Shatter orbs and Soul-Sever-enhanced projectiles hurtled towards him, only to be met with a blinding flash as his silver eyes glowed. He disappeared, the attacks striking the rock behind him with thunderous force. He was too fast, too powerful.
Reappearing before Sena, he placed his hand on her forehead, splitting her body in two. Her lifeless halves plummeted to the ground, blood spraying like a macabre fountain. He consumed something from her remains and vanished once more.
Gaia found herself face-to-face with the immortal, his wounds completely regenerated. His fist connected with her crossed arms, sending her crashing to the ground, bones shattering upon impact.
Daed retaliated; swinging his sword at Iskander's neck, but the immortal evaded the blow and retaliated against CodeForger. Daed intervened, severing Iskander's arm before it could reach the TechKin's heart. The immortal vanished again, reappearing unscathed and fully restored. He was unstoppable, a force of nature that they were powerless to resist.
As Mend-Flesh mended her broken body, Gaia watched the battle unfold from the crater. CodeForger and Daed, after a brief Mnemonic-Transfer and Mind-Lace, launched a coordinated assault, sacrificing CodeForger's remaining arm to bind Iskander with black StreamBreath-forged chains. It was a desperate attempt to restrain him, to buy themselves some time.
Gaia soared upwards, fury fueling her attack. She peppered the immobilized immortal with arrows while CodeForger, his pain evident, retrieved his fallen gun and fired upon Iskander's chest. Each shot pierced the immortal, only for his body to rapidly heal. He was invincible, and they were running out of time.
"Keep him restrained!" Gaia shouted, her voice gruff with exertion.
"I know!" CodeForger responded, encasing their target within a sphere of ice. They had to hold him, even if it was just for a few more seconds.
But Iskander vanished once more, reappearing before Gaia. He struck her in the gut with his knee, grabbed her hair, yanking her head back as he tore out her heart. With a sickening twist, he broke her neck, her lifeless eyes staring into the void. He disappeared, leaving her body and heart to fall, her blood evaporating as she descended.
The immortal then reappeared behind CodeForger, his movements a blur of lethal grace. This time, he was too fast for the TechKin's perception, his right hand a flashing arc of death that cleanly severed CodeForger's head. Blood gushed from the wound like a macabre fountain, evaporating almost instantly into the smoke-filled air. Leaving the TechKin's decapitated head and motionless body to plummet from the sky, Iskander turned his attention to Daed.
Even though the Masson anticipated the assault and swung his sword in defense, Iskander effortlessly evaded the strike. With a swift movement, he leaned to the right, simultaneously severing Daed's sword arm with his left hand. Grasping the severed limb, he moved behind Daed and pierced the lower left side of the Masson's back. Then, with a surge of dark energy, he unleashed a Shatter-like assault within Daed's body, disintegrating him from the inside out. In a fraction of a second, the Masson was reduced to nothingness, leaving no trace behind except for his severed arm, still clutched in the immortal's grip.
Only ShadowOne, grounded and observing the carnage through Acuity, remained. Iskander vanished and reappeared ten feet above him, their eyes meeting in a silent confrontation. Knowing he was outmatched, ShadowOne calmly deactivated his Aegis-Veil. His life was about to end, yet his gaze held a quiet determination as he continued to absorb StreamBreath. To Iskander, it seemed like a desperate act of defiance, a futile attempt to cling to life. The immortal stared down at him with a mocking grin, Daed's severed arm a gruesome trophy in his hand.
"Old men like to talk," Iskander taunted, his voice dripping with condescension.
ShadowOne knew what the immortal expected – a final plea for mercy, a desperate attempt to bargain for his life. But he had a different plan, a way to buy his comrades precious time. "Aye," he replied, his voice steady despite the fear that gnawed at him.
"Then let us talk." Iskander descended, hovering a few feet away from ShadowOne. "I will give you a choice; correctly answer a question I will ask at the end of our small talk and live, or don't and die." His words were a cruel game, a twisted form of amusement for a being beyond mortality.
"And why would you let me live?" ShadowOne asked, playing along.
"Because I am curious to see just how much you could figure out about me, if given the chance." A flicker of genuine interest sparked in Iskander's eyes, soon replacing the usual cold amusement.
"Is that also a lie?" ShadowOne pressed, trying to gauge the immortal's true intentions.
"Why would I lie to a dead man?" Iskander grinned, his eyes gleaming with a predatory glint.
"So, you are saying that I could not possibly find the right answer?" ShadowOne challenged, a spark of defiance igniting within him.
"Perhaps you will," Iskander replied, his grin fading as he contemplated the possibility.
"If that is the case," ShadowOne smiled, "then I will try." He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"Good," Iskander said. "I wonder what would have happened if you had not come to this sphere! Would I still have regained my powers with Cael's help instead of your kin? Still, Cael's willingness to assist me was uncertain, as he could have discovered my true nature by reading my time. Regardless of what I did to his people, he most likely would have refused to help."
"Wait! What!" ShadowOne feigned surprise, drawing the immortal further into the conversation.
"You are starting to realize it," Iskander stated, a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "Yes, it is as you think. Assuming Cael refused or was killed by Ronan's ambush, I would still have regained my powers. Your kin would have come for you, and I would have drained them instead. The only thing that could have stopped me was killing Cael before you arrived."
"Are you suggesting that my presence on Erathos inevitably served your ends?" ShadowOne asked, feigning disbelief.
"Yes," Iskander replied, his voice devoid of remorse. "And I believe I know who guided you here, and not just you. But that is another conversation for another time."
ShadowOne felt a chill run down his spine. He had been a pawn, his life's path manipulated to serve the immortal's purpose. The revelation was both horrifying and strangely liberating.
"Now," Iskander grinned, his eyes glinting with malicious amusement, "I wonder what would have happened if you had led this party instead of Kyra!"
The taunt was the final straw. ShadowOne could bear it no longer. He activated Aegis-Veil and lunged towards Iskander, his jump propelled by Might and Mass-Shift, almost resembling a Stride-Flash. Face-to-face with his target, he smiled and deactivated his Aegis-Veil. The Shatter bomb hidden beneath his empty sleeve detonated in a blinding flash. He had asked Sena to generate it for him, knowing this might be his last stand. It was a hollow life, but it was still worth living, and he would not let it end without a fight.
But the immortal vanished a split second before the explosion, reappearing unharmed as the shockwave subsided. ShadowOne lay before him, his body shredded and charred, devoid of StreamBreath and drowning in his own blood. "A shame. The last act of a keen man was dim," Iskander remarked, his voice laced with disappointment.
He descended to the ravaged ground, surveying the destruction he had wrought. Raising his head to the storm-wracked sky, he removed the BlackStone ring from Daed's shriveled arm and discarded the limb. Placing the ring on his finger, he leaped to his first kill.
Sena's divided corpse lay before him, charred and bloodless, a victim of ShadowOne's final act. He then moved to Gaia's remains, finding only ashes and the lingering stench of burnt flesh. A flicker of anger crossed his face as he stared at the remnants of the One. Raising his hand, he conjured a black orb and launched it at her ashes, erasing even the last traces of her existence. A cruel smile twisted his lips as he glanced at her bow lying nearby. "Arms made to kill gods, eh!" he scoffed, before moving on to CodeForger's corpse.
He briefly examined the TechKin's burned husk before turning his attention to the severed head. Searching for the BlackStone, he found it missing. He leaped to the head and removed the silver mask. Unfazed by the scorched and shriveled face beneath, he donned the mask, and Codex-7's voice echoed within his mind. "You have been marked as an enemy. Access denied. Privileges sealed."
"So, you are Codex-7!" Iskander chuckled, a dark amusement filling his voice. Raising his hand, he created a shimmering line of distorted space, resembling a Void-Split. He removed the mask and tossed it into the void, the line disappearing along with it. Then, he leaped back to ShadowOne, drawn by a faint sound.
To his surprise, he heard ShadowOne's labored gasps. The old man was still alive, his body a mangled wreck, crawling forward with his chin, driven by the primal instinct to survive. Blood streamed from his wounds, his charred flesh hanging in tatters. He was blind, limbless, and barely clinging to life, yet he refused to surrender.
The immortal stopped his pursuit, watching the gruesome spectacle with detached curiosity. "Let me share one of my secrets," Iskander offered, tilting his head slightly. "I hate the taste of blood; it's disgusting. Though I do it out of necessity." His words fell on deaf ears as ShadowOne continued his agonizing crawl.
"That was my secret. A secret you did not even want to know. But yours is easy to discern. You are like all the others; you fear death. No matter how proud or powerful one may seem, it all means nothing before death and time." Iskander's voice was filled with a cold, nihilistic amusement.
ShadowOne stopped, seemingly sensing the immortal's presence behind him. He tried to turn his head, blood dripping from the empty sockets that were once his eyes. He wheezed, coughing up blood that flooded his mouth and nose. His life was fading fast, but he still had one last act of defiance left.
"Aethel came close to understanding my true nature. His deductions were interesting, I'll give him that, but he was still wrong," Iskander smiled, enjoying the old man's suffering. "Now, to the question: What am I?"
ShadowOne, with his last breath, rasped out his answer, his voice a broken whisper. "S...c...u...m."
Iskander stepped forward and knelt before him, his grip tightening around ShadowOne's throat. He lifted the broken man, his eyes devoid of pity. "Perhaps you weren't that smart after all," he sneered, before piercing ShadowOne's chest and crushing his heart. With a final gasp, ShadowOne was silenced forever.
The immortal dropped the lifeless body and examined the mangled heart for a moment before tossing it aside. He sampled a drop of blood from his finger and tilted his head, reading ShadowOne's time. He saw glimpses of the Riders' plan, though the details remained obscured. He realized ShadowOne's final act was meant to destroy any evidence that could reveal their secrets.
A flicker of annoyance crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by a cold smile.