My eyes trembled when I saw him. Much like when I had heard Pride's voice and then finally saw him on the screens of the Warrior's Keep at the Valley Tournament, even though he was shrouded in a black veil. I knew…
Another brother was here, and he needed no veil. Though I didn't loathe him as much as Pride, I might as well have when I saw his fucking face.
"En—" I barely got out as he hopped in the air and kicked me wickedly hard in my gut; I grunted as he landed the blow.
I flew, cratering the bottom of our staircase upon impact.
Code, Star, and Havoc were in shock at what had just happened. Not only by the surprise of someone they all did not sense, but the fact that he had just effortlessly shot me back with no recoil.
Code had always set his pentagram over a certain area around the Den, and with his awakening, he was able to sense whatever came within it, Havoc had hypersensitive senses and could normally sense anything from well over half a mile, and Star was second to him—in terms of being able to sense fighting spirit and malice.
Yet out of these three who were the keenest to sensing an enemy's presence. They all were baffled that they had not even sensed his…
"I came a long way by foot. So, if it's okay with you, I prefer not to chit chat," the mysterious male said. "Especially when it's all going to end up in a fight anyway!"
His features were feminine though he spoke in an obvious lower octave. It was a mixture of a man's voice and a snake's hiss, delicate yet stinging all in the same. He wore a black cropped mock-neck and black stirrup tights as he stood there basically barefoot. For someone who was barely as tall as Havoc, he commanded the space…
All three of them—Code, Star, and Havoc—rushed him without a second thought.
He dodged Code's swing, Star's bone spiked jab, and Havoc's claw all so impressively swift, like he had seen their attacks before they landed them.
He held a serene look on his face—just barely amused as their eyes widened in response.
He casually strolled inside the entrance hall just in front of where I had landed, throwing his hands in his pockets all the while. "Nice place you got here," he said mockingly.
Code then stuck out a hand and snapped his fingers, switching Star with the unwanted visitor. And he was now in the middle with Code and Havoc on both sides, and Star once again ahead of him with another attack.
"Don't you dare touch Teddy, you shitbag!" Star yelled as she threw both arms in the air and slammed them to the ground, creating a trail of spiked bones that flooded down his path.
With Code ready with another slash and Havoc still in route with his claw, the only place now that this male could go was back out the door.
He looked up thinking he could leap upward instead.
"Sorry, up is not an option," Ophelia spoke as she permeated through the ceiling with a gun pointed downward at the male, firing three rounds.
He smirked as he dodged the shots like they were nothing. And Code, Havoc, and Star's attacks were now inches away from impact.
"Wow, he has so many friends! I'm almost jealous," he shouted playfully. Then in a sudden, ominous tone he uttered, "No… stronger… I'm envious."
A burst of aura blazed out from him, stopping Code, Havoc, and Star's attacks, shattering her spiked bone scourge.
Code and Havoc winced at the aura he emitted, caught off guard—more at the fact that they were actually stopped.
He then grabbed Code's arm from his halt.
"I like this ability," he spoke to him as he pressed a bare foot on Code's stomach and shot a kick, sending him flying to the nearest wall.
He flew back, trying to switch himself with the male before impact.
But nothing happened…
"What!?" he spouted before landing—crashing into the wall.
The impact was harsh, just like Greed's.
"Codey!" Ophelia shouted, still from above.
Havoc broke free of the gripping aura and proceeded with his strike, pushing against it like it were thick mud. "Hell no!" he shouted as he swung his massive claws to the intruder.
Star, seconds later, had broken free as well, resuming her spiked bone scourge.
He merely glanced at them and held out his hand in a familiar gesture—snapping his fingers…
Immediately, Havoc was replaced by him and was now in range of Star's attack. The sound of a skewer into flesh and bone rang.
Havoc blocked the spiked bones with his arms, but not without injury while it forced him outside of the Den through the entrance.
Star gasped, shouting, "Havoc!" as her attack had accidentally struck him.
Running from the side with his hands behind, the male bolted toward Star now as he whispered inches from her face, "I like your ability too!" He nearly licked her ears.
But as he went to grab her, he passed entirely through.
"Huh?"
"Insolent," Star uttered gutturally.
Her arm rippled uncontrollably, becoming deformed as a flurry of spiked bones shot out and stabbed the man clear through, without remorse.
"Now die, crop top!" She yelled as she rotated, and her club of an arm dragged the man around and out the way he came like a catapult.
From where Havoc was outside, he met the skewered male just before he was about to land, and fully transformed into his Behemoth state.
"I second that. What kind of guy wears a damn crop top!?" he said before landing fully on top of him, crushing him underneath with a mighty landing in his beastly form. He snarled as he looked down into the crater he caused, smoke protruding from where this unknown individual had been under his massive claw.
But then he heard that uneasy, slithering voice echo below him.
"My! Lucky, lucky, lucky me! You're a Behemoth Primal! Oh, how the Keeper watches over me so!"
Havoc's monstrous eyes widened at his voice, then in a blink, followed by the sound of a flash, he had reverted back to his human form…
"What the hell?" he expressed.
And as he suspended in air for but a moment, the male below grew a sinister smile that Havoc saw through the smoke as he said, "Behemoths have Revival magic, which is good for me, I was about to die just now… So, thank you!"
When the smoke cleared, and without any chants, he had used Havoc's Revival properties from his Primal magic, healing and mending the punctured wounds he had all over his body.
Havoc tried to transform at least his arms, but nothing happened. Then without hesitation, he reeled back his fist, and aimed for the guy's face.
Just as quickly, he spun and touched the ground with a single palm, propelling his body upward, kicking Havoc upward in the jaw.
He skyrocketed, flying high and far from the battlefield.
Star ground her teeth as she witnessed what he had done. "What the hell is he?" she asked as Ophelia emerged from the ground next to her.
"Looks like some kind of Copy ability of some sorts," Ophelia replied. "Still… Something's off about it…"
"Thanks for the save, Ophy…" Star conveyed, recalling how close the male was to stealing her ability as well. Had it not been for Ophelia touching her leg below ground in time, her magic might have been next. "He's faster than me."
"No, he's not…" I said at last from the crater I had found myself in. "It's a trick."
"Teddy! Are you hurt?"
"I'm alright… I can't let him hit me like that again, though." Shifting my attention to Code, I ordered, "Someone check on him, please."
"I'm on it," Ophelia complied.
"Star, catch Havoc," I told her.
She nodded, and bolted quickly upward like some jet.
I began walking toward our unwanted visitor as he remained staring at the sky from where he had just sent Havoc. He had an oblivious smile across his face like that from someone who knew they would not lose.
I once acted as such for a long time. And it had to take someone with no magic—someone like myself—to finally humble me.
"Envy!" I called through the wide open double doors.
When he heard his name, he slowly dropped his head to find me from its upward facing angle, that sinister smile still plastered on his feminine-like face all the while.
"Why hello, Greed. That last strike didn't do you in I see!" Envy replied. His tone dipped in condescension. I had almost forgotten how much I hated hearing him speak.
"You think a weak ass kick like that was enough to beat me?"
He chuckled. "Well, considering it got past your Tantra and shattered some of your ribs, I'd say… it should have."
"Ever the same… still as blind to your own power as you always have been."
"And you, brother… still as powerless as you've always been!"
My eyes widened and I bolted, quicker than he could see.
He grunted before the strike, witnessing me inches from his face with a focused expression as I threw a right uppercut to his gut, sending him flying upward in the same direction where he had sent Havoc.
Star had already retrieved him as they joined back with the others. Havoc was unconscious, but at least he was contained.
When I saw them, I leaped up in a blur.
Envy was still flailing when I met him in the sky, punching him first to keep his momentum going, then grappled and repositioned him with my right hand to the back of his head, arms locked between my calf and thigh, and his legs crossed, held by only my left hand.
He laughed hysterically, and then said through the beating winds, "Truly marvelous, brother! Not many can catch me off guard like that! A commendable feat!"
"You didn't come all this way to talk, right?" I replied as I used my weight to plunge us faster back toward the ground from whence we came.
He seethed through his teeth, saying nothing more.
"That's what I thought. Then keep your fucking mouth shut."
We flew back at a raging speed, his limbs locked, and face ready to kiss the ground at eighty-or-so miles an hour. And then a crash, the sound of an explosion, erupted in front of the Wolves Den.
I hopped out from it and landed with the rest of my crew, arms dangled as I rose from my effortless crouch.
Code had his arm over Ophelia from within the Den, and Star had Havoc propped over her shoulder. All of us anticipating the result of that sky-fall suplex.
Then from the smoke and new crater, that heinous laugh echoed through our ears once more.
"Oh man… That would have definitely been the end of me had I not had that Primal boy's magic!"
I clicked my tongue.
He was revealed in the crater having once been a mangled mess. His broken limbs cracked back into place, and his body reshaped pristine as it had once been.
Then once he was finally in view to us all, he transformed into Havoc's second Behemoth form…
"Oh, I feel great! Great as a Great Behemoth!" He said as his voice contorted, becoming more monstrous.
If there was ever a more annoying ability—it was Havoc's. And it was now in Envy's possession. And unlike the time I fought the Grade 1 at Lys Anima… this did not feel fun.
Envy roared, rippling the air, and his claymore tail whipped as it sparked a blazing heat.
He stepped forward, and it shuddered the ground.
Suddenly, Nash leaped down from outside his quarters, quaking the ground with that infamous smile of his.
"Sorry… I was waiting for my reel to post… signal out here sucks," he said nonchalantly as we all smirked at his arrival.
"Raeyn. Star," I said, and they readied themselves—Ophelia becoming Raeyn at my command.
Envy then attempted another roar but was enclosed entirely in ice. The sound was like that of a glacier emerging from the spring ground.
In an instant, Envy had froze, encased within a vast ice coffin.
The sound of a young girl's breath slowly let out afterward. It turned into frozen mist as she strolled onto the clearing behind him.
Ice crept and grew thicker with each step she took.
"What's all this commotion about?" she asked lazily. "Keeper… something always happens when I decide to step away… how annoying."
Her frozen hold on Envy cracked as his heated tail proceeded to burn.
"Jojo. Keep him there for me, would ya?" I requested as I glanced over at Nash and he already knew what I wanted him to do.
Without warning he dashed and met Envy just as he had broken free from the ice, burning tail ready to meet him there. Nash grabbed on and burned, adapting instantaneously. Envy went to grab him.
"Oh…" he said monstrously as he beheld Nash's ability. "I think I like yours, too!"
Raeyn and Star appeared, flanking him. Star formed a bone claymore from her hands and Raeyn readied her scythe for a swing, both aiming for Envy's enlarged Achilles heels in opposite directions. They struck simultaneously, making him stagger as Nash used the moment to break his tail.
I stepped forward, hair fluttering from the breeze of their moves. "Jo" was all I said as she froze over Envy again.
The ice cracked once more, but I anticipated it.
After I was through with him next, he would not be able to break loose again. Not for a while at least.
The shitty thing about Tantra that I had to learn the hard way… I thought to myself as I recalled my fight with Leon, and how he overpowered me in every way, even against my vantablack form. Is when you get caught off guard, it's the same as not having any protection.
"After this, freeze him again," I spoke, like my words carried themselves through the ethers to her ears.
"Kay."
I coated my body in vantablack Tantra and bolted at the frozen Great Behemoth before the glacier shattered.
I saw his eyes rotate to me last minute; had he not been frozen, he would have seen this coming and countered, but right now, he could only watch.
My fist struck him through the ice to the side of his giant face, obliterating it in shards at our wake. His Great Behemoth form disengaged once I made contact, and I adjusted my fist to grab his long, flowing gray hair as I wrapped my legs around his waist.
I then began jabbing him over and over again in the nose until he bled, and the fuck smiled wryly all the while.
We both fell back down to the ground, slamming upon impact.
Envy grunted and lay flayed out as I leaped away. Then with one swipe of a hand, Jo encased Envy once again in thick ice. It towered as high as the Den's pillars, sparkling as frost rested on our skins.
The look on his face as he instantly froze was that of wild adamancy.
I said as I rose, "Keep adding a layer every five seconds. Believe it or not, he'll break out of there if you just leave him alone. He's like a fucking cockroach." I nearly made myself chuckle at the irony of that diss—remembering when Lance called me the same. And maybe that's what we were.
"Fun…" Jo said boredly as she put her hands in her jacket pockets.
I looked over to Code. "You have your magic back yet?"
"Am I supposed to?" he asked back, sarcastically.
"I'll take that as a no… Fuck," I replied, "He can keep it a lot longer than before."
"Before? You know this guy?"
"Unfortunately…"
"Always with the surprise visitors… You're like a beacon for unfortunate events."
"Thanks."
"Not a compliment," He took out a cigarette and lit it. "So, how long?" A question referring to his and Havoc's magic.
"When we were younger, he could keep abilities for about fifteen minutes unless he keeps using them within that fifteen minute interval. If he does, that interval restarts each time. So long as we keep him bound like that you should get your ability back eventually," I said. "In theory…"
Code was surprised by how much I knew about his power. He took a hit from his cigarette and blew a slow smoke out before he asked again, "So, how long have you known this fuck?"
I sighed and looked at the sky. After Daz had released the seal on my tongue, I was able to finally recall every memory… but I hated every thought of it. Especially all of them… I haven't talked about it since he freed me from that sealing spell under my tongue.
My mind dreaded the picture of their faces, especially the one in the middle next to Pride and Wrath. The Lord… that's what he made us call him. Whether he truly was or not was another story.
And then the one next to me in that picture—or I should say, stepping over me… and with his dirty ass feet, no less…
"Believe it or not, he's my fucking brother… by blood."