Noctem

"why do they get to decide whether I live or not? It sounds to me like the insecure ramblings of frightened children.."

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU INSOLENT BRAT!!" The marionette of the space god hissed, his voice laced with malice.

"..Are they afraid of me?.. it's amusing how shallow their thinking seems.."

"YOU.."

"Insecurities often lead us to committing or creating that very thing we're so afraid of.. but wouldn't that beg the question?, why are the deities after someone as small and insignificant as me? What are they so frightened of that they had their playthings hunt me down?"

The tenebrous child lingered for a moment longer, moving swiftly and calm as the wind, changing his position ever so often.

His rosy lip parted, revealing pearly white teeth and subtle fangs.

"Truth is, I couldn't care much about their motive, there are things I've yet to deal with, so should they interfere in my life with the intent of killing me, then they best make sure they execute it flawlessly else I will do everything possible to see to it that all those who interferes, perish."

The space god's vessel gritted his teeth then said.

"A lowly vermin like you dares to speak against the divine beings? Do you not cower in fear with the thought of death, they're beings who could kill you with a snap of their fingers."

"And yet they sent mere puppets to do their biddings? I may be young but I'm not naive nor stupid, I know that there are certain rules to be followed and those beings of a higher power beyond this realm cannot necessarily impose their presence or authority in a lower realm without risking the ire of certain factors, especially 'them'." Nox calmly interjected.

"Enough talking child..."

"I agree, let's settle this."

In the next moment a change in the surrounding space occured, the air became extremely dense with the killing intent of the spatial God marionette, to which Nox responded in kind.

Their blades met, creating a cacophony of steels as the clangor of metals sounded.

The tenebrous child came face to face with the vessel of the space god, with his impassive expression, deathly vile.

"To respond to your previous question... Fear is an emotion I've long discarded, I will not cower in fear of anyone.. not to those damned gods and certainly not to anyone."

The space god's marionette snarled.

"Foolish creature, you know not the terror of the gods and yet you dare risk their ire?"

Nox poised his dagger behind himself as he pivoted off his heels while muttering..

"Zlockt's swordsmanship fifth stance, steel typhoon."

His body blurred as shadow tendrils wrapped around his spinning form.

For a split second the tenebrous child was no longer visible in the chilling coffins of the night, however the space god's marionette seemed unperturbed.

A steel blue circle manifested right above his palm, with several glyphs woven into it.

His hoarse voice sounded from behind the mask.

"With the authority of ureaus, let all that borders in space heed my command..."

The spell circle with glyphs glowed a bright silver, dousing the night and revealing the swirling shadow barreling towards him.

However as soon as the spiraling shadow got close, it spread into several swirling tendrils which shot at him with inhumane speed.

"Zlockt's swordsmanship fifth stance alternate form, fujiwhara's effect."

Originally the zlockt's swordsmanship was meant to be used with the wind element, but having only learnt to use just a bit of the shadow nether, he could only attempt to replicate its attack patterns with the shadows.

The fujiwhara's effect was an attack pattern he created out of desperation while battling Aries within the lesser plane, atlas. 

How the name came about to him was completely strange as it felt like something he'd always known, like a scholar who left his study notes unread for years and couldn't pinpoint exactly how he knew what he already knew.

By utilizing the shadows around him during the steel typhoon to create several swirling copies of shadows with precise timing, he could use the alternate fifth stance of the zlockt's swordsmanship as a distraction to deter the opponent from the real attack.

However that didn't mean the distractions themselves couldn't serve as a real attack.

The crease on the brow of the space god's vessel deepened.

"Petty attacks won't save you!" He sneered as he slammed the magic circle above his palm onto the ground.

A strange phenomenon occured as the space around them cracked like broken mirrors, trapping them both inside a strange dimension within the area.

Just like a shattered mirror, several distorted reflections of both the space god's vessel and the attacks of the tenebrous child were visible within the broken space.

The attacks of the spawn of darkness separated, each of them moving into different segments of the broken space.

The masked vessel gazed at the attacks which were still heading for him without losing their terrifying pace; however, each of them were separated in different spaces, and couldn't pose much of a threat to him.

His eyes locked onto a particular swirling mass of shadow heading towards him like the rest of the attacks.

"Die, you accursed spawn."

Thrusting his dagger forward to meet the attack head on, his hand was met with little to no resistance as it felt like he was just thrusting through swirling air.

'He's not here? How...'

Disrupting the masked marionette's thought, a malevolent whisper sounded behind him, its tone sinister and laced with malice.

"You're clearly not as smart as you seem." The tenebrous child scorned.

A loud sound echoed throughout the broken space, as Nox, for the second time, delivered a devastating kneel attack to the masked vessel, only this time, it wasn't the face but the neck.

"Gah!" The space god's vessel uttered in pain 

"Don't underestimate me, or you'll regret it, puppet."

****

Elsewhere on the other side of the desolate land, a furious battle was taking place.

The vessel of the beast god had transformed into a gigantic serpent and was currently locked in a battle with a seven headed snake- one of Eren's creations with magic.

While the battle between the two gargantuan serpents were raging on, the vessel of the moon goddess was hurling countless spells at the Spellcaster in quick succession, yet Eren effortlessly countered with spells of his own.

The only one who proved to be quite a nuisance was the vessel of the flame god- the golden dragon, arkanol.

As a dragon— a race known for their blessed physique which could nullify most magic. while in his original reptilian form and not polymorphed, there was very little Eren's spell could do to damage him.

Safe for runic sorcery, but it was unlikely that he'd be given a chance to use one, when they didn't even allow him a moment of respite.

"Why don't you give up already you damned Spellcaster, at the very least we'd allow you an easy death." The dragon roared, nullifying a barrage of spells from the eccentric Spellcaster.

Eren let out a hearty laugh while deflecting an attack from the elvian beauty.

"That's amusing considering how you lots got me trapped here, surely you jest in your endeavour to make me surrender."

The dragon snarled.

"It's three against one, even for you, taking on three divine vessels would be..."

"Oh yeah?... How about we even the odds." A honey-sweet voice, laced with excitement sounded from above.

And then...

The entire land was covered in crimson.