Clone

Velios had no time to react to the attack as the slash was already within inches distance. Even after realising that the attack was most likely going to cause extreme amounts of damage, his face still wore the exact same emotionless expression as the attack connected, not only having cleanly sliced through Velios' body, but also cut out a giant part of the moon. Black flames completely and utterly consumed everything the slash had touched, and Velios expression went from an emotionless one to a lifeless one as his body began to bleed out on the floor. Velios' upper body, aswell as both of his arms had been cut cleanly through and the black flames were not extinguishable. They were preventing healing as Velios' blood freely poured out without constraint, instantly turning into gas as the blood was vaporized.

Even the creature was shocked by this. Although it had a happy smile, it was incomplete. It felt as if something from the fight was missing. Like it was too easy. The person he was fighting in this moment was not the same person as the one who had nuked an entire city and killed tens of thousands of dragons. This version of Velios didn't even fight back, didn't use any sort of advanced magic at all and was much weaker physically. The creature was far too unpleased by the results to think about other possibilities. It was basically stuck on the moon and no matter how they saw it, it would still take quite a while for it to get back onto earth. 

The creature looked back at the unmoving body of Velios, with eyes just as lifeless. The creature was irritated and wanted nothing more in this moment but a proper fight as it walked towards the corpse, analysing it. Although it was dissatisfied with how the actual fight turned out, its natural instincts kicked in as the air full of the scent of burnt blood quickly spread, the grin becoming even wider as it squatted down and leaned over, licking its lips as it prepared for yet another meal. Saliva dripped from its mouth, its breathing got heavier and its heartrate increased as the smell of fresh meat entered its nose, allowing its primal instincts to take over. 

As it grabbed onto one of Velios' arms and pulled it up towards its face, the arm suddenly began to dissolve as if it was melting. The arm looked like it was becoming a liquid as it passed through the gaps between the monsters fingers, ending up as a puddle on the ground. The creature, without realising it bit down onto where the arm should have been only to realize in that moment that not only the arm, but Velios' whole body was dissolving into some sort of unknown liquid. The creature's facial expressions changed from a multitude of emotions from confused to then sad before it became irritated. Velios' body had soon almost completely become a weird liquid substance until almost nothing of it remained. 

The monster looked in pure shock, all of its anger and irritation being thrown out of the window as it caught a glimpse of a person standing there, watching him in the corner of his eye. The creature's face instantly shifted to the person, only to realize that Velios was looking at him, completely unharmed with a look of disgust and anger in his face and eyes. The creature could barely have reacted with shock before a wide smile spread on its face. It had not yet understood to follow every single one of its primal instincts yet and therefore had no idea just what kind of person it was that actually stood infront of him. The creature smiled, already assuming that it had the upper hand. It payed close to no mind that Velios had basically died and was now suddenly there, having watched it eat his own dead body.

"Why are you doing this?" Velios spoke in a monotone voice like he often did, but something was innately different about it somehow. It was as if all of the emotions he was currently feeling was just waiting to be released, hiding somewhere deep in himself. Velios understood better than most why individuals do the kind of stuff the creature is doing right now and the answer has always been obvious for him. But he didn't ask the question for that reason. It was not the answer to the question he was after, but something deeper. Something completely different.

"Why, you ask?" The creature spoke in a mocking tone as it had already placed itself on a higher pedestal than Velios. "Who needs a reason to kill someone? Because I don't! What's wrong with killing everyone you see? Stripping them off their clothes, enjoying their bare flesh, eating them, and you're still asking why I do it?! It's because I love doing it!" The creature spoke as if the answer was obvious, and for someone like Velios, he hadn't expected anything different. Velios knew better than anyone that truly evil people never need a reason to be evil because they themselves are the reason as to why they're evil. "I'll give you an opportunity to speak, lowly human. What was that trick you used earlier? I mean, how are you still alive? Because I'm sure that I cut you cleanly in half." 

Velios stared at the creature in pure disgust and anger, yet his face remained almost completely unmoving. Velios was just standing there and looking at the creature as if he was judging it. Velios didn't see why he wouldn't answer it, since it wouldn't change the end result of their fight. "It's a clone made fully out of mana. I've almost perfectly mimicked how my own body looks like on both inside and outside and infused it with information on how to fight. Basically, you've been fighting a clone not even a fraction close to my strength." Velios continued staring at the creature with the same face of utter disgust as he continued explaining, not at all caring enough to start talking in detail like he would normally do with someone. He was having to force himself not to kill the creature at any given point in time, as he'd most likely accidentaly destroy the moon together with it.

"Never knew you were such a coward, backing away from a fight like that... You must have been so scared that you sent a little clone of yourself to come and fight me first, how pathetic." The creature spoke with pity, viewing Velios as just another weak human. The creature's smile widened at each thought of how it was going to kill Velios, the smile widening furhter each time until its eyes eventually locked onto Velios' as its daydreaming stopped. Velios was just standing there, not saying another word. The creature smiled at the sight of Velios standing completely still. "Looks like someone is so scared their legs are shaking. But don't worry, I can always rip them off for you." The creature was still mocking Velios as if to test his limit in patience and calmness.

"You know, I remember when you told me that this was going to happen to you, and I remember that sincerity on your face, a look from you I've never seen before. You can't control it, you can't do anything to figth against it and there's nothing you can do once the signs appear..." Velios was talking like he was relieving a memory, yet his face was as blank as it was before, yet full of rage on the inside. "What the hell are you talking about?! Just die already." The creature spoke in an annoyed tone, sending another slash towards Velios.

"...Which is why this pains me, as you are one of the few individuals I have been able to share laughs together with, fight together with and train with..." Velios walked towards the slash, making it look like he had walked through the slash while in reality having been so fast that it looked like he teleported. "...I can not simply forgive you for what has been done, and the things you have done are crimes deserving punishments far more cruel and painful than death." Velios instantaneously appeared infront of the creature, grabbing onto its face before it could even realise what had happened. "Please do me a favor and kill yourself... Shiva."