"...May you change this world, Paradox born from Fate..." The voice echoed in his mind as he fell back in the storm of maddening distorted time, his senses cut off from him. The world changed again and again as he fell endlessly. He suddenly hit the ground and opened his eyes, gasping for air loudly. His body was aching, and the strange fusion between Toumu Toula and Valer was bent over him, looking at him with a surprised expression.
'Oh god, this is painful!' He coughed through his teeth, almost screaming at the pain it caused him in his ribs. He pushed Toumu Valer away from him with a powerful wave of Mana and struggled to put himself back on his feet. The Mother's Son seemed quite disturbed at the sight, and signs of unrest appeared on his face.
"I...No, I mean...you're not supposed to...wake up, at all?" He spoke with confusion, struggling to explain what he was witnessing. Glenn looked at his left arm and squinted when he saw that the purple of his left arm was back.
'Huh, I wasn't sure you would wake up that time. You are a true cockroach,' Diamanes exclaimed in his host's mind, who coughed a little more blood, his eyes running around to try and situate himself back. Was this reality? Or was it another intricate illusion made up by the Mother or the Guide? A scream of displeasure stopped him from thinking about it.
'Oh?!? Another part of your memories became censored, AGAIN!! This is worse than YouTube, I swear!' Diamanes complained loudly, making Glenn's head buzz distastefully.
'Not the time for that, Diamanes, but at least there are no ads. Yet,' The young man dryly answered, his jaws tightly clenched as he held his waist with one hand.
'Where the hell is my axe...?' He pondered, seeing that it wasn't near him or anywhere else. A chuckle made him look back up at his opponent, who was smiling wickedly while playing with Glenn's favorite weapon.
"Are you looking for this, maybe?" The Amalgam grin grew as he made the axe twirl in his hands. The weapon was pulsing with malevolent energy, and a flame darker than what Glenn had ever been able to create was surrounding it. Nonetheless, there seems to be some...uncertainty on the monster's face. Even though he was hiding it behind an evil smile, the creature wasn't able to control his widened eyes and the tremors in his hands.
Glenn struggled to hold himself standing, his limbs weak and his body filled with a torturing pain. Why was it so painful...? He suddenly felt how warm his waist felt, and looked down to see a huge slit opened there, bleeding heavily on his side. The young man stumbled, his face paling as he lost more and more strength due to the blood loss. He bit down on his lips and pressed his left hand on the wound, sealing it with Nitrogen ice.
'If this continues, I'll be wearing a fucking ice armor!' Glenn painfully thought, stopping himself from screaming from the pain the burns the Nitrogen inflicted on him. It was his best bet for now, and he didn't want to risk using fire, as he didn't control the element as precisely as the Nitrogen power held into Diamanes. The Amalgam licked his lips while looking at the blade of the axe thoughtfully before suddenly throwing it at Glenn with all his strength.
The axe flew in a giant disc of black fire, spinning in the air with speed invisible to the naked eye. Glenn held his breath as he pushed himself out of the way with a wave of Mana, the projectile missing its target by a hairs-breadth. Glenn struggled near a pile of rubble and used his free hand to hold himself on it. The world was starting to spin a bit too quickly for him, and he had a terrible need for sleep...
'NOT THE TIME TO TAKE A NAP, BASTARD!' Diamanes roared in Glenn's mind, waking the latter up and letting him raise his eyes to see a black fireball flying at him. He weakly raised his hand, manipulating the Mana to create a thin defense to protect himself. The fireball exploded on the magic protection, destroying it entirely and using a little more of Glenn's scarce reserves of Mana. The young man struggled as he climbed on the rubble, trying to escape as best he could from the attacks.
The Amalgam seemed to recuperate from his previous shock and laughed mockingly as he threw some blades of wind one after the other at Glenn. The attacks whistled in the air before crashing on the thin barrier Glenn kept on holding stubbornly.
'I need to...find a way...and quickly...' He struggled to think, a sudden urge to vomit stopping him in his steps. Glenn clenched his teeth harder, his gums bleeding from the strength he exerted. He looked around desperately, trying to find his way out of this seemingly impossible situation.
"What should I do...what should I do...Damn it, damn it..!" He mumbled, before yelling the last bit, his anger showing without any restraint. He gave up on running away, and stood with all his might on top of the rubble piles, looking down at the Amalgam in a domineering manner. Even though he was probably at the weakest he ever was for the first time in a while, Glenn grinned wickedly as all the Mana in his body raged like a storming sea before being pulled in his right hand.
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"What? Don't you understand? You can't do anything to me! I'm invincible! My Mother made me this way!" The Amalgam exclaimed, opening his arms widely, as he looked up at Glenn from the bottom of the rubble pile. He sighed and used Mana to float himself at Glenn's level, who was still staring with a wide smile at the creature. The latter blinked a few times and looked around to see what made the man suddenly so confident.
"...Oh, maybe you're praying? Are you smiling because you know you're getting into...Paradise, or whatever afterlife you believe in...?" The Amalgam nodded slowly, believing to have found the right answer. He raised his hand, summoning a dark scythe made of a mix of a tainted Mana and the strange, disgusting energy so characteristic of the Mother. He was about to swing it when Glenn suddenly let out a small chuckle. The Amalgam froze in his movements, frowning when Glenn suddenly burst out in laughter.
"Haha....hahahaha!" He laughed his heart out as if this was the last time he would be able to let it out. The Amalgam shook his head in incomprehension, when, pressed by curiosity, he asked Glenn.
"What?! What are you laughing for?!?" His voice sounded mocking, but it only made Glenn laugh harder. Suddenly, the young man stopped laughing and only pointed at his right hand. There was no Mana at all in it. None whatsoever. The Amalgam let out a chuckle, before sighing despitefully.
"You're disappointing me. My Mother promised me my share of "friends" I could enjoy myself with, and I truly thought for a second you'd be able to satisfy me, but it seems like I'm mistaken. Too bad—" The Amalgam was interrupted when the decapitated head of the Mother's wooden statue was pulled into Glenn's hand. The sight unnerved him deeply, but it was nothing compared to what the young man would say.
"...I think you're scared, you piece of mixed-up garbage," Glenn began, stepping on an invisible Mana platform, and approaching the puzzled Amalgam.
"After all, I've just escaped your Mother's "supposedly" punishment. It wasn't that bad, truly, more like a boon," The young man touched his chin with a single finger, looking at the ceiling while lost in thoughts. Diamanes was screaming in his host's mind things along the lines of: "Get back in the game you madman you're going to die!!" or something like that, but Glenn couldn't care less. He could only see the small spark of hesitation growing in the Amalgam's eyes, while he was preparing "it" on the side.
He had to win some more time. Glenn took another step, standing only on the invisible Mana platforms, getting one step closer to the creature.
"I mean, am I the one punished here? Or aren't you the one who suffered the most? After all, you're just a product of two humans badly fused to create a robust body that can use magic. Not gonna lie, that's pretty lame for your Mother, even more, when we see what she did to you!" Glenn showed a face filled with pity while smiling warmly at the creature, whose face was becoming redder and redder as the young man kept on talking.
"I'm pretty sure with a face like that...You might have a chance with your brothers and sisters your Mother created," He casually said while pointing his chin at the grotesque piles of flesh, bones, and guts spread all around in the church. He felt his Mana suddenly run out, but kept on fueling "it" with whatever energy was left in his body. He had one shot, he couldn't afford to miss. Blood trickled down his nose and mouth, but he still kept on talking, ignoring it as best he could.
"...Never mind that, even them wouldn't want to take a look at you," Glenn dismissed him distastefully, the Amalgam who remained silent from the anger he felt finally exploding. He roared beastly as he hurled the scythe at Glenn.
"YOU BASTARD!!! I'LL KILL YOU AND EAT YOU, YOU FUCKING DIMWIT!!!" The Mother's son screamed, surprising Glenn with how much hatred he had created in his opponent.
'I mean, it wasn't that much, was it?' He thought for half a second as the platform under his feet disappeared, slipping away narrowly from the attack. The Son's attack split what little remained of the church's roof, before creating a dark, flaming line in the sky that cut through the skies.
Glenn smiled weakly and flicked his fingers as his body plunged toward the ground. Behind the rage-stricken Amalgam, a small ball of light was spinning very, very slowly. It almost looked like it was still from how slow it looked. It had just been producing light for the whole fight, having been cast by Glenn for quite a while now. But the moment the sound of Glenn's fingers flicking echoed in the church, the ball of light suddenly distorted and shaped itself into a long needle of pure, sunny light. It spans so fast that it looks entirely still, the movement impossible to be seen by the naked eye.
A second before hitting the ground, Glenn opened his mouth while giving a huge thumbs-up.
"See you in Paradise, asshole..." He whispered, as his consciousness plunged back into darkness. A second later, the needle disappeared from the world. The Amalgam slowly looked back, unable to comprehend what just happened. A trickle of black liquid came out of his lips, and he touched it with confusion.
"Is this...blood?" The creature paled and looked down at his chest.
There, a hole the size of a window was opened, the walls of the hole charred black, still fuming from the heat.
"...What?" The Amalgam barely managed to say, as a world-splitting light exploded in the church, flying high in the sky and making its way to the heavens. The strength of the attack created a shockwave so powerful it made the Amalgam fly away, his limbs coming loose and his body slowly disintegrating. The face of the Amalgam was twisted in pain as a single, dark tear dropped down on it.
"...I..."
Thump.
Glenn crashed down on the floor, his eyes closed and his fate a mystery. The Amalgam slowly disappeared into dust, joining the already present ash in covering the destroyed Palancar.
No one was left standing in what previously was a church and was now a pile of bloody wooden rubble.
Truly the worst investment in Monsieur Maron's life.