Prince of The Abyss

Aether clenched his grip on Denial’s hand and pulled him towards him, putting his other fist right in the path of the pull, so that he would be hit by it. Yet he didn’t expect it to hurt this much, Denial’s punches. Plus, Denial just passed through his fist; he had forgotten that it only makes that specific part of the body physical. He needed to find a way to make it hit him with parts of his body that were more vulnerable.

He gritted his teeth before letting go of him. He needed to exchange blows, after all, if he kept him in his grip, the guy could also attack him easily, and it would hurt more.

Plus, it wasn’t like Denial was going to wait after he let go of him.

It was just that he saw every last one of his movements.

Denial moved, yet he only saw this when he had already moved ten centimeters; he saw his shadow after all, not him. A delay that was small, yet at the same time deadly in many situations, and this one was close to being one of them.

He watched as Denial first came to his fist, yet this one, he had failed to calculate in time, getting hit in his side, driving the air out of him in a sharp burst of pain. The shadow followed, uselessly confirming what had already happened. Aether staggered, teeth clenched, but his feet stayed planted.

After the fist came to his side, the shadow revealed a second attack from Denial when he was recovering from the first, but the shadow’s fist was close, meaning he had to move now!

Or not.

Aether summoned Voidpiercer and leaned back, guiding the tip of the blade right into the direction of Denial’s attack, and watched as the arm went through the blade and hit him.

He staggered from the pain, feeling his knees get weaker. He had taken two full-blown hits to the body, and he couldn’t get any attack back. Denial had to make contact first; that was why he had gone through instead of stabbing his palm.

’Damn it...’

Really, he didn’t get how he could win. Denial would hit his body or face, and he had to somehow hurt his hand. How was he supposed to win off endurance? I mean, a body shot hurts a lot more than one to the hand.

So he had to do what he had done first, and make him accidentally touch him with his head.

They traded.

Denial pressed in, fast, brutal, forcing exchanges at close range. Every hit came before its shadow, every confirmation arriving just after the damage. Aether let the shadows stack in his mind, one over the other, building a pattern instead of a picture.

Wait, shift to try and get hit by something like his head instead of his hand, endure, and strike back.

Denial attacked faster, switching limbs, trying to shorten the window. A kick snapped out, foot turning solid the moment it struck Aether’s thigh. Aether bit back a shout and hammered his elbow down onto the shin before it could withdraw. The leg vanished immediately after, but the damage stayed.

Denial staggered half a step.

Aether breathed in. Out.

He stopped thinking in terms of strikes and started thinking in terms of permission. Every time Denial touched him, Denial allowed him one answer. One beat. Miss it, and the chance was gone.

Denial rushed him, confident now, reckless. A flurry of blows, each one phasing in and out, each one hurting. Aether let them land where they had to, rolling with them, minimizing damage.

And he was getting quite good at responding to Denial’s attacks; he was able to punish him, since the guy also hit him with his leg, and when he did, he grabbed it and tensed all the muscles in his arm to flip him over and make him fall.

Denial of course got up, but when he tricked him into hitting him with his head, he wouldn’t get off so easily.

Aether would wrap his arms around his head, and driving his knees in his face with great strength, he knew it hurt; he knew better than all, since he had experienced it himself many times.

He knew he was doing damage, he could see it in Denial’s movemet and how he acted, he was hurt, and he hesitated with each hit. He probably knew how he did everything, how his powers worked, so he knew that he would be attacked back when he hit, so he tried to catch him off guard.

But with soul sense, there weren’t any other senses to distract him, just one, one that he paid full attention to.

That was why he could see his incoming attack and respond once it hit, by piercing his hand with Voidpiercer from below.

Denial quickly pulled away in pain, trying to get Voidpiercer out, but there was one thing: since he was touching Voidpiercer, it meant he was still making contact... Aether clenched the chains attached to the blade and yanked Denial towards him, catching him by his wrist, and pushing Voidpiercer deeper, until it went through his whole hand, and just passed out through his arm.

He knew that it hurt.

Badly.

Some sort of white glow started to spill out of Denial’s hand, almost as if he were bleeding, and quite heavily so if he had to say.

”Bled you bastards, bleed as you deserve!”

Denial stepped back, almost as if thinking of what to do. After all, he had a blade he could use, so as much as he hit, if he started to use his blade every time, it could be very dangerous, especially when he accidentally hit him with his head or something.

Hitting him with his leg would also be bad, since he would just pierce his leg with the blade, and that would be very bad, since it would make moving harder.

But then he dashed forward. Aether had been prepared, but not for what it had wanted to do. Denial clawed at his eyes, trying to open them, his fingers digging deep into his eyelids, trying to at least create a small hole.

He needed the illusion to heal.

But Aether endured the pain and caught both of his wrists, pulling them both together, and driving Voidpiercer through both of them, pushing it deeper until it escaped through the other side.

”Die, you bastard!”

Looking at Denial’s hands, they were bleeding heavily, to the point that if he were human, he could die from blood loss if this continued for long.

Denial was getting desperate; he needed to end things now, or else he was going to die. But the thing was that with him becoming desperate, his attacks became a lot more predictable, and more importantly, a lot more punishable.

As Denial’s fist came towards him, he shifted slightly, making his head hit his chest. His ribs were definitely bruised, maybe even an internal bleeding somewhere, but instead of kneeing his face again, Aether instead pierced his face with Voidpiercer.

”Die, go to hell!”

Denial quickly pulled away with all his strength before he could drive it fully through him.

So now, he had Voidpiercer stuck inside his face, right where his eye should have been

”You look great like this!” He smiles mischievously.

He knew it; both of them were getting close to death.

Him from the sheer number of blows he had taken to the body and face, and if he didn’t die, he was close to not being able to move his body, which meant that he would definitely lose this fight. And Denial, by bleeding, and because his body had gotten a lot weaker with each of his hits.

He just didn’t know who was going to die first, him or this damn Demon.

A part of him wanted to run away; maybe that was the better decision, since if he committed to this, he wouldn’t be able to escape later. His body would be too weak, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have the energy to survive the fall.

But still, he took advantage of the fact that Voidpiercer was still making contact with Denial’s face, and dashed forward, crossing a hook right into his face. Denial had tried backing away after, but his foot accidentally slipped because it was weaker than he had expected it to be.

Aether lay on him; even if he passed through his body, it didn’t matter.

He started to hammer down on Denial’s face, just like he had done last time.

”Do you like it, huh? See what it felt like, you bastard!”

A punch came from the right.

”Die.”

Then from the left.

”Die.”

Then the right again.

”Die!”

Then the left yet again.

”Just... die already!”

He said, while putting all his strength into his right fist, and punching him straight into his jaw, making Denial spit the white glow he was bleeding, onto him.

”Rot in hell.”

...

...

[You have killed a Reader Demon, Denial]