CRACK!

BAM!

WHAM!

SHINK!

“Guh-! No! This- you- I- Master! Please! It's your beloved student! Y-you can’t kill me here!” Desolated wasteland was all that could be seen for hundreds of miles as fires and corpses littered the sand. It looked like a nuke had been set off, if it wasn’t for the fact that several fires were blue, purple, white, or a mix of all the colors. The air seemed to vibrate with power as a man, seemingly young with only a hint of wrinkles on his face, coughed as he stared at a sword stabbed cleanly through his chest, spat up blood onto the ground. His eyes seemed to burn with an eternal inferno as he gasped for air desperately. Behind him, another, much older, man, the one that was wielding the sword, tightened his grips as his own eyes, a fading firestorm raging in his eyes, shed some tears as he gritted his teeth. His long, white hair and beard seemed to float as he shouted with rage at the injured man.

“Oh, I can! For your crimes and murders of your fellow gods, YOU ARE BANISHED FROM THIS WORLD AND NO LONGER MY STUDENT! We were all so happy! And you. YOU TOOK MY LIFE. MY FAMILY. MY WIFE!” The last words seemed to explode the air with power as the ground around them exploded, energy radiating from the old man as his fire roared in anger. For just a single moment, despite his title, his mind strayed from the fight for the first time in centuries as a memory resurfaced from his extraordinarily long life.

For a second, all he could imagine was blonde hair that smelled like that of the sea.

That second, in turn, almost killed him.

CLANK!

RIIIP!

SPLURCH!

“HA HA HA HA! Despite what you told me, it seems like you have forgotten about how a fight works, God of Rage!” The former student mocked as he cackled triumphantly, having turned the battle literally as he had spun around, ripped the sword out from his chest, before plunging it into his ex-master’s own chest. The old master groaned as his sword he wielded in countless battles betrayed him. Curse it all! How could he have been so foolish! To think that he had become stupid enough to lose his focus while his opponent wasn’t yet dead!

“Hm…? You’re still clinging to your pathetic life? Heh… I would say that’s admirable… if it wasn’t so pointless!” He twisted the blade, causing the master to groan in pain once more as he slumped down to his knees. His fire twisting and turning wildly in his eyes, the young man stared at the old man with a look in his eyes that would’ve made even the bravest shiver.

“You know what? I’m going to give you a deal. I can kill you right now, as painlessly and as quickly as I can. In addition, I’ll try to stay out of the spotlight. I’ll only just barely mess with the… pathetic bugs that we call… ‘humans.’ If you don’t accept… well, your willpower won’t be enough to save you from this mess this time.”

He leaned down and gripped the old man’s hair. He raised the ancient man’s head next to his, he whispered into his very first, and very last, master’s ear as the poor man heaved and sputtered out blood as the pain began consuming him fully.

“So, old man. What do you say?”