A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

While everyone besides Atlas's miraculously vanished to the chambers, the following events happen all at the same time as their departure.

Leo opened his eyes, seeing himself lying on the ground, staring at the rocky ceiling above him. The chamber around him was filled with litter and strange corrosive flames fuming through cracks and wounds from the walls.

As he picked himself up, he noticed a man standing in front of a large wall, similar to which he saw behind Abbadon at the clearing. The man had ginger hair, slicked back with a widened grin that was barely visible behind the abominable darkness all around his mouth and hands. This man was also wearing strange robes, painted with red abstract lines from head to toe, just as Abbadon had on his.

Leo looked around to see himself alone, facing this absurd human in an exitless chamber, not having the slightest clue on where he is or how he got there.

The man started walking slowly towards Leo, opening his mouth to reveal his high-pitched demonic voice, "Ahhhhh, Leooo, Emberss… How it issss soooo nice to meeeeet youuuu!"

"Ewww, you look gross... Where is everyone else?" Although Leo seemed more confused than frightened, his body was not signaling any form of peace coming from the man approaching.

As the man got closer, he started to slowly raise his hand, forging a small black flame around it. This took Leo by surprise, finally able to start thinking clearly, with no time to ask questions as the man finally stopped about 10 meters away.

"Abbadon told meeeee. I will beeee the strongest if I killll youuuu. Your lifeeee, I neeeed," The man said in the same high-pitched voice, almost as if he wasn't a human anymore.

However, Leo's spirit was brave, and he wasn't planning on giving up his life that easily. As they both locked eyes, Leo raised his hand adjacently to the man's, snapping his fingers to form a similar, bright orange flame from his hand.

The smile the man was holding grew even wider, along with his pitch black humanless eyes. Leo only knew one spell even after months of practice. However, his perfection of the spell was unmatched in raw strength.

The wall in the back seemed to crack a small bit, having a small portion fall off.

The man launched his hand that carried the black flame above his head, before purging it at the ground while screaming, "DIEEEE." This wasn't a spell, but a simple villainess scream of joy to show Leo how much strength he had compared to him.

As his hand interlocked with the ground, the flame sank beneath the ground, only to blast into the open air from beneath in dozens of directions. One of the blasts of black flame ticked Leo's ear, causing him pain unbearable to stand. Leo didn't scream, but had no choice except to slam his palm on his ear, screaming internally to his heart's content.

"If youuu resist! Pain comes a lottttt. I ump-" Suddenly the man began to have a seizure, corrupting him like poison. However, after a few twitches of joints and resistance, the man looked at Leo with beautiful blue eyes for just a second, enough to muster one last thought in a shallow, scared voice, "Kill me… Please, Kill me."

Leo's eyes widened as he heard those mercyful words. The way the man said it, the way he signaled for Leo to watch, something just seemed so different. It only took a moment for the man to revert back to the monster he was, the darkness filling back into his eyes in seconds.

The man's devious smile came back, filtered with abyssal emptiness, no humanity remained in the poor man. The corruption has taken his life, and darkness filled his heart of sorrow.

Leo was taken back as the man delivered another dangerous attack. This time, the black flame was thrown like a meteor directly at Leo, stretching 4 meters wide and 4 meters tall. The man even proceeded to release another blow from the ground incase the meteor didn't do the trick, making sure his target was evaporated on impact.

Without a chance to evade, Leo decided to use the only spell he knew as a last resort for his survival. Snapping his fingers to produce just a big enough spark to let loose the golden flames of his magic, "BURN!'"

The ambience around his hand quickly immersed into the diluted air of the chamber, setting the entire chamber into bright flames of burning heat, erasing the darkness launched at him.

The man was still smiling, realizing it was his turn to start trying. He opened his palm, reaching out towards Leo, setting his hand in black flames once more. Except this time, a spell was released from his monstrous grin, "Flame of Deathhhhh."

Instantly the air seemed to thicken for Leo, turning it dim with small aspects of dark flames that were barely visible, taking the air he breathed straight from his lungs. Leo fell to his knees, struggling to breath in this putrid corruption. The air entering his lungs was hot, starting to burn his lungs like a pair of skewers on an open fire.

The more air he swallowed, the more pain filled him internally. As much as he wanted to scream, he knew the second he did his world would turn black with no return.

The man started to approach Leo slowly, letting his prey die out before the kill. Leo had no choices, no one to save him, and no strength left to fight.

However, he still had one option left, with hopes of dying a painless death, he simply stopped breathing. Leo held his breath until the world started fading away into darkness, and finally falling face-first on the ground, unable to say his last goodbeyes.

His head laid flat on his cheek, seeing the man approach him, no breath left to hold, and eyes finally shut out of consciousness. His heart slowing down with every beat as the man finally reached Leo on the ground.

Leo's heart finally gave out, releasing one more beat until he was finally gone. As the man reached down to grab Leo and absorb his essence, he was pierced with a painful burning sensation in his hand the second he came in contact with the poor boy's neck.

The wall filled with symbols in the back cracked again, releasing a small form of energy into the air and sending multiple portions of it to the ground.

He realized Leo's skin was starting to form scarlett red cracks all over his body. His skin being too hot to touch, and his heart started to slowly creep back into life.

Every beat of blood pulsing through his body got faster, until Leo's eyes finally flew open from decease. His eyes burned brighter than the sun, the cracks filled his face like a god awakened.

The man's smile was finally gone, starting to turn into a mixture of confusion and anger. Leo rose back up, speaking in a voice that did not belong to him, "Death cannot transpire through suffocation. Everything is conceived in rhythm, no matter the cost. What stops, will continue again."

The cracks surrounding his body started to glow, erupting small flames from within, urging the man to take a cautious step back.

"Howwww do you liveee?!" The man screeched in confusion, positive his attack should have completely erased his life in a slow, painless death.

The wall cracked again, except this time, the break caused approximately 20 percent to fall on the ground.

Leo took a step forward, nearly breaking the ground beneath him in flames. The heat was intolerable as it slowly filled the air around him. Despite the man being fairly immune to heat, these flames were different.

The flames from Leo's body moved in a pattern, shifting themselves in a perfect rhythm around him.

However, the man was still hungry for his life, knowing it was his key to power. He clapped both his hands together over his head, screaming yet another deadly spell, "Daaaark INFERNOO!"

As his hands collided in the air, they released a massive purge of abyssal fire, spreading across the chamber in milliseconds, not leaving a single hole of space untouched.

As Leo began walking forward, the flames went straight past him, leaving scorching black burn marks all over his skin. Any other person would have simply died from just the pain alone, however, Leo kept walking through it, not even noticing his skin burning to a crisp.

The abyssal flames finally dispersed, causing Leo to stop, staring down the man with eyes of fire. He slowly raised his hand from the side, stopping it perpendicular to his body, casting one last spell.

"Rays of Ra." His soothing voice said as he lowered his hand back down, awaiting the end to occur.

Flame of Ra was a spell that has only been cast 4 times in the history of magic users. A spell so powerful that one risks his own life to even attempt such a treacherous spell.

After a few seconds the man started to smile again, assuming the spell failed uncontrollably. He saw Leo's eyes return to normal, the cracks on his skin fading away, leaving only the dark burns caused by the man from his previous attack.

Leo fell to the ground once more, deprived of all magic energy he had remaining, without the strength to even open his eyes.

Once again, the man knew it was time to kill the defenseless boy collapsed on the ground before him. This time, he wasn't going to wait.

However, after a few seconds passed, the ceiling of the chamber started to vigorously shake, crumbling into pieces as it splashed the ground before it vanished into thin air. Rocks would collide with rocks and melt before the man's corrupted eyes.

After a few more seconds, the entire ceiling dispersed, leaving the earth visible from the depths of their battle. They were nearly 100 meters deep below the surface. The man was confused, expecting to see the darkness of the night sky but instead only seeing bright, yellow rays of sunshine pierce his vision instantaneously.

The rays didn't just pierce his vision, they were melting him, erasing him from existence. His skin began to fade away, erasing all darkness from him, revealing a young man with eyes resembling that of a blue rose. He formed one last smile, showing his gratitude towards the young boy.

He looked at Leo one more time before his body was gone, making his final words delightfully meaningful, "Thank You…."

The man vanished into thin air along with the light, once again showing the night sky at a confirmed 8:52 pm.

The wall that stood tall at the back of the chamber now crumbled into pieces, withdrawing all the energy it carried within into Leo's lifeless body.

What destroys, must also create. A fragile death has given a consequential life. That is the law of Rhythm.