the fall
The former zenith of the world stood in a burning, crumbling city. Flames and misery danced around them. All around them was destruction, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Great Flood.
A streak of blue tore through the city, impossible to follow. A large boom echoed as it collided with a skeleton that'd just formed in the air. Limb by Limb, real name Cecilia Murkwood, jumped backward to avoid the attack. The undead constructs she formed in the air crumbled immediately under Reyes Beaumont's lightning-fast, wind-aided punches. The heroes' eyes were bloodshot, their pupils a bright red. A possessed suit of armour managed to take the hit, retaliating with a swing of its axe that a burst of air quickly deflected. A skeleton's hand burst out of the ground, fingers locking around Reyes' ankle - they passed through the mirage he'd created, and Reyes was suddenly by Cecilia's side, fist preparing an incredibly dangerous uppercut.
Then, a streak of black collided with Reyes, sending him flying away and bolting after him immediately. Cecilia's tribulations were not over yet - she could only just barely turn around in time and summon a headless horseman, its lance clashing with a shadowy, vaguely humanoid construct's lance. She spread her hands wide, all sorts of undead creatures rising up to deal with Lucetta Solandis' legion of identical shadow soldiers. Bursts of dark miasma and the undead's remains flew everywhere as Lucetta Solandis and Cecilia Murkwood's thralls clashed, and Cecilia dashed through the commotion, weaving side to side to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
In the centre of the battlefield, Limb by Limb's chainsaw clashed with Umbra's shield. Umbra was knocked back, just as one of the shadow soldiers' flails struck Limb by Limb in the leg. A strigoi - a vampire-like creature of Romanian folklore - appeared, tearing into the soldier's throat with its teeth, while a second one jumped onto Lucetta's back. With Lucetta's weak physicality, Cecilia quickly gained the upper hand, attacking alongside her undead thralls to overwhelm Lucetta, although not without Cecilia taking quite a few hits as well. A poltergeist knocked the shield out of Umbra's hand, and Limb by Limb's chainsaw made the Briar Collective's representative meet a gruesome end.
The battle between Reyes Beaumont and Raymond Zelot was impossible to keep up with - whereas Zelot, known better by their alias Valiant, had the clear advantage in speed, Alacrity's control of wind made his punches that much more painful. A shockwave sent Valiant flying backwards, but as Alacrity went in for the kill, Valiant twisted in mid-air for a surprise kick. A torrent of punches struck Alacrity, who focused on using concentrated bursts of wind to deflect them. He quickly zig-zagged left and right, using his manoeuvrability advantage to keep Valiant guessing, until a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, striking Valiant. The temporary shock was enough for Reyes to jump up, powerful blasts of wind launching him forward towards Raymond Zelot, speeding him up until he was near-invisible. His fist collided with Valiant's head, and it gave little resistance.
A long row of pitch-black hands burst through the ground, kicking up debris as the row approached Bastien Palemonas' legs. Bastien's - Ordained's - Divine Conduit formed a pillar of concrete below his feet, shooting him up to avoid the grasping hands. Two large columns of concrete extended forward, but an amalgamation of many hands of pure shadow blocked it. A figure burst out of the ground, flashing knives only barely missing Ordained's throat. It took him little time to recognise Victoria. A block of concrete slammed into Victoria's abdomen, but she warped away in time, appearing behind Ordained and slicing down his back with the knife.
In the chaos, Grand Hero Weiss had time to recover. He'd now closed the distance between himself and Ordained and Victoria, moving to stand in between those two and the sun. Their shadows overlapped, and black chains burst out of Ordained and Victoria's shadows, twirling around their bodies and pulling them down to the ground. The chains coiled around them and lifted them up, slamming them into the ground. The wounded Ordained managed to break the chains by expanding concrete all around himself, while Victoria disappeared. Ordained dashed inwards, metal shimmering on his skin after he touched his right hand to a fallen lamppost. He carefully manoeuvred around Weiss' shadow, a metal spike blasting out of his left hand, breaking through Weiss' knife and digging into his throat. Weiss jumped to the side, their shadows overlapping for a split second - chains burst out, immediately tightening around Ordained's throat with a disgusting snap. Remorselessly, Victoria reappeared, putting Grand Hero Weiss out of his misery.
Paper-thin sheets of water shot out of the bubble circling Anne de la Cerda, slicing cleanly through a mummy. She broke through a wall of revenants to engage Cecilia Murkwood one-on-one - CAPTAIN KABONNY's signature blast of compressed water sent a defending possessed suit of armour tumbling into Cecilia, who dismissed it just barely too late. Anne jumped in, plunging forward with her axe. A stabbing attack from a skeleton's sharpened fingertips didn't slow her momentum, and her axe cleaved through Cecilia's shoulder, as she rolled to the side just in time to prevent her head from being obliterated instead.
Limb by Limb felt as if nothing - even losing an arm - could stop her. With her teeth, she revved the chainsaw up. Two dhampirs jumped forward, a blade of water slicing halfway through one. The second dug its teeth into CAPTAIN KABONNY's left arm. Cecilia jumped through the rushing water, ignoring the tiny blades of water on CAPTAIN KABONNY's bubble that tore open her flesh. Everyone would meet the chainsaw's wrath, and Anne de la Cerda proved no exception as the chainsaw tore through her. Right as Anne fell, liquid metal flew past, turning into a thin blob with a sharp point, like the point of a spear. It moved through Cecilia's knee without losing momentum, as if simply cutting through butter. A grim reaper's scythe was quickly halted by more of the liquid metal. The first mass turned around in the air, moving through Murkwood's chest next, then her neck, then her head, drawing a snaking pattern in the air.
Even with her assassin-like agility, Victoria couldn't dodge in time as Alacrity shot towards her with a boom. His first strike sent her flying backwards, and she warped away in mid-air, reappearing close by him. She touched the ground, creating a new gateway, and simply readied her stance. Alacrity ran towards her again, and she held the dagger in her right hand up to parry the blow. She threw the dagger in her left hand backwards, and it phased into the gateway, shooting up into Reyes' thigh. His reduced speed allowed her to avoid the next blow, slicing up his chest with a wakizashi she grabbed from her belt. A shockwave sent Victoria backwards, and she only barely managed to land on her feet. Alacrity dashed in, clapping his hands as another bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky.
The bolt shot down towards Victoria, bending just before hitting her head and shooting off to the side. It danced and twisted around a spear of liquid metal, coursing through it. Just as Alacrity could react and look to the side, the spear had pierced through his eye already. The metal exited through his forehead, targeting Victoria - she warped away, but her assailant's liquid, flexible weapon had twisted to the side, piercing her heart the moment she reappeared. "You can only warp to a few specific locations, miss Mizrahi. Once your opponent watches carefully, they can predict where you'll reappear." Damien Brite looked down at her, clenching his fist so that the ferrofluid would burst back out of her chest and return to his body.
"Caledfwlch." The hairs on Mercury's arms stood upright. He could only jump to the side just in time as a white line shot forward, a sword slice so intense that it cut through every building in its path. The sword in Morgan Pendragon's hand shone brightly enough to blind his opponents, but its shine dimmed quickly. "Mjölnir." A hammer began forming in his other hand. "Hecatoncheires." His arms began to multiply, until they were too many to count. "Svalinn." Right as a barrage of ferrofluid needles shot at him, a shield manifested. Mercury and Mordred dashed at each other, Mjölnir clashing with a large hammer formed by Mercury. A gigantic shockwave blew everything away.
The world turned to white, and then the white began to crack, revealing a bold-lettered logo, font akin to crumbling metal.
"LIMIT BREAKER STARTS MAY 14TH! GET TICKETS NOW AT-"