The End and the Beginning
His voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the aftershocks of the explosion, clear and distinct, carrying an indescribable sense of disappointment, echoing above the desolate ruins.
Far away, Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu were still hiding behind a twisted metal plate, their faces ashen, like corpses.
Dr. Gero was as thin as a withered branch, and trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind.
Behind his glasses, his eyes were wide open, almost bursting, and his lips trembled. After a long pause, he finally managed to stammer, "This... this guy... what kind of monster is he...?"
Fear gripped his throat.
Dr. Myuu gritted his teeth so hard they almost bled, then suddenly grabbed Dr. Gero's arm tightly, his nails digging into his flesh, ignoring the pain. "Retreat! Retreat now! This is not something we can handle!"
The instinct to survive overwhelmed everything. They no longer cared about plans or ambitions, and turned to desperately flee into the shadows deep within the ruins, scrambling and crawling in a sorry state.
Qi Heng's gaze was like a searchlight, instantly locking onto the two figures fleeing in panic.
"Trying to run?"
He spoke calmly, raising his right hand, index and middle fingers together, and gently pressing it against his forehead.
This movement is extremely simple, yet it carries an indescribable sense of rhythm.
Instant Transmission.
The space rippled slightly like the surface of water.
The next second, Qi Heng's figure vanished, only to reappear without warning on Dr. Gero's escape route, blocking the pale sunlight streaming down from the clouds.
Dr. Gero was running headlong when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. Had he not reacted quickly, he would have crashed into Qi Heng.
He looked up and saw Qi Heng's calm, expressionless face, and those golden eyes that seemed to see right through his soul.
Fear made his pupils shrink to pinpoints, and he forced out a broken scream, "You—!"
Before he could finish speaking, Qi Heng had already stretched out his right hand.
The movement wasn't actually fast, but Dr. Gero couldn't dodge it at all, like a snake that had been nailed to a wall.
Qi Heng's icy fingers firmly gripped his wrinkled neck, and with just a little force, he lifted him up like a chick.
Dr. Gero kicked wildly, trying desperately to pry the hand open, but to no avail.
His face turned purple, and his eyes almost popped out.
"Dr. Gero," Qi Heng's voice remained calm, devoid of emotion, as if stating a fact, "Your era has ended."
"No--! I... I can still... create..."
Dr. Gero let out a desperate wail, filled with resentment.
"Snap."
A crisp cracking sound, the bone breaking wasn't loud, but it made Dr. Myuu, who was still looking back from a distance, skip a beat.
Dr. Gero's struggles came to an abrupt halt, the light in his eyes dimmed instantly, his neck twisted at an eerie angle, and his whole body slumped limply.
Qi Heng let go of him and dropped him.
"Thump."
Dr. Gero's body was thrown onto the charred ground like a tattered sack.
But soon, the corpse stopped bleeding and, starting from its extremities, transformed into wisps of black smoke that swirled and rose before finally dissipating completely into the air—it was originally a soul from hell, and now it had simply been reduced to its original form, returning to that eternal prison.
Dr. Myuu witnessed all of this and felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, as if his soul had been frightened away.
He let out a completely out-of-control scream and, without thinking, used all his strength to escape in the opposite direction, wishing he had two more legs.
Qi Heng didn't chase after him at all.
Because, right where Dr. Gero had died, a jet-black beam of energy suddenly burst forth from the smoke and dust.
The speed was outrageous, and the accuracy was terrifying. It caught up with Dr. Myuu, who had fled for almost a hundred meters, in an instant. With a "whoosh," it easily pierced through his chest, leaving a charred hole in his body under his white coat, which was bright from front to back and had charred edges.
Dr. Myuu abruptly stopped in his tracks as he rushed out.
He looked down in disbelief at the hole in his chest, then looked up at the source of the energy, his eyes filled with bewilderment, shock, and the despair of betrayal.
"Why... why... the Android 17..."
Blood kept gushing from the corner of his mouth, and his life force was rapidly draining away through the hole.
As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, Super 17's towering figure emerged step by step.
His Battle Suit was torn in several places, revealing his metallic body underneath, and there were also charred marks on his face. But his blood-red electronic eyes were even colder and more violent than before, staring intently at Qi Heng, not even glancing at Dr. Myuu.
"I don't need a creator." Super 17's voice was cold and ruthless, like the scraping of metal. "Your usefulness is over."
Dr. Myuu opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, all that remained was a sigh full of resentment.
His body, like Dr. Gero's, turned into black smoke and vanished with the wind, leaving not a trace.
Super 17 finally turned around, unleashing all his killing intent upon Qi Heng, who stood there calmly as always.
Black flames erupted from his body once more, even more violently than before, causing the ground beneath his feet to crack open.
"Now," he slowly assumed a fighting stance, his fists crackling with energy, his blood-red eyes burning with destructive fire, "It's your turn."
Qi Heng watched him quietly. The wind made his blond hair on his forehead sway slightly, but his heterochromatic pupils remained a deep, calm golden lake, without any ripples.
"Bring it on."
He uttered only two words, but they sounded like the final bell tolling for this duel.
Super 17 suddenly shot out like a black lightning bolt that cleaved the night.
This time, he held nothing back, unleashing all his power.
Black flames erupted from his body, leaving a scorching trail dozens of meters long behind him. Wherever they went, the air was torn apart, emitting a series of sharp explosions, like countless panes of glass shattering simultaneously.
The speed was so fast that even space itself was distorted, and light was torn in two.
His right fist, imbued with destructive energy powerful enough to eclipse the stars, hurtled straight towards Qi Heng's face.
Before the fist even landed, the overwhelming killing intent and pressure swept over, making Qi Heng's hair fly wildly.
In that instant, Qi Heng subtly tilted his head to the left.
The punch, powerful enough to pierce the Earth's core, grazed past his ear, the scorching wind even singeing a few strands of his hair.
The force of the punch did not diminish; it slammed heavily onto the barren ground several hundred meters behind Qi Heng.
"Boom--!"
The earth trembled violently, splitting open a huge chasm that was bottomless and several meters wide, stretching all the way to the horizon.
Countless house-sized rocks were hurled into the air by the energy, only to be shredded by the shockwave mid-air, turning into a rain of rubble that crashed down with a deafening roar.
Smoke and dust shot straight into the sky, slowly spreading into a mushroom cloud.
Super 17's red eyes suddenly narrowed to pinpoints.
He didn't stop at all. His left fist followed immediately, slamming into Qi Heng's ribs like an electromagnetic cannon; his right leg swept across like a black shadow, tearing through the air; his knee rammed into Qi Heng's abdomen like a battering ram; his elbow strike landed like a meteor on Qi Heng's head—this series of attacks took only a blink of an eye, so fast that it was impossible to see with the naked eye. All that could be seen was a destructive black storm that completely engulfed the space where Qi Heng was.