"It was never a sensible decision to cause despair in men, for those who do not hope for good do not fear evil."

Niccolò Machiavelli.

That world was the opposite of the first. It was a scorching desert, with a poor oxygen atmosphere, very dry and with a horrible smell because it had a small concentration of hydrogen sulfide in its composition, which gave the feeling that one had entered a sauna full of rotten onions, but it was not enough to harm the health of a human being, let alone a wizard.

Igor saw the enemy about fifty meters away and threw a ball of plasma at him; but, due to the much lower gravity of that world, he missed the target and the fiery sphere fell after the monster, betraying the attacker's position.

Scared, Samuel opened a new portal and ran away again, this time to a normal, but uninhabited world. In the middle of the lush vegetation of that planet, Igor had difficulty finding him, especially since there were no footprints to denounce him.

After an hour of walking aimlessly, he sat on a small rock, picked up the crystal and thought about the creature. The detector started to glow immediately and, frightened, he got up abruptly and threw himself to the side at the same time that he felt a wave of hatred reach his mind, being grazed by the black sphere.

He felt the agony and coldness that tried to drain his strength, but luck came to favor him once again for letting the instinct take over and, also, because the creature was weak. If he had remained seated, things would have been very different and he would probably be captive of Samuel.

Even so, Igor staggered and suffered the consequences of being overconfident. He raised his barrier with difficulty and turned around, finding the enemy right in front of him. He grabbed the sword and advanced, using it to unleash a real storm of lightning on the creature. The demon, without any emotion to absorb and increase his power, began to feel the effects, shrinking as he was bombarded. Desperate, he jumped to the side and started running, opening another portal and fleeing.

Igor did not repeat the mistake of jumping behind the shadow by the same way, preferring to open his own rift and continue on the trail of the black demon. As he advanced, he concluded that he no longer needed a device to follow him because he could feel his mind, especially the hatred he emanated. The physical contact between them gave him that advantage, but the same should happen with the enemy and every care was little to not be cornered because he was very cunning and Igor already felt it on his skin.

He also knew that the continuous use of his personal barrier would eventually weaken him, but it was much easier to be killed by the creature than the opposite. At that moment, everything was a matter of cat and mouse and the young wizard needed to be very careful not to become the mouse.

The place in the world where the creature fled was in the night period and was dark as pitch, making things quite difficult.

He decided to do the experiment of locating him by the mental emanations and concentrated. He emptied his mind so as not to be distracted and waited a little until, very slowly, a strange feeling took hold of him. It was a feeling that did not belong to him but that could almost be his, emanating hatred, frustration and fear. Yes, now Igor knew that the creature was afraid of him and, once again, felt the confidence in himself grow. He had no difficulty and determined the direction he started walking fast in that direction, trying to get closer.

"It's no use, Samuel." Igor threw a huge ball of light up, illuminating everything around and seeing his staunch enemy a few meters away. "Wherever you go, I'll find you."

The creature hid behind a large tree while Igor approached more and the young man wondered if he destroyed the tree to expose the enemy, but that was against his principles. When he concluded that it became necessary, for the sake of his safety, someone came out from behind, but it was not the creature but none other than his own mother, who stretched out her arms and said:

"My son, I miss you. I'm free of him, get me out of here for the love of the Goddess, he's scary."

"Mother," he whispered, trembling and approaching, "mother—"

Igor, when he saw his mother, felt all the longing he had repressed in that period and tried to reach her as soon as possible, undoing the protection barrier. His heart beat hard and he felt a lump in his throat when her smell reached him.

"Son, help me before he changes his mind," the mother insisted, scared. "He let me go so that you would give up chasing him. Help me that thing is a horror."

She staggered, weak, and the wizard forgot all the precautions, jumping forward to help his mother and touching her hands, trembling. He wanted so much to see her alive and healthy that he forgot the rest.

"Mother!" The young man hugged her, smiling and trembling with emotion, but it was at that moment that he discovered the mistake he made because she seemed to grow while Igor felt weaker and weaker.

Cursing himself and desperate to free himself, he jumped back. Despite everything, Samuel was still too weak to have enough physical strength to hold him and the wizard fell backwards. The macabre laugh manifested itself as he rolled to the side to escape the black energy ball that almost hit him. Igor recognized that he only escaped because the black demon felt overconfident and rushed. If Samuel had waited for the hug to be completed in full, Igor would not have been able to escape with enough energy to defend himself.

Although weakened, he got up, raised his barrier and formed a ball of destructive energy; but, as much as he knew that it was not his mother, the wizard could not react, he did not have the courage to attack that delicate and unprotected-looking image that he loved so much.

Exasperated, he blocked his mind and transported himself to a place behind the creature, about twenty meters away, staying silent and trying to recover from the emotions, breathing deeply.

At that moment, he remembered Gwydion's words that said that the monster fed on emotions and, still with difficulty, he made a Herculean effort to control himself or he would end up dead in that world because the roles were reversed once again.

Samuel had not yet discovered that he was so close and that was his downfall when the plasma ball hit him. Igor felt a lump in his throat when he saw the figure of his mother hit and the creature turned around, laughing when he felt a hint of emotion. He approached him, noticing that Igor was weak and very indecisive.

"I can't believe you're going to treat me like this, my son," he said, appealing to the emotions. "I am your mother, who carried you in my lap and played with you so much."

Igor seemed even more indecisive as Samuel said that and approached. Feeling the taste of victory, the creature continued:

"You who were my baby and who ran to my lap whenever something scared you, finding my welcoming arms, son, do you remember?"

"Mother," said Igor, trembling, almost as if hypnotized.

Samuel felt that he loosened his barrier and was able to absorb some energy, giving him more confidence. The closer he got, the more energy he absorbed, but not enough for Igor to notice and protect himself.

When he was almost touching the opponent and already euphoric by the guaranteed victory, he returned to his natural form to be able to absorb Igor in one blow, knowing that he would have an immeasurable power.

He touched him ready to suck him, trying to find the vital flows of the wizard and form to subtract them for himself and leaving only an empty and dead shell on the ground. Happy he saw that Igor weakened and decided to apply all the force in one blow. Samuel was going to let out a big laugh when he saw the wizard raise his hand to him and something strong hit Samuel, something that was not physical and very powerful that acted with such violence that it threw the creature back and fell backwards. It was then that Samuel realized that Igor had some natural protection that prevented him from being assimilated or destroyed and he could never take advantage of his knowledge. He even weakened, but he could not be sucked.

Free from the scruples of destroying the creature in the form of the mother and discovering that something went very wrong with the creature that tried to get away, rolling to the side and getting up, but Igor learned very fast and did not waste time.

Knowing that he was too weak and that he was able to do the same as the enemy, Igor raised both hands and a pair of black rays hit Samuel, starting to suck the vital energy of the monster.

Samuel felt that he lost his own energy and threw himself to the side so fast that the wizard could not follow the movement, losing the focus of the ray. In despair, the being of the zero plane began to run aimlessly, as long as it was as far away as possible from Igor who, despite everything, still managed to snatch back a large amount of strength, rebalancing the combat.

The wizard threw a white sphere that, when hitting Samuel, turned into ice at less than minus sixty degrees Celsius, the temperature of frozen carbon dioxide. Increasingly distressed, the creature opened a new passage at random and crossed, gaining a pause in the battle.

Igor continued on his trail, without truce. Although he had weakened a lot, he recovered a large part of the energy and gained much more confidence because now he knew that the creature was incapable of destroying him. He came to wonder if that would not be the reason for such hatred against him, but he concluded that it was something irrelevant to waste time in conjectures.

That time, the two ended up in a populated world, appearing in a city full of beings similar to pygmies, quite primitive. When the wizard crossed the barrier, they knelt in devotion to the Great God of the Green Light. Igor saw Samuel close and threw another ice sphere, but the creature turned and retaliated without caring about what was in the way. Seeing that she was going to hit the poor and innocent natives with the black ball, the wizard created an energy field that stood between them and the sphere, while the creature took advantage of it to flee again to another world.

The pygmies, who also had green skin, watched a fight between powerful gods, one green and one black, and felt ecstatic, of course taking the side of Igor, who was green like them.

The wizard opened a new rift to continue his pursuit, but noticed two things: Samuel walked slower and slower and took longer to open the portals. The conclusion could only be one and he acted as such: he decided to provoke the exhaustion of the creature, although he himself was not in better shape, especially after the last encounter.

― ☼ ―

They had been in this pursuit for about four days of Earth and even Igor felt the violent effects of lack of sleep and food. At the beginning of that day, they both entrenched themselves and stayed for about six consecutive hours throwing everything that was destructive that they could imagine, one against the other, while accusing and insulting each other with swear words. Igor, however, was careful to keep his emotions always under control, preventing Samuel from obtaining any type of additional energy unless he captured and killed someone, but the wizard was always attentive so that the creature did not make more victims.

At a given moment, the two were silent, quiet, and Igor tried to rest a little when he felt his head too heavy. Scared he got up quickly to face Samuel laughing at his face and throwing one of his black energy balls. With a roar of rage he threw himself to the side, rolling on the ground and throwing a plasma sphere, discovering that he only carbonized part of the ground in front of him, that there was nothing. Worried, he realized that he dozed off and dreamed of his attack, a very vivid dream because of the fatigue. He got up a little more and noticed that Samuel had taken advantage of it to escape through a portal. He got up quickly to resume the pursuit, feeling a strong dizziness and almost falling, but he controlled himself, restarting the hunt.

The supreme guardian crossed the opening that Samuel left open, having before the care to see if it was not another trap, and closed it afterwards, feeling immediately the abusive force of the local gravitation that almost threw him to the ground. He waited a few minutes to adapt and took the opportunity to look around, looking. He found the black demon about fifty meters away, on his knees and with his back. He approached with some difficulty, but without being attacked, thanking the Goddess for that because he also felt at the end. He raised the sword and was so tired that it seemed to weigh a ton.

On the first attempt he faltered, feeling his sight tremble as black dots appeared in front of him and he was afraid that Samuel would notice, but he continued with his back, perhaps as or more finished than the wizard. He raised the weapon again, now with more firmness. Because of his scruples, he would not be able to attack the monster from behind, even knowing that it was not time to have morals.

"Checkmate, Samuel," he said with his sword in his hand. The creature turned slowly, but no longer laughed. "I am still willing to offer you an honorable surrender as long as you return the vital essences that you snatched."

"You will never catch me." Samuel transformed without warning into a beautiful woman, with black hair and brown eyes, very expressive. "Why do you want me back, Igor, if you despised my love. You forgot that week we spent together! I'm better here; leave me alone."

"You will not be able to provoke any emotional reaction from me, Samuel," replied Igor, trying to maintain firmness. "My mother was the last. Caroline and I tried dating, but it wasn't what we wanted. It was good for both of us, our first experience, but friendship was much stronger and we were well resolved. No one despised anyone."

"I gave you the supreme power and you betrayed your brothers." Now it was Sergey who was before Igor, with a severe look. "Look what you did to all of us, you incompetent."

"Forget it, Samuel," the wizard retorted, impassive. "You have thirty seconds to decide. After that, it will be your destruction."

"I am indestructible, Wizard," replied the shadow. "And I'm sure you must be out of strength. Soon, you will be dead, but I will still be here, waiting with all the patience—"

Samuel was interrupted by a small ball of plasma that hit the ground next to him, causing him to jump back. The black demon seemed not to notice that the sphere was weak, such was his fear, and tried to open a portal to escape, achieving a partial success. However, a ray fired by the sword cut the way and the connection.

"You are at the end, Samuel, and that was your last portal opened. Without energy to absorb, you die, don't you?" Igor laughed, but he knew that he was also no longer able to repeat that for lack of strength. "You shouldn't have let me touch you because I also learn. You have nothing of indestructible."

"If you kill me, everyone dies with me," he warned laughing, hoping for a small emotional reaction. "All those you loved and that I snatched for myself. I took everything from you, Wizard, everything."

Igor shut up so as not to let an emotion pass, but he felt a little despair. He thought that the monstrosity would surrender to not perish and he just found out that he was wrong. He had already thought of a solution for this, but his biggest enemy was the fear that such a result would cause in himself.

"And when you die in this scorching desert of an unknown world," continued the monster, "I will take Eduarda back to me and use her until I get tired."

Igor did not know where he got more strength, but he hit the creature with a ray of black energy similar to the spheres that the monster created. Samuel made a gesture to flee again as soon as he saw that the trick had no effect, but he could not. Desperate, he turned and saw Igor with his hand outstretched, from where the flow that destroyed him little by little came out.

Too weak to keep running, he fell to his knees. At that moment, Igor suspended the attack and approached, also exhausted and with difficulty. The world where they were was a desert only, with the scorching sun that brought temperatures above fifty-five degrees Celsius, at the limit of human resistance capacity, not to mention the gravity increased by about sixty percent. He felt dizzy and saw black dots dancing in front of his eyes, knowing that this was the sign that he was on a thread because they were whole days without eating or drinking or sleeping, without stopping, always with the personal barrier active.

It was only the iron will to try to save his subjects and friends that prevented him from killing the creature right there and returning home, ending the nightmare and sleeping at least a whole day. Instead, he lowered his hand and suspended his protection barrier because he knew that that black demon no longer had the strength to attack him and he needed every drop of energy he could reserve for the last act, an action that might even cost him his own life.

"You know, Samuel," he said, trying to appear very calm, "my mentors and masters that you have with you always told me that they were amazed by how fast I learned; that I didn't give them any fun in teaching because of that and today I thank the Universe for having this gift that the Goddess gave me."

He stretched out his hand and grabbed the creature by the neck, feeling immediately a strong tingling when the demonic being tried to snatch his vital force, but he sealed his thoughts and feelings, becoming for Samuel something similar to an android.

It was the perfect barrier.

"As I told you," continued the wizard, "I learn very fast, but now you have ended your chance to save yourself because I don't need you anymore, since I can do the same thing."

"You will... will die," he retorted with difficulty.

"Well, that's a risk that I think is worth taking," Igor replied with a fierce smile, "a price that is worth paying. A life, mine, for more than fifty thousand innocents who are there only because of my fault. What would be the Supreme Guardian who would not give his life willingly?"

He finished speaking and pulled the enemy closer, touching the head of the black demon. His body began to glow strongly in a white color, while the black creature pulsed, sometimes more intense, sometimes weaker. Both fought a violent and silent battle, invoking their last reserves of energy that neither of them knew they still had.

Igor did not remember when he started screaming, he just screamed a lot and louder and louder as the creature withered. He would not even know how to say the reasons for the screams, whether they were screams of pain, sadness or victory, nor even why he screamed or what he screamed and even when the voice no longer came out of his battered throat, he still tried to scream.

The battle between the two living beings so disparate lasted a long time, a time that Igor did not feel passing until, in his hands, there was nothing left of the creature. All his essence had been absorbed and, on the ground, there was only a black, empty shell. With one last effort, the young man raised his hand and released a plasma ray that dissolved it. Then, he took two steps and fell unconscious.

― ☼ ―

A 60% higher gravity means that a normal man weighing 90 kg, like Igor, would weigh 144 kg in this world, requiring a huge physical effort. A. N.