Second Genesis

"You are Grey Temolt, correct?"

The voice boomed like thunder.

The response it received was a flash. Grey shot forward, butterfly wings painted of dark gold magnetic fields spreading out to his back. The pulsing waves of energy superheated the air and he skyrocketed through the skies.

His Steel-Toe Shrouds unleashed themselves, unhooked and clipping to his soles from his Cyber Space.

BANG.

He shattered the sound barrier, his butterfly wings expanding to the point they were each easily over 20 meters each.

Lines of red veins pulsed from the corners of his eyes and he unleashed a roar that clapped louder than even the thunder ripping through the skies.

His hands grabbed at the air, his Vampire Lord mech taking shape and summoning a pair of blood blades.

And just as he made a move to clash with the Volthari in the skies, his Helm Frame covered his savage features.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Grey stomped on the air as though it was flat ground, the steel frames around his Shadow Forces ejecting a large amount of dark energy that pushed and pulled on gravity.

His speed hit a new tier and he thrust forward, slashing through the air with all his might.

A line of red split the skies in two.

"Hm?" The Volthari seemed surprised by something. Its large form suddenly shrank and Grey overshot its head.

It landed on one of the few buildings that remained in the region, watching as Grey smashed into a barrier it had put up. Its head tilted to a side, the surprise evident in its eyes.

This human should not be this powerful. How peculiar.

Grey coughed up a mouthful of blood as he felt every fiber of his body nearly shred itself apart. He hadn’t sensed or felt a barrier around here at all, but he knew for a fact it was a treasure and not something the Volthari had drawn up with its own energy.

That must be why the rest of the city wasn’t interfering, or it was at least part of the reason. This Volthari had something that either stalled or pulled the wool over the eyes of the NPCs.

BANG.

Grey landed heavily on a pile of rubble, his body swaying for only a moment before Hemorrhagic Regeneration worked overtime to fix him back up.

Again and again, the same bullshit.

He didn’t actually care about the challenge. He didn’t care about them harassing him and trying to take his life all the time. He didn’t care about the constant, perpetual fights.

What pissed him off were all the deaths, all the deaths of people who didn’t deserve it for no fucking reason.

Over and over and over again.

Grey’s fists clenched over his dagger. A spiraling aura of crimson black loomed high over him almost like a bonfire that had grown too tall. His butterfly wings grew darker and darker, his canines growing sharper.

His white hair danced in the air, his crimson eyes growing a shade deeper.

BANG.

Grey vanished and the Volthari readied itself, only for Grey to vanish.

PUCHI.

Grey’s blade stuck through the Volthari’s back, right through its armor as though it was made of butter.

The Volthari didn’t have eyes in the normal sense, its vaguely humanoid form framed from its armor alone. The rest of it was formed of clouds and lightning of streaking arcs.

But the pulses that came from its eye sockets now were very much reminiscent of a pair of eyes widening.

It couldn’t even believe what was happening. It had been hit? By a human?

"Absolute. Nonsense."

Its voice was so steady it felt like it rose from the depths of hell. It was formed of vibrations of thunder and crackling of lightning. Somehow, Grey could tell this and was so very certain of exactly what it was saying nonetheless.

BANG.

Grey coughed, but his blood became ash as though everything within him had already been burnt to a crisp.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

He toppled rubble over like a bowling ball, his body pinging from side to side until he skidded to a slow stop. Yet, as fast as he was moving, the moment he came to a stop, the Volthari appeared above him.

Grey tried to raise his blood blade, only for a leg of lightning to stomp his wrist down. The residual crackling burnt his flesh to a crisp, his bone itself becoming little more than ash wisping about in the air.

He raised his other arm in the same vain attempt to attack, only for the Volthari’s other foot to stomp down on his hand, grinding down into it.

This time, the lightning was far less violent. It wormed its way through his veins, tearing into his flesh slowly until it raced toward his heart and then flinched away as though to tease him.

Grey’s expression was entirely deadpan. He looked up at the looming Volthari. If it had been hoping to find fear, to find him begging for his life, to find features twisting in pain, it found nothing at all.

All it found were eyes so icy cold they could have been formed from the winds of the tundra itself. Grey stared up as though he was boring every flickering line of lightning and every ancient glyph of the Volthari’s armor into his memories.

His mind thought of one way after another he would kill this bastard, every way he would make him suffer a life worse than death.

He didn’t seem to care that he didn’t understand why his strike had done no damage, he didn’t seem to feel any regret about the pain his body was withstanding right now.

He would pay it back. He would pay it back for himself, for every death he had been forced to stand by and witness, for Elowen.

The Volthari snarled when it didn’t get what it wanted.

It raised its foot, its heel hovering between Grey’s eyes for a brief moment. Even then, he could see the pair of crimson irises boring into him.

BANG.

—

[You have died. Better luck next time. Oh wait, there won’t be a next time. Toodle-oo.]

—