CHAPTER 276(The Gigantomachy II)

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CHAPTER START---

"Well, that didn't go as planned," Nezu mutters as his monitor goes black, having lost the connection from the fight.

Principal Nezu was sitting in his office watching the fight before it cut off, and the moment it did he leaned forward and began accessing the most appropriate national satellite to perhaps get a view of the battlefield from the sky.

While he's typing away on his keyboard, the phone on his desk rings.

"Yes Pantu," he says without even looking at the caller number.

"What the hell is going on?" Pantu asks in an annoyed voice, a rare bit of emotion showing through her Quirk. "Why is Horizon doing more damage than Gigantomachia?"

"Endeavor explained well enough," Nezu says while still getting into a satellite. "He's acting on instinct, I'm sure after the fight he'll be better than ever."

"He's already personally killed hundreds with his attacks, not to mention Endeavor is in critical condition."

"Gigantomachia pushed him to new heights, it seems to have taken him by surprise which caused this reaction," Nezu says. "When the fight is over I'm sure Horizon will explain."

"Nezu, he killed hundreds," Pantu says. "If he was anyone else I'd already file for his Provisional Hero License to be taken and to blacklist him from all national Hero Courses."

"Yes, but he isn't anyone else, he's Horizon," Nezu says. "But you could do that which would nullify the contract, and I doubt he'd blame you at all, he's actually quite reasonable when he's at fault."

"That's actually not something I can individually decide. Since he's been listed as a National Asset such as yourself, the Supreme Court will have to decide what happens to him. Besides, if he learns to control that power, the next time the villains make a monster like that, it won't stand a chance."

"I see, then it's out of our control," Nezu says. "What about communications from the battlefield."

"Still being blocked, but Shigaraki was projecting his voice somehow, most likely through a Quirk."

Nezu's monitor shows an aerial view of the battlefield, flashing and shining with blue lightning arcing about battling red and black lightning.

As he and Pantu continue speaking, the door to his office is pushed open with Aizawa and Simon barging into the room.

"Principal Nezu, we're going to Dagga," Aizawa says.

"You won't make it in time, the battle will be over by the time you get there," Nezu says.

"Who is that?" Pantu asks, only hearing Aizawa's voice.

"Eraser Head, he and Simon just entered my office," Nezu says as he gestures to the phone. "President Pantu and I were discussing how to move forward after this event."

Simon's eyes widen but Aizawa's narrows at the phone, "then you can organize some kind of transport to get us there faster, right?"

"I can, but you should stay in UA," Pantu says. "Both of you."

"But people are dying," Simon says.

"And many of them are already dead, no Hero can save everyone," Pantu says. "But the risk of losing Erasure to the villains is too great, so I don't want Eraser Head anywhere near that battlefield, and your Brainwashing Quirk doesn't work on Nomu since their brains only take orders from the specific frequency the villains communicate to them with."

"But---"

She cuts off Simon, "---legions of Pro Heroes are rushing to Dagga city to help in any way they can, but we can't endanger more valuable assets by sending in the two of you. Have faith in your team leader to overcome this monster, it's Horizon, he doesn't lose, remember?"

Simon sighs, "Yes ma'am."

"What about Endeavor, Shoto is worried about his father," Aizawa says.

"He was handed over to a group of support heroes for healing close to the battlefield, the last update I got stated that he's conscious and still giving orders."

"Aizawa breathes a sigh of relief," Shoto will be glad to hear that.

"Simon," Pantu says. "As a member of team Horizon you should have some good insights into how he fights and the abilities the public isn't aware of, call out anything in the fight that we should be concerned about, some of the broadcasts are about to reconnect."

"Yes ma'am," Simon says as Nezu projects his screen onto the monitor built into the far wall.

The video broadcast resumes, showing Horizon constantly rushing about around Gigantomachia, constantly firing off arcs of energy slashes at the monster while it's trying to squash him.

"Anything you say that's useful I can relay to the ground forces via the public channels," Pantu says.

"What's with the energy slashes?" Aizawa asks as he and Simon sit on the couches. "It looks like his healing energy, Booster Shot doesn't hurt people, right?"

"He's been working on that since the summer camp," Simon says. "He realized that if someone like All For One appeared he didn't have a way to do actual damage from range, so he forms blades out of his energy and launches them, like a mix of Antibacterial Curtain and Incision."

"How long has he had that?" Nezu asks.

"Honestly, this is the first time I've seen it work," Simon says. "Usually he can't even get the energy to make a tangible shape like that."

"And the lightning from the sky?" Pantu asks. "Do we have to be concerned about storms, can he control the weather?"

"No idea, but he mentioned controlling gasses is very difficult, if his mind isn't focused enough for him to Warp I doubt he can cause storms."

"But he is an order of magnitudes stronger than he was before this fight, and is only growing by the second, right?" Aizawa asks.

"Undoubtably so, " Nezu says.

"Then how wide is the evacuation zone?" Aizawa asks. "If Machia knocks him into one of the nearby cities this grudge match will flatten it."

"The evacuation zone has already been expanded to include the entire region, but the constant quakes from the fight have destabilized or collapsed many of the main roads, so people are forced to walk as fast as they can."

"Wow," As they're talking some of the news drones reconnect to show the fight while the manned helicopters fly away and give a view of the evacuation.

Tens of thousands of people marched across the broken highways and roads leaving the nearby cities with anything they could carry.

The flood of people looks like ants marching, so crowded together that you couldn't even tell there was a road there as some have taken to walking in the grass and bushes beside the highways.

"My god," Aizawa mutters as he watches the screen. "How far away are they."

"Only a few miles out of the city, hopefully the fight doesn't spread much outside of it," Pantu says.

The video feed then goes back to showing Horizon and Gigantomachia's fight, or at least what it could.

The news drones had to keep their distance, but even from city blocks away, they could clearly see the lightning constantly arcing through the buildings, blasting them apart while simultaneously melting the concrete and steel within.

Lightning bolts rain from the sky onto the city, all focused on Horizon, with each slash they strike his blade and seemingly clash against the energy he was releasing.

"Machia got bigger again," Aizawa says, noticing the titan was now 70m -210ft- tall, making Horizon difficult to see on the screen if he wasn't glowing bright blue and being struck by lightning.

Horizon charges forward, and beneath him pillars of earth and rubble are raised from the ground, elevating him toward the titan.

People watching all around the world hold their breath as he gathers his energy into Scalpel, while clearly aiming at Machia's head.

The titan stomps the ground, causing the pillars Horizon was leaping between while climbing up to him to break, but the tops of them stay in place, and when Horizon is up to Machia's chest he swings Scalpel.

Before he could complete the motion Machia' released a shockwave of invisible force, launching him back and into the road below, which collapsed as Horizon disappeared beneath the street.

While everyone was waiting for him to show himself, Machia' was already on alert, sensing a rising threat he flexed his muscles, tensing them as the armor on his body developed spikes.

Beneath the surface, on the 4th level of the underground train system below Dagga City, Horizon lays flat on the tracks for a moment.

He can feel his slashes becoming more and more useless as the fight drags on, and in a moment of anger, laced with something he's rarely ever experienced.

A healthy amount of fear moves his hand forward, making a pushing motion toward where he could sense Machia' standing before he closes his hand, crushing the air in his grasp.

From the drones above, everyone watching sees rubble all around the battlefield floating, as if gravity had suddenly been turned off.

Simon leans forward, swallowing nervously, one of the few people who knew what could be coming next.

"Oh no," Simon mutters as all the rubble suddenly rockets toward Machia'.

The titan doesn't react, not even feeling tons of concrete and steel hurtling into him.

"Tell everyone to run, now, and avoid the rubble, don't get pulled in!" Simon yells out, so terrified of what's about to happen that he issues a direct order to President Pantu.

And hearing the fear in his voice, she simply obeys.

Machia' grows large mole claws on his limbs and begins digging through the earth to get to Horizon, only for massive chunks of it to be torn away from the ground and carry him into the air above the city.

All while the other pieces of rubble are gravitating toward him.

He breaks through one segment of rock and dirt, only for another to slam into him and take him higher.

Over and over again more of the earth is sundered and piled on while carrying him toward the heavens.

The ground above and around Horizon breaks apart and moves away, but the news drones had long left the area to avoid this attack, so nobody could see Horizon standing in place with one hand to the sky, focused on this technique.

Off in the distance, civilians are escorted by Pro Heroes out of the city.

Mt. Lady is in her gigantified form clearing a path beside the highway for the people to walk more clearly, moving trees, and flattening the earth as she goes to effecitively add more lanes to the roads.

She suddenly stops as Pantu's message rings through her earpiece, confusing her.

"Avoid the rubble?" She asks, looking around, "What rubble?"

"RUN!" she hears hundreds of people yell in panic behind her, causing her to turn around and see everything in the city rising up.

Entire skyscrapers were torn from the earth, along with massive chunks of earth itself.

The phenomenon expands outward like a wave, and her heart sinks as she sees it coming toward them, faster than any of them could escape.

"Use whatever Quirks you have to get away from this, and don't get pulled in by the rubble!" Mt. Lady screams, her voice carrying for a great distance.

She sees chunks of earth rupture and launches into the air before floating in place just above the ground, then with incredible speed they all rocket toward the city.

All around her this happens, and the men, women, and children being evacuated are hopefully unprepared.

Flying rock launches them about or crushes them as it rakes across the earth toward the city.

Mt. Lady is knocked down as massive boulders slam into her back, but she rolls to the side away from the people, only to turn away from the city and see what could be a meteor swarm rushing past her.

She looks to the side, seeing most of the thousands of people that were marching away from the city reduced to bloodstains, turning dirt to red mud and leaving a trail back to Dagga city.

"YU!" Kamui Woods yells out as he swings and jumps between large pieces of rubble as they float through the air, directly toward his girlfriend.

Seeing him she extends her hand while more rocks slam into her, battering her body, but the moment she feels his roots wrap around her hand she shrinks.

The force of her shrinking pulls them together, and he wastes no time wrapping his arms around her before shielding them both in a wooden sphere.

As it felt like the world was ending around them, with civilians dying by the hundreds each second, all he could do was protect the woman he loves.

Now sealed in this wooden sphere he extends his roots as much as possible, trying his best to keep them on the ground and avoid being picked up by that attack.

From within they can hear the destruction, rocks grinding and shattering, trees snapping, and below it all the drowned-out sound of hundreds of people screaming for anyone to help them.

This nightmare persists for nearly a minute before everything goes silent, and Kamui begins making an opening in the sphere.

"No!" Mt. Lady says as she weakly grabs his hand the moment light enters.

"We need to see what's going on out there," he says, holding her shaking body in his arm.

As he opens their sphere they see...nothing.

There was no road, no forest, no people, just, nothing.

It was as if something had raked the earth all around them, excavating anything and anyone that was here.

Off in the distance away from the city, miles away, he could see a wall that looked a few stories high.

"A wall," he narrowed his eyes, but it was hard to see at this distance. As if they were now in a massive plate or dish and he could see the brim on the horizon around them.

"That's just how high the ground was," Mt. Lady says in a shaky voice. "Look, he put everything there."

Kamui Woods turns around, and stumbles backward, falling as he cranes his neck upward.

Seeing the 3km -4.8 mi- sphere of earth hovering high above where Dagga city was.

He looks below it, but doesn't see any city, only excavated earth and an ocean still miles out, as if scared of the ongoing battle.

As seconds go by people around the world see exactly what they see, and can't comprehend the insurmountable dread of facing this calamity in person.

Kamui Woods gets back up, and raises a finger to his earpiece, "Is...did anyone else survive?"

"Just focus on getting out of there for now," Pantu says, and that told them everything they needed to know.

Before they could collect their thoughts, a loud roar echoes across the entire region, drawing their attention to the side of the satellite as Machia' burrows through the side of it.

He uses his massive claws to cling to the side and from the distance they see him launching balls of energy downward, seemingly at Horizon.

Before new drones can get back to the battlefield to get eyes on Horizon, the satellite begins to rotate, intending to place Machia' directly beneath it, and everyone who sees this knows what's about to happen.

In the distance Ryukyu and Nejire rush toward the injured Mt. Lady and Kamui woods, knowing they can't escape.

But as for the couple, they simply hold hands, and look upon the satellite in awe.

"Is this how the world ends?" Mt.Lady asks.

"I don't know," Kamui Woods says. "I hope they can come back from this..."

The satellite suddenly, without warning, accelerates toward the earth. 

Faster than a simple falling object, as if it's being pushed toward the ground by some invisible force.

"I'm glad we were together at the end of the world," Mt. Lady says as she removes his mask and gives him a kiss, all while the entire nation and surrounding countries shake, and a blast wave is speeding toward them.

END CHAPTER---