The second Blindspot's still-warm, heartless body slammed into the ground, the whole chaotic battlefield froze for three full seconds of dead silence.
Everyone was stunned by the sudden, brutal kill.
Vought's elite soldiers stopped shooting. They stared in disbelief as their brand-new, hyped-up superhero got murdered right in front of them for no fucking reason.
On the other side, Butcher's wild black tentacles paused mid-swing. He, Frenchie, and Hughie were just as lost, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
But in that deadly quiet, one person snapped out of it first.
Queen Maeve.
While everyone else was still processing Blindspot's death, her battle-hardened, animal-sharp instincts caught it.
She sensed a faint, weird energy ripple in the air right behind where Blindspot had been standing — something that didn't belong to anyone there.
There's someone else!
An invisible enemy!
"There!" Queen Maeve roared, voice full of fury and warning.
She didn't waste time explaining. Her body blurred into a high-speed afterimage as she swung a tank-shattering fist with everything she had, smashing straight into the exact spot where Ryan had just been.
Her reaction woke everyone else up instantly.
Stormfront's icy blue eyes lit up with crackling destructive lightning.
Lamplighter, ignoring his injuries, hurled roaring flames from both hands.
They unloaded their strongest attacks on that empty space without hesitation.
Boom!!! Boom!! BoOOOOOOOOom!!!!!
The massive energy blast lit up the entire block like daylight.
The shockwave shredded nearby cars and buildings to pieces. The street exploded into a giant crater over ten meters wide and seemingly bottomless. The edges of the pit were covered in melted, glass-like crystals from the insane heat.
But it was all useless.
Ryan had already used his near-teleportation speed to pull back several hundred meters the instant he landed the kill.
Their all-out, city-level attack hit nothing but air, nothing but pure frustrated rage at being played by a ghost.
"Goddammit! He got away!" Lamplighter cursed, staring at the massive crater.
He immediately hit his emergency comms, calling straight to Vought Tower and the god watching the fight.
"Homelander! Respond if you hear me!"
Blindspot is dead!
We're under attack by an invisible enemy!
Repeat!
Blindspot is dead!"
...
Outside the block, Homelander sat alone in his temporary command office, watching the live feed on a massive monitor.
When he saw Ryan rip Blindspot's heart out from behind, no surprise crossed his perfect face. Instead, a sick, twisted spark of pride flashed in his eyes.
It really is Ryan.
He's actually out here hunting.
And he's even cleaner and more ruthless than I expected.
Right then, Lamplighter's panicked voice crackled through the comms.
The twisted pride on Homelander's face vanished instantly, replaced by a flawless, Oscar-level explosion of rage.
He screamed into the communicator like an angry god, voice booming with majestic fury.
"Useless! You're all fucking useless!"
His roar blasted through every teammate's earpiece like thunder.
"You can't even handle one invisible prick?!"
"He's just some Translucent copycat!"
"Blindspot died just like that?!"
"Did you assholes pick up your superhero titles from a goddamn dumpster?!"
After perfectly chewing them out and playing the role of the pissed-off leader mourning his fallen comrade, he added:
"I've got his escape direction locked!"
"I'll personally crush that little rat myself!"
Before he even finished the sentence, he spun around and blasted forward like a missile, smashing straight through several buildings in his path.
The second the team saw Homelander personally join the hunt, Maeve and the others let out a breath.
Then they dumped all their anger and humiliation onto the three cockroach-like "terrorists" in front of them.
The battle exploded again.
With the invisible threat gone, Butcher went completely feral.
He turned into a walking meat grinder, dropping all defense.
He let the soldiers' bullets slam into him, sparking useless flashes across his mutated skin.
His thick black tentacles exploded from his back and arms, whipping around like chains straight from hell.
Wherever they struck, blood and chunks of meat flew everywhere.
The heavily armored elite troops might as well have been paper dolls. They got ripped apart like wet tissue.
Even Lamplighter got caught in close quarters. A tentacle suddenly burst out of the ground and punched straight through his shoulder, leaving several deep, bloody holes.
"Die, you fucking monster!" Lamplighter screamed, clutching his gushing wound in agony and rage.
He stopped holding back.
Scorching flames hotter than molten steel erupted from his hands.
The surging flames, like a fire dragon's breath, swallowed Butcher whole before he could dodge.
Lamplighter wanted to roast this disgusting, unkillable freak alive.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Butcher's mutated body screamed in agony inside the inferno. His skin charred, tentacles writhed, and the air stank of burning meat and protein.
Lamplighter watched Butcher thrash in the flames with a cruel, satisfied grin on his face. He poured everything into keeping the fire maxed out, admiring his handiwork.
But right then, a soul-freezing chill crawled up his spine.
Pure primal terror — the feeling of being locked onto by an apex predator.
He tried to spin around.
Too late.
His head suddenly lifted off his shoulders and floated into the air.
In the last tiny fraction of a second of consciousness, Lamplighter saw something completely absurd.
He saw his own body still standing there, arms forward, still spewing flames.
He saw the smooth stump of his neck gushing blood like a fountain.
He even caught a glimpse of his own ass.
Ryan had struck again in total silence.
He used the diamond-hard claws he'd taken from Translucent and sliced through Lamplighter's neck like warm butter.
Lamplighter's headless body kept shooting fire for one last second, then its knees buckled and it collapsed.
[Plunder successful! Target 'Lamplighter'.]
[Acquired: Fire Manipulation, High Temperature Resistance…]
Ryan turned invisible again right after the kill, melting into the chaos like a shadow, the God of Death vanishing once more.
Another member of The Seven was dead on the spot.
This time, everyone lost their fucking minds.
On Queen Maeve's and Stormfront's faces, real fear appeared for the first time.
They finally got it.
The invisible, unpredictable God of Death hunting supes hadn't left.
He was still right there with them.
And any one of them could be next.
___
12 advanced chapters- P@t: slept01