Lunar Awakening-Chapter 74: Glorious Evolution.

Another snap of a finger told Xavax that he might have concluded too soon as the young woman vanished once more, this time swapping places with Avan Lahor’s corpse once more.

Xavax looked over at her barely managing to catch her breath, her face was still covered in blood that had almost dried from the mind attack from earlier. Her eyes which should have lost their spark somehow seemed even more energetic. This unexpected change somehow made Xavax a bit less uninterested. "Where many would have accepted failure, you strive still."

Roxy coughed blood. "What can I say Tinkerbell, I don’t go down easy." As much as she tried to hide the fact that her body had experienced something unprecedented with her surpassing her initial limit. She could feel every part of her body burning by nearly one hundred degrees, her eyesight grew hazier by the second and her heart barely managed to pump blood anymore.

Yet with all this odds against her Roxy laughed as she thought of an idea, one that could most likely cause her demise. As much as she liked the concept of living it did come with one huge cost however, the price of death.

Roxy had long since accepted the fact that she would die, not in a blaze of glory but a solemn passing of redemption.

She inhaled deeply before spinning both scimitars rapidly and saying in a dark voice. "Let’s get serious."

With that she snapped not just one of her fingers but both, putting further strain on her body as she seemingly disintegrated with a strained groan.

Xavax’s eyes slid to the side expecting to find her taking the place of the corpse again but nothing happened. He waited for a bit before feeling the air for her presence but she was nowhere to be seen.

A fraction of a second later the long blade of a scimitar pierced his shoulder causing him to look back to see no one but thin air. A second later another blade pierced his thigh with the wielder nowhere to be seen. What seemed odd most of all was the fact that the blades simply seemed to appear out of thin air rather than being thrust or swung.

The next second Roxy appeared in front of Xavax without her blades but throwing a blow for his face, he threw a blow of his own only to have his hand sliced off by the sharp blade of a scimitar.

Roxy vanished again, and with the succession of several finger snaps her and her scimitars reappeared in random unpredictable spots around Xavax and attacked him. The once unprecedented change in the young woman had ignited a flame that forced her to evolve in the battle.

Unknown to Roxy, she was the first superhuman in all of existence who had forcefully evolved their ability. The speed at which her and her blades attacked Xavax was barely a second causing it to look like a torrent of attacks to the naked eye.

As much as Xavax wanted to attack he felt limited by his body, having already used most of his power to resurrect it he was already losing most of his power. However he did have enough power for a counter.

Xavax reacted faster than Roxy could attack, dodging all of the attacks with relative ease before seizing her by the neck and pummelling her into the ground with so much explosive force that the entire third floor collapsed and fell to the second floor which in turn collapsed and fell to the final floor.

Roxy wanted to cry out in pain but she unfortunately could not. As the wind got knocked out of her, air was finally flowing back into her lungs after several long minutes. She tried to gasp for air while ignoring all the pain she felt in her body.

She climbed up on all fours within the rubble before sitting with her back to a cracked pillar, she looked before her to see Xavax still standing over all of the chaos unscathed. All of his wounds had closed up already making him look even more imposing than ever before. She wondered if such a thing as immortal was possible, she threw her head back and accepted her fate.

Xavax looked at his hands and watched the black tattoos receding without any significant interest. "Now. That was a little fun."

Roxy’s ability which had only allowed her to swap her location with other bodies thrice a day now managed to not only swap herself but her artifacts also with nothingness. The total number of times she had used this ability just after discovering it was one hundred and forty seven times.

She looked up and watched the scars evaporate to dust from the entity she had just fought, she watched his red hair revert to a messy black. And his eyes become more human, her jaw dropped at the realization of who it was. "You bastard, you mean to tell me that was you all along ? What are you, the devil?"

Leo said nothing, he simply stared at his hands. The memories of what he-- or more appropriately what Xavax, had done unfortunately were fresh in his mind. And more scary was the intoxicating feeling he had felt that nothing mattered in the world.

As much as he hated this alter ego, he was alive because of it. Still it begged the question, was his power really a blessing or a curse?

Whatever the answer was to that question, Leo did not want to know. All he wanted was to forget about this horrible job altogether.

He looked down to see Roxy staring at him, at first he always was at a loss of words but he spoke after a bit. "I didn’t mean to put your life in danger." He knew that there would be consequences for what had happened together, perhaps he would take the blame. A part of him wondered about silencing her and everyone who had seen him as Xavax and he silenced this voice.

Leo was no killer, and perhaps he could remain that way for a bit more. But the world was another hellscape only with humans instead of monsters, it also demanded everything from its inhabitants.

Roxy glared at him and said in a broken voice. "Help me up, will ya?"

He hesitated for a split second before bending over and lifting her up over his shoulders. Surprisingly he felt fine, all of his body’s injuries healed. One thing that did make him feel frightened was his death, it had opened his mind to how fragile he really was.

A pained moan called out to them both, and they turned to see Guetta who lay underneath the rubble with his skin severely burned. "You bastard, you’ve had your payback. Why don’t you come finish it, put me out of my misery."

Leo looked down at the man that had been brutally hurt by him, his skin was charred and sizzling. Was it really his duty to kill him, was putting him out of his misery the right choice. The thought that this could have been his sister rattled him.

"Kill me goddammit! There’s no use for me to go on living like this." Guetta screamed at the top of his voice.

Motes of light formed on Roxy’s hand and she started the summoning process for her scimitar. "If you can’t do it give the word, I’ll handle it as your partner." Her voice sounded weak but determined.

Leo hated having the life of anyone left to him to decide. "Don’t throw your life away, you still have a lot to achieve."

Guetta fell to an odd silence for several seconds before barking out, "Who the hell do you think you are saying such convoluted nonsense, my life is not a mess. As a superhuman we either live or die in battle, that was my choice."

"And this is mine. If you want to die, do it yourself." Leo said before leading Roxy away from him.

Roxy could sense that her partner had a heavy heart, as much as she wanted to sympathise with him she knew very much that it was his fault. But then again, this simple job had turned into something entirely unexpected and bizarre to them all.

After a minute they found Mr Neuman, Melissa, the chief bodyguard situated in one area. And standing before them was Hinata, her body still bearing scars from the earlier battles.

She turned and looked at Leo with her eyes watering.

Melissa’s head, which was bleeding from where rubble had collided with it clung to her sister and cried into her lap. "No, don’t leave me again. Please, stay."

Hinata still stared at Leo before turning around and pushing her sister gently aside. "The voices keep hammering into my head, they wanted me to forget you. To end you." She gave a long pause.

This time it was Leo who spoke, "And what do you want?"

Hinata replied without looking at him, "I... Don’t know. I’m not Hinata anymore, I don’t know what I really am anyway. So I guess I’ll want to find out."

Roxy smacked her lips and faced Mr Neuman who was in a world of confusion of his own and blatantly said, "Are we still getting paid?"