The Highest Card

There's a scream that can't be silenced. A whimpering that can't be mended, no matter how hard they uselessly tried. Two siblings, alone, while the house was filled with two people. These eyes of theirs; this… Eternal Sight. It saw through all the lies of the fabricated world formed by the truth that had gone forgotten. The way that man with white hair and green eyes walked around with a smile as if the name 'Celine' held no meaning to him. Happy. Was this what their father wanted for them?

As Ace stood in that silent chamber called his rom, he stared ahead at that picture frame, the one that held his father- before the bombs fell. Before the world was destroyed and they were secluded to their godforsaken island they called home, when they were happy and ignorant. Maybe it was better that way. To never know the truth and stay blissfully unaware, Ace couldn't help but dig the tips of his nails right into his skin as he shivered from the cold. As the snow showed no mercy as it descended from the heavens, he wished to know where she was, that girl he always cared for, no matter what, who stood by his side.

But, staying in this prison, a place you could never call a home as empty as a vacant lot devoid of true love. In the end, the puppets of their true parents, the ones they lived with now; just downstairs… They were just like that. As empty as a vacant lot alone in the cold in the dead of the winter's depth. Show them a scar on your arm, maybe a plentiful amount, and without a shadow of a doubt, June would know what they'd say.

"Wow, that looks really bad. You should probably get some bandages and alcohol to clean it up,"

These scars weren't inflicted by others, of course. And while it was a cry for help, a plea for attention… June's call was never met with a true answer. Would they even care if she were to die? If she left and never came back? The next morning, her big brother was abandoned and she fled from the house, leaving only but a note in her wake.

We all know how this story eventually plays out. Like the hand of God hovering above designing the fate of mankind, he had bestowed a savior upon these unfortunate siblings. Intertwined by blood and connection from another universe long extinguished, Alexander Amara was that Angel that descended from the heavens and offered Ace and June Wilder… paradise.

"If anyone dares to threaten the peaceful lives you'll lead now, rather it be yourself or anyone else… you deem them your enemy. Eradicate that exterior force or those feelings of self-doubt that prevent you from being the best version of yourself. If not for yourselves, then do it indebted to me. After all- you two owe me, don't cha?"

And now, in the present day, there remains the remnant of those teachings: Ace Wilder, the son of the Requiem Reaper. Still perched on that rooftop overlooking the museum to its right, the scarlet eyes of Divergence sought through it all to target those two chimeras. Those who dared to disguise themselves as guards to infiltrate this monument, like a device being placed onto their persons. Ace had locked onto them with Eternal Sight with ease. He couldn't help but scratch at his neck, though, the guy on the right following the tour guide… he seemed to be getting so close to the civilians before returning to the group.

Shrugging it off, he returned to his survey, deciding to take this opportunity to get a bit closer.

'I should be able to form a strategy if I can actually see the layout of the area,' He deduced calmly, and within half a second, his feet appeared on the rooftop of the museum.

Cracking his neck as he stepped further into the realm of the square platform, he reached over to see an overlooking skylight of glass revealing the insides of the fancy environment. Being just careful enough to control his weight and not fall through, Ace's palm moved away the excess rain so he could spot the layout of the location. Not too many people, mostly rich people in suits admiring the artifacts they brought for this event, conversing with other snooty know-it-alls. Just as the dark-skinned guard imposter disappeared around the corner, Ace took this chance for himself, and stood up tall on the skylight. Letting the satisfying audio of joints snapping enter the atmosphere, Ace let the pressure of a single finger refresh the tired feeling away from his bones below his hide of flesh.

With that, as bolts of red lightning cracked out from around his white hoodie drenched with droplets endlessly dripping out those leaky clouds, Ace heard something familiar. Not the feminine voices of any of his relatives, Katie or June and not that of Kima either. But the nightmarish audio of a monster growling as if audibly crying for blood's taste to infest their tongues. Ace's foot stood unchanged, unwavering from his goal, simply stomping on the glass had sent a resounding boom to shatter it all to shards.

Letting his feet touch the ground with a thud, upside down, on the platform below his soles.. with the rain pouring onto his head from the broken skylight above him; there reflected him. Crouched, with one palm touching the floor as he ascended gradually, there they all stood before him. Nothing but grueling monsters who sought out nothing but pure flesh and blood, commanded to cause chaos for the purpose of chaos. In the end, these were the type of people he was fighting against. While they were truly demons on the inside, they gave off the impression of humans. And somewhere, deep into his heart, he was starting to believe, with the raise of a hand, declining the emergence of hesitation or mercy for these pitiful creatures, that the term 'human' and the idea of 'demon'…

Weren't so far apart as one might think.

Nevertheless, no matter what pity he felt for these transmogrified beasts, none of it mattered, for there was one variable the Jester's Deck hadn't considered. Ace Wilder's greatest weapon was neither his eyes of Divergence nor his unlimited power from his father's inheritance or his mentor's training. It was his unwavering determination, moving forward with the sole intention of proving his existence had purpose to it, that scarlet aura around his body had reappeared. And, this time, it didn't fade. There were no embers crackling out from a flame hellbent on vanishing with due time, for there was no fear of that occurrence. The beasts surrounded him, four behind, four in front, each of them differing in height however sharing a single similarity.

They were all so revolting to look upon.

"What an insult. They really thought their sorry excuses for brains could challenge my power… with something this pathetic,"

And so, he got to work.

The one exactly to his front was shaped like a hunched-over Titan, with horns protruding out its eye sockets, he wasted no time vanishing from where he stood and slipping his fingers around them both. Feeling a gory squelch leak out as he started to tear, Wilder's apathetic expression needn't change for he easily tore those horns right out his eyes with a thick cloud of blood dirtying the air. The brutal attack accompanied by an unnatural screech irritating the remaining ears of its brethren, the tour guide, expected to make an audible reaction considering being filled with citizens, had nothing to say. Maybe it had something to do with their deformed corpses riddling the floor leaking their innards onto the reflective platform. As Hunter sliced the tour's hand off by his wrist easily, Miriam, seen with her head turned the opposite direction as he ascended from the crouched posture,

"What's wrong?" Asked her male companion, holding the hand in his palm with the tilt of his head,

"I believe he's here. The one the traitor spoke of: Ace Wilder's in the process of giving us a visit," Miriam replied, pulling up her sleeve to look to her watch as her friend asked at the same time,

"How long 'til he gets 'ere?"

"Maybe a minute. Possibly two… or maybe I'm calculating wrong and it's even less," She answered, to which Hunter nodded, grabbing her by the wrist, and just like that, right over their heads, an inanimate floating door manifested.

Leaving no traces behind as they disappeared, around the corner of the hallway they stood at, Ace had shoved his hand through that beast's head with just his fingers used as a spear. Crackling with red lightning, he felt the brain matter attach to his limbs as he ripped his arm out easily, turning his head to face the demon running right at him from behind. It would've been easy to dodge and easily slice its leg off, however, another variable interjected. That of a dragon beast used its lower limbs to lift the charging beast right off ground, just as Ace seemed to glare at the both of them, he heard the song of metal slashing the air enter his eardrums to his rear.

Just barely, out his spine, there extended the blackened tendrils of darkness, surrounded with a faint scarlet hue signature only to the ginger they were poking out of; Ace had subconsciously used some of Green's defensive measures engraved into his abilities. Thus, easily forming a shield of dark against the claws of the wolf beast growling as the tips of its nails scraped against the barrier. Letting Divergence freely dart around the confines of his eyeball so it could analyze everything from the slightest change in the atmosphere's weather to even the smallest jerk in the enemy's joints to his front, there had to be a point where the information became a hindrance to the speed he moved at. However, there was a set condition he'd invoked onto his powers that allowed that to never happen, and that was the following,

"Whenever I use Divergence's offensive abilities and Eternal Sight in unison to predict whatever happens next: I will let myself become engulfed by whatever darkness I face, and lose ¼ of my humanity."

And just like that, as spikes stabbed into the wolf behind him to poke into its flesh, it was rendered completely and utterly dead, with nothing but a hole through its heart and brain. A whimper barely slipped out its snout before its head was kicked off by a kick to the right side of its face, sending the head flying to the left, Ace warped to catch it before it made a splat of blood to dirty the walls. Hovering just in mid-air, Ace's Divergence had activated with a simple widen of the eyeballs, unleashing a familiar ping audio as he solely targeted the mind of the assailant.

The target in question, was, none other than that winged beast unhinging its jaw to reveal a sort of building-up sphere of flames like that of a dragon. Using this head to his advantage, with perfect precision, almost as if he were a robot gifted with aiming that defied logic- he unleashed it from his grip letting it slip off his fingers' tips.

Entering the spread-wide mouth of the dragon-shaped monster, the flame attack had worked to its disadvantage, and henceforth, it was unable to halt the fire from escaping, leading it to fly back down into its throat and combust in a ball of fire and force. Dropping the beast it was holding as its head exploded in an array of blood and matter, Ace went right, noticing his enhanced speed as his eyes moved without mercy. Despite the enhanced speed of its human foe, its fists crackled a black light flashing out as its grey skin stood lit in this dark environment.

Punching right at his face, Ace ducked right in time, and bashed his fist against its chest. This hit hadn't phased the malevolent creature at all, instead, it went for more. Right hooks, left hooks, knuckles burning with negative energy aimed right for the head. Letting his feet guide him back as if he were dancing with Kima in the arms of his dearly beloved, Wilder tapped his soles against the floor bouncing up and down with his fists clenched. Veins appearing over the back of his fingers, knuckles bleeding crimson light, Ace ran ahead letting the flow of the wind overtake his legs.

Easily letting a leap take him off the ground, a heart kick laid right to the beast's skull sent a disturbing crack into the ginger's ears. Disorienting the demon so it could feel a sense of dizziness, Ace punched right at its chest, and felt a sonic boom erupt from the impact, spinning his body all around for a final kick to push the demon right through the entrance to the monument.

Ace walked down the steps leading to the beast with broken ribs, brushing the tips of its fingers against its chest… there seemed to be no other option. As the cops behind it trained their hands on it with magical runes appearing over their faces, the skin concealing their flesh and bones was utterly reshaped. It wasn't just the law enforcers, though, it was the very mob of bystanders, too, that were infected by this invisible disease. Bones poke out their hides to unnaturally distort, eyes were popped out their sockets, replaced by horns, in truth, being elongated bones sticking out their insides. Like zombies seeking out to accomplish but a single goal, they walked right ahead over the dead body of their creator with four eyes, leaking blood out its mouth to create a puddle of blood.

Ace scoffed at the appearance of such a horde, rolling his eyes, the hands that stood previously within his white hoodie's pouches were pulled out as he raised his limbs to the air with an uncaring:

"Fuck it."

There seemed to remain nothing but that option. The pinnacle of obliteration, the nuclear choice that stood out for him above all other forms he could muster from whatever positive or negative energy he manipulated. The trump card.

"This profession isn't really suited for the sane, to be truthful. All Agents, including me, and those who've died, they all had a grip on some sort of insanity before they unfortunately perished. With that sadism, with that psychotic nature engraved into humans' hearts, you can achieve a mastery of combat. Disregard concern for your life and turn it all to dust. Well, to put it simply for ya… think of it like this. If anyone dares to threaten the peaceful lives you'll lead now, rather it be yourself or anyone else… you deem them your enemy. Eradicate that exterior force or those feelings of self-doubt that prevent you from being the best version of yourself. If not for yourselves, then do it indebted to me. After all- you two owe me, don't cha?"

They bounced while salivating at the tasty stench of flesh entering their nostrils, but just before they were about to reach their target… the world around them started to slow. The precipitation from the clouds above had slowed to a point where they seemed to halt entirely, all the while the droplets ripped themselves off the sweater covering Ace's chiseled chest. A choir of singers like that of inside a church crying to God had begun to elegantly carol as if they held an Angel's vocals, granting a victim access to the golden gates of Heaven itself. Positive energies are granted into existence by positive emotions, of course. Happiness, love, enjoyment. If that's true, the same is true for negative energies and emotions. But… What happens when you fuse them together? If negative emotions reach such a boiling point that amplifying them tenfold can transform you into a demon like those in nightmares, what happens if you clash that together with a positive emotion reaching its boiling point?

That question was answered in the form of Ace Wilder's trump card. His all-or-nothing.

The Red Offensive of Eternal Sight - Divergence. Its true power, unleashed for a total of 1 millisecond, had been sent out in a radius of 500 meters without falter!

The time was nothing but a guess, something that couldn't be calculated without the proper amount given. And like that insignificant deduction, there remained the uncontrollable range of the advanced Divergene's amplified range of 500 meters starting from him as the epicenter. There was no counter to it, as Ace had never anticipated that he'd have to use this last resort outside, of all times. And so, pushed to the brink with over a hundred enemies before him, the Divergence's limitless potential was brought forth into this world a half second after Ace formed an eye symbol with his fingers surrounding his right eye.

In the aftermath, in a 500 meter radius starting from the museum which stood at the center of Evolutionary City, there stood the road in front where the former citizens stood, not mentioning the three directions. A total of 300 erected buildings surrounded the museum, none of them had the same amount of floors, and not all of them were apartments. In the end, there was no telling how many innocents perished that day, for there was only one thing that mattered in the world to him, at this point.

Limiting the intended counterattack to simply the transfigurations, the body count stood at a whopping 178 forcefully only 199 seconds after the deactivation of the widespread uncontrollable Red at the hands of the Requiem Reaper's ginger son: Ace Wilder!

Within the vault of the museum's hidden walls, a simple thud from a larger fist encasing Hunter's arm shaded pure black had sent the door flying back to hit against the glass case. And there it was, as the vault door was yanked back with Miriam's hand sliding it against the floor, the Key to Hell surrounded by glass shards with not even the slightest scrape indented into the dark artifact.

"That was easier than I thought it'd be. Sure you weren't off by more, Miri?" Hunter inquired, letting his arms rest over his bust as the fist submerged back into his blood, to which Miriam shook her head as she kneeled; fingers stretching out to reach for the Key.

"Maybe. Or maybe we're just being optimistic…"

Then there it was. The indescribable darkness from within the human heart that should touch those who are named its victims, that inner demon within mankind that wields our bottomless potential, it laid bare to their heads' backs. There was a scream that could never be silenced, for it never leaked out behind their lips, all they could do was despair at the failure before it even occurred. The itching following a cold sweat was one of the things to dread, the way your nails scratch your skin helplessly searching for a solution to the situation plaguing and irritating your being. Now, thrown into an unfortunate arena they could never break out from, Hunter, with Miriam still crouched to his left… turned his head at the same time as she.

Wielding two heads of those victims he'd mercilessly slaughtered, blood leaking out the stumps where their necks formerly stood, there it was. That darkness that replaced the shadow of his man-like frame, replacing those muscular curves were the horns of a devil, glaring ahead with a flare in his right eye as Divergence fully analyzed the hate within the heart of the beholder. A scream that could never be silenced?

It was that of his victims. For even as he spoke but one word, it sent a shiver down not only their souls, but to the very foundations their corrupt souls were built upon…

"You didn't count yourself lucky… did you?"

To Be Continued…