The lower district had turned into an improvised battlefield: former allies, now lethal adversaries. Residents watched in agony as their leader was beaten and humiliated before the hushed roars of the crowd. The hunters, under strict orders not to intervene, could only raise human shields to protect the innocent.
Orpheus stepped back several paces, eyeing Zack sprawled on the ground, his body lacerated and bleeding.
“If you don’t take this seriously, you’ll die!” Orpheus bellowed, his voice echoing off the stone walls. “I’m not joking, old friend—get up! Have the guts to look me in the eye and tell me why you broke your promise!”
The setting sun tore through the black clouds overhead, casting orange rays that, for the first time in ages, opened a gap above the district. The black mist dissipated, revealing a vibrant sky.
A man in the crowd lifted his frightened son, pointing upward:
“So this is the sky? It’s so beautiful, my boy…”
The child, once weeping, broke into a smile of pure wonder—a miracle born of light.
Zack raised his head, his black eyes now gleaming with the reflection of the fiery horizon. With slow determination, he stood.
“Thank you, Orpheus. I really needed you… I missed you, friend.”
Orpheus cracked a grin and gave a thumbs-up:
“I know, you useless fool.”
Zack ran a hand across his face, voice trembling yet sincere:
“I’m terrible with people. Boy, K… I love you both, even though I don’t know how to show it. It’s no excuse, I know that. But I’m terrified of losing you because I was weak… I made that mistake before, and I won’t make it again.”
K shook her head, affectionate and impatient:
“You’re an idiot, Zack. I love you, but you have to open up to us. I get your responsibilities to the district and the hunters, but you can’t carry it all alone.”
Zack gave himself a light slap on the side of his head, a gesture of contained frustration:
“I know, K. Sorry, Boy. I’ll do better.”
The Boy, impatient as ever, huffed:
“You’re weird, Old Man. You’re embarrassing me! Hey, Uncle, finish this fight already so we can drink together!”
The hunters erupted into warm laughter, and the street filled with joyous guffaws. Chaos melted into embraces between parents and kisses shared by couples under the blood-orange sky.
Orpheus glanced at K and the Boy, a wide smile lighting his face:
“Uncle’s gonna give you an old-fashioned beating!”
Then he threw up his thumb once more.
“Don’t be mad at me, little sister—promise is promise.”
K blushed, balled her fist, and told Orpheus to shut up as everyone around burst into laughter.
Zack locked eyes with Orpheus, steely resolve in his gaze.
“Let’s finish this.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
And so, beneath the blazing sky, two friends prepared to end the duel that would shape their destinies.
The Rise of the Thunder Emperor
“Black Moon!!!”
Zack’s roar cleaved the air like a prelude to the storm. His sword soared skyward as a torrent of inky energy gushed from his body—tangible, ascending—the Void itself clamoring in the heavens. The ground trembled beneath every witness; here was born the indomitable power of their leader: Zack, the Thunder Emperor.
Orpheus clenched his fists and shouted,
“Here we go!”
He brandished his Scarlet Katana, unleashing a wave of crimson flame that licked the neighborhood’s walls.
Zack lifted his gaze, voice smooth and icy against the wind:
“Thunder Emperor!”
The sky answered. Blood-red clouds split like scars, jagged by black lightning. The fusion of scarlet aura and shadow rent the firmament, forging a portal of light and darkness. Bolts of pure electricity cascaded around Zack in rhythmic booms, like war drums. The crowd—hunters and civilians—raised their voices in ecstasy, each thunderclap a cheer of worship.
Black Moon drank in each strike, channeling it into veins of somber electricity that coiled around Zack’s form. The air about him crackled with living sparks, shimmering under the weight of the Void.
Eyes locked on Orpheus, who held his guard high and body taut, Zack intoned,
“Technique Level 1 – El Thor!”
At the moment of invocation, the thunder
— — —
resounded with cosmic fury, heralding the controlled wrath of the Thunder Emperor.
In a split second, a bolt of lightning struck beside Orpheus. Before anyone could blink, Zack had teleported alongside the discharge, materializing at his friend’s back with inhuman speed—impossible to track with the naked eye.
Black Moon smashed into Orpheus’s spine with a thunderous crack. The impact sent him soaring into the sky as Zack cracked a cold smile. Then he raised his arm in solemn invocation:
“Technique Level 1 – El Thor!”
From the crimson clouds above, a gargantuan black lightning bolt—three hundred meters long—tore through the heavens and crashed upon Orpheus. The deafening roar forced everyone to cover their ears, and the sizzle of raw electricity rippled through In Medias Res. Orpheus’s scream rent the air, followed by relentless aftershocks, each strike like unyielding hammers.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
His animalistic roar ebbed into a wounded bellow.
“Technique Level 3 – Red Eclipse!”
The sky transmuted into a blood-red sea. Zack’s dark energy burned itself out, and the dying sun blazed with a final crimson fury. A collective chill washed over the crowd—something monstrous still loomed.
Zack felt an internal fracture, shivered with cold, and one word echoed in his mind:
DEATH!
He bellowed:
“THUNDER!”
He dodged a downward strike from Orpheus and reappeared aloft, wreathed in crackling electricity. Spinning like a whirlwind, Zack dove—and found Orpheus rising, blade poised to cleave his head in a single fatal blow: a moment of perfect tension—Game Over.
Their eyes locked in a frozen instant. Orpheus collapsed to the ground, his body battered and scorched; both the black aura of Zack and the scarlet energy of Orpheus pulsed across him. Above, Zack hovered in the sky, an imposing figure wreathed in black lightning.
He descended again, voice low:
“Thunder!”
In a masterful spin, Zack swung Black Moon against the Scarlet Katana. Sparks flew in every direction. The crowd and hunters, stunned, erupted in exultant cheers—witnesses to a duel destined to echo through the annals of In Medias Res.
Zack flickered in and out of sight like living lightning, driving Orpheus into a frenetic panic—yet his friend never faltered: every strike rang out with precise, symphonic steel.
“1… 2… 3… up to 10!”
Their blades intersected in a ballet of steel, both airborne and against the dusty ground. Orpheus used the houses as cover, moving stealthily and dispersing his spiritual energy to elude the Thunder Emperor’s sight.
In an instant, Orpheus slipped through a crack in a fractured wall. There, he watched Zack circle, guard raised, eyes ravenous for his opponent.
“That bastard… he’s showing no mercy…” Orpheus thought, tightening his grip on the Scarlet Katana.
On the opposite side, Zack murmured through clenched teeth:
“He activated the Red Eclipse… terrain advantage. His perception and reflexes are off any scale!”
A flicker of frustration escaped his lips as he spun around.
Everyone turned in unison to look behind them.
There, against the firmament, the sun had become a haunting spectacle: a blazing red disc eclipsing the sky—as though it were the very flaming eye of Orpheus.
Horrified screams filled the air. The image seared itself onto every witness’s vision: the great sun suspended behind Zack, framing him as if born from his adversary’s scarlet gaze.
The battlefield transformed into an arena of honor and brotherhood, where this furious yet fraternal duel would declare the fate of two guardians caught in the relentless flight of the Void.
