Chapter Twenty Seven: The Gods Fight Dirty

The sky and the ground were filled with living wood and stone. I’d never felt so small.

Whenever one moved, the earth trembled; whenever many moved, the world quaked.

What enormous power.

The maddening thing was that it would take roughly the same energy I’d spent on that single huge wave to control all those puppets myself.

But hey… I’m Infinity, aren’t I?

It looked like LV had already defeated her foe; she’s a higher god after all. I had to end this quickly — I couldn’t face her with this kind of failure.

“Summoning.”

I called the perfect weapon for this situation.

All my battles so far leaned on my summoning ability, and although I’d been unable to pinpoint this god’s nature, maybe now I could turn the tide.

Scrambling to my feet, I stepped on air and rose into the sky with arrogant speed.

With Zinertia at my left and the cracker staff at my right… I could see the ending.

CRACK!!!!

I positioned myself above the forest of giants, poured enormous energy into the cracker staff until the landscape glowed with my input, and with a mighty swing I shattered every humanoid rock and tree in the area in one strike.

In no time they all cracked into a million shards and vanished.

The cracker staff is the ultimate weapon of heaven, and Zinertia is the ultimate ability.

With the two combined, heaven itself might bow before me.

For a moment, the giants were gone.

That would have been the best ending — if the god had not been able to regenerate them in the blink of an eye.

But hey…

CRACK!!!!

I repeated the motion as fast as I could. Right now he and I were consuming only small amounts of energy compared to the massive waves earlier, so I could keep this up.

That routine continued for almost five minutes when the sky boomed with a new, terrifying voice.

“DROP THE CRACKER AND ZINERTIA… LET’S HAVE A BATTLE OF STRENGTH.”

A battle of strength? “SURE… EVEN THE LOWER GODS FOUGHT ME FACE TO FACE… DON’T BRING SHAME TO THE MIDDLE GODS… ELDRANEEL!!!”

“Eldraneel.” Unlike the gods I’d fought before, he is a middle god — between the lower gods and the higher gods. From hearing him I’d learned his name and rank.

As a middle god, he possessed two domains: plants and earth.

CLANK. CLANK.

Like metal striking metal, he walked on air toward me.

He’s… huge.

He was twice my height, massively muscled, and rings of gold circled his arms and legs.

“Zinertia… summons and cracker… what are the heavens thinking?” were the first words he spoke as he took form.

“We agreed to drop cracker and Zinertia but… to prove my strength… I will fight you without using summons.” I wanted to show him there was a difference between men who hid behind puppets and those who fought face-to-face.

“You are only a human. You may have the power every god seeks, but in the end you are just a human. Do you really think I would lose to you?” he scoffed.

We’ll see about that.

Hiding while leaving your puppets to do your dirty work? I’d never met such a coward.

SWISH.

In less than a millionth of a second, we moved and began exchanging super punches.

It felt as if our hands were still while punches flew from every direction; I dodged with my speed. Our velocities matched and neither of us landed a solid hit, but the energy bursts turned the atmosphere into chaos, whipping winds around us.

Dodging and striking, seconds stretched into eternities.

If only I could summon him anywhere, I could catch him off-guard.

SHOO SHOO.

After the barrage had gone on for long, I noticed a change: my punches felt slower. What’s happening?

In the brief moment I assessed my speed, a solid punch smashed into my face and sent me backward.

Pain. Something was wrong.

I braked midair before being flung too far, but he was already on me — knee driving into my gut, elbow smashing into my head.

My speed had been leeched away. I couldn’t dodge his follow-ups.

BAAAM.

I carved another crater in the earth.

My movements had slowed significantly since the exchange began. Why?

Before I could rise from the hole, he dove down and exploded into the ground with me, causing a gigantic blast.

He pounded me from every direction; I lay face-down as my motion ground down to almost human levels.

Only when my blood stained my body did I notice the rings on his limbs.

I focused, even through the barrage, and listened—there was a faint static from those rings.

SPARK.

The truth flashed through me.

He had hidden his presence before by those rings… and now he used them to seal away my speed.

“Eldraneel… you are a disgrace to the gods…” I spat.

Before I could finish, he landed a skull-shattering blow on my head — like a Reset Punch.

ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN.

Everything went silent. The world vanished from my senses; darkness swallowed my sight.

When I came to, he held me by the neck, metres above the ground.

“I see you’ve come back. You fancied yourself because you possess incredible power… this is what being a god means.” He choked me with his left hand while clenching his right fist.

I was already half-dead; one more blow would have finished me.

Desperately I slapped at his hand, but it wouldn’t budge.

He pulled his fist back to finish the job when…

His arm froze. His grip loosened and I fell out of his hand.

“What is going on!? What did you do to me!?” he screamed, his face twisted with rage as his body stilled.

“You are a disgrace as a god… I have no words for fakes like you… even the lower gods I fought had more pride than you.” I said.

“What!?” he snarled.

His eyes thinned, murderous intent flaring, but he couldn’t move.

“Think about it… I was full of energy before you started cheating. Where do you think all that energy is now?”

“Don’t tell me…!!!” he spat.

“Yes. This fight… is over.”

“No!!!! I can’t lose to a human… I can’t go back to being a nobody!!!” he screamed.

BAAAM

He exploded. 

My fight with Eldraneel had just ended — and now, here I was, face to face with a higher god.