Right now. In a place where no human foot has ever trodden, a fierce battle was raging.
Man versus monster.
In a place where the very concept of life had once been eradicated.
In a place where living creatures ought to be dead.
But, viewed from the outside, the battle looked more like a clash between two monsters.
The humanoid-nit with the black head moved too fast for the human eye to follow. Even though it lacked an arm, it still managed to attack the "man".
It was far too agile, which kept both combatants constantly on the move throughout the battle.
The "man", on the other hand, was utterly consumed by rage. He paid no heed to the wounds inflicted by the humanoid, nor to those caused by his own magic.
He simply tore everything in his path to shreds: the earth around him, the mountain ranges, the floating islands — he reduced them all to dust. If an ordinary inhabitant of Terra were to witness this scene, the word "catastrophe" would instantly spring to mind — the very catastrophe that plagues the land of Terra.
Every time he caught up with the humanoid and had the chance to kill it with a single blow, he didn't take it. Instead, he deliberately flaunted his superiority, raining fist after fist upon the creature's body.
With every strike, the humanoid's body grew weaker. The spots where the blows landed ached more and more with each hit. For the first time, the humanoid felt pain — and that began to frighten it.
This was the first battle it had ever taken part in. All the others hadn't even been able to break free from their own minds.
So it started to feel fear for its own life.
After all, it was being pursued by a creature whose wounds healed instantly, and even lost limbs reappeared almost at once.
But what terrified the humanoid most was the "man's" willingness to maim himself with his own magic.
Over the course of the fight, he had inflicted far more injuries on himself than the humanoid ever had.
And that was horrifying.
A blow. This time, the humanoid couldn't negate the damage and took the full force of the strike.
The blow destroyed half of the humanoid's body, yet it didn't die — though it came perilously close. Then the "man" spoke.
"No, no, no. I'm not done yet. I couldn't use this before, but I can now.
'Dreams of Days Gone By.'"
The space shifted. The humanoid found itself in a realm with no ground beneath its feet, surrounded by a night sky and shards of mirrors.
"Come out."
The vampire spoke, and one of the mirror shards began to glow. Then an armored figure appeared.
"Commander! The medic has arrived as ordered! Who needs patching up?"
The "man" pointed at the humanoid.
"Whoa! What kind of monster is this? It's got a black hole where its head should be? Gross! But an order's an order."
A green beam enveloped the humanoid, and under its influence, its body began to heal — even the severed limbs reappeared.
The humanoid didn't understand.
Why are they healing him?
He hadn't understood it until that moment.
"Good. Keep healing him."
And then the "man" pounced on him. Each blow tore the humanoid's body apart. Each strike wasn't meant to kill — it was meant to inflict even greater agony on the humanoid.
He tore off its limbs.
Ripped out its internal organs.
Pulled out its intestines and spun the humanoid above his head, then slammed it into the ground and strangled it with its own guts.
He ripped out one lung and watched as it tried to breathe — even though there was a black hole where its head should be, it still needed air. The "man" made sure of that.
He crushed its ribcage, leaving the internal organs exposed, and watched as the humanoid writhed in agony, trying to cover the wound with its hands.
This went on for hours.
It would have gone on even longer if the medic's hand hadn't landed on the "man's" shoulder.
Turning around, he saw the medic's smiling face.
"Commander, I don't know what he did, and I'm not going to defend him, but right now you're a lot uglier than this creature."
The "man" froze, then got up from the nearly dead humanoid and stepped aside.
"Oh, Commander! I can perform euthanasia on this one."
The "man" simply nodded.
The armored figure of the girl put away her healing weapon and knelt on one knee in front of the humanoid. Then one of the mechanical limbs behind her pulled out a syringe and plunged it straight into the shredded remains of the humanoid's chest.
A minute passed, and the humanoid stopped showing any signs of life.
"Done, Commander! This vile thing is dead!"
The medic said cheerfully, striking a funny pose and making a "peace" sign.
The "man" just looked at her, and a small smile appeared on his face.
"Thank you."
"No problem, Commander! Call me anytime. I'd be happy to work even on my day off for you!"
When the space the "man" had created cracked, a small clot of blood appeared right in front of his face, leading him to one of the islands.
"Interesting."
Without thinking for long, he climbed onto it, and before him appeared a curious scene.
Near the bones of two people stood the transparent figures of a man and a woman.
The woman was furiously shouting at the man and beating him with all her strength. Her face showed unconcealed rage, while the man only looked guilty — he didn't even resist, stoically taking every blow from the woman.
"Quite a sight. I've never seen two ghosts fighting before."
After the "man's" words, the female ghost stopped beating the man and turned toward the speaker.
"Oh, am I interrupting? Go ahead, go ahead, I won't get in your way. Though, by any chance, have you seen a man who abandoned a child to their fate? I suspect it was out of sheer stupidity."
After these words, the woman's face twisted with rage again, and she attacked the man with triple the force, hitting him so hard that his ghostly head sank into the ground.
Her anger was no less than that of the man standing before them.
Then she turned to the "man" and started saying something, but there were no words, and he couldn't read her lips.
"Hmm, I have no idea what you're saying. But I take it you're connected to that child? Then I've got bad news for you. He's dead. There's a black hole where his head used to be, if you know what that means. Hmm, see those bastards approaching over there? He's got the exact same head."
After his words, all the fire that had burned in the woman's eyes while she was beating the man vanished completely.
She collapsed to her knees and began to sob, muttering something.
The man didn't look much better than the woman, but he found the strength to approach her and place a hand on her shoulder — which she immediately knocked away and started screaming at him through her tears.
The "man" kept watching them. Then an idea came to him.
"Hmm. Even though he's turned into this thing, he's still conscious. I doubt that will last forever, and his very existence is poisoning the land, so he'll have to be destroyed."
At these words, the woman's anger seemed ready to shift to the man standing before her, but he kept talking.
"I can resurrect you. Not for long, and only as skeletons, but I can take you to him so you can say goodbye to your child. He should recognize you — he was able to see what I looked like before I turned into a vampire. It's the only thing I can do. At least I can give him the gift of dying in his family's embrace rather than alone."
The woman stopped sobbing and stared intently at the "man's" face. And apparently seeing something there, she agreed.
"Very well."
Acid‑colored magic enveloped the "man's" hands, and then this energy began to seep into the bones lying before him.
The "Unholy Magic" worked, and two skeletons appeared in front of him. One immediately struck the other, sending it crashing to the ground.
Looking at his fist and nodding, one of the skeletons turned toward the "man".
"Fascinating. I've never done this before. Your will isn't suppressed, and you can act without orders — so it seems I succeeded."
He nodded to himself, then took a step back, and right in front of him appeared a humanoid figure even smaller than the previous one.
In a single motion, the "man" pulled the scythe "Mortar's Lament" from his inventory and instantly sliced the figure in half.
"But before that, I'll deal with our observers. I don't like their existence, so I'll destroy them."
He said with a smirk and rushed toward the hundreds of other humanoids heading his way.