I cannot say I know what it's like to be possessed. Possession by an evil spirit, as it's often seen in movies or TV shows, would most likely look and feel different. As Shade stretched in my body and examined the damage we've taken so far, I didn't feel anything at all. Pain, touch, smell, all those were lost to me. The only things that remained were sight and hearing. It was as if I was watching a movie in first person and could interact with the most ignorant protagonist in the world.

"Now that is something unexpected," Ifrit's voice was heard shortly before his body materialized before us. As it did, it flashed briefly in bright white light. "You are not Edward Wright. Yet you have the remnants of his powers. Who are you?"

"I am him. I've always been him. A different look does not mean we're different people." Although Shade's response was very vague and not entirely correct, it seemed to be enough for Ifrit.

"I see. So he ended up projecting his own demons into a literal demon? Fascinating. Another proof that emotions are not something a God should possess. Now, since you are clearly a different creature, despite claiming to be the same, perhaps the reason for our... disagreement has changed as well. My offer still stands. Give me the power. Die here peacefully and this world will perish with all grace and nobility it deserves.

"Sorry, pal, but I ain't as dumb as Eddie was." Shade raised his hands to the sky. "I want nothing more than to rip that cold expression off your face!" He waved his arms back down again as if he was starting a race. Suddenly, all the nearby buildings started overtaking each other in a competition where the winner would be the one who crumbles to the ground fastest. Skyscrapers and their remnants started falling down all around us. The dust from the rubble filled the streets. Ifrit tried taking off into the air again, but as he was bracing himself for a jump, the ground beneath his leg gave in. He merely lost his balance for a while, but the short moment was all that was needed. Before he could react, the massive cluster of debris fell onto his head. Shade did nothing but stand there, watching his enemy get crushed as the collateral damage spread throughout the whole nearby block, yet mysteriously avoided him.

I didn't need an explanation to know what happened. My skills with Divine Creativity were limited. While I managed to bring down a road, Shade brought down everything in the nearby area. Every building in the vicinity fell and broke apart. There was nothing I could say. His skills were leaps and bounds ahead of mine.

After a while, the dust settled. We watched as several tiny sparks were floating around, gently gliding down and gathering at a single spot. That must've been Ifrit. There was no doubt about it. Shade reacted way faster than I ever could. He knew that physical damage cannot defeat the man, but perhaps something else could, now that he was in the form of scattered flames.

Shade waved his arms up into the air. In the next second, a pillar of burning liquid erupted from the ground. My only guess was that it must've been created by all that heat. Maybe some old underground oil got ignited? Up until this day, I am not certain what exactly happened back then, but I am sure Shade had at least a far-fetched explanation of such a phenomenon, otherwise, the Divine Creativity would not bring it to existence.

We both watched as Ifrit's tiny sparks vanished, devoured by that towering eruption. The liquid was spewing out of the ground, and although it hadn't hit us yet, it was only a matter of time. I didn't care anymore though. As long as Ifrit would be dead, it would be a victory for us. I was already gone anyway, so why bother about Shade's death?

We only heard a snap of his fingers. Then my feelings returned, at least partially. Although I was not in control, I could feel the sudden cold, as if I stepped out of my house in the middle of winter, wearing nothing but shorts and sandals. The liquid cooled off and solidified. At the same time, our surroundings got covered in snow and a thin layer of frost.

Ifrit appeared from behind that freshly frozen pillar, and gently glided back down to the ground. He still looked the same, but there was one different thing that caught my attention. Before, he was sometimes accompanied by a floating book with a dark leather cover and a golden symbol of fire in the middle. A book was still floating right behind him, but this time, it looked different. It was bound in white hide instead. Its corners were covered in some unidentifiable black metal, which was also used to create the icon of a snowflake, decorating the centre of the cover.

"I thought your whole schtick was fire magic!" Shade shouted at him.

"Never assume your opponent does not have a trick up their sleeve. This may surprise you, but these objects that look like mere books are in reality immensely powerful artefacts. They allow their users to manipulate the elemental magic sealed within their pages. I am quite fond of them. I suppose you could even call me a collector." He waved his left arm to the side and additional five books appeared behind him. Their colours and symbols differed, but each of them looked very similar. Leather-bound, with metal edges. We already knew the ones with logos of fire and ice, but I could also clearly distinguish a lightning bolt, a water drop, a swirling gust of wind, and something that loosely resembled a rock.

"Six... Six different elements..." those words escaped my mind out of sheer awe. I couldn't even handle his fire magic and he had five more as a backup? It was obvious that even if I managed to keep fighting a bit longer, it would not end well for me. At that point, out of either desperation or fear, I shouted as loud as I could, and even though my physical mouth didn't move, I hoped that my other self would still hear me. "Shade, RUN!"

My words were unheard. Considering what happened next, it was a real shame. Ifrit pointed to the nearby rubble and one of the books behind his back flew open. Then, with a simple flick of a wrist, he hurled a massive chunk of concrete right at Shade. The impact of something like that would surely squash a truck like an empty tin can, so I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would do to us.

At the very last moment, just before it would turn us into a pancake, Shade fell to his knees and lifted his hands, palms facing the sky as if he was offering a sacrifice to a deity. I didn't know who he prayed to, but it worked. Another geyser of burning liquid erupted right in front of us. The sudden outburst hit the incoming debris and changed its trajectory. Now it was flying off somewhere into the distance behind us. But Shade couldn't rest just yet. The liquid would soon fall back down, so he had to escape and find us a safe cover. Fortunately, running a few meters away seems to have done the trick. Due to the many cracks in the road, the liquid did not flow after us and instead got redirected to the side, therefore, once we were outside of the initial splash zone, we were clear.

However, as Shade focused on his enemy once again, he noticed that a different one of the books was now open. He waited for something to happen, and when he heard the wind picking up right behind us, he finally turned around. If it wasn't for his quick dive to the side, we'd be smeared across the street by now. Ifrit somehow changed the trajectory of the reflected chunk of rubble and sent it right back at us. Fortunately, Shade wasn't as slow as me, and so we managed to survive, for now.

But before another, even worse attack would come our way, Shade went on the offensive. Right after he dodged the thrown rubble, he ran to a nearby remnant of a vehicle and picked up a torn-off shard of the bonnet, which was sitting on the driver's seat. Its position was so perfect, it reminded me of the poorly designed video game levels, where the solution to a puzzle was so obvious, it almost seemed out of place. Then again, I managed to pull a legendary revolver out of a wall, so this was no doubt also within the capabilities of Divine Creativity. That string of thoughts also made me wonder what happened to the weapon after the whole ordeal at Sunwalley was over. Did the deaths forget to take it with them? Did it disappear again after my powers wore out? I could no longer remember. It surely would've come in handy in this fight.

Shade picked the shard up and tossed it at Ifrit, almost like a professional olympian disk thrower. However, there was one big difference - his disk flew way faster. It looked like it's been fired from some sort of a pitching machine, rather than tossed by a normal person. Then again, there was very little normal to him.

However, despite the speed, Ifrit didn't seem to have a problem dodging Shade's attack. He simply just moved slightly to the left and let the "disk" fly past him. What none of us expected, however, was that the laws of physics decided to take an extended holiday, and invited common sense to join them for the ride. The bent and battered piece of metal bounced off of the ground and several of the nearby chunks of rubble, and eventually managed to find its way perfectly into Ifrit's back.

"What?! That makes no sense!" I shouted in Shade's mind.

"You think too much. Forget about rationality. Embrace that crazy creative side of yours," he replied without ever opening his mouth.

The sharp edge of the metal bonnet cut deep. Almost too deep. I didn't know too much about anatomy, but it was obvious that in the case of such a wound, the spine would not be very happy, as it had just been divided into something that I could, for the lack of better medical terms, only label as "upper piece" and "lower piece". Ifrit let out a short scream and fell to the ground, almost lifeless. The books quickly followed.

"Holy shit... is he dead?" I asked Shade but got no response. He only stayed there and watched. For a while, nothing was happening. I was unsure if we had just won, or if the time froze completely. And then, all of a sudden, Ifrit's arm twitched. The moment Shade saw it, he sprinted into the nearest building he could find. Or, at the very least, what was left of it. The place seemed to be a fast-food restaurant or a similar type of establishment. We were now hiding behind the cashier's desk.

"Where are you?! You will pay for injuring a God!!!" we could hear Ifrit shout from the outside. Shade didn't seem to take his threats lightly. He kept us hidden and waited for the crazy god pretender to make his first move. Through his few peeks over the counter, I could see Ifrit moving outside. He was floating. The few glowing marks that loosely resembled cracks have moved from beyond the bandaged areas around his wrists and ankles and were now lighting up his whole legs and forearms. The books were still following him, only this time, three of them were opened at once. I didn't need to be a genius to know what that meant. Up until this point I've had a sort of a theory that perhaps he was always using only one of them at a time because he physically couldn't use more. I suppose my hypothesis was wrong. If he could indeed use them all at will, without any limitations, then he's truly been holding back all this time, even against Shade.

A few seconds later the wind picked up and started blowing towards Ifrit. There, it swirled the dust near him. But something else was joining the dance around his body. It was a layer of snow. At first, I couldn't see it, but it became very clear once the number of snowflakes increased. Then the coat of dirt and frozen water that was flowing in circles around Ifrit expanded, flying in all directions. When Shade noticed, he quickly hid behind the counter and let the wave of magic wash over us. As it did, the snow covered the area in a very thin layer, disappearing merely seconds later due to the immense heat. However, Shade had no time to worry about what the purpose of this spell was. Ifrit's voice was heard once again and this time, it spoke a few deeply unsettling words: "Found you!"