Villain Retirement

"Do you really think I won't find life here? You are about to be very busy, Chubby Bernard."

And almost as if to erase all the goofiness of the latter part of Riley's words, a loud bang erupted in the air as the shockwave from Aerith's punch finally resounded throughout the entire ruined Earth… if it was Earth in the first place.

But considering the shattered moon above the night sky resembled that of the Moon, then this was truly probably Earth, or at least it was. The atmosphere was ripped, the lands were emitting magma from below, but there was snow coming from above which melted and evaporated before it could touch ground.

And if it did have a resemblance with Earth, it didn't anymore after Aerith's punch which caused everything to just shatter just from the shockwave.

First, it instantly cooled down the ground… before once again turning it into magma as it completely shattered away in a spherical ripple that also reached the already broken sky—cleaning out whatever cloud was left lingering above them.

It didn't seem that strong, but if one were to be watching from the shattered moon, they would see Earth very slowly being devoured by the shockwave of Aerith's punch.

And this time, Darkday blocked her punch with several telekinetic barriers and two arms; broken arms.

"Do not be too lax, Megawoman," Darkday grunted as the flesh and bones in his arms started to shatter and heal at the same time, "You might have just killed the people that were hiding underground on this planet."

"There are no people here," Aerith only let out a small scoff as she once again slammed her fist on Riley, completely shattering his arms to the point that they were just deleted, "Or for a million kilometers outside the planet for that matter. I know, I opened my ears to hear before my fists reached you."

"Am I supposed to be impressed with that?" Darkday softly chuckled, "I know someone who wiped out an entire star system with just a clap of her hands. The only themarian who survived the attack on New Theran—I wonder where she is now, I didn't see her on Earth."

"Do you really think you have the time to think about someone else!?"

"Why, are you jealous, Megawoman?"

"In your dreams, boy!"

And with those words, Aerith slightly flew into the air; clasping her hands before slamming it straight down toward, once again, Darkday's head. As for Darkday, he quickly created two clones that flew between him and Aerith, both also summoning several telekinetic barriers of their own.

But alas—Aerith's fist just mowed the two down as she went straight through Darkday, folding his entire body in 5 different directions. And this time, the Earth did not survive. But before what remained of Earth was completely gone, Aerith's eyes widened as she quickly looked up…

…only to see the shattered moon now plunging and only a kilometer away from hitting her.

"Surprise!"

"You…" Aerith almost growled as Darkday once again grabbed her face from behind. Before she could let out another word, however, Darkday wrapped his arms around her neck and flew her toward the falling moon. But Aerith did not even close her eyes even as rocks kilometers wide slammed on her face.

"Enough with the games, Riley!" Aerith placed her hands behind her neck, grabbing Darkday's helmet and throwing him away. And without even waiting for him to recover, she disappeared from her spot—only to appear behind Darkday, and then crushing his head by pinning it between her knee and elbow.

"Bravo, truly."

"..." Aerith once again let out a growling breath as she heard Darkday clapping behind her. There was nowhere to step on, and yet as Aerith turned around, Darkday was merrily but slowly walking his way toward her.

"You probably shouldn't be too relaxed, Madam Aerith, the Boss is not here anymore."

"...What?"

"He's there," the clone pointed toward a bright star from afar, "If there are humans that have survived here, they probably escaped to Mars—don't you think?"

"..." Aerith just stared at the clone for a few seconds; squinting her eyes before just lasering the clone with her eyes and immediately flying away—and true enough, Darkday was truly making his way to Mars.

"Riley!" And as a matter of course, Aerith was able to quickly catch up to him.

"Oh hello, Megawoman," Darkday only turned around, "Long time no see."

"Shut your mouth and just stop this nonsense already! There's no one on Mars!"

"Thank you for confirming that there really are people on Mars, Megawoman," Darkday's shoulders started to bounce as he chuckled.

"What!?" Aerith increased her speed. But alas, the distance between her and Darkday no longer decreased as Darkday was actually using her as some sort of… space tow, attaching a telekinetic rod between the two of them, "I just said there was no one on Mars!"

"You are a really bad liar, Megawoman."

"Tch…" And quickly realizing what Darkday was doing, she quickly spun around in place and caused Darkday to slightly lose orientation for a second—and a second was enough as Aerith instantly appeared to catch Darkday and completely restrain her limbs.

"Can we just talk for a few minutes or an hour!?"

"We can talk over the corpse of a trillion souls, Megawoman," Darkday once again chuckled, "And also, I can already reach Mars from here—want to see me destroy it again?"

"Whiteking!"

And before Darkday could do anything, the scenery of stars and darkness around them suddenly changed… into a city filled with all sorts of screens and buildings.

"..."

Not only Aerith, but Darkday seemed to have also been shocked by the sudden change, as an obvious 'Oh' could be heard seeping out from his helmet. They weren't the only ones shocked, however, as the people that were driving on the roads almost crashed into each other as most of them lifted their heads up to look at them; some, even stepping out of their cars.

The people that were walking on the busy street, also lifted up their phones to take videos of them.

As soon as the two recovered, Aerith quickly realized how similar this place was to Times Square—in fact, one of the large screens attached to a building was even showing her… as president of the United States.

Before she could take in the sights, however, she quickly covered Darkday's visor and screamed,

"What the fuck, Whiteking!?"

"Heh," Darkday stretched his arms to the side, and as soon as he did so, the tall buildings started to crumble—the people that were busy being curious, now suddenly running for their lives.

Aerith was going to prevent one of the buildings from falling apart, but before she could even separate herself from Darkday, the scenery around them once again changed into that of a desert.

Well, not quite a desert, as there were remnants of buildings around them; charred and obsidian.

"..." Aerith started looking around for any signs of life, and when she confirmed that there were none, she once again rushed toward Darkday—punching him without any hesitation straight on the chest, but as soon as her fist made contact, the scenery around them once again changed into that of a lively city.

"No!" Aerith gasped, fully knowing what was to come next as the shockwave of her strike completely obliterated the city in the blink of an eye—the only thing she could do was watch as the people around them disintegrate and wither away.

"Heh…" Darkday grasped his caved-in chest, manually pulling it back to its normal position as his body tilted to the side, "...Very fun."

"What…" Aerith was not even done breathing, and the scenery around them once again changed—and as it did, Darkday snapped his fingers causing everything to just break and wither away, "...How are you doing this?"

"Well, Whiteking is probably busy fending off some of my clones," Darkday once again chuckled, "He should be very busy, my clones really only have one mission—play with him however they want. Not kill him, though. I quite like Chubby Bernard."

"Stop it…"

Darkday continued snapping his fingers as soon as the scenery around them changes. Most of the time, the scenery was that of an already ruined Earth, so Darkday's snap did not really do anything but just destroy what was already dead. But once in a while, a city appears.

"Stop it!"

"Okay," Darkday just raised his arms in surrender as another city appeared before them; his neck being held by Aerith in front of all the people watching them. Aerith did not look at the crowd, however, as she just focused her attention on Darkday.

"Please…" Aerith then let go of Darkday's neck as she very slowly dropped her knees to the ground, "Just… stop it. These people… these people don't deserve to die. Just take me… just let it be me that suffers."

The scenery around them changed again and again, it was a scene of complete madness as different versions of New York surrounded them.

"Aerith…" Darkday also kneeled down as his helmet disappeared, "...It is not a matter of whether they deserve it or not, it is just a matter of me wanting to kill them."

Darkday then grabbed Aerith's chin and lifted up her head; looking at her straight in the eyes. And as soon as Aerith saw what reflected Riley's eyes, tears started to trail down her cheeks.

Because in his eyes…

…was absolutely nothing.

Riley Ross was completely absent, and only Darkday was looking at her.

"How…" Aerith also placed her hand on Darkday's face,

"...How will I make you come back to me, Riley?"