All the weaklings filtered out. The surviving followers of Wrath slammed the doors to the main hall shut and retreated further in. Only the shark, Dakuwaqa, and I remained; a pair of pit fighters ready for a main event bout.

  “Are you supposed to be important?” I asked as I looked around the now-emptied room. “Is there something about you that I’d recognize?”

  “My importance goes so far as I am the one standing before you. I was the one who watched over the one who watched over you. I am the one that designated you a traitor to Wrath and branded you with that ability. I left your former supervisor there specifically to fight you. I thought that Tauren would be able to clean up his own messes,” Dakuwaqa commented. “But, I should have known better than to have any confidence in that bull-headed fool.”

  “The minotaur put up a good fight,” I answered. “It’s poor manners to talk down about a man who put everything on the line to kill me; even brought in his friends to make sure he used all the strength available. Will you be able to do as well as he did?”

  “He and I are completely different,” Dakuwaqa assured.

  “Then let’s get started.”

  A toothy grin spread across Dakuwaqa’s face. I felt water lap up over my feet. Rushing water flowed from several grates that formed in the walls.

  “We already have, welcome to my lair.”

  The water rushed in faster like a broken dam. It rose rapidly up to my knees and then my chest. I took one last large swallow of air as the water passed over my head. The walls of the room faded into the murky darkness of the water. My vision rapidly shrank to only a few feet in front of me; barely beyond my fists.

  I could feel him swimming around above me, circling. They were a fighter jet while I was an anchor. I held up my fists and prepared myself for his arrival.

  I heard it, the shift in the water around me as the shark rushed me. He appeared out of the murk like a bullet train covered in teeth. I was stabbed with hundreds of knives, all poking into my flesh, but unable to get very deep. Small strands of blood floated from the few puncture holes that did manage to be formed in my thick scales.

  The water turned colder and I felt Dakuwaqa speed up further. This time, I didn’t even see him as he ripped by me. Even more puncture wounds formed from this bite despite my high defenses. Something about the scent of blood augmented him further.

  It was a momentum game. He used the first strike to make himself stronger. The more blood in the water, I assumed the more powerful he’d grow.

  There was no need to entertain this any longer. I felt him coming by for another bite. I waited for a split second to ensure that he would not change course. As soon as I saw the shape, I activated [Bomber].

  The water instantly superheated to a boil as I cooked the fish that attacked me nicely. I got a nasty chomp on the hand in response, but I knew I got him far worse than he got me.

  I activated [The Box], surrounding myself in the black walls and draining out the water. I took a few deep breaths in there. I was only beginning to grow discomfort at the duration I held my breath. I could probably got much longer.

  Three prongs of a trident poked into my black room. I clenched my fist and collapsed the room, turning it into [Obsidian Spikes] that shot upwards like the spines of a sea urchin. Some blood that didn’t belong to me floated through the water above me.

  Just as Dakuwaqa got physically stronger from my blood, I also got excited at the sight of his. I started to send [Bomber] and [ICBM] in all directions. I shot at the walls and the ceiling. Large chunks of stone tumbled down from above to crash into the floor beside me. Hazy silhouettes of floating corpses caught my eye; ready for consumption.

  A trident sliced through the water. I barely noticed it before I back-handed it away. Right as my knuckles touched metal, I felt teeth scythe into my ankle. I used a [Bomber] to deal some parting damage to the hit and run.

  Dakuwaqa added more mix-ups into his strategy. He would feint more. He would throw tridents from different angles. He would try to manipulate me into showing my back to him. Unfortunately for him, I had [Obsidian Spikes] ready to skewer anything that swam too close behind me. I would activate them automatically as I spun and turned through the water.

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  This shark must have been blessed by the Aspect of Wrath. I detected no magic here; not in the spells nor in how this room was flooded. Dakuwaqa, unlike Tauren, was intent to defeat me with only his raw power.

  It might have been daunting at some point in my life. But I was on the verge of ascending to the top. If some gatekeeper succeeded in getting in my way, I would have to hide my face from those at the top. Even at his peak physical prowess, there was nothing he could do against my raw stats.

  “You should have found your own way.”

  I activated a chain of [Bomber]. All of these were directed towards the ceiling. The cold water flash boiled and the steam poured out of the holes in the roof I had formed from my previous attacks.

  The world turned to steam. A trident scraped against my arm, but the body itself didn’t dare rush into the superheated cloud. I felt the water level lowering, both through the steam and through the numerous holes I created in the walls of the fort. For the first time in a while, my head was above water.

  I spat out a mouthful of water and rolled my shoulders. Thin lines of blood streamed down my fingers, but, for the most part, I was still whole.

  Dakuwaqa’s fin could be seen moving through the water. The shark did a final blitz in my direction, but [Obsidian Spikes] were summoned in his path. He ripped through them, blood bubbling in the water behind him before he leapt out of the water. His jaws were fully opened, looking to take my head off.

  My fist shout out of the water, catching Dakuwaqa on the jaw and sending him skywards. He recovered by performing a backflip and splashing several feet away. But, by now, there was not enough water remaining.

  “Your water tricks were cute, let me show you what I can do.”

  I expanded my mind over the entire room. The space that used to be the interior of the keep quickly melted away into something far more infernal. I felt the stones heating up against the bottom of my feet. The water turned to steam as lava bubbled up from the ground.

  Dakuwaqa struggled in the immense heat, but it did not wipe away his look of pure hatred. He grabbed his trident and pointed it at me.

  “If you think that this will be enough to stop Wrath, you are sorely mistaken.”

  [Bomber].

  My explosive fist punished Dakuwaqa’s ribcage. His flesh steamed as I unloaded another one into his head. The surprisingly durable fish clung on to life for several more punches before he was left as bloodied pulp on the ground. Despite his best effort, I had barely been damaged at all.

  “Weak.”

  It was no insult, simply a statement of fact. As my fiery realm subsided, there was nobody else left to face me. Even those that had retreated behind the doors had been repeatedly struck by my explosive spells.

  The path was clear, I could leave this chaos behind and move on to the place where only the strongest resided. There, I would reach my ultimate truth.

  I closed my eyes and focused on advancing to the next realm, but unlike what I had heard, nothing happened. No red boxes, no taunting messages from beyond. My eyes drifted in the direction of the mountain.

  "Is something fun waiting for me up there?"

  I unfurled my wings and took to the sky at speed. I rocketed towards the rising slope of the mountain, flying directly up the steep slopes. The castle that floated above the top grew larger and larger. It looked to be the size of a small city by the time that I got close to the bottom.

  The peak of the mountain was chopped off. It was perfectly smooth as if someone had cleanly sliced it with a sword. A large summoning circle resided in the center of the clearing, just waiting for me to reach it and stake my own claim.

  An arrow flew past my head and screamed off into the distance. I looked down to see a centaur aiming a bow at me. They wore a fur hat and had a hawk circling overhead of them.

  Before I could charge them, I had to immediately shift my body to avoid a spear of light from piercing me from below. A bird in golden armor looked up at me; their body was adorned by numerous crosses. They formed another spear in their hand and chucked it at me, but I rolled out of the way again.

  It wasn’t just those two. I spotted a couple other demons patrolling the peak of the mountain. One appeared to be a mage. They wore brown robes and hid their face inside of their hood. And, surprisingly, I saw the cockatrice from the Zero Car.

  While I was interested in facing this new pack of strong foes, something was strange about this arrangement of demons to me. They had no similarities, no bonds that would allow me to view them as comrades. They looked like they should be enemies. They were supposed to be enemies.

  “Go no further!” The horseman ordered. “Return from whence you came. This place is not meant for you.”

  “What is this conspiracy?” I demanded. “Are you so afraid of someone else joining the fray that you have to work together to stop it?”

  “There is no room for late comers,” a robed demon said, his voice echoing through the sky. “We have no purpose for violent upstarts to interfere with the future.”

  “Your rise ends here,” the demon with the spear agreed.

  A laugh sprouted from my throat. There was nothing else to do but laugh. I found it all so cowardly. They should be killing each other; that was the entire purpose of all of it. No wonder the Follies grew to be so bored. What kind of entertainment is to be had if there are no fresh faces? If everything moves forward at a snail’s pace.

  “I feel so sorry for you, Follies. It truly was that you had nothing better to do than watch me. I’m sure you didn’t want another appetizer, but it seems that there is nothing that I can do about it.”

  "What are you chattering about?"

  "Nothing that concerns the dead."