God of Trash

The tsunami of burning impurities rushed through Rhys and into Walter. They coursed through his core, surrounding the black mark of the skeleton. Rhys’ impurities scoured at the skeleton, lifting it off Water’s core, ripping every black mark and trace of impurity out of the other boy’s core. The mass of impurity worked like superpowered sandpaper, and on top of that, it was superheated. When it came to lifting the curse off Walter’s core, it was like scrubbing with a scouring pad and boiling water. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the skeleton itself. This was the most important moment. The curse, the skeleton, was no longer empowered by Walter’s core. With no power source to draw from, the curse naturally began to die.

But Rhys didn’t let it. He fed it impure power, directly from the impurities he was burning. The skeleton trembled. That black intelligence shook as well. It struggled to remain tethered to the skeleton, but the skeleton itself could hold very little power. Compared to the power of Rhys’ wave of impurities, it was utterly overwhelmed. He burned the black power that controlled it. That power was immense, and this was but a tiny strand of that power, but this tiny strand? This tiny strand was well within Rhys’ power to burn away.

How… the voice whispered, and then there was silence.

Nothing connected to the curse except for Rhys. Nothing empowered the source but Rhys’ burning impurities. Rhys surrounded the curse with his impurities and pulled it free of Walter’s core. He drew it into himself, placing it not on his core, but wrapping it in a small ball of impurities and setting it nearby. The small ball of impurities wrapping the curse orbited his core, and within the small ball, the skeleton quietly shut its eye sockets and went back to sleep.

It was his. His spell. He knew instinctively that he could only empower it with impurities; mana would never do. It was a filthy thing, trash, and he wasn’t quite skilled enough to truly obtain it for himself. He was skilled enough to obtain it, hold it, and unleash it when need be, but it remained a separate thing from himself. Something he’d stolen, something he now owned, but not something that was his. It was different from Cornered Rat or Trash Intent, which came from his core, his path, and were an innate part of him. Instead, it was a weapon. Something he’d picked up, something he could use to deadly intent, something he could activate and unleash destruction with, but not a part of him.

Curse Obtained: Cold Grasp of the Frozen Earth

Pull an opponent into the earth and smother them beneath. The bones are icy cold and sap vitality on contact.

As it went to sleep in orbit of his core, he noticed that the skeleton’s hands were disproportionately large, perhaps as large as its entire ribcage. It folded them before it, sleeping on its side, so that its overlarge hands were fully visible within the orb of impurities.

Rhys retreated from within Walter, taking his impurities with him. In his grip, Walter foamed at the mouth and passed out. The duel was decided.

But Rhys wasn’t done. Or rather, he couldn’t be done. He sat back and folded his legs, focusing all his attention on the energy swirling within him. His body was a charcoaled, burning mess. This time, he really had burned it all down. Without the impurities to empower him and feed his life force, he would have died a long time ago.

So, before the impurities could burn out, Rhys sat there and carefully rebuilt himself.

Organ by organ. Muscle by muscle. Bone by bone. His body reformed. From outside, it appeared as though the charcoal fell away to reveal a refreshed, perfect body, but from within, it was a different story. Rhys carefully shaped every inch of himself, schooling everything into its proper position. If he didn’t have the practice of reforging his body from his previous efforts, he would have been lost, because very little of his body remained undamaged. But because he remembered where everything belonged, every scrap of flesh and piece of bone, he could regenerate everything, as long as he had impurities to burn.