ORDAINED BY FLAMES

Lynne landed casually in front of the group of humans while Thalia joined the people in the fort, picking out a few beasts here and there without drawing too much attention to herself for the time being. Lynne glanced backwards at the sea of the beasts and gasped lowly, surprised at the sheer number they’ve managed to gather.

“Eeh, you guys really went all out,” he said as he turned back and looked at the leading man. “You must really want that fort.”

“Who are you again?” the man asked in a low, indifferent tone.

“Ah, how rude of me!” Lynne exclaimed, smiling warmly. “My name is Vangus Dus Elus Mel Tarius Per Gonus Killus Lod Gokus Iy Gilgamesh Harrius Potterus!”

“…”

“But most my friends call me Lynne.” Where’d they get that from?!!

“And, what are you doing here? What hope the two of you have of changing the outcome of today’s battle? You should have scurried back to the border and asked for reinforcement instead.” the man sneered as he looked down on Lynne.

“I must say, it’s pretty convenient you guys decided to attack the day we showed up,” Lynne said casually. “Saves me the trouble of looking for you.”

“Oh? Ha ha ha!” the man burst out in laughter as he took a step forward towards Lynne. “Well, here we are. What will you do, huh? Defeat us all?”

“Oh, right, before all that good stuff, can you tell me if there’s a True Dragon in the Eastern Wastelands someplace?”

“Eh? True Dragon?” the man nearly fell over as he heard Lynne’s question.

“Aye, seeing as you’re devout sucker of flames as well, you should have heard rumors about the True Dragon of Flames. Would you be kind enough to tell me where it is?”

“… you’ve got a few loose screws in your head, don’t you?”

“A few? You underestimate me.” Lynne added, his expression deadpan.

“Tell you what,” the man said as he suddenly extended his arm and loosened his grip. “If you can defeat me, I may share a thing or two with you.”

“Ah…” Lynne sighed, shaking his head lightly.

“What, you’re not confident enough?” the man asked as a giant axe appeared in his extended arm; it was double edged and on fire, giving it quite a menacing look.

“Just sad to see humans everywhere are pretty much the same,” Lynne said as he lifted his head up, his eyes narrowing as his expression became as cold as ice. “This is my first time fighting an Empyrean. Go easy on me big bro, will you?”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

The man swung his ax immediately, striking at the ground beneath; the sand imploded as it was split, akin to waves of water, as a beam of golden flame struck in-between, heading towards Lynne.

The latter leapt into the air without hesitation, coating his feet in blue flames as he cast Fiery Sweeps. The fiery beam blew through beneath him, exploding into an expanding wall of flames.

“Let’s dance then,” Lynne muttered as he clasped his hands; behind him a massive scythe appeared, bloating the sky, shimmering in faint scarlet. “Reaping - Calamity,” he said as winds round him roused, his robe and hair fluttering. “Infernal Rhapsody.”

The scythe shook gently as its vibrations spread across the sky, scattering the nearby sandstorms and clouds. Suddenly, from the bottom of shaft up to the top of the blade, the scythe began burning in all seven Natural Flames; they melded into one another, seemingly in perfect harmony.

“Ha ha ha,” the man was still standing on the ground as he burst out in maniacal laughter. “Interesting, interesting! Let’s do this! Twin Requiem!” an identical axe appeared in his other hand as he hunched down slightly, pulling two axes behind him. “Twin Inferno!!!”

As he shouted he flung two axes into the sky in converging arcs, aimed directly at Lynne. Both axes burned alight, causing the flames to spread; similarly to Lynne’s scythe, the axes were coated in Seven Natural flames.

Lynne’s scythe slashed downwards in a circular motion, collapsing the sky unto itself as it tore it open. The scythe and the axes met midair and collided, causing the time round them to freeze for a moment before the hell broke loose. It rained fire as if it was world’s requiem as explosions resounded through the sky, causing brilliant, blinding lights to bathe the sky and the world.

“Oho,” Lynne suddenly grinned as he felt his heart beat with excitement. “Let’s get up close and personal with this; Seething Stance~” Lynne shouted as the scythe behind him disappeared and reappeared in his hands. He gripped it tightly, unable to remove the grin from his face, as he watched down beneath while the fires slowly died down. The man still stood at the same spot, holding both his axes as he grinned towards the sky.

“Ha ha, good one kid! Let’s go again! Come!”

“Divinity~” Lynne muttered as he sped towards the man like a lighting bolt, casting Pyre in the process, causing his entire body to catch ablaze. “Scything…”

The man gripped his axes tightly as he looked at Lynne, crouching slightly as he let himself go. The two bolted through the sky; one a golden, falling star, and the other scarlet, rising one. As they clashed midair, the explosion sounded out, one loud enough to deafen even the strongest. Golden and crimson colors intertwined like two coiling Dragons as two figures emerged from them. Both burned as brightly as the sun itself, forcibly halting themselves midair as they raced towards each other yet again.

Divinity – Scything was a melee-oriented scythe technique for simple smashing and slashing, and it increased Lynne’s potency with scythe exponentially. As the two met again, the man swung one of his axes from above while leaving the other behind; grasping the detail, Lynne used the shaft of the scythe to block off the incoming axe while, at the same time, swinging his scythe in an upward arc towards the man’s throat.

The latter immediately raised his free axe and parried it while regaining momentum with his other axe to strike again; Lynne, in turn, used the strength of the parry to rotate mid air and slash from the other side, meeting the axe yet again. Sparks flew off from two weapons as flames spread around them, seemingly leading to combustion after combustion left and right, all round them.

Lynne slashed in a downward arc, causing the man two raise both his axes in a cross-like fashion, blocking the strike and using the strength of the impact to propel himself backwards, somersaulting through the air. Lynne followed it up by executing fourth technique of the Seething Stance: Astral – Celestial Purgatory.

The scythe extended to nearly ten meters as it wiggled about the air like a snake, striking over and over again towards the man at speeds far surpassing what would be deemed possible by an ordinary eye. All the while, the strikes left behind a remnant of each of the Natural Flames, which caused the space around to tear, creating several hundreds of small, spinning vortexes. Within each was a celestial infinity, a starlit darkness.

Feeling the strange foreboding in his heart, the man wiped away the grin from his face as he roared lowly, causing both his axes to grow to twice their size – far surpassing three meters in length – as he began whirling them in front of him, deflecting each of Lynne’s strikes with ease.

“Go!” after a few seconds – which equaled nearly a thousand strikes – Lynne shouted as he retreated his scythe back to its normal size.

A mere blink later, from each and every one of the vortexes, a light emerged from the infinite spectrum of colors.

“Shit!” the man gritted his teeth as he suddenly combined both his axes and stretched himself back. “Flame of Singularity!” atop the axe a single, small sphere of flames appeared, colorless and seemingly harmless.

At that moment, nearly a thousand burning beams of fire erupted from the vortexes, each aimed at the man, as he closed his eyes and swung his axe gently. Just as the first beam was about to hit him, the single sphere of flame atop the axe exploded, spreading out like an impenetrable wall in a horizontal fashion. It burned like a celestial body, with colors beyond spectrum of the eye.

As the beams of fire from the vortexes reached the infernal wall, they were seemingly absorbed within it, causing the wall to expand even further.

“Hey hey, that’s not fair!” Lynne shouted as cold sweat broke down his forehead. “Fuck, what a cheating skill! Give me back my flames you bastard!”

“Ha ha,” maniacal laughter came from the other side of the wall. “Come and get them boy! Ah, if you get a chance, that is.”

The wall… it’s not just expanding… it’s building up freaking energy! Shit, he’s gonna use my own Mana and ability against me! What a bastard!

Gritting his teeth, Lynne exhaled softly as his eyes grew determined. He let go of his scythe and it disappeared, appearing a moment later behind him, bloating the sky yet again.

The battle beneath had long since ceased, as all eyes focused onto the sky, where two were battling. Thalia stood atop the wall, ready to join Lynne at any moment, while she stared at his back with a strange sense of reverence.

“Reaping~” Lynne said softly as the last of the beams was absorbed into the wall. Soon, the entire thing began converging into the blade of the axe. So that’s how it is, huh… didn’t know flames can be used like that. “Chaos~”

“Eh? Lynne?!!” the False God’s voice broke out inside his mind. “Dude, you’re going to level this entire fucking battlefield to ruin! Calm down!”

The scythe shook as it began crying; its agonizing wails echoed out in the sky, causing hearts of countless humans and beasts alike to freeze. Even the man standing opposite of Lynne paused for a moment, fear entangling him as he stared at the gigantic visage of death hovering in the sky. No, no, just my imagination… he’s just a Celestial brat. What can he do that I can’t?

“Eternal Entropy~” as his voice echoed out, the time seemingly came to a halt as all sounds were banished from the world… all except the beating hearts.

They played on, like a rhapsody of fear, all seemingly united in the same dread. The scythe’s wails vanished and, from the tip of its blade, a single, crimson blood droplet fell, like a tear, landing atop Lynne’s head.

“Open the Heavens!!” ignoring the very fabric of his being, the man broke from the shackles of fear and swung his axe, unleashing a small array of light… which then turned into an arc of black and white… and the arc grew until it was the size of the scythe itself.

Lynne felt blood lunging towards his throat but swallowed it back down as his face grew pale. Sky above was vanquished and replaced by nothing. World beneath was swallowed in the whirlwind of infinity, and all things ceased to matter; life, death, love, hate, even Souls themselves… they all lost their importance. And so the scythe fell gently, as if copying a child’s awkward slash with a sword. Bit by bit, tearing the fabric of existence apart wherever it went… as it moved, Skyfire and Hellfire sprung into existence from its core as Lynne mimicked the man’s combination, causing the scythe’s blade to flame out.

Bit by bit, the scythe fell and the arc of Skyfire and Hellfire arose, like two heaven-defying giants, powerful enough to cause the collapse of the world, all the way until they met. Like two lovers, the scythe and the arc of flames wrapped around each other, causing meaning to come to a standstill. For a brief heartbeat, there was nothing; neither light nor darkness, neither living nor dead, and the very fabric of existence, down to its tiniest particles, was being destroyed… and then, it all burst out in explosion that turned into a gigantic, extending pillar of black and white, running from sky above to deep beneath the earth… and then the pillar itself exploded, causing ruin of the world beneath and above alike, as flames devoured whatever stood in their path.