Ayu raised her hand. Her fingers snapped lightly, and the world shifted.
The sky over Grimoir City blackened as rolling thunderclouds swallowed the light. Lightning forked across the heavens, thunder shaking the earth. The wind howled like a living thing, tearing through the forest as if the world itself bent to her will.
"So, my dear sister… You've decided to come." Zeyn said, his crimson chakra humming around him.
Her golden serpent eyes narrowed. 'We offered you mercy. Yet you repay us with insolence.'
The trees groaned and bent under the force of her winds.
"Mercy? You call trading lives an opportunity?" Zeyn's voice cut through the gale, laced with fury.
Lightning struck again, closer this time. His jaw tightened, a bead of sweat trailing down his cheek. Not from fear, but from the suffocating pressure radiating off his sister. Her command of the skies, her effortless dominion over the human body itself… she was every bit the second queen of this cursed kingdom.
*Blarrr! Blazzzt!
Down in Dewi Ijo village, no one dared step outside. Families cowered behind closed doors as the storm raged. The village chief and elders stood on the veranda, faces pale as they gazed at the heavens.
"Will we survive this?" one elder muttered.
"Show some respect," another snapped. "That boy has saved us more times than we can count!"
"And yet, it's him who kept people from entering the forest to begin with! If he'd let them through, none of this—"
"Fool! We can also get killed if we just interfere!"
Their voices rose in heated debate, but the chief remained silent, eyes fixed on the storm. "…Zeyn," he murmured, worry etched into his face.
* * *
Back in the forest, the ground trembled beneath Ayu's presence. The creatures of Vasukih Forest could only watch from a safe distance, awe and terror mingling in their stares.
'Fall back! Clear the area!' a buffalo-headed guardian bellowed.
The swarm of astral beings scattered into the trees, leaving only Zeyn, Ayu, and the last of her palace guards. A cluster of silent, armored Lizardmen.
'This is between us,' Ayu's voice cracked through the storm like a whip. 'Stand down.'
The guards exchanged glances, then retreated, taking to the skies.
Zeyn exhaled slowly, chakra swirling around him in a protective shield. He braced himself, shoulders squared, eyes locked on his sister. "Whatever path I've chosen… I'm prepared to see it through."
Their glares clashed like blades, the sheer force of their auras making the earth shudder and trees splinter. Crimson and obsidian energy collided in the air, sparks of lightning crackling between them.
*KRRK! BZZZT!
A lightning bolt tore down from the sky with a deafening roar, aimed straight at Ayu. She caught it with one hand, molding the searing current into a spear of pure electricity.
'I won't hold back.' Her voice was calm, but the storm surged around her like a beast unleashed.
"Good," Zeyn said, his voice low. "Neither will I."
She vanished in a blink, reappearing behind Zeyn with speed like a thunderclap. Her fist shot forward.
*THUD!
Zeyn spun, one arm snapping up to block the strike.
Their clash turned feral. Blow after blow, fist met fist, shockwaves bursting from each collision. Ayu's serpent tail lashed out like a whip, slicing through the air as she swept it toward Zeyn. He ducked, countered, his own strikes pushing her back.
The storm roared above them, the world itself seeming to recoil as the siblings traded blows, neither willing to yield an inch.
*BAGH! CRACK!
Every clash between them detonated like an explosion, shockwaves ripping outward, flattening the earth. Trees snapped like twigs. Rocks split apart. The air trembled under the weight of their blows.
She pressed forward. 'Is that truly all you've got, little brother?'
"Don't get cocky!" Zeyn growled, sidestepping a vicious strike.
Ayu's smirk only widened. Her fists blurred, tail sweeping like a whip, but Zeyn met each strike with precision, countering and weaving through the onslaught. Neither could land a decisive blow—until one of her punches slipped past his guard.
*BAGH!
The impact slammed into his chest like a hammer, sending him hurtling backward, tearing through soil and splintered roots before he dug his feet into the ground, skidding to a stop.
"Khh…!" Zeyn coughed, blood streaking the corner of his lips.
And Ayu still hadn't used the thunder spear glowing ominously in her hand.
'If you don't start taking this seriously… you'll die,' she warned.
Zeyn wiped his mouth, but his grin sharpened instead of faltering. "Big sister, you keep talking like you're my executioner… yet you've been holding back this whole time. That thunder in your hand—is it just for show?"
The challenge hung heavy in the storm. No mortal could hope to withstand a true lightning strike, and they both knew it.
For a moment, Ayu's slit-pupiled eyes narrowed. A heavy sigh left her lips, the sound almost lost in the howl of the wind. Then she raised her hands, murmuring a chant in a language older than the forest itself. Each syllable crackled with otherworldly power, resonating through the trees.
*Ckrrrzzttt...
Shadows coalesced, twisting into the shape of a bow in her left hand—vast, dark, its surface wreathed in black fire. The bowstring pulsed with a blinding blue glow, humming with lethal energy.
Zeyn's gaze flickered. "So… you're finally serious."
The lightning spear in Ayu's right hand twisted, reshaping into a colossal arrow, arcs of electricity snapping along its length like angry vipers. Her golden eyes fixed on him from across the shattered clearing—only nine meters away.
'What about you? Or have you exhausted yourself with your previous spectacular action earlier?' she taunted.
Crackling energy coiled around the weapon, every bolt bright enough to blind. The ground itself trembled as she drew the bowstring back, the tension humming through the air like a drumbeat of impending doom.
Zeyn closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. "Have you?"
Ayu's lips curved in something between a smirk and a snarl. 'Then perish...'
*BLRRZZZT!
The arrow screamed through the storm, a line of death moving faster than sight, faster than thought. The world erupted as it hit.
*BLAZZZT!
Everything vanished in a white-blue blaze. Trees vaporized. Stone split and melted. The river boiled into steam. The earth itself caved beneath the impact, as though a piece of the sun had struck Vasukih Forest. The blast's heat scorched everything within five hundred meters, searing the land black.
Only Ayu, wielder of the weapon, stood untouched amidst the devastation.
Her attack was cleaner, sharper—its single strike carving a wound into the world far deeper than his storm of destruction.
"…So, this is all you've got, sister?"
Zeyn's voice came from her flank—low, mocking.
Ayu spun, but too late.
*DAGH!
His foot slammed into her ribs, the impact rattling her bones. She staggered, breath catching as pain shot through her chest.
'Ukhh…!'
"That's one."
Another kick, this time to her abdomen. The searing force rippled through her, making her vision blur.
"Two."
*DAGH!
Each blow was sharper, heavier, his movements precise. The crimson aura around Zeyn deepened, shifting to a dark, almost black hue. His eyes glowed like burning coals in the storm-dark forest as his strikes landed one after another, each attack carrying enough raw chi to shatter bones—or organs—on impact.
"Three."
The serpent queen's body buckled, her scaled form trembling with every hit. Zeyn's blows weren't just physical. Each kick, each punch, was laced with a lethal charge of energy, making even his simplest strikes devastating. A normal human wouldn't survive even one.
"And four!"
Ayu's laugh was a low, crackling hiss, her fangs flashing. 'You're getting carried away.'
Electricity erupted across her skin as sparks crawled over her arms and coils. Before Zeyn could retreat, she wrapped him in a sudden, crushing embrace—her tail tightening, her body a conduit of living lightning.
*CHZZZT!
The air exploded with blinding light and raw static. Thunder cracked so close it felt like the sky itself was breaking apart. Both siblings convulsed in the blast, their auras clashing violently as energy ripped through them.
"Urghhh—! Haah!" Zeyn gasped, his body searing as the current surged.
Ayu tilted her head back, her hands raised toward the storm above. Another thunderbolt descended, slamming into her like a divine strike.
*BLARRZTT!
The bolt didn't harm her. It fed her. Her wounds sealed. Her energy flared, erupting into a brilliant sheath of crackling blue lightning that coated her like living armor. The queen of the forest stood revitalized, power radiating from every scale.
Zeyn, meanwhile, collapsed to one knee, his body still twitching from the shock. His breath came ragged, smoke curling from his clothes. "You… can… do that?"
Without looking at him, Ayu extended her hand. Her massive black bow rose from the ground, flying obediently into her grasp.
Her golden eyes softened—almost affectionately—as she regarded her brother. 'To match my speed, you've learned to scatter your molecules and accelerate. To strike me, you've converted all your energy into raw destruction.'
A quiet sigh left her lips—not scornful, but proud. 'But you forgot one thing. When you pour everything into offense… your defenses vanish.'
"Heh, good analysis... for a non-human creature."
Her smile was gentle, almost pitying. 'Did you think your sister wouldn't notice?'
Zeyn forced himself upright, trembling, his chakra flickering like a dying flame. Rage and frustration twisted across his face. He had prepared for this battle… but miscalculated. Badly.
Ayu lifted her bow, the sky above her writhing with black clouds.
*BLRRZZZT!
Bolts converged, coalescing into the shape of a colossal blade. An obsidian sword wreathed in lightning, dwarfing them both as it descended slowly, ominously, into her hand.
'Shall we finish this, little brother?'
Zeyn grit his teeth. "Tch… Damn it."
Her voice, calm and cutting, carried over the storm. 'You're a hundred years too early to stand against me. You wasted your trump card on creatures beneath me, and now you think mere defense will save you?'
The blade pulsed, the storm's eye swirling above them, as if the heavens themselves were watching.
'Tell me, Zeyn…' Ayu's lips curved into a razor-thin smile. 'Will you kneel, or will you burn?'
The sword began to descend.
* * * *