Armageddon

The Overseer's helmet was shattered upon impact, falling apart and crumbling to the ground, finally revealing the facial identity behind the mask.

"Midas…?" Venus' eyes grew. There, standing in the flesh, was the presumably dead Sin of Greed.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Venus?" He sighed at the outcome. "I wasn't planning for you to see me like this."

"Why…?" Venus looked at the burning environment that surrounded them. The fire, the destruction, the deaths. "Gian-Luca, Veronica, you killed them…" With disbelief, he looked up at Midas, dawning the infamous, sleek, and white armor that every Overseer wore.

"I did." There was no emotion in his validation.

"But why… Why… WHY?!" Venus dropped to his knees with failure to understand. "You were our leader… You were a Sin, just like the rest of us… Now you're wearing the suit of an Overseer…?"

"I am an Overseer, Venus. I know it's hard to hear, but my will belongs to A.X.A. now."

"B-But you died… You're supposed to be dead right now. You died in the Metatron Tournament, didn't you…?"

Midas shook his head. "The entire tournament was a ploy for A.X.A., and I helped plan the entire thing."

Venus' jaw dropped. "No you did not… Stop lying to me Midas, you can't be serious right now… You—?"

"I helped A.X.A. develop a plan to take control of the Sin of Wrath, and the tournament was that plan's execution. My 'death' played a crucial role in subjugating Reed. Why else do you think he's rampaging this district alongside me, and not against me?"

Venus was at a loss for words. He could only reject what he was being told. "You're lying, you're lying. None of this is true. You would never do this. Why are you telling me all of this—"

"It's true, Venus. How could I lie to you while I'm standing here in one of A.X.A.'s very own suits—?"

"BUT WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!?" Venus screamed. His heart was shattering by the second. "What about the trials we went through every single day? What about the life-risking plan to breakout of and escape the facility? What about all that time we'd spent on the run, hiding from the society around us, only relying on each other's company as the 'Sins'? What about all the tribulation we've gone through together…?"

"Venus…"

"YOU KILLED TWO OF YOUR VERY OWN KIN, MIDAS! THEY TRUSTED YOU, BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER, AND YOU KILLED THEM!!!"

"Venus."

"WHY ARE YOU ON THE SIDE WE'VE ANTAGONIZED FOR SO LONG?!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THAT FUCKING SUIT?!?"

"I told you, I'm an Overseer now—"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE AN OVERSEER?!?"

Midas paused for a moment, letting the sound of burning buildings settle into the atmosphere. "I am the newborn, the new addition to the current organization of Overseers. I've joined A.X.A. of my own will. Do not deceive yourself with the idea that I have been maniupalted or forced. This was my own personal choice."

Venus gritted his teeth heavily. "Why in the world would you ever join A.X.A…? Even after everything they've done to you? To us? They stripped you of your previous life and burdened you with a cursed one… Shouldn't you be taking revenge, just as we planned…?"

"No, but rather, I owe them my debt. They may have stripped me of my previous life, but this new life they provide is much more substantial than I could have ever imagined. With this position I've chosen to pursue, I have been provided with nearly eternal amounts of knowledge. This is what I've always wanted. This is what I've always wished for. Even the 'me' from my previous life would have approved of this path, because all I've ever seeked was knowledge. This is my personal greed."

Venus couldn't believe what he was hearing. Word by word, Midas was tearing his heart apart piece by piece. A slow yet steady decline of morale, to a point where he could not fathom hearing any more. He chose, once more in his entire life full of rejection, to reject what he was given.

"This isn't the Midas I know," Venus stood up. "This isn't the Midas I've known. You aren't the one I chose to believe in because of the exclusive concern you gave to me in my moment of despair. You aren't the only one I've ever considered on equal footing as I, even when I was clouded by my persona of pride. You aren't the one whose death I cried about for hours on end, wishing to have defended you from your doom much better. You aren't the one who I've looked at as my only friend. The Midas I knew, this Midas, would never surround himself in that cursed color of white we'd always resented."

Midas sighed sternly and stiffened his stance. His suit reacted to this, with its shapeshifting plates scaling around his body to formulate the most defensive alignment possible. Detecting the absence in protection on his face, his helmet was reformed using the leftover plates from his body armour. "Then I am not the Midas you know anymore." His face was enclosed, hidden once more by the tinted mask of his newly repaired helmet. "I am the Overseer of Greed."

"Tsk!" Venus readied his own stance before the Overseer. "And I am the Sin of Pride!"

"Wrong." Midas opened his palm, ready to clench it. "You are the shell of the Sin that was Pride. You won't have nearly enough sustenance to fuel your ability anymore. Do not try me—"

SLAM—!

A sudden dent was made in Midas' Overseer armor. He looked up.

"I don't need that self-satisfying sentiment to give me power anymore." Venus' palm was pointed towards him. "I have a new kind of pride."

Midas leaned forward, and in an instant was boosted to a position face-to-face with Venus.

"—!!!" Venus ducked in response. Any second later, and his head would have been sliced-off by the wing Midas had just swung around.

SWOOSH!

A gust of wind followed behind Midas' attack, completely blowing out all the fires in its direction. Venus took note of this, realizing just how much stronger Midas was now that he was in an Overseer suit.

"You already had so much power potential with your ability alone. Why overdo it with an Overseer's suit?"

The two jumped back a distance apart, landing in areas clear of flames. Midas turned his head to respond to Venus' question.

"It amplifies my potential a hundredfold. You may have also noticed that my ability itself has been readjusted."

Venus was reminded of Gian-Luca and Veronica's absurd deaths. "I have seen, clearly…"

"I don't only absorb emotional essence and garner it as my own power anymore. I can now manipulate the emotional essence itself, weakening it or even overdriving it. Gian-Luca's head exploded because I overdrove his emotional essence which was stacked in his brain. Veronica's heart imploded because her emotional essence was severely collected in her heart. Do you understand?"

Seething with anger, Venus nodded. "But what I don't understand is why? Why did you go out of your way to come and eliminate each one of us, your former comrades?"

"This is nothing more than a precaution. Don't take it personally. I've presented the facts to the other Overseers, sharing the hidden potential of the Sins, and they merely considered the potential future threat and asked me to get rid of that possibility."

"So you sold us out?!?"

"I said not to take it personally. I'm just following my superior's orders."

"Superior…?"

"Overseer Michael."

Venus couldn't believe it. The last words he'd heard Midas speak of A.X.A. were so righteous, justified, and resenting towards the association. To see his friend turn into the very thing he swore to destroy made Venus crumble on the inside.

"Say, where's Ian? I know Vidia died in the tournament, but I don't see Ian along with you guys here, and I know he survived the tournament."

Venus was suddenly deep in dilemma. He knew what Midas would do if he found Ian, but at the same time, Ian had recently just tried to betray them. "Why should it matter to you?!"

"Because I'm after every single one of your heads. My mission isn't over until all of you are dead."

"Good luck with that, because one: Ian attempted to betray us but left right before you arrived, so I don't know where he is. And two: I'm taking you down before you can cause anymore casualties."

Midas was intrigued to hear this. "I can bring you a much more painless death if you wish to cooperate. Choose to fight me, and I can guarantee you a painful death instead."

Venus had made up his mind already. He sighed heavily. "Midas, I know that somewhere, deep under all that armor and greed of yours, you're still there. The Midas I know is still in there somewhere."

Midas scoffed at this, attempting to reject such words of condolence. "You pride yourself on the pride of false hope then?"

"No." Venus began taking steps forward. "I pride myself on my belief in a lasting friendship with you, Midas."

Midas scoffed again. "I admire your wit to reject what's given to you at face value, but let me assure you that you are lying to yourself!"

Venus raised his hands, pointing away from his back and clenched his palms with an almighty push. Suddenly, with a quick surge forwards in wind, Venus was within reaching-point of Midas. "What if it's you that's lying to yourself?! You're the one rejecting my words of truth given straight to your face!"

An open palm was quick to appear in front of Midas' mask, and with the slightest clench, his head was blasted backwards, and his helmet re-shattered nto thousands of pieces.

"—Urgh!" With the momentum that threw him onto his back, Midas engaged the propellers behind his wings to propel him back upwards. He leaned forward, instigating a front-flip forwards with a concluding kick to the top of Venus' head.

SLAM—!

Venus was blown straight into the ground, and gravel was thrown everywhere. Midas dove further to finish the kill. But before he could, Venus was quick to look back up at the Overseer approaching him.

"STOP IT, MIDAS!!!" Both hands came forward that planted on Midas' chest, and the point of contact caused him to be discharged backwards with an explosive blast of condensed air. The impact sent Midas flying, giving him opportunity to recalibrate himself using his wings before landing. Blood leaked from his lip from within the explosion, which he wiped, staining the white gauntlets of his suit.

"I must say, Venus, I did not expect you to put up such a fight in that current state of yours. I would have expected you to give into that traumatizing guilt, and let death take you over."

"You're the only thing I have left in this cursed life. I'm only fighting because you're my last chance at hope in living. Snap out of that mindset, Midas! Come back to your senses!"

Midas raised his hand, ready to manipulate the growing emotional essence in Venus' body. "This is permanent, Venus. You're fighting for a lost cause."

He was ready to clench his palm, imploding Venus' innards along with its emotions. But Venus knew he'd try and pull this. He raised his hand faster and sent a blast flying towards Midas' hand. The energy threw his arm back, completely disengaging the opportunity for Midas to use his ability as it loosened his palms with pain.

"—Urk!!" Midas spun in the direction of his arm's momentum. Had he not, his arm may have been torn off. Had it not been for the extra protection from his Overseer suit, his arm would have been torn off either way.

"Such heavy power…" Midas got back into stance. Armor plates shifted from his chest towards his wings, which contributed to its now-growing length. Within a matter of seconds, Midas' Overseer wings had tripled in size. Not only did they span wider, but they were thicker, and immense in height. This new figure was casted on the ground by the Blood Moon's red light—a horrifying image of Midas' winged shadow.

"I'll show you even heavier power!" He flapped both his wings forwards, blowing an extreme gust of air in Venus' direction. Without any protection or cover to hide behind, Venus was at fatal risk here. He only had one option in turning it into his favour. He raised both his arms, activating his ability to its upmost potential. But rather than blasting forth his own gusts of air, he used this kinetic energy to take control of the atoms within Midas' gust towards him, and swirled the attack in the opposite direction.

"Unbelievable—!" Midas immediately wrapped himself with his wings before being nearly blown off his feet by the attack reflected back towards him. The return in energy was much greater than what he'd sent out initially due to the buildup in momentum, causing plates to shred off of Midas suit of armour. With this, his wings had been minimized back to its original size. The Overseer armour was slightly lacking in layering from sustaining various attacks from Venus, and these layers of plates now scattered the grounds around Midas.

"We shouldn't be fighting like this, we're comrades!" Venus took a step forward. "We're friends."

Midas shunned his words immediately. "I have no time for insolent goals such as those anymore, Venus."

Frustrated, Venus screamed. "Then what?! Why?!? What's so worth throwing away your humanity for anyways?!? Tell me!!!"

"From the way you speak, you wouldn't understand, Venus. What we currently fight over, and what I've abandoned my comrades and old values for, is an exceedingly larger picture than you could ever fathom. I am a revenger of the Moon, the Moon that once was. This is all for the Moon."

"What even is the Moon?!"

"MONA, the goddess this world used to worship. Do you see the technology that envelopes my body? Do you see the technology that's been used to imbue us with such superhuman capabilities? This has all originated from her, Mother, MONA. She is the savior of our future extinctions, and it is with this hyper-advanced technology that we can evade such human fates."

"Then why are you killing everyone, and destroying everything…? If her goal is to prevent human extinction, why are you and A.X.A. causing extinction itself…?"

"We aren't causing extinction. We're simply going through the filtering process of humanity. You see how people like you and I are different from everyone else? It is because we were irregularities, and we earned our right to receive such power. With this power, we stand higher than the current average human in the hierarchy. A.X.A.'s aim is to reset the scale so that people like you and I become the general standard for a human."

"A superhuman society…?"

"Not just that. A super-advanced technological society too, and it is this implemented standard that would save us from our natural demise."

Venus couldn't come to terms with agreeing. "But that's flawed… Why must you kill all in order to acheive this goal? Why start from fresh when A.X.A. could just imbue the entire population with abilities instead?"

"Because they are all sinners." Midas' eyes strained.

"Sinners…?"

"Docile common folk, blindly following the pasty laws of the Cardinal Nexus. You see, the world and humanity as we know it, could have achieved the supposed super-advanced technological state we strive for by now. Humanity would already be saved by the super technology MONA has to offer if it weren't for her deicide a century ago. The Cardinal Nexus are the ones responsible for that."

Venus suddenly felt a surge in anger come forth from Midas' aura, as if he were vengeful for the very things he preached.

"We, A.X.A., are the revengers of the moon, the avengers of MONA. Not only are we imposing our world revolution on humanity, but we are returning the downfall to the Cardinal Nexus that they'd given us just a decade ago."

The words were being etched harder and harder, and Venus could hear Midas beginning to develop a rasp in his voice. "Why do you speak as if you've been with A.X.A. for so long…?"

"Because I've been educated, Venus. I understand everything now, and I understand where my desires reside. They reside in the potential to collect more knowledge with the technology A.X.A. has, and with the lifestyle MONA's religion seeks. A longer life will always mean the opportunity to find more answers. Answers to my never-ending questions, that is."

Venus felt he had a hole dug straight through his heart by now. After hearing all the passion emit from Midas' mouth, he could tell that he could never retrieve the Midas he used to know ever again. That man was long gone, drowned in the overweighted doctrine of the Moon-run association that'd ruined his life completely.

"You're lost, Midas."

"I'm found in my eyes, forever lost in yours, Venus."

He sighed regrettably. "Even though this is what you pursue, I still can't help but see you as my friend."

Midas smiled slightly. "I respect your view."

"You respect it because you still see me as a friend."

He was taken back by Venus' words. "I—"

"Not once in this entire time have you rejected my feelings of declaring you as my friend. That's because you know it's true… You know that we are both still friends, no matter the circumstances that divide us two!"

Midas' eyes widened. Venus went on. "Your reactions are enough to confirm my suspicions. You and I will always, undoubtedly, be friends."

Midas felt himself loosen momentarily. "This changes nothing though…"

"I know it doesn't. I know it will never. I know you won't change, Midas." Venus took a deep breath. "That's why as your greatest rival, and your greatest friend, I will put you out of your misery, and release you from those shackles you've put yourself in."

"Tsk!" Midas' expression intensified. "So this is the fate you've chosen!"

"This is for the better of you!" Venus raised his hand. Midas saw this, and instantly raised his own.

The two clenched their palms in unison.