The Royal palace's inner throne room.
Uriel towered over his old friends from above, casting an angelic shadow over Talen's black-haired appearance. Lily emerged from the space behind the New King's throne, letting her braided white hair briefly flow behind her, glaring down at her Unconquerable former lover. Gazing at both his ex and former best friend standing over him, Talen chuckled.
"This should be fun," he said.
Uri smirked. "I agree."
A massive golden portal formed behind the King. Exiting it was none other than a hulking Archangel disfigured in the face with multiple eyeballs and torn wings spread out its back. The angelic-Displacement lowly growled, tightly holding the lance in its right hand.
"Rank-0 Archangel Commander: Seraphim the Great." Uriel's head tilted, flashing a grin. "Try your best."
The Archangel closed the distance with a single jump, spinning the staff above its head and then swiping at the side of Talen's head. Expectedly, the Unconquerable weaved back, barely dodging the sharpness of the spear. He backflipped once, landing on his knees, crouched against the floor.
'That one's imbued with the same aura Uri used to bypass my aura.' Talen stood up. 'Not like that matters all that much to me.'
The Unconquerable rolled up his sleeves to reveal the plentiful bandages spread across his arms. Emerald Fate engulfing his figure, the lawyer sighed, slowly removing the glasses from his eyes. Talen's arm thwarted the downcast slash, glaring at the Angel from below his limb.
Seraphim's spear fell forward as the Unconquerable vanished, inexplicably appearing upside-down behind his enemy's skull. He threw his leg into the back of its head, watching his foe fly down the golden-lined throne room and crash through the wide doors. Talen watched his angelic enemy vanish, scoffing under his breath and immediately turning around, watching Uriel walk down the throne.
"What? Tired of letting your lackeys do the work?"
The New King dug his hand into a newly-opened heavenly gateway, retrieving a double-edged sword with a hilt in the middle.
"This sword is the Blade of Michael. All extinguished Archangels leave something behind for me to use. In most cases, the tool is stronger than the Angel, giving another reason to use powerful summons. Michael's Blade connects the target to its sharpness the instant the metal cuts them. After that, it can fire projectiles that decimate anyone who touches it. Because it's tied to your innermost Fate after cutting, the blasts it discharges are guaranteed to hit and therefore unblockable. That is the ability of the Archangel Michael."
Talen chuckled. "Sounds dangerous. Be sure to cut accurately, 'kay?" He dashed ahead.
Lily unhinged her jaw and raised her hand, effectively widening the male fighters' eyes.
'Predestined Power.'
She sighed with puckered lips, shooting the circumstellar dust idle in her palm into the air, manipulating it with the conditions of her aura.
'Celestial Epitome Embodiment.'
The dust morphed into a fanged beast made of stars and nebulae with long arms fitted with claws and demonic ears. The miniature Celestial turned around, glancing back at its white-haired master. Lily's hand raised with a smile.
"Been a while, huh?"
The Celestial grinned and started shuffling through the air. Hovering beside Lily, it leaned closer, nuzzling its face into her cheek. She pushed it back, stifling her giggles.
"Alright alright!" She grinned. "Now, give me everything... Warlord."
The Celestial nodded and placed both hands on its skull, easily dismembering itself to hand Lily its head. She turned it around to face the bottom, shoving her arm inside, eventually withdrawing a snow-white battle axe with engravings etched into the metal. The Enforcer's fair hair fell over her eyes in the form of strands.
"That should be it. Stay by me."
Lily threw the hatchet over her shoulder, stepping forward with Warlord's headless form attached to her rear. She looked down at Talen with one hand on her hip and a smirk.
The Unconquerable shrugged. "Your technique's troublesome, but it's inefficient. You can only maintain your command over Warlord for less than two minutes, right?" He pointed. "But you already know what happens when you falter... don't you?"
"Naturally."
Lily leaped from the throne and lowered the ax into his skull. Talen jumped away as the ground demolished, watching her advance and simultaneously twirl around her weapon. The Unconquerable's leg raised, guiding the ax by its handle so it could land on the ground. Weighed down by his foot, Lily looked up, unfortunately, to get punched across the face. Pulling back his fist to prepare for another, his chin flew back--blood infecting the surrounding air.
Despite the Unconquerable punch she'd sustained, the Enforcer quickly recovered, striking Talen upside the head and spinning around to kick him right in the chest. Catching her leg between his fingers, the lawyer's aura reshaped into tendrils, slithering into her skin and destroying her hand from within. She stepped back, feeling her ex-lover's knuckles sink into her face, launching toward the throne.
Uriel flipped over her body, cutting Tal's shoulder as he landed and jumping back once his old friend reacted. The Unconquerable glanced between his wound and the King.
'He's fast. And he managed to cut me. It'll be able to fire projectiles now that can't miss.' He healed himself with a Restoration technique, licking the remnants of blood on his lip. 'Condition-based abilities like that are seemingly unbreakable, but from what I remember, there should still be a hole. But what? What's the weakness in Uriel's ability?'
The New King's angelic Blade hummed with divine Fate. He swiped at the side of Talen's face, watching him accurately weave to the side. The Unconquerable continued dodging his enemy's imminent strokes, eventually jumping back to blast a bolt from his hand. Despite having cut it in half, for the split-second Uriel's vision was covered, Amit had vanished.
Talen swiped Barron's feet and held together his hands, smashing them into the King's open chest to etch him into the ground. Uriel held the ground, flipping back onto his feet as Lily dashed past. He fell forward, spotting the environment revert to blurs around them, feeling the girl tug on his wrist.
The Unconquerable punched Lily away, but Warlord flew above, slicing down at the top of Talen's head. Catching its talons with one hand, his aura morphed into spikes that forced through the Celestial's form and punctured its body from within. Amit tore off its arm, elbowing the Celestial in the throat, then reappearing above its head to its skull with his fist.
Warping in front of Uriel rushing ahead, Talen's pupils shrunk as he grinned. He threw a fist and watched it bleed against Michael's Blade. Teeth clenched, the King held the sword, feeling the Unconquerable's knuckles inch closer with every passing second.
"IS THAT ALL?!"
Uriel kicked his enemy away and watched him land, stepping through a portal to exit it before Talen, throwing the sword down to slice the ground. Amit's palms opened after he jumped up, pacing around the New King's build. Barron sighed longingly, summoning the extent of his aura, diagonally surrounding his body with floating golden portals.
"I see. So you've decided to go all out," the Unconquerable smirked. "You must miss me."
A huge angelic fist punched Talen through the throne room wall. Flailing into another corridor, he rolled onto the ground, jumping back up without hesitation. Aura still swaying around his build, the Unconquerable hopped continuously, watching Uriel step through the hole he'd made in the wall. The portals circling the New King layered atop each other, releasing the sharpened tips of numerous heavenly spears.
"Seriously...?"
The weapons shot through the enclosed space. In the same instant they flew, Talen rushed. Easily, he weaved around the imminent lances, eventually reaching the forefront of the King and punching him across the face. Uri's technique was briefly dispelled following the strike. The King's thumb scraped the blood leaking from his nostrils and licked it, smirking widely. Talen beamed.
Uriel intended to catch the other punch his old friend threw before it landed, but he forgot something. Because he neglected the defensive protocols imbued within the Unconquerable, the New King felt three automatic hits attack his chest, face, and arm. Talen took this opportunity to prepare his final attack, but Uriel shook his head, dispersing the shock from the automated strikes and lunging his fist into the Unconquerable's chest.
Talen skid back across the floor and smashed his back against the door at the hallway's end.
'His output's high enough to neglect the effect of my aura! I never thought he'd be able to shake it off like that--!'
His head weaved to the side. By a literal inch, Uriel's fist missed its target--stabbing the door directly behind the Unconquerable. Talen looked down at his friend, spotting the look etched into his pupils.
The reason Uriel's technique was assigned Rank-0 was because of its potential. If he ever learned to master its capabilities, he could summon an army and flawlessly topple an entire nation. But he was different. Never did he experience any sort of otherworldly enlightenment that magically mastered his Powers.
That was until today. Both seeing Talen Amit and remembering the specifics regarding the deal they'd made awoke something within Barron. Something dormant. What frightened the Unconquerable wasn't the flow of his Fate or the pressure it released.
It was something internal.
Talen ducked under another punch and kicked his friend in the gut, sprinting after Uriel as he slid across the floor. The New King and his Unconquerable opponent fought amid the destroyed corridor, occasionally releasing bursts from their aura that shook the castle's very foundation.
Talen punched at the side of his head, watching as Uriel tilted—dodging his partner's fists. Blocking it with one raised hand, the King spun around, defending against another kick the Unconquerable initiated. The King grabbed Talen by the fist and threw him around by the arm, inevitably pulling him closer to land a hearty uppercut on the Unconquerable's chin.
Talen shot through the ceiling and landed in Uriel's hand snatched the lawyer by his hair, throwing him into another portal that led into a concrete wall. Amit smashed through the wall and fell forward, spewing blood from his mouth onto the floor. Invoking his aura imbued with a Restoration technique, Talen healed gradually.
Until Uriel finished walking up the stairs and stepped around the corner. Once again, his angelic Power was summoned and a golden portal opened. The King shoved his hand in, withdrawing the divine Blade of Michael.
What frightened the Unconquerable wasn't the flow of Uriel's Fate or the pressure it released. It was what resurfaced when he weld a sword. A swordsman dormant within thirsty for a drink of a bloody battlefield.
The New King looked down at Talen. "Do you concede?" he asked.
"Heh," Talen chuckled. He slowly stood up. "Of course not."
He scoffed. "I tire of this." He threw Michael's Blade aside. "Talen. We're not our parents. We don't have to remain silent and work through our problems with nothing but violence." Uri peered through his hair at the Unconquerable lawyer across from him.
"The truth is, I needed you. I was scared. I thought what I was fighting for was just, but when it turned out to be wrong, I didn't know what to do. That's why I came to you. And now I stand before you again in the present, paralleling that forsaken future as you leak blood from your wounds. In the end, it's your choice, Talen. What do you want to do from here?"
Amit's eyes glimmered. "B-but I don't understand. I thought you had a dream to accomplish! You wished to be the King and right your father's wrongs with the Crown, right? I didn't agree with your methods at first, but the way things are going now, you might change Barronia for the better. To abandon your dream for the sake of myself… that's—"
"Inconsequential. Atlas threatens the whole of my kingdom. Setting aside some petty conflict I had with my best friend is a small price to pay to be able to protect my subjects. We're the strongest. Aren't we?" Uri closed his eyes with a soft smile. "We're the ones who chose to protect Anthony's future. With Alora, that is. Don't you remember?"
Tal's breath hitched. "That's really what you want?" His voice shakily queried.
The King nodded.
"Well," Tal rubbed his nape. "Alright. I hate to pry so if you've already made up your mind then…" In an instant, he advanced Uriel and made his way past Uriel. "Let's get started."
Return of the strongest duo.
Trivia: Talen and Uriel are cousins. But they've known each other since before they knew the Barron-Amit Families were related, so they mostly think of themselves as best friends, not family members. Everyone knows white and black hair duos are the best.