I surged forward, my form colliding with Aten's radiant brilliance in a clash of elemental forces. In that moment of impact, the very fabric of reality seemed to tremble, the clash of our powers unleashing a cataclysmic storm that swept across thecelestial expanse. As I grappled with the sun god's divine fury, I felt the primal surge of the ocean driving me.
Each searing beam of light he threw at me felt like a blade of fire slicing through my watery essence. They left behind a trail of blistering wounds that smoldered with searing pain. Yet even as I writhed in agony, the icy depths of my power surged forth, a tidal wave of determination.
We clashed again and again, and slowly but surely, I was wearing off some of his excess power. He burned away my liquid extremities, but we were still evenly matched.
Two ancient, powerful gods, and while he was relatively young compared to me, he was fueled by pure prayer and the undying worship of thousands.
It was just like the last time we battled. Except this time I had a whole can of crazy that just cracked open and now that it was unleashed, it wasn’t going back in.
Aten finally broke away, his face contorted in outrage. His light had dimmed and I was just getting started. I’d known nothing but pain thanks to the god across from me.
He may burn me, but I welcomed the end of Miranda’s blade for so many nights. I’d died more times than he knew, and I had finally embraced the pain of living.
The world suddenly crystallized as I accepted my own nature. The very thing I’d been keeping at bay was part of what made me whole.
I was still a fucking mental mess, but it all came together in balance as I let all of myself free. I had claimed the beast and now I raged with a power unlike any I’d ever known.
“You think you can stop me?” Aten raged. “You think you can send me back to the cradle? Well perhaps it’s best to start this world over from scratch. This world will be good and pure, birthed in my life-giving light, and it will be perfect with me as the only god and being left in this realm.”
Aten sounded like a childish brat having a meltdown. I half expected him to fall to the ground and pound his fists on the floor until he got his way.
But as his anger reached a fever pitch, fiery tendrils of energy writhed and twisted around him and coalesced into a swirling vortex of incandescent power. The ground beneath him trembled as though it was unable to withstand the sheer force of his rage.
He wouldn’t.
He wouldn’t actually attempt to scorch this whole world until he was the only living being left, would he?
Aten's form warped and distorted, the very fabric of his being unraveling at the seams.
Fuck.
This narcissistic piece of shit.
Aten's eyes widened and the veins in his forehead pulsated. A blinding white energy emanated from his body. His muscles tensed and his skin seemed to vibrate with an otherworldly power.
My mind raced for a way to stop him as he began to shrink in stature, but the light around him intensified, almost blindingly so. The only idea that sprang to mind was terrible, reckless, and certified suicide.
With a look at Miranda, the mortal woman who would give up everything to do what was right, my choice was made for me.
Sinking into the depths of my power, I swelled and expanded until I washed over Aten, engulfing him in the center of my watery being.
The pain.
Oh gods, thepain.
I’d known pain and even death, but this was a new level. Aten seared through every fiber of my being as he dissolved me fromthe inside out. Steam hissed from my melting body as I fought to maintain my form.
“Xander!” Miranda cried out.
My angel of death stood before me. She reached out to touch me, only to hiss and pull her hand back, her fingers an angry red. I was nothing but a volume of boiling water.
It took all my concentration to form coherent sentences.
“I’m sorry to do this to you again, sweetheart. You deserve more. You don’t deserve to keep choosing between love and loss.”
“No…” She shook her head.
“It’s okay,” I assured her, the word ending in a pained grunt. “If you didn’t know this about me, I’ve gotten really good at dying.”
