“Your turn? What’re you talking about?” Rumble said as if he could believe what he just heard.

Sevedant nodded and said “My turn. You’re finished.”

“Um... Sorry, but I don’t think so!”  Rumble said and he lunged at him.

Rumble quickly reached him and threw a punch at him. Sevedant instantly moved his right hand and caught it. Surprised, but not losing momentum, Rumble lifted off the ground and landed his leg to the side of Sevedant’s face.

Rumble smiled, but he suddenly looked stunned when Sevedant looked straight back at him. He did not look like he was affected by the impact in anyway. In fact, he felt a dark aura suddenly begin to emit from him.

“Not good enough,” Sevedant said wuth a slight shake of his head.

The next moment, Sevedant swung Rumble by the arm and smashed him on the ground. The heavy impact caused the ground to crack as Rumble was forced down.

“Gah!” Rumble said in a pained voice as he slowly got up.

Rumble slowly got to his feet and backed away. He wiped the small blood that was staining near his mouth and narrowed his eyes. He was more than surprised to see the kind of power Sevedant used on him. It was as if all the damage Sevedant took earlier really did not trouble him.

At that moment, Sevedant suddenly disappeared and reappeared directly in front of him. As Rumble involuntarily took a step back, Sevedant quietly said “It’s done.”

Hearing those words, Rumble suddenly became very angry and shouted “What do you mean it’s done?! Things are just getting starte-!”

The next moment, he was cut off as Sevedant brought his fist back and delivered a power much to the stomach. Rumble groaned and he stepped back reflexively. Then Sevedant quickly followed up and punched him across the face causing Rumble to get pushed away.

Rumble groaned painfully as he clutched his stomach and face. Then he looked really angry and roared like a beast before charging at Sevedant and the battle began. Both Rumble and Sevedant began throwing punches at each other, but were unable to hit each other except block them.

“Up the notch,” Sevedant said when they broke and stepped back to rest momentarily.

“Don’t tell me you’re holding back?! Come at me with all you got or I’ll grind you to dust!” Rumble yelled angrily.

Sevedant’s eyes suddenly flashed brightly as he said “Understood.”

Rumble moved forward and tried to punch Sevedant in the chest. Sevedant caught it and immediately pushed him back and began raining blows at him. The blows that Sevedant delivered was so fat, it looked like he was standing there with his arms at his side while Rumble swayed back and forth and groaned in pain.

“WOW! Wow! Am I dreaming?!” Lakshman exclaimed in shock and he rubbed his eyes several times to make sure.

“S-Sevedant is... just standing there. So why is Rumble looking like he’s getting beaten up?!” Ondine exclaimed in a shocked voice as she watched him getting beaten.

“T-That’s how fast Sevedant is moving at. I-I can barely see him moving!” Darian said with a half-smile on his face.

“That’s unreal! It’s as if he’s not the same person as we knew!” Ondine said in astonishment.

“Do we? Do we really know him? We know very little about any of the Nine Pillars of Power! The Death Titan might not even be displaying his full might!” Darian said

“That’s overpowered! That’s just so unfair!” Marilia said and she looked angry.

The next moment, Sevedant kicked Rumble into the air. Quickly following him, Sevedant began kicking him around like a football; first that way, then down and then across and then up and loop the pattern. Rumble could barely do anything against it except get beaten up at an incredible speed.

“Yeah... He’s turned Rumble into his personal stress relief punching bag!” Darian said sarcastically.

“Well...! Do something! Go and help him!” Marilia told him with a serious expression on her face.

“Wow now! I just can’t walk into a duel! This is their battle! They’ve got to settle this on their own!”

“Tch!”

“This isn’t good... Rumble is going to lose,” Ondine said in a sad voice.

Tetra looked at her in alarm and asked “Why are you so surprised about that?!”

While they were talking, Sevedant was beating Rumble around. He was doing it to teach Rumble a lesson in the difference in their powers and the painful attack Rumble hit him with earlier.

Rumble, having had enough of getting beaten around, forcibly stopped himself in mid-air using Energy Force.

He glared at Sevedant and shouted “E-Enough!”

He began firing energy blasts at Sevedant and made him move higher and higher into the sky. The next instance, he stretched his arms out and quickly gathered as much energy that he possibly could. He knew he was running low on energy, but giving up was not an option for him.

Once he formed the energy into a large energy ball, he aimed it directly at Sevedant. Rumble shouted “Here!” and threw the ball of energy at him.

The large ball of energy flew through the air at Sevedant. Seeing it coming, Sevedant shook his head and said “Not enough.”

The next thing, he began to glow with dark energy pulsating around him. Then he extended his right hand out and stretched his forefinger. A dark energy began gathering there and he slowly lifted raised it over his head. It grew bigger and bigger until it blanketed the sky.

“You have to be... joking!” Marilia said in a hushed voice.

“U-Um... Is it just me or does that seem a little... overboard?!” Lakshman exclaimed in shock as he stared at the massive black ball of energy with wide eyes.

“Master, I think the term ‘overboard’ is an understatement here. Outrageous is more preferable,” Ondine said softly as she also stared at it with wide eyes of shock.

“Ondine... Now’s not the time for a language lesson...” Tetra said softly as she looked at it in amazement.

“What the heck is Sevedant thinking?! He could destroy the whole place!” Darian said in a panicked voice.

“I think that’s his plan,” Tetra said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Up in the sky, Sevedant looked down at the shocked expression Rumble wore and said “This is it. Death Star!”

With the shout, he brought his forefinger down and aimed. The black ball of energy immediately moved down and intercepted the ball of energy that Rumble released moments before. The two energy balls clashed in mid-air and they struggled while releasing a violent amount of force and wind everywhere.

The black energy ball won the struggle and quickly pushed Rumble’s energy ball down.

“No way!” Rumble exclaimed in horror and the combined attacks quickly towered over him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Rumble held up his hands and pushed against the energy ball which was pulsating dangerously as if it was going to explode. Rumble grunted and groaned as he struggled to keep the energy ball at bay, but it was too much. He has used up a lot of energy in his battle against Sevedant and he did not have enough to fight against this.

“Dammit!” Rumble yelled as he got pushed to the ground.

The next moment, there was a violent flash of light from the centre of the ball of energy and it exploded. A massive explosion took place that swept in all directions. Plants, trees and life was vaporised by the blast.

“HOLD ON!!” Darian yelled as the people holding onto him struggled to hold on.

They struggled to hold against the powerful wind until they were thrown away by the wind.

A huge ball of light covered the entire area for several seconds and it blinded everything in sight. Then it slowly faded and revealed a landscape of utter destruction. A whole forest was destroyed and left a mass of rocks in its place.

For a few seconds, there was silence as dust and debris slowly settled down. There was the slightest whisper of the birds or the sounds of the animals of the ground. Looking from above the sky, it would look like an entire forest vanished out of nowhere.

Then there was the noise of shaking rubble and, the next moment, Darian, Marilia, Lakshman, Ondine and Tetra emerged from beneath them. They were dusty looking with pebbles in their dishevelled hair and clothes dirtied.

“Wow...! Damn! What power!” Darian said as he looked around at the destroyed space.

“This is insane! How could he be so strong?!” Ondine exclaimed in a shocked voice.

“Be glad he didn’t destroy us all!” Tetra told her.

“Be glad? There was a moment I thought we really were going to die! That power was so strong!” Marilia said.

Lakshman looked around at the destruction with an expression of disbelief on his face. He did not like it, this destruction and the loss of life.

“Rumble? Rumble!” Darian shouted his friend’s name.

They began shouting his name, but he did not respond. They wondered if it was because he was knocked or something, but Darian shook his head. He looked unhappy and they realised the horrible truth.

Just then, they heard someone land nearby. Turning around, they saw Sevedant standing there. He looked the same as ever, but eyes seemed to be glowing brighter than before.

Lakshman immediately looked angry as he quickly walked over to him. He stopped in front of him and said “Sevedant, why did you do this?!”

“Pardon?” Sevedant asked him.

“All this!” Lakshman said and he waved at the destroyed land around him. Then he said “All this destruction, all this chaos! What was it for?! Why did you do it?! You went and destroyed an entire forest full of life!”

Sevedant remained silent for a moment. Then he said “Rumble did.”

“So?! What if Rumble did it? Are you saying you’re no better than him?! Just because you want to prove your strength, you’ll go around destroying precious life?! Look at this place! Look at it! You didn’t’ just kill Rumble, but an entire forest as well! Yes! Rumble did destroy it, but you did the same thing! What makes you any different from him?! Is it your rank? Is it your power? Ha! Ha...!”

Lakshman began crying as he spoke angrily to him. Ondine walked over and patted him on the head. He may have become strong and fought many opponents, but was still a thirteen year old kid. All this pointless destruction caused his feelings into turmoil.

Everyone was looking uncomfortable at seeing this outcome. They were regretting letting the Monkey King and the Death Titan battle in the first place. They should have anticipated the worst outcome, but things got slipped because of how eager Rumble was to fight him.

Sevedant looked around at them silently. Then he said “Like this.”

He raised his right hand out and clicked. In an instant, a flickering like sound began to sound and the lights began to flash randomly. Everyone was shocked at what was happening. Then the destroyed area began to flashing back and forth; one moment everything was destroyed and the next, everything was restored.

“W-What the...?!” Marilia and Ondine exclaimed in shock when everything was restored to its original state.

“Everything’s back to normal...” Tetra said and she sounded impressed.

Then they saw Rumble standing there with his eyes wide open in shock. He began looking around and then at his hands as if he could not believe it.

“I-I’m alive...!” he said softly as if he could not believe it himself.

“Yes you are, idiot!” Darian shouted and he happily hugged his friend.

A few seconds later, Marilia asked “How did this happen? How did everything get restored and bring Rumble back to life?”

A sudden thought came to mind and they turned to look at Sevedant. He nodded at them and said “Real Fiction.”

Confused by its name, they all asked “Real Fiction? What’s that?”

Sevedant nodded and began explaining. Real Fiction was an Emperor ranked Illusion Magic Spell that creates a barrier around a certain area. Any and all damage, including loss of life can be restored to its originality once the barrier is cancelled.

“So... Everything that happened just now was all in our minds?” Ondine asked in amazement and Sevedant nodded at her.

Rumble began laughing and, when they asked him why, he smiled and said “I never stood a chance from the start. We were all playing right into his hands!”

At his words, they suddenly realised what he meant. Setting up a powerful illusion barrier, then taking all the hits as if they were nothing and then retaliating by going all out. It was indeed something they definitely did not pick upon.

Sevedant walked over to Lakshman and patted him on the head. Lakshman looked up at him in surprise and realised even his tears were gone.

“I am different. I dislike destruction. I disapprove chaos. I choose to protect. I choose to save. I’m the Messenger of Death. I don’t kill. I observe as life moves on. That is my role.”

When he said those words, Lakshman’s impression of him grew like a mountain. That was when he began to respect the Death Titan very deeply. It was also the time that everyone understood the Death Titan to be a compassionate person even if his title and rank state the opposite.

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