Holy sword clashed against demonic spear, sparks showering the dimly lit city park. Despite taking a severe blow before, Raza was back in fighting shape after only a few hours. She had said she was fine, but I didn’t believe it until I saw it myself. 

But still, like before, she was outmatched. There was nothing I could do in this fight between two superpowered beings except watch. My speed, my strength, it was far too low to do any good here… I could barely keep up with my eyes as they dashed back and forth. 

“Uraaaahh!” Raza’s face twisted in anger as she lunged for the angel, her spear pulled back and ready to thrust out. Like a blur, the polearm shot towards the warrior of light. But the Valkyrie batted it away with ease, countering with a hard punch to Raza’s gut. 

The Daeva tumbled to the ground, rolling to a stop in the grass next to me. I was enraged at the sight, but I still had no way of fighting back. What did I do? Should I run? Try and buy myself some time to access my true strength? But if I did that, the girl next to my feet would surely be killed…

No, I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t abandon her. Just because of some war thousands of years ago, these angel bastards think they can hunt us down and slaughter us?

“Unforgivable...” I growled, rushing at the angel with my fists raised. 

I threw a series of quick strikes, but the Valkyrie avoided all of my punches like I was moving in slow motion to her. Dammit, why couldn’t I summon a weapon like Raza? At least with a sword or something I would have better range. 

The angel kicked me hard in the side of my body, and I went soaring through the sky into a large tree trunk. My vision blanked out from pain for a second, and when it came back all I could see was a sword aimed straight at my face. I narrowly ducked it, a few strands of my hair coming off instead of my entire head. 

I tackled the angel, but they barely budged. They knocked me aside again, readying another sword strike. I had nowhere to run, so I attacked instead. My fist hit them square in the face, but they braced themselves through it this time, their sword coming down in an arc towards me.

The golden blade sliced through my shoulder, and an intense pain washed over my entire body. I staggered back, coating myself and the ground in blood. My heart began to race dangerously fast, and I looked down at the ground between myself and my opponent. 

My arm lay on the ground, painted completely red. 

“..!” I let out a silent scream at the sight of my severed arm. 

With an injury like that I would die of blood loss before I could even learn how to fight this monster before me, I could already feel my consciousness waning. I had never felt more frustrated than I did right now. It was the opposite feeling to knocking down human opponents in one strike… Now I felt helpless before an overwhelming power.

My life flashed before my eyes, except… it wasn't my life at all. A battlefield, countless dead around me. Warriors that looked like Raza’s Daeva form, all annihilated by a single man who glowed with so much light you couldn't even gaze upon his face. 

I hated him, even though I had no idea who he was and had never seen him before. These… These aren’t my memories. Of course not, Raza already told me, this soul was someone else’s before it was mine… these are the memories of the king of the dark, Ahriman’s memories. 

His weapons destroyed, his army defeated… and yet he still stood. His body was broken and dying, but yet he continued to fight on. He knew he couldn’t win, he knew he was already dead, but…

“I won’t be satisfied until I break that fucking smug face of yours!” my voice howled, an inhuman rage flowing into me from the ancient memories. It wasn’t the same enemy before me now, but it didn’t matter to me, the rage from thousands of years ago didn’t care who it was.

Ahriman’s hatred for Him transposed on my anger towards this Valkyrie, and I charged forward with reckless abandon. Forgetting I no longer had an arm there, I threw a left straight punch towards the angelic being. 

Of course, nothing connected, as I had no arm. I panted, barely keeping myself standing. The blood I was splattered with dripped into my mouth, the taste of iron overwhelming my senses. 

“More power… I need more power!” My voice was barely human anymore, sounding more like a wild animal. The Angel didn’t move, thinking the battle was done for. 

I smashed my right fist into their face with a hook, and the Valkyrie staggered backwards. And then I threw a left hook.

A black iron fist collided with the stunned angel, a burst of purple flame-like energy exploding out from the gaps in the armor. A wicked looking, twisted metal abomination that could hardly be called an arm extended from my shoulder. Within the gaps of the metal, I could see a skeleton slowly form and muscles begin to knit together. 

“How Unfortunate, I hoped to spare your suffering. But now that you’ve begun to awaken, I won’t be able to do so.” The Valkyrie recovered, flicking her blade a few times as if to test her own reflexes.

“You’re the one who’s going to suffer!” I pointed my unarmored hand at her, my seething rage seeping out with every word I spoke. 

She leapt into the air, her blade coating itself in divine flame. I had seen that move before, but then I couldn’t do anything to stop her. Now… Now it was a different story! 

She fell towards me, her sword moving faster than the human eye could keep up with. She thrust it forward, but I could see it this time. My armored left hand shot forward, my fist aimed directly at the blade. 

A loud metal clang echoed through the empty park. My fist clashed with her sword, and both attacks were neutralized. She landed on the ground a step away from me, changing her stab into a horizontal slash. It cut through the air like a golden streak of lightning, but it sliced only empty space. 

I moved faster than I thought possible, almost disappearing and reappearing behind her. She quickly began to turn towards me, but I was faster. I pulled back my left hand, my straight punch firing like a rocket towards her. The purple energy from before burst out of the gaps in the armor by my elbow, propelling me faster and faster.  

A gust of wind from the impact filled our area, and the angel was blown back like a ragdoll. She crashed into the ground, but managed to roll to her feet. I rushed her before she could fully recover, my knee bashing against her exposed side. The sound of bones breaking filled my ears, I must have taken out at least three of her ribs with that blow.

Powered by a rage that wasn’t my own I began to overwhelm the Valkyrie. Her movements slowed, or perhaps I sped up, her attacks weakened. The tables turned completely. The angel’s long white hair was dirtied, stuck to her skin from sweat, she no longer looked like the beautiful divine being from before. For a moment I actually thought she looked somewhat pathetic, but Ahriman’s four thousand year old rage overtook that emotion before long.

“Goodbye, give your regards to your father!” I shouted, swinging my fist towards the defeated, broken angel. She weakly looked up at me, her eyes showing fear for the first time. 

Before my attack connected, a blast of energy shook the park, knocking me back. A bright light filled my vision, and then subsided. The girl was gone, leaving only me and Raza behind. 

“It looks as though He called her back to the land of light.” Raza commented, picking herself off the ground. “But in any case, they won’t attack again right away, He takes time berating his soldiers for failure before sending them back to the battlefield.”

The armor that formed around my left arm fell to pieces and vanished, leaving just a normal limb behind. The severed arm from before had turned to ash, leaving behind no evidence anything had happened at all. 

The rage inside me began to subside, and with it came an intense weariness. I felt like I had used up two weeks worth of energy in one instance. 

“Are you alright?” I asked her, and she nodded. 

“Do not concern yourself with me, my liege.” she knelt in front of me. “Congratulations on your resurrection, may you become the true Successor of Ahriman.”

“Don’t do that, I’m not anybody’s lord.” I ordered her, extremely disliking what she just did.

“Yes, my liege!” she responded, not understanding at all. 

I looked at my regrown hand, the events of today feeling like a weird dream. The wound in my torso had closed up too, thanks to the activation of my powers, so the only proof it happened is that my clothes were ruined.

“Mom’s gonna be pissed when she sees she has to buy me a new uniform… again.”