I don't think I can describe what I felt back then. My mind was finally so silent that I could do anything. Not even snapping my fingers was necessary. I just did it because I thought it was cool and it helped bind the changes happening around me to a certain physical action. Within seconds I went from a man scared about his own life to a person so confident that I had the compulsive urge to show off. Naturally, that is not something to be proud of. I just find it necessary to at least somehow try to bring you closer to the feelings of Godhood. It was nothing I could ever imagine. Everything in the world just seemed possible. All I would need was to think for a moment and whole worlds could move. Lives could be born but also destroyed. Planets would move out of their orbits and dance to the beat that would echo across galaxies. It would only take a single thought, a single wish, and anything could be reality. When that discovery finally settled in, I felt more than just alive. Suddenly, even the Resident was such an insignificant problem.

I snapped my fingers and the environment around us changed. For a brief moment, the space around us shook, yet nobody could feel even the slightest vibration. Then, as if we had been there all this time, a new world unravelled around us. It was the first thing that came to my mind - a large volcano just about to erupt. In one feeble attempt, the Resident moved their arm towards me. All it took was a single snap. The thorn arrived too late. By the time it grew out of the ground, I was already elsewhere. It was just a quick teleport with a reach of only a couple of meters, but frankly, what more would I need? No matter what the Resident would try, I could always run away. At least almost always. One thing I was constantly wary of was his ability to infect the air with small parts of himself. I had to constantly keep moving. Throw them into a world that can kill them, and if that doesn't work, quickly move somewhere else. A simple solution. All I had to do was not forget.

The volcano released a wave of smoke so dense and dark that nobody engulfed in it would be able to see anything. That was precisely what I needed. As long as the Resident was blinded, they couldn't fight back in any way. It brought a smile to my face. What a powerful creature and it can be rendered useless all so easily, I thought.

I left the world before the eruption could sweep me away, and returned only after everything had settled down. I covered my head in a bubble of fresh air and quickly searched for the Resident. Was it dead? Alive? I had to know. Didn't take long for a dark, bone-like shard to nearly take my head off. They were indeed still alive. Not even bleeding this time. How they managed to survive the eruption and magma was beyond me, but there was no time to think about it.

Very quickly, we switched to the next world. A space station that was just about to explode. I dumped the creature there and quickly returned to Sunwalley, but this time, something was different. My cheek was bleeding. There was a tiny scratch on my face. Where did it come from? Did I get attacked and didn't notice it? I had too many questions, one of which was whether the attack was poisoned or not, but I doubted that I would be able to get the answers anyway. I just had to keep going. Quickly kill the Resident, restore the world, and then deal with whatever will come after. That was the plan.

I returned to the ruins of the station in my own personal bubble of air. It wouldn't save me from the vacuum for more than a few seconds, but I didn't need more than that. The moment my eyes landed on the Resident's body, I quickly transported us again. This time, we were in the deepest pit of an ocean. The water listened when I told it to move away from me, but should it decide not to, for whatever reason, the pressure would probably kill me instantly. I saw the Resident's body deform, almost as if it had been imploding. Finally, the satisfyingly orange foam spewed out of its mouth. That was progress. Not a lot of it, but at least some. The creature's arms were twitching and bending in unnatural directions as it mustered all of its strength to attack me at least once. Before it could do, a bigger fish found its prey. One of the local predators found themselves hungry and in the mood for some dark otherworldly parasite as a snack. I followed the fish as it swam away. This was the real challenge. Sunlight had no place here, so the only thing giving me at least some vision was a faint glowing aura around me. I wasn't sure where it came from, nor did I question it. I remembered Jack looking almost the same when he stole my powers, so I just thought this came as part of the package.

It took much less time for the Resident to break free than before. Compared to when he killed Heavens, this fish hardly stood a chance. It quite literally exploded into thorns and spikes. Some of them even flew in all sorts of directions like shrapnel. I almost didn't manage to snap in time to move out of the way.

Slowly but steadily, I was running out of options. Explosions, fire, water, and even all sorts of magical disasters, and the creature was still standing. It always managed to protect its organs somehow. I couldn't tell how many they could have in their body. Surely not that many, given that they'd literally run out of space. They were much smaller now than when we first met. That had to be a sign they were getting weaker. I just had to keep going. In my head, I carried the best potential plan I could come up with. One could call it an ace up my sleeve, even though that wouldn't be exactly accurate. Ace would imply a single card. I still had many other ones in my hand.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

*Snap

We moved worlds once more. This time though, it had to be something special. No matter where we went, the Resident would always find a way to survive or mitigate the damage. And although I wouldn't admit it at the time, I was running out of ideas. There were only so many natural catastrophes in my writings. If they could really survive all of them, then how would I kill them? No, this time it had to work. I was ready to reveal my whole hand. One final desperate push.

The place where we went was completely dark. There was no light to illuminate this vast nothingness. My own body was giving off a dim glow, the same as the Resident's eyes, but it surely wasn't enough to guarantee much safety.

"Clever. I can't see anything here. Harder for me to attack," the creature spoke and with a quick flick of their wrist, they threw another sharp projectile my way. If I hadn't had my hands ready for teleport, I would've died then and there. Yet it really didn't seem to bother me that much.

"It's not dark here for you to not see," I replied, and with another quick motion of my fingers, I transported myself out of there.

It took a moment. The Resident may have taken a few steps forward before the executioners would finally arrive. Something pierced the Void creature's back. In fact, it actually did much more than that. Some claws of incredible size have literally cut their body into three pieces. The Resident quickly retaliated and tried to pull itself together, but another strike came the very next second. Then a third one. Fourth one. Fifth one. As the clocks were ticking, the creatures of Darkness inside the room were tearing the Resident to pieces like a paper shredder. There was simply no time to regenerate. And although they weren't hitting his vital organs yet, it would be only a matter of time before they would reduce the Resident into a black mush of barely any solid matter.

Out of desperation, or perhaps even strategy, they started attacking back. Thorny projectiles were flying left and right with a blind and foolish hope that they might hit something, yet that wasn't their true purpose. Wherever they landed, a small bush of spikes sprouted, and on it, brightly glowing eyes, the same as the ones sitting in the Resident's head. It wasn't enough to light up the place, but it would at least create a safe haven away from the Darkness. I could hear it all happening right under my feet. The carnage was quite loud and then suddenly, it all went silent. The Resident won. A sigh escaped my lungs. It was time for another ace. I snapped my fingers again to move onto a safe vantage point.

"Light them up, boys!!" I shouted at the creatures standing below me, on the streets of Everstar, surrounding the completely dark and crumbled underground parking lot where the Resident still seemed to be trapped. The five Angelic Marks I had placed there obeyed my command. I watched their magical energies gather in the halo-like ornaments above their heads. They all seemed so small now when watched from about thirty stories above the ground. The structures the Resident built to replace the skyscrapers may have looked nightmarish, but they were still at least functional. Fortunately for me, the underground parts were completely untouched by their rampage, allowing me to create the perfect trap.

The explosion shook the whole city. All that power combined was enough to completely wipe away everything in a radius of several tens of meters, including the Marks themselves. I waved my arm and commanded the wind to quickly carry the dust and smoke away. Part of me still couldn't believe it would be over and unfortunately, it was right. In the centre of all that devastation lay a single dark body in a massive splash of orange colour, which was thrown across the ground like an impressionist painting. I snapped and transported myself closer. In the strong wind, the body of the Resident was shaking like a pudding. They've grown smaller too, barely the size of a child. Clearly, it wouldn't take long now. It was time. My final card had to be played. A memory appeared beside me. He was slightly shorter than me, yet you still wouldn't be able to tell us apart if it wasn't for the white ceramic mask they wore. I looked at them and they gave me a quick nod. That was all I needed. I won. Nothing else was necessary.

I approached the Resident calmly as if I was going to work in the morning. Their eyes were staring at me, so wide that it seemed as if they would fall out in the next moment. I could see their hands wobbling around, trying to push their body away from me, but it seemed they lacked the strength to do so. For one final time, it seemed as if they had tried to impale me on a spike, but before their magic could manifest, I set off the great final firework. A technique I learned from an old friend. It was tiny specks of black flames. I hid them on the surface of the Resident's body during the first big explosion, all the way back in Sunwalley. They lay dormant and minuscule until this very moment when I commanded them to grow and destroy. Now, they were like spears piercing the creature's body and slowly dissolving it as the fire spread.

I walked all the way up to the struggling Resident and crouched down. It felt so good to see them panic and struggle. So great was the satisfaction of finally turning the tables. I leaned closer and whispered to them: "So what's it gonna be? Will you let yourself burn to death, or will you try to put the fire away with your spike spell and impale yourself? Hmm? You know that if you choose the latter, the moment the thorns will pierce the surface of your body, I will make sure the organs are in the way. So? What will it be?"