SSV4 Chapter 38

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 a choice to make.

Damnit.

Rather than fight him, I ripped a giant hole in the structure above me and threw my hands to the side, smashing the vault to smithereens in the process and launching myself out before the Roach fleeing with Kim got too far.

Daeva flew to me. “It’s over?” Her head swiveled back and forth as she looked for any threats.

“No. He’s gone. The real one, that is.” I threw my hands forward and drew Daeva with me as I shot across the treetops for Kim. I knew the second I went for this one that the other was gone.

His body disappeared from the room when I smashed everything.

He was nuts, but it was like he was a mad scientist gone too far.

“Are you okay?” Daeva asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“No.” Anger bubbled out of me. “He realized that he poses no threat to me anymore now that I can’t die. So he’s threatening all of my women. He wants to break my spirit.” I frowned as I spotted the Roach in the distance and locked him down with my power.

I had been too confident, too brazen. My powers had put me on another level, but that had made him target something else.

My fated, you couldn’t have known.

I should have. Pratt even told us that he’d been taking powers from bugs. I should have just assumed he was capable of just as many abilities as I could mimic.

Catching the Roach that held Kim, I crushed him like a bug. So much force slammed down on him that I flattened the forest for miles.

Yet the Roach still tried to get up. Stupid durable pest. Ten beads of destruction appeared over my shoulder while it struggled to get up and blew the weaker Roach to smithereens before it could get away.

I’d have to figure out a way to kill the main one faster next time I saw him.

And finding him was going to be a challenge. He knew what to expect from me. But at least next time he’d have far fewer followers.

When he came for me and mine, I’d defend them. I’d have to manage to be in two places at once, defending both Point City and New Haven, but I could move quickly anyway.

And I’d need to keep an eye on Coast City and Verdant City. Hendricks had made it sound like they were in a similar state to Point City.

We can solve this. We’ll grab everyone and come back to Point City. Collect your harem around you. Then you can feel safe.

I pinched the bridge of my nose; she was right. I needed to collect myself, my harem, and then figure out next steps.

Blowing out a heavy breath, I knew she was right. The frozen Kim floated over to me and I wrapped her in warmth, melting the ice and holding her in my arms.

“Come on, Daeva. Let’s get out of here.” Kim roused in my arms.

“Having fun?” I asked her.

She wrapped herself in a flaming bikini once more. “Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t realize they could freeze me like that. You got him?” There was a little too much hope in her tone.

“No.” Saying the word kept spiking my anger. “He escaped and has threatened to capture my women and torture them until I break.” My tone was as dry as a desert. “So, we are heading back. Daeva will take you, Obby, and Sidi. I’m going to wake up in New Haven and collect my women there.”

Pausing, I decided to try to push myself a little further. I kissed Kim’s cheek, feeling a little more protective of everyone around me.

Kim beamed and held her cheek.

I didn’t have time for more and I wasn’t sure what I would even have done, letting my mind snap back to my body in New Haven.

Stella stood over me with her face covered in 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.

“Master!” Stella threw her hands up. “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 is going to cause problems. 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 Roach getting hold of the monster fruit technology and making some mess with that too.

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 going to try and smash New Haven if I’m here.” I sighed. “So, I’m leaving to protect all of you.”

“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 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 was going to try to take what was mine, but it would take him a little while to build up his forces and strategize.

I’d ruined his immediate plans, and I’d do it once more. Now I just needed to work to get ahead of him 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. There had been a moment before she appeared at the vault that I was concerned she could be captured.