82 Extinction

The sword that hit me was so strong that my head wasn't slashed. It exploded from the strength in the swing. Like an explosion just bopped. The death was short and I instantly appeared where we began before. The being now also in the same place, but he had the red glow from the start.

"So, we are finally having real fun again huh. Sorry to keep you waiting." The moment when I said it, I started moving towards the thing smiling, I felt the air blowing through the strands of my white hair. A wave of silver between the yellow sands, the flesh in front of me having the same, but still nothing on its face. I wonder how many defeats it will take to see what he is actually hiding. I started running at him. Just straight running, not scared of death, not scared of pain connected with it. In this place I am not afraid of anything, I have died 207 times now. Nothing can stop me now, no pain will surge and make a real effect on me. What would one more death do?

Now I realize how far I've gone, and I didn't die 207 times because I am still here. Getting put to a stage close to death then healing me over and over again for hundred times and now this, it took me 100 deaths to advance from the first stage to the second permanently. It took me so long… How long will it take me now? I need to learn his patterns now and not rush at him ruthlessly. For now, I've seen 4 weapons of his in the red, the stave, the sickle, the gauntlets, and the one handed sword. All of those had devastating power, one of a kind at that. Destroying me, no chance in any of the attempts when I fought with him. Indeed the second stage is immensely stronger than the first one, a lot faster, stronger, and feels a little more intelligent.

I then stopped running right before he would wake up and start fighting me. It's pointless to fight him straight on. Since he is more intelligent I also have to create some strategy to fight. When I come to a specific place the fight triggers, he stands up and starts running at me most of the time. He creates a weapon, one of… I don't know how many. And starts fighting with me in one way or another. It seems very straight forward, it is, but something needs to be behind the weapons he chooses. Is there a pattern in which he chooses? I've seen him use other weapons though but in the worse state. It's weird how he just kills me so quickly now even after such training.

Looking at the sky there are no clouds. Sky clear, just a cyan screen, there is nothing else that could change the view. I laid down on the ground and just looked up. Disappearing in the blue sky, being consumed by it. No more thoughts could be heard. Just the wind blowing into my face, sand flowing above my head and entering my mouth creating the unpleasant feeling of the rocks between my teeth. An idea, a short, weird but genuine idea came to my mind. What if I fight him barehanded? I stood up and threw the weapon away. But when my eyes opened in the direction of that thing, it did exactly what I did.

"What? Are you copying me?" There was no answer so I started walking towards him, he did the same. I was next to him face to face, flesh to flesh, bones to bones. I raised my hand, he followed, my hand started slowly going forward, his as well. Our fingers touched, and both of us were blown away by hundreds of meters. I was flying so long and so far that even the sand itself found its end. I was between the desert and a rocky space. "Where am I..." I whispered under my nose and went to the rocky wasteland. I wanted to go back to the desert but I found it rather boring. So I went in the direction of the rocks, mountains, and very hot weather with some lava pools scattered around. Extremely hot, a lot hotter than that desert. I was just walking, my feet hot, felt like burning to an extreme level. I started running to change the feet so that they won't burn. Slowly but surely besides some large rocky mountains and lava pools. Some other things on the ground, some dark bricks. I ignored that since I thought it was insignificant, just going forward. But the further I went the more remnants of some old buildings could be seen. Even a part of the clock tower with the clock itself, what time was it? None, the clock was going rapidly without stopping.

More steps, more destroyed parts of some cities, I looked at it closely. But there was nothing truly significant to find there. So I just went further, and slowly a hole was appearing on my horizon. A large hole completely black, swallowing everything that resembled any colors. Even the sun's own shine wasn't there. Just devoured. And when I was already approaching it, when I was right in front of that hole. Something terrifying was in there, complete pitch black. I stared into it for several seconds, it felt so… Empty, I felt as if I was a part of it myself. Being a part of that darkness myself, disappearing and just becoming one. But I spotted a single white strand, it saved me from just becoming one with it. It put me out of something weird, I didn't even know where I was but at least the white spot helped me with escaping whatever it was. Now, it all became a little lighter but still disturbing. I went a little to the right of the hole and saw something. It was a wooden sign several meters away from me, I went in its direction, half of the sign was gone but the other was still there. It said 'city of…' the other part was covered in dark ash which I couldn't clean. It was kind of imbued with it.

"Jesus… Who could've done something like this? Everything just… Perished completely." I went even more to the right and then saw a human shaped silhouette. Approaching it gave me chills but it was not scary, just clearly disturbing. It was a woman, her hair was also dark. I touched it, and the dark thing became larger and larger and at one point a sound of clicking was there. I ran away from it, my intuition told me that something wasn't right. So I ran back and when I was far away enough, the dark human exploded. Making a big hole as well.

"Wait… Is it… 'His' city? The devil's?" I said it to no one, the hole in the ground then felt even larger. A lot larger. The scale of that hole was that of my own city, thousands of people… And it all was just a dark crater. This hole was created by… The exploding humans. How many people were in this place before that guy did that? It must've been several hundreds of people or maybe even thousands of people that exploded and created the hole. If I was to fall there I would surely die, god… How could you let something like this happen? This massacre. I went a little further, I had to leave this place behind and proceed somewhere. I don't want to look there anymore.

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After another, while I entered some woods, they were completely covered in ash. All trees were covered in it and the ash was also in the air, filling my lungs and making me cough. Then voices could be heard throughout the entire space of plain existence, anywhere around. Dark ghosts also appeared and were flying around, remnants of the humanity of that place probably. The screams now became more annoying and elaborate in their saying. Some were talking about someone forsaking them a long time ago and leaving them to die, some people were just straight screaming for help. Women were mostly screaming like banshees almost destroying my eardrums. And within those screams, I heard Flora's soothing voice.

"Wait… Why is she there? She didn't die in this place." I came closer to her and heard her crying. I have no idea why she is here, she only cried here, didn't move. "Flora, why are you here?" When she turned, from all of the dark ghosts, she had no eyes. Why? What is going on in this place?

Something slapped me at this moment, again and again. Repeatedly, it wasn't the ghosts nor something so fast that I didn't see. Those were people from the outside, unexpectedly. Estel was the one slapping and was the one wanting me to wake up.

"Hayden, are you okay?" His pitched voice pierced through the thick wall of my mind. And so… I was woken up.