Stronger Together chapter 245

I blinked at the small form of the outsider...king? Whoever he was he  seemed pretty sure he could beat me even in my ascended state. His  loss. I flickered across the field, smashing out with the fist that  still had the cestus on it. I expected surprise and for my punch to  land. I appeared right next to He Who Stands Above and threw my  strongest blow. Which he took. Head on. To the face. Without moving  literally a single inch at the impact or even trying to block. He turned  his head, flashing those jagged teeth at me in a smile as his fucking  neck muscles forced my hand back.

My  eyes widened and I tried to get away, but sadly my wrist was seized in  an iron grip. I tried to jerk away and it had literally zero effect. The  outsider leader glanced around casually, seeming almost too bored to  bother with me aside from holding onto my wrist as he scanned the area  around us before turning to focus on me specifically and not just in  passing. "Was that it? Honestly after your display a moment ago I was  expecting to at least FEEL it. That was just...sad." The sneer was clear  on his face as he spoke.

Despite  the derision I could see a kernel of genuine pleasure at the situation.  This asshole LIKED talking down to people and bullying others. Being  able to muscle me like this was fun for him. So of course my response  was to mock him back. "Guess I used up all my energy on the other ones,  damn, sorry about that, though I learned my lesson on pacing myself last  time I nailed your mom." Admittedly not my most cutting insult, but I  was kind of panicking so sue me. It was the thought that counted, and I  thought he was a smug jackhole.

He  actually rolled his eyes. "I don't even have one of those, and even I  know that was pathetic. I'm given to understand "your mom" jokes are the  lowest form of repartee you humans possess. I admit to being a bit out  of the loop on human vernacular and dialogue habits though, so I suppose  I can't be too picky. My personal preference for mockery is of course,  this direct approach." He yanked me forward and smash a fist into my gut  with a staggering amount of force, doubling be over as I literally felt  two of my bones snap like dry twigs.

I  gasped under the impact, wincing in pain at the damage. "See. That's so  much more direct. What do you think? Pretty humiliating right?" I  glared up at the bastard from where I'd fallen to my knees coughing up a  bit of blood. He clicked his tongue in disappointment. "It seems five  minutes was a bit of an exaggeration. This is just sad. Maybe it's a  motivation thing. Should I kill one of your women?" He grinned  cheerfully. "Hell, even if that doesn't motivate you it should be funny  to watch at the very least. I'll do that I think." My eyes widened with  horror as he started slowly methodically scanning the field for targets.

I  snarled and flexed my power. I'd integrated all the power from my  klurkor state into me, but I'd only been throwing punches with my new  fused body. This time I triple stacked my aura, magic, and aspect and  slammed my right fist right into the outsiders dick. Or, well where a  dick would be, based on the feedback from my fist he was pretty much a  ken doll, still he released my hand and snarled, leaping back. I stood  up with a glare, stalking after him. I couldn't believe the kind of  power I could output now.

Before  my network had let me throw power into my aspects perfectly without  having to hold them or even top them up, but now my whole body had  integrated the godsteel energy to the cellular level. My aspects felt  like literal forces of nature, ans the force I could channel through my  new body was astronomical. Massively boosted aspects, limitless aura,  and a physical form that could shape and hold magic flawlessly all  synergized to make that punch godly in scope and power, and I grinned at  myself even as I cursed myself for an idiot for wasting my first blow  on a power trip.

He  Who Stands Above glared. "Ok, now I see it. Now I see how you're so  annoying. But hey, you should feel good about yourself. I'm not going to  bother killing one of your women now. I'm just going to kill you  directly." He flashed that razor grin at me. "Then I'm going to drag  them back through the tear and toss them to my armies. I'm curious how  long their minds will last." I flashed forward, this time boosted by  lightning, and my speed was so massive even the outsider king got  serious. His body twisted into a dark parody of battle armor as he met  me head on, intercepting my third blow with a disgusting chitinous  shield before engaging me directly.

I'd  like to say I was fighting on some sort of higher level, but  realistically even my brain was having trouble tracking our speeds.  Luckily klurkor was straight up burned into my soul and my body operated  the forms on pure instinct as we fought, my reactions able to counter  threats my actual mind couldn't even follow. My instincts had started to  improve when I merged my body and soul and I absolutely understood what  was happening as I reacted to a blow I had only vaguely considered a  possibility.

Intellectus.  I had fucking intellectus. I wasn't sure why I'd been able to tap into  it before my ascension but it might have been something like Harry's  sight, having an effect on him early because of timey wimey bullshit.  Still combined with my klurkor reflexes it made this fight possible so I  wasn't going to complain about the weirdness. Still despite all that I  was barely holding my own, and only my frankly absurd levels of power  generation and my badass armor were keeping me alive. With the extra  juice to throw at my Archangel Armor it was really pulling double duty,  and I tried not to think about how I was basically wearing an enchanted  piece of my own soul as a protective shell.

We  separated again and those dead black eyes glared at me. "You're quite  the pain in the ass boy. That insane energy generation is saving you, I  could beat you but it would be a battle of attrition. So I guess we're  back to plan A." He darted straight at me at top speed and I readied  myself to intercept him. I didn't process what he'd said and start to  think about it until I had already reacted and by then it was too late.  My eyes widened and I tried to shift from defense to pursuit as he  changed directions in a split second and hurled himself off to the side.  Right at Raven. He grabbed my girlfriend around the throat and spun,  putting her in front of me and forcing me to stop.

I  froze in place, heart pounding in my ears as I stared at the grinning  monster holding my girlfriend by the throat. "Ooops, too slow! I did say  back to plan A. You're kind of an idiot aren't you?" I gritted my  teeth. He knew my brain wasn't processing this all properly yet. I was  still adjusting to my new body and he'd used it to find a hole to  exploit. My intellectus hadn't even warned me because I hadn't fucking  asked if he was going to target Raven because I was a goddamn idiot. I  bared my teeth at him, I wanted to rant and rave and threaten him, but I  knew it would only make things worse.

His  grin however, slipped momentarily as he cut his eyes sideways. Not to  me, or to Raven or any of the girls, but to DALTON of all people. My  smuggler friend had been shooting it out with outsiders but now he  seemed fine, completely at ease and locking eyes with the outsider king,  a small, smug smile on his face. He smiled at the creature with a wave.  "Oh please, don't mind me, just enjoying the show." The monster  seemed...afraid. Of Dalton. Dalton my ridiculous over the top smuggler  friend, who absolutely was human and shouldn't scare anyone. Or was he?  And the second I asked myself that question, I knew, and I really wished  I didn't.

Dalton  met my gaze and flicked his fingers and time around us just...stopped.  With the exception of a few people strong enough or important enough to  be outside of things everyone just froze. Dalton rolled his eyes in  annoyance. "Damn it. I hate intellectus." Then my friend took a few  steps forward and changed. Between one breath and the next Dalton was  nowhere to be found, and in his place was a tall blonde man with dashing  good looks and bright green eyes. He waggled his eyebrows at me. "Hello  little brother. Miss me?" And my blood chilled to ice water as Lucifer  smiled over at me from where my friend had been standing.

I  was...so confused. He Who Stands Above had released Raven, presumably  because the biggest threat her gave absolutely no fucks about going  through her and she would have gotten in the way. He snarled at Lucifer.  "You can't be here. It's against your rules. You can't intervene  directly." He flicked his gaze to the closing tear in reality, clearly  deciding if he could make it in time. Honestly I didn't love his odds.  Lucifer was...scary. Galaxy destroying levels of scary minimum, but the  outsider was right, he wasn't allowed on earth. Not like this, he  shouldn't have been able to come here in any form much less have been  here the whole time.

Lucifer  shrugged. "I was summoned, years ago as it happens." He nodded to  Brynn. "This one created a vessel for me, kind of a basic one granted  but it was a nice little distraction, playing human. Manifesting like  this will destroy the body I'm afraid, which is a pity, but then, this  was always meant to be an emergency measure. As for the rules..." He  shrugged with a mischievous grin. "Well who's going to know? By the time  they notice I'll be long gone from here, your little raid on the Gates  ensured that. Honestly arranging for them to get the information and  have time to act on it was child's play." He flicked his fingers and the  tear in the world closed, sealing shut as if it had never been.

He  turned to look at me. "Sorry to say little brother that my direct  involvement is a bit limited in the case. You'll need to put him down,  but without the taint of the outside seeping in he should be much more  manageable. All I request is to be allowed to take the body for services  rendered. We can call it even after that." I glared at him, at the  devil himself who had spent years pretending to be my friend. Giving him  the body might be a bad idea, but not giving it to him would be worse,  so I just nodded. He laughed happily. "Excellent!" He flicked his  fingers again and all the girls and my friends were suddenly in the  stands, which were all repaired, and there was a powerful barrier  surrounding the field.

He  Who Stands Above looked floored. All his planning, all his effort, all  undone by a few casual moves from the greatest schemer who ever lived. I  looked back at my life since meeting Dalton and couldn't help wondering  exactly how much of this had come about coincidentally and how much of  it had been on purpose. I considered the knowledge Dalton had given me  when Fenrir came to town and at various other times, knowledge that had  led to my victories when I should have lost, and then I cast that all  away. I turned to glare at the creature that had just tried to kidnap my  girlfriend. Hindsight could wait, I had some outsider ass to kick.