With the entire Zenith base shaking because of the constant barrage of fire, there isn’t much time to act: despite its size, the building won’t last long against such an attack.
Quantum blasts open the cage holding Helen of Troy, who jumps at him throwing her arms around him; it’s so sudden than he almost suspects an attack, but it’s hard to be scared of the most beautiful woman in the universe.
<Thank you so much for rescuing me! I’ll make sure you’re richly rewarded for this!>
<I, uhm, just part of the job?> he stutters embarrassedly; she still has her mask on, so he’s still able to resist her charm to a certain extent.
<So, do we have a way out?> he asks, his question accompanied by another very violent shake of the base. Noriko Null is busy working ceaselessly on the computer system, and considering how much her silver eyes are shining it’s not an easy job.
<Almost done; the system is rigged to delete itself if someone tries to download the database. This is pretty advanced… Athena’s tech, I presume?> she asks Ulysses, who is is currently immobilized by Torn.
The Demon is keeping him on the ground on a chokehold, with energy blades ready to damage every single living organ at a moment’s notice. Even like this, it’s taking all of Torn’s concentration to shield himself from the power of his opponent’s Soul Control.
<You’re making a big mistake, Null. You can’t go around killing one god after the other and expect it to work forever; this is a far more complicated game.>
<Quiet.> Torn replies to Ulysses, holding a dagger an inch away from his throat.
<And your “game” required engineering a civil war who has claimed who knows how many lives? Sorry, I don’t wanna play. We’re done here anyway.> Noriko says, disconnecting her N-Phone from the system after downloading every piece of information.
<Now what? We don’t have a way out of this dimension!> Quantum reminds her.
<Not right away, but gimme five minutes.> Noriko says, remotely activating a teleporter.
On the bridge of one of the dreadnaughts
Quantum is more used to anyone else to moving almost instantaneously from place to place, so he’s not particularly shocked when he finds himself on the bridge together with Noriko, Torn, Ulysses and Helen.
What he didn’t expect was to be the target of a dozen laser guns, while at the same time unable to change into anything thanks to a field of anti-neutrinos saturating every deck of the ship.
<Oh come on, seriously!?> he complains.
<I’ll take care of this.> Helen of Troy reassures him, taking off the white mask covering her face.
Everyone freezes in place, unable to move a single muscle as they stare at her beauty.
In Quantum’s eyes, she just turned into a black woman. For Torn she’s now a Demon, and Noriko would swear that she’s Asian.
<You wouldn’t want to hurt me, would you darlings?> Helen asks innocently.
Everyone is too enchanted by her presence to even entertain the idea of fighting, and several weapons fall to the floor immediately.
<That’s so nice of you! I really, really appreciate it. Now what do we do with this ship, Null? Null?> Helen calls, turning towards the Slayer of Gods.
<Uh? What? Sorry, I was distracted.> Noriko replies, trying to wipe the drool off her chin while acting as discreetly as possible.
<My bad! Sometimes I forget the effect I have on mortals. I’ll just put the mask back on.> Helen says, but when she tries to cover her face Torn suddenly grabs her mask.
<Wait! You shouldn’t cover such beauty!>
<Torn, what the f#ck are you doing!?> Noriko protests: the Demon has completely forgotten about Ulysses, and the Blood weapons holding him back have disappeared.
<Don’t you dare touch her!> Quantum protests, running towards Torn to tackle him.
As if things couldn’t degenerate any further, the dreadnaught’s crew begins a riot: whether it’s because someone was caught looking at Helen a little to lustfully, or even in the rush to get a good view of her beautiful face, it’s immediately chaos.
Noriko takes out her Genius Gun to shoot Ulysses, but he’s positioning himself to make sure there’s always someone innocent between himself and the weapon. What’s worse, Noriko is having extreme difficulty concentrating: her eyes are continuously drawn towards Helen.
<Allying yourself with Helen, Null? Rookie mistake. Her mere presence is enough to send even the most extraordinary men crazy; she’s bound to unleash chaos.> he lectures her.
<How are you immune to her power!?>
<I’m not, but her spell can be broken by limitless willpower. And despite your reputation, Slayer of Gods… it appears that you have reached your limit.> Ulysses explains, just as space warps around him to announce the arrival of Skorpios. She takes Helen’s mask and forcefully places it back on her face, using her cybernetically enhanced strength to physically restrain the demigoddess.
<My limit?> Noriko repeats, looking around: Torn and Quantum are still dazed after experiencing direct exposure to Helen’s presence, and even in top condition they would have trouble overcoming Skorpios. To make matters worse, the bridge is swarmed by more armed officers who have not been exposed to Helen and who look extremely trigger-happy.
<You’re a very resourceful adversary, Ulysses. I’ll freely admit that you’re a much better planner than me. But you forgot one thing about me.>
<I have been planning this confrontation for years. I have planned for everything you have and I have taken into consideration everything about you.>
<All except one thing: breaking limits is what I do. I am Null.> she boasts as her eyes turn golden and bolts of electricity surround her body.
When she opens fire on Skorpios, the rest of the crew does the same: she has to defend herself from multiple shots coming from every direction.
The mastery of her Drylon device is so great that she manages to intercept every single blast with a micro-portal, but she’s taken by surprise when a Blood sword pierces her stomach.
<You blinked.> Torn taunts her.
Ulysses was ready for this, and he prepares to use his mastery of Soul Control to force the blade to disappear. But instead he’s taken by surprise when a blinding light flashes through the bridge, forcing him to hesitate for a couple of seconds. That’s when he notices that both Skorpios and Torn have completely vanished.
<What?> he wonders, looking around: on the main viewscreen, the endless void of the pocket dimension has been replaced by the light of a star, just a few million miles away.
<Your system really was too hard for me to crack. So instead I just uploaded a virus that gave me a backdoor access to the navigation system. I’m guessing you didn’t expect that one, uh?> Noriko explains, calmly walking towards one of the consoles.
The crew steps away to let her pass: she seems to have them completely under control thanks to her golden eyes. Ulysses could conceivably take out more than half of them, but that’s completely out of the question once Noriko disables the anti-neutrino field.
<What happened to Skorpios? Where did you send her?> Ulysses asks, trying to buy time.
<She’s right where we left her: I just moved the rest of the ship, no to mention of your fleet. Oh, here’s another thing you didn’t know: star drive engines can be used to jump between dimensions. Don’t feel too bad, I didn’t figure out how to do it until yesterday.>
<So you took us back to Earth?> Quantum asks.
<Not yet. We have one last stop before we go.> Noriko says, when several ships drop below lightspeed to get within communications range.
The N-01 Ragnarok leads them, accompanied by four Surtur-class ships and several thousand F.E.N.R.I.S. robots that rapidly surround the dreadnaughts.
<This is the Covenant fleet. Disable your weapons unless you really, really want to be reduced to scraps.> says Kari’s voice, transmitted to all enemy ships from the bridge of the Ragnarok.
<We both know your ships are vastly outclassed by my tech, Ulysses. It’s over.>
<Skorpios is more powerful than most gods. Ships can be replaced, but you’re just buying time before she lays waste to your forces.> Ulysses argues.
<If you really think I don’t have ways to take her out, Ulysses, you don’t know me at all.>
Nowhere
Skorpios is in pain, but her implants kick in to shut off her pain receptors. Floating in an endless void is also not a problem: her lungs are automatically refilled, her internal pressure is normalized, and her rage provides enough fuel for her survival.
As a Demon, Torn is even better equipped to withstand the vacuum of space. He creates a couple of swords to be used as stepping stones to jump towards her, but before he can reach her she has enough time to create a portal.
His reflexes save him from falling into a pool of lava on a volcanic planet, while Skorpios catches her breath in the sandy beach on the other side of the galaxy. She has to concentrate really hard on the space that surrounds the sword still embedded in her stomach, but she manages to move it to the nearest desert while also preventing her blood to leave her planet.
<You’re good.> Torn congratulates her, emerging from a pentagram. Skorpios moves in the opposite direction; one step later she’s in a field of flowers a thousand light-years away, already facing another pentagram.
<How are you following me!?> she complains, teleporting an iceberg over Torn’s head while dropping into the grass to land on a pile of snow in a different solar system.
<You’ve been marked.> Torn explains from behind her.
Already under the shade of a thick forest under a different sun, Skorpios looks down at her stomach: around the wound left by the sword, the pentagram that has been cut around her navel is bleeding.
<The Mark of Damnation. Now there’s no place in the universe where I won’t find you.> Torn explains, and for the first time since he’s met her he sees fear in her eyes.
Skorpios panics: the Manifold is supposed to grant her absolute mastery over space, but she can’t outrun Torn. Even when she tries to manipulate space around her, to remove his internal organs or to teleport him elsewhere, Torn is already one step ahead.
She can manipulate space at the speed of thought, but even if cybernetically augmented her reaction time is nothing compared to a Demon, especially one fueling his body with Blood energy.
The chase doesn’t last more than a couple of minutes, but it covers at least a new planet every second. It’s a war of attrition: Skorpios hopes that Torn will eventually tire from creating so many portals in rapid succession, while Torn knows that no human can keep this pace indefinitely.
Eventually, she makes the mistake of waiting a little too much to see if he’s still following her: a moment’s hesitation is all Torn needs to shove Skorpios inside one of his pentagrams.
Once she lands inside a strange circular contraption, all he has to do is flip a switch.
<Portal engaged.> is the electronic message given by Null’s Portal Generator as it’s switched on.
Skorpios is right inside it when it’s activated. She’s teleported to a second generator, just a few feet away, only to be teleported back to the first generator.
Back and forth, continuously in a state of flux as space is warped around her, Skorpios finally realizes that she has no way out.
<You should’ve known. Nobody escapes Hell forever.> Torn tells her.
On a planet at the edge of the Galaxy
<I should probably leave.> Leral says: the sun is becoming bigger and bigger, and in a matter of minutes it will explode, thanks to her power speeding up its aging. She expects to be teleported by Skorpios as soon as she sends the signal… but nothing happens.
<Looks like your colleagues abandoned you.> Vesta notes, landing near Leral.
<You want to take another shot at me? I should just freeze you in time!>
<Go ahead. Neither of us can fly faster than light, so we’re both stranded here. You know what’s going to happen? The sun is turning into a red giant that will evaporate this planet entirely, long before the sun goes nova and obliterates us. I don’t know if I can survive the explosion, but I can survive the heat just fine. So you probably want to keep me around as much as possible, and maybe we can come up with a solution that doesn’t let you get evaporated. What do you say?>
<That I hate polite gods. But I hate dying even more.> Leral admits, reluctantly shaking Vesta’s hand.
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