Everything around him was bathed in fire.

There were no dead bodies, not in the open roads, but the sheer stench of the bodies burning was practically palpable. There were kids screaming, mothers crying, fathers burning. It was a complete and utter massacre.

It would’ve made most adults vomit on the spot. Against such a nauseating and vile environment, where death could be felt, which was indirectly caused by him, Alex completely shut down. The trauma was too much for an adult to handle lest a high schooler whose mind was already preoccupied with the death of his parents.

Even if he hadn’t, Alex Smith was a normal 16-year-old teen, bereft of any sort of combat training. Against someone like his hooded assailant, he was utterly outclassed. In fact, him even possessing a challenge to the man was simply laughable.

But, they were not he, they were more. They were what Alex could never be. They were not human, for they were complete. They did not deny any emotions, nor did they accept all of them. They were not a product of evolution, they just were. They were ineffable to all for they were █████████████

And as such, they were more than enough to deal with the wielder of the twisted fire. Truly, if they had not been limited by his physical body, already tired because of them using their power to escape the spear, they would have killed the abomination for polluting the flames.

No matter, the fire-wielder was dangerous but not one they couldn’t handle.

So, when the fire-wielder encased the whole place in the twisted fire, they appeared.

They did not appear as a blur, they did not move, unseeable to all but a few, they simply existed and did not exist. The man had no warning, no sudden shift in the wind to warn him of their arrival. He stood no chance as they moved their hand through the air?

“Oh ho ho, that almost killed me you know? I thought you were a naive little child who was one of them. I guess I should take this a little seriously at the very least.”

They jumped back as the very place they stood on erupted in a wall of fire. Huh. So the fire-wielder was not an enemy to be underestimated after all. Fine, the one who polluted the flames wanted a fight. So be it.

Bang

The ground beneath them cracked as they leapt towards his assailant, their speed incomprehensible by human standards, and yet, a ball of fire repelled their attack.

There was no time to completely change their trajectory, so they ever so slightly shifted, ah vectors, ever the useful things, and the ball of fire, which passed ever so near their face, not enough to cause harm, but enough to singe parts of their hair, missed.

Even though it had caused almost no injury, it had radiated heat to such a degree that for a moment, when their head had been near the ball, they could’ve sworn that it was the very sun itself.

The moment the ball passed, they changed their trajectory and landed on the ground. As they stood up, their eyes widened as a thousand specks of fire illuminated the very world as a volley of fireballs rushed towards them.

They had no route of escape, no way to dodge this attack that would consume them in a second.

Or at least they seemed not to.

Fire and ice, opposites, rushed from their being as the street of San Francisco was bathed into a sea of white as the two attacks met.

The world hissed.

Fire and ice met fire, normally it should’ve been an easy victory, fire and ice should’ve easily consumed the opposing fire.

But this was not normal, for normally, humans couldn’t command the very elements, normally they wouldn’t have existed.

The fire consumed the opposing elements and destroyed them. There were no remnants of the elements left. It was as if they had never existed as if they hadn’t ever been created.

They had expected the fire to be twisted, but not to such a degree. Still, a battle was no time to ponder on mistakes. So they did what they were supposed to be doing,

They called upon the contradictory elements once again and pushed, the whole of San Francisco bathed in fire and ice.

Drip

A bead of sweat fell from their face as they noticed the sudden increase in temperature around them. Another bead of sweat trailed from their face but this time, the air around them hissed as the bead of sweat was vaporised before it could even reach the ground.

A sudden bellowing of laughter ceased their observation as they looked at the fire-wielder; perhaps he had finally gone insane?; “This is getting good, really good. Continue like this kid and I may just ask the bossman to get you into your forces once he’s done doing whatever he wants to.”

“No reply, seriously? You were more interesting before. But no matter, you get 3 stars on your offence, let’s see what your defence looks like.”

The man stomped,

Hiss

And the very ground beneath them turned into scalding hot lava.

Even though they leapt onto the top of a building, charred but not on fire because of the ice, they knew that the only thing that saved them was the time it took for the ground into lava.

Shit. That seemed to be an apt response to the unfolding events. They were almost completely out of juice, and even though it was they who were commanding it right now, he was still the owner of this body. They did not have limits, the body did.

Desperate as they were, they had one more attack left. It was not their most powerful, fastest, or most destructive. But it was powerful, fast and destructive, a jack of all trades, master of none.

As another torrent of flames, followed by a flame whipped past them, once again avoided by a hair’s breadth, they pushed a torrent of ice and fire to a spot on the ground and as expected, a section of the lava cooled off, allowing him to land on the spot.

As the attack was, it required some time for them to charge the attack. So, they needed a distraction. And well, what better to distract the enemy than a smokescreen?

So, they pushed the powers of the elements, fire met ice and smoke enveloped the street of San Francisco, together and prepared for their attack.

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His assailant, whose vision was clouded by the smoke launched random bursts of fire in arbitrary directions. Whether by luck or fate, they did not know, they were not hit by even one of them.

They pushed every last bit of their energy, pushed and pulled apart forces, and formed a ball of vacuum. Their attack was not a ball of vacuum but rather, a ball surrounded by opposite vectors.

Calling them opposites might be a stretch, seeing as they acted on the body at different time intervals, the time intervals being so small that they were almost non-existent. They created a resultant vector that decreased the durability with every passing moment. This resulted in the body being destroyed after being hit by infinite opposite vectors each fraction of a second.

These opposite vectors crushed everything in their path, even atoms were not left by the destruction, hence creating a vacuum. It was an unstoppable attack, the fire-wielder stood no chance.

But, they fell to their knees as they panted, it took everything out of them to produce this. Manipulating infinite vectors was a difficult task.

Fwoosh

A whip of fire rushed by their face, it seemed that the fire-wielder had regained his ability to see them.

And as their attack rushed towards him, he realised it did not matter.

There was no time to move out of the way, no way to escape from the ball of destruction. It would kill him, they knew.

Bang

A shockwave erupted rustling their hair as the ball of destruction met its target and Alex’s assailant, his end.

Or not.

Fire, now blue, signifying the increase in heat, surged out of its wielder as the ball of destruction, ironically enough, lay destroyed by the fire.

They could not believe their eyes, to stop such an attack was-

“Impossible no?” The fire-wielder grinned maniacally as his face came into view. Even though he had stopped the attack, he was not left unharmed. Half of his face was completely destroyed. Utterly destroyed. There was not a remnant of it left. Everything, from his left eye to his jaw was now made merely flames. They licked at his skin, replacing the void that was his face.

He scoffed, “I admit you had me scared for a moment kid. It almost killed me. It even did kill me, destroyed half my brain, but this body’s made of flames ne? And now, you lay defeated, being unable to do anything to stop me,” flames once again surged from him and formed into the shape of a whip as they stood unable to do anything but watch as their end approached them.

However-

Boom

-before it could reach them, a resounding explosion rang out, giving them the cover of smoke and essentially saving them.

Before they could do anything to retaliate, they realised their folly. They had exhausted the reserves of energy this body had. They could longer maintain this state of completion.

They became lesser.

Complete became incomplete.

Inside and outside separated.

They became he.

Alex’s eyes lost their haze.

And he flopped onto the ground like a lump of meat.

What in the actual fuck was that? It was like watching a hyper-realistic movie in 3d, except the screen was his eyes, and the movie was real and he felt the pain too. And some of the beginning was missing. And it didn’t make any sense. And he felt like the one time he tried drinking. Hey! He was a curious teenager.

Questions later, other.

Okay, wait. What. Why was there a voice inside him? Maybe he was going insane after all. Yeah. This was all some crazy hallucination. No need to worry about the voice in his head calling him other. Or about some hazy memories.

You have not gone insane, other. I will answer your questions later. Right you need to-

Survive.

Inside and outside merged to form a single coherent thought as reality crashed down on Alex. He was in dangerous territory. The crazy fire chicken was trying to kill him, no wait, he was trying to kidnap him. Didn’t make matters easier.

But he had been laying down, his face plummeted to the ground. Helpless.

Why the hell hadn’t his assailant made his move? Why wasn’t he-

Clang

He barely managed to lift up his head to look at where the sound had come from, blearily opening his eyes, he looked at the fire chicken and another guy locked in a stalemate, the other guy; wearing some kind of black dress, probably some cargo pants and a t-shirt, he couldn’t say from here really; was wielding a longsword against some sorta gauntlet on the hand of the fire chicken.

But why was there a guy wielding a longsword here?

Questions later, other.

Okay, got it. No questions right now.

That answered the question of why that fire dude who wanted to kidnap him wasn’t abusing his state of exhaustion.

Eh. He couldn’t really run away right now. Might as just watch the fight. But like couldn’t those guys just separate now? This looked like a bad gay cosplay porno.

Oh and here we go. He just needed some popcorn right now.

The two fighters disengaged from the stalemate. And then-

Holy shit.

-there was no buildup, no settling into stances. They jumped back in an instant and in the next, they were literally almost blurs.

The fire chicken, probably clinically insane, seeing the mad half smile on his face and whatnot, was definitely a sight to see. He commanded those cursed flames like they were the extension of his limbs. He was a behemoth of power, his technique was crude, but it was beautiful, and it worked splendidly for him. On the other hand, his opponent was the complete opposite, his sword technique was graceful, flawless, and beautiful. And the sword, it was something else. Something divine. No matter how good the swordsman was, a sword held no chance against the cursed flames. And yet, surrounded by a golden hue, it did just that and more.

It was like watching a forbidden dance, which he should’ve never witnessed.

The dance of-

Death.

Yeah, what the voice inside his head said.

The combatants were dangerous, insanely so. They were like some superhumans, the fire chick could control fire for hell’s sake.

He gulped.

And he, or whatever had become of him had been able to fight that guy for a while.

Not merely you, other. You are lesser, we fought the wielder of the cursed flames.

Lesser? Other? We? Ugh. So many questions. And he wouldn’t even get the answer to them right now, would he now?

Yes.

Way to ruin a guy’s mood.

Bang

Oh shit, the fight. It seemed like the fire guy had blown up a gas tank. Huh. ohmyfuckinggoditsagastankwearedoomed.

He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the explosion.

Boom

The shockwave of the explosion was so great that it felt like he had been hit by a storm. And yet- the explosion should’ve caused much more damage.

He slowly opened his eyes, still in disbelief that by some luck he was still alive.

But, as he looked at the sizzling, charred skin of the face of the swordsman, the horrifying realisation of what had truly transpired began to set in.

The swordsman had taken the whole blow of the explosion, the result of it being absolutely sickening. His face wasn’t merely burned, parts of his skin were melting. Drops of which were falling on the utterly destroyed road. He had saved Alex.

But why? Why did he take the hit for him? Why did he save him? Why was another person hurt because of him? Wasn’t it enough? The death? The destruction. Everyone living near him had been killed. Because of him. Why did the swordsman have to suffer too? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Calm down, other.

Calm down? Why the fuck would he calm down? He killed everyone here. He was the reason for this massacre and he didn’t even know why. The fire, the death, the voice, his parents. It was too much. He just wanted to go home.

Boom

Another explosion. Just great. And this one wasn’t even from the fight, it was from the leftover fire that the chicken had thrown at the homes surrounding him.

It wasn’t a big explosion, just something caused by the residue of a widespread attack. But, by some miracle, it managed to distract his assailant for a moment.

A tiny moment which Alex himself could’ve never capitalised on. But, for the swordsman, it was more than enough. The mysterious sword gleamed as he fired an extremely quick attack at the fire-wielder, though lacking in power, it managed to send him flying. It bought the swordsman time.

Time which he used to rush at Alex-

But- but he just saved me. He-he wouldn’t kill him, right?

-and kneel in front of him.

“I am sorry Alex, this is all my fault. If I had arrived sooner, I could’ve prevented this disaster.”

He- what? He had saved him. Why was he apologising? “But you saved me.”

Up close, the details of his face were decipherable, his face tanned, probably because of fighting in adverse conditions, his hair, a shade of black that seemed to absorb all light, and his eyes, blue like the vast ocean, seemed to carry an indescribable depth in them when he spoke, “Not truly so Alex. Not truly so. I only saved you physically”

Alex knew a lost cause when he saw one, and the guy in front of him wasn’t going to accept praises anytime soon, so he switched up to question him, “But why are you here? Who are you?”

“I am an enforcer Alex, like a fed but one that deals with incidents of this nature.”

“Of this nature?”

“Oh yes, anything related to con-,” Before he could complete the sentence, he hissed as if in pain, “I apologise again Alex, I am bound by my oath from answering this question.”

“But still, whatever this is, it is caused by me. You are not at fault”

The man chuckled as if he gathered some amusement from the very fact that Alex thought he wasn’t at fault, “Your thoughts on the matter might be correct, and yet this is the failure of my duty. To uphold justice is my purpose. And I have failed, quite badly I might add, at it.”

“Bu-”

“Please keep your thoughts to yourself for now Alex. We don’t have the luxury of time here,” The man muttered as he removed a badge attached to his breast pocket.

The one that gleamed under the harsh light of the fire as it uttered a single word- Enforcer.

He held out his badge and his longsword, “The criminal will be returning any moment now Alex. I want you to take this and my sword. It isn’t enough to repent for the tragedy but well it will keep you safe. This sword of justice, Themis, will guide you, Alex”

He was joking, right? There’s no way he was crazy enough to give up his sword, Themis, he stored in his mind, it was his primary weapon, “But why? Why give it to me? You will die without it.”

“I have many tricks up my sleeve Alex. You don’t need to worry.”

Before Alex could reply, a pillar of fire rose from somewhere nearby. It made the atmosphere hot, suffocating.

“We don’t have time Alex. RUN.”

He pushed Alex away from him and towards the part of San Francisco that wasn’t destroyed by the fire, “But who are you? Why do you address me so familiarly?”

“Me? Well you can call me Anthony. The other question will be answered in due time.”

“In due time? What do you mean by that?” Alex shouted as he ran away. Away from his saviour. Away from his home. Away from the event that shall haunt him forever.

He received no reply.

Anthony knew the consequences of giving up the sword. He really did. However, a smile graced his lips, giving him the appearance of a content angel, a beautifully scarred one, he was the embodiment of justice, wasn’t he now?

The kid would not survive the battle. He had ensured his survival for the time being. Now, his smile twisted a little at the edges, a mad grin appearing on his face, shattering the appearance of a holy angel, it was time for him to uphold his duty.

The world coated itself with the hue of gold, the same as his sword, as the cursed flames approached him.

And justice was served.