Prelude 3: The first duel

(Miklaus POV)

“Let’s start off slow and increase the pace as we go. Make us an artificial, atmospheric barrier.” I said to Heaven as I got into a stance.

“That’s probably for the best. We still don’t know what’ll happen when we attack each other” Heaven nodded in agreement. She summoned a massive translucent barrier stretching far towards the clouds and took her own stance.

I watched cautiously as Heaven changed her weapon into a bladed whip. Once she had it in the form she wanted, she rushed in, blitzing at me and going for a side strike to my left. My enhanced senses could see every twitch of the muscles in her enhanced physique, each movement flawless as if she had been training for thousands of years.

I knew a strike like that would be enough to split mountains in half but wouldn’t even scratch my new body. For yet another time, I felt awe at the sheer amount of power we had gained, at the beings we had become. Those thoughts flashed by as my perception of time had sped up drastically and as soon as Heaven started her swing, my katana was in position to intercept her attack. Heaven smirked and her whip abruptly changed trajectories and aimed for my head instead. I raised my katana to deflect the overhead collision and a shockwave erupted from our blades, shaking the very fabric of reality. She kicked off the ground, taking a step back from me quickly..

“You’re slow Miklaus. You fell for such an obvious feint.”

“Did becoming a god suddenly turn you into a cheap cartoon villain? Shut up and keep fighting.” I replied, grinning.

Heaven smiled widely before dashing back to continue our duel. Our exchange of slashes, feints, and blocks would make martial arts masters back on Earth weep with pure ecstasy and with every clash of our blades, the void dimension around us began to tear itself apart, shaking with an increased violence that represented just how much stronger and faster every strike was becoming. As we became more entranced with the duel, fully immersing ourselves in the bloodlust of the battle, the void dimension began to collapse around us.

Heaven had started using her weapon change ability to its fullest, changing forms instantly to combine different chains of strikes. However, it was clear our swordsmanship was fully on par with each other despite the complexities of Heaven’s weapon. We both tried a few more techniques out before stopping and backing away from each other.

“I think it’s time we start using our real powers. What do you say, Heaven?” I asked with a smirk.

“We’re experimenting, no point in half-assing it, right?” Heaven replied, grinning wryly

As soon as she gave her answer, I felt the power I had inside me raging through every cell in my form, all gathering into one point as I summoned black lighting into my hands and shot a bolt of it at her. As it was approaching her, she clad her body in an aura of wind that sent the lighting flying off into the void. She returned my initial attack with blades of wind that she had conjured up and shot at me. I put my hand out and created a black hole that swallowed all of her attacks. After the wind attacks were gone, I dispelled the black hole I had conjured and began to summon more lightning that easily had the power to vaporize an entire planet. As I let the attack go, she launched a blue fireball at the lighting bolt I had shot. As soon as the attacks made contact with each other, an explosion that easily surpassed the supernova I had created earlier took place, negating both attacks simultaneously. We took turns sending out even more powerful attacks at each other, testing out all the Elements we could think of from water, ice, fire, lighting, wind, and many more, all leading to the same result of them being blocked or colliding and causing massive explosions.

“It seems we are dead even here, huh?” I asked her, pausing my attacks.

“It seems in both swords and magic ability, we’re equals.” Heaven said in agreement, lowering her hand to her side. “We should probably head back soon before we worry the others. Is there anything else you still want to try?” Heaven asked me with a questioning gaze.

I thought for a few seconds in my head if there might be anything else to try and then an idea popped in my head as I let out a devious smirk. “Now that you mention it, there’s something I definitely have to try before we head back.”

(Heaven POV)

“Just what does he want to try now”, I mumbled to myself as I got back into a fighting stance. As I looked over at Miklaus, he looked at me and, suddenly, for an instant, I saw his eyes flash just as the entire void started to shake even more violently than any of our previous attacks had caused. “Wha…what are you doing!” I yelled out, and I realized that my words fell on deaf ears. I looked on in shock as Miklaus’s body began to change. Massive jet black draconic wings sprouted from his back easily over 300 meters across on each side. As the wings grew larger from his back, his entire body grew with them. I kept looking on and before I knew it, what stood in front of me was a sight that would send chills down the spine of anyone less than a true god.

A massive, jet black and violet dragon, easily over 150 meters tall and long, was staring at me with eyes that seemed to be piercing into my very soul. I could feel the aura being emitted from him, that easily surpassed the previous one he had. As I kept looking on in amazement at the beautiful dragon in front of me, he lifted his head and let out a deep draconic roar that almost caused me to fall over from the shockwave it had produced. As soon as I looked back up to where he was, I saw the last thing I expected.

“H-he…he’s gone?! No way something that big can move that qui-!” My words were cut off as I suddenly felt him behind me. As soon as I turned around there was a massive dragon claw flying towards me at a speed that easily surpassed light. With barely any time to react, I did the only thing I could and held up my arms to block it as much as I could. As soon as the attack connected with my arms I felt a burning pain sensation as I was launched backwards. I managed to keep my balance and stop myself from going any further. As I looked at my arms, I saw deep cuts all over, but to my amazement, within milliseconds they were all gone without leaving any mark, as if they never existed in the first place. Amazing was all I could think to myself. These powers just keep getting better and better.

As I looked back up at Miklaus, I decided it was time I tried my own trick. I pushed out my hand and, as if the power inside of me was soothing my emotions, I felt all the power build inside me, causing every fiber in my body to tingle. I summoned a Tornado in an instant, directly under him, that swallowed him up immediately, cutting his dragon body with the strong winds, lifting him into the air. I watched as he quickly regained his balance inside the tornado, floating in place, staring at me while still inside the tornado.

He let out a roar so powerful it made the previous one look like a kitten’s mew, as the entire tornado was blown away in an instant, disappearing without a trace. We both kept our gazes locked onto each other as he began to land. Once his massive feet hit the ground, or what was left of it, he began to charge up a massive breath attack. Seeing this, I gathered a large portion of my power into my hand. I released the undulating orb of energy as massive, violet flames erupted from his mouth. They met in an instant, and for a fraction of a moment nothing happened, then a massive explosion, that would have been an equivalent to every star going supernova at the same time, occurred, and we were both sent flying backwards. Looking back up, I could see Miklaus had reverted back into his human form and was giving me a stupid grin as he flew over towards me.

“Well, I say we should call it here and head back now. I believe we both landed one attack on each other, so let’s call it a draw for now.” Miklaus said ,with a wink as he opened up a portal to go back to the others.

“I agree, we shall consider this a draw for now, but that dragon form was quite cheap.” I replied with a grin.

“I could say the same for that tornado. It was on a scale that I’m sure every scientist on Earth would struggle to classify.” He retorted playfully back to me, his smile never fading as we stepped through the portal once again.

(Reiji POV)

I knelt there, still working on creating the different types of plants I could think of. Hikarus had started naming off random fruits from earth for me to try and recreate. I had to admit, it was quite fun learning these new powers I had gained. The more plants I created, the easier it was becoming to create other ones. I was finally starting to gain a grasp on all of my new abilities. I could even feel that some of the fruits I was creating even held small traces of my power, albeit a mere fraction of it, with the strongest being a lone, star fruit, the color of pure crimson which seemingly radiated light from its core. As I was thinking of what to create next, a solicitude occurred to me.

“Hey Hikarus, these powers are amazing, aren’t they?” I asked, looking over at him as he was messing around with his new weapon.

“I think amazing is an understatement, Rej.” He said, not taking his eyes off his weapon.

I turned back around to look at the plants I had been creating as I said “yeah, I guess you’re right, but you can feel it, can’t you, Hikarus?” I asked, continuing to admire my creations. I could hear him lift his head at my question.

“That depends what you’re referring to exactly.” Hikarus responded after a few moments.

“We are changing. As great as these powers are and all the knowledge we gained is, nothing can change what we experienced and what came with it. We all experienced countless lifetimes in seconds and everything that came with them. All the pain, death, suffering; all these emotions of millions- no, billions of people, if not more, living their joys and pains all in mere seconds. There’s no way there wouldn’t be repercussions to this. I’m sure Miklaus and Heaven have noticed, as well. That’s why they’re trying to distract their minds with the fighting, to slow down their own mental deterioration.” I turned around, only to see him looking, not at me, but past me- through me, with this expression of forlorn and uncertainty.

“You’re Right, Reiji. It feels like I’m losing pieces of the person I once was with every passing second… but what are we supposed to do now?! We already made our decision, it’s not like we can just go back and choose differently.” Hikarus finally said after letting out a heavy sigh as he moved to sit next to me.

“I think our best bet would be to create individuals with some of our power to rule over these lands and be the caretakers of it before we lose ourselves.” I responded.

“Beings that can rule these lands in case we have to leave them... I think that’s definitely an idea, but what exactly do you have in mind for that?” Hikarus asked with a hand on his chin.

“I think we recreate some of the pantheons from the mythologies of Earth.. Maybe around 2 pantheons for each of us? We will give them small portions of our power to be worthy to rule over the lands and use our skin to create the bodies so that they can be immortal and able to withstand our powers.”

“When I was up in space with Miklaus, I saw 4 different continents spread across the planet. I think we imbue each one of these beings with all the fundamentals such as how to farm, build, laws to follow, etc., and raise them while we are able to. Whenever we feel that we are becoming too warped or whenever we feel they are ready, whichever is to happen first, we will each take 2 pantheons to the 4 separate continents and have them build a civilization from the ground up. After the gods from the pantheons arrive to each continent, we will make 100 mortals, 50 men and 50 women, to begin to develop each civilization We will also recreate all the mythological creatures we can think of from beings such as dragons, the world serpent, and Cthulhu, to things such as goblins, so that the humans can learn to fight and take care of themselves. Once all this is done, we disappear to watch over the planet from afar.” As I finished my theory, I turned around to face him, half expecting him to make me repeat it and half expecting me to think I’m crazy. To my surprise, all he did was nod in agreement with a sort of resigned expression on his face.

“I think that’s the best option for all of us, Reiji.” Hikarus agreed as he seemed to continue thinking of the other possibilities.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the other two appeared through a portal and I decided there was no time to put this off as I stood up and walked over to them.

“We need to talk,” I announced as I walked over to them. looking at them in the eyes as I explained everything Hikarus and I had discussed, along with my plan. As soon as I finished my explanation, the other two looked at each other, and after a brief pause, they both looked at me with nods of acceptance.

“I think you’re right, Reiji. As great as all of this is, there's no telling if we will become a danger to this planet or even a danger to each other.” Miklaus agreed as he looked me in the eyes.

“Miklaus is right; if we were to ever turn on this planet because we lost ourselves, everything would be destroyed in an instant.” Heaven added.

“Great, we're all in agreement then. There’s no time to waste. Explain what we have to do, Reiji.” Miklaus said as we all gathered to prepare for our next experiment.