Revenger of the Moon

The figure that approached the Sins was not a plane, but an Overseer. The figure was clad with white shapeshifting plates that morphed around its body to widen its wings, spanning wider than clouds, and sharper than blades. It soared towards the three at an incredible speed.

"Duck!" Venus yelled, reminded of a similar attack performed against him by Overseer Chamuel back at the facility. The three dropped to the rugged ground in pursuit, and the armored Overseer sliced through the air right above them, passing with such astonishing velocity that even the sound barrier had been serrated in half.

"Ack—!" Gian-Luca felt his eardrums pop. Veronica and Venus had luckily plugged their ears just in time. Looking back up, they could see the Overseer flying off into the distance after narrowly ending their lives.

"What the hell is an Overseer doing here?!?" Gian-Luca asked. "Why is A.X.A. coming out now?!?"

Veronica jumped into the worry. "I think the better question to ask is which Overseer is that?!"

They all squinted forwards to take a glimpse at the face of the Overseer in its suit, but they soon realized that a helmet worn over was part of the armour it bore.

"They've got a mask on, so I can't tell who it is…" Venus observed the suit of the Overseer. "They also have Overseer armour that I don't recognize… I don't think I've ever seen any of the Overseers wearing that suit."

"Well it has been well over a year. They may have changed their designs since we saw them last…" Gian-Luca gulped at the thought that it was Overseer Jophiel or Ariel. But he remembered the events that transpired—the civil war. Jophiel should have been guaranteed to be dead, but so did Reed, and he was running around the district wrecking havoc.

"Who IS that Overseer?" Gian-Luca wanted to know, and he wanted to know why on earth they were attacking the surface ground now of all times.

"Do you think they've finally decided to come and retrieve us…?" Veronica implied. "Or maybe even come to execute us for our betrayal and breakout?"

"But it's been over a year! They've always had the resources to come and get us, so why would they only come now?!"

Venus grabbed Gian-Luca's arm to calm him down. "This isn't just any regular attack, retrieval, or execution. This must be planned."

The oddities began to brighten in Gian-Luca's eyes. He understood the concern in Venus' voice. "You're right. It shouldn't be a coincidence that Reed is here when we thought he died in the tournament…"

"And it shouldn't be a coincidence that we saw groups of Angels defending the bomb during that Specialized Phase at the tournament either!" Veronica jumped in. She had just made the connecting point. With these two oddities and their obscurities stated, it's now become apparent that A.X.A. must have been involved with the Metatron Tournament in some sort of way. The three Sins gave each other a look, confirming this thought with their mere glances. This was soon interrupted by the sound of an exhaustive blast in the far distance, towards which the Sins looked. The Overseer that'd previously sweeped over their heads was now on their way back, ready for another try at the execution.

"Duck!" Venus screamed again. They all dropped to the floor according to instruction, but they would not have expected to have been blown across the street with debris by an explosion from the ground before them.

BOOM—!!!

The Sins scattered in all directions as a hail of rocks came tumbling over them. They grunted as they suffered the landing impacts of their launches. Rather than zoom over their heads like attempted previously, the Overseer this time opted to strike the ground directly in front of them, causing a large-scale kinetic explosion to occur. They were blasted backwards and landed among the Wrath-ruined structures lining the crevice-shaken roads.

"—Guh!" Gian-Luca coughed up some dusty blood. He looked up to see the Overseer standing in its self-made crater, arms crossed, staring at them with the lifeless sight of the black screen that covered its mask. There was no pair of eyes to see, but the glare could be felt. Veronica noticed this too, as her ability gave her the sixth perception to sense emotional essence, of which was very evident in the Overseer's aura. She could smell a horrifying variety of emotions, such as fear, anger, sadness, and straight-cut despair. The odor nearly made her gag from its energy alone.

"Shit…" Veronica pressed her eyes shut. She felt mentally defeated by her realisation just then.

The mask the Overseer wore was excessively tinted, almost to an unrealistic extent. This obscured the sight of eyes and pupils completely, meaning Veronica had no chance to perform her ability whatsoever.

"What do you want from us?!?" Gian-Luca shouted from across the road. He struggled to pick himself up off the floor, noting that the knives in his palms had been rooted even deeper after landing from the explosion. He could only put his energy into screaming at their perpetrator, with no opportunity left to use his ability.

"There is nothing I wish to receive." An automated voice spoke from the mask of the Overseer.

"T-Then why are you doing this?! Why are you targeting us?! Surely one of us must have been your subject in the facility? Which Overseer are you?!"

There was no response.

An unusual trait stood out to Venus. "Why are you not using your real voice? Why is your voice being automated…?"

"That should be the least of your concerns, Venus."

The recognition came as a surprise to Venus. He was even more intent to figure out who the Overseer was. "Who are you?" He now asked.

The Overseer took a few steps forward in response, before turning around and pointing up at the orange sun in the orange sky. "Long ago, there was once a sphere than panned across the sky. But this sphere was not the sun. It was another sphere. It was the Moon. Like the sun, the Moon would emit a bright circular light. But unlike the sun, the Moon only appeared at night." The Overseer kept his finger pointed at the light in the sky, while his other hand now pointed towards the darkness in his crater down below. "Back then, the sun was stuck in day, while the Moon was stuck in night. One came in the light, and one came in the dark." As he spoke, the time of the clock was speeding up. Midnight was approaching, and with this was a steady saturation of the sun into a deep blood red.

"The Blood Moon." The Overseer turned back towards the Sins, while the red light of the sun casted his heavy shadow against them. "This midnight red sun is influenced by the historic Moon that once was. A bright circular light, now stained red by the remains of its existence. It is a bleeding Moon, the Blood Moon."

The Sins watched as the Overseer monlogued while bathing in the crimson rays of the midnight red sun that shone above them.

"So who am I, you ask?" The Overseer took a few more steps before confronting the Sins closely. "I am an avenger, or rather, a revenger, of the Moon."

They were speechless, barely able to process any of what they'd been told. Veronica tried to make sense of it. "So is this what A.X.A. has always been about? The so-called Moon…?"

The Overseer nodded. "There is so much more to the Moon than your eyes can see, and than your brain can comprehend. The knowledge is castaway and forbidden, only rightfully spoken and announced to those deemed worthy—the chosen, the children."

"But what does any of this have to do with us…?" Gian-Luca now questioned. "We were never rightfully involved to begin with. We were only reeled in by force because of you guys… Why should any of us suffer for something we never wanted to asssociate ourselves with in the first place?! Why?!?"

The Overseer smiled beneath its mask. "Seems as though you've grown more independent and outspoken, Gian-Luca."

The recognition in the Overseer's voice startled Gian-Luca. He bursted with emotion. "Why do you talk to me in such a familiar tone?! After causing all of this, and nearly killing us numerous times, how could you dare talk to me as if you know me?!?"

"Because I do," the Overseer's voice stooped low. It took one more step forwards, in the direction of the Sins. The slight movement produced sudden desperation in Gian-Luca's movements. He was agitated mentally by his current state and confusion, so as an impulsive act of self-defense, his palms were cleared of their knives.

"ARG—!!!" Gian-Luca reached for the handle of the knife embedded in his right hand, and tugged as hard as he could. The blade came out with aggressive force, shredding his palm open even wider. The sheer shock of the moment allowed Gian-Luca to make his move, in which he gripped the knife's handle and threw it instantaneously towards the Overseer.

"Gian-Luca, no—!"

Clank!

The knife bounced off of the Overseer's chest.

"I— Uh—" Gian-Luca began to panic. His palm wound was now exposed, and tremendous amounts of blood poured out.

"You've done this to yourself. I'll put you out of your misery." The Overseer raised his hand with an open palm. Hearing those words made Gian-Luca panic even more. Blood was rising to his head, and with that, so was an unfathomable amount of fear and rage. There was so much to be scared of—his uselessness with a lack of ability, and his current position in the hands of seeming death. And there was much to be angered at—the perpetrator before him, who caused havoc to his safehaven and nearly killed his remaining comrades.

"Who the hell are you to do this to us… WHO THE HELL EVEN ARE YOU—?!"

The Overseer clenched his palm.

SHRULK—!!!

Blood, brain, and bones condensed into a singular space in the center of Gian-Luca's head, a place too tight for all the matters to fit. And so it burst, one bloody and expansive explosion of head matters.