"no—no!" he screamed as his body slid forward.
the gravity crushed the air from his lungs. his skin burned.
"Redlock!"
Green light flared from his palms. it locked onto sephiss's form, and a violent explosion ripped through the square. the shockwave shattered the philo cage, broke the black hole's pull, and blasted everything outward.
Sephiss spun midair and landed cleanly, coat still pristine. the explosion hadn't even singed him.
Braxill fell to his knees, panting. "Nothing I do is working on this guy?"
ABI 2500%
"because," sephiss said calmly, "your explosions are merely art. I live in truth, how about you stop mimicing Zillion and your other Predecessor and create something original."
Braxill clenched his fists, inhaled sharply, and shouted, "I'll show you something new, I am pyro!"
Green flames poured from his mouth, a torrent of living emerald fire that engulfed Sephiss in a pillar of crimson heat. the drones shook under the blast pressure.
ABI 2100%
When the flames cleared, sephiss wielded the EXCALIBUR SWORD stood untouched. not a strand of hair out of place.
"Green fire," he said calmly, stepping through the rising steam. "An impressive trick... but you'll need more than spectacle."
His gaze hardened as he advanced.
"Imagination has limits. Children praise it because they don't yet understand its boundaries. They believe they create, when in truth they only echo what already exists."
He stopped, eyes narrowing.
"Zillion was different. An anomaly. A legend walking among mortals. Even so, he was still bound by reason. My Philo is not, my philo is meta, I am Meta."
He lifted his chin slightly, voice lowering.
"Imagination, fantasy, dreams... they are fragments of perception. Reflections of a world barely understood."
Then, coldly:
"Philosophy is something else entirely. It is comprehension without illusion."
His eyes locked forward, unblinking.
"And that," he said, "is something a child will never reach."
Braxill roared and threw everything he had, flame, ice, wind, until the ground shook and his vision blurred.
ABI 900%
Sephiss countered each calmly.
"How can an old man burn?" the fire reached him but not a flame scorched is skin.
"How can he freeze?" the ice shattered before touching him.
"How can wind move him?" the gust died, collapsing to still air.
Each phrase became truth.
ABI 750%
Braxill's body trembled, his breath ragged, abi draining faster than he could recover. the heat from his skin faded to cold sweat.
Sephiss appeared before him in an instant and slapped him across the face. once. twice. a third time, fourth time. Braxill stumbled back, stunned. he swung wildly, but sephiss caught his wrist, twisted untill it snapped, and struck again. Punched the child in the face, right jab, left hook.
Sephiss "You wanted to be a man right, save everyone. That's what men do, children are suppose to run away and hide."
Braxill screamed, holding on to his broken wrist.
"Now do you see?" sephiss said softly. "your power comes from human weakness, from dreams you can't control. you create because you are afraid."
Braxill's fists shook. anger surged. "that's not true," he growled. "My power comes from joy, your just an evil man who murders people because your greedy."
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Sephiss blinked. "joy?"
Braxill "Joy says your philosophy is stupid."
Sephiss let out a thin, humorless laugh, the kind that sounded more like a cough in the dark than amusement.
"Joy... yes," he said softly, almost nostalgic. "I've heard that name before. The so-called god of joy, whispered in temples, tucked beside Baal and the Egyptian pantheon. A myth. A metaphor for comfort the weak invented to survive meaninglessness."
He stepped closer, eyes narrowing, his voice dropping to a cold, steady rhythm.
"Joy isn't real, Braxill. Only human philosophy explains the world. The patterns, the logic, that's where truth lives. You think I don't know?"
A faint smirk twitched across his face.
"I am 910 years old. I was once a young podcaster, back on the surface. One of the best. Number two in the debate-bro circuits," he said with a flicker of pride, like it still mattered. "Who do you think taught the artimancers and this entire isalnd eveyrthing they know abuot the world about womens place in society, I even did you a favor by keeping some conservative talking points in the ashes, you know they hated your kind on the surface." He causually shrugged "I've dissected every argument, every illusion, every god. I know everything. I am the master of the all-knowing."
His eyes glimmered with arrogance and exhaustion, a man who believed understanding had replaced faith. He conjured excalibur in his right hand.
His left hand shot forward, gripping Braxill by the throat. He lifted him easily.
"I have the power of Shosetsu (Meta)," sephiss whispered, squeezing tighter. braxill gasped, kicking, his vision dimming.
"Red Rex..." he choked.
"That stupid dinosaur?" sephiss sneered. "He's gone. I've already imposed my"
The air shifted. a shadow loomed behind him.
Sephiss's eyes darted sideways, and widened.
Red rex stood there, magma dripping from its fangs.
It roared and bit down. blood exploded across the cobblestones. sephiss's body flew like a ragdoll, slamming into the ground.
Gravixor screamed. "What the, how is Red Rex back?!"
Lanni's eyes widened. "I get it! sephiss imposed a truth onto Braxill, that dinosaurs were extinct. braxill believed it, and that belief killed red rex. but now he's accepted it. it doesn't matter if dinosaurs exist or not... to braxill, red rex is real."
She t-rex stomped forward, shaking the ruins.
Sephiss groaned, pressing a bloody hand to his chest. "damon," he muttered, "heal me."
A crimson sigil appeared on his palm, then flared toward a nearby civilian. The man's body convulsed as his blood turned to mist, flowing into sephiss's wound. sephiss stood, healed, eyes blazing.
Lanni whispered, horrified, "he's using his abi to steal life force..."
gravixor trembled. "that's terrifying."
"This child is becoming bothersome, good thing he blows through his Abi like a poort man who just hit the lottery. An experienced artists would have manifested all his creations and only used 5% of his abi" Sephiss said coldly. "Still, I'm amazed he still has Abi left, a strike from excalibur should have erased it."
Red rex roared again, molten energy spilling from its throat.
Sephiss gestured to the ground and it shot upwards striking braxill several times across the ground.
Braxill jump quickly to his feet back toward Gravixor and Lanni, his hands shaking but he was unable to reach them because of the barrier Sephiss had them in.
Braxill's bear ears dissapeard signifying his fear and lack of Abi.
ABI 150%
"Gravixor..." he whispered. "I'm scared. I don't think I can beat him, I'm running out of Abi."
Gravixor touched teh invisble barrier. Where she met hus hand. "I'm sorry Barxill, we can't get to you, I'm sorry. I veyr sorry."
Gravixor turnt away "He's going to kill you and then he's going to kill us just leik they did Euly."
"Kill you like he killed the others."
Gravixor "The Zeta Elders killed Euly, Raffi, Naggi and thousands of others. I loved Euly just like you love Moco"
Seeing Gravixor cry broke Braxill's heart.
Braxill blinked, her words sinking in.
Above them, sephiss pressed a hand to his chest. "Damon, give me, Evil Arm"
Dark Philo Abi smoke wrapped around Sephiss's body, curling like living shadow. His pale skin began to pulse beneath it, veins glowing faintly with crimson light as his flesh distorted. His right arm swelled, tendons bulging, skin cracking under the pressure. Thick streams of smoke oozed from the growing limb, twisting upward like bleeding fog. Red energy flickered through it in violent surges, lighting the smoke from within, a grotesque rhythm of power and decay.
Magma blasts from red rex chased him upward, exploding like suns.
"He managed to undo my philo," sephiss muttered. "By reimagining the dinosaur itself... how?"
"Don't worry about him, he seems scary but he's not," Lanni shouted. "Braxill! your power is imagination itself. let it flourish. that's joy's gift to you!"
Braxill "But"
Lanni "No buts, remeber your art and your abi are not the same entirley, some artists use to have studios full of all sorts of art tools while others only had a pencil and paper and yet both masterpieces could reach the hearts of others.
Braxill stared at his hands, light gathering between his fingers, a new fire awakening.
High above, sephiss's eyes narrowed. "how can a wind cut like a massive blade?"
The wind answered. a blade of air formed, slicing downward. it cleaved red rex clean in half.
Sephiss descended slowly through the rain of molten blood.
"Zillion died the man who envisioned everything and you will die as the boy who imagined nothing to save his own life, afterwards I'll skin your friends especially the bear girl."