Obliteration

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Obliteration
Obliteration portrait.png
Powers Epic
Homeworld Earth (Reckoners)

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

—Obliteration to Newton[1]

Obliteration is a High Epic who believes that it is his duty to destroy all of humanity.[1][2]

Along with Steelheart and Night's Sorrow, he is among the most feared and powerful of Epics,[3][4] but unlike Steelheart, he is currently not a tyrant. He is, however, a ruthless killer, who has made it his mission to kill everyone because he believes that all humans are corrupt and have the seed of the Epic inside of them.[1] Five years after the rise of Calamity, he conquered his fear and was thus able to free himself of his corruption,[5] though this did not influence his morals - he remained a ruthless destroyer. While he did rule Houston at one point, he ultimately decided to melt the entire city, killing the entire town's population in the process.[6]

Appearance and PersonalityEdit

Obliteration has a narrow face with a goatee and long, straight black hair[6] that falls past his shoulders.[7] He usually wears spectacles and a trench coat, and his weapon of choice is a sword.[6]

Obliteration is described as an indiscriminant killer and "creepy"[2][8], but also rather clever.[6] 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.[9] Regalia claims that Obliteration never got over the initial phase of destruction that all Epics have.[10]

Attributes and AbilitiesEdit

Epic AbilitiesEdit

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. These blasts do not seem to produce any radiation.[11] Furthermore, storing an excessive amount of heat makes him shine brightly,[12] 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, in Babilar, 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.[13] In theory, Obliteration could actively suppress this Danger Sense, but it would be extremely difficult, and Obliteration has not learned how to do this yet.[14]

Super Strength

Obliteration is strong enough to easily lift David up with one hand. This power was not in David's notes.[15]

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.

Obliteration is also able to recognize David and Megan, even though they are disguised. He claims he can recognize them by their eyes, but David thinks he has another power.[2]

WeaknessEdit

It is unknown what Obliteration's weakness is. However, he overcame his weakness five years after Calamity rose.[5] Obliteration is nearsighted, but not nearly bad enough for it to be considered a true weakness.[16]

HistoryEdit

Before 10 A.C.Edit

Obliteration ruled in Houston for some time before deciding to destroy the entire city. Obliteration had sat in the middle of a city square[17] 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.[6]

Obliteration had also destroyed Albuquerque and San Diego in the same way.[18] However, these weren't as destructive as Houston, because people realized what Obliteration was doing, and ran away before Obliteration had finished.[11]

Babylon RestoredEdit

Regalia's OfferEdit

Obliteration was summoned to Babilar by Regalia, who offered to let Obliteration destroy Babilar if he did what she wanted for a short bit.[19] In exchange for serving her, Regalia not only made Obliteration's powers stronger, but she also gave him motivator-powered bombs, detonated by remote control, that matched his own destructive abilities.[20][12] They also had the advantages of being easily concealable, creatable, and transportable. Regalia also secretly makes a teleportation device from Obliteration's power.[21]

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.[15] Later, David found that Obliteration is also working with Newton. Obliteration knew Newton's weakness, and kept her in check.[1]

Tricking ProfEdit

Obliteration started to store up sunlight in Babilar on a rooftop.[22] During the next few days, Prof decided he would stop Obliteration from destroying city by encasing him in a forcefield.[23] However, on the day of their attack, Mizzy discovered that Obliteration was gone from his spot on the rooftop. Val spotted a glowing coming from Regalia's old base, Building C.[24] The Reckoners rushed to stop Obliteration, but the glowing coming from Building C was not Obliteration,[9] but instead was the bomb that Regalia made from Obliteration.[16] Obliteration fought David during this time, to prevent him from reaching Prof.[9] However, when David revealed the secret of how the weaknesses relate to the fears of Epics, Obliteration thanked him and left.[16] Obliteration's bomb exploded, forcing Prof to use his powers and save the city.[16] However, this caused Prof to turn evil.[25]

Destroying Kansas CityEdit

Obliteration used one more of the bombs that Regalia gave him to destroy Kansas City. He used the bomb instead of collecting heat himself because it is stealthier, and more people would be destroyed in the process.[11]

IldithiaEdit

Party at Sharp TowerEdit

Obliteration showed up at Prof's party in Sharp Tower, because Prof has a "calling card."[2] This calling card was a motivator based off of Obliteration's powers. Both David and Obliteration assumed it was a bomb.[2] However, it was actually a teleporter.[21] Obliteration sat on a salt throne, and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword like a scepter.[7] Even though David and Megan were both in disguises, Obliteration recognized them anyways, claiming they had the same eyes, and that David had the same hunger in them. However, David did not buy this explanation, and instead assumed Obliteration has an extra power.[2] Obliteration teleported away and returns with a coconut of all things, continuing to recline on his throne as if nothing had happened. Even though David and Megan changed disguises, Obliteration still spotted them.[2]

When David traveled to the alternate reality that Firefight resides in, he noted that Obliteration was there as well, fighting the Reckoners.[26] He had the same goals in this alternate reality as in the "real" world, even though there was no Calamity in the sky.[26][27]

Killing CalamityEdit

Obliteration showed up when the Reckoners are fighting Prof in Ildithia, and revealed that Regalia had actually given him three bombs: the one used in Babilar[16], the one used to destroy Kansas City[11], and one that was meant to be used for Ildithia.[28] He was then about to kill David, along with the rest of Ildithia, when David revealed that he is going to kill Calamity, by teleporting up there. Obliteration claimed that if David could defeat Prof, he would aid David in teleporting up to Calamity.[29] After Larcener absorbed Prof's powers, Obliteration fulfilled his promise and teleported David up to Calamity, using a picture of Calamity as a reference of where to teleport.[30] Obliteration also gave David his last bomb to destroy Calamity.[28]

Prof teleported up to Calamity as well, using the teleporter Regalia had formed from Obliteration. However, Calamity destroyed this teleporter, preventing them from leaving. Megan then visited Firefight's reality, and forced that Obliteration to take her to Calamity. Megan claimed 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 did whenever he teleported), this one simply faded.[27]

After David defeated Calamity, Obliteration appeared and thanked David. He then announced his next target was Toronto, and challenged David to stop him, giving him a week to recover. David was surprised, assuming that Obliteration would turn good after the death of Calamity. However, Megan revealed that now that Calamity is gone, Obliteration was free to act how he chose, just as a normal human would.[5]

TriviaEdit

  • Obliteration is based off of an author, likely Jim Butcher.[31]
  • Brandon had Obliteration melt Houston because Brandon likes the city of Houston. Brandon enjoys destroying his favorite cities.[32]

NotesEdit

  1. a b c d Firefight chapter 21#
  2. a b c d e f g Calamity chapter 27#
  3. Steelheart chapter 12#
  4. Ad Astra 2017
    Arcanum - 2017-05-05#
  5. a b c Calamity epilogue#
  6. a b c d e Firefight chapter 12#
  7. a b Calamity chapter 26#
  8. Firefight Seattle UBooks signing
    Arcanum - 2015-01-06#
  9. a b c Firefight chapter 48#
  10. Firefight chapter 41#
  11. a b c d Calamity chapter 12#
  12. a b Firefight chapter 36#
  13. Firefight chapter 11#
  14. /r/books AMA 2015
    Arcanum - 2015-06-16#
  15. a b Firefight chapter 13#
  16. a b c d e Firefight chapter 49#
  17. Firefight chapter 24#
  18. Firefight chapter 26#
  19. Firefight chapter 14#
  20. Firefight chapter 25#
  21. a b Calamity chapter 34#
  22. Firefight chapter 29#
  23. Firefight chapter 39#
  24. Firefight chapter 47#
  25. Firefight chapter 50#
  26. a b Calamity chapter 33#
  27. a b Calamity chapter 49#
  28. a b Calamity chapter 47#
  29. Calamity chapter 44#
  30. Calamity chapter 46#
  31. Firefight Seattle Public Library signing
    Arcanum - 2015-01-07#
  32. Firefight Houston signing
    Arcanum - 2015-01-23#
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