The God Of The Undead

When Agreus let those words slip from his mouth, Pan wanted to beat him into oblivion. Not because what he said was highly disrespectful, but because he knew that something as triggering as those words were they wouldn't cause him to be stunned or shaken to the core. Instead, it would cause him to transition into a tactical rage. No, Pan knew from the very beginning that John wasn't using anything near his full strength.

Yet, all of that didn't matter the slightest as what was said was said, and neither Pan nor Agreus had any control over the aspect of time to take back what was said.

Just as Pan was about to take over, Agreus spoke up in a brashly self-confident tone and said, "How are you sure you didn't try to kill them, failed, and forgot due to the trauma of your wicked action!"

Now Pan knew that things were gonna get worse as John hadn't move not said anything within the past few seconds to rebut what his brother said. He knew his brother often had a tendency of making a relatively difficult battle ten times worse by opening his mouth, but this current battle could have benefitted greatly from him keeping it shut from start to finish. Sadly luck wasn't on Pan's side this time. Instead, just about everything that could have gone right went wrong the moment his brother spoke.

John stood there motionless, not understanding exactly what could've given Agreus the gall to throw those comments out in such a manner. It was something that he wasn't expecting at all. He knew that the major gods had his entire history recorded somehow, probably due to the goddess of time. But the way that Agreus raised the question to John made him wonder as to why it was made into a question.

Many possibilities went through John's mind, but the most likely was that when the major gods decided to make John the god of death, a majority of his information was withheld from those that weren't essential to his ascendance.

Even then, none of that really mattered to John as a rodent had just stepped on a lion's tail. Yes, the act wasn't as painful as it seems, but it was the aspect of respect of it that mattered to John. Although he, of all people, clearly didn't deserve it for his heinous act of mass genocide, he still didn't like the accusation that it was him who caused the beginning of his long life of pain.

John, who was thinking at speeds he didn't realize, decided that it was time to teach these overgrown farm animals what is in tow for those who piss him off. 

As they were still locked in close quarters with each other with their weapons testing the durability of the other, John reached for the shoulder of Agreus just before Pan could switch with him at a blinding speed. Sinking his left claw through the unknown metal of  Agreus's shoulder guard and piercing his flesh. Surely at this point, John made sure to infect the grunting Agreus, although his strength compared to mortals would slow down the infection minimally; this wasn't John's intention as he ripped out his claw along with a light blue, glowing ball of light the swirled with elegance. This Light blue, glowing ball was none other than a small yet substantial amount of life force energy shared between both Pan and Agreus. 

With both now several meters away from each other, Agreus looks at his shoulder at the shredded shoulder of his and drops to one knee. The amount of life force taken was small, but the act of it being stolen in such a way takes the stamina of the victim, leaving them dazed and tired, similar to what Agreus was going through at the moment. 

John looked at Agreus as he was seemingly switched out by Pan, who too seemed to be going through the same after-effects that Agreus was going through, although he was currently unharmed. Pan, who was breathing heavily, looked at John holding the piece of life force energy that had been stolen from his brother. He was frightened as he hadn't expected such to happen, but now he had a better idea of John's fighting potential, bȧrėly that is.

John, who was still holding onto the piece of divine life force energy he had ripped out of Agreus, began injecting the energy with his own curse infected mana, turning the divine life force energy into what he called divine death force energy, life force energy combined and tainted with necromantic energies. The outcome was dark energy capable of healing, repairing, and rejuvenating undead entities. This shocked Pan, who was watching as he had begun to recover control of his breathing. This was something he hadn't planned for as he and every other god knew that such should be impossible due to the major god's ban on necromancy until John's trials, yet here it was clear as the night sky and the luminesce of the world tree.

(Play "First Day Out" by Tee Grizzley)

John would have smiled evilly, but he was too far angry at the remark that Agreus had the gall to spew from his wretched mouth. After letting his actions set within Pan's mind, he decided to make the next move by jumping towards Pan at breakneck speed with his scythe ready to swing horizontally from his left to his right at his foe's side. John was through testing the grounds with Pan and Agreus and was ready to make them examples as well. Examples that he was not weak, he was not a pushover, he was not below those who sought his life, that there better be more than just two next time.

Pan saw John's direct attack and jump while turning mid-air with the intention of swing his sword down on John's back. Although it would have made an excellent counter-attack, John accounted for this as he finished his horizontal swing to the right and followed it by quickly pushing his scythe slightly downward then upward with speeds faster than Pan could fall down with his counter-attack while releasing a slicing wave of darkness from his scythe. Pan seeing this in time, quickly switched with a slightly recovered yet lightly winded Agreus, who appeared three meters behind John, ready to pierce upward at the base of John's skull. 

John knew this would happen, so he chose to follow up his upward swing with a heavy downward swing the was really a faint for another technique Joseph had taught him, and just as he had expected, Agreus took the bait and switched with Pan, who appeared behind John sliding on the ground with hopes to kick him off his feet. Sadly this prompted John to stop his faint midway as he planned and start by swing his scythe in a have half-crescent which seemed like a regular upward swing to counter Pan, so he switched with Agreus, who was behind John once again but this time in the air stabbing downward with the intention to pierce John head once again. Just as Agreus's blade was about to pierce John's skull, John sidestepped and turned his upward half-crescent swing into a full circle, spinning and slicing off Agreus's left horn and arm before he was quickly switched out by Pan, who appeared several meters away from John on guard with his sword pointed at John ready for anything.

Seeing what had happened to his brother, Pan quickly remembered everything from the beginning of the battle to this very moment. He remembered how John mentioned a mastermind behind everything till now but what struck him more was how he represented everyone as chess pieces. He quickly realized that the moment they arrived near the world tree, John had been laying down plans to fight them and counter each and every possible plan of attack regardless if he didn't know of his opponent's capabilities. It was as if he even had countermeasures for if the wind during their last bout had shifted slightly. He then knew from this point that John wasn't thinking like a warrior or a monster; he was thinking like a grandmaster in chess out for revenge. Even though this was like a game to him, this quickly turned personal the moment his brother spoke of his past. This was problematic at the highest levels as most people who were more attuned to battle weren't accustomed to strategy, and while those that were attuned to strategy weren't accustomed to battle. Yet this very moment, John threw that logic out the window as he was attuned to both strategy and battle.

John, who had stopped spinning his scythe, looked toward Pan and said, "Although fighting alone is fun but fighting with friends is better."

As he said that, the ground next to him became shrouded in darkness and shadow, and soon a feminine figure shrouded in a cloak appeared from the shadows. The eerie presence that came off the new mystery person spread out like a quickly spreading aroma that spread out for miles. Pan's eyes flew wide open as he immediately recognized the presence of the one who had just arrived even though it was drastically different. Just as if feeling that Pan had connected the dots quickly enough, John took the cloak off of the person to reveal a rotting and decayed Delia. 

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