The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 141

He looked down to see the keeper of the first flame staring at the severed head of her disciple. He felt no emotions. No emotions, no happiness, no sadness, no anger. It was just nothing as if she had done nothing at all.

People generally would not feel anything special when breathing. This was what he felt from the keeper. It seems almost natural as breathing or drinking to her, nothing significant at all. That was good. It meant that she was becoming more and more 'empty'.

Normally, this would not have occurred but as he has stated before, one does not simply exist at the end of time in the dominion of death without consequence. He doubted that she was even doing this to save her lost dimension.

No, it was more to sate her curiosity. Saving the lost timeline as a convenient excuse she unknowingly made up. Her real purpose for doing this is plain curiosity. She wish to know what was going on. Nobody liked to be kept in the dark in she was no different.

With blood staining her messy blond hair, and blood flowing in the form of drops from the metal braces she used to cover her eyes, she looked anything but peaceful. Some of them seemed to be seeping into that metal bind into her eyes. Those blood-soaked clothes did not help either.

She seemed satisfied to stay covered in blood not even attempting to clean them up. No, she had other things on her mind right now to care about something as useless as blood. She looked up at him and stared at him.

"How demonic you are, fire keeper. You resembles to the spawns and denizens of hell. Killing your own disciple and not showing an ounce of emotion? That's a new low even for me.", he stated as he proceeded to wipe the 'tears' out of his eyes.

"What doth thou want, Chthon? Art thou merely content to observe me from the sky? Or doth thou wish for me to come up?", she replied to him.

He only smiled at this and went down. He knew she would not just start bashing at him straight away. She must know what is going on. She is not one who is contented with staying in the dark especially when it concerns her.

"Oh, I thought you read the rules, Ms.Keeper. Didn't you know? I was chosen by Lady Death to compete in this competition. Nothing more and nothing less.", he shrugged and gave a half-hearted reply.

The response came in the form of a ball of fire straight to his face. He dispersed it as he could predicted it only to see that the keeper was no longer there. A blade slammed right into his face as it left a gash upon it.

He was forced straight to the ground with a single blow. It was a complete surprise attack. He did not think she would have attacked immediately. A stick enlarged right in front of his face as he was forced to teleport away from it.

"How dangerous ... keeper. I expected more decency from the keeper of the first flame."

Her reply was a huge pillar of fire shot straight at her. Space was too chaotic by these flames to teleport away so he was forced to block them only to to be greeted with the sole of a shoe to his face. He rolled away as pain flared from his face.

A bleeding blade away and a kick right at it. How long has it been since he had tasted pain? To the keeper, no time has passed but to him, the amount of time that has passed till the end of time itself was unfathomable to a mortal.

"Thou hast more words than ever. Art thee so lonely that only talking to this maiden can fill the void in thy soulless heart? I'm afraid I will have to decline.", she taunted in a mocking tone.

He knew it was a taunt but it was effective. The last person that insulted him was her. He began levitating off the ground. He was no match for her in close combat and he knew that. He had only started floating when a hand on his shoulder forced him down.

"What is it, my dear Chthon? Doth thou think so little of me thou believe that merely floating would be enough? I cannot have anyone looking down on me from above."

A kick to his stomach came once again as he clutched it due to pain. His tolerance for pain was not very high considering he generally doesn't feel such things. Here, he was forced to limited mortal forms. Just because he could not help it doesn't mean he is not in anger.

He stared with his eyes brimming in hatred at the keeper. No longer would he take such humiliation. He raised his hands as reality changes all around him. Even the keeper herself was flickering on the edge of fantasy and reality.

"Little girl ....", he proclaimed as he used his Chosen's ones way of dealing with her. Her response was a massive surge of fire and molten lava.

"Art thou content with bare hands. Thou know me well enough or doth thou believe bare hands to do the job? Pick up a weapon, Chthon and I shall give thee what is yours. Destined Death."

"I don't need weapons to finish the likes of you."

Runes appeared all around him as he attempted to limit the pillar of creation. It was no easy feat. Her flames has not yet reach to the point where it can completely negate everything. There were still some exceptions.

Or that was what he thought till she jumped and literally sliced the runes into bits. It would be a lie if he claimed that it did not dumfounded him. He didn't even knew runes could be shredded like paper.

With a blade in one arm and a stick in other, she looked unnatural. There wasn't even grace or beauty in her movements as she had before, no she looked ready to kill with how she moved. She looked the same as wild hyenas getting ready for a brutal kill.

"Chop, slash, stab, thrust, strike, poke, punch, slap, beat, battle, fight, I am free to do as I please with these in my hands. I can't say the same for the likes of thee.", she said as she lunged backwards in a throwing position.

She threw her blades straight at his face. He did not dodge it for he knew the keeper could have anticipated his actions. She has done it before. He would not block it for it would just bounce off and return to her hands.

He caught the blade and intended to keep it. If she was so careless as to throw her weapons at him, he would gladly keep it. As the blade was clasped in his palm, accelerated once again and hit his stomach with the stick.

He tried to block it with his other hand but the stick just pierced through it reached straight at his stomach. The intense pain forced him to let go of his grip as he curled up but the keeper was not done yet.

A kick to his face as he was falling to the ground forced him to fall in a position similar to sleeping. The kick was delivered to his chin making him felt paralyzed. With the blades that he let go due to pain in her hands, she stabbed right at his heart with no hesitation.

In this moment, he could not think of Chaos. He could not think about the future. He could not think about the past. He could only think about the present and all he could feel was pain.

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This is chapter 141.

I wrote it in Chthon's POV to show how the opponent feels when fighting against her.