An electric voice sounded from Astro Elvex’s head, and he raised from his seat. Joints and lines separated his body parts into segments turning his appearance into an abomination resembling a mannequin or an anatomy doll.

Eric summoned a blood whip from his hand. “You’re...You’re an android…” He swung it against Elvex’s body and graced his shoulder.

The android didn’t attempt to move or flinch. His body vibrated, and the whip splattered.

“That was rude, man. I haven’t even told you my evil plan yet.”

“You’re not even trying to hide it?” Ragna raised her eyebrow. “Aren’t you corporate shysters always pretending you’re doing good?”

Elvex laughed. “Pretending? Why should I bother with that? I’m evil to the processor.” He raised his arms. The purple light formed an inverted arc of dots that reached through his face’s lower third. “I have no reason to hide who I am. So, let me reveal to you the hallmark of HAL Curiosity’s research into void theory: a rocket powered by compressed Mana energy. Compared to that, even Vishnu’s Mana bomb will be nothing but a whoopee cushion.”

“So, let me guess.” Ragna rolled her eyes. “You’re going to use that weapon to rule the world or start a war for profit.”

Elvex burst into a fit of laughter. “I’ll do no such thing. My plans are beyond your understanding. This rocket possesses the capabilities to leave Aes’ atmosphere and travel through the void.” He jumped on his desk. His limbs rotated and twisted until he struck a pose. “I’ll send it to the void and fulfill my lifelong dream: to set fire to the sun.”

Eric and Ragna looked at him aghast.

“You want to set fire to the sun?” Ragna repeated. “It’s a ball of fire. It’s already in flames.”

Elvex shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. The sun creates all its heat and light via nuclear fusion – an atomic reaction – rather than by burning and creating fire through combustion – a chemical reaction. In other words, it’s possible to set fire to the sun and vanquish mankind’s natural enemy.” He raised his hand, holding an invisible sphere, and crushed it between his fingers. “Since the dawn of time, man has dreamed of destroying the sun. And I will be the one to succeed.”

“But why? You would kill us all. What’s the point? You could use all the money and research to improve the world.”

“But I don’t wanna improve the world.” Elvex’s pecs opened up like a window. Inside his chest swirled a colorless vortex of energy within a black speck of nothingness. Out of the darkness grew two missiles and torpedoed towards Ragna and Eric. “I want to set fire to the sun.”

They jumped out of the way. The missiles flew through the door and detonated in the wall opposite of Elvex’s office. Concrete burst in all directions, and the building rumbled. Within the same instance, an ice block sealed the door shut.

Screams boomed as debris crashed against the soldiers outside, as well as against the frozen door. But the construct withstood.

Sirens started to howl and bathed Elvex’s office in red light.

“Give up.” Elvex chuckled, and his chest closed. “In a few moments, my men will be here and break through the blockade. Do you believe you can defeat us all?”

“Eric.” Ragna glanced at Eric, and he nodded.

Blood leaked out of his body. It formed into a puddle and slipped under the ice block. On the other side, it would reform and incapacitate any soldier who would try to break into the office.

Ragna summoned a blob of water and sent it after Elvex. Eric copied her. He formed his blood into an amorphous mass and attacked him as well. Elvex performed a backflip and landed on the ground as the liquids splashed against the table.

Ragna and Eric summoned another batch of liquids. The constructs flew at him, but Elvex’s body contorted and slid through the space between the two fluids. Eric’s blood turned around, spurting after Elvex. Elvex jumped into the air, and Ragna’s water hit his face. The liquid soaked his body, and through his nooks and crannies, it seeped inside him, gaining access to his inner system.

“Ha.” A wave of hot air blew from Elvex’s body. In a reflex, Ragna held her arm before her head. Her eyes started to cry, her skin to tear. She ground her teeth as the heat dried up her face. Blood dripped from her cheeks and arms, the water evaporated, and steam escaped from Elvex’s body.

“Your primitive, barbaric methods pale compared to my sophisticated weaponry.” Elvex’s finger started to glow. He pointed it at Ragna, but then, he fell on his chest, and the laser hit the ground.

“What?”

The glass reflected the light and hit his abdomen.

Elvex turned his head. Around his ankle, blood had formed a loop. Eric pulled the lasso and dragged Elvex to him.

Ragna activated the Hagal rune. If she used enough force, ice spikes should impale Elvex.

But nothing happened, and Ragna grumbled.

Was Elvex’s heatwave melting the ice, or could the android’s outer shell block the spikes and prevent them from growing? She had to...Wait, what was that?

Ragna narrowed her eyes. Her view concentrated on Elvex’s back.

It couldn’t be that…or could it?

Like a cowboy, Eric pulled on his lasso and brought Elvex to him. The android’s body vibrated a second time, dissolving the blood construct that dragged him across the floor. He twisted his foot upwards. A stream of wind escaped from his sole, heating the surrounding atmosphere.

Eric’s blood morphed into a barrier made of beehive patterns. It clashed against the wind and burst, but Eric escaped the attack. He fired a bullet from his gun. Elvex swung his arm. His body deflected the projectile and let it shoot a hole through the window.

“How dare you?” Elvex’s voice vibrated through the glass. “You destroyed my finger’s laser function. But that won’t stop me. For good will always fail and evil prevail.”

Blades extended from Elvex’s arms. Swinging his right limb, he charged at Eric, and Eric fired his gun. Elvex deflected all the bullets, but the projectiles changed their trajectory and expanded. The blood connected. It constructed a net, enveloped Elvex’s body, and trapped him in a crimson suit.

“How many times do I have to teach you this lesson, young man?”

Elvex activated his body’s vibration function, but before he could evaporate his prison, Ragna had mixed her water with Eric’s blood. The cocoon froze, and the ice covered Elvex’s body. Like a statue, he stood in the office’s center, glittering in the lights of the night and the office.

The sirens still howled, and from the other side of the block, no sound came out. Eric’s blood seemed to have eliminated all potential intruders.

Did they do it?

Ragna walked to Eric, her eyes not leaving Elvex for a second. “Do you have anything to break the ice?”

“Nope, and going by your question, you don’t have either.”

“If I coated my sword in ice, I could shatter his body eventually, but it would take too much time, and I doubt that thing wouldn't get out eventually.”

Eric and Ragna looked around, searching for any object that could assist them and fulfill the task of destroying the android’s body. Besides the desk and the chair, the office was empty. They could freeze the furniture and drop it on Elvex’s body or smash it against him, but it would more likely destroy the objects instead of him.

Eric's eyes stopped at the window. The holes his bullets had created let rays of neon lights into the office’s red, forming into spots on the floor.

“I think I have an idea.” Blood excreted from his shoulders. Eric formed it to ropes and coiled them around Elvex’s body. “Let’s throw him out the window and let gravity finish him off.”

“Can you carry him? Who knows how heavy he is?”

Eric shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

The ropes wrapped around Elvex’s abdomen, forming a ring.

“Eric!” Ragna raised her voice and summoned another batch of water. “Watch out!”

Cracks started ran through the statue. They grew until they covered Elvex’s body, and the ice burst.

Eric redirected the blood and formed it into a shield that deflected the debris.

Elvex chuckled. He brushed his shoulders and turned around. “Another pointless endeavor.” Out of his elbows extended two blades, shining in blue light. “But you’ll never stop me from defying this symbol of our oppression.”

Elvex swung his blade and charged towards them. A wave made of water and blood emerged from the ground and fell upon the android. Elvex didn’t slow down. As he cut a line through the liquid, his blade divided it, and the wave vanished.

It didn’t evaporate; it didn’t splatter; the wave disappeared without a trace left. When Elvex had cut through it with his weapon, the blood and water had ceased to exist.

“I should warn you. These blades are pure void energy.” Elvex closed the distance to Eric and swung his blade at him. “Everything they touch becomes nothing.”

Eric dodged his attack and countered with a swing from his blood. Elvex’s arm rotated, extinguishing the whip with his blade. He shot his weapon at Eric’s throat when Ragna rammed her shoulder into Elvex’s body. The android lost his footing and fell. His blade hit the ground and cut through the glass. All the tiles the sword had come in contact with vanished. At the last second, Elvex rolled backwards. He escaped the fall and increased the distance between him, Eric, and Ragna.

“Our attacks are useless. Even with the Isan rune weakening him.” Eric looked at Ragna. “Are you okay?”

Ragna rubbed her left shoulder and winced the moment her finger had touched her flesh. “I think I broke something…” She exhaled and pressed her teeth. “Without your Teiwaz rune, my arm would have shattered. But I have an idea.” Ragna lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m just going by my gut feeling, but that might take him out. You saw ‘it’ too, right?”

“What...? Ah. Wouldn’t that be too obvious?”

“He’s a pretty cliched guy. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had installed it for shit and giggles.”

“Memo to self.” Elvex got up on his feet. His head looked at his blades, and they retracted back into his elbows. “Add fail-safe to ‘void blades’ in case they hit the ground. I don’t want to fall until I reach the planet’s core.”

Ragna ran towards him and, with the saber in her right hand, she attacked Elvex. His torso bent over, and Ragna swung anew. Again, Elvex’s body contorted to avoid the attack.

“You know, your weapons can’t hurt me.”

“Ragna smirked. “Then, why are you avoiding my attacks?”

“I just don’t want to get scratches on my shell.”

Ragna continued her barrage. Elvex avoided each of her swings, testing the flexibility of his body every time. The two opponents danced in their movements and attacks. Ragna rotated around Elvex, swinging her blade. In response, Elvex performed a pirouette and faced Ragna anew.

Ragna glanced at Eric. He positioned his gun, squinted his right eye, and fired. The bullet hit the red button on his back, pushing it into his shell.

Elvex’s movements stopped.

“Did...Did you just hit the red button?” Elvex’s body started to jerk up, and a blue light traveled through him.

“It’ll destroy you, right?” Ragna grinned. “It’s stupid to have it, but you’re a supervillain, and it would be wrong not to have an obvious weak point. I mean, what evil mastermind doesn’t have a self-destruct button?”

Elvex’s movements became more erratic. His spams increased their intensity as his body contorted in impossible ways. As if an electric chair ran its voltage into him, as if he started to overclock, his movements transformed from a malfunctioning machine into a manic dancing the dance of death. And then he screamed.

“Yaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssss Queeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn!”

Elvex moaned to the sky. The blue light sped up and raced along his segments' rims while his voice buzzed through the room. The words he spoke turned to gibberish, into an onslaught of error messages, and in the end, transformed into moans and pants.

“What’s going on?” Ragna dashed towards Eric and increased the distance between her and Elvex. Her eyes stared at her opponent, unable to switch to anything else.

Blades extended from all parts of Elvex’s body. A tail made up of grenades grew out of him. His chest opened up, revealing missiles and guns. Elvex’s body grew until it reached the ceiling, transforming into a reptilian shape. His hands became claws, his feet talons, and his face enlarged to a crocodile’s snout. And of his shoulders grew a bazooka, its muzzle pointing at the roof.

“Aahhhh.” A moan escaped Elvex. “You thought you could turn me off, but all you did was to turn me on!”

The night’s purple lights conglomerated into him and illuminated Elvex like the star on a gala.

“Now, if I may reintroduce myself.” Elvex crept forwards and performed a pelvic thrust. “I’m no longer Astro Elvex. Now, I am El-vEXTREME: the ultimate primate murderer. Blessed by the void, there will be no being capable of exterminating humans like me.”

Eric and Ragna gulped.

It was at this moment they realized they might have fucked up.