The Ebon Flame Massacres

"Mother, I've won! I did everything you told me to do! So why won't you look at me?"

--N̸̥̂̅̏o̴̙̓ ̷̗̲̈o̴͎̬̓̍̈n̴̥͈͝ë̶̩͠ ̷̟͇̍͒͠w̶͖̗̓͑͆ơ̸͎͛̓ŕ̷̩̱͇t̷͈̾͘͝ͅh̶̡̗̦͊̾̊ ̷͖̉̐r̸̦̓ȩ̶͈̣̑̚m̸̙̝̩̿͐̒è̵̜̑m̸̙͆̈́͝b̷͎̽̌̒è̶͔r̸̺̿́͋i̸̎͜n̵͕͂͊g̶̡̦̓̃̍

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The Duel

The 'Oki Islands are ruled by a council, originally of tribal representatives, but later chosen by aptitude when they eschewed hard tribal divides. To replace one before they personally abdicate is to prove yourself more formidable than them in their area, and to wish to replace the Council Leader is to put everything on the line. Prior to 40 years ago, the Council Leader was a powerful Merfolk by the name of Kaimana, a brutal yet fair warrior, who was only brought to laughter one time, when a meek Leopard-Beastfolk wished to challenge him for his spot, barely an adult.
While this was a laughable attempt, he accepted, if only to ingrain a lesson deeply into the child's body. What he wasn't expecting was for the child to move rapidly, without his notice. He wielded his axe, and his power over the water, skillfully and with impunity, but even when he landed a full strike on his challenger, even fatal ones, in a blink it would be as if nothing had happened, and the challenger's assault continued.
And then, he got hit. 
When one of the challenger's dual scimitars just barely cut across the skin of Kaimana, he thought it was only a flesh wound. That was until a rapid pillar of pitch-black flame erupted over his body. Water would not douse it, sand would not suffocate it, and it only spread more and more. When it had engulfed his entire body, people were struggling to remember who it was screaming in pain and terror in the center of that inferno. Meanwhile, the challenger took the opportunity to attack more and more, spreading the fire even more.
By the time it had finished, not even ash remained. The challenger looked so pleased at what he had done, and turned around, only to see the faces of horror and disgust from the council and the onlookers who had gathered. Without a second longer, his arms were severed from his body by the Seat of War, and he was dog-piled by the guards attending to the council. They would lock him in mystic chains, and sentence him to death without a moment's hesitation. The Council, especially the Seat of Divinity, knew exactly the source of the power the child had used.

The Ebon Flame

The gods of Edda are empowered by the faith of their followers. As they enrich their lives and grant their prayers, they gain the strength of mortals' belief, their gratitude, and their reverence towards the ideals the gods hold dear. But, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. To praise that which is righteous to a faith, you must fear that which is in opposition to that faith, and fear is an emotion more potent than any other.
Thus, from the fear of the gods' faithful rise the Antitheos, monstrous impostors of divinity that seek to dismantle the power that gods enjoy and take it all for themselves, plunging the world into madness and chaos in the process. For the people of the 'Oki Islands, they place their faith in the Heart of Nature, a loose pantheon representing the forces of the natural world, and one that values creation, protection, and growth along with maintaining the history of the past, and believing that each aspect of life and nature carries its own memories with it, animate or otherwise.
Thus, the Antitheos against them is The Ebon Flame, also known as Uncaring Desolation. It seeks not only to destroy, but also to vanquish, to devour anything in the path of its pitch-black fire, and most importantly to erase. Such is the power of those who worship the fear of destruction, the fear of ruination, the fear of everything about you crumbling to dust, even the memory of your existance.
Such is the power the challenger used to claim victory over Kaimana. Such is the power that had him sentenced to death. But, the council made one truly fatal error. They knew of the Ebon Flame as a weapon, that which cut and burned and destroyed with impunity. 
What they didn't know of, was the Ebon Flame as a defense. The child already understood this well, as he learned how to burn himself to erase the damage he took or the memory of his last position, but as the execution pyre reached its highest peak, the child could do nothing but plead to the audience, wailing for his mother like the scared child he was, the Ebon Flame revealed its truest potential within him.

The Massacre

As the execution pyre finally killed the challenger, its fire dying out in tune with his final breaths, the surrounding council and guards sighed a breath of relief. None of them could've known that this silence was merely the seconds before the Ebon Flame heard a final prayer.
"They will come after you next." A husky voice, crackling like a burnt log whispered into a hidden onlooker's ear. "The son is dead, they will suspect the mother." She did not wish to hear its tempting words as her son did, even though she was the one who pushed him to embrace it.
"I can take him away. Whisk him away from his death, his hunters, and even from potentially hurting Mommy dearest. Whisk away everything, leaving nothing but the chance for you. That's what you wanted, right? To have control?"
The woman swallowed hard, not denying the words. "And the cost?" She whispered through gritted fangs. She could feel the heat of a grim smile worm across her spine. "Don't complain about how I do it."
No words were said, but unlike the gods, the Antitheos don't need verbal consent, only the truth of mind and soul.
A single flame lit from the charred corpse still tied to the pillar, beneath anyone's notice. The only thing the unsuspecting council would know before their death was the rapid, searing heat that came as a titanic torrent of the Ebon Flame ignited all in attendance of the execution. No one would remember it as those flames ate away at the memory of the event, but their screams were shrill enough to shatter even the hardest of stones. A symphony of suffering and agony greeted the corpse as it freed itself from its bonds, the black flames slowly turning into the new flesh, blood, and skin that mere mortal flames had burned away. 
The child had been reborn, stronger, bigger, and with absolutely no reservations. A monster had been born, a Beast of Calamity, and the world would tremble, even if for but a moment.
The following assault passed in the blink of an eye, but when survivors regained their senses, 10 minutes had passed.
Three hundred people, politicians, soldiers, and civilians alike, were destroyed. Their absence was the only proof of their death, as any of the actual events had been erased with the departure of the challenger.
When all was done, no one remembered the true identity of the challenger on that day. They didn't remember who they sentenced to death or who had slain 300 of their countrymen. All they knew, was that they were gone, taking all of the Council with them, and that the threat of the Ebon Flame was as real as ever.
This would not be the last Massacre, not even close. For the next 15 years, stories all over Edda of whole villages going missing, with the only evidence of foul play being reports of black flames in the distance. Of course, for the last 25 years afterward, such news has stopped, and no more sightings have been made, leaving many to wonder if the assailant of that day has finally burned themselves out, once and for all.

Show spoiler

Of course, that'd be far too easy. The reality is, the young challenger that day merely honed his talents enough, to where the mere memory of the fire is burned out in its final moments of use. Yes, the Ebon Flames have claimed hundreds, thousands of lives, all going under the notice of anyone, as some people only remember the basics, and some targets fully vanish from the memory of anyone. It is even possible, if used right, to erase someone from the records of fate itself.
The challenger still exists. The Ebon Flame's chosen still exists. The Leopard of Eradication still exists, and with each use of the flames, he grows stronger, attains greater deathlessness, and is more skilled with the application of the flames.
As for the identity of the challenger himself. Well, he's taken on many names over the years, as he's forgotten rather frequently. But, one he's quite fond of is that of a brutal yet effective mercenary, going by Rio. And no one can even remember who he once was.
That is, except for one woman, sitting tall and proud amongst the Council of the 'Oki Islands, who watches every flame with an anxious glance as she leads the nation towards the future.

Type

Metaphysical, Divine