Zephyr, on his back, sighed as he looked up at the night sky. With a gaping hole in his stomach, he realized how hopeless it was to save any timeline he reincarnated into. Blood trickled down his forehead and into his eyes, giving a red tint to his vision. He gazed up into the sky, looking at the millions of white shiny stars... wait- no, no they're not. His vision adjusts as he saw billions of shiny white angels with futuristic plasmic weapons. Zephyr sighed, as his memories came flooding back into him, hundreds of deaths, being in this situation time and time again.
Eternal Ward
A yellow outline exudes from his body slowly healing his wounds and slowly filling up the hole in his chest. This was Zephyr's strongest healing ability, using up most of his divine energy. He slowly tried to get up, knowing this would be his last stand. No matter what happed he was going to give it his all. Using his sword as leverage to stand up with the rock behind his back keeping him from collapsing. Zephyr wearily stands on his own two legs, dazed performs another spell.
Divine Infusion
An orange glow wraps around him, strength steadily entering back into his body, as he starts to kneel, using his sword to prop himself back up. His chest was beginning to be filled with a solid white substance as he spit a glob of blood, splattering all over the dirt.
Damn iT. I don't even know if I'll reincarnate this time anyway. Why do I keep having to play this damn game, saving this godforsaken world, and fight like a fucking zombie to keep myself alive? Should I just let them kill me?
Zephyr stood up, his arms relaxed by his side, and looked up with his eyes closed. He imagined a grassy landscape, with the sun shining down on him, feeling the quiet breeze blow his hair back. Thousands of his comrades stood in front of him, looking at him with contentment. Respect. Admiration. love. He breathed in deeply, expecting to smell the fresh air of spring, but instead, inhaled copious amounts of ash, debris, and blood. But he didn't open his eyes yet. Not yet. He didn't exhale, keeping it in his lungs, the fresh blood of his comrades.
Zephyr blew it all out and opened his eyes. Everything was in ruins. The angels covered the sky, leaving only a shadow lying over the land. Only a ray of sun shone down on one spot. A massacre of the people. Thousands were lying on the floor, unrecognizable. Only the skeletons of their former selves remained. Tears began to form in Zephyr's eyes as a smile started to form on his face.
"Aha...hahaha...HAHAHAHA!"
Zephyr dropped his sword, knelt onto the floor, clenched his fist, laughed hysterically, and continuously punched the floor harder and harder until thuds could be heard from miles away. Tears dripped down his face as he laughed his heart out until his voice or hand gave out. Whatever was first, he thought. Just as he was about to pound the hard dirt-packed floor yet again, a voice echoed around him.
"ARE YOU DONE, ZEPHYR?"
Zephyr looked up and saw nothing. The booming voice continued.
"YOU KNOW... YOU DID PUT UP SOMEWHAT OF A FIGHT, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT."
Zephyr looked back down at the ground, defeated.
Then he looked back up with a wry smile and screamed, "You know what? If you're gonna kill me, then just do it. STOP WAITING AND JUST DO IT GODAMN IT!"
"HAHAHA, JUST RELAX A BIT, YOUNG ONE. KILL YOU? I THOUGHT YOU'D SAY SOMETHING MORE HEROIC, I'M NOT GONNA LIE. I JUST BRUTALLY MASSACRED EVERYTHING YOU'VE KNOWN AND LOVE, AND YOU JUST WANT ME TO KILL YOU? THAT WOULD BE PRETTY BORING, WOULDN'T IT? I'M STARTING TO LIKE YOU, ZEPHYR. SINCE YOU'RE PROBABLY ONE OF THE STRONGEST PEOPLE I'VE GONE UP AGAINST OUT OF ALL THE WORLD'S I'VE CONQUERED, I'LL GIVE YOU A PROPOSAL TO SPICE THINGS UP A BIT. EITHER YOU CAN PUT UP A RIDICULOUS LOSING FIGHT AGAINST US, OR YOU CAN JOIN US. YOU'LL BE ABLE TO HAVE EVERYTHING. WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT, ZEPHYR? MONEY? GLORY? WOMEN? I'LL CLEAR ALL THE MEMORIES YOU HAVE HERE AND WE'LL GO ON AN IMPERIALISTIC ADVENTURE. WE'LL REFORM WORLDS AND MAKE THEM OUR OWN. DOESN'T THAT SOUND SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR MEASLY LITTLE LIFE IN THIS WRETCHED PLACE?"
This wretched place?
Countless experiences with his comrades flashed through his head.
Wretched place my ass. Nothing about this place is wretched. Should I just wait until my next life to kill this demon they call a god? No, no. There might not be a "next time". FUCK IT. I don't even care if they're all dead. If I'm gonna win, it's GOING TO BE NOW. I'm not gonna let some interdimensional being colonize my GODDAMN planet.
"Oh yeah? Do you know what I think about that offer?"
Zephyr raised his middle finger and pointed it to the sky.
"GO BACK TO YOUR OWN GODDAMN PLANET!"
Zephyr grabbed his sword and started to run as thousands of yellow rays shot in his direction.
Divine fortification, Divine steps
The rays bounced back into the air as countless rays hit him. Zephyr, still running, ran towards the edge of the cliff behind his comrades, building to a sprint. In a giant leap off the cliff, he focused his qi to his feet and started running on air.
I don't care how long it takes to kill all of them, they're going to die one way or another. If my right arm gets chopped off, I'll kill them with my left. If they both get ripped off, I'll hold the sword with my teeth to rip them apart.
When he reached the angels, he slashed them in two, one angel at a time. Drops of gold blood spray onto his body as the angels started to grab their swords to defend against the attacks. Zephyr leaped from angel to angel, slicing angel after angel after angel.
No, it's not fast enough. Faster Zephyr, FASTER.
Divine haste
Zephyr focused his mana at his legs, gripped his sword with both of his hands, and propelled himself forward, zipping through all the enemy lines, killing hundreds of angels in seconds. Time became irrelevant. Minutes became hours. Hours became days. Zephyr's mind was empty. His eyes locked in on the next angel before him. Fatigue didn't bother him. He was thirsty, hungry, and tired, but utterly empty. He had nothing to feel and nothing to fear. Death was imminent, always around the corner, watching. But Zephyr already knew he wouldn't survive this, death was always certain. He was already doomed to begin with, and Zephyr had accepted that from the beginning.
Zephyr had already killed hundreds of thousands by this point, and although he didn't realize it, it was hopeless. In reality, he had killed practically none of them. Each angel he killed, more would appear from the sky, a practically endless amount. They probably came from the countless worlds that had been colonized, creating billions of trillions of mindless, emotionless angels.
Whereas he thought he had an almost unlimited amount of divine energy before, had drained to nothing. As the thought set in, something appeared before him that caused all of his energy to disappear in a split second.
Ha, to think a being like this existed in this world.
A massive being towering over the sky. It was truly magnificent. An all-knowing being, an all-powerful being. Zephyr laughed. He laughed at how hopeless it was. Fighting for this planet. Fighting, going through all 999 lives, all for what. His maniacal laughs get even louder.
The only thing that was still present was him, the one divine platform he stood on, the angels, and this... being. Nothing else. Nothing more. Zephyr blinks, looking at it again, falling? He looks at his torso, his legs were quite literally removed from his body.
A loud thud sounds after Zephyr's body comes into contact with the wasteland around him. He coughs, blood and saliva coming out of his mouth.
Zephyr slams the ground with his fist in fury as millions of white rays shoot in Zephyr's direction. In a split second, he appears in a white void.
A Greek-like structure forms out of the white void. Four pillars surround the large throne, rising up from the middle unveiling a Goddess sitting in the center.
The goddess was, for a lack of better words, stunning. No other woman could ever match her beautiful white hair, snow-white eyes, and slim body that would attract any man if not for her condescending face and tone.
Zephyr begins to walk up the steps to the Goddess with his fist clenched. He looks down at the steps hiding his face from the Goddess. He leaps towards the goddess attempting to land a solid hit on her beautiful face. An inch away from her face, he gets thrown back down the steps with some magical force in between the Goddess and Zephyr.
"IS THIS TRULY FUNNY? DO YOU HAVE FUN SEEING ME SUFFER?!" Zephyr yells as he punches the ground in a fury. His knuckles dripped with blood but healed back soon after.
"It truly is interesting. No matter how many times you get reincarnated you always try to save everybody. I truly admire your tenacity, Zephyr", the Goddess said condescendingly.
"Damn you, I don't understand why I have to go through this life after life."
The Goddess sighed, "I don't think you've recognized the full extent of you're capabilities. Anybody else that would've gone through this would've gone insane after the 10th time. But you refused to give in even after failing 999 times."
"Why, why, what is the point of this?"
The goddess scoffed, "Why? Because it's funny. What else did you think the reason was? I have nothing to do here day in and day out, so it's interesting to watch you try overcoming such an impossible challenge, hanging out at death's door every day."
Calm down, calm down. If I want this next life to be different I need to find a different way to approach this next attempt.
Zephyr comes up with an idea, an idea that might just save everyone in his world.
"Ok, so you want something exhilarating, and enjoyable right? Well, I have a proposal for you."
The goddess looks at him with intrigue, "Continue human."
"If you promise to give me all the abilities I had obtained from my 999 times of reincarnating I'll give you a show you won't be disappointed with."
"HAHAHAHA," the goddess's laugh echoed throughout the void. "A human, trying to bargain with a divine being? How humorous. You know what? Sure, I'll let you reincarnate with all your abilities. But with one condition. You'll have to work for it. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Good luck," the Goddess says as she laughs haughtily as she waves her hand in a ritual-like motion, sending Zephyr back.