Author's Note: If you have stuck around and read the story up until now, I want to thank you for your support. It means the world to me that you are enjoying the world of Keena as much as I am! From here on, unless something happens in my life, I will be posting an episode on every Tuesday and Friday of every week. I do ask for understanding if I am not able to post and I will make sure to explain why. Again, thank you all, and enjoy! End of Author's Note.
The rest of the Black Dragon Guild already knew what those last words meant from their Lord, and decided it was best to make way for the fight of the two titans in front of them. They tried running away to the sides, but Rain was too strong. "Don't think your words carry any weight with me boy. They are just empty promises until you manage to back them up. And honestly, I highly doubt you can stop me in the first place with your weak ability. For example." As Rain finished taunting Thanatos, he pushed out his hand in front of him, but Thanatos felt nothing. However, a moment later, strange gurgling noises could be heard all around them.
Getting slightly worried, Thanatos took a look at his men and realized they were all being suffocated and held up by their necks by an invisible force. Quickly returning his gaze back to Rain, he noticed he was doing something. Rain had his hands spread out to each side of him with an ominous glow surrounding his arms. He was more than likely the root cause of Thanatos's men being put in the dire situation they were in. "Ah!!!" Thanatos yelled out as he pushed off the ground with a slight twitch of his foot. As he left the ground, dirt and dust flew behind him like a tidal wave. Thanatos covered the distance between them in an instant and slashed down diagonally at Rain's neck, hoping to slice him in half. Rain let out a pulse of his energy from his chest that flung Thanatos's attack backwards. In that same motion going backwards, Thanatos controlled his actions and placed his scythe back on his back. He lit up his fists in the black flames while twisting his body around and going for a back fist and following up with a powerful jab to Rain's ribs.
Rain looked into Thanatos's eyes and winced. He backed up holding his ribs where Thanatos cracked him. It was odd though, the glow around his hands never faded or faltered and his men weren't released from the strange power. Rain screamed, "Just kidding!" A maniacal cackling laugh erupted from Rain one moment and the next, he closed his hands in a way that looked like he was crushing something. At that moment, everyone who had been choking had their heads blow up in size and explode in the same way as Elder Yazzy did. In just a few seconds, Rain Nisho had defeated the entire Black Dragon Guild, all apart from Thanatos.
Not believing that Rain was stronger than him even now, Thanatos made the flames on his fists grow three times bigger. This made them about the same size as his own head. "I won't try and understand the inner workings of a mad man, but before I slice your tongue out of your head for what you've done here today, humor me, why are you doing this?" Thanatos said as he started slowly walking in a circular pattern around Rain.
"Well, since you're being more polite now, maybe I'll tell you something worth your while. I mean it's not like you'll be alive to tell anyone else anyway." Rain said while laughing and watching Thanatos. "I want the ultimate power… I want the crown!! There is no real peace in this world, only for the strong. Even with what I'm doing, that will never change. I'm just making my seat a bit more comfy at the top." Rain then winked at Thanatos. "I will shape this world to my liking. Everyone will want to grow even stronger with the way I will rule. Give the people a goal to fight for, or to be crushed under. Whichever one fits their destiny is fine with me. You know, survival of the fittest and all that. I really couldn't care less about the individual lives."
Thanatos took a moment to take in what was being said, but he still couldn't make out the point of it all other than the fact that Rain wanted to be a king. "Come on Rain!! Make sense dammit. I need to know before I cut your head off! It can't be something as petty as a child playing king of the hill, right?" Rain then gave Thanatos a side eye from hell, "Thanny, let me ask you something really quick. Do you know why your men are dead and you are not? Do you have any idea about the actual benefits of being strong versus the consequences of being weak? Have you even thought about it or have you just been rampaging around like the big old hippo you are?"
For a second Thanatos looked kinda offended with the face he pulled, "My name isn't Thanny you prick. Get it right!! As for your question, I don't care about that." Rain looked slightly amused and said, "I thought as much, you overgrown gorilla. It's because of your strength. No, I'm not talking about your physical strength either. It's because you are stronger in your ability than the rest of your guild. Too bad you weren't strong enough to protect them. The more strength you have in your ability, the more natural resistance you will have to other abilities, especially to those who are far weaker than yourself."
It looked to Rain like Thanatos was beginning to understand what he was saying. "Most of the power we obtain from our ability is received when we are granted them at the age of ten. However, that doesn't mean we can't work hard and increase the power in our abilities, but most never reach their full potential. As for me, why do you think none of my guys have had to do a thing in this fight?" Being so focused on Rain and how quick the fighting actually was, Thanatos didn't realize that the Red Dragon Guild were lined up and watching the fight go down, but they kept their distance. "It's because they aren't needed." Rain stated coldly. "I'm not even worried about you, because you are nothing to me!" a smirk was seen on Rain's face as he looked behind himself towards Thanatos.
From a distance Thanatos, without hesitation, punched forward sending out a large beam of the black flames right at Rain. The flames covered Rain from head to toe on all sides. Nobody could see any part of him. Thanatos kept up the beam for a bit longer and turned up the heat near the end just to make sure. After about a minute of the insane burst of power, Thanatos dropped the output of the flames. It was so hot that the Red Dragon Guild members behind Rain had to shield themselves. "Woohoo!! Now that's what I call toasty!" a familiarly annoying voice was heard. "I almost had to take off my cape for that one!" Rain took a second to enjoy the irritated face of Thanatos before stating, "Aw, you didn't think that little ember was enough to do me in did you? That's cute man, it really is, but if that was enough, I wouldn't have made it this far. You're going to have to do a lot better than that, Thanny!!"
Letting out an aggravated growl, Thanatos ran at Rain with his scythe out. Halfway to Rain, Thanatos jumped in the air about thirty feet high and forced his body into a horizontal position while spinning like a mad man. "Let's light it up!" he said while enveloping the blade of his scythe in the black flames. As he came down, he slammed the blade into the ground and spread the flames outward. The flames exploded and it somewhat looked like a modern day nuke went off from a single man. It almost looked like, through the constant battering of flames, there was some type of force field protecting Rain.
"Agh!! What the hell is going on?!" Thanatos thought to himself. "He wasn't this strong before. I know his ability is to manipulate oxygen, but is this what he meant by making his ability stronger?" After the explosive flames died down, the aftermath was obvious to both Rain and Thanatos. A few dozen men from Rain's guild were burnt to a crisp. In the next second, their bodies, from head to toe, started breaking into small flakes of ash and drifting off in the wind.
"What was that you were saying about being too weak to protect your men?" Thanatos sneered as he ran at Rain once again. He slashed multiple times in an X like formation and sent out line after line of the black flames. At this point, he knew his flames were a little useless, but not entirely. He was using them as suppressive fire to get close and cut Rain apart. He then dropped the flames from his scythe and swung down. The blade, to his surprise, made contact with Rain's arm. Not just that but it sliced through like butter. A moment later and Rain heard a thud. Realizing he couldn't feel the arm that was once there, he jumped back a further distance than would normally be possible. He was using his ability to somewhat float backwards.
Controlling the oxygen in his blood, Rain manipulated the blood flow so he never lost a significant amount of it. Getting out of the immediate reach of Thanatos, Rain lightly lept upward into the air and using his ability to then control the oxygen in the atmosphere, he started floating in a manner that looked like flying. Thanatos picked up Rain's arm, then snatched it from the white and gold sleeve that came with it and yelled, "Don't think you can escape me!! You've had this coming for a long time Nisho!! Death will become you by the hand of the reaper!!" Thanatos reared back his hand with Rain's severed arm in it and thrust it forward so fast that a sonic boom was heard. Simultaneously, a visual explosion could be seen as the arm then left the sound barrier and was headed right for Rain's head.
Rain held his one good hand out and the air seemed to pull small translucent bubbles out from nothing and formed into somewhat of a crescent wall. As Rain's arm made contact with the bubble shield, it slowed down to a near stop and he grabbed it with relative ease. He placed his severed arm up to his current nub and held it in place for a few seconds before letting go. "Thanks for giving that back. Would have been a real nightmare to lose the symmetry I have going for me now. I guess I could have played the sympathy card for some girl's attention, I don't really have that kinda issue if you know what I mean. You on the other hand, seem more of the depressed lonely type. I do hope you found someone, but I guess that won't really matter at this point haha. I can do so much more than I originally thought possible with my ability and now you're only seeing a fraction of my power."
In front of Thanatos's eyes, Rain could no longer be seen. He started looking everywhere trying to find him. He thought, "If he went invisible somehow, he's probably making a move." In a desperate attempt to find Rain, Thanatos lit up the scythe with much more intense flames than the last time and slammed it into the ground, once again. Sure enough, a type of shielded bubble could be seen not ten feet from him.
Before he could do anything else, Rain spoke, "After that last attack, I don't wanna play with you anymore. It's clear you're just as weak as the last time we fought. I need to move on and start running my kingdom. Now bow before me or die where you stand! On second thought, how about you just die!" Rain moved his hand swiping in a Z formation and the same invisible power struck Thanatos's body, but with a force that couldn't be predicted. He felt a slash go across his knees, another one struck from his bottom right hip to his top left shoulder, and lastly he was sliced right across his neck. He stood still and it looked like he was frozen. A moment later, right where the ability hit, blood could be seen trickling out from under the wounds. Rain was smiling and taunted Thanatos one final time, "Well, I guess the reaper has been reaped."
Thanatos couldn't speak, but had a few final thoughts, "How… how did he get so strong? He made me look weak!! Am I really losing my life like this?! I can't do anything now, the damage is done." A second later and the part of his body that contained his right shoulder slid out from the rest of his body. That started a domino effect and soon his body crumbled into five cut apart pieces onto the cold ground. Rain stood over top of the man he just slain. He chuckled and yelled to his guild, "Everybody!! Move out! The King has to make his presence known in Meetria!"
ClodiasManga
(End of the Episode)