Chapter 4:
CommotiunculaThe astral gate opens and leads to the Destroyer of Worlds to this dimension. The Destroyer raised his eyebrow as he set foot and the portal closed behind him. He finds himself on what seems to be the remains of a battlefield and on the horizon lays a fortified town with a castle. However, what seems very off to him was that he senses an aura of dread and darkness engulfed in this world. Within the battlefield itself, all around him lays not just corpses of soldiers, but of demons as well, which consisted of gargoyles and undead wolves. Searching through the remains of the battlefield, the only thing he finds to be interesting was a mechanical heart. It seems to have stopped working due to years of neglect, but the fact it could be fixed or reversed engineered might make it worth keeping. He places the heart in his pocket dimension and looks up to find a fortified city placed on the mountain tops. He figures something worthwhile might be hiding within those walls, so he walks toward the city.
As he approaches the entrance, there was an engraving above the entrance marked, “Sylvia, kingdom of winds.” Apparently, Sylvia was a name of this city and based on its appearance, it has seen better days. Everywhere he looks, he finds more corpses of both men and monsters strewn across the streets, not unlike the battlefield from earlier. Multiple buildings suffered either incredible damage or complete destruction. However, as he turned to the next corner of the street, he immediately spots three undead wolves. One of them quickly caught his scent and loudly barked to alert the other two. All three of them faced him and snarled. Afterwards, they barked and quickly charged straight at him, intending to tear him to pieces.
The Destroyer readies himself as the wolves approach. As one of the wolves jumps at him, he quickly grabs it by the jaw. He turns his head away from the wolf as rotten breath permeates from its maw. However, he forcefully unhinges its jaw apart, and slams its head into the ground immediately killing it. The other two wolves do not seem to care about their fallen comrade since neither of them stopped their charge. Another wolf leaped at him again, and the Destroyer reached out and grabbed it by the neck. He slams the body to the ground and punts it right into the other wolf. The two wolves go flying straight through a dilapidated building, which collapses straight on top of the wolves. After the crash and dust settles, the Destroyer waits to see if the wolves come back up again. After a minute of no activity, the Destroyer assumes the wolves are dead and resumes scouting the city.
However, that collision seems to have attracted some attention. As soon as the Destroyer soon hears loud footsteps approaching him, he turns his head to find the source. He finds a man wearing an ornate azure suit of armor without a helmet, long red flowing hair, a large grotesque right arm, and carrying a large sword very similar to the Giant Buster on his back. The man glares at the Destroyer and says out loud, “I think I found our intruder.”
The Destroyer quickly takes out his phone and scans the stranger. The results show that he is Nightmare in this world. The Destroyer tilts his head at Nightmare’s appearance as he puts away his phone. He then asks Nightmare curiously, “…Wait a minute, what’s with your face?” Nightmare raised his eyebrow. “What the hell are you talking about?”
The Destroyer then points at him. “You look nothing like Siegfried or Dumas and you aren’t a hollow suit of armor either.”
Nightmare then grits his teeth. “I was given a body by Soul Edge so that I would be able to separate myself from that annoying cur, Siegfried. His interference was starting to irritate me. In the end though, I was only just a puppet to release the spirit that dwelled in the Soul Edge.”
The Destroyer’s eyes widened. He released Inferno from Soul Edge onto this world? Is that what is causing the darkness from this world to run rampant? He then scowls at Nightmare, “What?! Why on earth did you do such a stupid thing?... Oh… right…”
Nightmare scowled, “Get in line with… wait, what do you mean by ‘oh right?’”
The Destroyer reaches over to a corpse and picks up a large mace. “It’s obvious. In the end, you are just another servant of Soul Edge that needs to be put down.”
Nightmare then reaches over his back to pull out his sword, ready to fight. “Whatever, I’m tired of talking to you. It’s not like I needed even more reason to kill you.”
Nightmare charges at the Destroyer with a horizontal slash right at his neck. The Destroyer ducks under the slash and rises back up with a swing at his left shoulder. Nightmare stumbles backwards from the force of the attack, leaving a dent in his armor. He then delivers two quick punches from his demonic arm. The Destroyer gets punched in the gut and gets knocked to the ground. Nightmare slams his weapon down at the Destroyer while he is on the ground, but he rolls out of the way and back on his feet again. The Destroyer slams the mace right at his feet, crushing his toes. Nightmare yells from the sudden pain. The Destroyer then swings widely and Nightmare gets launched backwards, smashing into an abandoned building.
Nightmare grunts as he pushes himself out of the wall’s new indentation. The Destroyer charges at him and swings downward to where Nightmare is, but Nightmare quickly dives out of the way and slashes at the Destroyer’s right flank. The Destroyer winces, but shifts his weight turns right and swing at where Nightmare stands. Nightmare blocks the attack with his demonic arm, but the amount of force swung from his weapon causes him to yell in pain again and his arm starts bleeding heavily. Nightmare shoves the mace to the side, out of his arm and does an upward swipe at the Destroyer. The Destroyer backs off to avoid getting slashed, but the tip of the blade sliced into his chest. However, the wound is not very deep. The Destroyer swings horizontally twice at the Azure Knight. Nightmare ducks under the first strike, but gets hit in the shoulder again with the second strike. Nightmare bends down swings his giant arm at the Destroyer’s legs. The Destroyer gets smacked in the leg, but he swings his mace down. While the mace head passes over Nightmare’s head but crashes right onto his back. Nightmare’s eyes widen as he starts coughing blood. Enraged, he grips both ends of his weapon, raises his sword upwards to push back the Destroyer. The Destroyer gets shoved right in the gut, but he pushes back by thrusting the mace onto his left leg. Nightmare stumbles backwards and regains his footing, but his left leg armor gets cracked. Nightmare throws a right kick at the Destroyer’s stomach, but the Destroyer side steps away from his leg and swings down at his right thighs. The attack tumbles Nightmare back onto the ground, shattering both leg armors. With his legs damaged, he starts to struggle getting up.
The Destroyer rests the mace on his shoulder and taunts the Azure Knight, “Is this all you got? The other Nightmares were much more challenging than you. It seems your physical body has made you weak.”
Nightmare snarls and roars at him, “JUST SHUT UP.”
In a fit of rage, he charges at the Destroyer, with his sword held back ready to stab. As soon as he was in range, he thrusts the blade at the Destroyer’s heart, but the Destroyer swings his mace wide to knock the sword away from its intended path and swings again right at Nightmare’s head, landing with a sickening thud.
The blow to the head left Nightmare stunned, out of breath, and on his knees. The Destroyer drops his mace, rushes over, and punches him in the head. After Nightmare took the punch, he reflexively reacts by turns his attention back to his opponent and stands up to fight back, but the Destroyer grabs his neck with left hand, and throws him to the ground. The impact of himself smashing into the ground forced Nightmare to drop his weapon. As Nightmare struggles to get up on to his feet, the Destroyer quickly grabs Nightmare’s weapon and swings at his legs, slicing them cleanly above his knees. Nightmare forcibly falls onto the floor, flat on his back and facing upwards. His eyes widened as the Destroyer raises his own sword against him. Nightmare raises his demonic arm in defense, but it only proves futile. The Destroyer then swings down his blade and cleaves right through his neck. Nightmare’s arm flops back to the ground as his head rolls off, leaving a bloody trail.
The Destroyer sighs as he looks over Nightmare’s sword. It looks exactly like Giant Buster with the sole exception of the word “ECLIPSE” etched above the hilt. He already has his own Giant Buster sword, so he figures it is not worth keeping. However, he still hangs on to it for the time being just in case.
Soon after, he sees a moving shadow on the ground. He quickly looks up towards the source of shadow, he spots someone flying towards his way. As the figure soon starts to descend and approach him, the Destroyer steps out of the way. The figure reveals herself to be a woman wearing sea-green plate armor decorated with gold filigree. The woman also has jade green eyes, dark brown hair, and with a helmet shaped like a dragon’s head. She gasps and screams as she spots Nightmare’s bloodied corpse on the ground and exclaimed, “WHAT HAPPENED?”
The Destroyer briefly looks at Nightmare and then turns back to the woman with a reply, “Oh that? I took care of your Nightmare problem.”
The woman drops towards Nightmare’s side and picks up his head. She then starts sobbing as she closely hugs the head. The Destroyer raises his eyebrow in confusion, “Uh, miss… are you o… GAH!” The woman violently swings her arm at the Destroyer, and he flies straight into a wall. After the wall crumbles upon impact, the Destroyer stands up, and dusts himself off, and picks up Eclipse. He yells at her while enraged and confused, “HEY! WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?”
The woman gently places Nightmare’s head back on the ground and gets back on her feet. She extends her arm and a lance flies into her hand. She twirls the lance and points it at the Destroyer and glares at him with malice, “You… you killed the man I love…”
The Destroyer was taken back at her statement. “Hold up, you’re kidding right? No one in their right mind can love a monster like that.”
The woman yells at the Destroyer, “HE IS NOT A MONSTER! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM!”
The Destroyer sarcastically claims, “Oh, so you mean he didn’t go rampaging around the continent and killed off hundreds of innocents...”
The woman cries in desperation, “STOP IT!”
“He did not unleash the Evil Seed, corrupting the world…”
“SHUT UP!”
“And he really did not unleash the spirit of Soul Edge to facilitate spreading darkness and death onto this world!”
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”
“Uh-huh, totally not a monster, right?”
The woman threw another blast or air at the Destroyer, but this time, he sidestepped away from the gust. The woman starts sobbing and seething in rage and utters.
“I, Megumi, Lordess of the Winds sen-”
The Destroyer interrupts her, “Wait wait wait, Lordess is not even a word. I think the term you are looking for is Lady…”
Megumi yells back, “SILENCE! I, MEGUMI, LORDESS OF THE WIND, SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH.”
The Destroyer sighs at her ignorance, but then chuckles at her declaration, “Oh-ho, so we’re going through with this? Fine, I’ll play along.” He then points Eclipse at her and says, “If you’re sentencing me to death then… count up your sins.”
Megumi quickly rushes in and raises her lance, Vidofnir. Once she is in range, she quickly starts thrusting rapidly at the Destroyer, but the Destroyer raises Eclipse as a shield and fends off the stabs. He then pushes her spear away with the flat of the blade and then swings Eclipse down at her. The tip of the blade slams into her shoulder but she does not flinch and retaliates by stabbing the side of his waist. Based on her reaction, it seems her rage and adrenaline has allowed her ignore pain. The Destroyer uses his left hand to grab the spear’s shaft and pulls it away from his body. Megumi moves back and tries stabbing at his head. The Destroyer side steps away from the stab and swings the giant blade down at Megumi. The blade crashes down at Megumi’s body, slamming her into the ground. However, Megumi quickly gets back on her feet and swings the lance at his neck. However, the Destroyer just blocks it again and slashes at her legs. The blade cuts into Megumi’s thigh and collapses to her knees. She then angrily yells and slams her fist into the ground in frustration. She then slams her lance upright in the ground and uses it to quickly get back up on her feet.
Knowing this battle is getting her nowhere, she quickly uses her command of the wind to propel her into the sky, thinking she might have an advantage. The Destroyer responds, “I get it. Fine, let’s take it to the skies.”
He stabs Eclipse into the ground and slams his fist into his hand. The steel wings he acquired from earlier sprout out from his back and expand to its full wingspan. He then jumps and flies upwards after Megumi. The two of them eventually stop in the air and meet face to face again. The Destroyer then pulls out his fire imbued great sword and readies himself.
Again, Megumi makes the first move and beelines straight for the Destroyer. She tries thrusting at his head, but the Destroyer knocks her lance out of its path again and slashes at her torso. The flame sear her torso, but then she kicks the Destroyer in the stomach and pushes him away.
She flies up and swings her lance which blows out strong bursts of wind. The Destroyer raises his sword and blocks the gusts, but gets pushed back. He then swings his blade and a flaming wave races at Megumi. However, she just dives right through it headfirst, ignoring the scorching pain, and thrusts the lance at him. The Destroyer got caught off guard by her going through the fire rather than dodging it, and gets stabbed in his left side of the stomach. The Destroyer then retaliates and slashes her upper left arm.
Megumi gets a huge gash in her arm, but ignores the pain. She then closes in for a head-butt and rams her head against his forehead. The Destroyer flinches but then charges his left arm with his thunderbolt energy and punches her right in her chest. Megumi suddenly screams in pain as the force violently tumbles her back several meters away from him.
The Destroyer then flies up high into the sky, but then he stops midair. He then drops down towards Megumi, but extends his legs out and charges them with his thunderbolt power. As he falls, he quickly accelerates towards Megumi. However, once Megumi regains her balance, she charges at the Destroyer with his lance extended like a human arrow and uses the wind to further accelerate and propel herself. Once the two of them close in on each other, Megumi tries hitting the Destroyer’s ankle, but she misses and is only met with two feet smashing straight into her face.
Megumi quickly plummets to the ground and bone crunching thud follows her ungraceful landing. The Destroyer stops and hovers in the air, observing Megumi to see if she is still going to fight. Megumi then coughs up blood and spits out teeth, but she quickly flies up towards the Destroyer, still unwilling to back down.
Between her desperation to avenge her beloved Nightmare and not allowing herself to lose, Megumi tries to pull one final attack. She then extends her left hand and fires a tornado at him. However, the Destroyer twirls his flaming sword and a wave of fire emits from his sword. The two elements clash in the middle, but the flames start to consume the oxygen blown from the tornado. Megumi tries push the tornado back, but the increasing amount of air only makes the fire spread faster. The fire whirl erupts back at Megumi, engulfing her entire body in flames.
Megumi starts screaming in overwhelming pain as the flames start to char every part of her body and melt her armor down. Once the fire whirl dissipates, Megumi then plummets to the ground in a daze, slamming straight back on solid ground. With her body now exhausted and the adrenaline no longer pumping, Megumi completely collapses and her body in absolute pain that the adrenaline previously masked. The Destroyer then slowly descends back onto the ground to where Eclipse previously was. Once his feet touch the ground, his steel wings fold themselves back into his body. He then sheathes the flaming great sword back into his pocket dimension and picks up Eclipse again. He then slowly moves towards Megumi’s fallen body.
In a last ditch effort, Megumi uses the force of her will to get on her knees and then and stretches her hand out. Suddenly, the air from the Destroyer’s lungs starts to get pulled out of him. The Destroyer’s body gets into shock but his body starts pumping with adrenaline to force him to act to save his life. In a last ditch effort, he fiercely hurls Eclipse right at Megumi. Megumi’s eyes widen at the flying gigantic blade, and it smashes right into her torso. The impact shatters the blade into fragments and knocks Megumi flat onto the ground again, releasing her hold on the Destroyer’s breath. The Destroyer gasps and collapses to his knees, taking in deep breaths and violently coughing to recover. The only thing Megumi can do is look up into the sky, her body broken, burnt, and now covered in the blade’s shrapnel.
Once finally fully regaining his breath, the Destroyer gets back on his feet and walks over to Megumi. Once he reaches her, he grabs her lance, Vidofnir, next to her and then raises it up as the spearhead points down on her. Megumi then closes her eyes to embrace the inevitable. If this is how her life ends, then so be it. She fought for revenge, but still lost in the end. She rather die than live without her beloved. She utters, “Just kill me already. End me. Stab me straight through the heart and end this pain.”
The Destroyer acknowledges her request, “Very well. Time to pay for your sins.”
As the Destroyer finally then thrusts the spear down at Megumi, she begins to embrace her death. However, a clang starts to ring out.
Megumi opens her eyes and sees the lance’s point has been blocked by the surface of a scythe blade. The both of them turn their heads and look towards the scythe wielder. Upon seeing a familiar face, Megumi then softly uttered, “Ismaire…” The girl, Ismaire, then swings her weapon to shove the lance out of Megumi’s way and points it at the Destroyer.
“So you’re the one who killed Clunky. Hell, I wish I could’ve done it instead though we did need him to kill Lucifurius… However, what really pisses me off is that you just attacked and beaten my best friend. Now, you’re going to have to deal with me!”
The Destroyer raised his eyebrow as he shoves the scythe out of his face.
“Wait, who’s Clunky and Lucifurius, and while I’m at it, who are you?”
The woman then twirls her scythe and rests the weapon upright as she replies.
“Clunky would be that armored dumbass you just killed earlier. Lucifurius would be the spirit that lived in Soul Edge. As for me, I’m Ismaire, Ismaire Chellere Uemytlach, the new god supposedly protecting this world after the old one, Azoth, needed a replacement.”
“Lucifurius? That’s a stupid name, and you’re a god? What a bang up job you did here.”
“Hey! It’s not that easy prevent this world from crumbling away!”
“Then why did you need… Clunky to kill Lucifurius?”
“Because he is the one destined to kill him. He’s the only one who can and now he’s gone because of you.”
The Destroyer then laughs, “Seriously? You’re kidding!”
“Yes, it’s stupid, I know…”
After the Destroyer laughs for a straight three minutes, he then catches his breath and resumes speaking, “Hah… hah… heh… Then where is Soul Calibur? The sword ment to stop Soul Edge?”
“Soul Calibur got released too, so Scyrus is out to fight him too… but she’s evil as he is.”
The Destroyer sighs. This world is really messed up. “I guess it’s up to me to kill them then...
Ismaire shakes her head. “Killing them is impossible and they can only be sealed. Even then you have to seal them simultaneously or else the world will be unbalanced, causing an unprecedented amount of damage.”
The Destroyer then sighs, “That hasn’t stopped me before. Where is Lucifurius?”
Ismaire scoffed, “Oh no. Why should I help you cause any further damage? Especially not after what you’ve done to my best friend! In fact… I think some payback is in order.”
The Destroyer sighs. “Fine. I’ll beat the answer out of you if you wish. You’re going to regret this.”
Isamire laughs, “And you think you can beat a goddess?”
“You say it like it’s impossible.”
Destroyer then slashes upwards at Ismaire while he lets go to throw Vidofnir up into the air. As Ismaire dodges away from the slash, Vidofnir suddenly vanishes into the Destroyer’s pocket dimension. Suddenly, the Destroyer summon a thunderbolt and sparks it along his arms, causing metal gauntlets to form. Ismaire then jumps towards the Destroyer and swings her scythe downwards. However, the Destroyer leaps away from the scythe, though with an irritated expression on his face. He asks in an irked tone, “Seriously? How long have you been a fighter?”
Ismaire smirks, “Why do you ask? Are you getting scared already?”
As Ismaire swings her scythe in various angles: right, left, down, diagonally, the Destroyer simply swats it away each time. Due to the scythe’s weight and where the scythe’s edge is located, he has nothing to fear from her attacks. When she swings her scythe from her right side again, the Destroyer grabs the top of the scythe’s blade with his left hand in mid swing.
He then respond back in a slightly calmer tone, “I ask because only amateurs and idiots think a scythe is viable weapon on the battlefield!”
With the scythe in his grip, he charges in and shoves the scythe’s blade back towards Ismaire. Ismaire was unable to keep her grip and quickly finds the inner blade embedded into her lower chest. After Ismaire cries in pain, the Destroyer taunts her, “After all, notice how the scythe’s edge, that sharp part used to inflict pain, is facing its wielder, you, rather than its opponent, the person you’re fighting.”
Ismaire snarls back, “Why you…”
As she pries the scythe out of her body, the Destroyer leaps back away from her. She then tosses it aside and charges after the Destroyer. One she gets in range, she reaches down to grab her scimitar from her belt. As she was about to draw her weapon, the Destroyer then grabs her arm and pushes it down to sheathe her weapon and then punches with his right arm, directly in her chest right under her neck.
The force of the punch sends her flying backwards and tumbling. The only thing stopping her was a direct collision into a wall, causing it to crumble over her when she finally stopped.
After the dust and debris finally settle, she gets up on her knees, but she starts coughing up blood. Once she clears her throat, she looks up and starts looking around for the Destroyer, only to find him standing over Megumi’s body. Ismaire yells, “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
The Destroyer looks at Ismaire, but quickly turns his attention back to Megumi. Ismaire looks around for her scythe and once she finds it, she starts sprinting as fast as her injured body could in desperation to save her friend. Meanwhile, the Destroyer reaches down towards the fallen Megumi and grabs her neck. Megumi grunts and struggles to break away but she was in such pain that she could barely move, let alone try to pry him off with her hands. The Destroyer then hoists her up on her feet and let go of her neck. Megumi reflexively gasps and coughs for air, but the Destroyer smacks the corner of her shoulder which forces Megumi to twirl around to turn her back towards him.
He leans his head over Megumi’s shoulder and speaks in her ear, “This might hurt a bit.”
Megumi blurts out, “Huh?” as the Destroyer jams his hands into her back and then does a prying motion to open her back. Megumi suddenly starts to yelp as her entire body starts to twist and contort in ways that most humans cannot physically bend without breaking their bones.
Ismaire finally charges in with scythe in hand, but she stop as her eyes widen to witness her friend being transformed. At the end of the shape shifting, Megumi’s entire body takes the form of a lance, which the Destroyer promptly grabs. Ismaire’s orange eyes burn with rage as she yells at the Destroyer, “You better change her back!”
The Destroyer simply replies, “Then make me.”
Ismaire snarls as she charges at her foe with her scythe raised. As she strikes down at the Destroyer’s head, he then raises his lance to block the attack. Suddenly, Ismaire’s eyes widen as she stops her attack, not wanting to hurt her friend. The Destroyer tilts his head and curiously asks, “Eh? What’s wrong?”
Ismaire grits her teeth and responds in frustration, “You coward! You’re using her as a shield!”
The Destroyer calmly replies, “Oh that… too bad for you, huh?”
He swiftly twirls the lance to knock the scythe’s blade out of the way and then thrusts towards Ismaire, but she jumps back away from the thrust. However, when she lands, she clutches her chest wound from earlier. The Destroyer takes advantage of the opportunity of her hesitation and thrusts straight at her left thigh. She winces in pain and swings the scythe at the Destroyer’s left side. However, the Destroyer just raises the lance in its path and Ismaire stops mid-swing again. The Destroyer then knocks the scythe away with a swing of the lance, and he stabs her right in the stomach. However, Ismaire smirks as she then uses her freehand to grab the lance and starts walking backward in attempt to force him to release her friend. However, the Destroyer instead quickly lunges along with her, which pierces her body all the way through. After he charges in and drives the lance’s shaft all the way through her, he promptly slams the bottom of his right foot against her hip, which forces Ismaire to eject herself out of the lance. After the lance’s tip tears her innards again during her exit, Ismaire then tumbles to the ground. She then gets on one knee and starts clutching her stomach.
She utters, “Damn it…”
The Destroyer suddenly leaps into the air and aims the lance straight for her head. However, Ismaire quickly rolls away and the Destroyer lands right where she stood. Ismaire digs the scythe’s shaft into the ground as she gets back on her feet. As she stands back up, the Destroyer then uses Megumi’s power to surround the lance with wind power and starts widely swinging at Ismaire. Ismaire tries to dodge, but get cut in the chest. The Destroyer carries the momentum of his swing to spin his body around and goes in for another slash, only for Ismaire to be repeatedly struck again and again, until the fifth and final strike delivers an explosion, Ismaire screams as she gets sent flying back and hits the ground, rolling along the ground. Ismaire coughs as she struggles to get back her feet again.
The Destroyer places the lance upright and says, “Here! You can have your friend back!”
Ismaire suddenly perks up but looks confused at the same time. The Destroyer then tosses the Megumi lance into the air as Ismaire’s eyes follow her. Suddenly, it starts raining javelins down at Ismaire’s position. Ismaire tries to raise her scythe to block the scythe, but she could not react fast enough and the javelins strike and pin down Ismaire back to the ground. The last javelin, the original lance, from before and it strikes down on Ismaire right in the middle of her chest. Ismaire screams in pain but the lance changes and unfolds back into Megumi’s original humanoid form. Megumi too collapses to the ground next to Ismaire and passes out.
Ismaire turns to look at her friend. “Megumi? Megumi!”
However, no word comes out of her mouth. However, she is still breathing, albeit slowly.
Ismaire then sighs, but soon sees the Destroyer standing over her. He then reaches down grabs violently her by the neck.
“I have no idea why your god chose you to become his replacement. For a protector and a warrior, you could not even touch me, let alone stop me.”
He raises his fist, which then charges with lightning.
“Last chance. Tell me where Lucifurius is.”
“Hah! I’m not telling you shit. Are you an idiot? You cannot kill a goddess!”
“Let’s test that theory… with your face.”
The Destroyer slams Ismaire straight into the ground. As Ismaire shouts in pain, the Destroyer straddles himself on top of her. He then starts punching Ismaire’s face repeatedly. Each punch delivering a sickening sound of her skull cracking as well as sparks flying as it shocks her face, causing severe burns on her skin. After ending his barrage, he pauses to catch his breath. Ismaire no longer looking like a woman, but rather some skinless charred zombie. Ismaire immediately starts hacking and coughing out teeth and blood. As she continues to bleed out, she utters her last words, “No… damn it… not… again…”
The Destroyer then yells as he unleashes one final punch, causing lightning to directly explode in her face. Ismaire finally lays limp but her eyes were still open. Soon after, her lifeless body then starts to dissolve until she was nothing.
The Destroyer then dusts off his hands and looks over to the unconscious Megumi. He turns his body towards her and then pokes her. Megumi suddenly wakes up and looks around. Once she sees the Destroyer, she lays back down. “Oh it’s YOU. What do you want?”
“I don’t suppose you know where Lucifurius is.”
“…I do but I’m not telling you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you killed the man I love.”
“Hey, I did you a big favor. You should be thanking me for that.”
She then rolls over on her side, hiding her face.
“…Just leave me alone. I don’t want to live anymore.”
“Tell you what. I’ll grant that wish if you tell me where he is.”
“…Okay, fine.”
She then stretches her arm and points.
“He was last seen near Caer Pelyn, the Black Temple. It’s about a two day journey from here.”
The Destroyer looks at the direction and nods, “All right then. Time to perform your last rites.”
He then starts to unbuckle her breastplate and tosses it aside.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“It would be easier to pierce your heart without that breastplate in the way.”
“Oh… right…”
The Destroyer then summons her Vidofnir and place the tip it over her left breast. As Megumi closes her eyes, the Destroyer pierces her heart in one swift motion, immediately killing her. He then pulls the spear out and summons it back in his pocket dimension as Megumi rests onto the ground and exhales her last breath.
He then walks out of Sylvia, looking out beyond its walls again. He finds a beaten pathway along the direction Megumi directed to earlier. He follows it in hopes of reaching Caer Pelyn. Within those two days, the Destroyer rests to heal his wounds as well as slaying the monsters that now roam the lands. He eventually sees a large temple on the distance and quickly approaches it.
The Destroyer spotted two men standing in front of the temple’s entrance conversing with each other. One man is garbed in black robes, has long black hair, horns growing out of head, and has heterochromia, one red and one hazel eye. The other figure was dressed in a white hooded robe and his face was shrouded entirely in darkness. In his hand, he carried a scythe.
As the Destroyer approached the two, the two of them turned their attention to the stranger in return. The black robed man addressed him, “So… if my intel is correct, you must be the man who has slain Nightmare.”
The Destroyer replied, “Then you must be Lucifurius.”
The black robed man nodded, “Indeed I am. However, you arrived too late. My plan is now entering the final phases thanks to you. Not only did you kill Nightmare, the only person who can kill me, but an elemental lord and even Azoth’s replacement. Now, there truly is nothing that shall stand in my way.”
The Destroyer crosses his arms, “Don’t be so sure.”
Lucifurius chuckles, “Oh? Are you talking about yourself? You fool. It took the might of all four elemental lords and the god Azoth to even seal me! How could one single person possibly defeat me?”
The Destroyer slams his fist into his palm, “Care to find-”
Suddenly, the white robed man stood between them and faced the Destroyer. He quickly interrupted, “Tell me something. What is your objective here?”
The Destroyer paused at his abrupt appearance, but he bluntly replied, “I’m here to destroy this world and erase it from the universe. It has become too tainted to exist.”
The white cloaked man then spoke, “Then it seems our goals are one and the same then. I too wish for a world that no longer exists.”
White Cloak then got on one knee and bowed to the Destroyer, “It is because of these circumstances that I wish to be in your service.”
Lucifurius snarls, “You dare betray me, Arbitrus? You will regret your decision.”
The Destroyer raises his eyebrow, “Wait a second, you’re just willing to break off your alliance with Lucifurius? Uh… Arbitrus was it?”
Arbitrus nods. “Yes, and he only wishes to cover the multiverse in primordial darkness and rule all that he conquers whereas you wish for this world’s destruction. Again, our goals are the same.”
The Destroyer thought, that while it was unexpected, it wasn’t unwelcome. It is one less obstacle at least.
However, Lucifurius interjects and boasts, “Not only shall I rule over this world, but the entire omniverse as well! All will be conquered! Death to them all!”
The Destroyer just laughs, “Rule over the omniverse? You’re trying to do the impossible. The omniverse comprises of infinite universes. No single being can control what’s infinite. How are you going to govern the entirety of the multiverse? Using primordial darkness? You’re basically talking about using chaos to establish order. Obviously, no one can control chaos, especially on something of that magnitude. Not to mention, what’s this ‘Death to them all’ bullshit? I’m pretty sure you need living people to actually rule. Seriously, how fucking stupid are you? With someone as incompetent as you, all you will end up is worthless scum meant to be erased in the annals of history.”
Unable to come up with a rebuttal, Lucifurius twitches his eyebrow and snarls angrily, “You cur… Just who the hell are you?!”
“I am a traveling Destroyer of Worlds… Remember that!”
Lucifurius roars as flames erupt from his hands, creating two swords entirely composed of fire in both hands. He swings his swords as the Destroyer and Arbitrus leap away from him.
The Destroyer turns to Arbitrus and says, “Very well, I accept your offer.”
Arbitrus nods, “Then what are your orders?”
The Destroyer looks at Lucifurius and then faces him again, “I might as well ask. Does this guy have any weaknesses?”
Arbitrus says, “The only way to kill him is to shatter his gem located in his head.”
Glancing at Lucifurius, no gem was visible on his head. He thought that perhaps the gem is inside is head. Then Lucifurius summons undead wolves and sends them to attack.
“What are you orders?”
“Cover me by getting rid of the small fry. I can take care of Lucy by myself.”
“At least you give me something to do unlike my previous masters. Very well.”
Arbitrus waves his hand and light starts to disintegrate the demons. He then charges at them with his scythe in tow.
The Destroyer reaches into his scabbard and pulls out a great sword of water.
Lucifurius rushes in with a horizontal slash, but the Destroyer blocks the flaming swing with his own slash to knock it away. Apparently, his swords are still solid, rather than purely fire. In addition, the contact between the two swords is slowly causing his flames to shrink. Lucifurius goes in for a stab, but the Destroyer just knocks it away again with another slash and kicks him right in the chin. Lucifurius gets knocked back a bit and rubs his chin. He quickly swings his sword again, and he manages to slash his upper arm. The Destroyer winces but he knocks the swords away with his great sword and cuts into his stomach. Lucifurius steps back to keep his distance away from his sword. He lunges in and thrusts both his swords out. The Destroyer’s sides get caught into the blades and Lucifurius lifts him. In the air, the Destroyer slams his pommel on the top of Lucifurius’s head, causing him to get dazed and lets him go. The Destroyer falls back on the ground. As he stands back up, Lucifurius goes in for a vertical slash, but the Destroyer blocks it with his own blade. He slides his sword against his, which causes the flame to extinguish, and it cuts into his fingers. Lucifurius reflexively pulls back his hand, watching his hand starting to bleed black blood. As he tries summoning another flame sword, the Destroyer lunges and chops off his entire arm, right through the shoulder. Lucifurius yells in pain as black blood starts leaking out of his wound. He growls, “Lucky sho-.”
Suddenly, his other arm falls into the ground as the Destroyer chops it off again during his moment of hesitation.
Lucifurus utters, “Damn it.”
“Looks like you’ve been disarmed,” the Destroyer quips.
Lucifurus was almost left speechless, “… Did… Did you seriously just-”
“Yes. Yes, I did,” the Destroyer interrupts.
The Destroyer goes in for a rising slash, but Lucifurius leaps away from the slash. However, as the Destroyer raises his sword over his head, he points the blade at his foe and throws it. Lucifurius was caught by surprise by the flying sword as it impales his heart. The impact forces him to cough out more black blood.
Lucifurius stumbles backwards, but quickly regains his footing. He grasps the sword, and tries pulling it out, but he really struggles due to the length of the blade and his heart being pierced. He quits trying to pull out the blade and yells, “I will not die... NOR WILL MY DREAM!”
The Destroyer then gets into a running start and then leaps towards Lucifurius. He then pulls his arm back and charges it with a large amount of lightning. The Destroyer shouts, “LIGHTNING PUNCH!”
Once he is in range, he slams his fist straight into Lucifurius’s face. The sound of blood gushing, skull cracking, and gem shattering resonates in the air as Lucifurius gets sent flying. After he falls flat on his back, his body starts to violently emit sparks until he finally explodes. His death cry pierces the air as the explosion incinerates any remains of his body. Once the smoke and flames disappears, all that is left is the sword that was lodged in his body. The Destroyer walks over and picks up his sword.
As Arbitrus slays the last wave of monsters, he turns to the Destroyer. He hovers towards him.
“I take it you beat him then.”
The Destroyer nods as he puts the sword in his sheathe, “That I did.”
Arbitrus looks over the smoldering grass where Lucifurius once stood. “Impressive.”
The Destroyer stretches. “Anyways, time to do my job. What will you do after I destroy the world?”
Arbitrus lets off a soft chuckle, “Same thing as everything else. I will finally achieve the eternal slumber I seek.”
The Destroyer nods, “Very well then. May you finally rest in peace, Arbitrus.”
“Thank you and farewell.”
The Destroyer opens his palm. His thunderbolt sparkles in his hand until it turns into a hammer. The Destroyer raises the hammer in the air until it charges up and sparks violently. He slams the hammer into the ground. Brilliant arcs of lightning flash and tear the world asunder, causing massive fissures and eruptions throughout the entire planet.
As the world quakes and splits, an astral gate appears before the Destroyer. He waves goodbye to Arbitrus as he walks through. Arbitrus stands up straight and salutes in return. He suddenly vanishes along with the rest of the world as it shatters and dissolves into the empty void of space, leaving nothing behind.