Chapter 51: Chapter Fifty-one: He wears a suit and tie.
SONG RECOMMENDATION: DEVIL IN DISGUISE BY MARINO.
"Hello, brother." a spine chilling voice echoed throughout the silent courtyard. Xavriel took a step forward, coming face to face with Calithar. "Did my light stun you? Or were your just expecting someone else?"
Calithar said nothing. It had been hundreds of years since he last saw his brother. Ever since their fight, they had never seen or heard from each other. Till now...
After a few seconds, Calithar found his tongue. His face deepened into a deep frown, almost turning to a scowl. "What are you doing here?" Calithar asked hoarsely. Xavriel beamed at him like he had just found the most precious gold. "I came to see my elder brother of course. Is that too ba-"
"What do you want Xavriel?" Calithar repeated, already losing his patience.
The smile on Xavriel’s face only escalated and it made Calithar sink back in annoyance. When did he start smiling so sinisterly? Instead of replying his question, Xavriel turned to look around himself. The angry people plus the guards were still frozen in place.
"Xavriel!" Calithar’s voice boomed across the yard. There was a time he was actually patient with him but it was long gone, never to be seen again and he had come to accept that.
"I must say, what awful king must you be to have your people be so desperately in need." Xavriel said smirking. He walked towards one of the guards that stood beside the gate. Xavriel reached for his belt where his sword was sheathed and pulled it out in one swift pull. He then turned towards Calithar whose eyes never left his form.
Xavriel dragged the sword behind him, causing it to scrape noisily on the hard, cemented ground. Calithar stood his ground, not willing to move an inch even after seeing his brother with a sword. He knew how unstable his brother was as a kid but he never knew he had already gone fully crazy.
"Your people must be really... devastated. Aren’t they?" Xavriel said, still smiling as he continued walking slowly towards him.
Calithar looked like he had enough. "I don’t know what you want, Xavriel but you’re not welcome here. Get out."
Xavriel let out a loud laughter. The laughter was so loud and chilling that it didn’t seem to have an end. He went on and on, laughing his heart out as if Calithar had just said the funniest thing on the planet. Calithar stared at him with an indifferent look. Was he always like this?
"Look, Xa-"
Calithar had barely finished talking when Xavriel lunged at him. The smile, laughter, everything faded away in a heartbeat and was replaced with a hardened, evil look. He came at him faster than lightening. Calithar was taken aback for a moment and swivelled to the side to avoid his strike. If he had been just a millisecond too late, that sword would have cut right through his ear.
"Stop this at once Xavriel! Don’t make me fight you." Calithar yelled at his brother who was warming up for round too.
A grin crept up his face at his words."Don’t flatter yourself brother. I still remember what happened to you." Xavriel lunged at him fiercely this time and Calithar was ready to take him on. He pulled out his sword from his chest and sprang to meet his brother in the air.
Their blades met with a thunderous clang sending sparks flying into the air. The courtyard literally trembled as both brothers pushed against each other in fury. Xavriel charged his sword with his black magic and struck Calithar’s, sending him flying into the stone wall.
Calithar gritted his teeth. How had his brother grown so strong?
"You’ve gotten weak, brother," Xavriel hissed, twisting his blade and breaking the lock on the hilt. Calithar stumbled back, catching himself just in time as Xavriel’s sword came slicing toward his throat. He ducked, feeling the blade graze his hair, and swept his leg to knock Xavriel off balance. But Xavriel spun midair, landing catlike on the balls of his feet, laughing.
"I see you haven’t forgotten your cheap tricks!" he taunted, laughing like a maniac.
"Shutup, Levi," Calithar shot back, swinging his sword upward in a glowing arc. The air shimmered with light as his magic flared bringing golden energy bursting from the blade and slamming into Xavriel’s chest. He flew backward, crashing into the courtyard wall, cracking it like glass.
But before Calithar could breathe, Xavriel rose again, brushing the dust off his clothes with an eerie calm.
"Don’t you ever call me that," he muttered angrily, flipping his sword in his hand as his eyes turned full blood red. Shadows began to coil around him like serpents, merging with the darkness at his feet.
Calithar steadied his sword. "Don’t make me destroy you, Xavriel."
"Destroy me?" Xavriel’s smirk returned, cruel and sharp. "You should worry about yourself...brother."
Xavriel twisted midair, landing lightly on one knee before charging again. His movements were wild yet accurate. "You’ve gone soft, brother," he sneered, swinging his sword in a wide arc. "Or have your time as a lowly king dulled you?"
Calithar jumped to his feet, turning the strike aside and delivering a swift kick to Xavriel’s ribs. The impact sent him skidding backward against the cobblestones. "I’m not the one hiding behind madness!" Calithar barked. His sword began to shimmer with silver light, crackled with restrained fury. He knew he shouldn’t use his power too much as he was already weak but this brother of his was just so demanding!
Xavriel laughed cynically. "Madness? You’re finally coming out of your shell." He slammed his sword into the ground, and black energy exploded outward, cracking the stone beneath their feet. Shadowy figures lashed upward like serpents. Calithar swung his blade in a swift arc, slicing through them as waves of golden energy rippled outward from his body.
Their swords clashed again admist the smoke, each strike faster and more powerful than the last. Sparks and energy flared with every blow. Calithar ducked, slammed his elbow into Xavriel’s jaw, then followed with a fiery upward slash that seared the air. Xavriel twisted aside from the force of his sword and retaliated with a fist glowing with dark magic.
The punch landed against Calithar’s chest, sending him flying into a pillar that guarded the garden. A large cut swimming with Xavriel’s blood flowed down from his arm to his stomach. He was a demon but when struck with divine energy, that scar will remain there forever.
Calithar staggered to his feet, blood pooling at the corner of his mouth and his eyes blazing with fury. "If it’s a fight you want, Xavriel," he growled, raising his blade and supporting himself with it, "then you’ll get one." Even with all the blows and hits, Xavriel was still standing like nothing had touched him. Earlier in their fight, he had felt a burst of demonic energy far different from the one he knew him with.
Calithar knew fighting would be a loss on his part but he couldn’t surrender to him. Not in this life.
Xavriel smirked, the ground trembling under his feet as black lightning coiled around him. "Good," he whispered. "I was hoping you’d say that."
With a sudden burst of dark magic, he slammed a fist wreathed in it into his brother’s chest. The impact threw Calithar to the gate and his sword slipped from his hand. The gates broke from the pillars that held it, causing him to fall with it on the people that stood in front of it outside.
"Get up!" Xavriel shouted, approaching him in quickened, measured steps. "You’re supposed to be the great ruler! The protector of men! Where’s your godlike strength now?"
Calithar slowly rose, clutching his ribs, golden blood dripping from his lips. His gaze hardened. "Just what exactly have you done to yourself?!" Calithar screamed, fighting to get up but he couldn’t. That dark magic must have drained him of his remaining power left coupled with the fact that he had used from that same power to charge his sword.
Xavriel paused for a moment at his outburst, looking momentarily sober but it soon vanished.
"Don’t pity me!" he growled at him, resuming his advancement towards him. The air twisted from his aura turning monstrous. Xavriel took the sword he was holding and ran it through his palm before dropping it on the ground in front of him.
Black symbols burned into the ground around Calithar’s feet, forming a circle with a shallow depth around it, filled with red liquid. "You took everything from me. How dare you question my decisions!?" he growled, his eyes flaming red from pent-up anger.
Calithar’s eyes widened in horror as black, rusted chains burst from the circle, wrapping around his arms and chest. He struggled, but that only made the chains stronger as if feeding off his divine essence.
"Xavriel, stop!" Calithar shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. "Why are you doing this?!"
"Oh, I know exactly what I’m doing. I don’t want you ruining my plans later. You could say I’m...making arrangements?" Xavriel said with a smirk. He raised his hand high above his head, chanting in a foreign tongue. The sky darkened above them and thunder split through the clouds. Calithar knelt there, frozen in shock as his brother continued chanting. As a god, he was familiar with all tongues and languages. It didn’t take him long to realize he was sealing his soul with an ancient, forbidden demonic tongue.
The ground erupted as the spell completed. Calithar shouted as dark energy burst from the chains before dragging him downwards. The circle opened beneath him suddenly immediately pulling him into it before snapping shut like nothing had ever been there. The black, crawling smoke vanished together with the circle, leaving a burnt image of it on the ground.
Xavriel looked at the spot that just held the demonic circle he conjured up. The blood from the cut on his arm had dried up but the scar was still very much visible. "Damned soul." he cursed under his breath before spitting on the ground.
"Good night brother." he said, looking blankly at the marks. "...till we meet again in eternity."