I only have enough time to get in the right headspace and drink some water before I am called back into the arena for my next fight. The finals match. I assume my opponent is the princess considering how she is actually quite powerful. Unfortunately for her, I think with all my gear and with a proper mindset for victory I will quite easily handle her. Or I might be getting overconfident because my last opponents stood little chance.

I walk out into the arena to cheers and whistles per usual. I guess these fights are entertaining, makes sense the crowd would be hyped. My opponent appears across from me out of their tunnel and the crowd does a 180. Instantly they start booing and jeering at the man who steps out. That's odd it's not the princess, this dude must've beaten her, and most likely this is why he is being booed.

He is definitely not the type I would think is powerful. He is rather average height, around five foot eight, I can't make a good guess on his weight though due to his odd proportions. He is what I would call "skinny-fat". What this means is he had a large gut and man-boobs with the start of a second chin, but his arms and legs are rail thin. Somehow both overweight and gaunt looking at the same time. He needs to shave with a very patchy beard coming in. Aside from that he is wearing what I would describe as a cape with some over-the-top nice nobility clothes. With dull eyes and dark brown hair, my first impression is that this guy is a loser at worst and autistic at best.

Despite this I see no weapons, this leads me to the assumption he is a magic user of some kind, but the coloration of his clothes gives me no hint, unlike everyone else here.

I bow at the waist as required by customs here but he doesn't. This leads to the crowd giving another round of booing. He smirks confidently and raises his hands like Sparticus from the movie Gladiator. I sigh preparing myself for a headache because this guy is probably a talker.

Once I return to standing he speaks to me saying,

"Get used to bowing to me. It will serve you well in the future."

I shake my head and don't even reply. I won't give him that satisfaction. I draw my weapons and begin circling in. He hasn't made any moves and hasn't started any spells that I can tell. I simply walk sideways slowly moving closer. He doesn't move, he just turns his head to watch me. Once I am closer and easier to talk to he speaks again,

"You don't know how to treat the ladies around you. You don't deserve them!"

I furrow my brow in confusion and I now reply by asking,

"What the fuck are you talking about? "

He laughs as if I just said a joke. He then continues,

"Those sisters of yours who aren't your real sisters! The princess! They clearly aren't interested in you! It's purely due to social pressures they put up with you. I'm going to kick your ass and finally, I'll get my just dues."

I sigh while shaking my head and I stop circling in on him about four yards away from him. I stand face to face with him and say tiredly,

"Go ahead take 'em. I really don't like any of em. I don't know what kind of person you think I am but I honestly couldn't give less of a shit about any of them... except maybe Violet. She's cool, but it's in a way where we are bros."

This appears to confuse him. He then asks me,

"What? Aren't you the overconfident son of a high noble who only cares about his social class?"

I shake my head a few times, and my mind starts working. The way he is talking and the way he's acting is super strange, but I really want this to end.

I begin my attack.

He at first reacts lazily, but when I apparently move faster than expected he shouts,

"Sword of Light!"

Suddenly a blade of brilliant white light appears in his right hand and he just barely manages to block my slash. She smirks confidently at his block until I step forward and put my lead leg behind both of his legs before pushing forward. This knocks him to his ass. He swears loudly before scrambling to his feet. I stay standing and keep my eyes locked on him. I have never heard of that spell, and I researched every school of magic during my study sessions. What bothers me is that my runes seemingly didn't enact the return force as I had planned.

He scoffs at me clearly a little pissed I tripped him but he says,

"Divine aura...

Armor of light..."

He begins glowing with a bright white light. Honestly, it's a little hard to look at. He then starts monologuing to my great dissatisfaction,

"You're so screwed now mother fucker. I was blessed by the goddess Serena herself! My magic was directly handed to me because I am the destined hero of this world. You are just another inconsequential stone in my path ahead.

I will someday rule this land as promised by the goddess and you'll be nothing! This is my time to shine! This is what I finally deserve!"

He seems a little frustrated about something so I hit him with this,

"Who...

...Asked?"

I think I struck a nerve because he rushes me. I guess divine aura is a body modification spell of some manner because now is moving incredibly fast. I just barely dodge or parry each of his strikes, his eyes are glowing with a faint white glow as well. Every time I try to counter he unnaturally is able to block me and unleash his own attacks. That sword of light of his easily slices through my armor, but it's not very deep so each hit I take either leaves me undamaged or with a small cut just on the surface. Thankfully runes don't lose their power if the object they are inscribed on is damaged, only if the rune itself is destroyed do they lose power.

This dance continues for about a minute. Me being completely unable to do anything to him, while he slowly cuts into me. The cushioning rune on the armor does wonders to keep me from feeling anything but the bite of the sword when it hits flesh. Eventually, I manage to drop my shoulder and push him away from me. We both stand a few meters apart breathing heavily. He gives me that disgusting confident smile and he starts explaining like a cartoon villain again,

"Now you see you have no chance. The goddess has granted me her sight. I can see your attacks way before they even happen! Just give in, maybe you'll walk away with your dignity."

I grit my teeth slowly growing frustrated at this slob. Not due to the damage I've taken, I walked into the arena okay with taking some hits. I'm mad about how unfair this bullshit is. I am also growing mad that I can't come up with a plan of attack on this dude. If he can read my moves, then how can I approach him? I guess I'll have to pull something out of my ass. I then rush in for another exchange of blades. He laughs and goes to parry my left-handed swing. When his sword of light connects with the sword breaker I catch it inside the hooked opening. This allows me to swing upward with my right hand for a slash, but the blade harmlessly bounces off the glowing aura. He laughs at this until I drop the sword and raise my right arm high above me and across my body. I twist my whole body into the close-fisted backhand into the side of his head.

There is a sound similar to glass shattering as I slam into the aura around him and his head violently is thrown to the side. His body follows his head and he falls to the ground in a heap. As he releases the sword of light it disappears and I drop onto him with a follow-up punch with my left hand. I hit that aura again but it appears unable to stop the transfer of blunt-force trauma. I start ground-pounding him with a quick succession of punches while I pin his arms down with my knees. I feel him struggle underneath me and try to lift me off of him with his magically enhanced strength but where my knees are placed it removes any leverage he has. Blood streams from his nose as I keep whaling on him until he shouts,

"Heavenly burst!"

There is a blinding flash of white light and my ears pop painfully as I feel myself soar through the air. I land heavily on my back. My armors rune greatly reduces the impact but I am still left on the ground groaning in pain. When my vision returns my ears are left ringing and my head his spinning. I slowly get to my feet as I come back to reality. I him now standing across from me with a new sword of light in his hands. He looks pissed. Blood streams down his face from his nostrils and onto his clothes. My ears come back into focus just as he starts monologuing again,

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"You sack of shit... I can't believe you would actually hit me! How is it that I can see your attacks coming but am unable to stop them? You are the first person since I was reborn in this world to ever harm me! I am the chosen hero! I will not take this anymore from some... some... piece of shit nobody who is meant for nothing but story progression!

When I am done with you I'm going to break all of your bones and sell you into slavery! I do not deserve this kind of treatment from the likes of you! I've suffered enough from those assholes back in the day!"

With that, I stop looking to win this fight. No... with that I want him dead. He's like me... probably. He's from another more mundane world and got reincarnated here... but he has the blessing of some goddess who is powerless to stop me from burning down one of her cathedrals. What a joke... why is it that he never had to work for his power? I took every step along the path to being strong. I worked hard on gaining every skill in this world, just as I did back on earth. So what's his deal? What suffering has he had that makes him so entitled to everything?

The part that bothers me the most is his threat. I do not doubt he would do such a thing as it's no consequence to someone so entitled. He doesn't know my history here, but I don't care. I will never be chained again. I then speak to him, in English,

"So... you deserve the world then because you had some bad times back in your old world?"

I watch as he recoils in horror, but before he can respond I continue,

"Let me guess. You were a shut-in no-life piece of shit back on earth, and because of this, you were bullied in school."

His back-step in fear tells me I guessed correctly, then I continue,

"Now let me guess some more... and this is the part that's really pissing me off, you never tried. You never once tried to fix your situation, you never decided to work out so you can defend yourself, you never learned how to fight, and you never tried opening up to people around you. You probably spent your whole useless past life sitting around doing nothing but playing video games and watching anime. Of course, you suffered on earth, because you never tried to be better.

Now you are here in another world blessed by a fucking goddess. It's a dream come true, you now have the power you never worked a minute for beyond seeing what you could do, for free, or maybe even that's untrue, maybe you were given a list of everything you can do, so you never even had to try and figure things out on your own. Now because of that you never grew as a person. You still are that entitled, lazy, and timid sack of shit on a power trip. You claim others aren't good enough, that everyone else is an asshole and you are the nicest, kindest, most intelligent person around, so now with this power you can get everything you ever desired.

I tell you this, you aren't. From your past alone I can tell you are delusional, selfish, meanspirited, and entitled. You never learned how to be kind because you never tried to make friends. You never learned to be selfless because you never had to share with anyone. You never learned humility because you were such an outcast already. You lack the discipline to wield the power you have now because you didn't lift a damn finger to get it.

You might've claimed you never had a shot at life, but here's the real answer, you never even attempted to have a life, probably because you feared the consequences of failure, and didn't wish to go through the bad in order to get what you desired. You can't say your past life was terrible when you completely failed to live it. It's a major part of being alive to go through some hardships, to suffer somewhat in order to reach a goal, which you would never understand, so you sat around, alone, just waiting to die."

He takes a few more steps back his eyes wide and full of fear and horror and then he shouts back to me speaking English as well,

"Well... that's easy for you to say, you have everything!"

I laugh loudly and then reply,

"Are you retarded or something too?

My whole past life was nothing but hard work. I was a skinny and lanky child. I got relentlessly bullied growing up. Instead of folding, I worked hard to become strong and trained in combat sports so no one would bully me again.

When I grew up and started a business without help after college I worked my ass off and became a millionaire.

When I came to this world, without magic, no special treatment, and no goddess to support me I had to grow and train to be a capable fighter. I had to work day and night to become proficient in my skills. I was a slave for a few years after my home was destroyed. I faced ten months of relentless torture, but I never gave in. I suffered so I grew. I don't fear the pain of failure, therefore I have all this great stuff. My body is hard because I suffered through lifting heavy things and going for runs. I am knowledgeable because I spent countless hours reading and working on crafts.

So yeah... here I am. Someone born without power making the best of his situation. Then there is you, the same sad and lonely shithead who died on earth, having the gall to claim they are entitled to jack shit."

I finish speaking and he stares at me a clearly fake expression of stubborn determination staring back at me. It pisses me off even more than I thought possible. My hands are shaking and my breath is calm and slow. My heart pounding like a drum of war. I feel adrenaline slowly begin flowing through my veins. I'm leaving everything in this arena with this motherfucker. He won't best me with his false power.

[Perspective change from Isa to 3rd person narration]

Blake stares back at the fellow reincarnated person. His stomach in his throat and his heart in his guts. He tries to put on a face of defiance toward the man. Blake thinks to himself,

"He's just like the rest of them back home. I deserve this! He can't convince me otherwise."

Blake can feel the tears pressing against the back of his eyes. This man, Isa Hasslerouge was right. Blake never did apply himself back on earth, but what does it matter shouldn't life be easy?

Blake empowers the eyes of the goddess as far as they will go. Isa's stats haven't changed. There are no powerups for this man.

The eyes of the goddess had granted Blake the ability to look at a stats screen for anyone he looked at and focused on. He had started off confident in his ability to win this fight, but Isa has proven himself a more than capable combatant. It doesn't make sense though. Isa has okay stats, mostly on the physical side of things, but zero abilities, zero magical affinity, and a complete lack of mana. The stats screen also doesn't bring up any notable feats. To Blake, this guy is absolutely a nobody.

What bothers blake the most is that his eyes of the goddess which normally grant him future sight had failed him against Isa. He can see only one action in the future rather than the multiple he normally can. This meant his counterattacks did little to no damage and he also took a completely unexpected hit which led to him being pummeled relentlessly.

Now Blake uses the final ability of the power the goddess Serena had given him. He peers into the true nature and the very soul of his opponent.

Flooding his eyes with power, he stares into Isa and instantly feels his knees try to give out.

Before him is not the fairly muscled fighter anymore. Before him is a true monster. The world around Blake seems dark as he stares at the thing in front of him.

A pillar of dark flames with a white figure standing inside of them. As Blake stares deeper into the void before him it begins to take on unnatural shapes, creating a figure of darkness. The geometry formed cannot be fathomed by the human mind, and Blake can feel the pressure building behind his eyes as his body tries to reject the very sight of the shapes forming from the perfect darkness.

Blake changes his focus to the bastion of light inside the darkness, the shape of his opponent made manifest. This is the first time anyone has shown up as white using his eyes, it doesn't mean they are pure, in fact, Blake hasn't figured out what the colors of one's soul mean, but this is new territory. Trying to stare deeper into the white to avoid looking at the darkness which slowly is beginning to engulf the entire room around him the white figure itself changes. It takes on similar impossible geometry slowly becoming a being that shouldn't exist in this world or any world.

Its body becomes massive, giant wings sprout from the back of the vision and two piercing yellow eyes form on the head area of the unnatural being. While Blake stares at this soul it stares right back at him. Even without any outlines, or any detail on the white figure he can tell it is smiling at him. Smiling in sick and sadistic joy. Blake trying to hang onto anything in reality whispers in fear and awe,

"What... What are you?"

Inside his head, a booming voice replies with laughter. It then speaks to him in a horrible voice, one that sounds of a chorus of hundreds speaking at the same time in all languages and all genders. It speaks a single line,

"I was once an angel..."

Quickly Blake stops staring through the eyes of the goddess and sees only a man standing in front of him once more. Isa stands across from him looking frustrated by intrigued by his fearful reactions. Blake steels himself assuming it was just a big trick, probably a false god of this world messing with him for going against his chosen hero.

"It would make sense since this is an Isekai..."

Blake thinks to himself. He gulps once and then pushes the future sight of his eyes to the max, to see the outcome of this fight to help quell his fear. He goes through the many different paths he can take but his fear only worsens. There are only two realities where he walks out of the arena on his own two feet, and very few where he even survives. What all of these outcomes require is his surrender, and they differ at what point he throws in the towel. The only one where he walks away without scars is if he drops to his knees now and gives in...

But... he has to make his goddess proud! He has to prove what Isa said is wrong about him. He isn't a failure. He isn't selfish. He's a hero and he must do what's right for this world, even if a potential arch-villain or demon lord is standing across from him. He has a choice right now, to prove Isa right, or to change himself for the better now...

[Back to Isa first person]

I prepare to rush forward seeing as my opponent is seemingly distracted with something, and it appears to be scaring the shit out of him. This is strange, but I must take advantage.

I take one step forward and he instantly drops to his knees with tears in his eyes. He shouts,

"I surrender! I don't want to die!"

I cock my head in confusion. I have no clue what just happened, but the match is over and I have won.

Quickly workers usher us out of the arena and I find myself back in the waiting room. I am told to await the awards ceremony, they just have to set it up. I am left alone to mull over what just happened, and I am pissed. I hate that he gave in like that. Why talk all that tough shit only to surrender while crying? What the hell is wrong with that fatass...

but more importantly... he's from the earth. That means there might be others who also reincarnated. This is a very interesting turn of events... I wonder if any others came to this world as "heroes"... I sure as hell wasn't given that memo.