“Sup, Bitches!”

Ace looked at Gear and Axel with a sneer.

“Damn, outsider!”

Gear growled.

“Outsider? It’s fine if you want to call me that. We’re meddling in your business after all.”

Ace flipped off two of them.

“However, that won’t stop me from kicking your asses. After all, I’m doing it to level up. I don’t have time to worry about what you NPCs have to say.”

He spun around and kicked away a tank that was thrown at him.

“What I hate about all of you is how cocky you are.”

Axel started walking towards him.

“It’s like you people don’t even consider the possibility of your defeat. Do you think you’re invincible or something?”

He tapped the ground with his staff and giant chunks of iron started floating around him.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll just beat some sense into you.”

The chunks of metal flew at Ace with the speed of bullets. Gear moved at the same time and popped up behind Ace. He formed a golden sword in his hand and slashed at him. His sword missed because Ace ran towards the metal chunks. He jumped on the nearest one and then maneuvered through the cluster and headed straight for Axel. Meanwhile, the metals headed for Gear.

“Leg + Arm Boost!”

Ace’s arm and legs beefed up and his speed increased. He threw a punch at Axel who countered with one of his own. Their punches hit their target’s face with a loud sound. Meanwhile, Gear swung his hand in front of him and all the metal chunks halted in the air. He twisted his hand and the chunks combined and formed a giant fist. The fist attacked Ace and Axel. They separated to avoid the attack.

(That was magnetism! As I thought, that’s what he used earlier.)

Axel headed straight for Gear.

“That suit is dangerous but I have something even better!”

He accelerated and the ground burst open and followed behind him. He swung his staff and the ground turned into spikes and charged at Gear. The spikes crashed into him and caused a huge dust cloud. Axel twirled his staff and storm-like winds blew away the dust. Gear wasn’t there as he expected. He quickly scanned the area and twisted his body to avoid a laser fired at him. Gear appeared behind him swinging his sword. Axel thrust his hand behind him.

(Shit, it won’t stop! It must be made out of carbon!)

The sword cut into his hand and cleaved off three of his fingers before cutting into his back. Axel flew forward to create some distance.

*Bam!*

He was punched in the side of his head while retreating.

“Hey, hey. Don’t tell me you forgot about me?”

Ace grinned and hit him with a knee strike to the face. He was then kicked out of the sky by Gear, who aimed his palms at the two of them.

“Die!”

He fired two lasers from his palms and blasted the two of them. Axel crashed through several buildings while Ace was left in a crater.

“This suit is called the Kingslayer. I created it with the intention of killing a full-powered Jin Makoto and Bloom Newgate together.”

Red linings appeared on his suit and it opened up revealing dozens of nozzles.

“I know that it shouldn’t be possible for you two to beat me in this suit but I’m not taking any chances.”

The nozzles started lighting up.

“After all, there’s no accurate way to calculate human growth during battle.”

Powerful lasers fired from the nozzles and rained down on where ace and Axel were. Explosions erupted one after the other and caused mass destruction all over. The bombardment didn’t halt for nearly a minute. When it was over the ground was a sea of fire. Even so, Gear didn’t relax his guard.

*Swoosh!*

Strong winds suddenly blew the flames and formed a flame twister. Gear saw a pair of gleaming eyes in the flames. These eyes were overflowing with murderous intent that soon covered the entire city.

“Which one is it?”

Gear mumbled while preparing himself. The twister disappeared and Axel was standing there in a green suit with black highlights. There was a scale symbol in the center of his chest, his gloves, and helmet. The Roman numeral “II” was on his back.

“Wha?!”

When Gear saw this suit he became dumbstruck.

“Is that a Zodiac Parasite Suit?! The fuck?!”

He was visibly panicking.

“Now it makes sense why Kaiser allowed Didier and Sami to come back! That fucker played me!”

He became angry.

“If that’s how they want to play, then so be it!”

The anger caused his body to tremble.

“I’ll defeat everyone and prove myself to them!”

He glared at Axel.

(That’s the Libra Suit. That one is especially a pain in the ass.)

He grinned.

“But it’s known to be one of the most taxing of its peers. So he’s bound to fall apart eventually.”

He started laughing while Axel only looked at him in silence.

(He can use magnetism with that suit. I think it’s fair to say that he designed it to take on all of Silver Crow. So, it may be the case that he can use all of our abilities and some just like Jin.)

He started floating off the ground.

“Libra’s Zodiac Element is air. So he can use wind techniques like he did earlier.”

Gear’s golden sword turned into a glaive.

“I’ll cut him down. No matter the cost.”

The two flew towards each other ready to begin their battle to the death.

“?!”

Suddenly, it felt like the world had slowed down almost to point of stopping. Cold chills ran up their bodies and their heart rate quicken. A certain word crept its way into their heads.

DEATH.

Time started moving again and the two found themselves trapped in a web of scarlet slashes. The slashes came at them from all directions and left no way to escape. The slashes came down on them and cut Axel’s body severing his limbs. Gear’s suit protected him but the force behind each slash rocked him vigorously in the air. When the slashes disappeared a limbless Axel floated in the air and Gear’s suit was filled with cuts.

“I don’t know how you two keep forgetting me.”

They looked and saw a bloodstained warrior carrying and chipped katana walking through the sea of flames. Wherever he walked the flames would be forever extinguished creating a path. He looked up at the two and spoke with a bloodthirsty tone.

“Two lambs forgetting about the wolf.”

He licked the sword with a crazy look in eyes.

“Of course the wolf would get angry and eat the two lambs up, right?”

Ace had taken his Manslayer Character.

“This guy is bad news.”

Gear mumbled looking at Ace. He now understood why someone like him was called the Right Hand of the Young Satan.

“……..”

Axel floated in the air without any limbs with his eyes fixated on Ace. His instincts were telling him that he was a huge threat. His limbs that fell to the ground liquified and flew towards him. They stuck themselves to his body and became reattached.

“Huh? What kind of freaky shit was that?”

Ace looked confused and slightly disgusted by what he saw.

“Could it be that you’re not human?”

“Human?”

Axel laughed.

“I’ve allowed something ungodly to feed on me in exchange for power. So, it could be said that I’ve thrown away my humanity. But I don’t regret it.”

He placed his hand over his chest.

“If it’s for her I-”

“Ah, I get it. Spare me the melodrama.”

Ace cut him off which made him angry. However, Ace didn’t care.

“I was wrong, you’re definitely human.”

He had a face of disgust.

“Only humans can make my skin crawl like you just did.”

He looked at Gear.

“That goes for both of you.”

His sword started radiating a scarlet light.

“Whether it’s your fanatic loyalty or your insatiable greed.”

He swung the sword in front of him.

“You people make me want to vomit!”

Everything in front of Gear and Axel’s eyes turned scarlet. They instinctively moved back to avoid the attack. Buildings around them were cut into chunks before collapsing.

“This guy is just as dangerous as Isabel and her brothers!”

Gear’s suit detected something approaching fast from his right. He turned around and saw a chipped sword inches away from his face. He turned into a bolt of lightning and evaded it at the last second. He then lifted his hand and the cut-up buildings floated in the air and flew at Ace.

“Manhunt!”

His blade moved with lightning speed and cut the buildings into minces. Gear flew through those minces and slammed his fist in Ace’s chest. His fist started to glow.

“Ignition!”

A burst of flames devoured Ace and swallowed him whole.

“Equilibrium.”

Gear heard a mutter behind him and quickly turned around.

*BAM!*

He was punched in the helmet. His body was propelled back with so much force that he ripped opened the ground before he even hit it. Ace flew out of the flames and slashed at Axel, who had just punched Gear.

“Equilibrium: Reset.”

Axel threw a punch and it clashed with Ace’s sword. A deafening sound resounded and Ace’s sword was blown out of his hands. Axel clenched his other fist and threw a fast punch and buried Ace’s upper body into the earth.

“Die!”

He lifted his leg to kick Ace’s lower body.

“!”

He leaped back and saw dozens of rusty swords burst out where he stood. Ace pulled himself out of the ground and glared at Axel.

“Finisher:….”

“?!”

Axel suddenly found himself on a path made of bones and corpses. He immediately knew that this was Ace’s doing and that he was going to attack. While he was thinking that, he saw Ace appeared beside him and then walked past him and continued down the path. He was about to turn around when he heard Ace’s voice in his ear.

“The Bloody Path.”

Several large cuts appeared all over his body. Blood sprayed out off the cuts and stained the earth.

“Guah?!”

Axel screamed out in agony while the path disappeared. Ace was about to attack again when he saw Gear flew past him and punched Axel with explosive force and blew a hole in his torso.

“I need to kill him before he resets the equilibrium to match that power.”

He pointed his palm at Axel’s head and gathered energy to fire an attack.

“Hunt.”

That arm was cut by a scarlet slash. Ace appeared beside him and aimed for his neck. Gear had to retreat to survive.

“You idiot! I almost had him!”

“I’m going to be the one to kill both of you. I won’t accept any other result.”

“Equilibrium…Reset.”

Axel’s body quickly regenerated to full health. He accelerated and hit Ace with a hook and sent him flying. Ace heard the sounds of his skull cracking while flying through the air. His drums burst soon after and his conscious started fading.

“Shit. He already reset himself.”

Gear cursed.

“This is why the Libra model of the Zodiac Parasitic Suits is such a pain in the ass. It’s based on the scales of justice and has the power to make its user as strong as their opponents by analyzing the power they’ve used.”

He glared at Ace who was laid out on the ground.

“Thanks to you, he’s as strong as you when you attacked him with your finisher.”

He then looked back at Axel.

“This is gonna be a real uphill battle with this suit in the mix.”

He gritted his teeth.

“I haven’t even fought Miko, Bloom, or Jin I’m already in this shit!”