----------------------------------
Darius Black
I'd always known Lough was powerful. He was a man of inner strength who never gave up until he'd achieved his goal.
But to see him fight the headmaster, an S-rank mage, was completely mind-blowing. I watched as Lough was sent crashing into the wall of the stadium from a strike to his stomach.
What? Headmaster Kirk's move was so quick... what just happened? I thought confusingly.
"Jess, did you see that?" I asked. Jessica, my sister, was sat beside me, watching the match with a focused look in her eyes. I knew something was going on between her and Lough. Lough had said so himself, but I knew that they had a thing for each other even before that. I was her brother and Lough's close friend. It was almost like I was destined to know.
"Yeah... just what was that?" She whispered as we watched Lough stand back up.
"I don't know, but... I think Lough is gonna -" I started, but my eyes widened, and a bubbling feeling of excitement entered my stomach as I watched Lough pull out everything he had. His body coated itself in lighting, and I watched in awe as he deployed the same field type spell he had during the free for all. However, this spell was clearly a lightning based one. Electricity filled the air with a static charge and lightning bolts streaked across the sky.
"Looks like he doesn't care about hiding himself anymore," I said to no one but Jess.
"Evidently not... I dread to think what will happen after this match with the officials," she answered back.
I had no doubts that he would be fine no matter what. Lough was a guy who would go through hell and back to achieve what he wanted. I knew that the day he had grabbed my throat and pinned me to the wall. His eyes that day had conveyed a story of trial and error to get to where he was now. The eyes of a man who has killed and would have killed both me and my sister in that moment if we had done things even a little differently to what we had done.
I wasn't a massive believer in the multiverse theories or whatever... but if it were true... then it was likely this was one of the few where my sister and I came out unscathed from that encounter. After hearing his story, I knew he was leaving out details. Having spent a lot of time with him now, getting closer and becoming like best friends, I knew there was stuff he was hiding from the two of us. Perhaps hiding from everyone, including himself. That worried me beyond belief. I could see the determination in his eyes that wasn't just the fight that lived within him. There was an apparent fear and primal instinct to get stronger... as if to survive... or to fight something stronger than himself.
Jess tapped me and brought me out of my deep thoughts. "Darius, are you ok?"
I nodded gently, "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry, I'm sure your boyfriend will be alright."
Jess' face turned red, and she scowled at me, "he's not my boyfriend!"
"You tell yourself that, I know he either is, or you want him to be," I retorted with a smug grin.
"Go away!" She cried out at me. I laughed and turned my focus back to the fight. Somehow, in the short time I was distracted, Lough had planted headmaster Kirk into the wall of the arena and was pummelling him with electrified blows that were never-ending. Isn't that a bit much Lough?
I saw a set of guards enter the arena, clearly trying to help Sir Kirk. My body shivered as Lough directed a venomous glare at them, and a rain of lightning bolts struck down on them from the sky that was charged with electrical power. The bolts vaporised the floor and knocked the guards unconscious. The arena was devastated and destroyed, all by Lough.
I awaited, with almost physical tension, for the next rain of blows to hit the headmaster. But they never arrived. I looked on as Lough began to talk to a near-crippled headmaster.
How has he reduced an S-rank to... this?
I looked at headmaster Kirk. His nose was bleeding, likely broken. The corners of his mouth were leaking blood, and I could see that his legs were shaking tremendously as if they were either having a spasm or they were critically injured. Breathing was ragged, and his chest was rising and falling at an irratic rate. And what are they talking about? I thought silently.
Out of nowhere, I felt Jess cling to my sleeve, and when I looked at her, she was pale and looking up at the sky. "Jess, what's..." I began, but my eyes darted to Lough, who had a similar expression as Jess. What's going on?
Then I felt it, too. A true feeling of fear. It was nothing like what I felt with Lough. This was as if death was coming for us himself. A true deity was about to descend upon the lands.
Purple lighting began to gather in the sky above the blue domain that Lough had manifested. I felt the charge of the electricity increase as Lough readied himself for a fight.
Then, the purple lightning struck down and passed right through the blue sphere. It struck the centre of the arena, and dust kicked up throughout the arena, which obscured my view. The fact I couldn't see didn't matter, however, as I could feel the being that was stood there.
My body shook with terror, and Jess was in a similar state. Just what... just what is this thing?!
I looked at Lough and the fear that was already within me amplified as I saw his look of horror and fear, too. My eyes were darting around wildly, looking for anything that could solve whatever was happening. There was nothing. No one. Nowhere. Everything was over. Whatever had arrived was going to be the very thing that killed me, Jess, Lough, the headmaster, and all the other tens of thousands of people here.
The dust began to clear, and the fear turned physical and twisted a knot in my insides. My breath caught, and my stomach churned, causing me to vomit on the stands beside me.
I looked on with a shaking body and quivering eyes at the monstrosity that stood before me.
A mix of a robot and a dragon that was all black in colour. A single blue eye shaped like a V rested in the head and was scanning the arena for something. Its black metallic tail swished violently, and I flinched as its eye looked directly at me, and then the feeling lessened as it moved on towards Lough.
Wait... there's no way... it can't be...
I watched with abject horror as it focused on Lough and then the ring on Lough's finger. It began to walk towards him, and it left a trail of purple lightning in its wake. Every step felt like I was ageing a year closer to death as its power spread across the entire stadium and threatened to swallow us whole with its pressure and overbearing nature.
It made its way towards Lough, and I could see confusion written across Lough's face.
What is happening right now?! What is that?A God?! I thought as I watched helplessly.
I stared at the monster who had made its way to Lough. Everything next happened so quickly. Lough tried to use a spell, but the being snapped its metal fingers, and his spell was cancelled. Then, a bolt of purple lightning flashed through the air faster than I could blink. Thankfully, Lough avoided the bolt, but I could never have predicted what happened following his dodge.
It was straight out of a horror film. The metallic black dragon clad its fist in the same purple electricity and, almost in an instant, punched a hole through Lough's hip. Bile rose to my throat, and I vomited for the second time as I saw his ribcage jutting out and shattered in some places. Blood was gushing out of this hole and pooling around him faster than it should be. I felt Jess tremble beside me, and I turned to cover her eyes. Tears were streaming down her face, and I pressed my hand to her eyes. "Don't look... I'm begging you," I pleaded to her. She didn't respond, only sat still as I protected her sight from what I was seeing.
The pale look on Lough's face was all I needed to see... to know he was going to die here. I watched with a gut-wrenching dread as the being lifted its large foot and stomped on Lough's left elbow. His arm, that had his hand, flew away and slapped against the wall with a wet thud. I had nothing left to throw up. If I did, I would have done it again then. In a quick motion, I had to cover Jess' ears with my hands and block her vision with my head and body as I heard the most painful, fearful, and blood-curdling scream I'd ever heard in my life.
I'd heard a lot of screams in my time as an assassin. Having done assassinations for a few years, I would have thought hearing screams wouldn't bother me so much. But this was a different kind of scream. A true and tortured scream from my closest friend that broke my mind and tried to rip my ears apart the minute I heard it.
It was so loud and raw that I felt the pain in my own hip and arm. I could sense the emotion and physical pain Lough was experiencing, and tears began to freely stream out my eyes. My vision blurred, but I used my shoulder to wipe my tears so that I could watch and be the living proof of the suffering and torture he went through for everyone here.
That was what I'd hoped...
That hope was crushed as the huge titan created a ball of purple lighting above its head and began to condense it into a small sphere.
That will kill not just Lough... but everyone here!
The sphere of lightning condensed to the size of a beach ball, and my eyes must have deceived me. I watched with a glimmer, a tiny sliver, of hope as a portal opened beneath Lough, and he sank into it. My heart was caged again as the being reached down into the portal, but it began to close around its wrist, which caused the entity to retract, and a shimmer of red crossed its pure blue eye. Shit... It's mad! I thought frantically.
However, to my relief, the being let out a metallic grunt and vanished into a bolt of lightning, which shot vertically upwards into the sky and disappeared off the face of the earth, exiting the atmosphere and vanishing.
It took a while for me to collect my thoughts, and I eventually lifted my hands off of my sister's ears. Her eyes were still leaking tears, and I could see the emptiness in her eyes. It pained me to see my own sister like this. We had been through everything together since we were children. We'd looked out for one another, backed each other up, taken punishments together, and received rewards together. I had an almost physical bond to her... and to see her in this state and be unable to help pained me more than I'd ever felt before.
The truth began to sink in, and that pain only worsened as I remembered that Lough had just been sent through a portal, half dead, to who knows where. I dropped to my knees and let out a dry, pained cry of despair.
"AHHHHHHH!"
My chest pained. My heart burned. My tears fell like rain and dripped to the floor endlessly. I could feel the dryness and roughness of my throat as I released my screams of agony and despair for all to hear. My sister had been reduced to this mental state, and my best friend, a man who I could have maybe called my brother-in-law in the future, had just either died or been teleported thousands of miles away.
Never had I felt this kind of pain. Physical pain didn't even begin to compare to what I felt at that moment. I felt like I was dying. Inside and outside. The pain was real, and it made me want to curl up and vanish.
My face was crusted with dried tears, and I slowly rose to my feet. I walked over to Jess and hugged her silently. Nothing needed to be said. But everything was spoken to one another as we sat and cried silently in each others arms.
Today marked the day that Lough was gone.
And was the day... that everything got so much worse...
--------------------------------