He caught my fist in one hand, ignoring the annihilation laws as if they weren't even there. I watched in horror as his azure eyes turned golden and golden light began to radiate to his once-more youthful body.

His tanned muscles flexed and his long golden hair flew in an invisible breeze as he laughed. He threw me away with another laugh and I watched in shock as he became burning golden light.

I reached out, trying to make sense of this terrible new power, and came to a realization. It was all him. All Kyoko. Simply unrestrained for the first time. Concentrated to a single point.

I gathered my power grimly, preparing to unleash everything I had.

Then he was before me.

I barely avoided the first blow, observing how it shattered the True Void in its wake, revealing something beyond. Something that felt familiar.

I was forced to drop the train of thought as Kyoko continued his assault, wild laughter ringing out. He struck out like a mortal, attacking with physical attacks that should have been useless. Yet I found the shadow of death in his fists.

He did no fancy weaving. Concepts attached themselves to him, drawn by his passion and very existence. I danced in the eye of the storm, barely keeping myself afloat, desperately grasping at anything that could keep me afloat a little longer.

My mind kept drifting back to that empty sensation from the holes in the True Void, and I finally pinpointed the familiarity. They felt like the void within me, that endless hungry sensation that was never satisfied with what was.

It wanted more.

I wanted more.

I watched as it devoured Kyoko's attacks, inviting them across the threshold of the True Void and then consuming them with feverish intensity.

When Kyoko’s next blow came, I didn’t dodge. For the first time in my existence, I felt pain. But I preserved, letting the void consume me, becoming the destruction I sought to bring.

After all, to create, one must first destroy.

His next blow hurt less.

The next less.

Eventually, they stopped hurting at all.

I raised an arm, and blasted Kyoko back.

For a time, we simply stared at each other, taking in our transformations.

A figure of golden light faced one of black void.

Then, we moved and the battle began anew.

—-----------------------------------

The artistry of the early battle was long gone. Not intricate weaves or complicated attacks defined our dance. No, we had embodied concepts beyond those that could be woven.

And they were what we fought with.

The golden light of being met the black void of destruction.

The last hope of a dying race met the mad creator hungering for destruction,

It was glorious.

Bleeding chunks of my essence were sent careening through the void, stabbing pain accompanying their loss. I just laughed, no longer worried about such things as life or death, loss or victory.

I was beyond them.

And laughing, I dove right back into the battle.

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

I was hungry.

Ever so hungry.

I wanted so much.

I wanted it all.

I wanted peers who would accompany me.

I wanted to reforge my creation in the knowledge I had gained over the eons.

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I wanted my people to thrive.

I wanted the golden light that lit up the void.

But the more I consumed, the more I destroyed, the more it burned.

But I kept consuming.

What else could I do?

—-------------------------------

Time became immaterial as we battled, second stretching to eternities and

years becoming instants.

I danced.

And the void lit up in golden applause.

—----------------------------

Pain.

He was winning.

The end was near, I could feel it.

I wondered what was on the other side.

Would I see her again? Would I see Angelica again?

—----------------------------

I was beyond time, and yet I felt the moment.

Everything I was became a single blow, igniting in passionate glory.

God burned his void, letting it consume itself in an effort to meet my attack.

It was no use.

There were no ripples as I flicked a small golden marble at God.

The very same ball I had learned to condesce under the weight of the infinite sea.

It did move fast, yet it was inevitable.

The void, commanded by God, reached out to crush it with the power of one who had created the universe.

It was no use.

—------------------------------------

I cast aside more of the void, letting it consume itself in a desperate attempt to stop the speck of gold.

It was futile

When the golden speck crushed the last of my void, I was left as I was before.

Sad and tired, watching my end inevitably approach.

It's funny. It was only in my last moments that I remembered my first.

My mind rushed through the annals of memory, passing the years of humanity, passing the eons of failure, even surpassing the eternity of creation.

I remembered my first moments, the awakening in the eternal void, the last echoes of foreign words slipping from my mind.

For not the first time, I wondered where those words had come from.

But for the first time, I felt I could reach them, the elusive shadow in my mind solidifying into something tangible under Kyoko's attack.

The golden speck reached me, setting me aflame in golden essence.

It was excruciating, but it only heightened my clarity.

It was like a barrier in my mind, one second there and the next gone.

Memory rushed back to me like an inescapable tide.

And I remembered.

I was Rashek Eteral, Hero of Ages, Crown of the Endless Sky.

I had conquered the endless sky, taking it in one hand.

I had summoned the nine blades of the immortal, and struck down the Last Despot.

I had watched as my people burned under the gaze of a jealous god.

Wielding the Crown of Eternal Blue, I had challenged the Sovereign.

And I had won, though it cost me everything.

Now I was God, the sovereign, perishing under the righteous crusade of one who, in another time, could have been my brother.

I remembered the Sovereign's last words as he struggled to hang on for another second. A rueful, sad chuckle. Then, he had looked up. “I… see… you.”

So, burning up in golden flame, I looked up.

And, I saw.

He towered over everything, a size I could scarcely comprehend, a power that would extinguish mine with a thought. I was an ant in a cycle, observed just as I had once observed the humans under me.

And Kyoko was the next link, succeeding me just as I had succeeded the Sovereign.

I laughed then, a sad rueful chuckle, ripe with self-pity.

Then perhaps In a futile attempt to assert my existence, as a futile attempt to prove I had truly existed in the first place, I gathered the remainder of my power.

And spoke.

“I… see… you.”

I thought I saw him nod before the flames consumed me.

All went black.

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

My flames consumed him, worming into the heart of his essence as he dumbly tilted his head back and smiled ruefully.

“I… see… you.”

Then, God, creator of the universe, lord of all creation, perished, burned up in golden flame.

I floated in the void in disbelief. I couldn't believe I had done it. My singular being had abandoned me in the ignition of my path, and I could tell it would take time to repair.

But I had time. All the time in creation.

I was God now.

I wondered over God’s last words, a seed of fear appearing as I considered what they could mean.

Slowly, hesitantly I began to turn my head towards the point God had died staring at, wondering what I would see.

Then the void began to shake.

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

The Endless Sky welcomed me as It always had.. With knowledge I had always known.

It was my time.

And, finally, after all those eons, I let go.

It was time for another to take my place.

The cycle would continue.