-----Rudeus Greyrat POV----
How?
How is he still standing?
I poured half my mana pool into that lightning strike!?
We are talking about the amount of power to light up continents back in my old world!
The smoke began to clear.
Through the haze a figure emerged.
Did I pick a fight with an Elden Ring boss by mistake?
My ears roar with the rush of blood, doing out the silence around me.
The man muttered in awe.
"What firepower…"
A cold shiver races across me like invisible claws dragging down my arms.
"If anyone had taken that hit by surprise, they'd be cast into dust!"
But the man in the mist wasn't dust, stepped forward and his features emerged through the mist. His face was gaunt, hollow-eyed, skin stretched so tight it looked like his skull was grinning beneath it.
An eyepatch covered his left eye.
The Death God reached for it.
And pulled it down.
In that instant—
The ground trembled as a black dome erupted outward surrounding us, swallowing the forest in a five-kilometer radius.
Shit.
Is this some sort of domain expansion?
There was no turning back.
"Oh? You didn't like the new haircut I so generously offered? Free of charge!"
I smirked, masking the dread clawing at my spine.
"You look rather… cute."
Then flicked my hands past my right eye activating the Eye of Foresight.
I shifted my weight back and fired a burst of wind from my chest.
The force slammed me launching my body downwards.
Steel hissed through the air above, missing my head by inches.
Simultaneously, I threw both hands upward, fingers already casting the next incantation.
A surge of water erupted from my palms, twisting midair like a coiled serpent.
I aimed for his grip hopping that the sudden force might knock the sword at his hand.
The Death God flicked his wrist twisting the blade that danced around the water surge.
I surged mana into my legs and cast Quagmire warping the earth beneath me.
"!!!"
The soft mud clung to him anchoring him in place.
The swordman shifted his grip on his sword while his aura exploded forward.
In the next instance, he launched six rapid strikes aimed straight at my legs.
But a mud wall erupted between us absorbing the first few slashes.
Then I ignited the soles of my feet with fire magic blasting myself backward, skimming across the ground.
Mid-flight, I twisted my weight upward and launched myself into the air.
I kept feeding fire into my feet, sustaining my flight and rising higher.
The Death God groaned, wiping mud from his face that have splattered before in mud-wall defense while coughing as the black smoke I had unleashed choked the battlefield.
His voice thundered through the battlefield.
"YOU'VE GOT A FEW TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE, QUAGMIRE!"
Damn dude is pissed.
A small grin formed my face while my eye brows deformed as I look down my opponent.
The Death God widened his eyes and then narrowed it gritting his teeth.
"BUT IF YOU THINK THAT'S ENOUGH TO TAKE ME DOWN—YOU'RE DEAD WRONG!"
His blade already rising for the next strike.
"HA I WANT SEE YOU TRY!!"
I roared, thrusting my right hand skyward, clawing at the moisture above as I summoned the greatest natural raw force my homeland had ever feared.
The spell surged outward and I drove my arm down.
A gigantic tidal wave crashing down from the sky, blanketing the battlefield in a water veil.
The Death God hesitated in his strike and bolted, sprinting away from the incoming flood.
While he's busy running, I'll craft something he can't escape unscathed.
I pulled mana into my hands, more than I'd ever dared to channel at once.
And I couldn't help myself but to smirk and chant out loud.
"Ka..."
It pulsed like a second heartbeat.
Growing wildly unsteadily.
"Me..."
The orb of light burned brighter than the sun itself.
Even with dark clouds choking the sky, this artificial star lit up everything around me.
"Ha..."
I'd never gathered this much for a single spell.
One wrong move and it would tear me apart.
"Me..."
SPLASH
The wave finally crashed down and a violent current tore through the forest.
Trees snapped. Earth split. The battlefield drowned in chaos.
The Death God leaped into the tallest and thickest tree he could reach, barely avoiding being swept away.
Then he felt the real danger.
He snapped his head towards the blinding light gathering in my hands and his eyes widened.
He dropped into a defensive stance.
YOU CAN'T BLOCK THIS ONE!
"HAAAAAAAA!"
A beam of searing fire erupted from my hands.
It tore through the air like a lance of the gods, screaming toward the Death God with blinding intensity.
And in that instant, he knew that he couldn't block it.
He turned and bolted, leaping through the trees like a phantom, trying to break line of sight.
The beam of light slammed into the earth, carving the soil open and leaving rivers of burning lava in its wake. I gritted my teeth, pouring every ounce of strength into my forearms as I wrestled the force, straining to bend it toward my target. The Death God saw my faltering grip, so he surged forward, accelerating with ruthless precision, weaving into flanks that denied me any chance to lock him down, forcing me to chase shadows instead of catching him.
But it was too late.
My Eye of Foresight was already activated.
He was running from the future.
And I was already there.
I preemptively shifted the beam left, tracking his feint before it even landed.
Then I adjusted aiming for the spot he'd step next.
The beam caught his upper right torso engulfing it in searing flame.
A sharp bounce to the left, vanishing into the tree line.
At last, my beam of light sputtered out, collapsing into smoke and ash.
I staggered, dragging in ragged breaths as sweat streaked down my forehead, stinging my eyes.
The ground beneath me was split open, glowing with molten cracks where the beam struck. Steam hisses around me, rising from pools of water clashing with fire.
I scanned my eyes across the stage built for destruction.
Tch.
I had lost sight of him.
But...
With a wound like that, there's no way he can muster a proper strike against me.
My lips curled into a smirk.
The plan was simple now: keep him bleeding while sneaking some cheap shots.
Victory is mine-
I barely registered the glint before instinct seized me. I twisted midair, fire bursting from my left heel and spinning me in a violent arc. Steel screamed past grazing my shoulder, tearing cloth and carving a shallow line of blood across my skin
Pain bloomed.
I gritted my teeth and turned towards the direction of the sword thrown.
"Throwing your weapon away? Reckless. Now I know where you are—"
I thrust my hands forward, palms open, my index fingers and thumbs locking into a triangle. Power gathered at its center ready to unleash the next spell.
But there was no signage of the man.
"What the—"
My voice barely escaped my throat.
And suddenly, the air around me felt colder.
I panicked.
Pumped full thrust into my fire spell, launching myself upward desperate to escape.
As I frantically scanned the chaos, the light above dimmed, swallowed by a shadow looming over my body.
I looked up, towards the towering presence.
And the most sinister smile filled my view.
"Is that the Eye of Foresight?" voice amused. "It is quite troublesome so I'll have to take that away from you, Quagmire."
Ice surged through my veins, freezing me in place. The moment stretching like eternity as I watch a flash of silver pierce deep into my eye.
"ARGHHH!"
Agony ripped through my skull breaking my balance. I fired magic wildly, trying to flee, but I spun helplessly, crashing down like a burning wreck.
"IT HUUURTS!"
The knife burned in my eye, agony pulsing with every heartbeat. I forced my arm steady against the crushing weight as I was falling, clawing at the air to gather cold moisture. My breath came ragged, as the spell coiling at my fingertips trembling on the edge of release.
My other arm trembled as I gripped the knife stuck into my eyes, feeling the metal shift deep in my eye sockets.
"AAAAAARH"
I pulled the knife and simultaneously an uncontrollable frost surged across my face.
Freezing half of my head.
I expected pain relief but instead the pain spiked feeling as if I was being boiled alive from the inside out.
I opened my remaining eye and saw the ground rushing up.
I quickly gathered mana in my hands desperate to slow my fall.
The wind surged beneath me, straining against the crushing weight of my fall, but I was too late.
"OOF!"
The impact tore the breath from my lungs while the ribs jolting as the ground slammed into me.
My body uncontrollably rolled as my limbs flailed while the mud and stone scraped against skin. My hands clawed at the earth desperate to stop the momentum, but the slick dirt slipped away.
The world spinning in violent fragments—sky, ground, blood, mud.
My body finally stopped, the earth clutching me in its cold embrace.
I lay there with burning ragged breaths, scraping against fractured ribs. My muscles quivered while my bones screamed beneath the weight of impact. My face throbbed, vision blurred in and out, and blood coated my tongue.
I tilt my head towards the direction I fell from.
And there the Death God walking towards me with his sword back in hand.
"Now that I think of it, where's your magic armor Quagmire?"
I spat the blood mixing with mud on my lips, and groaned as I force myself to get up.
"You climbed to the Seventh World Power on gear, not strength. Was that not it?"
I clutched my right arm, agony ripping through me as the fractured bones tore through my flesh, casting a minor healing spell.
"Is this perhaps your arrogance? Thinking that limitless mana pool and chant less magic makes you untouchable?"
With only one eye left, my aim was compromised.
"That one single strike was almost just enough to take you down. And on top of that, you dared to challenge me without a magic staff? Don't be ridiculous!"
I couldn't trust my instincts the way I used to.
So I have to keep my distance farther than I normally would.
"This fight has made me realize that you're nothing more than a child in a man's body, desperate for validation."
I finished with the first aid kid and smirked.
"Funny, coming from the guy who quit being a chef after just one criticism. Did you take on the title of 'Death God' because you torment your clients with the awful food you serve?"
"..."
Oops... Was that too far? He is making a really ugly face...
"I'll make sure you eat those words."
The swordsman dashed forward and in the blink of an eye he was right before me.
"Mpmh!"
Jets of scalding steam erupted between us, hissing like serpents, forming a barrier of superheated pressure.
I'd raised the temperature to it's melting point as it sliced through the air with tremendous force.
At the same time, I coated myself in a thin layer of water enough to shield my skin from my own magic's backlash.
"Tch."
The Death God recoiled, steam searing his advance.
He took a step back.
But I didn't stop.
This was a confined space.
And I was going to turn it into a furnace.
A suffocating, blistering sauna.
The more he moved, the more heat his body would overheat.
If I couldn't land a direct hit…
I'd cook him from the inside out.
But that would only work if I outlast him.
And I wasn't sure how much mana I had left in the tank.
Still, this leaves me no choice.
"A battle of attrition?" the skull-faced man said uninterested.
Sweat droplets ran through my face.
"I'm more than confident in my mana pool."
He shifted his stance.
A black aura bled from his body, outlining his frame like ink in water.
"That only works if you can keep me at bay."
Then he dashed forward straight through the steam barrier like it wasn't even there.
"SHIT!"
I cast a fire spell between us.
He swung his sword instinctively, cleaving through the fireball—
But it was rigged.
BOOM
A wind burst detonated from the core, blasting both of us in opposite directions.
I hit the ground, rolled, steadied myself.
He was already sprinting again.
I raised my hand.
I concentrated mana into every molecule creating a lump of stone mass then layered fire magic over it, heating each projectile to near-melting point.
From my signature Stone Bullet.
I name this Lava Bullet.
I spun the bullets faster and faster, until they screamed like drills.
Then I multiplied them.
Ten.
Fifty.
A hundred.
A thousand.
I unleashed them like a heavy machine gun, a storm of molten stone tearing through the battlefield.
The Death God dodged, parried, twisted through the barrage.
Some scraped his limbs. A few tore cloth. One nicked his cheek.
But he kept coming.
Unstoppable.
Relentless.
The temperature was rising.
The steam thickened.
But every two steps I took, he closed the gap by a step more.
I was bleeding seconds.
Change of plans.
Then the Death God closed in, I quickly casted ice beneath my feet, launching myself sideways like a phantom surfing through a frozen wave.
Molten stone bullets kept firing from my outstretched hand, a relentless barrage of heat and fury.
I carved a path of frost through the black dome, each movement precise, each spell layered with intent.
The walls iced over, the temperature dropped, and the battlefield began to shift.
I was reshaping the arena.
The preparations were complete.
Now I just need—
Pain.
A sharp, searing flash in my left ankle.
A sword had pierced through the ice clean, slicing through flesh and bone.
"KUUUUH!"
My body crumpled mid-glide, tumbling across the frozen floor.
The Death God didn't hesitate.
He launched himself into the air, blade raised, eyes locked on my throat.
Time slowed.
As the arc of his sword closed in for my neck.
I looked at the Death God's face.
And I grinned.
For the first time in his life…
The Death God felt
Fear.
One hand pressed into the ice, connected to every frozen vein in the dome.
I dropped the temperature.
Extremely low.
The other hand reached into the steam, feeling the pressure.
I raised the temperature.
Extremely high.
With such a drastic temperature shift in a sealed space, the atoms will suddenly compress and then rapidly expand violently.
In simple terms.
I'M BLOWING YOU AND THIS BLACK DOME TO HELL WITH ME!
Explosion!
The world goes bright white.
...
My ears rang...
Vision... Blurry...
My body ached in places I didn't know could ache.
"Argh…"
I was so tired.
I wanted a hot meal.
A real one. Something with spice. Something that didn't taste like iron.
I wanted a bed.
Soft. Clean. Quiet.
Maybe… maybe I should just lay down here...
Get up Rudy!
I shot my eyes open.
Every nerve screamed.
With what little strength I had left, I dragged my upper body upright.
And then—
My eyes widened.
With arms and legs scorched, his entire left side charred and trembling.
The Death God was standing.
"H-How…"
The words escaped me before I could stop them.
He looked down at me, and almost with an impressed tune.
"To think you had a trick of this grand of scale..."
He looked around.
What was once a lush, green forest had been reduced to a crater of scorched earth and shattered trees—like a bomb had gone off at its heart.
Right where we stood.
Frustration twisted in my gut.
My trump card… wasted.
I tried to steady myself, to stand, to do something.
But my body refused.
I collapsed, coughing blood into the dirt.
"Argh…"
I place my hand on my chest trying to hold it together...
I think I have multiple fractures... Perhaps more...
The Death God stepped forward before me,.
"Quagmire… The moment you cast that strange shield coating your whole body so did I."
I gritted my teeth and cast my gaze down.
Dammit.
He saw through my shield magic.
Dammit.
I clenched my hand and slammed on the ground.
"DAMMIT!"
I looked up at him, vision swimming, breath ragged.
"Monster…"
The skull-faced man walked toward my lifeless body.
Grabbed me by the neck.
Lifted me off the ground bringing me to eye level, those hollow sockets staring into mine, void of strength, void of fight.
"I was waiting for you to say that."
He shifted his sword.
The blade angled.
Despair and regret filled in me.
I'll be killed.
If I die, I won't be able take my revenge on that damn God.
I can't lose.
I need to win.
But my body won't move.
This feeling... I don't have any more mana left...
Blood is pouring from my arm and leg...
My consciousness dim...
Death God's sword covered my view.
Aah...
Is this Game Over?
"Mu-?!"
A figure came between us.
In one swift movement, their sword clashed against the Death God's blade parrying it mid-air while simultaneously aiming for his neck.
The Death God reacted instantly.
He let go of my throat and twisted his body away, narrowly avoiding the strike.
I dropped to the ground, coughing, my limbs refusing to obey.
Confused.
Disoriented.
I turned my head looking towards the figure standing before me.
Their stance was firm yet familiar.
I blinked, trying to focus.
Who…?
I could not see their face since their back was turned towards me.
But...
I know that hair...
That wavy hair, as if someone had thrown unmixed red paint on it.
"Looks like I kept you waiting, Rudeus!"
There stands the girl I once loved.
Eris Greyrat.