SSV 4 Chapter 38 - Rewrite (Patreon)

I thought on it, and denying you a satisfying end to Roach was not in line with the type of story SSV is. 39 tomorrow.

I shot us over to the remaining lifeform. But when I got there, no one was there.

Checking again, I locked down the form I could feel and pushed on their powers. Sure enough, another Roach flickered into being and looked up at us while he licked his lips. “I see you’ve brought some new toys for me.” His powers greedily sucked ki back into themselves.

Tentacles shot from the ground and tried to grasp Kim.

But the ball of fire in her hand erupted into a blazing inferno that threatened to swallow the forest as she turned it into a giant foot. She positioned the flaming foot over Roach, working to push it down.

But the current roach was fast. He teleported a short distance away and tisked, waving his finger back and forth.

A moment later, he began multiplying. I got worried before I noticed that none of them seemed to have power as they attacked and tried to mob Kim.

Daeva stepped forward and blew away all of the clones, making the original topple backwards. “We don’t have time for this. Kim, down the hole.”

There had been a tunnel the Roach had been guarding, which meant it was there as a stall tactic.

Daeva stomped on the roach. It didn’t kill him in the first move, so she made the ground quake.

Kim gathered her inferno again and sucked it down into the tunnel with her.

I glanced at Daeva, who was continuing to stomp the roach, deciding to leave her to it and move on.

Jumping down after Kim, I hit the ground later than I’d been expecting. It was deep.

Moving quickly ahead, I caught up to Kim as the tunnel punched through a thin layer of metal.

Frigid air blasted around us as we stepped up, despite the heat Kim was putting off.

We moved cautiously into a metal hallway with frost covering the floor and creeping across the wall. The place gave off a sterile feeling that matched most mad scientist labs I’d entered.

“Fuck it’s cold.” Kim wrapped herself more in flames.

I kept us going forward, following the frost that had been flowing along the floor.

It ended at a broken freezer door, cold fog rolling out of the broken opening.

Large insects were scattered in the freezer, but most of them had their heads partially destroyed.

“Eew.” Kim looked in behind me. “He dug out all their brains.”

“No one said that his power was pretty. God, I hope he isn’t eating brains.” I closed the freezer door that was ajar and looked down the hall.

There were several other areas with frost pooling out and a set of stairs at the end, leading both up and down.

“Which way do you want?” I asked her.

“Up.” She said without hesitation. “Don’t worry about me.”

I nodded. I felt more okay with her venturing off given she was immortal. I could always come back for her if something happened.

“Got it. Stay safe.” I shot down the stairs into a new hallway, which looked almost eerily similar to the last.

A quick scan told me that the floor had been cleared as well.

But that meant I’d picked the right direction.

I dropped down two more floors before I found him.

“You.” A Roach drew himself up from where he’d been looking at the floor. He squinted at me for a moment. “The God King of New Haven. You’re quite the mystery. Pictures of you return as Miles Matherson. You’ve been in a number of cities, and your face has stayed the same for decades. You never made much more than the faintest of ripples until you became deputy director and then popped up in New Haven. How was it living in hiding? Satisfying?”

“No.” I answered honestly. “This is much more fun.”

Roach’s face twisted into a disgusting smile. “It is, isn’t it? Having a powerful superpower and having real power are two very different things. You’ve had a taste. Let me tell you, it won’t stop- that hunger for more power.”

I blew Roach away, done talking.

But he turned to frosty slush rather than bug guts.

The rolling fog came out of the freezers, and four more of him formed. “I see. Quite powerful, aren’t you? Handsome too. Now that’s just unfair. My contacts in New Haven were calling you the god of fertility.” His disgusting smile vanished. “You must think you are special.”

I froze all of the Roaches in place; killing him was getting tedious. I doubted there was much left that could stop me or even give me much pause. Not when I was in my avatar. Even then I wasn’t sure I couldn’t build one if something happened to my real body.

Crippling his power, I blew this Roach apart and continued through the vault.

I almost wanted one of the Roaches to be strong enough to fight me and test my limits.

I moved down two more floors as I started to wonder where the lab would end.

The freezers weren’t all open on the floor I entered, so I kept moving forward.

About halfway down the hall. I found a crowd.

Dozens of roaches were gathered, and I looked at their powers. Many of them had over ten, but one in particular had dozens, maybe even a hundred powers wrapped around each other. They were twisted and stuffed into his body.

I watched as all the antennae of all the Roaches twitched and pointed to me as they quickly ran towards me.

I stood there, taking their hits without even flinching. “Die.” I slammed a kinetic blast into each of them, but many of them weathered the blow one way or another.

Some were as tough as Daeva; others absorbed the blast in some way.

The final Roach hadn’t moved. Instead he bent over and lifted himself as his insect mandibles pushed the last of something through his messy mouth. “You.”

“Tada.” I wasn’t taking this seriously.

My power vibrated my avatar like the Fenris Wolf, and I dragged my hand through one of the Roach’s chest. I could move through him, but my vibrations gave off enough energy that it tore a clean chunk through him despite him being so durable.

“You’ve caused enough problems.” I finished off all the rest of his made clones, many of which reverted to another shape after they died.

The one I was assuming was the original was left, and his neck went slack as he tilted his head to look at me with a wide smile. “Miles Matherson. The mystery. You were a small kink in my plan, yet here you are. You’ve crushed all that I’ve built and are here to smash me.” He didn’t seem too worried as he held up a hand. “Kim is in my grasp. Why don’t we talk civilly for a moment?”

An illusion of Kim smothered in ice and pinned to a wall appeared in the room. Her head hung such that her face was hidden.

“You are probably growing frustrated, aren’t you? After all, you killed the Fenris Wolf, something I haven’t even been able to touch. So, I know I cannot fight you. The moment you entered this room, I knew I needed another way to survive. Yet, I’ve wanted to talk to you.” The cadence of his speech was off, it made me want to shiver.

I let my power billow out and up the stairs probing for Kim and where she was.

He must have noticed my shift in focus. “Don’t bother. I have the ability to see at a distance. If you try and rescue her, I’ll have a clone teleport away with her. How does that feel? To lose. I have yet to experience it.” Suddenly the smug, disgusting smile of his reappeared.

“You’ve lost several times already. Your attempts to destroy New Haven and Point City have failed.” I wasn’t about to let him think that he’d won, and I needed the time to try to formulate a new plan.

Roach threw back his head and laughed. “No. I have dozens of plans in motion. You stopped a few, but that only serves to distract you while the others succeed. It was always within my predictions that some of my pawns would become sacrifices for others. Now just wait. I will crush the cities beneath you and Daeva.”

“Good luck trying that.” I crossed my arms. “When I catch you, you will die.”

Roach laughed. “That’s good. But you won’t find me. Not before I strip everything you have from you. One by one, I’m going to rip apart your women, your cities, and plunge you into despair. You aren’t worthy of them.” There was an uncomfortable intensity to his gaze.

“Why? What could you possibly want to make all of this worth it?” I couldn’t understand the super’s logic.

“To be the most powerful of course.” He stared back unblinking. “I thought I needed to destroy Daeva to succeed. But no, you are Miles Matherson, Void, God King of New Haven and the boy who killed the world’s most powerful super, Fortress.” A giant smile spread across his face. “He was my father, you know? Thanks for killing him. His shadow was too big. But now.” He gestured grandly. “Now that I can claim insects’ powers, I’ll be preparing for our next encounter.” Roach grinned as Kim screamed in the illusion.

“I’ll stop you.” I told him as a Roach teleported across the forest with Kim tucked under his arms. They were moving quickly and I didn't have time to play around.

I threw a kinetic blast powerful enough to destroy a city block, but Roach ducked into it and weathered the blast, only skidding back a few feet.

His multitude of powers glowed with strength as he stood up with a smile ready to fight.

I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy fight and I had something else to do first.

Throwing my consciousness up and out of the vault I caught up to Kim’s captor in no time at all.

My avatar reformed in front of the Roach as I boxed it in a kinetic cage as beads of destruction formed over my shoulder.

It teleported again but I had expected that and released the devastating beams at it as soon as it reappeared.

The world went white with all the power I put out and it faded after a moment before it turned red with a raging inferno from Kim.

“Where is he?!” She shouted her fire going out of control.

“I’m glad you are okay.” I chuckled. “That one’s dead…” I trailed off as I cast my power out trying to find the other.

A beam of light was racing through the forest, having already escaped the vault. It was unbelievably fast, my normal body wouldn’t be able to keep up with him. But I wasn’t bound by things as silly as the laws of physics in this body.

“The last one is trying to get away. Regroup with Daeva and Obsidian at the lake.” I glanced at her again. “Really glad you didn’t get taken. We’ll have to talk more later.”

Throwing my consciousness again, I surpassed even Roach that was fleeing as a beam of light.

Before I even reformed my avatar, I slammed down a wall of darkness that caught Roach like a net, wrapping him up.

“What?” He screamed as he tore away the darkness with claws made of light.

My fist came crashing down as soon as my avatar reformed, blowing Roach through the forest, the shockwave ripping through the forest and flattening it for hundreds of yards.

Roach tried to turn into a beam of light again, but I pushed on the brightest power and he sputtered back into his ugly self. “How?” He screamed.

I tried to pinch at his powers, but there were too many of them and I couldn’t keep them all suppressed. Some of them even would wiggle out of the area that I was suppressing. “You talk too much.”

Another bead of destruction formed in my hand and wrecked the world around him, but as the light from the beam faded, Roach was growing larger and larger as one of his hands blurred and regathered the beam that I had shot at him.

“You will regret forcing my hand!” Giant Roach bellowed and swung his hand gathering my beam at me.

For the first time I was on the receiving end of my beam of destruction.

I drew a vertical line with a finger and split the beam in two letting it pass me before destroying the wilds behind me.

Roach and I had traveled far enough away, I wasn’t concerned about collateral.

“That’s a fun trick. Should we see how many you can catch?” Summoned eight beads around me.

Roach’s antenna twitched towards me and two laser beams hit my avatar without even phasing me. “How? You should be paralyzed.”

“Na. I decided to stop playing by the rules.” Eight beams of destruction covered him even as his hands blurred.

Each of the four caught a single beam but that was all the could catch and the giant Roach caught the other four lifting it up off the ground and throwing him a mile away.

Damn tough bugger.

“It doesn’t matter. I have dozens of plans in place. Your women are dying in New Haven and Point City even as we speak.” He cackled.

I needed to finish this up.

We are safe in Point City. Mona comforted me. And we will remain that way. Destroy him, my fated.

Looking at his powers as he struggled back to his feet each of them had grown with his body and looked more like a mess of spaghetti ki. I couldn’t tell where one began and the others ended.

Yet in that tangled mess each of the powers were unique and many were active augmenting his body.

He tried to thrust his caught beams of destruction back at me, but I locked his arms down with chains of kinetic energy and his arms didn’t quite reach where he expected, blasting out to the sides harmlessly.

“I’m supposed to be the strongest. The fucking strongest! I will surpass my father.” He screamed. There was nothing here but broken trees and scared monsters of the wilds for him to complain to.

Those monsters that were still alive scattered through the trees trying to escape and save their lives.

I floated there pulling my hands down and Roach’s arms were jerked to the side but his antenna continued to blast beams harmlessly at my avatar. “You aren’t the strongest.” My voice was calm as I chain the giant Roach down further.

Five more beams of destruction formed in a line in front of my face and blasted straight down the center of Roach.

The world went white and anything that hadn’t fled the area would die as the blasts ripped the forests apart further.

When I could see again, Roach’s skin was raw, cracked and bleeding, yet I hadn’t torn through him with those five beams.

He chuckled. “You can’t kill me. I’ve embraced my moniker. Much of the early use of my power was dedicated to becoming impossible to kill.” He struggled against the kinetic chains I had him in. “I will escape and then I will isolate you.”

But I thought of them and made them vibrate like the Fenris wolf, before severing his arms and creating several tendrils of power that stabbed into him, ripping him apart.

A bright blast of ki caught my attention and the giant body fell apart like grains of sand.

“Are you kidding me?” I scowled as Roach tried to race away as a beam of light again.

Capturing him in a blanket of darkness, I dragged him back.

Lightning, ice and fire roared out of him at me, but I batted them all aside as I stabbed him with a tendril of my power vibrating at a high enough frequency to go right through the durable super.

I swept them across in an X to kill him.

Roach cackled before he exploded. A blast of hot air filled the area rising up before the shockwave blasted out.

I shielded my face on instinct as Roach went nuclear. Sweat beaded down my neck, not because the blast did any harm to me. But there was some bug that he’d found that had the ability to detonate themselves like a nuclear bomb.

Casting my power out around for miles, I couldn’t find any bundle of ki or even that escaping light he had used several times.

I floated in the air now that it was all done.

He had caused me enough problems for several lifetimes.

Daeva caught up to me as I hung in the air. “It’s over?” Her head swiveled back and forth as she looked for any threats.

“He’s dead. The real one, that is.” I wasn’t sure if he’d brought every Roach here, but at least the one that had been harvesting powers from bugs was gone. If there were still more, I’d deal with them as they came.

Daeva came close and pressed a hand to my chest. “Are we ready to head back?”

“Let’s gather Kim and then I’m going to return to my body in New Haven and bring everyone to Point City for a few days.” I just wanted to surround myself with my harem.

I was going to be unapologetic in smothering them all in love. Roach’s attack on Kim and threats to the rest of my ladies had made me realize what I now stood to lose.

Before, I was alone, but now even with all the power I’d acquired, I still had one weakness. The women I had surrounded myself with.

Flying with Daeva in tow, I located Kim by the giant ball of fire in the sky and wrapped her in my power, drawing the woman clad in a flaming bikini close and kissing her.

“Huh?” Kim was shocked and I kissed her again. “What’s that about?”

“Nothing. I know you are immortal, but he could have hidden you away. So, that’s just a happy to have you back kiss. Why don’t we head bac--” I clutched my chest and felt my focus snap back to my body in New Haven.

Stella stood over me with her face covered in a splatter of blood. The Temple Maidens were cowering in a corner away from a Vaash,who had shifted to fill the room and was putting out a ton of heat.

“Looks like you moved on to ritual sacrifices?” I joked and found a cut about an inch deep in my chest. Likely the point of a knife.

“Master!” Stella threw her hands up in good humor. “No. You only take virgin sacrifices. Everyone knows that.” She rolled her eyes and ripped the bedsheet off to wipe her hands. “Some weirdo showed up and tried to stab you.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Of course they did.”

“We didn’t know her. I swear, God King.” A woman in the corner cried.

“Vaash, lay off. Roach might still have more plans in motion. We are consolidating back to Point City for now. Come on, let’s grab Melody and go.” I got up and grabbed Stella and Vaash.

“She’s with Pollen in the dining room. We’re taking Pollen too?” Vaash asked.

“Yeah. Taking everyone. You know what? We are taking Skel and her lab too.” The last thing I needed was a Roach getting hold of the monster fruit technology and making some mess with that too.

This attack told me there might be more lingering roots of his organization out there.

Floating out of the bedroom, I grabbed my other two ladies.

The temple maidens were gathered by my statue as I went to leave. “God King, what is happening?”

“Roach is dead and the large threats are gone. But he may have a few more in motion to harm me and my women” I sighed. “So, I’m leaving to protect all of you.” It was highly unlikely he had another large threat like a wave of monsters, but I wasn’t about to have assassins sneaking into the temple left and right.

“Won’t he come if you aren’t here?” Another asked, a little fear in her voice. “What’s to stop him from doing that too?”

I rubbed at my forehead, a headache forming. She was right. He said he was going to try and strip away anything he could get to and isolate me. “Alright, you can come be maids at my place for a while.” I grabbed them all and checked their powers for anomalies. Nothing stood out, so I did one more check, suppressing their powers for a moment. None shifted or changed, so I figured they were clear enough.

What I needed was a telepath that I could trust to screen people. The mad scientists might have an idea.

Next I swooped by Skel’s and ripped up both labs. The skeletal woman came to the door and opened it without stepping out. “What’s happening?”

“Relocation for your safety. We’ll get you moved over to Wells’ lab. Maybe the two of you can work some miracles together.”

Her eyes blazed with more light as Stella hid behind me. “Yes, that would be great.” She replied.

I knew that Roach had made plans to try to take what was mine, but it would take him a little while for his lingering forces to regroup and form more plans.

What he had brought to the vault had to at least be the majority of his forces.

I’d ruined his immediate plans, and I’d do it once more. Now I just needed to work to get ahead of what remained and keep everybody safe.

I’d never been more interested in fortifying my women. Protecting them all constantly would be too difficult.

If they were all at the level of me and Daeva, then I wouldn’t have to worry. Even Kim worried me a little. I’d need to focus on strengthening them.