"Impossible," Diana gasped, the golden rope going slack in her hands.
She had bound gods and monsters with the Lasso of Hestia.
It was absolute truth.
Yet this man... this mortal... was speaking gibberish.
"The mind is a labyrinth, Princess," Ernst smirked, his eyes flashing.
"And I just rearranged the walls."
He didn't wait for her to recover.
He gripped the Lasso, channeling his absorbed kinetic energy into his arms.
With a violent heave, he yanked the rope.
Diana, still reeling from the psychic feedback, was pulled off balance.
She flew forward, crashing into the mud.
The Lasso slipped from her grip.
Ernst dropped the rope instantly.
He shut down the virtual persona in his mind, his eyes clearing.
"Round two," he whispered.
Diana was up in a heartbeat.
Her eyes burned with Amazonian fury.
She didn't bother with the sword; she wanted to feel his bones break.
She lunged, throwing a straight right cross at Ernst's face.
Ernst didn't dodge. He caught her fist.
CRACK.
The ground beneath him shattered, but his arm held firm.
"You rely on force," Ernst grunted, his hand glowing violet as he drained the kinetic energy from her strike.
"But force is just fuel."
He tightened his grip.
Energy Drain: Active.
Ernst reversed the flow. Instead of just absorbing impact, he began to pull.
He opened the floodgates of his X-Gene, turning his body into a biological vacuum.
Diana gasped. She felt her strength leaving her, not just momentum, but vitality.
Her bio-electricity, her heat, her very blood seemed to be pulled toward his palm.
It felt like standing near a black hole.
"What... are you?" she choked out, her knees buckling.
"Evolution," Ernst replied coldly.
Diana's vision blurred. She was fading.
But she was a warrior born.
Even as her strength drained, her instincts screamed.
Divine Power.
She couldn't punch him, but she could burn him.
With a scream of effort, she slammed her free wrist against the one Ernst was holding.
Her silver Bracelets of Submission collided.
KRA-KOOM.
A blast of Zeus's divine lightning erupted from the metal.
"ARGH!"
Ernst was blasted backward.
He flew twenty feet, skipping across the wet gravel like a stone.
He scrambled up, coughing blood. Smoke rose from his chest.
Analysis: Divine Energy. Purity 100%.
"Magic," Ernst hissed, wiping his mouth.
"I can absorb electrons, but I can't metabolize magic. Not yet."
He had miscalculated.
He treated her like a biological battery.
But she was magic incarnate.
Diana stood up, electricity crackling around her. She looked furious.
"You steal strength," she said, crossing her wrists again.
"Let's see if you can steal the lightning."
She charged her bracelets.
Ernst's eyes flashed blue.
He activated his CPH4-enhanced perception.
Time seemed to slow.
He calculated the vector of her aim, the speed of the discharge.
Dodge.
He shifted his weight.
A bolt of lightning scorched the air where his head had been a microsecond before.
He lunged.
He aimed a kinetic-charged kick at her solar plexus to wind her.
But Diana was fast. She stepped back instinctively.
Ernst missed his target. His foot didn't hit her stomach; it struck lower.
THUD.
His steel-toed boot connected solidly with her pelvic bone, a brutal, accidental low blow.
Diana froze. Her face went from red to white, then to a shade of purple that promised murder.
Even a demigod feels pain there.
Ernst froze too. He retracted his leg, holding his hands up.
"That..." Ernst stammered, his cool persona shattering for the first time.
"That was a miscalculation. Physics error."
Diana didn't speak. She just vibrated with rage.
The air around her began to heat up.
"I am going to end you," she whispered.
Ernst realized he was about to die.
Not heroically.
But because he accidentally kicked Wonder Woman in the crotch.
"Azazel!" Ernst shrieked.
"HELP!"
BAMF.
Red smoke exploded between them.
Azazel appeared, swords drawn.
He took one look at Diana, who looked ready to tear the world in half, and then at Ernst's terrified face.
"Shield!" Azazel shouted.
He waved his hand, creating a dimensional barrier.
A shimmering blue sphere enveloped them, phasing them slightly out of reality.
Diana slashed her sword.
The blade passed harmlessly through the ghost-like shield.
"Cowards!" Diana roared, slashing again and again.
"She's angry," Azazel noted, watching the Amazon try to dismantle their dimension.
"What did you do?"
"Don't ask," Ernst wiped sweat from his brow.
"Just get us out of here. Now."
"With pleasure."
Azazel grabbed Ernst's shoulder.
BAMF.
They vanished into the ether, leaving a furious Wonder Woman shouting at the rain.
With the Nazis gone and the portal closed, silence fell over the ruins.
Professor Bruttenholm and the remaining soldiers emerged from cover.
They searched the rubble near the altar.
"Professor!" a soldier called out.
"I found something!"
Bruttenholm ran over. Crouched in the mud, looking confused and frightened, was a small, red creature.
It had a tail, two nubby horns, and a massive right hand made of stone.
"A boy," Bruttenholm whispered, kneeling down.
"It's just a boy."
Suddenly, a shadow fell over them.
Wonder Woman stood there, her sword dripping with rain.
She saw the red skin. She saw the tail.
Her mind flashed to the devils.
"Spawn of the demon!" Diana shouted.
"You will not escape!"
She raised her sword to strike the child.
"NO!" Bruttenholm threw himself over the creature.
"Stop! He is innocent!"
Diana's blade stopped inches from the Professor's back.
She was breathing hard, her adrenaline still spiking from the fight with Ernst.
She looked at the terrified red baby, then at the old man protecting it.
Slowly, she lowered her sword.
"He looks like them," Diana spat, sheathing her weapon.
"Like the red one."
"Appearances can be deceiving," Bruttenholm said gently, offering the creature a candy bar from his pocket.
"He is not an enemy. He is a refugee."
The baby took the candy, blinking large yellow eyes.
"We will call him Hellboy," Bruttenholm decided.
Diana huffed, turning away to look at the spot where Ernst had vanished.
"Pray I do not find you again, Ernst Shaw," she muttered.
"Next time, there will be no shield."
-------------
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