CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 104: A BODY CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH.

Xavriel stood tall among the carnage he had caused. His silver hair was streaked with soot and dust. He rolled his shoulders slowly, deliberately, cracking his neck with the effort of loosening muscles that thrummed with restrained violence.

His eyes glowed with an eerie crimson light. There was no mockery in his expression today. Only a hunger that belonged to something ancient and monstrous. He had allowed his brother throw him across the room not out of powerlessness but because of something deeper.

He wanted him to lose it. Lose himself in the madness of his grief and anguish. If there’s one thing Xavriel could bet his life on, it was that his brother was a huge softie and now, he was going to take full advantage of that.

Calithar faced him with his chest rising and falling steadily. He was breathing hard, but his expression still remained frighteningly calm like he hadn’t just been provoked beyond reasonable amount.

His silver hair clung to his forehead where sweat had gathered. His jaw was clenched, but his gaze never wavered, never drifted, never once left Xavriel. He did not blink. He did not speak. He simply watched, absorbing every detail, readying himself for what was to come.

Calithar knew what his brother wanted from him. Ever since the big incident happened, he had tried countless times to make him feel his grief. To burst out from his containment of fake happiness and finally give in to his sorrows.

Being a god was hard enough. He had lost his dignity, reputation...love just to save his only brother. That was the best way to get to him. To make him crack .

Knowing this, Calithar had sworn to never let him get into his head even though it can be quite tempting...

For a moment, the world held its breath that very moment.

It felt as though both of them could hear the heartbeat of the other.

A single instant stretched into eternity.

Then Xavriel moved.

He launched forward with a devastating burst of speed. The ground cracked beneath him, splitting open in a jagged line that shot across the plateau like an angry scar. His fist blazed with energy. Calithar barely had a moment to brace before Xavriel crashed into him.

The impact created a shockwave that ripped through the earth. Dust exploded around them in a violent cloud, sucking up the once spotless atmosphere. Calithar was hurled backward, slamming into a massive boulder that cracked in two upon impact. Pain flared along his ribs. He tasted iron on his tongue. But he pushed himself up almost immediately, refusing to give Xavriel even a second of satisfaction.

Xavriel stalked forward slowly, boots grinding over the fractured stone.

"Already cracking. I expected more," he said with a low growl as he tsked.

If I want to control him, this pathetic softie needs to do better than this!

Calithar lifted his chin and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, staring daggers at his brother. The nerve of him.

"You don’t want to mess with me, Xavriel."

Xavriel grinned a twisted smile. "Oh but I do want to." The smile deepened. "So badly..." then he vanished.

Calithar barely sensed the movement before Xavriel reappeared beside him. A fist slammed into his cheek. Calithar’s vision sparked white. Another blow struck his abdomen. Xavriel moved like lightning, like a predator whose excitement made him sloppy in appearance but precise in reality.

Calithar blocked a third punch and countered with a hard knee to Xavriel’s thigh. Xavriel snarled and swung again. Calithar ducked. Xavriel’s knuckles smashed through the stone wall behind him instead. Dust rained down around them.

Calithar summoned the energy inside his core. It pulsed violently. He threw his hands forward and released a shockwave of swirling light. It hit Xavriel square in the chest and shoved him several steps back.

But Xavriel only laughed.

"Better."

He came again.

This time their blows collided with equal force. Their fists met with a crack that rolled across the landscape. It sounded like thunder tearing itself apart.

Calithar matched him punch for punch. Kick for kick. Block for block. Their bodies moved with lethal precision. Each strike sent a ripple of destruction outward as if the very air trembled beneath their ferocity.

Xavriel grabbed Calithar’s wrist and jerked him forward, slamming a headbutt into his forehead. Pain burst through Calithar’s skull, but he retaliated instantly. He twisted Xavriel’s arm, elbow-jabbed him in the ribs, then landed a punch directly to his jaw.

Xavriel stumbled a single step.

Calithar surged forward with a flurry of blows. Xavriel blocked some, absorbed others, and deflected a few with barely a twitch of irritation.

"You are improving," Xavriel muttered through clenched teeth.

Calithar clenched his fists tighter.

"I will surpass you."

"Not today."

Xavriel darted forward, low and fast. Calithar reacted, blocking a sweeping kick, parrying a jab aimed at his throat. The battle turned into a blur of motion. Both fighters left streaks of afterimages in the air, blending into smears of light and shadow as they clashed again and again.

Xavriel’s hits were brutal. Calithar’s were clean and sharp.

Both drew blood.

Both knocked the other backward multiple times.

Both fought like warriors with something far deeper than pride at stake.

At one point, Xavriel drove his knee into Calithar’s stomach. Calithar grunted, momentarily winded. Xavriel gripped his hair and yanked him forward, slamming him face-first into the ground. Before Xavriel could crush his skull, Calithar rolled aside, snatched Xavriel’s ankle, and dragged him downward.

Xavriel hit the earth hard.

Calithar jumped back to his feet and summoned a burst of energy that spiraled around him in a radiant cyclone. The cyclone crackled with electricity. The ground beneath him glowed with a soft golden hue.

Xavriel’s eyes widened.

Calithar had no idea what he meant. He only knew he could not afford to hesitate. The energy in his veins pulsed violently, pushing him to unleash more.

He thrust his palm out.

A wave of glowing force erupted from his hand.

Xavriel blocked it with both arms crossed in front of him, sliding backward as the energy pushed him nearly to the edge of the plateau. The earth tore apart beneath his heels. When the attack finally dissipated, he lowered his arms and shook off the lingering sting.

He bared his teeth then vanished again.

This time, before Calithar could fully prepare, Xavriel reappeared behind him. Calithar whirled, but Xavriel’s fist landed squarely on his spine. Pain ripped down his back. Calithar staggered forward with a gasp. Xavriel was on him instantly. He grabbed Calithar by the shirt and hurled him into the sky.

Calithar spun through the air helplessly. Xavriel appeared above him, hands glowing with ominous black energy.

"Fall. Like you always do."

Xavriel hammered him downward with both palms.

Calithar plummeted, his body twisting like a ragdoll in a hurricane. He smashed into the ground with a boom that sent shockwaves racing through the entire plateau. Dust erupted upward in a massive cloud, hiding him completely.

Xavriel descended slowly, floating just above the crater.

"I know you are not dead. Get up."

The dust thinned.

Calithar remained motionless for a moment.

Then his fingers curled into the broken ground.

He pushed himself up, exhaling with a low growl. Pain laced every movement, but something else burned beneath the pain. Something new. Something ancient. Something that felt like a long dormant part of him was awakening.

Xavriel tilted his head.

"Yes. That is it. Feel it."

Calithar rose to his feet, chest heaving. His vision blurred, then sharpened with unnatural clarity. He could see every particle of dust floating in the air. He could sense the vibrations under his feet. He felt power coursing through his muscles, through his bones, through his blood.

His entire body began to glow with a soft light. At first faint, then stronger.

Xavriel smirked.

"You have been holding back. Unlock it and become the monster you know."

The glow intensified and Calithar spat out blood. "I’ll never be like you."

Calithar closed his eyes as heat surged through his veins. His heart pounded aggressively, faster and faster.

A burning ache formed between his shoulder blades.

He gasped sharply.

Then he felt something unfurl... literally.

A sudden burst of pain shot through his back. Then the world exploded with light behind him.

Something emerged.

For the first time in years.

Wings. And not the dead, pitiful ones he owned.

Massive, incandescent wings burst free, glowing in silver and gold. They stretched outward with a majestic snap, casting brilliant radiance across the entire battlefield. The wings quivered slightly as though adjusting to existence after a great slumber.

Calithar’s eyes opened.

They glowed fiercely, no longer the color they once were. They had transformed into a brilliant, molten gold.

The wind roared around him.

Xavriel’s expression froze.

Then a slow, thrilling grin spread across his face.

"Finally."

Calithar’s wings flapped once and te ground beneath him shattered completely.

He streaked forward with unimaginable speed.

Xavriel barely had time to raise his arm before Calithar crashed into him with a punch that cracked Xavriel’s jaw and sent him barreling across the plateau. Xavriel tumbled through stone pillars, smashing them effortlessly as his body tore through rock.

Xavriel regained control mid-air, sliding across the ground until he skidded to a stop. He spat out blood and wiped his mouth.

"Yes," he roared. "Show me more!" he yelled sadistically.

Calithar appeared in front of him instantly and their fists collided again.

This time, Xavriel was pushed backward.

Calithar unleashed a barrage of strikes too fast for the naked eye to follow. Xavriel blocked several, parried others, but more slipped through. Calithar’s fists hammered into his ribs, chest, jaw, and abdomen relentlessly.

The ground shook from the force of each hit.

Xavriel swung a wild punch, but Calithar ducked beneath it, grabbed Xavriel by the waist, and flung him skyward with a single beat of his wings.

Calithar followed him into the air.

The sky became their battlefield as they flew away from the damaged council room.

They clashed high above the earth, exchanging blistering blows that created sonic booms with every collision. Lightning danced across the clouds as if reacting to their power. Thunder roared overhead.

Xavriel roared and delivered a downward kick that sent Calithar spiraling toward the ground. Calithar regained control mid-fall, spread his wings, and shot back upward, tackling Xavriel from below.

The two crashed back to the ground in a tangled blur of limbs and fury.

Xavriel rolled away, panting with excitement.

Calithar rose slowly, wings fully extended, glowing brighter than before.

Xavriel chuckled breathlessly.

"Maybe you’re actually more than I thought."

Calithar said nothing. His expression had hardened into something fierce and unyielding. His soft, understanding look was long gone.

The explosion of force sent dust, rock, and shockwaves spiraling outward.

Xavriel grabbed Calithar’s throat and slammed him backward, but Calithar twisted mid-impact and kicked Xavriel in the temple. Xavriel stumbled. Calithar surged forward, wings spreading with raw fury.

He landed a punch directly into Xavriel’s chest.

Calithar followed again with a devastating uppercut that snapped Xavriel’s head back.

Then he grabbed Xavriel by the shoulders and threw him.

Xavriel crashed into the earth so hard that a crater erupted beneath him.

Calithar descended slowly, wings glowing with silvery light unknown. He hovered above the crater, glaring down at the dust-filled pit.

Xavriel lay there, chest rising and falling raggedly. Though beaten up and looking deranged, his twisted smile remained.

That’s it?"

Calithar clenched his fists tightly.

"Shut up." he growled at him.

Xavriel laughed, a low and cracked laugh.

"We’ll meet again." And with that, he vanished from his sight leaving a small hole carved out within the crater from where his body once was.