Azraüs slightly lowered his sword as he slid across the ground. Then, in a quick motion, he slashed at the serpent, which was now only a meter away from him. The flaming creature was split in two while the aura beam Azraüs had expelled continued calmly on its path. Soon, the serpent was completely cut in half and disappeared into its flames, projected to both sides of the trajectory as if a violent wind was deliberately separating them.
Azraël grimaced but had no time to admire the strike.
Nathanaël was already on him, behind his back. The young boy swung his sword at him at great speed. But that didn't really worry him. Soon, a magic circle appeared and shattered under the impact of the blade.
However, Nathanaël was pushed back.
"Huh?"
To his great surprise, the pieces of the magic circle remained solid and rushed toward him.
"What?"
Nathanaël landed on the ground, but as soon as his foot touched it, he immediately ran to avoid the dozens of magical glass fragments chasing after him. They were fast and changed direction without Azraël even controlling them.
On his side, Azraüs was already reaching the apprentice magician. Man-Eater whistled through the air and struck another magic circle. However, this one did not break like the previous one. Azraüs was pushed back, but not enough to make him retreat several meters.
Azraël landed on the ground and prepared for the impact with his brother. His hands lit up with a ghostly blue light, and small particles of some kind began to fly through the air as if pushed by a gentle wind. Soon, the sons of Gazor met.
One could have believed that Azraël was physically inferior to his brother. Certainly, he was slightly thinner than him, and his stature was not the same.
But in hand-to-hand combat, he was just as untouchable as his mother.
Azraüs attempted a light vertical strike, but AzraËl carefully shifted to the side and struck his brother in the face with a very clean right hand. Azraüs was surprised but continued his attacks.
However, Azraël dodged them effortlessly with a nonchalant look, as if he were bored by the fight. His brother received more and more blows to the face.
The younger brother's strikes multiplied, without a single one of them reaching their target. Azraüs swung his blade in every direction, aiming each time at the place where his brother had been not even a millisecond earlier. But nothing worked. Azraël had already dodged, and Azraüs took another violent jab to the face.
At one point, Azraüs began to read his brother and caught his right fist. Proud of himself, he displayed a small smile, but in that same second, the left hand illuminated by a ghostly blue struck him in the face three times in a row. Azraüs began to retreat. He wanted to let go of his brother's right hand, but Azraël grabbed him instead to prevent him from getting away.
Trapped, he received several jabs in a row. First three slow ones, then four fast ones, before receiving a hundred of them at a terrifying speed. His fist seemed to be in several places at once on Azraüs's face, who understood nothing, while Azraüs wore an ugly grimace. His face became redder and redder under his brother's blows.
Azraël chained together more than thirty punches per second, unleashing his rage on his little brother.
Nathanaël came to the rescue from the side and attempted a straight strike with his sword. However, Azraël's gaze fell upon him. He quickly understood that he was in a bad position, but he had already started his movement and could no longer cancel it because of its great inertia.
Azraël didn't even panic, releasing his brother's hand and catching Nathanaël's sword with his hands.
"What?"
He lifted it into the air, and Nathanaël's body followed as well.
Nathanaël was wondering where such strength came from when he received a knee to his chin. It hurt, but he didn't have time to focus on the pain, because soon, he received a high kick reinforced with aura.
He flew several meters and crashed farther away in the room. Azraël then turned toward his brother, his eyes filled with blue aura that seemed, this time, to be ejecting lightning bolts.
Azraüs was barely recovering from his hundreds of jabs when his brother grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head toward his knee. Blood came from his nose, but he received a second blow in the same second, then a third, then another.
Azraël then lifted his head so that he could look him in the eyes.
"I came to destroy this filthy soul and his fighting style. I am going to traumatize you."
Azraüs smiled weakly at the declaration but received a powerful left hook in response. He also flew several meters despite his large body.
Nathanaël stood up and launched several beams of light that all charged toward the apprentice magician.
But Azraël calmly turned his head and walked toward the beams.
"What the..."
His bluish aura surrounded his entire right arm. When the first beam arrived, he simply extended his arm and, with a quick movement, simply deflected the beam of light to the side. It finished its course much farther away and lower, where it exploded without restraint, while Azraël continued walking calmly.
The others arrived at great speed, but Gazor's eldest son seemed not to care at all. He deflected them all in the same way.
Dust rose, and soon, his silhouette was hidden within it. Nathanaël took advantage of it to raise his blade into the air and trigger an immense aura explosion. His aura grew, surrounding his sword. Soon, his blade grew and grew toward the sky, reaching a terrifying height and piercing through the remaining ceiling of the ruined room.
He was about to lower the blade when a circle suddenly appeared beneath him. Nathanaël lowered his head and saw a hand emerging from the circle. Soon, he received an uppercut that destabilized him and completely canceled his attack. All the accumulated aura suddenly disappeared into sparks of light. The giant sword vanished instantly, and Nathanaël lost his balance.
Azraël emerged from the circle like a revenant and grabbed Nathanaël by the throat before squeezing with all his strength.
No matter how much Nathanaël reinforced it with aura, he had no advantage. He was running out of air more and more, while his vision was becoming increasingly blurred.
He was slowly beginning to run out of air under the impassive gaze of Gazor's eldest. Azraël looked at him for a long time, his blue eyes seeming to pierce through his soul. Then, he calmly spoke with a disappointed expression.
"Is that all?"
Nathanaël understood him completely. He was supposed to be stronger, but his research had been focused on the other world and his friends. Not on becoming stronger. Right now, he was horribly weak.
Even if Azraël seemed to have someone's support, that did not excuse his weakness. He was not a fighter, but this was really not going well. How did he expect to survive if he was this weak?
He had no advantage in any way. At least, not a single offensive advantage. Because even though he was stronger, Nathanaël felt something. He had far more aura, and his mastery was better. However, he had no way of dealing any real damage to Azraël because he had too many different and varied spells. And above all, he was a monster in close combat whom he probably could not match.
Azraël seemed disappointed, and there was reason for it. The book said that the six were cornerstones of the apocalypse. They were threats and lone heroes. But Nathanaël was supposed to be one of the best among them. And now, he was in his hand, struggling as best he could to escape.
Pathetic.
It was pathetic, and Nathanaël knew it.
He began to run out of air. His face turned blue. Azraël watched him with his piercing eyes and squeezed even harder.
He could no longer think...
He couldn't...
**
"You know he should be dead, right? Why are you bothering to keep him alive? I know you, you know? I know you well. Justice does not wait. So why are you waiting?"
At his words, the man who had been spoken to smiled.
"You're wrong. Justice always waits, and sometimes it never comes. It remains deeply hidden and strikes when no one expects it. That's why people prefer to take justice into their own hands. Nevertheless, when justice strikes. It strikes hard, and no one expects it. The world fears it, and so morality is born."
Then, the man looked at Nathanael.
"Wake up, blessed child of justice. Strike, and do it hard."
**
Azraël released the stranger, who seemed to have fainted. He didn't really want to kill him, so putting him in that state was more than enough.
He then turned toward his brother, who had just gotten back up.
"You're next."
Azraüs was getting up with difficulty. The hook he had received had been truly powerful, and his cheek hurt.
Azraël calmly walked toward him.
"So? Tired?"
Azraüs smiled. An arrogant and mocking smile that could anger anyone.
Azraël didn't understand what could make the young man laugh, but suddenly, he pointed at him.
No, he was pointing behind him...
"You should look behind you."
Suddenly, a violent shockwave pushed him in the back. The ruined room trembled, and the remains of the ceiling finally collapsed.
Azraël, in a panic, looked behind him.
A golden light was escaping. An intense light. Too intense for him to look at. The light spread everywhere in excess, as if the source itself were a sun.
Azraüs also had to turn his face away.
Nathanaël was in the same state as when they had entered the capital. No, it was far worse. It was more violent, more brutal, and more devastating. The last time, the light he emitted had been visible. But now, it was dangerous to look. It was dangerous to move forward.
The warriors of the capital looked in the direction where the lights kept chaining together and bodies sometimes flew before falling down the hill.
They had all understood that their battle was beyond their reach.
Of course, the warriors from the era when Reno had been active were all dead. They had killed each other in the capital. Some had also simply left. But for most of them, the memory of that strange light they had seen was rising back to the surface. That light that all of Nozras had seen, and which had made the hearts of everyone shiver.
This time, the light was different and seemed less divine. However, that did not stop them from feeling great fear. Whatever that light had been before, they did not want to see it again.
Armes was also looking in Nathanaël's direction too, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"It's finally beginning."