Battle of the demigods 9 - The grand finale

Flames dissipated, Londris stopped disappearing. The Outercoat of the planet had completely shattered, leaving the two of them vulnerable to the cruelty of space. Cain didn't worry much thought, as he could simply use his Authority to 'coat' himself and survive, in a similar way to how one transwalked.

Without going to fast, Cain walked toward Saginus. The latter was now no more than a scorched body, struggling to use the few bits of concentration he had left to coat himself waith his Authority.

"You... actually achieved the impossible... good for you" Saginus managed to say with a hoarse voice.

"Impossible? Oh, you mean defeating a Great Sin using the same Sacred Field? Then, I wouldn't call it impossible" Cain replied. "After all, everything is impossible, until you actually achieve it. Flying, travelling the seas, travelling the space! All of it was deemed impossible for humans, and yet they still achieved it. Do you know how they did?"

Cain extended his arms:

"Science! Godly powers, any attributes we are born with, all of these have a limit that was set in stone from the very beginning. But associating them with science, the possibilities become unlimited!"

He laughed a bit:

"In truth, divine powers aren't even something so incredible. To use an analogy, let's compare it to an apple. Normal humans can't touch it, apostles and saints can only scratch its peel with their nails. Angels and Great Sins both can bite in it, except that the latters have weaker teeth but can cut it with a knife beforehand to make it easier. And finally, Gods can simply access the apple tree instead" he said. "There's also Nova beasts but their case is a bit particular, so let's forget about them"

He coughed a bit:

"My point is, in this picture I'm making so much efforts to depict for your delicate - and burnt - ears, I can also cut the apple, in an even more perfect way than with a knife, just by striking it with the edge of my hand" he continued. "How, you'll ask me? Simply by calculating the exact angle, strength and speed of the strike, that's as simple as that"

Cain was now close enough to end Saginus' existence, but he didn't seem as if he wanted to do so.

"The new era is coming, and nobody can do anything to stop it. Science and myths will come to a crossroad, and those unable to follow this change will purely and simply fall behind. For years, decades, centuries, MILLENIALS! I've studied every bit of humanity's growing knowledge for all this time. Mathematics, physics, psychology, biology, protocols, military, mechanics, chemics, and much more, everything..."

He pointed his index at the side of his head:

"... is right there. In the beginning, I was known as the weakest of all Angels, you know? I could only ever wish for something that already exist, something I know of, how pitiful was I in front of the other demigods. But now, these times are over, as I accomplished something that even Aldéa of Forgiveness, first child of Genova, was unable to. Who else could have done this, except the Gods themselves? Who? I'll tell you who, no one! In the first place, there's only few people who could even boast having half my knowledge..."

Cain turned his gaze in another direction:

"... and in seems that today, one of them decided to honour us with his presence" he said spitefully as he turned around.

In the spot he was looking at, three persons had just appeared, protected from the harshness of space by a bright halo shining around them. The center of this halo seemed to be a man seemingly in his twenties, with bright brown eyes and a blond ponytail. Yohan.

But the most interesting part were the two individuals alongside him, both being cyborgs. The first one was a man with dark skin, bright eyes, and a spacesuit, likely in case the halo would happen to have a problem in the following moments. Not much about him catched the eyes, if not for his metallic hands, that were free of the suit, and were shaking uncontrolably.

'Uh, would you look at it, they made the effort to make a custom suit so he could boast about his pretty little cybernetic hands' Cain thought. 'Pretty funny'

But the most interesting was the second cyborg: at first glance, most wouldn't even suspect this beautiful woman, with silver hair and hazelnut eyes, to not be completely human since no part of her body looked like it was cybernetized.

But what Cain immediately noticed was her hair: the way they moved, the way they reflected light... they were made of steel. Upon closer inspection, her entire body appeared to be made of various metals, which only fit one cyborg in the entire special agent corps under the Paradise Council:

"The Metal Angel" Cain said. "I'm glad I finally get to meet the one whose reputation is that of a demigod born from science"

The Metal Angel remained silent, as she stood his gaze without uttering a word.

"Tssk tssk, not saying anything? Honestly, I'm pretty sad, I thought we could become friends, but you're so cold to me... well, too bad" Cain laughed. "Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed, I thought you would look more impressive. Well, you're the Paradise Council's dog, after all, I shouldn't have expected much from you, the blame is on me, I've been blinded by the fact you are the favorite dog"

She showed no reaction, but Cain noticed that the cyborg beside had its lips trembling for a millisecond, and turned to him:

"Oh, and by elimination, you must be her personnal servent... Ellis Dentes, isn't it? I usually have a good memory, but even for me, unsignificant names like yours are a real challenge to remember" he taunted. "The favorite dog of the Council's favorite dog, that's a funny idea. You know, recently, i had to kill one of my friends, someone named Tyler. Or maybe you know him as Gentleman? Well, anyway, one of his goal was to find you to obtain reparation, because his closest friend died because of you. Such a sad ending... but honestly, I think I made him a favor. You would have been such a disappointment once he met you... Hey, I have an idea, what about I grant one of your wishes too? Of course, the condition would be for you to wish to be less pathetic"

He finally decided to stop his taunting. He knew that despite her frail appearance, the Metal Angel was powerful. In their current state, even if he allied with Saginus, they likely wouldn't even stand a chance. Yet, he paid none of the two cyborgs any more attention, and instead reported his attention on Yohan:

"And then there is you. The one person whose knowledge surpasses mine in every way in the entire galaxy" he said. "You twisted bastard, I bet you understood everything I've done on Glactia-62 at the first glance, and guessed everything I was about to do here on Londris at the second one. Am I wrong?"

Yohan smiled softly:

"Don't you already know the answer? I have no problem confessing it. What really is a problem is the way you treat my two associates here" he replied. "Ellis and the special agent corps leader both are exemplary soldiers, that never stop to work hard no matter the difficulty, and give hope to the entirety of the Paradise Council's institutions. Please, be a bit more gentle to them... Cain, is it? That's how I should call you, from now on?"

"Call me however you want, I don't care much about your opinion on any matter, really... Yohan, is that how you call yourself now?" Cain asked without waiting for the answer: "Well, it doesn't really matter, I don't really intent to stay here much more, anyway. I was just waiting for you people to get here so you could clean after me, and now that I had the displeasure to see you, I can get away with a calm mind"

He then turned to Saginus, who didn't seem to understand what he was saying, and smiled before explaining:

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention: you remember how, in the first place, I did all of this to make sure that I could be noticed? Well, to make sure it can be done, I asked a precious friend of mine to record the fight, and stream it in the entire galaxy" the Angel said, while indicating a small camera attached to his ear. "Haha, I had so much trouble getting in possession of Keters' programs on Glactia-62, it would have been a crime not to use it, right? Uh, I'm pretty sure that illegal streaming forced on multiple communication across every Stellar Field is still... well, illegal, but at least it avoid a waste, right?"

"Let's... ally... to get away" Saginus managed to say.

In the current situation, if the Metal Angel was even half as powerful as she was said to be, they were both in danger. For someone like Cain, who was acting purely based on his own interest, such an offer would naturally be one to accept, right?

Yet, the latter simply laughed at him:

"Saginus, Saginus, you're so evil, so old, and yet so naive... if our dear not-so-friends from the Council arrived so early, it's precisely because of my little streaming. Don't you think I wouldn't have thought of the fact it would happen? It would be really sad after all of this" Cain said.

"You see, in a theorical conflict between a Great Sin and an Angel, the latter would often come out more injured. Yet, would chasing after him be the best solution? After all, an Angel can't truly be killed, unlike its counterpart... and chasing after both put on the board the risk that they ally, and both manage to escape. Now think about it, what if the Great Sin in the one in the worst state? It would be a rare occasion to eliminate one of the worst evil of the galaxy, don't you think? I'm sorry Saginus, but you'll have to handle it on your own. Or... maybe you have other plans?"

This last question was adressed to the two cyborgs and to Yohan, but the latter shook his head:

"No, you're right" he said. "Congratulations, your victory was stupefying and your plan was flawless, we can't do anything but let you leave before neutralizing the Sin of Greed, well done"

Cain sighed regretfully:

"You say that but I know that even my impossible victory s something you expected... tssk, how annoying" he said before turning to Saginus. "Well, be brave and do your best to run away, I wish you the best of luck. Trust me, you'll need it if you ever want to drink a cup of tea or a cocktail again. Farewell!"

And just like this, after provoking a chaos that was unseen for the last hundreds of years, Cain transwalked away, leaving the planet, the solar system, and even the Stellar Field itself as if nothing happened. Leaving Saginus to his destiny.

The later also tried to transwalk away, but quickly found out it had became impossible. He quickly realized why when he felt the empty space around them... warp?

This abomination, this Metal Angel born from science from the mix of humanity's madness and genius, had reached the point where she... it could use Fefnir technology this way. A technology that could originally change energy and matter into approximatively anything, via a complex process, the Metal Angel could use it to change the nature of space and matter itself, to the point it could even weaken Angels and Great Sins' Authorities and Sacred Fields. To the point where transwalking had become impossible. So did escaping.

At this moment, the most powerful cyborg pronounced words for the first time:

"Target immobilized. The capture, and elimination of Saginus Larren, the Great Sin of Greed, will now begin"

Saginus sighed, which, in his state, was pretty painful:

'So that is how I am going to die, huh?' he mourned.

He wasn't really angry at Cain, he even found his move brillant. He was just sad that it would be his ending.

Yet, he still had one thing that bothered him: rather than being ended by someone even more evil than him, he would have preffred to go out defeated by a pure, cliche hero. Yet, both of these options were still better than to be taken out by a cold war machine, that had a brain and a heart but didn't use it, human only in appearance.

'I guess that such a tasteless grand finale is a deserved ending for me'