Evil with a smile on a perfect face.

  Fuck that demigod.

  Eron stopped and listened.

  The R.S. Raynanterprise plummeted toward the house-filled streets.

  He had plenty of time.

  A harpy’s spell blast bounced off his back.

  Didn’t even reach his skintight clothing.

  A Threnosh interceptor punched holes through her wing arms with their repulsors before zipping past in search of another target.

  Eron listened while he kept his eyes on the back of the demigod.

  Evil.

  He had no doubts.

  The skyship’s interior was quiet aside from the hum of the power sources, the whine of the engines and the grinding of the various moving parts.

  What was missing was the sound of rangers.

  No breaths. No heartbeats. No calls for help.

  All killed in a few seconds.

  He wondered if the demigod just couldn’t help it.

  It seemed like a huge oversight.

  Without the people aboard the skyship was just a thing.

  Repairable.

  Or not.

  It didn’t matter.

  Only the rangers inside really mattered and there was nothing he could do for them now.

  Down below was noisier.

  Hearts hammered in chests.

  Breaths came out in ragged gasps.

  Monsters snarled.

  Rabbit people roared in rage, hunger and lust.

  A shiver ran up his spine.

  The three sounded indistinguishable from each other.

  Soldiers of the old government and civilians.

  More the former than the latter.

  Combined they outnumbered the convoy driving down the highway to the west.

  The speedster demigod’s obvious target.

  Was the demigod an idiot?

  Supposedly, at least 300 years old and making so many mistakes.

  Let the skyship filled with dead rangers crash into the enemy or let the demigod get the convoy?

  The numbers skewed heavily to the former, but that didn’t take into account any of the context.

  One hand held an enemy that allied with the demigods rather than work with fellow Earthians.

  It was the work with part that brought the old Americans up short. They had wanted a more work for them situation.

  He felt bad for their civilians, but not enough to put them above his sister’s rangers and his nephew’s friends.

  Eron zoomed into the sky in a parabolic arc, leaving the empty skyship and the Americans.

  Up was faster than straight at ground level.

  The convoy was about 130 kilometers away according to his HUD.

  He hit the ozone layer at about 30.

  Then another 50 to get between the convoy and the demigod.

  He slid his faceplate open and glared at the fast bastard.

  He was rewarded with a satisfying flash of bright gold.

  “For an experienced warrior, you’ve made a lot of obvious mistakes,” Eron said.

  The demigod had superior senses so he knew that volume didn’t matter.

  “Why run on the ground when you can run up here?”

  The demigod blurred, juking twin solar rays.

  He pulsed them, placing them in the demigod’s path.

  Fast. Faster than him, probably, but not too fast to keep up with.

  “Are you really 300? You don’t fight like it. I’m guessing you’re more concerned about getting your deviant desires off than hitting objectives.”

  It wasn’t really a guess.

  He knew a lot about how the demigod thought thanks to his brother.

  Cal’s scouting report had been quite extensive.

  He wondered why the other demigods hadn’t really questioned Suiteonemiades’ helmet and their lack thereof.

  The demigod remained silent.

  The smirk on his perfect face looked strained.

  “Is it sinking in yet? That you aren’t quite that fast? At least, compared to me.”

  The demigod found another gear, catching him off guard.

  Eron found himself in a sudden tornado.

  Dust and debris swirled around him.

  A golden blur ran below him in a great circle, so fast that it looked like one continuous loop, an ouroboros, but of a murderer and rapist rather than a serpent.

  The whirling wind buffeted him, forcing him to strain his flight to avoid being sucked out of the more stable center.

  Debris began to lash him.

  Huge chunks of the road, signs, light poles.

  He flew off it and into overgrown landscape.

  Trees and shrubs didn’t slow the demigod as he kept pace, maintaining the tornado around Eron.

  He lashed out, splintering a tree before it could strike him.

  Animals howled and monsters screeched as they were sucked into the maelstrom.

  The golden blur at ground level vanished.

  For a moment, Eron thought the demigod had gone after the convoy again, but an explosion at his back told him otherwise.

  The demigod could turn objects into explosives with a touch and there was no shortage of things in the tornado for him to use.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Eron said flatly. “You can’t touch me with any of this. I’ve been to the sun and didn’t even get a sunburn.”

  Fire bloomed all around him.

  Blast waves nudged him in every direction like a gentle spin cycle for delicates.

  He felt a touch on his back.

  The slightest touch, but it was enough for him to jerk to his left.

  He spun, eyes flaring.

  Some kind of furry monster, many armed, legged and tentacled, shrieked in his face before exploding.

  Another touch on his back.

  Another turn.

  Too slow.

  A touch.

  Sudden pain.

  Shocking.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Eron heard the sneer in his ear.

  He glanced down at the wet red hand protruding from his right pec.

  “Invulnerable? It appears not.” The demigod chuckled. “Not your physical body. Oh, it’s strong and durable, but nothing truly God-like. I’d judge you to be on the same level as one of Adras’ brood. It’s the field that truly pushes you to the pinnacle of this world’s native defenders. And it took me less than a handful of touches to decipher and unlock it. What’s it like to know true pain after its long absence?” He pushed Eron’s back to pull his hand out. “Now—”

  Eron squeezed the demigod’s wrist and twisted.

  He was rewarded with a satisfying combination of crunch and crack.

  Almost as satisfying as the demigod’s high-pitched shriek.

  “I imagine it felt like that, but from the sound of your screaming, you’ve had much longer to forget what it’s like.”

  Eron spat red.

  His voice had gurgled.

  A demigod’s arm in one lung made fluids go where they normally weren’t supposed to be.

  The demigod snaked his other arm under Eron’s chin.

  Lean-muscled, but hard as metal with exponentially greater strength than it appeared.

  Another mistake, for it only brought the demigods face closer.

  Eron snapped his head back.

  Crunch!

  Another of those satisfying sounds.

  Before the demigod could choke out a complaint Eron turned his back to the ground and plummeted faster than a meteor.

  The impact destabilized the tornado, leaving its rapidly dissipating winds to wobble away like a drunk after closing.

  Eron pulled himself off the demigod with a sick squelch.

  The gaping hole in his chest would be fine and heal even without outside intervention.

  Holes had been poked before.

  Just not as badly.

  Had he not jerked to one side?

  Well… he had never had his heart destroyed before.

  Nicked and cut, sure, even squeezed once.

  But, never full destruction.

  That probably wasn’t survivable.

  The hole was fine.

  His forcefield would seal it now that the demigod’s arm wasn’t inside him anymore.

  “I can’t believe you were inside me without even buying me drinks or flowers first. Not that I swing that way. I mean, you are objectively handsome in the physical sense. I’m mature and secure enough to say that. But—” He regarded the demigod’s broken form. “That is to say, you were handsome. Not so much now. Guess my forcefield is exponentially stronger than yours. Just another way in which us Earthians prove superior to your fake gods.”

  “Blasphemy,” the demigod choked, showering himself in wet gold flecked with other bits.

  “You should talk to priests, imams… there’s literally at least one of each religious-type on this world that’d say the same thing. It’s like Pokemon. Gotta catch ‘em all.”

  Golden light flared.

  Eron cursed, launching himself at the downed demigod.

  Fist cratered the ground.

  “I am Ekraiades!” The demigod stood whole a short distance away, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. Sculpted golden armor suddenly unblemished, free of blood and dirt. Shattered nose and broken arm good as new. “Son of Ekra! There are none faster! Kneel mortal a—”

  Eron punched him in the chest.

  The demigod tumbled across the ground, tearing a deep furrow in soil, crashing through trees and unlucky creatures.

  The follow up punch missed.

  Ekraiades tried to flee, but he grabbed the back of the demigod’s armor and ripped.

  Enchanted straps or not, the backplate came free.

  “Yoink! This is mine now.” He slammed the plate into the stone, driving it all the way until it was flush.

  Saved it for later.

  If that damaged it then it wasn’t worth keeping anyways.

  “I’m going to take your stuff and sell it for cheap or give it to a mere mortal.”

  The demigod’s super fast strides had carried him many kilometers in the distance.

  Eron flew up in a parabolic arc, coming down just behind.

  “How fast can you heal from this?” He swiped his arm low at the demigod’s ankle.

  Tripping and face planting at supersonic speed was an ugly, unpleasant experience.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The demigod plowed another furrow, but came out of the roll glowing bright.

  “Aaannnddd… he’s healed.” Eron chuckled. “How many lives left, kitty cat?”

  “The Golden Road Rises.”

  The demigod sprinted into the sky upon a narrow road of ethereal gold light.

  Faster than before.

  “It doesn’t matter where you run. You’re still too slow.”

  Eron caught up somewhere over the grand canyon.

  “The Atomic Runner’s Wake!”

  Each step upon the golden road sent up a burst of microscopic particles.

  A glittering golden cloud to seed the sky.

  “Huh?”

  A bit early to bring that spell out.

  Eron glanced back, tracking the magic road.

  From his altitude he followed it all the way back to its origin.

  At least it wasn’t close to any populated areas.

  However, he had to force the demigod’s hand before the bastard reached Southern California.

  With a sigh, he took his helmet off and flung it forward before flying into the cloud and in the demigod’s wake.

  Ekraiades glanced back with a wink and a smirk.

  Eron blasted twin beams at the demigod’s back.

  Magic shield flared to life.

  He put on a burst of speed and closed quickly.

  The demigod snapped his fingers and the golden cloud and road exploded with the power of a nuclear bomb.

  Eron ignore the blastwave and cut through, grabbing the demigod by the back of the neck like an unruly puppy.

  “That’s gonna leave a scar.”

  He had to eyeball it, but he figured close to 1000 kilometers of land and a nice chunk of the eastern portion of the Grand Canyon had been devastated.

  “Man, whoever sent you to my world was cold. They did not do you any favors. Sure hope you didn’t have to win, like, an auction to get your slot. Cause that’d be a bummer. All those points, artifacts and future favors just to—”

  The demigod slashed his hand over his head.

  Eron let go, not liking the way the entire arm blurred.

  What had that one moron said a long time ago?

  “Vibrate your hand through me once… can’t get vibrated again?”

  Whatever it was must’ve been really stupid.

  He regarded the falling demigod with eye beams.

  Sadly, Ekraiades had rotated around so that they splashed off his sculpted breastplate.

  “Why sculpt the nipples, but not the belly button?” He zoomed down and seized the demigod around the throat. “Are you a human-type without belly buttons? How does that even work? How did you get sustenance in your mother’s womb? Even people grown in a vat have belly buttons. I can’t think of one naturally-occurring species that doesn’t have a belly button. Like egg sacks are a thing, you know?”

  “They were right about you,” Ekraiades growled. “You never shut up!”

  The demigod’s entire body vibrated, slipping out of Eron’s grasp.

  “How do you not lose your clothes? And don’t give me that unstable molecules bullshit.”

  “Skyrunner.”

  Ekraiades continued to run.

  This time he strode through the air, leaving glowing footprints in his wake.

  Eron retrieved his falling helmet and gave chase.

  Fingers snapped.

  Footprints exploded with the force of… a grenade…

  “Did you blow your load?”

  The demigod put on a burst of speed.

  Mach 3 verging on 4?

  Getting close to his upper limits according to Cal’s scouting report.

  Supersonic, but not hypersonic except for short bursts.

  Eron tried to lead with his eye beams, but the demigod juked out of their path every single time.

  The demigod ran faster than a fighter jet, but could juke like a running back even at that speed.

  A sprawling desert dominated the landscape in front of them.

  Phoenix, Arizona.

  Home to a small population of people.

  Plenty enough to use as human shields.

  Eron went hypersonic to the demigod’s north, cutting off the angle.

  The chase entered the airspace above the Sonoran Desert.

  Southern California loomed closer by the second.

  Dark days ahead, if he allowed Ekraiades to get into a populated area. Couldn’t chase the demigod down without causing a catastrophic amount of damage to everyone.

  Dark clouds loomed ahead… in the literal sense.

  “Ah… thunderbirds.”

  He saw five converging on Southern California.

  They must’ve been attracted to the raging battle.

  He closed his faceplate to access the HUD.

  “A few hundred kilometers?” he mused. “Close enough…”

  He scorched the sky in his wake.

  Rain drops could cut like knives at his speed.

  The thunderbird cawed like an angry crow as it barely noticed his imminent arrival.

  Lightning flashed through where he had been hundreds of meters prior.

  He grabbed the thunderbird’s massive beak in a bear hug and flew the thing back the way he had come.

  “Are you cr—” the demigod managed to blurt before Eron chucked the squawking bird the size of a private jet in his path.

  “Lightblade Sprint!”

  The thunderbird’s cries of rage turned into pain, then fear as it plummeted to the desert with only one desperately flapping wing.

  Eron flew over to grab the severed one and flung it at the demigod like a boomerang.

  It appeared that a feathered wing was made to fly in a very specific way.

  Who knew?

  The demigod turned westward once again, but Eron blocked his path.

  They did the same dance several times before the demigod decided to head southeast.

  Mexico City, Tlaloc’s capital, held the most population, but there were many settlements around it that held decent human shield potential.

  Another battle raged above and within the capital. Another storm cloud hung overhead, except this time the lighting was of a reddish color.

  “Hey? Can someone let Tlaloc know that I might be entering their airspace in pursuit of fasto… er… Ekraiades. It’d be great if Tlaloc could slow him down some without slowing me down,” he said into the comms.

  The helmet was annoying in so much as he usually broke them and he had to keep opening the faceplate to fire his eye beams. However, it was useful at times.

  “Right away, sir,” a deep voice rumbled.

  “Thanks, uh… my guy. Keep up the good work.”

  Damn it.

  He forgot the guy’s name… wait?

  Did he even get it in the first place?

  “Ah… cancel that.”

  Ekraiades suddenly cut east, giving Mexico City a very wide berth.

  Gulf of Mexico.

  Skimmed over the tip of the Yucatan. Just the tip.

  Over a bunch of islands.

  Into the Atlantic.

  Dark and foreboding.

  Where giant monsters battled in the deep.

  A hurricane roared.

  Ekraiades ran straight into it.

  Eron flew behind, dodging golden missiles all the way into the eye and out the other side.

  Africa loomed.

  They called it the dark continent, but Eron didn’t see it.

  All continents looked the same to him.

  Except for Antarctica, which was all white with bits of gray.

  He figured the people who called Africa that were just racists.

  It was a personal theory of his that a lot of the stupidest stuff people did throughout history was because they were being racist.

  Now, he wasn’t some kind of anthropologist or racistologist, but he felt that he was on to something.

  Unfortunate that he had neither the time nor inclination to do a proper study.

  Feels over reals.

  If that was good enough for those kinds of people then it was good enough for him.

  A winged horror rose up out of the dark jungles.

  To be clear, it was only dark because it was night time.

  The Congo.

  He remembered killing an Ebola monster once.

  Good times.

  Ekraiades sprinted right through the bat-snake-crocodile-thing.

  Eron burned it to ash with a passing look.

  He didn’t like the wriggling worm-like things falling out of the hole in its torso.

  They were still alive and he had seen enough monsters in their death throes that shit out other monsters.

  To the northeast.

  Pyramids in the distance!

  Ah…

  More battle.

  He sighed.

  Not unexpected.

  Cal’s projections had said that a world war was probable since Suiteonemiades would likely contact other outworld invaders to encourage them to all attack Earthian cities, towns and settlements at the same time.

  A raging sandstorm roared around a wide area.

  Khamaseen protecting people from the outworld invaders.

  Eron frowned.

  It was starting to look like he was going to have a busy night after he took care of Ekraiades.

  The chase roared over the once holy land, now an irradiated wasteland that continued to plague the surrounding area by belching out radioactive monsters.

  Ekraiades skirted the Mediterranean, vaguely mirroring the coastline.

  He tried to turn back to the northwest.

  Once again headed for a populated location.

  “Dude, you’re like the dumbass puppy my sister had back in that day.” Eron forced the demigod north with a sustained blast of solar eye beams. “Kenbark Labark would try to jump into a fire pit for the hotdogs and smores. You know, in retrospect her naming choice was a terrible fit. Granted, she was twelve and it’s not like she knew the puppy would turn out to be stupid. I cannot tell you how many times I burned myself for that absolute moron. He made it to ten, though, so got to give him that. Somehow, I don’t think you’re life-expectancy is looking as good as the dumbest dog I ever had the pleasure of knowing.” He put on a burst of speed.

  Spear-tackle.

  Aiming for about a hundred meters ahead of the demigod’s spine.

  That’s how one did it.

  Try to hit a spot past the target.

  Go through.

  He flew at a hypersonic speed straight through the vibrating demigod.

  “It seems to me that you and that creature were well-matched.” Ekraiades grinned before planting a foot in the air and cutting northeast.

  “Getting tired?”

  “My divine energy is endless.”

  They traded blasts, brightening the dark sky for a moment.

  “I can hear your heart. It’s beating pretty fast there. And a normal person could see that your bosom is heaving. Lungs burning? Stitch in your side? Shin splints? What’s the issue? Not used to running at your top speeds for so long?”

  “I can run for an eternity.”

  “Those beads of sweat on your forehead say otherwise.”

  Ekraiades snarled, juking right, then left, then suddenly reversing course with barely discernible shift in momentum.

  Talk about turning on a dime.

  A nearly instant 180.

  “Lightblade Hyperdash!”

  A golden blade cut across the dark, met by streams of sunlight.

  Night turned to day, mimicking the far east horizon.

  Two flickering stars crashed to the earth.

  One rose quicker than the other.

  Eron boomed across the snow-covered taiga.

  “Looking pretty rough there.” He grabbed Ekraiades by the front of the golden breastplate still buzzing with magical energy from the impact. “Let me help you up… and down.” He slammed the demigod into the permafrost, deepening the crater.

  Dark brown eyes peered into the distance.

  “How are you with worms? You know, the body-jacking kind?”

  Ekraiades spat gold in his face.

  “Is that fear I smell? From mere worms? The blood of a God courses through me. Divine energy suffuses my being.”

  Eron shrugged. “Same. I mean, not that godblood crap. Got a super immune system and solar energy in my cells. You know how it is. Sunny D, it’s got what plants crave, but apparently the same doesn’t go for the worms.”

  Ekraiades eyes narrowed.

  “I will teach you the price of contempt!” His hand struck like a serpent. “Touch of—”

  Eron’s hands blurred.

  One caught the demigod’s wrist and the other clamped over the mouth.

  He squeezed hard enough to turn coal into diamond.

  The cracks echoed across the not so desolate landscape.

  Ekraiades’ eyes bulged and his throat worked with a scream that couldn’t escape.

  Golden desperation burst forth only to be met with a solar glare.

  “I don’t like killing. I take away everything you’ve been, are and ever could be… although, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m sure your countless victims across your 273 years would agree. Still, some say that the door to redemption shouldn’t ever be closed. I’m kinda a waffler on that one. It’s tough. I go back and forth. I always eventually run into a special kind of evil person. Slavers. Cannibals. You.” Eron shrugged. “Sadly, I made a promise. I’m morally obligated to offer you an out despite of what you’ve done, not just in your past history on other worlds, but here on mine. You can thank my brother for that. He thought I’d be worth it to toss you into that.” He gestured to the nearby spire with its gleaming iridescence despite the night. “So, I’m going to break all your bones and you go in there and go to wherever you want. Once you get there you’ll tell your fake gods that Earth is not open for their kind. We aren’t about colonialism here. Then, after you heal, I’m sure you’ll be back for revenge. At which point I will throw you into the sun or maybe I’ll have your so-called divine energy drained and used to power a school or something like that.” He released the demigod’s broken mouth and glanced at the pieces of ivory. “Nod if you agree.”

  Ekraiades gurgled and vibrated out of his grasp.

  The demigod got a thousand meters before Eron swooped out of the sky and planted a boot in his back.

  “That’s a ‘no’ then.”

  A frantic nod.

  “You only had the one chance.”

  Eron took Ekraiades on a one way trip off planet.

  A minute later he was back in atmosphere, putting his helmet on.

  “Reporting in.”

  “Copy, Relentless, sir.”

  The same deep rumbling voice.

  He pictured an absolute unit of a dude.

  He really should know the guy’s name, but now it was at that point were it would’ve been more awkward to ask.

  “Ekraiades is dead. No, that’s not right. I need to take responsibility. Ekraiades was thrown into space, toward the sun. No, that’s passive voice right there. I’m not a cop.” He sighed. He had acted like one though. Such a hypocrite. “I killed Ekraiades by throwing him at the sun. He refused the offer.”

  “Copy, sir. Not to doubt you, but can you verify death?”

  Shit!

  He forgot to record with his helmet.

  “I forgot to record with my helmet. You can take my word, right?”

  “Absolutely, sir!”

  “Right, so, Ekraiades, uh, died in space. That is to say, he couldn’t survive the vacuum of space. Listened to his vitals stop and didn’t detect any divine energy shenanigans.”

  He didn’t feel the need to describe the specifics of how one died in the vacuum of space.

  They could bother him about it later.

  “Alright, I’m heading back to D.C.”

  “Hold on, sir! I’m getting an emergency report from my sup— oh shit! Um… nuclear launch detected!”

  Eron frowned.

  The way the guy said that reminded him of—

  “Vintage game connoisseur, are you?”

  “I— uh, um, I— I’m so sorry. I couldn’t resist. I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “Nah, don’t worry about it. Takes me back. Not that I got to play originally. Had to watch my older brothers. They wouldn’t tell me how to work the emulator… actually, you should probably give me the details on that nuclear launch. I can hear your supervisor yelling.”

  “Arctic circle. Sending coordinates to your helmet.”

  “Thanks, but I see the missile.”

  Eron tore through the upper atmosphere, intercepting the Trident and throwing it into space.

  As for the submarine?

  He dragged it to the surface, ripped off its propeller and poked holes in the hull.

  Not enough to sink it, but enough to prevent it from submerging.

  He peeled it open just enough to gaze down at the command crew.

  “You just tried to nuke the best run community in the western world. What the fuck, man? You want me to nuke your home? You know what? Fuck you. I don’t have time for this. Good luck with the ice-type monsters out here. I’ll come save your sorry asses if I have time after having to deal with your stupid zombie country.”

  Eron breached the atmosphere for the second time in ten minutes when he blinked.

  His eyes had grown blurry for a reason that hit him a moment later with a blade to his invulnerable heart.

  A dream?

  Nightmare?

  Both.

  What was that? Don’t tell me it was real? What do you mean you can’t do anything? Try something else then! The automatons! Put his consciousness into one of those for now. Then we’ll figure something out. I know! Clone him a body! Use that Threnosh birth sac tech! There’s no fucking impossible! We do that shit at least a couple of times a year! No? Well, yeah, I don’t mean the same exact literal thing, but you have to try something! You can’t just let him go! Bro! That’s fucked up! He beat that fuck! He doesn’t deserve to just d— no! Not saying it. C’mon, dude, I’m just asking for a miracle. What about the Pope? I can grab him and every prayer-type big shot and bring them over. They do their prayer magic to— I don’t know— like, keep his soul or whatever here while we figure out a fix. If they suck, then I’ll grab Ms. Teacher. Fuck her magic tower defenses. I’ll get through— Yo, stop with that shit. You know how Boy’s always been afraid of himself. Of course, he’d ask you to let him go. What I’m saying is you just delay that decision for a bit. What? You don’t even want to try? He’s your only s— How many scenarios did you run? That much? That many years worth? Jesus fuck! Well? Keep doing it until the last possible moment you absolutely have to let him— this is that, isn’t it? Last goodbyes? No, you wouldn’t. I’m sorry for saying all that. Only Nila would try harder than you to find a way. How much time is left? Okay. I understand. Can I get more time with him? Thanks, bro… I’m really sorry…