ABSOLUTION

“Was it worth it?” an ancient voice asked faintly.

Beneath the two figures in the sky, the land was laden in scorch, burned beyond recognition, as though amassed from the depths of hell itself. Mountains were blasted to pieces, and rivers were no more. Were an ordinary man to walk in here, he’d no doubt think it was the Judgment Day for all, and gods have descended to smite the heathens dead.

Up in the sky, the youthful figure glanced downward to the right side of his chest; where once a strong muscle stood was now a contusion laden with burnt, black-scorched flesh that looked to never heal. One glance would cause fright even to the bravest of knights, yet the youth casually shrugged it off as his eyes gazed toward the featureless figure in the distance.

“At least it’s not where it hurts the most.” Lynne said, smiling faintly.

“… you’ve abandoned it all, yet you’ve not. You confuse me, human child.” Ignis spoke lightly.

“Ha ha,” Lynne laughed lightly, as though he had heard a humorous story. “Of course it will confuse you, old one, if you take human’s words at face value. There’s no such thing as full abandonment, I’m afraid. If people were capable of such thing, we’d have exploited it long, long ago. Aren’t you the same?” Lynne asked. “You haven’t abandoned those who remained behind you, but you came here to fight me. Even if you had heart-wrapped confidence in defeating me, what if you were to be felled?”

“The brighter the sun, the darker the shadow indeed,” Ignis spoke lightly. “None will ever even know it was you who helped them. I respect you, human child. But, respect is but a fleeting thought. I’m certain you understand.”

“… back in my home town,” Lynne said with somewhat nostalgic look in his eyes. “We had this expression: I am as God made me. All those who were to have a sword plastered against their necks would proclaim it as though it were a prayer. In the end, the truth is much simpler: I am as I have made myself. If I sought recognition, I wouldn’t be here. If I sought respect, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Then why are you here?”

“… to defeat a God.” Lynne smiled indifferently as he gripped his scythe yet again and wrung it in a circle.

“… human’s sense of humor always fascinated me.”

“Me too.”

Lynne’s body blasted off white flames as he burst forth, slashing his scythe in an arc, sending forth a gigantic array of whitened flames, one large enough to eclipse the sky. Rather than retreating, Ignis stood his ground; two blades appeared in his arms as he swung them upward, sending forth black, bellowing flames. As the two sides clashed, yet another massive explosion ensued that caused ripples through the space.

Lynne quickly closed in and spun to gain momentum, slashing in full strength. Ignis met it as he crossed his two blades, and two sides clashed yet again. As his scythe’s strike was reflected, Lynne used momentum to spin yet again, engulfing his back in golden flames from where angelic wings sprung in brilliant light. He flashed past Ignis and reached the latter’s back, gripping his scythe and cutting at the god’s waist. Ignis spun in place and clashed yet again, as sparks began flying; each one of their collisions would send out a shockwave strong enough to topple the mountains and overturn the seas, yet there were no more mountains around them to topple, nor were there seas to overturn.

The two appeared to be two blazing stars in the sky as they wound around one another. Black and white continued to interweave, creating radiant tapestry in the sky. It appeared to be a dance between figures far beyond one’s reach, as both moved in consistent rhythm, neither side giving inch to the other. In truth, two have yet to unleash any of the strong abilities they possessed; Lynne fought while mainly relying on his mastery of Skyfire Flames, while Ignis fought in the same manner, with the only difference being that he was proficient in Hellfire Flames.

Still, however random their fight seemed, every single one of their strikes had method to it. Lynne continued changing angles of his attacks, measuring the opponent’s reaction speed, ability to observe, and methodology to Ignis’ fighting. In the same manner, Ignis watched closely how Lynne’s strikes changed rhythm: from quick and light, to slow and heavy. The two have been locked in this type of a battle for hours now, and save for that wound on right side of Lynne’s chest, and the absolute destruction they have caused around them, there were no other indicators that the fight took place.

Lynne suddenly shifted his rhythm as he pulled his scythe midway through the swing, forcibly straining his muscles; Ignis was slow to react and retract his blades, and the following slash of scythe passed through his defenses, slashing against his chest and blowing him backward like a cannonball. The god fell like a meteorite and blasted against the earth, creating a crater large enough to formulate the world’s largest lake were it to be filled with water.

However, Lynne didn’t wait; coating himself in Skyfire Flames, he dove freely, without restraints, as he carefully observed the darkened figure hidden within the dust and smoke. Ignis was already on his two feet, observing a centimeter deep cut across his chest for a moment before raising his head to look at approaching Lynne. Suddenly, streaks of Mana surged outward from his body, transforming into shadowy flames with crimson red eyes. Ten… hundred… a thousand… soon enough, Hellfire Flames burned around him like a closed encirclement of soldiers. Unafraid, Lynne dove right into it, ignoring the approaching flames from his back that appeared as though they were going to swallow him whole.

Just as Lynne reached a hundred or so meters away from Ignis, the thousands of thread-thin black flames converged toward him, their speed reaching almost that of light. Even if Lynne could perceive the change, he had no way of actually reacting in time. He immediately cast Pyre yet again, and the Skyfire Flames surrounding his body wailed outward and spread circularly, meeting all black threads head on. Countless explosions ensued, ringed with Lynne being the epicenter of them. Before the last explosion even happened, Lynne’s figure broke through thick smoke as he swung his scythe, aiming directly at the still stationary Ignis.

The latter’s figure suddenly blurred and flames hallowed out as he speedily retreated, causing Lynne’s swing to miss; in return, Lynne landed forcibly and endured the resisting force as his figure blurred similarly, except the afterimages he left were of whitened flame. He chased after the blurring dark figure, and the two soon began clashing yet again. However, their current speed far surpassed the battle they led in the sky.

Everywhere one looked, there were afterimages of the two still seemingly locked in battle, while their real bodies sped through the entirety of the carnage they had reigned over the land. As their weapons clashed, muffled sounds of explosions echoed, yet, by the time craters beneath their feet formed, the two were already miles away from them.

They appeared like two streaking lines of light if viewed overhead, continuously playing the push-and-pull game between each other; one moment, Lynne would streak forth and push Ignis back into retreat, and the next the latter would push right back. As the battle reigned on, the speed of the two seemed to continue to increasing and pace soon reached its peak.

As both gained staggering amount of momentum, each unleashed the second spell; Lynne clasped his hands tightly as scythe flashed in brilliant white, splitting in nearly thousand replicas surrounding him, burning equally in Skyfire. On the other hand, Ignis scorched his two blades in pure black and swung them in parallel rhythm and position, sending out two dragon-heads reaching the size of a castle.

Scythes cried out in unison as they danced and streaked through the sky like needles, continuously clashing against the two bellowing mirages of the dragons. Not a second had passed by before the clash was over, and both figures were blasted backward as a result. Lynne flew through the sky and crashed nearly fifty miles away from the impact, rolling through the ground, creating manmade pavement. It took him nearly five seconds to finally stabilize; his entire body was riddled with cuts and bruises, yet his expression gave no way to pain. His eyes glistened as he immediately burned away forth, leaving behind a trail of gold-laden flames. His figure quickly blurred and each step he took caused earth beneath to cave in and splinter, leaving behind a brilliant trail of destruction.

On the other side, Ignis underwent similar treatment following the massive explosion that, instead of a crater, left behind an abyss deep enough to swallow a city whole. After he regained posture, much like Lynne, he immediately blasted forward, ignoring the injuries he sustained. However, unlike Lynne, as his steps quickened, his figure began fading slowly until it was nothing but a trail of thin, black wisp. As quickly as the two had parted, they reunited all the same, and the battle ensued yet again. However, instead of probing each other, they both began displaying the depths of their strength, unconcerned by the ludicrous amount of Mana that the two consumed in the process.

Ever since he became Divine Magus, Lynne had slowly re-forged the entirety of the Empyrean Scything technique, and combined it wholly with Empyrean Absolution. As he had abandoned all other paths before the singularity of Skyfire Flames, all his attacks revolved around its philosophy. Rather than four stances as the technique had before, he only had one that encompassed all forms and shapes.

As he cast Skyfire Reaping, rather than a giant scythe slashing three times, the weapon bellowed and continued slashing as though it had gone insane. Each streak would blast off a massive heatwave, leaving behind white flames wherever it went. However, Ignis was no pushover; in his black wisp form, he easily dodged each strike, while retaliating with his own spell.

Eight, black pillars descended from the high sky and continuously followed him wherever he went, always maintaining a perfect circle around him. The pillars slowly grew smaller until they thinned out to being barely visible, when Ignis suddenly halted while a two-hundred-meter scythe finally landed a strike on him. However, the weapon bounced back as though it hit jell, and Lynne immediately retracted it. Knowing that the spell was coming, he immediately cast one of the defensive spells of Empyrean Scything, one specifically enriched by Absolution: Skyfire Absolution.

Enormous amount of Skyfire Flames suddenly bellowed out from him and formed a spherical shield around his body, nearly a hundred meters thick. Sensing it, Ignis’ heart started for a moment; in that brief moment, he actually felt his own flames being dragged away toward that shield. He had finally realized why the boy was sent here to battle him. While the two fought relatively evenly so far, it was just initial probing. Ignis was confident in his victory as soon as the two started clashing seriously, yet that confidence was now shaken. He immediately thought back to that figure from many moons ago, that had made every God afraid of their own shadow: Absolution. A concept Ignis was no stranger to, yet one which had eluded him since the day he was born. Absolute control over everything and everyone. In that brief moment, he finally realized that the boy had touched upon it, much like that nearly forgotten figure. If mastered, none and nothing could stand beneath Absolution, as the concept itself drove its strength directly from the Source – the place all things and creatures were birthed from. Immediately, Ignis realized that the battle may not end up being as easy as he thought and, perhaps, he would really need to go out in the end to defeat the boy whose age would need quite a few zeroes to reach his.