God of Nothing

"Hyaaat!" Aleph shouted, as he rushed the Herald of Oblivion. It swiped at him with many of its limbs, intercepting him before he got close enough to attack.

"Tsk!" He clicked his tongue in annoyance, as he parried a reptilian tail. He circled around the beast, limbs continuously crashing where he just was. He had to keep moving. Stop and he'll be crushed.

He lunged forward once again once he was directly behind his foe. He had found his target: the centipede tail, now masked as one of the creature's many tentacles. pushed forth with his one remaining force glove, summoning its abilities once again. The menacing blue energy returned as its master made a cutting motion with a knife hand. A couple more inches, and he would have detached it cleanly from the herald's body.

Clang!

His entire arm was blown backwards as he collided with something unexpected. He had struck something he couldn't see, but the force was delivered right back into him. He flew backwards once again, arm twisting itself painfully around his shoulder from whatever magic Oblivion used.

"Is that it?" the herald remarked. It turned its body towards Aleph as he dusted himself off, looking the tiniest bit irritated. "If you were stronger, you could have killed yourself attacking my barrier. But you get off with just a broken shoulder?" It shook its head disappointedly. "Did you really kill me? Why are you so weak?" 

Aleph pulled himself together as he watched Oblivion bemoan all these questions. He tried bringing his arm up, but a painful wince was all he could muster. Even worse, his gauntlet took the brunt of the counterattack, and was little more than paperweight. He unclasped it from his hand, and was left with the bracers originally separate from his original design.

"Disarming yourself? Are you sure that's wise?" The words were a taunt, but from this Oblivion's mouth, they sounded sympathetic.

At this moment, A bright light began to shine from Aleph's back. It brightened his surroundings, as if someone had turned on a massive lantern. Oblivion's eyes narrowed, but otherwise looked unaffected by the light. Still, Aleph welcomed the spell like the morning sun that it imitated.

Iona's awake. Good, that means that side has a chance. He thought.

"Huuuuuuu." He resetted his stance, modified to accommodate his now-useless arm.

Everthing's ready, so I better finish up here, too.

His bracers began to hum with power, glowing a soft but threatening blue. Oblivion, for all her disappointment, had shut up immediately. She raised up all her limbs, including the centipede, and prepared to attack. It was a testament to how threatened the herald felt that its seemingly chatty demeanor had given way to a more focused one. Aleph was annoyed by this; he would have preferred that Oblivion keep underestimating him.

He noticed a sheen on the creature now, no doubt coating itself with that clear shield that took his arm out of commission.

He'd been working towards this for hours now. No amount of cautiousness can save the herald at this point. 

They stood motionless for a while, each side honing themselves for attack or defense. Aleph's mana, little as it was, almost looked solid as it coated his arm. From a distance, it looked like he once again had his gauntlet. Oblivion, on the other hand, looked almost translucent. Whatever that strange magic was, he would need to pierce through it in order to advance.

At least, that's what the herald believed.

A loud crash in the distance signaled this final clash. The pair crossed the distance between them immediately, and in the next couple of moments, the deadly clash had commenced. Aleph was swarmed by a sea of mismatched limbs, of animals he had or had not known. He ducked under A raking talon, parried a descending hoof, and sidestepped a scaly tail. He took care not to do any striking moves, pushing himself off of position if needed. He stayed in the thick of things, parrying each blow by a hair's width, every unpredictable attack avoided by sheer instincts. Oblivion kept attacking, certain of its victory, until it abruptly backed off. As it landed, its limbs spouted blood to all directions, coming from a dozen miniature cuts all over its body.

"Y-you… How?"

It was a pitiful sight. Green blood pooled all over Oblivion's body from the times it was in contact with Aleph's hand. If one looked closely, they'd have seen that the translucent barrier that covered her had opened up in places.

"Your magic is powerful, but it's all just mana in the end. I've severed your curse from someone's mind; did you think you were safe inside your little shell?"

"Ridiculous! Controlling someone else's magic requires enough resources comparable to casting the spell yourself! To achieve such a feat, you'd need to have ample amounts of my attribute, or–"

"Be God himself? I've had practice, yes. I've spent millenia molding mana into various things… Even then, I've needed to rely on this for most of what I achieved today." He tapped his visor, as if that explained everything.

Oblivion slowly backed off, trying to gain enough distance to recover.

"Running away? When I am finally answering your questions?"

A shadow shot out from under the herald, beelining towards its mouth. Several objects met it in response, piercing the shadow and pinning it back on the ground.

Skreeeeee!

The centipede tail struggled on the ground, skewered right in the forehead by Aleph's broken spearhead. It was pinned to the ground by the spear, exhibiting surprising strength for a broken, discarded weapon.

"No!" Oblivion wailed, trying to use its other limbs to pry it off, but each appendage crashed heavily into the ground before they could reach. Soft blue light shown down from the sky, a stark contrast to the bright yellow one at Aleph's back. It was Aleph's gravity well, casted using his gauntlets as catalysts.

"Did you not wonder why I've begun to answer your questions?" Aleph said, advancing once again. "It's because the end is near. And when your soul returns to your god, I want him to know exactly how I've bested him."

Aleph was right in front of the centipede tail now, addressing the head attached to it. Hand still aglow, he carressed its half formed features in mock pity, before gouging the spearhead even deeper into its eye.

"Kueeeeeeek!!"

"Oblivion. Your powers are fearsome indeed. If only you kept the memories from our previous fights, you would have known exactly where I left my tools and what they were capable of."

Aleph dug around its head, ignoring its screams as he tried to locate its mana heart. From their countless clashes, he had come to the conclusion that this centipede was the main body. It was the one constant in every form, and was protected pretty much the entire time they fought. He'd tried in vain, trying to attack it any chance he got, but the body attached to it had literally used itself as a shield at times.

"Ah. Here it is."

Oblivion's large body had gone limp, already dead from the damage the main body received. Still, if the centipede could manage to enter it, even memories of its death could be reversed. But alas, Aleph's preparations prevented it from happening.

He pulled out a large, orange colored gem as big as his head. A herald's mana heart… it was near empty, but once it recovered, he estimated it to have around a dragon's output.

Once he secured the heart, he laid his glowing hand right on the dead centipede. He roused the mana on his bracers one last time, to put an end to his foe once and for all. He was about to , when he paused, looking back at Kyrios. He sensed a surge in power so great it frightened him. Rayse? He hurried up, completing the spell in his mind to rush to his disciple's side as soon as possible.

"Implosion."

Oblivion tore itself from underneath, as forces unseen squeezed it from all sides. Aleph was reasonably sure that his conjectures were correct, but it still paid to be sure. He picked up the fist sized piece of flesh that used to be Oblivion, and threw it up in the air. Once there, implosion continued, grinding up the herald into a speck of dust. The force it took sent shockwaves all around the area, with billowing winds that sounded like someone's cries.

Aleph took a look at Kyrios, confirming that it was indeed still standing, and began to walk.

__________________________________

Rayse sat up straight, turning wildly in all directions. It was dark, but not the type of dark Deceit's shadows were capable of. Judging from his surroundings, he was on a bed somewhere in town.He looked down in his hand, as he noticed it was stuck in something, and saw a sleeping Lacey on top of it. 

He slowly sank back into bed as tension slowly melted away. He stared at his friend, relieved that she survived. He stroked her head with a little hesitation, as if touching her would break the illusion. Still, no matter how softly he thought his touch was, it caused her to stir.

"Mmmm… You're up?" She said sleepily.

"Yeah. Thanks for looking after me."

"Master picked you up on his way back, actually. He's outside helping treat the wounded. I'm pretty much drained of all my mana, so he swapped places with me while I recovered."

"Really? Then I should–" He made to stand, but Lacey put a hand on his chest.

"Stay in bed, Ray. Doctor's orders." She said wearily.

Rayse was surprised. Not at her insistence that he rest, but at how easily she pushed him down. I guess Berserk's side effects haven't worn off, he thought.

Si he lay there, waiting for sleep to take him once again. Except one thought kept worming its way back into his mind.

"Lace?"

"Yeah?" Lacey answered, head still burrowed into his hand.

"Who else died?"

Rayse felt her stiffen at that. Silence stretched out for a while after that, bringing back his nerves. He almost wanted to take the question back, to let this hard earned escape last a while longer. But he had to know. Of course, Lacey knew that too, so after working up to it, she told him the death toll.

Sonia and Luna he already knew. Polo took those deaths pretty hard. Lacey said he had been unconscious since hearing the news.

Then there was Eric. He was part of the corpses Deceit threw off the building. In fact, most of the ones up on the wall were annihilated. Apparently, that was where Deceit ran off to when they lost sight of her.

"...and Brandon?" Rayse asked before swallowing down his nerves. At that moment, the door swung open, revealing his friend, who was in the middle of saying something.

"Lace, I've set up more beds down below. Go lie down for a bit, I can take it from–" He cut himself off upon noticing Rayse looking at him, and he jumped into his arms.

"Dude! Thank God you're awake."

"Haha. You know me, I'm pretty tough." Rayse answered back, managing a weak smile of his own. Lacey sniffed to his side before hugging the two of them. Rayse found enough levity to chuckle after that.

"You're telling me. Sniff, I can't believe you're both alive after what that bitch did to you."

Brandon harrumphed, but kept on hugging his friends regardless. It was dark, but Rayse only just saw the scars all over his friend's body. They seemed older now, but they definitely weren't there before. It covered his elbows and arms, but he could see more damage hidden underneath the loose shirt he changed into.

"Bran, were you…?"

"Yeah." Brandon answered sheepishly, "Deceit crumpled me up with those shadows of hers. Threw me off the wall, too. I ran out of mana trying to heal myself."

Rayse nodded, tearing up himself. It doesn't matter now, but he imagined how angry he would have been if he recognized Brandon among the dead. That would have broken him for sure.

"I'm glad you're okay, Bran." He mumbled, trying not to break down again. They lost so much the past couple of days. He broke off after a while, fussing over Brandon's scars.

"Hey, I see spots that you didn't heal right, let me just– Agh!"

Rayse tried to summon his mana, but it brought him unimaginable pain. He spasmed, making his friends lay him down a bit forcefully.

"Hey, easy bro. You only just woke up. Take it easy." Brandon said placatingly. 

"I know it looks bad, but It's pretty much fully healed. I showed them to master before this, too, after all. You can look me over once you recover."

Rayse was still breathing hard from the surprising pain. He was shaken up by it. He felt something was off, but that pain was something he had never felt before.

"Hey, Ray, maybe we should go. You should still be resting, after all." Lacey got up, avoiding his gaze. "Bran, you said something about a bed?"

"Hmmm? Yeah, it's down this way… Talk to you later, man." Brandon was similarly evasive, making a quick getaway before he could ask what that was all about. 

"You probably won't be a mage after this…"

Lost's words came back to him then, completely erasing any desire to rest.