The Cursed Swordsman

Prolouge

"Damien!!" A familiar voice shouts as she floats through the Temple of Wisdom's corridors. It was our good friend Hae, Goddess of Existence. She seemed to be in a rush, perhaps frightened by something. It isn't often that she flys into a room panicked like this.

Damien, the God of Wisdom, turns his head to look at the approaching goddess, wondering what she could be so scared of. "What is it, Hae?" He asked as he moves away from his computer.

"Have you been hearing the rumors lately?! There's this guy going around challenging Gods and Goddess, and winning!" Hae says, sweating a bit. "He apparently comes out of nowhere and demands a challenge! His sword skills are said to be on par with Yan-Shen!"

"On par with the Goddess of Swords? I have been hearing of the individual you're talking about... They had apparently beaten the Goddess of Fodder about a month ago." Damien nods and turns to his computer again. "Ah?!"

"What is it?!" Hae asked, leaning on his shoulder.

"It's...the Goddess of Crystals and Metals. She's just been killed." Damien says, moving his current screen to a larger one, showing a live feed of the temple crumbling.

"You wanna know what the crazier part is?!" Hae asked.

"What is it?" Damien asked.

"They say, that when he kills a God or Goddess, they don't get reborn AT ALL!" Hae says.

"That would explain why the temples are crumbling... But how is that possible? He's supposed to be a regular human, right?" Damien wonders.

"I don't know either... Something isn't right. Is it possible we can play back his fight with the Goddess of Crystals?" Hae asked.

"I'll try see what I can fish up..." Damien nods and actually manages to salvage the footage.

———

"You, a human, would challenge me, a Goddess?" The tall woman on her throne speaks to the intruder before her.

"That is correct." The hooded man says, sword in hand.

"If I refuse?" The Goddess narrowed her eyes.

"Then I will take it as a sign of surrender, and kill you swiftly. Painlessly." He says, raising his sword arm and grinning. "As the Goddess of Crystals and Metals, it is your job to provide your respective resources to people of all worlds. Yet you do none of that, and instead horde your own creations all for your personal gain. For that, you do not deserve your title as a Goddess." The man says.

These accusations seemed to strike a nerve, as she stands up, and uses her powers to create a sword of pure diamonds. "Keep running your tongue, and you may just lose your head, boy. Be careful who you make an enemy of!" The Goddess raises her arm, then points her sword straight at the man, as amethyst spikes shoot out of the walls in all directions.

The man grins, and manages to evade all the spikes, spinning, ducking, jumping, even slashing at the crystals as he soon started to close the gap. He began running up one of the purple protrusions, avoiding any sneak attacks from spikes that start forming below his feet. As he jumped, he prepares his arm for a hard swing, but gets cut off by another surprise attack from behind, which he just narrowly dodged. His sword soon started to glow a dark red color, as he gripped the hilt tightly.

"Hmph... You're not bad, for a human. What is your name, boy?" The Goddess asked, clearly exhausted and trying to buy time from using so much control magic at such a large scale.

"You will not live long enough to remember it." The man says, preparing is sword arm once again.

This action seemed to shock the Goddess, flabbergasted by what she was seeing. "That's...—?!"

Before she could even utter another word, the distance between the two was crossed in the blink of an eye, Claus now standing in front of the crystal throne. Before any words could be exchanged, a red streak of light slashes down in the shape of a crescent, as the Goddess of Crystals crumbles to nothing but dust. "Puny god..." The man says and sheathes his sword.

"Claus. We should be on our way. The Temple will soon collapse without its master." An elf woman speaks up. She was a brunette, wearing the classic female armor archetype. By that, we mean absolutely as little actual armor as possible, instead opting for a blue breastplate to hold her very obvious G-cup breasts that also did not cover her midsection at all, a white leather skirt over what is essentially some plated underwear, and puffy shoulder protection with white gloves over her forearm.

"I know that by now, Jeanne." The man known as Claus starts to jump to his comrade, as they start to exit the crumbling temple. "Have the others scouted the next target?"

"Indeed." Jeanne answers, and prepares a missive from a woman named Ava. "Tine. The recently appointed Goddess of Storms seems to be the next on our hit list." She tells him.

Claus was silent. He clenches his sword hilt, and smirks wickedly. "Hah... Fate works in mysterious ways... Then let us make haste. We make for the Temple of Storms at once. Tell Ava to rendezvous with Kheios and discuss the next god. This one will be a cakewalk." He says as they travel on.

"Then I will gather our troops and prepare the next frontal assault on the Temple of Storms." Jeanne says and splits off from Claus's path, who seemed to be heading to a cemetery.