Facing a God

When fighting against a god, what I've learned from my past life is that you cannot treat them like a normal player. They would all manifest themselves in a different way when using Soul Burn on a player, but each of them had the same weakness. Every god who descended and took over a player's body disregarded the safety of the player's body.

The gods were arrogant and were used to being immune to harm—at least immune to harm from mortals like us. I knew the God of Slaughter would be just the same, even though he wasn't among the gods I've seen use Soul Burn in the past.

Just as I predicted Levon's actions, I was not surprised to see that the God of Slaughter did not plan to dodge my attack. Once I got within range, I focused a massive amount of advanced sword energy into my sword and made a horizontal cut.

I cut into Levon's stomach, leaving a deep, open wound that caused the God of Slaughter to look at me with disgust. "You dare harm me?"

The black spear appeared in his hand, and he thrust it forward at me. Using my telekinesis, I pulled myself to the right, narrowly dodging the thrust. The God of Slaughter immediately swiped the spear to the right. The blow threw me into the forest, causing me to crash into several trees before the momentum slowed and I rolled to a stop.

I focused as much sword energy around me as I could to protect myself from the damage, but the consumption was too inefficient for defense, and the notifications I had been dreading finally appeared.

Notification

Danger! The user's body is in a critical state.

Notification

User energy is at critically low levels.

Notification

Danger! The user is at risk of energy exhaustion.

"Shit!" I stood up and assessed my condition. My left arm was broken, and I had three broken ribs. The skin on my chest where the side of the God of Slaughter's spear had struck me was also burning with pain.

Within a second, the God of Slaughter appeared in front of me, spear in hand. Blood was pouring out of his stomach, as he had done nothing to tend to Levon's body.

"Ronan Wilde, have you made your decision? You've made me want you more now that you've damaged this vessel so much. This is your last chance." He pointed his spear at my neck and lifted my chin with it. I felt a painful burning sensation from where the spear was pressing against my chin as I looked up at the God of Slaughter.

I did not want to be his plaything. I knew exactly what this monster would do to those he sponsored. I did not want to be chained down, even though accepting his offer would grant me more power than I'd ever need to clear the first season.

But in the end, would it not be worth it as long as humans won? Would it be worth it to give my freedom up for the sake of humanity? Maybe it would.

"Okay, God of Slaughter. You have a deal, but under one condition."

He smiled and cocked his head to the side. "I do not do conditions, but I'll hear you out because you're an interesting player."

I stood up. "The condition is that you go fuck yourself."

I emptied out all my energy into my sword, all that remained. I knew it would kill me, but I did not care. This fucker was going to go down with me, and that would be a welcome sacrifice.

I made a vertical cut down towards the God of Slaughter's head, and to my surprise, I watched as he panicked and threw his spear up to block the attack. I actually succeeded in forcing him to block. It was probably due to the fact that he was aware of Levon's condition and that he would lose his host.

I felt the familiar sensation of my heart growing warm. I knew that my death was going to be absolute this time, and it was very surreal. I had half a day before my Final Stand would be off cooldown, so there was no way to stop the side effects of the burning heart circulation from taking place.

My heart began to convulse, and I experienced, for the second time, the effects of energy exhaustion.

I felt my energy dissipate, and all that remained was the concentrated life energy in my heart. All of the raw, life energy that was in my body. I focused all of it on my sword, knowing that I did not have any other option.

My sword energy changed from its normal dark red energy into a heavy and powerful black energy. I felt my sword energy rise to the height of master-tier, and in my final moment, I cut through the God of Slaughter's black spear and split Levon's head in two.

"You're pathetic!" I knew I'd be dead, but at least I could scar his pride.

My heart burst as I fell to the ground. I could not feel anything, as all the life was fading from my body. I felt time slow, and I thought of all that I had accomplished in just the first day of the first season. There was so much to do, but this was really my limit.

I wondered if Punisher could defeat the remaining Alorae that were after him. I thought about who would be the next to sit on the leaderboards for first place. I thought about the God of Scales and what really happened to bring me back to the beginning of the five seasons.

And then my last thought was, oddly, of Ashna. I must have been losing my mind as I was dying, because it looked as if she was running towards me. The way she ran was hypnotizing. She looked determined, beautiful, and unstoppable as my vision faded.

Everything went black, and all I heard was the sound of a notification going off.