BOOM!
BOOM!
Massive explosions went off all across the sky as the battle became even more intense, and as time went on, the mysterious prisoner slowly started to notice that the Legion members were not decreasing in number, no matter how many of them he killed. The man frowned as he tore off the head of another dragon, and once he saw that it was being replaced immediately, he decided that this was a waste of time.
’Rather than fighting the subordinates. It’s better to fight the Necromancer controlling them. If I kill him, then the others will die too. Now, he was standing over there – where is he?’
The man frowned when he turned to where Jason had been and didn’t see him standing there! The man looked around to try to see if Jason had escaped in the middle of the intense battle, but before he could find Jason, a voice spoke up from behind him.
"That’s quite an ability you have there. But I think I have the hang of it now."
The man turned around sharply, and he immediately activated a rune on his legs as he appeared in front of Jason with every intention of killing him, but Jason just smiled in amusement, and the man realised at that moment that he had done exactly what Jason wanted him to. This was a trap. A [Flight] rune glowed on the man’s back as he tried to run away, but Jason grabbed his hand before he could vanish, and Jason’s smile only widened when he spoke.
"Land of Lost Shadows."
DOON!
The world shook with power as Jason imposed his will upon reality, and dark shadows gathered around the two men as they were dragged into the parallel world of infinite shadows!
....
The first thing the man noticed when he opened his eyes was that he was no longer in the real world. He was inside a dark world filled with shadows, and as he looked down, he saw that he was standing in a shallow lake of black water. There was a dull white sun shining in the sky with multiple tendrils writhing around it like snakes, and the intense explosions and sound of battle from the fighting had been replaced by a deep silence that made the man’s ears ring. There was a large hill directly under the dark sun, and on that hill stood Jason Marc. The man could feel Jason’s pressure pressing down on him from all directions. This was a world outside of reality, and therefore, it had to possess a god who oversaw it. And there was only one person here who could serve as that god.
’So he has a power like this as well. Yes, this man is worthy of my complete attention.’
The man had this thought as he gazed up at Jason, and his mouth slowly split into a smile. Jason was standing on the tall hill with his hands behind his back and a condescending look in his eyes, and the man spoke with authority!
"I can hear the echo of Aruna from all around you, so I know you are also a follower of the greater Rune gods. But even if we are both followers of the great gods, there can only be one true priest. We have no more distractions, so come down here, warrior. Let us curse each other until one of us is dead."
The white runes all around the man’s body began to glow with a brilliant light, and an excitement blossomed in his heart as he prepared himself for battle. Before this man had been captured by the Machina, he had once been a member of a small world known as the Jaafa. They were a race of fanatics who worshiped an all-seeing god, and they didn’t have any technological advancements since they were very medieval. Every generation, there was one person chosen from amongst the Jaafa as their priest. That person would be their mouthpiece to communicate with their god, and he would lead them in sacrifice and festivals to celebrate their god. But all that changed when the first magical baby was born.
The baby was named Vana, and he was born with great abilities that the Jaafa couldn’t comprehend. Vana grew to become the strongest of all the Jaafa, and he was chosen as the priest who would lead their people to a new age. But Vana decided that it wasn’t enough. This world was far too small, and the people were too primitive for him to ever feel anything but hatred and disgust for them, and so when he had the chance, Vana killed a majority of his people and escaped through a Dimensional Tear to explore the Primordial Expanse. Vana travelled across many powerful worlds and learned their techniques while developing his own magic, and out of all the techniques he learned, Vana decided that the art of runecrafting was what he connected to most of all. The Aruna language spoke to Vana in a way that his god never did, and he realised that the power granted to him by these runes was far greater than what his god could ever give him. Vana decorated his body with the language of runes, and he became the canvas upon which he displayed his reverence. His journey for enlightenment became a journey for power, and he made his way across hundreds of worlds and killed thousands of runecrafters in an effort to cement his place as the most powerful of all runecrafters.
But in time, Vana was captured by the Machina, branded as a Black Enigma, and imprisoned for his crimes. And it wasn’t until this moment, fifty years later, that Vana would see the sun again. But even now, Vana’s core principles did not waver, and the moment he realised that Jason was a worthy opponent, he decided that he would face Jason in a battle to the death and claim Jason’s runes for himself! But even as Vana prepared for the fight, he never expected what Jason would say next. Jason’s voice travelled towards Vana with that same condescending expression on his face.
"Your ability allows you to reverse the concepts of cause and effect."
Vana felt his eyes widen involuntarily, and Jason immediately grinned as he realised that he was right. Jason had been thinking about it for a long time now. The first time Jason saw Vana use his abilities, he thought it was some sort of teleportation ability. The way Vana was able to kill Jason’s subordinates without needing to move at all made it look like he was teleporting towards them and then coming back far too quickly for Jason to notice. But that didn’t make sense to Jason since Jason knew that teleportation didn’t work like that. It would be pointless for Vana to waste his energy returning to his initial starting position every time he teleported. So instead, Jason started to wonder if there was some sort of instant-death ability that Vana could use against anyone who tried to attack him. The way the dragons and Machina were dying without any need for Vana to move looked like someone was killing them the moment Vana thought about it. But Jason ruled out that possibility after two things happened. The first thing that ruined it was the fact that Vana didn’t kill the Skrill even though it had attacked him. Vana had just sent it flying back to the ground. And the second thing was the fact that Vana was able to still attack Jason even though Jason never attacked him directly.
So Jason started to wonder what exactly Vana’s abilities were, and after he watched him fight against the Legion for a while, Jason realised that Vana wasn’t just standing still. Vana would always activate one or more runes around his body when facing an opponent, and this meant that Vana always carried out an initial action before a subordinate was attacked! This was what gave Jason his biggest clue, and after eliminating every other possibility, Jason realised that Vana’s ability was something related to cause and effect.