The Beginning Of The End

The crowd fell silent, Soul's mind going through a flurry of emotions. He looked down at his hand, right through the mind of Crystet. Soul pulled his hand out, grey chunks of the brain covered with dark crimson blood lining his fingers. It took him a second to process what he had just done. Soul had killed Crystet. He looked around, the crowd staring at both him and Crystet with a confused and afraid expression as he tried to process what had happened. Soul didn't mean to kill him, but his brain was destroyed.

Except, there was one slight issue with that assumption.

The arena of light was still there.

Crystet's body began to rise into the air, the blood it had lost and the small chunks of the brain that were on Soul's fingers flying up to meet with the body once more. Light from the arena shone upon his dead body as the blood he had lost fused back with his body, similar to Soul's Corruption. "You bastard." Soul chuckled, staring at Crystet's rising body with a grin on his face. "You're going to regret doing that." Soul threatened the light that was being absorbed into Crystet's body.

As the light continued to fuse with Crystet's body, his flesh started to unravel. It was almost as if he was discarding what little humanity he had. 'Alright, what the fuck is happening now?' Aaron asked Soul inside of their conjoined consciousness. 'Well, from what I can tell, Crystet is trying to become something more than a human in an attempt to defeat us.' Soul explained, creating another homunculus for Aaron to possess.

"Alright, this has gone on for too long," Soul said out loud, Aaron's temporary body animating itself as his consciousness entered the lifeless host. "I can agree with you on that, Soul," Aaron responded, the area around them filling up with noxious fumes. "It's time to use the gifts that we were given!" He yelled, creating a sphere of energy. The area turned monochrome as Aaron closed his eyes. A black skeletal arm replaced his right arm, causing Soul to look at Aaron in shock. "You're really going to try and use the Monstrosity against Crystet? That isn't the best of ideas, is it?" Soul asked, sceptical of Aaron's intentions and what he planned to do with that blackened skeletal arm, but he wasn't going to object. After all, Aaron usually had a plan for stuff like this.

Crystet's light body suddenly formed. It almost appeared as if he was made out of a blazing yellow fire, his image illuminated by the light that continuously shone onto him. Soul watched on as the figure began to imitate speaking and laughing before a voice finally erupted out from the creature.

"Oh, it feels so GOOD to leave the shackles of humanity behind!" Crystet exclaimed, staring at Soul and Aaron Stone with a mischievous grin. "I have finally transcended past the boundaries of mortality! I am finally one with the universe! You can no longer hope to defeat me, Soul! Neither can you, Aaron!" Crystet yelled, his body starting to fade in and out of existence. It was almost as if it was never there in the first place. Crystet appeared behind Soul, a light blade in his yellow hand. Soul turned around, flicking his wrist back in an attempt to slap Crystet to his side. However, to his surprise, his hand passed through Crystet's body, almost like it had never been attacked. Crystet chuckled menacingly before staring Soul directly in the eyes, stabbing his light sword into Soul's chest. "Weakness disgusts me, Soul." Crystet threatened him, pulling back his hands and shoving two miniature stars into Soul's eyes, causing Soul to fall backwards in pain.

Now, this shouldn't have hurt Soul since his pain scale was meant to be at zero. How would Crystet's attack have caused an injury? Well, here's the slight catch with the pain scale. It can never be set to zero. What Soul had set it to was 0.01 out of a hundred. Plus, he just had stars shoved into his eyes. Of course, it would hurt. It was a literal ball of light and gas. Aaron rushed towards Crystet, unsheathing Tsuyukagiri as we went, trying to land a fatal blow on Crystet, only to be met with the same realisation as Soul. His attacks passed straight through Crystet's light body, causing him to look at Crystet in fear. An enemy he couldn't physically hit.

Aaron activated GHOUL, trying to attack him that way. After all, one of the two abilities allowed him to hit normally untouchable beings, also known as incorporeal creatures. However, his sword still passed through Crystet without a single connection. Crystet stared Aaron down, a smile on his face and a deeper-than-normal tone to his voice. "I have far transcended the ability of tangibility, Aaron. You cannot hope to land an attack on me, much less defeat me. I've gone beyond you and your physical means of fighting." Crystet threatened Aaron, causing a strand to form inside Aaron's mind. It was a thin string, and it was not something to interfere with. "All of your efforts to protect Soul, and the people here, from threats like Ronin are now invalid." Crystet continued, the strand growing thinner and thinner by the second, almost as if it was stretching.

"I refused your offer of Boundless many moons ago, and now I know why. My purpose was not to become Boundless. No, it was to transcend Boundlessness. To become invincible. I'm going to kill everyone here, and then I'll move on to the next planet. I'll do the same there. I'll destroy everything." Crystet finished, rising into the air, a yellow ball of energy forming on the tip of his right index finger, no bigger than a marble. "It's time for me to show you what I'm truly made of! This ultimate skill you bestowed upon me was not designated by you but by the ones above the gods themselves!" Crystet yelled, and then, something snapped.

The thin strand snapped inside of Aaron's mind. This string was the compassion he had left for Crystet.

Now, there was none left, and this was going to be the final curtains of Crystet.