Chapter 87: The Great Speedster War Part 8: Gods Collide

Future Romaine's POV

Black Zero and I went head to head across the entire open field, neither of us being able to truly damage the other.

I couldn't maintain my Timestop for the whole length of our clash, forcing me to reenable it and resummon my staff multiple times.

"Why don't you just DIE!" he stressed, striking me with a huge lightning bolt

After a short stun I returned to an upright standing position.

"I'll never give up again. And I sure as hell won't die by your hands." I said firmly, "Countless people are counting on me to defeat you here and now, whether they know it or not."

I rotated my staff in the air, infusing it with much more of my energy as I did so, then struck it downwards onto the ground; after which I disabled my Timestop. The ground between us then split apart, caving into a ravine as a streak of my lightning went towards Zero. Though he was barely able to dodge it, the streak of lightning pierced through his Lightning Cloak as he moved out of the path of the ravine.

"Might wanna watch your step there." I smirked

Just then a projectile came from the side at light speed, causing both of us to jump out of the way. The projectile that was now etched into the ground in front of us one a broadsword made of light.

"Kirk?" I questioned, turning my head in the direction it came from

Without a shadow of a doubt, it was Kirk standing over there, though 'standing' would be and overstatement; this dude looked like he was gonna cowl over and kick the bucket any second now.

"I must really thank you...Black Zero..." he coughed, "Without you I wouldn't have realized my true purpose, nor seen the epitome of how evil humans can become."

"Kirk, your chest is bleeding. How are you still standing?" I questioned

"I was on the verge of death when I was visited by the soul of an old friend."

"Kyle?"

As he nodded in response he towards the dirt. I ran over to him and stopped him from hitting the ground, then helped him stand to his feet. He slowly pushed me off of him, attempting to remain standing on his own.

Some sort of light essence was seeping out of the wounds on his body and started wrapping his entire body.

"You guys wanna be gods, so I'll be one too." He said

"Well I wouldn't exactly call us gods." I scratched my head

"Oh please. I've been watching the whole fight since Jayden left; the two of you are recklessly slinging lightning all over the place, splitting the ground wide open and leaving craters wherever you clash. Most of the time you were all moving too fast for me to even see, then seconds later you'd both reappear somewhere else."

I looked around at the field and realized that he was right; anywhere we'd traded blows there was a massive crater left behind. There were lightning marks everywhere and the ravine I created was wide and seemed endlessly deep.

When I looked back at Kirk he was now standing up straight, still having the light essence pouring out of his body.

"You think of yourself as some sort of 'god' right Zero?" He questioned, "Then from now on, call me 'The God of Reprisal'."

Kirk teleported from his position, leaving only a light-afterimage. He reappeared beside Vanta Zero and chopped him in the neck, throwing him over sideways.

"Kaleidoscope Final Configuration: Divine Frame."

The light seeping out of Kirk's body shaped itself and materialized into body armor, covering him from his torso to his feet; and a crown, also made of light, formed atop his head.

"I will make you feel the same pain that all the others felt, then I'll ensure you die." he said, holding out his hand as more light materialized into a broadsword

"Kaleidoscope Final Configuration: Divine Adjudicator"

Vanta Black Zero got up and reengaged his Lightning Cloak.

"The fact that the two of you even think you can stop me in this form is pitiable. I'll kill you as many times as I please; for I am the only one here worthy enough to be called a god." he stated

"Romaine, you ready?" Kirk questioned, glaring back at me

"Definitely." I smirked, running up and standing beside him to face Zero, "Just make sure you can keep up."

"Oh please. Just don't get yourself killed; I won't be able to protect you with Destiny Bond anymore."

Using my Timestop as an aid, I summoned my Lightning Staff and wielded it at my side.

The three of us stood there for a while, seeing which side would make the first move. I figured that we had the advantage if we went in first due to our numbers, so I went in for the first strike, soon assisted by Kirk.

I swung my staff upwards, causing Zero to block it, and while he did that Kirk jumped from behind me and struck Zero with his sword. Kirk ended up slicing Zero's hand clean off; which was a bit distasteful to see until he regenerated it. Though it's unapparent why he can regenerate from Kirk's sword as opposed to my staff, if we kept teaming him like this then he'd stand no chance.

The two of us entered perfect sync, working off of each others attacks as we fought off Zero; whenever he'd attack either of us the other one would have an opening to attack him.

"INSOLENT SCUM!" he shouted

The lightning from his body raged out of control and was directed towards us.

In our defense against it we got pushed back, allowing Zero to gain some distance as he'd intended.

I decided to temporarily disable my Timestop ability, forcing me to fight with Hand-to-Hand combat while I kept it on cooldown.

Zero's speed skyrocketed as he blasted over to us, landing simultaneous hits on both of us.

Though my body was somewhat resistant to his electricity, I still suffered heavy damage; and the same could've been said for Kirk, though I'm very surprised that his new form allows him to keep up with us, especially when I use my Timestop ability.

"How you holding up buddy?" I asked him

"Never been better." he replied sarcastically

"Ready for another round?"

"Tch. I should be asking you that. Just keep him busy for now, I think I know something that'll work."

"Likewise, though we can try your plan first."

Kirk flew through the air towards Zero, then teleported behind him when he was close. Zero went to counter strike but I ran towards him head on to engage him in combat.

Vanta Black Zero disappeared right before us, causing both of us to miss our attacks.

"He can teleport too?" Kirk questioned

"Not quite; this new power boost of his allows him to increase his speed to an undefined variable. So far I've been able to contain his speed by rapidly decelerating everything around me to infinitely smaller variables near 0 with an ability that I call 'Timestop', it's on cooldown right now though, so what he's doing is just unleashing the full potential of his undefined speed."

"Of course this is how your final battle with him turned out, powers with math variables and stuff; you and Dondre were always such nerds. Well how much longer until your Timestop is good to go?"

"Give it a few more seconds. I'll signal it to you by summoning a lightning staff."

Kirk teleported away for another assault on Zero, this time I followed up by channeling lightning into the ground to stun him.

We barraged him with a number of attacks, missing some and barely hitting the others. Once I was able to do so, I engaged my Timestop and summoned my lightning staff. Kirk read the signal and we went on the full offensive. Zero's Lightning Cloak was disabled in no time, leaving him susceptible to the full blunt of our attacks.

Kirk teleported forward and kicked Zero backwards. As the menace rolled over in the dirt Kirk raised his sword in the air.

"Kaleidoscope Final Configuration: Absolute Judgement!"

The dark clouds above Zero parted way as a pillar of light struck down on him. The beam of light itself disintegrated everything within its range, and we watched as his body was slowly deconstructed by the light as he screamed in pain.

Once the light had faded, there was nothing left of him except for the Philosophers' Stone, all that was left behind by it was a deep crater.

"Is that it?" I questioned

"Not quite." We heard Zero's voice, watching as his body rematerialized around the stone

"You've gotta be kidding me." I mumbled, "Will this dude not die?"

"Damn." Kirk groaned, "I was afraid he'd be able to regenerate from it just like all my other attacks; it looks like the only wounds he can't recover from are those done by you. Guess I'll have to go with my Plan B then."

So even after that devastating attack that literally disintegrated him, he was able to recover. Damn Zero, you just love causing trouble don't you. Guess I'll give my plan a go.

Recreating my Lightning Staff, I reengaged Timestop. Zero and I raced towards each other, but little did he know; I had a nasty trick up my sleeve.

This whole time I've been stockpiling my Timestop, and now was the time to let it all out at once. I partially focused my mind on constantly toggling the Timestop on and off, and the other half of my mind was focused on moving around at precise points.

"Time Manipulation: Time Flicker" I chanted

In the eyes of everyone else, I was teleporting everywhere at super speed; but I wasn't just constantly accelerating and decelerating everything, I was also inadvertently manipulating the frequency of time itself, and due to that fact, the value of Zero's speed was no longer indefinite, but was being continuously changed between a positive and negative integer.

So instead of turning his speed into an asymptotic value where it keeps getting smaller by and indefinite value, I instead fluctuate his speed above and below the 0 line. And since his speed is undefined, it then becomes a clear negative integer; but that isn't the important part, the important part is the point between becoming a positive and negative value: 0. For the shortest fraction of a second, his speed reaches 0, which is the optimal time to attack him. And since I fluctuate time countless times per second, it just makes things worse for him the longer I maintain it.

I beat him to a bloody pulp while doing the Time Flicker, and when I delivered the final whack he was covered in bruises.

I disabled the Time Flicker to allow everything to catch up with what I did. Zero just laid there helplessly on the ground, likely even paralyzed.

"Look at you." I said, standing over him, "Always so high and mighty. Now you've been put in your place."

As if I should've even expected anything less from Black Zero, he slowly got up from the ground, ebbing off more lightning.

"You dare touch me, disgusting trash."

He teleported towards me and knocked me back.

Unfortunately I'd used up all my stockpiled time energy on the Time Flicker, so now I wouldn't be able to stop him from using his full speed.

Zero threw fists upon fists, most of which I wasn't able to dodge. He charged up his final strike, channeling a deadly amount of lightning.

"AND NOW YOU DIE!" he commanded

"Kaleidoscope Final Configuration: God Seal!"

Kirk opened up a giant golden lens, which fired numerous golden light chains that pierced Zero's body.

"It's time I put an end to you!" Kirk shouted

The chains started quickly retracting, pulling Zero into the lens.

"Black Zero!" Kirk cried out, "As an act of Divine Judgement! I hereby seal you away for the rest of existence!"

Kirk's lens fully absorbed Black Zero, supposedly sealing him away.

"It's over." he sighed, clearly struggling to maintain balance

I took a glance at the rest of the battle field, looking at the absolute mayhem we'd created.

Kirk's body armor and sword dematerialized into pure light; he must've used up all his energy to seal Zero away.

"Great work Kirk." I commended, "We won, and it's all thanks to you."

Instead of celebration, Kirk vomited up blood.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Zero's voice came from behind him, "A mortal such as you, defeat a god like me?"

I looked down at Kirk's chest, watching as Zero retracted his arm from out of it. Kirk's body fell completely lifeless to the ground. Black Zero was now holding Kirk's barely beating heart in his hand.

"Disgusting" he mocked, squishing the heart to pieces

"You...you bastard." I stuttered

After all of this...Zero's still left standing.

He just stood there laughing in the pool of blood.