Marx gasped for breath one last time before losing his fight for consciousness. He knew that he had done his part already.
He had been training for this all week since the moment the group left for the Godsfall Tear. The power behind the synergy of Atom Link and his original Rolling Dynamics Talent was shocking.
Atom Link allowed him to apply this Talent—which would usually only manifest as an extension of his body—to his bullets and other inanimate objects, while Rolling Dynamics allowed him to continuously accelerate those objects.
Together, it was a truly broken ability, and by all rights, he should have an inside track to becoming the best sniper in the world. In terms of speed, range, and power, who would be able to match him?
The problem was that he had no training in sniping. And even if he did, what use would it be? No sniper would be able to work with these kinds of ranges, and worst of all, all of the calculations that snipers would usually rely on would be useless because his Talent quite literally broke the laws of physics—seemingly in exchange for a large dose of stamina.
But that was when it clicked for Marx.
That was right. His Talent broke the laws of physics. In that case, rather than trying to calculate wind speed and the parabolic arc of his bullet, what he actually needed to do was find a distance that would accelerate his bullet to the point that it would do harm even to the likes of Belladoll.
Then, he just had to train to the point the momentum his bullet gained from that range—or beyond it—was enough that gravity and wind would be far less impactful to its flight.
A bullet not only flew forward, it spun, and Marx's abilities happened to work on all forms of movement. Not only were the RPMs the bullet was spinning at increasing, forcing it to fly even straighter, but so too was its actual forward momentum.
He knew that if he picked the right distance, he could practically draw a straight line between himself and Belladoll. At that point, all he would have to do was make sure she was right in his crosshairs, and the bullet would do the rest.
He had done his part, and what he didn't know was that Dalton's escape had only made the rest easier.
Now… it was up to Priya.
…
Priya walked through the chaos. Stepping through the shattered window Belladoll had flown through, the shards of glass were crushed beneath her boots.
Her steps were deliberate, her eyes sharp and focused. She was ready to react to anything, but she didn't expect to see a Belladoll barely clinging onto an arm, struggling to her feet in the distance.
The pink diamond Armament was undamaged. The bullet that Marx had used wasn't nearly strong enough to leave even the slightest nick on it. But what it did have was a momentum so strong that a Belladoll who was taken off guard couldn't possibly brace against it.
The smartest thing for her to do would have been to destroy the bullet from a distance with her Godsfall refraction abilities. But with how fast it was moving, could the current Belladoll even do such a thing?
In the apocalypse, a single slip-up was usually all it took.
Belladoll chuckled. "Was this his doing?"
Priya knew exactly who she was talking about, but she didn't say anything. In fact, her expression right now was as cold as ice. One would never think that just a couple of months ago, she had been sweating bullets over an exam paper.
Slowly she raised a hand, a powerful might accumulating. Oddly enough… the energy was pink. A perfect reflection of Belladoll's own.
"Ha…"
Half of Belladoll's body was covered in blood. The strands of flesh barely holding her arm together pooled with ever greater speed as her heart rate rose.
Suddenly, she shrieked, screaming so loudly it seemed all the Godsfall in the region would fall to her.
Priya tensed, thinking it was some sort of attack, but the other shoe never fell. Instead, Belladoll just stopped abruptly and began to laugh, tilting her head back.
With a buzz, her umbrella shook on the floor and a pink ray blasted her own arm off the rest of the way, cauterizing the wound and finally stopping the bleeding.
All that could be heard in the empty lobby was her heavy breathing and the distant sound of combat.
"You think you can beat me with his little tricks?" Belladoll sneered. "Let me guess, he let you come here on your own so you could settle your own grudges? He let you think that you'd be fighting all on your own, didn't he? Little does the little princess with her head in the clouds know that he never leaves anything to chance when it comes to you.
"Every time we chop off that pretty little head of yours, it's harder and harder because he gets better at manipulating you. The only time you die is when you're stupid enough to really break free of his schemes."
Priya didn't respond, her energy still accumulating. Looping lines of pink continuously formed in the air, their density growing larger.
"He probably knew I'd take so long to come back because I'm paranoid. He probably knew your sniper would knock me down so well. He probably knew you'd be smart enough to find the best counter to my Talent—no, he probably dropped hints just to make you think you figured it out all on your own.
"He doesn't care about you, little girl. He likes you insofar as you're a nice little doll he can put in his glass case to replace the mother he never had.
"You're just lucky that you met him first so he picked you over me. Nothing more. Nothing less."
By the end, Belladoll's words practically came out in a savage growl.
Her umbrella shook once more, leaping into the air and slapping into her one good remaining palm.
"You're a pathetic excuse for a woman," Priya said plainly.
It was the only thing she spoke before her Godsfall erupted.