The eyes of the child were no more than a deep shade of red. The same color of blood when first released from a deep wound. His hair was a bright white, flowing upwards. His teeth gritted as his tongue spilled blood into his throat.
"Damn you." The boy stammered under his ragged breath.
The world around the boy began to crumble and crack as a white aura engulfed the small child completely. A few hundred yards away, stood a tall demon. A horn extruded from his head, and his face only consisted of his eyes, and no mouth. The area where his mouth was to be was smooth and curved down, hiding his chin. The demon glared and crouched into a fighting position, hoping to show that he meant business. The plan backfired, and the child darted toward the demon at high speeds. A few steps into his run, the child disappeared, vanishing from eyesight due to his uttermost speed
"Light speed." Muttered the demon, still in his fighting position, not flinching.
"Your father did the same thing, it's not that hard to do."
The child roared back, and began to sidestep around the demon, avoiding the cracks on the concrete. In a femtosecond, there were thousands of afterimages of the boy, surrounding the demon. The demon crouched down, and hovered his hand a few centimeters from the ground. The child raised an eyebrow. The demon looked at one of the afterimages and glared darkly.
"You may be fast boy." He growled.
"But I'm infinitely stronger than you."
With that, the demon tapped the ground, a purple like circle coming from his finger, spreading across the ground. The world cracked in half, the center of the planet eating the toppling buildings that fell from the demolition. The child tripped over a piece of falling rubble and toppled over one of the cracks in the cement. Below him was nothing but a bright orange lava and pieces of concrete and rock that fell into it. The child grabbed the ledge of the cliff and hung there for long minutes, gasping for breath. The demon finally arose and sauntered over to the hanging boy.
"Your mistake child, was that you failed to throw the punch before I made a move." He shrugged.
The child shut his eyes and began to sob to himself. He failed to kill the demon that destroyed his planet. The demon laid his hand on the childs and kept it there until the boy stopped crying. Once the boy finished, the demon crushed the childs fingers against the cliff's edge until a snap could be heard.
"If you threw the punch, maybe your father's sacrifice wouldn't have been for nothing." The demon laughed darkly once more, his smooth mouth shredding open to reveal a large mouth filled with sword-like teeth.
The demon lifted his hand off of the boy's. The child fell into the center of the earth, gripping his hand, and admitting defeat. When the boy hit the lava, his body melted instantly without a single thought before he could die.
"Stupid child. This whole race consisted of weaklings. Maybe the next race will be more of a challenge.�� It mumbled in disappointment as it turned and walked away.
The ground under its feet gave away, and the demon flew away seconds before he had a chance to fall in. The large leathery wings split the air as the demon flew wildly across the sky. His legs and arms hung down as he soared faster by the second. The demon kept having an uneasy feeling about the boy's death. Something about it didn't seem right to him. Giving in to his own curiosity, he jolted around, and hovered in the air for a moment.
"Huh. Guess speed was all that his father and ill-bred mother gave him. And to think he would survive such a thing." The demon shook his head and turned back around.
Halfway through turning his head, the earth trembled and shook. The demon slowly looked back. This tremble was not from the planet about to explode. Fully turned around, he flew to the spot the boy died, looking over the edge. In a blur, a red and orange figure struck the chin of the demon, sending him flying back. Over the next few seconds, a blow of a thousand blows truck the chest of the demon, each one dealing more impact than the last. The demon parried one of the blows, stopping the figure in its tracks.
"Who the hell ARE you?" Roared the demon, gripping the covered figures fist.
The fist was hot and seared the scales on the demon's hand. The demon recoiled and let go of the hand, and in that quick moment, the figure sent a heavy blow to the demon's right cheek, knocking 3 sharpened teeth from the demon's mouth. The teeth slid across the obsidian like scales of the demon, lighting a spark like the teeth were matches. The demon slashed through the air attempting a strike at the lava figure, but misses miserably. The demon snapped out its wings in an attempt to slow himself down. Crashing into the tall, tilted over skyscraper released huge chunks of rock and building rubble into the earth like a meteor. The demon's knees shook, and his arms trembled after getting rammed into by such a large blow. Now on his feet, teeth clenched, he shot out the crater of the building after the figure who hadn't even moved after his last shot on the demon. Their battle started to rumble the earth from the shockwaves of their fists clashes. Moving at speeds much beyond that of lightspeed, multiple versions of themselves fought at once in different areas. The lava figure had the upper hand at the moment, and the demon noticed this. The earth cracked beneath them, revealing more of the earth's core.
"I will not lose to you! I refuse!" Rocks tapping against the demons teeth and scales as he roared.
The figure does not reply to the demon's uproar, and instead, throws another wind of blows, all hitting their mark, and each creating a shockwave upon contact. The final blow blew the demon back into the skyscraper, but this time, the demon flew right through it like a knife to a stick of soft butter. The demon struck out his wings again, this time, doing what they're supposed to do, and stopped the demon from crashing. The lava around the figure started to melt away, giving off a gooey like sound as it melted away.
"No way." The bruised demon growled under its breath.
The boy from before emerged from the lava casing, his aura still there, but this time, shining brighter than the sun.
"WHy do I sense such godly power from a child? You shouldn't be this strong!" It roared in utter fury.
"I won't accept this! Die child!"
The demon once more struck off the ground and back at the boy, faster than before. The child raised his hand, the aura around it turning into a white lightning surrounding the hand. The demon roared as he threw his fist at the boy's nose. At this point, both were moving at speeds beyond that of light. The child swund the back of his hand at the demon. unsuspected by the sudden attack, the demon tried to avert the attack, trying to dodge the hand, but the child's speed was almost infinitely faster than before. So this, the demon thought, the child's hand millimeters away from his face. So this...Is godly might. The hand rammed into the demons hard cheek, the lightning aura that surrounded it before, now striking the demons face. The child threw the demon with only the back of his hand out of Earth entirely, the air pressure from the hit blowing away the entire landscape, and parting the clouds in the direction that the boy swung towards.
"You bastard!!!" the demon roared as he flew through space, and crashed into the sun at speeds so fast that no human being has even calculated it. Once the demon crashed into the sun, a huge crater formed in the sun from where the demon hit. A few seconds later, the lava from the sun poured back into its position, returning the sun to normal. When all the smoke cleared, and nothing was left except for the boy, the destruction that the one, simple, backhanded slap caused could be seen. Where the boy swung, the air pressure had wiped out the entire landscape, showing nothing but a barren wasteland. A long, giant crater was formed that covered almost the entire area inside of the child's line of vision. The destruction from the slap had spread and covered the entire left side of the earth. Slithering away into thin air, the aura that surrounded the boy was now gone, and his eyes were also back to their original, red, normal color. The bot descended back onto the ground slowly, his bruises vanishing away, almost as if the injuries were sinking back into the skin of the body. Once the boy landed on the ground, the boy realized that his world was being corrupted by more of these demons. He started to wander around the rusted landscape. On the ground, a set of small and large cracks lined the ground just slightly, all across the ground like lightning on the ground. On top of the cracks, even smaller cracks could be seen. The boy peered into one of the holes, formed by one of the larger cracks. Inside the hole, there was nothing but absolute and solid darkness. The skeleton of one lizard though, which glew very slightly, caught the eyes of the boy. He slowly inserted his hand into the ground and, with the tips of his fingers, took the head of the small, deceased lizard. He swirled the skull around his fingers, and into the center of his palm, gazing at it with great veneration. The more the boy stared at it, the more the skull glowed. Clasping his hand, the numbness of the fight had hindered his sense of touch in his right hand that held the skull. For one moment, he felt little to nothing in his hand, then, the skull glew brighter this time, and a light engulfed the boy's hand. Once the light subsided, he felt the skull in his hand. With great awe, he opened his hand to reveal that his wounds had ultimately vanished.
"Woah." He gasped under his breath still staring at his hand, in pure dumbstruck shock.
Under the boys feet, grass that used to stand high with a proud green color now flushed into the cracked, dried out ground. The boy looked down upon himself looking at his battered clothes, which had surprisingly survived the earth's core. He wore a large, heavy, black winter coat with a single hole on the back, inside of the coat, which looked like literal space itself, flowed around the coat in a circulating fashion. Underneath his coat was a red Flash shirt which didn't exactly survive the core like the coat did. His athletic pants were still in slick pristine condition, which did not surprise the kid at all. He dropped his eyes down to his shoes lastly, a grey pair of Nike sneakers, the laces ripped out, and replaced with a titanium plate that made the shoes look like Batman's boots. Looking back up at the long crater, he sighed and spun around to face the inferno city.
"Damn demons. I wonder what the casualties this time are." His head turned red with anger, not rage, not rage yet.
He placed his middle and index finger on his ear. A high pitched beep moaned from it, but the child did not flinch. From the earpiece, came a feminine voice that one would mistake at first for a model's voice, but also holds a hint of a child.
"Z! What are you doing?! Where are you?!" It shouted out from the piece, which this time, The child flinched a bit.
"I was subduing another Risen One on the east planet. Your teleporter worked like a charm." Z replied back through the piece.
"What?! Z you know we can't charge recklessly without any equipment! What were you thinking?!" A slight hint of relief came from the piece and Z noticed, smiling slightly.
"Calm down, I heard that one of the legendary swords was here. I came to check it out. Instead I was ambushed. But one thing came out of killing this one." Z grew excited as he thought about what he was going to say next.
The piece beeped three times before starting in a robotic siri like voice, 'Power low.' Z tapped on the piece a few times before cussing at it. Lifting his hand, he pressed a button on a watch he was wearing. A loud whir erupted, and rainbow prismatic lines surrounded Z before he disappeared in thin air. In a matter of milliseconds, Z appeared in a large bunker type bar area, in a seat right in front of a bar. Z signaled for a beer, and the bartender slid over with a tall glass of beer. Noticing it was Z, the Bartender grinned, and pulled a napkin out of his black fanny pack apron. The bartender had a large brown gruffy beard, a brown moustache to match, and old timey villager type clothes. The bartender was years older than Z, but still treated Z like he was his own age.
"So Z, how'd the hunt go? You find the sword?" He boomed as Z chugged the entire glass in a single go.
Wiping his mouth of the bitter beer, he tapped the table again signaling for another beer. Always willing to serve, the bartender retrieved the drink and filled it to the brim once more, only to have Z chug it in a single go once more.
"Your sources seem to be a bit deceitful. Who did you hear from that there was a sword on the east planet?" Z mumbled once again tapping the table.
The bartenders face crumpled into confusion as he replenished the empty glass with another round of beer. Looking around to see if anyone was listening, he whispered into Z's right ear.
"Another Power Hunter told me to tell you." The bartender leaned back waiting for a response.
With zero surprise on his face, he downed the beer in one go again.
"Did you happen to catch this one's name?"
Z moved the glass away, which the bartender sweeped up from the table and began cleaning in the sink next to him, and unfolded a menu sitting in front of him. At first glance, one would think that this menu was for food, but it was secretly for specialized bounty hunters and assassins known as Power Hunters. The menu had four images in the four corners of the neatly tucked in paper. Z lifted his right index finger and slowly moved it towards the top right of the menu. The bartender noticed that Z was about to head out, and interrupted Z's selection.
"Y'know Z, these Power Hunters are starting to get out of hand." He spoke a bit louder than normal to catch Z's attention.
Z stopped moving, sighed, and closed the menu.
"You want me to subdue a few?" Z gently questioned handing the menu to the bartender.
The bartender took the menu, and opened a small hatch that you would only notice if you deliberately looked for it. Under the hatch, was a small keypad with only the numbers 5-10. The bartender clicked a few numbers, and the menu made a quick whirr, then stopped. The bartender handed the menu back, and Z opened it. This time, there were over 8000 small circles on the menu. There were four colored areas with 2000 circles in each. The colored areas were green, yellow, orange, and red, with red containing the most dangerous Power Hunters.
"I've had at least 100 red Power Hunters come into my bar trying to pick a fight with me." The bartender growled putting the glass he was cleaning, before he recalibrated the menu, away.
"You killed all 100 of them?" Z asked with some disbelief.
The bartender shook his head and glanced over the menu top.
"Go ahead, pick as many as you want. Any and all deaths to Power Hunters will serve the universe better."
Z tapped on all 2000 of the power hunters in the red area, carefree. The bartender blinked in utter dumbstruck. Z closed the menu, and handed it back to the statue still bartender.
"Did you just select all of the most powerful Power Hunters registered to date?" He took the menu from Z and returned it to the normal 4 targets.
Z stood up from his seat and cracked his back, grunting in relief of his back pain.
"Do you know how many people these ones have killed? This is completely reckless!"
Z did not respond to the bartender's question, and instead, kept stretching, almost as if preparing for a fight.The bartender shook his head once and slammed his hand on the table.
"Every single one of the Power Hunters gets warned when they are chosen! That means that all of the Power Hunters are now alerted that you are coming to hunt them down!"
A low rumbling started to shake the room. Z cracked his neck and knuckles, and at last, answered.
"Then get ready for a fight. You coming this time Marlo?" Z grinned at the bartender.
Marlo put the glass he was cleaning down and reached under the bar. Z watched in joy as Marlo pulled out an enormous golden battle axe that one would mistake for Lionheart Escanors axe from The Seven Deadly Sins.
"You can't call me chicken anymore right?" Marlo laughed as he slung the axe onto his shoulder.
The rumbling erupted into an earthquake. The dust on the floor started to bounce and rise, and the hardwood of the bar began to crack and splinters flew towards Marlo and Z. Marlo in a single swing, with just air pressure, blew the splinters back.
"Where to first?" Z questioned, checking his teleporter watch, ignoring the insane violent rumbling.
"Should we not fight this one first?" Marlo stomped, getting into a battle position.
Z clicked his watch to the right once and then once more, on the watch screen, a small circle, resembling the south galaxy. The rumbling at this point had actually started to crack open the ground, and in a matter of seconds, the entire bar started to sink into the dry, coreless copy of earth. Marlo swung his hand onto Z's shoulder, and gripped it tightly. Z winced at Marlo's overwhelming strength. Bright neon blue-like lines that surrounded both of them, and in an instant, they vanished in thin air, leaving the entire planet to implode on itself, leaving nothing but a single hooded, masked figure. The figure wore a pitch black trench coat, his boots were also black, but can be distinguished from his coat's color. He wore black vegeta like gloves that tucked into his undershirt, the color of the gloves also distinguishable from both his coat and boots. The mask was a stainless steel helm, that looked almost identical to The Watchers mask from Lt.Lickme's channel. The figure had raised his hand, and snapped, a loud cosmetic woosh erupting from the snap. In the next second, all 10 of the planets around him withered into dust, with the dust turning into dust, until nothing was left. Another snap came from the figure once more, after he realized that all surrounding planets had been fully dissolved into the empty dotted space around him. One by one, 100 more figures, each one distinctive from the next, appeared in a hologram state. Each person was explicitly male, except one, who was the last to appear in the large circle. The female wore an iron-clad helm that split off in the middle. She wore the same coat as the first figure, except her hood was down. The first figure in the coat raised his left arm, pointing his flat hand in a straight motion, and the female in the coat raised her right, so that both of their arms and hand were symmetrical to each other. The rest of the circle did the same to their shoulder partner. Everyone then lowered their arms, The female was first to speak.
"Hello foundation. We all know why we were brought here, correct."
A large hefty person across from the female pointed at the hooded figure in anger.
"What the hell's the meaning of this Ronan?! I was about to retrieve an ancient blade! You know how rare those are!"
The female raised her hand as gently as if about to attack, but the hooded figure, also gently, put his hand on hers, stopping her. The female obeyed the silent order, and lowered her hand.
"You will watch your tongue Misdreavious. Don't let your given power make you think you are all powerful." The female hissed.
Misdreavious growled and fell back into the line, understanding the danger he almost got into. Ronan lifted his hand, and slammed it into the back of the females. The blow blew the female downwards. Everyone else did not respond except for a slight flinch, knowing that Ronan just physically interacted with something that was not currently there. The female started to lift herself up, trying not to throw her hand on the spot of the hit, but Ronan stomped down hard onto her back, relieving all air that was in her body. The female gave up on all resistance she gave to hold her wounds, and started gasping for breath violently. Ronan pushed his foot into her back until the slightest crunch was heard. The female tried to scream, but nothing came out except for the need for more air. Others in the circle started to squirm as to not tell Ronan what he was doing was wrong. Ronan leaned in close, until the mouth of his mask was directly next to the unmasked side of the female's head.
"And you will learn that YOUR newfound power not be used to make you act like the leader. As a matter of fact, don't forget who you are..."
The female nodded her head, and, with a sliver of breath in her muttered the words; "Yes sir…"
Ronan laughed in the most evil, and deep, horrifying way, to the point one 14 year old in the circle drew a tear that rolled down his cheek in absolute horror.
"I wasn't done yet."
The female started to shake her head slowly, beginning to cry herself.
"I was saying, don't forget who you are...when you're in hell."
The circle finally gave in, and drew back in horror as Ronan plunged his hand into the female's back and tore out her entire spine, her organs shredded like a cake being cut by her ribcage. Her lungs came out with her spine, as well as half her stomach. The 14 year old grabbed onto the older male next to him, who covered the child's eyes from the horror show. Ronan lifted the spine as if it were a trophy. The blood that exploded from her back, started to fizz out, as well as her floppy body. Soon the hologram female disappeared, except for the spine in Ronans hand. He noticed the scared child whose eyes were being shielded, and began to approach with the spine still in hand.
"Ronan for god's sake not the child. Wasn't Amy enough for your murderous hunger?" The one protecting the child pleaded, pushing the child behind himself more and more.
Misdrevious started to reach for his weapon, just in case Ronan did attack the child.
"Move out of the way. You know the foundation rules on the requirements for watching the death of another."
Others in the circle began reaching for their weapons as well.
"Fuck the foundation rules! He's a child, Ronan! Of course a kids gonna cry at brutal murder!" The child was now fully behind the man.
Ronan shook his head, and stopped for a moment. Everyone in the circle began removing their hands from their weapons of relief.
"You just don't learn do you? When I say move. You. Move." Ronan chuckled.
Ronan beheaded the man with the spine he was holding, leaving the child wide open. The hologram of the man faded away, just as the female did. The child screamed and sobbed as Ronan approached. Everyone in the circle had, by this point, their weapons in their hand, getting ready to pounce upon the hooded demon in front of them.
"P-please mister! Please don't kill me!" The child screamed in all helplessness.
Ronan did not stop his approach upon the child. Misdreavious entered a fighting position, also ready to pounce. Ronan removed his mask, and no one else besides the child could see what was underneath, but whatever there was, made the child scream even more.
"Watch his movements!" Misdreavious shouted to the rest of the foundation, who knew what they were doing, for the first time in their life, was right.
The child's screams could be heard across the galaxy, making even the soulless of beings weep, knowing that nothing can stop the pain of the child's future. The foundation started closing in.
"Back away from the child Ronan! Don't make this harder than it has to be!" Misdreavious demanded in a roar type notion.
Ronan did not stop, and eventually was right in front of the child.
"Sir please. Don't kill me-"
Ronan in a despicable blur, cut the child in half, removed both his eyes and all his teeth, and punched a hole right through the child's stomach. It took everyone a moment to realize that Ronan actually killed a child. Ronan placed the mask back onto his face, and turned around, as the child's body behind him vanished just like the other two.
"He did it! Kill him! Do not hold back, don't let the child's death go in vain!!!" One of the men shouted, leaping at Ronan.
Misdreavious did not attack, still stunned by the fact that Ronan actually did kill the child. Knowing that Ronan did not hesitate to kill allies, Misdreavious stayed back as the rest of the foundation had started to beat down on Ronan, but every hit proved ineffective. Ronan laughed full out this time, shredding every inch of a safe feeling that resided in everyone in a 800 mile radius.
"Your attacks won't work cause he's not physical to you!" Misdreavious shouted over the yells of the fighters.
No one could heed his warning, except Ronan, who was the only one that could hear him. Ronan chuckled one last time, then walked through all of the fighters.
"You're so right, Dreavious. Only I have the ability to interact with something that is not able to be physically touched at the moment. These fools will only be hurting themselves."
Ronan was right on top of Misdreavious now, the rest of the foundation trying to leave a scratch at least on the monster. Ronan grinned wildly, his eyes widening and his pupils dilating, like sharks when enraged, and like an abyss of never ending depth. The scariest part was that all of this could be seen through the mask. With a swish of his hand, Ronan blew off all of the foundation, each of them blowing up into bloody bits. The last remaining foundation member was Misdreavious, who stood in utter petrification of what he had just seen.
"Your choice of not attacking was good, Dreavious. If only the others could do the same as you did." Ronan slid his rigged hand down Misdreavious's shoulder slowly, before stopping right on the elbow.
Misdreavious started to hyperventilate silently, as to not show fear for his own safety. Ronan removed his hand and patted his coat of blood and dust. Ronan spun around and waited for Misdreavious to leave. For long suspenseful minutes, both stood still.
"You may leave now." Ronan half growled.
Misdreavious happily did so, his hologram vanishing in a completely different way than any of the other foundation members did. Ronan giggled as he lef, which erupted into a full laugh of undeniable horror. Across the universe, Z and Marlo had made it, miraculously, to a desert dune planet, known as Scorp10n world, by other travelers. Some speculate why the 10 happened to be in the name instead of just an "i" and an "o," but no one has asked, because there was no one to ask. More often than not though, people tell tales that 10 adventurers had made their way to the planet, and founded an underground civilization that can only be seen if you were a creator of the area, hardly making it a civilization, but more of a home for a group of 10 people. Marlo could hardly stand in the sand, and almost slid down one of the tall dunes that they walked upon. Each dune had looked exactly like the next, making it look like, from a perspective that one will never get anywhere. Stare into the horizon at the other dunes for too long, and you could faint in seconds.
"The first Power Hunter should be around the location of the door to Scorp Le Dunes." Z shouted over the hissing and blowing of sand, not squinting, almost as if nothing was hitting him.
"Very creative name." Marlo shouted back, squinting and trying not to hide under the sand from the piercing knives that one would call 'sand.'
The storm was relentless, tearing through anything that stood in its tyrannical way, which in this case, was Z and Marlo. Marlo felt like his arm could be diced like an onion soon if they didn't find shelter. About to yell to find shelter, he soon came to the depressing realization that they were in the middle of a desert, and that shelter did not in fact exist. Cussing to himself, he tromped along through the sand, already regretting the fact that he came along. For hundreds of yards, they walked through sandstorms and fought off the scorching heat. Marlo, who wore a tank-top and practically shorts, was sweating 800x more than Z was, who wore a winter coat. Soon enough, they reached hard ground. Z halted Marlo, who walked on the hard ground like he was still walking in the sand, his brain used to making his muscles move through heavy sand.
"Looks like we're here Marlo." Z exclaimed happily, not because they found what they were looking for, but because he was happy it wasn't a mirage.
Z stood up and walked around the large stone circle. The circle had a runic symbol right in the middle, with several other runic symbols, smaller than the larger one, but still quite large. Z looked for a secret opening, but found none. He started to get frustrated that the door did not function to its original intended use.
"How the hell does this open? How did the adventurers get in and out of here?"
Marlo stepped to the center largest symbol, and mouthed something to himself a couple of times. Z looked up at Marlo and saw that he wasn't doing anything useful, and sighed impatiently.
"Can you please help me find an entrance Marlo? That's what we're here for! To find a Power Hunter, not sightseeing!"
"Dude this is a one way exit." Marlo looked up at Z with a 'dude your so stupid' face.
Z read the expression on his face, and stuttered a bit trying to find what he wanted to say, but instead, grunted and sighed even angrier than before. Marlo stood up and looked back down at the symbol.
"Great! Now we gotta walk farther to find the actual entrance!" Z shouted to absolutely no one, except the identical twin dunes.
Marlo lifted his leg and foot above the symbol right above a small crack that had been made over the years, getting ready to stomp down. Z noticed once more, the Marlo looked like he wasn't doing anything useful, and yelled unintelligible words to the clear, cloudless sky. Marlo slammed his foot into the crack, breaking through the symbol, and shattering the entire circle, both Marlo and Z sinking into the pitch black, hole. Falling for what felt like hours, became seconds, as they hit the ground , crumbling the rocky ground a little bit. Neither one stood up until they knew that they wouldn't fall anymore. Z stood first, and looked up, noticing that there was no ladder to climb up, and instead of wondering how he was getting out, he only thought; "How in bloody hell did the adventurers use this as an exit?" This thought made Z even angrier and gave the need to punch or hit something even greater than before.
Marlo patted the dust off his leather pants and glanced at Z, wanting to see how angry he could possibly get. The only other time Z would ever get this mad, Marlo knew, was when he had been told to clean all of the dishes in the 1947 sink that could barely hold even a gallon of water. Z was always tasked with this instead of his father or his brother, because each had a job at the local Wendys. The wendys had been built just a few years before the Great Judgment, which some call the massive apocalypse event currently going on, had scorned the universe. The wendys had never gotten much business anyway, but still, they both worked there. When the first massive Judgment hit, half the planet was blown away, literally. If looking from space, you could see the core of the earth. Z had convinced himself that his brother and father were still alive. His mother couldn't convince him because he watched as she was blown away with the rest of the other half of the planet. His mother was in the kitchen, making dinner, and with pure dumb luck, Z had run into the family room, which was connected to the kitchen and ony sperated by a half wall. Z had stood up to go hug and kiss his mother, him only being 9 at the time, watched his mother's arm and leg fly towards him, blood shooting at the half wall. It took Z a moment to realize what had just happened. Once he did realize what he had just witnessed, he gasped, and stared at the open cosmos, the atmosphere had been ripped, and the core of the earth was freezing into a large ice ball. The earth was beginning to sink into itself, and that's when Z had found his coat, which protected him in the open space, after the earth had been destroyed, along with the rest of the solar system. Z had balled himself in his coat, like a turtle in its shell. Without knowing who, someone or something had moved Z to IC-1101 galaxy, onto Marlos planet. Z had crawled out of his coat and saw a small pub in the middle of a completely desolate wasteland. Z walked in, and from that day on, Marlo looked after him like a son, training him, modifying his clothes to be more powerful, and even gave Z his first weapon, which was a small Meave dagger from the Paladins game that Z would play in the bar. Marlo looked back up at the entrance he had stomped through, and laughed a bit, realizing his own doom.
"Alright then, no need to grovel over the fact that we got in through the wrong way. Let's find the Power Hunter before he realizes that we're here." Z grumbled walking around in a half circle before wandering towards a narrow cave that leads to the next room.
Marlo followed behind Z, letting his axe drag behind him, ripping apart the ground.
"This place is enormous Z, there's no way we're gonna find him in time." Marlo said.
"He won't leave." Z unzipped his coat.
Marlo sped up his pace until he was right next to Z.
"That could be a possibility." Marlo shrugged.
In the next room, there were more runic symbols covering the floor, some overlapping each other. A single light shined through a small hole on the ceiling of the room, pointing out the desk.
"How suspicious. Definitely a trap." Z said.
"Absolutely a trap." Marlo replied.
"Let's investigate it then!"
Not to their surprise, on the desk was a note that said; 'Got you!'
All around both of them, arrows flew towards their heads. Z gripped the handle of his dagger, and in a single movement faster than the blink of an eye, all of the arrows had been cut in half, and fell to the ground. It looked like Z had never removed the dagger. A smaug like laugh, a large serpent like monster crashed out of the ground. The serpent had the head of a dragon, and the body of a demonic snake. Horns had lined the spine of the serpent all the way to the end of its rigid pointed tail. The serpent's eyes burned into the souls of all that stare back. The serpent hissed, and coiled around one of the very large stone pillars, sand and dust billowing off and onto the floor as the serpent slithered, crushing all that it wrapped around. Z and Marlo only blinked at the large creature, showing no fear, Z gripped his dagger's handle, ready to strike out at the snake. The serpent stopped coiling, and looked down at Marlo and Z glaring furiously.
"Why do you dare to enter my cavern travellers? What business brings you here?" The mountainous monster growled and hissed, searing mucus spitting whenever it attempted to make an 'S' sound.
The spit melted right through the stone ground, revealing small light pillars that shot out of the ground. Marlo was the only one, once more, to notice.
"We have come to slay a stray and evil man. You may know of him." Z released his hand from his dagger's handle and let his hand drop by his side, the serpent noticed and grinned happily.
"Dimwitted fool. You honestly trust that I won't strike any second?" It sneered, uncoiling and releasing pressure off of the pillar, attempting to scare the two.
Marlo nudged Z's arm, grabbing his attention. Marlo pointed at the light pillar and nodded. Z nodded back. Z grabbed his dagger hand once more, and the serpent did not frown, but instead, smiled even wider. It laughed an appalling laugh, showing all 800 of its jagged teeth.
"What a stubborn fool you are Z! Coming to face me first, without having found any of the legendary blades!" The serpent jolted forward, its 10 story tall nose directly in front of Z's face.
It turned its head so its large eye could be fully viewed, along with the side of its head. Marlo pulled out his axe and readied for battle.
"Ah and if it isn't Marlo. The edgy bartender that believes himself to be sooo, so powerful. You made a mistake following Z on his adventures this time." The serpent looked at Marlo with a look that would only be given by one who wouldn't forget a beating that one gave to them.
So, yes, Marlo had brutally beaten down on this serpent before, unable to finish the job of slaying it before it got away. The serpent lusted for Marlo's blood and guts, wriggling in its long, slithery body.
"Finally Marlo, I have the greatest of pleasures to rip the very essence of human characteristics from your body, so much so that no one will ever be able to trace any sign of human traits or human anatomy ever again! Hope your ready to die you dumb, beer server!" The serpent recoiled its head back, and then shot forward, attacking Marlo.
Marlo just glared, and inches before the serpent bit, Marlo vanished to the right side, dodging the attack. The serpent was smart and had a sign of intelligence, well, as smart as a snake can be, for where Z stood before the attack, Marlo stood, and where Marlo had vanished to, which was behind the serpent, Z was. Z had drawn his dagger and prepared to slash open the snake. The serpent was quick though, and managed to slightly move his head to the side, and retaliated with a returning snap of its jaws. Z did the same as Marlo did, and vanished to the side, also dodging the attack.
"Stupid, slick, rotten adventurers!" The serpent roared, turning around.
Marlo and Z were now next to each other again, still glaring back at the serpent. Z stepped forward.
"You're the Power Hunter, aren't you? Your Nah-Glahback, the sand serpent of the Scorp10n world? And the legendary defender of the one and only legendary blade, the Dragon Katana." Z grinned proudly.
The serpent's expression turned to shock, then anger again.
"Pompous jackass! You will never get the blade! I'll kill you 1000 times over!" The serpent shrieked, baring his teeth even more than before.
This time, Z and Marlo both stepped away from the snake. They felt the power of the snake rising higher and higher, eventually this hidden power the snake had was higher than Marlo's, but still a ways away from matching Z's power. The ground shook and trembled, debris falling from the ceiling. The serpent roared and screamed, the walls around them started to crumble and behind the walls, was an endless vortex. The only thing still standing was the floor on which they stood. The serpent slithered off the platform, and into the cosmic vortex. From out of view, the serpent growled and hissed.
"You think you know me Z? That will be your downfall!"
The serpent flew up, and bellowed a loud roar. This new serpent had two large horns on his head, and a second head that was symmetrical to the original. Two wings were on his snakey back that were only three large spikes, and showed no sign of it being a real wing. Marlo spun his axe in his hand, and started to smash the ground, rocks from the blows flying up, and into the endless void, gone forever.
"Here mortals, you are trapped forever in an endless vortex! I am the 22 most powerful Hunter of the foundation! And Ronan demands your blood! Well, then I will be his deliverer!" The serpent laughed and shouted.
The first blow from the serpent landed successfully onto Z, knocking him back into one of the pillars. The pillar cracked, and toppled onto itself, crushing Z.
"Z!" Marlo yelled towards the crumbled pillar.
Marlo turned back to the serpent and gripped his axe handle so hard to the point that his hands began to bleed. The serpent laughed in a hissing type way.
"No mortal has ever stood against me! Nor can you this time you overrated piece of unwanted crap!" The serpent whipped his tail, lashing Marlo into the last remaining bits of the wall that stood on the side of the platform.
"No matter your strength, you and all of your loved ones will die by my existence and being! Fall to me Marlo! Fall to me and know what true humiliation is!" The serpent once more whipped Marlo out of the wall rubble and into one of the other pillars.
Marlo tried to get up, but with the bottom of its long chin, the serpent smashed Marlo into the platform. Marlo groaned and coughed up blood, staining the cracked, tiled floor red.
"Yes! Bleed your last amounts of blood you stupid heap of walking flesh!" The serpent hysterically roared in laughter.
Marlo groaned in pain as he lifted himself up. He attempted to reach for his axe, which was engorged into the platform. The serpent lashed its head at Marlo, getting ready to feast upon his beaten and torn flesh and worn down body. Marlo's arms shook as he lifted himself up, trying to be prepared for the upcoming attack from the serpent. The serpent, joyous, and already confident of his victory, allowed Marlo to get onto his feet, not knowing that his over extensive pride would be the best of him.
"You still stand Marlo? You have a body of iron. And a body of which will be extremely delicious." The serpent growled and hissed.
Marlo panted heavily, as the vortex grew black behind the serpent. Something started to pull Marlo towards the vortex, and the pull just kept getting stronger. The serpent laughed once again, as it wrapped itself around the platform, and constricted the rocks, cracking the platform.
"You wonder why you're being pulled, Marlo? We are a mere 200 meters away from the largest black hole recorded in history! The gravitational pull is 8 trillion times stronger than a normal black hole! There is no way even you can escape its grasp!"
Marlo chuckled as he stood his ground. He must admit though, he felt like his body was going to be ripped apart any second by the cosmic abyss. The serpent's eyes widened in surprise as they got closer and closer towards the black hole.
"How are you still standing, mortal! We are mere inches away from the black hole now, how are you not dead!" The serpent screamed in anger.
Marlo glared into the serpents soul, who glared right back. Soon, a clash of will began. The serpent bared its ugly teeth right in front of Marlo's face, challenging him to make a move. The pull had soon sucked in the pillar rubble that had crushed Z.
"Z!!!" Marlo stretched out his hand, calling out for Z, but he knew that no answer would come.
The serpent giggled.
"What a gruesome end for the famed Power Slayer. If only he had stood more of a chance against me!"
The serpent slithered around the platform strangely, thus catching Marlo's eye. As the beast squirmed around him, Marlo eyed something on the bottom of the serpents head; a hole, a very perfectly placed hole right under the beasts right side of the jawbone.
"Make your move Marlo! I wonder how far you can get with such little power!!!" The serpent cried out in laughter as it finished lapping the platform.
The creature of hell raised its head high, revealing how tall the beast truly was. The massive 3000+ foot abomination sneered its teeth diabolically at Marlo, but even still, Marlo felt no fear. Instead, Marlo gripped his weapon and stared into the eye of the serpent. Marlo roared in fury and jabbed his weapon towards the sky. A faint glow emerged from the hilt, soon engulfing the entirety of the weapon, and changing it into a bright angelic sword. The serpents eyes flared as Marlo brought the sword back down. It was Enthursiel, one of the blades of beginning.
The serpent hissed in fear.
"You're one of the knights of the beginning?!"
Marlo exhaled gently, closing his eyes, as his entire body started to be engulfed by a bright light. Everything went silent for a moment. Then, Marlo opened his eyes, as the color of his eyes became silver and his hair turned a bright white, almost like snowy grass, flowing in a small blizzard. The serpent moved back. Marlo looked at the serpent with pure undeniable fury.
"You messed up when you mentioned my family you sick bastard."