“Ethenia, there’s an avatar just a few kilometers away from here. Not a potential, but an actual avatar in assimilation. It’s a really troublesome one, Ifrit. We need to deal with this avatar now.”

Really? Now? In the middle of Ingrid’s lecture? Talk about bad timing. She’s already not happy with my little avatar-hunting game. I pretend to check my phone, put my tablet in my bag and make my way towards the door.

“Sorry Professor, I have an emergency at home.”

Yeah, like she’s going to believe that. She does not look happy, but what can she do? Okay Athena, where are we going?

Hm, yeah I see him. How nice of him to go to a location without people. I’m assuming he’s wanting to test out his power. Okay, now how do we want to do this. We already know he’s Ifrit’s avatar, so if I remember correctly that’s fire based, most notably the defensive heat shield that envelops his body? Anything I’m missing, Athena?

“No, I don’t think so. I can’t be too certain but I don’t think he’s assimilated too much of his powers. It seems his soul is currently in the middle of, well, “upgrading”. I don’t think he can do too much, so this shouldn’t be too hard for you.”

Famous last words sis, famous last words. Well he looks confused at the girl walking up to him. Who wouldn’t. Time to get started.

“Hey, sorry, can I ask for some directions? I’m sort of new in town, visiting a family member who’s sick.”

Hm, he’s still on his guard? Oh, right. Goddess form. Ifrit probably warned him that I could be another avatar, or whatever other people call it. Wait, are gods people too? Food for thought. Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.

I’m just a few meters away. He’s a dragonkin. Red hair, red scales, red wings, red tails. Yeah, safe to assume he’s fire attributed, no wonder Ifrit likes him. I manifest my spear and instantly thrush it at this abdomen. He’s, blocking with his hand? How’s that going to work? Oh. Okay. The spear tip literally melted, I didn’t think that was even possible, it’s not like my spear is normal by any means, but I guess this is what happens when I fight another avatar.

Athena, do you think I can manifest my claws in this form? I’d rather not go full on vampire, but the claws I should be able to explain if there’s ever any questions. As long as Faith and Ingrid don't see them.

“Hm, honestly I think you can manifest any part of your vampiric form. It’s your original body afterall. It’s your foundation, our goddess form that we created is essentially just a mask, a costume, if you will.”

Alright then, let’s try. I imagine the way I extend my claws in my vampire form, and they slowly extend like my nails are growing rapidly. They feel equally durable, I’m not sure if they’re better than the spear, but they might be. We’ll see.

With my clawed hand hidden behind my back, I remanifest the spear and thrust at him again. As he’s about to block I act like I’m going to pull back, coiling up my body. Instead I let go of the spear and shoot towards him at high speed, moving my clawed hand in front of me and aligning it with his heart.

As my claws make contact I can feel a miniature battle, like two magnets with the same polars being forced together. It only lasts for a moment before I feel a bit of give, my claw pushing through his heat shield, penetrating his clothes and making contact with the scales under. 

Suddenly an intense heat hits my claws, rapidly extending up towards my hand and arm. It feels like I’m touching molten lava, at least this is what I imagine it to be. Okay, I can hurt him, but I’m not sure if I can do this. Can my claws even melt?

“Who are you? Why are you attacking me?”

Is he an idiot? He’s literally looking at a 180 cm tall rose gold haired girl with a golden spear. How can he not make the connection? Or is he not communicating with Ifrit? If he’s not how the hell does he know how to make that heat shield. Also why does he think I would actually answer, like, i’m trying to kill you here, you know?

At least he didn’t see through me as a vampire, but with his IQ I’m not even sure he can. As a precaution I clad my hand in a golden aura, the same as my armour, making it look like a clawed gauntlet.

I keep attacking in the same manner, trying to see if I can somehow exhaust his magic reserves. It’s not really doing anything. I’ve been going for around 15 minutes, keeping him in place and attacking in rapid motion so as to not let him have any rest. I can keep this up all day, I don’t even feel tired. Wait, I don’t feel tired? Oh no. How does magic work, Athena?

“For mortals it’s connected to their life force, once their life force drops below a certain level it automatically shuts off the supply towards any phenomenon besides basic bodily functions. What we’re dealing with is an avatar. As long as the god doesn’t exhaust their, let’s call it god essence, they can keep going virtually forever. The amount of god essence differs from god to god, but someone like Ifrit should have enough to keep him going for decades, if not centuries.”

Great. I don’t particularly fancy being stuck in a stalemate for that long. Hm. I can’t be in contact for more than a few seconds before my claws start melting, and I have to hide my hand while regenerating.

“I. Might have an idea. I don’t think you’re going to like it though.”

It can’t be worse than this? Can it?

“Well. Based on what I know about vampires. Their immortality works via super cell regeneration. We’re talking restructuring an arm in seconds for higher tiered vampires. If I’m correct you’re probably one of the, if not the highest tier of vampire to have ever existed.”

Oh. I see where you’re going with this. You’re right, I don’t really like this idea, but nothing can be worse than what they did in that facility. Are you sure this works though? I mean I know I can’t die from a mortal, avatar or not, but I don’t want to be incapacitated only to be locked up somewhere, I don’t think I can take that.

“In theory? Yes. I’m certain you can do it. Just focus on what you want to regenerate, like how you’re extending your claws. I think it should just come as an instinct.”

I hope you’re right, but I don’t have any better ideas. Here goes nothing.

Withdrawing my claws, I manifest my spear and throw it at his face, aiming to block his vision for even a fraction of a second. As I let go of my spear I coil myself up, ready to pounce. As he deflects the spear with his hand, I leap at him, fangs extended. I duck horizontally, trying to evade his peripheral vision as I circle around his back, sinking my fangs into his neck.

I can feel my fangs and my mouth melting, working its way towards the rest of my head. He’s starting to trash around like a wild beast, trying to get me off him. I grab his arms and use my full strength to keep him still, I knew I was stronger, but this isn’t a battle of strength, it’s a battle of will.

The seconds trickle by as I focus most of my attention on regenerating my head, fangs and arms, while making sure I can still draw out his blood and life force. After around 10 seconds I can feel another type of substance flowing in. God essence. The taste of the god essence is like nothing I’ve ever tasted, not even Faith can match up to this. It’s quite literally divine.

Slowly I can feel his strength and the intensity of the heat growing dull, and I can feel Athena warding of mental attacks from Ifrit, keeping him at bay while I’m feeding on his very existence. A random thought enters my mind, and I finally realize why vampires were snuffed out of existence, I can kill a god. I’m not completely mortal, but I’m not a divine being, at least I don’t think I am. Yet I am currently killing a god.

Another few minutes go by, and I’m quite certain the dragonkin died a minute ago, but he is still alive, sort of. I’m assuming the god essence belonging to Ifrit has somewhat merged with the dragonkin’s soul during the assimilation, forming a connection to wherever Ifrit is, as I can feel his existence, his rage, his fear. Athena is still fighting a battle in the divine plane, I’m not sure how distance works there, I’ll have to ask later.

Finally, after another five minutes or so the connection disappears, and I could feel the dying moments of Ifrit, of a god.

I fall towards the ground as the body of the dragonkin disintegrates and turns to ash in front of me. While he wasn’t particularly strong, and not even halfway assimilated, I finally realize how tough the battles are going to be going forward. I need to prepare more for the next battles, unless I can kill them before they make a contract.

I did it though. I killed a god.