The smell of burnt sugar and a thousand balloons flaming with black fire soaring through a sky raining razor-sharp smiley stickers like snow.
This was what the fight between two emperors looked like. The two of them distorted reality with every blast, unaware of the events happening in the regular world.
Emperors live in their own realm, and do not need to worry about the affairs of mere mortals.
Jaden smirked and dodged between two flying squirrels with faces straight out of an old adaptation of Dracula. They turned into black fireballs behind him.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was starting to enjoy the fight. The fast-paced rush wasn't like anything from his previous life. This must be why people hated normal lives. In the very back of his mind, Jaden felt a bit sick.
Giuseppe sipped from his margarita glass, hanging upside down. "Did anyone ever tell you drinks taste better upside down? Oops, that was a close one!" He spun around, black fire burning his colorful hair.
The colorful world was on fire. As fast as Giuseppe could create new obnoxiously cheerful creations, Jaden set them ablaze.
And yet, he couldn't make a scratch on Giuseppe. No matter how hard he tried. Perhaps it was because this was his own world.
It was starting to get on Jaden's nerves!
Giuseppe sneezed, far louder than was necessary. "Can we pick up the pace? I'm getting a bit bored. I'd rather invite that kid to my wonderful wacky world than you."
Kid? Azi!?
"He's not part of this. He doesn't even have a system." Involving innocent people, that was not something Jaden wanted to happen.
"Ohhh, that's fiddlesticks." Giuseppe threw his margarita glass on the ground with a sniff. "No system? I 'no care'. The most fun people to kill are those that think fights are cool. Wanna know why?"
Jaden really didn't.
"They always think the good guys beat the baddies. So the look when they die and no hero comes to save them? Now THAT is comedy! Ahahahahahahahah!!" Giuseppe started doing cartwheels around the burning area. He didn't even stop when his clothes started sparking with flames, he was so excited.
Jaden had forgotten what it felt like to hate someone.
He had been mad, been angry, felt those obnoxious urges to beat down the person who insulted him.
But Jaden hadn't actually completely hated someone for a very long time.
That sure had changed.
A surge of power, and the grotesque creations were turned to dust. The two men stood facing each other in a field of burned grass, nothing surrounding them but piles of ash.
Giuseppe stopped smiling. Clouds covered the "sun" in the sky, and it started to rain. Only the water was blood red.
Jaden looked at Giuseppe, his eyes glowing with pure hatred. The red rain fell down his face like tears of blood.
"Ohhhh..someone's mad. Scarryy~" Giuseppe said in a sing-song voice. But I wasn't confident. He wasn't laughing now.
There were no more shoes to shine.
Giuseppe pulled out his umbrellas and opened up both of them. He pointed them up to the sky. A storm of giant umbrellas began to shoot out of the sky directly at Jaden. Each of them had to be at least as big as a house.
That was irrelevant.
Jaden stretched out his arms, blood-red rain dripping from his hands.
[Activate move: God's Wrath Descends Like Lightning]
A dragon of black lightning soared out of the sky, filling the sky with a storm of crackling darkness. It devoured the umbrellas in its jaws. The dragon destroyed the attack, the same way it had charged at Jaden that night.
Jaden slowly pointed at Giuseppe as the dragon of lightning circled through the dark sky. "Any last words?"
Giuseppe held up his hands in front of his face. "Waahh!! Don't kill me!! Have mercy!! Pleeeaaase!!"
"Pathetic."
Giuseppe screeched and the dragon compressed into it was a singular lance of darkness.
[Activate move: Desolation of Despair]
Jaden's hand fell like an executioner's ax. The lance pierced Giuseppe through the heart. He fell to his knees, as he coughed up blood.
His hat fell to the ground.
"Was that fast enough for you?" Jaden said coldly, clenching his fist.
Giuseppe coughed again. The world around them shattered like a mirror. They were back in the cement walls of the Skirmish Circle. The black lance was gone as well, but Giuseppe had a huge black wound, growing larger by the second.
"Mmmm…" muttered Giuseppe, "It was…a beautiful life. Countless people, skewered on a knife. Every day, filled with cheer and strife…"
A poem with his last words? Jaden slowly floated down, his God Mode de-activating. He was far more exhausted than he had ever been before. His eyes returned to their original green color.
If Giuseppe wanted to make up a poem before he died, whatever. Jaden wouldn't waste the effort to stop him.
Giuseppe continued: "...The quality of this life, rated 99 and ½. All it needs is one more shot, for this comedian's behalf. Because Giuseppe P. Komedy…always has the last laugh."
Too late, Jaden noticed his hand. Without God Mode, he couldn't react fast enough. There had been a gun hiding under his hat. When his hat fell off, he had grabbed it. That barrel of that gun was now smoking.
And Jaden had not been shot.