Seven Heroes Redux

This time, Yuto would twist the bodies of those who approached instead of repelling them. Each clone jumped towards him, being retaliated into several pieces. The rain of blood blinded him for a moment, until only the real one remained.

While he was distracted, Unizard conjured a huge ice spear and threw it towards Yuto. Then, she teleported behind him and released a small black orb. It looked like a miniature black hole. Then she summoned a huge acid storm cloud above him.

Finally, she synchronized a strengthened punch and jumped towards Yuto. Just as she was about to punch him, the acid rain accompanied by lightning, the ice spear, and the small black hole collided with his barrier.

Yuto recovered and realized he was surrounded. He pushed his barrier to its maximum, destroying the ice spear, repelling drops of acid rain, and slightly accelerating Unizard's fist.

It passed through the barrier without any major problems. In fact, the barrier caused the punch to hit Yuto earlier than expected. He did it instinctively, as he didn't have time to think. That punch could finish him off, but it was the only chance he had of being pushed away.

The lightning was weakened, but still hit him hard, immobilizing him for a few seconds. The mini black hole caused a huge explosion, swallowing all the flying islands. He flew away so fast that the black hole didn't have time to affect him. He was now in free fall in an almost absolute void.

He only didn't get his heart pierced because he focused his defensive barrier where the punch would hit him. Since the impact was so strong and accelerated by the barrier itself, he felt a lot of pain. Worst of all, he was vomiting blood and about to lose consciousness.

When he recovered from the lightning strike, he realized he was in a completely different place. It was a vast desert that seemed to have no end. One of the first things he noticed was a fundamental difference in location: gravity was greater than that of Earth.

It was daytime and something immediately caught his attention: several moons orbited that planet. He thought of Jupiter, but the atmosphere was too different for that to be the case. There was breathable air, very few clouds, and the main sun in that system seemed to be larger and hotter. Other smaller ones were also visible, but they had little effect on the planet's temperature.

Yuto stood up painfully. A voice came from behind:

— Those comets no longer exist, so now you have no time limit.

It was Distortion again.

— Good news for once…

— Hey man, cheer up! It's my turn to fight you now. My sister will be the support this time.

— "Support"? I thought it was a 1v1...

— Oh come on, we're not going to let you have the slightest chance of winning this fight.

At least Genesis and Haji are safe... I can win this.

Yuto breathed slowly, trying not to damage his lungs any further. He took a defensive stance.

— Come.

He had a serious expression on his face. He felt everything around him, trying to be aware of all the space he had. There was no sign of his sister. Distortion smiled, enjoying the challenge.

— As you wish.

Distortion punched the air. His fist entered a small circle, and a small distortion in space appeared behind Yuto.

If I recall correctly, one of his powers is to create portals.

Yuto quickly deformed anything that came near him. Distortion's arm was twisted beyond repair. Somehow, it was healed within seconds.

Tch. The wizard is a problem.

— This barrier of yours is a problem. However...

Distortion opened both his hands and formed small black holes. Like a bowling ball throw, he hurled the two spheres towards Yuto. He felt that he could not defend himself from this and decided to fly into the sky.

The two black holes merged along the way and grew to mountainous proportions, swallowing everything in front of them. They grew in size according to the matter they consumed.

If they were thrown into the air, only gaseous particles and other solid and liquid particles in small quantities were assimilated. The black holes grew slowly, but still left a huge vacuum trail, pulling everything around them.

The worst case scenario would be to throw them down. If they consumed the soil, their growth rate would be greatly accelerated. Since they had no size limit, they could swallow an entire planet.

Yuto realized all of this quickly, as he saw with his own eyes those dark spheres devouring everything in their path. Suddenly, they disappeared. Distortion also had control over when to turn them off. The result was a massive vacuum that pulled Yuto back down.

Because the gravity there was stronger than Yuto was used to, his body was thrown into the sand with extreme force. Like a shock absorber, the sand softened the impact, but he still sank dozens of meters. Yuto was injured, but he soon managed to return to the surface.

That sandbox was still huge and nearly intact. Distortion had probably chosen that place precisely so that he wouldn't have to hold back his attacks.

— ...I just have to surpass your limit.

Distortion smirked again, more arrogantly this time.

Haji has nothing to do with all this. It was my choice to return to Tokyo...

Yuto jumped towards Distortion, while using his power to gather the sand around him into a sphere and trap his enemy inside it. Before punching him, he also used his supreme gravity to crush him. However, Yuto simply passed through. Distortion created a portal in front and behind his body, making him untouchable.

The ultimate gravity didn't hit him either. It made a huge cylindrical hole in the sand sphere and the desert itself, but it didn't touch Distortion. From within the sphere, a black hole was thrown towards Yuto, who jumped back. It was teleported back to him.

As a desperate attempt, Yuto decided to use his supreme gravity downwards on himself. This way, he would erase the ground as he flew downwards. He soon realized that this was a bad idea. The black hole grew faster as it consumed solids. The grains of sand around the cylinder began to fall, closing the hole and serving as the black hole's main food.

Distortion wasn't sure whether Yuto would fly up or down, but he got the best result. He observed everything with a small portal in front of his head that served as a window. He launched a black hole towards Yuto. In a few seconds, it was already bigger than a mountain. Shortly after, a crater a few dozen kilometers long formed in the desert.

In fact, there no longer seemed to be a desert, just complete emptiness. Distortion protected himself from all of this by forming a 360° portal around his own body, isolating him from the surroundings.

If he deactivated the portal-barrier, he would be pulled down heavily, just as the entire atmosphere was being sucked out. It was like an endless pit leading to hell. Distortion disabled the black hole so that it wouldn't consume the entire planet.

Yuto used all his strength to fly downwards and escape the black hole. Suddenly, everything stopped. The vacuum pulled Yuto upwards again, but he didn't get close to the surface that no longer existed. It was a complete void. He could vaguely see the atmosphere. Even the atmosphere was slowly disappearing as it filled that endless void.

He was running out of air. It was the same experience as being in outer space. He grabbed some oxygen with his power before it was all swallowed up, but it was already gone. He lost consciousness before he realized it.

Genesis felt a pang in her heart, holding her head in worry. Haji was walking with her.

— Genesis?

— Yuto…

— Did something happen to him?

— He... he disappeared...

— Huh?

— I put a tracker on him... the signal's gone...

— Wait, did he agree to this in the first place?

— I wanted to make sure he's safe...

— This is still unethical. He could have destroyed the tracker when he realized he was being spied on.

— He would have asked me about it before...

— You're trusting him too much. Or not, since you're spying on him without his consent. Why all this? Are you so concerned about his safety?

— Yeah... just in case, right?

Haji noticed something. She blushed and scolded Genesis:

— Y-You're doing this because you like him, aren't you?

— Eh? O-Of course I like him, as a...

— Don't even say "friend"! The way you look at him says it all!

— I-It's just… I worry about him and…

Haji's expression softened.

— We're friends, aren't we? You like him, don't you?

— Well… m-maybe a little…

Genesis looked away, pouting and steepling her fingers together. Haji smiled.

— Well, let's go! Where did the signal stop?