The sand rustled softly underfoot as two warmasters slowly approached each other.
They weren't in a hurry, knowing what would follow when they met.
Two brothers, their bonds ruthlessly torn apart by the struggle for the throne.
How many times had this world witnessed such tragedy? And how many times had something similar happened in the universe?
Too many times to give it any serious thought.
Nonetheless, each of these two felt they were committing an irreversible act. Something that couldn't be rewound or apologized for.
Bridges to reconciliation had burnt long ago, but even so, the brothers felt uncertainty and an underlying fear.
Their father's body wasn't even buried yet, and here they were, rushing into a fight where anything could happen.
No matter the warmasters' ill fame, killing kin was not a standard practice even among them.
The sand crunched quietly, and the stark blue sky towered above them like a gigantic man-made dome. It seemed everything around was unreal. A pathetic nightmare erected just for them.
But the scariest part was that this was reality.
Finally, both duelists came to a halt, still a dozen meters apart. Each scrutinized the other's equipment, assessing every detail.
Jishin mentally approved the work done by those who had "packaged" his brother. The number of protective artifacts on him could be considered astonishing.
Or rather, astonishing was the number of exorbitantly expensive artifacts.
For instance, it was clear that the bracers belonged to a different set of armor than the breastplate. And the helmet was a different color altogether. If Izuna's breastplate was brown, the helmet turned out to be green.
One could have laughed at this, but Jishin had no desire to do so. The glares of the elders and other warmasters burned his back as if with fire.
Hundreds were counting on him, and he couldn't let them down today.
Probably, Izuna felt something similar.
The brothers silently looked at each other, not knowing how to start the fight. This battle was entirely different from all the wars they had been through.
Although neither loved the other, for some reason, they still couldn't bring themselves to attack.
"I sincerely regret that it's come to this," Jishin forced out, looking through the narrow visor of the helmet where he could see his elder brother's eyes. "I never wanted it to come to this."
"Your lies only disgust me," Izuna growled, gripping the hilt of his katana tighter. Both fighters were armed with swords, already drawn from their sheaths. "I always knew you wanted to take my place. You pretended to be a loyal son to my father and my brother, but I always saw that ambitious spark in your eyes."
The elder prince paused, his breath stifled by rage. Finally, he mastered the emotional outburst.
"I told our father many times to make you an ordinary warmaster of our clan. To get you out of our family and strip you of any claim to his place. But he didn't want to act like that. And look where we've been led by his... Spinelessness!" Izuna struggled to spit out the last word. It pained him to speak this way about his father.
"Don't talk about our father like that!" Jishin barked, frowning. "Show some respect, at least in the end!"
"You're the last person who should talk about respect," Izuna's words were dripping with venom. "Do you think if father were alive, he'd be thrilled that you've prepared a coup? That because of your rotten ambitions, our clan is on the brink of civil war? A little more and we'll be killing each other for the Mizuno's amusement. Is that an acceptable price for your ascent to the clan head's seat?"
"Everything I've done was only because of you, Izuna!" Jishin shouted back. "I knew very well what you planned to do with me. Once you ascended to the throne, I would've become just an obstacle for you. What, was I supposed to just obediently die?!"
"Yes," Izuna concluded firmly, making Jishin involuntarily step back. "Your duty, as one of the Sumada, was to die honorably to prevent civil war. That was your duty as our father's son."
"You've prepared quite the fate for me," Jishin spat out, kicking up a small cloud of dust. "But why didn't you prefer to die? Your death would have solved many problems as well."
"Father chose me as the heir. You are nothing more than his mistake. Even the greatest can err, but their mistakes carry a heavier cost."
An uncomfortable silence hung between the fighters.
"As for what you wanted or didn't want," the elder prince swept his katana over the surrounding lands. "It's because of you we're here today."
"I disagree with you," Jishin retorted immediately.
"From someone like you, agreement was never something I expected," Izuna grumbled.
The brothers were no longer in the mood to chat, as further words were pointless.
During the conversation, both warmasters were preparing their bodies for battle. Their prana cores spun like turbines at power stations, ready to release a devastating flow of prana into their channels.
The latter, meanwhile, tingled pleasantly as the prana began to flow through them faster and faster.
With each passing second, their senses sharpened, and the opponent's speech stretched in time, acquiring a prolonged echo.
The temperature of the warmasters' bodies also suddenly spiked to near-fatal levels for ordinary people. Their flesh, saturated with prana, could withstand much more.
And while the spectators around were guessing who would strike first, Jishin already knew the answer.
He would deliberately allow Izuna to hit him.
Perhaps it was foolish or an attempt to repay some debt. Nevertheless, Jishin burst from his spot at a speed unthinkable for an ordinary man, narrowly missing the hands that burst from the ground and clapped together thunderously.
The shockwave from such a clap tore off the top layer of sand and stone, sending them scattering in all directions. Among them was Jishin, thrown by the wave and watching as a stone platform began to grow under his stationary brother, slowly turning into the head of a giant stone golem.
The giant lifted its head, followed by round shoulders, and the entire right arm began to emerge from the ground, breaking the soil. Soon, the left arm formed, and the "born" giant began to grow swiftly upwards, leaning towards the thrown Jishin.
Sand streamed in torrents from its shoulders and arms.
Izuna, standing on the titan's head, had to dive into the stone, hiding inside the created golem, as several rapid stone techniques from Jishin peppered the giant's head with a chain of explosions.
But the younger prince wasn't just going to watch.
At the same time, in the "stands," Jun, closely watching the battle, chuckled softly.
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"The signature technique of our family's founder, Fierce Ishiro, the stone titan. He managed to create it and pass it down to all of us. An incredibly prana-consuming technique, but it yields such a beautiful result…"
Echoing the supreme's words, Izuna's titan raised one hand, and from it, like from a machine gun, sharp elongated spikes shot out, burying deep into the ground around Jishin.
Even one such "stake" would be enough to halve a person, so great was their size.
Yet, Jishin was not so simple an adversary.
A giant forearm broke free from the ground's grip and took the entire stream of deadly stone, after which the head of a second titan began to rise from the ground.
Stas watched this titanic battle with great interest. Once, working on his "serpents" technique, he had come to understand the challenge of freely altering techniques.
One might wonder, why do both princes grow heads on their golems? In fact, they were utterly useless.
The answer lay in the warmasters' subconscious, from which the control of techniques originated. Remove the head, and it would be much harder for the warmaster to associate themselves with this behemoth of stone and sand.
Stas had to endure quite the ordeal, forcing himself to learn how to mentally align with serpents.
Meanwhile, the fight was getting fiercer.
Unwilling to let Jishin fully form the body, Izuna quickly freed his golem from the clutches of stone and, after a few steps, tried to obliterate the head and Jishin inside it with a powerful kick.
But the younger prince had other plans. The ground exploded, and the foot of Izuna's titan, caught in the clasp of Jishin's giant's hands, was yanked forward, throwing the elder prince off balance.
The head of Jishin's titan, still in the path of the foot's trajectory, shattered into a sea of heavy fragments flying towards the stands. The younger prince, at the last moment, transferred his body to the titan's hand.
Among the common people sitting in the stands, panic flared up, but the stone barriers erected by the supremes withstood the massive impact, though they deafened the assembled with unbearable rumble and cracking.
However, these sounds paled in comparison to those made by Izuna's falling golem. The dust that rose up, like a wave, rolled away from the humongous body in all directions.
Meanwhile, Jishin's giant, using the inertia of the falling foe, managed to emerge from the ground, kneeling.
He continued to hold the stone leg of "Izuna," which the latter used, shooting it like a cannonball.
Jishin, unable to react in time, received the detached foot straight into his partially recovered head, causing it to plunge deep into the torso, crushing and disrupting the entire structure.
The elder prince took advantage of this delay, rolling to the side and, absorbing more soil, grew a new foot.
Each of his actions caused a real earthquake.
Yet, Jishin's titan also didn't waste time, recovering from the damage and growing its head back in place.
The two stone golems froze motionless in front of each other, arms extended forward.
"Now the real fun begins!" Jun shouted excitedly. And as if on his signal, the giants rushed at each other.
Each of their lunges created deep caverns in the ground, and the earth literally shook.
Crash!
Without any fancy tricks, the titans simultaneously delivered a long, straight punch.
The fists of the towering stone golems collided with a thunderous roar, creating a hurricane eager to sweep the "puny people" around from their seats.
"Woo-hoo!" Stas's mentor yelled, spreading his arms and reveling in the shockwaves crashing into his chest. Ordyntsev could barely hear him at that moment, squinting from the dust and trying to memorize every detail of the battling giants.
The princes, meanwhile, clearly cast aside their last doubts. The golems pummeled each other with massive blows, each striving to shatter the opponent.
With each collision, the armor cracked and fell off, littering the surroundings with new portions of debris trampled by the giants.
Both fighters aimed for vulnerable points, trying to disrupt the integrity of the enemy's "suit" or knock off one of its limbs.
The difference in tactics was evident.
And here it's worth recalling why the conflict between the princes started in the first place.
Despite being younger, Jishin possessed much larger volumes of prana and skills in handling it.
It was evident that Izuna had spent a lot of effort and time overcoming this gap.
At the moment, the elder prince was at the level of an advanced veteran, possessing a very impressive reserve of prana. Considering his age, this was an excellent result.
But the problem was that his opponent was Jishin, who had spent all those years not just reaching the level of a veteran.
Oh no.
He was trying to become supreme. And what Stas was seeing right now told him one thing – Jishin had managed to achieve his dream.
And this was precisely where the difference between the brothers lay.
Jishin's titan was noticeably larger and taller than his brother's. His blows carried much more destructive power, and the stone armor was stronger.
In turn, Izuna had to counter this overwhelming advantage with only tactics, speed, and numerous tricks.
The golem of the elder prince continuously changed the length of its arms or shortened its legs to dodge a dangerous hit or deliver its own. Not to mention the floating center of gravity.
Izuna literally had to twist and turn like a snake to avoid being ground into dust.
One might find Jishin's surprisingly straightforward tactics odd. His blows, though monstrous in power, lacked any cunning.
However, this was exactly how the younger heir demonstrated his superior strength to all present.
With all his actions, he made it clear that he didn't need to resort to tricks to win. He showcased the overwhelming might of the supreme, befitting the head of a Great Clan.
And this made sense.
Because every punch, block, repairing damage, or simply the step of the giants spent the prana of their owners.
And if for Jishin's gigantic reserves such expenditures were, overall, acceptable, then Izuna gradually ran out of steam, starting to defend more than attack.
It wasn't hard to understand what the elder prince counted on in this fight. At the very beginning of the duel, he did everything possible to end the battle with the first strikes.
The speed of the slap by the gigantic hands was genuinely high. Had Jishin delayed even a fraction of a second, he would have turned into paste despite all the prana strengthening.
Further on, Izuna pressed hard, but it still wasn't enough.
Then the elder heir focused on better prana control. And, to be honest, Izuna's titan indeed moved and attacked much more smoothly and precisely.
But thanks to the massive difference in strength, Jishin didn't care.
Stas missed when Izuna's golem took the first steps back, but it was impossible to miss that he continued to retreat under a barrage of blows.
The elder prince's armor flew off in whole chunks as Jishin's slams nearly pierced through it.
Izuna tried to regain the initiative, but it was clear he was tired.
It was time to finish.
The right fist of the younger heir's titan was drawn back, and at the moment of the strike, it grew a thick blade. But Izuna simply failed to deflect it in time.
The golem's chest cracked, splitting in half as the massive blade plunged deep inside.
The next second, "Izuna's" back exploded, releasing a multitude of stones. Yet the inhuman gazes of the warmasters rising from their seats unmistakably spotted the falling body of the elder prince.
Jishin's strike literally knocked his brother out of the stone "armor"!
However, the victor himself wasn't planning to just wait. He also left his titan, chasing after his opponent, leaving the two enormous golems frozen in the poses they were in at the moment of impact.
As it turned out, Izuna was saved by his set of artifact armor. If you think about it, it did almost the impossible, preserving the prince's life.
But it couldn't save his health.
Izuna's body crashed to the ground, leaving a noticeable dent, then rolled away haphazardly.
At that time, pieces of armor, plates, and straps flew in all directions, leaving their owner in pitiful, broken remnants.
But despite the injuries and broken bones, Izuna still staggered to his feet, looking at Jishin, who landed nearby.
The fallen-off helmet allowed one to behold the bloodied and dusty face of the elder heir, who bit his lower lip until it bled to suppress a painful groan.
With one hand, he clutched his left side, from beneath which thick drops of blood dripped, and with the other, he tightly gripped the hilt of his katana.
Jishin, standing before him, emerged from the battle almost unscathed, which seemed almost like mocking. Only a few dents on his armor and a limp in his right leg attested to any harm.
"So what are you waiting for?" Izuna said, as if spitting it out. "Finish it."
He kept his eyes fixed on Jishin, who stood there in silence, appearing lost.
The elder prince frowned.
"I said, do it! Or has your conscience finally awakened?!" Izuna's mouth spat out reddish drops of saliva. He clearly had severe internal injuries.
After the outburst, he breathed rapidly and heavily, like a spent horse, fighting a blinding flash of pain.
But Jishin continued to be silent. He didn't know what to do. Familial feelings urged him to spare his brother, but logic suggested that this should not be done under any circumstances.
Funnily enough, at that moment, Izuna understood better than Jishin himself what was happening to him.
And the broken, bloodied man made his choice.
Goro Sumada was right. Izuna Sumada was the perfect choice for the Sumada clan, as he would have laid down his whole life unreservedly for his clan.
At that moment, the elder prince realized with absolute clarity that he had lost.
Yes, right now, he could play on his brother's feelings, and Jishin would spare his life. After that, there might even be a chance to try to kill him and take back the stolen place.
Only, the problem was that his continued existence would be detrimental to the clan. Any shocks could lead to civil war. As long as he lived, the dissenters would not calm down and would continue to stir the waters.
Obviously, Sumada couldn't have two heads.
And so, his last decision as heir should be to help Sumada become even stronger.
Gathering his last power, Izuna clenched his katana and, accelerating prana, leaped towards his brother, swinging his sword.
Jishin performed flawlessly, precisely as he had been taught since childhood.
Dodging the strike, with his prana-charged katana flashing, he severed the attacker's wrist with the sword, part of the shoulder, and the head.
Izuna's head bounced several times across the sand before coming to a permanent rest, its unseeing eyes turned towards the distant stands.
There, the assembled warmasters slowly settled back into their seats in complete silence.
Each of them paid tribute to the memory of the elder prince, who had left life like a true warrior.
However, despite the victory of one of the princes, there were no winners that day.
And Jishin, with dead eyes staring at the brother he had killed by his own hands, was the main confirmation of this.