Bolts of lightning flew around Raijin's body, like a golden armor that burns anything it comes in contact with. Akuro stood across from Raijin, the exact opposite, his aura being dark and cold, swallowing anything it caught in its path.
Two sides of a coin.
Akuro flung a wave of black aura through the air, just to test Raijin, and sure enough, the attack didn't even scratch him or make a dent in his armor.
"Good try, but attacks using aura won't work on my Cloak, it disperses any form of external aura it makes contact with." Raijin grinned, "This fight is as good as over now."
Raijin's body became blurry then and lightning thrashed around his body as he flew forward at an insane speed that Akuro's eyes couldn't even follow, the ground at Raijin's feet exploding in rock and dust as he reached Akuro, his palm hitting his chest. An air pocket was made between Raijin's palm and Akuro's chest, the force of it blasting a hole through him, blood splattering across the ground and smoke rising up from the wound.
"I've won…" Raijin said calmly, raising the Infinite Arashi into the air, about to bring it down on Akuro, but then he stopped.
Akuro began to chuckle, but it then turned into a crazed, maniacal laugh, his eyes wide with the look of an insane person plastered to his face.
"The hell, have you finally lost it, boy?" Raijin asked, feeling uneasy as he watched Akuro.
"You think you've won?" Akuro asked, his voice loud and crazed, "Wrong again, old man!" His head tilted to the side with a *SNAP* "You're dead.."
Akuro grabbed Raijin by the throat then swung his body head first into the ground, throwing Raijin's entire body down, his skull cracking from the impact. Ten Akuro continued to stomp on Raijin's back, at first his foot was blocked by the golden armor, but after a second the Aura Cloak cracked, and Akuro's foot came down, completely shattering the Thunder God's spine and sending a violent shockwave through the ground from the tremendous force.
Akuro raised the God Slayer above his head, swinging it down on Raijin's head, but the god jumped up, rolling out from under Akuro's foot and avoiding the scythe as it struck the ground, but as he stood, Akuro's fist slammed into Raijin's jaw, snapping it and sending his body flying, spinning vertically though the air before crashing head first into a wall.
Akuro dashed after his prey, an insane grin across his lips, but he suddenly stopped a few yards away from Raijin, frowning.
"That's cheap of you." He said.
Raijin slowly removed himself from the wall, his hand raised as a magnetic field as made around him, blocking Akuro from all sides so that he couldn't reach the god.
Raijin grinned, "Now what, boy? You can't even touch me!"
Akuro bent down and picked up a pebble, then tossed it into the gold lit area. Sure enough the rock instantly plummeted to the ground, burrowing deep into the dirt, as if it had been thrown at full force.
"So what, we stalemate?" Akuro asked. "I may not be able to reach you, but you can't attack me at full power unless you get close. All you've done is put us in a stalemate."
Raijin smirked. "You sure about that?" Gold light flashed from his eyes and then heard a loud crackling from above him. He looked up and saw a gold orb of lightning gathered above his head. Akuro immediately leapt back as a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground, the heat of it melting the earth into molten rock while the surrounding stone and dirt was violently blasted into oblivion.
After the first attack failed, gold light gathered in Raijin's hands and a beam of lightning was shot from his hands directed at Akuro, who swiftly ran to the side away from it as the beam blasted deep gashed into the walls, sending tremors through the cavern and causing the ceiling to cave in on itself. Akuro leapt up into the air, jumping atop a large boulder and kicking it as hard as he could towards Raijin. When the boulder came close, it was violently wrenched downwards but the magnetic field, but the did nothing more than increase the force of its impact, since it's size was so large. It forced Raijin to jump over it and out of his safe zone, and that's when Akuro made his move.
Dashing at Raijin, Akuro swung his weapon, and as the God Slayer and the Infinite Arashi made contact, the two began to exchange powerful attacks at such insane speeds that normal eyes couldn't even follow the attacks. All one would be able to see is a blur of steel, aura, and sparks as shockwaves were sent through the air.
Akuro, in the span of a single second, spun is scythe around his waist and ducked aside as Raijin's spear narrowly missed his head. Then the God Slayer hit its mark, the black blade cleaning cutting off Raijin's arm and biting into his rib cage. Akuro planted his foot against Raijin's chest, then pushed while also pulling the God Slayer, resulting in the blade ripping Raijin's rib cage open, blood dying the ground a crimson shade.
Raijin fell to his knees, blood pooling around his body as his wounds slowly healed over. Another magnetic field was formed around his body, but it was much smaller than the ones before.
"You are running out of aura already?" Akuro asked. "That's too bad. It also seems you are out of tricks, do you, a million year old god, really have nothing more to show me?"
Raijin grit his teeth, glaring up at Akuro as a new arm grew. "This is not over, insolent brat!"
"Really?" Akuro spoke, "Well, if you ask me, it looks like… you've already dealt your cards." He held up his hand, aura pooling into his palm. "And you came up short."
A pulse shot through the air as an immense amount of aura condensed into Akuro's palm, then he thrust out his hand, but as he did, Raijin also thrust the Infinite Arashi forward into Akuro's Dark Implosion. Blue aura clashed with shadow, and a moment later the ball of aura recoiled, exploding outward and swallowing Akuro's arm and part of his shoulder, knocking him back onto the ground, while Raijin's spear was shattered completely.
The God's eyes went wide as he stared at the broken weapon in his hands, wisps of blue aura fading out of existence. He crumbled to his knees, disheartened.
"How… is this possible..?"
Akuro laughed madly. "You dumbass! Did you seriously think that just because it is some magical weapon of the gods that it was indestructible?" Akuro threw his head back in laughter as bones formed an arm, which was then wrapped with flesh, blood and tissue before being finished with a layer of skin. "Everything is breakable in the end." He said. "Even the gods."
Raijin sat, silent and unmoving, his magnetic field fading and his aura cloak wavering before shattering and disappearing.
"I… failed…"
"Yeah. You did." Akuro said, walking closer to Raijin until he stood directly in front of him, glaring down at the pathetic god. "You've lost, Raijin."
"I was supposed to kill you… I made you… how could it have come to this..?" Raijin asked, though he seemed to be talking to himself more than he was Akuro.
"You were never going to kill me, old man." Akuro said, raising his hand and putting his thumb to his middle finger. "I could've killed you whenever I wanted, I just felt that I wanted to play with you a bit before ending your miserable existence."
Raijin looked up at Akuro, then at his hand. He smiled sadly. "Hmm. I see, so you've just been playing along with my game this whole time… I'm nothing more than entertainment to you…"
"Yes. And now I've seen all your tricks. You've become boring and are of no more use to me." Akuro said. "Any last words?"
"Hmm.." Raijin spoke softly. "Yes. A warning actually."
"A warning?"
"Yes. Be aware, Akuro, I am among one of the weakest of the gods, and when you take my life… " Raijin's eyes locked with Akuro's. "There will be no going back. This world will spiral into chaos and war. The Seventh Immortal War will start, and there will be no end to it until one side is completely annihilated."
"I realize that." Akuro said. "That's what I want."
"But aren't you even worried on the slightest that maybe you will lose?" Raijin asked, "that you will be struck down in battle? That your soul will be shattered?"
Akuro was silent for a moment, his expression unreadable as he thought. But then his eyes went dead and cold.
"If that is to be my fate, then so be it." He said, his tone heartless and cold as ice. "But if I die, just know… I will end everything. This world will drown in my shadow, and there will be death."
"End everything, hmm? I would like to see that." Raijin spoke. "The day you become powerful enough to end the world, that would be a sight to behold… the day you truly become… the Omnipotent Death."
"I already am."
Akuro snapped his fingers then, and Raijin's body went rigid, the light leaving his eyes as he slumped over. His flesh slowly began to crack and fade, becoming clouds of golden light that dissipated into the air.
Akuro had won, he had killed a god. As he stood in the empty cavern, nothing but destruction and rock around him, he thought of what would come next.
The war had already begun. This was just the first blood.
~END OF THE FIRST ARC OF VOLUME ONE~
~(1.1)~