"SKARYN… What have you done, Jack?"
12-13 mumbled to himself, startled to see his assumptions shattered by the plans of a lowly one-star cosmician. The shadowy man sighed, glancing at his wincing captive, "Why can't you just side with us? How come the best ones won't be swayed? First Skaryn and Sterfen, but you too?"
Jack's second body was unable to hear anything at the moment. The connection between Jack's shared minds was currently closed off to keep his other self from feeling the repercussions of mental torture. And that same mental torture kept Jack from thinking about anything apart from his own survival. It felt as if his mental existence was trying to be exterminated as if his mind could be wiped the moment he surrendered to the pain. He could either suffer more and more with each passing second or accept blissful relief in the extinguishing of his own consciousness.
But that didn't stop 12-13 to playfully converse with his twitching captives. "I guess my retreat is necessary after all, which is fine. With bloom fruits, your minds, and Jack's precious construct body, I've more than earned my safety. Now, to clear a few loose ends… Crax! How come Halmut didn't warn me that such a helmet existed!"
Staring coldly at Jack, 12-13 clicked his tongue. "I suppose I'll clear the area the hard way…"
Taking out a contract scroll, 12-13 poured his energy into it. The parchment began to burn away and disintegrate in dark energy as a slight chuckle left his lips. But that chuckle turned to a groan immediately.
"CRAX! How dare Skaryn--"
12-13 was livid, watching his precise calculations falling apart before Halmut's eyes. He could still see through Halmut's vision thanks to the dark bead implanted in the dragon's mind but 12-13 was unable to forcibly detonate Halmut like a living bomb. Just as 12-13 wanted to curse for Skaryn stalling the imminent explosion, the shadowy man was caught off guard by something that took place before his own eyes.
Jack's body was suddenly surrounded and consumed by spatial energy, forcefully ripping Jack out of 12-13's grasp and relocating him elsewhere.
"WHAT?! Jack…"
Calming himself, 12-13 wasted no more time playing around. He dropped the mental torture encroaching on Sterfen's mind but kept the assassin completely unable to move or talk with his ethereal pressure. Adding a veil of mental energy around Sterfen, 12-13 made sure that his captive wouldn't be able to telepathically communicate upon leaving the barrier around Olympic Chateau.
Ready to retreat immediately, 12-13 took a single deep breath before fleeing the planet at a drastic pace.
"Congrats!"
Instantly, 12-13 went from entirely relaxed to on-edge as he sent out a deadly pulse of dark energy. Without fail, the entire chateau was reduced to rubble as the energy forcefully exploded past the walls. He wanted to make sure any uninvited and unannounced guests were immediately disposed of.
"Not bad…"
Chuckles rang out, angering 12-13 further as he thoroughly scanned the area. "There… Who and what are you? Be brief, or I'll slay you on the spot as I don't have time to waste."
"You're a four-star, right?" laughed that deep, unfazed voice. A figure then emerged from the darkness lingering in the air precisely where 12-13 was staring. "Congrats on recently ascending!"
"Zok you!" 12-13 shouted, unleashing another dark pulse but directly targeted and streamlined at the intruder.
However, the intruder practically ignored the dark energy and instead turned around. The man laughed as he gripped the air itself with both hands. "No… Don't tell me you're a four-star? And with such a potty mouth…"
The man then clutched tighter, sending a snapping sound through the air as 12-13's pained voice filled the now open space. The illusory figure beside Sterfen then began to fade as new 12-13 came into view with broken wrists and dangling hands in the man's tight grip.
But 12-13 wasn't going to give up like that. An explosion of dark energy burst from 12-13's body before it vanished with the dispersing darkness.
"Not so fast…" The intruder then jumped forward and gripped the air a second time, but only with one hand. His other hand rocketed forward as a fist into 12-13's invisible body.
Unable to keep up his shroud of invisibility, 12-13 wanted to cough up blood but caught it in his mouth. But that didn't stop the man from being propelled through the floor and out of the mountain's backside.
It took a moment for 12-13 to regain his composure in mid-air, but he immediately changed strategies. Forgetting Sterfen and his failure to clean his mess, 12-13 turned to flee. Facing the powerful unknown man wasn't worth his time, even if he felt confident in beating him. What good was defeating the unknown man if that gave Daruun enough time to arrive.
Putting all of his energy in escaping, 12-13 tore through the air as he took off for the atmosphere. But then, 12-13 felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, exactly where the man had drilled him. That sinking feeling spread like wildfire all over 12-13's body, coating him in confusion and a strange energy. 12-13 then immediately understood how rare that energy type was, only too late.
12-13 suddenly plummeted from the sky. Before he could break through the atmosphere, his body had become too heavy for him to bear as 12-13 fell from the sky.
While 12-13 fell, he was then met by a driving knee to the back. 12-13 had only just realized who he was up against as his spine was shattered. He groaned and mumbled, barely able to groan under the immense gravity suppressing his body. "You… Oli…"
"Bingo!" Oli laughed as he grasped at 12-13's neck, letting the man's broken limbs dangle toward the ground far beneath them. "Wait… You're a late-four-star?! How terrible was your training?!"
No answer came.
While 12-13 was losing his shadowy covering, his energy turned rampant and uncontrollable. He wasn't going to waste such a rare chance to eliminate someone as valuable as Oli.