A bullet left the barrel of Ivan's rifle as soon as Gabriel blew his horn. It was a divine bullet, one that was too fast for Ōmeteōtl to dodge at point blank range.

Ōmeteōtl didn't need to dodge it, however. The dual god could read the trajectory of the shot by seeing where the barrel pointed and, upon seeing it was aimed for his head, opened their mouth when the bullet shot and clamping their maw down on the projectile, catching it between their teeth and flattening it.

While they did that, Ōmeteōtl grabbed the barrel of Ivan's rifle and forced it to point towards the ground and held it there.

The god punched with their other arm, Ivan jerking his head out of the fist's path.

A side kick aimed at Ivan's torso followed, but it was interrupted, Ōmeteōtl feeling something pierce into their jaw from below. Ivan shot a bullet from his rifle that rebounded off the platform they stood on and came back up.

Ivan's feat of precision, despite the darkness and the tempestuous blizzard, forced Ōmeteōtl to lean their head back in order to prevent the bullet from climbing all the way into their brain, the projectile instead shooting back out from the top of the god's lower jaw and into the sky.

Because they were leaning back mid kick while trying to keep hold on Ivan's rifle, on top of being in a snowstorm, Ōmeteōtl lost their balance.

Ivan swept Ōmeteōtl's single leg that was all that stopped the god from falling, causing the deity to do just that.

The barrel of the rifle was pulled out of Ōmeteōtl's hand as he fell and aimed for the god's chest, ready to shoot through their heart while they couldn't dodge.

The shot fired but was deflected by Ōmeteōtl swinging a weapon that spontaneously appeared in their hand. It was a macuahuitl, the club with obsidian blades on its edge accompanied by a circular shield called a chīmalli.

Ōmeteōtl hit the ground and began to roll to try and scramble onto their feet as soon as possible, but Ivan swung his fettered leg, the chain attached to him flying at and wrapping around the god of dualism, leaving Ōmeteōtl tied up on the ground.

Another shot was fired, the dual god twisting his body as much as he could to get part of the chain restraining him in the way of the bullet.

Before he could pull the trigger again, Ivan dodged the swing of a quauholōlli, a club ending in a ball of copper. The club, paired with another round shield, was in the hands of another Ōmeteōtl, or rather, half of Ōmeteōtl. The dual god split into their separate male and female bodies, the male still tied up while the female was free to fight, not even having the manacle on her leg.

The female Ōmeteōtl swung her bludgeon repeatedly, Ivan dodging more until he wasn't able to, the male Ōmeteōtl having freed himself from the chain around him and was now yanking it to prevent the soldier from escaping an oncoming club swing.

Ivan blocked the bludgeon with his rifle, but was knocked off his feet.

Both Ōmeteōtls pursued Ivan, but when they simultaneously swung their armaments, the soldier shot his gun while he was midair, the kickback propelling him higher into the air, out of range of the divine duo's swings.

The male Ōmeteōtl grabbed Ivan's chain and pulled at it to drag him back down.

Ivan blocked the male Ōmeteōtl's bladed club with his rifle, but the sniper was helpless when it came to the mace that smashed into his side. Ribs pulverized and Ivan would've gone flying if Ōmeteōtl didn't still have a hold on the chain, pulling Ivan back towards the duo again.

As Ivan was getting pulled back, he fired a shot which the female Ōmeteōtl weaved out of the way of, which was part of the plan. The bullet ricocheted off the ground and shot right into the male Ōmeteōtl's brain stem where the back of his head connected to his neck.

The male god plopped to the ground, the female not able to help herself from turning to see their other self who suddenly died.

The distraction gave Ivan an opening to fire again, the remaining Ōmeteōtl moving their head just in time for the bullet to only go through one cheek and out the other rather than through her cranium.

The god grabbed Ivan's rifle by the barrel and slammed the human into the platform, the impact making all the snow on the ground jump up for an instant.

Ivan cringed as he felt more bones break apart inside him, piercing into muscle tissue and organs. He powered through the pain to fire another shot, Ōmeteōtl deflecting with their mace. Ivan kicked their shackled leg to make the chain wrap around the weapon. Ivan pulled on the weapon, Ōmeteōtl pulling back to keep it in their hand.

The sniper stopped pulling, the god jerking backward and losing their balance again. Ivan slipped his leg from Ōmeteōtl's grip and tackled them. The human mounted atop the deity and pointed the barrel of his gun right in Ōmeteōtl's face.

Before he could fire his gun, there were two flashes of light. One was the fusing of the dead Ōmeteōtl back into the original, and the second was the god defusing again, both Ōmeteōtls alive again, one still under Ivan, the other pulling the human off their double and pinning him, chest to the ground. The female Ōmeteōtl tore the rifle from the sniper's hand.

The pinned Ivan looked to the male Ōmeteōtl's leg and saw that it was free from the manacle. When they fused again and split, it made sense that Ōmeteōtl wouldn't materialize the male body with the restraint on their leg again.

"Ōmeteōtl and Ivan had quite the back and forth, but it's Ōmeteōtl on top!"

Tezcatlipoca reclined in his seat. "Ivan definitely isn't a slouch, though none of the human fighters have been anything less than awe inspiring, so it'd be silly to act surprised eight rounds in. Ōmeteōtl's still winning though, let's hope it stays that way."

"Tammuz."

Ivan had fired seven shots during the fight so far, six of which were still intact and had flown off in various directions. Those projectiles, upon the activation of the artificial holy relic's power, travelled through the air, their vectors controlled by Ivan's will.

The Ōmeteōtls had let their guards down, not ready for when the bullets returned. The male Ōmeteōtl got shot through the head again, while the female one managed to avoid any of the bullets hitting their head, but they did bore into other parts of their body, those shots still under Ivan's control so they began digging through the god's body toward her gray matter.

The female Ōmeteōtl fused their male body back into themselves before splitting again, the male body in perfect condition once more while the female body died from the bullets reaching their brain.

The bullets burst out of the female Ōmeteōtl's body and followed after the male Ōmeteōtl who ran into the forest. The rifle the female body held dropped and was snatched up by Ivan.

The sniper fired more shots into the darkness, following and flanking the dual god.

Despite the darkness, Ivan was able to see and keep track of Ōmeteōtl as well as all his own bullets he had to manually guide the courses of. The reason Ivan was capable of this was thanks to his superhuman vision he had trained his entire life so he could be the best sniper he could be. The human could view farther than most any other being and any visual obstruction could be seen through as if it weren't even there.

Wasting no time upon seeing there was no way to escape the bullets' pursuit, Ōmeteōtl used their macuahuitl to break the shots when they entered his range. The dual god had noticed that the round he crushed between his teeth wasn't among the bullets following him, which made it clear that the only bullets Ivan could manipulate were the ones that were intact.

Ōmeteōtl began running back toward Ivan who fired more shots.

The dual god swung their club again, but this time the bullets' paths curved at the last moment before they'd get hit before continuing toward Ōmeteōtl.

Ivan's plan was to make Ōmeteōtl assume they could safely destroy the bullets and try to get close, leaving them vulnerable when Ivan showed more precise trajectory control than what seemed initially possible.

Ōmeteōtl raised their shield, but the bullets maneuvered around that, too, circling around to the god's back and piercing into their spine. The deity lost the ability to use their lower body, but before they could even fall, the bullets drilled through Ōmeteōtl's body, reaching the brain. The projectiles spun around inside Ōmeteōtl's skull, blending their brain until it was fluid.

The male body hit the snowy ground, dying it red. The bullets didn't stop there. They kept tearing up the body until it was nothing but coloring for the snow, bullets going back to the female body and doing the same.

Humanity was jubilant.

"Ōmeteōtl is paste, both Ōmeteōtls are! But, will that be enough?"

The silence was all that Tammuz could focus on. He was waiting with Ivan in the sniper's waiting room for their time to fight. The room was just an empty expanse of nothing with two chairs that the duo were seated on. Ivan's back was straight, hands at his sides, expression blank as a corpse. He was as still as an inanimate object. Tammuz couldn't help but worry that his partner had somehow died while sitting.

The bearded Tammuz decided to check.

"So, Ivan, how're you holding up? You're probably nervous, I sure am. Fuck am I nervous. But, that's normal, right? I mean, we're fighting for humanity and if we screw up, we're dead as dead can be."

"…"

"You're real quiet, but since we're partners and all, it makes sense we should get to know each other. Let's share. I'll, uh, I'll go first. I'm single currently. Though I used to have a girlfriend. You probably won't believe me, but it was Ishtar. Yeah, that Ishtar, goddess of war, beauty, and a bunch of other stuff. It was real complicated and didn't work out in the end, but we're still friends, believe it or not. She used to be like the other gods, but she learned to kinda like humanity as time passed."

"…"

"Ah, so, she actually voted to save humanity. Crazy right? Especially since she used to be so petty she tried to kill Gilgamesh for not wanting to date her."

"…"

"How about you…you wanna share anything?"

"…"

"Um, I guess you can't think of anything. How about you tell me why you agreed to fight?"

In a deep voice, Ivan spoke. "There are beings that exist to make this world that are wretched. It is my job to enact righteous judgement upon them."

"I didn't actually think you'd respond, alright, well I'd say that's a good reason, stopping bad people and all."

"Stopping them isn't enough, they must be culled."

"I think that might be an extreme way to put it. I mean, Elizabeth Báthory definitely had to go, but some people don't deserve death, they could even redeem themselves if given the chance, like Shaka."

"There is no redemption. Once tainted, slaughter becomes the only answer. Shaka is no exception, he is on my list to deal with after this round."

"Woah, woah, woah! You can't kill Shaka! He got us a win, he helped save humanity!"

"Virtue doesn't matter in judgement, only sin."

Tammuz was on his feet before he realized it himself. "That's ridiculous! Listen, Shaka did some horrible shit! Only an idiot would deny it! But, he risked his life to save all humanity, and he succeeded at that! Plus, he considers everything he did wrong and has dedicated himself to trying to make up for it! He hates himself so much for what he's done that he'd probably agree with you that he deserves to die, but that shows he isn't some monster, not anymore!"

"Tammuz, you're sounding like you've been tainted, too."

The fallen angel felt cold. "What?"

Ivan shot onto his feet, which startled Tammuz and caused him to fall back onto his chair.

"Wait, wait, what're you doing?"

Ivan slowly raised an arm.

"Hold on, what're you doing! You can't kill me, I'm your partner! You couldn't even if you wanted to! I'm divine, it's not possible!"

The sniper's hand slowly advanced towards Tammuz's head, the fallen angel feeling like something worse than death, something irreversible was mere moments from happening.

"I was wrong, fuck Shaka! Kill him all you want!"

The middle finger of Ivan was a single micrometer away from touching Tammuz's forehead before it stopped, Ivan retracting his arm at the fallen angel's declaration.

Ivan sat back down while Tammuz hyperventilated.

Fear on par with what Yahweh could induce nearly led to Tammuz losing his sanity. He couldn't understand why, but Ivan instilled a fear in him that made what Necessitas was capable of as Elli seem paltry. It wasn't through some special ability to manipulate the mind to induce fear, it was an instinctual response Tammuz had. He simply understood on some deep level as an extant being that Ivan was dangerous and that he shouldn't do anything to upset him.

It seemed before that the only monster among the human champions was Elizabeth Báthory, but Tammuz understood that there was at least one other, Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko.

The redness that was once the bodies of Ōmeteōtl began moving, gathering into a pair of puddles that bubbled, as if boiling. The two pools slithered toward each other at blinding speeds until they plopped into each other, creating a single mass of lifeblood and other fluids that floated into the air and began to shape into a humanoid silhouette.

Ōmeteōtl was back in their original, unified form.

"Ōmeteōtl has returned from apparent death! Who could have expected this?"

"This is like the trillionth time someone in this tournament has survived something that'd kill a normal person. At this point, It'd be weirder if they stayed dead after turning into sauce."

The dual god stood on the platform, deeply inhaling.

"That was so cool, bro! Holy shittola, bro! You had me thinking you would suck at close combat, but then you were so good, and then you were killing me over and over, and you could control the bullets, but then I was destroying them, but then you controlled them even better, and you got me, bro!"

Ōmeteōtl's energy was infectious and humorous, leading to the audience hooting with laughter and a generally light atmosphere, as if the fate of an entire race wasn't on the line.

"Ōmeteōtl gives real Marco Polo vibes." Satan was feeling a little easier thanks to the god's laid back demeanor.

"Ivan, you're totally the best sniper! I was hoping we'd get to have a ranged fight with, like, me using my bow that I'd summon and we'd see who's better, but you're definitely better! I'm wondering how I should keep fighting! I was planning on holding back, slowly pulling out what I've got since most people don't know what I can do, but I might need to go all out just to keep up with you, bro!"

Though many enjoyed the change of mood, Ivan was not one of them.

"You are what is wrong with the gods."

"What?"

"Necessitas was right. Humans are sinful, and it turns out that gods are, too. You all need to be punished, and to punish is my purpose."

"Metaphorically, like it's your philosophy or something, or do you mean you literally exist to punish or something?"

"I was created by Yahweh to punish humanity for the gods, but it turns out the gods didn't realize their own corrupted nature. So, I will make them face the penalty, for that is all that gives my existence meaning."

"Bro, that's a bit extreme. I get wanting to make bad people repent, but you're going a bajillion steps too far."

"The fact you think sin deserves anything less than death shows your depravity."

"You're not gonna change your mind, are you?"

"My will is not so weak as to bend to the whims of evil."

"Evil's the kinda word you shouldn't throw around a lot, bro. Can lead to justifying some bad shit."

"An excuse for leniency with the wicked."

"I think we should just get back to fighting, bro. We're going in circles."

"Agreed."

Ōmeteōtl materialized a tepoztōpīlli, the spear's tip possessing a serrated obsidian edge, and lunged at the sniper, who sent his bullets that turned the god to liquid before at Ōmeteōtl again, firing more as he did.

The spear in Ōmeteōtl's hands twirled and was swung around to destroy the oncoming bullets. Ivan started to maneuver his bullets around the god's weapon at the last possible moment like before, but something happened that the sniper couldn't explain. The polearm was in two places at once. Every time a bullet began to swerve, suddenly the spear defied logic and was both where it was originally, as well as simultaneously in the way of the bullet's new path.

All the bullets were demolished and Ōmeteōtl continued forward. Ōmeteōtl swung his spear at the sniper which Ivan dodged, but, once again the spear was in two places at once.

Ivan managed to scrape away with his life, only losing every finger on his left hand but his thumb to the obsidian blade.

Immediately, Ivan knew something was wrong. His entire body was numb, vertigo hit him like a meteor, and he vomited out everything in his stomach along with a significant amount of blood. Ivan's eyes bulged so much they looked like they'd pop out of his skull. Ivan was on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

The spear was poisoned, and by one of the most potent toxins that existed. If Ivan were a normal man, or even your average god, he would have died from but a single drop of the toxin. That said, he was far from immune to such a potent substance.

The human could move, but doing so was a slog. It took maximum focus and energy to just inch his arm toward Ōmeteōtl's foot. The god watched, raising their spear to stab it down into Ivan's skull. The deity ignored the oncoming hand of the sniper, thinking it to be nothing more than the desperate, meaningless last attempt from Ivan to grasp at survival.

When Ivan's middle finger made contact with Ōmeteōtl's big toe, it was clear that the god had made a mistake.

The god fell atop Ivan, sedentary, completely unresponsive.

The two fighters were lying prostrate, one on top of the other. It was an odd sight, and led to confused questioning aplenty by the audience.

"Are the two fighters unconscious, or is this something more complicated than that? This isn't much of a fight anymore, is it?"

Satan understood what was going on, and she knew that this was going to be a unique kind of endurance match now that Ivan had unveiled his unique ability.