The sounds of battle reached me before I even arrived..

The flashes of gold that lit up the dreary skies and that unholy wailing noise that I knew all too well...

"No time to waste then..."

I sped up immediately, the air parting as I made a beeline straight for the source..

.....

The moment I arrived at the source of the commotion, my attention was instantly drawn to the fierce battle going on below..

The young celestial and two? other paladins, were currently engaged in a brutal clash with something I’d been searching for all this while..

"Damn.. talk about hitting two birds with one stone.." I immediately sat upon Elira’s blade, watching the battle unfold, as for interfering, why would I want to do something that wouldn’t get me any benefits?

The battle was quite fierce, with the colossal abomination having delivered a proper beat down early on, but inevitably, the elites won, as the young blond pulled a gigantic lance from the sky, the creature stood no chance whatsoever...

....

"Damn... to think that thing would give you guys such a hard time... Tut. Tut. Tut. I’m quite honestly disappointed.."

"""WHOOOO"""..

Looking at their alert faces, a grin split my face as I gave them a lazy wave..

"Yo... it’s nice to finally meet you guys.."

Their vigilance didn’t weaken, instead, they closed in tighter, my grin widening at their cautious behavior..

"Now now, don’t look at me like that, you’ll make me feel like the bad guy here.."

"After all, I’m just here to collect something that’s mine.."

"Hahahahahahahahaha...."

I laughed....

"Who are you?" One of the paladin looking youths questioned fiercely, hands gripping his sword tightly..

"Hmmm? You couldn’t possibly have forgotten me that easily right?" My laughter died down, as I tilted my head in confusion...

"Don’t mess around with us, who the hell are you?" The other one yelled..

Damn... we’ve been in the same class for a week now and these guys still don’t know me? Hell, couldn’t they recall the enrollment ceremony incident??

"Dante Draven, what do you want?" The young celestial finally spoke up..

"Aha!! Finally, I was starting to think I’d lost my charm." I laughed, standing up as I got ready to make my descent..

This was a prime opportunity for a superhero landing, you think I was going to miss it?

Fat Chance!

BOOMM!!!!

The ground cracked as my figure landed like a missile.

"Well, I’ve already said it earlier no?" The dust cleared as my full figure towered above the three..

"I’ve come to get something that belongs to me." I pointed at the folded wings behind the celestial, my grin turning predatory...

"You Impude..."

"I do not know what you mean by those words, but I’ll have to kindly decline, please leave." The young blond had stopped the jumpy paladin from completing his words, although his own reply wasn’t any less funny..

"Ha..Hahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....." I laughed, hard, amused..

Because truly, how amusing it was that he thought he could decline, didn’t he realize...

"I wasn’t asking, I was merely telling you a fact." My face had turned indifferent..

"Now, we could do this the easy way or the har...."

CLANNGGGG!!!!!!!!!

The sound of metal clashing against metal echoed through the whole place as I blocked a massive sword strike from my right..

"That was very..." I began, only to be rudely cut off once more..

"You impudent fool!!!!!!!"

CLANGGGGGG!!!!!!

The same jarring ringing noise echoed once more, only this time, what had struck wasn’t a blade, but a massive club and what had been hit... was my face....

...

An eerie silence settled upon the place as I stood motionless, one arm wielding Elira to block the first sword strike, while the other youth had landed a point blank hit on my face, my head tilting sideways...

"PULL BACK!!!!! NOW!!!!!!"

The two made a move to retreat, but it was already too late...

Swooosh!!!!

My arms shot out as I grabbed hold of both their faces...

"You do not...." I began, as I drew their figures together, smashing both into each other, the satisfying sounds of skulls cracking, sounding out...

"Interrupt me when I’m speaking.." I concluded as I tossed the bodies towards the seething celestial..

"Now, where were...."

"SERAPH’S LIGHT ARTS- LIGHT OF JUDGEMENT"

Clang!!!

Clang!!!

Before I could make another move, multiple golden chains appeared around me, each one shooting straight for my limbs as they held me in place...

"What is this??" I pulled hard, but the chains merely got tighter..

"What... what are you??" The trembling voice of the young celestial pulled my attention from the chains.

I looked up and my gaze met his, only, his eyes were trembling, no, not his eyes, his pupils, those pupils shaped like the scales of Justice, they were trembling so violently it felt like his eyes might just explode..

"Just how much darkness must one harbor, for the scales to tremble like so." It would seem the trembling scales were affecting him as his countenance had gone deathly pale...

At his question, my already feral grin only widened further, at this point, I might split my face from smiling too much, but I replied all the same..

"Enough darkness... to swallow all of creation itself.."

"Devour..."

A black miasma spread from my limbs, covering the golden chains as the dissolved into pure energy, fueling me..

"Now, where were we..."

""FURY OF ATARAXIA!!!"" Interrupted yet again... 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

This time by the combined strike of the two paladins..

I had seen this move before, it was what they used to severely injure the colossal abomination...

The silhouette of a massive goddess had appeared behind the youths, her eyes already opened as they gazed upon me with the look of a god looking upon an ant..

Their combined attack reached me, but I was already gone..

Four times now I’d been interrupted, it was time I stopped playing nice...

"Hey!!!" I called out..

They all looked up, I was already high above them..

"Nice move... I’ll do you one better!"

ROOOARRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Elira materialized in my hand as I pulled back my arm, her tip pointing downward, straight at the giant goddess silhouette...

"PUNISHING THRUST!!!"

I thrust her forward as her body stretched, elongating and increasing in size until it dwarfed the figure of the goddess itself and when it collided, all hell broke loose...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

The earth didn’t explode, it ruptured...

Miles of land being destroyed by the sheer force of impact, the figure of the goddess having been utterly eviscerated by the attack, yet before I could enjoy the carnage...

"HEAVEN’S JUDGEMENT!!" The celestial had pulled out his trump card..

A ginormous lance of light pierced through the clouds but this time, there was a figure behind it, one so massive its full form couldn’t even be seen as it drove the lance downward, intent on obliterating me..

I immediately tried to use atmospheric displacement, but just like earlier with the abomination, all movements to avoid the attack proved futile..

"It’s useless!!! Once heaven has deemed you guilty, you can only accept your fate, now perish for your folly!!!" The celestial roared as the figure pressed down faster...

"Ha..hahahahahahahahaha... heaven? HEAVEN??? Let me show you, show you that even your so called heaven has no authority over me!!!" I laughed as my figure shut upwards, the moment I got close to the descending lance, I launched Elira into the air as my figure shone a blinding gold...

The entire place lighting up like the 4th of July..

Once the light faded, my body was gone, what now stood in its place, was a massive figure of pure golden radiance, it’s size dwarfing even the figure wielding the lance, as only its feet that were planted on the ground could be seen...

I might not have been very keen on using the transformation aspects of the <Myriad Transformation Arts> but these guys like playing with big things so I thought I’d show them what big truly means..

The moment my figure reformed as the giant colossal humanoid, I swung my bare hands down in an overhead swing as if wielding a sword..

ROOOOARRRRRR!!!!!!

Elira appeared within my massive palms as her figure twisted and enlarged until she was a gigantic sword..

Her transformation completed the moment my swinging motion reached the crown of the golden winged figure’s head, her blade cutting clean through as the sword struck the ground in apocalyptic impact...

The entire landscape shook violently as kilometers of land were turned into rubble...

"WRATH OF HELIOS!!!" I wasn’t giving them anymore time to prepare themselves, immediately using the move from <Edicts of the Solar Compendium>.

The temperature spiked to unfathomable degrees as the devastated land started turning into molten sludge..

The moment the dark golden sun manifested itself, I did something I didn’t think I would be doing anytime soon..

In a spur of the moment, in my excited state, my massive palm shot toward the star, increasing its width until I was able to wrap my hand around it, pulling it out of the sky..

The environment that had brightened up, darkened instantly...

My grin widened even further, the pain was maddening but the excitement was even more so..

I was holding a literal sun in the palm of my hands..

I looked down at the inconsequential figures below, from my vantage point, they were more minuscule than dust...

"HERE... A LITTLE GIFT... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" I threw the sun at them, the star shooting downward in blistering speeds, I could see the earth bubbling like water from the ungodly amount of heat that was approaching it...

"Accept this humble sacrifice of blood and send me aid from thy palace above!!"

A solemn chanting filled the entire space...

"FATHER!!!!!!!" The young celestial yelled out In desperation...

"WHO DARES!!!!!!!" A thunderous voice echoed from the heavens as an arm no less larger than mine dropped down from the skies, shielding the young men just in time, as the sun collided with the earth...

KRAA...THOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

I was sure even those outside had felt the massive effects of the collision as all around me and as far as my perception could observe, there was only carnage..

Flames and destruction as the explosion of the sun in contact with the earth sent everything to hell...

"Hahahahahahaha.... Magnificent!!!!.... MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!" I couldn’t help it, looking at the sheer carnage I could cause was exhilarating....

"Audacious Mortal... You dare!!!!!"

An angry bellow soon cut my laughter short, as I finally focused on the figure that had appeared before me...

The fight had just taken another turn and I was excited to see what more these people could offer.....

*************

A/N: well damn.... We causing literal apocalypse now?

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Thanks for reading...