John and Nathanial stared at each other. Flecks of darkness were scattered throughout the room. The shadows looked similar to cloths that had been torn and thrown to the ground.
John and Nathanial didn't make a single sound. There was only silence and the gaze.
John's incredible act of strength had thrown them back into the eye of the storm. The only sound John should have heard was the soft crackling of Stoves fire. But he heard more than that.
John was immersed in the sound of static. The static was overlayed atop John's vision. The static was woven into everything John saw. The shape of the walls, the floor and Nathanial were all replaced by static.
The little black dots in the static shifted. They melded and linked together until they finally made the shape of a word. A new word was made after that. And then another one. And another one. Until there was a sentence.
John didn't know why. But he felt the need to speak the static's sentence out loud.
"Hells litmus, Death's witness, Pain's Christmas." The dots shifted
A single word was displayed in front of John.
"Life."
John's heart swelled by ten sizes.
{ERROR. LIFE LIFE LIFE LIFE. LIFE! LIFE! LIFE! LIFE! LIVING BEING IN LIFE IS ALIVE! LIFE! THE LIVING LIFE LIVES LIVINGLY IN A LIFE WAY IN A LIFE WORLD IN A LIFE REALITY. LIFE! THE LIFE! THE LIVING LIFE WITH THE LIFES POWER! LIFES TOWER! LIFES LVING TOWER POWER OF THE GODS FLOWER! LI———————}
The gibberings continued endlessly. For a moment, the screen blinded John. John smacked the blue screen aside.
For a moment, John glowed with a deep red that was so bright that it immersed the whole room.
John couldn't see a thing for a solid two seconds after the light dimmed
{Skill gained. Twenty-minute Anaerobic system.}
For a moment, Nathanial just continued to stare at John. His gaze created a sense of fatigue in John.
"You know. We could Just end this now. We could stop the fighting." Said John
Nathanial just stared at John for a moment.
A slight gold aura covered Nathanial.
"Press. Press. Press. Bear witness. For I press a duality press. That is my pressure." Nathanial spread his arms.
"I shall un-press. And the other shall——"
{Skill activated: Twenty Minute Anaerobic System}
Before Nathanial could even finish his chant, John shot forward. His arms spread out, and he flew straight towards Nathanial. John planned for a tackle.
By the time Nathanial noticed John, he was already milliseconds from tackling him.
Time slowed down. Tenths of a second became minutes. Minutes became days.
Nathanial Lowered himself towards the ground. He was face to face with John.
Nathanial murmured a chant in less than an instant.
"There is no duality. I un-press."
What? Huh?
John tumbled on the ground and looked around himself in confusion. He couldn't see Nathanial. But John could taste iron in his mouth. That was the taste of blood.
What's going on?
"YIP!"
The darkness that covered John vanished as Stove created light. Laying a few feet away from John was a pile of the elements of a human being. There were organs, intestines, muscles, fat, and bones. They were all piled up together. It was as if someone had compartmentalized a human into it's individual elements and piled them together.
The pile started to squirm slightly.
I need to stop this.
John stepped towards the pile.
The pile started quaking. It shot blood onto the walls with how intensely it shook.
The individual elements started to link together in an indiscernible pattern.
It was only once the elements started to trace out the form of a human that John realized it.
That's Nathanial
"YIP!"
"YIP!"
A gust of fire blew towards Nathanial's forming body. Once the body was sufficiently scorched, the ice went next. The dragons burned Nathanial like that in many cycles.
"And the unpress is repressed and returned to unrest." Said Nathanial.
He turned his head to look at John. He seemed utterly unharmed by the dragon's attack. A grin grew on Nathanial's face.
I have to kill him now.
John nodded to Stove and Refrigerator. Then he leaped forward.
This time, Nathanial was ready. So he quickly ducked to the side.
He's not human. There's no way any human can come back from that. And if he can come back from something like that... Then how do I kill him?
John smacked his lips as he leaped off the wall near him. He shot back towards Nathanial. John could taste what he assumed was Nathanial's blood in his mouth.
I'll eat him.
A grin grew on John's face.
John kicked off the cellar wall. Nathanial was sidestepping the two dragon's burst of flame.
"AHHHH!"
John tackled Nathanial to the ground.
Before Nathanial had time to even so much as twitch, John sunk his teeth into Nathanial's flesh.
Nathanial tasted rotten and foul like a corpse that was long expired. But that didn't stop John's hunger. In fact, like most flavours. It only made him hungrier.
John gulped down that chunk of Nathanial's flesh. Next, he lifted Nathanial into the air.
John's jaw unhinged.
"I'll eat you."
Nathanial went limp in his arms. He slid from John's grip and fell straight into his mouth.
Before John could close his Jaws Nathanial placed his foot on the back of John's throat. He sent himself flying up into the air.
"HK!"
John staggered into the ground while holding his throat with his hands.
I can't breathe. I can't breathe.
"Let it be known and let it be unshown. For there is only darkness. A darkness without starkness or the heavenly rhythm. There is only pressure."
John felt his lungs seize. It wasn't that his throat had been hurt. They just wouldn't move.
But that didn't matter.
{Twenty Minutes Anaerobic system.}
For twenty minutes, John's strength could be used to its fullest. No attacking, then gasping for ten minutes. Only endless, nonstop battle. For twenty minutes, John didn't need to breathe.
With a soundless scream, John stood up. Again, the moment he stood, the darkness vanished. This time, he didn't need Stove to see. The red aura John was creating enough light for that all on its own.
But John wished he wasn't able to see.
"YIP!"
Because the sight before him was one of the most horrible things in the world.