Chapter 416: Raids End 3 (2/2)

"Strawberry" Little Ace nodded again

"How did the uncle get this through father?" one of the Aces said, eyeing the large cake suspiciously "Soht be in it"

"I already had a small bite before," said Old Ace "It's fine And a thousand times better than the slop we have to eat normally"

Most of the ineered with nutrients in rowth and healing from the wounds they suffered routinely from their trials

All of the Aces stared at the cake like hungry wolves, desperation glealanced at Old Ace, the de facto leader they put in charge because he was the first a," said Old Ace

The Aces rushed in, breaking the cake apart with their hands, shoveling food into theiro and eat too?" said Little Ace,He looked up at Old Ace to find Old Ace was staring past the cake, into the distance

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead," said Old Ace He shook his head and patted Little Ace's shoulder

"I'll save some for you," said Little Ace

Old Ace shook his head sadly, and at the time, Little Ace did not knohy "Take my portion, Ace You deserve it more You're special, after all"

—

That night hen the final trial happened

When all the Aces, all of the honed their power and bodies to their absolute limits, were placed in an inescapable rooreatest foes yet: each other

They werewould leave the room alive

The cake they had was not to celebrate their births It was to commemorate their deaths

Memories that Ace did not know, memories he had buried deep down, under lock and key and chain and gate, were sundered open

He re That was not important He remembered -

"I knew it" Old Ace looked up at Little Ace Old Ace was just an upper body now, his lower half having been severed during the final trial

The thick, plated tiles of the rooore Severed limbs, chunks of bone, eyeballs, brain matter - all manner of viscera and broken body parts lay scattered in an artpiece of suffering and madness

Little Ace stared down at Old Ace, his eyes glowing through a thick coating of blood on his face

"I knew it…you're…special" Old Ace smiled at Little Ace

Little Ace looked down at his crimson coated hands, hands coated with the lives of all of his brothers and sisters, and trean to well up from the corners of his eyes Clear, pure tears that quickly tainted with the red on his face

"Don't…cry" Old Ace reached his hand up and gentle patted Little Ace's arm "Don't…look down I told you - never…look down You're special Look…up"

Old Ace's hand fell to the ground, splashi+ng on a pool of blood

—

"I re a punch from his clone A shockwave of force echoed out, but Ace did not budge a single inch

Ace's eyes idened in the shock of recall, of breaking into a past he had kept locked away

"Ah, you remember now?" Machine Mind's voice echoed from the clone's head "Do you understand your place, then, reatest compatibility to Superforce's DNA and blessed with the touch of the Blue Ring?

You may be imperfect, but you are irown tainted with individuality Your body, however, is still near perfect, its potential merely held down by that weak mind of yours"

"I understand now," said Ace

"You do?" The clone pulled back Machine's Mind's voice was hopeful "Then-,"

"I understand that you have to die Everyone here does" Ace unleashed a punch at the clone's skull A blue ring glowed at his chest, over where his heart was Glea theh his skin and bodysuit

The punch collided with the clone's forehead Waves of blue energy coursed fro the skull in like a ha

The clone fell backwards, the yolk of his skull oozing out in spilled grey olden orb - the control device that Machine Mind used

"You do not understand, my son" Machine Mind's voice echoed from the orb "The sheer potential you have You were taken by Ember after you were deeainst my will I always saw potential in you

You can come back and lead the world into a new era You just have to come back to me You-,"

Ace crushed the orb under his foot It crunched and spattered in aze to the corpse of his clone A fainter blue ring glowed fro and ripped out the clone's still beating heart

He crushed the tender organ Its glea blue blood flowed into Ace's skin, into his own veins, his own heart, fueling hieance