Musa stood in a few meters away from the main entrance to the Hypogean Passages where several guards stood with rail guns in hand.

Light rainfall washed over the forest but not a single drop touched Musa’s skin.

He was dressed in dark grey tactical gear but held no weapon.

Instead, he squeezed his fists and further compressed the gravitational fields around his body to the point that just by standing, he pushed the ground beneath him downwards, crushing it in the process.

[This… is your last warning.] Musa spoke loud enough for all within the Passages to hear. His eyes were weary and his expression was stiff.

[Surrender… or die.]

The guards were visibly shaken by his words but none of them moved.

Musa nodded once before taking a deep breath and raising his hands, gathering more and more Glass Energy as his hands got higher.

He then absorbed all of it and this sent out a shockwave that shook most of Western Y’shuah.

The guards struggled to stay on their feet as the ground shook but before any of them could find their footing, Musa dashed towards one of them and punched his head with so much force that the top half of his body was turned to mist.

This covered the other guards in blood but Musa was protected by his barrier.

The remaining guards all fired their rail guns at Musa but the pointed metal projectiles all bounced off of his barrier with some of them hitting their owners.

“Run back inside!” One of the remaining guards screamed while rushing into the tunnels leaving a wide-eyed Musa who looked at his fist which was still clean.

He looked up as if looking at me and it seemed, for a moment, like he wanted to say something but instead, he bit his teeth.

He then floated into the tunnels where he was met by over four thousand people who all pointed their guns at him.

Leading them were L’vanah and Refu.

Musa eyed the passage over and his eyes flashed green, allowing him to scan the entire subterranean structure for life.

The Children of Aviyv had apparently sent the elderly, mothers and their children deep into the tunnels.

It seemed as though their plan was to escape via one of the western exits but Musa had placed men at every branching tunnel with the sole purpose of collapsing them and so if they weren’t crushed by the falling stone, they would be captured.

[Please… lower your weapons-]

Musa was stopped by a barrage of bullets, rockets and other projectiles, all of which were stopped by his barrier.

He then sighed before dashing towards the nearest attacker and even this motion alone was enough to tear the man into pieces as his body made contact with Musa’s barrier.

“Keep firing!” L’vanah barked.

[Please stop.] Musa begged while walking towards the rest of his attackers, shredding dozens of them at a time and filling the air with red mist.

A magician managed to erect a barrier of his own but all it was able to do was buy him a few additional moments of life as blood burst from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

The humanoid body was only able to process so much glass so quickly and it had been pushed far beyond its limits as be absorbed and used as much Glass Energy as physically possible.

His flesh was stripped away from his bones all in front of Musa whose eyes began to well with tears.

[Please…] He begged while looking at the thousands more that stood before him.

Thousands more that he would have to kill.

His lips trembled as he continuously begged for the Aviyvists to stop but this was necessary.

Musa needed to learn that conflict was an intrinsic and inevitable part of life.

That conflict always had to potential to turn violent and he needed to know when talking wasn’t enough.

The alternative was to let that self-destructive part of life consume all else but that’s not what we were here for

We were here to struggle.

To fight back, even if some blood was spit in doing so.

And so I allowed Musa to spill as much blood as needed.

He pushed the Aviyvists further into the tunnels leaving behind and ocean of flesh, mud and blood.

L’vanah and Refu were among the remaining thousand who watched in horror as Musa slow walked towards them all while he wept.

However, just as they prepared to fire more bullets at him, he stopped.

His eyes fell and he beheld that ground atop which he floated.

“Haa…” He breathed as his face twisted with dread.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Haaaa…” He droned as his eyes grew wider and as they did, they began to glow white.

[HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!] He screamed and I then beheld something that completely shocked me.

The thousands of fading and withering Uyil Belts that lay behind him suddenly started floating towards him.

All of these Belts were then sucked into his mouth as he screamed.

His soul then flashed a deep golden color and a shockwave came from his body.

Musa hunched over and screamed again as souls continued pouring into him.

My shock multiplied by countless folds as his teeth grew sharper and his limbs elongated a little.

His normal nails had also been replaced by longer, sharper ones but before I could notice any more changes, he dashed towards the remaining thousand and I watched as he sent out tendrils of distorted gravity that turned five hundred people into mince.

Musa’s eyes flashed white again and he sucked in the souls of the five hundred and this made him arch backwards as another wild scream left his lips.

It's here that I noticed that his eyes had changed to one’s that resembled those of a lizard. They were now vertical slits and his irises burnt a brilliant gold.

His barrier faded just as he let out a breath of steam and drool began to roll from his lips.

A brave soul shot at him and the few who remained were forced to watch as the bullet bounced off of Musa’s skin.

“We’re all gonna die!”

“I’m gonna get out of here while I can!”

“No! Stand your ground!”

L’vanah's eyes quaked as her people all scrambled.

“I’m gonna buy you all some time!” Refu yelled while stepping forward.

“What are you doing? He’ll kill you!” She cried but Refu grinned through trembling lips.

“Yeah but let’s face it. This was bound to happen at some point. This is the Dark Mother’s world and we were always bound to be cast out and eventually killed by her followers.” He said while twisting his Uyil Belts.

“Now, go! I wouldn’t want anyone to steal my heroic moment!” Refu smiled before launching himself towards Musa all while his eyes burnt purple.

He then gathered all of the Glass Energy in the Passages in his fist which caught fire as his flesh was incinerated by the energy.

“WE MAY DIE TODAY, MONSTER, BUT JUST KNOW THAT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU TOO ARE WASHED AWAY!” Refu screamed before punching a seemingly dazed Musa in the face, sending him crashing out of the Hypogean Passages and across the Forest.

He eventually came to a stop in a certain clearing where the memorial sword stood.

Refu flew after Musa, who, even after crashing into several gigantic trees and being dragged across the ground, was relatively untouched.

“Phew… not bad for a mere Mortal, huh?” Refu wheezed even though all that was left of his right arm was a blackened stub. He forced Life Magic to the burnt flesh, keeping himself from passing out from shock.

Refu then landed next to the small Crater that Musa had made as he came to a stop and began gathering Glass Energy in his left arm.

“Come on! Don’t tell me that the demigod known as Musa is good for only one punch-“

Musa suddenly disappeared and what followed was a shockwave that nearly bent the surrounding trees backwards.

Refu’s eyes rattled in his skull and he bit his teeth upon realizing that Musa was standing behind him.

In Musa’s right hand was the memorial sword which easily weighed over two hundred kilograms and was nearly three meters long.

Refu fell to his knees and with teary eyes, began to pray.

“I will patiently and joyfully await you, oh father.”

Musa raised the sword.

“For every cry, every scream of pain and every terror will be washed away on the Day of Returnal… and we will find gentle rest in your embrace-“

Musa stabbed Refu in the chest before raising both the warrior and the sword, bathing himself in Refu’s blood.

[All souls…] Musa growled in that voice that was both a whisper and a scream. A voice that pained me oh so deeply.

[Are part of some cosmic cycle… that is what Our Lady said. So die, heathen, and be reborn as my blade so that I may rid this beautiful world of the rest of you!] Musa yelled before sending a wave of Glass Energy into Refu and the sword and this was enough to obliterate both into countless pieces.

He then sent forth a wave of Life Energy before pulling everything back together and I watched as he created a sword that was an amalgamation of flesh, metal and bone.

Its edge was still made of iron but its core was a mixture of both iron and bone in between pulsed red flesh. A charred arm also served as the cross guard by the greatsword's hilt.

It had shrunk to two meters long and was slightly skinnier but it was still massive.

“Keep going!” L’vanah cried as she led a group of fifty down one of the many tunes that led away from their underground home.

A muffled explosion made her flinch but she kept running while illuminating the tunnel using Light Magic.

Her eyes eventually widened upon seeing something ahead

She quickly realized that what awaited her group was a team of White Helms – Y’shuah’s special forces.

I expected her to raise her rifle and shoot the soldiers but she dropped it and raised her arms.

“Please! Save us! We surrender!” She cried prompting the soldiers ahead to raise their weapons.

L’vanah's group was ordered to stop and drop their weapons.

They complied and followed L’vanah's lead in doing exactly as they were told.

They were told to go on their knees and hold their hands behind their heads by a few soldiers while the others continued planting charges on the tunnel walls.

The soldiers discussed what to do with their captives but before they could come to an agreement, one of L’vanah’s comrades burst into a full wail.

Everyone turned to see why she was crying and everyone gasped upon seeing a Musa only he was covered in mud and blood. He walked with a forward lean as if driven by a malignant force and even in silence, the air around him was filled with the screams of the damned.

“Mal’akh Musa?” One of the soldiers called but Musa remained silent.

Instead, he walked towards the weeping woman and glared at her with his now fully golden reptilian eyes.

The woman fell over even though Musa hadn’t done anything.

“Please! Make it quick-“

Musa stepped on her head, crushing it instantly as he walked toward the next person and they too, after a moment's hesitation, lowered their head.

This went on for forty-nine more times until Musa reached L’vanah whose face was covered in tears, mucous and sweat.

“P-p-please…” She choked on her own words as the petrified soldiers watched.

She struggled to even look up at Musa and after a moment, she lay down to the floor and muttered a single word.

“Mama-“

Musa stepped on her head before raising his eyes which flashed brightly gold.

.

..

“What?” Tal winced upon seeing what had become of the western part of the Elephantine Forest.

Countless trees had been uprooted and the Hypogean Passages had all been collapsed leaving a mostly flat sea of mud and rock.

It was a mess and at the centre of it all, sitting atop of a pile of rubble, was Musa. Resting on his lap was his sword and his golden eyes seemed to be staring at nothing in particular.

Tal had just arrived with an entourage of ten soldiers who were in the JUA-MK1’s and she stood at the boundary where the carnage began alongside a cowering Chozek.

Tal clicked her tongue before stomping towards her brother.

[Idiot! Fool! Why did you not simply do as you normally do and dither until I got here? You do know that this Forest is a part of our Lady, right? Now look at it!] She yelled loud enough for most of Y’shuah to hear. The soldiers she brought followed closely behind with their guns raised although they were also steadily cycling Glass Energy through their bodies.

Tal eventually reached Musa and, after reaching his side, she crossed her arms.

“I would have finally taken care of this and it would have been… cleaner.” She scoffed.

Her frown quickly disappeared and she leaned forward so that she could meet Musa’s eyes with hers which were filled with concern.

“Big Bro-“

I slowed my perception of time to the slowest possible degree as Musa grabbed his sword and swung it towards Tal.

I tried squeezing the Gravity around his arm to an extreme degree and although this stopped it physically, his Uyil Belts, his soul kept moving along with the soul of his seemingly living weapon.

I then watched, for an eternity, as Musa decapitated Tal’s soul.