Where It All Ended, Where It All Started

The fabric of reality trembles beneath our feet, the ground shifting like a living thing in response to our battle. Floating islands drift in the boundless expanse of the aether, their jagged edges silhouetted against the endless void. Ancient wooden bridges, bound together by crumbling ropes and glowing runes, sway violently between them, struggling to hold against the storm of energy rippling through the void. The air itself pulses, thick with the weight of two absolute beings clashing in a war far older than mortal comprehension.

I tighten my grip around the haft of my scythe, feeling the searing heat of my own aura licking at my fingertips. It pulses outward, a tempest of crimson and gold, the sheer intensity distorting the air around me. The void responds, my presence warping the atmosphere with a suffocating heat. Across from me, my enemy stood like a frozen monument, her presence just as oppressive, yet starkly opposite. A piercing cold radiates from her being, the very air crystallizing in her wake. Her sword glows with an eerie brilliance, the color of starlight on untouched ice, a weapon honed by time itself.

She moves first.

A rush of frigid wind slams into me, the crackling sound of ice forming instantaneously filling my ears. My muscles tense as jagged spires burst forth from the ground, racing toward me in a deadly wave. I twist my body, my scythe a blur of motion as I carve through the encroaching frost. Sparks of molten gold erupt where my blade meets the ice, hissing violently as the opposing elements collide.

I push forward, flames erupting from my steps, burning away the remnants of her attack. I hear the sharp whistle of air parting as my opponent moves, her form vanishing into a blur of motion. Instinct takes over—I pivot just in time to catch the glint of her sword swinging toward me. Our weapons clash with a deafening clang, sending a shockwave through the battlefield upon impact. The force hurls me back, my boots skidding across the floating stone as I right myself.

She's fast.

But I'm faster.

I strike next, the swing of my scythe trailing embers in its wake. She dodges, barely, the heat singing the air where she stood a heartbeat before. Her counter is instant—a blade of ice forms in the air, hurtling toward me like a comet. I spin my scythe, deflecting the projectile, but the moment it shatters, a second follows, then a third. The storm of ice rains upon me, each shard glistening with lethal precision.

Enough.

I unleash a blast of fire from my palm, a roaring inferno swallowing the projectiles whole. The intense heat collides with her frost, and for a moment, the battlefield is swallowed in steam, a thick veil of mist shrouding us.

I don't hesitate.

I launch myself forward, cutting through the haze, my scythe burning brighter than ever. The moment I break through, I see her—her stance firm, her sword gleaming, frost swirling at her feet. Our eyes meet, and I know she anticipated this.

Ice and fire explode as we clash once more, the sound splitting the air like the heavens themselves have shattered.

This is a battle that will decide the fate of the world. As we both are, this world's only architect. Our battle is more than just a test of power—it is a war between forces that shape existence itself.

And I refuse to lose.

"You're not bad. May I know your name?"

She said nothing.

Instead, a glacial storm erupted from her fingertips—hundreds of razor-sharp ice spikes hurtling toward me like a relentless barrage of frozen spears. Each one whistled through the air, glinting with a deadly sheen under the fractured light of this landscape. I twisted my scythe in a sweeping arc, cleaving through them with fiery precision, but the sheer number forced me onto the defensive.

And that was her true intention.

In the fleeting moment my attention was divided, she vanished. Not with sound, not with movement—just gone, like a breath lost to the wind. But I caught it. A faint glint, a shimmering distortion left in her wake. It was subtle, but enough.

She's behind me. Again.

I spun, just as her sword came crashing down.

The sheer force of her strike sent a shockwave rippling through the battlefield, the impact alone was enough to fracture the stone beneath us. I barely managed to meet her blade with my scythe, but the moment steel met steel, I knew—this wasn't just brute strength. She had poured something into this strike, something vast and immeasurable. This weight is the real deal. Raw power. Strong, defiant, and brute.

And I wasn't facing just one attack.

At the exact same instant, a second force surged toward me from the opposite direction—one of her ice spikes, still racing toward my exposed side.

Trapped between two lethal blows.

What do I block first?

"My name won't be worth remembering," she said, voice as cold as the frost clinging to her blade. "And neither will yours."

The energy around her surged, her sword flaring with a blinding radiance, its edge humming with an overwhelming concentration of power. The glow intensified, the air distorting around it, the blade so close now that I could feel its deadly chill licking at my skin.

I had only a fraction of a second.

And I refused to waste it.

A burst of fire exploded from my feet, launching me backward with blistering speed, just as both attacks collided at the space where I had stood. The force of the impact sent shockwaves through the air, shards of ice scattering in all directions, some leaving shallow cuts along my arms. But I didn't stop.

"That was close. You almost caught me."

Midair, I twisted, redirecting the momentum of my dodge into a counterattack. My scythe burned like a molten crescent, carving through the thick mist left in the wake of her ice. I aimed straight for her exposed flank, where the aftershock of her own attack had left an opening.

The ground beneath me cracked as I landed, my body shifting with the movement of the battle. The air felt thick, heavy, but not with the familiar weight of fire. I closed my eyes, focusing inward, allowing the power of Stygian to seep into my very being. And as soon as I began calling my powers out, the voices of the souls I had consumed started whispering like a thousand echoes in my mind. They were restless, hungry, yearning for release.

I breathed in the power, feeling it fill the hollow spaces where my own strength had faltered.

I focused, letting their agony, their rage, their yearning fill me—and with it, I reached deep into the pool of my magic. A chill coursed through my veins, not the cold of ice, but the kind that gripped the soul, suffocating, heavy, and as violent as lightning. From the core of my being, I summoned shadows that coiled around my scythe, twisting and darkening the air like a storm cloud before a blackened sky.

With a single motion, I slashed forward. Dark tendrils of energy erupted from the scythe, lashing out like serpents, their forms shifting and reappearing as they sought my opponent. The shadows moved with inhuman speed, seeking to bind her in an unrelenting grasp.

But she wasn't caught off guard.

With a twist of her sword, the fabric of the space bent. Her aura expanded, but her expression remained calm, all while bending the very motions of pretty much everything around her.

Order Magic.

I let out a devilish laugh. "That's it, the power to rend reality at will!"

The shadowy tendrils froze midair, disintegrating into thin wisps of smoke, their momentum brought to an abrupt halt by her control over any movement. I cursed under my breath, but before I could make my next move, she struck.

In a motion so fluid it seemed like time itself had bent to her will, she raised her hand. The very sky above us trembled in response as she wove her magic, calling upon the order of the celestial objects. The air thickened with an unnatural stillness, the stars started blinking out, as though the entire universe held its breath. From the depths of her control, she manifested a single point of focused light, a pinpoint of blazing energy above us. Then, with a flick of her wrist, it fell like a meteor, a spear of pure energy, aimed directly at me.

I couldn't dodge. My movements became slower thanks to her powers. Time itself seemed to drag, slowed by her control. The raging meteor descended with lightning speed, and it was so bright it almost blinded me.

Instinctively, I raised my scythe in defense, summoning a barrier of pure dark energy. The souls I consumed screamed in agony, feeding the storm that formed the barrier between me and her meteor. It collided into mine with a thunderous roar, and the air around us shattered. The force of the impact was enough to send shockwaves rippling through the ground, causing it to crack and splinter beneath my feet.

I pushed back, looking for another way to reassert control.

"You're gonna need a bigger one if you wish to kill me."

I surged forward, now imbuing twice the amount of dark energy on the scythe. I slashed at her, but she was quick. Too quick.

She vanished again. Not a blink. Not a step. Just gone.

Ugh, again with that annoying move.

My scythe carved through empty air, searching for something that was no longer there. My eyes flicked around, my senses stretched to their limits, but the instant I felt her presence—it was already too late.

A force so massive slammed into my side, its sheer weight threatening to crush me. The impact sent me hurtling across the battlefield, my body twisting mid-air as I fought to regain control, barely managing to stand straight.

My feet skidded against the ground, just enough to catch a glimpse of her before she reappeared—sword raised, ready to strike down.

She slashed.

I moved on instinct, raising my scythe in a desperate block, pouring every ounce of my remaining energy into my defense—

But her blade never met mine. Instead, it went through like a smoke. I expected that to end me, but surprisingly, I felt nothing. Only then I realized that the attack was a feint.

"Shit—It's a trap!"

And before I could even register what had happened, her blade was already buried through my chest—a precise, merciless plunge, which I hadn't any second to evade.

A sharp, searing pain tore through my chest when she pulled it out, she was too quick too do it that I wasn't even able to react. My breath hitched. A sickening crack echoed in my ears, and before I could steady myself, the taste of iron flooded my mouth.

I gasped, staggering, as I tighten my grip around the hilt of my scythe. The pain burned inside me, spreading like wildfire across my veins.

"Ugh... she got me—" I noticed that my voice began to waver, barely being able to speak before another surge of pain wracked my whole body. I doubled over, choking on my own breath as blood spilled past my lips. "Gah—!"

I clutched my wound, forcing myself to stay upright, but my vision blurred, darkened at the edges.

The world started spinning, but I stood undefeated. Not here. Not yet.

Seeing me still standing, she went all out, and decided to make the world turn itself against me. Literally.

The stars trembled.

Then, they moved.

She extended her hand, fingers shifting through the air, and, as if hearing her call, the heavens obeyed.

"What the hell—"

The celestial bodies she called forth trembled as their orbits bent to her command. The stars realigned in perfect synchrony, their paths altered with an elegance only she could orchestrate.

A pulse of divine energy rippled through the void. A silent decree.

And then—

The sky fell.

A thousand stars, wrenched from their distant thrones, came plummeting toward me in a dazzling, apocalyptic cascade. Each one seeming like a burning spear of cosmic judgment, their light swallowing the darkness in the way, hurling towards me with an unstoppable force.

I stood frozen.

My mind screamed at me to move, to react, to do something. But my body refused. I could only watch as they fell upon me.

And she was just... there. Hovering above, watching me with quiet finality. She lifted her sword once more, its gleam shrouded by the radiance of her celestial storm.

Then came the second strike.

A downward slash—no hesitation, no mercy.

She moved with the elegance of a Goddess in motion, her steps were beyond graceful that it reminded me of a stream of water flowing past smooth stones.

Her blade shimmered, infused with aether magic, one of the forces that was used in shaping all creations. As she swung, the very air trembled, and the space thinned beneath the weight of her strike. With a final, absolute stroke, she did not just cut—she severed.

And I, the so-called Sovereign of the Abyss, was nothing before it.

Then came the second strike.

A downward slash. Unrelenting.

I swung my scythe in desperation, summoning all my remaining force.

Dark lightning roared to life, crackling and surging around me in a violent storm. Bolts of raw energy lashed out, splitting the air with deafening cracks, their brilliance illuminating the shattered battlefield. The sheer force sent shockwaves rippling through the ground, deep fissures forming beneath my feet as the entire landscape groaned under the pressure.

Ah, to die like this...

This was my last defense, the final surge of power standing between me and utter defeat.

And yet—

She barely moved. Not one bit bothered.

With a single, effortless motion, she lifted only a single hand—not to block, not to evade.

But to erase.

The moment her will touched my magic, the lightning—ceased.

It wasn't just dispersed, nor was it deflected. It was unmade.

Like it had never existed in the first place.

My breath hitched for the nth time, a sliver of something foreign crawling up my spine—doubt.

And then, before I could even breathe, her blade found its second mark.

Agony exploded in my chest.

Time slowed, sound dulled. My gaze drifted downward—her blade was inside me, piercing through flesh, bone, and something deeper.

She wasn't finished.

She lifted her free hand, fingers closing into a slow, deliberate fist.

I felt it instantly... an absolute force dictating that I should not move.

Not because I was weak.

Not because I was dying.

But because she would not allow it.

"You are far too weak to defeat me," she murmured. "You disappoint me, Ruler of the Outworld."

Then she willed it.

When I felt that my energy has been completely depleted, my grip on the scythe loosened, until it finally let go.

A single, sharp crack rang through the air.

I felt it before I saw it. The stygian, my power, everything, fracturing from the inside out.

The souls within my body wailed, their agonized screams clawing through my mind, their voices twisting in horror, pleading, desperate...

Then—

Shatter.

A soundless wail echoed through the void as the fragments dissolved into nothing, vanishing like dying embers swallowed by the abyss. A ragged breath tore from my lips, my chest heaving as the realization sank in.

A breath... ragged and broken—escaped my lips.

The darkness, the voices, the power I had wielded for eons… gone.

I collapsed to one knee. My fingers curled over empty air, grasping for something that no longer existed.

She stepped back, her expression unreadable. Neither triumph nor pity. Only quiet, absolute certainty.

"You fought well," she said, her voice like the hum of celestial spheres in perfect harmony. "But you were never meant to win."

And finally, with my passing, the order of the universe will be restored.

And for the first time in eternity—

I had lost.

But just as I began to comprehend the weight of my defeat, her voice cut through the stillness once more.

"This is not the outcome I desired."

I looked up, my body heavy, my breath shallow.

"I freed you," she continued, her tone as measured as ever. "But you did not free me."

The space around her shifted. But this time, the energy I felt from her is different.

"So, we shall begin again."

A flick of her wrist. The broken remains of the landscape were brought back to form, and the horde of stars she threw at me earlier suddenly began to go back. Like everything that just happened is rewinding... going back to where they belong.

"I will turn back time—back to the moment when you were still at your weakest. And you will not remember any of this, including me. But this time, I will train you. Mold you. Until you will become strong enough to defeat me."

And just like that, with a single wave of her hand, everything went back in time.