The Fist flew through the air, a perfect representation of the very essence of a punch. The void rumbled in its wake, groaning under its significance. It was a blow meant to conquer the very heavens, crushing them in an intimate embrace of death. Kyoko severed the blow in a single casual flick of his sword. An instant later he severed a million more, his sword a blur as it forged a cage of divine steel around him.

In the instant it took him to fend of the heaven-crushing fists, I gathered my power and forged a bow, weaving god-slayer intent into an arrow that manifested on the string. I released it in the moment he severed the last fist, only to find it severed by that same blurring blade. I immediately manifested a mountain over Kyoko, pressing him down with the very concepts of weight and pressure and forged a thousand more arrows of god-slaying intent.

That was my power. Creation itself. Destruction itself.

The instant before my storm of arrows erased Kyoko from existence, his heart beat once, sending out a pulse that shattered the mountain and the arrows both, only to find my fist, covered in spiked armor, buried in his stomach.

He rocked back, establishing the concept of space in every part of the True Void he touched. I slipped through time, though doing so was incredibly hard with Kyoko’s presence fighting me, and overlaid two more blows in that exact moment I punched him, tripling the damage.

Of course that was nowhere near enough, and blazing with passion and glory, Kyoko rocketed back, blade singing as it cut a path through the worlds I created to obstruct him.

The second he cleared the last one, I struck him with a story, A story of a eons passed and the void unchanged. It bound him in black chains of time and immutable existence as I struck down with a blade forged in the story of a baby who had slain a king.

He roared in rage, and igniting into golden flame, he severed the chains and met my blade with his own. We danced in the void, sinking deeper into the concept of the blade, opening up tears even in the True Void.

Kyoko was strong, no doubt. Impossibly strong for a recently ascended being. But I was God and I had been refining my path for eons. As the battle continued I pushed him further and further back with creations of depth and sophistication. Worlds and the stories that defined them. Weapons created in the image of men long dead. It was an onslaught on infinity and Kyoko gave ground before it.

He struggled of course, defending himself and lashing out with passion that made stars look dim. There was no sense to his movements, nor the laws his very existence willed into reality. He fought with nothing but his very being, and the sword his family had passed down for so long.

But It could not last. I was eternal. I was the passing of eons.

Passion may burn bright in the moment but even it surrenders to the cold march of time.

All I had to do was wait.

—-------------------------------------

He struck with a million fists, and I shredded them to pieces. A mountain brought me to my knees, only to be broken by a single beat of my mighty heart. Chains of time and immutability bound me, only to be sundered by my golden passion. His blade descended on my neck only to be met by my own. A scroll bound my movements in threads of causality, only to be severed with a single sword blow.

I cut and smashed and sundered and severed but the onslaught never ended, only picked up in speed. Despite my blazing glory, despite my rapid growth, I was losing. He would just keep attacking me until I could resist no longer, and then he would turn to my people.

The thought inspired enough rage to ignite my golden flames to ward off an approaching curse.

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Still I was losing and we both knew it.

Something needed to change.

—---------------------------------------

I pressed harder and harder, the instants blending into the much larger canvas of our battle. Kyoko had slowly but surely been pushed back and his defenses were beginning to lag. Of course throughout the battle, he had been growing at a terrifying rate. But he was not the only genius. I matched him, further tightening the inescapable net of fate.

It was only a matter of time.

—---------------------------------------

I desperately searched for the gaps in the seemingly inevitable net decreeing my death. The gaps were frighteningly few, and every time I slipped through one, I closed up, forcing me to search for a new one.

I didn’t have long.

I desperately wracked my brain for ideas and came up with nothing. The harder I fought the harder God fought. The more I grew, the more God grew.

I was matched.

Yet I refused to give in. If I had to die, I would do so on my feet, blazing my glory and passion.

My attacks gained an edge at the thought. The most dangerous man truly is the one with nothing to lose. The threshold had been passed. There was no conceivable way to win otherwise.

For a time, with that new edge, I managed to hold my ground, and then, looking forward into the threads of time and fate, I found the most miniscule of openings.

Slipping through a world of divine poison and a blurring boy wielding a whip, I found myself with a clear shot at god.

I didn’t hesitate.

The faces of my people ran through my mind, my father, Xanthar, Merlin, driving my passion and resolve to new heights.

One step at a time, that was what Merlin had told me. Well the steps had all led here, to this final step.

This was the end.

And it was with that predestined end I struck, letting me and my blade become a vessel for the concept as I ignited my path for a single moment of pure power. It was with the full weight of my being I struck.

Over the immeasurable distance that separated us, countless defensive weavings were brought into existence, from conceptions of stillness and strength to spirits of armor and shields.

It didn't matter.

My blade severed them all, a thin line of gold rushing smoothly sliding through them all.

For a second, I felt hope. Then, an immense sense of danger crashed over me, and my blood went cold.

It had been a trap.

I immediately swept god-slayer in a defensive stance, and roaring defiance, burned the last remaining shreds of my path.

It was futile.

God-slayer shattered like brittle glass.

The last thing I saw was god, a burning golden line carved across his chest.

My heart sank. He was still alive. I had failed.

I was still mustering the will to defend myself when the rest of the attack struck.

All went black.

—---------------------------------

God-slayer shattered in a sound like a woman's cry, one that would have once brought me to my knees. The weaving of absolute destruction continued its rampage, annihilating Kyoko’s hasty defense and striking him dead center. His broken body hurled through the True Void, the shards of god-slayer accompanying him.

That last attack of his had been terrifying. I had barely managed to black the worst of it, and even the tiny remaining fraction had carved a golden line across my chest.

It truly was a shame to end one such as him.

Yet as I scoured my mind for hesitation, it refused to show itself.

I was done.

I would remake this universe. I would remake my creation. And perhaps someday a being would ascend, capable of seeing the greater picture.

Until then… I resigned myself to being alone again.

I stepped through the non-space of the True Void and appeared before Kyoko’s body.

I raised a hand.