-----Rudeus Greyrat POV----
How?
How is he still standing?
I poured half my mana pool into that lightning strike, enough power to light up continents back in my old world.
And yet… he's still there.
Did I pick a fight with an Elden Ring boss by mistake?
The smoke began to clear.
Through the haze a figure emerged.
Then it hit me.
Bloodlust.
"What firepower…"
The man muttered in awe.
"If anyone had taken that hit by surprise, they'd be pulverized! Cast into dust!"
But the man in the mist wasn't dust.
He stepped forward.
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 air shifted.
The ground trembled.
A black dome erupted outward, swallowing the forest in a five-kilometer radius.
Shit.
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, without another word, I activated the Eye of Foresight.
And the real fight began.
I shifted my weight back and fired a burst of wind from my chest.
The force slammed into me, launching my body downward just in time.
Steel hissed through the air above, missing my head by inches.
Simultaneously, I threw both hands upward, fingers already weaving 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 from his hand.
But the sword moved faster.
With a flick, he twisted his wrist, and the blade danced around the surge like it had a will of its own.
I surged mana into my legs and cast Quagmire, the spell warping the earth beneath me.
His boots sank.
The soft mud clung to him anchoring him in place.
But he was still within strike range.
Without hesitation, he launched six rapid strikes—low, precise, aimed straight at my legs.
I reacted on instinct.
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 didn't stop.
I kept feeding fire into my feet, sustaining my flight, rising higher.
Out of reach.
"YOU'VE GOT A FEW TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE, QUAGMIRE!"
His voice thundered through the battlefield, cutting through the smoke and flame.
"BUT IF YOU THINK THAT'S ENOUGH TO TAKE ME DOWN—YOU'RE DEAD WRONG!"
His eyes burned with fury, his blade already rising for the next strike.
"NO YOU DON'T!!"
I roared, casting water magic with everything I had with no restraint imagining pure raw force.
The spell surged outward, a tidal wave crashing down from the sky, blanketing the battlefield in a water veil of one-kilometer radius.
The Death God hesitated in his strike and then 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 to myself.
"Ka..."
It pulsed like a second heartbeat, wild and unstable.
One wrong move, and it could tear me apart.
"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..."
The mana swirling in my hands was absurd.
I'd never gathered this much for a single spell not in training nor battle.
"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 reacted instantly, leaping into the tallest tree he could reach, just barely avoiding being swept away.
Then he felt the real danger.
His eyes widened.
The light. The pressure. The spell still gathering in my hands.
He dropped into a defensive stance.
I met his gaze from above.
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.
He saw it.
And in that instant, he knew.
He couldn't block it.
His stance broke. He turned and bolted, leaping through the trees like a phantom, trying to break line of sight.
But it was too late.
My Eye of Foresight was already active.
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 Death God moved fast.
But not fast enough.
In the chaos, he shifted his weight straight into the inferno.
The beam caught his upper right torso engulfing it in searing flame.
He didn't scream.
He just moved.
A sharp bounce to the left, vanishing into the treeline like smoke.
I lost track of him.
That's fine.
With such wound like that there is no way he will be able to launch a proper attack on me.
I smirked.
Victory is mine-
A sword tore through the air aimed straight at my neck.
I barely registered the glint before instinct took over.
I twisted midair, fire bursting from my left heel, spinning me just enough to avoid decapitation.
The blade grazed my shoulder, slicing through cloth and skin.
Pain bloomed.
Blood followed.
"Throwing your weapon away? Reckless. Now I know where you are—"
I looked down, ready to fire.
And froze.
The Death God was gone.
"What the—"
My voice barely escaped my throat.
The forest below was silent.
And suddenly, the air around me felt colder.
I panicked.
Pumped full thrust into my fire spell, launching myself upward desperate to escape.
But then I saw it.
A shadow above me.
The Death God.
"Is that the Eye of Foresight?" he said, voice amused. "It is quite troublesome so I'll have to take that away from you, Quagmire."
My blood ran cold.
I hesitated.
And in that moment a flash of silver struck straight into my eye.
"ARGHHH!"
Agony exploded through my skull. My balance shattered.
I fired my magic in every direction, trying to stabilize, trying to flee.
But I was spinning frantic and falling like a shot-down attack helicopter.
"IT HUUURTS!"
I still couldn't cast healing magic without a chant.
So I did the next best thing.
I froze it.
The knife, the eye along with the face.
But the adrenaline, the pain, and the way my organs felt like they'd shifted into my spine, made my control slip.
Badly.
The ice spread too far into my face.
Half my head went numb. My vision blurred. My thoughts fractured.
I think I froze a part of my brain.
And the pain?
It didn't fade. It spiked.
I expected relief. Instead, it felt like I was being boiled alive from the inside out.
I opened my remaining eye and saw the ground rushing up.
Fast.
I cast a wind spell, desperate to slow my fall but I was late.
"OOF!"
I hit hard.
Rolled like a ragdoll.
Wet dirt smeared across my body, clinging to blood, ice, and sweat.
After a brief moment sprawled in the mud, I gasped back to consciousness.
Everything hurt.
My face was half-numb, half-burning.
Vision swam in and out of focus, like I was underwater.
My limbs felt foreign—like they belonged to someone else.
My bones screamed.
My muscles begged.
Just stop.
Just rest.
But I couldn't.
Not yet.
I turned towards the direction I fell from.
And there he was.
The Death God.
Sword back in hand.
Walking towards me.
"Now that I think of it, where's your magic armor Quagmire?"
I spat the blood mixing with mud on my lips.
"You climbed to the Seventh World Power on gear, not strength. Was that not it?"
I pushed myself up, trembling, half-frozen.
"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.
Depth perception? Gone.
"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.
Then Death God with a cold cutting voice.
"This fight has made me realize that you're nothing more than a child in a man's body, desperate for validation."
I 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 within striking range.
But I was ready.
Jets of scalding steam erupted around me, hissing like serpents, forming a barrier of superheated pressure.
I'd raised the temperature to the melting point of iron, and the jets sliced through the air with the precision of diamond cutters.
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 absorb. Muscles would cramp. Joints would stiffen. His breath would shorten.
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.
And I noticed—
I won't win this battle of attrition.
Every two steps I took, he closed the gap by half 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.
Steam hissed. Frost bloomed. The dome echoed with the clash of elements.
And I didn't stop.
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.
I screamed.
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 it.
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 compressed, then rapidly expanded.
Violently.
A miniature explosion, born from pure elemental manipulation.
Back in our world, we'd call it a violent air expansion.
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.
He was still there.
The Death God.
Standing.
His arms and legs scorched. His left side charred and trembling.
But alive.
The words escaped me before I could stop them.
"H-How…"
He looked down at me, voice low, almost impressed.
"I knew you had something in mind. But not at this 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 think I have multiple fractures... And maybe more...
The Death God stepped forward before me, his voice calm, almost casual.
"Quagmire… The moment you cast that strange shield coating your whole body so did I."
He saw through it.
Dammit.
The water layer was meant to mask the shield spell I'd cast on myself early, my failsafe against the explosion.
But it wasn't enough to fool him.
DAMMIT!
I looked up at him, vision swimming, breath ragged.
"Monster…"
The skull-faced man walked toward my lifeless body.
"I was waiting for you to say that." he murmured.
Then he grabbed me by the neck.
Lifted me off the ground.
My feet dangled. My breath caught.
He brought me to eye level, those hollow sockets staring into mine, void of strength, void of fight.
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, dragging every ounce of strength I had left.
And looked up.
At the figure standing before me.
Their stance was firm yet familiar.
I blinked, trying to focus.
Who…?
Steam curled around their silhouette so I could not see their face.
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.