The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

Chapter 244 : Standoff.

Lumi wanted to refute, she wanted to deny this brazen little human from what she considered an insignificant sector the admission that she was correct, but she was, Dina's words had landed squarely on their mark and it left the emissary speechless with her mouth half agape and her eyes slightly narrowed.

"You know just as much as we all do that he has the ability to overcome this and if not then a compromise which will lead to him living, he's been denying fate ever since he first set foot amongst the living, Master has done everything in his power time and time again to perform miracles beyond belief, he didn't do any of that because of fate, it was his own strength!" Dina huffed.

"You're no better than the demons if you take our only hope away; you'll have subjected this entire collective to death."

"Unless fate decides that we should all die with the Godslayer who protects us," Ikaris looked up from the baby again, smiling tiredly and then leaned down with Sara's help and closed her eyes. "Do as you please, emissary of fate, none here has the power to stop you either way."

"You speak as though you are the one giving me an option." Lumi stared at Ikaris with frustration etched across her forehead. "Do you believe you hold any power here?"

"I know I do not, I know more than anyone else here how horrifyingly powerful you are, Lumi, I am aware how powerless I am before you," Ikaris replied without even looking at her again.

"And that is why I have resigned myself to your choice, so you hold all of our lives in your hands now, you and your fate," She caressed the sleeping child's face and smiled sadly at her.

"I would rather die than live in a reality where my love does not exist either way, for such a reality is everlasting torment.

"Agreed," Arla spoke up followed by Dina who took her seat and closed her eyes.

"Yeah, it's pointless if he's not there."

"Master Vestic is my all, I have already suffered and accepted his death twice, I will only choose that he lives regardless of what happens afterwards," Sara declared after the three.

Lumi said nothing for the longest while, she had been dead set on ending everything but as they had all accepted that she was stronger and therefore unstoppable she found the strength within herself to stop before she made a mistake and acted for personal gain.

"Then this too must be the will of fate," Lumi conceded and walked back to her seat, closing her eyes and sitting next to Ikaris again while everyone else in the building remained silent after witnessing what the four of them had done. "I will remain passive as I usually do and act only if a force similar to mine acts."

"Thank you," Ikaris smiled again and cuddled in the bed.

"Ikaris..." Dina rested her hand on Ikaris's leg looking at the circles beneath her eyes. "Are you sure you're okay, you look-"

"It is okay, Dina, I'll be fine as soon as he returns, I am only worried," Ikaris smiled and peered an eye open to address her properly. "Worried that he will change after today."

"Worried that he has yet to meet his daughter."

***

They weren't outside so they hadn't been aware, and Lumi was not obligated to share what she was seeing with them, but Sol was in terrible shape, he was indeed killing his enemies, he was tearing through their ranks at speeds akin to genocide; it was a slaughter.

However, it was coming at a price, a very steep one.

The power it took to kill a single enemy was beyond comprehension, he had burned through half his powers to get this far already and there seemed to be no end to what he initially thought were just tens of thousands of them, not Atla, not Arkadia, not even H?l was this bad. This was the first time he had ever put this much effort into anything and it was hardly yielding fast enough results.

His mana was being replenished by the collective he connected to but the speed at which he had to siphon it to keep himself atop the fight had already drained a noticeable portion of the whole black leaving nothing, just like Origin the stars vanished and the great mass of power which tethered everything together was crushed and absorbed, thousands, tens of thousands, a universe for every Artificial Vatui, and yet he was still unable to kill the Captain or the remaining vice-captains of his ship.

His mind had gone numb and his thoughts narrowed to the simple desire to tear them apart at whatever cost, it was not berserker nor was it any state of madness, he needed to be aware of Ikaris's condition and that of their child and everyone else, he couldn't afford to lose track, instead he set a timer and gave himself a deadline in which all before him must be laid to waste.

Sol blocked blows from the two remaining Vice-Captains, each attack sending fissures through his body and leaving evidence of their damage even after he had healed the wounds, but before he could retaliate he was bombarded by the others, it was a formation that was wearing him down even faster than his powers were being exhausted as their attacks tore his flesh, broke segments of his mana which he had to heal, and left serrations across his soul which he had to forcibly close while he kept fighting.

Every swing of his fists left another dead universe, every time he took a hit the tree groaned as though it connected with him more than even he realised, the golden branches that stretched forever in every direction across the collective slightly dimmed with each critical blow he suffered but he never stopped fighting, confining his battle to one universe and causing irreparable tears across that reality...

the stars had all shattered, stretched into lanes and clouds of chaotic cosmic dust.

A battle that was supposed to take a few hours to a day, dragged over to a week of endless bloodletting and violence and at the end of it Sol's left eye had been blinded by a weapon tearing across his face from his forehead to his cheek, he had visibly lost almost half his body mass and the gold in his hair was thinned and nearly white in comparison to before, a very light yellow, the rings had cracks across them, and he was missing three fingers on his right arm from his attempt to block the attack that took his eye.

On the opposing side, only the Captain remained.

Everyone was dead, torn apart violently over the course of the battle, some mangled beyond recognition and others gone altogether.

The captain was in worse shape than Sol; he had a missing arm and his suit's power had been used and overused until it was merely dead fabric over his skin, his cape was no more than a small red piece of cloth across his shoulders and he had numerous large scars that had healed thanks to PowerPoint and the Vatui cells inside of him but just like Sol he was now at his limit, both of them had stopped fighting for hours and just stood before each other thinking of ways to win and simulating fights in their heads.

They had found a drifting planet, a small one with dead flora and burns across its frozen surface being lit by the billions of stars which had been torn apart around them.

With his good hand resting on his knee the man stared at Sol while he caught his breath, regarding him with shock, curiosity and fear.

"How have you remained hidden?" He asked, panting and heaving.

"I was never hiding," Sol answered. "I was just living my life peacefully, with my Wife... my women, with my friends and then you people came and tried killing her, I won't stop until you're all dead, mark my words...!" Sol raised his hand and summoned his hammer stumbling forward and catching his balance while the captain extended his hand and called his weapon over.

"You are a mere child, you know nothing of the horrors that thing you call a wife has committed Ikaris of the clan of the same name which she created, she is a demon, a monster, had you any idea of what she has done-"

"It doesn't matter, do you think it would matter?" Sol raised his good brow.

"She could be the king of all hells, I'd still protect her, she is the mother of my child and the love of my life, I don't care if she burned a planet full of old people or thousands of them, the Ikaris I know is everlastingly good, who seeks to do right by others and practices good deeds she shies away from killing and is passive unless provoked otherwise, it's not for any kind of atonement she genuinely just gives a shit about others and wants to live normally and raise our child," Sol closed his eye and began growling.

"She has no memory of a time past, whatever crimes she's committed she has already paid for them with innumerable years of solitude, loss and suffering-"

"I dont-"

"That's why I won't let you have her!" Sol's hair exploded with vibrant gold again and the captain's eyes widened in horror. "I won't let you touch her, I won't!!" He slammed his hammer into the ground causing cracks to run across the entire planet and return to him sending chunks off into the void around them.

"Ikaris will die, one way or another, she will meet her end, her destiny is to be harvested, that is her fate!!" The Captain raised his hand and parried the rocks floating towards him.

*DUN*
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Upon the mention of that word, the man felt the Vatui cells inside of him attempt to flee from Sol causing blood to gush from his skin through his pours.

"Fate...?"