“Lucius…!” a voice sounded from the rising steam within a crater. Hazerd struggled to come out the rubble of volcanic rock. His body spasmed from the excruciating pain enveloping his punctured lungs and blood flew from his mouth like a waterfall onto the black beard beneath it. He grit his teeth as veins popped from his face like a savage wolf, wanting to tear the enemy in front of him into pieces.

“HAZERD!” A piercing shout resonated within the desolate valley, enough to make everything within its vicinity tremble, and Hazerd lay before him. Lucius’s face was not one whit inferior to Hazerd’s, suppressing his urge to decimate him into nothingness.

Lucius’s divine gauntlet, Cerberus, lashed and whipped the ground around him, scarring it with deep incisions. His divine blade, Mephistos, hummed and crackled the air with Lucius’s rumbling qi ignited within. He slowly approached Hazerd with deep breaths causing his chest and shoulders to rise and fall incessantly.

He leaped and crashed into the crater. The loose dust and pebbles revolved around him from the materialization and circulation of his qi.

Hazerd cracked a grin at Lucius enraged appearance. “Are you furious, Lucius?” Hazerd screamed maniacally before cackling menacingly. “Let me see more of your pathetic appearance before my death!”

Lucius ignited his qi and a tornado of flames surrounded him that seemed to have grasped the heavens and reached the horizon. Hazerd wore divine armor, the highest rank given to a warrior’s equipment. He was at the peak of the 5th stage, Integration, himself and even with his ignited qi circulating around him, his armor slowly crackled away, leaving him stark naked. The valley and mountains surrounding them were stained black , causing the sun to shine even more so with a blinding light upon them.

“Y-You’ve reached the 6th stage, Deification!?” Hazerd stumbled, his voice trembling. It was impossible for a human to control this much fire essence. Their spiritual veins would have to be the size of bamboo to control that much qi and ignite it into fire essence.

Along with his enormous amount of qi ignited, the fire essence of the world wrapped around him like a mother giving a blanket to her newborn child. Lucius’s originally brown eyes became a striking red. His hair became like fire serpents and slithered in the air.

“You dare laugh in my face?” Lucius shouted, his eyes wide open with a dangerous glint. “Hazerd!” Cracks emerged beneath his feet, stretching across the whole range. Lava shot out to the sky turning the blackness around them into a hell with an absent sun. The air thinned and Hazerd could barely breath, but still managed to speak. “Show me your rage! Show it to me!”

Lucius lunged his foot into his stomach, throwing his body into a wall of lava. “Why did you do it?” He shouted. Hazerd’s blood curdling scream resounded as his body lay suspended in the wall of lava, as if a hand caught him.

“Because he’s your brother.” Hazerd said seething, losing his wild demeanor from before. “And because you killed mine!”

Lucius killed so many people in his life. How could he possibly remember this expert’s brother? As Lucius’s tears began to flow before turning into steam in this intense heat, he grabbed the man by his head, deciding to end him, when suddenly a needle flew out of Hazerd’s mouth with all his remaining qi imbued within.

Lucius had just reached the Deification stage and did not have complete control of the world’s fire essence. Before he could strengthen his guard, the needle punctured his neck. He crushed the man’s skull and dropped his limp body on the scorched ground.

He stood there within the sea of flames recounting the wars he and his brother fought in together, the day their parents died, the day he became a general, the day he wed, the day he had his first child, the day his wife died, and the day his child died. Life had been extremely cruel to the both of them, only blessing them with strength close to gods.

Lucius did not start a family like his brother and only focused on training no matter how much his brother tried to convince him. Seeing himself progress made him happy, but as he neared the end of the road, he slowly stopped himself, scared of reaching the end. What if there was nothing beyond the mythical Deification Stage? The thought paralyzed him. He began to spend more and more time with his brother and they both enjoyed it immensely, even moreso than before. Lucius could only conclude he was lonely, as well as himself. And his brother died just like that.

As Lucius thought this, his body became numb. “S-Sky God’s P-Poison…?” Lucius was shocked. This was the only poison capable of contaminating an expert at the 5th Stage, let alone someone at the mythical 6th Stage. Every expert knew about it, but no one believed it to exist because the most critical ingredient was blood from a dragon over three million years old! Who would believe such a thing considering dragons are beasts of legend?

“I-Impossible… that… bastard… Ugh” Lucius fell to his knees and the walls of lava simmered and his appearance reverted back to its original form. Black rain fell onto his body as the skies darkened with thunderous cries the sun hiding behind the clouds.

With no strength left in his body, he slowly collapsed on the ground, steam permeating from the contact with his body. The Sky God’s Poison didn’t instantly kill him to his surprise. It steadily sucked his strength away and Lucius gradually got more and more sleepy. Thinking of the happiness his brother gained from familial warmth, he felt that this wasn’t the right path and let out a bitter laugh. In his final moments, he could only mutter with his deathly pale lips, “Shit… If I get another chance… I’ll try it your way…” As he closed his eyes, he felt his body enveloped in a warming white light from the inside out and an old man’s laughter.