"Waiting? That's rather strange, I would say. I see you really feel that way, which just gives me even more questions."

"What's going on here?"

"Nyanjo, I need you to run. Run very fast and get far away from here."

The idol was visibly sweating bullets from the pressure coming off Wrath. Ryuji held her shoulder to try and get her to listen. If she wouldn't run, then inevitably, she would do something rash again. Ryuji didn't want a repeat of what happened before.

She looked ready to bolt any second. With a quick nod, she made up her mind and sprinted towards the back door. A wave of force strong enough to knock someone down came barreling at her. Ryuji jumped in front of it, canceling it out with his blade.

"Keep going!"

The woman had stopped running to observe. Realizing that she was close to dying, she continued running and exited the building. Ryuji turned and breathed a sigh of relief. The man in front of him looked the same as always, with an empty demeanor.

"I hate the look on your face from the bottom of my heart."

Ryuji snarled at the monster in front of him. How much pain had he gone through thanks to this man alone? More than he wanted to remember and more than he could ever forget. His emotions amplified, and the small amount of hate he let seep through surged into almost blinding anger.

"That is true, although I have to think why. We have never met before. If we did, I would surely remember you. Do you hate me because of what I did to a friend or loved one?"

"Yeah, you could say that. It's more of a personal thing, though."

"I see."

Wrath closed the distance without warning. He raised his foot in front of him as if he was about to kick down a door. Ryuji out his sword flatly between them, and with a push, he flew backward at Mach speed. His body smashed through the wall. His head rested on the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he could see the sky.

"Damn!" Without thinking, Ryuji leaped up and out of the way. A second later, a foot was through the brick where his head had been resting. Wrath looked over and released his foot from the ground.

"El Rathor."

The crackling air came rushing towards him, threatening his life. He knew that if he took that, the pain might be too much to handle.

"Exodus!"

The first move of Kenpo had never been as explosive. The shockwave that bounded off his blade shattered the brick around hi both the walls and the ground. The energy Wrath had dispensed canceled out, but the aftermath of his own attack rendered Ryujij's arms busted.

Ryuji turned and sprinted down the alley, making it into the center of the street. Fighting in a cramped alleyway spelled certain doom for him. Wrath's attacks were all focusing, and in a cramped space such as that, Ryuji would just end up a punching bag. Wrath slowly walked out of the alleyway.

From a few hundred feet away, Nyanjo sat on a roof watching the showdown. For some reason, she felt inclined to watch this man she barely knew fight. Maybe she thought someone needed to be there to witness his resolve, or perhaps she felt that such a battle would be wasted if no one viewed it, but either way, she watched.

"Why are you fighting me? I see that deep down, you're afraid of me. I also can see from our exchange that you're weak. With that level of power, you cannot pierce my manaskin. So why are you fighting me? Certainly, a normal person would run or get back up. Is it desperation? Is it madness? Is it stupidity?"

Wrath drowned Ryuji with question after question. For a while, Ryuji stood still pondering the question. Then he spoke quietly yet firmly.

"Why? I'm fighting you because I'm tired of running away. Every time I'm faced with a problem, I do one of two things. I run, or I wait until it's too late before fighting back. It's all I've ever done. I vowed to become a different person, to change, but that was all just for show. I was still too weak. My mind couldn't handle it, and both times I tried, I broke."

He clutched his chest, and his words picked up in volume and spirit. It was as if he was spilling his heart for the first time, and he was doing to an enemy that didn't care of all things. Still, Furor continued listening without interrupting.

"In my old life, I was too scared to face my problems. Too scared to stand up for myself. Too scared to just reach out and grab what I want."

He thought about his old life and his past failures. How many times had he missed out on standing up to his boss? How many times did he miss out on making friends just because he was scared of rejection? How many times?

"Failure kept me rooted in place, and anxiety strangled me every time I worked up any courage. In the end, I just ran away from every problem, and that's what lead me here."

The noose was where his story started, but it was also where it ended. It was the story of his many failings compacting and compiling.

"Well, I say no more! This is my new life! This is my second chance. I can't be scared anymore. This is where I am reborn for the third time. Right here, right now! And you Wrath, are my first victim! I understand that I'm weaker than you. I know it so much it hurts! But one thing you fail to see is that I know your weakness."

"Weakness?"

Ryuji's confidence oozed out. Wrath, sensing that his dramatic speech was over, wanted to confirm what he was talking about.

"Your authority lets you sense emotions as well as amplify them along with other senses. But in exchange for that, you had to give up something. Tell me, how does it feel to feel nothing?"

Wrath stood silent. It seemed to him that he hit the nail on the head. He wasn't entirely sure about his hypothesis, but he thought it was pretty likely.

"How it feels? It feels... empty. Or is it even emptiness that I feel? I have no way of knowing. I can read other's emotions, but I can't feel them. They just register in my brain as anger or happiness, but I don't know what the experience is like."

Even when talking about something as depressing as the topic at hand, his voice never raised or changed. This only served to irritate Ryuji. He was starting to feel bad for the man in front of him, but just one quick thought o the past made those feelings of pity disappear.

"So is that why you ask so many damn questions about why people feel a certain way? Damn, that's depressing but what's even more depressing is the number of people you've killed. Can you tell me? Can you tell me why you killed them!?"

Ryuji shouted with a murderous sharpness in his voice. His eyes were crazed as he entered his standard drawing stance. His will to fight was great. Even when in front of a monster like Wrath, he didn't flinch.

"That's quite a silly question to ask. If you already know why I ask questions, then surely you must know the answer to the one you posed. I kill to understand what emotions people feel when their lives end. If I don't, then how am I supposed to know what I should act like when I die?"

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Furor confirmed Ryuji's disgust, but the time for emotions was gone. Ryuji could feel whatever he wanted to about the situation after it had been resolved right now he needed to stay calm. This was his only way of combatting Wrath's fearsome authority. If you let emotions run even a little bit out of control, then they could spiral until you run wild. He would have to stay as calm as possible. There were only ever two moments in his life where he felt that calm. Both times were when he was close to dying. He felt as though this situation was much the same.

'I need to focus. Focus. Focus. Think only of the fight, only of his moves. Think of your training. Think of what your body already knows to do.' His thoughts lasered in, and his breathing calmed. Wrath looked at him, uncaring. His q and a had ended, so he prepared for the slaughter he was about dole out. 'Focus. Focus. Focus.' His brain ceased all thought, and for the second tie in his life, only one concept remained in his mind. 'Kill.'

"I think we should start now. I feel your..." Wrath stopped short and inspected the warrior in front of him. "Why do I feel nothing from you?" The warrior did not speak; he only shifted his sheath in response. "You made yourself empty... on purpose?"

Ryuji had absolved himself of any shackles. The catgirl watching on the rooftops was shaking. She could feel emotions using magic in much the same way as Wrath's authority. If Wrath had any feeling, he would have much the same reaction as Nyanjo. He would be experiencing fear.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In the city square, a lone beauty gazed into the sky with a forlorn expression. She wondered how the others were doing and if they would alright. 'I'll end this as soon as possible! Then I'll help the others!'

Her crimson armor shined in the moonlight. And to anyone that could see such a thing, streams of mana ebbed off her. While she continued to stare up and sigh, a glint of metal flashed through the air. Without looking, she drew her blade and slammed down the foreign object. A common dagger was now jammed tens of feet into the earth.

"Wow! What a splendid display of prowess. I wish I could be just like you, Ms. Sword Saint."

His mockery was evident, and the way he carried himself was somehow malicious. He walked forward into the center of the square a couple of yards away from Rhea.

"So you finally show yourself, fiend."

"I just couldn't resist what with all the mana you were squeezing out! It was like you were just begging for someone to knock you down a few pegs!"

Rhea's smile was weirdly full of just as much mockery as Zelus's. Upon seeing this, Zelus's eyebrows twitched, and his smile felt more strained.

"Are you making fun of me? This was your intention from the beginning, then? Do you think I care what your plan is?! I'm Envy! I'm a force of nature! Something that leaves only death behind!"

"Is that so?" In her mind, Rhea thought back to what Ryuji had told her. 'Don't piss him off. If you do, you'll lose the advantage, and he'll stop underestimating you.'

"It's always like this with people like you! Why can't you just be normal? Why can't you just be like the rest of us crawling in the dirt down here? Why do you get to be the big boys? Why do you get to be the ones that everyone looks up to? What have you done to earn your status besides being born!?"

His ranting wielded a tone a child might have when their parents say they can't have a toy.

"So that's why you want to kill me, but why do you kill innocent people?"

Her voice was grave, but Zelus didn't pay any attention. With an annoyed sigh, he answered.

"It's because they're weak. All they do is give everyone else a bad name. Isn't that right? Everyone always looks down on people like me because they associate me with worthless people who just sit around all day. So wouldn't it better for everyone if these worthless piles of garbage were burned? Would it not make everyone's lives easier? Would it not make the world a better place!?"

"You're the only trash I see." Her tone was low and malicious.

"Huh?" Envy grit his teeth and looked on in defiance.

"You use your hate as an excuse to carry out inhumane acts. You use twisted logic that even a madman might find hard to swallow just to make yourself feel better. Just so you can have the imaginary moral high ground! Your philosophy is that of a child who can only blame others for his own shortcomings! A child that uses his own misfortune as a defense for causing others even greater misfortune!"

With every word she yelled, Zelus's eyes twitched. His teeth grated together even more strongly than before. He visibly shook with anger, but yet he made no move. He just continued to listen to Rhea's lecture.

"I'll tell you, exactly, what you are! You're just a scared child that makes himself seem bigger than he actually is. You want to feel strong by killing those who can't fight back, but in reality, you are just a weak little man."

His silence was broken by laughter. A self-deprecating kind that makes your hair stand on end. His bloodshot eyes were filled with equal parts hatred and amusement.

"You're so much like the original Sword Saint, you know that? I hated him. So high, so mighty. Nothing like how he was described in stories. They never are. All these heroes do some great deed and get remembered forever as a good person when they rarely were. No one talks about the Sword Saint's abused wives. No one talks about the elf hero's slaves. No one ever thinks that these people were piles of shit even when they clearly were. But you know what?"

The air shifted, and danger prickled every pore on her body. The man in front of her was about to act.

"I struck them down. I ended their lives! ME! Their eyes when they looked up to me in their final moments!" His body shook and spasmed as if he was being shocked. "Those eyes! They made me feel so... divine. Those eyes that were always looking down on me, they looked up, and in them, I could see fear. I wonder what your eyes will look like when I'm done."

"Are you done?"

Her disinterested voice sounded like she was breathing between her sighs. His bloodshot eyes shook with anger. The world around him warped. The intangible became tangible, and ether beyond what even an archmagician had was gathered.

"QUIT LOOKING DOWN ON ME, DAMMIT!" His body oozed mana at a tremendous rate as if he couldn't keep it all inside himself. "You won't keep that attitude for long! No, you're going to regret this dearly."

Rhea steadied herself in the classic stance she had learned when she was four. It was nothing special, but even the simplest things are extraordinary when you are. Zelus drew his dagger known as Night Grazer. Rhea was launched to the side by a force greater than that of a speeding semi-truck.

"Sorry, Ryuji, I messed up your plan." Rhea winced from the pain in her wrist. She managed to deflect the blow, but his attack was still brutal.

"That wasn't even a skill Sword Saint. Are you rusty?"

"I know that wasn't a skill, fool." Red pooled and poured down her eyes as she activated eyes that could see where death was possible. In this case, it saw the lines where she could end the menace in front of her once and for all.

"Pretty eyes. Impact!"

Appearing beside Rhea, he thrust yet again. The power of it sent her flying over one block before stopping. Not letting up, he ran at her full speed with yet another attack. This time she parried it gracefully. Her sword stopped the dagger. Freeing one of her hands, she landed a punch on his face sending him recoiling backward.

"I see. So you won't use skills? Do you somehow know?"

Rhea did not answer, but the smile and wild look in her eyes was answer enough. Zels could do nothing in response besides give himself future dental problems. His teeth were getting pretty sore from the gritting and the punch.

"If you think impacts will be enough to deal with me, then you are more than welcome to try it."

"I do."

Another clash of steel cracked the ground and caused structural damage to the surrounding buildings. They both looked into each other's eyes with hatred and disgust. The battle between a hero and a monster had begun.