The trio had barely taken a step into the open hall when a cage fell right on top of them. Only Gaius managed to leap out of the way in time, though he was immediately greeted with dozens of floating wooden spears threatening to turn him into a skewered kebab.

Felix’s aura dispersed as he grasped the bars aggressively, growling at the man standing in the middle of the spacious room. A grating buzzing sound filled the air as the huge crowd of metas gathered around their leader murmured among themselves.

“Come now, did you really think I wouldn’t notice you ripping open the walls of my safe?” Titus scoffed. “We have cameras around here, y’know.”

He was holding a bloodied book in his hands that looked almost like it was breathing. Gaius’ eyes widened in recognition at the pulsating tome; that spellcraft looked exactly the same as the one he had merged with.

“You hypocrite,” Felix spat. “What happened to protecting our kind?”

Three spears turned away from Gaius and pointed threateningly towards Felix instead. He stared defiantly at them.

“You will show my boss respect!” the female meta on Titus’ left bellowed. Felix’s unflinching eyes narrowed. Lucia Angelo stood by her brother’s right hand side while the dendrokinetic lady on his left looked like she was about to pop a blood vessel. The boy almost laughed at her aggressive display, recalling how she had practically soiled herself at the sight of a few skeletons.

“Easy, Silvana.” Titus put up a hand. “You are a tenacious boy, Pagonis. It’s a pity you’ve aligned yourself with the wrong kind. Look around you; this is a safe haven for people like you and me. Metas, thriving in a society away from those accursed magis.”

“You’ve sung the same tune to me before, Angelo. I’m sorry, but my idea of a ‘safe haven’ does not include human sacrifices.”

“I kill dozens so that millions will thrive,” Titus argued. “That’s the way of our world; that’s how magis got their powers in the first place.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our education was designed to fail us, comrade. But I have found out the truth.” The man tossed the book in the air. A moving picture was conjured from its pages as he continued to explain. “Arcani was a gift meant only for metas; a gift that the magis took and perverted for themselves.”

The picture was now depicting a man stabbing another as a demonic-like figure materialised behind him.

“Their magic, their currency; everything that powers their society originated from the murder of a meta. This world belonged to our kind, until they ripped it away from us!” Titus bellowed. “All I want is for our kind to seize our destiny again. And I have the means to do so right now.”

He plucked the floating book and closed it.

“This spellcraft will give us metas the ability to wield magic. I’m only taking those psychics’ essences to stabilise its overwhelming power. Don’t you see? This is the key to seize our glorious future! What are the deaths of a few compared to that?”

Felix’s stomach lurched.

“Y-you took t-their essence?” He rattled the cage bars desperately. “Where is my sister? Where is she?!”

“She’s dead.” Lucia stepped away, revealing a little girl curled up on the floor behind her. Marcia’s clouded eyes were staring into empty space while her skin was drained of blood. The girl beside Felix covered her mouth in shock.

No… no, no, no, no…

“Don’t take it too personally; she wasn’t the only psychic we did this to,” Lucia continued nonchalantly. “We syphoned all their arcani, but it still wasn’t enough to stabilise the spellcraft. Pathetic, really.”

Felix fell to his knees. It was all for nothing. He was too late.

It should have been me. I should have taken your place when I had the chance. It’s all my fault. Marcia… I’m sorry. It’s all my fault… It’s all my fault…It’s all my fault… It’s all-

His eyes bored into the Angelo siblings with vile hate.

Their fault.

A deafening explosion interrupted his babbling as a large portion of the castle wall blasted open.

“Nobody move!”

The Guardian Council, accompanied by the city’s entire constable force, rushed into the castle through the hole. Titus swore loudly as the military bursted in through the windows as well, pointing their wands and technomagick rifles at him.

“We have you surrounded!” Vulcan bellowed through a magically amplified voice. “Come quietly, or we will use force!”

“Constables, secure the hostages!” Mage Palladius yelled to the uniformed men behind him.

“No, they’re mine…” Felix’s voice grew increasingly hysterical as the pink glow slowly returned to his body. “Go away… Go away!”

Cracks began to appear around the bars as the enchanted cage began to tremble, overloaded by the sheer amount of arcani breaking through its nullifying charm. The boy let out an anguished scream, releasing a huge burst of power. A shockwave exploded outwards from him, shattering the cage and knocking his companions away. The constables rushed forward and quickly pulled the teenagers behind them, watching warily as the boy’s aura continued to glow brighter.

“Defensive positions, now!” Vulcan yelled in warning. The magis reacted quickly, forming a rainbow coloured wall as they conjured their respective barriers.

But it was no use.

Felix screamed again, ripping the entire castle apart this time with a much more powerful burst of raw psionic energy. Yells filled the air as the enormous force shattered the magic shields. Bodies of those too slow to anchor themselves down in time flew around in a circle, dragged by the hurricanes that rippled around the enraged psychic boy. The ground shook violently and split apart as though an earthquake was tearing through the whole island.

The magis were not the only ones hit by the explosion of energy. Hundreds of meta bodies were strewn across the devastated floor in the aftermath of Felix’s outburst. Some were simply knocked out from the explosion while those who stood too close to him had their internal organs liquified. The pink psionic wave ebbed as Felix roared in effort to reign his power back under control. He panted heavily, focusing his power on his target.

“Shit, that actually hurt like hell.” Titus coughed, getting up to his feet. He turned to his sister whom he had shielded from the blast. “Lucia, are you alright?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

His eyes widened in shock. Lucia was only halfway through her transformation, but she was frozen in the air. Her lips moved slightly as a dry gasp escaped her.

“Brother… h-help… me…”

“Lucia? Lucia, NO-”

An excruciating scream cut him off as his sister’s eyes squeezed shut in pain. Blood spurted as obsidian rock jutted out from her skin forcefully, covered in a faint pink glow. Her body trembled violently, as though she was fighting an invisible force.

Lucia opened her bloodshot eyes, looking at her brother regretfully. Time seemed to freeze as she met his despaired gaze for the last time. Her rocky body relaxed as she gave up her struggle against her inevitable fate. A single tear rolled down her face; she won’t be going home anymore.

And her body exploded into millions of pieces.

“LUCIA!” Titus screamed, rushing to the fragments of obsidian rock bouncing off the floor. He knelt down and picked them up futilely, as though he could somehow piece them back and reform his sister.

“You took my sister’s life. It’s only fair that I take yours in return.”

Titus looked up at the boy. He was hovering about a metre from the ground, covered completely in magenta light. His hair was floating as though it was weightless, and the air seemed to shimmer around his body.

“You monster… I’m gonna kill you!” Titus picked up a support column and swung it at the boy with full force. Felix raised a hand, crumbling the ten-metre long concrete pillar into dust. Titus charged towards him with a roar, shattering his psychic shield in a single hit.

Wind rippled again from the collision with the force of a small tornado, and the advancing magis were blown back again before they could intervene. Felix flicked his wrist, pushing everyone else further back just in case. This was his fight, and no one was going to take away the pleasure of killing his sister’s murderer himself. Pink flared in his eyes.

“By the gods, he’s out of control,” Gaius breathed, watching his colleague split the ground yet again with a single psychic blast.

“Dad, we gotta stop them!” Kleopatra pulled on her father’s arm. “They’re going to destroy this entire island if their fight goes on!”

“I… I don’t think any of us can.” Vulcan shook his head. Kleopatra’s blood froze; it was the first time she had seen such helplessness in her father’s eyes. Even the Guardians around them seemed rooted to the spot in shock and fear.

“The world isn’t ready for so much power…” Vulcan murmured, before turning to the magis. “All Guardians and constables! Get everyone out of this place, both meta and magi. Don’t bother trying to arrest them for now; our objective is to get everyone here to safety!”

“Yes, sir- Woah! What’s happening?”

Deep cracks tore rapidly through the ground as the magis stumbled around, trying to keep their balance. Gaius looked around wildly. Sirius City was no longer visible in the distance.

Is this an earthquake? No, it can’t be. This island was artificially constructed, there’s no way-

“We… We’re in the air?” Vulcan exclaimed. “By the gods, Pagonis is lifting the entire island up!”

“Felix, please stop this! Put us down!” Kleopatra called out desperately to the psychic, but he was too preoccupied with his raging emotions to hear her.

Titus was now darting around too quickly to be visually tracked, but Felix had other ways of determining his trajectory. He closed his eyes, letting his telekinetic senses take over. And then it told him what to do.

Fire burst from the boy’s fingertips as psychic energy imbued the air molecules with a burst of heat. Felix turned and aimed the flames at the man leaping his way at nearly the speed of sound, but it barely seared Titus’ skin. A fist connected with the boy’s gut, and he staggered a few steps back. Felix fell to one knee and coughed out a puddle of blood. His passive aura had absorbed most of the impact, but the punch was still strong enough to crack his ribs through the psychic shield.

Another fist stopped inches away from the boy’s face as he froze Titus’ body, but it was not so easy this time. The man roared in effort and broke out of the telekinetic grip after a brief struggle. Felix yelped in pain as a knee greeted his chin, knocking him straight up into the air. The boy immediately halted his tumbling body and wiped away the blood from the edge of his mouth. He stretched his hands out, pulling the scattered wands beside the unconscious military men towards him.

Blinding bursts of light pelted the ground as the floating boy fired his borrowed weapons, raining fire down on the man jumping around erratically. He gritted his teeth in frustration, increasing the rate of fire and covering the whole area with flashing lights.

But Titus was still faster.

He bounded upwards, reaching Felix’s position in a single hit and clapped his hands right above him. The shockwave hit the psychic point blank and he fell to the ground with a scream, caving the ground in on impact.

Weightlessness seized the boy as he felt the floor sink further, almost as if it was falling as well. A huge impact smashed into his body, and he finally realised that he had been unconsciously lifting up the island this whole time. But this was no time to marvel at how much his strength had grown.

Felix scrambled back to his feet as Titus rushed in and threw a full powered punch. He responded with an offensive psychic blast. Their attacks collided, sending more cracks along the floor.

The man threw another punch. And another. And another.

The area shook more and more with each hit as both Tier Five metas clashed at full force, until the island quite literally split into two halves, separating the two foes with a deep chasm.

“There’s only one way this ends, Pagonis!” Titus roared. “Either you kill me too, or I avenge my sister!”

“No.” The aura around Felix intensified again. “The only way this is going to end is with your death.”

He leapt towards Titus, but was promptly caught by the throat and slammed onto the ground. The boy gritted his teeth defiantly, reinforcing the shield around his head to prevent his neck from being crushed by the sneering man.

“Be my guest, traitor.” Titus growled, cracking the floor further as he smashed the boy’s head against it. “I’m not afraid of a teenager like you.”

A sinister grin crept along Felix’s face as his glowing eyes met Titus’ own.

“Yes, you are.”

The grip around his neck loosened as Titus turned around to deflect an incoming piece of rubble. He released the boy and disintegrated another piece of concrete with a single punch. Dozens of concrete continued hurtling towards the man, all of them covered in a pink hue.

The man leapt into the eye of the storm of rubble, dodging and smashing all the incoming projectiles within seconds. Titus jumped a few metres into the air, shattering the final piece of concrete with a roundhouse kick. He landed with a loud thud, turning his attention back to the psychic-

And blood splattered from his mouth.

He clutched the psionic blade that burst out through his back, looking at it in disbelief. The construct pulled itself out with a sickening squelch as Felix yanked his hand back. Titus fell to his knees, clutching the gaping hole in his chest.

The boy walked slowly towards him as Titus’ heart hovered beside him. The dying organ coughed and sputtered blood all over the floor. His eyes stopped glowing, and it dropped to the ground with a plop. Felix took the pleasure to stomp on it before his foe’s eyes.

“That’s how it feels, comrade.” He aimed two fingers at Titus. A beam of condensed psionic energy burst out.

Titus Angelo crumpled to the floor with a hole through his head.

Commotion murmured behind the boy as the Guardian Council finally mustered the courage to approach Felix. He ignored them and walked to his sister’s corpse, cradling it gently as tears began rolling down his face.

“Meta Felix Pagonis, you are hereby charged with the offence of Absence Without Official Leave!” Mage Palladius Severan yelled at him. “Come quietly, or we will-”

There was a cracking sound as his body was flung to the wall with incredible force. The magi crumbled to the ground motionless. Felix carried his sister into his arms and turned back at the Guardian Council.

“Follow me, and I will do more than just break your jaw,” he said in a raspy voice. “Leave me alone, filthy magis.”

And he burst off the ground.