A gigantic floating eyeball with hundreds of tentacles for limbs was surrounded by 5 individuals who appeared to be exhausted.
"We... can't win. It's impossible."
A blue haired man said, as he fell to his knees, only his bow supporting him.
"We musn't give up! Our journeys led us here and we are at our peaks, even if it is the Elemental Dark Lord, we pushed him to his final form! We just need to keep going!"
A brown haired man said, rekindling his motivation and brandishing his mace and shield for another charge.
"Wait! Stop!"
A green haired man pleaded, throwing one of his many short blades in front of the charging brown haired man.
"Why?! I swear I could've opened up a spot for a pincer there!"
"You dumbass! Who can help you pincer?! Everyone's exhausted."
The brown haired man stopped in his tracks and looked at everyone. Their healer and support, a blonde little girl laid in the ground, only the small rise of her chest signaled she lives.
The green haired man collapsed on his back, groaning.
The blue haired man finally gave up and lied face first into the ground.
The only one left was a red haired man, he sat in the ground, a gigantic Zweihander to his side being grabbed by an giant arm made of fire.
The brown haired man's eyes lit up.
"AGNITERASU! Let's end this! If we do a pincer–"
"Shut up you dipshit. Don't drag me into your elaborate suicide scheme, we should be thanking the fact that the Elemental Dark Lord's final form is purely a counter type. Take this time to rest up, you can't do anything without the yellow loli's support anyways."
The brown haired man grit his teeth in anger, but slowly, his readied posture relaxed and he simply sat on the ground.
Agniterasu meanwhile slowly moved behind the blonde little girl. She was out of the fight from the start of the final form, she was the MVP of this battle in all honesty. He could've done better, but he knew about the final form as he tried to solo the Elemental Dark Lord years ago and nearly died.
Ever since then, he's been brewing up a plan to end it all.
His plan doesn't consist of anyone else but him and his partner.
The Elemental Dark Lord's final form is something of a last ditch effort, it was his true form and relied heavily on instincts to fight as despite the eye, he was actually deprived of all his other senses and relied on elemental energy near him to fight.
You would think it's easy, but as soon as any thing with elemental energy came near him he fights back with the opposing element, and the real problem was that he can counter with the opposing element as much as 20 times in one go thanks to his tentacles.
Fire beats Water, Water beats Earth, Earth beats Wind, Wind beats Fire.
Though, in actuality, if your fire was strong enough...
None of those matters. Fire evaporates Water, Fire gains power from Wind, Fire relentlessly scorches Earth.
Agniterasu had exactly that. His plan was simple and the first step was also simple.
"Get rid of any chance to recover."
As everyone else was so exhausted, they didn't notice Agniterasu kill the blonde loli.
Her eyes opened briefly, she wanted to shout but too bad he decided to burn her throat and choke her to death.
Before any of them noticed, he stood up grabbed his Zweihander.
The brown haired man glanced at him in confusion.
After all, he was the one who said to rest up. Agniterasu charged at the Elemental Dark Lord and positioned himself in a way that the counter would also strike the others.
The brown haired man was too late to realize this. The sharp gust of wind sliced through his torso and he could only see a red blur go past him.
The attack also hit, or rather killed the blue and green haired men.
Agniterasu stood behind all of them.
"Strong Fire gets strengthened by Wind."
He inhaled briefly, then as soon as he exhaled an odd silhouette seemed to form behind him. It was almost like the Elemental Dark Lord but only fire.
It spawned burning gigantic hands and the Zweihander was coated in fire mimicking its form. The burning hands grabbed the sword and Agniterasu let go of it and raised one arm up.
"Let's end it with this one, Partner."
[Origin Cthugua: Ragnarok]
Agniterasu sliced down with his raised arm, and the burning hand followed with a downward slash, the heat was overwhelming, to the point that the wind 20 large wind slashes from the Elemental Dark Lord was swallowed up and in turn made the slash bigger.
The Elemental Dark Lord tried to continue using the opposing element but it only made it stronger, and eventually the slash hit. The heat that wafted off the impact blurred time and space, it was a fire so fire that it burned through time and space, effectively cancelling out the regeneration that the Elemental Dark Lord prided itself in.
Originally, it could only be bypassed by the blonde little girl's support, her magic wasn't elemental, but rather Holy. Although Holy doesn't have direct offensive capabilities, it makes up for it with support.
From healing people who has been turned into molecules to buffing weapons to be able to cut through fate and time.
Agniterasu's plan originally consisted of maybe bribing the little girl, but she was honourable and annoying. They could have finished the final quest faster, but she opted to detour and help people.
So, he instead decided to go with Plan B. Which was to take advantage of strong fire getting stronger from wind and utterly destroying the Elemental Dark Lord.
And, Agniterasu succeeded.
He collapsed to the ground, Origin magic were as it is named, originating from something. His pact was with Cthugua, a rather eccentric Elemental Fire God who decided to form a pact with him in exchange for killing the Elemental Dark Lord.
Or so it says it is. Agniterasu knew his lovecraftian horror. Origin magic directly borrowed from whoever and thus it is a magic that depends on the strength of the originator.
If your Origin was a minor elemental spirit, then it wouldn't amount to much.
If your Origin was a Elemental God, then it would be strong.
The only downside was that, instead of using your elemental energy to fuel the spell, you instead use all of it to open a pathway to the origin. In other words, using one would always, no matter how weak, exhaust all your elemental energy.
Agniterasu saved up as much as he could and he was satisfied with it, the Elemental Dark Lord was dead, he was the sole survivor, and he was effectively the strongest person in this world.
Agniterasu recovered enough to walk and his heavy steps resounded throughout the now oddly looking garden. With his Zweihander in hand, he was ready to go home and live in peace.
That's right, Agniterasu wanted to be the strongest so that he could live in peace. As the Great Hero of the Fire Continent, he could already do it technically, but the Elemental Dark Lord was really messing his plans up.
So it resulted into this.
Agniterasu reached the door, and with extreme effort, he opened the door, bright light forced him to momentarily close his eyes.
And, once he opened it to finally bring an end to his long journey...
He saw a creamy white ceiling.
...
"Huh?"
Agniterasu immediately sat up from his bed and looked at his surroundings.
"Wha–, no. No. Stats!"
A feature from the other world was to be able to see their capabilities quantified. Only that.
It wasn't anything else beside just a neat and convenient stat checker.
But, in this case it was enough to send Agniterasu into denial.
"No, no, no... you can't do this to me..."
[Joshua Evans]
[Human]
[STR - 5]
[AGI - 4]
[MAG - 1]
[DUR - 3]
[Skills]
[Origin Magic]
[Pact]
[Cthugua]
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED?!"
"Joshua!? Are you alright there? Come down if you're finished waking up, breakfast is ready!"
All his blood, tears, pain, effort and accumulated strength. All gone. This wasn't supposed to be his ending.
"I DIDN'T WANT TO RETURN! I WANTED TO STAY IN THE OTHER WORLD! WHY THE HELL WOULD I EVEN WANT TO RETURN HERE?!"
Agniterasu, now Joshua Evans, dropped to his knees and banged the floor repeatedly.
"Damn it all! If you were going to return me, at least give me my stats back! And... eh?"
He checked his stats again.
[Pact]
[Cthugua]
"Eh?"
While Agniterasu doesn't admit it, he was well aware of how unbalanced his strength was. Unlike everyone else who was split evenly between stats, skills and pacts with whoever they had, Agniterasu only became the strongest after he got a pact with his partner.
Suffice to say, 90% of his strength comes from his pact.
A smile came to Joshua's face.
He willed his weapon, the physical manifestation of his pact with Cthugua.
A burning hand appeared near him, bringing a Zweihander with it.
"Alright, I guess it isn't too bad. I still have you, partner. It started with you and me. Ended with you and me."
He willed the weapon away and looked out towards the window.
"And, it will start over with you and me."
Joshua turned around, he doesn't really remember much about this life, but he remembered being weak and pathetic.
"Well, I definitely will change starting today."
He took a step. He was used to his old strength.
He twisted his ankle.
He dropped face first, and a now sprained ankle.
For the record, the average Human shoud have 5 and above numbers on all stats aside from MAG.
"I hate this body."