“Salvation!”

Mash took a second to process what Luke said, and he frowned. The twisted as he began to feel pain. Something inside of him was ripping. Tearing like the fabric of a shirt. It wasn’t his organs, Priscilla could and would stop something like that. This targeted something deeper within him, and it hurt. For all that his skills let him suppress pain, this was an entirely different kind of suffering. His physical body didn’t seem to matter at all to whatever power tore into him.

Mash instinctively grabbed at his chest. His hand tightened around a fistful of his shirt, and he curled sightly. His ears started to ring, and his vision blurred slightly. Whatever was happening, it was killing him. He tried to process it. Was his heart being ripped out? Was it a curse or something? A disturbingly rational part of his thoughts rejected that notion and saw the truth. Luke was attacking him and his magic targeted the soul. Mash stared at Luke, at his friend, who did not seem phased in the slightest. That was it, Mash was angry.

It wasn’t just directed at Luke at this moment. He felt a little peeved at always being the first one to get attacked. Whether it was friends or enemies, he always got the short end of the stick. Red’s class practically screamed villain, and Jill’s was meant to kill gods, yet here Luke was attacking him. A thread Mash hadn’t noticed get so thin, snapped and his magic crashed down upon everyone. He filled his domain with anti-magic and used his domain to snuff out Luke’s aura. It wasn’t something he was particularly skilled at, but he had enough raw power to do it. That made the all-too-calm expression on Luke’s face falter and his eyes narrowed in the effort.

“What the?”

Jill shouted the words, but they swirled in the background of the moment. Mash moved with speed far greater than he had demonstrated in their sparring. Luke was at his level and could take a hit. He deserved one too, and so did Jill now that he was thinking about it. The ground cracked as he jumped, and he fist shot out so quickly that only Ythass could really keep up. Luke managed to raise a rudimentary guard, and his body began to shine vaguely gold. Luke was somewhat able to force his magic despite Mash’s best efforts. However, that paltry magic would do nothing, and Mash was physically the strongest here by several degrees.

Thump!

Mash's fist hit like a hammer, and Luke’s arm bent in as he was thrown. Even without magic, the wind rushed around his strike and followed Luke through the air. Luke skipped across the ground once before crashing into and through a tree. The tree fell forward crashing into the ground loudly. It seemed to wake everyone from the moment of surprise.

Mash started toward Luke again, but his senses reached all around him. His head snapped back as he felt Jill try to teleport. He glanced at her and gripped her with his domain. Tightened his magic around her, his anti-magic to be specific. It focused on her and squeezed her like a fist. When she jumped to teleport, her magic failed, and she crashed into the ground. A fall like that wouldn’t hurt, and her instincts made her roll rather than hit the ground face-first. She didn’t spring back up to her feet and stayed on the ground for a moment.

Mash ran at Luke but slowed as his senses showed him everyone’s faces. Luke was changed, and pain flashed across his too-cold gaze as rose to his feet. Mash saw the pain, but the coldness made him angry. It was not the kind of look you gave a friend, and he felt betrayed. Luke, out of everyone, wasn’t supposed to treat him like this. Red panicked and tried to get Ythass to stop the fight, but she got nothing more than a disappointed look in response. That bothered him a little, but it was Jill and Lisa that made him stop. Jill’s eyes were wide, and she had curled into a ball. The worst part was the fact that she was crying. It was the look of someone who had given up. He almost wouldn’t have noticed that, if not for Lisa.

Lisa was moving to intercept him. Her jaw was clenched with a determination she had never shown before. She didn’t even blink as her body frayed at the edges. It was like a string that had begun to unravel. It looked like her skin was peeling off and it had to hurt. Despite all of that she moved to block him.

Mash’s feet slowed, and his magic, which had been crushing everyone, vanished. He looked around at everyone. Luke now fully able to use his magic was healing his arm and radiated power like a tiny star. Jill remained curled into a ball, but Mash could feel her heartbeat slow. Lisa’s body stopped breaking, and he suddenly had no good outlet for his frustration. He tried to find that thread and tie it together, but it wasn’t that easy. He couldn’t leave things as they were, not now. The little jabs had gone too far. Mash could tolerate or accept a lot to be with his friends, and they had done the same, he was sure. That line was crossed when Luke tried to kill him.

Mash was durable, and would probably even accept losing an arm or leg as a simple joke now. Jill hitting him out of fear, surprise or as a joke was honestly fine. That was the equivalent of a shove from a sibling in his mind. Luke had crossed a line though. Mash had felt it when Luke attacked. That was something meant to kill, not something Mash could just ignore, as much as a part of him still wanted to. He shook his head knowing how stupid that would be. Luke started walking.

Mash stomped his foot so hard that it punched into the grass ground as if it were water. It simply sunk into the dirt in a way that seemed impossible. There wasn’t a loud crash to accompany it, but the gesture was enough to surprise the others. He stared at each of them. Before he could say anything, Lisa went to calm Jill down. Mash stopped his gaze on Ythass.

“Can you go out of earshot, whatever that is for you?”

Ythass shrugged and flew into the air. The wind sent a rustle through the nearby grass and trees. He watched her leave. She would probably listen regardless of what he said, but this at least gave them the façade of privacy. Then he turned on Luke. While most of his anger had been doused, he was still frustrated.

“Are you going to try and kill me again? I can knock you out first in that case.”

Mash stared at Luke, and his voice was loud. He could feel the heat in his words and did nothing to hide his expression. Anger and betrayal crashed across his face in waves. Ultimately, it just hurt. His friends, or at least those who he considered friends, might no longer call him the same.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke P.O.V

Luke met Mash’s eyes and saw the pain in them. Saw it reflected in his soul and felt the anger and hatred lessen. Suddenly, he was broken out of the trance of a moment ago. He had seen the wrongness in Mash and had tried to correct it whatever the cost might have been. It wasn’t something he would do, but he hadn’t felt like himself. The anger and hatred weren’t his alone, but the god before. The piece of divinity carried with it all of whom that man was, and Luke could still hear his anger. It didn’t vanish, he couldn’t force the thoughts out. They weren’t his own thoughts or memories, but they had found a place in his mind.

He felt like two or more people. One who had lived far longer and was far less trusting of Mash. The other was who he had been a day ago. A person who could and would die to help his friends. Luke didn’t feel like that man anymore. He knew how callous that made him, but his responsibilities were greater now. The last god left him with a lot. Luke almost thought he was the man. Oddly enough, they shared a name. They were both Luke, and that made it significantly harder to separate his thoughts.

That was the price of this power. The power, that let him block a punch from Mash even without any magic. Another thought popped into his mind, one that said something very different. Mash had managed to shut down or subdue his powers. The power of god and divinity were not something for the likes of him to interfere with. Luke nearly punched himself to get rid of it, but the fear behind such a thought lingered. Mash was terrifyingly powerful. Even now, Luke felt weaker than him. The differences in their domain were enough to prove that, but he felt like he would lose with or without magic. All of those thoughts bounced in his head, as he finally replied to Mash.

“It wasn’t me.”

They weren’t the right words to say. It was him, just a part of him that was stoked by another’s memories. That part didn’t want him to talk, it wanted him to fight and take advantage of the moment. If he could just touch Mash, he was sure he could get through any defense. Then he saw the genuine flash of hope on Mash’s face and shuddered. He pushed away the thought of killing his own friend, even if it was temporary. That had been the information that truly made him act at first. The other him knew that Mash wouldn’t die, not really anyways. He spoke fighting against the other urging for his position and power.

“When I advanced, the power came with everything. I inherited the previous god’s powers and received all of his memories and beliefs too. It feels like I’m two people. No, that’s not exactly correct either.”

It was more than that. Those memories were just that and couldn’t force him to do anything. No, that push had come when he finally laid eyes on Mash. He saw into Mash’s very being and saw everything. He had seen Mash’s class, skills, and soul. Even now, Luke could see the thing that bother him so much. The vile work of magic that was so fundamentally wrong and twisted that he could let it exist. Another’s soul was there, struggling and fighting to free itself from Mash. It crashed against a cage it could not escape, and it was dying. The soul was slowly becoming nothing, as it fused or dissolved into Mash. Luke’s hand slowly rose, and he pushed it down with the other.

Mash didn’t step away. Luke watched as Mash’s gaze drifted down, as his soul revealed his emotions like paint. Guilt and shame filled Mash so completely. Luke wanted to feel the same way, but he couldn’t. The other him pushed against those emotions too strongly. It left him feeling worse. Ironically, he now felt guilty for a lack of guilt. Looking at Mash and the others, he knew that he had so much he needed to say, but he didn’t know if he could trust himself enough for that. If Mash did or said anything wrong, Luke didn’t think he could stop a fight. He couldn’t let things be like this though, so he forced himself to try again.