"How many times do I have to kill you before you stay dead, Riley Ross?"
"You have not actually killed me even once yet, Your Highness," Riley replied calmly. "I have just become… rather sturdy."
A blinding streak of light shot endlessly from one end of the universe to the other—but to the untrained eye, Queen Vania's figure appeared perfectly still.
At least, it looked like that.
Riley was no longer stopping time. It made no difference to the queen of the evaniels, who could move so fast that she left behind a stable afterimage—even while zipping back and forth across the galaxies. She could even speak to him without delay, her words slipping seamlessly into the frozen expanse of space.
As for Riley… there was no visible form left of him.
Only a floating, quivering lump of blood suspended in the void—a mouth still attached, speaking through the chaos. It twitched violently every time Queen Vania passed through, her fists colliding with what little matter remained.
