High Treason

Soon, more of the metallic matter rose from the ground, creating multiple small craters in the earth, consuming nearby trees and brush from the area as it assimilated more and more mass.

From out of this increasing storm of silver sand, four humanoid forms took shape and launched themselves towards Israel's other self with bladed limbs akin to javelins, their shifting forms changing constantly in a mad attempt to impale, slash at, and otherwise disembowel him. Vexus did not yet realize that her marionettes were not alone in possessing this ability.

Once again, Israel's instant and insanely efficient processing of information proved useful as he bent his facsimile's body to accommodate for and evade the four things' every attack, and though he could very likely have done so at their top speeds, he also absorbed a portion of their kinetic energy as they moved, making them slower and all the more easy to evade. He didn't cause them to completely freeze in place, instead seeding the air with more of his own matter and making it appear that he was more locked down than he was.

The woman then casually motioned upwards forming another of her familiar bronze glyphs in the sky, producing a strong pulling force and prompting the ground in the area to crack and break apart, rising upwards towards the elaborate glowing symbol. Huge masses of the rising chunks of earth were crumbled to dust fairly quickly, the effect increasing in speed and intensity the higher they rose towards it, culminating in being crushed into a spherical shape as they reached its location.

Her sand soldiers were apparently left unaffected by this most recent development, and continued their attempts to uproot Israel from the terra firma whereon he stood. Their attempts were in vain, as he could not only resist this pull with his sub-molecular self-ordination alone, but had also been primarily absorbing the kinetic energy placed upon his immediate vicinity, keeping himself and the terrain beneath him rooted in place, and this area was expanding as he continued to expand his influence via his amorphous autokinesis coupled with his proscenial self-ordination, coalescing more and more matter in order to further his strategic control of the playing field.

Elena's own platform of terrain remained stable, apparently anchored down by the mysterious material she had been manipulating. She upturned her left palm and a tennis ball sized orb of bright white light appeared. From a multitude of red symbols, black flames swirled up in pillars as the light rose. More bronze spells were made that began to push and warp the black flames around the orb.

Clearly, she was charging a large attack, as Pinnacle could observe the energy in the orb increasing at an almost exponential rate. He calculated that the blast radius of such an attack was expanding to a catastrophic size, and so, he left his facsimile to fight with the woman's own, being still phased himself, and began sending out his expanding mass of matter to seek out and cocoon the local residents of the area, focusing on those nearest to ground zero first and expanding outwards in an increasingly wide radius.

The cocooned denizens would be drilled into the Earth quickly, providing them with a makeshift bunker against the impending blast that was almost certain to come, be it as a beam attack or as a nova, either way, they would want to be fairly deep under, and so, that is what he did, giving them each slight shocks to render them peacefully unconscious. In Israel's opinion, it was better to have them shocked, confused of what had happened, and alive then vaporized. They would be provided with oxygen, and any remaining matter that he could spare would cushion them further.

When some of the woman's silvery sand swirled around her cybernetic henchman and dissolved his body, Israel quickly deduced that she must be going for a less precise attack than a beam, and this offered him some small measure of comfort, as he wouldn't be able to cushion as many people from a precision attack of that magnitude, but his relief was short-lived when she pointed her finger at the epicenter of where Lucius and he were located... And fired.

What followed was a cataclysmic blast of black flames followed by a magnificent eruption of her supercharged silvery sand. The explosion tore through the surrounding area, blasting apart everything near the center of the explosion and burning much of the rest to either cinders, smoldering buildings, or ash depending on how close the structures were to the blast.

... And Israel couldn't get to everyone in time.

His expanded Merkavah did its best to shield the inhabitants of the town from the energies of the blast, but it was too much for him to absorb all at once, and he could feel as many of the people he had tried to protect burst into flames. Still others were thrown head over heels by the shockwave. Though many of the inhabitants had been spared death, and some were even spared entirely, it was a bitter sweet victory... He could feel the life as it left some of the less fortunate on the outskirts of the blast radius.

In his efforts to save those that had no way of saving themselves, he had largely left Lucius to fend for himself, and winced as this same explosion concussed through his red energy cocoon and even his armor, he could feel that he was alive, though, and was relieved to see that when it was all over, he was largely okay.

Israel himself was glad for the remaining heat energy in the air, he could use it to recover some of the energy he expended to erect energy barriers against the massive nova of death that had rocked the area, and he promptly absorbed it as swiftly as possible, cooling the air somewhat quickly considering its intense heat only moments before, dropping it by about 5 degrees every full second.

He would instantly begin utilizing this energy to aid those burned or otherwise hurt but still alive, unphasing his true self, as his facsimile had been destroyed, and nodding to Lucius as he cooled the air to do so, and while Lucius himself called for aid for them. He hoped that Lucius would catch his meaning even though it might be somewhat ambiguous to a normal person. He was a fast thinker and knew somewhat of what Israel could do, after all, and had only recently called for medical teams to come in.

Pinnacle felt that he had to focus on protecting and attending the injured before the death count rose. He already felt that it was too high, those he had saved notwithstanding. He wasn't certain if he could hurt the incredibly powerful woman known as Vexus, but one thing that he was certain of was that she was a threat to the lives of the people around her, at least in the immediate vicinity, and thus, he coalesced some of the matter he had seeded the air with earlier into an exponentially multiplying amount of tungsten blades, each flying at Vexus as they formed, and growing as they did. The solid matter that had been in the explosion was still there, after all, it had just changed states from a solid to a gas, subliming in the intense heat; it could still be utilized for his purposes.

She was fading. Vexus could feel herself losing hold on her sanity. She was pumping out more energy than she could handle, and it was having a catastrophic effect on her mental stability. Glancing behind she could see the flames in the distance from the town she had just basically destroyed, and just on accident. Why was she doing this? Was all this insanity just fueled by the magic she had acquired with this new form? Part of her said to run. This was an act of terroism and everyone would be after her. But more of her was screaming finish what you started. The battle she was waging within her own mind was becoming clear on the outside as well. Noting Lucius had said registered, she began to squint as her Celestial Eyes started to glaze over. Clearly struggling for control over her own body.
Her arms quIckly extended releasing an incredible burst of lightning. Black in color, it rocketed forward with so much energy it tore the ground apart in its wake. Vexus’ body evaporated into technomatter, appearing behind Lucius wherever he may have decided to dodge. More of the silver substance would gather and swirl violently around the man looking to devour him completely. Forming spikes, sharp blades, and anything else she could conjure to tear this man apart and leave nothing but a blended mess. Elena accompanied the vortex with an impressive display of beams of water so pressurized they could slice through steel like a hot knife though butter.

These spells had been uncontrolled, releasing massive amounts of magic into the attacks. It gave them an unprecedented level of destructive power, but was weighing more and more onto Elena’s psyche. After the beams of water, her body evaporated into technomatter again to put distance between the two of them. However she failed to convert her whole body and collapsed onto the ground, the top half of her body struggling to pull itself along the earth due to the rediculous increases to her weight from the activation of these abilities. With this lapse in control, the Technomatter that was attacking Lucius also fell to the ground like average sand. Slowly Elena’s lower half reformed as she looked to have almost regained consciousness.
She brought herself to her feet and looked at her hands with disgust and then up at Lucius. There was an apologetic look on her face celestial eye on the right returned to her natural eye form. Elena opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She was thinking and trying to force sentences, but nothing was working. Her hands started to tremble and her left eye began to shine brightly. The scales on her body engulfed the rest of her form, changing her appearance to almost completely reptilian. Elena had lost control. The other Celestial Eye had reappeared.The genetic limiters she had placed on this form to ensure she would remain in complete command had broken and she would very rapidly be lost to a barbaric dragon like configuration.

Her mouth still open from previous efforts managed to whisper out a single command.

”Run.”

The insatiable hunger of a dragon, something ancient that longed for nothing but destruction had been set loose armed with weapons capable of molding an apocalypse.
Black spell circles would spontaneously appear on the ground erasing the area they covered completely in a strange warp-away sort of effect. Technomatter roared from behind what was previously Elena Vexus. A violent sea quickly forming. Turbulent winds blew from every direction from magical glyphs in the skies, occasional gusts the could slice through rocks. The beast summoned pillars of fire laced with lighting. All this form saw was the life in front of it and was presented with abilities to extinguish it. The Armageddon level magic and weather changes were only the beginning of this thing’s onslaught.

The reptilian form began to hover on a platform of Technomatter. Once about a hundred feet or so into the air seven softball sized balls of lights appeared around Elena’s body in a halo like fashion. As previously displayed, black fire was beginning to coalesce by these glowing orbs of light. This massive pillar of flames would start to split off, commanded by massive bronze arcane shapes. These steps more than likely seeming all to familiar at this point.
There was then a sudden massive production of these bronze circles applying immense pressure over the entire area, causing the ground to buckle and crack in areas.

Vexus had been devoured by her own body, and it was using every drop of power it possessed to cause as much destruction as it possibly could. The only programming this DNA had was to produce power, and it had so far only seen destruction, and so that’s what it would continue to do. Incredible winds, tornadoes of flames, lightning strikes. Anything to brutally warp, destroy, and torture anything it could. This was the same composition from the last explosion, but without Vexus at the reigns attempting to keep the destruction levels down. Even then she had failed. Now with seven of these blasts forming without any limiters, the threat was god tier.

"Aright..... Officially done with this," Lucius said calmly to himself as he watched everything unfold. Vexus apparently was going through another transformation of sorts, and that could only mean more destruction. This was getting a bit out of his league, he had to admit. He thanked himself briefly for that backup he called in.......... Annnnnd then she was on top of him.

The technomatter swirled around him. Vexus, the origin of the substance, now stood at his back. Lucius quickly pivoted on his heels, but he was too late. A blade of the substance jammed into his side, causing him to howl in pain through his voice filtering mask. This was followed by what seemed like dozens of cuts and stabs along his body. He managed to evade a few here and there. He used his energy and sword to stop a few of the attacks, too, but all around his defense was unprepared and insufficient. He needed to get out.

He fired, in desperation, a few Whirlwind sticks into the ground between them from his gauntlets. These were essentially little wind generators. They threw things or pulled them in with the force of a category seven tornado. The objective here, though, was to get him away from Vexus. If they managed to throw her back too, that was just as well, but Lucius was bleeding, his armor stained red, and he needed to flee.

He was launched at least a hundred feet from his previous location. His movement stabilizer allowed the force to carry him, but disallowed anything else to affect his travel, including gravity. This meant he flew further, and that he flew faster. He hit the ground like a ton of bricks a good distance away from the now rampaging Vexus, kicking up dirt on impact. He was battered, groaning, breathing heavy, and not quite sure what to do, but he was alive.

After a few seconds of laying there, letting his regen at least get to work enough to decrease the pain, he contacted Daniel Raines again. This had turned into something that a military detachment and a few of his followers couldn't handle. This might have even been an issue that would require all of Rise's attention. Indeed, this was something Lucius thought maybe only Dressler was capable of doing. Red's ignorance had come back to bite him, and he knew it.

"Bring...... Everyone...." Lucius said once he patched through. Daniel made a confused noise.

"What do you mean everyo-" Daniel started, but was cut off.

"EVVVEERRRYYYONNNNE!!!! Everyone we have that's available. The military, the following, hell, even citizens with any useful abilities. EVERYONE! Contact the other branches as well, Alpha in particular. This just got real, Raines. Get it done, and keep your mouth shut," Lucius said angrily in response. Daniel just disconnected the call in horror. Red rarely ever talked to him like that, and it definitely served to put a fire under him. Lucius' second in command got to work.

Meanwhile, Lucius was formulating a plan on what to do. He was desperate. He had limited tech, wounds, strained energy reserves, and an angry Super Saiyan Five Vexus bearing down on him. This could end in disaster if he didn't go about it the right way. Sure, eventually Vexus would be dealt with, but he didn't feel like playing Nuclear War with a monstrosity. That would result in too much pointless death. No, he needed to get this done quickly and quietly, now.

Lucius stood, the bleeding of his wounds now at least halted. The dictator staggered a bit, and then he unsheathed his sword. The gem in the center of the hilt was alight with crimson flames. The offensive mode was activated—Lucius was furious. He had one last card to play on his own before this broke out into something he couldn't contain. This was one last shot. He was aware it had a high likelihood of killing him, but sometimes you had to bet all in. Sometimes, calculation went to the dogs in favor of a vague, thrown together hunch. You had to gamble sometimes, and now was that time.

Lucius' teleporter was still hot. Any use of it would surely cause it to become unstable and explode. Fortunately, Lucius was durable. Sure it would hurt him very badly, but if this worked it wouldn't matter. Besides, it would also hurt whoever he was near, and that was a plus.

Activate Protocol: Zenith, option B. Lucius' voice was low over the telepathic link with Sven. The AI shuddered, as much as an AI is capable of that action.

Oh, you aren't going to...... That's... That's... The AI quivered.

Insane, i know-

No no no no. I mean you're about to have a Big Damn Hero moment, aren't you? You aren't supposed to do that, you're the villain...... Or, i suppose in this case you're actu-

DO YOU EVER SHUT UP!?

Lucius didn't wait for a response from the AI, he just cut off communications temporarily. Not for functional purposes, of course, but he needed some peace right now, and he couldn't do this with Sven blabbering TV Tropes lingo in his ear. Lucius prepared for perhaps the dumbest thing i have ever written in a thread......

Like, ever.

Lucius activated his teleporter, having poured all his energy into the core in his armor. The protocol was essentially the activation of a system that sapped every cell of Red Energy in his body into a device that focused it on corroding away at not just matter, but space itself. Yes, it left Lucius defenseless and with no power for days, but it allowed Lucius to tear holes, portals, into existence to travel through them. One such technique using this device allowed him to travel to a pocket dimension he had created by observing one he had been put in by Samhain. That's what he was aiming for now.

With the activation of his teleporter, Lucius would appear as close to Vexus as he could get, meaning literally inches away. This would cause the teleporter to destabilize and explode as soon as Red appeared. The explosion was large, maybe the equivalent of thirty pounds of TNT, but Lucius ignored it. He wasn't moved by this explosion due to his movement stabilizer keeping him in place, but he was hurt. He had burns all the way up and down his body, and he could barely resist the urge to scream, but he had to keep moving. Milliseconds, nay, practically instantly after appearing, Lucius shoved his vibrating blade toward Vexus. It WOULD cut her. The sword calibrated it's vibrations to cut through whatever they made contact with, and once the blade had a taste of her blood, that was checkmate.

Lucius would have three seconds at this point. The portal was ready, and he had to make his move. He stood in the air now, movement stabilizer keeping gravity from affecting him, and the portal appeared beneath him. As soon as it did, he would allow gravity to affect him once more, and he would fall directly into this portal. Oh, what a waste. He's a coward..... Or so you might think.

No, this was the point of all this. Cora Zen's second offensive ability, Tether, spiritually handcuffed the essence of living things to the blade for a mere three seconds, but it would be enough. If she had been cut, Vexus' body would have no choice. She would be pulled by the sword into the portal, and that's where the real fun would begin......

That, or, Lucius would just escape and let his clean up crew do the job while he rested in a pocket dimension. Either way, it was some sort of win.....