I stare at the stairs. I stare at the river of blood before me with eyes only a disappointed mother could understand. I stripped Zhao from his life, culling him from our mortal realm just because I deemed it right. I decided it was the correct thing to do, so I killed him. I ended his cycle in my own stead.
I sigh, turning my back to the scarring sight, and begin walking up the stairs. Each step felt heavier, as if I could feel each sin clamp down on my body the more I made my way up the spiral.
"Am I truly in control? Does this truly mean I have broken the cycle I was desperate to break, or have I just found myself in a new one?"
I exhale between my breaths, my words neither full nor spoken with conviction, as if my body didn't have the energy nor the will to even think, nor speak.
I made it to my floor. It's empty. Somehow, the moon has risen again. The cycle has repeated.
I make it to my room and slowly pry the door open, a soft, exhausted sigh escaping my dried lips. Though I suddenly stop in my tracks, as if something physically held me in place. I grunt ever so eloquently, but that's when I saw it... it... my—
Myself.
I saw my half-naked body hunched over the bed, the moonlight piercing through the curtains and detailing the muscles on my body. I was...
Looking at myself.
The human mind is never supposed to see itself, nor a representation of itself. It has never been prepared to see... its own shell before its eyes. Life, the world, our constructs were never prepared for a man to be present twice in the same linear timeline.
Yet there he is.
Staring at himself.
I blinked twice, and I disappeared. I no longer saw myself. In fact, it was completely empty of human life, my room devoid of its prior calming feeling. All I felt now was this overpowering, overbearing weight on my back, as if my spine was about to give out.
I look to the right. With a sharp, dry swallow, I could feel the saliva coat my dry throat. My head turned before my eyes did. I could feel each tendon and muscle in my neck almost begging me not to look.
"Oh... Ohhhhhh... Lu Buuuu... Confused... The great... The oh-so-great Heavenly General... The almighty... God of War! Look at you... sweatinnnggg... How... AAAAAAAAAAA-amusing."
Dark. Contorted. Horns. Slimy. Bloody. Evil.
It sat there on his bed.
The very embodiment of evil, the driving force of all the calamities in our world, was plastered on his bedding. He came here to play his violin, to orchestrate a great play, but his victim was not sleeping anymore.
He was at the door, staring at him with bloodshot eyes and sweat running down his temples.
I... I have never felt this emotion in my life.
Fear.
My body was stiff. I couldn't move. My breath was no longer automatic. It felt as if I had to contract my diaphragm and squeeze the air out of my lungs by my own command.
I was met by...
The Devil?
Evil incarnate?
Just hearing him breathe made my bones freeze, my muscles slowly rip, and the hair on my body stand up.
I thought to myself that I broke the cycle, that I was free... that my decisions lay now in my own hands, but... I was wrong.
"I feel your anger. I smell your frustration. I can sense your seething over your failed plan. Chiyou, you didn't expect this to happen. Surprising that even such a god like you can't plan for such time-warping events."
I spoke with conviction? Pride? It's like I felt my spine extend and straighten with pompous confidence.
This isn't what I felt.
Who was talking?
I said those words without thinking, yet the Demon God of War could hear every word, and he clearly wasn't pleased with me speaking in such a tone.
"Luuuu... LU BU! LUUU BU. God... GOD OF... of War. They call you a demon... dem- on the battlefield. They call you the Ogre. The God of War. Fengxian, do you even know what you are? What I am?"
The Demon God stood up, towering. The room itself made the ceiling taller just to accommodate his height. He looked down at me, his eyes just gleaming red dots in the darkness, his giant, grotesque body a silhouette.
"I am CCCCCCCHIYOUUU... chi... chiiiiyou. The Demon God of War. Your concept is boring... ing... You may have stumped me this once. Me... stumped. ONCE. But... you will tire of seeing me..."
I felt every sense in my body flare up. I could feel every tendon, every muscle fiber rear and ready to pounce like a malnourished lion. I flick my upper body forward, raising my right hand and unfurling my weapon.
My other half.
"SKY PIERCER! To pierce the heavens is a great feat... To topple the hells is even greater!"
The sky grew darker. The clouds filled the vast emptiness. Lightning cracked and exploded countless times a second. You could feel the air molecules rise before you, as if you were starting to float. The carpet raised itself, levitating slightly. The curtains flowed violently in the strong winds.
Lu Bu, the epicenter. The eye of the storm.
And his halberd, his only true friend, gripped in his palms, tight fists around the handle.
"CHIYOU... You have never... NEVER met the true will and power of the human spirit. I am no demon, no god... I AM NO OGRE. I am what my mother birthed me to be. I am... Fengxian... Lu Bu! THE FLYING GENERAL."
Sky Piercer carried me forward, its tip pointed at the Demon God's chest, right where his heart should be. The room crumbled. Pieces of the roof slammed down through the ceiling. You could feel the ground and floor tremble, the wood splinter and crack open.
Right as my weapon could feel his skin...
He disappeared.
Chiyou made his leave the second he felt the power of a man who bent not only fate, but time.
He wasn't prepared.
I was no ordinary man...
Anymore.
A god...
Something beyond my mortal capabilities lies in my fists...
A greater force I have no choice but to harness.
"I am... Fengxian... Lu Bu... I will make the gods look to me in fear... Not because I'm an equal... Not because I am a god... But because I am a man. Because a mortal could topple the gods."