I'm No MOTH Hero

"What... was this?"

Lin looked coldly at Zero, the terrifying man who had been able to destroy planets with a wave of his hand not long ago, now staggering like someone on the verge of death as he forced himself upright. Lin shook his head and laughed.

"The Imaginary Tree, without any self-awareness, sensed the threat of extinction and handed half the authority I had long schemed for to Yan Luo? The one controlling us altered the script? Or... did I simply misjudge? Was Yan Luo more valuable than you?"

"Hey... Lin, didn't you disdain fate too? Then tell me, why was this spear able to appear here?"

Zero seemed to be asking Lin, yet he also seemed to be mocking himself. He was panting as well, clouds of bloody mist drifting from his breath and filling the air with a scorching stench of blood.

Feeling the heartbeat-like pulse of the spear in his hand, Lin answered coldly, "There is no why. It was neither fate's judgment nor the Imaginary Tree's retaliation. We merely made our own choices, like anyone else. Like I once did. Like you... did."

Silence.

Zero hated silence.

He was talkative and nosy, never willing to be alone. Unlike Yan Luo, he did not enjoy reading, precisely because he hated quiet atmospheres.

Silence reminded him of that time, on that brilliant white star, gazing out at the equally lifeless azure star.

Two men, like elderly men at death's door, faced each other in a place devoid of life. One raised his spear, while the other tightened his grip around the shattered Moon in his hand.

They moved.

There was no starting gun. The sluggish movements of the two became swift once more the instant they acted. Lin's entire body was wrapped in dark gold, while Zero's