“-A divgin.” Zueki continued haughtily, “I had been told that a divgin lived in the outskirts of Edenia–that some had even seen one in this tavern, but I honestly believed that the rumors were just another example of mortals making a mockery of themselves. Even so, I still made the journey to this nauseating town just in case one of you truly did exist.”
He pondered, staring off into the distance, “I haven't seen a divgin in years. Hell, I haven't seen one in thousands. The fact that one of you is still alive, even in this day and age, proves that we have failed.”
Zueki turned to Chuck, “I have but one question for you: how did you survive after all these years? I recall that the last divgin prior to you was killed around nine millennia ago. Even with infinite powers, few ever live past the age of five hundred. For you to still be alive you must be thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years old. How powerful are you?”
“Well, it looks like you're lucky enough to find out.”
The air around Chuck began to glow a bright blue. Suddenly, the chairs and tables within the tavern began to shake as if they were in a large-scale earthquake. On the outskirts of the building, the windows shattered into countless pieces while the walls and the roof began to splinter and crack. A massive weight seemed to enter the room causing the floor beneath Zueki’s and Chuck’s feet to impede beneath them.
“It appears your infinite force is very, very immense,” Zueki commented with sweat dripping down his face. Although his legs appeared to be shaking, he was somehow still standing.
“Thanks.” Chuck answered calmly.
“But you were uninformed of one thing: my infinite force is stronger.”
Zueki’s face turned a deep red as his hair and his body lit up in an extremely bright luminescent yellow while the lights hanging from the tavern roof began to flicker. An even greater weight entered the tavern, forcing Chuck to kneel on the ground.
“So, divgin, do you still wish to begin this futile fight?” Zueki jeered, “Or would you like to sacrifice yourself peacefully through a quick death of your choice?”
“I think I’ll take my chances.”
Within a second, Zueki formed his yellow, glowing right hand into a fist and charged towards Chuck. His stupendous speed was at least fifty times faster than that of a normal human. As he continued towards Chuck, countless sparks of electricity flowed out his body leaving a trail of light in his path. Before he finished his motion, however, Chuck's outreached hand extended toward his body. He suddenly froze in place.
“Please kid, you are far weaker than me. You are not even old enough to be in a tavern. Get out of here before I have to put you in time out.”
Zueki robotically shifted his head towards Chuck. Although his lower body was frozen, it appeared that his consciousness was still present,
“The power that I am currently emitting is but a droplet of water in the great pond of my strength,” he smiled, “If I were you, I would not be so conceited just yet.”
“So conceited? Just speaking like an adult won’t make you one.” Chuck laughed. He pulled one of his fingers back into the palm of his hand and Zueki’s head snapped back. By that moment, the entire roof of the tavern had completely collapsed allowing the sun to flow through its dusted halls.
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Chuck continued, “Anyways, I’ve become very interested in this 'great pond of strength’ that you mentioned you were storing within yourself earlier. I’d love to see its contents in action.”
As Chuck spoke, the yellow and sparking infinite barrier around Zueki’s body grew continuously brighter. As Chuck’s final words came to an end, Zueki broke free of Chuck’s time lock and he began to dash in a rectangular pattern across the room.
“Why you must be a droll,” Zueki snickered mid-run, his words echoing across the room, “To think I would use my full strength on not only a divgin but the likes of you? What nonsense.”
As Zueki ran, he began to throw pulsing yellow lightning bolts towards Chuck’s body, but Chuck harmlessly knocked them down as if they were no more than plastic toys.
Chuck smiled, “Whelp, I guess I have to show you why you need to rethink that statement.”
In an instant, Chuck clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and began to float. In this motion, he remained completely still and silent, standing on the now torn and tattered wooden floor of the tavern.
“What are you doing?” Zueki questioned angrily, still running in circles and growing brighter with every passing moment “How dare a divgin like you make a mockery of our great traditions! There is no way you could possibly-”
The air around the tavern grew thin and sparse, as if the oxygen within the room had been sucked away completely. The wooden floorboards and walls of the tavern began to rise, creating numerous rings of debris around his body.
“No way? Now, I have a question for you: do you know where this ability I am mocking came from?” Chuck questioned.
“Why, of course I do. The true ability is known as the ‘Call of the Divine.’ It was an ability that was gifted and taught to the human race by the divine one himself during the Great War. To use it, one would clasp their hands and pray to the divine one, begging for its call. In return the caller would be granted extraordinary power for a limited time and-”
“Most of that is correct,” Chuck stated solemnly, “but the infinite gene wasn’t a gift to the human race, it was the divgin who were the first to receive it.”
“How amusing,” Zueki began to cackle, softly at first, but with every word he spoke his laugh grew louder, like the hissing of a thunderbolt, “You must remember, I have access to all historical information ever present on Anki, I was alive during the great wars, and I work directly under the divine one. There is no use in stating such fabrications to me.”
“Oh, you think I’m lying?” Chuck ridiculed, “I wonder, maybe the divine one is lying to you because he is too afraid of what you would do if you knew the truth.”
“The truth?”
“Oh, I think you know,” Chuck continued, staring off into the distance, “you have always known.”
“Stop.” Zueki whispered, his eyes flashing in waves of yellow and red.
“It’s the true reason why your powers awakened–the true reason why you lost everything. You killed him, child, you killed your-”
“SHUT UP!”
Suddenly, a great white flash eroded the room followed by a deafening silence. As the light cleared, everything within the tavern appeared to be completely destroyed: the lights that had once brightened the tavern had shattered, their wires intertwined and sparking. The walls had fallen and crumbled, transforming into a pile of rubble that resided upon the floor. Even the bar, which had once seemed so sturdy and safe, had transitioned into little more than a pile of dust. Zueki stood still, tears streaming down his childish cheeks while his childish hand transected through Chuck’s chest.
“I didn’t do it,” Zueki whispered, “It was the divgin. I promise, it wasn’t me.”
“Oh but, my child,” Chuck laughed as red and white ropes of blood spewed in excess out of his enormous lips, “you know it was.”
With those final words, Chuck collapsed onto his back. His eyes had gone blank, and his body completely stiff. Yet, even while laying just seconds from death, his pale gray lips formed into an eternal smile that could never be erased.