Chapter 16 : The God of the Dead

The next day, being a sunny day, started out with Satoru and Karoi meeting atop a building in the village.

"Is Jinn handling things well? Specifically, being in control?" asked the sensei his student, hoping for a specific answer that's beneficial to him.

"Yes." he replied.

"And Anubis-" Karoi stopped himself since he noticed Zankoku climbing the building and coming up to them, waving and greeting them with : "Hey guys!" coming up to them. "So what you talking about?"

Coming up with something quickly, Karoi told him : "About the rank up exams that are to take place soon enough." 

Thinking that it was a squad meeting, Nova got there too with the sensei being secretly annoyed and asking them if they're ready for the rank up exams and them starting to talk about how they trained for them and that they believe that they're still not there. Letting them yap for a minute, Karoi looked at Satoru and spoke up.

"Satoru, can you come with me for a second, I'd like to speak with you privately." he said, with both of them disengaging from the other two, leaving off to the same chilly cave where they were 2 days ago, the one with the wooden platform and the large deep water.

"What is it?" asked the white haired boy, with the sensei going to the edge of the wooden platform.

"I'll need to do a state checkup on Korama and I'd like for you to return back here in a few minutes if you don't mind." he said, turning his head right in the direction of him.

"No problem." Satoru said, leaving the cave immediately and walking around outside on the grass even playfully practicing his jabs for a few minutes before returning back inside the chilly cave and seeing Karoi sitting down on a circular wooden chair.

"Seems that Korama is angry at Jinn, but specifically the half that is inside of him" he said while performing some type of alchemy, making a potion.

"But we need to also begin with the god slaying, specifically starting with Anubis." Karoi added.

Satoru nodded as he watched sensei pour some purple sparkling liquid inside of the glass.

"So that leaves me to ask... Would you rather save Jinn or kill Anubis?" now facing the boy, holding the finished concocted potion.

The answer of the white haired boy depended on the answer to his question that he is about to ask his sensei.

"Do you think I'm ready to kill Anubis?" 

Karoi looked Satoru right in the eyes and told him : "Yes." as he tossed the potion to him, with the boy offering for him to save Jinn while he does what he needs to.

[+ 1 potion]

[Energy and Health Replenishment Potion]

[One time use.]

Karoi told Satoru that Anubis resides in the Dune nation, and Dune village underground. He left the cave and used the bifrost of the axe to teleport to that nation and village.

-

Satoru saw the sandstone village and it's people, looking to see where there could be an opening. Scouring the village, circling it and checking it carefully, he was unable to find a way down.

Going to the north edge of the village, Satoru jumped up in the air and supercharged his axe, throwing it at the sand below him, destroying it and making an opening of 25ft in a circular shape from the axe with it all collapsing down.

"Hm.." he said while dropping down and looking around, seeing torches and a pathway, instantly cloaking himself in Storm Cloak and imbuing his feet with thunder and rushing down the stone cold path, following it and slowing down when seeing a sudden opening after many turns.

Walking into it, there he saw a someone with the body of a man and the head of a jackal with pointy ears. It's him, the God of the Dead, Anubis.

Instantly, Satoru supercharged his axe and threw it at the God's head, with no hesitation, but the experienced and tough God dodged it with a grin, making the axe land inside of the wall and cracking it, forcing rubble to pile up behind him on the ground.

Anubis raised his hand in Satoru's direction, sending out a massive forming sandstorm at him that devoured even the ceiling above them, inevitably making the buildings of the actual Dune village be destroyed and broken as they fell down to where they were.

His eyes widened as he performed thunder ball to tank the attack. The thunder ultimately didn't withhold and forced Satoru to get hit and cut up by the pressure of the sandstorm alone, leaving multiple cuts and a stinging pain, making him wince. 

Having the opportunity upon it's passing, he conjured and threw the 3 white senbons at Anubis, having them swerve towards him from the right. 

The grin on the God's face grew larger as he ignored the pointless attack, rushing at Satoru and going to punch right through his head to instantly kill him. The teleportation to the white senbons initiated and the boy wasn't hit by Anubis' impeccable blow.

"Relampago"

"Ahora"

"Welga"

Satoru chanted quickly, knowing the toll it'll take on his energy... He couldn't afford to think much as there was no turning back at this point.

Quickly a dark cloud formed up in the air above the village, with thunder sparks visible from it and it immediately sent the thunderbolt at Anubis, striking him where he stood and dealing good damage to him. Burning him quite a bit.

"Impressive. But then again, this is nothing compared to what you could have had." said the God to him, rushing at Satoru, using the sand below him to hold his feet down.

Placing his palm at God in front of him, Satoru in a ditch effort fired thunder out of it yet the god easily dodged it.

[Energy : 24%]

Before he could get to him, the white haired boy threw the senbons at his opponent's head but he easily dodged those as well by moving his head once more, with his grin growing larger, practically nearly from ear to ear.

Satoru appeared out from them in the air, placing his hand towards Anubis, opening his palm, and firing a thunder beam at him, which he easily dodged by swerving and rotating his body to the right but what followed next was unpredictable...

His arm was chopped off and landed onto the floor, with blood pouring off from where the arm was, by the axe that was pulled into Satoru's grip.

"So this boy can simultaneously call his axe and fire an ability?! I didn't expect him to be able to perform tricks to this degree after what we did..." thought Anubis to himself, while his arm bled.

[Energy : 23%]

Anubis stomped the ground, summoning about 20 skeletons that ran at Satoru. They were slightly slower than him, but it didn't help having things that distracted him. 

He knew that his energy was low, so he quickly thought, remembering something...

Remembering what happened in Bladewood village, Satoru jumped up into the air and supercharged the axe, applying his own lightning to it and throwing it in the middle of all the skeletons, instantly destroying them with the lightning that struck the axe multiple times but more importantly... His replenishing energy

[Energy : 23% >>> 51%]

Anubis rushed at him and successfully punched Satoru through dozens of walls of the path leading to them, into a newer, larger opening which contained piles of sand on the floor.

He got up to 1 knee and expected Anubis to come from where he was sent flying to from but he wasn't appearing. The God struck him heavily, slowing his movements down, even breaking 3 of his ribs and possibly more.

The boy stood back up entirely after a few seconds and took a stance, looking around carefully but he couldn't see him anywhere when suddenly his opponent appeared out of a small sand pile, sending numerous sand spikes at him.

Satoru responded with running at him and attempting to avoid the sand spikes, even throwing the white senbons at his face but they inevitably cut his skin more and more, as they were solidified. Satoru teleported out from them, out of his thrown white senbons.

Expecting this, Anubis caught him by the throat, grinned and crushed it immediately, only for his body to poof and his leg be cut off by the thrown axe by the real one, the real Satoru, with lightning striking the God multiple times.

The god winced once as he started yelling, using the sand to replace his leg so he can stand. Not letting him do that and acting quickly, Satoru launched Thunder Circus at him but he was able to dodge it by rolling out of the way in time.

Anubis sent out numerous waves of sand at him, which pinned him against the wall, making him put his arms up and the waves hit his forearms, cutting them up even further.

Satoru didn't see a way out of this and gritted his teeth with the goal of resisting the sand waves until the end.

The memories of being treated harshly and being abused by his clan, his adoptive father flooded in. It was like he was reliving those moments, those beatings, those harsh words no child should hear from their parent...

He begged and begged his father and the ones watching for mercy, to stop hitting him, to stop kicking him but they didn't. They all just laughed. The entire clan simply laughed to his pain.

"No more.." Satoru thought to himself back then and even now. The only reason he was even kept alive was because of the epitome of destruction residing in him, the beast that that they have locked inside of him.

Using them as fuel, as fuel to unleash the hatred that he locked deep down and every evil and negative thought that crossed his mind about his clan, his father and everything bad in his life to this point...

Satoru's expression turned to that of anger, to that of fury. The atmosphere in the room changed as Anubis felt a glimmer of the same energy, the same presence, the same vibe that night.. The night nearly 14 years ago... 

"Impossible!" he yelled out, recognizing that presence like it was carved inside of his brain for an entire lifetime, with no breaks from it.

Satoru elbowed the large wall behind him, entirely breaking and cracking it, using his left hand, while his other blocked the strikes. Using entire cracked wall bits, he performed a circular uppercut motion, as if he twisted his body without twisting it.

The stone from the floor, formed a larger wall of earth in front of him in a half circle shape, blocking the incoming sand waves.

He jumped up and twisted his body, kicking himself off from the wall and right through his own stone wall, punching through it with his right hand. Anubis fired sand spikes at Satoru who went out head first.

Using his hands to perform a handspring, the white haired boy launched himself up to the roof, landing on it with his legs for a moment before exploding down at Anubis, causing the ceiling to entirely collapse.

Heading right at Anubis, Satoru formed a sign with his hand and launched Thunder Circus at him, yet he blocked it with his forearms and stomped the ground once more, rising skeletons from the floor once more.

They were given 2nd degree burns, with Satoru landing on the ground, punching it immediately with his hand imbued in lightning and performing True Thunder, going to stun Anubis and electrify him.

Unluckily for the enraged boy, the skeletons were the one that took his attack and were destroyed.

The God of the Dead, despite having one solid leg and one sand leg, ran up at Satoru and kicked him in the head, knocking him to the ground, using the sand to hold his arms and legs down, rendering him unable to move despite his efforts to break out of it.

Sand, compiling behind Anubis, took the shape of spikes that are on standby, all being directed and pointed at the boy on the ground.

"Any last words?" asked the god, standing above the boy with a returning grin onto his canine face.

Satoru took a deep breath after a second and looked at him dead in the eye : "Yeah." trying to break free once more but being unable to, feeling the injuries on his arms and body each time he tried to pull his hands.

"Relampago."

"Ahora." 

"Welga." he said, completing the chanting, coughing up blood, with it going down his nose, out of his ears and from his eyes and without any control, closing his eyes at the same time as making Anubis' eyes widen a little right before the thunderbolt struck him in his back and sent him flying into the wall.

[Energy : - 34%]

"Why do I try... Why do I go out of my way to fight...? And for what? What exactly am I fighting for, what even is my goal... I have no one that cares about me so why should I continue on going in this wretched world, just to end up dying alone? Is it even worth it?"

He thought to himself, while his eyes were closing, rethinking about everything so far and everything that could be.

"If not for love, if not for money, what should it be about... Power. Is everything that truly matters in this futile world, power? Why must everything be about that? But I guess... I guess that there's no point thinking about it, instead.. I'll become strong. If I survive.. One day."

Satoru's dying and bleeding body laid on the floor below, with the only thing keeping him from death's door being the locked up beast inside of him.

Having no limitations and retaining the memories of him being able to perform it, the beast barely opened his palm after taking somewhat control of his body and called the axe towards him, though due to the depletion of energy, it didn't look well.

It spun, making Anubis look at what soared by him, seeing the axe. With a race to see what will make it first, the axe or his sand spikes, it was now life or death for Satoru.