Ares was preparing to rush Orange once more, but he got interrupted by a minotaur, who wanted to ax him from behind. Letting out a guttural scream, the minotaur raised its axe up in the air, but Ares quickly spun around and mercilessly sliced it in half with his spear before throwing it right at Orange, who barely managed to dodge it.

  “You remember me, don’t you?! You orange freak!” Ares shouted, clenching his fists.

  He was quickly surrounded by more and more minotaurs and imps. Ares put his hands on the ground, activating his elementalist coat and releasing a great wave of energy around him, knocking everyone in a 5 meter radius away, as he let out a war cry. Orange knew he couldn’t duke it out with him, he seemed way too focused, way too precise, way too desperate to make even the slightest of mistakes. A bat managed to dive into Ares, staggering him, but doing no damage. The bat quickly rose up to the sky, but Ares jumped and caught it by its right leg. The bat squealed as Ares quickly dragged it down and delivered a powerful left jab in its skull, knocking it out, not before engulfing the entire bat in fire and slamming it down into the ground like a basketball, causing a great explosion, which killed dozens of imps and a few minotaurs.

  “What… This guy is a walking nuclear bomb… What even happened in 2 years… There’s no way he rose up to a high ranker, right…? He’s still just a kid…” Orange thought to himself, who would be sweating right now if his biology allowed him to.

  Ares continued fighting off the hordes of minotaurs and imps coming at him from all sides, quickly punching, kicking and throwing spears everywhere, lashing out fire energy like sharp whips from time to time, incinerating them with ease.

  “Why are they so weak? Is this their plan? Quantity over quality? Whatever, this is getting interesting~.” Ares thought to himself as he continued the slaughter, the battlefield covered in searing blood which would evaporate whenever Ares would drop yet another fire move onto it.

  As Ares was lost in his carnage, Orange decided to run away, to the flesh tower from the west, which was closer to the Grand Wizard’s altar compared to the eastern one, which was closer to the city. Ares noticed his departure, but he was too busy getting the swarms off of him to chase him down.

  …

  “Iulia…? Who is that?” Darius asked, confused.

  stefan3B kept reminiscing, feeling a weird tingle in his mind, as if trying to piece together an image by using its burned ashes, then it clicked.

  “My mother… When she kicked me out, I remember a red energy on her arm…”

  The first wizard speaks right afterwards.

  “Well, she's a fire elementalist, shouldn't be too-”

  But stefan3B cuts him off quickly.

  “No, no it's not fire, I saw Ares' element for enough time to tell that it wasn't fire, it was a dark shade of red… I've never seen an element colored red which isn't fire, what could it be…?”

  A silence covers the atmosphere around them, only to be broken by the loud explosions caused by Ares on the battlefield. The second wizard decides to take a wild guess.

  “There is only one more element with the color palette of red… But it is a forbidden one! The elementalist kind has tried exterminating those elementalists for over a thousand years.”

  stefan3B scowls, putting his hands on his head, clearly disturbed by everything.

  “The disintegration element. That could explain a lot. Ares has the fire element, but you have none, and it's almost impossible to never use your element at all as a child. The children of disintegration elementalists do not gain the element directly, they either gain an element that can eventually evolve into disintegration, or they gain nothing.” The second wizard continued.

  Darius started sweating.

  “D-disintegration…?”

  stefan3B suddenly calmed down and sighed deeply. He grabbed Darius by his left arm.

  “Let's go help him.” stefan3B said in his most serious tone yet.

  The third wizard spoke before they left.

  “Boys! You must investigate the flesh pillars! They appear to be the source of something evil! They might be the catalyst of their destruction!”

  stefan3B nodded, his expression showing a raw unfiltered hatred never seen before.

  The 2 boys left off to go and aid Ares in his fight… But… from behind the temple, a lightning elementalist was peeking, eavesdropping the entire conversation. After they were gone, he quickly followed right after them. The wizards are seemingly confused.

  “Hey, didn't they have only one lightning elementalist…?” the first wizard wondered.

  The other 2 wizards turn their backs away and head back to their altar.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Who knows, might be a new recruit.” The second wizard answered.

  Darius and stefan3B see the swarms of minotaurs and imps that start overwhelming Ares. Darius charged up a lightning bolt in his left arm and then launched it, clearing up a decent part of the swarm. stefan3B activated ASM (Artificial Sword Mode), rushing over to help Ares. To his surprise, when he tackled the swarm, he easily made his way through 3 minotaurs. In the eye of the group, Ares shouted at him.

  “3B! They're weak! Land critical shots!”

  stefan3B nodded and proceeded to do as said, only striking for the head of the minotaurs and imps. He was much disgusted by the blood, as he kept hearing Ares' bloodthirsty laughter, loving the feeling.

  “Hahahahaha, more, more!” Ares exclaimed, despite him growing more and more tired.

  Darius acted as artillery support, launching lightning bolts from afar, mostly helping Ares, since stefan3B had enough stamina to dodge more attacks than him.. The horde of imps and minotaurs suddenly start partially retreating, rushing over to the city. This change is quickly visible, as Ares finished clearing up the last 100 minotaurs and imps who were brave enough to face them. Tired, exhausted, panting, he fell to his knees, but he was happy. The air was blurring around Ares. stefan3B turned off his ASM, looking down at him… as if he remembered someone who looked down at him just like that a few years ago. Suddenly, a sentence popped up in his mind, reminding him of a familiar voice.

  “After the show you just pulled off, I thought you'd stand up.” stefan3B said, cocky, repeating what the voice in his mind said.

  Ares looked up at him, chuckling.

  “Do you want me to bite your leg off, so you will be on the same level as me~?”

  This moment felt extremely uneasy to stefan3B, as if this had happened before, but he couldn't tell when, where and why. stefan3B forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him up, then brushed the dust off of him with rough pats.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk, always dirty…” stefan3B said with a friendly tone as he cleaned him.

  Ares’ eyes widened, as he never heard him use his line.

  “Hey, stick to your own quotes~, I was the one to use ‘tsk’~.” Ares replied, with a cocky tone and an eager smile.

  stefan3B giggled.

  “You’re so full of shit… You just want me to shut up, don’t you~?” stefan3B continued as he finished dusting him off.

  Ares found himself smiling purely for the first time as he talked with his brother. He suddenly remembered his goal and what a hindrance stefan3B felt like to him. His smile quickly faded away.

  “Yeah, whatever.” Ares said, with his usual cold tone.

  Darius rushed over to them as he saw the demons run away to the city.

  “Uhm… guys, what should we do now?”

  stefan3B turns to Darius before speaking, his smile slowly fading.

  “Radu is in the city, but these guys are weak, even the civilians could fight against them with enough determination.”

  Ares slowly got up on his feet.

  “What should we do then? Follow that freak?” he asked.

  stefan3B nodded affirmatively.

  “Yes. We have to know what's behind those pillars.”

  Suddenly, they noticed a lightning elementalist approaching them.

  “A lost civilian, perhaps?” Darius mentions.

  The boy approached them, his elementalist coat turned on.

  “Hey, guys.” he said sheepishly.

  Ares frowned and stepped forward to him.

  “What are you doing here? You came from the grand wizards, didn't you?”

  The boy is shocked by how quickly Ares caught up to his direction.

  “Uh-uhm, uh…” he stutters, fumbling over his thoughts.

  stefan3B puts his left hand on Ares' shoulder and pulls him back.

  “Just tell us why you're here already.”

  The guy made up courage for himself before swallowing hard.

  “I wanna join you, the Royal Guards.”

  Darius' eyes suddenly widened, his body almost exploding with extreme emotion.

  “NO! HELL NO! FUCK OFF!” Darius shouted, from the top of his lungs.

  The 3 other boys are all shocked at his sudden behavior. stefan3B grapples him from behind, wrapping his right arm around his neck and keeping him back from beating the boy up.

  “What the fuck is up with you?! He was nice!” stefan3B said, confused.

  Darius kept being annoyed.

  “WE ALREADY HAVE A LIGHTNING ELEMENTALIST!” Darius shouted, his elementalist coat activating as well.

  “FUCK OFF, BEFORE I STEP ON YOU!” he continued.

  stefan3B kept on holding him back. Ares crossed his arms and sighed softly.

  “Leave already! We don't need new members!” stefan3B says, angered, as he held back Darius.

  The boy, with a defeated expression, walked in the direction of the city. stefan3B let go of Darius then shoved him forward, following up with a mean right hook right in his face as Darius turned to him, knocking him down on the floor with ease. Darius' coat turns off, groaning.

  “Oof- ah…” he complained.

  “What was in your head?! Are you mental?! Is that how you treat people?! You're a royal guard, you dipshit! You're supposed to care for everyone!” stefan3B said, scolding him.

  Darius wiped the saliva off his jaw, then, followed by a weak scowl. He frowned and stood up, preparing to say something.

  “Alright, now that we're all on good terms, let's kick some buckets.” Ares said before starting to march towards the eastern pillar, where Orange ran away to.

  stefan3B followed Ares, still frowning. Darius was behind him. He was too pissed off, he couldn't hold back. He clenched his fist and tried to punch stefan3B from behind him. stefan3B activated ASM and caught his fist, turning around almost instantly.

  “Knew it.” he said in a cold tone before punching Darius hard in his gut, stunning him easily.

  “And sit down.” he continued before turning off ASM and following Ares.

  Darius put one hand on his stomach as he kneeled down, whimpering, but he quickly recovered and followed them from behind.

  “Hey, the pillar is pretty far away, see you guys there, I’m not waiting after you.” said Ares before blasting himself off towards the pillar.

  stefan3B activated ASM and followed him quickly. Darius paused for a bit before sighing, activating his elementalist coat and following them.

  https://discord.gg/NHKbm32zdv