You should have killed me when you had the chance. (Invite)

Lucius figured he was about to die, and not only that, he was essentially hell bound. Was the boy even worth it? To him, at this moment, staring at the compassionate woman before him, yes, yes he was. His fiance knew what he said was true, she knew to let the boy die was wrong, and even though she was in an incredible amount of grief, she was proud of Lucius. That is, until the mysterious man spoke. What he said confused Lucius....was this merely a test? Was he truly fated for more? It sure seemed that way, because he got his second chance. The man took his hand, sending a brilliant energy up his arm and through his entire body from the firm grip he held. It was almost painful, but the sensation of the energy easily overpowered it.

The man then said something familiar, very familiar in fact, it sounded like something Silus would say. Were they....more related then the man had let on? Either way, he now understood what Silus had meant all the times he had called him a puppet, and he took the words of this man to heart. He felt himself die, he saw what was most likely the white light everyone described, only to be jolted back into reality in mere moments. Lucius was groggy, he almost felt hung over, yet the feeling was good, he felt.....purged. He let his eyes wonder to the monstrosity in the room, whether he wanted to admit it or not, that horrifying creature was him, his darkness. The energy that had brought about his resurrection almost involuntarily shot out, causing the being to explode violently.

"I'm a real boy." Lucius said, a sly smirk forming across his face. If it wasn't already obvious who had brought him back, the comment would confirm it. Unfortunately this dark version of himself reformed, making a comment that truly pissed Lucius off. Lucius looked to Silus, almost protectively, thanking him without even saying it. He circled around his target to where he was between this monster and Silus, one could say he was shielding the boy, just as he had been shielded in his time of need.

"It was you wasn't it? Sin couldn't have known any of that. You were tormenting me......i was tormenting myself... I couldn't be any more disgusted right now." Lucius said, putting on his mask that had fell off sometime during that whole fiasco. Powers or not, he was going to kill this thing. He was afraid yes, not too die though, he was afraid to lose because if he wouldn't stop this being, no one else would.

Charging forward Lucius preformed a rather flashy spin kick, one intended on hitting this darkness in the head. But its intent was not to damage, only to hide the fact he let a shock module fall onto the beings knee mid movement. If it did manage to stick onto the being, it would activate, sending a huge amount of electricity into the armor in an attempt to short out as much as possible. Lucius then showed his hand to hand skills by literally kicking off his doppelganger into a flip backwards. Upon landing he would detonate the bomb he left near his target, but knowing his own durability, it would probably do very little.


-------------

Hectors speed advantage would definitely come into play in this bout, but that wasn't to say it was such a huge difference that the battle seemed one sided. On the contrary, the being was both stronger and tougher, so Hector could easily be beaten regardless of speed. He had to make a choice though, form duplicates to try to overpower his enemy with numbers thus revoking his self repair systems, or just try to slug it out with this guy to see who could take the most. He decided on the latter.

The chunks of rubble came flying at Hector, which mostly bounced off or caused a minor dent in the alien metal. Not even worth repairing. It looked to be a sizing up attack really, as right after his opponent came charging. Reacting to this Hector armed both his wrist mounted missiles, waiting for his target to get close to reveal the attack. Once his opponent got ten feet from him, Hector launched both missiles at the being, which would cause a horrific and violent explosion on contact, each.

It looks like things were finally down to business. This was the moment they all had been waiting for. Red Tide versus his evil counterpart. Well actually one might never have thought Lucius to be good but hey, it's best to not nit pick at the details of such metaphysical bullshit. Samhain found himself more irritated than ever as he tried to stand himself up, resolving to roll to the side as Sin's blade came crashing down with a rage. Sin then seemed to ignore Samhain as he targeted Alex. Unfortunately for Sin he took three bolts to the face which sent him reeling back. Tendrils exploded from his chest and reached out, digging into the ground as his body flipped and twirled to land gracefully before the tendrils receded to their hiding space for a time. He was seething with anger as lack blood trickled down his cheek.

"I'm a real boy" Lucius said with a smirk. The evil copy grunted as it got to a knee and posted himself with a knee and a hand before looking up at him.

 "While I'm sure that is a meaningful comment in reference to some life-changing event I'm afraid that I have no idea where or why that it relevant." He said before he stood up and twisted his head, cracking his neck. Lucius seemed to figure things out pretty quickly, which made the evil copy clap rather slowly with a wide eye that looked almost concerned. "Congratulations. Figured that all out on your own did you? OR did an eleven year old have to hold your hand through it!?" It hissed as it swiped a clawed hand. In that instant it appeared to be literally a manifestation of glowing pencil tip big dots that literally filled the air and all rushed towards Lucius. Lucius did a rather flashy move that honestly surprised the dark incarnate. Lucius seemed to have timed it perfectly, his perceptions not to be tirfled with as he evaded tha majority of any damages. Lucius then kicked him right in the head. An impressive hit, though the only thing it did was cause the evil incarnation's heat to turn by about thirty degrees. Then he did a flourishing of skills and pushed off of him to flip bacwards, dentonating a bomb.

  "A bomb? How traditional." It said as it stood there nothing more than fire on the ground and remaining literally unscathed. The arm with the hoels in it seemed to vibrate and emit a rather irritating high pitched ringing noise as the evil incarnation had seemed to bring it up to defend himself from the blast. "You know Lucius...we are closer to our goal than we realize...there's just...one last little price we have to pay." It said before bringing it's arm back and literally slaming it into the ground. The moment his fist connected with the ground there was a loud BOOM as the air in the area all rushed out of the immediate area, forming a vacuum which would likely rip Lucius off his feet and bring him right into the clutches of the evil incarnation. The sound more than likely caused inconvenience by deafening most people nearby. Of course the evil incarnation and Lucius themselves...well...that was a different story. "A price,  Blood Tithe must be paid to ensure our victory...Yet here you are, not even loyal enough to finish through on a contract that would bring us ever closer to our goal." It's talking a good opportunity for Red to contemplate a close ranged attack as his opponent, much like him, loved to talk and taunt.

  Samhain held up a hand and snapped his fingers, suddenly spectral chains suddenly appeared to be covering Alexander, though they didn't restrict his movements. Samhain made a swift swipe of the hand and a growl before the chains were literally dissolved off, whisping into the wind like ghosts of the past. Alexander, however would likely feel his powers surge back to him and his abilities more in tune and readily accessible. Silus found himself grabbing his forehead and pressing down on it as the taste of iron dribbled over his lips from over his eyes.

*****

    This thing was faster, and Azazel knew that those were normally his own weakness. He needed to compensate. Unfortunately he made the mistake of thinking this ironman wannabe suit was just another version of a primitive exosuit with human grade missiles which he could eat for breakfast without milk and be fine. Yeah, that didn't go over so well. The explosions were pure percussive force as his sin literally peaked away and fire cooked the meaty flesh beneath. Blackish blood spattered everywhere as it groaned and staggered forward with an enraged orange core to it's uncanny yellow eyes. Well he was certainly damaged, his human form at the least, which was formidable for any creation or construct. With his jacket and shirt literally burned off, Azazel began to charge again as blood covered his chest. Apparently he intended to hulk his way out of this one, didn't he?

  If nothing else Hector stopped him in his tracks at the apex of his running, so at least that was something.

Alexander had managed to damage Sin with the three bolts he had launched at his face, causing him to stagger back and give Alex enough time to regain his bearings. Despite the pain stabbing through his leg, he had to think of a way to at the very least avoid being painfully killed by the primordial. He could tell Sin was pissed but not as if they could do much now, as Alexander twirled his staff and prepared for another attack. Well, that was the case until strange spectral chains would wind around him, not really restricting his movement but instead returning the power to him. It’s sudden surge through him felt almost wonderful, and it more than anything meant they had a chance within this fight, as slim as it was now.

”Now this…I like.” He muttered with a small smirk, forming a single rune upon his leg, translating roughly to repair. Already he could feel the muscle, sinew and tissue beginning to stich itself back together rapidly. That got rid of the part where he couldn’t move because his leg was hurt, now came the next most annoying part. Which was trying to kick the ass of a primordial. Rapidly spinning the staff, he would place three runes around Sin, each of them causing the ground to rapidly change into spikes that would rise from the ground to skewer him. However that was not their primary purpose, as they would violently explode whether they hit Sin or not.

Lucius' bomb did nothing, yeah, nothing. It was just about the most powerful thing in his arsenal without his powers. Still, in combat Lucius always found a way. The power his duplicate wielded was not the scary part, it was his tactics. Lucius knew this being was a tricky bastard....because he himself was a tricky bastard. As much as it seemed like a scene from some Saturday morning cartoon, he had to play on his own weaknesses to defeat his counter part. He could see Blood Tithe loved to talk, and realized just how annoying his own ramblings must have been, well, maybe not that last bit. Perhaps that could be used against his opponent, if nothing else.

Lucius just glared at him as the evil duplicate said something about their goal, how could this thing even exist? It was truly a monster, and its similarities to himself made Lucius sick. The monster smashed the floor with its Swiss army knife of an arm, causing some kind of vacuum. One would think it would sand everything flying back, but instead it pulled Lucius straight to his darker half's hands.  

"Hahahaha! When have we ever displayed that quality? Loyalty is for lesser men, I'm sure you would agree." Lucius said in response to Blood Tithe's comment, laughing in the face of something that would make Jigsaw run in terror. Confidence was never really something Lucius ever had a shortage of. Thinking as fast as he could, Lucius removed two shock modules from compartments hidden in his gauntlets. Lucius then stuck the tiny devices on the metallic chest plate of his opponent which would immediately activate, releasing enough electricity to power several blocks into the being. Just as this happened Lucius stomped his heavy steel boot down on the incarnations foot, then turned his thrusters on. The heat would be immense, enough perhaps to burn the being, but if it didn't their activation still served the purpose of propelling him from his enemies grasp.


----------

Hector was satisfied with the damage he had dealt, of course, it would have been better if he had killed him right there, but you can't be that fortunate all the time. His enemy displayed a huge level of durability, so perhaps it was time for Hector to take things up a notch. As soon as the being ended its charge it would find it was hitting nothing but a shield. It failed after he made a few attacks yes, but it served its purpose.

As soon as the shield went down Hector used his telekinetic pulse generators to send a wave of pressure at his enemy that would send a bus flying. If his enemy was thrown back, Hector would quickly speed toward his opponent and open fire with his wrist mounted mini guns. Despite the obvious chance of death, on lookers watched and recorded from a distance. It truly was a pretty awesome fight.

Well the attack against the evil duplicate proved to be effective as Lucius proved to be quite the little escape artist. The shock modules rippled energy throughout the suit, his muscles convulsing and spasming as his fangs and talons flickered on and off for a few moments. The creature let out a pained and disgruntled snarl before Lucius stepped on hit foot and engaged the thrusters. Fortunately he would escape, unfortunately the only thing Lucius did was heat up the metallic prehensile foot. Blood Tithe looked to the food and then looked to Lucius.

"Indeed. For lesser men, I agree. That is exactly why I was surprised by your lack of it!" Blood Tithe snarled before it closed it's eyes and the hearts in the chambers of his shoulder began to beat rapidly and the central chamber in his chest began to glow. Blood trickled from the holes in his armored arm...and then it poured. Blood an inhuman black with an entrancing velvet red glow. The blood instantly ate through the ground as it snaked, seeming to animate as it coiled around Blood Tithe, not eating away at all at his clothing, proving to have mastery over the unique red energy down to it's molecular functions. The ability to choose who and what it harmed and to what it simply sat on without damage. The energy was incredibly strange and unusual. It vibrated like Red energy to its very core, though it seemed to be like liquid that formed into ghostly flames, or rather a ghosting vapor that gave it a rather eerie appearance. The reds danced across Blood Thithe's features and only added to the whole "I came straight form Hell" appearance that he seemed to already display. "A lesser man would have let her die. A lesser man would allow his pride to be his undoing. A lesser man, whom trusts in no gods, would accept an offer from Sin itself. A deal for a piece of equipment that he cannot make himself...because he's stuck. Lost... USELESS!" At the last word Blood Tithe proved to have Lucius' temper as his energy vibrated and actually began to sizzle as the cloth and armor beneath it began to char before almost instantly repairing itself. On top of that four spheres, three millimeters in diameter, fired out from the coiled liquid. These spheres would aim right for Lucius, though it was probably not a good idea to allow them to hit.

The second one of the spheres hit the ground, or a wall then ten feet in diameter would sizzle and decay away at a horrifically rapid rate. The blood...the energy was beyond that of a "perfect" machine. It yielded more energy than that which was put into it. It was interesting to say the least. The first three bullets were fired and then ten tendrils of the energy fired out, the first eight were weaving and trying to grapple at Red from various different angles. He Used the remaining two tendrils to coil up and then forecefully lunge himself forward, using the tendrils as springs to propel himself forward. It was a strange and interestring use of his power...though was it perhaps to compensate. Sun himself would have mused about this, though he had a rather strange duo coming after him.

Alexander was proving to be a most annoying little pest. Many reasons. Though he honestly needed to say the reason Alexander was most annoying was because...well...he wasn't very inventive. The only reason Alex wasn't being dealt with at this rate was the Eldritch being that was equally as boring...though he would be held in different light...for obvious reasons. Sin went to parry the incoming scythe, though instantly the scythe changed, the curve twisted with a bone-splitting crunch and a violent grunt as it seemed to become a scimitar of sorts. Hellshrike stepped back with wide eyes as a small pinkish purple sphere appeared over where the tip of the blade was beginning to appear. Samhain's eyes narrowed as the sphere whispered and whispered, each and every word driving him farther and farther into anger and madness. A nanosecond since the thing appeared...and already he was losing his mind. Hellshrike's step back was greeted only with three runic markings surrounding him. His eyes flashed red a moment as he recognized the marking. Unfortunately he lacked the needed reaction time and so he was impaled from three different angle. The first one went through the back of his chest, through his lungs as he was suddenly suspended in the air. The other spike came in from the right and severed clear through the spinal chord, and the one on his diagonal left came up and went through his throat. In that instant the spikes all exploded, sending black ilk everywhere and a rather formidable cloud of drywall and broken apart flooring and concrete.

"Had me on three spikes...I thought you were trying to fight me, not arouse me." The voice said as the decrepit fragmented man stood. His appearance was by far more "affected" than his others. Half of his face was fragmented bone, his flesh was charred. One leg was entirely bone, the other was in tact with the pant leg still flopping about. His spine was exposed from his abdomen to his waist as stringy and flayed flesh and muscle seemed to have exploded out. Parts of ivory bone tainted black could be seen through the meat on his ribs. His throat was blown open as an eye drooped loosely, still connected to the brain but just sort of...flopping there. Sin stepped forward..or rather almost fell forward and the bone let drug behind him, not having any muscle or flesh to make it capable of locomotion. A red crack of energy sparked with a dark purple hue with a red radiance as the energy sparked all over him. As the electricity danced across him the damage had been undone mostly as he stepped forward into Samhain and swung his sword. Samhain stepped through the sword as Hellshrike swung, and simply turned to try and decapitate the evil one from behind. Hellshrike disappeared in a haze which left behind nothing but a sphere which exploded upon contact with the bloodroot. Samhain snarled as the bloodroot began to chip and crack. Meanwhile, Hellshrike himself appeared three feet in front of Alex.

"I'm rather disappointed boy. Did you learn nothing from me? Explosion this, explosion that. You're so boring." He asked before slashing at the staff in attempts to disarm his old apprentice. "Looks like you need a few refreshers. But first I think you need a time out. Now go to the corner and I'll see you back in class...on Monday." Sin said as he spawned four new tendrils as they tried to grapple Alex on the shoulders and one trying to pull his head back to expose his throat for Sin's blade. A portal directly to the Hell verse opened behind him. Apparently he intended to send him to his final fate one way or another.

****************

Azazel was indeed in for a rather interesting surprise. Though things seemed to go in his favor, they didn't want to seem to stay that way. He managed to break through some form of magical barrier, what was this a metallomage? Azazel wondered why this thing allowed him to get close, it obviously could have avoided him with the speeds it was moving earlier. The shields dispersion yielded that the robotic entity would release a telekinetic pulse. In order to try and combat this pulse, the second he felt himself moving back he transformed himself into a cloud of smoke, covering thirty feet in front of Hector. In the next instant the entirety of the smoke reformed on one spot, one that had been directly where he was when he activated. He was still knocked back a good six feet, but nowhere near as far as it would have if he hadn't thought quickly. Hector then rushed him with machine gun attached to his fists. Azazel roared as he reached out and caught Hector's fists with his hands and began to squeeze them. As he was not in his truest form, his crushing capacity wouldn't measure up to the power of the alien metal, but it was certainly something to note on a pressure sensor. Hector's speed also caused Azazel to skid backwards as he tried to get traction with his shoes the result in a skidding and sliding backwards.

"Look at you...a toy that doesn't break.... I love it." He snickered as blood streamed over his face. In an instant he would attempt to swiftly drop his lower half, though his thought process was to use this speeding robot's force exertion to lift up his own legs and swing them under the machine. Once he did that he believed he would bring his knees into the robot ad then literally force them to turn direction slightly and drive the metalloid being's back into a building. The physics may have been a little hazy, though if his legs were allowed to do so...it would somehow work, which may be curious in it's won right...even if it were theoretically sound. So without further hesitation he let his legs buckle and turned his momentum as his knees came up and he tried to hit the metalloid.

The spires of earth rose sharp, and hit their targets messily, seemingly breaking through key points within the body. However, that was not enough to put the primordial down by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact only served to anger them more than anything. Even with the explosion, he had a feeling he could only buy himself a minute at the most, so Alexander had to prepare something to follow up with such a direct attack. Make him think things were getting so bland, then hit him with something unexpected. This involved making some runes in places, but they didn’t quite make up for what had happened next as Sin literally teleported within three feet of him.

The movement had been sudden enough to catch him by surprise, but he couldn’t let himself falter when facing down evil itself. At least the prior tactic had worked if nothing else, unless he was hoping to intimidate him with the nonchalant act. No, he didn’t have a need for something like that, and despite his best attempt to defend the staff was sent flying from his hand with a swing of the Primordial’s sword, sending it clattering along the ground. He had little time to react as things begun to move in a sort of slow motion. So many variables to consider, and methods by which he could stop this. A way he had to make some distance between him and Sin, avoid the whole sword being raised to slice through his neck.

In the end, it was a matter of...well physics really. He had to think of where he would want these runes to do, projecting two in place. One on the back of Sin's head, and another at the feet of Samhain who was a good ways behind the primordial. One said had a negative pull and the other positive, honestly things seemed to be going from there. He was expecting Sin to fly back and man did he, giving Alexander enough time to react on his own. Now it was time for part two of him master plan, which was not as sinister as possible. Sin would likely be hitting the ground soon, and hopefully that would slow him down soon enough. Extending one hand outwards, he made a few runes that beckoned his staff back to him.

Considering that this Samhain had proven he could make things go through him, that made follow up attacks something he could count upon, rapidly forming an explosive rune near where he had projected that Sin would land. Doing that would probably send out the Sin substance around the room, across the walls and all of that stuff.  Which made the following runes making the walls and ceiling electrical even more useful, causing any sort of regeneration to be more of a pain for Sin. ”Look at that, time out's up.” Alexander noted twirling the staff and preparing for whatever Sin did next.

Lucius knew he would be overpowered eventually, tricks and gadgets only got a man so far. As soon as his counter-part got bored with him, it was over. He had to revise his current strategy, but the bottom line was, he would kill this thing even if he had to take the whole building down with him. Lucius just smiled at his eviler half's response, oh the delusion.

"That's funny, coming from someone who's nothing more then a pawn in Sins game." Lucius said, unphased by the activation of the beings powers. In the next moment the four bullets of the mysterious version of Lucius' own red energy shot out at him, one hitting the ground and showing him just how powerful it really was. Without his powers, one hit from that blood like energy would likely be a death sentence.

Whoever resurrected him dropped Lucius in quite the predicament, yeah it might have been one of those 'its all in your hands now' things, but if he died that would kind of make the whole coming back to life thing pointless. Regardless, he had to fight on. If he couldn't take the being down straight up, perhaps attacking him mentally would give Lucius an advantage. He simply sidestepped the first two bullets that came at him, fast as they were the being telegraphed his attack long enough for Lucius to prepare for them. The next attacks seemed too strong for him to simply evade, so he would have to use something he had kind of been saving for if his dark side went all area of effect on him. Despite that, there were no other options but death. He activated his repulsive field, causing the next attacks to mostly bounce off it until it finally faded away. Lucius took the time to contact Hector, who had seemed to deactivate himself, at least within Lucius' own gear. He must have been using the EXO.

"I'm back my friend." Lucius said, reactivating the AI within his gear.

"Lucius! I was......so worried for your life, are you alright?" The AI said in response, sounding pretty human for nothing but a program.

"Yes, I'm fine, but i don't know for how long. I see your putting the EXO to good use, everything seems to be stable...... Try to finish up whatever it is you're doing as fast a possible, I'll need your fire power i think." Lucius said before cutting off communications. The telepathic conversation was done in the span of a second, so now Lucius was staring at his other half who seemed to have lunged himself forward.

"Don't you see the error in your actions? In your thought process?  If I'm a lesser man, i wonder what that makes you. Well, actually, i don't wonder. I can see now, you're nothing. Nothing but my failures, my sins.....and my guilt. The relevance of my previous statement was unclear to you, so allow me to explain. I'm real, your a puppet, no more real then an illusion. When i made my choice, my choice to have my own mind, i broke free. You never can, you will always be Sins. You talk about our cause, but you have no right to. Without that woman, the one you made me brutally murder over and over, it is all for naught. There's no point in making a utopia without her to ground me, without her I'm you. And you know what you are? Just another pretentious genocidal maniac. But even that isn't even your own, everything that makes you up belongs to another. I take it back, i look at you now, and I'm even more disgusted then before. You're just a sad sad corruption, a copy that can't even beat his prime being without negating his powers. But i don't mind, wiping you out with nothing but the junk i make in my spare time will just prove my point."  Lucius said, rather long winded sure but he was quite the talkative person. All Lucius had said was true, but still, he was hoping to play on the beings pride to get him to possibly tell sin to make it a fair fight. After all, its what Lucius himself would do if mocked in such a way.

--------------

Hector was glad Lucius was alright, so for now he could focus on ending this fight with whoever this was. Thing is though, he seemed to have a few more abilities then previously thought. The being turned to smoke, doing some kind of superpowered maneuver  that ended with Hectors fists being caught. This being was indeed strong, the force he was putting on the EXOs hands nearly destroyed his telekinetic pulse generators, but luckily the pressure was removed just in time. Unfortunately it was only removed to allow his opponent to hit low though, before Hector knew it the EXOs legs were being attacked right on their joints. The leg turned sideways violently, then sent Hector flying back from the force.

He hit a building, causing a notable amount of damage all in all. He could see the EXOs left leg joint had been effected the most, this at the very least would effect his speed until it was repaired. Without wasting a second Hector began the repairs, while also arming his laser cannons. They were quite easily the most powerful weapon he had, if these didn't hurt the being badly, he didn't know what would. In the next instant, Hector fired the powerful guns at the same time which released a wide energy attack which Hector would move according to his opponents movements as long as the beams lasted.

Sin was propelled back by the physics of the runic markings. Alexander had gotten crafty all of a sudden. Sin cursed himself for not anticipating this, though almost as badly as he cursed the concept that Samhain was now quite literally looking over him with a perfect outlet of attack, the once sycthe scimitar arm reared back as he came down to deliver a powerful decapitating slash. There was an explosion that actually aved Sin from such an annoying inconvenience, as he was literally spalttered everywhere ow, Samhain looking to Alexander with a look that quite literally asked. "Really...Really man? Really?" before looking to where Sin was beginning to reform.  The electrical runic markings on the wall created a rather interesting mechanic as it began to fry the black substance, hindering Sin to reform simply from what was left on the ground. He was beginning to slowly reform when wear and tear was indeed finally starting to show.

 "You should just give up and run. After all that is what you're best at." Samhain said with a chuckle, Sin's expression suddenly become violent as he snarled and struggled to his feet.

"Do you truly think that there's anything you can do to stop me? Let's face it...honestly. You two are specs of dust on the whiteboard of eternity. I will always be here."
 
  "And that is why I truly feel sorry for you....Trapped in a world where you will never win. Forever...every loss eating away at your half-baked mess you call your sanity. You will lose here today. You will lose tomorrow. You may have a minor victory...but in the end... you will always lose... I pity you. If I lost as sorely as you did, I'd be a bitter son of a bitch too!" Samhain said before literally stepping and closing distance between him and Sin before impaling Sin on the scythe like construct turned scimitar. This wasn't over, it was still going, but Sin was slowing down. They could not slow down, they couldn't relent... they had to keep killing.

********

   Blood Tithe listened as Red made his rant, totally uncaring for the fact he was just called out. Though things did stick to him. He found himself irritated by the fact that Lucius called him out over the "hiding behind" power negation. It was such obvious bait that it was actually worthy of bringing up an interesting question. Which was more sicekning? The fact that this bait was so horribly obvious, or the fact he was about to knowingly and willingly take the bait like a greedy corcodile? Though he intended to put the concept to rest that he was doing this out of a matter of "wounded pride" and rather just out of the sheer concept that he was so far beyond him in power that the negation made no difference.

 "Oh God, I thought I'd never shut up...It is called strategy. Though for the sake of feeding your self-righteous drabble we'll pretend those words mean something, and we'll forget you're someone who resorted to use the same tactic on a small child." Blood Tithe said with a chuckle in response to lucius' rant before he looked over at Sin. "Sin, remove the negation field. I fear no man, let alone a beaten dog." Blood Tithe said as he looked back to Lucius. Sin oblighed his subordinate, though he had to betwen his own defenses he had to respond to. Silus had found himself on his feet, holding his head still as he tried to keep pressure on the wound. The negation field came down for Lucius and the battle broke out again. Silus, on the other hand was still powerless for all practical purposes. He needed a way to help these guys, but what could he do?

 "This is exactly as it should me. The Monster and The Man. Tell me Lucius... you yourself confessed that I am your sins. Tell me, how does it feel to know that your sins have compiled on to be more of you than the actual base model?" Blood Tithe asked as he genuinely wished to know what was going on behind Lucius' head. It must have been unnerving, if not terrifying to look at such a mirror image and to see himself like this. "Are you not proud Lucius? Can you not see the beauty of what I am? I am exactly what you wanted. You would have the world look to you and see a visionary, a savior to the metahumans. How does it feel to know that this is the way they see you? That when they look upon me...when YOU look upon me...you look upon your own legacy. Imagine what it will be like...when she get's a look at me." Blood tithe snarled before lunging forward again. This time he made great use of his abilities AND his gadgets as Lucius would not be able to do the same as well.

   Fully armed and ready for the battle that would decide his fate, Blood Tithe stood with two springy tendrils that served as a quick burst locomotive tactic, then armed with him were the four other tendrils that had all now come to a point that he could use as additional weapons or holster himself in the air and walk upon them. His unique armor seemed to have the ever changing blood splatters changing all over the costume as he moved. His right arm began to let out a high pitched hum as he moved towards Lucius with intense speeds, just before reaching Lucius the rather firm and rigid spider-like appendaged turned silky soft as he literally sommersaulted towards Lucius, the tendrils being a whipping, decaying force of death. The somersaulting ended as two of the appednaged stiffened again and drov indo the ground, causing Blood to still continue on back a little, streatching the arms out some before he then used his body as a stone and the appendaged like a very powerful sling-shot with springs behind it. He was instantly propelled with great speed as he opened his maw apparently looking to dive the fangs into Lucius like he were a homing missile. Two rather fast attacks from two separate angles, both with equal energy and greater reaction time. Lucius was indeed in danger and his work was cut out for him, but there was hope. There was always hope.

***************

    His damage was done to the exo, which made him really, really happy. Unfortunately the Exo believed that he should now up his game, which Azazel both liked and loathed at the same time. No doubt this was fun, but honestly we need to look at this rationally. Neither of them were literally well suited for minimizing collatoral damages. The Lazers began to fire and give a wide-spread attack. Sadly, Azazel wasn't the most agile and fast individual. He had to take these beams, of that e had no choice. What he did have a choice of though, was how many people suffered because of them. Contrary to popular belief...he chose the path of the least causalties. He leapt into the air with great doece and got blasted to the point where he arched through the air on a trajectory that sent him reeling on top of a building, his flesh skidding and shredding on the rooftop as he slid.

  "Ow...Mother...." Azazel growled as he brought a hand up to his abdomen and begining to heave a little like he was going to throw up. "Oh God no....not now. Not now, please not...NAAAAAHHH!" He started to claw his way out of the small, bloody crater he landed in to try and get back to where he needed to be.

Blood Tithe info:

Spoiler:

His explosive tactic had yielded some results, reducing Sin to bits of black liquid that would meet the electrical walls that only made regeneration harder upon him. Still that did not mean they won, only that Sin would be irritated with being slowed down like he was. If he was expecting something unimaginative over and over again, well then Sin was likely to be disappointed. Sure he may have stopped Samhain from delivering the decapitation, but then again it likely would have not given the primordial as much hell as this. The whole specks thing got brought up, but then again he could now tell that Sin was more than anything wearing down. Even if they could not kill him, Sin would not be able to keep this up for too long before he was forced to retreat.

This eldritch being would take advantage of Sin being so weak looking to step forward and impale him, seemingly with no resistance from Sin himself. This meant they would need to do anything that would slow Sin down, weaken him and bring the inevitable end closer towards them. A few ideas hit him but one stuck much like a dart in the board, perhaps he could try freezing rather than electrocution. How long that would last and the damage done was unknown, but it was better to try something than do nothing. With those intangible powers of Samhain's in mind, he would produce a few runes around Sin, which glowed an almost ominous blue.

The runes totaled in three, forming more of a sentence than just individual runes as the ground would rapidly warp into a sort of crook before what seemed like a clear liquid spewed from these runes towards Sin at a high velocity. Liquid nitrogen, nasty stuff really and with the quantity that was spewing out, there was likely going to be some painful freezing upon whatever flesh it touched.

So it seemed Lucius' words had gotten him his powers back, though he had a feeling this was still an almost totally one sided fight. The only reason he wasn't totally obliterated before was because he kept his dark half talking, a weakness he himself had to work on now that he saw how easy it was to exploit. In an instant he felt his power return, the crimson light engulfing him for a moment before dissipating. He smirked under the cover of his mask, though it was only a small victory, he managed to get himself a fighting chance. What Blood Tithe said did strike a cord, yeah, he used the same tactic on Silus, so what he had said to his eviler half was slightly hypocritical. But then again, the rant was nothing but a strategy just as the power negation was, it didn't matter whether or not any of it was true, it only mattered that it worked. The bottom line was, they were both cheaters.

And then came more taunts, and they had their desired effect. Lucius said he was disgusted, but it was more the fact he was disgusted with himself for creating this monster. It was him, it truly was. He couldn't help but feel a slight bit of remorse for all his deeds, his justification only went so far. It was true, his sins had come to define him as a person. He was more of this being before him then he realized. How.....how did he become so....evil. All he had done, the lives he had taken, they all flashed before his eyes. He was a murderer, and he couldn't be forgiven. But even after all that, his love wanted to save him. She believed he was worth it.....but was she right? Would it be more noble just to die here? Was that his penance? ......Perhaps eventually, but he was brought back for a reason, and if he had to literally fight his inner demon to gain at least a little forgiveness, he would. The mention of his fiance by his darker self caused a surge of rage in Lucius, but he knew he had to keep himself composed. Oh, every part of him wanted to tear that monster apart, he wanted nothing more then to make that being suffer slowly, and he realized at that moment, there were people that wanted the same for Lucius himself.

"Don't you ever even mention her you sick bastard, don't you dare!" Lucius said with gritted teeth and boiling blood. His energy started to involuntarily radiate from him, its harshness showing his true anger as it spat at the air. The being then lunged at him, confident in his tactics just as Lucius always was. It was quick, speed wasn't something he had really seen from the being yet so it was a surprise but it wasn't exactly to fast for him to react to. With a thought he teleported out of the way and watched the tendrils whip around leaving fury in their wake, that wouldn't have been nice to be hit by. Almost instantly after he teleported though, Blood Tithe charged very quickly. After using his teleporter, he couldn't do it again immediately after, and he was to close and to fast for Lucius to just dodge. It seemed the being intended to bite him with its fangs of red energy, well, might as well see if the stuff could get through his durability. He could have possibly, with effort, evaded it, but he did need to size up the damage potential of his counterpart. Blood Tithe brought his fangs down on Lucius' arm, which would have hit his shoulders or face if he hadn't brought his limb up to shield himself. And guess what? The blood energy was excruciating, even for Lucius. He immediately ripped his arm away and found two sizzling burn/bite marks.

"Ahhhgg! ....You know, i never thought any version of me would resort to biting, so uncivilized." Lucius said right before unleashing two arcs of energy at the dark being. One horizontal and one vertical. It was likely with his opponents masterful reflexes these would be evaded, but even still, it would buy Lucius the few seconds he needed to go for a bigger attack. After charging for a moment, he unleashed it. A wide wave starting from the ground in front of him then ripping up and out toward his target. It shredded the concrete, causing the entire area to rumble as the large wave attack made its way to his enemy.


-----------


Well, the cannons seemed to have hurt the being in a noticeable way. So that made two of them. Hector knew he needed to allow his limb to heal to properly use his running speed advantage, so pressing the attack now might not have been the best idea. Hector noted that the being evading in the way he did caused Hectors beams to rip into the building behind him, screams could be heard, and there were likely casualties. Even though Hector felt a bit of shame for a moment at the sight, it was unimportant at the moment.

A new tactic was needed, if this being had any kind of healing power, then the damage done wouldn't last. Hector couldn't risk waiting around for his leg to fully repair. In the next moment the EXO started producing liquid metal, it poured off it until there was enough on the ground for it to start building another EXO. Yes this would weaken or down right negate the repair systems, but overwhelming the being with numbers seemed to be a good tactic. In an instant it was formed and the two EXOs shot into the air at blinding speeds, then headed downwards like two missiles, headed straight for their target.

Freezing was a unique tactic, unfortunately that wasn't the best suited tactic. Samhain looked to Alex with a puzzled look and a genuine curiosity. Was the boy trying to give Sin a chance to escape, or a chance to strike back? Lightning was the element most closely associated with Gods, purity and divinity. It was a perfect attack element against a primordial of wickedness, cold hearts and evil. Samhain was pleased to find that the ice did work..in some respect. It didn't actually freeze Sin, but it frosted him over and then encased him in ice, causing him to work, wiggle and writhe about as he pulled all the stops to try and escape his frozen cell. Samhain wouldn't give him the satisfaction as he withdrew the blade and the bone crunching noise sounded off again and Smahain grunted a little. The weapon that was his arm was now entirely rearranged with the roots into becoming what appeared to be a massive shillelagh
that he proceeded to smash against the Primordial's head and take it clean off.

  "There...without his head it'll be at least five minutes before he can get out of the ice. Let alone reform." Samhain said as the shillelagh part of the arm seemed to literally slide down off his arm as if it were cascading down in a length of magma. It finally touched the ground and reformed into it's typical cane look and Samhain's arm was returned to normal. In that moment the ice around the head seemed to darken, shatter as blackness overtook it, crawling and violently forming over the ice in a murderous rage. Sin began to reform once again and he looked to Alex and scoffed as he brought his forearm across his forehead, wiping away the sweat of hard work. "Or he'll made a soddin' liar of me. Tha' works too." He said as he turned around. Sin looked...much different this time. He was the same physically but he looked very pale in color, his skin was almost a light shade of blue to indicate hypothermia as his body digested the ice material. Sin looked royally pissed as he turned to look at Blood Tithe's progress.

 "Have I truly lost? The Primordial...yes. He has lost. He will always lose. But me...I...Hellshrike. I look at you and I see only proof of my victory. I see the death of the Holy Light all around me. I see your heart turning as black as the sin on my soul. I see Blood Tithe's victory. I see the end of that perfect little brat... I see the end of all things. I see how that very brat..." He said as he pointed to Silus. "Will be YOUR undoing" Hellshrike said with a chuckle. Samhain seemed to be visibly annoyed by this as his eyes narrowed with a rather ferocious scowl on his face. Samhain's eyes narrowed as he looked to Hellshrike and he snarled.

 "Then I'll just have to kill him." He said with a grunt, the cane in his hands literally shooting off a bright energy that threw Sin back into the wall. "Look at you... your body is so corroded away from trying to keep that primordial trapped that you can't even access your dark apotheosis or your true metamorphosis...how...pathetic." He said, this part of speech loud enough for the room to hear. He turned to Alex as sin tried to stand.  "Here lad. You deal with this. This isn't even half the challenge I was anticipating." he said though as he walked he seemed to suddenly vanish from sight, leaving Alexander with a horrifically wounded and battered around man. That's right...it was just a man, a man whom housed the primordial of all evil. He wasn't even as terrifying as he had once been when he taught Alexander...just a man with some magic. A man on borrowed time it would seem.

**********

     The scene painted before him was one he had seen before. Silus' eyes widened for a moment as he recognized this very moment. Silus had sat down after his day with Ryan and that night he had been painting a drawing. It was a picture of a rather horrific looking shadowed demon like creature fighting tooth and nail to vanquish what appeared to look like a scholar, or a mage that used a bright light to keep them at bay. The picture he painted was of the creature with a chunk of metal in it's mouth, the scholar with a pauldron missing and using a bright light in a horizontal way. Now if you simply replace the nightmarish creature with Blood Tithe and Lucius with the scholar... So THAT was what that painting was...that dream.


   Silus knew Lucius was in some rather deep trouble. His initial strike was avoided by a quick side-step but soon the horizontal hit Blood Tithe. The hit was a success but did little more than scuff his armor and set him back from the sheer kinetic impact. The third attack was much bigger and far greater than the inital attack chain. This tactic was a rippling effect that seemed to echo out and bring the whole building shaking. The occupants above on the upper levels were resorting to screams and chaos as they all began to notice the light flicker and the building rumble. Silus immediately knew he needed to get them all out of here. Honestly he was just concerned of the fact that Lucius probably wasn't thinking of the fact that he would likely end more innocent lives which ultimately made Blood Tithe even stronger. Blood Tithe on the other hand had zero cares in the world. Silus watched as Blood Tithe stomped his own foot down on the ground, the three energy talons and mechanical foot vibrating. As Red's energy came to his the energy was shredded, no...absorbed, or nullified as it split around the talons. The mechanical foot shook and Blood groaned and moaned in agony as it obviously hurt him to preform such a task, but ultimately he managed to allocate most of the power into his leg. His leg was super charged with red energy now, the entire leg glowing like a card in Gambit's hands. With all of that energy, Blood Tithe chuckled as his leg began to glow even more dimly, yet somehow the gravity of the power just seemed to feel more intense. Blood Tithe fused his own energies into the leg as he looked to Lucius. The moment that kick made contact there is some serious harm that's going to come from that.

  "Trying to attack me with energy as a conduit conductor is right between me and the attack!? Such a fool I was." The monstrous version of Lucius taunted. It attempted to minimize the fact that it was actually internally damaged by the attack, though it's regeneration was already working at that. Silus looked to Lucius and then to Blood Tithe and cocked his head to the side with a little smile, as if the light bulb had turned on in his head. "You can't even rely on yourself to do anything right...no wonder she's dead- huh?" Blood Tithe started as he felt a tugging on his jacket like clothing. Looking back he saw Silus tugging on it. Lucius himself would likely notice that the real Silus had taken a hand to his wrist and help up a finger to his lips, trying to tell him to be quiet. The doppleganger Silus then vanished with Blood Tithe, then Silus and Lucius vanished with them. Utilizig his ability to traverse the Void, Silus slipped through, as did his doppelganger and traveled a great distance. They all appeared...in a desert!? Blood Tithe looked about immediately and snarled before moving to kick the small Silus with the energy charged leg. Immediately, Silus warped space a little, tearing through the void, Blood's leg entered a small rift, as he followed through with the apex of his kick his eye widened as he saw another rift open, and just like in slow motion, he watched himself...kick himself in the face...with the force of both his own and Lucius' charged energy. There was a loud boom and sand flew everywhere as if a storm had just taken to the area, Blood tithe was literally thrown back and sent flopping about the sand as he bounced and eventually slid back, face on the ground with his entire head and torso regenerating once more.

 "Ready to hit him hard!?" Silus asked with a boyish chuckle as he then traversed the void a second time and brought Lucius two hundred and seventy feet above his evil counter part, which was now struggling to stand up. Blood Tithe writhed as he tried to stand, his face was bleeding profusely and his cybernetic eye was cracked. He had been forced to work his chamber of five hearts in order to quickly regenerate. He made a combination of gurgling, forced rasps and snarls as he tried to compose himself. Lucius would have the opportunity to get a good crack at an unsuspecting enemy with more than enough charge time. If Silus calculated correctly, Lucius would fall at roughly 80 or so meters. Distance is equal to half of gravity and time, right? So basically Silus figured Lucius had about 12 seconds or so to charge up some energy. Silus himself had a similar fall to go through, as he began to suffer the malady of the sickness he experienced from utilizing the power so rapidly.

  ********

 There had been quite a lot happening. Azazel had to look at himself and realize that his son of a bitch had him right where he needed him. Azazel didn't exactly desire the death of innocent people. That was part of the reason Zakaken became what he did. The dehumanizing factor did ruin the plans, but ultimately...Azazel was not his twin. Azazel wasn't going to let other people die to this damn piece of metal. Unfortunately, this means he needed to resort to a measure he didn't want to initially resort to. Well things can't be helped it would seem. Azazel found himself under assault, the damaged were...well incredible really. He had to give the robot credit on it's tactics. If it weren't this smart or cunning then this would never have happened. Though for whom that thought is ominous for has...well yet to be determined.

   "You really...shouldn't have done that, friend." A rather deep and growling voice said, it's breathing raspy and whisking like that of a chilled wind as the smoke cleared. Azazel was revealed into his truest form, the creature once man. A monster in his own right. The demonic entity produced natural shadows that seemed to survive any exposure to light. Otherworldly flamed with what appeared to be people wailing softly behind him before they faded, shadows and figured appearing again and fading. The roof had collapsed and the explosion had done a great deal of damage tot he area, bodies littered the area though Azazel took refuge in the fact he took the blow and did everything he could...and subsequently saved many others by taking the blow.

   "Twenty seven people just lost their lives..." Azazel said as he looked directly at Hector. His eyes narrowed and he let out a little growl. "I will break you in twenty seven ways." He said in a very calm, matter of fact way as he floated towards Hector. In his truest form he was normally designated to be his twin's defender against all adversity, magical, scientific or otherwise. His brother hardly ever needed to move a muscle as Azazel did all things and protected him from all harm. In his mind, Azazel was sanctified and would achieve his goal. His first move however...was to wait and see the robot's move. Patience would be pinnicle.

Despite the fact that cold hearts had something to do with Sin, that did by no means he would be fully safe from an attempt to freeze him. Sure, he was not reduced to a statue but the ice that formed a shell around them was more than enough to keep them from reacting to what Samhain did next with that strange weapon of his. It involved smashing his head, which looked rather unnerving for sure but considering that he would reform, Alexander knew it would do nothing more than slow him down. Samhain had said they would have five minutes of time but he would be quickly proven wrong once Hellshrike broke out of it.

The ice had blackned and shattered, leaving the man within seemingly winded but not quite defeated yet. They were sweating, suggested by the fact that they wiped their forehead, or maybe he was reading too much into the gesture. Sin looked much different, paler with skin that was almost blue. Did the ice actually begin to freeze him? With a primordial like Sin, it should have been something that he could shrug off, but he looked like he was legitimately tired at this point. Regardless of what was happening, Hellshrike seemed like they wanted to monologue more than anything.

All the talking really did was annoy the eldritch, resulting in him throwing Hellshrike against the wall. More talking, taunting the man that looked so corroded that it was pitiful, Alexander had a feeling they didn't have too much fight left in them. Of course to assume that would have only meant a painful surprise if he were wrong. Disappearing in a flash, that left Alexander to deal with them.  Despite the putting down a sick dog vibe Alex was getting from the whole deal, letting the guy go would have meant problems for him later.

His eyes fell upon Hellshrike, while multiple ways of dealing with him came to mind. Without Sin's power, he still likely had something up his sleeves, meaning that a lot of plans would have to be implemented. It was obvious they did not have the same repair powers as before, he would likely not get up after a serious injury. Now it was time to test the waters, so Alexander rapidly formed a rune beneath Hellshrike which would reduce the ground to a quicksand substance. If Hellshrike did not move, he would likely sink into it and suffocate.

However, the point of it was to see if he would fly out or react another way. At this point he was sizing up the foe, and the finisher would come soon.

Lucius' counter part proved himself to be a very difficult opponent to beat. For once in his life Lucius felt out matched, even people with straight up reality manipulation failed to daunt him as much as this being did. Either way, he had to keep going, even if the inevitable result was failure. This was something he had to do, or die trying. This corruption was a disgrace, not only to himself, but to the ones he once loved. He continued to mock, how could he do that? Lucius knew this being was essentially him, but he never thought he would become so wholly evil as to not only forget about his family, but mock their memory.

His enemy blocked the attack, Lucius should have seen it coming, but then again he wasn't as observational when he was pissed. The tech this being was using was quite impressive, Lucius had already taken note of a few things to possibly create a variant of, if he got out of here alive that is.  His dark half would taunt him, trying to use Lucius' guilt against him, for the most part it was working, if Blood Tithe's goal was to enrage Lucius. At this point his temper had taken over, hearing this monster even reference his beloved made Lucius furious. It stood there with a knowing look on its face, taunting with the past mistakes only him and Lucius knew about. Lucius just wanted to shut him up, his darkness tormented him once, it wasn't going to happen again.

Before Lucius could make a move or speak, he noticed Silus appear next to Blood Tithe, then noticed another one next to himself motioning for him to be quiet. It seemed Silus had gotten some of his powers back, possibly because of Sin losing his own battle. What was this little trickster up to? Oh, wait, they were doing this in Sears Tower weren't they? Silus likely wanted to clear the hostages by getting the two powerhouses out of the building to finish this thing. Not something he usually thought about, but he found himself caring for the peoples lives for god knows what reason. Perhaps he wasn't as much like the being in front of him as he thought. They all disappeared, traveling using Silus' unique brand of teleportation before arriving in...a desert of all places. Once again Lucius was ported, this time above his counter part. Lucius was now falling, but that did little to break his focus on removing that stain from the face of the planet.

"You could say that." Lucius said with a smirk under his mask. In the next moment he started to charge up the beginnings of a massive attack, falling straight at his target. In a few seconds his form became engulfed in red energy, making him look like a crimson missile from ground level. Lucius was speeding like a bullet, a very determined and bloodthirsty bullet. In seconds he made it to his target, fist out and screaming a mask filtered battle cry. Whether or not his fist would hit Blood Tithe didn't matter, because the real attack came after it hit.

Red energy, so thick it nearly lost its translucence, pulsed outward from the man with sheer fury and power.  A good two hundred meter radius around them almost instantaneously turned into nothing but a brilliant red explosion, literally incinerating anything in its path including large quantities of sand which also ended up being kicked into the air to form a thick cloud of dust. Once the explosion cleared, it was likely no normal person would be able to see without some kind of tech. Fortunately for the two they had just that. So there he was, standing a good fifty feet from his enemy. Lucius was nothing but a hooded silhouette in the dirty fog, his robes billowing in the breeze as he slowly walked toward his dark half with determination.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Lucius said once he finally got close. It seemed for the time being the tables were turned, but who knew how long that would last.


---------

Hector found himself rather confused by this being. On one hand, he seemed like just another murderous villain, a persona only added to by the fact he just turned into a giant demon, and then on the other, you have him avenging civilians.

"Their deaths were unfortunate, but necessary." Hector said with an uncertainty in his voice, the two exos now hovering a safe distance from their opponent. He did truly feel bad for them, but it wasn't like he did what he did deliberately. Hector now noticed Lucius' location had changed, he went.....very far, likely teleportation.

"What happened sir? You're showing up thousades of miles away from where i left you." Hector said telepathically to Lucius.

"I was teleported along with....well, something. Everything is under control. I guess I'm cancelling that request for back up as well, considering the fact we're so far away now." Lucius said in return.

"That works well, this opponent of mine seems to be more then i had previously thought." Hector said in response.

"Don't be afraid to use the self destruct function. Its costly sure, but making more isn't too difficult." Lucius suggested.

"Noted, sir." The AI said before turning his attention back to the fight. At this point Hector had very little weaponry left, and what he did have couldn't hurt this being. It seemed this was going to get physical. In a moment the two EXOs produced more liquid metal, which then formed into two identical duplicates all with the same slight damage to their legs. Those damages wouldn't be fully repaired anytime soon, but they were now operational to a degree. In the next moment the four robots encircled their target from above, then shot down at insane speeds all with their fists out. Their tactic was simple, fly down, punch with the force of two hundred tons, then retreat. Whether it would work though, that was not known.

The quicksand formed beneath Hellshrikr and he began to sink. Of course he was all too aware as to how quicksand worked. The faster you tried to run and the more you panicked the faster it sucked you up. He calmly, but firly began to maneuver his way from it, not having the energy to try and fly out of the way. He crawled up back onto the ground and glared at Alex with bruised sockets and an annoyed look. "Stop dicking around. The longer you delay the stronger he gets. You've got ONE chance at this...make it count lad." Hellshrike informed him oh so matter of fact in nature. It was true, Alex had once chance to do this, to kill the Primordial of Evil. Well it couldn't be done, and Alex most likely knew that. but he still had one shot to deal with this. Alex would hopefully guage the situation and contemplate ALL the ramifications of his actions and weigh them out carefully.

*******

Silus found himself in a sense of awe, watching Lucius stand up to his darker half with the determination he had. Silus, however was still falling, and had no means in which to summon up his own power. Void sickness was quite a kicker. Silus watched as he fell and he recalled something. The name of ever sparrow remembered, and yet here he was. Falling from the sky like one of them. Was this how it felt to die as a bird? No, probably not. The bullet fragments of a shotgun likely riddled the nervousystem with unberable pain, or perhaps shut you to black immediately. The wind felt good through his hair though...

The impact of this was not going to be something he could survive in all honesty. Silus watched as Lucius wrought a terrible strike upon the Blood Tithe as it threw the sand all about. Silus forced his eyes closed a second as he imagined just exactly it was going to feel like to hit the ground. He wasn't scared. Actually...he was excited. His mind flashed to the people in his past that he had failed. Abra, Lily, Helia, Diana, Ryan, Guilty Spark, Michael and even Yancey. Each one of them came with a guilt that was, well unbearable for the little trickster. His eyes closed the only thing he could hear were the same words. Death's too good for you.". Those words should never have bothered him...he knew they shouldn't have. But they did...like a poison festering into his very soul, slowly killing him. It had been killing him for a long time now. But maybe...maybe when I hit the ground it will be over? His thoughts of that were almost hopeful. Sean, Zell, both of the Shaels. He had admitted that he was, perhaps, this worlds greatest disappointment. All of the failures that in all actuality that he didn't fail.

The wind actually stopped, though it was slowly stopping. Silus flet himself slump against the warm sand. His eyes shot ipen and he used his elbows to prop himself up and look about, only to look behind him and see what looked like a shadowy tendril receeding into the ground. "Uhm...thanks?" He said, though it was more of a questioning as to whom he was thanking. Silus turned to look back at Lucius and his wicked counterpart.


Blood splattered the ground. A sizziling noise was heard amongst the sands as the smell of iron whisped into the air and permeated the area of conflict. Blood Tithe stood up, the evil manifestation standing from beneath a heavt clous of dirt and dust. The wind blew as the man reconstructed himself, his breathing was far from "okay" in all honesty. It was a rhasping, wheezing type of breath that seemed akin to an old man in his final moments. Blood Tithe's eye narrowed as he seemed to glare at Lucius. Between Silus using portals to make Blood kivk himself, and Lucius big bang of an attack there was some definite cause for concern, but Blood was still confident that he could see this through. Though it was uncertain if this was his pride and arrogance giving him false assurance, or if it was his actual analytical and impartial hypothesis.

"You are truly weak enough to rely on others? Tell me...did you care for those people in our previous battleground? What has become of you!? Has this...THING truly had such an impact on you that you can no longer see who you really are? Who WE really are?" Blood Tithe asked, though his voice was constant, he was not in one place. His voice modifyer was damaged and glitching a little, giving him an even creepier voice as it seemed to violently glitch and switch between pitches and tones. "Tell me Lucius, does your little puppet back there know what you did to his frien'd mother? The situation you placed him in? Or does he know what you've done to the parents of others like his? Does he know the gravity of what I truly am, the collective Sin's which I have been compiled of? Does he know of the countless lives that you, even as a so called redeemed man can and will still take if it means achieving your goals?" Throughout this entire process he managed to activate his internal A.I and project the illusion through the smissions of his blood by rendering and manupulation the stimulated photon's the energy had excited. There were literally dozens of Blood Tithe's moving about, they were all illusions to be sure, though it wasn't likely to fool Lucius very long. Just enough to let himself keep talking, to keep instilling doubt into Lucius.

By time Lucius would likely identify the true Blood Tithe it would likely be too late, when comparing reflexes and powers it was...difficult to react with no doubt. Blood would attack form behind Lucius, attempting to grab his shoulder, pull him around and then give a light energy covered fist to the stomach to try and double him over. If he had been suddessful in that he would bring up his right foot and make use of his prehensile claw thing and grab Lucisu face before finishing it through with a hop in the air, twisting and causing Lucius to come crashing into the ground, where Blood would then release and regrapple Lucius, this time by the throat. Regardless of how much was a success one could certainly believe that Blood was still talking, still using anger the same way that Lucius uses pride on him.

"That is why you will never be rid of me. You have to know that. In the end we both know that you will kill again, we both know that in your rage another innocent will die. Because of that it is YOU that disgrace her memory of us. It is YOU that let her down. You cannot be rid of me, because we both know that I am far too much a part of you. Murderer. Thief. Evil Genius. Genocidal fool. All of these things. These are YOU...and so, you are I. What do you really think this pathetic attempt at "redemption" will do for you?! You will just return to as you were, you will just break her heart over, and over again. You are a weak, and pathetic excuse of a man. Now stop chasing an eleven year olds pipe-dream of redeeming you, and JUST DIE!" Blood Tithe roared as he reached into his bandaleer and took a small flash before throwing it into his energy maw, his entire body sparking to life with electricity. The Tesla coils on his back sparking to life as he'd attempt to shock Lucius into submission, trying to correctly counteract or slow the regeneration of Lucius.

******

Well honestly Blood Tithe had taken a good beating, and despite his calm and rather composed nature, Blood Tithe was in trouble. Sin...or rather, Hellshrike was in danger himself. The only one of the villains that seemed to be not having a rough time was Azazel. Go figure, the villain doing a heroic thing was the one who was about to unleash a can of whoop-ass. The fiend shook it's head at the exo as it stepped forward, shrugging off all damages.

"It was not neccesary you callous, insiginifcant junkpile." The demonic entity hissed through it's muzzel-thingy. Muzzel-thingy, best literary and narritive description ever right there. That aside, Azazel stepped forward, knowing in this form there was absolutely nothing that Hector could do to even scratch him. At this moment in time, Azazel was most likely one of the most durable things on the planet Earth, if not within the entire galaxy. Alien metal or not, this thing couldn't hurt him. "When I finish talking... you will have five seconds to kill me. If you are unsuccessful...you and every clone you have will be utterly shredded. Your machina trickery will not save you... I am finished talking." Azazel said as it folded it's arms, it's eyes fixated on all of the hectors as it awaited eagerly to see what they would try and muster.

Was he fucking around with hellshrike? Well, perhaps slightly, but not as if he would ever admit to that anyway. Things were super serious and so he had to clean the whole mess up, starting with shutting down the primordial...person thing. Bringing up the question of how he would do so, as killing a primordial was not something on the table but inconveniencing them was another matter. In the end it all came down to how he would do that, means by which he could annoy them, or however you would say it. He could have always thought of a complex conclusion but simple solutions also had a certain usefulness. One thing Alexander did notice was that he did not jump or fly from it, rather they crawled as if that was all they could do. If anything they were on their last leg, meaning that it was clean up time.

The fact that no one else was around now made this all the better for Alexander, who had a plan to deal with Hellshrike. In the end it was somewhat grandiose in execution but then again a little flair also hurt no one, well except in this case as hurting someone was the intention here. In a second, the ground beneath Alex would raise in a cylindrical formation upwards, elevating him a good fifteen to twenty feet as w large runes formed along the walls spewing water at a rate many would considering insane. The aim had been to fill the room with around ten feet of water, but that was not the end goal, as simply drowning him would have required filling the whole damn place up with it. Follow the plan with electricity, sparks darting upwards from the water that had flooded the room at an uncomfortable distance from Alexander.

The next one would have been rather dangerous really, but then again it was whatever. Within an instant the water would explode outwards into steam, the pressure alone immense and likely enough to do the work of whatever the electricity did not. Enough to tear flesh, bone and anything else,  likely would have damaged the one doing all of this had he not put up some protection ahead of time. When all was done, and the translucent barrier around him faded, Alexander wasn't even there anymore.

”I think that worked.” He muttered looking up to the night sky. Putting that recall rune out here was a good idea on his part in the end.

Lucius realized Silus hadn't teleported himself to the ground, and he was falling. He honestly figured the boy had a trick up his sleeve to deal with it, so he didn't do anything to save him, not that he would have anyway. Sure Silus had done that for him, but Lucius wasn't Silus, he wasn't about to jump into heroics. Other then that, well, Lucius had problems of his own he needed to tend to. His dark half hadn't been defeated by the blast, he looked tore up yeah, but he really should have been powder considering the power of Lucius' attack. Blood Tithe wouldn't go down that easy it seemed.

Lucius hated this thing, perhaps because it was everything he hated about himself. Its similarities to Lucius were far more unsettling then its monstrous appearance. It felt like him, it acted like him....it was him. Its endless taunting only unnerved Lucius further, only because everything it said was true. Lucius felt sick, truly sick, but the mentally battered man pressed on. He didn't know what to do in all honesty, he didn't understand this in the end, as much as he tried too. None of this was possible to him before, his entire world had been flipped on its head today. He wanted to give up, he wanted to be with his family again, he wanted to be with her, but he knew he had to end this.

"Stop talking, just STOP! I don't want to hear anymore of your poison!" Lucius yelled, his voice filter cracking at the sudden increase in volume. Lucius couldn't handle this, Blood Tithe knew everything about him, and it all was being used against him. The dark version of him hammered at his mind, bringing up his deeds, his sins. Anger and guilt clouded Lucius' mind, he couldn't focus. Before he even realized Blood Tithe was producing an illusion it was too late. Lucius shot a few blasts of energy at the illusions, but it just went through them. In the next moment he found himself being turned around by his shoulder, and an energy charged fist followed. It hit him in the stomach, hard. He gasped, the wind had nearly been knocked out of him. He tried to gather himself but another attack from Blood Tithe prevented him from doing so, he was thrown up into the air by his face, then crashed back down. Lucius grunted upon hitting the ground, barely aware. He was grabbed by the throat and lifted up, then came more talking.

Everything his other half said, it was all true, every word. None of this was anyone's fault but his own. He made the man he was today, he created this monster before him, for what? It was remarkable how a mere human could turn themselves into such evil, that's all Lucius was before, a human. This, demon, it was so powerful. Not just physically, but spiritually. Its impact on Lucius, seeing it, it was too much. What would his family think? What would Isabella think? They never knew this side of him, they never knew he could become something so absolutely evil. Did he even deserve to live? After all this, why was he brought back?

Blood Tithe used some sort of device to modify his powers, then began to electrocute Lucius with crimson red lightning. The pain was excruciating, and unique. Imagine the worst pain you have ever felt, then multiple it by a thousand, then spread it throughout your entire body, that's what it felt like. Lucius' metal armor just added to it, acting as a conduct and essentially frying him inside of it. He roared in agony, now he truly felt beaten on the inside and the out. His gadgets were tore up, his armor was battered, and his body was burnt all over. Maybe he should just die, maybe that would give him relief.

Tears rolled down Lucius' face under his dented and blackened mask, not because of pain, but because he failed. He made a promise once, he said he would live on, he would live a long and full life, but here he was, submitting. He wanted nothing more then to let go right now, he felt Blood Tithe was right, he felt weak. He closed his eyes, and then gave up. It was over, none of it mattered, there was no meaning.

"You have to keep going." His fiance said. He found himself in a white room, housing only the woman he loved and himself. He didn't know if this was a dream, an illusion, or just something he had created in his subconscious, and he didn't really care at this point.

"Why? Why should i keep doing this? He's right, I'm not a good person. I deserve death." Lucius said softly in return.

"No Lucius, you don't know how good you are. Why do you think you do what you do? In the end, it's to help the world, isn't it? Yes you've.....killed in the process, and that's wrong, but your ultimate goal is selfless, even if it was twisted when i left you." Isabella said

"How can you say that? What I've done...what I've become, it's exactly what i set out to destroy." Lucius said

"Then change. You realize what you could do for this world? You're one of a kind Lucius, truly. Your destiny, it goes beyond me, it goes beyond all this. Please, you have to keep going, no matter what. Be the man i fell in love with and fight back! Keep your promise.....ok? After it's all over, I'll be waiting for you. " Lucius' beloved said before fading away.

He came to his senses, still being electrocuted, but he didn't just take it, he mustered every bit of his willpower and grabbed at the hand at his throat. If he was successful, he would let out as much energy as he could into it, screaming not out of pain but out of determination. He then attempted to grab it with his other hand, doubling the output into his darker half. Energy flowed from his hands straight into the beings limb, with this much energy going into his arm even someone as durable as Blood Tithe wouldn't be able to keep it from disintegrating. Sparks from the red electric power of Blood Tithe still rained down on the field and Lucius himself, and if Lucius was successful in grabbing his enemy his own energy would be channeling into his opponent. The attacks would go on like this for a few seconds longer, then Lucius activated his now partially broken thrusters. They launched him haphazardly backwards, and he landed in the dirt. His mask was broken off, his gear was totally destroyed, and most of his body was burnt to a crisp. He groaned, feeling as if he would pass out, but he managed to keep himself awake. His healing factor had kicked into high gear, trying to keep him alive, but it would likely take upwards of ten minutes to fully heal from this. If Blood Tithe got into talking distance, then Lucius would speak up, weakly but still clear.

"This isn't redemption, you know. You're right, I'll always be a bad man, a villain. But i think this world needs bad man, maybe not killers or thieves, but men that choose to break from the norm, men that do things widely considered evil to achieve a greater good.  No, after i end you, i won't be some hero, and i won't change who i am, because i can't. I can't rid myself of myself, so i agree with you. The only way you will truly parish is if i do, and my end will come eventually. But in the mean time, I'm going to use my 'evil' to do what i set out to do years ago. I'm going to change the world, for the better. Because throughout history, the only people that ever mattered were the 'evil' ones, the ones not afraid to sin, the ones who sacrificed their own souls to improve this rock.  Maybe after it's all said and done, we can have a drink together in hell."  Lucius said. He did mean what he said, but he was still buying time. He needed to heal at least a little to continue.

-------------

Hector found himself in a difficult situation. His attacks had done nothing to the being, and now he had an ultimatum. Should he play his enemies game? He knew he likely couldn't win this, but did he even need too? Lucius was secure, so their was no need to keep  his opponent at bay. Yet still, he made Hector feel like shit, he made an AI feel like shit for killing. That itself was a win, but this being had drove them into a stalemate too boot.

"I.....I'm sorry." Hector said, looking to the burnt corpses he created. The EXOs then darted off at hypersonic speeds, leaving the battle field in shame of all things. There was no need to fight.