Charging Up

Avie asked the question that I feared she would and after it left her mouth, her eyes began to water as she realized the answer to it. There was truly only one way to beat Cole and the person I used to be... and it involved an attack that required a ton of strands.

Avie seemed to acknowledge what was coming... and with the number of strands she put around, the path was already constructed. All that was left was to follow the path to the next step... the final step...

I ran at Cole with the bladeless katana, slicing his body with the loud booming noise the shockwave emitted. His bones were crushed under the pressure, and I bit the bullet as my lifespan started to decrease.

[Lifespan Reduction: 52.5 Years]

I sacrificed a large portion of my left arm to black strands, letting them consume me in order to give me stamina. I finally acknowledged that I had to make a deal with the strands in order to win this fight. Nothing has changed, I still had to depend on luck or the strands, but at this point... it didn't matter.

Part of what made me so strong wasn't that I could depend on so much, it was the fact that I knew how to use it so well. I understood, why everybody regarded me as a villain...

I kicked Cole in the chest, pushed him back toward me with the ice launching out of the ground, and clotheslined him with a punch that made him flip a few times before Avie kicked him further into the ground.

It was starting to shatter and fall further into the Earth as the seven holes we punched into the ground were starting to spew magma again.

"Sky! Above!" Avie shouted out to me.

I threw the Mahina Armament into the sky, and Avie caught it, wrapped it in blue strands, and launched it at Cole.

The bright light took the glare out of the sun as another blue heat came from the sky and pinned Cole to the ground. Everything was dug up, and blue strands were wrapped around his left arm.

"What the hell is this?" He muttered, wincing as Avie kicked him in the jaw from his front side.

He was almost airborne, flying backward at an intense speed. His loose skin started to flap in the wind and Avie took advantage of it, ripping it off of his body, and kicking his throat into the ground with rocks spewing back up toward her.

Everybody regarded me as a villain because all I was capable of was violence... untamable, brutal, violence. Whether or not I killed, whether or not I tortured, whether or not I brought danger to them... but at this point, why should I care? They haven't seen Orion... they haven't seen Providence... they don't know violence... not until I could teach them...

The demolition of the puny human's civilization was enough to teach them that whatever they knew about me all that time ago... the person I was, the billions of people I killed?

That wasn't shit... I am much more dangerous now, and this fight proves it.

I smiled in anticipation, watching Cole scramble to hold his own against Avie when our eyes connected and she kicked him directly over to my position.

I grabbed onto his collar as the veil of red passed over my eyes. I let it marinate, letting the rage consume me as I tightened my grip around his tattered color.

"There he is... that Deity of Wrath I missed so badly... finally giving in, are we?" Cole asked me. I smiled, clutching his collar even tighter, and throwing him back three feet.

As soon as he hit the ground, his body was cut up into pieces... except for his left arm.

It was wrapped in more strands and tightened to look like a piece of clothing over a chubby body part.

"What's the plan here?" Cole asked, regenerating his entire body.

As soon as he started talking, he was forced to his knees, right under me as Mom's Ability went off in front of him.

"Grovel to your King," I told Cole, putting the tip of the Mahina Blade to the bottom of his chin. I lifted it up, and he started to annoyingly smile.

"Really playing the part? Well, I'll have you know, it's going to be for nothing," Cole said.

Strands wrapped around his neck and started to choke him out as I cut through a large majority. I tore out his exposed esophagus with my hand, pulled him forward, and flipped his body, pummeling him to the ground with one punch to the forehead.

[Lifespan Reduction: 52.49 Years]

Just as I thought...

I let Cole get up as blue strands wrapped around his right leg. He stumbled, trying to move... only to be met with no movements.

"Somebody is getting cocky! It's nice to have an opponent I'll be able to shut down so gracefully... you pathetic Arkian," Cole said.

I chuckled, throwing the Mahina Blade through his chest and letting the strands wrap around his body even more.

"Talk about a pathetic Arkian... you look like a puppet... although, that's what you are, isn't it, Cole? Just a puppet for other people to use for their pleasure... that's part of the reason you can jump into other people's bodies, isn't it? In fact, may I be so bold and say that you were born to be possessed by the person I used to be four hundred years ago?" I asked him.

It became dead silent, so silent that I could hear Avie moving around with a strand rippling in the wind behind her.

"What are you talking about?" Cole asked me. I reciprocated his annoying energy and started laughing before he could finish.

"There was one downside to who I was... and it's that I didn't have your Incarnation... so, what better way to design somebody to beat me than to give exactly who I used to be my weakness? Infinite healing... that's not your Incarnation... your Incarnation has nothing to do with healing... does it?" I asked him.