Clash of Authorities
I stood alone in the heart of space, my gaze fixed on the atmosphere of planet FT-1507.
The Strange Zombies, unbound by the constraints of spacetime, sustained themselves through the quantum mechanics within their own bodies. To them, their forms were mere extensions capable of generating anything they required.
Shwooooooo
"What the—!!!"
"Fire!!!"
"It's the Great Prophet!!! Attack!!!"
A barrage converged on me from all directions.
Yet I did not so much as twitch an eyebrow, observing every railgun slug, plasma bolt, needle, laser, beam, and heat ray with clinical precision.
Crash!
Spacetime shattered outright, annihilating the assaults in an instant.
"No way...!!!"
"The attacks... they're gone..."
Fwoosh
BOOM!
The backlash warped the entire planet, crumpling it beyond endurance; its own gravity collapsed into a black hole's extremity. At my will, it hurled back, detonating in a Big Bang-scale cataclysm.
"Aaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I extended my hand backward, forcing portals to layer infinitely upon the attackers from behind, trapping them in an endless loop. The accelerated quantum fluctuations born from that chaos—I fused them through the myriad overlapping portals and detonated the mass.
Kraaaaaang
The blast erupted solely in the immaterial realm, as expected.
Pew
As I clenched my fist, the remaining Strange Zombies around me compressed under my psychokinesis, beginning to crush inward.
"Grraaaaaah!!!!!"
"Pathetic. Shatter."
Cracklecracklecracklecracklecrackle
Electromagnetic forces between the Strange Zombies sparked from discontinuous lines, discharging as static electricity. Ordinary static surges mere amperes; humans perish at 0.1A instantaneous current. I deliberately amplified theirs to 10,000A, sustaining psychokinetic near-lightspeed centrifugal separation to induce time dilation and thermoelectric effects simultaneously—allowing me absolute control over the current's duration as I unleashed it upon them.
Snapcrunch
Their particle structures disintegrated; flesh and marrow erupted alongside eyes and teeth in chain-reaction popcorn explosions.
Krzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"You shall be charged."
Through the compressed, spinning mass, I induced remote discharges against the other Strange Zombies, annihilating them from afar.
BOOM
BOOMBOOM
BOOMBOOMBOOM
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
"Guhk!!!"
"Aaaagh!!!"
"Aaaaaargh!!!!"
Relentless precision voltage strikes chained into thousands of hits per blow; seizing their panic, I transformed the planet's surface to conductive rock.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!!!!"
"Th-the electricity!!!!!"
"M-me too!!! Kyaaaaah!!!!!"
"Is this all? Foolish. I have not taken a single step from this spot."
Simultaneously, remnants and reinforcements poured from every angle—not solely targeting me, but seizing planets to waste my attention.
Yet I had no reason to hesitate.
"Halt where you stand."
Time across the universe froze.
Swish
I wove their intended hive mind and the futures they sought to strange-ify through the immaterial realm via time acceleration, forging the Eternal Cross from the resultant uneven energies.
Ziiiiing
"Your history shall be destroyed."
Slash
From the cross's short arm, I generated a blue energy blade cycling through chromatic shifts, imbuing it with slight mass before swinging toward the planets the Strange Zombies targeted.
With time halted, the slash crept forward then stalled midway. Even lightspeed fails without time's flow.
In that state, I spawned additional immaterial realms into infinite dimensions, installing them across their domain and the slash's path. Their forms would now fracture infinitely, die infinitely, isolate infinitely.
"Time resumes."
As stasis lifted, the slash struck.
Flash
Fwooooooom
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
KABOOOOOM
Light, heat, storm, radiation erupted in sequence, obliterating the galactic sector. The mass-laden light blade, per my decree, imparted infinite momentum from infinite mass, disintegrating them before infinite-dimensional rending and isolation.
They could never perceive lightspeed strikes amid frozen time.
Simultaneously, I drew my pistol and fired pinpoint bursts to my right.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bratatat
Using my sixth sense, I preemptively targeted portal emergence zones. Precisely two seconds later, as fleets arrived, each bullet struck true, toppling them.
Screeeeech
Weeeeeen
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
"You came prepared in numbers. Did you think strength in numbers would quell your fear? It only amplifies despair, you powerless wretches."
Whirl
I holstered my pistol and spoke.
"Pitiable. Yet you must have acted beyond my sight to dare this assault."
Click
Ziiiiiiiiiiiiing
I instantly discerned their strategy: anticipating early forces' annihilation, they assumed I read them from the start—pushing unstoppable tactics regardless.
Shwoooong
Portals yawned above; hive-linked entities swarmed openly. Nearby planets broke orbital inertia, flinging humans skyward; amid the chaos, Strange Zombies teleported the falling masses into close quarters from below.
Click
Thrum
My psychokinesis halted the humans midair.
Exploiting the gap, Strange Zombies closed in—but I foresaw not just FT-1507, but threats from YI-4274 and KP-3564.
Swish
"I see."
Shwooooooo
Thud
A colossal finger hurtled toward me—Collective Zero's.
"So that is it. Your true form is this hive mind's humanoid energy field."
"Precisely, Richard Jeracle Lennox. And you've played right into my hands. Didn't it strike you as odd? Why hurl weaklings you could easily best?"
"Spare me the feigned ignorance. I sensed the hive mind accumulating their emotions throughout. You could spawn variants from that, amplify your power further."
"Just because they're useless to you doesn't erase them from existence. Sever them fully? Be prepared to pay the price!"
Her envisioned triumph materialized before me.
"I'm different! These emotions image success itself! You've only shown victory over me! Teach defeat now? I won't listen!!!"
"Cease your glee. Yours is no certainty yet."
Each Strange Zombie manifested, imprinted with rage, pain, sorrow, torment, lament, doom, craving—enhanced thereby.
"You've endured worse, then?"
Hummmm
The white energy field gleamed pristine, yet void—inducing inexorable sloth in mortal eyes, visions of consumption in eternal rest looping endlessly.
Encircling it, Strange Zombies wielded wave-particle duality and uncertainty to evade probability collapse. But with portals summoning parallel universes layered to contract waves and collapse amplitudes, I dismantled it effortlessly.
Anticipating a ploy, I feigned taking the hit.
Swish
"Huh?"
Collective Zero unleashed remote and area strikes.
Whirrrrrrrrr
The assaults tangled in my barrier, neutralizing then pulverizing.
"Quite desperate. Yet I require no such measures."
I widened my eyes, inducing internal hemorrhaging.
BOOOOOOM
"Urghhhhhh!!!!"
"Cough!!"
"Still blind? I came not to persuade, but to eradicate the incomprehensible. Dialogue fails; other methods suffice."
BOOMBOOMBOOM
I nullified their skeletons and musculature.
"Grrrrraaaah!!!"
"Think this ends it, idiots? The finale eludes you. Emotion never bests reason. Thrash in agony; pain will hurl you beyond meaninglessness!"
"Graaaaaah!!!!"
I resolved to grant them death's utmost horror.
Snap
A finger flick sent micro-vibrations rippling through their skin.
Crackle...
Fooooom...
"N-no!!! S-something's... coming out of my body!!! Get out!!!!"
"Ughhh...!!"
Scratch
Scratch
Scratch
Scratch
One Strange Zombie clawed furiously, recoiling at flesh and blood torn free.
"M-madness... how... Huh? Aaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!"
Gush
Gush
Gush
"Agh!!! My blood!!!!"
Blood welled from pores like geysers, trapping them in drowning pools.
"Blood... kills us!!!!"
"Mmmph..."
"Glub..."
The deluge lubricated; organs and bones slid toward pores, extruding outward.
BOOOOOOM
Splatter
Splat!!!
Splishsplish...
Splish!!
Splorch!!!
Spluuuurt!!
Splicksplicksplick!!!
Ruptures, suctions, impacts clashed in cacophony, oozing relentlessly.
"Grraaaah..."
"Unknowing your demise would be injustice. Why you died—ungrasped. True, Collective Zero?"
"Ha... indeed. Hive mind yielding such damage... but insufficient to slay me. You foresaw this meager toll."
"Naturally. That overt finger? Mere scratch for you. Yet you can't overwhelm me outright. I'll uncover your Oblivion Tempest ties—spare my humanity. Your display instills no fear."
"Ha!!! Love them? Property? Both? Irrelevant. Survive eternally; they won't. My way suits them perfectly!!!"
She vanished; remnants were Strange Zombie corpses and FT-1507.
"All sacrificed truly? Futile against me, yet endless viable foes remain... Their fate, mine alone to divine."
Thus, I descended to FT-1507.