Chapter 199: Chapter 198: Up To Me
"I was not ready for this at all, Defence Minister Sofiya."
"You... you are just a child. Malen’kiy rebenok."
Sofiya repeated it under her breath, still unable to reconcile what she was seeing. The one who had done all those things to her family was just... a child. No. It wasn’t that she couldn’t believe it—it was that she refused to.
Her only son had been cut into pieces. Her grandchild taken from his home, then beheaded right in front of him. And the one who did it... was a child?
"How... old are you?" she whispered.
"Twelve, Miss Defence Minister," Riley answered without hesitation. "But please, do not let that cloud your judgment—kill me. That is the least that I deserve. You may also torture me. I will not resist or try to fight, for I deserve that fate as well."
"Twelve..." Sofiya’s vision trembled, the gun in her hand splitting into two as her eyes shook uncontrollably. "H-how? What? American? How... did the Americans create you?"
"I suppose you could say that, Miss Defence Minister." Riley shrugged, his back scraping lightly against the floor. "I was made with American sperm and—I am not exactly sure of my mother’s lineage. But it does not matter who my family is. My actions here are mine alone."
"Why...?"
"Because I want to. And your name has been put on the website. You are on the list, Miss Defence Minister."
"My son... my grandson. Were they on the list, too?"
"No. They were just my way to get to you."
"You didn’t have to kill them."
"No. But as I said, Miss Defence Minister—I wanted to."
And then, there it was. It was that quick. One small smile on Riley’s face, and whatever part of Sofiya still saw a child vanished.
This wasn’t a child... it didn’t even look human.
"You are a monster." Sofiya’s vision steadied, and she raised the pistol, aiming it right between Riley’s brows.
"I am afraid I have gone past that, Miss Defence Minister." Riley closed his eyes. "I am now the person you will see whenever you close your eyes. The one you will see in the slightest hint of a shadow. I am...
...the darkness that will forever haunt your day. I am Dark—"
The loud bang that reverberated across the room cut Riley off. He slowly raised his hand, only to see his pinky bent the wrong way.
"You are incredibly accurate, Miss Defence Minister." Riley blinked. "If I did not have my telekinetic armor on, you would have completely blown off my finger. I welcome you to shoot my forehead—it is the only part of my body that is currently unprotec—"
Another bang.
This time, his index finger snapped sideways right in front of his face as Sofiya fired again. Riley only squinted at it for a moment before raising his hand, pointing at his forehead with his middle finger.
"Here. I made it easier for you. Please, aim here."
"You do not deserve death!"
The roar came with another shot—and then another, and another. Sofiya kept firing, her hands trembling as she mangled his fingers one by one. She reloaded, then unloaded everything into him, bullets hammering against his body in a relentless storm.
They bounced away—but not cleanly.
Each impact left deep bruises, his body jerking violently with every pull of the trigger.
And finally, when the gun fell silent, she stopped.
Riley opened his mouth to speak, but Sofiya lunged forward and started kicking him instead. It was pointless, less effective than the bullets, but she did it anyway.
"You may torture me as much as you want," Riley said, shaking his head slightly, "but I am afraid you will not get the satisfaction you wanted. While I can feel pain, I can choose how to react to it, Miss Defence Minister Sofiya. You might as well just kill me now."
"You do not have to say it twice." Sofiya staggered back, raising the pistol toward his head. "I will kill you and parade your body in the streets. Your crimes will be exposed to everyone."
"I hope that happens, too, Miss Defence Minister." Riley closed his eyes, waiting for the death that would last less than a millisecond—while feeling like an eternity.
Click.
"Oh?" Riley cracked one eye open. Another click followed as Sofiya pulled the trigger again. "Are you out of bullets, Miss Defence Minister? It—"
A bang.
Riley’s thigh jerked as the bullet hit. Sofiya immediately aimed for his head again and pulled the trigger—
Another click.
Her eyes widened. She quickly checked the chamber, but there were two bullets left.
"That is unlucky, Miss Defence Minister," Riley whispered, tilting his head.
"What... are you doing?" Sofiya took a step back. "How are you doing this?"
"Me?" Riley slowly pushed himself up, casually snapping his fingers back into place, one by one. "I am not doing anything, Miss Defence Minister. Perhaps your abilities are not as accommodating to you as you thought? It—"
He paused. Blinking twice as he realized something.
Sofiya didn’t hesitate. She fired at his head again—but it was another click.
"What...?"
Uh oh. I don’t believe in luck, but I suppose the only thing I can say here is—
"I do believe luck is on my side, Miss Defence Minister." Riley let out a small sigh as he crouched down. Pieces of his shattered helmet stirred.
A faint scrape—then another. The fragments dragged themselves across the floor, twitching as he pulled them back to his hand. One by one, they slid into place, snapping together and dancing around his finger.
He raised them to his face. For a brief second, they trembled—then surged forward, locking one by one as the pieces wrapped around his head, sealing every crack.
And then, he was Darkday once more.
"You see, old woman..."
A faint, leaking laugh slipped through the cracks of the helmet. Beneath the broken visor, Sofiya caught a glimpse of the twisted expression underneath.
"...I have the convenient and overpowered ability to copy the abilities of the people who kill me. Do you know what that means?"
"What...?"
"It means that luck doesn’t want you to kill me. Because killing me... would result in me killing you." Darkday tilted his head slightly.
"I suppose that makes it impossible for me to get your ability. But that’s fine. Now that I know your power is just a cheaper, though more utilized, version of Hera’s, I don’t really want it anymore."
"That is... impossible."
"You have the power to alter probability, Sofiya. Impossible is just... not true." Darkday shrugged.
"So I guess we’re back to killing each other. But that’s not really true either."
He took a step forward.
"Sadly, you can’t kill me..."
His head tilted, just slightly.
"...so it’s just up to me to figure out how to kill you."
