Act 1: ch.25 Grudge Match

Act 1: Ch.25 - Grudge Match

"You, ok?" I asked, Lazuli still looked slightly disorientated.

She nodded.

"Yeah, I think so but…"

She paused as a concerned look flashed in her face.

"I've never felt something like that. Fear so strong that it's like an ic-"

"An icy hand gripping onto your heart." I said, finishing her sentence. "I felt the same thing along with that paranoia."

"Something's off." Lazuli said, adjusting her glasses while putting her fingers to her chin before pacing back and forth. "That was not just some Skill, nor a kind of Ethos based ability."

"Your right." I said, realising the same thing. "I couldn't sense Ethos of any kind during that. But that's impossible, only another Ethorian's abilities can effect another Ethorian."

"Wait a minute." Lazuli said quickly, holding up a finger. "What if there's a being that transcends Ethos itself?"

I shook my head.

"Not possible. Ethos transcends all laws, principles along with the entirety of logic itself. The only being that could transcend that would be…" I trailed off before realising what Lazuli was suggesting. "No way."

"Yep."

"The Celestial Ethos!? Are you insane!?"

"It's the only other thing that it could be." Lazuli said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Hang on, isn't the Celestial Ethos an almighty Ethos themselves?"

Incorrect my fine fellow.

Huh?

While they are commonly referred to as the Celestial ETHOS, they aren't actually from the species of Ethos themselves. It's only gotten that name because it's the creator and of Ethos. It's a different kind of being all together that transcends us, a species that laughs in the face of things like logic.

"Yep, that'd do it." Lazuli said sounding very sure of herself.

"I assume your Ethos explained to you as well?"

"Uh huh."

"But why would the Celestial Ethos even come here?"

The Celestial Ethos Kuni, is a being far beyond our comprehension. Even us, it's children cannot even begin to understand it. I believe only a handful in of our kind have seen it.

I guess that makes sense.

"There's no point dwelling on it now." Lazuli said suddenly sounding very tired. "Let's just try to-"

She was interrupted as two aura's, one silver and one that was golden orange and purple, crashed through the fabric of The Beyond. They zipped here and there so fast I could barely follow as they crashed through the different land masses like an avalanche.

"Mother of god!" I yelped in surprise as The Beyond of the Abyss Omega shook so violently that Lazuli and I nearly fell over.

There was a massive boom before a silver blur and as launched from the Realities and crashed into the land mass not far from where we stood. As the dust cleared a figure unraveled itself from the crater it was in before standing up and surveying its surroundings.

It's the leader of the Demoreals we've been fighting, isn't he?

His name is Falce Tungsten.

Falce hadn't noticed us yet so I slowly and quietly materialised one of my shotguns in my hand and took aim.

"Don't!" Lazuli hissed in a hushed voice, placing her hand on the barrel of the weapon and forcing it down. "Falce is in a completely different league Kuni. He'll kill you instantly and while only hold out for a few seconds before I join you."

I looked at the seriousness in her eyes and then at Falce who still hadn't noticed us. He was tall, lean and had an intimidating aura around him but so did the other Demoreals.

Look at his face Kuni.

Oh.

I noticed the large scar he had along with his eyes. Those amber eyes that practically bore into my soul even though he wasn't looking at me.

They're like Nova's eyes.

Except Falce's was different. Nova's were cold but Falce's were burning hot. Filled with a fire that I could almost feel the heat of. It was clear that Falce was no normal individual. In my life as an assassin, I'd seen eyes like this before. His eyes were that of someone with a great passion for fighting and bloodshed along with a confidence and pride that could not be humbled. People like that were relentless making them incredibly dangerous.

Not only that but it seems he also has incredible Ethos control. He is more than likely at least ten times stronger than he's letting on.

Falce turned and spotted us. Those amber eyes locking onto us like searchlights. He grinned.

"Lucky me." He said quietly.

The grin sent a shiver down my spine that scared both Lazuli and I so much that we were frozen to the ground.

Falce took one step towards us before that same leg suddenly exploded in a shower of gore. He fell down onto his hands and knees, but his face didn't seem to register what had happened as if it was just some mere annoyance.

"Really?" He said sarcastically. "That's the most creative thing you could think of?"

I realised Falce was actually talking past us to someone that was behind our backs.

Nova suddenly appeared inches away from the Demoreal just as his leg finished healing. They hosted at each other with Falce tilting his head down slightly to look into Nova's blue eyes.

It was at that moment that I realised Nova was furious.

Falce's grin revealed perfect white teeth as he stared down at me. It was irritating and I was now in a very bad mood.

"This fight is between us." I said in an unnaturally calm tone. "Let's keep it that way."

"Or what?" Falce sniggered, leaning in closer so that our noses were almost touching.

It was then when I lost my cool for a moment and punched his head off. The head exploded like a watermelon on impact as the body was sent flying across the land mass.

Bit much there don't you think.

I don't think so. That's not even a scratch for Falce here.

Confirming my statement, Falce's body emerged from the dust with a new head on his shoulders as if nothing had ever happened.

"Let's pick up where we left off!" He yelled in a raspy shout before throwing his scythe at me like a shuriken.

It curved so that it came at me from the side in an instant, but I leaned back and dodged it.

Like a boomerang, the scythe came straight back to Falce how charged forward before jumping in the air, catching it.

"Lazuli, Kuni! Get away now unless you want to be collateral damage!" I shouted which snapped them out of whatever trance they had previously been in. They nodded and flew away as quickly as they could.

"You're focusing on the wrong thing?" Falce yelled swinging his scythe, trying to split me in half.

I stepped to the side while landing a right hook to his cheek, the impact and shockwave destroying most of the land mass behind Falce. He brushed it off quickly and ducked my second punch before kicking me in the chest. It sent me flying straight through a Reality and into a land mass.

Two – no, three broken ribs. Should be fine.

I pushed off the land mass, flying straight for Falce who was cackling like a manic. I formed two crimson blades that were attached to chains which appeared from the palms of my hands. I threw blades up in the air, chains trailing behind them, as I flew down to Falce before swinging them down as I landed. The land mass split in two as dust and debris exploded everywhere.

Falce lunged from the dust at me, but I was ready. We clashed as I swung the blades at him while he swung his scythe at me. We danced across the land masses in a majestic flurry of slashes and clashes.

He dodged one of the blades and tried to get in close, but I threw the the other one, wrapping it around his leg. I swung him up into the air, over my head before smashing him back down onto the other side of me.

"Hope you like rollercoasters!" I yelled before swinging him again.

He was dragged across the ground before I released his leg which sent him crashing through Reality after Reality.

Don't let him up!

Planning on it!

I threw the blades up into the again before throwing them forward as hard as I could hoping to spear him.

The blades were met with Falce's scythe which jolted their movement before Falce rocketed in between the blades. He was on me in an instant, his fist glowing with a silver aura as he smashed it into my gut. The punch catapulted me upwards and out of the Abyss Omega, into the first Delta-Realm. Falce rocketed after me but jumped over him before then pushing myself off his back, sending myself flying backwards.

"You aren't getting away my friend." Falce jeered, sharply turning around.

I threw the chained blades behind me as Falce began to charge down towards me, spinning his scythe like a blender. Each chained blade wrapped itself around an Omega diagonally behind me.

"You can spin that scythe all you want but it'll do you no good!" I roared as I crossed my arms and flung the two Omegas up from behind me.

Falce was taken completely off guard as he was, he caught between the two massive constructs colliding and smashing into each other and himself. The Omegas exploded on impact, the explosion vaporising a hole right through the fabric of multiple Delta-Realms while the entire infinite hierarchy of Delta-Realms shook violently.

I stabilised myself before lunging forwards into the fading explosion. I found a horribly burned Falce.

"Let's go higher, shall we?" I hissed while grabbing his face.

I flew higher and higher, through the infinite hierarchies of the Chaos Void, dragging Falce's face across the fabric of the different Realms. We smashed into the first Outer-Realm before his scythe slashed my hand and I let him go.

"You bastard." He growled, fully healed, before punching me in the chin in an uppercut motion with the but end of the scythe.

My head jerked up violently before I grabbed the scythe and pulled him in, slamming a fist into his throat. He was blasted far into the next hierarchy of Inner-Realms where I followed in quick pursuit, are fists clashed and shattered the entirety of the infinite hierarchies of both Inner-Realms and Delta-Realms. Now finding ourselves in the second Outer-Realm, we continued to exchange blows. I threw my chained blades around like a viscous blender while Falce parried and blocked my attacks with his scythe but constantly failed to get in close enough to land a hit.

I threw both blades at him at once. They sailed towards him like a snake striking its prey. He leaped into the air, turning on his side, dodging the blades but they curved upwards before flying back down like a tidal wave. The chains wrapped his legs together and his arms tightly to his body. I hurled him towards me and slammed my fist so hard into his stomach that it buried itself within his guts.

A searing pain scratched itself deeply into my back as Falce's body disappeared from sight as if it never had existed.

A clone!?

I whipped round to find Falce grinning, his scythe dripping with my blood. His left eye had the symbol of the queen chess piece while the rims around his eyes were a shining silver.

I went to throw a punch, but my arm suddenly moved to the side as Falce lunged forward. I nullified the first attack using my control over causality to reduce his leg to pieces of paper as the result of kicking me in the chest, but I could not stop the second. A fist, like a rocket, crashed into my jaw and nearly blew it clean off as I was sent sprawling across the Outer-Realm before I threw my chained blades out. The dug into the fabric of the realm as I grabbed the chains, bringing me to a stop.

"I think it's time we got a bit more serious, don't you?" Falce said, his fiery amber eyes glowing while he grinned like a maniac.

You want me to step in Nova?

I thought for a moment as I gently swung the chained blades either side of me.

I do actually but not yet Unus.

When then?

I'll give you a signal, you'll know what it is when you hear it.

"I was thinking the exact same." I called back to Falce as I dematerialised the chained blades from existence causing Falce to raise an eyebrow.

"You going to fight me bare handed? I would've thought you getting serious would be you using some big sword." He said, sounding confused.

I felt myself almost smile as I got into a standard fighting stance while I stared at Falce, removing my façade and revealing my cold, expressionless face.

"Trust me. This is me getting serious."