It Had Always Been This Way

Rockfish sighed as he looked back at Pueris.

The two were currently lying down on sun loungers by a refreshing poolside. The humidity from the pool aided the comforting atmosphere. The artificial sun formed by Angjayre no more than a few years ago sent down numbing heat.

Rockfish cleared his throat. "You know, I once thought that all Villains were evil, all Heroes were good all that hot stuff."

Pueris looked back in acceptance. "Cool. I'm guessing... you think something else now?"

All I seem to think about is how to escape this path... Every day I realize how hopeless our mission was.

Rockfish smirked with minimal effort. "Yeah. Villains are complicated. Heroes too. But Shrarld... that guy."

"He's pure evil." The two had jinxed each other, the words had slipped out of each other's mouths at the exact same time.

BOOM.

A gigantic mass of muscles blasted through a small family, sending intestines, guts blood, and writhing emotions all over the place.

The poor things had been stuck in place by Shrarld's shadows with nothing to do but spectate their incoming doom. Shrarld just kept on running onwards in top form not holding back in even the slightest, the taste of death was too addictive after months of restriction.

Those at the doors of the airport attempted to run, but shadows from their surroundings began permeating and swallowing them. Their eyes shook and moistened as they looked around in distress.

A balding middle-aged man who was about to return to his wife screamed with snot slathered down his lips.

"PLEASE. YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS."

Only his head stuck out as the rest of his body had been dragged into the gloomy shadows behind him. Shrarld just kept on blasting forwards, his arms going back and forth like blurs. Shrarld met eyes with the man and grinned like a mosaic. The man shrieked, his tongue flapping up and down in his mouth.

Shrarld just kept on driving forwards with his pure body mass, the remains of his past victims slowly flying off the front of his tight leather jacket.

The sun-lit city of New York sitting in the scenery behind Shrarld wept from his indulgences.

Just as Shrarld was a hairs length away from turning the shrieking balding man before him into a pallor of crimson red innards, two basic white dice slotted themselves smoothly between the two.

Shrarld's eyes wandered down to view them in a tiny frame of time.

Like they had been ignited, the dice lit up until they had become pure radiant constructs of neon-white and then formed a barrier between Shrarld and the man. Thanks to momentum, Shrarld forcibly activated the barrier.

Bang.

The balding man was still weeping behind his arms, his body had adopted turtle-formation shortly after gaining an ungainly fowl. As his arms clung around his bent knees and he tried to make himself as small as possible, he let out a howl of repentance.

The man's eyes were tear-laden and he crawled away without any hesitation whatsoever. Shrarld's figure shot back like a bullet, crashing into a car within moments. The white dice had immediately released a repulsive force that had overpowered Shrarld upon contact.

The red Porsche that Shrarld had ravaged just by merely using it as a crashmat toppled over after Shrarld calmly stood up, he wiped the shattered glass off his shoulders tiredly.

A man stood straight in Shrarld's line of sight, fearless.

His eyes were burning with determination and his figure was still with confidence.

He was...

"Roller."

A small boy within the airport pointed in glee. The day had been saved.

Roller possessed smooth grey hair that reached halfway down his forehead. His face had been known to be a charmer and he never faltered before injustice. His grey attire matched his hair flawlessly. Roller breathed out in relief.

His mutters were inaudible to Shrarld.

"Thank god I rolled a 12 but even so, that should've been more than enough to send anyone out of New York."

Roller's face squirmed. If his strongest and luckiest dice throw had only sent his Opponent back slightly then how would his others fare?

Shrarld grumbled and without a second of time to waste, he-.

He sat on the red Porsche that he had just thoroughly smashed to pieces through his momentum.

Roller chuckled.

"Bad move, big guy."

Holding out his right hand, the two dice that he had just sent in between Shrarld and the man using his mind flew back into his hands rapidly. Their glow had dimmed.

Roller chucked them in the air, unbothered by Shrarld's antics.

4+5.

Roller shrugged.

It would do.

With his ability, Shrarld could produce an oddity of attacks depending on what he got. Some were mysterious, others defensive, and some just pure power like his 12 roll. But he always knew that he could count on his dice.

Until he met Shrarld, that was.

As Roller's dice dived through the air smoothly right towards Shrarld, they were stopped. Tugged, pulled, and yanked down by a legion of shadows from surrounding vehicles. Roller's eyes squinted. He pulled his hand out and soon a forceful tug of war began.

The force of Roller's whole ability that centered around his dice was... outmatched?

Shrarld merely sitting down and enjoying the show was a slap in the face for Roller who couldn't retrieve his only fighting chance. As an -A- Rank Hero Roller had always been respected and idolized but Roller felt like he had seen the man before him at some point in time long ago.

Roller's thoughts went crashing around his mind on a journey as his right arm reverberated. The force being put in to retrieve his dice was still thoroughly battling Shrarld's net of shadows that had ascended from several cars.

Eventually, Roller won through sheer willpower and force. A smirk arose on his charming face. Roller almost danced from joy. As the dice flew back into Roller's hands a small mass of murky black remnated on the back of said dice.

And as the dice glided back into Roller's hands, the small murky black spots formed inky-black spikes that grew rapidly and pierced straight through the back of Roller's head.

Blood streamed out from Roller as his body slowly collapsed, in only a few seconds his brain had started malfunctioning. His lip quivered as his body hit the warmed floor.

His dice melted into the concrete below them. Becoming sloppy white masses of boiling liquid. Unlike Shrarld, Roller's ability was an internal one. Therefore it fell when he fell. The writhing shadows would be alive long after Shrarld fell.

Shrarld got up and immediately resumed his charge into the now noisy airport. Shrieks and screams emerged from children as the survivors ran without guilt for those left behind. Shrarld looked at all before him in impudence.

Boing.

As if thick-smooth black rubber had been pulled every single person in the airport lounge, whether old or young, screaming or speechless, all of them... All of them were pierced by flawless and beautiful arrays of shadows and then they all turned silent. Deathly silent, to be exact. Only in a sea of death, did the airport lounge find peace.

In the resort of the Shadow Realm...

Pueris and Rockfish stood before each other, separated by a clear-blue ping-pong table. The net was a vibrant stringy green.

Pueris occasionally used his time-ability from instinct. The sight of a small red object coming towards him rapidly was quite frightening.

"Argh. You can't keep doing that Pueris."

Rockfish furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. He picked up the ball that had gone a little too slow for his racket with an irk plastered on his face. It didn't help that Rockfish was unfairly masterful in the art of ping-pong.

As the two traded blows through a hollow red ball back and forth they engaged in idle chatter.

Rockfish sighed.

"And then Shrarld turned up to his father's hiding place."

Pueris raised his eyebrows in fake anticipation.

"And then he died?"

Rockfish chuckled.

"No, Shrarld tortured his father for 8 days and 8 nights."

The two had been on the topic of Shrarld for a while. Pueris found it easy to communicate through since he knew exactly which topics would have enjoyable and communicable answers. He also had other motives in talking to Rockfish, in the other timeline he spent a lot of time befriending and learning about his fellow group-members, that would no longer be necessary. He had decided he would need to strengthen the group if he didn't want everything to meet the same fate as the original timeline. 

But at the same time, I don't want to do anything. Maybe I should retire from this goal... Since I understood Reta can't match Justice 7 without me, it's pathetic. The world's strongest should be a fair rivalry, not a one sided stomp.

The ball dropped to the floor before bouncing unpredictably. Pueris' thoughts were stopping him from shooting at his best.

Pueris picked it up patiently, aiding himself with his time-ability. The ball drooped in slow motion before Pueris snatched it in satisfaction.

Pueris did a light but swift serve.

"Still... How powerful do you think Shrarld is? I'm just wondering since I don't know his power level that well. Or rather, at all." From what I can tell, nothing in this world has changed. It's simply the past.

Rockfish shrugged as the two engaged in another back and forth, just trying to rack up numbers rather than trying to win the game.

"Well, although Shrarld might look strong to you, me... All of us. In reality, he's also severely disadvantaged."

Pueris nodded as his ears perked.

"As you know, when you have a powerful ability you get heaps of force. Technically Shrarld has a strong ability but it's in bad form. His ability lets him control the external forces of shadows but not his own. The only reason he has enough energy to perform the feats he does physically is because of his special constitution. In reality, he has little to no force but a lot of energy."

Pueris tilted his head, whilst doing a return with his racket.

"And that means?"

Rockfish's eyes squinted.

"It means that Shrarld will never be able to master or even fathom a force-control with the amount of force he has. He can control the force of shadows somehow but has no force of his own. That's why I don't think he'll ever be able to surpass those like Justice 7. As we all know, a force control is like a secondary ability, and the fact that if you have the connections, you can choose who you learn yours from, allowing you to mimic parts of their power... It's truly a hamartia of Shrarld, that he himself knows deep down will mean he will never be unbeatable."

Pueris caught a nasty return from Rockfish. The ball dipped over the net and under his racket in a curved motion.

"I see. Is there anything else you think that's strange about Shrarld?"

Rockfish scratched his head.

"Well, I don't know why but whenever he sees any sort of number it's like a laxative on him."

Pueris held back a chuckle keeping a serious demeanor.

"Meaning?"

Rockfish sighed weakly.

"Well. When he was trained from a young age, I think he was tortured using a numerical system by his father, so he seems to have some extreme trauma in that department. The only time I ever saw him show an ounce of fear, was when he got caught off guard by a count-down on the television."

Rockfish let out a weak chortle.

"I doubt that guy would've ever survived High-School, he really struggles to keep his hands clean. What a hassle he is..."

The two left their game at that.

Rockfish opened up his phone, he swiftly selected the news tab. A white gleam shone up to his face like a divine calling.

"What?"

Rockfish's mouth twitched violently.

"What the hell has that guy been doing?"

{Massacre in New York, Heroes killed in minutes, innocents buried in the rubble.}

{The Funeral for Thunder-Split will be held on...}

{Apologies to the families of the following-.}

Reality felt strange. His vision was a little too blurry at times. Sounds were too loud or too silent.

"This feels like a dream. How many times do I have to emphasise this?"