POV: Baldur
Unknown Planet
Ten Hours After the Battle in the City
After exterminating the black lizards, those who were lucky enough to survive began searching for their relatives and friends among the wreckage. The bodies of the deceased were nearly completely destroyed by the brutality of the monsters, and the entire city was mourning.
They began bringing the remnants of their dead to give them a dignified burial. The bodies were piled up in a simple structure resembling a large bonfire. According to the ancient traditions of this planet, the dead must be cremated to enter paradise. Once again, I saw the two children I saved crying over the death of their father, embracing their mother. At least they hadn't lost their entire family.
After the bodies were burned, it was time to deal with the enemies. I'm not the most delicate in my battles, so most of the lizards were turned into soup. Let's just say they'll have plenty of work to rebuild this city. As their elder mentioned, this people has a low reproduction rate. Their numbers were reduced by the massacre, and now by this attack. It's likely that this race will become extinct if they don't receive help, something I'm willing to provide.
While observing from the top of the tallest building as the city's inhabitants cleaned up, I pondered ways to assist them. Suddenly, a shiver ran through my body, causing me to look up at the sky. This planet has two beautiful moons, one as large as Earth's, and another smaller one orbiting it. From them, I saw a black spot approaching at high speed toward the city—Gorr had arrived.
(If he crashes into the city at this speed, he'll destroy it!)
Gorr doesn't seem to be slowing down; he's coming straight for me. So, I take off with such power that the building I'm in explodes. In a fraction of a second, I'm face to face with the black comet, delivering a punch with all my might. The blow creates a shockwave that clears the entire sky of clouds. Fortunately, it worked; due to the punch, Gorr was diverted from the city, crashing into a mountain about ten kilometers away from it.
"BOOOOM!"
His impact destroyed the entire mountain, causing it to collapse, creating a small dust storm spreading towards the city. I hover in the air, waiting for the battle to begin.
"You're the first god I've encountered who has given me so much trouble. You're certainly the most powerful, and your head will be the greatest trophy I, Gorr, have ever conquered."
Gorr speaks, suddenly appearing a few meters from my position.
"By the end of this day, a head will be separated from its body, but it won't be mine!"
"Arrogant, like all the others, until I showed them the fear of death. There's nothing more beautiful than seeing the faces of those who deem themselves all-powerful when they realize they're about to die!"
Gorr smiles at me like a psychopath. All-Black is certainly one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, but at a cost—it corrupts its user, forcing them to kill. Gorr's rage against the gods is genuine, but it's All-Black that fuels it, making it uncontrollable.
He initiates the attack. His speed has increased significantly compared to our previous fight. Without my spear, I can only evade his black sword. I move my body to the side and deliver a punch with all my power to his body. The darkness around him creates a black shield in front of him, defending him.
Gorr kicks me in the middle of my stomach, causing me to fall directly to the ground, creating a small crater. A black whip cuts through the smoke above me, and I manage to dodge it by an inch.
"BOOM!"
The noise catches my attention, and when I look behind me, I see that Gorr's whip was so enormous that it crashed into the city wall kilometers away from me, cutting it and causing it to collapse.
"No."
If this fight continues here, the chances of them being caught in the crossfire are enormous.
Gorr attacks me with two axes, aiming for my shoulders. I manage to grab hold of the handle of both, saving myself. But the shadows once again become an extension of his body, piercing the sides of my abdomen. Taking advantage of my pain, he makes one of his axes simply disappear, leaving his hand free to grab my face. He lifts me and slams me to the ground, knocking the breath out of me. I feel another blow now from the black axe right in the middle of my chest.
"AAAAAH!"
"That's right, little god, scream for me."
(T/N: this is pathetic right now 😭)
As if he wanted to hear my screams better, he brings his face closer to mine. Then I release a blast of energy at his face, throwing him back.
The wound on my chest wasn't too severe, but what's concerning is the dark energy destroying my body from the inside. Fortunately, I've become quite skilled at drawing it into my golden dimension and subduing it. Unfortunately, I don't have time to do that and heal myself.
His attack continues, switching from axes to swords, then a whip, and finally using his shadows to injure me when I defend myself. My wounds only increase with each passing second. I tried using my constructs of light to fight, but they have a clear disadvantage against All-Black, resisting only one blow before breaking. After a few minutes of fighting, I find myself in a pitiful state, covered in wounds, drenched in my own blood.
Seeing my condition, Gorr can't stop smiling; he probably wants to wear me out to torture me to death. I remember he's a master of torture, so skilled that he even made a god of torture beg for death.
He points his hand at me, and I think it's an energy attack. He's never used this type of attack before, but to my surprise, he changes the position of his hand, aiming it at the distant city, and fires a blast of dark energy. Fearing for the survivors, I fly as fast as I can, positioning myself in front of the attack. I create several energy shields that are easily destroyed by the dark energy, only stopping when it hits my body.
I fall back to the ground, now with burns all over my body. If I hadn't protected my face with my hands, I'd be blind now; the cost of this are my hands, all black and skinless.
"I found it strange that you were protecting that city from my attacks. Curious. What's so important about it for a god to protect it? Let's find out."
Gorr speeds toward the city, and I create several golden mirrors in the sky that fire beams of light, forcing him to change direction. When I see that he won't stop, I create a golden spear three meters wide in my hand, infused with all the power I can muster. I use mirrors to redirect Gorr's trajectory to where I want, then I launch the spear with all my strength.
The spear breaks the sound barrier, and Gorr, who was dodging my beams of light, finds himself directly in its path.
"BOOM!"
And a massive golden explosion occurs. Even from a distance, I see what's left of the stones of the distant city wall become incandescent from the heat released by the explosion. I take advantage of this brief moment and focus all my attention on healing myself; soon after, my skin begins to return to normal.
"Every time you protect it, it makes me want to destroy it even more."
When the explosion ends, I see Gorr still without a scratch, looking at me.
"You won't even set foot in that city. They've suffered enough at the hands of your monsters."
He smiles, understanding my words.
"So that's how it is. There's someone you want to protect there. It might be true; I won't set foot in that city, but it doesn't mean I can't destroy it."
A massive black vortex appears above Gorr, raining down a black rain that paints the ground black. The black droplets then begin to come together and transform into the same lizards I fought when I arrived on the planet. Gorr was creating monsters.
"Destroy everything, and kill everyone!"
More than a thousand black lizards appear below Gorr, who orders them to run to the city to begin the slaughter.
"I won't allow it!"
I stand in front of the small army of monsters and fire energy blasts with both my hands, destroying any monster that comes into contact. But the large number persists, coming in my direction. When I'm about to unleash a more powerful attack, I feel a blow to my cheek that throws me off balance. Gorr attacks me with a black sword, but I manage to dodge the first blow. I try to jump back to create some distance between us, without success; I feel something grab my leg, and I see All-Black wrapping around it, preventing me from escaping.
"AAAAAAAAAH!"
The third blow hits me directly when Gorr plunges his black blade into my chest, piercing me. I grab his arm, trying to make him remove the blade, but it doesn't budge an inch; Gorr is stronger than me.
"Observe what you protect being destroyed."
The sword is destroying me from the inside faster than I can absorb the black energy into my dimension; I am totally defenseless now, and I can only watch as the army passes by us without being able to do anything.
He forces me to kneel facing the city to see the massacre about to happen and stands behind me with a hand on my shoulder, in case I try something. I try with all my might to summon any power I have left, but the black sword won't let me. I can see black veins all over my body destroying me; I can't do anything but watch.
"Behold, god!"
As the monsters are just meters from the city, I lose all hope of preventing the massacre. Until I hear it.
"BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM!"
A series of explosions hit the army of monsters directly just meters from the city. When I look up, I see ten golden ships with the Genosha flag painted on their sides descending from the sky and wreaking havoc on the lizards.
"NOOOOO!"
Screaming in anger, Gorr makes a mistake and releases my shoulder, giving me a little freedom just in time for me to feel a connection with my most faithful companion. I understand my hand, and Sigel comes flying to me at the speed of light; when I grab its handle, I spin my body and strike Gorr with all my strength, tearing off his entire arm.
"AAAAAAAAAH!"
For the first time, I managed to wound him. Five ships pass over me and form a circle around me, waiting. I kick Gorr, who is still recovering from his pain, pushing him away from me. The ships know what to do. In a circular formation, they begin attacking with all the firepower they have, hitting Gorr.
The sixth ship appears, and its interior opens for a woman in golden armor to jump out, landing by my side.
"My lord!"
"Remove this cursed sword from me!"
Freyja understands the situation and helps me remove the black sword from my chest. The sword melts from our hands and heads towards where Gorr is trapped, amidst a rain of shots and energy explosions from the five ships that continue to attack.
"Freyja, your duty is to protect this city and its people. If I do not return in the next few days, you are authorized to return to Genosha."
While I am healing, I order Freyja, who is by my side with her sword ready for battle.
"But, sir."
"Obey!"
"Yes, sir."
Reluctantly, she agrees.
"BOMMMM! BOMMMM!"
I look ahead and see that two of the ships have been destroyed by black rays.
"Order them to retreat, now!"
Freyja speaks into the communicator, and the remaining ships retreat, revealing Gorr in a large crater. He doesn't appear injured; even his arm is healed. Without wasting time, golden energy surrounds me, and I shoot towards him at high speed. Gorr attacks me with his black sword, and I let it pierce my shoulder, turning to face him. I grab him with my free hand and shoot upwards as fast as I can, piercing through the clouds and leaving the planet's atmosphere, heading into space. Accidentally, I collide with the planet's small moon, piercing and destroying it completely, but I do not stop; I increase my speed even further, heading farther away.
Further ahead, I see a zone completely composed of gigantic asteroids. I release Gorr and shoot a beam of energy from my spear, causing him to collide with an asteroid the size of a planet, splitting it in two.
I remove the sword from my shoulder just in time to see Gorr looking at me with nothing but insanity in his eyes. He seems to scream with all his fury, releasing black energy around him, which begins to expand at high speed. As the black energy passes through the asteroids, they are turned to dust, regardless of their size. In seconds, this black energy reaches the size of Earth and continues to grow. I place Sigel in front of me and shoot with all my power.
The golden energy clashes with the black, becoming equal for a brief moment, until I begin to be overpowered. I increase my power using the energy from my dimension, but Gorr's power seems limitless. Finally, the black planet that devours everything reaches me.
(So this is how it ends.)
The black energy resembles antimatter, giving me no chance to defend myself. I can do nothing but accept death. I could try to escape, but I doubt he will stop expanding it until he finds me. I also do not know its limits, and I doubt he cares about the planets being destroyed by it.
I close my eyes and accept death willingly. But then I feel a familiar warmth in front of me, so I open my eyes again. Suddenly, in front of me, I see a man with long hair as golden as melted gold. He is standing with his back to me, not holding any weapon, but wearing a beautiful full golden armor, missing only the helmet. His armor has several intricately carved details reminiscent of dwarven art. I feel immense power emanating from him, similar to that of my father.
The man raises his hand and points to the black star that Gorr created. Then I can only close my eyes to the golden light he emits, the first time in my life I have seen something shine so brightly that it forces me to close my eyes. When I open my eyes again, I see the man still with his back to me, but I do not see Gorr or his black star, nor can I see anything in front of him. Even the stars that were thousands of light-years away from me have disappeared.
(Father?)
I think of the one I know who has the brute power to destroy galaxies with a simple hand movement.
The man in front of me then turns to me, and I am startled by his appearance.
{I am not our father.} He tells me.
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