"RUN WHERE?!"
Zeus's voice thundered across the devastated battlefield. His expression twisted with rage as he stared at the fleeing group. "YOU INSOLENT PIECES OF SCUM! YOU THINK YOU'LL LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY?! AND YOU, CUB! I LET YOU LIVE IN ALL MY GLORY, ONLY FOR YOU TO PLOT AGAINST ME! THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE CLEANSED THE WORLD THE FIRST TIME!"
Michael knew they couldn't win. Not against Zeus. Not in their current condition. But they didn't need to win. They needed a window. Just one opportunity to escape.
"Vincent, I'll fight alone. I need one favour from you."
Vincent stared at the barely standing boy in disbelief. "Fight him alone?! You're going to die! And if you die, we're all dead!"
Michael raised his hand, silencing him. There was no time for an argument. "Ignore the shouting god and listen. Construct two boots made from highly conductive metal, a pair of metal gloves, and one rod. After that, I want you and the beast to pour every last drop of energy into constructing something that can take us out of sight. We can't win this fight, but we can escape." He stared directly into Vincent's eyes. "You want to kill me? Then let's survive this first."
Zeus stood with his hands folded, watching them almost impatiently. "Michael, don't keep me waiting."
He was confident. Why wouldn't he be? He could kill the Michael standing before him with little effort. But Michael's greatest weapon had never been his Emo or his physical strength. He had been born without either in any extraordinary measure. What he had been given, however, was a brain. And it was a brain he had always pushed to its absolute limits.
As Vincent worked, Michael slipped into the highly conductive metal boots and gloves. He picked up the iron rod and began walking towards Precious, deliberately ignoring the god waiting to slaughter them all.
He stopped beside her and looked down.
"Precious, I hate you, but I can't kill you."
He bent down, lifted her unconscious body and threw her towards the group. Then he glanced at Vincent and the beast, giving them a single nod.
"BE QUICK!"
Finally, Michael turned towards Zeus.
"God, I need Iyi back. That boy inside you showed me the right path."
Zeus smiled.
"Well, Michael, I cannot release your friend. But I can certainly help you meet him."
Lightning began crackling across the heavens, illuminating the sky like a thousand constellations. Then the blue sky darkened. Clouds gathered overhead, swallowing the remaining light as bolts of lightning tore through them. The eyes of the boy known as Iyi began glowing an intense blue. The veins across his hands bulged, as though he were summoning the entirety of Olympus itself.
It was the same attack that had nearly killed Michael and Elizabeth during their first encounter with such overwhelming power.
"We could have been friends, Michael. But I cannot keep a friend who is my greatest weakness."
The already devastated surroundings began to tremble. The ground cracked beneath their feet as the atmosphere grew increasingly unstable. Behind Michael, Vincent's paintbrush swung left, right, then centre as he poured every remaining ounce of energy into his construction. His hands trembled. His core was already exhausted, but he continued drawing.
Meanwhile, Michael stood like an ant before the heavens. A battered nineteen-year-old boy, armed with nothing but metal gloves, metal boots and an iron rod. His muscles trembled as he slowly raised the rod towards the sky.
"Zeus, God of Lightning..." He stared into the heavens. "Have you ever felt the power of science?"
The lightning began to gather.
Every bolt that had been destined to annihilate the entire group was drawn towards the pointed rod. The electricity converged, following the conductive metal as though it had found its destined path. But there was a problem.
Michael was about to become the conductor for an attack capable of devastating an entire state. All that electricity was being directed into one human body.
Vincent watched the spectacle, his eyes widening.
"I CAN'T MESS THIS UP!"
Michael glanced back towards the group. His eyes settled on Precious. Her eyelids trembled. Slowly, she opened them, and their eyes met.
Precious immediately struggled to her feet.
Michael turned back towards Zeus, then spoke without taking his eyes off the god.
"Your power may not work on me because of what we shared. Because of my hatred for you. But just this once, Precious..."
His voice weakened.
"Be the girl I loved. Use me the way you used to. Make me your tool. Let me be Okechukwu, and let you be Nmesoma, just once again."
For a moment, Precious said nothing.
Then a tear rolled down her cheek.
Zeus smiled as he watched the lightning gather around Michael. "I see. You think you can take all of that, Michael? You can't."
Michael smiled back.
"I can't. Not if I want to live."
He glanced towards Precious one final time and nodded.
Precious's eyes glowed purple. Her hair slowly rose as her ability awakened. Her voice trembled, but her words carried across the battlefield.
"ABILITY: PROPHECY!"
She raised her hand.
"MICHAEL, I COMMAND YOU TO USE YOUR FULL POTENTIAL!"
Michael's eyes immediately turned purple.
FULL RELEASE.
But this time, something was different.
There was no steam. No familiar regeneration. No sense of his body rebuilding itself. Instead, it felt as though every part of him was being torn apart from within. His skin began thinning, exposing the bones beneath. Blood erupted from his body, pouring from his eyes and mouth. His veins burst one after another.
He screamed in agony.
There was no energy sustaining him. No reserves to replenish what he was losing. He was forcing FULL RELEASE through a body that had practically nothing left to give.
His skin continued to darken and crack. His muscles deteriorated, leaving him looking almost skeletal. Blood ran down his face as the red energy within his eyes began to bleed out.
He screamed like a beast on its last legs.
"ZEUS! HIT MEEEE!"
Zeus's expression changed.
"I WILL, HUMAN!"
The heavens answered.
A colossal bolt of lightning descended from the sky, so enormous that its radiance swallowed the battlefield. It blotted out the remaining light as it came crashing towards the tiny human standing beneath it.
Michael stretched out his arms.
The iron rod began absorbing the lightning, channelling it through his metal gloves and into his body. But the gloves melted almost immediately. The metal liquefied against his hands as the electricity tore through him. His body became a living conductor.
Vincent continued pouring his soul into the construction. His paintbrush moved relentlessly, left, right, centre. His core was depleted, yet he refused to stop. The beast, too, began transferring its own energy into the construction, feeding Vincent what remained of its enormous reserves.
Even the beast was approaching its limit.
Meanwhile, Michael continued absorbing the lightning.
His skin blackened further, splitting apart as his body burned beneath the immense current. This wasn't ordinary electricity. It was energy of a magnitude his body had never been designed to withstand. He had no reserves left to sustain FULL RELEASE. No regeneration to repair the damage. He was essentially a human being trying to contain an attack that could erase an entire state.
He was dying.
Until Vincent finally screamed.
"IT'S DONE!"
Behind him stood a massive cart fitted with an enormous jet engine. Its frame was reinforced with layers of metal, designed for one purpose: to get them as far away from Zeus as possible.
Precious watched Michael, tears streaming down her face. She raised her trembling hand and screamed:
"PROPHECY! I COMMAND YOU TO COME HERE, MICHAEL!"
Michael's body suddenly moved on its own.
The moment he stepped out of the lightning's path, everything came crashing down. The accumulated electricity descended behind him, tearing through the battlefield with enough force to erase whatever remained.
Michael had just endured a billion volts of electricity. But at what cost?
He staggered towards the group, his body barely responding. Vincent and the beast had already loaded everyone into the cart. The moment Michael climbed aboard, Precious released her ability.
The beast immediately turned towards her.
"NO! KEEP CONTROLLING HIM! HE'S ONLY ALIVE BECAUSE YOU'RE COMMANDING HIM TO BE!"
But Zeus was already smiling.
"And all this lightning is still meant for you."
He thrust both hands forward.
The heavens erupted.
A colossal storm of lightning shot towards them, swallowing the space between Zeus and the fleeing group. There was nowhere left to run.
Yet Vincent smiled.
"BUT WE'RE FASTER THAN LIGHTNING!"
KABOOOOOM!
The engines roared with a sound so immense it seemed almost mythical. The entire cart was immediately enclosed within a titanium shell as the jet engines unleashed their full power.
Then they disappeared.
The group shot forward at a speed that made teleportation seem ordinary. The landscape vanished around them, replaced by an endless blur of terrain. In a single second, they covered approximately 5,000 kilometres.
The cart couldn't withstand the journey. Its titanium exterior fractured, its engines tore apart, and the entire construction disintegrated as it finally came to a stop in a completely different region of the Wasteland.
Before anyone could even process where they had arrived, Vincent collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
"MICHAEL!" Precious screamed.
But Michael wasn't responding.
Back at the battlefield, Zeus stood motionless.
For a brief moment, he couldn't comprehend what had happened. The group had moved so quickly that even the shockwave from their departure struck him before he could regain control. The force sent him flying backwards.
When he finally steadied himself, he looked around.
They were gone.
Not a single trace of them remained.
The god had been outmanoeuvred.
The group had escaped the jaws of death.
But at what cost?