-Man vs God(3): The Final Showdown-

Power of Absolute… there was no way to stop it but can be deflected or avoided. Having learned this, he decided to not do anything as foolish as taking on a divine tier skill head-on. That mysterious force, there was no way to stop it.

Gliding below Atub’s guard, Kenshin gave a roundhouse kick to the god. A golden shield appeared blocking it in the nick of the time, at the same time another golden sword conjured then dropped on him like a sword of Damocles.

Five-point movement.

Kenshin appeared a few meters away, then again lunged at him while doing a blade dash. Atub hastily put up a shield but he was a tad bit late as Kenshin was faster and managed to penetrate through his guard. The sword drew a line on Atub’s face, drawing golden blood. This was just the beginning of Atub’s horror.

Rotating his blade, Kenshin pulled his sword, drain another line of blood from his opponent’s neck. After that, he gave a roundhouse kicked the god, before backing away just in time to avoid getting crushed by the massive hands of Jabberwock.

“Impossible! How can a mere human hurt a god like me?”

Atub’s scream oddly sounded like the cry of a wailing ghost rather than that of a god’s. Even so, Kenshin had no mood or time to appreciate it. He jumped back to create some distance and retaliated with his own ‘absolute’ power. A cluster of stars conjured around him like a galaxy with him as the center. The newly conjured stars suddenly moved towards Atub like falling stars, emitting a bluish streak.

“What?” Atub recognized the nature of stars the moment he saw them and did everything he could avoid it… but the stars travel at a speed nigh-impossible to outrun or evade. It penetrated through the golden shield he put up hastily as a last-ditch effort to stop the inevitable.

[-5000 HP]

A huge damage value floated above his head. He was so surprised that he couldn’t control his movements and fell down on his ass. Kenshin wasn’t about to give him time to rest, he again dashed towards him with his sword.

In a battle between two strong forces, even the slightest mistake would spell doom for the one who made it. Therefore caution and control were necessary. Atub, as a god didn’t have this cautious mindset. Once he fell down, he continued to do mistakes, which Kenshin took advantage of.

His sword mastery passive came into play and using it in tandem with Five Points Movement, he decorated the god in white garb’s body with small cuts everywhere. The golden blood stained the god’s body, painting a gruesome but oddly fascinating picture.

“How can this be? How can you wound a god? Who are you human?”

At the receiving end of this gruesome care, Atub had to know why was he a god who could get wounded by someone of lower species. Was there something he missed? The question gnawed on his mind as was the pain all over his body. Even so, due to his quick thinking and willingness to accept risks, he summoned Jabberwock to the lower realm and this very risk saved his life when Kenshin just about to penetrate the sword through his neck.

With a roar the creature of nightmare swiped its skyscraper-like arms, trying to swat away Kenshin who was about to leap for Atub’s head. Stepping on the air, Kenshin changed his trajectory mid-flight by backflipping. The hand that dared to swat him, he ran across it, heading towards the god who was his target.

Suddenly the smooth surface on which he was running transformed into a garden of iron thorns as thick as a human’s hand. It was nothing he with his agility couldn’t handle. Maneuvering through the thorns, he scaled the hand and arrived before the god yet to heal from his earlier wounds. Jabberwock would have loved to continue on his plans of ‘swatting’ the fly but a pesky human in his opinion prevented it from happening.

That pesky human was of course Joy. Having taken the opportunity of when Jabberwock was busy with Kenshin, he attacked it’s ‘eye’ at the center of the torso. Joy’s strength was not to be underestimated. While coming nowhere close to Kenshin with his system, he still packed a punch that defeated Kenshin’s frenzied state when he was undergoing the awakening process. From that day he had also come a long way in enhancing his strength.

Roar!!

The creature roared in pain and backed away. It couldn’t bother with saving Atub anymore, the pain on its ‘third’ eye was too much for its feeble mind to handle. As it backtracked, Kenshin jumped by stepping on its massive body, heading towards Atub who was still in a state of shock.

Seeing the rapidly approaching form of Kenshin with his sword shining, a rare sense of fear emerged in Atub’s heart. He who had thought of receiving only worship and awe in a lower realm felt something least expected.

“You might be a god that these people worshipped. Now that they are all dead, no one will remember you anymore. You no longer belong here.” Kenshin’s sword tip was now a hair’s breadth away from Atub’s eye when suddenly the said god exploded in rage.

“How dare you talk me like this? What do you know of loneliness that spans for millennia? A mere human has no right to even gaze at me!!” with his scream, a golden hallow glowed atop his head as a golden ring appeared behind him, illuminating with golden light. Followed by the illumination, Kenshin felt his eyes going heavy each time he looked at Atub. And a second after he felt a sharp pain in his stomach.

Apparently, the god kicked him away while mad in rage.

Again regaining his bearing, he tried to look at Atub only for his eyes going heavy the moment he did so.

‘What the hell is happening? Why do my eyes close automatically whenever I try to look at him? This doesn’t make sense… wait… is this the ability of his skill ‘God’s Decree’?’ Kenshin remembered seeing such a skill listed on the chart shown by the system. Now that he was under its effect, he could finally understand the application of the skill.

It was as the name implied, a literal decree. A rule forced upon him by someone better than him by the application of a super-powerful skill. As frustrated as he was he had to accept this fact. But Kenshin didn’t feel that absolute force that was forcing him to close his eyes wasn’t that forceful. He could somewhat resist it.

Even if he couldn’t, there was no need for him to even see his opponent in order to fight him. He had his map. Knowing where his target was, he dashed towards him with his sword blazing.

Atub was a god of illusion. His powers lie in manipulating the ‘truth’ of everything around him. If someone could achieve a state where he would no longer be affected by this ‘truth’ what use of altering it? With the ability to alter truth being useless, what can a god of illusion do other than using his last-ditch effort to survive or sneak a victory?

Kenshin wasn’t affected by the array of illusions he had in his possession. Nor was he affected by his godly might he was so proud of. Facing such an opponent, Atub who had dreamt of making all the humans forced to worship him, arrived at a dead end.

“It’s unacceptable. I am unresigned!” he screamed, shouted from the top of his lungs like a sailor who saw his boat sinking. His godly visage could no longer be maintained and replaced with the look of a defeated man, a sore loser who couldn’t take his defeat ike a man.

Sling!!

The sword flashed as it sliced across the neck. A thin line appeared on his neck before extending as the head that was attached to the body not long ago fell down like a ball. With his eyes still wide, Atub could only stare at the apathetic eyes of the man… yes that’s right a mere man who took his life while the last thing on his mind was such,

“All I wanted was some company… how did it turn out like this?”