I stalked into the bar with power thrumming behind me. I was not in a good mood. The greeter made an attempt at a smile but when I heard the beginning of an introduction so over-used, artificial, and manufactured to be as least offensive that it was just regurgitated franchise plastic, my rage went up another notch that I didn't know existed. She squeaked and tried to hide behind the oak podium, her brown hair swishing so fast that it was a blur. Time for a lecture from your kooky, crazy, homicidal uncle, kids. 

The reason why sorcerers used words to work magic was not because some obscure rule of Arcana but because it was safer. You see when you're working with magic, you're not just waving your hands around while saying "Hocus Pocus," and hoping that the displacement of air will do something mystical and cool. You're using the words as a focus to channel magic through. Words are a powerful device that can bend the world into a balloon animal. When speaking an incantation, you're forcing the primal forces of Creation into a new form and what the incantation means to you will give it its purpose. And the more powerful the association the word has for you, the more powerful the effect.

A common question that I've got asked was "Then why don't people just say "Die"and have people drop dead? It's easy to remember and has of a lot of power behind it," The reason is that when you're trying to cast a fireball, you're telling the particles in the air to vibrate rapidly and to move towards a target. When you're using death magic, you're telling the cells in his body to experience instant death, be it from crenation-lack of water in the cell-or cytolyis-an excess of water-or something entirely different. If you simply just say "Fire"instead of "Ignis" the entire room might catch on fire since you understand the English language too well. You gave it too much power and you gave it a wider area of effect since it's connected to too many other words you have said or know. 

The word "Fire" is too closely associated in your mind to the image of a burning house, to the word "Destruction", to "Fear" and "Panic". The word "Ignis" is to most people just another cool word in Latin that brings to mind a grey-bearded wizard shooting a fireball and so that's what will happen. A fireball will appear dramatically and go towards the target. Simple. But in a really cool way that will get you all the ladies, of course. 

Your lack of understanding of the syntax, grammar, conjugation of the language protects you. Your preconceived notions of how Rome was like gave it power. Your idea of how a Level Three Spell in D&D should work lets it be less loud than a flame longer than a grown man appearing out of nowhere should sound. It doesn't make the area surrounding the fireball colder like how The Law Of Conservation Of Energy says it should since energy cannot be created or destroyed since you never thought about how magic violates the principles of physics. The rapid explosion of the fireball doesn't create an enormous displacement of air due to pressure that sweeps you off your feet since you never thought about it. Flames only form into a ball naturally when under a vacuum or in extreme low-gravity and yet you're able to do it anyways because you've always associated magical fires to balls. Natural balls of flame are actually quite cold when compared to the normal fires since fireballs consumed so little fuel but since you believe fireballs were epic feats of magic that scorches concrete, they will.

But back to the original question. The reason why we don't simply just tell things to off themselves is that that's what will happen to them. And to the air around them. And to the building around you. And to the magic around you. And to you. You understand the word so well that you've actually managed to apply it to everything around you and the only reason that the whole world didn't die from entropy is that while the magic does most of the heavy lifting, you still provide the foundation. The universe is simply too big to be wiped out by one person. But Gods however...they could achieve a lot. A frighteningly large amount of a lot, in fact. Does the line "Let There Be Light," ring a bell?

So to sum up, you'll end up with two dead bodies, an unbreathable atmosphere that you can't cast magic in for several hundred yards around, and a large pile of material so dead that not even cockroaches would go near it. At least for a while until the magic dissipates and things go back to normal. 

Don't even get me started on what would happen once God's Word runs out of juice. Hell, the only reason this universe has been running this long is most likely because of gullible idiots that you're probably one of. But the sheer amount of alternate Creation stories we have running around plays Merry Hell with the fabric of reality, especially during the Holy Days. All the variant ideas of what a certain day represents gives the universe the worst case of period cramps anyone has ever seen. Ugh, don't even get me started on Easter. Sure makes dinner with the in-laws I don't have a lot more entertaining however.

There's a lot more to how magic works than I can explain right now considering how incredibly mad I am right now and I don't want to tell you the wrong thing and have you turning into a giant peach. Magic is incredibly complicated and you should never use any language you know well to work it unless you want to die, the people around you to die, and possibly get a smiling from an annoyed god. Which is why I threw all caution to the wind and did it anyways.

I was at that point where words couldn't describe the amount of anger I was experiencing; the mix between hurt, a confused feeling of betrayal, and a need to break something usually gets you there pretty quickly. I outstretched my right arm, slowly raised my index finger, and hissed out "Break,".

A whirling sea-green drill of energy lashed out and eagerly launched itself towards the laughably fragile podium. It latched onto the polished wood and limbs sprung out of my spell. It's hands were a thing of all cruel edges and hungry maws. The claws ripped out great chunks out of it and it's false-mouths ate it up like a Sarlac Pit. Splinters the size of my head flew off and embedded themselves into the ceiling, the floor, everywhere that wasn't her. A few managed to fly off towards Ilianna but I calmly stepped forward to take the blow for her since I didn't think she would live long enough to get over her paralysis. "Oh My God!" She hoarsely shrieked out a few seconds after she realized what I have done. She made a few stuttering motions towards my chest as if she would pluck out the pieces of wood that burrowed so far into my chest that only a a few millimeters were visible on the surface. "No worries," I said calmly as I smoothly pulled out the splinters without indication that they had in any way hurt me or that they were difficult to extract. I tossed them out onto the floor, with nothing resembling blood on them except for a few splotches of watery black. "It's like there's anything inside of me for them to wound,"

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She gazed at me in horror and ran to the nearest trash bin "I think I'm going to be sick," She was correct and promptly let loose the contents of her breakfast in great, heaving retches. Normally, I would be concerned but now that I was on a mission to cleanse the filth from my Father's kingdoms, the petty problems of the sinners gave me little pause.

But perhaps the casual destruction of His people wasn't the best possible course of action.

I turned back to see what remain of the girl, and I was surprised to find out that she was yet still alive. The mousy little girl that hid behind the broken pieces of the podium stared at the spellbeast mesmerized, ignoring the danger as she gazed upon the fabric of the universe given new form. Her fascination quickly flickered to eyes-wide fear as the spellbeast stopped in its feast for a moment and somehow managed to stare her in the eye despite it having none of its own. It's maws on its hands grew wider and let out a rippling shriek of gluttony that unnerved even me. 

A thin piece of worry flashed through me and I managed to wonder if I had somehow miscalculated my control over the thing. 

"Enough," I decreed but the thing barely gave an indication that it heard me beside a moment of hesitation so small that it would require a scientist to detect it. "Enough," I said again as if it somehow didn't quite hear me the first time. This time the thing didn't even the common decency to pause at the words of the it's master. The thing crept closer and closer to the girl. I drew up my awe-inspiring power into my core and let in a deep breath. I could feel the pressure building up inside of me like a boiler about to explode. The creature leapt at the girl who had turned her back and tried to run away, tears cascading down her face like an avalanche. The words to banish the creature were on the tip of my tongue but before I could say them, the thing imploded into itself.

I blinked my eyes in confusion and wondered what great, powerful being destroyed it. The great, powerful being was vomiting a few seconds ago and named Ilianna. Her very impressive chest was heaving as the strain of what she did hit her; sweat came pouring down her forehead, her lovely, apricot-hued tongue fell out of her mouth as she tried to take in as much oxygen as she could, and she looked very pissed at me. 

She stomped her way towards with bloody murder on her mind as I frantically walked backwards until I hit a wall. "I-I-I-I thought you didn't have any magic," God Eric, could you sound any less of a wizard of monumental power and any more of a teenager meeting his girlfriend's dad for the first time.

"Well, looks can be deceiving you sonuvabitch," Is it just me or did her eyes get a bit darker?! I raised up my arms to shield my face as I said in a plea for my life "I was going to save her. I swear! I was!" I added when I saw that she didn't believe a word I said and her face didn't look any less unforgiving, if anything, she looked more mad. She raised her hands slowly to my face. I flinched. When she saw that I was scared of her, her gaze softened and her hands cupped my face between them to pull my face even closer to her than I already was.

"How old are you," She asked in a kind, but firm, motherly tone. I was bewildered by this question, I expected a reprimand or some shouted insult. Not a trivial question.

I took in a full breath and said "This body was imagined to be of a man in his mid-thirties-," I broke off as I realized that this wasn't the answer she wanted.

"Not how old your father imagined you to be, I want to know how much of life you had experienced. How many girls you had kissed. How many parties you had gone too. What makes you you,"

This brought inexplicable shame to my face and I blushed wildly as I said "I have personally experienced fourteen years of life and twenty-seven years of life was imagined for me by my Father,"

"So you're just a kid,"

I turned my head away from her and looked at he ground, saying nothing. 

"A kid that had his dad stolen away from him. Who had no friends other than his siblings. Who had to kill them when they went insane. A kid that never got a chance to be young,"

I yanked my head out of her grip and walked towards the doors. "You don't know anything about me. So stop acting like you do. Let's just get the job done," 

I didn't turn around but I could feel her staring at my back, knowing that I knew everything she had said and more was true. 

By the time I had opened the doors, I managed to reclaim some of my bravado-not all of it, since some of it would always stay with Ilianna now-and shouted out at the oddly empty bar filled with dusty chairs and tables, a bar that looked like it had never seen a drink put on it, and a female bartender with bright pink-and-blue highlights in her hair "Who's the owner of this rat-filled dung-hole!" 

The bartender who had her arms positioned in a weird way and hid her hands behind the counter replied "Me and that was my niece, you ugly piece of work," She swiftly drew out a sawed-off out and aimed it at me. "And this is my little girl," She pulled the trigger and a plume of smoke erupted. I saw the pellets racing towards me in slow-motion, not even trying to dodge them. 

That hurt more than I had expected. A lot more. I would've been coughing up blood if I had any, but I didn't so I just settled for falling backwards. I stared blankly down at my chest and said "What," I think I heard Ilianna rushing towards me and telling me to hang on but I saw a light that was quite inviting and warm so I thought that maybe I'll go check that out first. 

My vision faded to black as I saw Ilianna pull out what looked like a first-aid kit out of somewhere. I managed to eke out a sentence with a dopey smile "Don't worry, I'll be back before my bedtime Darling,"