Monstrous Collision

The level Noah had reached through stacking enhancements put him in a realm of his own, as to the Russian Sentinel, it felt as though he was fighting an uphill battle as tall as Mount Everest.

Asiimov huffed as his breathing grew heavy and uneven, clenching his body as he forced the surge of energy to continue pouring from his core.

'SURGE even at level four is too straining…It feels like I just ran a marathon. Still, I must go further…! If I don't stop him here, it could very well mean the end!' Asiimov resolved.

As blood seeped from the cut on his forehead and on his chest, Asiimov forged further nuclear force from his core as the bright-blue energy heightened, shifting to a fiery-orange then to a pure-white.

'A world under the rule of a selfish tyrant like him…That's not the kind of world I want my daughter to live in. It's not a world that promotes progress, ingenuity, nor selflessness–it abandons that which makes us human! I will not allow that,' Asiimov decided.

["Reath SURGE: Level Eight"]

The heat giving off from Asiimov's position caused heat waves to distort the space around him, causing steam to give off with vibrations exuding outward.

Each second, the joules exuded from Asiimov's hyper-advanced, system-built armor surpassed that of humanity's greatest weapons, such as the 'Tsar Bomba', and yielded more power than natural disasters.

Noah watched curiously before enhancing himself further, taking no further risks: ["Absolute Enhancement: Accel"]

The self-enhancement spell caused his thoughts to accelerate along with his own body as if for him alone, time itself was a league faster.

"Nngh…graaaagh…!" Asiimov roared from the pain induced by his own means.

Stabilizing himself in the presence of such power, Asiimov strained his body just to move as his muscles tore from the overwhelming forces he commanded before finally–he moved. It was a flash of light unlike any other, stifling all sound.

In that singular moment, Asiimov surpassed physical matter, tearing away the barriers of established limits as he moved as light itself, encircling the chamber and Noah himself hundreds of times in a nanosecond.

"--!"

Noah's eyes widened, reflecting the flash of light giving off the Reath system wielder as both ["Bullet Time"], ["Electro"], and ["Accel"] worked in tandem, his neurons firing off in such a small scope of time that it was immeasurable to human perception, all to react and match the speed possessed by his foe, ducking down just as Asiimov blitzed by as a flash of light, thrusting his fist forward.

The missed blow sent a shock wave booming through the crumbled facility, tossing the debris as if a tornado had swept through.

Once again, Asiimov swirled around as stratifications of light, unleashing ear-filling whirlwinds in the wake of his movement before appearing directly behind Noah, raising his leg in preparation of an ax-kick.

"The Sentinels must protect this world from the shadows! It's a thankless duty! But it's a mission we must do–if not us, then who else?!" Asiimov roared.

Before the nuclear-infused heel could slam into Noah's head, he reacted with those all-seeing eyes that witnessed time at perceptions beyond measure, catching Asiimov's black-metal ankle.

"Gh–!" Asiimov gritted his teeth in preparation.

With the armored system user in his grip, Noah slammed Asiimov into the ground, cratering the steel floor and causing the already unstable facility to rumble.

"You've been running your mouth this whole time about what a stain on humanity I am, but if I recall, you were the ones who came after me first," Noah said, gripping onto the being's leg, "--I'm just responding in kind now."

["Atom-Splitter"]

The spell used as a direct invocation of his abyssal sword came as a slash that split atoms on a minuscule level, enacting a chain reaction despite the edge of the blade being evaded as Asiimov managed to duck to the side.

'Dodging changes nothing,' Noah thought.

As a result of the atomic slash, nuclear fission was born as an explosion of catastrophic proportions ignited at point-blank range.

The nuclear explosion annihilated the underground facility in its entirety, leaving it revealed to the desolate territory of the Antarctic as a massive cloud of smoke and volatile energy reached up towards the sky, inducing a shock wave that rumbled the far-stretching tundra.

Landing on the surface of the Antarctic again as his shoes stepped onto the thick sheets of ice, Noah was unscathed by the blast thanks to his ["Kinetic Absorption"] and overall constitution.

"I know that didn't take you out, old man," Noah said calmly.

Stepping out from the smoke that billowed atop the scenery of ice that sat below the pale-blue horizon, Asiimov stepped out with his exoskeleton armor burnt, yet intact.

"...Beyond monstrous…" Asiimov quietly stated as his armor hummed, beginning to power up once more.

Noah looked at him, holding Vanta Black amidst the radiated land of snow, raining down black, radioactive rain from the sky that fell onto the bitter first.

"Are you finally realizing that it's hopeless to try and take me down? If you just stood back and let me do my thing, I would've let you in on the fun," Noah said.

Shaking his head slowly, Asiimov's helmet dismantled as the nanomachines revealed his pale complexion; blood seeped from his nostrils and ears from the strain of "SURGE", yet his icy-blue eyes stood strong.

"...The more I see what a monster you are, the more I realize that I must do everything I can to stop you…Even if that means sacrificing myself in the process," Asiimov said, breathing heavily.

Just then, the Russian Sentinel gripped the nuclear core implanted in his chest, gripping it and twisting it as it clicked.

["Reath SURGE: Level Ten"]