Chapter -57: A Worthy Might
Sarajin stared down the might of his opponent and tried to figure out what her first move would be, "Ok, she's not drawn any weapons so-"
The first blink of this fight ended with him staring her inches from his body extending her leg in a sweeping kick.
He threw his arm up and braced himself. That would have decapitated him otherwise.
"...!" He grunted wide-eyed in awe as the impact threw up a hurricane gale across the arena.
"Heh heh...!" Hecate grinned and then spun back around for a second kick, rising higher before the moment of contact.
Sarajin got pushed back and then heard the crackle of flames. Not just any, these were deep blue flames with a black-violet core, flickering around her fingertips.
"Catch!" She shouted before flicking her hand out, summoning a wide trail of burning wisps from the ground.
He took to the sky and then pulled his hand back to summon lightning in his grasp. His opponent paused and grinned, daring him to hit her with it.
He flung with only a moment's hesitation behind his force and she swung her body to the right to dodge it.
Sarajin then squeezed his hand and tugged back, forcing the lightning spear to aim for her back. Flipping over it, she hung upside-down, paddling her legs and placing her hands on her cheeks.
Sarajin grit his teeth and whipped his hand around to try and hit her out of the sky.
But she could vanish from one spot and be somewhere else the next. It wasn't super speed more so it was some form of teleportation.
This exchange ended abruptly with her standing hunched over in mid-air and slamming her forehead against the lightning to shatter it like glass.
Sarajin froze up as all he managed to do was slightly singe her skin. With smoke sizzling off her she brandished her hands out and summoned a flame in each.
"You're firing me up now! Let's keep the rhythm going!" She threw one fireball out in an arc and only when Sarajin dodged it did she throw out the other to hit him.
Sarajin put up a flame aura to try and push it back, but it was way hotter and was grinding down his flames while pushing him.
Hecate warped behind him and kicked him square in the spine, knocking him through the remains of the fireball and slicing through a couple crystals in the process.
Sarajin recovered, shook his head, and then grabbed the broken crystals with his mind and flung them at Hecate.
"Focus!" He forced his eyes wide-open to gauge her reaction and then wiggled his fingers over his right pocket.
The moment he saw her vanishing he snatched hold of the Gaia Temporis to stop time. He then wound up his fist and flew in before his head started hurting, hitting her square in the gut with a flaming punch.
When time resumed she nudged back a few inches and his knuckles ached, forcing him to shake his fingers out.
She started laughing it up like a ticklish goat leading Sarajin to wonder, "Geez, what are you made of?"
To which Hecate happily proclaimed, "Grit and hellfire, baby!"
She then tried the two fireball trick again, only for Sarajin to evade them both and retaliate with a few of his own.
She whipped her hand around to move the red orb before her face and then grab it, canceling out the fireball on impact.
Immediately upon release she flew in close and tried to flip kick him under the chin. Sarajin crossed his arms and tensed his muscles, locking her leg in place through an intense battle of wills.
Their skin flapped around from the shockwaves flying off the center of the clash but hers was holding up impeccably well.
She then swung her second foot up against her heel and that threw Sarajin's arms up and staggered him.
She floated on her stomach and crossed her arms now burning with flames, then pulled them apart to release a huge flaming "cross" where the center now burned with white flames.
Sarajin was hit and the explosion knocked him to the ground with his clothes now covered in burn marks with a few lingering embers for him to brush off.
Only for him to stand and be under the shadow of something massive. Hecate had turned her blue orb into a giant sphere and was now swinging it over her head by the chain with so much force it was getting set on fire.
"Heads up! Giant planet meteor coming through!" She screamed, having the time of her life.
Dyntos was calmly standing by and flipping his burgers while throwing a glance Sarajin's way to note, "You better stop that before I lose my workshop."
"Easier said than done!" Sarajin proclaimed with some mild frustration through his gritted teeth.
He nevertheless stood against the blowback of this incredible pressure and pulled his hands back. Eyes blistering, heat intense, he summoned up a sea's worth of water within his palms and then splashed them together to create a high pressure cannon capable of piercing the flames.
The struggle lasted a while as the ground cracked around them and the center was dragged up in chunks, disintegrating between their clash.
Sarajin put one last push into his attack and it succeeded in carrying it through the flames and the orb proper.
She then shrunk the broken orb down and flicked her wrist to put it back together, looking a little winded but no less ready to keep fighting.
Meanwhile Sarajin was already sweating and breathing harder, leaving him to think with a hint of awe and dread, "So this is what it's like to fight a god. Can I-"
No time to question his plan of attack or figure out weaknesses. She was a relentless opponent, always ready to pounce him and take him by surprise with powerful kicks.
He was forced to fight on pure instinct and while he wasn't performing poorly, he knew that his senses in the heat of the moment weren't exactly the best.
But in spite of the goddess' ferocity and deadly flames she didn't feel insurmountable. Sarajin could guard her attacks and was starting to pick up on her movements enough to feel confident about landing attacks.
All he needed to do was use his elements wisely and not be reckless with his strength and eventually he would be able to wear her down.
After blocking a flurry of kicks from her in a standing position she flipped her other leg out and kicked him straight in the arm.
He felt the first crack of his bones from that one and immediately pulled the arm away to give it a break, swapping out for the other to force her away with a powerful gale.
Instead she slammed her feet into the ground and started walking towards him, hammering the stone apart with every step.
Sarajin froze with surprise as this small woman proceeded to grab his wrist, drag him in closer to see the fierce smile she wore, then headbutted him hard enough to disorient him.
She then let go and used that same hand, coated in flames, to uppercut him in the gut and drag the both of them higher, hitting him multiple times with a spiral tornado of flames.
He was launched through the air and spun around until regaining control, now poised upside-down. Which made watching her fly at him again really disorienting as he tried to dodge her ensuing punch.
Once out of the way he pelted her backside with a few fireballs and then pulled away when she lashed her arm back to slice through some more.
She then kept close and committed to hard swings with her fists, and the hard part wasn't dodging them but making sure the spheres chained to her wrists didn't clobber him as well.
Because those were durable, made of really hard stuff, just like their wielder.
Sarajin saw he was losing a few hairs just barely making it out of the way, and the closer she got to connecting the harder his teeth grit down.
So when pressed against the weight of her fists he decided to take a play out of her book and swung his hand up to grab her fist and hold it back.
She paused and looked both surprised and then delighted, aiming her sights on his fevered gaze while putting all her strength into trying to shove his arm out of alignment.
"Well?! If you're going to overpower me then do it!" She cheered him on with a wild voice.
But Sarajin had her right where he wanted her, guaranteeing that so long as he didn't let go she wouldn't be able to get out of the way.
"Alright...!" On that signal in his brain his body exploded with a bright, clear aura and wind spiraled off his body in all directions.
He then grabbed his right fist tight and pulled back, engulfing the skin with flames.
She was bracing herself, overconfident and prepared to take it like it was a spicy meal.
Sarajin wasn't leaving anything to chance. He was putting on his greatest lie in terms of body language, making her believe that everything was going into this blistering hot wave of fire.
Even as he roared and flung his hand up, that's what he was telling his brain to believe.
Then at the very last possible second, the hairs on her skin tingled as fire became electricity, with her feeling the full force of a few million volts square in her chest.
That was as far as Sarajin was willing to push it. The electricity frayed the air and left the sky experiencing static clinging for miles around, while Hecate was blown far, far away.
She hung there, her body seemingly comatose and her head pulled back, leaving only a glimpse of her stunned, agape mouth visible.
Sarajin lowered his hand and his fingers twitched in time with the electricity spurting off the tips. He was panting, quietly contemplating what led to this point.
He bit his teeth and felt a little bad, "M-Maybe I overdid it..."
He then cocked his head back and looked down at Dyntos far behind him and shouted, "Hey Lord Dyntos, was this a good enough showing for you?"
Dyntos grabbed his beard and with a cheeky grin leaned in with one eye wide-open and chuckled, "I don't know. What do you think, Hecate?"
"Nah!" Shouted the goddess, as spry as ever.
Sarajin felt a chill crawling up his spine right as he turned around and let his face meet the bottom of both her feet.
His cheekbones now sufficiently cracked, he went hurtling down like a torpedo and punctured partway into Dyntos' platform, getting trapped under very hefty rock.
His noggin had to have taken quite the hit, because when he pulled himself out of the rubble he saw that Hecate now had deep blue hair and a couple gold ring piercings on her right ear.
"W-What...? Did she...change forms?" While pulling himself back to solid ground he took a second observation at his surroundings and the truth was actually worse than he guessed, because he felt her power twice over.
And sure enough, the red-haired Hecate floated out of view behind the blue-haired one, her body twisted so her back was pointed at him while she held her open hand before her ferocious face.
Sarajin felt weak in the knees and nearly took a dive for the ground to submit. He grit his teeth with twitchings of frustration blatant across his face.
Hecate joined her second body at the side and then whipped her hand at him, "Hey! You shouldn't be getting upset at losing if you aren't willing to go all out!"
"Excuse me?" Sarajin took offense to that.
"So what's the excuse? Too afraid to hurt a lady? Stubborn pride? You're free to have your reasons, I'll take them as a part who you are!" Hecate briefly shifted to a look of pitying disgust, "Buuuuut, if you're going to hide behind silent gawking and think that makes you cool, theeeeeen I'm gonna have to kill you."
Sarajin was pierced through the soul by intense killing intent, "S-She's serious!"
"Hypocrisy and lies are given karmic retribution in hellfire! Every moment is a cause! If you can't be true to yourself, then why be anything but a sheep?"
Both Hecate's then set their hands ablaze with contrasting colors of fire and the light illuminated her ferocity in a sinister way, "You're about to get reality thrust before you, Sarajin! Welcome to my Hell!"
Thus began a relentless bombardment of conflagration all across the battlefield, fully intent to limit his movements as he swayed to and fro trying to find an exit.
The flames bonded together and fueled themselves to reach greater heights until even flying was no longer an option.
Still, Sarajin bit his teeth down and pounded the ground below his feet with pressurized air to propel himself through the flames, figuring the burns were better off than dying.
His instincts were now firing at max and boy he would need every break he could get, as Hecate charged in one body at a time, striking with a different limb in perfect sync with each other.
When one struck, the other soon followed. It was a macabre dance of hellish delight, and the two bodies unleashed echoes of laughter throughout the atmosphere.
Sarajin had no choice but to slip away with the Gaia Temporis if he was to ever catch his breath and retaliate.
The moment he tried to dive his hand in both Hecate's flew in and clocked his neck with their arms, then latched onto him like an anchor and dove for the ground to hammer him in.
Sarajin thrust his hands out to repel them with pressurized air but he was steadily losing power, as that didn't even make their weird dresses flinch.
The moment the twin goddesses made an impact the red-haired one yelled at him, "What's wrong with letting loose a little?!"
The arena fractured in half, shattering any of the crystals that happened to be along the path.
The blue-haired body then pulled Sarajin up by the poncho and set their free hand on fire, "This was supposed to just be a fun scuffle! You're the one treating this like life or death!"
Sarajin's eyes were fired up and while his elements may be failing him, he still trusted his strength and swung his legs up to wrap around her arm and with a quick, unexpected twist, managed to take her off her feet and drag her to the ground.
Her fireball went into the air and burst in the shape of a plume.
Sarajin then realized...he didn't actually have a plan beyond this. And the sickening realization of his own struggle left him vulnerable to the real Hecate kicking him in the spine to launch him into the air.
She then threw her chained blue orb up and wrapped it around his neck to drag him back in and smash the ground again.
She then grit her teeth down and growled, "Well hey, again, don't be mad at me for dying! I'm just giving you the fight you're asking for!"
She beat that into his head as hard as she was her heel. There was no malicious intent behind anything she did. This was just the god honest truth.
Sarajin clawed his hands against the ground and frustration was swelling, "I-I'm not here to die...!"
Hecate hunched down with her fists against her hips and shouted, "Then what ARE you here for?!"
Sarajin raised and hammered his fist against the ground, letting his anger at her roar at full intensity, "TO GIVE EVERYONE A CHANCE TO ACHIEVE THEIR DREAMS!"
Light erupted out of Sarajin's body like heavenly fire and Hecate pulled both her selves back, her blue-haired self stunned, her red-haired self ecstatic.
Sarajin rose off the ground in his Light Form, wisps of white flames flying off his wings, his body looking in slightly better shape than he did a minute ago.
With all that frustration vented out of his heart he swiped his fist under his chin and grinned, "You're right Hecate...I have been holding back!"
He then clenched his fist and told himself, "One minute, thirty seconds...That's all I've got!"
He then let his weightless body fly straight for the blue-haired Hecate and threw a punch that blew her off her feet and sent her flying through the air like the streak off the comet.
The red-haired Hecate turned in sync with his speed and grinned as he faced her head-on. She then flapped her hands out and tried to summon a giant ember from his feet up.
He left that spot and she moved out of the way, only to find a cut of blood across her cheek a moment later.
Sarajin stopped a few feet away and swiped his hand down to brush the blood off his knuckle.
Hecate raised her head high and levitated off the ground, creating two large embers off her palms that swung around her body diagonally.
Once they met in the center she clapped her palms together and created a wave of flames to engulf the wide area in front of her.
There was a flicker off the flames in the center and she looked above her to see him overhead, hand grasped around his right hand.
Holy light was fired down in a thin beam exuding golden halos of wider circumference and then upon impact, a torrent of thick light came crashing down upon Hecate.
She slid out of the light singed all over and her delight grew by the second. She then swung her spheres to the ground before whipping them out, increasing their size to match the meteor attack from before, only this time, she would be sandwiching Sarajin between them and there'd be no friction getting in her way.
Sarajin fired out between them like a bolt of heavenly lightning and was midway through reeling his fist back to hit her face when the blue-haired one returned, punting him off the arena with a kick to the side of his face.
Sarajin dug his heels in hard and stopped at the edge then overlooked his surroundings with laser quick focus.
He paid close attention to all the surviving crystals in the workshop and his mind lit up, "One minute left...!"
He then banked a bet on Hecate's personality and took to the skies high over the arena, where her and her second body quickly pursued him.
Sarajin gathered up light into huge energy balls and flung them out, where they collapsed into miniature glimmering stars.
Hecate evaded them all and then closed the gap with an attempting punch to his gut. Sarajin blocked it with his elbow and then swung his other fist through to strike her face.
The other body got behind him and tried to swing their spheres into his head. He ducked and then uppercutted them into the chin.
He took whatever hits he could get regardless of how much it made them flinch. His speed was more than capable of giving him the reflexes he needed to survive even while pinned in.
Through quick bursts of speed and acrobatic flips he kept firing and missing light orbs at the two-bodied goddess.
He had to keep them together, this was crucial to his plan's success.
"Thirty seconds...!" Was what he focused on when it actually felt like he had been fighting for an hour now.
Every point in time was a chance to lose and he didn't want this to happen. Gods, Titans, Sages, it didn't matter what he had to face down.
He felt compelled to win this fight because losing would disgust him, make him despair that the last few years had been all for nothing.
Maybe he could accept losing if it meant something, but this was just some badly-dressed goddess from another world.
He couldn't lose this fight.
"Twenty seconds...!" He grit his teeth as his arms and legs started buckling against Hecate's attacks. There was still this feeling that she was playing around somewhat, but regardless, it was her fault if she let her cockiness get away from her.
"Fifteen seconds...!"
Sarajin fired one more orb and then flew overhead with both fists swung back, diving down to hammer the two bodies closer to the arena.
Hecate held hands with her second body and together they fused their almighty conflagration into a purple flame with a pitch black core.
Sarajin thrust his palms down and squeezed his fingers, cuing Hecate to declare, "Putting everything you got into this eh?! Go ahead, hit this with your best shot!"
Suddenly her confidence turned to despair as glimmering red, blue and green lights invaded her vision. She looked back to find the crystals were all glowing brightly, like a sea of stars.
"That's right, I had been using these distractions to set this up!" Sarajin proclaimed in his head.
She then turned back to him with a smirk and whispered, "You sneaky son of a bitch...!"
Sarajin fiercely threw his hands up and the crystals' lasers converged upon the two Hecate's. Nevertheless, she flung her attack out and managed to hit her mark.
Two explosions violently connected with one another and swirled into a discolored form at the center. In the aftermath all three bodies were falling out of the sky drenched in smoke.
It didn't take long for the blue-haired Hecate to vanish, and Sarajin to drop his Light Form. And after that they both crashed into the ground at the same time.
There was a small period of unconsciousness on Sarajin's end but when it passed he opened his eyes and rolled onto his back, groaning in pain.
From there he was hesitant to look to his left, because he could hear the goddess moving around. She was trembling all over and her clothes were burnt up in various parts, her hair in particular fuzzy.
She smiled and after brushing some of the ash off giggled in a more playful manner, "See? Was that so bad?"
Sarajin gave up a few coughs in defiance to her joy and then forced a grin on his face, "Did I even hurt you?"
Hecate wagged her hands and feet around and then rolled her neck across her shoulders, "Ooooh yeah, I'll be aching for weeks after that."
Sarajin's eyes went half shut and she proceeded to kneel down beside him to say, "Hey don't be so down, gods are just made of tougher stuff than humans! Doesn't make you less of a person cause you couldn't take me down."
"...I-I guess I didn't do too bad." Sarajin had to admit.
"That's the spirit!" She cheered him on, before bracing her arms together before her knees, "So hey, tell me more about yourself. I wanna know what's up with that whole 'Holding back' business."
Sarajin tried to sit up and shook his head, "...It's not that complicated. I come from a world with a history of conflict being resolved by war. I just...don't want to be another example of that cycle of violence."
Hecate blinked a few times and then grinned, "So you hold back to keep people from being hurt?"
She gestured her hand out and said, "Don't you think that's insulting to the people you're trying to help?"
He looked at her feeling a little insulted and forced her to make haste in pointing out, "People get hurt, people die. If you spend your whole life being allergic to mortality then you're not really living as a human."
She then dangled the blue orb out and from it, revealed a world of humans where they fought on battlegrounds with spears, shields, and catapults of burning rock, all while specters of presumably other gods watched over them.
"See, my world's in a similar boat. Humans killing each other over differing beliefs or because they invited their gods into their hearts. It's pretty sad and pathetic."
"Humans are pretty special. You have an end point. And because you know that, you try to live your lives seeking your own way to leave a mark on the world."
"We can create fire from our hands, shape entire worlds, even light space up with fireworks, but you guys? You got freedom, and that's the coolest power of them all."
She smirked, "Gods live too long and they get complacent. That's what leads to the legends and myths that define them by one thing."
"They should take an example from all of you and embrace change, always striving to be better than they were yesterday, yet never giving up on what made them unique."
She then closed her eyes and seemed to be having a laugh towards herself, "All of this to say..."
She looked him dead on and said, "There's no 'holding back' when it comes to living. Heaven, or Hell, wherever you go in the end, you want your soul to be staring down the judge and laughing with satisfaction over the life you led."
"What was it you were yelling? That you want to give everyone a chance to follow their dreams?"
Sarajin slowly nodded and Hecate gave her a big smile, "That's a pretty cool dream. You know what?"
She patted him on the chest, "You're a pretty cool guy, Sarajin. I'm glad I got this chance to meet you. So can you do me one favor?"
"Sure, what?"
"Don't be afraid to get your hands a little dirty in the future. If it means the difference between life or death for someone you want to protect, wouldn't a little blood be acceptable over the death of a dream?"
"I-It's not like I've never thought about that, but..." Sarajin held his hand up and closed it into a fist, "I'm afraid. Once the blood starts spilling...when would it stop?"
"Hey, that's your choice in the end! I guess ultimately, I just don't want you to suffer because you cling to 'holding back' as an excuse when you fail."
Hecate then stood up and flicked her head back towards the observing Dyntos to shout, "Well! I hope you got what you needed out of this old man, cause I think I'm going to head on out of here now!"
"You're leaving?" He muttered, none too subtle about his intrigue and equal relief.
She spun around and presented herself with a strong posture as she declared, "Yeah, I think I've gotten everything I'll ever want out of this world. I want to start over, raise Hell on some other planet!"
"Ha, you can't be serious. Where would you even go?"
"I was thinking somewhere in the Northern part of the universe. Word through the god grapevine is there's an opening in the Four Guardians in that area."
Dyntos scoffed at her cockiness, "Ha! I pity the poor world that takes a mischievous imp like you into their ranks."
"Heh heh! Hey, I heard Gensokyo is pretty accepting of all sorts of rowdy folk!"
She then turned to Sarajin and extended a hand to help him finish getting back up onto his feet, "If you're ever in the area, pop in and say hello! I'd like to have a rematch."
She then put a hand on her hip and laughed, "Oh, but I'll have a new name the next time we see each other. Next time, call me 'Hecatia'."
Sarajin rubbed the back of his hand and chuckled, "I don't think it'll be too hard to forget that. You stand out like a sore thumb."
She narrowed her eyes and muttered, "And what's that supposed to mean, poncho boy?"
"Thaaat I should probably keep my mouth shut now."
"Good call," She said with a grin, and then waved them both off, "Alright, later!"
And just as spontaneously as she arrived, she left.
Sarajin rolled his wrist around and while Dyntos walked up beside him he made a dry remark, "You know some interesting people..."
"Know 'em? Ha! I hardly tolerate them! Still..." Dyntos rubbed his chin and sighed, "The world will feel a little more dark without that little hellfire."
He then pointed his gaze at him from the corner of his eyes and grumbled at his smile, "You heard nothing."
He then returned to his grill and finished preparing his burgers, all the while making casual conversation with his company, "Well, you've passed two trials. One more and I think you'll be ready for your new sword."
Sarajin was aching all over mentally and physically and rolled up to the god of the forge with a sigh, "Any chance you can take it easy on the last one?"
"Ha, maybe. I don't normally run trials that are this taxing. Usually my customers travel through a few stages of mook gauntlets and revisit enemies from their past before I pit them against the weapon they want."
Sarajin recoiled with a hint of nervousness in his smile, "T-That...sounds like it would have been much easier."
"Hmmm, you're right. Don't worry about it, I'll make it up to you somehow."
After some brief silence to let the awkwardness digest, Dyntos started mumbling aloud, "Now, what should the third trial be? I've already tested your heart and your strength."
"Does there need to be a third trial? Feels like that's everything you need for a sword."
"No no there's definitely something I'm missing..."
"How about patience?"
"Mmmm, that IS an important matter of wielding a sw-" Dyntos suddenly shivered and stood tall, muttering in a strange, perturbed tone, "That voice..."
He gestured to Sarajin and remarked, "That wasn't you was it?"
"Another visitor?" Sarajin immediately jumped to and started looking around, "What's going on here...?"
He locked eyes with a young boy with combed up platinum blonde hair sitting at a square table with folding legs. He wore normal unassuming shirts, jeans, and shoes, and kept his hands up together atop the table.
"Over here, Dyntos!" He shouted, the youth of his voice suggesting he couldn't have been more than eight years old.
Dyntos went from fearful to delighted as he walked up to the boy and chuckled, "Ha, should have known it was you, sir."
"Working hard as always?"
"Does a supernova burn red?"
The kid then leaned into the table and smiled, "You must be Sarajin Stratos. I've heard a lot about you lately!"
Sarajin waved his hand out and felt an odd presence from the kid keeping him from putting his most polite foot forward, "Are you a friend of Alvis'?"
"I guess I am. In another time and place." The kid then kicked away from the table and put his feet at the ground, pausing to look up at Dyntos.
"Is it ok if I handle his last trial myself?"
"For you? Sure. Not like I've gotten to make a trial anyways." Dyntos said, showing his respect with a short bow and a gesture to let the boy pass.
From a certain perspective this kid reminded Sarajin of what he imagined his son would be in a few years, but the way he carried himself seemed to be evidence of a person far beyond his years.
Once at his feet the kid looked up into his eyes, and when Sarajin looked back, for a moment, he saw a twinkle of the cosmos in his irises.
"What...is your name?" Sarajin wondered.
The kid smiled, "I'll tell you that. And much more."
"In the trial?" Sarajin wondered, and the kid nodded.
"Yeah, your final trial is simple...I want you to listen to the story of my world."
Next Time: The Fate of the Unknown