“We have to tell them soon Zinnia,

Its not like we can keep this between us forever,”

“I know Darius but……”

~~

(What was that?)

“DAARRIIUUSS!!” Zinnia shrieks dashing towards Murdoc

“Stay back girl, he is already dead

I do not want to have to kill you too,” Murdoc growls

“Heeyaaa!” Apollo angrily charges at him

“Did you not hear what I just told the girl?” Murdoc sidesteps Apollo slapping him across the face,

“I am not a patient God,

Do not test me!”

“You are no God!” Apollo tries to strike again,

“And who are you to say that I am not?

Apollo, is it?

I believe this is the first time we have met,

Stay down!”

A heavy gale of wind forces onto Apollo pinning the young man to the floor,

“We have to get rid of him now!” Karina whispers in our ears

“Pinoki go for the legs

Lyra and Kage distract him,

I’ll finish it,”

We all nod in agreement,

……

Vwossh!

I fire an arrow which turns to a wind shot, Lyra adds to my attack with a blast of snow

“Are you people even listening?” Murdoc, countering our attack with his own wind magic

“I am g-”

Pinoki’s shadow emerges to the back of him, stabbing him behind the knees,

“Augh!” He buckles down,

Karina swiftly darts up and slices his throat,

“I would have restrained him,” Apollo gets up as the magic forcing him down dissipates

“No, he deserves death!” Zinnia sputters,

A bevy of vines grow around the girl,

“I know how you feel Zinnia, we can’t stress on it now!” Karina tells the weeping girl,

“We should prioritize our escape,” …

… “I didn’t say you could leave,” A woman enters the room her face beaming, a smile twisted,

Though different the appearance the condescending voice remains the same,

“You didn’t really think you could kill a god?” she, Murdoc, laughs

“I am he

I am she

I am them

I am God,

Now stand down and offer yourselves to me, forgiveness can still be attained,”

“We know what you really are!” I fire an arrow directly at Murdoc’s head, the wind-powered shot spectacularly misses,

“That was just a warning!” I lie trying to cover up my inaccuracy,

“Go ahead then,” Murdoc dares, “shoot me, kill me again,

I promise, I will just walk right back though that door with a different body,

I am immortal!

Is that not what you would call a God?”

“You are a child!” Pinoki speaks up

“I saw your true face!”

“Eh!?” Murdoc face twitches slightly, clearly annoyed by Pinoki’s remark,

“Dedicate yourself to me Pinoki,

Right now!

No one can see the face of God without first becoming one with me!”

Murdoc assumes an attacking stance,

“He’s not using the earth magic again, or his wind blasts!” Karina’s voice whispers in our ears

“His magic must vary depending on what form he assumes,”

“Whirlwind kick!”

Murdoc pounces at Pinoki,

“Ha!”

Apollo blocks with Darius’ sword,

“So, what, are you an internal magic user now?” Apollo probes

“I am everything human!

Whirl-

-Ark!”

Vines wrap tightly around Murdoc; he struggles gasping for air,

The body getting redder as it swells from the pressure….

Crack!

Murdoc stops moving blood seeping through the bodies skin its broken bones stick out,

“That was for Darius!” Zinnia breathes

“This might be our chan-” Pinoki starts but another body already climbs the stairs,

This one, that of a muscular bald man his body plated in armour….

…… “You know what I hate most about dying?

The pain,

Why should I, A God, have to experience even a modicum of mortality?” Murdoc rants,

“At this rate we will be fighting him forever,” Lyra grimaces,

“He cannot be killed!”

“What about the main body?” I bring up,

“If we destroy it what would happen?”

Boof!

A ball of rock hits me directly in the gut,

I crumple to floor clenching my stomach

“You are beginning to upset me boy!” Murdoc huffs

“Be careful with your words!

Anyone tries to leave this floor,

I will send you to meet your friend Darius in hell!”

“I’ll kill you again!” Zinnia screams sending more vines at Murdoc,

Rock launch!

Murdoc directs his attention to, Zinnia firing a slew of rocks at the girl,

“I am getting bored of you girl!

Do not make me kill you!”

“Lightning knee strike!”

Umph!

Apollo leaps in to attack but Murdoc counters with a rock-hard uppercut,

As he lurches back in pain Murdoc begins beating at Zinnia, bursting open her face she begins bleeding,

“Bastard!” Lyra spats Jumping onto Murdoc’s back

“I’ll freeze you to death!”

She digs her nails into his neck preparing a spell,

Murdoc falls on his back letting his full weight crush the girl

“Who are you again, Lyra, was it?

Do not think your life is safe!

I never selected you, your free to die!

Rock fist strike!

Mounting on her chest, he starts beating into Lyra as well,

“Lyra!”

Stumbling up, I fire an arrow at his face, but he hardens it into stone,

“Wait your turn Kage~

Your next!”

“Surely you won’t leave me out?”

Karina grabs Murdoc from behind in a rear naked choke,

“Kage, Pinoki! You two go kill his main body, we’ll keep him restrained here!

“Ahhhh!

Don’t you DARE!”

Murdoc swings around furiously trying to shake off the girl,

Lyra gets back up and begins pummelling at his face

“I’ll kill you!”

…..

Pinoki and I race past glowing diamond in the tower, to the stairs,

….

“What in the-!”

No even far down yet, we encounter a chilling sight,

Scores of people waiting on the spiralling staircase

They stand motionlessly grouped like sardines just staring up at us,

It feels eerie,

“I think they go all the way to the bottom,” Pinoki notes looking down the stairs

“These people are alive,

Just empty,” I say waving my hand in front of one of the blank faces, their eyes follow my hands motion,

(Creepy)

“If this is Murdoc’s infinite supply of bodies to switch to,

Should we kill them all while we have the chance?”

“That would take forever Kage, how long do you think Karina the others can hold him back for?

Our best option is to slip through them like this,”

Pinoki tries squeezing through the crowd,

“Ack!”

A hand outstretches from the crowd grabbing Pinoki by the throat,

“I told you,”

Smash!

He drags Pinoki’s face through the wall,

“You cannot leave!”

“Run Kage,” Pinoki groans,

“Too late!”

He grabs my throat as well

“Hyuh!”

I pull out an arrow stabbing it into his hand

His grip doesn’t release.

“I have felt worse pain than that, don’t make me laugh!”

Smash!

My face goes into the wall as well,

“Pinoki, I will not kill because I want his body,

But you,”

Smash!

He does it again

Smash!

Again,

Smash!

And again,

My skull feels like it ready to turn to dust,

I feel the blood building up inside my head,

(My brain must be bleeding)

“Aiyeee!” Pinoki war-cries jumping on Murdoc’s back

“New plan Kage, get back upstairs!”

Stumbling dizzily, I get back to the top

“L.ra,….Ka..r…i...?”

The words won’t come out

Murdoc’s previous body now dead on the floor

Lyra slumped next to it a stone spike jutting out her leg

Apollo’s face is covered under a stone slab,

Karina and Zinnia both lay semi-conscious,

“I thought I told you to kill his body,” Karina says faintly

“I…..tfd”

I drop down in agony

Crash!

Pinoki’s body flings up into the room

Murdoc walks back up dusting his hands,

“Finally, some decorum here,

Now Apollo my boy, you have really proven yourself to me today,

Originally, I had no plan to use your body, but as I’ve punished Darius,

I’m now in need of a new body so you will do quite nicely,

Sadly, however Kage and Lyra, I don’t need you weaklings, uninteresting magic as well, you two will be absorbed into my magic during the ‘enlightenment,’

Any last request though?

I am a benevolent god after all,”

……..

Karina whispers something in my ear,

(I need just a little more time)

“The……truth…. you” I reply

“My…. last request,”

Murdoc sighs heavily

“I am God, that has always been the truth,

But I’ll play along with your request,

I will assume you’re asking about my ascension to Godhood?”

“…. Ye…yes,”

“Very well,” Murdoc says eagerly,

“I shall indulge,

It all started almost two hundred years ago I…….,

………...Prepare to be shocked,

I was actually born a human,”

…….. no one reacts.

“I know awful right?” Murdoc continues with his story,

“Across the desert, although back then it wasn’t a desert, but that’s another story,

Anyway, across was a small village called Lyfia, where I was conceived,

We used to constantly fend off against beast-men attacks,

A lot of people died blah blah blah,

In summary, I got tired of the tedium of mortality and went to visit a man, on the far outskirts, near the forbidden cliffs, was a house, there lived the infamous-

Blackmagic dealer,

At the time he was in possession of the body of God,

So, he said,

I sold him half of all organs I had multiple of, just for a small taste of the God’s flesh,

What a wise trade-off I made, it was then I became a demigod,

I had the power to control people but not just any form of control,

Share minds, control emotion itself,

Long story short I used my home village of Lyfia as the perfect testing ground for my newfound god power,

After mastering it I made my way to the kingdom of Asad, the now desert,

With my power I had a prosperous life there, butttt,

This is when I ascended into becoming the God you know today!” Murdoc now invested in his own story,

“I was an old man at that point I knew life was not long for me, so I went to Furlheim City….

Actually, I won’t get into that, all I will say is that after I left, I had obtained a diamond which I sealed myself in, from then on, I could not only control minds but now absorb magic, via methods I will not explain,

With each absorption I grew both stronger and younger stopping at a baby but by that point I already had absorbed thousands of people,

I then renounced my humanity fully becoming God!”

………..

As Murdoc had been talking a small vine slowly crept to me, to all of us, its leaves glowing warmly,

Karina had whispered that Zinnia’s magic evolved but she just needed time to use it,

Slowly extending my arm I grab the glowing leaf, a wave of warmth washes over my body, my pain slowly fading,

“Huh?” Murdoc puzzles,

“Why is your hair growing?

Don’t tell me you had healing magic all along-

-Keuk!”

Rolling to my back I fire an arrow straight through his throat,

“We have around six seconds till he comes back up here again!” Pinoki yells hoping back up to life,

Running to the staircase, I fire a shot down,

And then another

And another,

Another

Another

Another

Another

Zap!

“Aghh!”

The magic stone breaks sending a soft shock though my hand, my arrows now fire as normal shots

“Water stream!”

Pressurized water blasts up from below,

“We have to take him as a group!” Apollo proposes

“No, we have to prioritize escaping! Pinoki argues,

“We can’t keep up with the number of bodies he has!”

“What do you suppose we do then Pinoki, jump off tower!”

“Enough with the arguing,” Karina interrupts,

“Does it really matter if we live or die? either way it will both be for nought,”

“You two forget, the diamond is right there, and I have the key to return to the unholy city!” Pinoki clarifies

“I have had enough of this!” Murdoc bellows,

“That was the last straw!”

(I forgot that diamond was what contained the ‘unholy city,’

What was my original plan again?

To collide both cites together)

“Karina!” I yell,

“Is there any way to extract the energy from that diamond safely!?”

“Not without destroying the entire city, both of them,

What are you thinking?”

“Something crazy I fear,

Zinnia, can your vines protect us from an explosion?”

“I can try,” she replies,

Water crash!

Murdoc attacks in a fit of rage

Lightning strike! Apollo jumps at him

Snow blast! Lyra goes right after

Shadow attack! Even Pinoki joins in,

Bodies begin piling up as Murdoc relentlessly rushes up at us, the more times we kill him, the angrier he becomes,

Moving over to the glowing diamond, I press my hand on it

(This device can extract the power of magic stones and use on arrows,

Maybe it can extract this too)

“Ahhhhhhh!”

I smash the device on my hand into the diamond, nothing happens,

(Think! How do I get this to work?)

Taking out my dagger I raise it taking a deep breath

(Here goes nothing)

Umph!

Stabbing it into my other hand effectively nailing it to the diamond while simultaneously transforming it into the bow,

(It hurts,

It hurts bad,)

Painfully placing an arrow, I aim down at the diamond,

“Zinnia now!”

I fire,

The dagger falls out from inside my hand as the surge pushes me back,

………

(It’s)

Vines creep slowly up my skin covering every inch of my body,

A colourful light beams upward everything starts shaking violently

I can’t even see Karina or anyone else, the light blindingly bright

(It’s beautiful)

“What have you done!” Murdoc’s voce shouts angrily,

Everything fades to darkness as the vines cover my face,

Even though I hear Murdoc’s constant barking,

The sound of the ground violently shaking, walls collapsing roof crumbling down,

I can’t help but feel safe,

Basked in this ultralight beam