For beings who lived long, longer than gods and demigods alike, experience wasn't gained through time. Experience was boarding the chance of death, and when it looked at you with a smile, you said not today. That was called experience.
'I know, I shouldn't… ' James thought. 'I shouldn't use my gifts to absorb the miracle of others…'
But he released it, one of the seven within him. Releasing a bloody miracle that charged him, charged him high. Khorn could feel it, something surging from the man before her.
"What did you do?" she asked, her hand flaring high with white fire, ready to finish it. The last swing should have ended this duel, but he caught it, his palm holding her white-burning hand. His hand burned and healed at the same time, his face and half of his body regenerating back at super speed.
"Nothing, just claimed victory," he muttered, gradually rising up, squeezing her fist tighter and tighter. The fissure noise of bone and muscle being mushed grew louder and louder.
"Aaaa!!" she wailed in pain, blood splattering from her hand, the white fire gradually disappearing. The scent of something familiar leaked from the divinity he was releasing. "You… this is an Olympian miracle," she said, looking at the fully healed and renewed James.
James couldn't help but grit his teeth at that judgmental gaze. "You indeed lack experience…" he muttered, his right hand charged high with divinity. "But today you will learn," he said, his fist striking her stomach.
Boom!
She felt it, the shivering impact ripping from her stomach through her entire body. Her inner organs were mangled by that single punch, her body hurled far away, taking her fire with it. James huffed as the cold returned, snow falling once more, the heat and flames dimming. "Stand down, Khorn. You don't need to do this," he said, walking forward, his fist charging again.
Khorn spewed blood, clutching her stomach. She felt it, this was indeed divinity and miracle absorbed from the Olympians. She gazed at James, her mind spiraling in confusion, worrying that she had lost another brother—another who had lost his way and betrayed the lord.
"No…" she said, standing up slowly and painfully. "Brother, please stop. Don't be like them. Our lord needs us more than ever. Why do you still live in hate?" she pleaded.
"You ask me? It's his fault, always has been. Because of his negligence, our eldest brother turned on us. If he had just cared, all he needed to do was care about us—but what did he do?" he asked, walking closer. "He just left us. Left us all alone....I .. I HATE HIM!" he bellowed, the final words echoing loud and clear, reaching beyond the dark clouds.
Khorn finally knew he couldn't be reasoned with. Maybe she had lost another one. That thought alone hit her hard, indeed, she failed again. The pain in her heart raged more than the pain in her broken body. She took her stance, holding her hands high—one burned and charred black, the other crushed and mangled, her knuckle bone breaking through the skin.
"I am Khorn, herald of the Golden Immortal Aron," she said, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye, not from pain, but from the failure she felt as a sister. "…And I will never back down!"
James huffed, seeing her condition and the pitiful resolve in her eyes. Holding her ground, for what? An old man who betrayed them all. That thought alone fueled his rage. The duel demanded balance, the angel's Dominion forcing his charge to drop. He could handle her now without charge, without using miracles.
But he used it anyway.
Snuffing two of the seven miracles.
…Charge.
{Charging…100%}
James moved first.
Not a step. Not a dash.
He vanished.
Khorn barely raised her arm before something slammed into her ribs—CRACK—the sound sharp enough to echo. Her body folded sideways, skidding across melted snow, carving a trench before she even realized she was airborne.
She hit hard.
Rolled.
Coughed blood again.
James was already there.
A knee drove into her stomach, detonating the air from her lungs. She gagged, retching crimson, and James grabbed her by the throat and threw her—straight down.
BOOM.
The ground cratered. Snow vaporized. Khorn lay embedded in shattered earth, her fire flickering weakly.
"Too slow," James said calmly. He brought his heel down.
Khorn's eyes flared. Fire erupted.
She twisted at the last second, the impact grazing her shoulder instead of her skull. The ground exploded beside her as she rolled free, flames surging, heat roaring back to life.
She leapt. White fire wrapped her fist as she punched—
James caught it.
Again.
His grip tightened. Bones screamed. Khorn snarled and headbutted him, flames bursting from her skull. The impact staggered him half a step.
That was enough.
She ripped her arm free—skin tearing, bone grinding—and unleashed everything.
Fire detonated.
A column of white-gold flame swallowed James, blasting him backward through snow, rock, and frozen earth. He slammed into a hill hard enough to collapse it, debris raining down.
Khorn panted. Blood dripped from her chin. Her arm hung wrong. But she stood.
"Stay down!!!," she rasped.
Silence.
Then—
The rubble shifted.
A hand emerged.
Then another.
James stepped out of the wreckage, skin knitting, muscle reforming, eyes glowing brighter than before. Steam rolled off his body as his divinity surged.
He smiled. "Better," he said. "Still not enough."
He disappeared again.
This time, Khorn felt him before she saw him, instinct screaming. She raised a wall of fire, James punched through it. The impact shattered the flame like glass and buried his fist into her chest.
CRUNCH.
Khorn flew.
Not back.
Up.
She spiraled through the air, spinning helplessly before James appeared above her and slammed both fists down.
BOOM.
She hit the ground like a meteor.
The earth split.
Khorn lay motionless in the crater, fire guttering, breath shallow. James landed beside her.
"You keep getting back up," he said, almost amused. "Why?"
Khorn's fingers twitched.
Her fire flickered.
Then flared.
She screamed and forced herself up, blood pouring from her mouth, eyes burning with fury.
"Because," she snarled, "..He trusts me, I can't disappoint him again,"
She lunged.
James sighed. He sidestepped and hammered her spine with a backhand.
Her body folded mid-air.
He followed with an elbow to the jaw, snapping her head sideways, then a kick to the knee—CRACK—dropping her.
Before she hit the ground, he grabbed her hair and slammed her face-first into the earth.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
"Stay. Down."
Khorn clawed at the ground, fire sputtering, trying to rise.
James raised his hand. Divinity compressed. Charge raging. The air screamed and He brought it down.
BOOM.
The shockwave flattened the battlefield. Snow was erased. Stone melted. Khorn's body skidded across scorched ground, tumbling end over end before coming to rest, broken, bloodied, barely breathing.
James stood over her. Charge climbing.
He looked down at the fallen herald and shook his head. "You're stubborn," he said quietly. "always have been."
Khorn coughed.
Blood stained the ground.
But her fingers still clenched. Fire still burned.
James's smile faded. "Fine," he said, raising his fist again. "Let's end it."
Tang!
It should have been flesh colliding with his fist, but he bashed into something hard—a staff. James turned toward the beholder, the angel blocking his punch.
"Have you lost you—"
"You won. The duel has ended," the angel voiced. "That was it." With those words, the feathers around them snuffed away, the snowy land returning, faint snow falling and hurling onto them all.
James released his fist as the golden man became visible once more, still kneeling. "Don't come in my way again," he threatened simply. "Otherwise, I will force you to break your little oath."
He walked toward Aron while the angel huffed, seeing the woman on the ground. Never had he seen such ferocity and loyalty. If I could transfer my karma onto her… the thought came to him, but that was against the law—against their order.
Then a whisper reached his ears, a familiar voice. …Lady Ureil? he thought, as three simple words transferred into his consciousness.
Save the girl, Ureil voiced.
The angel gazed at the girl. He knew what he had to do now, and the outcome would be devastating. But orders needed to be followed, and thank the Lord he served under Lady Ureil, the bringer of justice and fire.
He placed a palm on Khorn's forehead, his lips mumbling in prayer. Golden light surged into her, but it came at a price—her skin split in thin black cracks along her arms, fire-affinity veins flickering erratically as if scorched from within. She gasped awake, trembling, one hand clawing uselessly at the snow; her aura now bore a permanent jagged tear, divinity leaking in thin wisps that would never fully mend.
Meanwhile, James walked closer and closer to Aron, the snow beneath his feet crunching.
He sniffed the air, the faint scent of nature mixed with the scent of Heaven, coursing through his nostrils.
"You really did come back," he beckoned, a small smile etched on his lips. "Always be happy, always be grateful, always garner new experiences, and never back down… those childish words you used on me—you used on all of us," he said, finally seeing him up close, his heart pounding faster and faster. "I was naïve back then," he added, his hand clenching tight.
He snuffed out five of the seven miracles, each extinction searing through his core like molten iron poured into veins—backlash heat blistering his palms, a permanent debt scar forming across his divinity channels that would cap future charges forever. His body shook from the strain, radiating the pure but now fractured essence of divinity itself.
Charge…
He looked above. For some reason, tears streamed from his eyes. Questions arose—ones that had never surfaced before. Should he do this? Should he attack the man who had raised him for centuries?
"No. I need to do this," he told himself. "He left you. Don't forget that. He abandoned you!" he shouted inwardly as he raised his fist.
"Haaa—!"
"Stop!" a familiar voice bellowed from behind, and James stopped. The punch should have landed—but it didn't. He turned to see her. The woman who should have been near death, now standing despite the black cracks spidering across her skin.
"You… how did you?" he asked, seeing the angel at her back.
"Oath breaker!" James shouted. But more serious than that—Khorn crossed her arms, her lips chanting a prayer, voice hoarse from the fresh divine burn.
"Don't you dare… you don't have enough karma and divinity," he warned, crossing his arms as well.
Khorn finished her prayer, breathing in fresh air as she closed her eyes. It's now or never, she thought.
"DIVINE DOMINION."
James didn't hesitate, unleashing miracle and divinity together—his scarred channels flaring dangerously, threatening to shatter the fragile balance.
"DIVINE DOMINION."
The words overlapped, but this time the air itself warped—cracks of corrupted gold and blackened fire racing outward, Heaven's override clashing against infernal strain, promising mutual ruin if either pushed further.