The Cult Pt. 3

Among bricks, knocked to the ground, we woke up inside a house, a woman poking us.

“Are you okay, young man?” asked the lady.

“Argh... I-I... Sorry... your house...”

“It's okay, I saw everything. Let me help you.”

Helping us up, I saw only a red lightning bolt coming our way. Raising our mana, I dodged the furious punch, pushing Bourne back. If we were going to fight, we should do it in the square, where it was open.

At an unbelievable speed, we moved practically teleporting between the streets of the city.

I don't know if I can keep up with such a fast fight, Shi-nii.

While I took care of the mana, Tadashi was in charge of the body.

A punch to the stomach, a kick to the face, an elbow to the chest — for every attack we blocked, two more hit us.

The berserk in front of us, in a flurry of punches, managed to hit us several times. A black eye, a broken tooth, a fractured rib.

We were being slaughtered.

Even with that bubbling, reddish energy, which aspired to tremendous rage, Bourne's face was neutral — without any expression.

His controlled breathing was a paradox to his uncontrolled mana.

“Under my command, let the drums of the sky sound: Sonic Thunder!” Tadashi decided to try something new.

Bourne didn't dodge, just tanking the entire damage, heading straight for us to attack.

We were managing to draw blood from him too, but the pain seemed to affect Tadashi much more than him. It was obvious that it wasn't our unbearable cousin there, but an artificially created monster.

“Bourne, I don't know what they did to you, but you have to fight...”

The answer was a punch that knocked us down. On the ground, a barrage of punches to our faces hit us.

“I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!”

Saliva and blood were splattered everywhere as our enemy screamed — the sound almost bursting our eardrums.

Deep in his eyes, I could see that he blamed us for what he had been through.

What happened after that punch? What could have happened?

“Bourne—” Tadashi tried to speak, taking another punch. “I'm sorry—” an even bigger attack.

Shi-nii... it hurts so much... I can't...

I was manipulating the pain receptors in our bodies, trying to lower their signals so we could focus on the fight, but it was too much pain.

I, who was so afraid of suffering, was being shielded by Tadashi, his consciousness taking every drop of pain upon himself.

At first I thought it was just some kind of reflex... but... no.

He was doing it consciously.

Full force in my right arm. I engaged every available muscle fiber, and Tadashi initiated the movement.

“KILLER PUNCH!”

An explosive punch threw our enemy backwards. Bourne was thrown into the middle of the plaza, colliding with some tents that were there. Staggering, he got up, coming face to face with the sword stuck in the ground. Instinctively, seeing a weapon, he grabbed the blade, trying to lift it.

Raising his mana, he slowly tried, the blade rising a little, until it fell back to the ground.

Taking advantage of the berserker's lack of attention, Rush returned to the fight:

“For every drop of my being, I summon justice in its purest form on earth. Light and darkness meet in a waltz: Twilight Prison!”

A prison cage, each bar made of pure darkness and light alternately, encompassed Bourne entirely.

Nervous, he began to bang on the cage, which seemed not only to withstand the damage, but to return it. Rush, removing a wand that held his hair, like a conductor, raised his hands, suddenly dictating a pause.

The rain that was falling in torrents stopped at the mage's movement, the drops beginning to clump together in various segments.

“Under my command, water becomes as cold as my soul in the presence of my enemy: Freeze!”

The floating segments of rain became ice stakes, and one by one, they began an assault on Bourne. Through the cracks in the magical prison, thousands of ice stakes arrived at high speed.

Even with so much damage, the thick mana armor that projected itself onto Bourne held. But if it continued like this, he would lose.

We still tried to get up, all our bones and tendons screaming for us to just stay on the ground.

Far away, out of our field of vision, Dr. Agnes watched the fight, tears streaming from her eyes. At first they were tears of happiness, but gradually they turned to tears of terror.

"No... NO, MY MASTERPIECE. THEY'RE MASSACRING HER. I-I... I NEED TO HELP!“ Using a small pocket computer, she typed a counterattack. ”I put this in just to test it, but it'll have to work."

An implant in Bourne's vocal cords began to resonate, forcing him to say these exact words:

“By my command, I invoke: SUPERNOVA.”

Several other implants seemed to put him in the right position and even the right mindset to cast that spell. Energy began to leak from every pore of Bourne's skin, as if unable to contain its power: A ball of fire began to project out of Bourne, a huge explosion beginning.

The cage under tremendous power was broken, the ice and rain evaporating. Rush tried to run, but was also caught in the explosion.

Getting up, I saw that our friend had been hit.

“R-Rush!”

Until then, our power had been suppressed. We didn't want to really hurt our cousin. We didn't want our bodies to be overwhelmed by magical energy to the point of hurting ourselves. We didn't want that... in the past.

I abandoned everything... Dad, Mom, Asaka, my love for Chiyo... everything to be here. And for what? To see my only friend get hurt?

“NO! THAT'S NOT WHY I CAME HERE!” Tadashi shouted, his voice echoing until it reached Bourne.

Bourne, his clothes torn, was walking towards us, smoke coming out of every pore of his body.

There were no longer any limits to how much mana I could use.

Tadashi and I became one.

One soul, without separation.

We were one with Zero.

With his eyes glowing yellow, Zero also walked toward his enemy. Unlike Bourne, who was raising his energy, showing off what he could do, we concentrated all our energy at our fingertips.

“KILL... YOU!” he said, advancing.

In one clear movement, we threw a small, singular sphere in his direction.

He didn't dodge, just kept going forward. The sphere collided with his tremendous aura of power, not breaking, but instead being absorbed into the flame of his mana.

Our small attack penetrated to the core of his soul, dictating a simple message:

“DEATH!”

Suddenly, Bourne stopped advancing, all his energy beginning to attack him. Like a million needles, each magical particle had the task of penetrating every area of his body, causing as much damage as possible.

“W-what is t-this?”

“A magical parasite. A mana cancer. Call it what you will.”

The more nervous he became, the more his mana rose, and consequently, the more damage was caused throughout his body.

“I am the one who never loses. The final destination. All who have encountered me have knelt before me.” As we said this, Bourne fell to his knees. “Your soul conspires against you, there is nothing you can do but accept me... I will kill y—”

At the last second, when the damage was becoming almost fatal, Tadashi separated himself from me. In a single movement, he caused that energy to disperse, leaving Bourne still alive.

Our cousin fell unconscious and exhausted. There was not a shred of consciousness or mana left to lift that body. Still, he was alive.

“I'm sorry... I lost myself for a moment, Tadashi...” I said, seeing the unnecessary damage I had done to our relative.

“It's okay... I lost control too...” said Tadashi, putting his hand on his head.

Together, with our third eye, we perceived Rush's scarce soul. Running to her, we found someone in as critical a state as our cousin.

“Rush? Are you...” Tadashi stopped talking, realizing she was unconscious.

Covered in burns and scratches, we held her in our arms. Looking around, all we saw was destruction everywhere:

"S-someone... Someone help us!

...Please."