"TEMPO! TENFOLD!" Syn yelled, thrusting his arms down in anger after being beat up for the last few hours.

Syn's eyes grew even wider but his irises began to disappear from the strain on his body.

Sarv watched him faze in and out of reality, small sways of his form closing in on her.

In attempt to predict his next move, she swung her foot around behind her, but was suddenly punched in the back.

She watched a slow moving Syn send a knee at her head, but it went through her like a projection. She turned to face where it would go, but was suddenly kneed in the back of the head.

The projections began to increase in number, displaying what Syn would do, but with ten different ones to keep up with, Sarv's demon form was quickly overwhelmed.

Syn reappeared back where he originally was, and snapped his finger.

With an invisible lash of air, Sarv was slashed across her torso and fell back to the ground, completely exhausting her after the onslaught.

Syn reeled back both hands, ready to keep up the attacks, but Sarv was only feigning exhaustion.

She appeared in his face, sending a devastating kick to his chin.

Syn's eyes wavered between all white, but he flipped back from another kick, snapping both hands two fire two lashes of air.

Sarv easily avoided both with the wings on her back, flying towards him with a glare.

Syn focused up, because even with his speed increased his movements were sluggish. He leaned away from a roundabout kick, that was followed by a back kick that he blocked with his right arm.

Feeling the immense pressure enough to nearly take it off, Syn moved it and himself to the side, before clasping his left hand into a fist.

Shocked he'd use his unavailable arm for close quarters, Sarv unfortunately was punched right in the cheek.

Stomping his foot in her daze, Syn propelled his knee into her stomach to gain distance again.

The power of flight was something to behold, because she was already behind him with her heel above his head.

Spinning fast, Syn turned in time to meet the kick with his own but was sent crashing into the floor from the difference in power.

Syn was growing aggravated of all the oppression spurred from simply being himself. His life was at rock bottom and now he was getting thrashed for it.

Skidding on his feet and summoning his mic and stand, he spun it around his waist before planting it down, conjuring up the most irritating thoughts he could muster.

"Can you please just FUCK OFF!"

With the sheer volume and bass to rupture the final support pillars of the cathedral, the entire roof was blown into bits, entering the Thermosphere.

Sarv was stunned, and literally unable to move after being hit by such a blast of energy.

"Yeah... it's all fun and games until I start talking. This is your last chance before I take this place off google maps." Syn threatened, the feeling in both his arms leaving him.

In silence Sarv looked at Ruv, who deep down, didn't really deem it necessary to attack him for his beliefs... but as someone who has devoted centuries to giving guidance to reach Heaven's gates. It takes its toll with how little people believe nowadays.

In complete domination of his opponents, Syn stood tall and began taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

Alexa teleported to his side, seeing him in a much different light than before.

"We're finding Agoti. At the very least I need a source of income..." Syn mumbled, having left the cathedral in ruin.

"I'm sorry." Syn whispered, but using his ability, he made sure the two residents heard it.

'And the destruction begins...'

~•~

Syn was staring into space as the sun rose, using the last of his pocket money to buy another red hoodie, yet the quality was as low as it got since he purchased it from a thrift store.

There was a notice black lash of what he thought was external paint on the front, going from the right pocket to his left pectoral.

He was leant up against a lamppost, watching the sky's colors change, torn about what he just did to defend himself. His left arm was dangling at his side, forearm still numb, almost as if his nerves were destroyed.

The only way he could imagine recovering his arm, was by whatever means they were in the cathedral.

Waiting for Alexa to return from her endeavors, be that what they may.

Summoning his mic stand, Syn began whistling and humming a tune for passerby to hear, tossing his hat down at his feet, ready for the homeless hustle.

~•~

An hour later, Alexa returned, and with Agoti and his record label's whereabouts.

She landed beside Syn, who was playing a for a crowd of 11 people, humming the the melody of a famous song from the twentieth century.

Alexa waited for a minute or two for him to finish, and with small applause from the early birds of Purgatory, they left him with about 4 dollars from the performance.

The crowd dispersed, and Syn nodded, dispelling his mic.

He kicked up his hat, high enough for him to catch the bills and change from an hour's work, and let it land on his head.

"Still got it, even at rock bottom." Syn said with a huff, fixing his cap with his right hand, and pocketing the change with his left.

"Wait! Your arm's okay?!" Alexa asked.

"Not really. I got first aid from a nice lady at the Starbucks. Got bandages around it since the bone was unbothered somehow. My arm will never look the same though." Syn shrugged.

"Again... I'm really sorry for all that's happened. I... I knew this would complicate your life, but not ruin it..." Alexa apologized again.

Syn wasn't really mad at her, since she couldn't really control the outcome of her attraction.

"No sweat. Nothing I can't handle." Syn nodded.

"So I've seen, tough guy. That was impressive. I noticed that guy could amplify his sounds, but that was it... was it similar to yours?" Alexa asked.

"In a sense. Amplification was all it was yeah, but his control was limited to contact. Whereas I, have full control of my range." Syn bragged with a smirk.

"Alright, alright, didn't mean to poke your ego." Alexa laughed, before pulling out her wallet.

"Let's go get some breakfast. I know you're probably exhausted..." Alexa said with a smile.

"I can get behind that!" Syn said with smile and a fist pump.

"You can always get behind me—"

"You're not even in the batter's box..." Syn shut down with a smirk. Alexa scoffed and crossed her arms, snatching his arm as she guided him to their destination.

•

"This... place is really grandeur." Syn noticed, seeing a lot of gold, silk table clothes, wine glasses, and a lot of dark wood and carpet.

"I'm out of place." Syn sighed.

"Nonsense. They opened like 30 minutes ago so we can get a good seat." Alexa said walking to reception.

"Is this even a breakfast place? They have wine glasses out..." Syn noted, lucky that there weren't any snobby participants to judge him.

"Alright we're all set. They said it was a ten minute wait to get our table ready." Alexa said before pointing to the restrooms.

"I'm gonna freshen up a bit. It's been stressful." She said walking away.

Syn nodded, looking away and rubbing his eyes. He yawned and was ready to get some energy back, but as he turned back to Alexa, he saw someone sprinting for her. Someone armed.

With a quick lunge, Syn appeared at her side, and refusing to take anymore lethal blows, he axe-kicked the knife down while simultaneously using his right hand to snap air to push Alexa back.

Landing on his feet, Syn aimed his hand at the assailant, but leant out of the way of another cleave upward.

"What the?! Tabi?!" Alexa cried in shock.

"We're on everyone's hit list, huh...?" Syn muttered, leaping back from a wide horizontal slash.

"I finally found you after a long, gruesome year... and you've already got another victim. When does it end, you damn wench?!" A goat skull screamed, his hollow sockets somehow brimming with anger via the yellow orb of fire.

Donned in a dull cyan hoodie, navy blue cap, black jeans, and black sneakers, the corpse gripped a combat knife with fingerless gloves on his hands.

"You... I know you. You're the guy that punched Dearest." The skull muttered.

"One and only." Syn said with a smirk.

"Surely you know about her, right?! You know what they're capable of?" The skull asked, hoping he'd understand the tribulations and repercussions he had faced.

"Alexa? Not a clue. So far the only threat she's caused me is... other people actually. You included." Syn shrugged.

"What...?" The skull asked in confusion. "How do you not get that she is just using you for her own success?!"

"Bro I've known her for a little over twenty-four hours. Maybe I'd have found that out if we could actually get to know each other instead of you crashing the date." Syn said with squinted eyes.

"You're calling this a date?!" Alexa said with glee. "Shush. I'm in mortal danger here." Syn responded.

"Then take it from me, pal— I'm the ex she once used! You think I've always been a floating skull? I was like you before! But I lost everything!" He ranted.

"Damn, bro that's rough. I want French toast and you're in my way." Syn said insensitively. "I'm my own man, and you don't get to make my decisions. If I wanna kick it with her, you won't stop me."

Tabi glared at Syn, but he stared back with little interest.

"This your last chance to get out of my way." They both declared.

Syn's energy was on empty, he would either have to completely exhaust himself or play it safe and be defensive.

On the other hand, Tabi was fueled to the brim with trauma, and was ready to blow it all. He wanted her as dead he was.

Tabi held up his hand, before a small puff of flame squeaked out from his palm.

"ERUPT!" Tabi screamed, slamming his hand into the ground. With no time to truly respond, the area around his hand exploded with the force of several C4s.

Syn flew back and crashed into several tables and crashed into a wall.

Tabi snapped his fingers in Syn's direction as flames began to spread within the restaurant.

Syn was sent flying from another explosion, crashing through more tables and chairs, and now his jacket was on fire. Skidding to a stop after regaining his balance, Syn slid under a table, kicked a chair up, before leaping up with it and throwing it at Tabi at Mach speed.

It slammed right into Tabi's skull, sending him to the floor in a daze.

'What's wrong?! Can you not use your powers?' Alexa asked with worry.

'No, they're fine. But if I move air recklessly, too much oxygen will make it combust and make larger explosions.' Syn said, using a brief exhale to dispel the flames on his new jacket.

Tossing the table into the air, Syn jumped up and kicked that at Tabi too.

Tabi stood up with a growl, but a table slammed into his skull again, making his entire body come out from under him and send him flying with it.

"If that didn't knock him out, I don't know what will." Syn mussed.

He was suddenly launched into the ceiling, making him flip up and land on his feet, disappearing from Tabi's view.

Hearing a footstep behind him, Tabi turned and slashed his knife around, but saw no one.

Syn was overhead, right arm reeled back using a similar move he saw on TV.

Slamming his fist down into Tabi's head, he sent him to the floor again, this time, almost unable to regain his composure.

"Guess you could call that my new hit single." Syn laughed, making Tabi lose it.

"I won't have some sap mock me. You can die along with her! GO TO HELL!" Tabi shouted slamming his fists into the floor, where three sparks of light began to catch flame.

Even with the speed of sound Syn couldn't evade an explosion of whatever radius it was bound to be.

Alexa wish she had his reaction time, because he appeared in front of her, just as the flames combusted the entire restaurant.

With one whisper, their vision went white.