Azraël couldn't believe it.
"I... I did everything I could to prevent a day like this from ever happening... You know,... the books weren't clear on which one of us was going to win?... I'm sure you and I could have stopped this long ago."
Azraüs took some time to answer.
"You know, Azraël, the King's Cry can only be used when the people themselves acknowledge their king. Since Nozras, I have never heard anyone sing it, whether during my lifetime or that of those who came before me, and now, the entire capital has joined in. It's over, brother. You can stop..."
"Liar!!"
Azraël had shouted. His cry, amplified by aura, seemed to make the ruined palace tremble.
"I know you. You're like Nozras. If I let you sit on that throne, the nation will be doomed. Nozras didn't bring peace. He brought nothing but fury. Everyone wanted his place, everyone wanted to be like him. The power belonged to him, and after that, everyone wanted to take it from him."
Azraël pausd before continuing.
"Unfortunately, the bodies piled up, the corpses kept accumulating. Eventually, Morbir, Kinra, and many other warriors stepped forward to put an end to it. The war never ended. A lot of people had to leave the capital. But their desire had not been extinguished. They came back in masses, again and again. Clans or lone warriors, adults or children, the small and the large, women and men, fathers and mothers..."
At those words, sadness filled Azraël's gaze.
"Everyone went through it under the insolent gaze of the entities. I will rule and thus bring peace forever. No one knows what will happen after the apocalypse, but under my rule... Nozras will survive. I refuse to let you take the throne, you and your savage warrior impulses. Father was the same, Nozras was the same. All you care about is power and fighting. All you want is to become stronger. You are sick, and you don't even know it. Your mind sees nothing but..."
"Are you done?"
Azraüs interrupted him in the middle of his speech.
"So what? Yes, I want to become the strongest, so what? Yes, I want to sit on that after defeating you, so what? If you're not happy about it, then stop me. Shut up and fight like a man. That's what Dad used to do."
Azral seemed outraged while Azraüs smiled.
Then the elder brother spoke.
"I see. There's no point in talking to you."
"That's often how it is between brothers."
Nathanaël had spoken because deep down, he thought that this was almost just a simple argument. Of course, the future of the world and Nozras was at stake, but with everything he had experienced, it looked like an ordinary argument.
He had never had a brother or sister, but this little clash reminded him of all the children he had seen with silblings. They argued very often over nothing. A candy, a hug, a girl or a guy, an episode of a series on television, a toy, money... In any case, even if the future of an entire nation depended on this argument, to him, it was still nothing more than an argument. The problem was that here, an argument of such magnitude was settled by death after a legendary battle. Nathanaël didn't really know how to settle this any other way, anyway. Whether it was right or not. Whether either of them was right or not.
All he had to do was retrieve the book and leave, which necessarily included fighting Azraël and tearing it away from him.
Although the pressure was high, the two brothers looked at the stranger with an expression of surprise, then Azraüs smiled.
"Yes, you're right, Nathy... It's just an argument between brothers."
The tension eased a little, then Nathanaël and Azraüs looked at the apprentice magician. Azraël seemed hurt and wounded, but the Rosia Clan's leader did not let go of the book. His determined gaze, filled with boiling flames, glared at the duo.
"Very well, let's continue."
Still in the air, Azraël extended his hand.
This time, a large circle appeared just above him and in the old throne room. It was a vivid and bright blue, reminiscent of lightning. And it was no coincidence. Soon, the circle grew until it was as large as the old room, illuminating everything beneath it.
Nathanaël looked at the symbols on the strange circle. There were too many of them, and none of them reminded him of anything. They looked more like letters, whereas the church had more runes. Lines crossed each other in a magnificent mandala. Smaller circles also shone inside, and the strange letters were placed between all these beautiful figures. The scene was magnificent but terrifying, as the two of them were quickly placed beneath the circle.
"Not good."
Nathanaël wasn't expecting anything good, so instead of waiting for the magnificent circle to reach its end, he leaped at Azraël with a powerful burst of momentum. The air whistled against his face, and very quickly, the distance between the two was reduced.
Azraël briefly looked at the stranger, but with an uninterested gaze. Then, in the very next second, the circle stopped growing, and a bolt of lightning struck Nathanaël in the back, sending him crashing to the ground.
"What?"
"Nathy.!"
Azraël's eyes shone with the same vivid and bright blue as he said aloud.
"Behold... the power of an entity, wielded by the hands of a man. Domain of Ligthning !"
This time, his incantation was in Norde.
Nathanaël groaned as he got back to his feet. The strike had been intense, and his back was badly burned. Fortunately, his aura had reduced the damage.
He sighed.
"Great."
A short while later, another bolt of lightning struck in his direction. This time, he felt it coming and dodged it by rolling to the side. But as soon as he stood up, another bolt struck.
"Again?"
Nathanaël violently leaned backward, and the lightning passed very close to his flexible body. Unfortunately, the incessant assaults did not stop.
He quickly understood that this damn domain continuously sent lightning bolts at a high frequency.
"Damn it."
Nathanaël danced between the lightning bolts, putting him in a position where Azraël was impossible to approach.
Azraüs wasn't doing any better. His build and his sword were a huge disadvantage. The lightning bolts kept coming in groups to strike and burn him.
Nathanaël observed the situation during his brief moment of crisis. The violent lightning bolts were actually falling vertically without stopping. That should have been good news, but there were too many of them and they kept coming all the time, making it impossible to find the time to settle down.
"Damn it."
Nathanaël narrowly dodged a bolt of lightning again, then quickly raised his arms toward the sky. Soon, a bright golden light appeared from his hands.
A bolt of lightning fell directly onto it.
But to the general surprise of the two brothers, Nathanaël suffered no damage.
"Now."
He had less than a second to perform his attack, but that was more than enough. He summoned his sword, and sparks of light appeared. Very quickly, the sword was in his hand.
Soon, it lit up just as much. However, instead of losing its brilliance, Nathanaël infused it with aura, and it shone even more brightly.
Suddenly, another bolt of lightning pierced through the air in Nathanaël's direction. One could have thought that he had mistimed it, but he knew very well that this wasn't really enough. Instead, he was waiting for Azraüs to arrive.
He wanted to show him. Show him how to make it circulate. How to properly use it in its basic form. How to block this attack and strengthen himself. Because for one reason or another, ever since the ogre's son had climbed the steps, ever since he had appeared with his aura swaying like waves, he had been convinced that he could use it.
And that was what he did.
Azraüs rushed forward while dodging the lightning bolts. Soon, he placed himself between the lightning bolt and Nathanaël. His aura was concentrated in his sword. Man-Eater took the blow without any problem, making Azraüs smile.
Nathanaël wasted no time and continued his attack. His blade shone even more brightly, and he slashed through the air vertically from top to bottom in the apprentice magician's direction, hitting the magic circle on the way.
An immense straight beam of light appeared and charged toward Azraël without paying any attention to the lightning bolts.
Azraël was surprised, but it was already too late. The beam cut into the circle, which first cracked, stopping all activity, before shattering like glass. Pieces of the circle scattered everywhere like hundreds of shards of broken glass, still illuminated by a vivid blue light.
Nathanaël knew that breaking a magic circle was probably not easy. One's mastery of aura had to be at an almost exemplary level for a human, and that was the case for him. He knew that a normal human without aura would probably have passed through the circle.
But he also knew that magic circles were diverse and varied. Some sometimes prioritized only their effect instead of their resistance or how easy they were to break. That was why this had been a risky gamble. He wasn't even sure that the circle would break against his attack.
"Great."
The duo did not waste another second. Moving like a man and his shadow, Azraüs charged toward his brother, whose attitude had taken on a slightly less reassuring tint.
Azraël grimaced but did not waste any time either. This time, the outstretched hand made a slightly smaller red circle appear. His eyes lit up, and after his incantation, a flame serpent emerged and charged toward the young warrior, its mouth wide open.
Azraüs smiled.
At the sight of the serpent, his blood froze for a second, then it made another turn.
His aura was screaming something deep within him. Something crazy. Something uncontrollable that he had not thought to hold back anyway...
Something that was screaming intensely inside his body, making his soul as well as his heart vibrate to such an extent that it hurt...
Soon, his aura exploded in every direction. A devastating dark blue filled the throne room while the serpent was violently slowed down, taking the wave head-on.
Then, all at once, the aura contracted, completely collapsing in on itself. It filled Man-Eater in a fraction of a second and slightly illuminated Azraüs's smile through a corrupted light.
It was frenzy.
The same frenzy that invaded all the warriors of Nozras. They had all felt it, and they all used it. An immense and uncontrollable joy coming directly from the deepest part of a man's heart.
It screamed to Azraüs...
"Destroy everything!!"