"A child who is not accepted by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." — Anonymous
In the darkness of the night, he looked at the city where he was born, at its smoking ruins. He had arrived too late. Wearing light armor and a loose robe, he watched the panorama of the city burning in the darkness. He clenched his fingers tighter around his sword, which he liked to call Sin. Red runes glowed on its surface, testifying to its owner's fury.
They had failed them. The aspect of anger had indeed awakened. It was one of the most dangerous beings he knew.
He moved forward as the people around him fled and screamed in panic. He calmly headed in the direction they were running from. He feared the worst. If the demon had awakened indeed, then his brother had failed. But he couldn't allow himself to think such thoughts. His brother was the strongest of them all. Surely he was still fighting.
He make haste, the main square was close. He quickened his pace, but his years of training told him to save his strength for the fight.
He reached the stone square. The flames here were dying down, indicating that this was where the tragedy had begun. The square was deserted. Wood crackled, illuminating a lone figure in the middle. He stopped abruptly and took a defensive position.
The man had his back to him, yet he recognized him.
— Ferag — he said quietly, lowering his weapon.
The man in the middle of the square turned to look at him. He held the same blade in his right hand as he does, but the runes on its edge had changed, as the man who hold it.
— Kun, you've come just in time. I was beginning to worry that you would miss my moment of glory.
Kun sighed with fear and gasped for the acrid air around them. It took him a moment to understand the meaning of this words. There was no spawn, only the man standing in front of him.
— No, it can not be...! — he shouts, feeling his hands tremble.
— Sad, I always had you as the sharper mind of us two. — Admitted the figure, staggering at the palm of his hand. — Can't you see that? They lied to us Kun. -
He lifted his black steel marked with red runes.
— These blades are not a curse, nor even a blessing. — The man continued speaking, as he was coming closer, so that in the light of the flickering flames Kun could finally see his face. Hidden behind his long dark hair, his face betrayed no anger, which leaked through the blade of his hand, illuminating it ghastly. He spoke to him in a shaky voice, through clenched teeth.
— They are the key to all this brother! How could I not see this before....
Kun lowered his head, unable to look at his brother, who was just smiling in front of him, as if something wonderful had happened.
— What are you talking about? Look around, everything is burning, you killed all those people!
He pointed to the bodies in the square, frozen in panic and burned. His brother paused for a moment, looking coldly at the dead bodies.
He shrugged his shoulders.
— They made me do it Kun. I came home, and do you know what I heard from our Father?
Kun's eyes opened wider. Their father... Yes he could hit Ferag enough to make him go far. Too far. He was not a pleasant type of person, but what Ferag did....
— He said that I would never control my anger, that I was a failure! — growled with contempt.
— They told me to give it back. — He spoke more calmly after a moment, lifting the mysterious weapon and examining its blade.
— Then I understood. Anger is not something I have to control, it is something that needs to be set free. That's why I gave him what he deserved and...
Ferag smiled at his brother, and his eyes flashed the same unstoppable red as runes on his blade. Kun understood that the man in front of him had killed them all... their entire family, everyone around them. He had become the kind of monster he had sworn to destroy.
With a roar, drowned out by the flames around him, Kun charged at his brother. Heat shot through his body, throwing him like lightning. With a crash, he appeared at his opponent's throat in a split second. His brother didn't move, looking straight into his brother eyes until the very last moment. He smiled as if he had been waiting for this attack.
Ferag's eyes flashed red, anger beginning to spill out of them, reflecting the violent storm raging inside him. Their swords growled softly as they collided with a violent crash, too loud for the force of the impact. No wonder, they didn't need strength to kill, their anger was enough.
With tears in his eyes, Kun struck again and again, while his brother parried with unprecedented ease, as if he had shed a burden. As if he had finally shown him the full extent of his abilities. They moved quickly and powerfully, two streaks of light racing across the ruins with a roar. In that brief moment, he remembered their training sessions together.
Irritated, he made a stronger cut, the runes on his blade flashing with living fire. He struck with it, and for a moment it became as bright as day, when almost at the same moment a thunderclap shattered the rock, melting it. The force of the impact knocked his brother down. Ferag closed his eyes in pain, looking so familiar at that moment... The red on his sword faded. He stopped dead in his tracks, realizing that he couldn't kill him.
His brother opened his eyes wide and swung his huge sword. He had the advantage of reach, so he should have kept him close. Kun dodged, spinning over his left shoulder and ending up behind him. However, his brother had anticipated this. He struck him in the face with his elbow, knocking him to the ground. Dazed, he felt the world blur as another wave of pain washed over him.
His brother kicked him with inhuman force, sending him flying across the square. He only came to a stop when he hit a wooden pole, sending sparks flying.
He began to choke on the smoke billowing from the building behind him. He couldn't get up; the force of the blow had knocked him down, perhaps breaking something. His body needed a moment to recover. His brother was walking toward him, his steps were heavy. He looked at the man possessed by his own sword, gliding inexorably toward him.
— You were supposed to be better than all of us. The people you killed. Arrrh... They believed in you!
The man stopped right in front of him, and the twisted runes on his blade seemed to dim as he became sad and looked away.
— You're right. But that doesn't change the fact that in the end, they rejected me, Kun. — He said this with an absent look. — Even our mother. You're lucky you didn't need to hear what she called me.
He smiled, turning toward him.
— But you're still here.
He reached out his free hand to help him get up. At that moment, it was hard to tell what he had become. Was he his protective older brother? The same one who had just killed their mother... and the father he had defended him from years ago? The one who was now reaching out to him.
— Come with me, little brother. — he encouraged him.
No! His brother wouldn't do that, he was gone. He held out his open hand to the side, summoning his blade to you. It began to fly towards him, cutting through the air with a characteristic growl.
His brother withdrew his hand with disdain.
— I thought you would understand me, brother.
— I do, but I no longer have a brother! — he exclaimed as his sword finally found its way into his hand.
He forced himself to straighten up and made a quick forward cut. Ferag dropped his weapon and did not defend himself. He allowed himself to be pierced. In a fit of rage, he pushed him hard, killing his defenseless brother.
He let go of the hilt, breathing heavily. He stared wide-eyed at the figure in front of him. Did he just killed his only brother?!
His brother, however, remained calm and looked at the stab wound his brother was staring at so intently. The wound in the middle of his chest was surrounded only by a dark red glow, which he initially mistook for blood. Ferag pulled it out of his chest with a sigh. There was no trace of the wound, as if he had stabbed a ghost!
The man threw the sword aside with anger.
— A blade soaked in anger cannot kill me, Kun. But you clearly didn't know that and were ready to do it...
He hit him in the face, hard. Just like he always did when he wanted to teach him something. He heard the crunch of a broken nose and fell to the ground again.
He looked numbly at his brother, who was now straddling him, not letting him get up, and took out an ordinary knife behind him.
— I have a sword worthy of the gods, and I'll have to kill you with this piece of shit... — He didn't even look at him as he said this, as if he didn't want to participate in what was about to happen.
He began to press down on him, and Kun grabbed him with his bare hand. He didn't have the strength to stop him. He was only delaying the inevitable. He remembered how they had started out together, the years at the academy, imagining their great and glorious deaths. He couldn't be stabbed, pinned to the ground with an ordinary kitchen knife, not after everything he had been through!
— I'm sorry, brother, but I won't be able to kill you with my runic blade either. — replied Ferag. — Our anger is... too similar.
He pressed harder, the knife relentlessly approaching him, and through his broken nose, he croaked out a single word, full of anger.
— Ferag!!!
The knife twisted inside him, and he felt his life leaving him, but not his anger and resentment towards his brother.