Kakashi slowly turned his one remaining eye toward Nathaniel Essex. His right eye Sharingan was on an one day cooldown period.
Essex stood several meters away, staring at the place where Madelyn Pryor had disappeared. His expression had changed from confidence to disbelief, and then, slowly, back toward fascination.
Even after witnessing one of his strongest creations destroy herself through an attack reflected back upon her, the scientist could not stop himself from analyzing what had happened.
He looked at Kakashi and said, "That was highly unexpected. I will have to perform considerably more calculations before I fully understand what you did. Unfortunately, I think it would be unwise to continue this particular experiment today, so I will simply recover from this setback and come at you again with a better understanding of your abilities."
Deadpool stared at him through his mask. "I absolutely hate scientists who say things like that after watching their superpowered red-haired murder weapon turn into barbecue ash. Most villains at least have the decency to scream when their plan fails. You're standing there talking about calculations like you just got a disappointing grade on a homework assignment."
Logan's claws slid back into his hands as he studied Essex carefully. "You're still talking like you've already won. Your woman is dead, and the three people you wanted to capture are still standing. I'd say your calculations need some work."
Essex slowly looked toward Logan. "You misunderstand the nature of this confrontation. I have lost specimens before. I have lost facilities before. I have even lost bodies before. None of those things constitute defeat for me. I have spent centuries ensuring that my survival does not depend upon a single body."
Deadpool pointed toward Essex. "See, that's exactly the kind of sentence that makes me want to punch somebody. You always have to explain how impossible you are to kill right before someone figures out how to kill you. It's practically a villain tradition."
Essex's expression remained calm. "Go ahead and kill me if you wish. Torturing me will accomplish nothing, and destroying this body will be little more than an inconvenience. There are others waiting elsewhere, and they will continue my work. You could spend the rest of your lives hunting me, and you would never know whether you had truly succeeded."
Deadpool looked toward Logan. "He's got a point, unfortunately. I hate when evil science people have practical backup plans."
Logan shrugged. "Then stop listening to him."
Kakashi's eye remained fixed on Essex.
"I would not be so overconfident, you know," Kakashi said.
Essex's eyebrow lifted. "You have already exhausted your ocular abilities. I can see that one of your eye is no longer functioning normally. Whatever technique you used against Madelyn has left you incapable of using that power again for some time. I believe confidence is entirely justified."
Kakashi didn't answer. His gaze simply remained on Essex.
The scientist's expression changed. Something about the way Kakashi was looking at him bothered him.
Kakashi's left eye focused directly on Essex's.
"Tsukuyomi."
The world disappeared. Essex suddenly found himself standing in a world of darkness.
There was only an endless black landscape beneath a blood-red sky.
Essex immediately recognized that something was wrong. His mind had been invaded. He tried to activate his mental defenses.
Nothing happened. He tried to reach another clone. Again nothing happened.
For the first time in decades, Nathaniel Essex felt genuine uncertainty. Then Kakashi appeared in front of him.
Essex narrowed his eyes. "A psychic illusion?"
Kakashi stared at him. "Something like that."
Essex smiled despite the situation. "You misunderstand the nature of my mind. You have entered one of thousands of bodies, but my consciousness does not end here. I am connected to myself across multiple hosts. You cannot destroy me by attacking one mind."
Kakashi's expression didn't change. "That connection is exactly why I chose you."
Essex's smile disappeared.
Essex suddenly experienced years of pain in seconds.
His senses were overwhelmed by pain. His mind was trapped inside an accelerated nightmare where pain, fear, isolation, and psychological torment were compressed into moments.
Essex screamed. Outside the illusion, his body suddenly staggered.
Deadpool watched him collapse.
"What the hell did you do to him?"
Kakashi remained standing, though his body was still badly damaged from Madelyn's attack. "His mind is connected to his other bodies."
Logan looked toward Essex. "You're attacking the minds of all his clones?"
Kakashi nodded. "Exactly."
Their minds were connected through the psychic architecture Essex had created to preserve information, memories, and consciousness between bodies. The network had always been his greatest advantage.
It was also his greatest weakness.
Kakashi had found the bridge.
The first clone caught within Tsukuyomi was not mentally isolated. Essex had been monitoring the body remotely, sharing information through the psychic network. His attention had been connected to it.
That meant Kakashi didn't need to find every clone.
He only needed one.
Essex's eyes widened. "No."
Kakashi's voice echoed through the darkness. "You built yourself a network so that one body could share information with the others."
Essex desperately tried to sever the connection.
Kakashi didn't allow it. "You made every one of your clones part of the same system."
The mental pressure intensified.
The psychic connection became flooded with the sheer volume of the Tsukuyomi.
For Kakashi, only seconds passed. For the connected minds, it was different.
Hundreds of minds simultaneously received the overwhelming psychological assault being experienced by the captured clone.
The network began to collapse. Outside, Essex's body convulsed. He groaned as blood began running from his nose.
"What... what did you do?"
Kakashi's gaze became colder as finally after experiencing centuries of torture within a couple minutes, Essex brain died and so did the brains of all his clones.
-----Author Notes---------
Thankyou Idunno 28 for supporting me!
Y'all can now read the next 15 chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon.
https://pat*reon.com/Charizard6
[No star]
Thankyou for your support!