Villain Retirement

"My power abilities were never that powerful, Alice."

"Well, sucks to be you, then."

"W—"

And before Riley could even finish his words, he once again found himself being flung away across the surface of the Earth… with only the flat ground to stop his momentum since Alice seemed to have already completely leveled the entire planet.

It was weird, Riley thought as he finally hit the ground. How long has it been since he last fought an enemy this strong without it immediately leading to some indestructible place or just straight out to the expanse of space?

And as he hit the ground, it created a crater probably the size of Alaska — and yet that was not even enough to stop his momentum as he continued to roll like a doll across Earth. The Battle of Toronto could have possibly turned the Earth like this if Aerith had not surrendered when she did.

Riley… was quite appreciative that he was now seeing the scope of what they are truly capable of when put on a much smaller scale, in this case, Earth. Before he was sent to the Domain of the Gods, most of his fights just involved destroying planets from left to right without actually appreciating his work — and now, he was fighting someone exaggeratingly strong on the surface of the Earth.

It finally reminded him, truly reminded…

…that he truly did not deserve a normal life.

A planet like Earth would just crumble in his hands, and all the people in it, people he appreciated would die if he lost control for even a single moment.

"Is this what you felt, Alice?"

"Felt with what?"

And although Alice was nowhere within a thousand miles as Riley was still literally going around the Earth, he could still hear Alice's whispers as if she was just next to his ear… something Riley also liked to do.

What was perhaps even weirder than all of this was that Alice was capable of sniffing out the entire planet in less than a quarter of a millisecond, and yet all of her attacks were actually just centered on Riley. She might have probably already accepted the fact that she was just made as a form of trial to Riley, but she still has attachments.

Riley was right, this Alice he was fighting right now is real. She was created by Paige just for this trial.

"Paige…" Riley let out a long and very deep sigh, "...What are you doing now?"

"You're really chill, aren't you?"

Riley's momentum then instantly slowed down as Alice was now beside him; her leg, already stretched and raised upward as Riley hovered in front of her,

"I like that."

The very air around the two of them then started to distort; almost turning black between the space around Alice's raised foot and Riley's torso. Nothing was happening and everything looked like they were in slow-mo, but not at all — Alice was just holding everything together and making it seem so.

"You said that I should not make it into a close combat situation, right?" Alice then smirked as she talked to Riley, making it possible to extend their conversation as she literally stopped everything around them, "Well, this is the one thing you should have known from your mommy…

…I specialize in close-quarters combat."

And with those words, Alice swung her leg straight down Riley; the black space created between them, almost as if just a ball that was kicked and slammed toward his stomach. In this case, however, there was a chance that the ball might have literally been a black hole.

…And seeing as it was distorting the space around it and absorbing everything in its surroundings, it is.

Well, it was absorbing everything except Riley as he just laid down on the ground with the ball and Alice's foot above his chest.

"I do not feel like this is an appropriate position for a biological mother and son to do, Alice," Riley said with a monotonous tone as he looked Alice in the eyes, "And you are wrong, I truly believe that you are no match for me at close combat."

"Don't talk smack, little kid," the smirk on Alice's face grew wider as she buried her foot into the miniature black hole. And as she did so, the black hole started to crawl up across her legs before completely wrapping tightly around her skin in less than a second, "I learned this from a creature I detected a few years ago somewhere out there in outer space."

"You are probably talking about Cherbi, Alice."

"You've met with it?" Alice tilted her head to the side as she looked at Riley, "What's it look like?"

"A round pink stuffed toy, except the furs are eyes."

"That sounds oddly terrifying and cute at the same time."

"I suppose it is, Alice."

"Oh well," Alice then shrugged before finally stomping Riley on the chest, completely caving it—no. She did not just cause his chest to cave in, Riley's chest literally disintegrated along with the ground behind him. Alice then did not give Riley any chance to even move as she leaned down; grabbing the hole she made in his chest and then ripped him in half.

"I do believe I would have truly benefited if you did not die, Alice."

"Ew, freak," Alice's tongue, however, just stuck out through her black silhouette of a head as she backed away from the upper part of Riley, which started to regenerate while it was still in her hand, causing her to just throw Riley away and him landing already completely whole again, "That's creepy as heck, boy."

"You have not seen anything yet, though, Alice," Riley sighed, "Then I do believe it is my turn."

"Do your worst, son," Alice just stood there and gestured to Riley to come forward, "Come on me—Oh god, that sounded so wrong. Did I ever mature?"

"I would not know, you killed me."

"Yeah, but after I was revived right? Did I mature then?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

"I would not say so, Alice."

"Ah, crap. Am I autistic or something? Is that why you're not right in the head either?"

"I believe the only thing Mother diagnosed you with is severe ADHD, Alice."

"...Is that a type of band?"

"And also a lower IQ."

"Wait… are you dissing your own mom right now!?"

Alice's voice roared, but her mouth could be seen smiling from her black void of a silhouette as she rushed toward Riley. Riley tried moving away, but found himself floating straight toward Alice's fist instead.

Her body, almost seemingly had wings as it pulled everything toward her.

"Do you know why I called myself Miss Phoenix?" Alice whispered.

"I think I do."

"Because it sounds cool as hell," Alice then opened her fist into a palm and grabbed Riley's face. As soon as she did so, however, Riley's entire body just crumbled into dust and disappeared.

"Alice, I said it was my turn."

"Wh—"

"You covered your body with what I believe could be a black hole," Riley let out a small sigh as his real body was actually a few meters behind Alice, "But you are still inside…

…goodbye again, Mother."

And as he said that, the black armor covering Alice instantly disappeared; her naked body, almost like a wet cloth as she started to drop to the ground. Before she could completely fall, however, Riley quickly but very gently caught her. Riley also did not let her be naked for long as he knew the people outside the Black Tower were seeing everything he was seeing.

"Hm…" Riley let out a small and very deep sigh as he stared at Alice's lifeless face, "...So, this is what it feels like — thank you for letting me experience it, Paige. But I would truly appreciate it if you do not do it again."

Riley then held Alice's corpse, deciding not to let her go until he was sent to the next trial.

"..."

"..."

But after a few seconds, his arms still remained holding Alice.

"Do I need to do something else?" Riley blinked a couple of times as he looked around… only to casually catch a glimpse of Alice's face, and the tears trailing from her supposedly dead eyes.

"You're… you're so sweet," Alice, who was supposed to be dead, could not help but cover her face as she released herself from Riley's arms and quickly stood up.

"You should be dead, Alice," Riley tilted his head to the side.

"Oh, I don't die," Alice shrugged as she pointed at her head, "I have automatically set my abilities to completely revive me if I die, rebuild my body if needed. You don't need to do that since, well, you're you."

"I am not aware that you could do something like that, Alice," Riley's eyebrows slightly lowered as he also stood up, "You died, clinically in my universe."

"I went crazy. There's a difference," Alice pointed at Riley, "And do you really think that a mother who killed her own child…

…thinks she deserves to live?"

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