Ruvick...
"Heh, I never figured that you of all people would look scared or have nightmares. What was it then? Was it maggots? Did you have a nightmare about maggots wiggling their way into your corpse body?" Marcus teased him ruthlessly with a smirk on his face.
"No, although now that you've brought it up, I find the image to be very disturbing. Thank you very much for that...wonderful description," Ruvick said sarcastically as he stood up from his bed and put on a shirt.
"I'm honestly surprised that you need sleep at all," Marcus pondered curiously.
"I don't actually need to sleep, I just like the experience of having dreams. I welcome the ability to sleep and dream; I even welcome the nightmares, even if they are terrifying sometimes."
With his arms folded in front of him, he said, "With how long you claimed to have been around, you must have seen it all. I hate to imagine what it is that gives you, of all people, nightmares."
"Well..., if you can believe it, there are some nightmares that I experience through the eyes of others rather than my own. Dreams in the form of memories belonging to other people. I experience fear through their eyes rather than my own," he said, expecting Marcus to act shocked or simply not believe him but his expression was that of...understanding.
"I believe you. I've had dreams like that too. They aren't fun," he said before he took in a deep breath and continued, "So, I've been meaning to ask. Why the hell did you bring me here in the first place?"
"You were covered in dirt and blood, and your body was beaten black and blue. You needed to be cleaned and healed, but I wasn't going to do it myself, nor was I going to do it in your house. I doubt you would want me intruding in your home, so I brought you to mine."
"And where the hell is this place exactly? I tried walking around the neighborhood but nothing looks familiar to me."
"We're in the southeastern kingdom of Forrosa. Don't worry, I'll bring you back to Duranell soon but I'd like to have one more bout with you to test something out," he said and Marcus raised his eyebrows.
"We're not going to fight on the outskirts of the kingdom again are we? Last time that happened, the Shadow Realm that you control wasn't able to fully contain me when I cut off your head."
"Good point...Well, I guess we won't be fighting here then. Are you ready?"
"What?! We're leaving to go fight right now?"
"Are your injuries fully healed, or do you need more time?"
"No, I'm fine but-"
"Then we're good to go. Do you have Light Taker with you right now?"
"Oh, so now I can use my sword?" Marcus asked in annoyance.
"Yes, because you'll need it. Not that it will make the fight easier on you," Ruvick said while chuckling mischievously and Marcus grumbled in annoyance.
He laughed to try and cut through the tension that was between them. It was rather obvious that Marcus was quite wary of him since he had cut off his head but didn't kill him.
"I should apologize for having cursed you and forcing you to feel all that pain all at once. It must have been excruciating to feel it all at once," Ruvick said but Marcus didn't seem to care.
"Its fine. After taking some time to think about it, I understood what you meant when you said that pain was a good way to understand your own limits and how to push past them. Without pain, I could end up destroying my body in the process or even kill myself by accident...so it makes sense. I didn't like what you did but I understand why you did it."
"It did lead you to you figuring out how to stop time which was rather impressive," he said and Marcus's eyes widened.
"I-I stopped time?"
"You did and its why you were able to beat me in the first place. The Shadow Realm is a reflection of the realm world and exists within the first three dimensions and experiences time the same way normal humans do but it cannot be used outside of time, or in other words, it can't be used while time is stopped. Make no mistake though, there are few other powers in all of creation that are as powerful as the Shadow Realm. Even if you continue to stop time, I assure you it is not a good trump card to fall back on."
"Hold on a moment. If the Shadow Realm can't be manipulated while time is stopped then how were you able to see me while I was stopping time?"
"I can manipulate time if I so want to...I just don't often do so because I haven't figured out how to travel back in time and it frustrates me," he said and Marcus froze in place.
Ruvick turned to look at Marcus, ignoring his look of disbelief at the notion of traveling through time and said, "Don't hurt yourself trying to understand the implications of time travel, I don't understand them all that well either. Just focus on training yourself first and maybe we can try to understand it together at a later time."
"I don't care about the implications, just the fact that it is even a topic worth exploring is-"
"Drop it," Ruvick said with a harsh tone and Marcus went quiet.
After he had picked up his own sword and tightened the belt over his chest, he looked back at Marcus before the two of them left his house.
"I'll bring you back to this kingdom eventually and give you a tour but for right now, we are leaving this planet altogether," he said as he gripped Marcus by the shoulder.
"Hold on, what-" but his voice was cut off as they vanished off the face of the planet Erebus.
Not a moment later, Ruvick and Marcus appeared on the planet Drahmin in a different solar system that was thousands of light years away from Erebus.
"-do you mean by...where the hell...?"
"This is Drahmin. Its one of the few habitable planets in our galaxy that is mostly empty of intelligent or sentient life. We can train here without any risk of destroying the kingdoms of Erebus or even the planet itself," he said as he watched Marcus look around at their surroundings.
"I'm...having trouble processing all of this, especially the fact that you just snatched me away from my new home and took me here."
"I did say that I would bring you right back, didn't I?"
"Well, yeah but...its just, being brought to this planet so suddenly is just a little shocking. You act like its nothing and that its just a training ground to you but-"
"Are you somehow in shock at the idea of aliens? You do realize, that by definition, you are an alien, right? You came all the way from a different universe and you act like this is now more shocking than that?"
"Its not that. Logically, we should all see the universe under the assumption that there has to be other life out there but if you pair that with the fact that there are actual gods on our world at this very moment-"
"Then that would suggest that there are gods on other worlds in this universe? Well, you are correct about that. There are billions of gods in this universe alone, but none of them are as powerful as the ones that live on Erebus. In fact, there used to be billions more gods that lived in Terra's universe as well. Mars in fact, used to have life on its surface and gods that governed it before Malthael burned the planet almost completely sterile and slaughtered everyone on it before coming to live on Terra. I believe that you are seeing yourself and Erebus as insignificant but you are wrong. On a spiritual level, Erebus and Terra are the very centers of their respective universes. Societies will create their own cultures and their own figures of worship, and if they believe in them long and hard enough, those gods that they have manifested in their minds to explain their own existence will come to life. It just so happens that Terra and Erebus are the cultural and spiritual centers of their own respective universes."
Listening to Ruvick's long and winded explanation caused Marcus's eyes to glaze over and he replied, "Okay, I get it, but just for future reference, please warn me before hand that you are going to take me to somewhere new so that I don't have an existential crisis."
Ruvick laughed heartily at that and said, "Alright, I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
Swinging his sword as he rolled his wrist and loosened his shoulders, Marcus asked, "So what exactly are we doing today? More pain training? Or...is it something new today?"
"A little bit of both I think. I have a theory I want to test out. You see, in the past there have been people who had strange power flowing through them, with red lightning glowing in their eyes. It responded to their feelings of anger, their rage, but also other powerful emotions. Rage seemed to be the strongest emotion that fueled their power but they could rely on others if they wanted to. In our last fight, I saw a red glow in your eyes right before you cut off my head."
"Yeah..., sorry about that," Marcus apologized sheepishly which eventually led to him smiling. Obviously he wasn't genuine with that apology as he must have really enjoyed decapitating him.
"Don't worry about it. Now, why don't we get things started already?" Ruvick said as he looked Marcus directly in the eyes and paused for a moment before adding, "Does that sound good to you, Enderman?"
The smile on Marcus's face faded slowly and his eyes began to narrow into small points. The grip he had on his sword tightened as his hands clenched with veins popping out across his arms and up to his neck.
In a cold and unnerving tone, with ice in his voice, he asked, "What did you just call me?"
If he were in the right state of mind, he would be able to tell that Ruvick was purposely antagonizing him to draw out his anger and the explosive power that would be released from that anger but the suddenness of Ruvick speaking that name to him must have triggered something very violent in him because the only emotion that Ruvick could sense coming from him now was the urge to tear him apart.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Does that name bother you, Enderman?" Ruvick asked, once again antagonizing him with that name.
Without announcing it, Marcus immediately released all of his magic and charged at Ruvick as he swung his sword at him at full force.
Ruvick was able to block the strike effortlessly but the energy coming off of Marcus's body traveled along the length of his sword Light Taker and clashed with Ruvick's own power.
"How do you know that name?!" Marcus demanded as he shouted in anger, yet his lightning still remained the same vibrant shade of blue.
Clearly Ruvick wasn't pushing him hard enough. He needed more, more rage, more fuel to dump onto that fire the burned in his eyes.
"Oh I know it all, Marcus! I know about how you slaughtered all those innocent people in the FBI, about the man who you once worked for only to betray and kill him in the end, all those other people you led into safe-houses meant to serve as their own slaughterhouses. I know that you are a killer, a murderer! Why do you think I scouted you out?!" Ruvick lied. In reality, he was just making guesses based on the information that his dream gave him about Marcus's past. He didn't actually know anything about who the FBI were but he figured that they were important and that it would work towards fueling more of his anger.
He was right.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY OF IT?!" He shouted as his energy surged and managed to overpower Ruvick's own, knocking him back with the swing of his sword. Then, with a flash of lightning and a crackle of thunder so loud it rattled his skull, he managed to throw Ruvick off guard.
He seemed to have disappeared but Ruvick knew that he had compressed time enough to stop it completely.
Ruvick didn't need to look as he knew Marcus was standing behind him with his sword already arcing towards his neck, and yet Ruvick turned his head to stare at him in anticipation to watch.
Marcus's eyes, which were once blue, now glowed with red light and yet the lightning flowing through his body had not yet changed color.
As Marcus swung the sword, it passed through Ruvick harmlessly, as if he weren't even there.
"Hah! You must have been so horrifying in the eyes of the men you killed! I wonder how they would react if they saw you failing to kill even a single man right in front of you!" Another provocation and it seemed to hit him hard.
"Did you really think I wouldn't come up with counter measures to your time stopping? You may be able to stop time in that layer of the shadow realm that I separated you into, but unless you can break through that spatial layer I put up between us, you won't be able to touch me," he said as he lunged towards Marcus and slashed at his chest. It was just a shallow cut and he didn't put his magic into it beyond allowing him to swing his sword through both layers of the shadow realm.
"My sword can reach you, but yours can't reach me," Ruvick said, antagonizing him further.
The two of them continued to clash swords with each other, with Marcus attempting to counter by stopping time at the moment Ruvick made a move only for him to fail spectacularly.
As they continued to fight, Ruvick could tell that Marcus was beginning to run out of steam and was starting to calm down. It wouldn't matter how many times he tried to bring up his past as he doubted it would be able to draw out the necessary amount of anger to push Marcus over the edge.
And so, it was at this moment that he decided to use his last resort to draw as much rage out of Marcus as he possibly could.
"I wonder what Thalia would think, if she knew about the Enderman," he said snidely.
It was at this moment that Marcus snapped completely.
Rather than attack with his sword, Marcus stopped time and reached out with his hand, tearing through the layer that had been put between them, and grabbed Ruvick by the throat. As he did, he roared at the top of his lungs, a sound so loud and earth shattering that no thunderstorm could hope to compare to. As he roared, the lightning that wreathed his body turned red and the blood pumping through his veins seemed to glow from underneath his skin as if it were flowing so fast that it had turned into hot plasma.
The smell of ozone burning filled Ruvick's nose as Marcus lifted his sword and brought it down upon Ruvick's body only for him to block it with his own.
"There you are, Enderman. I was wondering what it would take to drag this out of you," he said but it didn't seem like Marcus cared for his words much.
"How about I start taking things a bit more serious now?" Ruvick said as he punched him in the face and stepped back. As Marcus stumbled, Ruvick held his sword with both hands and lightning sparked off of his blade, though this was not the same lightning that Marcus was capable of producing. This lightning was colored black and it emitted no light but the sound of thunder that followed after it crackled all the same.
Yet, even as Marcus witnessed Ruvick seemingly mimic his own magic, he did not seem to care.
As Marcus attempted to stop time and overwhelm Ruvick with his lightning and his speed, Ruvick did the same and matched him blow for blow. Even if Ruvick couldn't manipulate the Shadow Realm outside of time, it didn't mean he couldn't use other forms of magic at the same time.
Their lightning sparked against each other as their blades sang with every moment that they traded blows with one another. However, Marcus had no intention of continuing their stand-off for long and was poised on landing a killing blow with any means necessary.
He stepped back for a moment before taking in a deep breath and roared once again. As he did, blood red lightning bolts fell from the sky and the booming sound of thunder echoed in Ruvick's mind paired with the sound of his terrible roar. It was enough to break his concentration as Marcus infiltrated his mind.
In Ruvick's mind, he watched him stand with his right foot forward and his right hand holding his sword across his chest in a backhanded sword stance.
"Trying to attack me from a distance?! You should already know that it won't work!" he said as he rushed towards him and slashed his sword at Marcus's illusionary body at the same time the illusion swung its sword at him.
A bright flash filled Ruvick's vision as he realized he felt his sword hit nothing but air and broke himself out of the illusion. Yet, it gave Marcus enough time to prepare.
Standing five feet away from him, Marcus gripped the pommel of his sword as it was stored in its sheath-no, there was something different about the shape of this sword. It was much thinner and curved, in fact, he would say its design was very similar to that of Moyako's sword.
The power contained within the sheath, compressed along the sword's edge, was so immense that the ground underneath his feat shattered and crumbled into dust.
Marcus hovered in the air for only a few moments, though which allowed him to draw his sword and slice vertically through the air.
"What are you-" Ruvick tried to say but his words were cut off by the sound of crackling thunder and Marcus's war cry.
"χάος ξίφος (Void Blade)!" he shouted as his katana, Light Taker, cut through the earth and the sky above. It split the planet in two and severed the clouds.
Even as Ruvick tried to manipulate the fabric of space time around him to avoid it, still Light Taker reached him and split his body apart.
When the light from his sword faded and the sound of thunder went quiet, he could finally hear the sound of his own breath as he was panting from exhaustion. There didn't seem to be anything left of Ruvick's body after that attack, and so he figured that the battle was finally over.
Maybe now, Ruvick was finally dead.
Satisfied, he sheathed his sword and turned around.
"Even now, you continue to surprise me," Ruvick said as he stood with a gaping wound that stretched from his lower abdomen all the way up to his shoulders.
Marcus's rage surged up within him once more but was cut off as Ruvick stabbed him in the chest.
Marcus...
His eyes flung open and he woke up in a cold sweat, laying down on one of the beds in Ruvick's home. He immediately clawed at his chest in a panic as he tried to feel for the gaping sword wound in his chest only to feel...nothing.
Was that...just one long nightmare?
"What the hell just happened to me?"