"4..3..2..1"
"Stop, let me rest for a while."
The embodiment of creation remarked, "Keep resting, and your friends will die before your eyes."
Zeph got back into his stance. "I am ready."
This time, three copies of Aurelion spawned.
Zeph used revision. One copy vanished.
Zeph looked at the sky and punched another copy without looking. "This is too easy."
The embodiment of creation reminded him. "You must wait 1 minute before using it again."
Zeph sighed and used unfinished creation to cover his forearms in black relics. His hand felt four times heavier than before. The relics actively rotated, which felt like snails crawling over his skin.
Aurelions sent their identities, cursed them with berserk. They formed a red and white tornado of identities.
All the identities slowly moved closer to him like a snake swirling around his target.
Boom.
Zeph shot upward through the tornado of identities, and crushed most of them with his fists.
He bent his lead foot's knee, touching the ground. He shot himself towards them, crushing a copy's face with his fist.
Air split as another copy punched him, he slipped it. The clone lost its balance and barely managed to stand. Zeph took a moment to think whether Aurelion had failed to account for missing the punch or were these clones simply dumber.
A second punch got his solar plexus. He crashed a few meters away from the copies.
They sent a scythe through him. It pulled his identity from him.
He was losing himself. He couldn't feel it there was no physical pain or memory of the things he was losing.
Seconds felt like hours. Zeph's identity extraction was painfully slow. Then the embodiment of creation reminded him, "One minute has passed since you used your ability."
Zeph used revision again, another copy vanished.
There shouldn't have been any pain, but the sensation was worse than cutting your hand.
The extraction progress of his identity was cut in half. Yet he could not move with a single Aurelion standing.
"I might have underestimated you too much, Aurelion."
Another minute passed.
Zeph used revision again. The last copy died, the remaining identities perished with him.
The embodiment of creation laughed."You won't stand a chance against other celestial beings who won't be affected by your level of revision."
"Then I'll strengthen my revision. "
Zeph smiled and opened his palm to the sky.
"One day, I will revise this entire world."
Zeph created a bench beneath him as he sat down. And a can of soda and a burger in a tray appeared on his lap.
"What do you think of their plan?"
Zeph opened the can. " Kaelen will die, Lyne and Nyx will betray, Silas and Nevyziel will be sacrificed to speed up your mess, and Aurelion will be powerless to do anything. Caeran and I will clean up the mess. But if you count this version of me, it's a different story."
"They have some of the most gifted humans since the existence of humanity and you think, you can make such a big change."
Zeph glanced at Kaelen, who was listening to what he what he couldn't say to him.
He couldn't let him know about his situation, not yet.
He changed it to. "You found me Kaelen."
"No matter how much potential Aurelion and Kaelen have, they can never break the chains that bound them. But I am not bound by those chains. I can change it using them." Zeph crushed the empty can and threw it into nothingness.
5 Aurelions spawned this time.
Zeph looked at his burger and took a quick bite, eating half of it at once.
"If you wanna eat it, then earn it."
The Aurelions stepped forward.
A layer of black relics covered his body, crimson blood running through its cracks. This time it made him feel lighter, and his strikes flowed into the enemy as he intended.
In an instant, he lunged forward. An uppercut shattered the first copy.
Zeph dashed again. A body shot folded the second.
It was when Zeph realized the relic consumed those it killed and became stronger.
A third dash. A roundhouse kick crushed the third's skull while Revision erased the fourth.
Zeph's hand pierced through the last clone's neck.
Zeph looked at the dead Aurelions and pointed his finger towards the sky."This is how I will make the change."
The embodiment of creation said hesitatingly. "Zeph,"
"Hmm?"
"You know that, you will take over your predecessor's body?"
"Hmm hm, I do. What about it?"
"You will lose your body and will have to go with a new name. Zeph would not exist once Aditya does."
"I know I will lose my friends. But at least they will live. I won't have any regrets." Zeph felt his heartbeat speeding up, deep inside he knew he wasn't fine with it.
"I think Kaelen will handle himself better than you think, especially after the deal I made with him."
"Deal? What deal? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"You know the rules, you gotta earn it first."
"Bring it on, ten Aurelions or twenty, i will destroy them."
A shadow figure was slowly forming near him.
"No, not Aurelion this time. I have someone of the same level, and I need only one of him."
The figure slowly turned into Kaelen, Chains covering most of his body.
"Oh, and this Kaelen has perfect battle IQ, good luck."
The chains hid most of him, yet his body exploding could be seen. Every second his body exploded and formed a new one many times. With each death came a different Kaelen.
Zeph took a step back and turned his face behind. "What is he doing?"
"Just using his ability as it was made."
The deaths stopped. The chains exploded as Kaelen's frame extended.
Zeph found himself looking upwards.
The red aura that covered Kaelen made him even more terrifying.
The version of Zeph who would fall back was dead, or so he thought. He used revision to cut off his Kaelen's hand, his own hand was cut off.
Kaelen lunged onto him, caught him by his hair and threw him away. Zeph stopped moving mid air. He looked at Kaelen, he had caught Zeph with a chain.
Kaelen pulled the chain.
Zeph reformed the relics. He begged them. This once. Just this once. Let me live.
An armor made purely of the same material as floor of the void covered his entire body.
Kaelen punched him, He was smacked down to the ground, his pain was turned into his fuel to win.
The armor charged up white lines formed on it and it shone bright.
Kaelen vanished. So did the armor.
"What?" Zeph gasped for air,
"He killed you, the instant he saw you as someone who had a bit of a chance to defeat him, he killed you.". The embodiment of creation bit the corners of his tongue creating tskk sound "Most of the fight happens inside your void, the physical movements are only a distraction."