Chapter 60: Generations culmination!

Derek collected his thoughts and gave it his best shot to remain calm as he hesitantly approached Noa in a sangfroid manner. Noa stuttered as she was asking about his seemingly brand new powers as he continued closer and began wondering about the story that he hasn't told her yet regarding them. Derek explained what was going on with him to her then reluctantly revealed the story, ending with a hug between the two childhood friends who hadn't seen each other in many years. "What happened to Mack? Where is he?!" Derek asked. "That's his name?" Noa asked rhetorically as she crossed her arms, "I chucked an Astrophel combustion grenade or two after he had recovered from my Bone Blinding technique quicker than I could have anticipated, not powerful enough to take his life, more than enough to toss and keep him off of our trail, give you time to breathe." Noa answered. Derek responded that he understood as he gently stopped the hug and turned around staring at his bloody hands. Noa put one hand on her hip as she waited. Derek turned around but he remained silent for a moment looking toward his hand then toward her. "I know what they had taught us and the principles that separate our worlds, our world that's full of convictions and duties set by our morals and the Heroics purlieu. I think I might be questioning one. I stood by and allowed someone else to die. That— that's…" Derek halted his sentence and continued staring into Noa's eyes while both felt a feeling of being lost. "C'mon, you can get the words out, Dare." Noa encourages as she walked up to him and caressed him. Derek walked away with a reflective expression and held the wrist of his ashen arm while pacing back and forth. "No. Rather, I'm wondering if I should just accept and send my resignation to the H.O.P— if we make it out of this alive by some miracle, Noa?" Derek asked with an uncertain mien and tone to match as he turned around with the two almost crashing into one another, after the moment of feeling awkward was over he backed away slowly. "If you do!" Noa shouted to grab her friend's attention. Derek's gaze turned towards hers as their eyes clashed as he recalled the fact that she rarely raises her voice. "You'll break your home's, mine and Set's heart if you give up from a mistake— and if you honestly think that all of your friends and family for any reason less than murder will disown you, and I know as a fact that's not part of the context, then somebody needs to smack some sense into you, Gray!" Noa finished as she opened his eyes with an excellent point. Derek turned his gaze out of the window and stared at a swirl of creamy beige ash in the ashen replaced arm which he couldn't control. "I've overestimated myself. I've been running away from a threat that I underestimated. Threw away my Gramp's warnings about the cult and this city. Now I'm just endangering my friends. How am I supposed to go forward with this change of heart? Meet back up with everyone after this?" Derek asked with a downtrodden tone and expression. Noa stared at the sun on its way down beside him. "That's an excellent question that I know you'll find, we'll find together, about now is not the time, the time is for us to finish this bloody war. Remember that your father was able to find the former headquarters of their cult and bring them to justice, sounds like you guys discovered the remains, and the leaders. The blame game isn't how we'll do it. We stop the council of the Enenra here in JinJunyë before they escape." Noa asserted as she stood up holding her hand out towards him. Derek holds it while he realizes the moment took him over before informing Noa of their situation yet he struggles to find a way of explaining away his brand new creamy beige limbs. Derek remained quiet as he felt a burst of fear and anxiety very suddenly. He backed away slowly leaving Noa clueless. Anthony, Amin and Reynard suddenly contacted Derek through their communication device and greeted their friend each showing worry in their own ways. "Thank goodness you guys are fine. After that scream that I heard—!" Derek stopped himself as he couldn't describe further details. Anthony looked at Derek and some of his wounds on his face. "They plan to have that despicable lover boy, Mack Merrick, their Heir evacuate to keep the worship and chaos along with Enotocin's power alive in this world. The current leader plans on staying to defend their lord's desired town. According to them, he took a liking to this urban jungle." Anthony informed the team with a straight face. "How do you know this?" Reynard asked with his own shocked expression, "Are you a human or the famed god of knowledge?" He finished as he held up his arms as he felt taken aback. Anthony turned his gaze toward him. Mack opened his eyes, they were twitching and his wrath began to boil as he was feeling the shock of him failing and losing the pair of the heroic purlieu oath members and what one was able to achieve while fleeing. "Sh-she broke my arm with that puny explosion. I'll make her pay, eventually." Mack thought to himself as he began cooling like porridge. Deciding that he'd return to his master's dojo rather than hunting them as if he were a dog. Mack found his master and leader in the cult's room where they were able to communicate with their lord. Strange gray flowers with each emitting smoke from their petals the same shade of the color peacefully flowing from the plethora of them that surrounded the predecessor and his successor was the second thing that he saw with the first being his master in the butterfly sitting position as peaceful as always though with an expression of unease. "The day that I've trained you for, your destiny to make his society into a reality in this realm. Thoroughly entertain him as the servants before us." Said Basa in repose with the tone matching. Mack mumbled his panic and shock after the revelation hit him like a jolt of lightning. Mack sprinted to his master's side as he, Basa, fell on his back abruptly. Firmly grasping his master, sensei, the man he felt as close to family's hand while their lord's gifted power that had previously belonged to the other members began taking a vague gaseous shape which eventually flew its way into every orifice that was part of Mack's face. The Heir of the smoke God's society, the Enenra's new world, gripped his head with his hands as he released a ferocious, animalistic and demonic roar. The flowers around him began to react. He took a deep breath before exhaling, emitting smoke from his mouth as he couldn't believe the way that he felt. Every muscle and a clear mind until he laid eyes on his dead leader. A tear fell from his face while resuming his grief until he picked himself up off of the dojo's ground and glaring down at his master's body recollecting the joyful yet the painful memories while wiping his tears, memories of Basa rewarding him and disciplining him, shaping him to reach his full potential. "Essentially a century years old, you could have wiped the floor with our unwanted guests." Mack turned around astonished by the beauty of the masculine figure that he had assumed to be the first actual sight of his lord's fleshly incarnation. Strong, dark gray hair and his skin was as eye-catching as you'd expect a monarch. "This victory is up to you now, our victory in this war is guaranteed upon my return, hold on until then. For the next century or two, Indeed. You'll be far more entertaining than your predecessors, make each of them proud." He heard from the princely, mysterious being as his master Basa and those he could only assume to be the mentioned predecessors before even he appeared beside him. Paving the way for a fiercer resolve in his heart and a fire shown through his eyes. Mack pounded the dojo's ground creating a considerable crater. "Hmm, the flowers of the Enotoskura only react to those set to defend their home and bring about the vanquishment of her enemies." Enotocin whispered closely in Mack's ear as he held his balled fist tight, the Enenra held a grand smile on him as he loved the wrathful expression on his servant's face. "Don't disappoint them, entertain me." The Enenra commanded from his latest servant. Mack grew lively, feeling the strongest he's ever had the chance to feel in his two decades of life, wasting no further time to rid his Enenra lord of the nuisances plaguing his town. 

As the newly inspired costumed heroes, Mistdeemer and Aurora-shade stepped out of the abandoned building recently used as a temporary safe house, Derek heard loud agonizing screams and moans, he couldn't tell from where or which direction that only added further unease. Noa warmingly grabbed her best friend's shoulder which worked to help him maintain necessary focus. Calming down his heart from the jumpscare, he noticed Noa staring his way with serious concern and her hands at her hips. Derek nervously chuckles as he backs away and grins hoping she'd let it go. "We don't need the plugs again do we?" Noa asked with a blend of an upset and worried tone as she stepped closer. "No, no, I know— I get it, alright. It's convenient and sometimes it helps me save lives but it's complicated and sometimes I actually forget that I've got it. Power that I inherited from my grandma that happened during that incident or— or a rare special case condition, I've really got it under control these days. It's rarely a nuisance like you've just seen." Derek replied as he reeled in his tone of frustration towards the end before a shrug. "What did you hear just now, anyway?" Noa asked with utmost curiosity. Derek's face turned to a grave expression as he gazed into her eyes. "Something I'm certain that couldn't possibly be human." Derek used a matching tone as he informed her. The eldest son of the Wiley family eased the silence that took hold of a moment and asked one of his best friends, Noa Hayes, if she could flare and signal to the trio they were speaking with and rather she forgot to introduce herself with a quick realization after he asked. Reynard, Amin and Anthony saw Noa's bright star lit up within the night sky, each felt that it was more than likely Derek's attempt to regroup the heroes yet Anthony felt different, as though another plan rather than regrouping was far more necessary. 

As he stared up at the star feeling wonderment and moved by its beauty. "Telling from where that has to be located, he must have caught up with Mack Merrick but lost that fight and had to retreat or any of his friends in the team that he's part of came to his rescue, they didn't introduce themselves before our comms broke. He failed which means that the next in line was evacuated by their leader, Basa. Tonight might not be a complete loss if we go scout their cult leader's home and dojo, so according to their last resort plan, he'll be staying behind to defend his master's catalyst somewhere in the city which he can use to return. Scouting before confronting the living relic is a must right now. He's not against assumptions. He and his friend are going to regroup with us there." Anthony recommended to Reynard and Amin, the two accepted his plan with Amin feeling only slightly uncomfortable about it. After a few minutes of waiting for the latest trio of friends he had made along the way of stopping the cult everyone he loves has been fighting for ages, Derek abruptly has a feeling that he should listen out. 

The Heroic Oath Purlieu hero stares off into a random direction prior to shutting his eyes and wrinkling his nose, what he hears leaves him gasping and his eyes the widest as Noa had ever seen them to be on one of her best friend's faces. Derek has to expel the fear and anxiousness out of his system that halted him from soaring away to where he has to be, successfully doing so with the practice the noise overwhelming him vanishes. He wastes no time explaining the issue to Noa, instead he leaps high into the air before transforming his body into smoke then reverting and conjuring a cloud of thick smoke to soar on much faster towards his destination. Noa followed his lead without asking a single question, finding herself often annoyed by his tendency to move first and talk later; she's heard stories from Settembre of it allowing them to save lives in the past after the friends split up yet the two found brothers stayed beside each other growing their bond. As it hit Noa as she soared fairly far behind Derek, her resolve not to let time spent away pass them by once again strengthened before she sped up. "That bastard!!" Amin shouted at the top of his lungs as he held Anthony who was continuously coughing in his arms. That son of a mechanic and engineer dragged Anthony away from the man with the gray flesh and pupil-less eyes. Reynard tried his best to remain calm under pressure and throw away his emotions to the side in an effort to be as rational as possible. The intense pressure he felt from the gray fleshed man in front of him was tremendously terrifying, as if his spirit was intimidated alongside him. Reynard realized that his body would not listen to him, as much as he demanded while the Gray fleshed man approached nonchalantly without an expression on his face. "Usually, I really enjoy it when I have runners but he demands that I wrap this up with a blow so that he'll refuse to hold back and I can entertain him even greater. This way is swift enough and I'll get to enjoy it myself." Said Mack Merrick with a devious expression as he prepared his hand to grab Reynard's heart out of his chest as he had him stuck until he was stopped by Amin's robotic sentinel with a front kick then Amin had used the mysterious mechanical guardian's immense strength to move his best friend out of the way. Mack handled his attack and recovered swifter than Amin thought that he would have then terrified the junior of JinJunyë's defender's mechanic with a glare. Derek and Noa eventually arrived, almost at the right time yet too late to make it to Reynard's aid, still they were able to witness everything else from above. Derek recognized the man attacking his friends despite the severe muscle loss and change in appearance. "No more running away!" Derek declared to himself before he leapt off his smoke cloud and descended into the battle. "That boy!" Said Noa before following his lead and descending. As Mack cracked his knuckles and he prepared to move to wreck Amin's robotic sentinel, Derek landed on the villainous Heir to the cult and smashed his face into the ground. Derek found the crater that was left behind empty when the hero moved his hand and stood up. Amin was taken aback by Derek's strength and Noa was left feeling awestruck. He turned his head toward where he heard him breathing with the hero's ferocity shown through his eyes as they're as sharp as daggers. Noa tossed a miniature swift Star that bombed Mack before he could shove his hand through Amin's back. "So precise and controlled?!" Amin felt awestruck by the unfamiliar heroine's save, he backed away with his peepers widened. Mack was found by the team stuck in a wall with his limbs blown off and scattered yet they realized that he was still breathing despite the loss of his appendages and blood. "No more sparing your worthless— lives!" Mack shouted with intensity towards the end as a cloud of thick dark smoke engulfed the team surrounding him that forced the same intense fear mongering pressure as Reynard felt before. Reynard worked through it and assisted his team regarding escaping the sinister heir's area of effect. Reynard realized Derek were handling it better than him but felt slightly terrible seeing the hero's friend suffering worse than himself alongside Amin. "Where's Anthony by the way?" Derek asked as he was rapidly recovering from the sinister heir's demented gifted power. "This vile, despicable scumbag covered his face and forced him to breathe this smoke then he began shaking and coughing before Amin dragged him to safety." Reynard informed the hero of Chaelb. As Mack began maniacally laughing, catching each of the heroes' attention in the process, the cult's heir threw his arm to his side as he picked himself up. The four felt a difficulty to explain it yet simply an ominous tension in the air once again as their instincts told them to back away. "I haven't felt this much fun and I'm sure he hasn't been this entertained since I murdered a few colorful investigators out of their league what felt like ages ago!" Mack shouted as his voice began to sound filled with more bass to an inhuman degree with each word. The cult's heir heard a gasp from the Wiley family's eldest living son that intrigued him before he cleared the smoke that kept the heroes blind and out of his crater. Reynard's expression formed into an aggravated one after the smoke cleared out. "He survived that— the bastard survived that?!" Reynard shouted after the gang saw Mack's smug grin. The gang except Derek slowly inched away as the cult's heir took a step forward while holding that smug mien. "You know, my master Basa, kept things from me. I couldn't understand what was meant by him telling me that I was Lord Enotocin's dog and that it ought to be seen as an honor. I've never even seen this overlord of my master before he took him away from me by releasing his duty and I've got the chance to experience his power. Don't worry, I'll give you an example of a little less than one percent of it!" Mack began speech calmly before his voice filled with hype and he encased himself into a darker shade of smoke. Derek balled his fist as he shook with wrath boiling up inside of his spirit. Noa took a step back before she began charging up her deadly energy in the form of a star above where his head should remain. "We— so, we ought to bomb him now!" Noa shouted with urgent fear in her stuttering voice. As Noa hesitated with trembling hands, Amin noticed Reynard in a trance as if he were daydreaming and tried to snap him out of it. "It doesn't matter." Amin heard Reynard mumbling and turned his gaze from the sky above to the heir of the cult they're facing off against in front of them. "Wh— Huh?!" Amin asked, filled with confusion. Reynard grabbed his best friend's shoulder and began telling him to escape. "What comes out of that smoke cocoon isn't going to be pretty or friendly, we all have to get out of here!" Reynard warned the team. Derek began recalling bits and pieces of advice given years ago from Lowelle Presence regarding bits and pieces of his philosophy towards conflict translated by Tal Presence. "Even when you face off against a single opponent, you're always facing off with multiple assailants at once. Recklessness. Lack of Emotional discipline. Lack of fear. Lack of acceptance when you're outmatched. All as an example during our training. An unhealthy amount of the time, the loser is the fighter that neglects to recognize and overcome these invisible, metaphysical assailants we've come to know as flaws." The gang of heroes heard mumbling from Derek as he held his wrist gazing off to the right confused by each word among numerous others. "Hey, man!" Derek heard Reynard shout, snapping him out of another trance, the former officer wondering why he didn't think to grab him and ashamed of his cowardice. 

The heroic defender of Chaelb city saw Amin, Reynard and Noa appearing worried for him, he unhesitatingly formed into his smoke form. Soaring through the air, he swiftly switched back into his physical presence and hopped on his cloud of smoke having practiced this maneuver then grabbed each of his friends to fly them to a safer distance. Reynard's jaw dropped as he felt the cloud of smoke. "Whooooa!" He stated as he was amazed by the smoke in gaseous form yet somehow each of them was able to physically sit on it it would seem to him. Thunderous roaring behind them yet darkened smoke approaching closer from below and the front of the squad. Reynard looked behind them, and saw something that made him urge the others to turn around as well. Now humongous and approaching in the form of a strange dark gray monster, Reynard stood up and held his guns to the opposite cheek as he declared that he was ready, Amin felt inspired by his bravery and mimicked him. Noa's fear got the best of her but Derek watched and noticed how it drove her while she bent over the cloud. "No. We all know your fist and guns aren't going to down him, though, I've got something that hopefully might. I'm called a— well, years of pent up frustration." She shouted towards the end as she left Derek in a state of confusion until he decided to remind her that she has his trust and confidence. Reynard and Amin sat on the cloud of their friend's smoke along with him, slightly exhausted and confused by what she had planned as they watched her walk to the edge before leaping off and she began skating through the skies on a brightly colored aurora. She brought thoughts of overwhelming pain and sorrow as she approached the monstrous last remnant of the cult they've waged war against for ages. Leaping from the edge of the beautiful trail she has been skating on with these thoughts, a destructive power she had been gradually drawing within her reached its boiling point and along with her, Mack felt the force of her explosion, knocking him from his monstrous form as she was sent soaring away. Derek leapt from his cloud platform, briefly transforming into his gaseous form to soar after her himself. He reverted back to his physical form and reached his arm out. "She can survive her explosion but I must— she's not going to be able to survive slamming into the ground in her state!" Derek reminded himself as he fell swiftly after her then successfully formed another smaller cloud of smoke for her soft landing. After catching, Derek momentarily formed himself back into his gaseous state, before forcibly reverting from the strain on his mind that he hasn't felt from conquering his abilities in a long time. Derek smiled with relief as he fell to the ground, momentarily gripping his head from the headache and with flashes of memories. "No napping on the job, back to my finishing centuries of work!" Mack found himself on the ground once again, angered and pounding it. "I'm not going to allow his beautiful society and worship to fall because of me!" Mack Merrick roared and shouted out as he realized that his master Enotocin had granted him enough power to take on one final stand after a display as destructive as what he was just caught in. Mack picked himself up and dusted his gi, Reynard jumped from his friend's cloud of smoke mercilessly releasing fire from the dual pistols he holsters to his hips. The bullets spray the young priest of Enotocin yet he remains calm and confident, retreating inside smoke which appears behind him. Reynard lands on a tall building making his way through other small complexes, spraying more gun fire into the cloud, until he assumes it was ineffective. Mack's brows lower as he retreats. "Can't touch that cloud of smoke!" Reynard reminded himself as he fled from it as it was closing in on him again. The humongous wall of smoke appeared in front of Reynard swifter than he could have seen coming, out of it came Mack who speedily disarmed him of his firearms, before retreating back within faster than his eyes perceived him moving, he realized that he held no chance of a countering blows thrown at him with his opponent's speed. Mack knocked Reynard away with a few more jabs before knocking him down with a liver punch. Reynard heard Derek's voice behind him as the liver blow forced him to the floor, Reynard felt physically superior than he was just moments ago suddenly. As Mack was about to curb stomp Reynard, Derek intervened, reverting back into his physical form, halted him with a double legged dropkick then helped Reynard back to his feet. Derek gave his friend a slight smile, one he could barely make though he forced it. "I was born fighting against the cult, you overcame it. It'll take both of us pushing our limits to finish it!" Said Derek as he squared up. Reynard didn't reply verbally, rather with a nod and a combative stance. Mack sadistically smiled as his breathing had been heavy. "After I'm finished with you two flies, I'll seek out order, the virtuous and this Heroics Oath purlieu I've been taught about since I've became a worshipper of Enotocin. All of the blood I'll drain out from them would blend nicely on my Spanish carmine boots!" Mack replied with a calming tone as he countered his worry with equanimity.