[A/N]: Alright, first goal of the week is 200 Power stones, so get to it!!
"So yes, Jay, you have my attention. You're a glitch in reality. And that makes your soul incredibly valuable. Since outsider souls don't follow the normal rules, they're pure potential and chaos."
His yellow eyes blazed brighter.
"And I'm going to add you to my collection."
Jay felt something crack inside him.
It was his composure.
That belief shattered and broke apart like glass under a hammer.
But he couldn't surrender. Because surrendering meant damnation, and it meant Domino and the others would be next.
So he attacked with hope & desperation.
Jay raised his weapon and channeled everything into it. Every ounce of Lightforce and every drop of anti-magic.
Holding nothing back, he swung.
The dimensional slash erupted from his blade, a technique he'd refined in Kamar-Taj. But this time, amplified beyond anything he'd attempted. Fueled by desperation and the absolute need to hurt this thing.
The blade cut the dimension itself.
The slash expanded. Growing from knife-edge to highway-width in seconds. The pocket dimension itself began to tear.
The attack would have killed anything mortal, banished most demons and erased a god's avatar.
It should have worked.
But Mephisto was not most beings.
Mephisto just clapped.
The sound was thunder as two giant hands manifested from nothing. Each the size of a building and made of living hellfire.
They moved with impossible speed and came together and caught the dimensional slash between their palms.
Like catching a fly.
The clash created a shockwave that shattered what remained of the platform as the entire dimension screamed.
The impossible attack and impossible defense ground against each other. Reality screamed from the strain as the dimensional slash tried to cut through, but the hellfire hands refused to be cut.
Then the hands closed completely and crushed the attack like tin foil.
The dimensional slash vanished and simply ceased to exist.
But when the hands dissipated, Mephisto looked at his palms with surprise.
A single cut marred the perfect crimson skin of both his palms.
It was shallow and barely bleeding, but there and proof that Jay had hurt him.
Mephisto stared at the wound for a long moment. Then, slowly, he threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahahaha!!!"
The sound was terrible. Just genuine mirth and pure delight.
"Ah, Jay!" He licked the blood from his palm. "I thought you'd lost your spark! The power you displayed in New York! But look at this!" He held up his hand like a trophy. "You did this to me! You actually hurt me! You really are special! You really are worth collecting!"
Jay didn't pause to celebrate.
He activated Kim Il Sung's evolved functionality manipulation. Combined it with his null field and channelled both through the Muramasa blade, focusing everything into a single point.
The attack was invisible. A wave of pure negation that unmade mystical frameworks and disrupted demonic essence. Scrambling the fundamental functions that allowed Mephisto to exist in this dimension.
It should have forced him back to hell.
But Mephisto waved his hand dismissively, casual and bored even.
The attack hit him. Splashed against him like water against stone as some got through, leaving shallow cuts across his skin, but only surface damage.
He looked at the new cuts with mild interest, then at Jay and finally back at the cuts.
"Is that all?" His tone was genuinely curious. "I expected more after that opening. That dimensional slash was art. Pure, beautiful art. But this?" He gestured at the shallow wounds. "This is just disappointing."
Jay's heart sank.
He'd used everything. Everything. And it had done nothing.
Mephisto's attention turned to Selene. She stood behind him, trembling. The collar pulsing as her eyes fixed on Jay with something that might have been pity.
The demon's eyes gleamed.
"My beautiful External." His voice was silk and pure seduction. "You've given me such a wonderful gift. A rare soul of an outsider untainted by this reality's karma." His smile widened. "Once I'm done with him, once I process his soul and add it to my collection, I'll be gentle with you." He paused. "Instead of infinite servitude, how about finite? Say, seventeen thousand years? As long as you've been alive? Isn't that generous?"
Selene's smile was the rictus grin of someone with no choice.
"Of course, Lord Mephisto. I'm just happy my offering pleased you."
Her eyes met Jay's. And in them, Jay saw his own future of eternal servitude and torment without end.
Jay felt it then. The true weight of despair pressed down on his soul like mountains.
His key attacks had failed. Everything he'd thrown had been blocked, negated, or dismissed. And Mephisto wasn't even trying.
Jay was going to die here. And worse, his soul was going to be claimed.
His hands trembled, as his form flickered and his breath came in sharp gasps.
This was it, this was how it ended. Not in glorious battle or in Domino's arm, But In futility.
But he had one more trick. One recent power he'd stolen. Jamie's reality warping.
It was his final desperate gambit.
Red strings materialized from his palms. Reality-warping threads that pulsed with Jamie's stolen power. But Jay didn't just copy what he'd seen. He evolved it by combining it with Muramasa's anti-magic and infused it with Lightforce while wrapping it in the null field. And finally channelled his functionality manipulation through it.
And made it something new.
The result was a spear. Woven from red strings that glowed white at their cores. Each thread carrying the will to unmake and reject Mephisto's existence.
Jay poured everything into it. All his rage, fear and desperate need to protect Domino and everyone else.
He threw it.
The spear tore through the pocket dimension like tissue paper as reality parted around it. Other realms became visible as Dimensions colliding became visible.
The spear crossed the distance in a microsecond. It was perfect, unstoppable and absolute.
It was his ace in the hole.
But Mephisto caught it.
With both hands as the demon examined the spear with genuine interest.
His fingers moved, and the reality-warping strings began to unravel. Their fundamental nature rewritten.
They reverted to strings, then morphed and transformed into threads and fabric.
The red strings reformed themselves into an overcoat. It was perfectly tailored and stylish.
Mephisto shrugged it on, settled the garment across his shoulders and adjusted the collar.
Like he had all the time in the world.
"Selene, darling." His voice was pleasant. "How do I look?"
She stared at the overcoat. Then at Jay, seeing the devastation in his eyes and then back at Mephisto.
"You look... magnificent, my lord."
"I thought so too." Mephisto admired his new coat. "The craftsmanship is exquisite. The desperation woven into each thread gives it such character. I'll have to thank Jay properly before I claim his soul. Maybe I'll let him watch as I process his loved ones."
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