The shapeshifter writhed on the ground, grunting in agony. His torn body was no longer regenerating as quickly. Black steam poured out of the open wounds like smoke from a broken engine. For the first time, there was hesitation in his multiple eyes - not fear, but an irritating, corrosive doubt, like rust on steel.
Seth stood motionless, enveloped in his golden aura, his eyes fixed, empty of expression. His skin burned with lines of living energy, and the air around him vibrated like a storm about to collapse. It was as if the reality around him had bent, yielding to the presence of something that didn't belong in this world.
The Shapeshifter stood up, panting, his jaw cracking and his teeth bared. But it was the expression on his face - a distorted grimace between hatred, shock and? ancestral dread - that gave away his true disturbance.
"What are you?" he spat, staggering backwards. His voice came out grotesque, desperate. "Why can I feel... the Void in you?!"
Seth didn't answer. He just stared. The energy around him crackled, and Bastet, still beside him, kept her head down, her eyes alert. Even she was tense - and not with the Shapeshifter.
"Say it!" shouted the creature, its form trembling. "You shouldn't be carrying that! You're just a human! Weak! Ridiculous! HOW DID YOU CONNECT TO THE VOID?"
The voice reverberated like roaring thunder. It was a roar of primal frustration, as if the universe had broken one of its fundamental rules before the creature's eyes. He tore chunks out of his chest, as if to rid himself of the feeling. But it wouldn't go away.
Seth just tilted his head, as if trying to understand those words.
"Emptiness...?" he murmured, his voice hoarse, restrained. "What are you talking about?"
The silence that followed was like a dry snap in the world.
And then... something broke inside the Shapeshifter.
He screamed. A howl of existential, tearing pain that made the surrounding buildings shake with the sound pressure. His flesh began to bubble, his eyes expanded, pupils spinning like uncontrolled propellers. He fell to his knees and slammed his fists into the cracked ground, creating craters all around him. Each impact seemed to resonate at a frequency outside of reality.
"IF YOU ARE THE BEARER... THEN I WILL KILL YOU!" he bellowed, like a cornered animal.
"Bastet..." muttered Seth, still unable to move.
"I know," she replied, growling. "He'll break through the barriers."
The shape of the Shapeshifter exploded upwards. Bones crackled, muscles expanded, and its flesh molded itself... no longer randomly or chaotically. Now, it followed a... specific structure.
Seth's.
A familiar silhouette emerged from the center of the deformed mass.
Slender arms, firm muscles, long black hair in braids floating in the air with vivid static. But the skin was purple like raw amethyst, and the eyes - all three of them - burned with corrupted lightning. He had molded himself into Seth. A twisted reflection, imbued with the energy of the very lightning he had once faced.
The mouth of the new "Seth" - the Purple Seth - opened in a cold, insane smile.
"If you have the Spark... then so do I," he hissed, his voice now a grotesque mixture of the original and Seth's. "Let's see who deserves to carry this power."
He raised his hand. And the sky screamed.
CRRRRAAAAACKKK!
A burst of energy fell from above like a blade of the gods, striking the creature and coating it with layers of violet lightning. The earth rose up around him, the asphalt melting beneath his feet. Lines of energy ran through the new Shapeshifter's body, so intense that they distorted the light.
"You mimicked my power...?" Seth clenched his fists.
"I am you without limits." replied the copy, with a smile wider than his face should allow. "I am what you would be... if you surrendered to the Void."
'What the fuck is this guy talking about. Seth thought before blinking and...
And then "Purple Seth" advanced.
He barely had time to react. The impact came like a cannon. The Shapeshifter's fist hit his abdomen, bending his body with enough force to launch shockwaves for hundreds of meters. Seth flew, punching through an entire concrete wall before rolling tens of meters to the ground.
The ground crackled with every step the creature took. The fake Seth was behind him in an instant, his hand wrapped in purple electricity that crackled like live current. He brought his arm down like a guillotine, trying to crush Seth's chest.
But Bastet threw himself in the way.
CRAACK!
The bolt of lightning struck the panther squarely. Bastet howled, being thrown meters away, smoke billowing from her fur and shadows breaking into unstable swirls.
Seth jumped to his feet, the energy of thunderous lightning pulsing through his body again. "No... you don't touch her. I'll kill you with everything I've got..."
[Skill "Electrokinesis" is being forced to evolve into "Lightning Manipulation" (Rank-A)].
The Shapeshifter laughed - a high-pitched, crazed sound that reverberated in his bones. "Look at that... the beast made you feel it. That's good. That way the power boils better."
Seth disappeared.
He appeared on the left. He punched.
The fake Seth defended with his forearm, countering with a hook loaded with purple thunder. Seth dodged by millimeters, responding with a spinning kick that exploded into golden lightning. The copy absorbed the blow, its feet digging into the ground, but struck back with a blast of lightning that threw Seth into a post.
BOOOM!
Golden lightning and purple thunder fought for dominance of the battlefield, creating a chromatic storm that tore the sky into two colors.
"Come on, shout!" the Shapeshifter shouted. "Show me your fury! I want your limit!"
Seth stood up, blood on the corner of his mouth, his eyes blazing like collapsing suns.
"You'll get nothing more from me." He lunged forward.
It was a clash of two hurricanes.
Fist against fist, lightning against lightning, screams against silence. The surrounding city no longer existed - it was a field of raw energy, where every blow altered the landscape. The asphalt rose up like waves. Buildings melted. Cars turned to dust.
And then, in the middle of the sequence, Seth stopped.
"It must be sad to be like this, isn't it?" Seth spoke as he gained time to think about something... her first attack had partially cut through his healing ability, devouring his insides. In a matter of biology, if it didn't have a heart, there was another place that would act like one... the question was... where was this being's weak point?...
'The head... the chest has been cut in half so I don't see any other option...'
"You must be pretty nervous, right?" Seth teased. "Whatever you saw in me, I was chosen, not you. Are you furious about that?" He laughed.
The fake Seth hesitated for a second as his face darkened with anger.
That was enough.
Seth jumped back and raised his arms. The golden energy around him began to condense, spinning in ever more intense spirals. A vortex of pure destruction formed around his back, as if he were channeling the power of a living star.
"You want to know why I'm carrying this? I don't give a shit. If it makes me strong, then fuck what it is." He laughed like a cunning demon while the Shapeshifter snarled, eyes wide, but didn't attack.
"Because I fought. I didn't beg. I didn't devour. I fought. One step at a time. And if that connected me with that thing you want so badly, then so be it."
The vortex behind him expanded, forming a perfect circle. From gold to red, lightning flashed around his body, tracing a line of destruction.
[Creating skill derived from "Lightning Spear"...]
[Skill "Lightning Rise" (Rank-S) has been created]
The Shapeshifter's eyes widened.
"No!" he shouted when he felt Bastet's shadows gripping his feet and arms... "Did you think hitting me would be enough?" the panther's voice rang out beside him.
He kicked the shadows, but nothing happened... they were shadows after all, not something physical he could just hit...
"The copy will never be better than the original." Seth said.
And he fired his attack
A colossal golden beam exploded from his fists, wider than an entire street, enveloping the fake Seth in a glow so intense that the sky turned white. The energy advanced in a straight line, cutting everything in its path, evaporating buildings, tearing the earth in two.
The Shapeshifter tried to flee, tried to resist - but there was no escape.
He screamed, a roar full of rage, pain... and fear.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The final explosion was like the end of a world. A colossal crater opened up where there had once been a street. Golden rays still crackled at the edges, and the air smelled of metal and ash.
Seth fell to his knees, exhausted. His body trembled, his muscles on the verge of collapse. But he was still breathing.
Bastet crawled over to him, wounded but alive. "That was hard" she said as Seth fell on top of her, panting...
He looked up just to check where the shapeshifter was... and... nothing... just something that caught his eye.
A fragment. A core. Dark as space itself, pulsing like a heart - with an eye in the center.
[Behelit of the Void (Rank-S Item)]
[Description: Insufficient level].
"What the fuck-" he couldn't even finish saying, before he fainted and fell to the broken asphalt.
As he collapsed, footsteps were heard...
"Shit... when did I pass out?" Kaguya questioned as she tried to lift Seth up... "I'm a Rank-A... and I fainted from the pressure of the environment just after I called the association..." She said, lifting him up and putting his back against the wall.
"Who are you..." She murmured, analyzing his body.