"H-He... is my elder brother. Ryuga Takagi."
"I-I'm sure! It's you, Ryuga nii-chan!"
Ryuga elevates his sword and targets it towards Zen's living corpse, so he can nail Zen into the ground with the blade. Nervousness and chaos surrounds the mind of Zen as he desperately tries to get up and make his brother recognize him again, his knees rustle against the ground, he cannot stand up.
"W-What're you, what are you doing?! It's-- It's me! Zen! Zen Takagi!!"
"I'm your Little brother!--"
"And?"
"What is so special about it?"
Ryuga puts Zen's crumbling sounds to a stop with his pressure.
"It may be worth lives for you to see me alive right now, but to see you, is worth nothing to me. Worthless little brother, you only pose as a disappointment."
"You're a walking regret."
His eyes dropped dead, and his face deformed to pale.
"Y-you're lying."
The harsh words struck through a fragile chest, leaving a scar to the heart. It is unbelievable...
Ryuzu struggled to get back on her feet as she used her sword as support and let go of the dust she gripped in her hand.
"D-Damn it! I have to... argh...!"
Several sparks of lightning cracked through the void sky and penetrated the dark clouds roaming in an endless black. The storm raged even more with every harsh blow of the wind. Darkness witnessed an evil far greater than it, Takagi Ryuga.
"W-What are you even talking about?! Come on! Let's- Let's just go home already! F-Forget this!" Zen requested with sorrowful efforts.
"Home?"
Ryuga replied back.
"Right, home... Tell me, fragile brother. You do have the memories of the wreck and ruin Althon was turned into, right?"
"The night full of tremor where people were tortured and traumatized, shattered and broken, in pain and anguish. It was all because of me." He revealed a fact he had hid.
"It was all planned by me and because of me. I was the one who showed Althon a demonstration of life in hell. From the explosion in the village to where I was taken away and you were left all alone, everything was weaved by me."
Zen's eyes widened as he is in a big shock and starts to pant heavily due to the sudden pressure he feels. He cannot access his own state of mind due to Ryuga's heavy words.
"No... That's a l-lie, of course... You're testing me. R-Right?"
Ryuga steps closer and lowers down to Zen's face as he looks at him in the eye directly, Zen flinches.
"I killed them all. I killed everybody. Get it."
"The only living remains are the once who escaped my wrath, and after that, I've been finding and killing them all too! Zen! I KILLED THEM ALL TOO!"
Ryuga smirks like a maniac with wide eyes right in the face of his scared little brother. Zen struggles to stop his tears as his eyes look towards Ryuga in bare disbelief. Zen's trembling hands suddenly harden and rise toward's Ryuga's face as his tears fly out of his eyes.
"W-Wait!! No!" Ryuzu runs from the back as fast as she can and yells with a panting voice struggling to reach out,
"Yeah." Ryuga smirked,
He instantly kicks Zen with fatal force in the abdomen, knocking him into a thick tree while Ryuzu instantly appears behind Ryuga with her sword over the shoulder, ready to chop off his head with pure anger. Ryuga dodged every single attack and fluently makes his moves through the blade Ryuzu kept swinging on him.
"Fighting further will only result to dying in vain... Nohara Ryuzu."
"Nishiki's offspring is utterly pathetic." He mocked Ryuzu.
She snaps as her eyes widen in pure anger, and she grips her sword even tighter. Ryuga is now locked as a big target to Ryuzu's sword as she starts to attack faster. Between the midst of sharpness, Ryuga bluntly unsheathes his blade towards Ryuzu, launching the handle right into her stomach and blowing her far away in the woods again. Such immense power by only a bit from the handle's edge.
Ryuzu gets knocked out and falls nearby Zen, as her blade gets pinned down in the ground.
One knock, one shot.
Zen's bleeding head covers his eyes but when he opens them, the blood on his body isn't his... But of Ryuzu next to him.
"Ryuzu...?"
"R-RYUZU! RYUZU!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
He gets up and rushes towards Ryuzu as he notices the fatal bleeding through her torso.
"Ryuzu..."
Lightning sparked.
"She was only protecting me from danger, and I'm the one who put her in this situation."
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!!"
"Takagi..."
"Ryuga."
Zen grabs the sword as he directly runs towards his brother with big steps of rage and a murder intent in his once crying eyes. He instantly dashes towards Ryuga from a long distance. His frail and weak palms grip on the instrument of a strong warrior, but as the adrenaline pumps through, his blood boils hotter. He hands start to swing a sword all by them self.
"Why?! Why did you do this?! What did you earn, WHAT DID YOU ACHIEVE?! RYUGA?!"
"YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!"
Frustration which bottled up to the maximum came out like a heavy load from within Zen's heart, as he randomly swung his sword towards his older brother, he had no skill nor no tactics to use here. It was purely pathetic.
"The truth then! Zen!" Ryuga yelled back in enjoyment as he blocked all of the attacks and pushed Zen back.
"It's obvious! To obtain The Lost Piece of The Black Sun."
Ryuga steps back in his zone of calmness and sheer seriousness.
"The thing which is sealed in the center of the village?! Why do you even need it?!" Zen questioned,
"I am a user of the Sun. But, what I really desire is the Black-Sun. To join it with the other piece of Black-Sun I possess, and then... 'I' shall reweave the 'chosen fate' of destiny, into a world of Death. A world, full of Rakshas!" Ryuga answered back.
"How... How are you going to change it into a better future by turning everyone into a Rakshas?!"
"Humans are foolish and pathetic weaklings, they are sickening to me till the core. I desire everyone to be a powerful god like me, with eternal life. But that still, does not meet my 'true intentions'."
"The Lost Piece Of The Black-Sun is the heart of the God, Ashura. Who was sealed and killed millenniums ago, when he will be awakened, then, no matter what time, day or night..."
"Anyone under the Black-Sun turns into a Rakshas."
"T-This..." Zen stutters.
"Was your intentions all along...?"
Ryuga's after image wave an Hello to Zen as his real self appears right in front of him and kicks him in the stomach again.
"G-Gah!!" Zen coughs out blood.
Ryuga stops right by where Zen lands, as he speaks to him, "Let's explain you the rules now,"
"Haah... haah, w-what the hell...?"
"Last time we attacked, we were unsuccessful... Why? Because the many of the people of the village had escaped. We were unable to find them, leading to the failure of my plan. We couldn't murder every single citizen of Althon."
"My plan requires mass genocide." Ryuga stated, "The curse mark on your palm,"
Zen realizes about the strange symbol which grew on his palm an year ago or two, and looks at it.
"That's it. That's the mark you get by the age of seven or above, once you grow that mark, it will remain with you forever, acting as a source to protect Althon's seal."
"Seal...?"
"It acts as a seal, once all people with this curse mark are killed, the seal on the Lost Piece of the Black-Sun will be removed and can be achieved only then. People who develop these marks acts as a protective resistant from breaking the seal on the Lost Piece, the mark uses their souls as source of energy. So they have to die, for the seal to be removed."
"However, Rakshas cannot enter the barrier which is casted upon Althon. The Lost Piece has casted a barrier around the village too. We had our ways to get in, though. Ordinary people cannot enter or leave the village without special rituals."
"Why did you not kill me that time...?" Zen asked,
"Worthless little brother, you were never useful to begin with. Nor was your blood any worthy to my bloodthirsty blade, you were only a puppet and had no mark."
"But it seems like Althon's radiation and effects were still on you, and you developed the mark."
"That's why I'm here to kill you now."
Realizing the dark and sinful actions planned by his brother, Zen falls into a deep pit of rage which pumps through his heart, with renewed hate every moment flowing through his entire body. Only and only, for Ryuga Takagi.
"After 3 years, in the month of MARCH. The barrier weakens again."
"The people have already recovered and Althon is back on it's feet again. The escaped have come back and grew even more! This Time, I won't fail, will I?" Ryuzu mocked Zen.
"You..."
"You fucking sinner." Zen cursed,
"Huh? Hah! Haha! That's Right!" Ryuga laughed,
Zen's rage turns into white flashing slashes throughout the air and void, as they surround Zen with a powerful force and ends the smile to Ryuga's face. He gets surrounded by overwhelming and uncontrollable lightning, breaking the ground near him and shattering into atoms. The sword which Zen had held started to absorb heat and light.
Zen who hadn't noticed this immense power around him, only poured tears from his eyes in rage, as he yelled with his thirsty hatred towards Ryuga.
"MARK MY WORDS! RYUGA TAKAGI! I WILL KILL YOU AND CUT YOU OFF FROM THIS WORLD, YOU MONSTER! I WON'T EVER LET YOU ACCOMPLISH YOUR GOAL! YOU FREAKING RAKSHAS!!"
Ryuga sways his sword in the air as he opens his arms, his eyes widen in excitement and he grins evilly.
"You think you are any above me, Zen?!" Ryuga screamed with fighting spirit.
"Come!"
Zen suddenly disappears from his position and zaps through the distance till Ryuga, setting all the trees on sparks of fire through the lightning as he screams at the top of his lungs.
"HYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Zen screamed in rage!
"RYUGA!!"
"Zen!!" Ryuga yelled back,
He couldn't see Ryuga's aura grow anymore even when the situation gets tense, yet even normally.
His Aura...
Is The Strongest...
Ever.
Before they both clash, Zen disappears from the lightning armor and gets behind Ryuga, as what clashes into him is the Thunder Zaps, Zen left behind. Ryuga instantly neutralizes them all. Yet the wind which had been pushed together with Zen had also pushed back Ryuga.
Ryuga turns around to see Zen running far from him with his great lightning speed, as his eyes widen in anger.
As he ran, he cried again for the last time.
"Ryuga nii-chan... No..."
"You're no more him..."
"You've lost your name, brother..."
"I Hate You To Death."
"But, I'm sorry brother... I'm sorry!" Zen thought to himself while running.
Ryuga readied his legs instantly for a long run, and bursts towards Zen's direction. He quickly reaches the spot where he had knocked down Ryuzu, only to not find her there anymore.
"He used his 'Come, fight me' acting as a bait to trick me and escape..." Ryuga thought,
Ryuzu in his hands, and his legs high up in the sky, Zen carried Ryuzu and jumped far away from Ryuga to make an escape.
"I see... reaching out to you now is pointless and ruins the fun."
"I'll wait for you! Zen!"
"23rd of March 3 years from now! Kill me! Make it your goal! Your...
Ryuga mumbled to himself,
"Your only goal..."
Tears rained down to the ground from Zen's pearl whites as he kept jumping from the trees to the sky with the help of his newly unlocked power. He charged with lightning and rushed home in the dark night as fast as he could, successfully escaping his death this time, Ryuga,
"I am sorry... because..."
"This is the last time..."
"We met and said goodbye to each other..."
"As Brothers..."