"Collateral damage..." Riven repeated.

  Those words hung in his head like a shirt in the closet.

  It's a word he used many times when others got hurt from his actions, whether accidental or otherwise. Even though it was a business term, it always had such an evil tone to it that it could chill even the most heartless men's blood, and Riven was no exception.

  Falling to his knees, he pinned his grandfather beneath him.

  Then he raised his hand. "Wait! "Ignatius shouted, knowing what was coming but unable to stop it.

  But he didn't; he just delivered a crushing punch to his face, instantly shattering his nose.

  "his grandfather moaned.

  But before he could even get a chance to process the pain fully, another punch landed, then another, then another, then another, before soon numerous quick and powerful blows pounded his face till his fists blurred and just became like hammers pounding flesh at superhuman speeds.

  Brutally reshaping his grandfather's face with an impact that sounded like an explosion and caused the ground underneath his head to shake while flattening his nose, splitting his lips, and painting dark red, purple, and black bruises on his cheekbones.

  However, even as he committed the brutal act, he felt nothing—not anger or hate; he felt nothing it was like he was doing a monotonous household task.

  "This is unnecessary and counterproductive," he told himself, but even knowing that, he still wasn't able to stop himself from raining down more punches on his obviously beaten foe.

  Managing to look up at him through his nearly swollen-shut eyes, he saw it clear as day: not a single flicker of his grandson, who once looked up to him; no anger; no contentment; just action with life behind it.

  "This is not him," he thought, and with this revelation, it gave him the power and focus to summon the last of his internal magic.

  Prying his right arm from the pin, he pushed Riven back, causing the flurry of punches to stop for just a second, but that was all he needed before he raised his hand, quickly summoned a glowing arrow-like projectile, and pointed directly at him.

  Before blasting a flame in the shape of an arrow point-blank and aimed straight for Riven's heart. "Die and let his body rest," he shouted.

  As the arrow pierced clean through Riven's chest.

  But this only caused his swollen eyes to widen as the person above him simply dissolved into swirling smoke at the point of impact.

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  The flame arrow passed harmlessly through the empty space where his torso had been, streaking onward like a comet.

  In utter shock at the sight, he was about to ask how, but before he could say a single thing.

  From behind them a desperate shout rang out.

  "Alice—watch out!"

  The body was already turning away in response before he could even reform back to flesh.

  He saw the flame arrow hurtling towards Alice.

  Who was in the middle of the chaos, arms outstretched as she shoved more camera-holding civilians away from the scene, not even hearing what was being shouted to her.

  Her husband was scrambling to shield her in a vain attempt to stop the arrow that would burn through both of them and anyone in front of Alice in an instant.

  Eyes tracing the projectile's path, his body again moved without his say, launching him off his grandfather and rocketing toward Alice.

  Seeing this, his grandfather's eyes widen for a second before a smile spreads across his face, the feeling giving him the energy to shakily get back to his feet as a burst of laughter rings out from his throat.

  "You almost fooled me, you spirit," he said as he wiped blood from his lips. "You almost made me think you were him, but my grandson, my blood...

  Riven would never make such a foolish mistake!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he threw out his two arms towards the blazing police station.

  Following the invisible command, the flames that were otherwise untamed since the firefighter stopped battling them rose in the air, leaving the structure they were on reduced to cinders, as if pulled by a magnet. The fire gathered above his head, growing into an enormous glob of plasma, into a small sun.

  Reaching out, Riven was cursing himself in his mind as his hand reached out for the flaming arrow; his lower half was smoke, while his upper half had his wing materialized, accelerating faster than he ever had to go before.

  Meanwhile, he was behind him.

  "Ingarte!" his grandfather wheezed in spasms.

  "You could have beaten me, but you threw it away. You threw it all away, and you have the nerve to call yourself a god

  The giant ball of flame hurtled downward just as his hand reached the arrow.

  His grandfather shouted, "Destruct!!" and instantly imploded the exact moment he got to Alice.

  And then there was a blinding flash of light and absolute silence before...

  BOOOOM!!!

  The explosion was catastrophic. The sheer impact of the blast sent waves of energy surging throughout the city, and turning it into a pitch-black night, like someone set off an EMP.

  But that was nothing compared to the epicenter of the blast when the sun-like attack landed; the ground beneath was instantly vaporized as if an artist erased the ground with a few swipes of an eraser.

  And as if that wasn't enough, the flames stretched hungrily in all directions, reducing everything in their immediate vicinity to ash. Rubble and scrap metal were all that remained of the police station and public service vehicles that arrived alike.

  Peering over the crater's edge as the fire continued to roar beneath him like a portal to hell, he laughed.

  "You're such a dull god, spirit, or whatever you are," he mocked, his body running on pure adrenaline. "You should have known valor won't win you a fight," he said offhandedly as he flung out a hand, summoning the flames to rise above to illuminate his handiwork.

  But as the fire tore itself away, Ignatius stumbled back in shock, his eyes going wide as a chill struck his heart and cooled the adrenaline flowing through his system. Looking through the smoke, he saw something that defied rational phenomena:

  Covering the entire center of the smoldering crater were two black wings, larger than anything he'd ever seen; it was basically engulfing the bottom to middle of the crater, and under those wings was a massive amount of smoke like strings that spread out like a web, and in that intricate web were people from the crowd, paramedics, and firefighters alike.

  And at the center of these wings was what sent a chill down his spine, and, for the first time in his life, he was genuinely scared.

  Standing up slowly was his possessed grandson at the epicenter of the crater—not a scratch on him. Expressionless face never fading, his cold gray gaze met his grandfather's, sending him falling to the ground in shock, fear, awe, or just a mixture of all three.

  As he gazed at him through the crowd that surrounded them.

  But just as his mind was reeling and cold sweat droplets ripped out the remaining the last he saw something: Riven started to wobble from side to side, and before anyone could react, he dropped to his knees before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

  He ran out of magic.