As much as we all don’t want to admit it, hate is an essential feeling one should have and express

Hate may sound like an ugly word or a negative concept, but is it really?

By expressing your hate, you release all the pent-up tension within yourself,

It leaves you more open than one would think,

Holding on to hate is what makes us lash out more it breeds the chaotic nature of hatred,

Now hatred is what people think when they hear the word hate,

Illogical and unreasonable pure unfiltered loathing

Hatred soaks into our pores into the depths of ones mind clouding your judgement and influencing the worst

And eventually that hate you’d been harboring for so long, bursts out

Or maybe it doesn’t burst out at once maybe you let it out in little increments,

Regardless, that hatred starts to leak out, now appearing in your actions,

It could be as simple as assault, or as complex as personal hatred and self sabotage,

Either way when that hate comes out, you no longer are yourself,

You are an avatar of hatred with only parts of your self still intact,

And that right there is the hardest challenge,

Can one truly recover themselves from the depths of hate?

Can they hold on to their core values and morality while being under it’s influence?

This is the dilemma currently being faced by Apollo

…….

…….

“……”

“…….”

A cold wind blows amidst the drizzle of the rain,

It passes through the blonde locks of the angry Apollo

He stares hatefully at a man who’d just appeared before him

The supreme leader

…..

The two share no exchange of words

Kazzzzttttt!♪

Apollo chucks his sword at the man like a bolt of lightning

BOOOM!

He warps away letting it explode onto the silver streets

Tap–tap–tap♪

………

Xezus mockingly touches onto a diamond neckless as if to say

‘Kage is right here’

……..

“Huh!–”

KRRRRRAAHHHMMMM!

Digging his hands into the steel road Apollo peels it open like a can,

“Hyyyyuh!

Uhhhhnn!”

Then kicks towards the man who teleports–but

Whack!

The sword traveling at lighting speed rams it’s hilt into his head forcefully

“Ok,” the supreme leader annoyedly concedes the first hit

“Box” he commands and as such a cubic barrier surrounds Apollo trapping him in side

“Ten thousand bullets”

“Infinite evade”

Like a game of cards Xezus revels his first play,

Ten thousands bullets–all sides of the box trapping Apollo rapidly begins firing at in at point blank range

However Apollo counters with his ability

Infinite evade–the ability to move even faster than light granted you are in a stationery position, the ultimate defensive ability,

DUDOOOM!

Apollo’s heart let’s out a strong electromagnetic-esc pulse disabling the barrier

“Uhnnk!”

The moment he does Xezus teleports up to him upper cutting him with the force of a missile

“Thunder strike!”

Apollo tries to retaliate but the man warps away

“You, you’re good, too good in fact that it would be a shame to kill you” Mr. First makes the initial attempt at starting a conversation

“Die” a stoic response comes back

“Thunder clap!”

BRAOOOOMM!

His clap reverberates throughout the air zapping all that is near

Punks shakes it off as nothing

“Wind missiles” he draws his second hand

Invisible projectiles form out of thin air rocketing towards Apollo

“Infinite evade!”

But the results is the same

All miss…

“Ha even with all my body upgrades using the body parts of dead angels and demons,

Still I am outclassed by your mana, this stupid concept of balance really does have to go” smirks Mr. First

“Die…” is Apollo’s response once more

“Darius bolt!”

He chucks the flying great sword back at the supreme one

Who easily warps but–

“Terrain pulse!”

–hadn’t anticipated the secondary effect of the lighting mana-charged blade

The moment it hits the ground it pules out terawatts of thermostatic power

The lethal jolt does nothing more than giving slight Xezus however

“This is going nowhere” he sighs

…….

“Apollo…

I don’t think we have officially met yet or well I haven’t introduces myself,

You may have known me as the robot XPunk, but that was just a little façade I put up to watch you two as I waited for Kage’s arrival,

My full name is Xezus Punk First an–”

–“Die!

I want you to die, I’ve only ever killed one person before and you are much worse than he was,

I can live with one more murder to my name…

Just one..”

(“Just one…”) Apollo repeats to himself, his mind flashing on his daughter and to Kage,

(“Kage”) he spies the diamond necklace around Xezus neck, he flaunts it mockingly daring the young man to try to get it

(“Remember what you came here for,

C’mon self, come on

Don’t lose focus!”)

“Die” Apollo says out loud, dropping to his knees

He raises his hand in a double axe handle position and–

BAAAMMMM!

–sends shockwaves through the ground as he smashes onto it cracking it even further

“Are you really this desperate to die?

This mindless that violence is your only solution?

I would of thought you still had something to live for?” jeers Xezus becoming increasingly annoyed by the young man’s tribalism

“Die” he says again mouthing an iron splinter from the now dilapidated street

“Lighting Disk.”

Recalling his sword, Apollo chucks again but this time in position where it spins rapidly generation an electrical force as it rotates through the air,

Zaaazzzzztt!!

The supreme leader doesn’t even teleport away again instead chooses to beam the sword out of orbital spin, with his hypnotic eyes, which also proves that they are deadly as well

But —

Puuhhhff!

Right as that was happening Apollo had spit out the metal piece out of his mouth at lighting speed, the bullet slams into the diamond around Xezus’ neck overloading it with mana

It shatters…

A body is drawn out from it almost immediately

Kage’s body

“Guess you were thinking after all” Mr. First remarks,

He doesn’t appear to be bothered at all by Kage being released

Their body lay sprawled out across the ground, quite unconscious

But speaking of bodies…..

Xezus’ begins to glow, begins to shine, in a way that makes him the center of attention to all,

It makes him akin to a sun

“Alright,” he straighten his muscles, as a tense almost humid atmosphere builds…

(“Enough playing around now,”)

“You’ve got Kage, out, yes, but that now means I have to go all out to keep her.”