From outside, there was fire, death, carnage, and violence. The spell that the Asura had cast upon reality. Tearing into the corrupted creatures to supply his rage.
And from inside was the brawler. The laid-back, energetic, proud figure of the outskirts.
Kade sat silently on the cold stone. Under the endless storm of clouds, they rose and crashed like the tide of the ocean, a chaos untold beyond their waves. Only a shallow sun dared to peek through.
The brawler was inside his soul sea, left to his own devices as battle lust controlled his mortal coil like a puppet to a puppeteer. The storming grey clouds rumbled in their clash. And the lifeless bodies of carapace scavengers dropped to the stormy vale.
Broken, melted, and torn. They fell. Descending further and further down the rocky cliff Kade was throned upon. And plummeting to the gorges and ravines of countless unmoving bodies of his enemies.
The scavengers splatting into the collection of gangsters, street urchins, and nightmare beasts Kade had defeated. The spell gently declared their defeat.
[You have slain the awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have slain the awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have slain the awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
Kade would have perhaps applauded [Battle Lust] for its efficiency; it killed and slaughtered the beasts in a fashion that made his attempts pale in comparison. However, it didn't feel right.
After all, he could feel its eyes dig into his back. Battle Lust had not just assumed his body...
But his soul.
"Are you going to do nothing but sit there, mortal?"
Kade sighed, getting up from his comfortable rest, and turning around to his flaw.
It was a mirror image of himself, broad-shouldered, with brown hair and amber eyes. Except that the entire rest of his face was a pure void. Hidden away, Kade could only look at his own eyes floating in the darkness.
"What can I do? You're the one with control of my body. Just shut up and hand it over when you're done," he spat.
Battle Lust shook its head, pacing towards Kade. The steps of its heels were dead silent on the stone.
"You are wrong; I just maintained the reins of my body; it's not yours."- Kade's eyebrows furrowed.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" You're just some flaw of mine; you're just a weakness that the spell latched onto me." Kade followed Battle Lust's pace. His stride was defiant and impacted roughly against the stone.
His flaw cackled. The creeping sound left its blank face. "The opposite, the spell granted me your body, as it gifted you my essence, my existence, and my identity."
Kade scowled, kicking a loose rock in his stride, the stone skipping across the cliff before falling deafly to the gorge below. "You're nothing." I'm someone. Kade. The fighter, the smart, strong, ambitious prick. I exist. You don't."
His flaw shrugged.
"Not yet, I do." A pause. Tilting its head, But I did once."
"Really? Tell me then, wraith."
The imitator's eyes narrowed in amusement. Before two hands of shattered rocks shimmered behind its back. Glowing orange energy pulsed in its amber eyes before weaving the floating stones into two mythical arms, connecting at his back like an arachnid.
"I am the Unyielding Asura. I am the being whom the gods envied. I am the fallen and the ascended."
Kade suddenly stopped his stride. Confusion marked his expression.
"You're saying that you're my aspect as well?"
"Not just your aspect..." The Asura stepped closer.
"I was one of the strongest warriors of the Doom War. I am the original Asura; I am the legacy that you inherited."
Kade's jaw tightened.
"Then how the hell are you in my soul?" And why are you showing yourself now rather than earlier?"
The asura scoffed.
"After death took me, I scavenged for the strings of that despicable demon and clawed at its seams, dominating the fate of my end. And for that...millennia upon millennia later...it gave me a vessel."
He raised a hand toward Kade.
"You."
Kade's expression faltered.
"Then why now?"
The Asura's eyes smirked, "You should know."
It didn't take long for Kade's mind to piece the puzzle together. 'It's when I fueled [Battle Lust] with my aspect...' If that was the case, the Asura most likely didn't have the strength to form itself.
But Kade fueled it and gave it power.
"Do you really think you can take control of my body forever?" Kade asked, a grin tainting his face. "I've suppressed you before, and I can do it again and again."
The Asura snorted.
"You can try, but the more that you avoid battle and avoid my existence and purpose, the more this vessel shall recognize me as its sovereign." The imitator is now pacing silently around Kade. Its tone hints at a stern, mocking attitude.
"Either way, you're doing well at handing it to me." You've already discovered two of my aspect legacies... Once you have gained the power from them all. I'll replace your existence, and you'll be the fake one instead."
"Then what? What would you do after you get control of my body? Please do tell me.
The Asura stopped its stride and gazed silently at the distressed brawler.
"I'll use the eternal passion and rage that embodies me, and I'll ascend the staircase that the despicable weaver had made, gaining boons and benefits from the spell. I'll claw further and further up the ranks of divinity until I'll find the forever dreamer and slay him in his sleep!"
Kade took a step back, the Asura's presence growing stronger.
"Then I'll tear apart reality, the concept the despicable gods manifested. I will bring down their sacred designs until nothing remains but rubble. Until their names are forgotten... like the Dreamer."
Kade's expression twisted.
"Is that so... I'm afraid you have no such power to ever do that; you're nothing but a fool who thinks he can better me, divine or not."
The imitator chuckled, low and smooth, lifting one of the fractured stone arms. Its fingers stretched wide in mock generosity.
"You think I lack strength?"he purred. "No, brawler... the fool is, and always will be, you. That's just in your nature."
His glowing amber eyes narrowed, then blazed.
And then—
With deliberate cruelty, the hand clenched into a fist. The world trembled.
A soft whisper echoed to his ears.
[You have slain dormant human: Ayen Driver]
[You have received an echo!]
Kade's stomach dropped, and a cold shiver took his body. The storming sea of clouds shifted, and from there, the small headless corpse of the young sleeper fell, the blood that oozed from her neck trailing behind the fall.
"You see that—"
Kade suddenly burst from his stillness, his entire body like a violent machine that worked together in perfect unison. And he threw the strongest haymaker he could manage. Deathly focus and rage in his amber eyes.
His entire body pulled everything it had to fulfill his will.
To punch the bastard in its void-like face as hard as physically possible.
The Asura watched his knuckles close in and stood still.
BAM.
Its faceless head snapped to the side from the force. Kade didn't let up. His knuckles drove deeper, his arm trembling from the strain as he poured everything into the strike.
The Asura's spine arched violently, nearly folding in half under the blow.
And Kade let go, rage exhaled in a single, brutal motion.
"How dare you." HOW DARE YOU!" Kade roared, his bloodied fist trembling, still hungry for more.
"Why?" WHY WOULD YOU KILL HER? SHE WAS NO THREAT AT ALL!"
Guilt, shame, anger, and sorrow twisted his face into something broken, his voice cracking under the weight.
The Asura slowly unfolded itself, spine clicking back into place as it casually rubbed the impact point.
"Isn't it obvious?" It said flatly,
"You heard the spell. It gave us a boon, a servant to increase our survival rate. And her soul shard? It'll only strengthen ours. Why wouldn't we take it?"
"BULLSHIT, it's not just that, it can't be!" Kade scowled.
The Asura tapped its chin innocently before a devilish grin formed out of its featureless face. Malevolent glee filled its eyes.
"Yes... It was fun; I haven't done that in a while... And I wanted you to see your expression."
Kade struck again, his fist flying directly at the Asura's skull like a bullet.
Yet.
A singular stone arm from [Embodied Wrath] caught his fist with a bang. Before crushing down on his hand. Kade flinched, being brought down by the force.
"You think fighting me solves anything?" The Asura chuckled before growing serious.
"I am someone who combated the gods; I've slaughtered armies and divinities too plentiful to count. My fists surpass all those who have ever attempted to master it."
He scoffed, eyes burning with disdain.
"And you? You're just a nobody. A brat who bullied half-starved gangsters in alleys. A rat from the gutters... whose soul will die like one."
The Asura slammed Kade down onto the cold stone, then raised his foot and stomped hard on his throat, cutting off any breath.
"The biggest of fools, the monarch of idiots, the child who only brings ruin to himself."
"The Heat of Chaos"
Kade grimaced, trying with all of his might to push the foot crushing down on his windpipe. But he couldn't manage it.
The world started to fade away as his consciousness started to weaken. He tried to create energy to fuel his brain, Unyielding Asura refusing to respond to its calls.
'I can't lose here... I can't,' Kade begged, yet his muscles failed him.
Until.
BANG.
The sole sea shook. A blunt pain surged through Kade's skull, and the Asura clutched its own head in response. Its foothold weakened, slipping off the brawler's throat as it stumbled backward.
The imitator whispered voice barely audible as darkness claimed them both:
"A divine shadow… how curious."
And then, silence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the distance of the charred battlefield. Traversing the maze of crimson coral were two young sleepers. Nephis of the immortal flame clan, and behind her. Hands tied to a golden glowing rope. Cassie.
Changing Star led her across the divots and obstacles the forgotten shore had to offer. It was a slow journey, leading a blind girl across a deadly landscape of the dream realm.
Most would have abandoned the burden.
But Nephis took charge in silence, refusing to act like the decrepit sovereigns she had sworn to destroy. She wanted Cassie to live, so she would make sure she did.
Some Carapace Scavengers did emerge to block their path, and Nephis would part from Cassie shortly, slaying the beasts before returning to the worried girl.
Unfortunately, the only armor she'd managed to retrieve was just enough for Cassie. In the meantime, Nephis was forced to rely on a hastily crafted bikini made from seaweed.
It was maneuverable. Freeing, even. But it did present a problem.
"Nephis... where are we going?" Cassie asked, stumbling slightly on her next step.
Changing Star glanced back before answering neutrally.
"There's a large plume of smoke not too far away." Possibly a signal for other sleepers."
Cassie brightened up immediately.
"Really?!" That's great; it would be nice to see others..."
Nephis tilted her head.
"Like whom?" The blind girl sighed.
"Maybe Dawn... She is my closest friend, and maybe Kade too." Cassie answered.
Nephis nodded. The image of the pouting blond woman dressed in black came to mind, and the familiar brawler she had trained.
"I wonder where they are now..."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Far, far away. On the distant island between the great ravine. It was a large, majestic tree of a great black shade. Its blood-red leaves collecting the morning sunlight. Its branches are swaying in the morning breeze.
And on one of the many branches was a Dawn, dressed in [Lady Death], sitting with her legs swinging in the wind. An anti-material rifle tucked into her chest. With a dark red fruit lying in her hands.
She took a bite, savoring the sweet, tangy flavor. Her pink lips curled into a smile of pure satisfaction.
Life truly is great, she thought, letting the blissful moment linger.
If only Kade were there to share the fruits she had gathered.
The first bite was addictive, and she only wanted more.