Chapter 40 Victor Creed vs The Witch King

Victor's casual monologue was cut off by a sound like the sky tearing in two as Kenji, the Witch King, materialized directly in front of him, his fist already a meteor of condensed, white-hot energy aimed at his face.

Victor's hands came up, crossed in a guard. The impact didn't make a sound at first—it created a vacuum then exploded. A visible, expanding sphere of pure force erupted from the point of contact. It swept outwards, shearing the tops off the nearest skyscrapers in a ring of destruction before the roar of collapsing concrete and the symphony of a million shattering windows caught up a second later. High above, the very clouds were blown apart, clearing a perfect circle in the night sky.

"VICTOR! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!"

Victor skidded back through the air, his arms smoking. He lowered them, and a wide, delighted smile split his face.

"My, oh my. What a punch. Is this the way to greet an old friend? Oh, Kenji, Kenji, Kenji. You should really learn how to treat the elderly. I am not a young man. I am a man of... respectable age."

"ENOUGH WITH YOUR JOKES!"

Victor's smile vanished. 

"Alright. As you wish. On a more serious note... are you sure you want to fight me? Don't you have something more important to do right now? Something a Pro Wizard should be doing?"

He gestured a single finger downwards. The sounds of distant screams, explosions, and roars from the kaiju horde suddenly seemed to amplify, rising through the devastated cityscape to their ears.

"If you haven't noticed, kaiju and minions are flooding the streets. People are dying. And no Pro Wizard is there to save them. Oh, wait. Correction. There is one. Right here. Right in front of me.

Now the question is... will this Pro Wizard waste time trying to fight me? Or will he do the right thing and go save the people, like a real Pro Wizard should do?! People are dying under our feet, Kenji. Literally, on the streets we are flying above."

His eyes narrowed.

 "Or... did the government and the Association put a big, spiky collar on your neck? Made you their dog? How about it, Kenji?! What will it be? You fight me? You help the poor people? Or maybe try to stop the weapon? Either way, I will not stop you. I am here to find myself a front-row seat, lean back, and watch the Array blow away this abomination of a barrier once and for all!"

"Victor, you bastard! You and your coward schemes!"

 Kenji could hear the screams. He could see the flashes of distant battles. The orders from command screamed in his comms: "Ignore all secondary targets! Locate and disable the Array! Priority Alpha!" And before him stood the architect of all his nightmares, smirking, daring him.

Kenji trembled with sheer, overwhelming powerlessness. He wished he could split into ten of himself—one to strangle Victor, eight to save the city, and one to hunt the hidden cannon.

Victor saw the conflict ravage Kenji's face. He saw the moment the leader buckled under the weight of impossible choices. His smile returned, sad and cruel.

"Oh, Kenji. You're not her. You're not Lycoris. Say... doesn't this remind you of a day? Ten years ago? Sure, it was on a much bigger scale than this, but still."

His eyes grew distant, haunted by the memory of his own perfect defeat. 

"That day... do you even know how long it took me to prepare for it? It was a bone-breaking effort to convince the top villains to join me. Then the hellish pain of gathering the strongest Kaiju, to get them to join the offensive. Years of preparation. We had the best timing. We had her surrounded. The strongest villains. The strongest Kaiju. And me, in my peak power. All while she had to protect the people and the city from destruction. All odds against her."

His voice dropped to awestruck, furious reverence.

"And she still beat all of us! ALL OF US, GOD DAMN IT! ALL! OF! US!"

 He looked at Kenji, calm now.

"She was the greatest of the wizards. Something like this... the situation you are in right now, Kenji? If she were here, it would have ended by now. And with zero deaths of innocent people."

“You talk too much, Creed. You always did. It’s your one true weakness. I will ignore my orders. You are not some ‘secondary target.’ You are the source. The ultimate evil here. Cutting the head off the serpent ends the battle faster than chasing the tail."

He gestured dismissively toward the pulsing Zenith Tower.

 “The Veil will be repaired in moments. Your Array, even at full charge, will not be enough to break a restored Eternal Veil. Your primary objective is about to become dust.”

His gaze swept the city below.

 “As for the people… the Pro Wizard Association is not comprised solely of me. The Top Five are already mobilizing. A-and B-rank teams are on route. They will handle the Kaiju. They will save the people. That is what an organization does. It does not rely on a single man to be in ten places at once.”

He leveled a burning fist at Victor. 

“Stopping you now is the single most efficient way to save everyone. So, enough talk. Let’s finish what should have ended a decade ago.”

"Is that so? The Veil will be repaired in moments... The Array won't be enough... Well. I was planning to lay back, grab a drink and some popcorn, and enjoy the show. But it seems the fools in the government have, against all odds, actually found a way to fix it. Or at least, you believe they have."

He gave Kenji a slow nod. 

"Thank you for verifying that for me, Kenji. I was unsure. The energy signature from the tower was... unusual. Not a simple drain. Now, thanks to your noble, defiant little speech, it's clear. So, if you'll excuse me, I must decline your offer to 'finish things.' A king does not brawl in the streets when his throne is being threatened."

He began to turn, his form already starting to blur at the edges as dark energy wrapped around him. His focus was no longer on the fuming Witch King before him, but on the tower beyond.

"Which means I will have to postpone our reunion, old friend. The grand fireworks are on a timer, and it appears someone is trying to douse the fuse. How rude."

He gave Kenji one last, dismissive glance.

 "If you wish to stop me, you are welcome to try. But my destination has changed. I'm paying a visit to the Zenith Tower. I need to see for myself what little miracle they are attempting in there... and put a stop to it personally."

 "Do you think I'll just sit and let you leave? You're going down. Right here. Right now!"

Victor's casual turn was met with obliterating force. Kenji punched the air between them. The shockwave was a focused pulse of anti-magic that slammed into Victor's forming void portal like a hammer hitting glass. The dark gateway shattered into shards of dissipating shadow before it could fully open.

Before Victor could even snarl a witty comeback, Kenji was there, face-to-face. Time seemed to slow down.

"ORA!"

The first punch landed on Victor's cross-guard with the force of a meteor strike. A visible sphere of white energy erupted.

"ORA! ORA! ORA!"

Kenji unleashed a beatdown. A hundred punches in the space of a breath, each one a detonation of concussive magic. The air exploded. The sky above them turned into a strobing panorama of blinding white flashes followed by thunderclaps so fast they merged into a single, continuous rumble. Sparks—showers of golden-white and dark purple energy—rained down on the city below like magical shrapnel from each blocked impact.

The final punch of the combo was a colossal, two-handed hammer blow.

 “FINAL DRIVE!”

BOOOOM!

 Victor was blasted backwards a full city block, his coat smoking, his guard finally broken. He skidded to a halt in mid-air, a thin trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away, looking at the red smear with mild surprise, then grinned.

"Now that had some heat." 

Darkness, thick and liquid, poured from his body, wrapping around his right arm. It formed a monstrous, skyscraper long blade of void energy, a katana made of devouring nothingness. He swung it at Kenji.

"VOID CLEAVER!"

 A line of perfect, atomic-level negation sliced through the world. A skyscraper in its path was silently sheared in two, the upper half beginning a slow, grim slide. The cut was so clean it didn't even spark.

Kenji blurred, dodging the slice by a millimeter.

Victor didn't watch the skyscraper fall. The instant Kenji evade the Void Cleaver, Victor moved. He closed the distance in a blink; his open palm aimed at Kenji's center of mass.

Kenji braced, white energy burst around his fists to meet the strike.

 The palm-strike was a feint. Instead of hitting Kenji, a massive, swirling void portal erupted into existence directly behind the Witch King's back.

He unleashed a short, focused blast of concussive dark energy from his palm to shove with immense, sudden force.

The blast hit Kenji square in the chest. He was thrown backward off his feet directly into the waiting, yawning mouth of the void portal.

"Enjoy the trip, Witch King! Send a postcard!" 

The portal snapped shut the moment Kenji passed through it, swallowing him. Victor used it to teleport Kenji miles away, and completely out of his path.

 He turned, his scarred face devoid of all humor, his eyes fixed on the pulsating light at the heart of the Zenith Tower.

"Now, for the main event."