The Absolute: Humanity's Second Chance

Within a completely serene lake, in the middle of nowhere, one young man and one beast battled it out against each other.

Boom!!

A space shattering explosion rang out across the small lake, kicking up a volcanic eruption of water and seaweeds into the sky.

Bang!!

Followed by the dull collision sound of a toppled building. The young man had sent a powerful punch towards the giant serpentine creature, pushing it towards the lake's surface.

Rooaarrr!!

The beast itself managed to stop itself from falling over, and let out a powerful roar of anger. Then it took in a deep breathe of air, causing strange sounds within its stomach to occur, like boiling water.

Gulugulugulu~

...!!!

The young man seemed to know what was coming, and immediately pushed himself back using the flames that burst out beneath his heel.

The beast then released a volcanic blast of water towards his direction. The young man being far back, had enough time to avoid the extremely fast hydroblast.

"..."

He willed the fire below him to erupt, hence pushing him higher. But the beast did not want to give up, and released yet another hydroblast towards him.

But the young man this time dodged sideways. He also easily avoided the next coming attack by going down, and the other one by simply going up once again.

Taking the given opportunity, he also released multiple fireballs towards the serpent just as it had finished attacking him.

Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!

The fireballs struck the beast and exploded out with the force of an atomic bomb, dealing critical damage to its body. But it's scales managed to protect it from most damage delt.

'Strong scales. An impressive physiology.' The young man, who just so happened to be Flint, commented to himself in greed.

Rooaarrr!!!

The serpent let out yet another roar of anger, unsettling the lake waves and causing them to dance widely. 'And I seem to have angered it.' He continued his thoughts.

This creature was a mythical lake monster, a creature with a regional divinity. Or in simple terms, the sepernt lake god, and it has been living here for hundreds of years.

It was a genuine lesser god, and had great power, just like any other god out there. But Flint was an anomaly. And also a demigod. Hence he took up the challenge.

The serpent lake god looked up at him in anger. The more it stared at him, the more it's wrath was fueled up. Especially so, when Flint was clearly flame attributed and it was water attributed.

ROOAARRR!!!

And reaching extreme rage, it let out an even more powerful roar, forcing the water to spiral around it like a whirlpool. 'Woah!! That's amazing. That's cool.' Flint thought.

But as he had such a thought, the serpent lake god exchanged glances with him again, and this time, it's eyes gave off a green glow for a brief moment.

"Wha...?!"

Ba-dump~

And Flint felt his heart beat freeze, followed by his whole body being suspended mid air. 'What? What's going on? My blood!! My blood has been frozen?!' He thought in dread.

Gulugulugulu~

His thoughts were then shattered by the threatening sound of boiling water within the serpent's stomach. 'Oh no...' He dread his coming future.

And as he dreaded, the serpent lake god released another volcanic eruption of hydroblast directed at his body with full ferocity.

Yet at this moment, a grayish black blurry light appeared between him and the incoming hydroblast, and crossed a pair of metallic feather wings before themselves.

Boom!!

The hudroblast collided heavily with the wings, and forcefully pushed both Damien and Flint thousands of miles back, and out of the lake's boundary.

Bang!!

The both of them crashed heavily on the ground, wet from head to toe. They then both stood up, and Flint was the first to comment. "So that's the power of a Law? It's amazing. I can already feel my body screaming in discomfort."

He said, full of praise and wonder. Damien himself did not say anything, and just took out the Null Blade. He was ready to go all out, but Flint held his hand.

"Wait, I'll do it." He said sternly. Meanwhile, his gloves gave off an intimidating glow of pressure. Damien saw that through its five slots, were Mana Cores put within.

"..."

He then put away the Null Blade, and stood aside. Flint smiled, and thanked him. "Thanks. I promise I'll finish with him in no time."

He then brought both his fists together, fist bumping himself. But as his fists collided, red sparks flew out, and danced around his hands like thousands of snakes.

Bang~

Damien also realized that the golden glow within the Mana Cores, had taken an ominous red color, causing the Cores to slightly tremble. 'He's playing with fire.'

Flint knew that of course. But his physique, abilities and Affinity were all leaning towards fire. He believed in himself, and believed that he was loved by the flames.

"Alright. Here I... Go!!" He kicked off the ground, and like a fiery red light, he instantly appeared before the serpent lake god. He then packed up a punch, and threw it directly at its face.

"STELLA ERUPTION!!" And he roared out loud as the five Mana Cores slotted within his gloves burned out into pure stella force, which all landed on the serpent lake god.

BOOM!!!

And the result of it all, was a massive explosion that pushed out, and evaporated the water within the lake that stretched out for thousands of miles in range.

"..."

Damien did not say anything, and calculated that the force within that punch alone, would completely destroy a planet, if not multiple of them as it rivaled an imploding sun.

'Indeed, demigods and gods are truly the scourges of space.' He commented to himself, being sure that something like that might not kill a god, but it would at least cripple it.

And truly, the serpent lake god was not dead. Instead, it lay weakly on the bottom of the lake, with no water anywhere. Only rising mist from all the evaporated water.

"..."

Flint descended towards it, ignoring his hand that was dripping blood like a broken tap. He stared at the god losing its breathe at every given moment, with a wound that dug out half of its face, revealing its bones and flesh.

Damien came to float besides him, and quietly asked, "Are you not going to finish it off?" Flint paused, and kept watching as the serpent lake god lost its breathe. "Is it worth it? It's going to die anyway, isn't it?"

He asked, shrugging off his shoulders. But Damien thought otherwise. He turned around, and flew off, leaving behind a set of words. "Sometimes a man kills not because he wants to inflict pain, but because he wants to lessen the suffering."

"..."

Flint paused once again, and thought on those words. He then took yet another careful glance at the dying god, and truly realized that it was suffering as it died.

He forced himself to float down, and land on its chest, pressing his unharmed hand on its chest. "Goodnight." He said and then sent out heat within its defenses, heat so hot, it rivaled that at the core of the sun.

The heat directly struck the god's heart, bypassing the weakened Law, and silencing it instantly. He then stood up, and looked down on its corpse. 'One moment a god, another a corpse. Is this world so... cruel?'

He shook his head and sent its corpse into his storage pouch, and hurriedly followed after Damien's figure. Today's lesson was well learned.

[ TING!!! ]

[ You have killed the lesser lake god, Inchijon. You have obtained 13,8 World Essence (13,8 Million Life Essence) ]

[ Due to being an entire Rank Lower, your obtained World Essence has doubled. Due to being of a Lower Existence, your obtained World Essence has tripled ]

[ You and your partner have obtained 35 World Essence (35 Million Life Essence) ]

The notifications immediately came through just as he was done with his thoughts, and Flint marveled at the large numbers. Killing a single god, the weakest of them, netted him so much Life Essence?

This was a cheat code. Then a thought suddenly appeared in his mind, 'Won't I become invincible if I just attacked lesser gods just like this?' He thought.

But immediately banished the thought. It definitely was not that easy. Especially so, if gods had Laws protecting them at all times. He thought, turning to Damien.

Damien was already at the center of the lake, where a small pond could be seen. Within, there seemed to still be water that failed to evaporate even under Flint's intense flames.

"So, the inheritance is inside?" He asked in curiosity. He was out of the somber mood he was in moments ago, and back to being himself.

Damien nodded in silence. This inheritance was something he, himself had found back then. He found it during the early periods of the change, and then sold it off to a passing elf.

Which he greatly regrets even to this very day. Had he not sold it, maybe humanity could have prospered or something.