Don was still tired when they entered the barrier, and knew he'd only serve as a distraction at best.
Sean took off to find and deal with Ivan and the necromancer right away, knowing they'd never get anything done with the boy on the chessboard. His previous attack had left the Destroyers on alert, and five of them attacked the group as soon as he left.
One was a woman with eight shawl-like tentacles coming out of her back. She was the cold type, and carefully studied them from her place in the middle. The man to her right had a ball of fire in his hand. The man on her left had skin made of iron. The second girl hid behind the first one, a nervous look in her eyes. The final man was giant, fat and bald, easily over ten feet tall.
The man with the fire attacked first, hurling a flame toward the group. John raised his hands, summoning water from the city's pipes, and extinguished it before it could hurt them. Vapor filled the air as the attacks connected, and the shawls struck at them through it. One passed through Jordan, breaking the ground at her feet as a demonstration of their power. Don dodged another one, and John was hit in the arm by the third one. It stuck to him like glue, and he was unable to tear it off.
"What the fuck!?" he cursed, then the cold woman pulled him in, swinging him like a mace. Before they could tare into him, Dean intervened.
"Stop!" he bellowed, power amplified by Shen's own. "Don't move!"
The five of them froze in place for a few seconds, allowing John to swing his fist just as he was pulled all the way there, slamming it into the cold woman and knocking her and the girl behind her on their backs. John landed on top of them, and brought out as much water from the ground beneath them as he could. Fire and water mixed once more, creating even more steam.
Jordan took her chance and ran passed them, heading straight for Diocletian's palace.
Don pulled out a knife and ran forward. A ball of fire made its way toward him through the steam, so he rolled to the side to dodge it, his arm being burned a bit in the process. Once he was on his feet, he threw the knife. Just as it was about to hit the fire wielder, the man of iron grabbed it by the blade, then snapped it in half.
The giant raised his fist and brought it down on top of John, but it was met with a geyser from the pipes, so the mountain of a man was pushed back. Each time his feet hit the ground, the city shook a bit harder.
'That has to be a vapor,' Don figured, pulling out a second knife.
The fire wielder was about to burn him again, but just as he created a fireball, Dean yelled again. "Move your hand to the right!"
The flame esper did, and his friend - the one made of steel - got a faceful of fire, blinding him and melting the metal into his face. He gave a few pained shrieks as he writhed on the ground, then stopped.
John pounced on the fire wielder and bodyslammed him to the ground, then continuously slammed his head into the pavement. He was so into it that he didn't notice the big guy moving, and got kicked a good distance away.
Don threw his second knife at the back of the giant's neck, but only managed to pierce the surface. The Destroyer slammed his foot unto the ground again, creating the biggest earthquake yet. It knocked most people off their feet, Don included.
The only two spared by the attack were the flying half-crow hybrids Sean had described. They rained feathers down upon Don, and he barely managed to avoid them, his legs not near their prime. John seemed to be out of it, leaving him and Dean to take him on, as Liu would be of little help, he suspected.
"He's too stupid for my vapor to work!" Liu declared, confirming Don's suspicions. The big guy turned around, a mortified look on his face.
"You take that back!"
Don wasn't about to engage. He was occupied with something else.
'Where the hell is Inadu?'
His answer came in the form of a giant swarm of killer bees. They flew into the giant Destroyer's face, making him scream as he attempted to shake them off. He started stomping his feet violently, ravaging Split in the process. Massive cracks started to appear in the concrete, and houses began being apart.
The big guy then stopped moving, and lifelessly crashed into the road.
More feather bullets flew toward Don, but only one got him, and it failed to do a lot of damage. The bees turned toward the two crow hybrids, and engulfed them in their swarm. They screamed a few times, then died and fell to the ground.
Just as Inadu was about to reform, a jolt of pain went through everyone present. Don felt like his body was being twisted into an inhumane shape, his joints burning with pain. Liu was down on the ground, too, also convulsing with pain. The bees were erratically flying around, proving to be no exception to the pain.
"I can't believe you all got taken down so easily," said a skinny Destroyer as he walked into view from behind a house. He only slightly resembled the first one, and looked like a movie elf. "Honestly. I know you're not as strong as the first one, but this was pathetic. Could worse ones have been chosen for activation?"
'Does that mean there are others?' Don thought, trying to fight through the pain. It proved too much, and he was incapable of standing up.
The shy-looking girl, who was knocked down before when her ally landed on her, stood back up and looked at Don. Slowly, she turned her palm toward him, and Don was shocked to see an eyeball embedded into it. It was a real eye, too, and could blink. It started to glow with a green hue, and Don suspected what was about to happen.
Liu touched him just in time, and both of them were taken to an entirely different place. The streets of Split disappeared, replaced by a dark and dusty dungeon. The shy look disappeared from the girl's features as her clothes changed to a far more revealing outfit. It was leather, and stuck to her form as though it were another layer of skin. Her physical form visibly changed, with her breasts and hips becoming more prominent.
"Another psychic, huh?" she asked with a sneer as two chains appeared in either side of her. "Let's see what you've got, fella."
Don looked at Liu, then noticed he now had two eyes. The man stood up, a shield appearing in the air in front of him. "You can't hurt her here. Leave this to me."
The girl sent her chains forward, but they only hit the shield, then fell to the floor. Liu ran toward her, moving a lot quicker than he could in the real world, a sword appearing in his hand. He tried to cut the girl in half, but the ground rose up to protect her, and his sword got stuck in it. With a smirk on her face, she blew a kiss at him, and a powerful force sent him flying across the dungeon, where Don barely managed to catch him.
"Where the hell are we?"
"This is where we come during out fights," a new voice said from next to Don. When he turned around, he was surprised to find Lan standing there, alive and well. She gave him a small smile. "Figured you'd need my help. I gotta do everything around here."
Not being able to help himself, Don threw his arms around her, enveloping her in a hug. "You're okay."
Lan hugged him back, but wasn't about to go soft. "There, there, you big crybaby. All better now?"
"Are you awake?" he asked, pulling back. "Are you ever gonna wake up? How're you feeling? Do you need anything?"
Lan hadn't been expecting this. Don hadn't, either, but it was like something broke when he saw her. She was there, not a bullet hole in her. The sound of beeping was nowhere to be heard, and they weren't in the white room. Don had missed her.
"We'll have our reunion later," she said, "when I wake up."
Forcing back the tears, Don turned toward their opponent. "Yeah."
The scantily clad girl smirked, two whips made of electricity appearing on either side of her. "Three little flies, all in my web. How yummy. I'll take my time breaking you, cutie." She gave Don a wink, and he felt his skin crawl.
"Was she like this out there?" asked Lan. "In the real world, I mean."
Don thought back to how shy and scared the girl had looked. "Nope. Total opposite."
Sighing, Lan dismissively waved a hand at the girl. "Yet another pussy using her vapor to become what she's scared to be out there. You can't take me, princess. Surrender now, and I'll let you off with some light spanking."
The whips flew forward, but a wall appeared between them and the three, causing them to smash into it instead.
Don looked at the wall in surprise. "Damn. Why didn't Liu do that?"
"I fight in a more low-key manner."
Lan smiled. "He's just too weak."
"Don't make me kill you along with her."
Cracks started to appear on the wall as the whips continued to lash at it.
"Not gonna lie, she does seem tough," confessed Lan. "We're in her mind right now, and she's able to hold all three of us. If a single one of us goes down, it'll spare her the trouble of using her vapor on all three, and her attacks will get stronger. We better finish it fast. Just try not to get hit, Donnie."
Closing his eyes, Don tried to will his body to heal, figuring that was what the others did.
"Yeah, no," said Liu. "That's not how it works. Without a mind's eye, you can't do a thing."
Don frowned. "The hell is that?"
"The collective term for our vapos," answered Lan. "It's not official, but hey, we've all got mind powers, and we've all got a misplaced eye somewhere. Ready, L?"
"Always, L. How about you?"
"Oh, I was born ready. Just been waiting for you to catch up." Steel spikes started to appear in the air around them, all pointing at the crumbling wall.
Liu frowned. "She might block them."
"Getting scared, cuz?"
"Not even in your mind."
"On three?"
"Seems like it."
"One, two..."
The wall broke down, and the whips flew past it. The multitude of steel spikes flew forward, some knocking the whips off their trajectory, others hitting the wall behind the Destroyer, and a few piercing her body. As soon as one went through her chest, the dungeon vanished, and they were back in Split.
The girl fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Hey, nice one, Lan," Don said, turning to look at her, only to be reminded of the fact that she wasn't really there. She never had been.
"Failures, all of them," said the sole remaining Destroyer as he snapped his fingers. Inadu, who had turned back into her human form at some point while they were inside, twitched on the ground in front of him, the pain too much for her to bear. Don took a step forward, but the pain shot him to the ground. "I really don't know why they've all had so much trouble with you. You're all so weak." The man spread his arms, yelling toward the sky, "I am the Destroyer!"
'What a bunch of fucking idiots,' Don thought, struggling to breathe.
"Fight through it!" he heard Dean yell, and suddenly started to get up. "The pain is nothing! You can handle it!" The pain definitely didn't go away, but Don still found himself standing up and taking a step forward.
The Destroyed frowned. "What the fuck are you doing? Aren't you in pain?"
"Hell yeah," Don replied, taking a few more steps forward, clearly making the guy nervous.
"You're the man, Donnie!" Dean yelled some more, and Don couldn't tell where he was hiding. "This guy's got nothin' on you! Kick his ass, now!"
Pulling out a knife, Don started running. Every step he took felt like he was stepping unto a sharp knife, and he thought he might pass out from the pain. His blood was on fire, and his head was pounding. Still, he caught up with the now terrified Destroyer, and jumped on him, stabbing him in the shoulder.
The man screamed as Don twisted the knife, then pulled it out and stabbed him in the back. "Please!" the Destroyer begged, blood filling his mouth. Don wasn't listening, and brought the knife down a third time, piercing the man's head from behind. The knife only went in a little bit, so Don pulled it out and stabbed again. That time, it went in a bit further, but it wasn't enough to end it. Repeating the process a few more times, Don ended up stabbing the guy to death, his face getting covered by the fountain of blood.
The pain went away immediately, and the four of them walked toward each other, Dean getting out of an open garage.
"What now?" Liu asked.
"Where'd Shen go?" asked Inadu, clearly worried.
Dean rolled his eyes. "He was in there with me. He's still shaking in the corner." He then looked at Don. "You better sit the rest of this out. You don't look so hot."
Don agreed with the statement, and sat down in the middle of the road. "T-That guy mentioned being the last Destroyer. Ivan and Omen are all we've got to face now, right?"
Frowning, Inadu offered a few words of discouragement. "Val might've been brought back again, too. Don't count that out."
"Your problem now," Don said as the strain of his vapor got too much, and he passed out. Liu caught him just before he hit the ground, then pulled him up. "We'll be in the garage."
Inadu turned toward Dean. "Neither of us can do much against Omen. We might as well help your boss."
"Think we can?"
"It beats standing around."
"We could go after Val."
Inadu frowned again. "She likes hiding during her fights. Even if she is here, we're not likely to find her. It would end up being a waste of time. We've gotta let her make the first move. Now, just follow the bees."
As soon as she turned into the swarm of insects, a bomb went off at her feet.