To Violate Violence

Thud. Thud.

The mysterious intruder’s boots crunched against the filthy ground as he approached. He raised his head slightly, glancing at the scene before him.

“Stop right the fuck there!” yelled Kraus.

“C'mon Kraus, relax. The Jashin Mafia are known for being composed,” the intruder chuckled, “Don't ruin the reputation."

“How do you know my… Who are you?” As the intruder's words sank in, Kraus was aghast, droplets of sweat sliding down his forehead. His companions, of course, were seized by the same dread.

“I'm just a lost cockroach, don't you mind me, please.” The intruder took a step back. “That boy over there. I'm taking him. Okay?” His lazy finger pointed at Sarai.

Tied up at the back, Sarai's black eyes widened at the intruder's announcement.

Take me? Yesterday I was a filthy orphan, now gangs are fighting over me? Life sure is funny… Naturally, he had no clue what dragged him to all of this, nor could he guess what was about to occur.

Clueless. Sarai was utterly, completely clueless.

His gaze shifted to Kraus, whose body trembled visibly.

“You’re a Sorcerer… A Faithful Sorcerer, right?” Kraus could feel his cold sweat plastering his hair to his forehead.

“What's your Faith?” He muttered, his eyes darting sideways.

“My Faith, you say?” A soft laugh escaped the intruder's lips.

Abruptly, he pulled a knife from his coat's right pocket and sliced open his left palm.

Drip. Drip.

As blood welled up and gushed from it, the intruder raised his wounded palm toward the Jashin men. Wavy, flame-like sigils were carved into it. They shimmered like heated metal.

“Does this answer your question?” Orange fire coiled around his hand wildly.

“Kraus! The fucker is a Faithful!” One of the armed men screamed. He pointed his gun at the intruder.

“Fire!” His companions tightened their fingers around the triggers.

“Wait! Don't you guys shoot!” Kraus, who had made a late realization, bellowed so loudly his veins bulged.

It was too late.

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

The intruder didn't move an inch. He stood motionless as bullets raced toward him.

“Pffft… useless.” He raised his blazing palm, heat distorting the air around him.

Immediately, the hissing bullets burned to ash and faded through the murky air.

“What…” The armed men froze in disbelief, jaws slack, yet their fingers still pressed the triggers.

And all of a sudden—Whooosh!

Wild flames erupted from the guns’ muzzles, coiling like serpents. Immediately, a flare burst in a sudden bloom.

The guns exploded, crumbling to mist, and the hands of their wielders dissolving under the infernal heat.

The men’s screams made the old windows rattle. The sight of their hands melting like ice cream in summer was too much to bear.

They fell in pain, and crawled beneath the writhing mass of agony. Tears emulsifying with the bloodbath.

“Fucking idiots! He's a believer of the Flame! Didn't you see the stupid sigils?” Kraus shrieked at his sobbing men.

On the other hand, the intruder didn't stand watching. He pulled a black tied whip from his coat's inside pocket.

“By the way, my name is Enji. Tatsuki Enji.” he announced.

“Why… Why are you telling us this?” Kraus, and the three remaining men trembled in fear.

“Because you guys won't leave this place alive.” He declared, tightly gripping the whip in his burning palm.

Enji swung the whip in a circular motion, igniting it with crimson fire.

He drew his shoulder back and lashed it out in a blur of motion. A jet of heat blasted through the suffocating air. The whip coiled around one of the men, and dragged him rapidly toward Enji.

With one tap, Enji turned the captured man into a burning log. Embers crackled and fire fed on the body fiber by fiber.

The stench of burning flesh flooded the atmosphere.

After having snapped his fingers, Enji’s hair mutated into living fire.

“Three left.” He began approaching Kraus and the remaining two men. His eyes flickered toward Sarai at the back.

This… This is terrifying... This is Faith Mutation. But why didn't he mutate from the beginning? Does his flame require fuel? Sarai silently pondered at the sight before him.

I don't think this guy's here to save me... I mean why would he? Guess I'll be killed any ways, or maybe sold to underground lunatics for pocket change, which sounds way worse than death... Sarai struggled to predict the next events to occur.

A cold prickle of awe traced his spine.

Being an individual who rarely witnessed Sorcery at use, he felt a mixture of terror and amazement.

At least I'll get to watch this fucker die. He gazed at Kraus maliciously.

A silent wind prowled across the gloomy space.

“Flame believers are pain in the ass.” Kraus's clenched jaw loosened, his wide eyes narrowed, and he appeared somewhat calmer.

He fetched in his back pockets for a moment, and pulled a dagger.

He turned left, dashed in an instant, and sliced open his companion’s throat.

Drip. Drip.

“Kraus, what are you—” Once he dashed right, another throat sliced open, that of his last companion.

Thud. Thud.

The two men slumped on the soaked ground, choked on blood, and simply died.

“Woah! What a turn of events!” Enji’s brows arched as he clapped his hands in marvel.

“Your suppressant potion's effect ended, huh?  It's always best to get rid of witnesses!” His blazing hair flared brighter. “You're a Faithful.” 

“Even in the Mafia, the oppression against our kind is strongly present.” Kraus tore off his shirt. “Cockroaches like us crawl in the shade, always looking for an escape.” He gazed at his dead companions.

“If I had to kill my own men to keep my position and survive," He gripped the dagger tightly, "I would fucking love to.” On his right chest, a symbol was deeply carved: an explosive punch rendered in jagged black lines.

"The symbol of Violence. I see," mumbled Enji.

Kraus tore open the symbol on his chest. Blood gushed like a waterfall, and a metallic, coppery scent permeated the air.

Then, a glass shattering roar hammered the area, causing the old windows to shatter, and the metal bars to shake.

It was Kraus, whose veins enlarged like contracting fibers. His skin reddened like that of a devil, his limbs and torso swelled, muscles bulging beneath the flesh.

Kraus's pupils sank deep into his eyes. Now a blank monstrous gaze cast at his demonic face.

“Who could have thought you could look uglier,” laughed Enji, his crackling whip tightly held.

"Let's get rid of it."

Snap. A hail of ember sparks hovered above the two Sorcerers like a lustrous starfield.

FWOOOSH!

The sparks hurtled toward Kraus like a swarm of furious insects.

Kraus's arms lashed out, deflecting the sparks across the warehouse. Embers caught on the crates and metal frames, and thick smoke billowed. It choked the space.

In one violent motion—Kraus vaulted himself into the air!

WHUMP! He dropped from above and drove a hammering punch toward Enji.

The ground cracked, shards of stone flying through the area—some scratching Sarai's legs. Dust filled the air and the fallen men's bodies flung away like leaves.

So the bastard's Faith is Violence. Of course it is... He'd been punching me so much I lost count of it, now scratching my legs. Fucking asshole. As blood slid down his leg, Sarai insulted the Violence believer.

Flame against Violence, hope I survive this. After all, I have Faith in something too. Sarai's eyes locked onto the dusty battlefield.

“When did you…” Failing to find Enji, Kraus turned his head and gazed through the blotting fog of dust.

At that instant, he noticed Enji’s blazing figure. His arms and legs were engulfed in lustrous fire, like gleaming armor.

“Just an upgrade to match your speed.” smirked the Flame Sorcerer.

“Let's raise the temperature!”

FWOOOSH! 

The flames devouring the structures rose, spiraling into a massive crimson orb of roiling fire.

"Combust!" The crimson orb blasted toward Kraus, swallowing him like a molten vortex.

And—BOOOOM!

The crimson sphere exploded into the ground, slagging the concrete and engulfing the collapsing Jashin men into a hellish session. 

“Raaaaaagh!” Following his furious howl, Kraus emerged from the blaze storm barely scratched, and charged toward Enji.

“This durability!”

A sickening blow sent Enji flying toward the left wall like a bullet.

He unleashed his whip mid-air. It coiled tightly around the metal bars above, preventing him from crashing against the wall.

He hauled himself up, and landed in a crouch on the metal.

If physical attacks don't work… Then, he knew. Enji drew a tiny box from his pocket and flipped the lid open.

He dropped suddenly—rolled backwards, kicking up into a flip to evade the leaping Kraus.

WHUMP! The ground cracked beneath the Violence believer's weight. Charging toward Enji again, he sent shrapnel all over the space.

Amidst the barrage of fatal blows, Enji loosened his muscles and let his shadow dance as he dodged the strikes non stop, some tore through stone pillars and the collapsing bodies.

All of a sudden, Kraus vaulted forward in a fluid motion toward the two parked cars. 

He seized the first, and hurled it at Enji. The second following it in rapid succession.

Snap.

"Free fuel!" 

At Enji's words, The two hurtling masses ignited from within. The sleeping figures inside smoldered into ash just before the explosion.

BOOM! WHOOOSH!

Using the ember storm and explosion as curtains, Kraus vanished out of sight!

Where now? Enji's eyes didn't stop scanning his surroundings.

A low grinding groan echoed from beneath the cracked concrete.

"From below!?" Explosively, Kraus emerged behind Enji from beneath, shattering the ground.

Enji felt his neck being crushed as Kraus fiercely entangled him.

“F-Flame…Su-Substitution.” he barely whispered.

FWOOOSH! A scorcher struck Kraus, who took a second to realize he was entangling a burning corpse.

“How many fucking tricks!”

A fiery corona erupted from the corpse and wrapped around Kraus's left arm.

In mere seconds, the pyre reduced the flesh and the bone to ash.

“Aaaaaagh!” Letting his agony scream, Kraus fell on his knees in pain and dread.

Then, a blood freezing sight occurred. A sight that Sarai's body trembled upon seeing.

No fucking way... No wonder the governments of the world are so afraid of the Faithful... This is blasphemy. Although he was suffocated and dazed, what he had witnessed shook his soul.

“Insane.” Enji's eyes widened, staring at Kraus in a daze.

Veins extended from the beastial man's severed shoulder and crawled outward like worms, knitting muscle over exposed bone. Fresh blood pattered on the ground as a skinless arm rebuilt itself.

“Throughout history, Violence never died.

“Not once.

“It always regenerates.” Announced Kraus, steam hissing from his regenerating arm.

He dashed in a blur of motion, aiming straight for Enji’s head.

“Haha…”

Snap.

Fiery tendrils erupted from the ground. They writhed like chains of molten light, racing toward Kraus and locking around his limbs and torso.

Their origin were match sticks!

The box Enji opened earlier was a matchbox!

Throughout the fight, he dropped them around the floor, quietly arranging them into a circle around Kraus without him noticing.

“Violence always regenerates, you say?" Enji swept his ablaze hair aside. "Then you should know the reason."

“It's hatred, anger, jealousy, and their kind. They generate violence and bloodshed. Such emotions are the Flame’s kindling.

“The Flame that burns it all away, leaving only its own charming beauty.” His hazel eyes glittered.

“In this physical battle which you won, I'll burn you mentally.”

“Oh rage of the living, ignite!”

FWOOOSH!

Kraus's head reddened even more. As smoke steamed above it, his skull burst into inferno.

The firestorm devoured the monstrous figure, flesh liquefying beneath its hellish heat.

In the span of a breath, his entire body was incinerated. The flames still waved wildly.

Apart from the crackle of flames, not a single echo disturbed the warehouse’s silence.

After taking two steps back, Enji turned his head towards the aghast Sarai, and approached him with slow, deliberate steps.

“So, young man,” he pointed his thumb at the smoldering Kraus. “This is what it means to violate violence,” he laughed.

An inextinguishable smile spread across his face.