Chương 45: R&R Ch. 45 — Burn it All

Jasmine could only look on in horror as a bad situation went from not great to the worst-case scenario. In terms of Beyonders killed, their group was one of the highest, having just killed the weakest members non-stop. The ideal strategy for dealing with a wave was making sure the corpses were taken in and processed. The second best plan was to store them like Nicholas did this wave. But that was conditional on the tanks never being opened because Beyonder power didn't dissipate on death like her own would.

It continued to cycle even in death. And Lupine, for some godforsaken reason, had just ripped open the tank Nicholas had mentioned being so full he couldn't get any more packed in there. She knew what the attention she just felt meant: the commanders on the other side of the veil were looking at them. And yet she couldn't help but feel relieved. In the short term, this would mean she and Nicholas could rest, she could heal him, she could fix her friend and then…

She hated to do it, but she had promised that none of her friends would die, and it would be worth calling her grandma for. Her Gigi couldn't cross the border without getting into a lot of trouble, but she could send help and there would be all sorts of people that would jump at the chance to help Brynhild and get a favor from her.

"Wake up everyone," Nicholas's voice said through the communicator, his voice hitting every single member of their forces.

"We need everyone here at the wall in five minutes. I don't care what they say." Nicholas put a hand on Jasmine's shoulder. Beyonders were already racing across the city to break into the tank and eat their kin. They would find the tunnels Nicholas used to move them. They would reach the other tanks. Every single monster they had killed would make the Beyonders stronger. They were already outclassed; what would happen now? It wasn't even her fault.

She had done everything she could; she had been nice to everyone, to make them feel welcome and yet someone decided that still wasn't enough.

"I'll handle the storage and all the ones feeding. Can you and everyone else handle the forces coming? Reinforcements from the higher ups will be here soon, so we only need to handle it for a few minutes." Nicholas said, patting her on the shoulder and walking forward. Jasmine wasn't sure when she had started crying, but her vision was blurry as she watched her friend walk forward with a leg of stone. He seemed completely calm. How?

"You're going to handle it?" Jasmine asked, sniffling as she wiped her eyes.

"All it takes to deal with it is a river of power, and until I pass out from pain, my power is endless." Nicholas said, turning and giving her a smile. Jasmine believed him. She had no reason to, and tons of evidence to the contrary, but she believed him.

"We just got dealt a serious blow, so let's go remind the world that we're Retort and Retribution." Nicholas set his feet as he gestured with his hands, his focus absolute on the pile of monsters gorging on their peers so that they could grow ever stronger. Jasmine flew back into the sky. She wished she had the time to switch to the swords. While this loadout was better for her raw power when it came to fighting multiple opponents at once, none of them could compete with her swords.

"You heard the man. Retort is going to be handling the ones feeding and all the tanks. Everyone else, we're going to stop them. Five minutes. That's all we need before the stronger heroes show up." She got cheers. She couldn't believe it, they still believed in her. Jasmine wouldn't betray that trust.

"Squad leaders report," Jasmine ordered as she looked across the city. There would be flying enemies coming from all angles, and she was going to take care of them. The other squad leaders gave their affirmations.

"Let's show the world just what we can do when we work together." Jasmine ordered. Jasmine watched in wonder as the rainbow of colors that were the supers she was in charge of flowed out of their bunker, taking positions all around the wall. In the grand scheme of things they weren't that many, maybe one hundred all added together. And they all stood behind her, ready to face down the world. All except one.

"Someone get Lupine into prison. We will deal with him later, right now the real heroes have work to do," Jasmine ordered even as Lupine screamed something. Somehow, he had been muted. She wasn't sure how that happened." Burn" Nicholas's commands were often melodious as he shook the world with something as simple as speech. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. That was not what Jasmine heard today.

A scream of outrage, hatred, pain—it was as if Nicholas was releasing every dark emotion he had ever felt into his command, and it made her soul tremble. The visceral emotion he was feeling. Maybe it bothered her because she knew deep down that was what she was feeling right now too. From the corner of her vision, she watched as a tower of silver flame climbed into the sky as Beyonders and their corpses were consumed by Nicholas's command that the world be burned.

"Well, you heard the man, team, we're going to burn them to the ground." Jasmine said as her gun reloaded itself as she pulled more explosives out of her bandolier. Jasmine soared through the sky, her gun in one hand as she threw explosives with the other, her gun for the Beyonders flying over the city and the explosives for the ones heading towards Nicholas. Her hat focused her senses, making sure that none of her attacks missed. Her bandolier let her magically reload and held all of her explosives.

The leather duster made it so no attack ever came close to her. And the boots let her fly. She needed more. An amber portal ripped open beside her and her spear flew out instantly, going to work carving through the enemy." Burn" Nicholas's command shook one somehow even more visceral as the silver flames climbed even higher into the sky. She wouldn't let him be the only one who fought until they couldn't fight anymore.

In a single movement, each of her three weapons killed a new opponent as she pushed herself faster, spinning her power and her soul to boost her abilities to the best she could.

"Twister boost my spear!" Jasmine ordered as a trio of shots rang out, taking down another flying opponent. Twister reacted instantly, her signature twister boosting her spear beyond what it could do on its own as the spear skewered a line of weaker opponents. They were going to use everything and damn it; she was going to do it too. Jasmine pulled out the necklace she wore in her sword load-out. It wasn't part of the armor, but it was the most integral part of it. Necklace donned, it vanished into her spirit.

One hundred swords flew out of the amber portal as her soul began to scream. Jasmine used her own distortion to fortify her soul as she used the power of two builds at once to continue butchering everyone that got in her way. She would be the last one to stop digging deeper for power.

"Come and get me, assholes!" Jasmine said, pulling out another explosive and sticking it in a pocket of her jacket. Instantly fog spewed out as the concentrated power of Beyonders seemingly emanated from her. The smoke bomb wouldn't actually give them any power, but it would confuse them and draw them to her." Burn" Nicholas cried once again, his words shaking the world as more silver flames erupted. Jasmine was worried for her best friend. How couldn't she?

Every time he spoke a command, it echoed through their headbands, his will and intention? She had a better understanding of what went into the words than anyone besides Nicholas. This one? This absolute command was to burn everything that he deemed unnecessary. Silver flames flickered against her skin, armor, and all of her weapons as his will to burn everything he didn't need away leaked into her.

With every movement she improved, as things she hadn't even realized were holding her back were cast away, burned up in the flames. With every strike, her weapons were pushed towards perfection. She relished it. Burn it all away so that next time they wouldn't fail like this. They couldn't fail like this.

She flew through the air with reckless abandon, a comet of silver flame, even as across the battlefield Nicholas impersonated an inferno, bringing the tower of silver flame to new heights as he poured everything into it. Jasmine was in the middle of flying through the stomach of a monster when space twisted. She was next to Nicholas again, the two of them on top of a building.

"What?" Jasmine asked, whipping her head around to see all of her swords waiting for her nearby as well. Nicholas sagged against her, barely conscious.

"Why?"

"You did good, kids," Rend said, ruffling her hair and then Nicholas's in turn.

"Let me handle this." Rend drew his sword, and it was as if everything was pulled into the blade, even light.

"Our mess, we fix."

"The wave will have another two days minimum. You'll have plenty of time to deal with it, and you'll be dealing with it with everyone in your force running on empty. Solve that problem first." Rend scoffed as he skipped onto the air. Jasmine knew that was going to be a problem too, but she had a plan for that one. She had realized it during the battle. They walked towards the same goal even if they had different methods, and they would do anything to try and make the world even a little bit brighter.

Even if it cost them everything. What was linking their souls in the face of that? That thought was broken when she finally realized what Rend was doing. Their mentor stepped farther into the sky, his sword idly swishing through the air like it was a baton, but with each movement another Beyonder died, having been split perfectly in two.

"I think you two are in for a reward; this is the path that I follow," Rend said, holding his sword out. Jasmine had seen someone cut through space before, but when Rend swung his sword, it was as if everything he deemed next to him was cut simultaneously. Jasmine finally realized what was going on with her addled brain. The top ranks were finally here and taking care of it. And the first thing they had done was bring all the lower ranks out of the melee so that they could go with reckless abandon.

It burned her that someone was stepping in to solve her problems like she was completely incapable of doing it, but they had been near the brink. LongShot walked up behind them as they marveled.

"You two really stuck your dicks in a beehive. We had our progress set back to come save you all. I hope you realize. As the leaders that falls on you."

"Lupine," Nicholas growled, his voice taking on parts of the hatred she had been feeling earlier.

"We were betrayed. One of our supers decided to break open one of the corpse tanks and yeah," Jasmine said sullenly. LongShot whistled.

"I was sure it was something you two had done to screw up, like try to rank up."

"Not enough belief," Nicholas sighed.

"Well then, it won't be so bad. You two are telling the truth, but you all will have to go back to regular duty in the next hour once we're done here." LongShot said. That was the real punishment in Jasmine's estimation. There was just no good way for all of that to be handled. But she and Nicholas were off for the next sixteen hours, which meant it was time to enact her plan.

LongShot vanished, having probably important precognitive things to do, which left the two of them alone to watch people several ranks their superiors succeed at the task they had failed at.

"Nicholas?" Jasmine asked, not able to care that they were using their actual names.

"Yeah?"

"So that we're strong enough to stop them?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Let's do it."