Tohuw and Vanguard
If there was any word to describe the scenery, it was hell. Smoke and fire covered the annihilated landscape, devastation reminiscent of a wasteland smothered by the fires of war.
Hot magma bubbled all over, craters and grisly veins of burning earth tracing back to the center of it all, like a grim spider web.
And in the middle, a pristine man clad in pure white savored his utter victory, his foot resting atop the helmet of a decimated armor, crushed beyond recognition. In contrast, the demon was completely unscathed. Black hair stood up like wild horns, and his eyes glowed with fire no human could replicate. Baring a set of shark teeth, he grinned as if to mock the fallen foe.
“I’m moved. This is what you call an irrational world.” He said smugly.
Honestly, he was a little disappointed. He didn’t expect a challenge, but he had hoped he’d put up more of a fight. If he had known things would’ve been this way, he would have simply crushed the core back in the castle and watched anime.
And suddenly, a dead, metallic voce came from the depths of the shattered helmet.
“How can I have lost… to a filth like you… I won’t allow this… I can’t die… Don't mess with me, Balagan! Do you know how valuable I am?! Scarce! Rare! Unseen! An unique existence that must be preserved! You must understand that as well!! If you do something like this it won't end well for you either!! I AM VANGUARD!! THE ONLY ONE IN HISTORY! JUST ONE! AN ABSOLUTE!! THE LEGENDARY HERO WHO HAS LIVED FOR FIVE THOUSAND YEARS!!!!”
Vanguard’s words echoed trough the barren battlefield, followed by a dead silence. The fire in the demon’s eyes faded along the fire surrounding them, and Tohuw simply looked up in the sky. Was he smiling? None could tell.
“It’s over. Absolute? You can’t be serious.” He solemnly replied.
The metallic creaking of gears echoed from within the armor.
“What?”The demon smiled, like a snake relishing to see its prey struggle in its final moments.
“Odd. I thought you spent your whole life fighting those absolutes. Wasn’t that why you joined the Orden? No, no, no. Your logic is full of whack. Heroes aren’t absolute, they are filled with contradictions. They are the end product of many years of history… the fruit of human endeavor! Like a gem, polished through trials… and errors. It is this fruit we receive, and pass on, and face in our time. And it is always changing, growing. Except for you. You aren’t changing. You’ve stopped.”
“…”And then, Tohuw delivered the armor piercing statement to break that pathetic shell once and for all.
“You’re not needed anymore.”
A curtain of silence fell once more, leaving only the two foes to stare once more.
“Please…spare me… I can’t die here… not like this…” Vanguard replied with a weak trembling voice. It seemed his body had been crushed beyond repair, he could not even flee in such a state.
It was over, and the demon knew it. A cruel smile crawled on his face, his foot released the armor. No longer pinned, the warrior tried to move away. He needed to get to that place, if he could only get to that place…
Tohuw glared at the puppet with pitiless amusement . “A warrior does not beg for his life.”
Then, his hand shot down like a spear, aiming for the crevice in the center of his helmet, his core. The demon’s eyes widened in shock, a metallic thud followed. Was it… hollow?
Fingers searched frantically to no avail, and before Tohuw could realize what happened, a pillar of metal pierced his belly.
The demon stared down in disbelief, black liquid collected around his lips before spewing forth like a waterfall. “What…?” He gasped in a mixture of surprise and anger. Had it always been hollow in there?
“Let…go…” He coughed. Ironically, the armor seemed to have lost what little life it had left and his arm simply fell back down, revealing a glowing white scar filled with a glowing blue gem of sorts.
The demon soon followed suit and dropped, unable to stand any longer. His body bulged and swirled into a myriad of gruesome black shapes, which dissolved one by one as more holes opened up while trying to amalgamate and close down once more, to keep unity.
Where was it? Where was it?
Where was it? Where was it?
Where was it? Where was it?
Where was it? Where was it?
Where was it? Where was it? And then, he felt something pulsate inside him. Something was wriggling and growing more and more, digging inside him. His body went limp as his senses overloaded. And then, a grisly rictus grew on his putrid gooey lips.
“Cheater…!” He growled before spewing forth more of that black mud, the same that composed his decaying body.
Indeed, he had let his guard down. This whole fight had been nothing but a charade, a farce. That man never planned to defeat him in the first place. Yes… it seemed he had been trapped in a spider web this whole time, playing into his fingers, fooled into carelessness and not realizing it until the very end.
Terrifying, that man made him almost look human. Without a proper core, he would not survive. He could have eaten little by little without worry, but his body was not used to such a trauma. To devour so much in so little time, to have such a massive soul instantly breach him, become part of him.
His mind was slowly tearing apart as the massive soul churned and tore at Tohuw’s foundations, reshaping them into it’s own resemblance.
If he managed to overtake him like a cancer, he would not perish. A demon’s body conserved the souls it consumed in stopped time, not allowing them to degrade. An eternal life and an endless torment. And no matter what he did, he would never leave, nor would death release him. To willingly subject oneself to such a supplice, to become a demon... it was madness!
And yet, such an ending seemed to satisfy both. Vanguard would live and forever suffer, for what reason, neither did care. Acta est fabula it seemed. His role now over, it was only fitting for him to take a final bow and leave the stage. Overstaying his welcome was out of the question, and besides, he had left the stage long ago.
As blue cracks formed all over the shapeless blob, bright flames began to consume it and eat at the excess meat. The writhing corpse convulsed and changed, the very existence of Tohuw Balagan dissolving and changing into something new.
Tohuw did not mind his mind tearing apart, what little was left had burned away long ago. So let him take it, all of it. To lose honourably and to win with a bad attitude, that was his motto. Even in his final moments, he did not drop his mocking smile.
Finally, a deep and cold voice rang inside him. It seemed it was truly over.
Auf wiedersehen, kamerad.
After a while, a figure rose from the blue flames, which simply faded into nothing. His eyes were dull, uncaring. He was not unlike a dead fish.
Even such a victory seemed more like a defeat to him. Despite that, he allowed himself a smile and walked away. He would not die, he could not die. He would live no matter what until he seized what he wanted. Until he found his good ending.
"Pathetic." He said in a dull, monotone voice. It was unsure if was referring to himself or that wretched fiend, and neither did it matter. Instead, he allowed white, pristine clothes to cover his naked form and dissappeared.
Count Greyskull
The dust washed off, only to collect once more and form a colorful ball that followed Lumen’s pace and rubbed against her feet like a puppy. Meanwhile, the skeleton blushed and coughed nervously.
“Thanks! I-I’m glad you liked it! There’s nothing a great lord can’t do when he puts his heart into it. Well, I don’t actually have a heart, but well, erm… just forget it. Now we can say we’re even, right?”
