I suppose it only made sense that the Three Blasphemies loved their theatrics.Each stood on a different pillar, perfectly spaced between each other. The rubies in their masks reflected the lights from below.I glanced at them from the stands, walking around the outer ring to make sure that they had laid no trap.We were within the Colosseum.The arena was lit up by multiple lights, focused on the Blasphemies. A spotlight, that they'd either arranged or were happy to make use of.Their heads followed me as I continued my slow walk. Below me, within the hallways of the ancient structure, Weaver was moving her Swarm. Some were waiting in the sky, hiding in the darkness between the stars."The monster wishes to talk once again, sisters." The smiling Blasphemy whispered, venomous sarcasm dripping from every word."An unnatural creation… That which never lived cannot die…" The frowning Blasphemy mumbled under her breath.The last of the Three did not say anything."I'm not seeking conflict. Not now." I tried to open up the negotiations."What an oddly precise choice of words. It seems that you know more than most. Still, your knowledge is but a drop in the ocean that is the universe. Begone, and we won't feast on your heart.""A hollow threat. If you wanted to fight then you'd have not led me so close to your master."Even if none of them reacted to the word, I could feel the atmosphere shift. Their posture changed, alert, prepared. They were on the verge of attacking."We abhor that title. Calling them… Employers would be more accurate."Something was familiar in their tone. A memory stirred from far back…"You're restricted by a set of rules," I recognized, "I am much too familiar with your situation.""...eheh the monster admits her nature. Honesty was not a trait I had expected out of the inhuman!" The smiling Blasphemy chuckled as she spoke."That is correct. We are bound to that individual, in such a way that while we are not their specific puppets, we cannot betray them directly. As long as their orders create chaos and discord we shall follow, though we have enough freedom to interpret those orders as we please." The snarling Blasphemy explained. Of the three she was the most stable.I sighed, glancing at each of the Blasphemies with both pity and anger in my eyes."So you admit that you could've avoided all of those deaths. Like London.""Yes…" The frowning Blasphemy mumbled an answer. "Does it mean you now will attempt to kill us?Unfortunately, it did not. There was still too much to learn. I decided to move on to another topic."Are you Endbringers?""Of course not!" The smiling Blasphemy scoffed. "We're not of the golden man or the brain-dead garden, though we've stolen their flesh to stay 'alive'.""That which never lived cannot die." I repeated their own words to them."Precisely." The snarling Blasphemy nodded to my words.There was something important in what they said. The 'brain-dead garden'.I could not help but think that the description oddly fit Shatterbird's avatar in the crystal dimension as well… This 'garden' was likely what Cauldron was using to create powers, as I suspected. Did Contessa allow me to come here knowing that I would find out more information?Too many unknown variables. Better focus on the now."You don't seem to be happy under your… Employer. If I take care of it, will you help us? Help humanity?" Against Scion."Mhh… No. Even without our employer we're still rather attached to staying on this planet. Risking our well-being is counter to that purpose."I raised an eyebrow. "So what do you propose?""You help us, and we give you what you, and only you, Blackwall, can use to bring down a god."A tempting offer.One I couldn't refuse."Very well," I sighed, glancing at the Blasphemies. They had not lowered their guard. I got the implication. "Shall we continue? I'm not blind to what you've been doing all this while."The frowning Blasphemy groaned very loudly. "If it helps, they forced our hand. Our orders are quite clear: kill anyone that comes close to finding out their relations to us."The smiling and snarling Blasphemies began to float slightly apart.That's why they were so willing to talk about their employers. They hadn't received the order to hide their existence… Merely kill anyone who came close to finding out. That made things easier, in a way.Words appeared over my HUD as I sent mental commands to my implants.Safety protocol disengaged. Fission engaged.Keep output under half capacity.A shockwave spread through the air, the sound barrier easily broken by the Blasphemies' movement. The frowning one shot towards me with no regard for her own safety.Steam whirred out of the raised plates in my thigh, synthetic muscles pushed to their limits, motors engaged to reach my top speed. My own leg created a small sonic boom as I kicked upwards, striking the incoming attacker right under the jaw.My knee met with the frowning Blasphemy's face, cracking the crystalline mask but not stopping.Her head exploded in a shower of gore. Blood and bone that resembled a human's flew upward. A quick scan revealed it all to have a crystalline structure. So very much not human.The remaining two stopped where they were, clearly surprised by my speed and strength. On the Alps I had held back, as we were far from innocent people.This time we were close to civilians to take that risk.A sudden transformation overwhelmed the two surviving Blasphemies: they shrieked in pain as the skin on their back cracked and burst open. A single wing sprouted from each Blasphemy, on opposite sides. One only had the right wing, while the other only the left. This was the second stage of their powers.Energy began to gather in the palm of the smiling Blasphemy, forming into a round sphere of pure plasma and concussive force. She pointed the palm towards me.But Weaver had already begun to react.The ground beneath broke as Weaver joined the battle: a two-story tall mechanical centipede drilled through the ancient stone and wrapped itself around me, its plating opening to reveal complex mechanical devices. Thin 'forcefields' shields appeared all around us, as lightning crackled all over the centipede's plating.The smiling Blasphemy let go of her blast. As it flew, the stone it grazed immediately evaporated under the intense temperature of the plasma. It struck the shield dead-center, creating a small explosion that melted away the stone all around the mechanical centipede and raised a cloud of dust and smoke. But the shield held. Only a crack appeared on the edge of the forcefield, before quickly being repaired.The 'Hecatoncheires Version 4', specialised for defense, the strongest independent construct that Weaver could control.But not the only one.A cloud parted as a blue line shot from the sky: it grazed the smiling Blasphemy, leaving a blackened mark on her alabaster skin. A human-sized wasp - made of metal and wires - was flying high up in the air. Invisible to the bare eye. Its stinger had been replaced with a deadly precision-laser meant to mine meteorites back in my world. It was rather easy to repurpose it as a weapon.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.What had been hard was finding a way to modify base centipedes and wasp nerves and body structure in order to allow Weaver's power to work on these mechanical constructs. They weren't robots, rather were the same starting insects but with a different shell, following similar thought patterns. This allowed Weaver to have an instinctive understanding of their specs. Meaning that now her presence brought with it a squadron of top-grade weaponry. Around ten such 'Wasps' hid in the sky.The two Blasphemies clearly recognized the danger of the new arrival, as the snarling Blasphemy began to flee at its top speed. The smiling one remained, looking directly at me."I thought we weren't meant to kill any one of the trio if we wanted to neutralize them." Weaver's voice spoke in my ear."I know, but I'm not aiming to capture the Blasphemies right now."They wanted to make this a show, to make sure that their 'employer' did not suspect treachery.I decided to oblige them.
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Some deeper part of me appreciated the historic value of the ancient Colosseum. Both a celebration of human capability and a reminder of their violent tendencies.Which was why I was a bit sad to reduce every wall to rubble as the fight raged on.A transparent, barely visible, forcefield appeared just in front of me. It cut my way out, but I quickly pivoted, jumping and using the forcefield as leverage to dash back.The smiling Blasphemy dodged as I shot towards her, causing my fist to miss. She cackled as a blast of pure plasma burst out of her palm and hit me square in the chest: it exploded in a torrent of heat and smoke.It singed my clothes, leaving a large burnt hole, but did not as much as scratch my skin. Reaching forward, I grasped her wrist through the smoke and dust.Then I pummeled her face in.Layers upon layers of forcefield appeared to protect her head, each one breaking one at a time under my relentless blows. Suddenly the arm I had grabbed onto shifted, turning into a thinner blade. It didn't cut through my palm, but it gave her enough space to pull it back and dash away.Another blast of plasma brushed against my shoulder but I barely felt it. Deciding to change tactics, the Blasphemy began to form pairs of movable forcefields, each on either side of me, pushing against each other. Trying to splatter me in between.But as I had already shown I was more than capable of shattering each of them. A strike from my left elbow freed me from the pressure."If this is all that you can offer, then I'm afraid that I was wrong. I do not need you, Blasphemy."The smiling Blasphemy shrieked at my words, fury bleeding into her powers: she began to create a forcefield around the two of us, a cylinder much thicker than any other forcefield she had created, open behind her. A sort of barrel of a gun, allowing her to focus on blasting me apart.If she managed to channel enough energy in a blast before I could escape then I would not come out unscathed.Only, I wasn't her only foe in this fight.A metal tail - covered in a thick blue shield with lightning crackling over its surface - struck the Blasphemy right in the spine, sending her crashing against the ground. The mechanical centipede wrapped its tail around the Blasphemy's leg and kept her pinned. The forcefields around me flickered and became weaker, it took little effort to break it apart with a small jab.Weaver wasn't done yet, no: the mechanical wasps gathered right above and unloaded a barrage of laser fire into the prone Blasphemy. She tried to form many spherical fields to defend herself, but each cracked and then broke under the constant attack.Anytime the Blasphemy tried to struggle and shoot a blast of energy towards one of the Wasps, the centipede would get in her way, blocking it with her shield. Regular bugs also swarmed the Blasphemy's face, blocking her vision.Weaver's mechanical Swarm acted in perfect coordination, further helped by the sensory data that she was gathering from the surrounding insects.I saw as one of the Blasphemy's arms began to melt under a particularly precise blast of energy from Weaver. She shrieked in pain and anger, but the expression on her mask remained one of glee and happiness. Was it a coincidence that she, among the three, was the most capable of feeling rage?I stood just beyond the splash zone, observing.She was preparing something. The temperature close to her was spiking.The forcefields were becoming fewer and thinner. More and more attacks grazed her skin, leaving a blackened mark on her otherwise flawless white skin. Until finally only one layer remained.As the last layer of defense broke the smiling Blasphemy cackled maniacally: she raised both her hands, one half-melted, towards the sky. In the center of her palms a sphere of bright white light began to appear. Then it imploded.Light enveloped the whole Colosseum.A column of plasma and lightning rose up into the sky, splitting the clouds.Weaver's Swarm was vaporized.I watched as Rome was suddenly painted white, before my visual sensors all burnt out.Then came the shockwave. It knocked me off my feet, sending me flying backwards.It spread through the whole city, shattering glass and triggering the Endbringer siren, such was the strength of her attack.It took a solid ten seconds before my sensors finished repairing themselves.Where before was the Colosseum, now stood a desolate crater. At its center the charred husk of the smiling Blasphemy. Her mask was the only recognizable thing left. She wasn't dead, however, as a small fracture in the air appeared over her chest and dragged her to safety, summond by the remaining Blasphemy that had long since fled.Thankfully the main blast was incredibly localized, and only the shockwave had affected the rest of the city.I was buried at the edge of the crater. I had to shove away the burnt debris to get up. My sensors finished rebooting, and soon I was back to my full width of perception.Aside from my clothes, I had suffered only minor damage: the temperature had activated a couple of cooling fail safes within my processors, but the outer layer of my body had only some singe marks. This robotic body was designed to survive much worse.It was a bit embarrassing to stand there naked though."..right… Com… Come in, Blackwall. Are you alright? Come in, Blackwall. Are you alright?" Weaver's voice reached me as the dust settled and the connection resumed."I'm alright. Please send me some clothes. Something like my jacket, if possible. What's your status?""The explosion was mostly focused around the Colosseum, blasting upwards rather than outwards. Some people were grazed by shattering glass, but nothing severe… You're naked?""I was near the center of the blast, and I did not bother to make my clothes as durable as my own skin." Something pinged at the edge of my sensors. I sighed. "Besides, I'd rather look presentable when meeting our hosts." I glanced up.A looming Greek statue of bronze watched me from above. Not flying, but standing on a bronze platform:Julius, the most famous hero in Italy.