Chapter 704: The Stranger

"There's only one."

"Only one?"

"One? Where is it? How far away is it from here?"

"Well, actually—Ack!"

"Alice!?"

And without any warning, a quiet explosion whispered in the air. Sadly, for Alice, the source of the quiet explosion was the circlet that was wrapped around her head—and as she needed to be directly connected to it, she doesn't have any telekinetic armor protecting the temples of her head.

"F...freak," Alice quickly tapped her head several times; the blood flowing from her head, enough to paint her entire palm in red almost instantly. The bleeding did not last, however, as Alice quickly closed her wounds. And if it weren't for Earth-1 Diana catching her, she would have probably already fallen down.

"What happened!?" Earth-1 Diana screamed as she looked at Bernard.

Bernard's helmet folded away. He was going to approach Alice, but Earth-1 Diana's eyes started to glow red.

"That's not supposed to happen," Bernard said as he raised both his hands in the air, "Even if it indeed broke in one use, it shouldn't explode."

"Shouldn't explode!? Do you see what just happ—"

"Dee, stop..." Alice placed her hand on Earth-1 Diana's mouth...putting some blood on it, "...I was saying that the portal is right ab—"

"!!!"

A rumble.

Or perhaps a drumming thunder-it was really hard to choose what to describe the noise as a part of the ceiling above their heads suddenly burst and collapsed almost instantly, but at the same time, it was slow.

Slow, as all the debris just turned into ashes before they could hit the floor. And the only thing that really touched ground was a set of claws, glowing orange as they embedded themselves through the silver floor.

The claws connected to a black gauntlet, which connected to a full suit of armor black, gold, and a glowing orange. There was also a glowing orange cape waving in the air almost like wings, settling down as the Stranger in a suit of armor very slowly removed his claws from the floor.

But the claws did not just disappear, no—it was absorbed back by the gauntlet as the light started to travel like blood going through veins until they ultimately settled across the arm.

And soon, the glowing cape too, started being absorbed by the Stranger's armor as he very slowly stood up from the floor. And like the claws, the light of the glowing cape settled on the back of the Stranger's armor, as well as flowed straight through his helmet.

"..." And while all of this was happening, Bernard and the others could not help but just stay quiet, trying to observe who this Stranger was and what he was going to do.

"This is what I wanted to tell you guys," Alice let out a small sigh as she looked at the Stranger, "The portal... it was just right on top of us."

"Why didn't you say anything, then!?"

"Because you were being dramatic!" Alice whispered loudly, "It's not like my head was cut off or something, I survived worse shit. Don't you remember the time my entire arm was sliced off!?"

The Stranger turned his head toward Alice as her loud words traveled, which caused Diana to move in front of her to block her from the Stranger's view.

The Stranger did nothing, however, as he started looking around—but not for long. Because as soon as he saw Bernard, the claws he hid in his gauntlets once again emerged as he rushed toward Bernard without any warning.

He swung his claws straight toward Bernard's neck, but Bernard was able to grab the Stranger's wrist. The Stranger, however, was able to quickly break himself free as leaped and rotated his whole body, before once again targeting Bernard's neck with the very same hand he just freed.

"Tch," Bernard's helmet quickly unfolded and covered his head as he leaned away to avoid the orange claws, but not before stepping on the Stranger's foot. And as soon as his soles made contact, the armor around Bernard's leg collapsed and attached itself to the Stranger's foot, locking and attaching it to the floor.

Bernard then let himself fall back to completely avoid the claw, before spinning his entire body and swinging his leg straight toward the Stranger's neck.

The Stranger, however, did not even bother to dodge as he just blocked the blow with his arm, causing a slight ripple of air to blast away whatever ashes floated around them.

"Hm," although Bernard's face was also completely covered by his white helmet, it was obvious from his scoffing breath that a smirk was growing on his face. And not even a second after, the light around the Stranger's neck started to blink and fade away... as they seemed to be being absorbed by Bernard's greaves.

[!!!]

And then, with another blast of wind, Bernard's kick continued its halted path and slammed the Stranger straight to the floor.

Well, not quite, as the Stranger's body has not really made contact with the floor yet and instead just hovered inches above it.

[Ngh...] The Stranger then immediately pushed himself away, sliding on the floor before floating and somersaulting in the air. He was about to rush toward Bernard again, but he almost tumbled forward as his foot was caught in something.

[...] The Stranger quickly turned to look at what he was stepping on, only to see the headless corpse of Earth-1 Bernard.

[This...] And finally, the Stranger let out a word as he focused on the red armor the corpse was wearing; his voice, completely robotic and indistinguishable. The Stranger then looked back and forth between the corpse and Bernard.

"..."

"..."

"...Why are we just watching and not doing anything?"

"Shut up."

[Hm...] The Stranger then once again started looking around the silver room, only for his eyes to settle on the portal that Bernard and Diana emerged from. The Stranger then started scanning Alice and the others, before he started looking back and forth between Diana and Earth-1 Diana.

[This has become... complicated,] the Stranger muttered before he just quickly flew up into the air and out into the hole he made in the ceiling.

"..." Bernard and Diana also looked at each other, and without even as much as a nod, they followed the Stranger outside—revealing the view of the Grand Canyon, completely away from any city or people.

"So, you guys do realize we just watched the whole thing happen and did nothing, right?"

"We weren't the ones being attacked," Earth-1 Diana scoffed, before very gently taking off the broken circlet from Alice's head.

"I am completely uninvolved in this," Earth-1 Aerith shook her head, before once again glaring at Riley, who seemed to be completely oblivious to everything that is happening, "I just want him dead."

"...I don't think that is happening anytime soon," Alice then said as she looked up, watching Bernard and Diana chase the Stranger.

[...] The Stranger glanced down as he noticed he was being followed. And soon, he opened up his palm and pointed it at Bernard and Diana.

And then, a crack of lightning emerged from beneath the Stranger, soon merging together and creating an orb the size of a car that eerily looked similar to that of a star.

Diana instantly flew faster as she moved above Bernard, stretching her arms to the sides and preparing to take the blow as it came. To her surprise, however, the Stranger moved his hand away and pointed the fiery orb toward the horizon before letting it loose. The fireball flew like a wheel of fire, its flames racing around its circumference as if they were part of an infinite loop as they flew faster and faster.

"..." Bernard quickly stopped chasing the Stranger as his suit started hacking the nearby satellites, giving him a full view of the world's map.

"It's going to reach a city if we don't stop it!" Bernard did not even wait for Diana to respond as he quickly flew toward the glowing orb, "Don't let the man get away!"

"..." Diana wanted to go with Bernard, but as she saw Earth-1 Diana emerging from the ground and also rushing to follow the glowing orb, she just quickly decided to continue chasing the Stranger as he flew into the sky.

The Stranger flew higher and higher, the air around him distorting into a bright bright orange as he once again glanced down. And as he noticed Diana still chasing him, he quickly changed the direction of his flight. The clouds hovering above him slightly dissipated, perhaps due to the orange glow surrounding his body.

It was a weird sight, but it was familiar, familiar enough that it even made Diana raise an eyebrow. She already had an inkling as to who the Stranger is, but now it was obvious.

The suit of armor, the energy similar to the Guardian Force... there could really only be one.

Daina chased him around mountains, valleys, oceans, and forests—and when it became clear that the Stranger was just leading him somewhere randomly, Diana stopped flying.

She stopped chasing after the Stranger, and instead quickly flew back, back from where he was originally flying to.

The Stranger quickly noticed this as he too, maneuvered in the air and increased his speed; obviously making sure that Diana doesn't reach to wherever he was going first.

And very soon, the two just returned back to where they started--above the canyons.

The Stranger then started releasing small fiery orbs and throwing them down toward Diana. Diana, on the other hand, just clapped her hands to completely disperse the orbs completely.

"...Enough of this," Diana whispered, and with a sigh...

...she increased her speed.