The world blurred, as if several colors were racing to outshine each other.
This was no mere teleportation. Using Descorrer needed time. The act of Nyx slashing her wing to slice the space open, and then Luke and Melissa rushing into the blackness would have occupied at least a few moments. Moments that the world's Top Heroes would have never given him.
The Heroes gathered at I-Island weren't some run-of-the-mill group.
They were among the best of the best, each one holding a powerful Quirk.
Not to mention, they had been counting on Dr. Blessed's arrival after he had failed to kidnap Dr. Samuel Abraham. As if that wasn't enough, the Quirks Dr. Blessed had used were mostly known to the upper echelons, anyway.
So, it was highly likely that they had prepared measures to counter his known Quirks.
Star Shift was not a known Quirk.
Nor was it a common teleportation technique.
Not only was it as fast as thought, but it was also almost impossible to stop by any means, as it depended on what Nyx was thinking at that time.
If Nyx was picturing Luke, Melissa, and herself being at a different place, then they would disappear, no matter how much anyone tried to stop them.
It was like layering a texture of space over another, and then shifting between the two textures.
It was complex.
It was full of unimaginable risks.
And it was also the most broken Quirk available in Luke's arsenal.
Coupled with Perfect Recall Quirk, there was hardly any force that could confine Nyx to a place, despite Star Shift being only a Super Complexity Quirk.
If it weren't for Nyx passing out cold during the LA Villains Detention Center incident, Luke would not have shied away from using this Quirk to run.
But Star Shift and Perfect Recall needed intelligence to function.
Luke hadn't had nearly enough Spirit Points to bestow so many Quirks upon the Mushroom and still keep it intact.
Also, it would have been a monstrous risk, letting such a creature use Star Shift. In hindsight, and given how Mushroom turned out, Luke seemed to have avoided a great disaster. Otherwise, with one stray thought… what if Mushroom had taken them outside The Boundary?!
Now, though, Luke wasn't hindered by these restrictions.
A Magician performed the best when he was prepared.
With Mushroom-nimi acting as the best and most bombastic distraction, it also gave Luke the best opportunity to kidnap Melissa.
Swiftness was the key, Luke had known.
With his Spirit Points dwindling at 165, he couldn't have afforded a prolonged battle — an unavoidable scenario given the sheer number of Heroes there.
Using the Astrologer's Crystal Globe to see precise locations contributed the most.
It had allowed Luke to avoid using manipulative tactics unnecessarily, like in the case of the Detention Center. At that time, he had just become an Astrologer and hadn't gotten the hang of it.
But, in the last week, he had been continuously familiarizing himself with the Crystal Globe, advancing his Potion Digestion to the extreme.
Presently, as Luke and Melissa appeared in the Conference Hall at Apostles' HQ, Nyx, who had been hiding under Luke's coat, silently slipped away, flying toward a dark corner.
"Wait a minute, Ms. Shield," Dr. Blessed said, walking toward the same corner.
Melissa, flabbergasted beyond words, kept snapping her head in all directions, unable to believe that they had managed to escape… just like that.
Meanwhile, Luke canceled all the Quirks within Nyx and activated Descorrer.
Space parted up and down in the dark corner, the Quirk connecting the Conference Hall to a predetermined coordinate near the I-Island.
From the spatial tunnel, a humongous figure came flying in at the speed of a rocket.
Boooooooooooom!!!
The 12-foot-tall figure slammed into the table and went rolling to the opposite wall, creating a massive impression.
Melissa screamed and ran toward Dr. Blessed.
Suddenly, her eyes landed on a Hero's face as it tried to come out of the darkness, Dr. Blessed trying to push him back as he let out grunts.
"Oh, you are here!" Dr. Blessed shouted. "Come here, Ms. Shield! Help me!!"
"…"
Despite the sheer comical sight and still scared by the huge figure that had come slamming into the Conference Hall, Melissa walked toward Dr. Blessed and put her hand on his face, too.
"… Ms. Melissa?!" the Hero, trying to barge through Descorrer, hissed in shock. "… Wha…"
"On 3!" Dr. Blessed shouted. "3!!!"
With great force, they pushed the Hero back, Nyx canceling the Quirk as she hid herself behind Luke.
"Whoa…" Dr. Blessed said, rubbing away non-existent sweat from his clownish mask. "Are you alright?"
Melissa stared at the… International Criminal… and nodded.
Suddenly, she remembered the huge figure, her head snapping back.
It was a 12-foot-tall creature with a bio-metallic frame, and little mushrooms were popping out from all over its body. For a head, it had a large mushroom, with a gigantic cap. And its eyes were glowing red on the mushroom's stem.
Melissa stumbled back, her face paling.
Luke looked away from her and then at Mushroom. "Oh, it's with us. Don't worry."
"… What is… that thing?!" Melissa asked as Mushroom's eyes became cyan and it began picking broken mushrooms off its body.
Luke smiled behind the mask. "A cyborg."
Melissa's brows shot up, her eyes popping out.
"… Come," Dr. Blessed said, walking away. "Mushroom-nimi, set the table in its place, please."
"Oh, yes," the cyborg hurriedly stepped away from the broken wall and lifted the massive, steel-like table with one hand. "Also, We cannot keep using this move, Master. It eats away too much of our fuel."
Luke nodded in understanding, realizing he needed to figure out just how much fuel Mushroom even held.
"Please sit, Ms. Shield," he said, sitting in the head chair. "We have a lot to discuss."
Melissa sat down to Dr. Blessed's right, her eyes never leaving the sight of Mushroom. She wanted to ask so many things about the cyborg.
It was a cyborg.
A CYBORG!!!
My God… Melissa gulped, barely able to contain her curiosity and fascination.
But before she could lose to the innovator and researcher inside her, Dr. Blessed placed a black, clownish mask on the table.
"And now," Luke said, looking into Melissa's watery eyes. "… let me tell you what it means to be an Apostle of Mr. Fool."
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