98 This is the End

Arriving back to the physical realm, Jordan was greeted by a still unconscious Scott who's finally back to normal. Letting out a relieved sigh, Jordan became even more motivated to see through this whole mess until the very end.

"It's seems that you have succeeded" Maria said as she stood beside Jordan, starring at Scott with pity.

"I'll take him to safety." Lily said as a giant flower erupted from the ground and encased Scott into a bud. "I still have a lot on my plate so I'll be leaving things here since it looks like you guys can handle it."

"Will we ever see you again?" Jordan asked as Lily was about to leave

"Who knows" Lily replied vaguely but with a knowing smile.

"Your assistance is greatly appreciated! I wish you well!" Maria said in gratitude and farewell

Lily just waved her hand back at them before bursting into thousands of flower petals.

"I really can't believe I met THE Lilypichu in the flesh!" Jordan fanboyed, the moment Lily disappeared. "I can't wait to tell Isabelle about this!" Jordan said with a mischievous smirk.

After his brief movement of fanboying, Jordan then turned to the raven. He could see June and Andrew doing their best in battling it, but it was very obvious that the raven still had the upper hand.

The raven no longer "played", as when it finally faced the brothers, for the first time in its life, it felt threatened

The raven flapped its wings continually, making black feathers rain down on June and Andrew like a raging storm. Andrew defended by making an Ice Dome around him and June, but the moment the feathers touched the Ice Dome, they exploded. A never ending stream of powerful explosions happened as the feathers kept raining down, while Andrew kept remaking the Ice Dome non-stop.

As the strain of continuously repairing the Ice dome started taking a toll on his still not fully recovered body, Andrew began coughing blood. Still catching his breath from just recently going head to head with the raven, June looked at his brother with great concern. June gritted his teeth, as the gushing wound that he received from the raven kept flaring and sending pain all over his body.

June didn't know for how long it lasted but after some time had passed, the explosions finally stopped. The moment the stream of explosions stopped, Andrew immediately dropped to his knees and started coughing and heaving out blood. With the Ice Dome release, what immediately greeted June was the scenery of the aftermath of the raven's assault. The forest that was previously made by Gabe was now nowhere to be seen, after being burned to the ground by the explosions.

Finally showing themselves, the raven dive bombed towards June and Andrew with both wings outstretched. With wings engulfed in dark energy, the raven sped its way towards the wounded brothers.

As it neared its target, the raven's flight was suddenly interrupted by a loud roar that caught it's attention. With heightened senses, the raven immediately flew upwards, when it saw a flash of silver light.

Although it successfully got away, the raven was not left unharmed. On its body is a large wound that oozed with black soot.

"Sorry I'm late" Halberd said as he stood in front of his brother with his halberd in hand. As Halberd stood facing the raven, his back to his brothers, his hands tighten their hold to his halberd as rage started bubbling up from inside of him.

By hurting a lot of people that he cares about, Halberd was determined on paying it all back a thousand times to the perpetrator.

With no time for chats, Jordan quickly chased after the raven.

"Sheathed style: Soul Dance"

As Jordan swung his sheathed katana, the raven blocked his blow with one of its wings. Still mid air, it was obvious that the raven had the upper hand. With its defending wing, the raven pushed Jordan back, making the rest of his body exposed. Taking the offence, with its other wing engulfed in black energy, the raven swung it towards Jordan's open body with blinding speed, knocking all the air in Jordan's lungs and sent him flying to the ground like a shooting star.

Seeing his brother descending at an extremely fast pace, Halberd ran like he's never ran in his life before and caught Jordan just it time. Halberd protectively wrapped both of his arm around Jordan and transferred some of his energy to his younger brother.

Not giving them time to rest, the raven dove towards Halberd and Jordan, brandishing its razor sharp talons. Not having enough time to doge the assault, while still having Jordan in his arms, Halberd turned his body and used his body as a shield for his younger brother.

The raven slashed Halberd's back with its talons, leaving only deep lacerations when normally it would've already sliced another person into shreds. It was only thanks to Halberd's Gift that he's still alive.

Manifesting itself as Halberd's strong desire to serve and protect his wife, Halberd's Gift revolves around the concept of "Master and Servant". One of his Gift's abilities is being able to empower himself depending on the amount of allies he has around him. The more allies around him he has, the more powerful he becomes, so that he in return can fulfill his purpose of serving and protecting.

Halberd gritted his teeth as incredible pain flared from his whole back.

"Halberd your back!" Jordan cough. Jordan was so surprised when Halberd didn't even think twice about using his own body to shield him. It left him stunned at the same time, panicked.

"Don't worry, it'll heal" Halberd said to reassure his younger brother. And true to his word, it didn't take long before Halberd's back began healing at an incredibly fast pace.

The raven, now back high up in the air, opened its large beak, creating a gigantic black ball of dark energy, before launching it towards everyone.

Halberd immediately released Jordan, upon seeing the black energy ball. As Halberd began harnessing the power of his Gift, silver armor began cladding his entire body. Once fully covered in armor, Halberd shot into the air at a blinding speed, with halberd in hand. And with a deafening roar, Halberd swung his weapon towards the black energy ball.

As his halberd collided with the dark energy ball, Halberd gritted his teeth as he powered through the oppressing energy that slowly started to engulf him, and kept pushing through with the goal of destroying the dark energy ball.

Pushing himself to the absolute limit, Halberd successfully manage to destroy the black energy ball. Piercing through the energy ball, it created a powerful explosion.

Returning to the ground, Halberd's armor slowly faded as the last of his strength dwindled.

It could be said that what Halberd did was an amazing feat, but it still didn't change the fact that, all of them are heavily wounded, while the raven looked like it could still put up a lot of fight.

Next thing they knew, unspeakable horror dawned on them, when the brother saw the raven multiplying.

The flock of black ravens simultaneously let out a deafening screech that shook even both the sky and earth. The birds move in one accord as if being orchestrated, as they all opened their beaks and created hundreds of dark energy balls.

The scene before him sent June a wave of flashback that reminded him of the first time he and Jordan faced a pitch black raven. He remembered the feeling of hopelessness, helplessness, frustration, and loss when they were left kneeling down before their opponents immense power. But as he was about to give up, incredible power welled up within him before completely enveloping his entirety. It was the power that gave him the strength to save his bother and it was also the same power that helped defeat their opponent.

It is in this time of hopelessness is when one's strong desires to live and protect, breaks through all limitations, and grants them the power to tap into their true potential.

With unfaltering and determined expressions on their faces, the four brothers stood up.

Just by tapping into only a portion of their true potential, great changes could already be seen. Their presence alone felt completely different and more powerful.

Just like before June had a pair of blazing wings on his back, paired with a blazing halo floating above his head. Andrew had gigantic and beautiful crystal butterfly wings, while a crown made out of ice floated above his head. Jordan had his nine tails manifest, while a fox mask adorned the upper left side of his head.

As for Halberd, he wore a pristine and clean butler tailcoat, while on the right helix of his ear is a silver cuffed earing with a chain that connects it to a beautiful earing on his lobule.

Sensing the changes in its opponent, the flock of raven didn't waste anymore time and launched an all out barrage of dark energy balls.

As the energy balls begin to rain down, the weather began to change as snow started falling. Playing a beautiful and haunting melody, Andrew summoned his breathtakingly beautiful castle made out of ice.

Standing tall in all of its ethereal beauty, the castle gates opened as Valen, cladded in ice armor exited. Riding a stallion made out of ice, the knight charged into battle with a beautify crafted ice sword in hand.

With a mighty swing of his sword, Valen sent out a powerful arctic gust towards the energy balls, freezing them solid one by one. The once menacing energy balls now decorated the air like beautiful sparkling ornaments floating in the sky.

A couple of second after all the energy balls froze, one by one they started bursting into snowflakes. As the aurora borealis danced in the sky, while snow and snowflakes fell; the stunning and majestic display of power that Andrew exuded, while maintaining the air and elegance of a ruler, really showed how worthy he is to be called the Winter Monarch.

Seeing the flock of raven in front of him, Halberd clicked his tongue in distaste. Slamming his halberd to the ground, Halberd morphed the space and reality around them. The old English motif, the pristine decors and exquisite marble floors, the aesthetically pleasing furniture and the air of elegance and sophistication that basks in the atmosphere, it was no doubt that everyone was transported to a place that looked exactly like Charlotte's former home back in Europe.

Inside the luxurious and lavish room, the flock of raven shrunk just like that of a regular house fly.

"Do you know what Charlotte hates the most? Pests!" Halberd said in cold disgusts, before doing a polite and elegant bow like that of a professional butler.

"Exterminate!"

Not a second after the word left Halberd's mouth, a powerful bright light flashed. When the light disappeared, the surroundings returned to being the back garden once again, while the flock of raven is now reduced to just being a single raven again.

"Extermination complete" Halberd said with a calm tone in his voice.

"Indeed!" The three bothers agreed in amazement.

Sensing great danger upon its life, the raven's instincts kicked into high gear, prompting it to save its own life. Suddenly turning, the raven started flying away to make its escape.

"Its trying to escape!" Jordan shouted, but then he noticed something speeding directly towards the escaping raven.

"Wait, is that-" June wasn't able to continue his sentence in great disbelief and surprise. "It's her again! but now she brought friends with her!" June said as he couldn't contain the bright smile on his face.

Up in the sky is flying carriage, that has the upper top half cut-off turning it into a chariot, being pulled by six pure white pegasi. The chariot had two gigantic wings made out of light on both sides, while four golden shields floated around it. Lastly and definitely not the least, is the gigantic and very long spear that's vastly stretched out in front of the chariot, blazing in violet energy, while a vortex of spiraling lotus petals danced around on its tip.

As a loud collective of battle roars and cries resounded from the chariot, the chariot zipped through the air and pierced through the escaping raven, obliterating almost two-thirds of its whole being.

"Now it's time to end this!" June said, as he drew the string of his bow. But as he was about to shoot, Jordan came to him.

"June wait! Shoot it with this" And as if suddenly becoming another person, Jordan lifted his right hand in front of him and produce a jet black arrow that oozes of death. Handing the arrow to June, June took the arrow but with a questioning glint in his eyes.

"Just, trust me on this" Jordan said, as if returning back to his original self.

Fully trusting his brother, June didn't waste anytime and draw the string of his bow once again. With a clear target in sight, June said "This is the end!" before freeing the arrow and letting it fly.

As the arrow speeded towards the raven, it suddenly morphed into the grim reaper with an incredibly huge scythe in its bone hands. With a dark glint on the tip of its scythe and a viscous smile on its face, the grim reaper slashed the raven, or what remains of it, making the raven wither into nothingness.

Completing its task, the grim reaper turn around and gave Jordan an amuse but disturbing grin before completely disappearing.

After a couple minutes of silence, Halberd finally spoke.

"Is it finally done? Did we win?" Halberd said, still unsure if the raven has been finally defeated.

"It's finally over" June said with a relived simile, in confirmation, as the four brother's appearances slowly returned back to normal.

"Ye-" Jordan was about celebrate when he was suddenly interrupted by a flamboyant voice.

"Oh great 'Leader' *giggle* It's far from over *giggle*"