The One

Ch-23 The Immortal

I started rushing towards the mountain on Jindouyun with Yeoui in my hand, trying to feel like the Monkey King. I made my cloud black and developed some lightning boosts for my ride. I created some mini boombox for the special occasion of my entry in the region where I could see most dots on the map around the mountain. I looked all over the map but found no one else.

This is weird.
I thought there would be some more people trying to sneak away and win.

I was still lost in those facts I got to know about recently. I couldn't pick out which shocked me the most.

God is a real deal.
Half-Blood is not fiction.
I am friends with Gaia itself, or I say herself as there is no confusion in gender now.

Those thoughts washed away with some huge blasts right where I could see a huge mountain standing tall. The smoke started covering the mountain while I paced even more. After travelling some more distance, I saw him there.

What is he doing here?!

He was fighting alongside Mevaratnam, and with some last blows, Manav got on his knees. He started fondling Manav's head, while Mevaratnam was

"These humans are rubbish. They all think that Gods are ultimate beings. I agree when it comes to power, but the weaker we get, the stronger they become. I am also one of them, but I am not like them. I am greater. With the helping hands and legs of the Half-Blood, I will destroy your kind, Manav Singhal. Then, I will destroy those Gods. I will make sure that the souls of every single one of them get burned and scorched in the flames of hell."

Why is he here?!
No, not again, I can't lose my sanity again.
I can't hurt my friends.
Not at all!

I took some deep breathes and concentrated on the energy I felt with Asma. The eternal aura of Gaia, I was feeling it inside me.

"Just take some deep breathes Arjuna. Everything will be fine."

For a second, I felt that my grandmother was talking to me.

"Do as I say. Be how you were always when Amayra was with you. Believe me, she is watching you every second just like me. Believe... in her."

Thinking about grandmother, and then Amayra was enough to make me feel weak, but then I thought about the words which echoed into my mind.

She is... watching me...?

I looked up at the sky. A big smile came upon my face after the realization hit me.

Amayra is an angel!
That's the reason they never found her body. She maybe, just vanished after her breathing stopped.

With a new hope that I can meet Amayra someday, I kept that smile on my face and started landing towards them.

"Stay here. You can't go there. Nitin, Diksha, Ajay, Sadhya, all are already defeated, but not eliminated. If you go there, you all will pass the round, but I do not think you want to pass like that." Risha creeped her face out of nowhere behind me.

"First tell me what are you wearing? Invisibility cloak or something like that? Dumbass and Blonde too?"

"You have a good guess."

"Yeah, well we have been pretty much like strangers here, but you know how I am. I don't care about what's gonna happen. If I wanna do it, I will do it. If Mevaratnam and that new friend he has now can keep themselves there, I too can. So, get all of yourself some drinks, ladies. Diya, don't you dare try to do anything stupid and Maria, you can stay lame like always. Make way for the strongest person here!" I played 'On my way' on those little boomboxes all over my Jacket I was wearing.

"She is my friend, so don't call her lame. Also, if you don't destroy them both completely, I won't be able to forgive me." Diya said with a shuffled voice

I turned behind and nodded. Diya created some big bad speakers to boom the whole region with the song. I smiled and looked straight into the eyes of the demons watching me. There was no sign of Asma, the witch one, around there.

A white light started illuminating around me, for which I just shouted loud inside my head.

"I have some work pending here. I will stay here till I am done!!"

The light faded, and my smile got broader.

I hope my smile doesn't creep people...

"Look who is here. Finally, you realized what you are. Your creepy smile tells it all."

Duh... You don't have to say that!

"You are much creepier than me, Mevaratnam. I see you got one more slave here with you. Wait, maybe here, it's just the opposite. That bastard is your master. Don't worry, I will sue you both with the same pain level without any deviation. Where were you hiding bastard by the way?"

He left Manav's head which finally falls on the surface. With that, the same light covered him and he vanished in thin air.

Manav passed!

"I was waiting for the right moment. You always owe me for teaching you so much in that fight we had, don't you think? Also, you are the same, Arjuna. You are no different from me or Mevaratnam. We all live to destroy, to decimate and to rule. From the very start of the universe, strong rules the weak, and strongest rules the strong."

I smirked.

"Hell yeah, and I am the strongest!"

I immediately created some bear traps just below the ground they both were standing upon. Both nearly saved their legs and started flying up in the air, without anything to make them fly.

It is the aura they use.
Alright, no more copying.

I started gathering my aura around me. Mevaratnam had no colour in his aura, but Triyansh or the demon who was in that body had a pitch-black aura. I concentrated on only one thing which mattered in that exact moment of my life. Staying calm and defeating them both. Surviving the round with all of those who matter for me. I looked upon the blue sky becoming reddish with the Sun setting slowly. My aura was blue, but the tips around it were red. It looked as if I was burning in fire, but the inner flame looked much brighter than the outer one. I started rising slowly, with closed eyes and thinking about what made me, what I was.

Even if I am not that chosen one, I am still the guy who has family, friends, and now, a unique and weird kind of hope to live for.
I must do it.

Mevaratnam materialized a lance, while that bastard Shatananda just stayed with his hands behind his waist, smiling at me. I needed a weapon that suited me the most till now. Sword is the only thing that came into my mind, but lance is having the range advantage then. Also, I had 2 opponents this time in front of me.

"Need a hand, Monkey?" Saumya materialized outta nowhere just beside me.

"What the hell are you doing here?! I checked before I came here and you were eliminated." I asked and said.

"Oh well, I was trying to find the source of all the energy we are getting. Then, I got eliminated by something-someone and guess what, I found all my answers. Not all, but manageable. The energy is coming directly from the gods!! Can you believe it?!"

My blank face was enough to tell the answer.

"Oh, hell no! You knew it already! Damn! I can't believe I just wasted my time on those committee people."

"Wait, you met them, or you were also trapped in some dark telepathy crap?"

"Oh, believe me, it was quite colourful. They all are nice, especially Shrama. He is kinda like you, except the thing that he's 'actually' awesome." I gave that blank face smile again to her sarcasm.

"Enough with your chitchat. Ready to have some serious showdown this time, Arjun. I know you were backing off too much. Are you afraid to lose your sanity again?" Modified Mevaratnam smirked while raising his lance with both hands, pointing towards me.

"I am so ready to whoop your ass off, but it's hard to choose the tools for this upgraded version of yours, but you still stink a lot. Use French perfume, imbecile idiot."

"Oh, I get it. You forgot about the sword I gave to you. Do you know that it is the possession of my whole family? My ancestors made it and our generations wielded it for years. Can't believe you dumped it. You should grab a stick and fight like a stone age guy." Saumya decides to interfere.

"It's the author who forgot about the sword, not Arjun." We all looked at the sky with a blank expression on the face, kinda like Saitama.

"I don't understand the context, but now I know where to focus my attacks again. Asma, get to work."

"Are you missing something, my little devil doodles?" Asma appeared just behind the place Diya and the others were hiding.

The sheathed sword was in her hands. She seemed like a twin sister of Sadhya. With that, Mevaratnam came at a speed I could only imagine. My reflexes saved my face from getting punctured.

"Strike Nera!" He started his repeated blunting and piercing style attack.

He has got a lot of experiences, but it's not possible to have 0 weak points.
Sword is a good option, but the reach of the sword is worry able.

"Stop thinking dude! Do you have peanuts instead of neurons in your brain?! You are powerful, the most powerful person here. You can even make a stick slice through steel smoothly. You can make that stick longer than a fricking javelin." Saumya shouted while trying to defend herself from the black fireballs Shatananda was throwing.

I materialized the same sword Asma was carrying. The feel, the power emanating from the sharpness of the blade, and the strength of the finest titanium-steel alloy with some special effects of mine, and there it was. I defended myself from Nera with my sword at the last moment. There were cracking noises from both weapons with only one clash. His lance had the plus point of range while my sword had the chance to cut Nera in half with each strike. Saumya was struggling in front of the overwhelming power of Shatananda. Both had godly powers, but Shatananda himself was the divine being, the divinity made from the darkness. Maria, Risha and Diya were fighting with a handicap advantage over Asma, but the purple aura of Asma was devouring the power out of them.

Shatananda suddenly stopped attacking and reached a certain height from all of us.

"Oh well, it is time now. It was nice playing around with you all. Meva 236, you were the best I have seen till now of all of them." He looked at Mevaratnam who suddenly stopped attacking.

His face went pale, just like before. He started sweating, clenching his fists tightly and looking at the ground with closed eyes.

"Don't order me around. We both know I am close to perfect. I am the best prototype he has ever made. Dad needs me!"

"No, he doesn't." A voice echoed throughout the whole area.

"He is here. Oh, I feel bad if you all get killed here only. Did I say kill? Yes, you heard me right! A pure descendant of God is here now. This place is not controlled by those half-ass gods anymore. This is your Nirvana, and your end now. Welcome, the most prominent fighter of his time. The immortal and the person who hate Gods as much as I do. Humans are nothing, but filthy worms for him."

A man with the physique of a lumberjack suddenly appeared from the sky. He was falling directly to the ground with nothing to slow his speed. The ground started shaking and within a second, a large trident appeared from inside the ground and started raising high up to the sky. The man lands on the tip of the trident with his left toe, with his right leg bend and raised towards his left up to his knee. In a blink of an eye, he appeared just in front of me. I could feel his intimidating size bulging upon me, while he came to my face. His trident moved with him like it was the part of his body. With another blink, he was behind Mevaratnam; shockingly, the headless body of Mevaratnam. His body started falling to the ground. The man had the head grabbed from his hair.

"Hail Ashwatthama!!" Shatananda announced.

"He. Doesn't. Need. You. Scoundrel." Ashwatthama declared. 

***

Jindouyun: The somersault cloud/ride of Monkey King also known as Sun Wukong.
Yeoui: The pillar of the Palace of the Sea Kingdom, used as a weapon by Monkey King.

You can point out the other unknown words you may find in the chapter.
See ya!