15.

Tony

“What is this dude made of?!”, I shout angrily as my fifth bat shatters in his palm. He teleports behind me in and in one swift motion, he kicked me to the ground. Damn. I haven’t been able to land one hit since we started fighting. His control over space made that pretty hard. I couldn’t get close to him before the space between us stretched and I was immediately back where I started.

Sometimes he almost trapped me in a pocket of space and shrank it into nothingness. I was just barely evading him and kept on falling for his traps. Whenever he allowed me to get on close, it meant he just wanted to fooled into thinking I had a chance, then he would turn the tables with a sudden wormhole, or a generated singularity, one that crushed everything in its path. He was wearing me down, bit by bit. That was the only advantage I had, if I could even call it that.

Despite the current situation, I was still looking around for Míriel. I didn’t see her leave the ship after we crashed. For all I knew, she could still be in there. A bright flash of blue in my peripheral vision told me that Zurvan was attacking again, with another singularity. I leapt away, but this time, the space seemed to stretch again, slowing my escape. Zurvan appeared in front of me, grabbing my face and tossing me back into the singularity. I probably would have been dead if not for the protective aura the shard gave me, but the pain was indescribable.

I fell to the ground, squirming in pain. It was like every part of my body had been flayed, sprinkled with salt, and then beaten with mallets, then multiply that by a hundred. In spite of the pain, I was able to zip away before Zurvan was able to use his heel to crush my skull. This guy was relentless. For a split second I looked to where X was. He was much busier than I was, fending off two primordials. Man, and here I was struggling to face off with one. If I wasn’t facing death like this, X would laugh his ass off and probably sit with popcorn, until the fight was over. That split second cost me, as a fist dislocated my jaw and sent me spiralling downward. I hit the ground with a thud, waiting for my dislocated jaw to snap back on.

“Ow, man.”, I stood, rubbing my now numb jaw. He rushed at me again, but this time, we were on solid ground, the best place for hand to hand combat. I parried his first strike and got in close. No way he could dodge from this distance. “Fist of the Shard: Binary Quasar!” My already glowing fist struck his face with full force, releasing my condensed shard energy point blank into his face. He gets pushed back with tremendous force. And then, I rush at him again, releasing the second quasar through his torso. The explosion pushes even me back. I see his figure fall out of the sky and onto the ground. I walk over to where his body is, but nothing is there. What the– The sounds of my ribs breaking causes me to stop talking for a split second. I feel myself get flung in the opposite direction as I feel a kick connect with my lower torso. I hit a nearby mountain and cough up blood, but before I can even react, he is already there, grabbing me by the neck and slamming me into the ground mercilessly.

How did he get so fast?

I start conjuring every weapon in my arsenal, trying to loosen his grip on my neck. I was already starting to lose consciousness, his attacks getting fiercer every second. I was already mangled beyond recognition, but I felt myself healing slowly. Zurvan let go of me and jumped high into the air, a hammer appearing in his hand. A distant memory of X teaching me of divine weapons came to mind.

“The weapons that are attuned to gods, or primordials, capable of incredible feats, like the spear of Ra, used to keep Apophis, the dweller of the void away, or Zurvan's hammer, the one that legends say was used to mend the expanse of space and time, after the Schism, when gods separated and built their different pantheons. It was said that Zurvan used his hammer to re-forge the space-time continuum, returning it to it’s original state. A weapon capable of breaking and reshaping reality itself.”

Wait, that’s it?

The hammer itself was made of some unknown material, that gleamed and shimmered. The handle was long and slender, while the head of the hammer was massive, with multiple inscriptions on it. He swung the hammer once in my direction, and I felt my legs disappear from under me. I sank to the ground, face first. What was that attack? I didn’t even sense it!

Another swing, and my hands were gone. I screamed in pain and instinctively created an orb around myself, to allow my body regenerate, but again, he swung the hammer and my shield  disappeared , leaving me open. My newly regrown legs are immediately whisked away again by some invisible force and I fall again to the ground. He could kill me at any time, I know that now, he’s just playing with his food. As I fall, I concentrate all my energy into one sporadic burst. This was my last ditch effort before my body gave up on me. My body flared with shard energy as my limbs grew back with lightning speed. I crossed the distance between us in milliseconds and was about to kick him with an improvised explosive kick, when I felt my leg connect with something solid. The hammer.

Zurvan tapped the handle of the hammer once, and I felt my entire lower body, from the neck down, get erased. It was now I finally realised what he was doing. He was erasing the space around my body. Too late for that, now though. My head fell down to the ground, rolled a bit, then came to a stop, facing upward. Zurvan’s eyes blazed with murderous intent as he raised the hammer once again. If I could talk, I would have screamed curses at him, but I just lay there, just slowly losing consciousness The sounds of battle faded into the background and just lay there, lay, was the best word I could come up with seeing that I had no body.

Suddenly everything went black, but I was sure I was still alive. I couldn’t feel anything, or even hear, but still the thought of me being alive was constant in my mind. Maybe it was just me, hoping that I wasn’t dead. I knew X would blame himself till time ended. And Míriel...I didn’t even get to kiss her...I have to be alive, for them, if not anything else.

“Hello?!” I yelled into the abyss, suddenly realizing that I could speak again. Almost immediately, realized my entire body was intact, my arms, legs... everything. Not a scratch was on me, either. What was happening?

“Tony”, came the voice. Then all of a sudden, I was floating past stars, galaxies, and planets. I shut my eyes at the intensity of the light as I sped past them at unimaginable speeds. Then, all at once, it was gone, save for a warm glow. I opened my eyes to find my self staring at a supernova. It was massive, dwarfing whole galaxies. The explosion seemed to be happening in slow motion, but it never reached me. I was about to start talking, when it spoke. “Bearer of the Shard.” It’s voice was like a million people screaming into microphone at the same time, and it was right in my ear. I winced in pain and pulled my hands over my ear, to no avail. The voice was in my head.

“The battle rages, and you are about to fall asleep?”, came the voice again, softer, but laced with disappointment. Not the first time, it wasn’t like I was here for any noble cause. I joined X because this life was way more fun than the life I led before. Sure, parties were fun, but not planet-wide battles fun. I wasn’t obligated to help. If I was going to fight, I would fight because I wanted to, not because of the universe was at stake. Besides, X was doing fine on his own, he didn’t need me there. I would slow him down mostly and probably get killed in the process. And last I checked, I didn’t even have a goddamn body anymore. I stared down the supernova-thing, awkward cause I was like a speck in its eyes, if it had any.

“It’s none of your business, whoever you are, by the way, who are you, and why am I here?” It paused, as if offended. The supernova seemed to change from its bright orange to a darker shade.

“I am the owner of the power you possess, mortal.”, came the reply. “I am Ente.” . I thought X said he was dead though. Or maybe he didn’t, I didn’t really pay attention during the first lessons, too fixated on learning shard energy. “I thought you were dead.”, I reply, still trying to remember what Tony had said. There came a billowing laugh, like the roar of a waterfall. “Die?”, he asked, the supernova-thing shrinking so quickly that it was my size in seconds.

The body was translucent and I saw what I could only describe to be a universe inside his body. It shifted and shimmered, and floated, cross-legged in front of me. “As long as my mind lives, I am not really dead, just incapacitated.” His form floated closer towards me. I felt a burning sensation in my chest as my shard resonated with him. I felt my limiters break as the shard burnt through me, filling me with power. I clenched my fists and teeth as pain coursed through my body, my flesh started bruising and my bones started breaking from the immense pressure. Just when I was about to give in and scream, he waved his hand and the pressure stopped. My broken body automatically started to heal and I gasped in pain.

“What the hell, Ente!?”, I yelled I anger from where I was. He cocked his face towards me and sighed. “You want to be stronger, don’t you?”

The question hit me hard. How...”I know you’ve been training to be as strong as X, but then after what just happened with Zurvan...” He trailed off, allowing me to complete the sentence within. I felt powerless, as Zurvan almost mauled me to death. I didn’t even know how I was still alive. Maybe it’s because of this guy with the overly loud voice. I wanted to be like that. Strong enough to defeat anyone that opposed me, and without a care in the world.

“Yes, I do. What’s wrong with that?”, I fired back indignantly. I was tired of people telling me what was right or wrong. They could all go to hell for all I care. But then, Ente nodded his head approvingly. “Very good Tony, What I did to you, just increased your shard output exponentially.” He turned away and started fading.

“What you do now, is up to you.”, he said, and I was pulled back past all the stars and galaxies. I opened my eyes and Zurvan was about to swing down on me with full force. Almost no time had passed, but I knew what I had to do. I fired two concentrated blasts of energy at him from my eyes and it hit him square in the chest. He was flung back a little bit away and stared at me, his blue eyes sizing me up. My head floated up to his level as I stared at him with determination. I will beat you, Zurvan. In a flash, my body was back and I fired a beam of energy at him again. He erased the space around my attack, and swung the hammer at me.

Now, I could sense the attack and dodged it. My senses had been enhanced even further, now I could even sense spatial collapse. Interesting. I formed my katana and boosted my speed, going past Zurvan in a flash, and then turning around and slashing him from behind. As I expected, the space around the attack was erased and he tuned around to face me, swinging the hammer at me with incredible speed. I jumped back, sensing the attack again. 

“Ah, I see. That’s how” The hammer changed direction mid-swing, my head the new target of his attack. It was too close for me to dodge, but... “The hammer collided with the top of my head with tremendous force, but it never actually touched me. The hammer sank into a wormhole, carrying all that momentum into the exit wormhole, at the back of Zurvan’s head. His head blew off with concussive force and I was pushed back, but it didn’t matter. My gamble had worked perfectly, although I had to learn wormhole creation a whim.

Curse you X, you should have taught me this since.

I watch Zurvan’s headless body fall to the ground along with his hammer. I walked over to confirm his death and sure enough, his body was fading away, with his hammer. I touch the handle and lift it up. It seemed nice, and that space erasing ability would come in handy. I closed my eyes and focused my energy into the hammer, rebuilding it, but halfway, I had my misgivings about having a hammer, so I opted for a staff, making sure to trap Zurvan’s essence in. It glowed and pulsed with a light blue glow, and then disappeared. I figured that it was mine now, and I could summon it anytime I needed it. Hehe...X's gonna flip when I tell him about this.

Suddenly, I felt dizzy, falling to one knee. My body had reached its limits a long time ago, and now the backlash was setting in. I fell down immediately, unable to move a muscle. The rest of the world faded to black.

When I came to, I wasn’t facing downward anymore, but I still couldn’t move. I slowly took in my surroundings, remembering all the events that transpired before I passed out. I can hear breathing, but I don’t recognise who it is just yet, as was still woozy. My eyes start adjusting and I finally get a good look at where I am. I was behind Ko’vren. It was crashed and mangled, but I could recognise that sleek body anywhere.

I started to get some feeling in my legs and tried sitting up, when a hand eased me back down. “You can’t get up yet”, Míriel commands. My eyes finally focus on her stern face, and those green, beautiful eyes.

“Where....?”, I ask weakly. She explained that she was knocked out when Ko’vren crashed, only waking up when she was jolted awake by a large explosion. She saw my unconscious body and dragged me back to Ko’vren. I remained silent and looked up and I could see the sky above as the battle raged on. It wasn’t getting any better. Horus was gone. I knew that because, the sky had gone dull again, the warm glow was gone. Eistibus’ flaming wheel was gone , replaced with a flaming sword the size of a building. It was impaled in the shadow's chest. Zeus was still there, his usual grin now gone. His face was a mask of pain and hatred. M’gethir stayed at a distance, supporting them both by hurling nearby planets at the creature’s face.

They seemed to be working perfectly in sync with each other, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t last, and soon my fears were confirmed. In an instant, the large figure imploded in on itself. I thought it was weakened in some way until there was a bright purple flash and a shockwave tore through the area. Almost immediately, the bodies of all the remaining Arch-mages and gods fell to the ground.

M’gethir crashed into the ground beside us, his face into the ground. He was badly bruised, his skinny body heaving slightly as he let out laboured breaths. Míriel scrambled toward him, turning him over and shaking him profusely. “Father? Can you hear me?” He let out a sigh, but didn’t stand up. X landed in front of me, still in his battle stance as something landed a few hundred feet from us. It was terrifying. It’s body was made of some ethereal material that shimmered and glowed purple. He had no features save for three crystals that floated behind him. I gasped as I realized what they were.

Shards.

But different, more sinister. My shard didn’t even resonate with it, and they shone with an ominous purple. It wasn’t grinning either. For some reason, that chilled me more. In a flash it grabbed X and threw him to the side. I stood, ignoring Míriel’s protests and broke my limiters. I was grateful to Ente at this point Whatever he did to me took immediate effect, and the effects were amazing. I did feel much stronger, and faster. I rushed at him, my leg connecting with his neck, snapping it and launching him miles away.

“I had that.”, came X’s voice. His white hair was still burning bright, but the rest of him was beat up, he looked tired, and it looked like he was struggling to even stay on his two feet. “Sure you did”, I reply with a smirk. He ignored the smirk I had plastered on my face and started limping towards the crash site. "Where is the Mind?”, he asked urgently. Before I could even reply, he was already talking. We...we can’t win, we need to escape, now and we need to take the Mind with us, he can’t get his hands on it.

Barely were the words out of his mouth when I felt a tremendous amount of force weigh on me. I couldn’t move and focused all my effort on resisting the force just enough that my body wasn’t reduced to a pulp. The creature knocked X over into the ground before he could slash at it. There was a flash of green and I saw Míriel behind him, plunging her blades into its back. It didn’t so much as flinch as it waved it’s hands and she was flung backwards and suspended in the air. It stood there not even turning to face her. Then a spike grew out of its back and pierced her chest.

I stopped breathing. There was a faint sound somewhere in the background. It was me screaming. Míriel’s lifeless body fell to the ground . X looked in horror as blood pooled around her. I just kept screaming, unable to think or process the image in front of me. My eyes saw it, but my mind refused to accept the image. Then I saw it standing over her, its grin returned. I broke at that moment. My body’s limit for shard energy had been passed. I started pushing against the pressure of that creature. Then I broke through, raving mad and lunged at it.

I wanted to make it pay, to rip it in half and make it suffer unimaginable pain. A spike went through my face. I broke it off, and kept going, regenerating all the while. More spikes drove through me as I kept running towards me. My limbs were getting ripped off, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t dodge them, so I decided to take them head on. He was the only thing I cared about now. But...

“Lazatahr”, came X’s voice. It was hollow and tired, exhausted even. That was probably his last spell. He was out of juice. I blinked, and I was sitting on some wasteland planet, with a ship beside me. I was in a daze as I stood and looked around. It was Arrath. The eerie blue moon greeted me. I walked inside the ship and looked around. It took me a while to walk around the ship...it was massive, but I found the centrepiece of the ship. The Mind. It glowed with a very bright blue.And it looked the same way I saw it in the vision. A mid explosion supernova. It was much smaller, but still dwarfed me. I looked at it for a while before going to the command desk and instructing the ship to jump back to Le’uthara.

Then I sat down and cried.