Look at me!! I'm the reaper now: Reincarnated as the Herald of Death-Chapter 55: Everything. Everywhere. All at once

Hailee propelled herself through the air via a high pressure platform made out of wind, spinning violently like a helicopter blade.

Ahead of her, Taser flew on his black spear, electricity crackling along its length.

He swerved the spear to the left, avoiding the slash she’d just launched. The high pressure and compressed wind shot past him, carving a line through a nearby billboard.

"You’re fast!" Taser shouted back at her, grinning. "I’ll give you that!"

Hailee didn’t waste her breath responding. She created three more slashes and launched them in a spread pattern.

Lightning erupted from the tip of taser’s spear, intercepting two of the slashes so he could dodge the third albeit barely.

It grazed his shoulder enough to tear through his jacket.

Blood rushed out of the wound it opened on his arm, dripping into the vitalis night sky

"That actually hurt!"

"Good!" Hailee compressed and realesed the air beneath her feet, launching herself higher. "Then I’m doing something right!"

They were above the commercial district now, building stretching below them like a concrete canyon.

Normal people went about their evening, completely unaware of the battle happening hundreds of feet above their heads.

Taser pulled ahead, his spear cutting through the air with devastating speed.

Hailee followed pace, accelerating the disc with short and thin bursts of pressurized wind.

Storm clouds were already gathering overhead. She’d noticed them forming over the past few minutes.

They were dark, heavy and blocking out the stars.

Taser looked up at the clouds and his grin widened.

"Perfect weather!" he shouted.

Before she knew it, the bolts were already coming down at lightspeed and...

Headed directly toward her.

Her eyes widened and she tried using a slash to stop it but the lightning struck her dead-on, the slash only holding for half a second before dissipating.

The electrical discharge cascaded around her, most of it dispersed by the slash but enough got through to lock her muscles up.

Her platform dissipated and she was forced deeper into the city but quickly jolted back awake, using her crest to create another disc and catch herself.

Taser was already moving ahead and raining more strikes down on her.

Hailee dodged the first one, rolled through the air to avoid the second but the third caught her square in the chest and electricity exploded through her body.

Every nerve froze up and she plummeted, a building rushing up to meet her.

She hit the rooftop hard enough to crack the concrete, rolled and slammed into an air conditioning unit that stopped her momentum.

One would imagine she’d be knocked out completely but the vice Magister was tougher than that.

Hailee groaned and Slowly pushed herself back up

Her trench coat was smoking and literal smoke rose up from where the lightning had struck.

"Dammit," she muttered, shrugging off the ruined coat. Underneath, her vest was scorched but enough of it remained to hide her large bare chests.

She looked up and taser descended slowly on his spear, lightning crackling around him like a crown.

"You know what I love about storms?" he called down to her. "They make me feel like a god."

Taser’s Crest was a lot more than electricity manipulation.

The ability to generate and control electrical currents was impressive in on its own but he had evolved beyond that.

He possessed the ability to conduct and redirect electrical currents through any medium—his body, his weapons and.....

even the air itself.

He was a living conduit capable of channeling power from any source.

And when storm conditions were preset and natural lightning filled the sky?

His power amplified exponentially.

He could call lightning from the heavens themselves, redirecting nature’s wrath with a thought to become a living extension of the storm.

The Empire had recognized this havoc wrecking evolution with an official name.

His Crest bore the name:

The God of Thunder.

Hailee ignored the pain and completely got back to her feet.

Taser raised his spear to the sky.

Lightning cascaded down from the storm clouds, striking the spear’s tip. The electricity flowed down the weapon, through Taser’s body, and erupted outward in blue-white brilliance.

He became wreathed in pure electrical energy. His eyes glowed and his hair stood on end, arcs of lightning dancing between his fingers.

"Let’s see you cut through THIS!" he roared.

A green aura coated Hailee and the wind around her swirled violently.

"Challenge accepted."

Somewhere else In the commercial district,

Thadeus fled through the narrow streets, his concrete platform hovering three feet off the ground.

Montez lay unconscious across it, shirtless and with drool pooling around the corner of his left cheek.

All of a sudden, the air of the area in front of them seemed to change colour a bit.

Thadeus noticed this and immediately reversed his direction. His eyes watered and his lungs burned even from minimal exposure.

The air of the area was changing fast and filling the entire intersection.

Thadeus liquefied the concrete beneath his platform and sank it into the ground, creating a temporary barrier between them and the poisnous air

A figure walked out into the contaminated air.

They wore a brown jacket with orange highlights and their green eyes glowing softly just above their out of context gas mask.

"Impressive endurance, Professor," the figure said, his voice muffled. "I’ve relased it, you can come out now."

Thadeus studied him, the green eyes and the way the air seemed to part around him like he was controlling it.

"Cross," Thadeus said. "You’re a Cross."

The figure tilted his head. "The eyes gave it away?"

"They always do." Thadeus solidified the concrete barrier higher. "David Cross. Strategos of Lionheart."

"Guilty." David pulled off his gas mask, revealing a young face with sharp features. The green glow in his eyes intensified. "Though I’m surprised you know me. We’ve never met."

"Your reputation precedes you." Thadeus created another concrete wall, boxing them in. "Your Crest is Miasma. You can increase or decrease the amount of an element present in the air of particular area to turn that air into poison."

"Very good, want to guess the radius?"

"I’d rather not find out."

"Smart man." Said David.

"How did you find us?" Thadeus asked, stalling for time while he tried to figure out an escape route.

"He didn’t," another voice said from behind Thadeus. "I did."

Thadeus spun to find.....

Reece Oxford in the shadow of a building with his hands in his pockets. His fedora cast his face in darkness, but that distinctive orange glow was visible beneath the brim.

"With my Crest....." Reece continued calmly. "Absolute Perception. I’ve been tracking my brother’s every move for a while now."

"We’re here for Montez," David added. "Step aside and you can walk away from this."

Thadeus glanced at the unconscious man on his platform, then back at Reece.

"I don’t think so."

"Your loyalty to the Vice Magister of Luce Nera is admirable" Said Reece.

Thadeus eyes widened and Reece shit him a smile back

"You didn’t think I knew she was in on this too. But I want you to tell me, is it really loyalty or do you have other intentions."

A blue projectile bolted through the air projectile and everyone scattered.

It hit the ground where they’d been standing and exploded in a shower of electricity and concrete.

Taser descended from the sky, his spear crackling with power. His clothes were torn in different areas and gastly cut marks could be seen on his skin through the holes they left.

But he was ginning.

"FOUND YOU, TRAITOR!" he roared, pointing his spear at Montez’s unconscious body.

But then he noticed Reece and the grin on his face immediately froze.

"Oh. Shit."

Reece adjusted his fedora slightly, keeping his face down.

"Taser," he said pleasantly. "So you’re still alive and well."

"Ma.... Magister Oxford." Taser landed, his bravado evaporating. "I—uh—I wasn’t expecting—"

"Clearly."

The air pressure seemed to change as Reece lifted his head slowly and.....

Opened his eyes.

Orange irises with a compass rose pattern spinning in the center but that was just the physical manifestation.

The real effect was impossible to describe.

A massive eye opened in the sky above them—a projection of Reece’s Crest made visible to the world. Eight-pointed compass rose rotating endlessly.

Taser stared into those eyes and screamed, blood pouring from his nose, ears and the corners of his eyes.

He collapsed to his knees, clutching his head.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" The words came out of his mouth with pain.

"I let you see what I see," Reece said calmly. "Every detail. Every possibility. Everything. Everywhere. All at once."

Taser convulsed as blood kept on rushing.

"And Your brain couldn’t handle it," Reece continued.

Taser fell forward, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Reece’s eyes shifted to Thadeus.

Thadeus felt the weight of that gaze immediately. Like being dissected by light. Every weakness exposed and every possible action he could take analyzed and countered before he could even begin.

He tried to activate his Crest...

but only blood exploded from his nose.

His vision blurred and he collapsed beside Montez.

The last thing he saw was David walking toward them.

A few blocks away,

Hailee was approaching at a high speed.

She’d outmatched taser in their clash but he pulled a fast one on her by shooting at civillain who happened to see them.

She saved the person but taser escaped in the process.

She didn’t know where Thadues and Montez were but she was drawn to.....

A massive surge of power some blocks away and believed taser could be there.

She arrived, looked down at the street, saw Thadeus collapsed beside montez and who another person who seemed to be her cousin— David approaching the unconscious men.

"Dammit," Hailee muttered

She launched herself off the building without thinking too much about what could have happened and landed in the street between David and the unconscious men.

Reece closed his eyes and the massive eye in the sky faded.

"Vice-Magister Cross," he said pleasantly. "What a surprise."

Hailee hadn’t seen the person who owned that voice when she initially got here but she’d recognized it immediately.

"Magister Oxford?" Said Hailee who looked up to meet the eyelids of Reece.