"The Northmen are on the coast!" Shouted Count Otto as all the bells of the castle echoed his call. "Take King William away!"

He thrusted his fist against the clouds and a blaze in the shape of a dragon lightened the night sky.

"This can't be..." Faltered King Heinrich as he opened the gates to his carriage and faced King William. "Get in, uncle! Fast!"

"No way!" He replied as he measured Candorra's tail. "I've only just begun with it--"

A droplet of water with the size of a brick descended from the sky and mauled the stone ground.

"What the hell!" Recoiled King William embracing Candorra. He rose his head to the sky and more water descended upon the shores like a rain of arrows.

"I’ll guard you!" Said Candorra raising her harp against the sky. Yet a blaze from Heinrich turned the water stones into vapor.

"Will you come or will I have to drag you here?" He groaned as he faced his uncle. Heinrich gritted his teeth. The royal jewelry and colors on King William lost all luster and importance. He glared at his uncle as if he faced a child. He suspended the acting.

"O-Okay!" Faltered King William running to the carriage with Candorra in arms. Johann Martel and Arnaud, who shared the carriage with William, pulled them in and the vehicle rushed down the bridge to Eastham. 

The rain of water bricks mauled the land and damaged the terrain. The horses faltered and the vehicle trembled. 

"How the hell can it rain like this?" Asked Arnaud.

"This is not rain..." Replied Johann Martel with a frown. "This is the first step of a raid." He rose his head towards the coast and saw the sails of Northmen ships appearing and fading in the mist. "They know that the movement of the mounts make the Fire Knights stronger. They harass the terrain so that horses can't move with ease--"

A water brick pierced through the ceiling of the carriage and fell between Arnaud's legs.

"So close! Cielo!" He held his own heart and gasped. "Verano, did you see that..." He noticed his brother had stayed behind in the castle. "Crap, Verano’s not here! We gotta come back for Verano!"

"Be the hero you wanna see..." Smirked King Heinrich glancing at the wild rain mowing down the bridge and pummeling soldiers against the ground. 

Arnaud stuck his head out of the carriage and faced the destruction. His lips trembled:

"No, Verano!"

A water projectile descended from the sky and dove into the boy. Arnaud rose his head and all he saw was the water about to crush his skull.

"Damn it!" He rose his hands to defend his head.

Verano unmade the water projectile with a flame. He stretched both arms to propel himself onto the sky and landed onto the wagon.

"A-Are you alright?" He frowned at Arnaud while he balanced himself on the carriage.

"Y-Yes..." Faltered Arnaud as he noticed more projectiles rained from the sky. "Behind you, bro!"

Verano rose his hands to the sky and formed a fire umbrella upon the vehicle.

Candorra jumped in excitement with the sight.

"Verano's awesome, isn't he, blindy guy?" She glanced at Johann Martel who had a smirk on his face.

"Average," he glanced at the coast to the far east. Only 600 meters away, Fire Knights ran to the beaches and formed an human wall to defend against the Northmen ships about to ram the sand. "The rain is only the beginning. If the raiders are playing by the book, we'll see a--"

"Tidal wave." Completed Verano. His eyes widened as he saw Northmen Waterbenders springing towards the stem post of their ships. A huge wave brewed beneath their ships. "Brave yourselves!"

A water wave sprung off the sea and swallowed the land as if the North Sea rose from the ground. The waters pierced through human formations, plowed down buildings and silenced the flames of the Fire Knights and archers who harrassed the Northmen ships.

"I-It'll get here?" Recoiled King William noticing that the wave did not cease. "I'm too smart to die!"

"Brace yourselves!" Shouted Johann Martel as the tidal wave swallowed the carriage and the village around the road.

The waters separated the passengers.

Arnaud rolled unconscious in the wave. Yet he woke up as screams replaced the beating of the Northmen's drums. His eyes opened and he saw himself under a thick mist.

"M-My head, argh-" He stepped into a deep puddle. "Water? Wait, the mist..." He searched his surroundings. "Did they bend the fog onto the village?"

He rose his head and saw that the entire village had turned into a swamp. The tidal wave had filled the holes that the drizzle of water had opened. Puddles and debris dotted the ground. Screams and echoes of clashing blades echoed from all sides of the fog.

"H-Help!" Cried a voice in the mist.

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Arnaud towards the call and saw the moonlight reflecting from the tip of an axe. The weapon dove against the ground and a spray of blood sprung of the fallen body.

"Son of a Cagna!" Grunted Arnaud as he rushed to avenge his fallen comrade yet his right leg entered a puddle. "What--"

He felt as if the water were an arm grasping his right foot.

"C-Come on!" Shouted the boy as he struggled to free his leg.

A deep voice crawled from behind his ears:

"Din kamp är med mig."

Arnaud slowly turned around and a fist pummeled his face like a hammer. His body dove against the mud.

"C-Crap!" Bemoaned Arnaud with a hand on his bleeding cheek. He climbed on his knees as the ominous shadow of a tall man walked patiently towards him. "N-Northman?" Inquired the boy as a shiver crawled down his spine, and he walked back. Yet his feet ceased to move. "No," Arnaud told himself as he swung his head. "I'm not running away, not again," he recalled the day when Verano took responsibility for sneaking into their father's basement. "I'm a Sforza," he used his imagination to fill the empty mist with the judgmental stares of his father and Marzia. "This name means something! I'll fight!"

Arnaud held his clan's sword with the right hand and punched a blaze against the Northman with his free hand.

Yet his foe disappeared in the mist. Arnaud recoiled:

"What--"

An axe emerged from the fog to tear his chest in half. 

"Argh!" Arnaud gritted his teeth and defended the Northman's strength with his blade. Yet his enemy's monstrous strength tore the boy's sword in half and sent him flying against the mud.

"He almost broke my hand..." Bemoaned Arnaud as he opened his eyes again. "I think he bended the fog to surround me before he attacked. What is this guy—”

The Northman grasped Arnaud's neck and rammed the boy's back against a tree.

"Argh!" Arnaud screamed in pain.

"Your last thought should be of your home, vilde..." Said the Northman as he rose his axe to claim Arnaud's life.

"I-I..." The boy choked. He accumulated air in his lungs. "I had something else in mind!"

He breathed a cloud of fire on the Northman's face and opened distance between them. His blaze glowed in the mist and marked his position. 

"Verano, now!" Yelled Arnaud as his brother's arms emerged from the mist and engulfed the Northman in a scorching cloud of fire.

"Help me!" Shouted Verano with his arms stretched. Endless flames seemed to escape through the palm of his hands.

"I-It's working!" Smiled Arnaud as he repeated his brother's gesture and the burning Northman fell on his knees. "Wait..." Arnaud faltered. "He's healing?"

The Northman laughed as the flames consumed him. A veil of water surrounded his body and shined with a cyan light. His burning wounds healed the moment that they opened.

“Stronger!” Yelled Verano. Blood left his nose with the heat.

“I-I can’t…” Arnaud ran out of air and his flames went off.

The Northman sprung from inside Verano's flame and pummeled him against a ruined house.

"You are powerless." Said the Northman as all the flames that devoured him went off. Lustrous cyan water healed all his remaining wounds as he spoke. 

“Damn it…” Groaned Verano as he frowned upon the ruins of the fallen house onto where he had fallen. Children's toys and clothes tainted with blood littered the ground. His eyes widened in terror. He rose his body towards his foe. Wooden barbs fell off his bleeding backs. Yet Verano only had eyes for the Northman.

"They were..." He groaned as he glanced towards the ruined homes. "These people were your kin."

"And they served yours." The Northman pulled a second axe to face both brothers at the same time.

"They were innocents!" Replied Verano as he walked away from the debris. The screams of his comrades from the column echoed from all sides of the mist and fueled his rage. His eyes flashed white as he spoke.

The Northman replied with a smirk:

"There are no innocents in this war."

"No! These people…” Faltered Verano. “They were as scared of us as they were of you!"

Arnaud's eyebrows widened with his eyes at his brother:

"B-Bro? Your eyes..."

Verano walked towards the Northman without cowering. Tiny blazes ignited in the air as he walked as if his rage burned.

"I see..." Rustled Arnaud catching his breath as his brother distracted their enemy. He pulled his broken sword from the ground. Flame jumped off the metal and replaced the absent metal.

The Northman teased Verano:

"Come! The Spirits of Deep wait on the tip of my blade. Or..."

Arnaud dove his broken blade against the Northman's back. His foe dropped an axe and grasped the boy's forearm. The blade never reached its target.

"No!" Shouted Verano.

"Or..." Continued the Northman as he grasped Arnaud's arm tighter. "You'll need an incentive."

"No! No! No..." Arnaud closed his eyes as his foe broke his arm. "Ah!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs. 

Verano froze. In his imagination, the warm Sun of the Middle Sea and the chill winds from the vineyards replaced the hellish shores of Alba and the smell of smoke and blood. He saw himself as a young teenager as his father, the Duke of Sforza, threatened Arnaud for not being able to bend Fire.

"You will not..." screamed Verano as his eyes flashed white. He gave voice to the memories screaming in his mind. "You will not touch my family!"

Verano's mind returned to him. His eyes glowed brighter than the Moon. Two huge flaming tails escaped the back of his hands and propelled him forward.

"V-Vad?" Recoiled the Northman as Verano invested against the man like a flaming bullet. The boy's shoulder broke through his foe's armor and pushed him like a spear into the forest. The Northman groaned as Verano thrusted his body through the ruins and trees, and into the forest. The man's helmet flew off his head as they plowed through the wilderness. His bones crushed.

"You..." Verano faltered as the propelling flames went off and his feet reached the ground. He saw his enemy laying down ahead of him with a fallen forest behind his back. The boy staggered with a right shoulder that he dislocated during the attack. "You won't..." Verano's eyes flashed white and faded. He pulled the MAV, his sword, with the left hand and a flaming aura engulfed the blade. "You won't touch my family..."

"So the White Wolf has returned to the land of the living to swallow the Moon..." Chuckled the fallen Northman as he faced his enemy. Blood fell off his mouth. "These are truly the end times!" He chuckled. "Come, White Wolf, take my life! I shall bring the news to the halls of Val Hella!"

Verano's white eyes faded and he thrusted the MAV towards the his enemy's chest. A flame sprung off the metal and impaled the Northman. The fallen forest around them burned like a great bonfire.

Yet Verano returned to himself and estranged the blood covering his body.

"W-W-What have I?" Hesitated Verano. His vision faltered and his legs weighed. All that he saw was his foe burning. Smoke filled his lungs. "I killed..." The words weighed in his throat. "I killed someone?”

Verano fell on the ground, unconscious. His powers had exhausted him. Time ceased to count and he imagined that the warm ashes were Marzia’s lap.

Yet he heard a distant cry:

"Bror!"

"A-Arnaud?" Faltered the boy.

"Bror!" Repeated the voice with a feminine tone.

"M-Marzia?" Faltered Verano as he regained consciousness. He rolled his body so that his head could face the full Moon on the sky. "Marzia, is that you?”

"Bror! Brother?" Cried the voice of a woman who walked over him. His eyes widened as he noticed that she kneeled before the Northman that he had killed.

"Queen Thyra," said an aged Northman warrior. "We found him. This," he frowned upon Verano, "this boy took your brother's life. What do we do with him?"

She rose from the ground with what remained of her dead brother on her arms. The elder insisted:

“Queen Thyra, you must decide his fate.”

She turned towards Verano and he recoiled at the blood dying her pale face. Her blue eyes aimed at him like the tip of arrows. She spoke with thunderous wrath as she announced Verano’s fate:

"We take him North."