In the name of Illumination...

            Punch for punch, kick for kick, blow for blow, Raven and Hezekiah went on in their titanic encounter, with every attack giving a whole new meaning to the limits of a Sovrumano's power. Their power continued to wreak havoc on the landscape, figuratively carving their presence at the acropolis into the pages of history with their conflict. They paid the destruction they caused no heed, only focused solely on their opponent as they did their best to emerge as the victor in this fight.

Both warriors' bodies were also starting to show the telltale signs of hurt and fatigue, with their movements gradually starting to show. Raven was sporting a few black and blues over his torso and arms, and had a busted lip as well as his jeans receiving tears near the bottoms. Hezekiah on the other hand, was finally starting to show the true damage Raven had been inflicting. All throughout the fight, he had been subconsciously using his ki manipulation to regenerate from Raven's devastating offensive. It helped with his general resiliency to last for astounding lengths of time in a fight, but Raven was proving to be too much for even his level of control.

That point was struck home in a major way when Hezekiah missed a block, allowing Raven to slip past his guard yet again to land a monstrous combo aimed at his mid section. 'This pain!' Hezekiah exclaimed in his mind as the hits Raven was starting to land gave a whole new meaning to the word pain. So powerful were Raven's blows that Hezekiah could barely focus his ki fast enough to direct it to heal even one injury, and that particular list was steadily getting longer by the second. With a final spin kick, Raven propelled Hezekiah to the unforgiving ground, where the Angeli's impact created an exceptionally large crater.

Raven didn't let up; he quickly fired yet another stream of draconic elemental ki from his mouth at the downed Hezekiah. The Angeli just barely was able to register the threat of the multicolored stream of doom to get up and muster a defense, whipping out Excalibur to match the draconic stream of  ki with one of his own. The two massive ki attacks met with a resounding clash, exploding on impact into a large inferno that swept the battlefield in a blaze of glory.

Hezekiah suddenly fell to his feet as he gasped for breath, winded from the length of time he had been fighting at such a high level of expertise. 'Why?' he asked himself as he tried to will his body to move in a futile effort. 'Am I that far beneath him that I can't win, even with Excalibur?' The length of time they had been going at it had took a toll on Hezekiah to say the very least; it took a lot of ki to be able to fight at the level he had been and continually regenerate yourself.

"I can feel it Hezekiah," Raven said in a warning tone, finally coming back in view as the smoke from the clash of energy continued to dissipate. "Every time I land a clean hit your ki levels continue to drop. You're going to lose if you keep on fighting me at this rate." Raven gave his opponent a searching stare as he offered him a bit of advice. "Give up and leave this isle of Rhodes be; these people were enjoying a peaceful existence before the likes of you decided to interfere in their everyday lives."

"I can't!" Hezekiah yelled, outraged at the notion of his enemy offering him a chance to retreat. "Ut Puri be damned; I will not suffer another loss to you Raven!"

Raven smirked as he chuckled at Hezekiah's stubbornness. "You think I didn't already pick up on your plan?" Raven asked. "You thought that you could regenerate yourself through this fight long enough to use Excalibur and finally kill me, and your leader was probably betting on the strength of that blade to fill the void between my and your powers." He let out a sigh as he shook his head, almost looking like he was scolding one of his sons. "I would place a safe bet that you don't even know how to truly use that weapon, let alone an actual sword."

Hezekiah's breathing started to quicken, with every breath his anger steadily rising. 'No!' Hezekiah thought, fed up with how his battle was going. 'I will not lost this way, and I certainly won't be talked down to as if I were a child!' Making up his mind, Hezekiah suddenly brought the full bulk of his power to bear, with the ground instantly giving way as the crater he stood in widened. The Angeli pumped as much ki as he could into Excalibur, raising it to aim at Raven with murderous intent in his eyes. "I don't eh?" he asked as his arms suddenly took on a brighter than normal glow, even more so than when he had first released with anima remissionis. "Funny you should say that, when it is this blade that will strike you down!" With that, the ki that had been making his arms glow suddenly lifted off of him, forming into a golden halo that surrounded the blade itself as the sword took on an ethereal glow of its own. " I adjudicent vos, Excommunication!" 

At those words, a literal inferno of energy exploded from the blade and hilt of Excalibur, a swirling mix of all five elemental ki manipulations of the Draco mixed with Hezekiah's own Angeli ki manipulation. It was a truly brilliant display as the cannon of ki raced towards the airborne Raven, who watched the damning attack speed towards him with the intention to erase him permanently. 'You truly wish to end this and redeem yourself, eh Hezekiah?' Raven wondered as he took a deep breath, raising his crossed arms over his head in an X. 'A bold attempt, but you must have forgotten just who I am!' Raven's eyes took on a blinding glow as he threw his head forward, launching an equally impressive wave of draconic ki from his mouth to meet Hezekiah's own. "Ryu Senko!"

***

The explosion that followed the clashing of Raven and Hezekiah's attacks was so grand that Julian and Jasper even had to stop in their fight to admire the sight. "Ryu Senko!" Julian exclaimed, feeling as if he had been doused in a bucket of ice. Never in his life had he thought he would live to see the day he would witness the maneuver that gave Raven his iconic nickname. Whereas normal draconic ki manipulation manifested itself physically in the version of its element (flames for fire, liquid for water, etc.), Ryu Senko drew its power from the base energy of the element itself, so Raven's attack looked more like a multicolored swirling energy ray than a mix of streaming elements. 

"The one and only," Jasper said with a prideful smile as he watched the two opposing streams of ki collide with an astounding bang, sounding like a jackknife between two speeding tractor trailers. "Raven's ultimate attack matched against the might of Excalibur; what a sight to behold!"

A sinister grin graced Julian's face as his own shadow aligned ki exploded from his body, rushing to engulf a good chunk of he and Jasper's chosen battlefield. "Too bad you won't get to witness the end result!" Julian's eyes danced with glee as Jasper realized Julian's intentions a second too late, watching as Jasper was effectively boxed into the center of their battlefield by four walls of pure shadow. The Draco didn't give up just yet, trying for a final attempt at escape by jumping into the air, but that too was cut off by Julian's shadows.  

"You don't really think that you can beat me just by cutting off my sight, do you?" Jasper asked as he tried in vain to see around the changed battlefield.

"I did more than just that," Julian said, his voice echoing in Jasper's ears from all angles. "Inside this box my rule is absolute. I'm a true master of shadows, moving and flowing through them at my leisure. You have no hope of lasting through my Umbra Dance; both you brothers will be cut down by this night's end." Julian paused as he watched Jasper desperately continue to lock onto his presence; whereas Jasper's senses were severely hindered thanks to Julian's maneuver, the Daeva was truly at home in this kind of battlefield. "I wonder though; just how long will you try and last? You Draco do come off as the stubborn type."

'Damn you Julian,' Jasper thought, keeping his senses extended and his guard up as best he could. Three seconds later, he was brought to his knees from a fast, yet multiple hit assault from the Daeva manslayer, every blow being unchecked due to Jasper's lack of sight. "You know," Jasper said through clenched teeth, even whilst cracking a sarcastic looking smile. "This is just like you; fighting from the shadows instead of head up like a man. Maybe you just don't have a sense of manhood?"

Never let it be said that Jasper would let an opponent stop him from talking trash.

"I'm going to enjoy tearing that smile from your lips," Julian said before lighting up Jasper yet again with a number of unprotected shots to every exposed part of the Draco's body. 'And then I'll watch as the light of life leaves those royal dragon eyes.' With that thought, Julian set to work on capitalizing on the first real advantage that he had enjoyed throughout the entirety of their fight.

***

   As the Ut Puri agents clashed with the younger Edge threesome, they started to question if their pursuance of the kids and their mothers was really worth the consequences. At first glance, Roman, Taji and Quinton sure did come off as nothing more than average kids, but up close and personal was a whole different matter. These three 'kids' were in fact having a field day with all of them; their higher numbers didn't seem to make much difference as the Draco boys systematically took down each agent, one corpsmen at a time. 

"Wow, y'all suck," Taji said in a bored tone as he hit the closest corpsmen in the gut with a spinning backfist, bending him over just long enough for Quinton to connect with a rising knee lift to put him out for the count. 

"No coordination," Quinton commented, easily ducking another errant blow from a corpsmen who thought that they could catch him by surprise from behind. The youngest Edge youth retaliated with a mule like kick to that corpsmen's solar plexus, making said agent stagger back as they tried to recover their breath. "And very little actual combat skill. Their only strength must be in numbers."

"Obviously," Roman agreed with a smirk, himself looking as if he were having the time of his life, easily dodging the sub-par stabbing attempts of a corpsmen twice his size as if it were an everyday thing. As Roman dodged yet another stab from the long straight sword, Roman batted it away with a well-placed palm strike before kicking the corpsmen directly in the jaw with an up kick. 

As the fifth of twelve corpsmen fell to the ground in an unconscious heap, the rest of the contending agents looked to be having second thoughts about the whole situation. "Hey?" Taji asked, clearly mocking the apprehensive corpsmen. "What happened? I thought you guys were supposed to be big and bad?"

"Never that," Roman answered with a confident smirk as he gazed at the group of opponents. "These guys are the type who talk a big game in big numbers, when they know they can successfully jump someone. The second they find that they can be beat on..." Roman made a show of spitting on the ground, just to visually show the corpsmen exactly what he thought of them. "They tuck their tails and run."

That struck a nerve with one of the more hot-headed corpsmen, who had had enough of being outclassed and quite frankly punked out by a small group of teens, Draco be damned. "Screw this!" he yelled, finally brandishing a machine pistol and aiming it in the kids' direction. "The Oberst won't mind if they have a few bullet holes in them; I just can't kill them!"

"No!" Sharon yelled, instantly getting up from the ground as the corpsmen squeezed off a few shots. Her eyes widened as she felt her blood run cold; the one thing she knew she couldn't handle was the mere thought of seeing either of her kids get killed in front of her face. She collapsed to the ground as she felt the tears already start to flow; Draco or not, none of the kids were fast enough to dodge a bullet.

Luckily enough, there was no need to do so, as the bullets suddenly stopped before clattering to the ground harmlessly in front of Quinton''s face. Quinton himself fell to the ground seated a second later, himself thinking that he was done for from the corpsmen's lethal intentions. "What just happened?!" Quinton asked, looking around anxiously. "Taj Mahal? Rome? Did you guys do that?"

"No," Taji answered, himself looking around for an explanation. Remembering the earlier fight that they had witnessed, his first thought was to relate the miraculous stopping of a bullet to the older Simia Nestor. "But it seems we have a guardian monkey nearby."

A loud groan was heard from the rooftops as an audible slap was heard. "Why does everyone think the Simia are the only ones who can stop bullets!"

"Okay?" Quinton asked as both groups looked all around for the new speaker, confusion among other feelings shared between them. "That doesn't sound like the old man."

"Because I'm not an old man for one," Ricardo said, finally showing himself to the combatants by jumping off of a close roof, landing in between the kids and the Ut Puri corpsmen. It didn't go unnoticed to anyone that Ricardo's jump looked more like he had floated down from the sky rather than dropping like a normal person, and for a kid with the aptitude of Quinton, it wasn't hard to figure out why. "And two, I have my own way of nullifying a firearm."

Quinton scoffed as he, Taji, and Roman sized the newcomer up, wary of the power that they could feel radiating off of Ricardo. 'Well when you can literally glue something to the ground with gravitic manipulation..' With that being said, Quinton whistled to get Ricardo's attention. "Hey," he said, giving the Avis a wary look. "Who are you anyway? Friend or foe?"

Ricardo didn't make any obvious motion, but he did watch the kids' movements from the corner of his eyes, and noticed that although they weren't making it obvious themselves, they were as prepared as they could be if he was an actual enemy. 'I like what I see,' he thought, knowing just whose kids they were. 'They're more disciplined than a good percentage of the recruits I've helped to train back in Alexandria. Maybe when all of this is over I can get Judge Siobhan to have Exemplar Raven or his brother to help me whip our young'uns into shape.'

"Yo," Roman said in a half yell to catch Ricardo's attention. "You gonna answer the question anytime soon Rameses?"

At that, Ricardo let out a laugh; Saraya's description of Raven's eldest son as a natural born warrior, if a comedian at times, was spot on. "So that's the nickname you want to stick me with huh?"

"The top knot kind of helps," Taji commented, pointing to the Avis' unique hairstyle. "As well as the fact that you reek of Egyptian roots with the clothes. So, you gonna answer the question or do we have to get nice with you as well?"

Ricardo shook his head in amusement at the antics of the three kids. "I'm a friend," he answered, noticing the immediate relief on the faces of the kids and the onlooking women. "Lady Saraya sensed you three found yourselves in a bit of trouble and sent me to deal with it. From what I see though, you guys got this pretty much handled." To his surprise however, Roman's eyes immediately widened in clear shock as he tried in vain to signal to Ricardo to shut up. That surprise gave way to confusion as he felt Sharon's demeanor darken. 'Wonder what that's all about?' he thought, but shrugged it off as he noticed the corpsmen were getting impatient with being flat out ignored. "If I may though, I don't mind helping play clean up, especially if these swine want to bring out the firearms on a bunch of women and kids."

"Sure," Taji said as he shrugged his shoulders. "An extra hand that can stop bullets is greatly appreciated."

"I thought as much," Ricardo said. With that, the Avis lifted his arm in the direction of the corpsmen, who suddenly met the pavement by way of Ricardo's ki manipulation, who instantly generated a field of higher gravity around the Ut Puri corpsmen. Of course, they did try to struggle, but even with the attempt to withstand the gravity from Ricardo, they could get no further than standing on their hands and knees, much less move. "So," the Avis Lieutenant asked, his voice suddenly changing to one of absolute seriousness. "Can I ask why you guys think it's a bright idea to try and capture three kids and two women, all of whom are considered near royalty in the eyes of the Illuminati?"

"Go to hell!" the corpsmen who had fired the shots yelled, even as he continued to struggle against the Avis' ki manipulation.

"You first," Ricardo said with zero emotion in his voice. He brought his hand down emphatically as all the corpsmen were slammed flat on the ground, easily knocked unconscious from the force of impact. He stood still for a few seconds as he watched the corpsmen, not taking anything to chance on the off note that one of them had somehow resisted being put to sleep. Once he was satisfied that he had ended the confrontation, he turned to the kids and women with a pleased smile on his face. "Well, now that that's taken care of, why don't I get you all to safety?"

"Yeah," LaShonda said whilst scratching her head. "About that. The only safe place I can think of was blown up by Ut Puri."

"I'm not following," Ricardo said, confused both by LaShonda's response and by the glare that Sharon seemed to refuse to let go of as she stared a hole into him.

"She's talking about Uncle Jericho's boat being blown sky high," Roman said before his eyes widened once again, this time due to remembering how they had left the Canis. "He's actually fighting one of the stronger guys a little ways that a way." Roman pointed to the direction that they had ran from, even as he turned to go back. "I think he needs some help."

"No he doesn't," Ricardo said with a chuckle. "Lady Saraya sent me here just so she could deal with his problem personally." This time, the Avis caught the snort of displeasure come from Sharon, and being the stickler for respect of authority that he was, decided to at least ask what the woman's problem was. "And the reason you look like someone killed your dog whenever I say Lady Saraya's name is?"

'Oh no,' Roman thought as he backed away from the group unnoticed. 'Why did he have to bring that up?' Ever since that... incident with the Lamia Exemplar, Sharon had carried a grudge for the woman, so much that she would catch an attitude just from the mention of her name. 'Well, while Mr. Topknot takes this curse out, I'm gonna go find Dad; He and Uncle Jazz should be able to do something about all of this craziness going on.'

Luckily for Roman and his idea, everyone present was so vested in Sharon's imminent blow up that he was able to disappear from sight. "Look,"Sharon said with a noticeable edge to her tone. "I appreciate you coming in the nick of time to save my son from getting shot, but you shouldn't involve yourself in issues that you know nothing about."

'So this is the infamous Sharon Edge,' Ricardo thought with a tired sigh. "M'am," he said, putting his hands up to signify no ill will. "I could care less about any personal issue you have with Lady Saraya; I know exactly who you all are. The thing is, as a Lieutenant of the Illuminati, I take any sort of aggression or disrespect towards any of our leaders personally."

That did nothing but make the situation worse for Ricardo, as Sharon's face instantly flashed with rage. "Disrespect?" she asked as she marched over to get in Ricardo's face. "You try to patronize me about disrespect when-!"

"Don't mind her," LaShonda said as she forcefully covered Sharon's mouth and dragged her away from the innocent Avis. "It's been a long day and tensions are running high right now. So about getting us to a safe place?"

"Yeah," Ricardo said, thankful for the change in subject. 'Exemplar Raven sure found himself one hell of a woman, and not just because of looks.' "Everyone follow me; I have a boat of my own not too far from here, and I'd love to see anyone from Ut Puri try to blow it up."

"Um," Taji said, drawing everyone's attention to him with the concern in his voice. "About everyone; where's Rome?"

"Excuse me?" Ricardo asked in shock, suddenly whipping his head frantically as soon as he registered the question from Taji. "Oh hell no!" he yelled as he realized that Roman had just up and disappeared. "I told that kid Saraya's got you guy's uncle covered! Yo kid!"

'Rome's long gone bro,' Quinton thought with a hidden smirk, inwardly laughing as the group suddenly went bananas upon realizing the disappearance of the eldest Draco kid. 'And if I had money to bet, I know just where he's going.'

***

Although nowhere near as environmentally changing as the fights between Ut Puri's strongest Justicars and the elder Edge duo, Jericho and Firenze were indeed giving their all in their own confrontation. The narrow alley was littered with evidence of their struggle: out of the stone street and walls around, there were various flora and fauna that had sprouted, each several times their natural size, along with a good part of said street that wasn't covered in plants ripped up as if it had been through an earthquake. A couple of the homes in the alley could be seen in due to the two warriors having no qualms with putting their opponent through said walls just to inflict damage.

"You tired yet?" Firenze asked, his voice being mirrored by two more doppelgangers that he had created as they surrounded Jericho in a triangular formation.

"Nah," Jericho breathed, even though his physical appearance told a different story. Firenze was an exceptional warrior for not being on the levels of Julian and Hezekiah, and Jericho was paying the price in blood. Already the Felis Swiss Guardian had drawn blood, seen from a large gash that crossed Jericho's chest, and that was complimented by numerous black and blue bruises that littered the rest of Jericho's form. That wasn't to say Firenze was in any better shape;Jericho had caught him quite a few times with his mutated Venus Flytraps and martial skill. "I'm just waiting for you to realize that no matter how many of those clones you make, I'll beat them all." This wasn't just a bluff from Jericho, as he had already forced Firenze to replace three sets of doppelgangers in their fight, and both competitors knew how high of a cost they were in terms of ki.

"All I need is one hit to end this," Firenze said, taking aim to charge Jericho once again as he brandished a short sword, an action that was mirrored by his two doppelgangers.

'You should have ended it when you had the chance,' the Swiss Guardian heard in his mind. Firenze was no fool; he immediately recognized the new threat in the female voice, but it was already too late for him to do anything about it. Jericho himself was taken by surprise when Firenze suddenly grasped his head in obvious pain for a few fleeting seconds before passing out, with his doppelgangers doing the same thing before disappearing from sight.

"The hell?" Jericho wondered, confused by what had just taken place.

It didn't take long for him to figure everything out once he himself heard the same voice in his mind. 'What's up Jericho,' Saraya said via telepathy before turning a corner at the end of the alley, giving him an amused colgate white smile as she waved at him . "You look like hell; what's been going on here?"

"I should have known," Jericho said with a sigh before finally letting his body collapse to the ground. "Please tell me you brought a medic or something; I'm in some serious pain here."

"Truthfully I kind of spaced on that," Saraya said as she walked up to him and put a hand on his forehead. "But, I can cut the perception of pain from you mind temporarily if you'd like."

Jericho gave her a confused look as he grasped the wound on his chest. "You can do that?"

"Sure I can," Saraya said with a soft giggle like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Pain is both a physical and mental thing; you feel physical pain because the nerves in your body tell your mind that it's there. I just sever that link, but only temporarily because sometimes you kind of need to know you're hurt."

"Well I know I'm hurt," Jericho said with mirth. "And I really don't want to feel it until after this gash gets looked at. It's not life threatening anyway."

Saraya laughed at the expression on Jericho's face before the hand she had on Jericho's head glowed bright red for a quick second. In that scant amount of time, instant relief washed over the Canis' face before he made his way to his feet. As soon as he did so, his face took on a panicked look as he turned to run off in the direction that the kids and women had taken earlier. "Hold it!" Saraya yelled as she grasped his arm. "Already have someone on that situation, and you don't need to be running anywhere with that kind of wound, pain gone or not."

"But I-!" Jericho tried.

"No buts," Saraya said sternly. "Besides, why run halfway across town when you have a telepath standing right here?" The Lamia wanted to laugh at the sheepish look on Jericho's face as he rubbed the back of his head, but chose to save that image for a later time. 'Ricardo!' she called out, still retaining her earlier telepathic connection with the Avis.

'Lady Saraya!' Ricardo called out. 'Is everything okay on your end?'

'Of course it is,' Saraya answered. 'This guy wasn't Jynx by a long shot. How about you?' At that, she could feel the worry in the consciousness of the Avis. 'You need some help or something? Are the boys and wives alright?'

 'Everyone's fine,' Ricardo said. 'Even if Exemplar Raven's wife seems to hate the mention of your name...'

Saraya visibly sighed; seriously, that woman could hold a grudge for a longtime. Who would have thought a little harmless mind play to teach a kid a lesson would gain her the ire of Sharon for this long? 'Don't mind that,' she said. 'We... have a bit of history. But other than her attitude is everything good?'

Ricardo didn't answer for a few seconds, which did it's job to worry the Lamia Exemplar, who had already had a bad feeling about everything that was going on at the isle. Even Jericho was starting to get uncomfortable with the silence from Saraya, but Ricardo finally answered after a few more tense moments.

Although, the answer was not something Saraya wanted to hear.

'No one's hurt,' Ricardo said, making Saraya sigh in relief as she gave Jericho a thumbs up. 'But,' Ricardo continued as the inflection in his tone, even telepathically, darkened. 'Roman seems to have gone missing.'

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Saraya yelled out, scaring Jericho so much that the Canis jumped a few feet back in surprise. "Roman Kai!"

***

A startled Roman skidded to a stop in the middle of the street, stopped by the very familiar yell from the Lamia Exemplar. "Someone sounds pissed," Roman said to himself, having an intimate familiarity with an irritated Saraya from previous experiences. Even still, the kid shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the Acropolis of Lindos in the near distance, so close that he could see the plumes of smoke and fire from the confrontations going on there. 'I'm sure she'll get over it; that guy was cool and all, but I got to find my dad.' With that, Roman took off in a run once again, feeling his father was close as only a son could.

***

"What was that about?" Jericho asked as he made a deliberate show of cleaning out his ear with his finger, solely due to the volume of Saraya's yell which he swore could be heard by everyone on the island.

Saraya sighed as she shook her head. "Roman," she said while doing her part to glean what she could of the distant kid's thoughts. "As kindhearted as he is, he isn't the most trusting to strangers, especially other Sovrumano. I guess whatever Ricardo did to help them out intimidated him to the point where he thought to find Raven or Jasper." Saraya rolled her eyes as she and Jericho started to make their way through the maze of alleys and streets to meet up with Ricardo and his group.

"Sounds like Rome," Jericho commented. "He plays tough guy around people he knows to impress so to speak, but inside he's still just a boy."

A sudden cold chill went down Saraya spine as Jericho said those words. "That's what I'm afraid of," she answered. "Roman doesn't know what he's about to run himself into." At that, her eyes widened, just now realizing the implications of Roman's actions. "Jericho, can you find your way back to the others?"

Jericho grinned as he pointed to his nose. "Canis Lady Saraya," he said. "Even if my sensing skills aren't the best, I still have the best schnoz. I can handle my own; the most we might run into is more corpsmen, and if they're stronger, your guy seems like a decently powerful dude."

"Thanks," the Exemplar said, breathing a sight of relief before turning in the direction of the Acropolis. "I have to try and stop a kid from getting involved in something leagues ahead of him." The two shared a quick chuckle at Roman's expense. "Like father, like son is what they say."

"Definitely," Jericho said with a salute in her direction. "Godspeed Lady Saraya." Saraya nodded before taking off in a blur, hoping to cut Roman off before he got to the site of the titanic conflict. For some reason, the dark feeling she had intensified the second she realized where Roman was heading, and it was only getting worse.

She just hoped she could make it in time.

***

The only good thing about the fights that were going on in the acropolis as it concerned a rogue Draco kid and a Lamia Exemplar, was that all four combatants were too focused on their own fights to even acknowledge Roman even if he did show up. That was doubly true in the case of Raven and Hezekiah, who were locked in their own power struggle: Raven's Ryu Senko attack versus the combined power of Excalibur and Hezekiah's Angeli strength. The two warriors seemed to be putting everything that they had into their attacks, as if there was unspoken agreement between the two that this would be the final struggle.

For a moment, it looked as if the two were dead even, as the point of collision between the attacks translated into a gigantic swirling orb of ki that was easily the size of the presidential mansion. It was almost like a reverse tug of war; instead of pulling, Raven and Hezekiah were intent on pushing the massive orb toward their opponent, knowing that whoever got hit with it would be out of the fight for good. With a burst of strength, Hezekiah finally found some ground as the orb slowly but surely inched towards the airborne Raven. The Angeli dug in his stance upon realizing this, not caring that his feet were literally sinking through the stone floor as he found his ground.

"Ha!" Hezekiah yelled with a smirk of victory. "Even you cannot stand versus the power of Excalibur in my hands! Remember this day as I scatter your ashes into the wind Raven Edge!" Hezekiah exemplified his statement by pouring even more of his ki into the fabled blade to further establish his dominance.

Raven grunted in exertion as he saw the orb pick up speed as it raced towards his body, feeling the insane amount of heat from the ki comprising it even though it was still a good thirty feet from him. 'So this is the full might of Excalibur, matched with the strength of my most famed enemy?' Raven's eyes suddenly flashed as his face took on a resolute expression. 'Then I shouldn't hear any further complaints after this day!'

All of a sudden, the orb stopped in its tracks as if it were rooted to its spot in the sky. Hezekiah's face told the whole story, a mixture of confusion, shock, and rage flashing over his visage as he tried to push the combined attack into and through his most prolific foe. "What!?" he yelled, feeling his legs sink further into the stone ground as his arms started to shake from the exertion of using that amount of power. "No! I will not allow this to happen!" Hezekiah's rage only grew when he saw the direction of the orb change direction, now inching towards him as it slowly but surely picked up speed. "You cannot win Raven!"

Try as he might, Hezekiah couldn't push the orb of ki any further in Raven's direction, Even when he pushed a fair amount of extra ki into the beam of energy from Excalibur to manipulate the orb, it was like trying to push the planet itself as the orb only picked up speed. Suddenly, Hezekiah felt his arms give out, most likely from the exertion of power he was using to match the Draco Exemplar. He had hit his limit, and now he had to watch helpless as the sphere of ki raced to envelop his form.

'And that's why you lose,' Raven thought as he finally brought the epitome of his power to bear in his Ryu Senko attack. ''You did nothing but to seek your own glory every time we have fought!' In that moment, Raven reflected upon every meeting he ever had with the Angeli Oberst; every battle, every confrontation, even every argument. 'On top of that, you have disgraced yourself by fighting for the enemy and the eradication of your own race. You're an angel of darkness that represents the evil that had scarred this planet since the days of the ancient forefathers!' Raven yelled as he forced the brunt of his ki into his near legendary ki wave, seeking to end Hezekiah once and for all.

'I fight for the light!' Raven thought as he saw the results of his own manipulation take effect. The mansion sized sphere of ki nearly doubled in size from the introduction of the extra ki, far too much for Hezekiah to even hope to stop. 'I fight for an age where we all can live equally just as it was intended to be; human, Sovrumano, or otherwise. I fight so my sons can live in a world free of racial prejudice just because of what they are, so they can live to the best of their ability, without having to fear the likes of Ut Puri!'

"Hezekiah Shane!" Raven yelled, even whilst controlling the massive stream of ki from his mouth. "You and Ut Puri seek to end free will, to enslave this world in a New World Order!" Hezekiah couldn't respond, too busy with struggling to deny the fate that was intended for him. "As long as there are warriors that fight for what's right, that will never happen, least of all while I'm around!"

"Why?" Hezekiah breathed, even as the heat from the orb started to burn his from from its close proximity. "Why can I not beat you!?"

"Because my name is Raven Edge!" Raven proclaimed in a loud voice that seemed to span through endless time over. "Draco Exemplar of the Illuminati, Ryu Senko!" Raven chuckled as he thought of one more thing, looking to the side for a brief moment as he felt a very familiar presence in the immediate proximity. "The brother of the Nycest, a husband to the fairest, and a proud father of two amazing kids. That's why I will never fall to the likes of you! Ryu Senko!'

***

Roman was frozen in awe as he watched the mighty orb of ki crash down on a prone Hezekiah before exploding in a glorious display that rocked the very earth under his feet. 'My dad, is so awesome!' He had only arrived a few scant moments before, but he had been entranced by the vision of his father and Hezekiah fighting at their best. Even with the change in form, Roman still recognized his dad, and it was just now that he truly realized the depths of Raven's strength. 'Screw Superman, Batman, and all the rest,' he thought with a bright smile that could only be seen on a proud son witnessing their father's greatest moment. 'My father is the man!'

Roman was taken out of his prideful thoughts as the ground quaked yet again. This time however, the ground split from beneath Roman's feet, catching the youth by surprise. He yelled out in terror as he felt himself fall, closing his eyes as he braced for the imminent impact. He need not have feared anything, as he felt himself being caught by the scruff of the neck before being placed gently on the ground. After a few seconds of swallowing the fear down, Roman peeked out of one eye, only to smile brightly as he saw the smiling face of his father staring at him.

"Dad!" Roman yelled as he jumped to hug his father, who had let the anima remissionis transformation fade as to not traumatize his son. There really wasn't a need, for after what he had seen, Roman didn't really care about how his father had looked, or how childish he looked by hugging him; His dad had not only set the bar for awesome in his mind, but he had just saved him from falling into an abyss. "You're the man, you know that?"

"So I've been told," Raven said with a smirk as he took a look around the area. Due to the massive explosion of the powerful ki orb, the floor of the acropolis was all but nonexistent. It had destroyed so much in its explosion, that a deep crater had taken its place. So deep it was, that it partially opened up Nestor's secret chamber to the world, in the process exposing Soulbreaker to the world above for the first time in over two thousand years.

And what a beauty it was.

The bow itself looked to be made of pure gold, intricately decorated with a plethora of precious gems from tip to tip of its frame. The string itself looked to made of a finely spun silvery silk, precious yet strung on tight. Lying on the pedestal next to it were equally intricate arrows in a leather and bronze quiver, with each arrow looking to be formed from the finest of wood. Raven looked from Soulbreaker to Roman, who looked to be entranced by the legendary weapon, so much that he had to wave his hand in front of his face to catch his attention. "First you say I'm the man, then you completely ignore me the second you see something shiny."

"Uh," Roman said with a sheepish look, trying to avert his eyes both from Soulbreaker and his dad.

"Dude," Raven said with a jovial laugh, lightly punching his son in the shoulder to play with him. "I'm just messing with you. Which reminds me, why are you here anyway?" At that Roman suddenly remembered the reason he had come, and in the span of a few seconds explained the entire situation at have, from Jericho's boat being blown up, to said person's confrontation, to he, Taji, and Quinton's own fight, all the way up to when he decided to go find Raven. 'Hmm,' Raven thought as he turned over everything in his head. Although he was proud of his son for standing up to the Ut Puri corpsmen, he didn't like the fact that Roman also left to find he and Jasper. "Rome," Raven said in a serious tone, catching his son's undivided attention. "Granted, you did mess up at some points, especially by leaving everyone behind," Raven almost wanted to laugh at  the downcast expression on his son's face. "But with all the circumstances, I'm proud of you."

That one took Roman through a loop, so much that the kid had to back up and blink a few times just to make sure Raven was Raven. "Really?" Roman asked with a fair amount of hope in his tone.

"Really son," Raven said as he tussled Roman's locks. Raven motioned to Soulbreaker with a nod of his head, drawing his son's attention to the fabled artifact. "You see that, right there? That's why your uncle and I are here: that bow is called Soulbreaker, the weapon that truly killed Achilles long ago."

"Achilles?" Roman asked with a confused expression. "Um, Dad?" Roman asked, clearly not believing his father. "Achilles was a mythological figure in Greek history; even I know that." Roman rolled his eyes as he turned away, thinking that his dad was messing around with his like Taji and Quinton did on a regular basis, only to jump once he heard a pained cough nearby.

"Actually," Raven said as he pulled his son behind him with a wary eye. "It is. Achilles was like us." Raven nodded as he took Roman's silence as the kid starting to put everything together. "This bow was hidden away because of its power, because it can kill any Sovrumano, no matter the strength. Nestor was its guardian, so that Ut Puri wouldn't find it to use for their own ambitions."

Roman nodded; everything was starting to make sense to the thirteen year old. "So everything that happened tonight was over this bow?" Raven nodded wordlessly as he watched Hezekiah, somehow, make it to his feet. The Angeli looked haggard to say the least; with the amount of burns and wounds on his body, it was a miracle that he had survived, much less get to his feet. It was only the added ki from the anima remissionis and the increased regeneration that had kept him at this point. "And let me guess," Roman said as he too studied the Angeli's movements. "This guy is Ut Puri, arguably the strongest of them all, and he wanted to seize it."

"Got it in one," Raven said as he eyed Hezekiah's movements, even though it was obvious that the man wouldn't be fighting anymore for a long time. "So Hezekiah," Raven called out. "You still want to go another round, or are you going to give up and call it a day?"

Hezekiah coughed up a fair chunk of blood as he tried to answer Raven. "You're too strong," Hezekiah admitted, if begrudgingly. "Fighting you now would only result in my death, and I don't want that. I'd rather heal up and try again, this time on better terms."

Raven gave Hezekiah a sideways look, truly sensing no malice from the Angeli. "Come again?"

"The tournament," Hezekiah said as he fell back to the ground on his buttocks before erupting into a fierce coughing fit. "If there is one thing you have, it is honor. Don't think I didn't hear your words; though we serve two different masters, we can still have some respect for each other." Hezekiah clutched his chest as he softly smiled; it seemed that Raven had truly knocked some sense into the Angeli Oberst this time. "I do want to settle this thing between me and you, so why not do it in a setting that has honor?"

Raven chuckled to himself before outright laughing out loud. 'Maybe even the darkest of minds can be changed with a good enough beating,' he thought, even while he caught the significance of Hezekiah's request. "I'll take that," Raven said with a nod. "Only if you call off your men. Do that, and leave Soulbreaker here. If you can do that, you have yourself a deal."

"It can be done," Hezekiah said before finally succumbing to his injuries, passing out of the ground with a serene smile on his face.

Roman caught himself staring at Hezekiah with a fair amount of interest. "Dad," he said. "For an enemy, he doesn't sound all that bad."

Raven nodded his head. "Maybe not now," he said before pointing towards the steps to the chamber, which somehow endured through the explosion.. "Can you wait for me at the entrance? I have to tie up some loose ends here."

Roman flashed Raven a thumbs up before turning to run up the nearby steps. "Not a problem Dad."

"That's my boy!" Raven called out as he watched Roman retreat. Just as he was about to turn away, however, a flash of shadow caught his attention, rising from the ground behind Soulbreaker itself. To Raven's complete shock, Julian rose from said shadow with perhaps the most wicked expression of evil he had ever seen in his life.

"Exemplar Raven!" Julian yelled, taking only a moment to survey the scene of the battle, and having the effect of freezing Roman in his tracks. "You beat my mentor, congratulations!"

"What are you doing?" Raven asked, eyeing Julian cautiously. He had no idea how Julian was even alone; wasn't Jasper fighting him while he fought Hezekiah? To top that, the Daeva was far too close to Soulbreaker for his liking.

"Simple," Julian said, in a flash grabbing the legendary bow and putting one of the arrows to the string. "You might have beaten Hezekiah, but I will kill me a dragon today!" With that Julian took aim and let the arrow fly, with the weapon and arrow itself taking on a glow of the darkest of light that in its own way permeated death.

Only, it was not in the direction of Raven.

"Roman!" Raven yelled, eyes widened in terror as he realized what the nihilistic Daeva's goal was. With all the strength he could muster in his worn out body, he sprung in the direction of Roman, trying as hard as he could to get to his son. "Move out of the way!"

'What the!' Roman thought with confusion as he heard his father's desperate yell. The preteen turned around to see what was going on, only for his eyes to widen in shock at the glowing arrow that was fast approaching him. His vision zoned out, almost in slow motion, as he watched the instrument of death get closer and closer, before feeling the iron grip of his father seize onto his collar to throw him out of the way. "No!" Roman yelled as a cold feeling of hopelessness and sorrow rushed through his veins, helpless as he witnessed the one thing no son should ever have to see. As the arrow from Soulbreaker embedded itself deep into the center of Raven's chest, Roman could only hope beyond hope itself that his father wasn't serious about the power of the legendary artifact. "Dad!"