So you don't remember me, Matt? I'm not even worthy of being a memory to you..?"
Shadows engulfed the German man above, pouring from his eyes and mouth like a black sludge.
"W-What do we do?" Violet whispered to Matt within the van.
"Take the wheel... and don't stop driving no matter what."
Climbing over the upholstery, Violet shakily took control of the vehicle, and Matt took her seat.
He jarred the window open and climbed outside, mounting the top of the car.
The strong wind from the speeding car blew his trenchcoat into the open air, its fabric flapping behind him like a cape.
"What the hell do you two want?" Matt called out.
Godfried smiled.
"I'm just here to enjoy the show. You two are the ones who'll play the actors," he said, pointing to the shadowy person beside him and then to Matt.
The darkness-enveloped man's dead eyes drifted downward.
"Iris is in there too, isn't she? So you both ran off and abandoned me... You left me behind, like I don't matter at all."
"I don't know who you are or what you're talking about, but if you threaten us... I'll kill you," Matt said, drawing his gun from his coat.
"I guess it'll come to that then, but since you've forgotten me...
I'll take the opportunity to give myself a more fitting name.
For now, you can call me... THE GOD OF DARKNESS."
The shadows streaming from their body rushed forward all at once, piercing Matt's body and knocking him off balance, sending him into the speeding floor of the asphalt.
"Palace of Sin: Gluttony."
Matt's left arm contorted violently, and a black form took shape starting from the top of his shoulder.
It grew in size, and numerous different sets of teeth materialized on it, ripping his trenchcoat to shreds.
His hand transformed into a massive claw, a jaw filled with jagged teeth on his palm.
The mutant arm caught Matt's fall, scraping against the highway as he skidded backward.
His now unnaturally muscular forearm gripped the asphalt, its ragged black skin akin to scales with numerous jagged edges protruding from it sparking on the street.
Matt's mind was flooded with strategies.
I could consume the vehicle and send my allies to a safer place, or...
Unleash the beast now and kill those two...
Matt smirked and parted his lips.
"Cath Palug."
A monstrous beast of gluttony armed with red claws and white fur materialized under Matt as he said the words.
I'll kill them.
Drooling with its rabid crimson eyes fixed on the enemy, the monster howled, shaking the foundation of the highway and cracking the windows of the cars in the vicinity.
The few people driving at this late hour seemed to lose consciousness from its guttural roar and drifted to the sides of the road.
Taking up the space of multiple lanes of traffic, the beast was as large as an elephant.
"What a scary Akashic power..." Godfried muttered.
With a gun in his right hand and the monstrous black figure that was his left, Matt rushed towards the van unabated, riding the treacherous fiend.
"If you call yourself the "God of Darkness," then that's perfect for me... because as a priest, it's my job to eliminate false idols.
In the name of ARCHAIA, I will destroy you."
"Hehehaha... YOU TRULY HAVEN'T CHANGED!" The god laughed hysterically while falling into the racing street.
And as he landed on the road, the last sliver of twilight was blotted out. The sun set, filling the world with darkness.
The night had begun, and so had the battle.
...
"Stop the car, Violet!" Michael shouted as the figures of Matt and the shadow man grew more distant.
"B-But Matt said not to-"
"Tsk," Michael climbed into the front passenger seat and reeled the handbrake upwards.
The van slowly skidded to a stop, screeching and spinning in the middle of the road.
"That's no fun," Godfried spoke as he stomped onto the skyroof from above.
Glass shattered and fell like little raindrops, showering the three persons in the car.
He dropped down into the vehicle, readying his knife to pierce Michael's neck, but Iris reacted quickly.
Blossoming beautifully, the inside of the van became covered in a bushy forest of variously colored orchids.
The rainbow of flowers rushed to the center, grazing Godfried's skin and blocking his vision.
"Now!" Iris shouted as she slammed the door beside her open and jumped out.
Violet panickedly fumbled with the handle of the door before being cocooned in flowers and thrown out of the vehicle.
She and Iris both rolled out of the car onto the asphalt, slamming into the barrier that separated the lanes.
Michael, who was still in the van, refused to retreat and took the opportunity to strike.
"Noble Chroma: Blue."
With Iris and Violet out of the car...
I can go all out.
"Atlantis Calling."
Michael menacingly stepped onto the headrests, his upper body poking out into the night as he readied the blue sword of retribution in his palms.
It flowed like a stream, spraying foam onto the upholstery of the van's colorful interior.
Engulfed in a storm of flora, Michael slashed Godfried across the neck.
The navy blade picked up speed and crashed like a tsunami, cutting precisely along not only Godfried's nape...
But the van itself as well.
Michael ducked as the upper part of the vehicle went flying, and Godfried's decapitated head went with it.
The backside of his skull separated from his body and spewed blood, arcing through the starless sky.
"I actually got him?"
The van quickly spun out of control, and Michael was forced to jump onto the asphalt, leaving the destroyed vehicle to wreck the barrier beside him and fall off the edge of the road.
He rolled to the ground and jutted his leg outward, absorbing the impact.
"Are you okay?!" Iris called out, running towards him from afar.
Violet could be seen as a speck far in the distance, her back against the barrier of the freeway.
She sat curled up with her head in her hands, seemingly unconscious.
"Yeah! Are you two okay?" He called back.
As Iris neared Michael, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
And her eyes widened in horror.
...
While the van lost control in the distance, Matt and the shadowy god dueled upon the highway, cars occasionally racing past them.
"Düsteres," the god summoned a lance of darkness, lunging toward Matt's glutinous beast, Cath Palug.
But before their strike could land, the sound of gunshots filled the lightless freeway.
The bullets blasted them back, the shadowy god tumbling mid-air into the range of Cath Palug.
Smashing its paw down, the monster cracked the road and destroyed anything within a 20-foot radius.
Collapsing into the city below, the impact made the portion of highway they stood upon give way as Matt and the self-proclaimed God tumbled down.
They landed across from each other atop a multiple-story building.
"Krieger der Zukunft... Go, my slave knights," they called out, debris raining around them.
They bit into the flesh of their arm and sprayed their blood in an arc across the surface of the roof.
Morphing into the image of murky warriors, the crimson paint took shape and loomed behind them.
The warriors breathed heavily, fog emerging from under their pitch-black helmets as they approached slowly with weapons of darkness dragging across the concrete ground.
Generating a shadowy whip in his palm, the god lashed at the black figures, yelling, "Get to battling you slaves!"
They rushed toward Matt in a futile assault.
"Out of my way," he muttered while clicking the switch on his gun's side.
Blinding explosions filled the rooftop and shook the foundation of the building as he blasted the knights away.
Blooming fire spread in a circling pattern, the light of justice blowing away the warriors of darkness.
Cath Palug bounded through that curtain of flames, embers lighting up its beastly silhouette, and slammed the shadowy god with its gigantic paw before the attack could be seen coming.
They were sent flying into the air, the impact booming across the empty streets, the god's figure filling the waxing moon as they soared across the open space.
Crashing through the full length of multiple buildings, the god's body was like a ragdoll being flung across the city.
The Akashic power of shadows emanating from their body dissipated every time they struck through the concrete walls of the buildings until they arrived at ground level, smashing through the roof of a tall structure.
A crucifix adorned the spot where they landed.
It was a place of worship.
...
In a section of undestroyed freeway up ahead...
Godfried stood above Michael and Iris on a seemingly invisible surface, levitating in midair.
His head wasn't cut off.
Even if it had been.
He should've died.
But he didn't.
"Reincarnated Essence: Fate," Godfried spoke.
As the words left his mouth, his Akashic power awakened...
And the world would stop.
Reality itself would skip a beat.
Time warped around him, simultaneously halting and speeding forward.
Completely indescribable, the event seemed to shake the foundation of logic.
And at the receiving end of this paradoxical distortion...
Was Michael and Iris.
A kaleidoscopic beam consisting of crystallized time shot forward.
Iris quickly summoned a barrier of petals that blocked off the highway.
But the spiraling light broke through, racing to meet her.
Michael.
In a split-second decision, or perhaps in a desperate attempt to protect her, he leapt in front of Iris.
And blocked the ray of destruction with his body.
It rushed through miles of road, lighting the sky with its angelic hue.
Pillars supporting the highway crashed deep into the ground, and the buildings below collapsed like an earthquake had shaken the area.
Michael pushed against the overwhelming force, blue tendrils emanating from his body but quickly being consumed by the gold radiance.
The skin of his arms and face singed off before the rest of his body caught aflame as well.
"AGGGGHHHHH!"
Iris' lilac eyes widened, shining in the golden light surrounding her.
Michael's lit-up silhouette stood ahead, fighting the unrelenting force despite his own being burning up in the effort.
"Michael-"
His arms were slowly incinerated by the fateful luminescence akin to the swelling sun, starting from the tips of his fingers to the base of his shoulder.
"Michael..!" Iris cried out.
Still, he would not let up.
He would rather kill himself... and even then remain standing before he let Iris be struck.
"Michael!" Tears streamed down Iris' face as his limbs were ripped from their place.
He pushed on, the light consuming his body and eating at his flesh.
"MICHAEL!" Iris shouted in a desperate wake...
She sprinted forward, her body burning up in the blinding light...
As she embraced Michael.
In a state that walked the cusp of death, he felt Iris' warmth wrapping around him.
And it was as if nothing else but them existed in that instant.
A memory of their time together flashed in Michael's mind.
...
"Michael," Iris' voice echoed within the empty shed.
They had just finished sparring and were cooling off.
It was a cold spring night, a light shower cascading down.
"What is it?"
"I want to know... What are you training so hard for?"
"I'm training for my future. There'll be times when I need to be strong."
"Oh? Like when?" Iris leaned her head back, sticking it out of the glassless window, as little droplets of fresh rain fell onto her pale face.
"When the day comes where I need to make a choice that'll shape me as a person or when I need to fight for my beliefs... What are you training for?"
"I guess I train because...
I want to protect those around me and accept my past... But mostly the former."
"Why protecting?"
"I think... everyone in this world should be protected and protect each other. Everyone will have a time of weakness, and in those times they should always have someone to help them."
"You're so selfless..." Her gentle ideology inspired Michael.
"Say... let's make a promise. You promise to always stand by your beliefs... and I'll promise to protect you and your ideals. Working together can accomplish both our goals."
Michael grinned as she brought her head down from the window.
"It's a promise then," he spoke...
Compared to my desires,
Her wish is...
So much more important.
...
I CAN'T LET HER DREAM DIE.
...
In the present, the beam of fate that assaulted them was split in two as an ocean of flowering blue emerged from the figures of Iris and Michael.
Dissipating into the starless sky, the godly light was replaced by a torrential tide.
And on the opposite end of this tide was Godfried.
"Weisenburg... Is this your doing?" He muttered before being devoured by the wave.
He sank into the ultramarine, razor-like petals underneath the surface ripping him to shreds.
"This blue... it's exactly like hers..." He shuttered as a vortex the size of a small lake formed, pinning him to the ground.
Godfried was terrified.
He was terrified not of Michael...
But of the Akashic power he wielded and the implications of it.
"Even in death, you both still haunt this world... Weisenburg... Eir..."
Crashing down into the whirlpool, a cerulean stalactite was formed, hardening into a material akin to diamond before pounding into Godfried's body, ripping a hole through his chest like a cannon had shot through it.
...
Cath Palug dissipated into the air, and Matt jumped from the building he stood upon to meet the God of Darkness at the church.
Crows flocked through the night, and the sound of cicadas filled the silent city as he plummeted to the ground.
The wind howled against the tall structure.
At the last second, Matt caught himself by grasping the side of the building with his mutant arm.
He became motionless for a moment and then kicked off the wall, leaping from building to building.
Approaching the chapel quickly, Matt's mutant arm grasped onto the roofs of the tall buildings and condos before throwing himself into the air.
Skidding onto the street outside the church, he kicked the grand doors open and walked steadily inside.
There, on the altar at the center of the empty cathedral, lay the figure of the God of Darkness, covered in blood.
Bits of stone and gilded slate were strewn across the area, and a small crater of destruction surrounded them.
The shadows that veiled them were now gone, and their face and body could be seen clearly.
Of course.
I should've known.
Perhaps I knew from the start and denied it out of good faith.
But I'm unable to lie to myself anymore.
It's you...
"Gabriel."
"Hehehe... Swinging around like that... are you a monkey or something, Matt?"