The wind sheared against my skin, cutting and burning my flesh.

  I held up my arm to shield my eyes from the howling gusts as mana danced around the boy erratically in a funnel.

  The earth began to crack and unravel beneath the dense mana emission, clouds crackled and spread overhead, rain poured down in a torrent.

  I could feel his mana reshaping and warping the very flow of nature— the leylines thickened, the mana field growing denser.

  My vision began to blur and my head pounded with wave after wave of immense pain. But I could not let myself fall. I gritted my teeth and stood my ground.

  ~I… have to stop him…!

  Nature bared their fangs at me. The elements screamed, wailing at me.

  Before my eyes, a destructive storm that stretched across the horizon. A powerful interplay of fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning that razed distant mountains, scarred the skies, and completely destroyed the landscapes within my sight.

  At that moment, a thought passed by my mind.

  ~Is this what my brother Loid did to the worlds he destroyed? To the worlds he consumed?

  The answer was both yes and no.

  Loid, the World Eater, was known explicitly for wreaking havoc on planets by rapidly fattening its mana field, mutating the planet with Void energy. Then almost immediately draining it dry, turning them into wastelands that simply crumble and cease to exist.

  What was occurring before me was the first half.

  However, Loid did it to have fun… this me, however, was on a mission. He wished to destroy humanity.

  ~But why?

  I could only guess but that was not what was important right now. If this keeps up, this world will…

  ~”We, as Outer Gods, are obligated to oversee and protect that of which we created. Our powers should be used for creation and development, not for entanglement and destruction. How else could we refer to ourselves as ‘lords of creation’?”

  Ener’s words echoed within my head.

  ~Protect… What I created…

  The bonds I formed in the mortal realm came to mind. The memory of each of their faces appearing and shining inside my head like a star in the night.

  Mia, Ake, Mashiro, Eliba, Raneko, Rea.

  ~Protect…

  ~To forge is to create. These bonds were created by us. By me…. I must…

  I stood to my feet. I could feel my mana pulsing. Once, twice, three times, four.

  Each beat came quicker than the last.

  My focus sharpened, my vision cleared.

  It was as if something inside me clicked back into place.

  The other me looked at me with a blank expression. His eyes were focused as well, glowing with a fiery red energy.

  He swung his sword towards me.

  All that mana he built up around him started to converge on me in a single instant as his blade grew dramatically in length.

  But I had no fear.

  In that moment, it felt as time had slowed to a near stop.

  I held up both hands, sticking out my index and middle fingers.

  My eyes darted around the field.

  ~Attack analysis. Lightning strike from above will hit first. Then three wind blasts center, left, and right. Likely follow-ups would be a surprise earth spell, flooding, then a massive fireball.

  ~Possible countermeasures? …That’ll work for now.

  I exhaled slowly, steadying the storm within me.

  And time resumed.

  The lightning strike came as expected, but I put up a barrier.

  The barrier immediately broke from the strike.

  I slung my arm in a horizontal arc, sending out an extremely dense mana wave that canceled out the wind blasts.

  The ground beneath me opened up. Whether it was a spell or just it giving out mattered not to me.

  Sewage water roared underneath me as I began to fall. It burst upwards, threatening to swallow me.

  But I expected this.

  One more swing, Another energy wave. Another cancellation.

  “So you’re finally taking this seriously? Good” The doppelganger spoke as he appeared above me, a flaming dagger in hand. “That’ll make destroying you that much more meaningful!” He slung it towards my throat.

  “Barrier. Shrink.” I muttered the incantation quickly and without emotion.

  A small blue translucent hexagon stopped the tip of the blade in its flight path. The magic shield was tiny yet dense. I had traded range for strength.

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  But the other me’s eyes only flared up brighter, the flames within them dancing with passion as he gave a genuine grin— an expression I remember my brother making.

  I stared back at his eyes.

  ~I guess we really were like brothers…

  The dagger grew in size and length. The boy spun and kicked the handle in.

  Crack.

  The tiny barrier I had created cracked. The dagger vibrated as it struggled to pierce it.

  I gritted my teeth, channeling more focus and mana to reinforce the barrier.

  But he simply grinned at me. He grabbed the hilt of his weapon and gave me a malicious smile.

  A second later he disappeared.

  I looked around frantically, my eyes darting around. But I could only see rubble, busted pipes, and spilling water.

  ~Where did he…?

  And then a familiar pain in my chest— the sensation of being stabbed through the stomach. A massive white blade tipped out of my chest.

  “Can’t win if you’re solely focused on protecting yourself. Guess you had to learn the hard way too.”

  I looked back at him angrily and in pain.

  ~Teleportation?

  “Now… Explode.”

  My eyes widened. I could feel the blade vibrate within my body. Looking down, its mana was beginning to expand wildly.

  ~Shit!

  I struggled. But then something came to mind.

  ~Teleportation!

  I calmed down and closed my eyes, picturing myself in a safer location.

  When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the streets, away from the crater.

  “Idiot. I expected that.” The doppelganger muttered as he floated high above me in the air. He raised his weapon, whose mana was still rapidly expanding.

  “Do you know what a meteor is?” He asked. But this was quickly followed by a sigh. “No need to answer. Just know even the dinosaurs couldn’t survive something like THIS.” He launched the blade at me like a spear.

  I turned, preparing to teleport again. But immediately a sharp pain radiated throughout my body. I fell to my knees and coughed a ton, spitting out iridescent blood.

  ~Mana exhaustion…? But why…?

  I looked back, twisting my body and kicking the flat of the blade just before it pierced my body. I coughed out mana material again— too much. The blade turned and slammed into the ground beside me.

  “Boom.” I heard the doppelganger say.

  And with those words, I found myself immediately enveloped in a bright light.

  BSSST!!! The explosion rang in my ears.

  Blinded by the light, I couldn’t see — only feel.

  Searing pain — limbs torn off, rebuilt, torn off again. A loop of destruction and reconstruction.

  Was I getting stronger? Or was I getting weaker?

  It felt as if my mana was quickly whittling away.

  Soon the light faded.

  I found myself clutching the dirt of another massive crater. Debris littered the crater. Steam rose from ruptured pipes. Electricity crackled through torn wires. Shards of glass glittered across the ground.

  My hands and fingers burned as they gripped it— as I clawed my palm into a fist.

  I coughed out more luminescent essence, enough that any mortal would have long died from blood loss.

  The heat beneath me quickly began to subside, like my body was absorbing the heat and converting into usable mana.

  I did not wish it to do so— rather it was more likely some kind of survival mechanism that automatically clicked on.

  Gritting my teeth, I did my best not to cry.

  ~I didn’t want this…!

  That was all I could think of at the moment.

  A shallow thought.

  There was no meaning or reason for it. At least not one known to me.

  It was simply the only thing that came to mind.

  “Oh? You’re still alive?” The doppelganger’s feet came into view as he approached me. “How disgustingly persistent. Just like the humans of this world were.”

  I looked up at him angrily. But I knew I couldn’t do anything.

  He knew my every move, how I thought, how I battled, how I could counter. He was me, after all.

  How does one win against themselves, anyways?

  I couldn’t think of an answer. I couldn’t even figure out why I wasn’t able to teleport earlier.

  “Did you know?” The boy kneeled down, staring into my eyes. Those crimson eyes of his softened for only a moment, as if filled with a mix of pity and disappointment. “Humans have made countless developments in creating tools of mass destruction to aid in their petty blood-covered conflicts.”

  He pressed his index finger against my forehead.

  “Amongst these inventions of theirs, there was a number of chemicals they discovered that cause bodily harm to individuals exposed to it. Generally, these are considered to be simply ‘poison’, or ‘viruses’, but man do they have quite the number of uses.”

  He put pressure on my forehead through his finger, his face blank as ever.

  I winced, not only from the pain but from something else entirely.

  ~W-what… is this…!?

  The sensation was painfully familiar— the feeling of having somebody else’s memories implanted in my head. My brain scrounged through new information rapidly. Visions of nuclear fire. Toxic gas spreading. Assassins’ poisons. Diseases that erased civilizations.

  “These are the creations of mankind, of humanity. They’ve created thousands of poisons and developed bombs capable of deleting entire civilizations. Overall, they’ve made more harmful tools than beneficial ones. And guess what? It’s the very essence of those creations that is hurting you right now. I imbued the essence of these toxic memories into my blade before I stabbed you earlier.”

  I glared at him. Clenching my teeth, I struggled to get back to my feet but I couldn’t.

  ~Imbued the essence? Toxic memories? W-we can do that…?

  I coughed out more mana material.

  The boy frowned and let out a small sigh. He looked up at the sky and gave a nonchalant shrug.

  “They squandered the blessing of creation. Imperfect beings made by a ‘perfect’ god. What a load of absolute nonsense.”

  He stood to his feet, forming another sword in his hand as he clenched his other into a fist.

  “That’s why they had to die. That’s why I had to kill their creator as well. That’s why I must erase them all.”

  ~Have to stand… Stand…! STAND UP!!!

  He looked down at me.

  “Take you for example. Look how weak you’ve become trying to pretend to be one of them. It’s absolutely disgusting.”

  He raised his blade.

  “Guess this is game over for you. I’ll be sure to give your world a nice hello.”

  ~My world…? He plans to go to my world? How? No… that doesn’t matter right now…!

  I let out a small growl.

  ~I just need to stop him! That’s all I need to do right now!

  I reached out my hand, stretching out my fingers to the red sky.

  ~Imbue memories? If that’s possible then…

  Lightning struck my hands, shaping itself into a blade that scattered light into a dozen colors. Energy leapt off of it in tiny sparks, mimicking fireworks. It was just like the blade from the story Rea wrote.

  ~I’ll wield my memories to win.