God of Destruction: Living Among Mortals

Lunaris and the Auri watched as Nova sparred against himself. He was envisioning himself as the opponent, his eyes narrowing as some sweat lunged into his eyes. He got into a defensive position, as his imaginary self lunged towards him.

His movements cut through the still air; each strike was deliberate and calculated to the kind of precision born only from countless battles and too many near-deaths.

His fists blurred, striking at invisible points in space, yet the force of every motion rippled through the ground beneath him. Dust lifted around him as the ground trembled.

Lunaris tilted his head, his eyes tracing the path of Nova's strikes. The Auri stood with arms folded, her expression unreadable. The light that surrounded her body shimmered faintly, a reminder that she was no mere spectator but a being who once commanded stars.

"You're overthinking again," the Auri said calmly.

Nova froze mid-motion, his hand an inch away from an invisible strike. He was flabbergasted that the Auri was able to speak English fluently. He looked at the Auri for a brief moment, but then shrugged it off, realizing that he was in Beastaria, where anything and everything was possible.

He thought that the AUri may not have spoken to him before, since it was still adjusting to his language, or maybe it wasn't able to fully trust Nova yet.

"Maybe I'm still just adjusting..." Nova whispered, more to himself. "Maybe I just need to embrace this realm more, maybe I need to embrace the new me."

"Adjusting doesn't involve splitting your soul into two entities to fight yourself," Auri replied flatly, stepping closer. "You're chasing precision in chaos, but chaos doesn't yield to control. Not even yours."

Nova let his arms drop, exhaling. "Control is the only reason I'm still alive. Without it, I'd just be another corpse in Beastaria."

Auri's gaze softened slightly. "Maybe. Or maybe control is what's killing you slowly."

He didn't respond. The wind shifted, carrying with it the scent of distant storms, a metallic tang that only the Expanse carried, where the smell of decay was stronger than the smell of life.

Lunaris padded forward, brushing against Nova's leg. The small creature's fur shimmered with an ethereal glow, and for a brief moment, Nova's heartbeat calmed. He knelt, running a hand through Lunaris's coat, feeling the pulse of mana beneath the surface.

"You sense it too, don't you?" Nova whispered.

The Harlequin Cat's tail flicked once, twice, an acknowledgment. The tremor of foreign power was faint but unmistakable.

Something was approaching, something vast and ancient, the kind of presence that made even the gods tense.

Auri raised her eyes toward the horizon. The sky had begun to fracture, faint lines of energy cutting through the clouds like cracks on glass. The ground rumbled faintly beneath them.

"It's not natural," she said softly. "This distortion It's bleeding through the barrier between layers."

Nova stood, rolling his shoulders as he reclaimed his composure. "Another rift?"

"Worse," Auri said. "A Convergence."

That word alone silenced the world for a heartbeat. A Convergence, a phenomenon so rare that even the oldest gods feared it.

It was when two layers of reality overlapped, forcing their ecosystems, laws, and mana flows into violent contact. It was how Beastaria had once swallowed entire realms whole.

Nova's expression hardened. "How long do we have?"

Auri tilted her head slightly, her silver eyes scanning the skyline. "If the distortion is already visible, then less than a day."

Lunaris hissed softly, fur bristling.

Nova took a step forward, scanning the horizon. "We can't stay here. If this layer collapses again, we'll be pulled straight into the Abyssal Fold."

"You plan to leave?" Auri asked. "And go where?"

He smiled faintly. "Forward. Always forward."

Without another word, Nova turned toward the east, the direction of the fissure where light bent unnaturally, flickering between violet and black. Lunaris leapt onto his shoulder as he began walking, his boots crunching over the crystalline soil.

Auri followed behind, silent but wary.

As they moved across the shifting landscape, the terrain around them changed in rhythm with their footsteps. Hours passed. The distant thunder grew louder, more rhythmic, not weather, but footsteps. Something colossal was walking through the Convergence field.

Nova stopped, resting his hand on the hilt of his weapon. "Auri."

"I feel it," she said, already drawing her blade, a curved weapon made of condensed starlight. "It's close."

Then, through the swirling mist of mana, a silhouette emerged. A creature of impossible anatomy, equal parts serpentine and humanoid, with six burning eyes arranged vertically across its skull.

Its body was formed from translucent material, as if made of refracted light and shadow interwoven. Lunaris's fur flared with arcs of energy as it crouched low on Nova's shoulder.

The creature spoke, though its voice was less sound and more a vibration through the bones. "Child of Ruin," it said. "You wear the mark of the Absyalling. You should not exist here."

Nova's hand tensed on his weapon. "You're not the first to tell me that," he replied evenly.

The being tilted its head. "The mark calls the Fold. It stirs the dead layer beneath us. You have anchored entropy to this plane, and soon, it will collapse under your weight."

Auri's eyes widened. "Nova, it's right. The Absyalling's brand is still alive."

He glanced at his arm, where faint sigils pulsed beneath the skin like veins of dark light. "Yeah, I noticed. Been trying to suppress it."

"You can't suppress an origin mark," the being said, stepping closer. "You can only fulfill its command, or let it consume you."

Nova didn't answer. Instead, he lifted his hand, summoning a faint ring of crimson energy around his wrist. "Then I'll rewrite it."

The being laughed, or rather, the air around it convulsed in a sound resembling laughter. "Rewrite the language of oblivion? You think yourself beyond the hierarchy of decay?"

"Not beyond it," Nova said quietly, his aura beginning to rise. "Just willing to defy it."

The ground split as his Circle of Pillars ignited, black and red sigils spiraling outward, rearranging themselves in complex patterns. Lunaris leapt off his shoulder, landing softly beside Auri, who shielded her eyes from the radiant surge.

The being lunged. Nova met it head-on, his body moving faster than sight. Their collision erupted into a cascade of distorted light.

Time fractured for a heartbeat, the fight unfolding across multiple seconds simultaneously, like overlapping reflections. The creature swung its massive claws, each strike bending reality like liquid.

Nova parried with his forearm, the impact rippling through him like thunder. His counterattack was immediate, a crushing knee to the abdomen, followed by a downward slam that cracked the crystalline ground.

But the creature didn't bleed. Instead, its form liquefied, reforming around him. It spoke again, this time from every direction. "You cannot kill what exists across layers."

Nova gritted his teeth. "Then I'll just erase your layer."

He thrust his palm forward. His Circle expanded, the glyphs collapsing inward until they formed a dense sphere of entropy. He forced it against the creature's core. The explosion was silent but absolute, light devoured sound, color, even gravity itself.

When the smoke cleared, the creature was gone, disintegrated into streaks of violet mist.

Nova dropped to one knee, panting, his aura flickering erratically. Auri approached cautiously. "You tore the fabric again," she said. "You're bleeding entropy."

"Yeah," Nova said, looking at his hands. "But it's weakening. That means I can fight it."

Auri frowned. "Or it means it's adapting to you."

He didn't reply. Instead, he stood slowly, gazing toward the fractured sky. "If this Convergence completes, Beastaria won't just consume itself; it'll consume the Realms tethered to it."

"So what's your plan?"

Nova turned to her, his crimson eyes glowing faintly. "Simple. Find the source. Destroy it. And if I can't-" He glanced at Lunaris, who was staring up at him with a calm, unblinking gaze. "-then I make sure no one else gets dragged down with me."

The wind howled, carrying with it the scent of ozone and stormfire. In the distance, the horizon fractured once more, and from the widening scar, countless tendrils of shadow began to seep through, writhing like serpents searching for prey.

Auri tightened her grip on her weapon. "Looks like your plan's about to be tested."

Nova smirked faintly, his exhaustion fading into focus. "Then let's see what the universe wants to throw at me next."

He stepped forward, each stride resonating with a faint hum of collapsing energy. Lunaris followed at his heel, fur bristling, while Auri moved to his flank, the strange trio silhouetted against the chaos of an unraveling world.

Above them, the sky cracked open fully, and through the rift, an ocean of light poured downward, filled with the echoes of forgotten gods and the ruins of civilizations devoured by time.

For the briefest instant, Nova could see reflections, Freya, Elesch, Marcus, and countless others, distorted by distance and fate. Then the vision shattered. The Convergence had begun.

"Alright, let's make history bleed," Nova said.