Dark Magic

It was a nightmare.

The day had started out quietly enough. Birds were singing, the sun was shining, and no reports of villainous movements had been reported.

And then the air had seemed to split open, and what emerged seemed like a monster from the deepest, darkest nightmare to ever exist.

It had swept aside the guardsmen with a laugh, had swatted the elite guards like they were nothing. Even the local wizards, typically the last line of defense for the town, seemingly had no effect on it; any spell they threw at it simply seemed to dissolve before it reached the beast, its power too great to overwhelm.

The wizards struggled to come up with a plan... and then the resident hermit walked past them, right towards the beast.

"B-Bacchi! What're you doin', get back!" One of them, a pyromancer, demanded, to no avail - he simply kept walking towards the monster, coming to a halt only a short distance away from it.

One of the wizards reached out with their magic to try and drag Bacchi away from this beast, only for said beast's presence to crush teh spell before it could get more than a few feet.

"Oh? And what have we here?" The demonic creature taunted, staring down at the human in amusement. "Another bug for me to squash?"

"If you know what is good for you... you will leave this world now." Bacchi quietly stated, his eyes shadowed by his long, dark hair.

"Huh? You think you take take on me?! Cozir, the king of all demons?!" The monster demanded, growling angrily, its mirth having vanished in a moment in the face of this presumptuous human. How dare he...! To think he could order around the likes of Cozir!

"I have no desire to fight... but if you do not leave... I will. And I guarantee... that you will not survive if we do."

"You truly think you can stand up to the god of all monsters?!" Cozir roared down at him, his power forcing everybody around him to tremble as they fought to stay upright.

"...The people of my home possessed many types of magic; some possessed several types at once." Bacchi said impassively, not phased at all by Cozir's power. In fact, his head was lowered, his gaze fixed on the ground. Cozir let loose another growl - did this human really not understand the power before him!?

"I, however, possess only one type of magic..." Bacchi lifted his head to reveal his gaze... one sharp enough to make the sharpest of blades look as dull as molten metal. "I abhorred my magic. The people of my home feared it... and by extension, me."

A dark aura started to rise up around him, appearing as what looked like a black mist that caused his blue cloak to billow as if in a windstorm. At the same time, everybody around him suddenly felt like gravity had increased its hold on them sevenfold. Even Cozir took a step back in the face of this unknown power.

"My own people wanted to hunt me down. To kill me as a threat to peace. To use me as a weapon against their enemies. To try and steal my power away from me. Their reasons were as varied as the races of this world. And yet, every single one of them fell before me."

Bacchi paused to look up into the sky for a moment, seemingly reveling in the sunshine.

"But then... I found myself here. Here, in a land where no-one knew who I was, a world filled with magic users who didn't want to use me." The power around him grew stronger, forcing even Cozir to a knee this time. Everyone else was practically being smashed into the ground under the weight of his power, struggling to withstand it. "And then, you... you had to come along and force me to step in. Because I know... if I don't stop you here, this world will be finished."

"You... worthless mortal..." Cozir ground out, somehow managing to push himself back upright. "You... think you can get away with forcing me into such a pitiful position?!"

It raised its arm, claws at the ready, and brought them down on the human... who simply stood still as the claws apparently disintegrated the moment they got close, leaving behind only a blackened, bleeding stump that Cozir clawed at with a roar of agony. Bacchi's face was one of cold indifference as he spoke again.

"Animal. Human. Angel. Demon. God." He raised his arms, the mist moving to condense around his hands. "It makes no difference. Before me... everything... DISAPPEARS."

It happened in a moment. One second, Cozir was standing before them all, preparing to retort or retaliate. The next, there was a flash of what looked like pure darkness, shaped into a thick pillar, appearing and disappearing so quickly that if anybody had blinked they would certainly have missed it. The moment after that, Cozir had... simply vanished. There was no trace of him ever having existed apart from the damage to the surrounding area.

"This... is my power..." Bacchi said quietly, as if speaking to himself even as the black mist continued to coil around him. "The power to end anything, at any time..."

All around him, the surviving townsfolk gaped in shock; the strongest beast any of them had ever conceived... and he had killed it in a single blow.

The black mist slowly faded into nonexistence as Bacchi stared sadly at the crater where the self-proclaimed 'king of monsters' had been standing.

"Now you see... why I hate my power."