropping his stance and asking. "What are you doing here?"

-On a quest to protect this boat I am, to get her out, fight me you must!

Romeo stood frozen in place for a few more seconds baffled by his response, before snapping back to reality and taking an offensive stance.

-Then I'll fight.

Then without a second of hesitation Romeo dashed forward and prepared a right hook aimed at the old man's face to knock him out in one hit.

And as he reached the elder, a powerful impact cracked Romeo's ribs, sending him 5 meters back above Victoire before crashing in the boat's main panel.

Stunned by the attack the teenager struggled to stand back up, before spitting out a puddle of blood and looking around nervously as he looked for the origin of the trick, which caused the old man to make an evil chuckle.

Romeo looked at the old man dumbfounded once again and asked:

-Wait, was it you?

The elder laughed one last time before raising his right thumb toward him and shouting: "Yes, It was me, DIO!"

The blond teenager was visibly pissed off by how the man's spoke, took a defensive stance as the old man started walking very slowly toward him.

Not knowing how the elder attacked him earlier Romeo tried to walk back but bumped in the back wall.

He quickly looked around for any escape route that would bring him close enough to Victoire for him to pick her up and run.

From what he'd figured out the man could only attack at close range, meaning that he just had to keep his distance and make the man move out of the entrance and away from Victoire.

Romeo suddenly dashed forward, grabbed Victoire, one arm behind her shoulders, the other under her knees to do a princess carry before immediately jumping back, but as he did a sudden burst of hair hit his face forming a large cut on his cheek.

As he landed back, he struggled slightly to swipe the blood pouring out of his wound and tried to reassess the situation, since he now knew that his enemy could attack from afar, but before he could do that, his T-shirt's collar was forcefully pulled forward. The boy was then hit by a devastating blow that sent him flying  toward the entrance, making him smash against the deck and bounce off falling on the port.

Having barely recovered from his fight with Nicole back at the colosseum, Romeo was in utter agony as he spat out a puddle of blood while struggling to rise up on his feet.

But as he glared up, he saw Victoire sleeping soundly while floating in the middle of the air, as if gravity simply wasn't a thing for her, but after a few seconds he realized that it seemed like something was holding her in the air just like he had, just that whatever was carrying her was invisible and about 2 meter tall.

Then, as he slowly rose up on his feet that were very slowly healing, due to his low level of energy, since he spent so much of it on those bullets during the boat chase, Romeo noticed that the old man had walked to the end of the boat looking down at him while shouting:

-Over it is, the high ground I have!

-The hell are you even saying?" Groaned the very annoyed teenager as he glared at the man with bloodshot eyes.

-Culture of the old millennia, kids do not have." Said the man visibly disappointed by how nobody was getting his references, before walking down from the ship to face the boy

-Fight me, will you continue?

-Yeah." Answered the boy with a large, forced grin.

Sighing deeply the elder muttered a low: "Yare Yare…" as Romeo was hit straight in the face and sent flying back once again, only to be punched with the force of truck in free fall and flung in the air once again, crossing half of the port's length in an instant before crashing in a container right next to Sansoul the instant he shouted: "Now!"

Silence reigned over the area as the dust from Romeo's crash settled down and both son and mother stayed in place, one turning pale and terrified as he saw his friend's body covered in blood and torn out flesh, the other one containing her laugh before cracking and shouting in a monstrous laughter.

-FIGHT ME?! YOU IDIOT! You never had a chance to win!" she lashed out while walking closer to him, looming over him completely. "You're such a stupid idiot with a stupidly idiotic plan! You didn't even consider what power we had or who was on my side, you're a worthless f*cking toddler, we knew about your plan before you even finished it!"

As the boy's eyes widened in shock and his body started to shake like a page of paper.

-No… this, this wasn't. Th-this wasn't…

Nicole smiled even more, getting even closer to him and in a comforting tone that sounded very oppressing said: "It was the only way it could go. You never had a chance; you had already lost." She then put her overly exaggerated hand on his shoulder and continued her falsely comforting tone: "But don't worry, mom will solve your problem. You've just got to shut up and do as mom says, okay."

Sansoul looked up at his mom, his eye void of emotions, his face expressionless, his body frozen in place not out of fear, but of pure shock, the boy was completely lost, but as seconds went and Nicole pressed harder and harder against his shoulder, piercing his skin with her grotesquely large black claws Sansoul fell down on his knees, his body completely unresponsive as if his consciousness had left him.

Pissed off by her son's weakness the red-haired woman raised her free hand to smack the boy in the head to wake him up, bu-

-Enough." Said a calm, almost passive voice that seemed to be coming somewhere behind Nicole

-WHAT?" Violently snapped back Nicole while jerking her furious head around to face the voice.

-You have completed your role." Continued the voice who was hidden behind a green container and gradually getting closer.

-Don't tell me what to do." She hissed at the voice's who's first feet, covered by a long white and purple, stepped in her sight.

-This messenger isn't choosing the path that you will follow, but only repeating the will of our lord." Added the voice as he stepped out, revealing the rest of his long white priest robe that covered his whole body and was covered in hundreds of minuscule golden crosses scattered around in what seemed to be a random pattern. Then from his empty white eyes the men looked straight at Nicole, staring at her soul in a very disturbing manner before asking: "Would you dare to oppose the will of God?"