Brothers

I stood petrified, staring at my brothers face, with tears still leaking from his eyes.

"Wh-What happened?"

"I...She..." He choked up.

Kneeling down I wrap my arms around him.

"Wha-?"

"You can let it out now." I interrupt, muttering softly.

He takes a few more seconds before he crumbles and sobs into my shoulder, screaming all known profanities to fate and something called the Vritra?

He calmed down a few minutes later.

In that time I inspect the corpse he was holding.

3 of her limbs were torn apart and then cauterized, dried blood caked her cheeks originating from where her eyes used to be, and a steel spike impaled her stomach, right where her mana core was.

This is just cruel.

Now that I think about it, she seems oddly familiar.

...

"Wait isn't she the elven lance?" I blurted out.

"Yeah," Arthur's voice was hoarse, "Her name was Alea Triscan."

He then proceeded to laugh, a mirthless laugh, "She said I reminded her of her brother you know?"

"Come on, let's at least bury them." I urge him up.

I made a hole in the Earth as he placed Alea's body in it.

Covering it with dirt we managed to make a makeshift grave, her weapon acting as a gravestone.

Not a word was exchanged between as we silently buried each and every mage.

After we buried the last of the mages, Arthur went back to where we buried Alea, and knelt down, placing an arm over the buried lance.

"Damn it.." He growls out, grabbing a handful of the dirt.

"How...How did this happen? Did they encounter an S class mana beast?" I asked.

He scoffs, "All this was done by one person."

"You can't be serious!" I stare at him in disbelief.

How is one person capable of such carnage?

"Oh I am," He replies sardonically, before explaining to me what exactly occurred.

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"So this Vritra was responsible for that?" I say through gritted teeth.

Blood dripped from my palm as I clenched my fist tightly.

"Yes, he conjured black metal to fight against them." He replied.

"Fight? From what you said it was a massacre!"

He nods grimly, "Agreed, but that's not all. I have a strong feeling that these horned demons aren't from this continent. When he said to Alea that there would be war, I think he meant intercontinental war."

"Fuck!" I hissed, "And we can't do anything but wait?!"

"It seems like it." He replied solemnly

"We need to stop slacking off," I spoke much more calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"We need to get stronger, and breaking into white core stage is one way to do it."

"About that, Sylvia left me a message indicating there is a stage beyond white core."

"Huh? There is?"

"That's what she said in the message. And she knew my old name, Fayden."

Now that caught me off guard, "Wh-wh-what?! How?!"

He shrugged, "I don't know, all I know is that I'll need to break though beyond white stage to hear the next part of her message."

"If there truly is a stage beyond white core, we both need to attain it."

"Agreed. We still have a long way to go."

"Yeah."

Maybe I should call out to Noctis and ask for 'Celestial guidance' as he put it.

But before that we need to get back home.

"Arthur, we should head back."

"But how? Sylvie hasn't returned yet." He retorted

"I can literally teleport." I deadpan at him.

"Oh, forgot about that."

"Whatever, just hold o-"

*ROOOAAAAAR*

I sigh, "Looks like we won't need to Void Step out."

He nods dumbly.

Just before a crash was heard from the passageway.

We go to the crash site and see a cloud of dust covering it.

Father!

Zeke?

The dust cloud was immediately dispersed, revealing Sylvie, albeit she had changed quite a bit. With matte black scales, another pair of horns and no more spikes on her back.

Her shadow extended upwards forming the shape of Zeke, who was much bigger than before.

And now that I get a closer look at him I finally notice the red fur on his body, which did resemble my runes.

His silver eyes are much more intimidating now, and the slight red light emitted by his body gives him an eerie feeling.

Why did you not want me to follow you?

He spoke through our bond.

Because you needed the rest.

And you didn't?

I shrug.

I wasn't really injured very much.

I 'spoke', my body was a patchwork of wounds from the minion snarlers, but I had more important things to worry about now.

Neither was I.

You overworked yourself.

I didn't dare reveal that I had lost consciousness.

You're as reckless as Uncle Arthur sometimes.

Hey! I take offence to that!

You should.

I chuckle, Let's head back home Zeke.

Yeah, let's

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As we Void Stepped to the top floor or the dungeon, I begin explaining to Zeke about what we learned down there.

It will be alright Dad, you have me, Uncle Arthur and Sylvie with you.

Will it? We aren't nearly strong enough to handle something like that.

Well then we'll have to grow strong enough.

It's not as simple as it sounds you know.

We will get through this together, and we will survive.

I chuckle at him.

Thanks for the pep talk Zeke.

I try.

That's when the draconic form of Sylvie came out from the chasm.

And once Arthur got down, she transformed back to her fox form and climbed up Arthurs body to settle on his head.

Seeing this Zeke enters my shadow.

Arthur augments his body to jump from stair to stair.

But I enter first phase and [Void Step] to the top.

Outside it was night time.

So they left huh?

Professor Glory probably thinks I died in there as well.

A pulse of wind went past me, and glancing at Arthur I notice him look around.

Is he using some form of a sonar?

Arthur brings out the seal, and stares at it.

Noticing his inner conflict, I interrupt, placing my hand over his and pushed it down.

As he looked at me, I shook my head.

He nods with a face full of determination.

Then he crouched, augmenting his body.

"Wait." I spoke up

"Huh?"

I light a greenish black flame on my hand and point t it.

"Ah, yes we should do that." His face brightens in enlightenment.

"It's best if we don't heal all our wounds, they will be suspicious if we came out unscathed.

"Yeah, let's just heal the more fatal injuries." He said, and Sylvie jumped off from his head

I nod and focus on my hand.

The fire grows in intensity, before half of it moves from my arm to the rest of my body.

And as my wounds were being healed I throw the rest at Arthur.

Clenching my teeth in order to not cry out, I wait for the pain to subside.

The spell works magnificently.

The network of cuts on my torso decreased to only a few, and the ones which remained were kept mostly intact.

Arthur was in a similar state.

"Now, we can go."

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