Another Perspective (3)

"This isn't a problem I can simply burn through," Neply thought and formulated a plan.

Large tendrils of water and a whip the woman held slashed towards him from a distance as he tried to close in onto her. All of Neply's armor was shredded from the lightning landmine Aria had made and the constant damage he was taking from the water mage.

He bursted forward yet again and barely reached before an endless stream of water kept him back. It was like a river was directly striking Neply as the woman backed up and they were back to the same position.

The woman was good at keeping her distance and Neply was losing patience. Everything he tried was easily countered due to his lacking knowledge of magic and the fact he had less battle experience than his opponent.

Suddenly, Neply had an idea. "I need to use my human knowledge! That's my only advantage," he thought.

He conjured another pole of fire and threw it with all of his strength just like last time. However, what the water mage hadn't expected was for a flurry of explosions to follow the pole and intensify its speed.

"Hydrogen gas is combustible!" Neply screamed and propelled his weapons with intense explosions. His mastery of his magic wasn't enough to extend his explosions for more than a few people, but it was enough to directly affect specific particles in the air like hydrogen gas.

Neply grabbed rocks and threw them at terrifying speeds with explosions propelling them. Following this, he sent another devastating slash of almost white fire towards the woman and jumped up with his magically enhanced body soon after.

His body covered in seething blue flames that seemed to eat him alive shot directly upwards after hundreds of explosions launched him.

The water woman had finished parrying the devastating fire slash from earlier when she looked up and saw a storm of rocks approaching her at scary speeds.

Water quickly flashed around her as the rocks rained from the sky like bullets. For the first time, she was sustaining so many injuries. She grew frustrated and immediately stopped the water from surrounding her after the rocks stopped raining.

Nevertheless, she couldn't have expected the scene in front of her.

A fiesta of explosions in the sky and a flaming blue figure bloomed. His flames were so bright they almost became white but the most impressive scene was the sun radiating behind him. Light from the sun casted a shadow on his figure as the woman was forced to look away from the sun's light.

Of course, aligning himself with the sun to blind the water mage was Neply's plan all along and his flickering shape looked majestic in the way the flames along with the explosions entangles his body.

That holy sight of a fiesta crashed down onto the mage with a final thud. A stop to the entire play he had planned and a corpse on the floor as he still stood.

*Haah. Neply's chest heavily moved up and down as his flames died out. His sigil deactivated forcibly and likely sustained irreparable damage. And Neply himself was also grasping on his last straws of life as well.

He coughed endless blood while falling onto the floor in agony. Not an inch of him moved as he finally couldn't fight anymore. He was covered in blood and lingering flames but he was cheerful.

"At least I died like a hero," he quivered. That was all he wanted. He was too weak minded to commit suicide but he wouldn't mind dying if he looked like a hero in the aftermath.

"I'm okay with this," he slurred his words. "Nobody loves me anyways. This. This is fine. I died with meaning instead of suicide."

"Who said you died like a hero?" A voice slowly came upon him as a few Valerian soldiers stepped up.

Soon, he saw that they were healing him and he was brought to sit before somebody he had heard rumors of.

Aria looked at him closely. "Look around you, soldier, who did you die as a hero for?"

Neply twisted his neck around to see tanks leaving the premises and armed soldiers running away.

"No!" He cried. He didn't want to forgotten! This wasnt the plan. This wasn't right!

Aria crouched down to eye level with him. "You have two options. You can either join me and my army, or you can die here. Decide before I waste more time having you be healed."

Neply couldn't move. He didn't want to imagine either scenario in his mind.

Aria looked slightly annoyed at that scene. "I get that you feel your useless and want to die, but just look at what you've accomplished. Few can cause this amount of destruction in such a short amount of time after discovering magic. Think about that for one more second and decide before I have your head."

Neply looked around at the flames he had caused. The ground was razed and many giant holes splurged across the area. He silently laughed to himself. "She's right, I'm kind of impressive."

Neply smiled slightly. "I don't want to die. Not yet." He crashed onto the floor in exhaustion, leaving Aria silent.

She looked around at the war and then her gaze went upwards. The sight of a seemingly arrogant God sitting in an invisible throne high above them made her cold gaze soften. The small violet aura the God released to not be attacked made her softly smile.

Aria looked at Neply, then back towards the sky. "History repeats itself, huh,"she murmured.

Aria was told a story about a lifetime ago where she saved a 'hero' at the same place and the same time.

Her gaze lingered on the violet shaded God above.