"Kill...each other?" Lucas repeated astonished.

"Correct-" Repeated the skeleton, shifting his weight into a more comfortable position on his stone throne "-I am not as wicked as you thought I was, am I? Having the both of you reach all the way down to the last floor, challenge me and leave unscathed would be a great stain on my reputation. Especially if you were to tell your story to anyone else. Thus, I'll let only one of you live. The strongest, of course"

"Is that really the only reason?" I asked, raising my head with extreme difficulty so that I could look at our adversary in the eyes.

"You are living proof that I should not underestimate a mortal's keen...Call it curiosity" He replied seemingly amused.

"Curiosity?!" Asked Lucas fuming with bottled rage.

"Mhh...to put it in simple terms: talent against fate. I am eager to see the result of such clash-" The skeleton replied sliding a finger across the cut on his robe "-Now cease your questioning. We have shown each other courtesy enough. Fight for your life, discuss who should die and who should live, or simply leave it to fortune. I do not care how, but one of you must die for the other to leave freely"

I turned to face Lucas and paled. For the first time, I could not understand him. There was rage and fear in his eyes, but also something else. Something I could not quite grasp. Decisiveness, conviction, understanding... I couldn't put my finger on it. I could see, as clear as day, his pupils shooting from side to side, darting in every direction like a maniac. The reality of the situation doomed on me as I understood what my brother was thinking.

"Let me ask you this one last question-" I said, deepening my voice to sound as convincing as possible. A masquerade to hide the fear threatening me to shut my brain off "-Are you really going to let one of us free? Free to leave this place alive?"

"Are you doubting me?" He asked with the tiniest fraction of a smug across his boney face.

"Do you blame me?"

"Ha! Very well my quick-witted mage. I make an oath with my mana as my witness. Upon the death of one of you, the other will be allowed to keep his life and be free to leave the dungeon. Does that satisfy you?" He said solemnly.

"I'd rather us both keep our lives" I replied wittily, exciting a dry laugh from the skeleton in front of me.

The silence that followed haunted me. Each second flowed like entire hours as I skimmed through all the possibilities and options I had. None seemed to work. Not even hypothetically. The pressure of the incoming decision made its presence heavier with each thought.

Yet, it all became calm. A waveless sea. The moment my gaze met my brother's, the realization that I had one path to walk made its existence painfully clear.

It did not take long for me to decide to walk it.

- LUCAS BLUESCALE'S POV -

[I have to...kill Raph?... Kill my brother?-] I thought, losing myself in the chaos that the skeleton's words stirred in me [-...No. There's no way. There's no way I'm killing him...But then...He'll have to k-]

"Is that really the only reason?" Raph asked.

I was only able to look at him from the corner of my eye. He was raising his head. Against that pressure pushing us down, he was raising his head. There was no way I could not admire him. My little brother. The brother who saved my life, times and times over, both at the academy and in the labyrinth. The brother who dirtied his hands and kept quiet about it so that he could ensure our family's safety. The brother who, despite witnessing the absurd difference in power between us and the skeleton, still looked at him with defiance.

My brain had already shut off as that trail of thoughts began running around in my head. Before I knew it, I was answering the skeleton's taunts. Unwillingly.

A chaotic mix of emotions stirred my insides. Fear, for being so close to death. Anger, for not being powerful enough to stand against it. Sorrow, for the realization that I had dragged my younger brother down with me due to my failure. Steadiness of mind, for the conviction that there was only one way to ensure his safety.

"Do you blame me?" Asked Raph, badly feing a cocky smirk.

"Ha! Very well my quick-witted mage. I make an oath with my mana as my witness. Upon the death of one of you, the other will be allowed to keep his life and be free to leave the dungeon. Does that satisfy you?" Replied the foe sitting on the throne.

[He swore!-] I chimed internally [-He swore on his mana! He can't go back on it! So Raph really can survive!]

"I'd rather us both keep our lives" Raph retorted.

His tone was witty. Overly so. Most likely in an attempt to hide his true feelings. His fear. Yet, it was an attempt that bore no fruit.

The silence that followed haunted me. Every second felt like entire hours. Then, our gazes met. The usual stoic mask, the shield Raphael donned to protect himself from others, to hide his true self, disappeared. I had always been able to read him. See the fear in his laughs. The pain in his smiles. The anger in his emotionless expression. Yet now, I saw nothing. It was as if the mask and the man became one entity. Every emotion erased to make space for cold decisiveness.

He had resigned himself to protect me one last time.

- RAPHAEL BLUECALE'S POV -

A strange feeling clung to me. Powerlessness, emptiness. I shrugged it off. I could not appear weak. Not now, not in front of Lucas. If my plan was to succeed, I needed to be the perfect actor. I breathed slowly, feeling the pressure pushing me down deciding until I could stand tall.

My brother and I exchanged glances once again, then spoke in hushed tones.

"We'll survive this. Together" I said, putting emphasis on the word 'together'.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"As we always do!-" Lucas replied, showing me a wide yet strained smile "-I still have mana left in me. I'll deal with the door while you distract him with some flashy spells...You have some, right?"

"No, no, no. It would take too much time for you to deal with the door. Time we don't have. So YOU keep him busy while I break down the door. Then, we make a run for it" I corrected him, sounding as convincing as possible.

I could hear a distinct click of his tongue as Lucas nodded along to my plan. I panicked for one brief moment, thinking that he had caught up with my plan, but I soon realized that it didn't matter. I had decided to go along with it, whether he liked it or not.

"Fake it" I hushly said for last as the two of us walked towards opposite walls.

Silence fell again. Dense and heavy. Filled with the knowledge that one of us was going to die. Memories rushed over me so fast that I had to flex my facial muscles to stop myself from shedding tears. "It can wait" I kept repeating myself.

Our breaths were in sync. Our gazes fixed on one another. My hands filled with mana, his wrapped around the hilt of his broken sword.

Our stances lowered at the same time, mimicking each other like a mirror. A solid proof of the years spent training together.

Right foot forward. Left heel raised. Elbows close to the sides. Dominant arm slightly further than the other. Arched back and relaxed shoulders...breathe out...then breathe in and explode.

"NOW!" I shouted as I sent one large spell toward the skeleton.

A wind spell that rose the tiny particles of dust and broken tiles, shielding us from the opponent's vision. I turned my back right after, facing the wall and getting ready to blast it off. Taking advantage of the dust, Lucas ran, sword at the ready, in search of a supposed blind spot in the skeleton's defenses.

"A foolish choice" Proclaimed the skeleton...calmly.

A feeling, a tiny voice in the back of my head, told me those words were directed at me. Not my attempt to impede his vision, nor to blast the door but rather the next step on my plan. I chuckled at that.

"I'm sorry Lucas-" I whispered to myself, turning around once more to look at my brother's running figure "-both now and then, this is the only solution I can ever come to"

A stone spell was forming in my palm. I placed it below my chin.

The whirlpool of mana forming into the shape of a projectile seemed to take longer than expected. Of course it would. My concentration was wavering. Memories were resurfacing. From the night Lucas first came to our house, to the day I was brought in front of the judge. From the time my father yelled at me to never set foot in their house again, to one of the afternoons Lucas and I played at the river.

[It's the right choice] I repeated myself, feeling the spell coming to fruition as I slowly closed my eyes.

- LUCAS BLUESCALE'S POV -

He had seen through my plan. I was a fool to think I could outsmart my brother. He had always been the smart one, while I was the one who used brute force. Not that he lacked any of it.

I followed his command, and when he shouted "NOW", I began running towards the throne. My view of the enemy was obscured by a curtain of thin dust but I could still feel it. The piercing gaze of the skeleton. He looked at me with distant boredom and curiosity. It sent shivers down my spine.

Yet, more than that, an ominous feeling was clenching my guts. While working as an adventurer I learned that instinct is a powerful thing, most of the time correct. I learned to trust it and so I did. Still, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Not too out of the ordinary at least, except for the absence of...sound.

I spun around instantly, panic raising my heartbeat to the extreme. I watched in horror as the figure of my brother with a "stone projectile" forming right below his chin came into view. I felt a blow to the heart, like a spear piercing my chest and turning into cold ice the blood in my veins.

He thought the same thing as I did. Even now, even after all this time, my younger brother was still thinking of protecting me. Why? Why did he value his life so little while putting mine on a pedestal? Why was he so ready to take his life in exchange for mine?...Why couldn't I do it?

I accepted it, for a brief instant, the fact that I would survive and he wouldn't. That he would take his life to save mine. I cursed myself for that right after.

With all the strength I could muster, I threw what remained of my sword. I was never one praised for his good aim. I had no use for it other than the occasional "stone projectile" that my brother forced me to train. And yet, in that precise moment, everything seemed to be in my favor. The distance between me and him, the absence of wind, the calmness of mind, the steadiness of my wrist, the weight of the sword... every piece had fallen into it's rightful place...as if fate willed it.

I blinked once and the sword reached its target. The sharp of the blade had lodged itself into Raph's shoulder. His eyes were now wide. Panic widening his pupils. For a moment, a very brief and seemingly insignificant moment, Raph lost concentration. The timing was perfect.

His shoulder slumped forward. His elbow lost rigidity. The spell fired. Then...red.

A cold sensation started to spread through my limbs.

- RAPHAEL BLUESCALE'S POV -

It felt as if time came to a halt. The pain in my shoulder was nothing if not a minor inconvenience. I had failed.

I had failed in my attempt to save my brother and to make it worse, he had found it out.

I watched with growing horror and pain as the lump of sharpened stone flew toward my brother.

I tried to move, to scream or cast anything else. I was slow. A fountain of red was now washing my brother's torso. His eyes were on mine. There was surprise in them, pain too, but also...relief.

My weakened legs moved on their own. Running, dragging, and kneeling all in one single swift motion. Before I knew it I was beside him, kneeling by his side and keeping his head raised with one hand while desperately trying to stop the bleeding with the other.

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." I kept repeating like a broken disk.

The hole in my brother's chest, right where his heart should've been, didn't stop gushing. No matter how hard I put pressure. No matter how much mana I channeled into my healing. Blood did not stop from gushing. Soon, I too was drenched in blood.

"Listen...Raph" Lucas whispered with strained voice.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I shouted, tears now falling profusely down my cheeks.

"Raph, I'm*cough*...glad you...will survive...protect our...family" Lucas said as he rested a hand over mine.

"No, no. DON'T SPEAK! I-I'll heal you! I can heal you. I definitely can. I can save you, then we save our family. OK?" My voice was filled with desperation. Not even I believed my own words.

"...I-" Lucas said. His voice now a coarse whisper.

"DON'T SPEAK!"

"-...love-"

"PLEASE!"

"-...you"

His head, resting on my hand, slumped to the side. His eyes void of any focus.

I stood motionless, by his side. I did not blink. I did not breathe. I did not accept it. I couldn't accept it. The brother I loved, the brother I cherished, the brother I shared so many memories with was now...

"He's dead" Proclaimed the skeleton in a cold, judgmental manner.

He was standing opposite of me, looking down at my brother's body. Judging it.

I felt the blood boil in my veins and my lungs filled with fire. It was his fault. It was all his fault. He killed my brother. He killed Lucas. He killed him...

"...This wasn't supposed to happen..." I said voicing my thoughts, speaking to myself, or answering the skeleton. I had no idea. My mind was a chaotic mix of everything and anything. A blank slate where a bucket of random colors was violently poured. I could not understand myself.

"Yes...-" He coldly replied "-This was not supposed to happen. How could he, one as kissed by fate to such an extent, lose to someone like...you? A mutt completely devoid of it! I have never seen someone lacking fate as much as you do. It's absurd!"

"Kissed by...fate?" I repeated absent-mindedly.

"Yes, yes. Fate, fortune, luck, whatever you mortals may call it-" He continued with a sigh. His tone was bored and his previous king-like demeanor was now that of a petty child whose toy had broken "-It's absurd how mortals think of it as something grand, something abstract. In truth, it's the simplest of things! A king is a king because fate wills it so. A farmer is a farmer because fate decided so. A magician is one because fate planned it so... Fate is just a value, a number if you will, that determines everything. The higher the better, of course. Everything is decided by this ever-changing number...but this! You have no fate! Zero! Complete emptiness! How could you possibly survive against someone like him?!-"

The skeleton was now fuming with anger and frustration. I watched in a daze, not understanding a single thing he was talking about. My eyes darting from my brother's body to the bony face of my opponent.

"-In the end, he too was only a mortal...a failed experiment!" The skeleton concluded as he stomped his feet away from us.

I couldn't stand it anymore..."A failed experiment". Those words kept ringing in my mind like a bell, clearing away everything else in it. Rage built up. Fury exploded. My vision reddened.

Then, I was upon him.