~3~ Storm

Akuro tilted his head, confused. "Shatter, huh? How is that possible? I thought souls were a being's final form?"

"Hmm, wrong." Raijin said, his tone grim, "a soul can be destroyed. The act of destroying a soul is the ultimate sin, as getting your soul broken is more painful than you or anyone could possibly imagine. Even we gods shiver at the thought of our souls shattering… and when your soul shatters, your existence is wiped out completely, you simply cease to exist and you will be forgotten. Only we gods know of those whose souls have broken."

"Interesting… so the soul is not the end. Who knows… maybe there is another life beyond the soul?" Akuro theorized.

"I wouldn't attempt to test that theory, boy. Nevertheless, unless you want your soul shattered I suggest you get serious. These beings are deity level monsters, take them seriously." Raijin's eyes grew dark, "or you will be gone forever."

Akuro clenched his fist. 'This feeling…' he began to tremble, 'what is this? Fear? No… I'm smiling… it's not fear… it's anticipation!' An immense pressure exuded from him, it was dark and it's power was seemingly endless. "I'm ready.." a wide grin crossed Akuro's lips.

Raijin shook. 'This kid… he's overcome by the anticipation of combat… he is something else. At this rate, he may end up being more of a problem than what we need him to be. He may prove to be a threat…' Raijin shook his head. "Alright then!" The god roared "these beasts will hold nothing back, they will force you to the edge of your strength! Prepare yourself, the first day of your trial has begun!"

Raijin snapped again and thunder struck the earth. Where the bolt of lighting hit, the ground began to glow, strange runes illuminating a bright silver and gold. The earth then began to shift, and then rise, first forming a body, then following by forming the limbs. From the earth rose a massive golem ten times Akuro's own height, it's body was hard, black stone with markings engraved into it. Lightning arced around its body and the empty slits where the eyes should have been glowed menacingly.

"Behold, my Thunder Golem!" The old man smiled, stroking his white beard. "Have fun!"With that Raijin disappeared in a bright flash of light.

"What.. the hell…" Akuro mumbled to himself as he stared up at the Goliath before him. 'He wasn't lying when he said these beasts were extremely powerful… I'm in deep shit if I don't figure something out!'

The Thunder Golem had four arms, each held a different weapon, in one arm a hammer, another a blade, the third held a spear and the fourth had a strange gauntlet.

'According to their lore, golems are beings conjured of stone and one other element. Although there is always one rule, the ingredients in the making of the golem must include a soul, in other words, if I'm death, I can control souls. I just need to figure out how!'

The golem lurched forward then swung its massive hammer. The giant did not seem to be aiming for Akuro, but he jumped away as fast as he could nonetheless, and was surprised by his own speed. He only meant to jump back a short distance, the distance he was used to being able to go as a human, but he had jumped back at least five yards! 'Whoa, my physical abilities have been enhanced tenfold too, huh? Oi, this is awesome!' He thought, but soon snapped back to reality when the Golems hammer struck the earth. The ground below Akuro shook violently, causing him to stumble, while lighting arced across the ground's surface in all directions.

'Shit! I need to jump!' With all of his might, he forced his feet against the trembling earth and leapt as high as he could, to his surprise, the ground below his feet split and in less than a second he was high above the golem's head, out of the Lightning's range, but not out of danger. After Akuro had leapt into the air, the Thunder Golem thrust its spear towards him. 'Shit! Not good! I can't dodge this midair! What the hell do I do!?' Instinctively, Akuro raised his arms to block the oncoming spear which was now engulfed in lighting and screaming towards him. He fully expected to be impaled, his eyes closed, now realizing how foolish he was in thinking he could beat this thing. But, to his surprise, he wasn't struck. He opened his eyes, which then widened when he saw a black shroud of aura stretched out in front of him, mimicking his raised arms. 'Is this… my aura? So this is what it's like to control my own aura, huh? It's so… natural.'

The golem left Akuro no time to revel in his own power as it's hammer swung at him full force, colliding with the his dark shield in an explosion of lightning and billowing black shadows. Gritting his teeth, Akuro pushed back against the golem's strength with all he had, but it was to no avail as the hammer succeeded in following through with its swing, sending Akuro spiraling through the air and colliding into the earth below, then the golem, again, collided its hammer into the barren ground it stood on.

Akuro was unable to get up in time, still shocked from the impact, and the lightning enveloped his body. He let out a tremendous scream of pain and agony as lightning covered his entire body. When the electricity faded, the golem approached Akuro's body, standing over the scorched thing below it.

Raijin was watching the battle from a distance cloaked by his clouds. 'What a shame. It would seem he was not what he seemed, in the end he was nothing but a weak fool.' Raijin was about to raise his hand to snap and return his golem to the earth when he froze. An intense, cold aura choked the entire field, including Raijin. The god could not even breathe, the pressure was so great that his body seemed to shut down, unable to move.

'What the hell… is this?' Raijin's eyes turned to Akuro's body. A mass of dark swirling aura festered from his body, rising up and up before spreading over the land, choking it. Akuro's body rose as the boy stood on his feet. His eyes were pale white and he glared directly at Raijin.

'The fuck?! He can see me!?' Raijin blinked then, and Akuro was gone. 'Shit!' Raijin rose higher into the air and casted a thunder storm below him that pulsated with lightning, nothing could pass through it without being scorched.

For a moment he thought he was safe, but then he felt a cold killing intent press down on him from above and he turned to see Akuro there glaring down at him with cold, heartless eyes. Two black horns protruded from the boy's forehead and a black cloak of cold aura enshrouded him and two coiling wisps of darkness imitated the motions of the boy's hands, stretching out towards Raijin. The god hadn't seen the boy's full power yet, but he instinctively knew if those dark talons got ahold of him, his soul would be ripped away from him.

Raijin clapped his hands together, a deafening thunderclap echoing from them and he suddenly disappeared, reappearing beside his Thunder Golem. 'This isn't good… Akuro's not even conscious, his aura has overtaken him! I have to stop this before it gets out of hand, but who imagined he'd be this powerful…' Raijin clapped his hands again. "Release!" He roared and then the markings across his golem suddenly illuminated. Gold spikes grew from its body and silver armor began to cover its massive figure. Electricity flowed through the armor, the metal plating acting as a conduit. "Activate, Zeniku!" At these words, an immense wave of power burst from the Thunder Golem, tearing away the ground below it as dark clouds formed around its body, lighting arcing from every angle. The golem let out a tremendous howl, it's aura now multiplied tenfold.

Raijin now scoured the land below him for Akuro. The power of his golem may have been great, but it caused storm clouds to appear, which now blocked Raijin's sight. And then he saw him. The boy was walking calmly forward, approaching the golem. 'Good,' thought Raijin, 'he's focused on the golem. Now I can take action!'

Akuro came near the golem, any bolts of lighting that flew at him merely dissipating once they got close to him. 'The hell?' Raijin cursed 'is he… absorbing the aura from the lightning? I never imagined aura was also under death's domain of manipulation… this really isn't good!'

Akuro suddenly stopped before the golem, then simply raised his hand towards it, and then, in an instant, a stream of black aura rushed at the golem, aiming for its gauntlet on its fourth arm. The black smog enveloped the golem's arm entirely, then pulled attempting to remove the arm whole. The golem reacted by bringing its thundering sword down on Akuro, who calmly raised his other hand, causing another mass of shadow to enshroud the golem's blade, stopping it in its path.

The darkness that swallowed the golem's fourth arm then twisted violently, wrenching the entire arm free from the shoulder, tearing the limb away from the body. Akuro then squeezed his hand, and, following suit, the aura crushed the gauntlet, which then exploded in a surge of lightning, which was swallowed by the dark smoke. The golem's body then froze and crumbled away, returning to the earth as nothing more than simple rubble. The wisps of shadowy aura retracted back to Akuro, who then turned to Raijin, dead eyes glaring directly at the now shivering god. 'How… could he be this strong… this is not the power of a deity, this is the power of a High God! No matter, it is too late for him now, I've already taken action!'

Gold lighting bolted from Raijin's eyes as his expression formed into one of concentration and rage. His hands then clapped together with tremendous force, gold bolts of pure aura burst from Raijin's body and it changed from that of a frail old man to that of a seasoned warrior. He then drew a massive hammer in one hand, and a large drum in the the other. "Come! Chaos Storm!" The hammer struck the drum, causing the air itself to vibrate violently as the sky turned gray. Then, in the storm's center, a gold light began to form. 'This attack is unavoidable! It was good knowin ya kid!'

Then, Akuro peered up into the sky as he sensed the immense amount of energy gathering above him. He raised his arms to the sky, a roof of darkness then enveloped his body. A blinding gold bolt of lightning screamed down from the sky directly towards Akuro, the impact caused the ground to split and quake, throwing dust up into the air.

'Humph! That should've done him in. Too bad, the kid didn't deserve to have his soul shattered. Oh well.' Raijin thought, then sighed. "Ah well, now as for how the superiors will take this, it may be an issue, hmm."

"Hey gramps…" came a cold hiss from behind Raijin, and the cold pressure then pressed down in a focused force on the thunder god, halting his movements completely.

"No way… there is no way you survived that!"

"So you were really trying to kill me, huh?" The voice came again, and then from the smoke emerged Akuro, his body covered in inky black markings. He put his hand against the chin of his crooked head, then snapped it into place. Raijin's eyes widened. 'That's right, now that he's death incarnate, he is immortal… he truly is… omnipotent.'