Grim scrambled to avoid yet another sphere of death, sprinting through the alleyway and back out onto the street. Death himself stood there, a giant to his David. There was no winning this fight, he was outmatched plain and simple. He would be lucky if he even managed to escape at all.
Death was, simply put, on another level entirely. He was on par with many of the Demon Lords he knew growing up as a child, if not stronger.
“There’s no way you’re just a Class V,” he said to imposing being.
Death blinked, then let out a soft peal of near silent laughter that only added to his creepy factor. “Classes. Such an outdated way to measure ones strength. Besides… who says there are only five classes?”
Grim had suspected as much and wasn’t surprised at this answer. He also didn’t have much time to think about it as Death began lobby those black spheres at him, wiping out reality wherever they landed. Grim’s only response was to through Hellfire bolts back in response. The two began a game of tag where a single mistake would result in someone’s death. Most likely his own.
The game of tag only lasted a few minutes, however, before Death frowned, and vanished. He appeared at Grim’s side and swung, unlike other times however he saw the attack coming this go around. Bending at the waist he redirected Death’s fist and arm, responding with an elbow to the chin that rocked the super back on his feet. Grim took advantage of his attack and put distance between the two of them to shower the villain with Hellfire bolts, immolating the entire alleyway they were in.
Grim knew Death had been hit at least once.
Huffing with exertion, he removed Sunder from the sheathe.
The super looked singed and mildly inconvenienced, not to mention somewhat discombobulated, but was far from being even remotely out of the fight. “That was unenjoyable. I would much rather be punched than experience that again,” he said with a frown. Then he noticed Sunder. “Fascinating. That blade has such a unique vibration,” he said in worder, eyes fixated on the weapon.
“I’m happy to demonstrate!” said Grim as he swung.
Death grew a blade of darkness from his arm, intending to parry Sunder. To his utter shock the uniquely forged weapon cut through the villains own like it wasn’t even there. He whipped his hand back and narrowly avoided getting it cut off.
True to the demon’s words, Death had assumed a fighting stance, what little levity was gone from his face. However, the gleam of insanity that he had seen was still very much present, and he got the feeling it was growing. On some level Death was into this fight in a way that felt… dirty to Grim.
“That bladed will be mine,” Death said with an insane giggle.
Grim was going to refute him, but the super once again attacked so quickly that he could counter. This time Deaths target was Grim. No. It was Sunder himself, or the bottom of the hilt anyway. Deaths kick slammed into Grim’s hand toes first, launching the blade out of his hand and straight up into the air. The second kick slammed into his arm, and even wearing Strap Grim felt the bones in his arm break.
As Death wound up for another, much slower attack, Grim ignited the claws on Kane and slammed his fist into Deaths body. To both their surprise the blades went through the villain like a hot knife through butter. Death grunted, pulling backwards in a stumble while holding his abdomen.
“You… pain? Why?” he asked, seemingly confused. He motioned with his hand, a wave of darkness flowing out of it. Grim rolled to the side, narrowly avoid the attack as portions of the buildings around them were erased.
Shaking his head, Death pulled his arm away to reveal the wound was sealed. The burn marks on his chest highly visible against the mans pitch dark skin tone. With a wordless shriek of rage, a pulse of dark energy came off the villain in a sphere around him. Grim’s eyes shot open as he countered with a Hellfire dome. The darkness washed over him, eating at his flames as they diminished in strength and brightness.
It seemed like an eternity, but light eventually returned to the world. Death was standing in front of him, watching what he did. Grim dismissed the done of crimson flame and charged the villain. Death’s burns had almost fully healed, but so had Grims’s arm. At least, it was healed enough to continue fighting to the death.
“Seems like you aren’t as invincible as you pretend to be,” panted Grim as he caught his breath.
Death responded by blurring forwards, but by this time Grim had figured out mans tactics. Fool him once, shame on you. Fool him twice, he’s going to rip off your arm and beat you to death with it.
The very moment that Death vanished Grim stepped to the left and the immensely powerful villain missed his him entirely. Grim smashed an elbow into Death’s temple, staggering him. He followed that up with a quick uppercut to the chin and finished the chain of attacks with a lightning-fast spin kick to the chest. He could hear the air being driven from the evil super’s lungs, telling him the hit was good.
Death fell to a knee, so Grim did what any honorable warrior would do… he hit his opponent while he was down. Jumping up into a standing front flip, and stretching his agility to the limits, Grim used the entirety of his strength and bodies momentum to slam a spinning axe kick into Death’s shoulder. The bone shattered with a sound like metal on stone.
He was pretty sure it broke his foot too.
The attack drove Death into the ground face first as the villain cried out in pain. At least, he cried out right up until he had his face shoved into the concrete.
Sunder chose that moment to fall from the sky, landing blade first on the ground nearby and sinking all the way up to the hilt. Grim limped over to the blade, pulling it out of the ground with ease.
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“Shut up, both of you. This isn’t over, not by a long shot,” Grim said dourly, turning back to Death. But the annoyingly resilient villain was already on his feet, sans one arm.
The grimace of pain on the super’s face was clear, Grim had done some serious damage. “You are vexing. Why don’t you release your hold on life? Just let go? Let Death lull you into eternal slumber,” the man said softly, almost singing to him.
Grim felt his senses begin to fade, a quite calm falling over him as he felt tired. Very tired. The centuries weighed in on him like mountains, threatening to drag him down into the depths where he knew he would never awaken. But he just… couldn’t resist. He could vaguely hear voices yelling at him.
Then Bag bit him. Hard.
Grim screamed in pain as the top hat that was Bag ripped into the flesh on his skull, savaging it. Blood poured down his face and back as the demon tore into the flesh of his master. “Fuck Bag stop! Stop!” he yelled, shocking Death into silence.
Bag let go of Grims head,
Grim swallowed. He had, very nearly, been lulled to death. By a lullaby.
“You fucking suck,” Grim said, pointing Sunder at the villain.
“Why wont you die?” Death growled back advancing, albeit much slower than before.
The two met quickly, exchanging a flurry of blows. Death had, apparently, reinforced his shadow blade somehow and was able to take a blow or two before having it cut through. This left Grim in a disadvantaged state, as while Death only had a single arm right now that didn’t stop him from launching a flurry of kicks. Every attack sapped a bit more of his strength, making him weaker and weaker.
“What can’t this fucker do?” Grim grimaced.
Grim redoubled his efforts at getting an attack through with Sunder, however Death simply evaded or deflected every one. Deciding to change tactics, he took several steps back intending to create space. Death fucking followed him.
“Fine! You want to follow me? Follow this!” Grim roared, deploying a sphere of Hellfire around him. Death immediately leapt backwards as Grim turned and ran out into the street. A street that was now host of an all out battle between Syndicate enforcers, supers that Grim employed, and the Guild and League supers.
That all came to a screeching halt as Grim turned and enveloped the entire alleyway in a torrent of crimson flame. Breathing hard, he heard Stella call out his name. But he waved her back as he watched Death stride through the flames, flexing his not-so-broken arm. The succubus retreated rapidly, snagging a terrified Jim as she went. The assistant seemed to be… everywhere. All the time.
“Fucking shit on a duck, give me a break,” Grim ground out. The super was as resilient as he was, with a much greater healing factor and the ability to kill anything around him. He had few, if any, weaknesses. Grim wasn’t sure he could win.
The Shard of Reality.
A gem of fathomless power with the capability to alter reality itself in any way the wielder saw fit. As long as they could handle the flow of energy that was. Grim could… barely. But if he used that here the devastation would be total. This entire region, Elysium City, and possibly a good chunk of the area beyond may be wiped from existence.
He straightened, causing Death to pause.
“Ah fuck it. What’s the worse that could happen?” he asked, causing the villain to look at him questioningly. Grim reached out with his energy, through earth, metal and stone, until he felt the gem pulsating within the Hell Spike.
Then he connected to it.
His body erupted with Hellfire. Living Hellfire. It suffused his very being down to the very constituent atoms that built his body. It even infused his soul.
The flame was different from any other that he wielded. It flowed under and around his skin, out of his pores, devouring his body as fast as his regeneration could keep up. He was, barely, containing a tiny fraction of a fraction of the immense and all-consuming power. And if he survived he was going to be in a world of hurt.
He looked up at Death, who now had gone from indifferently curious to borderline fearful. Grim stepped towards him, intending to get close enough to attack… only to realize that he had moved several steps passed the villain without meaning to. Then he realized his blade was missing. Sunder was no longer in his hand.
Grim turned only to take a punch from Death. He went spinning through the air and landed on his feet. The punch had hurt, but based off the howls Death was giving off, and his melting skin, it had hurt him far worse.
“I’m going to fucking hug you to death!” Grim screamed, launching himself at the villain.
Deaths eyes widened in horror as Grim barreled into him and wrapped his arms around the villain. Then the super powered man went berserk. Screaming with pain and rage he began flinging waves and spheres of darkness everywhere in an attempt to dislodge Grim. The world was a whirlwind of colors, sepia landscapes, and pain as the duo smashed through buildings and obliterated anything and everything in their path.
Grim held on with everything that he had, exchanging what punches and kicks he could with the enraged villain. At one point he swore Death even bit him. He was sure how he tasted but based on the melting teeth and portion of a tongue the villain left behind he was sure it wasn’t very good.
Their dance of fire and death continued, Grims Hellfire against Deaths regeneration and powers. They moved so quickly that Grim had long lost track of where they were. All he knew was that they had caused immense amounts of damage to the area around them.
Eventually though, as all things must, their deadly dance came to and end. Death slowed, slowly, over time. Eventually coming to a stop and collapsing to what was left of his knees.
Grim released his victim as even his Hellfire was beginning to sputter. Stepping back, he looked at the wheezing, nearly lifeless super. Death had been reduced to a literal pile of fleshy slag. Bones were visible in places, part of his chest was caved in, and his hair was all but gone.
Death was dying.
“Hah. That. Was,” Death began, but Grim didn’t give him the chance to somehow miraculously recover. He wouldn’t put it past the bastard.
He willed a burning version of Sunder into his hand, condensing nearly all of the remaining Hellfire covering his body into the blade. With one swift, sure movement, he beheaded Death.
Then he dismissed the fire and cut his connection to the Shard.
Grim fell onto his back, landing on the surprisingly soft ground beneath him. Sifting his hand through the material under him, it felt gritty but soft. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t sand, but ash. Their fight had disintegrated enough area around them to create a bed of ash that covered the area.
He focused his dimming vision on the sky above him. It was night. The middle of the night. A great pale moon hung over head with unfamiliar constellations dancing in the sky. Beautiful, but nothing like home. Nothing like Inferno. Grim breathed deeply, his body beginning to spasm in pain. Yeah, even breathing hurt.
With those final words, Grim grinned. His charred skin breaking and bleeding around his lips. Yeah. A nap sounded good. He would have closed his eyes, but they were jelly in his charred skull. The price for using the Shard had certainly been extracted from him. In spades.
With that last thought, Grim allowed the darkness to claim him.