Chapter 730: Ketto

"I think we all need to calm down. Golden Fox, I will explain what is..."

And just like that, Chihiro was no longer hearing anything. As soon as she returned the mask on her face, any other sound that was clouding her judgment was drowned away—all that was left was the mission, the Quest.

And right now, her abilities were running amok.

[Do not let the Villain escape! If you do not find a way to kill him, existence itself will cease to exist!]

[Do not let the Villain escape! If you do not...]

Ever since the revelation of finding out Riley's true identity, the words that were popping up in front of her almost did not stop. Although she was still completely unaware of what Riley had done to receive such ire from her System, she had to follow it.

After all, throughout her life, her System has always been there not only to help her but the people around her. It has helped make her the strongest super in Japan, next only to Whiteking, and Megawoman who had already been deceased for around a decade or so now. But in truth, if the world had to base it on raw strength and capabilities alone, Golden Fox was already the undisputed strongest superhero in the world.

This was all possible because of her System. Her System, which has allowed her to save countless lives, to reunite families, and to give hope to the future. And in this case, most importantly, the System truly only targets villains, bad people.

And for it to go crazy means only one thing—Riley is an extremely bad individual. And what she had just heard, with him killing the entire themarians and hundreds of billions of innocent lives in the other worlds, perhaps he's just not evil, but something more.

Hearing that kind of number seems unbelievable and doesn't really register in her mind. What does it even mean to take the life of almost a trillion people? And to act almost as if completely numb from it, like he just did something... already expected.

Riley Ross is an existence that must disappear. So, why...

...why exactly could she feel herself wavering now?

Was it because she saw her from the other world sacrificing herself to save Riley?

Why would she even do that? Why would the System allow her to save Riley if he was truly a bad person?

"..."

"..."

And without even hearing anything, without hearing any more explanation... Golden Fox rushed toward Riley.

"Stop!"

The chubbier Bernard quickly blocked her path; his armor, emerging from his pores and wrapping across his entire body in a blink of an eye. His chubby exterior, no longer to be seen as the armor completely showed the muscles they were hiding from within.

Chubbier Bernard grabbed both of Chihiro's hands, tying them to her waist with some sort of rope that shot out from her arms.

"You people should leave, now! Hannah, help me restrain Golden Fox!"

Shirtless Hannah was completely reluctant to do anything, as she was actually on Chihiro's side on this matter and didn't want the variants to just leave. Even then, however, she followed her father's orders and grabbed Chihiro by the neck, wrapping her arms around her tightly.

"Please, don't struggle."

And although most of the people from the other universes were slightly confused with what was happening, they all just nodded their heads and started walking away—with Aerith-1 making sure that Riley doesn't leave from her sight, standing ever so close behind him.

"..." As for Riley, he just glanced at Shirtless Hannah for a few seconds, before nodding his head and turning around. No one else really spoke their mind, as they just surrounded Riley as they all went to the elevator. Silvie, who had not seen Riley since Theran, could really only just awkwardly stand beside him, glancing from time to time not knowing what to say.

Diana seemed to want to say something, but Riley hasn't glanced her way even once. It was the same with Aerith—if this was before, then Riley would have already started talking to her like usual. Even if they tried to kill each other in the past so many times, Riley still talked to her. But now, it was complete silence.

She did hear from Hannah that Riley was starting to grow and learn emotions, but she initially thought that it was just from a sister's perspective. But seeing him right now... was he perhaps hiding some sort of vexation from what they did to him?

And with the elevator door closing, the only one making a sound was Hannah, who was gripping her brother's hand not wanting to let it go no matter what. The others just watched—they watched as a different version of Bernard and Hannah continued to restrain Golden Fox.

And then, as the door was only inches away from closing, they watched as Bernard and Hannah failed to restrain her as her silhouette suddenly faded away before shooting down to the floor. And before the door could fully close, Chihiro's hands suddenly emerged from the elevator floor, grabbing Riley by the ankles as they both just suddenly disappeared.

"Wh—" Even with Hannah tightly holding his hand, RIley felt like a cloud that just suddenly burst away as he disappeared. Even Aerith-1, who tried to grab Chihiro's hand from the floor, only managed to pierce through the elevator with no luck.

And with that, Riley disappeared again.

"Shit!" Chubbier Bernard pried the elevator doors open. And almost as if opening a fridge and finding nothing there, he glanced several times to make sure that Riley truly did disappear from the crowd of variants,

"Shit..." Chubbier Bernard's armor retracted back to his skin, causing his flesh to once again slightly bloat, "This is not good, not good."

"Dad! Why the fuck are you even panicking!?" Shirtless Hannah raised her voice.

"She's right!" Elevator Hannah slightly pushed Chubby Bernard to the side as she stepped out of the elevator, "You should have even fancier satellites than my dad, fucking search for them!"

"You don't fucking order my dad around, you fucking bitch," Shirtless Hannah raised an eyebrow, "Your people have no right to make demands of us when you've... you've already caused this much trouble. Just leave Riley here, your people obviously don't fucking want him."

"Jesus, fuck..." Elevator Hannah snarled as she looked Shirtless Hannah in the eyes, "...You're not right in the head."

"You—"

"I can't."

And as everyone once again started stepping out of the elevator, Chubby Bernard spoke; the tone of his voice, as deep as it could be as he just stared at the floor, "I can't find them."

"I'll help," Bernard carefully placed his arm on Chubby Bernard's shoulder, "It should be easy with—"

"No," Chubby Bernard shrugged as he stepped away, "I mean I can't, we can't. I have already interfered too much with the Avatar of Machina, any more and it won't like it."

"Who...?" Both the Hannahs looked at Chubby Bernard with a raised eyebrow.

"Machina..." Diana, on the other hand, just let out a small gasp as she heard Bernard's words, "...It's real? The primordial god of machines?"

"Bullshit."

"I agree with the half-breed," Aerith-1 crossed her arms; her foot, stomping on the floor enough to cause the entire building to shake, "I don't care about the fairytales of gods or what, I just want justice for my people."

"Oh, they're real," Diana let out a deep sigh.

"You've... also encountered one before?" Chubby Bernard squinted his eyes as he looked at Diana.

"I... started thoroughly studying their existence after Riley shared his encounter with Nothing and Death."

"...Shit," Chubby Bernard grasped his head as he looked back and forth between Diana and Bernard,

"...Just what the fuck did you two raise?"

***

"Where did you take me, Chihiro?"

"Far away where both of us can't do damage."

"..."

Riley looked everywhere, only to see nothing but an expanse of a desolate copper and fading blue. The horizon, the view of the stars, not twinkling as they should.

"Are we perhaps on Mars, Chihiro?" Riley started looking at the skies, as if trying to find something, "If so, then you are wrong—I can do damage from here."

"No," Chihiro slightly pushed her feet, causing her to very slowly float up, "We're farther away, extremely... far."

"Hm."

"I truly don't wish to fight you, Riley. I don't know who you are but I feel a very deep connection to you," Chihiro stretched her arms to the side, and as she did so, rods of a luminescent silver emerged and expanded from her hand; almost like thunderbolts, but not quite. The rods were extremely long, perhaps the length of a bus,

"But you are a villain, Riley Ross. And you must be expunged from this world."

"Your English has really improved, Chihiro," Riley started softly clapping his hands, "Your other variant died before she could truly be fluent with it."

"Please, don't talk about the other world," the rods that Chihiro was holding flashed—and as they did, the ground directly below Chihiro started flattening,

"Do not confuse me as you already have."

And with those words, Chihiro swung one of the rods. And with how long they were, they whistled loudly with every move.

"I truly have nothing against you, but this must be done!"

"..." Riley saw the ground crumbling as Chihiro once again swung the rods, this time toward him, "Well, I might be a bit rusty, but..."

Riley's feet also left the ground as the crawling crevice moved closer to him. And before whatever force it was that Chihiro was releasing from the rods could reach him, Riley also stretched his arms to the side.

And with a snap of his fingers...

...the entire plateau—no, the entire dead planet they were on instantly crumbled.

"...I hope we'll have fun, Chihiro."