Royalty, V

[April 30th]

The last day had come, and two women waited for a dispatch.

SWARM (356)

CARVE (356)

Hampsburg had been evacuated before Mia arrived.

'One more.' she thought as she stepped up to one store, glancing back. As with the mech-infested town, a forest was north, and she was standing on the sidewalk of a traditional avenue. Sword & scarabs readied, she stepped inside the store, one scarab burning orange for a torch. She checked her tablet for his last known location, and in the next instant -

- an unfamiliar voice entered her ear from behind -

" - hollow vessel in the form of woman, heed the -"

- a jet of water blasted him with the strength of a thousand away & out of the store; Mia turned to him as he flew -

" - HOW - HOW THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE SCOURGE?!" she panted, renewed stress upping her volume -

" - Grabbag!" he shouted as he flew -

- and the next scene was instant. A strawhat formed on the store behind him, and in to the hat he disappeared; stress lowering, Mia nodded as she rushed out of the store, fifty feet separating her from the hat on the other end of the street.

'Of - of course. Grabbag. What, what was after that?'

Behind & above, she heard his voice chanting again, and as she turned her eyes back -

- she saw him on the building's roof finishing up his " - vessel -"; she threw her burning blue blade towards him -

- which caught only the concrete underneath him -

- but still disintegrated it without a single ash left; in to the sudden burrow he fell, chanting interrupted as he disappeared. Rushing inside the store, Mia set one scarab to freeze the entire floor -

- and found only a single strawhat left behind for her troubles. Running up to it, she threw a tri-swarm raid inside of it, and as she left the store again -

- she saw a jet of water burst up in another avenue, a few streets ahead of her and a few streets left of her. She kept her rush going as she ran across the road and in to the store ahead, disintegrating through the back wall and rushing out to the street.

A minute later, she came in to the start of the avenue where she'd seen her geyser, stores flanking her as she rushed to the center of the road -

- and the hollow point of one bullet entered her back from behind; her movements started slowing, paralysis filling her veins -

- but a wall of ice burst up to swallow the next three shots, body burning blue and disintegrating the anesthetic as she staggered behind the wall for cover.

'I wonder if it has Ryumi.' she thought, and in the next instant -

- her frozen wall melted in to steam; she saw the sharpshooter standing at the entrance of one store a hundred feet right & away, familiar revolver in his right hand, and as a dozen bullets shot towards her -

- she swept underneath the projectiles, and they entered a dozen stores at her left; her eyes turned back and saw a strawhat appear right where each had hit, and in the next instant -

- a dozen shots burst out of them; underneath one she dodged, but the next eleven blasted the road to bits behind her, explosions she knew must be historical erupting outward. Another shot entered the road a hundred feet behind her -

- and the next scene was instant. A vortex of sand appeared, and a storm of sand followed, another three shots dumping in to it & strengthening its pace; her boots dug in to the ground as her eyes clenched, vortex trying to pull her with the strength of a million back -

- and in to the vortex she went, yanked & caught up in the circular current; a wall of ice burst up to try to slow her circling -

- but another bullet blasted it to bits, dozens & dozens of shots starting to enter the vortex, melting any frozen wall she tried to put up in the sandstorm -

- but the next scene was instant. One palm aimed up; another aimed up with it -

" - Solar Ray?!" she shouted, and in the next instant -

- a frozen ray erupted from her palm, and a red solar beam met it above the storm -

- and dumped thousands&thousands of gallons of water out of the sky, sudden wave forming as it swallowed the storm of sand -

- and Mia up with it as the tsunami wave filled the avenue; thrashing her head above water, the current started to flow. She saw her foe swept up in it ahead -

" - Worldwide!" she shouted; an electrical swarm flew in to the liquid as his head poked up 100ft ahead -

- but the next scene was instant. A golden vial appeared in his hand -

- and she stifled her fear as she felt her electrical strength & swiftness pull away from her, vial's liquid bubbling as it started to fill. With no time to lose and still caught in the current, a wall of blue flame appeared ahead -

- and disintegrated half of the current as she fell in to it, landing in the avenue again -

- but stifling her worry as she saw the wave still carry her foe away, water spreading and swimming even further out. Rushing in to the flood of her own design, she disintegrated a path ahead, icicles bursting out of her hair to freeze the water, burrowing as if she were underground instead of underwater.

She felt the current split in to three directions as she ran with it in to an intersection and turned her eyes right as it spread -

- and saw the wave deposit her moist foe on the street hundreds of feet away as it went on without him, still on his back and coughing up liquid. Sheets of ice formed as she skid & slid, and he rose up once she was a hundred feet within range and her palms swept forward -

" - Solar -"

- an explosion blasted her with the strength of a thousand left, building at her left as she flew; her body burned blue -

- and smashed clear through the outer wall with more than a single ash left as her fire strength & swiftness left her, grunting as she landed and sighing as she stood. Sword forming, she rushed up to the northern wall, and a single ice scarab froze it solid -

- and one bash shattered it; in to the next store she swept, explosive bullets entering the building behind but not catching her yet. Once she bashed another wall and went through, she came in to another store and rushed out of the exit right -

- to see her foe's back standing fifty feet away in the middle of the street; as she rushed forward, his revolver's aim turned towards her -

- but an anklehigh ice wall burst up to block his shot -

- that shot clear through Mia's heart as her frozen strength & swiftness faded; she threw her blade forward as she fell -

- and the sharp end cleaved his left hand off in a geyser of blood & forced him to drop his vial; it disappeared once it hit the ground, and renewed strength filled Mia as she stood again, swift blue flames disintegrating the anesthetic shot once again. Ahead, his bullets entered the fifty feet of road separating them -

- and placed 20 hats in 2 seconds, familiar field of straw separating them now; but she had true confidence again. She rushed forward as a hundred shots burst out of the hats and flew up -

- and her foe jumped in to one hat and disappeared, Mia's bunting blue sweep narrowly missing as she came to where he'd been. She felt something below and looked down -

" - of course." she groaned. "If only Mirena were here -"

- to where a drill was embedded; the rain of lead started to fall above, and as the drill spun to yank all of them in to itself & her -

" - Worldwide!" she shouted as she swept back -

- and the next scene was instant. An electrical arc erupted out of the drill's metal -

- and yanked every last bullet in to its spinning teeth, swift case of ice forming over it as the cacophony of explosions blasted through the drill inside. Field of hats still ahead, Mia threw her burning blue blade across the ground -

- and disintegrated nearly all of them without a single ash left; one survivor left, one bullet flew out of it and up. She watched it carefully as she stepped back. Worldwide's swarm had grown in size, and in the next instant -

- a drill shot out of the hat and in to one building at her left, yanking it with the strength of a million towards her -

- but she rolled her eyes as it disintegrated, body burning blue as she kept her eyes on the sky and the bullet. Something had blasted it even higher, but in the next instant -

- a familiar chant entered her ears from behind; she turned -

- but her burning blue blade caught only air as her foe swept back, and as a second sweep sought his neck -

- the next scene was instant. One shot of his revolver hit his skull, throwing him with the strength of a thousand back -

- and right in to a wall of icicles that impaled through him in 1,001 ways. You know how he was screaming. Torn skin hanging off of the sharp ends, he yanked himself out -

- and started placing photos of new flesh over his wounds -

" - SOLAR BEAM!" shouted Mia, frustrated palms sweeping forward; a white beam erupted from her palms -

- and disintegrated the lower half of his body without a single ash left, scar forming on his torso as his revolver aimed down -

- and one shot blasted him with the strength of million in to the air; as he flew, Mia saw something flash as she snuffed her beam out -

" - are you fucking kidding me?"

- and a white beam shot out of the sky towards her. One ice scarab swallowed it, but she knew he'd have new limbs once she saw him again, and rushed up to a building at her left. On the other side of the avenue, a dozen strawhats started forming -

- and a dozen drills burst out of them and in to their opposite buildings, starting to yank them out of their foundations -

- but the next scene was instant. One electrical scarab flew in to the center drill -

- and the arc of lightning yanked the other eleven into it & destroyed them without a single ash left. Strength exponentially growing, her scarab swarm had replenished -

- and grown to the size of a skyscraper -

- just in time for an enormous wall of ice to block the next dozen stolen beams that'd come out of the hats ahead.

'…that may work.' thought Mia, idea coming up. 'It'll destroy the entire town, but…'

She heard something rumbling in another avenue, and braced herself as she turned -

- to see a serpent the size of a skyscraper bursting out at the other end of town, towering over the entire locale. With no time to waste, Mia started searching for her foe.

Above, Worldwide flew to the back end of the town, eight serpent heads swaying up with 10,000ft separating it & them. A headless torso formed out of its trillion-scarab swarm, purple smoke seeping out of its headless neck, three arms but no lower half. Four of the serpents disappeared ahead -

- and reappeared behind it in the next; three frozen fists spun to meet it, and the five hit the air fighting. In a whirlwind of blows & scarabs the five revolved over the town, and as one's immeasurably swift fangs tried to enter its headless neck -

- a skyscraper-length icicle went all the way through it mouth-first; another serpent's fangs shot for Worldwide's chest, waterfall of acid dripping off of its teeth -

- but a flood of its own diluted the foul liquid just as the other two burst up behind it -

- and a thousand slits of purple flame burst out of its back & disintegrated both of them without a single ash left. Worldwide floated back with the speed of scarabs, 3,000ft separating it from the two serpents ahead; one's immeasurably swift fangs swept down and tried to shoot for Mia all the way below -

- but one scarabpunch shattered its skull in half and smashed it in to the ground; ice fingers forming, Worldwide tried to grip it -

- but another's fangs entered its frozen knuckles before it could grab the swift serpent; a thousand stalactites burst out of its hand -

- and froze the interrupter in to a serpent of ice; below, the saved & swift serpent started swaying up again, and in the next instant -

- a million icicles burst out of the buildings below and impaled clear through it in a shower of green blood & skin; trying to escape the frozen trap, it started thrashing as Worldwide flew towards it, and as 5,000 feet separated the two -

- one serpent burst up ahead in Worldwide's path, and a gust of wind erupted from its maw -

- but the next scene was instant. A pillar of ice formed around the serpent of wind -

- and its gust of wind couldn't do anything as Worldwide floated past it, having learned to counter wind Revenants of any size. Millions of slits were dug in to its frozen prison, allowing the wind to escape but never the serpent. 10,000mph winds were peeking out of it as the serpent thrashed inside -

- and a million icicles impaled through the pillar to shut it up for good, Worldwide flying past it with swift nemesis still swaying ahead. Another serpent burst up next to its friend, and as its fangs tapped its wounds -

- its flesh started to swell & close, and it swept in to meet Worldwide as it came within range -

- but a jet of water blasted a building below with the strength of a million in to it & bashed its skull out the bottom of its jaw; ice fingers readied, Worldwide's one left hand gripped it by its neck and dug in hard -

- and the serpent started thrashing ferociously, frozen spikes forming to scrape its skin off, its base still stick in the ground as Worldwide kept yanking, and twisting, and pulling -

- and ripped it clear out of the ground in a shower of decapitated blood & guts & gore hanging out of its mangled neck. The swift serpent had recovered ahead -

- and the two hit the air fighting. Inch by inch, the pressure of its strikes forced Worldwide back; below and in the town, one enormous serpent was towering over Mia, and as it shot towards her -

- one enormous scarabfist took the hit for her before it could get near her; a second scarabhand gripped this second serpent's neck tight, but the swift one swayed over one of Worldwide's right arms. Seeking revenge, its fangs shot for its limb -

- but the next scene was instant. The right arm of scarabs dispersed -

- and the serpent caught only air. Worldwide's left arm was still gripping the serpent tight, and as its brother tried to meet up with it -

- a reformed right & frozen arm blocked it; in to the frozen shield went the serpent, shrieking as it staggered back. Worldwide's left arm was tearing and chewing through its lost brother -

- and with no time to waste, Worldwide ripped it up by its neck to bring it to eyeless level. Its hand rumbled as the beast in its grip kept thrashing, and in the next instant -

- a blue beam the size of a skyscraper erupted from its palm -

- and disintegrated its entire head without a single ash left, green blood raining out of the grisly aperture once it discarded it to the side in one street. Ahead, the swift king rose up 3,000ft away, and shot towards Worldwide -

- but one enormous scarabfist bashed its skull from the back and shattered it in half again, Worldwide dispersing and reappearing behind it with its full form readied, limbs tight enough to be solid now with a good grip on the beast -

- and one four-fingered scarabfist burst through the serpent's back & out its chest, third hand gripping it tight -

- and smashing it right in to one avenue below. The beast shrieked as Worldwide scraped its face in the pavement, but the scarabs' chattering was louder.

Below, Mia hung her legs over one building's roof and watched Worldwide smash it through another avenue.

"Are you done yet?" she laughed, enjoying handiwork she liked to think wasn't her's. Sometimes, that Revenant seemed sentient.

Worldwide's headless neck turned towards her as it dragged up the last serpent, and all she could see was its two right arms gripping it by its mouth, dragging it up as far as it could -

- and as a woman might snap a wishbone -

- tore its body in two, and it discarded the grisly halves over its shoulders, shaking its blood-soaked fists ruefully. Mia laughed again.

"Are you ready?"

She made it nod, and a million scarabs flew down to her, forming a growing pillar of ice underneath her. She thought of presidency as it carried her for thousands of feet up, and as she came up in to the clouds -

" - WORLDWIIIIDE!" she shouted in to the sky; a trillion scarabs flew in to the town below -

- and an enormous ring of ice formed around the entire locale, forest outside and safe, and in the next instant -

- a whirlpool the size of the entire town formed within it, buildings demolished instantly even if she could barely see them from that high, jets spraying and hundreds of gyres forming with one enormous current spinning at the center -

- and with no time to waste, she leaped off of her frozen pillar and started to fall, 5,000 feet separating her from the whirlpool below.

4,000 feet, her fire & ice was expended.

3,000 feet, her last trillion electrical scarabs swarmed her body, and a scarab hand threw her in to the lake -

- and right next to her gagging foe, barely keeping his dragon's head above water & firing fireballs wildly, and as her decillion-volt current entered the liquid -

- it tore him in to a billion pieces without a single identifiable piece but his heart left, shockwaves destroying and blasting through every last building, home, sidewalk, videogame and fence again, disintegrating every last drop of liquid, Worldwide's one trillion-scarab hand waving goodbye to her -

- just as she landed on her feet in to the moist avenue below, one pristine & still-beating heart ahead.

Worldwide's frozen wall had disappeared, and she checked her tablet.

11:55PM.

She texted Serena as she stepped on to the sidewalk and next to the Revenant.

(Mia) "Kirihara hasn't responded to anything, has she?"

(Serena) "no, your's was the last call"

(Serena) "did you get the bitch? ( ╹▽╹ )"

(Mia) "I did get the bitch."

(Serena) "┏(｀ー´)┛ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪ ┏(＾0＾)┛"

Mia laughed, and as she pulled her tablet out to scan -

- a spear landed at her feet; she swept back just in time to avoid an explosion of metal shards, and as it cleared -

- Kirihara burst out from her vision right and rushed over to the heart, then scanned it before beginning to step on to Carve -

" - you -- FUCKING CUNT!" shouted Mia, and Kirihara laughed as she clipped her tablet back.

"I guess you should've been quic-"

A jet of water blasted Kirihara off Carve and into a nearby building, and her face folded over itself as her skull cracked, wincing, groaning in pain.

Mia's vision hazed with red, and the sight of her future drained out of her. There was no present that held her as if something detached from the rest of her cognition, and all became centered in the moment. She was not only Kirihara stealing her presidency -- she was the interrogations and Matoi insulting her in her first year. She was the father before her trip to France and Auctioneer in the hotel. She was Akira calling her a pathetic version of Ryumi and the doctor thinking she would take a bribe. Past and present melted into one figure staggering to her feet ahead of her that was the men in Japan and Chimera.

One hundred feet separated the two.

She remembered what she had accidentally brought in Japan, and what she would intentionally wreak now.

"I'm going to fucking kill you."

Kirihara winced. "You -- what?"

"I'm going to fucking kill you."

Kirihara breathed, and looked around as a ritual that could cleanse her unease. Her idiotic brain focused, barely, and what she remembered was something her mother had told her when she was young: "What else is there to do with a life but fritter it away?" Now she understood it. This was intelligence, for Kirihara, and that to achieve what the universe has set out for her she needed to-

"SOLAR BEAM!"

- Kirihara swept aside just in time for the white ray to enter the building behind, disintegrating it with not a single ash left -

" - what the fuck is up with -"

- and she leaped to Carve with the speed of light over the second ray seeking her spine -

" - you want your fucking kill back?!"

" - I ALREADY TOLD YOU!" shouted Mia, sword burning purple as she stepped forward, rage clouding out the new color.

"I'm n-not going to fucking fight you." grunted Kirihara; Carve spun readied, and as she started to flee right -

- an enormous wall of ice burst out of the ground; in to the sudden barrier she stumbled, pinky accidentally touching it -

- and she shrieked as the subzero chill froze her finger solid; another beam shot towards her -

- but a knife of Carve sliced her pinky clear off, freeing her as she stumbled and fell back to the ground, fifty feet separating the two, Mia halting with new purple sword readied.

Mia's glare filled Kirihara with dread. "I'm going to make you feel how a cow does when the butcher hangs it by its feet and slashes its gut."

Kirihara nervously laughed. "C-Cut your tough girl shit and-"

- Mia's palms flashed forward again, white beam erupting outward; Carve took the hit head on -

- and shattered instantly, scattering to a hundred fragments and bouncing the beam all along the avenue, and as it shot towards its mistress -

- a swarm of ice scarabs swallowed and snuffed the beam; no option left, Kirihara fled through the disintegrated lot, desperately ripping her tablet out as she felt Mia in pursuit behind -

" - WORLDWIDE - BOLT!"

- and she threw away her tablet just in time for the enormous beam to enter it; and in to a thousand pieces it shattered, throwing her phone to the side before the beam could refract -

" - is this about y-your protege or some s-shit?!" shouted Kirihara, rushing out to a new avenue, eyes ripping behind as she faked right -

- and shrieking as she peeled left, sudden beam ripping her left arm clear off, entire body filling with scars, not a single vein or drop of blood -

" -- GOD, what the fuck is your problem?!" she screamed in agony, scarab reaper eternally fifty feet behind as she ran right -

" - I'll slice you into a thousand fucking pieces before I-"

"I-I can give you your kill b-back!" panted Kirihara, rushing down another road -

- and an enormous wall of ice blocked her path ahead; no option left, she rode Carve up, and she came to the apex -

- just in time for a frozen beam to freeze her sawblade solid; instincts at the speed of light, she leaped off and over the wall, two hundred foot fall below -

- and her neck bent in ways it shouldn't when she hit the ground skull-first; but she had no time to rest. Another dozen beams blasted the wall to bits behind, leaving her stumbling on her hands and knees back, seeing her foe a hundred feet away.

Six feet of scarab-covered rage stomped down the avenue. Carve's prison melt as Mia passed underneath -

" - S-SONIC SHOCK!" shouted Kirihara; it spun with the speed of sound -

- and dread swallowed her stomach as she saw Mia burst in to purple flames, grunting, staggering, stepping back but still standing by the end -

- with only scars on her cheeks.

Carve reappeared beside Kirihara, and in the next instant -

- underneath the ground she burrowed, drill desperately forming as she tunneled underneath the avenue -

" - YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME!" shouted Mia; a white beam entered the road ahead -

- and blasted every line of gas in the area, hundreds and hundreds of explosions erupting, shattering rubble and disintegrating the entire road, blasting and shattering every last building, hundreds of concrete & asphalt shards flying out of the road -

- and leaving nothing but a bare mess behind, Kirihara still running a hundred feet away on Carve's saw -

- and ripping right underneath another white beam that tore another line of buildings clear in half. Another white beam erupted outward and Carve's saw shattered to a hundred mirrors, readying to meet it -

- but Kirihara saw with aghast eyes the electrical beam contained within the white, and before she could react -

- the lighting bolt ricocheted off of every saw -

- and hit Kirihara's right eye. It exploded in a cloud of blood; she shrieked as she dodged underneath another -

" - o-okay!" gagged Kirihara, clutching desperately her remaining eye as she backed away - " - p-please - I-I can't f-fucking fight you, I-"

- another lightning bolt blasted her remaining eye out of the back of her skull, Kirihara running desperate but blind away, heart near set to burst as she rode Carve's saw, desperate dodging, dead-end home&forest she remembered seeing up ahead. Eternally with no option left, she fled through the trees -

- and another white beam cleaved Kirihara's legs clear off; she screamed as her scarred torso skid off of Carve, stopping it only in time for new metal limbs to form, only her right arm left, before another frozen ray entered it and shattered it instantly.

With each attack Mia exacted upon her so too did her personality rotate between begging, agitation and simple cowardice. If not the most perfect showing of what Kirihara was, it was the most base. There was no doubt that could impinge against the expression of her self now, as if an instinctual urge against the circumstances she had long led herself to occupy. It was simple and not prone to over-analysis, much like the woman herself.

Another white beam sliced her metal legs off and disintegrated them without a single ash left. She turned as a bolt of electricity shot through her eyes and both disappeared in wisps of vapor as she crawled. She could not see Mia, but her footsteps largened. Something quivered in a nearby tree, and Mia chuckled; whether at this, Kirihara, the misery she had exacted or her own arrogance did not matter, for a blue beam then burst out of Mia's palms, and Kirihara was disintegrated in the margin of her laugh.