Chương 114: CHAPTER 113
[Draul St. Cross POV]
Doom and I continued our fight after I destroyed that titan of his.
Since this was the mirror dimension, I wasn't under the restraint of holding back so as I fought Doom, I increased my output only when I saw he could keep up.
My fist smashed into Doom's face and then another and lastly a completely black fist with red lines pummeled him through the spinning buildings.
This was an ability I was able to replicate from my fight with Sunspot. By sucking in ambient light both outside and inside my body, my hand seemed like a void and it would have been the same with Sunspot if only the red lines weren't shining, contrasting well with the darkness of my arms.
Absorbing and refracting light were things Sunspot could do very easily and while I had the edge in absorbing energies, Sunspot had the flare for it. To him it was natural, but to me, it was something I had to focus on actively. For now at least.
I called back my axe, causing it to smack against my open palms in a second before cleaving the building Doom was in, opening it with magic before descending on him. All this took less than five seconds after Doom had smashed through the building.
I cleaved Doom in two which turned out to be an illusion a moment later as I felt his Adamantium blade slicing through my sides even as I made my attempt to dodge it. Ignoring the shallow wound that was already healed as soon as the blade exited my skin, I batted Doom's face with the flat of my axe causing blood to seep out from the little openings on his mask.
I made to give chase only for him to open a portal on his trajectory to my back, anticipating his attack, I swung backwards to block his incoming slash only to find the Doom before holding back one of my hands, preventing me from blocking his slash while his other hand was already slashing through the portal in hopes of skewering me as I couldn't defend.
Beams shot out of my eyes and zigzagged behind me, shooting Doom straight in the face which resulted in him screaming as the overwhelming heat of the mask burned his already ruined face.
I decreased the distance between us but Doom was faster as he controlled the dimension and split us apart, putting space and building between us as if he was shuffling cards.
I flew towards him even as he ran in a futile effort to get away from me. He tried opening a portal outside but I was always quick to interfere with it, either by using the dimension as obstacles or creating a portal before it… or just bombarding Doom.
"You can run Doom, but you can't hide." I teased him as I flashed to his side in a streak of red lightning only for him to block my axe with his sword and then being pushed back due to the overwhelming force of my strength.
"You should be stronger than this Doom, or was it just my perception? You haven't even pushed me anywhere near my limit… and yet you are running?" Doom screeched to a halt at my words and cracked his neck towards me in a robotic turn.
I just stood back leisurely and watched him, registering every slight motion of his nerves to my senses.
"You have grown too insolent and drunk in your illusion of power. Appearing nothing but foolish for entertaining the thought that Doom's death would be wrought by your hands. While you may have temporarily surpassed Doom in strength and speed, Doom overshadows your wildest dreams in magic and intellect."
"In simpler words: you can't beat me so… strategic retreat, right?" I could hear the gritting of his bloodied teeth from where I stood. Doom was angry, not like I didn't know, at his humiliation and also for the act of turning his back to me. He was cornered and he knew it.
"If you think Doom's life is so easily taken, then come and try it." Dark magic burst out from Doom, tainting his classic green to red, magic so overwhelming that it weighed on the mirror dimension, shattering it further than we already had.
"Hoh? A last stand? Fine, I'll entertain you." I twirled my axe before beckoning for Doom to come.
"Your bravado deserves an applaud, but your foolishness spiteful." Doom squeezed his hands and a part of the mirror dimension became like jelly as he sucked them to his palms.
'I really hate dark magic.'
I countered Doom's spell but was pushing back due to the overpowering element of his spell and how the sturdy mirror dimension gained viscosity.
Doom warped, not through a portal, but directly warped to my side in the fraction of a moment, a moment I knew I would have to increase the stakes again.
My hands up to my shoulders turned void with only red broken letters on it. I spun around with a greater force than I've done since the beginning of my fight with Doom and clashed my axe to his sword.
I hacked while he slashed at me, trading lethal blows to each other, each with the intent to overpower our adversary. We blurred in sparks of red lightning as we destroyed anywhere our weapons clashed.
The moment we disengaged, I formed three orbs of chaos energy and batted them towards Doom who once again warped away from there to save himself from the resulting explosion that erased everything in its path.
While Doom had the surprise advantage with his near instantaneous warping, I nullified it by having the entirety of our battlefield printed in my brain which in turn enables me to dodge and react as soon as he warps.
Doom ducked under the red slash I sent his way only to be bombarded with arrows that he couldn't dodge on time. He never got the window to get away as the entire building froze over as if it was the top of the Himalayas.
A red flash was all Doom saw before the explosion engulfed both him and I, with me walking out of it unscathed while Doom wheezed as blood poured out of every crack in his armor. Most of the defensive runes that were etched into his armor had been destroyed as well as most of his skin were burnt.
Doom raised his hands towards me in an effort to attack only for him to be sent flying due to another explosion.
And then I saw his face.
The mangled and burnt flesh, smooched together to create the unholy visage of what was once Victor Von Doom. His hair, lips, nose and mouth could not be found as it had meld into his skin during its healing process, making him look more terrifying as blood bled from everywhere.
He cut off the tatters of his cape and held his sword to me. "Come." He croaked out, his pride refusing him to cower even in the face of an inevitable defeat, not like I cared.
I rushed at him as he conjured red ropes and sent them towards me. The robes felt like the strongest of metals even as they stretched but didn't cut as my axe met them, 'The Crimson Bands of Cytorrak'. With a magic circle in my hands, I clapped them together which caused the omnidirectional road I was on to divide and join together.
Eyes blood red as haunting beams found their way to Doom despite the obstacles he put forth as they seemed to pierce through anything before clashing with the shield he had made time to fortify.
The demarcated sky of the mirror dimension shattered into numerous pieces of glass as red lightning fell upon us. They crashed into me but unlike Doom did with my beams, I didn't bother putting up a defense to it. While I wasn't immune to magic, which I doubted anyone was, magic in pure energy form did little damage to me as my body was learning how to absorb and dilute this new form of elusive energy.
Despite it holding me down somewhat, I still attacked Doom with everything I could think of. Increasing the lethality of his injuries with every hit.
As the barrage of attacks went on, Doom seemed to have lost it as he returned each one of my attacks with renewed ferocity. A strike to the chest only to receive one to the head. Not caring for himself any longer, Doom allowed his magic to consume him as he sacrificed everything to it.
The scale of magic power emanating from him was more than double anything I had sensed from the Ancient One. Runes came alive into his flesh even as the mirror dimension fractured and broke down into nothing more than a kaleidoscope of colors.
His flesh down to his bones and blood became saturated in magic so much so that everything I could sense in my range was all Doom's magic.
Red Doom floated in the air with glowing red eyes reminiscent to mine while a cape of red flames draped over his shoulders but despite everything I was not fazed.
"Finally. It would have been a shame if I didn't kill you at your best." My voice boomed forth as magic oozed out of every pore in my body colliding with that of Doom's, painting the mirror dimension in a glow of red.
My form grew from my 6'1 to over 8 ft as my muscles bulged. Flames covered my eyes but my clarity was never sharper. A rune on my axe lit up and enlarged it, finishing my transformation as I readied myself to face Doom.
"What are your last words?" A final courtesy. I felt that if Doom was more grown up and had tempered his arrogance then we would have been good friends, but alas, he crossed me too early.
"Doom prophesies your death." He flashed at me as the dimension screeched while I returned in kind with my axe crackling with lightning to meet his magically enhanced sword.
The boom from the initial confrontation rearranged the mirror dimension in the vicinity around us.
With clarity unlike any other, my form besieged Doom with slashes that each promised death.
I didn't care about whether his attack reached me or pierced through my hardened skin. All I cared about was how close he was to his overdue demise from every swing of my axe.
We moved so fast, destroying the sound barrier with our first step that only red flashes of lightning sped around the entire place wrecking havoc. We would have destroyed Hong Kong for sure had we fought there instead of the mirror dimension.
The explosions that followed each of our strikes felt like nukes. Maybe it was due to the fight that I noticed too late that my magic circles were all blood red with a tinge of black which only served to make it somehow darker and more ominous.
I neglected it in favor of my battle as one of Doom's spells hit me and sent me skidding backwards in the air. With red fire and lightning coating my axe, I sent out slashes one after another at Doom who blocked it with ease than the first time only for his eyes to widen in surprise as my axe broke through his shield with the same ease as it cut through his chest, bringing him one wound closer to eternal end.
He faltered in his flight for a while, stabilizing himself only for him to warp away the next moment as my giant axe tore through his previous spot. In the next instant, I caught the slight shift in space and was upon him again as he weakly tried to use one hand to defend against me while the other was clutching his chest.
Unlike my regeneration which could heal from almost any physical injury, Doom's was hindered by my chaotic destructive energy, the same as some types of spells could cut through my skin so also could mine also prevent him from healing as fast as he could. My destructive energy was exactly what it was, disintegrating everything it could to nothing which was what was killing Doom.
It was no surprise that he failed to block my strike and let my axe tear through his chest again resulting in his blood and magic flowing out.
Held by the scruff of his neck I approached the ground with blitzing speed and slammed Doom hard to it only for another punch to his face to imbed him back to the ground as his beaten and battered form bounced up from the initial slam.
I could see his life dwindling by the seconds until all that was left was a small flame, flickering in hope for a miracle only for its heart to be crushed… literally.
Doom's eyes widened as my hand held his heart in a tight grip, shattering it.
"I-I l-lost?" It was a question formed like a statement.
"You did."
"Was I wrong?"
"Yes."
"Was I strong?"
"Yes."
"…Did I matter?"
"No, you didn't. Not to me."
"I see. And yet I thought that only Reed or Susan could succeed in killing me." He spoke with such clarity that you wouldn't have expected him to not have a literal heart. "Draul St. Cross, bask in the honor of killing this king for you will never again have such an opportunity in this lifetime. Doom bids you farewell." With that his eyes closed in death.
Dr. Victor Von Doom died on this day after a great magic battle in which he showcased his vast superiority in magic and intelligence to an equally superior foe. Even I couldn't argue with the fact that he died with grace and his pride intact.
What brought me back to focus was the swirling of magic that filled the mirror dimension in the form of a cyclone. I had not yet reacted to it before my body did, the cracked symbols blazing to life as it absorbed every bit of magic from the space, leaving it with the broken state of the mirror dimension.
I canceled the spell as I remembered that a battle was still raging outside only to be stupefied as I appeared on the sidewalk of the pristine city of Hong Kong, with no sign of destruction or any kind of recently fought battle.
"What the fuck just happened…" I paused as I saw Strange with the Time Stone hanging on his neck. "Strange?"
'Looks like Dr. Strange the movie repeated itself.'
I didn't know what Strange did but I was glad I didn't have to fight a universal being only for me to die, because that was what would have happened.
===================
A/N: Finally satisfied?
Doom is dead, y'all happy now? Doom was one of my favorite characters and I couldn't give him a useless death like I did Magneto. What greater death than a battle where reality was at stake? I deserve a pat on the back for a job well done if I have anything to say about it.
It's crazy how a story can change with but a thought. I had originally planned for Doom and Draul to be something like friends, each understanding the other with appropriate respect. Doom would make a better impression as a 'tsun tsun' character due to his coldness while Draul would be a 'dere dere' type. Some sort of brother-in-arms relationship between the two of them.
Imagine Draul getting his ass beat by some dimensional being only for Doom to show up and say something classic like, "You dare bring harm to him who is my sworn brother and righteous equal? Your arrogance and presumptuous nature foresees your death at this king's hands." And bang! The go badass bros on the motherfucker.
It would have been awesome. I would have made it awesome, but unfortunately we can't have it all.
😭😭Bye… I'm still sad at Doom's death.
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