Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
I attracted as many insects as I could while staring intently at both fights.
Hookwolf was being held back by Antares, Flechette, and Veil. Hookwolf had turned black, completely coated in Haki, but that was no problem for Antares and Flechette. Antares had more than enough strength to continue tearing Hookwolf's body apart with her fists alone, while Flechette could practically ignore any defense. It seemed to take more effort for her to pierce the Haki, but that didn't mean she couldn't; she just needed more time between each attack.
Veil, on the other hand, was purely defensive. She was capable of creating translucent shields of suspended kinetic energy. Anything that passed through these shields would lose all kinetic energy, stopping them instantly. Any projectile that pierced these shields would be stopped dead, and when the shield was removed, the projectiles would fall to the ground.
What happened to a person was more interesting. Anyone who crossed their shields, or rather, tried to, was practically in a death zone; they stopped abruptly and couldn't generate new energy in that part of their body.
Let's say a hand passes through the shield; that hand would be frozen, unable to move, even though the rest of the body could move freely. That hand would remain in place. It sounded incredibly dangerous and very serious.
Unfortunately, they weren't that big; she could only create something the size of her head, but she could create several of them. However, they were still quite weak; if someone pushed constantly, the shields would eventually break and they could move again, especially someone with Haki.
Against Hookwolf, that meant she could stop her for a few moments while she moved, enclosing a part of her body at the same time, but even that was more than enough for Antares and Flechette to take advantage of the huge gaps she created.
So I had nothing to worry about on that front. They might not be able to defeat her, but they'd definitely be able to keep her busy for a long time.
Meanwhile, Sophia continued to destroy everything around her. She barely slowed down even now that Kaiserin was in the fight.
Kaiserin was able to create metal objects, from blades to beams, spears and metal maces, from any solid surface around her, even if that surface was not metal; she could practically create metal infinitely to attack.
With Krieg by her side, who could control the kinetic forces around her, enough to slow down, disrupt, or deflect any attack by altering the kinetic force, and she was also able to enhance her own attacks.
And finally, Crusader, she was able to create ghostly duplicates of herself, which could fly and pass through inorganic objects, but could still strike and attack a person; that meant she could ignore any defense.
Although it didn't really help much, Krieg and Crusader couldn't do much to Sophia, much less to Apex. Kaiserin was using wide attacks to attack Apex's body from all sides, but even so, she wasn't strong enough to take away large amounts of Apex's body, so his size wasn't decreasing.
Only Armsmistress with her haki and Dauntless with her lightning spear could remove large amounts from his body.
The decision of who to help was obvious. Fight alongside Nazis? Definitely not something I wanted to do, but Sophia had to be stopped. I glanced towards Medhall before leaping through a broken window. The moment my feet touched the ground, I charged straight into the fight. I had to run through several corridors, but I finally made it.
Apex was still too big, several times the size of a person easily, moving like a giant worm, writhing and thrashing about, destroying everything around it while mercilessly attacking anyone nearby.
I imbued Shusui with Haki before launching myself towards Sophia. My sword sliced Apex's body wide, and I continued moving. I didn't have to hit anywhere in particular; I just had to cut the living shadow, and eventually Apex's body would shrink enough to be controllable.
"Hebert!!" Sophia shouted, finally noticing my arrival. She stopped attacking the other heroes when she saw me and began attacking me directly. I easily dodged Sophia's attack while continuing to cut Apex.
"Surrender, Sophia, you're cornered, you can't continue fighting." Armsmistress said without hesitation, and she was right, Sophia was practically cornered. Between the four of us doing most of the work, we could corner Sophia enough so that she couldn't effectively counterattack.
Apex's size had already been reduced considerably, although it was still large enough for Sophia to simply growl with hatred.
"In your dreams, Armsy." Sophia growled furiously as she lunged at us once more. I simply dodged the attack and continued attacking from all sides while Sophia tried to attack us, but with his small size, Apex presented no difficulty.
The fight continued as before, with Sophia practically cornered so she could barely defend herself against our attacks. Apex finally weakened enough that she couldn't mount him comfortably, so she fell to the ground.
We all took advantage of the moment finally, Dauntless arrived first, her arclance hit Sophia, who tried to escape but it didn't work thanks to the white lightning of said lance.
Sophia screamed in pain as she writhed. At that moment, Kaiserin created hundreds of sharp objects—blades, spears, stakes, and anything sharp enough to try and impale and pierce Sophia. She became intangible with difficulty.
"Kaiserin! Enough!" Armsmistress shouted furiously.
"Enough?! Enough?! That subhuman exposed us all! She killed hundreds of my gang members! Dozens of my sisters! I won't stop until I kill her! " Kaiserin roared, completely furious.
"Ha! You can give, but you can't receive, you damned Nazi! How does it feel to have your loved ones killed like the animals they are?! Not even that! They were completely insects! I enjoyed killing each and every one of them and I'll keep doing it!!" Sophia shouted, laughing hysterically on the floor.
"Damn it!" Kaiserin shouted, creating hundreds more objects, all pointing at Sophia, but she simply became intangible and avoided all the attacks.
"You'll have to do better, bitch!" Sophia yelled furiously as she became tangible again, Kaiserin roared.
"Skitter! Can you stop Kaiserin?! We can't let Sophia escape, Dauntless and I are needed to contain her!" Armsmistress shouted, and I clicked my tongue.
"I've got it!" I said without hesitation, turning around to look at Kaiserin. A huge swarm emerged from the adjacent rooms; they had been there waiting. I wasn't going to use them against Apex; it fed on corpses. I didn't know how much it could absorb from my swarm, but it wasn't something I was going to risk.
But against Kaiserin, my insects were more effective; they flew around and headed towards her from all sides.
"Heroes!" Kaiserin roared furiously. "Stop and let me kill that black bastard, we don't need to fight!" Kaiserin shouted as she created enormous metal structures to trap and crush my insects.
"That's not going to work!" I yelled at Kaiserin, who growled.
"Purity must already-"
"Purity has already been stopped." I interrupted Kaiserin as I appeared near her. I dodged and contorted my body to avoid the metals that grew around me. Shusui cut, destroyed, and pierced through all the metals that Kaiser used to defend herself as if they were barely there.
Finally, I struck Kaiserin's forearm as she raised her hand, its blades encased in metal and reinforced with Haki. I clicked my tongue, but continued attacking. Kaiserin wasn't fast, but she was experienced in fighting; my sword moved swiftly, trying to defend against her relentless onslaught.
She kept creating dozens and dozens of sharp metal points, each one so sharp and reinforced with Haki that if one of them hit me, it would undoubtedly pierce my aura. The speed at which they grew was also considerable, so I kept moving constantly to avoid all the attacks.
Shusui danced around all the metal; her immense strength was more than enough to shatter the metal with ease, but even so, having dozens of metal spears trying to impale me at the same time was still a problem.
I attracted my insects and launched them at Kaiserin. I could see how, at the last instant, Kaiserin created a completely airtight armor around her body. She created a large number of intricate and overlapping structures that covered her entire body, including her head. She had created a truly intricate helmet with a crown of blades. Her mouth was closed, but the area around her eyes was made of such fine metal that she crisscrossed it to create a mosquito net to prevent insects from entering, but still allowing her to see and breathe.
I looked incredulously at Kaiserin's work; either she was good at improvising, or it was something she had been preparing to face me. In any case, it was a problem. My insects swarmed around Kaiser's armor trying to get in through any small gap she might have missed, but the armor was so sealed that it was impossible.
Even in armor like that, she had retained most of her mobility; there was a scraping sound of blades whenever she moved, but it didn't seem to interfere with her movement in the slightest. I clicked my tongue.
Okay, I needed another tactic. I looked around as I continued to smash all the metal around me, grabbed several swarms, gathered them together and brought them closer to different groups of people and heroes, then my swarms began to talk by chirping to each other.
It took me a couple of groups to find what I was looking for. When I finally located it, I let my spiders tie it to the dragonflies before I started attracting it; now I needed to buy some time.
I lunged towards Kaiserin, shattered the metal, and moved closer to strike her. I could see Kaiserin's fist heading towards me. I simply raised my hand; around my fingers were several spiderwebs tied up, rising to a beam and then descending and tangling imperceptibly around Kaiserin's arm.
I wrapped the web in haki before pulling it hard, Kaiserin's arm rose breaking Kaiserin's guard, I brought Shusui down in a vertical downward strike, Kaiserin wrapped her chest in Haki, but my sword hit full force with great power that ended up shattering her armor, but it was immediately replaced before insects could enter inside it.
Kaiserin created blades and broke the cobwebs on her arms, she tried to hit me again, but I did the same thing, I threw my hand full of cobwebs, this time they revolved around a column and were tied to Kaiserin's foot.
I pulled on the Haki-infused webs, breaking Kaiserin's stance once more. She created blades that instantly severed the web, but her stance was already broken. I simply rotated Shusui so the blade faced upward and lifted her forcefully. The upward blow shattered Kaiserin's armor once more, forcing her back.
Kaiserin screamed in fury as she created large amounts of metal to attack me. I punched the ground to get away from the place, landing with my feet on one of the nearby walls before launching myself towards Kaiserin.
Thunderclap and Flash. Kaiserin created enormous metal plates to defend herself and reinforced them with Haki. I just turned to Shusui and shattered the metal. Kaiser was waiting for me on guard behind her defense. I just raised my hand. I could see Kaiserin's eyes narrow and she prepared her body to be pulled somewhere, but I didn't do that.
In fact, I had a piece of metal that Kaiserin had created, I wrapped it in haki and threw it forcefully towards Kaiserin, who was taken by surprise. At that moment, my insects finally brought the object they had been looking for.
A can of pepper spray. I could see Kaiser's eyes widen as the metal shard pierced the pressurized gas can and exploded in front of her face. The pepper spray inside was violently expelled, especially towards Kaiserin's metal mesh, hitting the villain's entire face.
Kaiserin screamed in annoyance and pain as she brought her hands to her face to try to wipe the pepper spray from her eyes only to hit her helmet; I took advantage of the moment of distraction.
Sun Breathing: Thirteenth Form. I moved quickly around Kaiserin; she couldn't see anything at all. In fact, she almost seemed to be barely able to breathe because of the amount of pepper spray that got inside her helmet.
Therefore, her defense was slow and clumsy; she kept creating large quantities of metal, but in places where I was no longer standing, or simply in completely incorrect places, unable to see me properly.
Meanwhile, my blows rained down on Kaiserin's body, quickly shattering her armor. Even as I tried to recreate it, my blows kept coming faster, consuming all of her aura.
Finally, I felt her aura shatter under a final blow to her back. Kaiserin groaned as she fell to the ground, barely breathing. I approached and saw her barely conscious. I took the water bottle out of my small backpack on my back, opened it, and threw it in Kaiserin's face, trying to clean off all the pepper spray. I eventually ran out of water, but Kaiserin seemed to be breathing better.
I put the bottle away, raised my hand as I grabbed a foam grenade I had stolen from one of the nearby heroines and threw it at Kaiserin's body; the bomb exploded and enveloped Kaiserin in foam.
I took a deep breath and, without waiting, rushed towards where the other heroes were still fighting Sophia. I quickly scanned the fight; I could see Krieg lying broken to one side, Crusader still standing, but she was injured and barely hanging on.
"Kaiserin captured!" I shouted without hesitation. I could see everyone stop momentarily to look at me before Sophia continued attacking, so they all turned around to continue the fight.
"Well done, Skitter, let's finish this." Armsmistress said without hesitation, as she lunged at Sophia once more. Apex had lost a significant amount of its size again; Sophia could barely stand.
I looked at Crusader, who looked around the fight, then turned around. One of her ghostly clones grabbed Krieg and started to escape, or at least tried to. I let my swarm of insects descend on her, subduing her. She was already in her last moments, so she barely put up a fight before fainting along with Krieg.
Finally, I focused on Sophia.
I stared at her, Apex was barely the same size as her, Sophia looked cornered, her clothes were a mess just like her, there were a couple of wounds and bruises on her body, a desperate and hateful look as her eyes moved around.
Armsmistress lunged at her along with Dauntless, and I followed behind. The combined attacks finally shattered Sophia's aura, and they finished off Apex. I watched as the shadowy body of Sophia's summoning completely vanished into thin air.
"No! You can't defeat me! You are weak! They're completely useless!!" Sophia screamed uncontrollably on the floor.
"It's over, Sophia." Armsmistress said firmly as she approached her.
"No! This isn't over! " roared Sophia, trying to lunge at Armsmistress, but she just dodged her and hit her with the back of her halberd. Sophia fell to the ground again, sprawling. Sophia just turned around furiously and glared at Armsmistress.
"Stay on the floor," Armsmistress said coldly.
"No!" Sophia screamed. At that moment, her mouth seemed to swell as black mud began to escape from her mouth, my body reacted immediately before stopping abruptly. I saw Armsmistress move first, grab something by her waist and slam it against Sophia's mouth.
Immediately, a metal mask covered Sophia's mouth, preventing the League of Villains' teleportation black sludge from escaping.
"You're under arrest, Sophia," Armsmistress finally said, then threw a grenade at Sophia's feet. Sophia stared in disbelief, wide-eyed, before beginning to scream and thrash about, trying to free herself from the foam that was starting to completely cover her.
I could hear her muffled screams as tears of fury streamed from her eyes while she continued to thrash about. Finally, the containment foam completely engulfed her. I sighed heavily; it was finally over.
My eyes opened slightly. Hookwolf. I immediately began to peer through my insects; I could see Antares in a bad mood hovering near Medhall. The fight seemed to be over, but I couldn't see Hookwolf anywhere.
I quickly searched for Hookwolf with my swarm, frowned when I couldn't find her right away. It shouldn't be difficult to find a wolf made of blades and metal hooks running around, but I couldn't find her.
Apparently, she abandoned her transformation and hid somewhere my insects couldn't find her. I clicked my tongue. We were around Medhall, practically the E88's main lair for who knows how long. If anyone knew how to move around the area to go completely unnoticed, it would be them.
I sighed in annoyance; at least Othala was still in the upstairs room, almost looking resigned, sitting in one of the seats, practically waiting to be picked up.
I guess that was it for the Empire.
Author's Notes: I said it would be short, and for once, I actually kept my word! Yay ! I didn't really want to focus too much on the Empire, mainly because I didn't want to give any Nazis power- ups or upgrades, so... meh, here we are.
And now, with Sophia arrested, that would be it… or not. Who knows…
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