May 20th, 2089

“I was wondering who killed my friends.  To think it was a bounty hunter from back home.  Terra the Peerless, right?  You are truly extraordinary.  I searched very hard for you these past months, but could only find traces here and there.  Were you hired by someone?”  Jupon questioned me.  I didn’t respond and instead readied my rhomphaia while activating my body reinforcement magic.  

I don’t have the luxury of responding.  The slightest distraction would be fatal against a cheat-level existence like Jupon.  It’s not like my current strength is a joke.  In the other world I could probably fight on an even footing with the entire Darkmoon army.  It’s just that Jupon is a frickin’ aberration.  My only advantage is that I have my traps set up.  The Plan A of winning the fight is now abandoned.  It’s time for Plan B, which is to survive long enough to screw up the ritual and then run away.  “So you won’t say anything then?  Very well, I will avenge my friends here and now before achieving our long cherished dream!” 

He lunged forward at a speed that even my augmented kinetic vision could barely keep up with.  He moved faster than my mines could detonate, so a trail of explosions followed after him.  The curses and trap spells did not fare any better.  They were able to activate in time, but failed to penetrate his defense.  I swung my rhomphaia as he came into range, but he easily ducked beneath it. 

However, my attack slowed him down enough for him to fall into the pitfall that opened beneath his feet.  It was filled with blasting powder and hydra venom, which activated as he fell.  I jumped backwards as an eruption of purple and green fire came forth from the pit.  Hydra venom is one of the most potent toxins in the other world, but it didn’t seem to faze Jupon at all as he leaped out of the pit. 

He stabbed his sword Liberator into the ground, sending out a pulse of white light that promptly annihilated all of my remaining traps.  I did not miss this opening and my rhomphaia shined with its own white light as it stabbed towards Jupon.  But the opening turned out to be a feint as Jupon recovered faster than I could have imagined. 

My rhomphaia was parried and I was blasted away with one swing of Liberator.  And just like that, I landed 100 yards away in a bloody heap.  There was a massive diagonal gash from my right hip up to my left shoulder that was so deep and wide you could see my internal organs.  My left arm had also been cut deeply and ended up tearing off during the impact.  My right leg was twisted awkwardly, and it felt like about a third of my bones were broken.  My enchanted armor did nothing to lessen the blow.  If I hadn’t augmented myself, I would most certainly be dead instead of almost dead. 

This entire exchange between myself and Jupon lasted less than 30 seconds and ended with me completely beat down.  I don’t even have the strength to move a finger nor the focus to cast magic due to the excruciating pain.  Ah, so this is the gap between me and a Hero.  Jupon gave me a glance and saw I was on the verge of death.  He dispersed the barrier guarding the magic circle and disappeared as he headed towards the center. 

I must say I feel a little insulted that he didn’t even bother to make sure I died.  It works to my advantage though, since I didn’t have to use Rin as a decoy to buy time while I healed.  Yes, even though I was on the verge of death I was recovering.  Thank goodness for my augmentation.  My wounds were slowly starting to close, and I could feel the muscle strands of my left shoulder growing out like vines towards my amputated arm to reattach it.  But my regeneration was too slow. 

The clock struck midnight and the ritual began.  A massive pillar of light shot up into the atmosphere, visible for hundreds if not thousands of miles.  The sky above seemed to be tearing itself apart and the desert was lit up with a pale light.  As a wizard I could sense the near infinite amount of mana that was rushing towards the circle from the stars and the earth.  The magic circle started to contract at an incredible rate. 

I managed to recover enough to drink an Elixir to heal and I quickly pursued the receding magic circle.  This is bad.  If the circle disappears, I may have to alter my strategy again.  My memories from Eual about the ritual indicate that there is a start-up phase, which just occurred, and then 3 stages after that.  After giving up the idea of killing Jupon, I had hoped to damage the circle before the end of the start-up phase and then escape. 

Now the 1st stage has started, which is the preparation stage.  The endless mana being harnessed right now is flowing to the other world in order to eventually reshape it.  I rushed to the center, where I saw Jupon standing stock still as the miles of magic circle finished compressing onto his skin as a tattoo.  I could see the endless mana being drawn towards Liberator like a conducting rod and then going into the magic circle tattoo.  He now radiated an aura of mana that even a non-wizard could see as he was channeling the environmental mana for the ritual.  Shit, plan B has failed it’s on to plan C. 

I have to kill Jupon before stage 2, which is the remaking phase.  At the start of that stage the other world will be destroyed and my world will slowly be picked apart as they build up a new world from the two.  The third stage is when ascension to godhood occurs.  I didn’t hesitate as I quickly formed several hand seals and chanted “I call upon the endless hunger of the inferno.  Devour everything, consume all, leave nothing but ash behind!” A giant maw made of scorching flames and filled with fangs, appeared above Jupon.  It snapped shut and started chewing, enclosing Jupon in the searing blaze. 

Then the inferno suddenly dissipated as a blast of white light snuffed it out like it was a candle.  Jupon stood there unharmed and looked at me with irritation “You’re still alive?  Hmph, I’ll settle that soon enough!”  He swung Liberator, which let off a humming noise, and a salvo of light arrows zoomed towards me.  Right when they were about to strike me, I teleported up into the sky above Jupon.  I extended my palm downwards toward him and a magic circle I had drawn on my palm lit up, bombarding Jupon with lightning. 

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My assault was interrupted, however, when the light arrows I had dodged earlier came homing in on me.  Damn.  I managed to throw up an opaque golden barrier that mitigated most of the force from the ensuing blast.  The remaining force was enough to send me crashing to the ground, where Jupon was instantly upon me.  He thrust Liberator through my heart.  There was a pause after that supposed deathblow and then my form dissipated like smoke. 

During the moment of impact with the light arrows, I had teleported out of my barrier and left behind a magic simulacrum to distract Jupon.  Simultaneously with my decoy’s disappearance the sands around Jupon lunged at him with a speed and strength that would easily strip flesh from bone.  Jupon guarded against it with his own barrier, but his vision was obscured as the sands roared past.  He was oblivious to my presence behind him. 

During that opening I rapidly spoke an incantation “The void is eternal.  Lives end, legacies fade and reality decays to nothingness.  But the void will remain.  Vanish now into its infinite depths!”  With Jupon as the epicenter, everything within a 10-meter radius became nothing.  The sand, the air, the light from the night sky, it was all erased from existence.  A vacuum was created in that space for a moment before it was filled in by the surroundings.  This was one of my strongest attacks, a space-time spell that I had used to insta-kill a wyvern in the past.  So when I saw Jupon still there without so much as a crack in his armor, I was shocked.  I had used an incantation to strengthen the spell and still nothing happened. 

He turned to face me and sprinted towards me to engage in close quarters combat.  It looks like he finds me too shifty for a wizard’s duel.  I flew backwards with magic in an attempt to preserve our distance as I unholstered my pistols and fired away at him.  Jupon responded by chopping my bullets into pieces with Liberator without slowing down.  Uwah, I hate cheats!  How the hell is he doing that? 

Jupon than brought his hand up to Liberator and gently flicked it.  A clear bell like sound rang out.  The resonance of the sword’s vibration caused my pistols to shatter into pieces.  Jupon was then upon me.  He was too close for me to use my rhomphaia, so I frantically drew my ninjato to block his swing.  They were broken into pieces and I was launched deep into a sand dune. 

My left forearm was shattered and my wrists were both broken but other than that I was mostly okay.  I used a tunneling spell to exit out of the back of the sand dune, barely managing to evade a direct hit from a shockwave of power that completely annihilated the sand dune.  I was still within the blast radius and was sent flying once again.  I landed with a crash and my right leg followed shortly after.  I withstood the massive pain and quickly drank an Elixir as I reattached my leg.  A healing spell would have been quicker, but I can’t waste mana at this point. 

Jupon was looking around the enormous crater he created in order to see if I was still alive.  I decided to help him answer that question by teleporting in front of him every grenade, explosive device and attack-oriented magic artifact I still had.  But I underestimated his reaction time.  Jupon leapt backwards with an unmatchable speed while conjuring up a shield of shining white light to protect himself from the earth-shaking explosion of magic and gunpowder.  As he landed he countered with a chanted spell of his own: “O Holy Light I beseech you to cleanse all evil and to smite the wicked!” Oh shit. 

A calm soothing light started radiating from Liberator, but as it fell upon me my body burned.  It was like getting hit by a laser beam from all sides.  White smoke started coming from my body as I was being purified.  Jupon didn’t miss this opportunity and charged forward.  I managed to put up a telekinetic barrier as he thrust Liberator forward, moving it to the side slightly and preventing my immediate death.  A huge hole opened up on the right side of my torso which one could see straight through and I was blasted away again.  My right arm and leg were both annihilated and I was so tired as I laid there in the desert sand.

I managed to drink another Elixir, but my healing was slow.  That spell Jupon used caused massive internal damage and I had to regrow two limbs in addition to that.  It is hard to explain how exhausting it is to constantly heal and regenerate only to be obliterated once more.  My weariness made me want to just keep lying there in the sand. 

I’m too weak.  That realization flashed through my mind.  I have no chance of winning like this.  The only reason why Jupon hasn’t finished me off at this moment is that he ended up neglecting the ritual too much when he was trying to kill me.  This caused some instability in the ritual which he is now completely engrossed in fixing.  Haa, I am so tired. 

Maybe I should just give up now and spare myself from anymore agony and despair.  I can’t handle the cheat known as the Hero Jupon as I am now.  I have tried so very hard; it should be fine for me to stop at last.  I am only 16 and yet I am a veteran of many battles and conflicts.  I shouldn’t have to be the one to futilely struggle.  I deserve a break after all I have been through, right?  Why am I even here in the first place?  In response to my introspection, the faces of the very few people that I care about flashed before my eyes.  Yeah, that’s right.  I am here for the ones I love and care for.  If this was like one of those manga, I would now unlock some hidden potential that would allow me to overcome Jupon. 

But this is real life and so it didn’t happen.  Remembering who I am fighting for did not give me strength, but it did give me the willpower to once again stand back up.  Fuck it all.  I can’t win, but I’ll be damned if I give up.  For those few people I love I will keep going until the end.