Obliteration

Obliteration
por Jamie Knierim
Poderes	Épico
Mundo natal	Tierra (Reckoners)

“I follow the orders of no man, mortal or Epic ... I am the cleansing fire. ”

—Obliteration to Newton

Obliteration is a High Epic that worked together with Regalia. Along with Steelheart and Night's Sorrow, he is among the most feared of Epics, but unlike Steelheart he is currently not a tyrant. Five years after the rise of Calamity, he conquered his fear and was thus able to free himself of his corruption, though this did not influence his morals - he remained a ruthless destroyer. While he ruled Houston at one point, he ultimately decided to melt the entire city, killing the entire town's population in the process. Since then, he has made it his mission to kill everyone because he believes that all humans are corrupt.

Attributes and Abilities

Obliteration has a narrow face with a goatee and long, straight black hair that falls past his shoulders. He usually wears spectacles and a trench coat. His weapon of choice is a sword.

Obliteration is described as an indiscriminant killer, but also rather clever. Obliteration constantly makes biblical references, going as far to believe he is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, given divine power by the "archangel" Calamity to end humanity and its corruption.

Regalia claims that Obliteration never got over the initial phase of destruction that all Epics have.

Epic Abilities

Heat Manipulation

Obliteration is capable of absorbing the heat out of any object he touches, including humans. There is no known upper limit to how much energy he can store, however storing an excessive amount of heat makes it difficult for him to teleport and retain the stored heat. He can absorb heat at an astonishing rate, causing a tree to frost over and wither in a mere eyeblink. At any time, he can unleash the absorbed heat or dissipate it harmlessly. There is no known limit as to how much concentrated energy he can unleash in a single burst, as he is capable of unleashing a heat wave massive enough to melt the entirety of Houston at once. Furthermore, storing an excessive amount of heat makes him shine brightly, and produce copious amounts of heat, to the point where mere skin contact can cause severe burns. Obliteration has enough control over his powers to not melt objects he wants to keep intact, such as his sword and clothes.

Teleportation

Obliteration can teleport, automatically taking inanimate objects and people he touches with him. His teleportation gets described as his body bursting outwards in a flash of light, similar to a ceramic figure bursting into ceramic shards. He can only teleport to places he can visualize (either from seeing the locations in person or viewing a sufficiently detailed photo). According to David's notes, Obliteration is unable to reappear (and is thus invulnerable but also unable to do anything) for several minutes after teleporting, however during Firefight he no longer seems to have this limitation.

Danger Sense

(tied to his teleportation) Should something happen that would hurt Obliteration he automatically teleports away. The danger sense works reactively, meaning that it triggers after action has been taken, for example the trigger of a gun has been pulled, and only then when the action would actually hurt Obliteration.

Super Strength

Obliteration is strong enough to easily lift David up with one hand. This power was not in David's notes.

It is unclear if the discrepancies between his observed powers and David's notes are simply because of faulty information or because Regalia and/or Calamity enhanced his powers.

Weakness

It is unknown what Obliteration's weakness is. However, he overcame his weakness five years after Calamity rose. Obliteration is near sighted, but not nearly bad enough for it to be considered a weakness.

History

Events before Steelheart

Obliteration ruled in Houston for some time before deciding to destroy the entire city. Obliteration had sat in the middle of a city square of Houston, storing up heat from the sun. After a few weeks, Obliteration released all the power, melting the entire city, killing tens of thousands in moments.

Obliteration had also destroyed Albuquerque and San Diego in the same way. However, these weren't as destructive as Houston, because people realized what Obliteration was doing.^{[Falta cita]}

Firefight

Obliteration is summoned to Babilar by Regalia, who offers to let Obliteration destroy Babilar. In exchange for serving her, Regalia not only makes Obliteration's powers stronger, but she also gives him motivator-powered bombs, detonated by remote control, that matched his own destructive abilities. They also have the advantages of being easily concealable, creatable, and transportable. Regalia also secretly makes a teleportation device from Obliteration's power.

Obliteration fights the Reckoners from time to time in Babilar. He almost succeeds in drowning David by attaching a ball and chain to his leg and dropping him into the water. Later, David finds that Obliteration is also working with Newton. Obliteration knows Newton's weakness, and keeps her in check.

Obliteration starts to store up sunlight in Babilar on a rooftop. During the next few days, Prof decides he would stop Obliteration from destroying city by encasing him in a forcefield. However, on the day of their attack, Mizzy discovers that Obliteration is gone from his spot on the rooftop. Val spots a glowing coming from Regalia's old base, Building C. The Reckoners rush to stop Obliteration, but the glowing coming from Building C is not Obliteration, but instead is the bomb that Regalia made from Obliteration. Obliteration fights David during this time, to prevent him from reaching Prof. However, when David revealed the secret of how the weaknesses relate to the fears of Epics, Obliteration thanked him and left. Obliteration's bomb explodes, forcing Prof to use his powers and save the city. However, this causes Prof to turn evil.

Calamity

Obliteration shows up at Prof's party in Sharp Tower, because Prof has a "calling card." This calling card is a motivator based off of Obliteration's powers. Both David and Obliteration assume it was a bomb. However, it is actually a teleporter. Obliteration sits on a salt throne, and rests his hand on his the hilt of his sword like a scepter. Even though David and Megan are both in disguises, Obliteration recognizes them through their disguises, claiming they have the same eyes, and that David has the same hunger in them. However, David does not buy this explanation, and instead assumes Obliteration has an extra power. Obliteration teleports away and returns with a coconut of all things, and continues to recline on his throne as if nothing happened. Even though David and Megan switch disguises again, Obliteration still spots them.

When David travels to the alternate reality that Firefight resides in, he notes that Obliteration is there, fighting the Reckoners. He has the same goals in this alternate reality as in the "real" world, even though there is no Calamity in the sky.

Obliteration shows up when the Reckoners are fighting Prof, and reveals that Regalia had actually given him two (including the one used in Babilar). The second is supposed to be used for Ildithia. He is about to kill David along with the rest of Ildithia, when David reveals that he is going to kill Calamity, by teleporting up there. Obliteration claims that if David can defeat Prof, he will aid David in teleporting up to Calamity. After Larcener absorbs Prof's powers, Obliteration fulfills his promise and teleports David up to Calamity, using a picture of Calamity as a reference of where to teleport. Obliteration also gives David his last bomb to destroy Calamity.

Prof teleports up to Calamity as well, using the teleporter Regalia had formed from Obliteration. However, Calamity destroys this teleporter, preventing them from leaving. Megan visits Firefight's reality, and forces that Obliteration to take her to Calamity. Megan claims that the Obliteration in that reality is just as much of a slontze as the one in the "real" world. However, instead of vanishing with a flash (as the Obliteration in the "real" world does whenever he teleports), this one simply fades.

After David defeats Calamity, Obliteration appears and thanks David. He then announces his next target is Toronto, and challenges David to stop him, giving him a week to recover. David is surprised, assuming that Obliteration would turn good after the death of Calamity. However, Megan reveals that now that Calamity is gone, Obliteration is free to act how he chooses, just as a normal human would.

Trivia

• Obliteration is based off of an author, likely Jim Butcher.

Notes

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