What Makes a God Slayer? II

Iron God's Bellow!

With an enraged roar, Marak let loose his very first spell. Along with his war cry, spikes of iron rose from the desert sands like a violent wave of iron. Yet the woman that managed to draw out that anger easily dissolved the iron spikes pointed at her in inky black darkness. Although they were both God Slayer's, Marak had only just begun to understand his magic. It wasn't yet stable enough to compete with a more experienced peer.

"Yes, yes! Just like that! Compared to before, this attack was much better. Do you understand the love of the gods a little better now?" In spite of being attacked a second time, she merely clapped and applauded his efforts.

Iron God's Hammer!

Sadly her cheerful applause only served to deepen his anger, changing is direction rage at the gods to instead face her alone. He leapt into the air, his arm clad in heavy iron, intending to smash the woman's head in from above. She in turn made a troubled expression.

'I feel like I'm not getting through to him all of a sudden...'

CRASH

This time there was no inky darkness- Marak's iron fist pierced clean through the woman's head! Seeing her collapse to the ground was more frustrating than anything. After the first two attacks, he thought he couldn't hurt her. All the better that she could be an outlet for the rage he felt. Yet here was her corpse, and he was left wondering what she even did to deserve that. It's not like with his kin. He felt those assholes had it coming. This in turn only fed his anger further, but now with nothing left to punch but miles and miles of sand.

His rare moment of introspection was cut short by the shaking of the sand beneath his feet. Something was coming! At the very last moment, he jumped away from the woman's corpse, only to see a titanic snake burst out of the desert sands and devour the body.

He felt no fear upon seeing the serpent. He felt in the core of his being- if that snake had gotten its jaws around him, he would be dead. And yet it didn't matter. The depths of his rage was too deep for any other emotion to pull him back out.

He rushed forward in hopes of venting his anger for real, but the giant snake had suddenly vanished. A figure took its place. It was the green haired woman he had killed- that he thought he killed. Was it a hallucination? A ghost? He couldn't understand, but he didn't care.

'Hmm... He's stopped attacking. I think that calmed him down. Letting him get a hit in must have satisfied him.' Her eyes flashed a deep and malevolent purple. 'God Soul magic: Devourer!' 'No need to waste any energy. I'll break down that clone and use the energy to remake it later.'

Her assumption was immediately proven false when Marak came hurdling in with another iron fist. With little recourse, she changed tactics. With a wave of her hand, darkness poured forward and blew him back. As he scrambled to his feet, the ground rumbled again. It was even fiercer than before!

One titanic serpent rose from he ground behind the woman, closely followed by two more! Together they opening their gaping maws as Layla called out: "Dark God's Roar" Three billowing pillars of darkness erupted from the serpents mouths and crashed into him!

He felt his consciousness quickly fade...

...

When he finally woke back up, Marak was considerably calmer. Or at the very least more tired.

"Have you calmed down?"

The change in the woman's demeanor was strange. Originally she was bubbly and cheerful, but now she was serene and inexpressive to the extreme, like a glacier in human form. Distracted by the absurdity of it all, he clutched his head in frustration and tried to ignore her.

"In my search for the gods, I've heard of your tribe. You were angry because the doctrine of that god caused you to suffer, yes...? But if that god really believed in the things your tribe did, why would it grant you this power? I think it was supporting you. Giving you a way to fight back. I think it wanted your people to rise up and conquer it, but they were too foolish to see that..."

Marak's anger flared again, only to peter out. Frankly the woman creeped him out, but he already found out first hand that she was a monster in human form. It almost made him think his tribe had the right idea about this magic stuff being bad, and that was something he DID NOT want to think about.

"I don't know what your on about, and I don't think I care. Fuck, what'd I'd give for some rotten bout now."

"...It must be a lot to take in. I'm sure some day you'll come to understand the greatness of the gods-"

"For the sake of all that's rotten, stop bringing up those blasted things."

"..."

"..."

"...Well anyway, rotten...? Is that perhaps wine? I think I have some with me. Just a moment."

Reaching into the sand, another snake passed a bottle of red wine into her hand. She left it behind for Marak and decided to take her leave.

"It seems that no gods dwell in these sands, so I plan to travel to other nations. Should we meet again, perhaps we can slay a god together... I am Layla, the woman who will one day devour the gods."

Marak in turn was happy to see the woman go and even happier to see the bottle.

"Fuggin psycho... But... This is some DAMN good rot."

"..."

"...Killing a god... That at least don't sound bad... hic..."