Chapter 2280: The hero is tired

Stark's vision continued to go in and out. The desert around him was all but a blur and it wasn't due to the heat either. In fact, he wasn't quite sure what the reason was.

'Could it be the armour?' Stark thought. 'Maybe it's blood loss from my arm. The wound... it stopped bleeding, but I lost a lot of blood during the fight.'

The Penswi didn't have amazing healing capabilities like the vampires, but unlike humans, if they were to lose a limb the area around the wound would seal off to stop them from bleeding to death.

The problem was, while using the armour's strange skill that was taking the life out of him, he could feel that his arm hadn't healed, it wasn't healing during his confrontation with Jack, and only now that he had stopped drawing power from the armour, had his arm healed up.

'Let's try and look on the bright side, without an arm it means I weigh less, so I should be able to move faster now, right?' Stark thought.

He stumbled a bit, but managed to catch himself. He imagined that the effect of the demon tier armour was the only thing that kept him standing, and the fact that there was still unfinished business.

In the sand lying in front of him, Jack had a hole in his shin, a hole in his arms, and holes in other places of his body. All of these had been made with Stark's good arm. It was done so Jack wouldn't run away, and also to convince him to take away the powers of others.

While attacking, Stark did also notice something else, a crystal that was embedded in his body, it was next to his chest glowing with power.

'I'm not so sure what that is... but if I was to guess, it is one of those crystals that Quinn had asked for, a nest crystal? It's not glowing as bright though, maybe its power was already somewhat used.'

Without realising it, Jack was also powering his own armour with the power of the crystal, but with Stark using the celestial armour and his own strength, he managed to break through the barrier.

Although nest crystals were somewhat considered an unlimited source of energy, even they needed time to recover their energy.

Stark started to move toward Jack, and eventually lifted him again, pulling him up with his one good arm. The strength of the armour was still working, allowing him to do so with ease.

"I did what you asked... you said you would leave me alone!" Jack shouted through a swollen mouth that was only getting bigger.

"I need to confirm you did as you said, and besides, if anyone else comes after me, I'm going to need a hostage." Stark replied.

Stark made sure that Jack was unable to do anything, checking that the bones, and the tendons in his arms and legs were slashed. He was unable to move, and then placed him on his back.

Two of Jack's arms fell past his neck, and with his one good hand he held Jack's hands together close to his chest. After that he moved his leg's sprinting forward, he ran through the sand before stopping after half a kilometre.

Stark coughed and blood spilt out of his mouth falling onto the floor.

"If you force yourself to move you'll die!" Jack said.

"If I stay put, and your people find me, I'll die." Stark replied.

He continued to run, going back the way he came, but unlike before he would have to take frequent breaks and rest for a bit. Each time Stark had to take a break, the intervals were getting shorter, while the breaks were getting longer.

'My damned eyesight is just getting blurrier... how much longer can I hold out!'

With one last stint, Stark had eventually made it back to Jack's personal control room. There were people running all over the ship, but no one was at the start of the scene of the crime.

Perhaps they thought that Stark would never return here with Jack. Maybe thinking that they would do anything they could to get off the ship. After all, if they stayed on it, they would eventually be found, and then killed.

In the control room, the screens were looking at what was going on down below. Stark could hardly see what was on the screens, but Jack's reaction was enough for him to know what had happened.

"Where is H... he was down there, he was sent down to fight... to fight that person!" Jack screamned. The only usable part of his body was his mouth it seemed like.

"Sil... Sil is right there, but H is nowhere to be seen... that's impossible. Did they manage to kill H, but how could that be. Even if Sil was at full strength he wouldn't have been able to beat H, but he was nearly half dead."

For Stark, the voice of Jack being unable to comprehend that H had lost to his allies, it was music to his ears.

"Was it really because of me, because I took H's powers away, but that wasn't too long ago, he would have had his powers long enough to deal with them all."

Jack didn't want to believe it, but the scene of the ground and everything around them, it was clear that a huge fight had taken place.

"Even without H... they should be weak, if the others attack, they will be able to finish them all off, and then I can just ask Jim to help me create a better H. I can't be taken out here like this, my name was meant to live on for the ages, written down and planted in history!"

Hearing all the useless babble at the side of his ear, Stark moved his shoulders and let go of his hands allowing him to drop on the floor. Jack now laid there on his back, and Stark soon propped his knees on Jack's arms.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked. "You have your confirmation, I did what you asked."

Stark then pulled back his one good hand, and putting his fingers together he made the sharp pointed end.

"You're going to kill me, you're going to go back on your word, then you are no better than me!"

"Me, no better than you?" Stark laughed. "You just went on, and on, about how you would do this all over again. You are someone who can not live. You have taken their powers away so there is a good chance you can always just give them their powers back."

Jack tried to lift his arms, but he was unable to, nothing was working.

"No... no! I can't give them their powers back. I have to touch them... I have to transfer powers through my mouth! You can make sure that I don't give my powers to anyone! And didn't you say, you would use me as a hostage, if you kill me, you won't be able to leave this ship!"

"I'm sorry." Stark said. "But there's no way I can confirm what you said is true... and I think... I'm too tired to leave this ship anyway."

Stark didn't say anything else, he just threw his hand forward, it went right through Jack's head between his two eyebrows. When pulling it out, there was a large hole in its place, and Jack's entire body was lifeless, he was dead, and there was no coming back from this one.

Standing up, Stark waddled again, and now he was unable to see. His eyes were open but he couldn't see at all. With his one good arm, he reached around until he eventually felt a chair.

Making sure the chair was sturdy, he sat down, and started to close his eyes.

"I'm so tired... my leg's... I don't think I can move them anymore. Everyone, I wish you good luck... I need to go to sleep now."

Stark's eyes closed, and his one arm fell dangling by his side.