313 Chapter 313: The Two Brothers

Troy regarded the devastated site with an almost detached look, and he sighed, almost as if he was relieved that the entire ordeal was over.

"!?"

He blinked when he suddenly noticed the thousands of floating tiny lights of fire surrounding him, almost like fireflies.

Amidst the rubble, a single hoarse voice croaked out.

"Will O'Wisp."

"When did they…?"

He never got to finish his sentence. The Will O'Wisp detonated in unison, engulfing the poor earth mage in a hellish inferno.

"Gwaaah!"

Rolling in the ground, Troy desperately tried to extinguish the flames that now immolated his body. Coughing, he tried to get up, but a severely wounded Tyrant managed to drag himself out of the debris to leap toward his position.

"You really did a number on me, little bro," Tyrant sneered, blood dripping off his face in streams. He seized Troy by the the collar and hoisted him up. Troy countered with a hook that sent Tyrant staggering but the older guy rammed a knee into his little brother's solar plexus and caused him to double over. Raising a flaming fist, he punched Troy's face so hard that the latter was sent flying several dozen meters away.

Troy crashed back into the shelter where he was originally sheltering the evacuees, erasing half of the building from the tremendous impact and vanishing under a pile of debris. Tyrant laughed triumphantly as he stepped over the ruins of the once sturdy building, his face twisted into a sneer. Despite his apparent victory, he struck a hideous figure, blood streaming down his face in thick rivulets and injuries pockmarking his dark skin.

"Troy!" I yelled, hurrying toward his position. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, maybe help him out or something. But if this was an opponent that even Troy couldn't defeat, then I wasn't sure what I could do to help him. Fortunately, I wasn't alone. Golden Kirin was galloping beside me, his antlers and horn glowing golden.

Earth lances erupted from the ground and surged forward to spear Tyrant. The fire mage casually turned around and obliterated them with his flaming fists.

"So now you need the help of your puny friends, eh, little bro?"

A particularly huge piece of debris suddenly flew at him, flung by Troy. Tyrant flippantly raised his arm and smashed it effortlessly.

"Throwing a tantrum isn't going to help your cause, little bro."

"Stay back, Richie!" Troy yelled. "He's mine!"

"But…"

"You'll only get in the way!"

"That's right!" Tyrant cackled as he threw out an arm and unleashed a torrent of flames at me. Golden Kirin skidded to a stop and conjured an earth barrier that barely withstood the superheated inferno, which immediately created a tunnel of molten lava. The boiling red and black rock flowed and snaked across the ruined shelter, and I had to mentally command Golden Kirin to summon rock blocks to seal them off from the still evacuating civilians.

"Morons," Tyrant sneered. "Always worrying about and trying to protect those garbage who are weaker than you. If you would only discard those useless baggage instead of allowing them to weigh you down, then maybe…just maybe you would stand a chance against me."

"Someone as evil as you will never understand…" Troy coughed as he rose from the rubble, wiping the blood from his mouth. "It's not about strength or weakness. Everyone has a role to play in society. Everyone has a place, a talent that no other can. It's not about having superpowers or being able to wield magic. I will never be able to repair a leaking faucet, or restore broken powerlines. I can't fix computers or find out the problem with a disrupted wi-fi. I can't cook a good meal. Yet these so-called useless people that you deride…they are what keeps society running. They are the people who provide me with food, allow my daily life to run smoothly without hiccups. If I'm in no mood to cook, I can always rely on the chef across the street to provide me a warm meal. If my computer breaks down, I can call up a technician to fix it for me. A plumber to fix my bathroom when all things go to hell. Shop at Walmart or Target when I need groceries, instead of foraging in the wild, trying to guess what's edible and what's not. We rely on each other to survive. We are all part of society, whether you like it or not. All our daily necessities, our daily lives and services…we depend on the unsung heroes…the workers, the usually unappreciated staff to keep our daily routines running smoothly while we go about our work and schools. And they in turn depend on us to protect them. It is give and take…a reciprocal relationship forged on mutual trust. You think you can survive on your own, but all you've really done is take things that people craft with their own blood, sweat and tears for yourself, and rob others. One day, it's all going to backfire on you…"

He smiled.

"But you won't live to see that happen…because I will stop you. I will end your reign of terror today, once and for all."

"Big talk, little bro. but you don't have the strength to back that up!"

Tyrant turned his back on me to visit his rage upon his younger brother. However, Troy had not been idle while he had gone on a tirade against his brother. He had been preparing his spell while Tyrant was momentarily distracted by me.

"Black Hole."

"!!?"

Tyrant jerked and faltered when he found himself suddenly sucked toward Troy's position. Troy, on the other hand, had raised a black-tinted hand and was exerting powerful gravitational forces on his brother to draw him toward him.

This was no longer Troy approaching Tyrant, but Troy dragging his brother toward him – presumably – to beat him up.

"Gravity?!"

Before Tyrant could react, Troy punched him in the gut with a rock-hardened fist. So powerful was the force behind that blow that I could literally feel tremors ripple out from the collision even from so far away.

"Gagh!?"

Blood spurted from Tyrant's mouth before the big guy was sent hurtling out of the broken shelter and crashing into a nearby building, demolishing it.

"Hmph." Troy shook his arm, even as the stone armor around his fist, which had served as a gauntlet, slowly crumbled. He flexed his fingers a few times before rubbing his bruised knuckles. "I actually felt that."

"Fuck you," Tyrant spat, a glob of blood mixed with his saliva striking the ground and hissing with smoke. He slowly rose to his feet and conjured new pillars of fire. "Seems like you've learned quite the fancy trick, little bro… Should I be proud of you?"

Troy narrowed his eyes, but he activated Black Hole again, drawing his brother back toward his position. Tyrant allowed himself to be sucked toward Troy, but he wasn't going to let himself get hit so simply again. Instead, he ignited his fists.

"Divine Flames: Seaside Aurora!"

Twin torrent of flames surged out from his hands at the same time as when Troy threw his newly gauntleted fist forward again.

Both attacks hit at the same time. As the twin torrent of hellfire speared into Troy's chest, incinerating cloth and burning the flesh underneath the scorched fabric, the earth mage's rock gauntlet slammed into Tyrant's neck with an audible crack.

"Gaah!"

Crying out, Troy fell back and clutched at his wounds, hastily trying to put out the flames. Crashing several dozen meters away and vanishing underneath another disintegrating building, Tyrant staggered to his feet amidst the rubble, blood dribbling from his mouth.

"Ugh…" he grunted as he clutched at his neck. "That blow from earlier almost broke my spine! That shitty brat…since when did he get this strong!?"

However, he shrugged off the damage and twisted around to cross his flaming fingers to cast a new fire spell.

"!!"

Even as he huffed and perspiration dripped down his face, Troy was able to glance up in time to see the attack coming.

"Holy Cross!"

"…!!!"

Gritting his teeth, Troy slammed both palms against the ground and conjured a gigantic earth wall that parried the spell. An enormous explosion enveloped the area and caused entire buildings in the district to topple from the devastating impact.

"Troy!" I yelled, hurrying over, but he threw out a hand to stop me.

"Leave this bastard to me, Richie." His tone was final and firm. He would not accept any help from me. And I would only get in the way if I tried to help…no, he might probably attack me to force me away from this battlefield. Troy wanted to personally defeat his brother with his own hands. Protagonist or not, I had to allow other characters the chance to shine. It would be incredibly stupid if I hogged all the boss fights to myself. "Protect the civilians. Escort them out of the city. Don't let any more harm befall them. Tyrant has done more than enough damage to them already. I will not allow him to hurt any more innocents."

"…"

I watched him for a moment, and then nodded. There was no changing his mind. The only help I could offer was minimizing as many casualties as possible.

"Understood. You take care of yourself…and settle your blood feud with your brother once and for all."

Troy turned to offer me a determined smile.

"Thank you."

Then he returned to his battle. I hurried away to wave the last remaining civilians onward, trying to escort them toward the rest of the mercenaries and military. There were thousands of them, and the soldiers and students escorting them were stretched to the limit.

Especially since the monsters chose that moment to crawl out of the woodwork. I could see Banshees and Gorgons emerging from behind ruined husks of buildings, the former wailing eerily and the hair-snakes of the latter hissing ferociously.

"Golden Kirin! Black Tortoise!"

I had yet to dismiss my Celestial Guardians, and they served me well, forming barriers between the newly emerged monsters and the screaming civilians. The Knights of Pendragon were quick to react, falling upon the monsters and hacking them apart. Or trying to, anyway. The rank B Gorgons, in particular, were not going to fall easily.

"Look!"

A cry drew my attention back to the skirmish behind me. The refugees were pointing toward a crashing structure, a hundred-story building collapsing downward on the district as it was drawn by irresistible gravitational forces.

Troy.

"The Trojan Skyscraper is falling…!"

"What's going on?! Are those two fighting over there…even human?"

"…our city…will there be anything left of it?"

Several of the civilians had froze, watching the demise of what was once their home. Disbelief and shock filled their weary expressions, and many were weeping, wondering if they would ever be able to live here again, even if they somehow survived getting out of the city today.

The homes they had inhabited for years…decades for many of the older residents – was crumbling right before their eyes.

Amidst the destruction and rubble, Tyrant was kneeling before Troy, heaving and panting. His body was bleeding heavily, battered by both gravitional forces and earth spells. Troy, for his part, had sustained a fair bit of damage from his older brother's fire spells, but he still somehow managed to stand despite horrendous burns and injuries.

"It's over, Tyrant!" he proclaimed, standing atop a pile of debris. Around the two of them flowed a sea of molten magma, the result of earth and fire spells colliding, merging and coalescing into superheated rock. "I have the high ground!"

Huffing, Tyrant looked up defiantly, his lips pulled back in a feral snarl.

"You underestimate my power!"

"Don't do it, Tyrant!" Troy warned. Then he grinned. "No, actually I want you to do it. Come on, try and jump at me! Give me an excuse to end your sorry life!"

"Hah! I will, even if you didn't tell me." Tyrant grinned as he forced himself to his feet despite the massive gravitational forces weighing down on him. "And the only one dying here will be you, little bro!"

Troy's eyes narrowed. "We'll see about that."

Gigantic boulders appeared above him, and he conjured a massive rock gauntlet that appeared to swell the size of his arm by several dozen times.

"Time to end this."

"For once, I concur, little bro!"

Laughing madly, Tyrant raised up both hands as he bathed himself in his own hellish flames, igniting an immense inferno that seemed to draw power from the molten magma around the both of them. Seemed like Troy wouldn't be cutting off his arms and legs and throwing him into the superheated lava, after all.

"Great Flame Commandment."

Intoning firmly, Tyrant held up his right hand and conjured an enormous fireball that was at least ten meters in diameter. Blazing red and golden, it resembled a miniature sun, enveloping the entire place in hellish flames and melting rock, earth, concrete and metal alike.

"Flame Emperor."

"!!!"

In the face of such awesome firepower, Troy remained undaunted. He raised his massive gauntleted arm and directed his boulders at the flaming sun that Tyrant had summoned, their speed and power boosted tremendously by the Black Hole that now swirled around him.

"Today, only one of us will walk out of this confrontation alive," he declared.

"Heh!" Tyrant smirked. "I will be King. Nothing you do will stop me, little bro. Fate has already ordained my rightful place as such."

The two of them then flung their massive spells at each other.

BOOM!

Even from a distance, I could see golden and red flames of a miniature sun clashing against the overwhelming darkness of a black hole.

Then the entire district vanished under the collision of such colossal forces, and was completely wiped off the face of the Earth.