I listened to fighting/war instrumental music the entire time I wrote this chapter, and I think it made a difference! Granted, it's not the best chapter by any means, but it is a little longer than last week's update. Enjoy!

.o. .o. .o. .o.

Yukio's head jerked down to his brother, who was peering at him with dim sapphire eyes. Rin's gaze was glassy, his expression was wane, but there was the familiar lick of fire burning deep within his stare. Yukio's throat painfully closed. Rin ... Rin was alive.

Satan was laughing, his head thrown back and shoulders shaking from the effort. "Finally," he appeared to be saying, but his words were warped by his growing incisors. "Finally," he said again as his teeth sharpened into fine points; "Finally," he whispered as the laughter left his eyes and he peered down at the twins beneath his eyelashes, his sapphire eyes rimmed with scarlet. "Finally."

A chill shivered down Yukio's spine and he found himself edging backwards without thinking, his mind screaming warnings. His hands trembled around Rin's thin body. His lips formed thin, white lines as he stared at their father. Satan was changing. Changing into something unrecognizable, into something fit for nightmares and nameless terrors.

"The hell," Rin murmured again. He forced himself upright, though it was obvious that the simple maneuver pained him. His breathes came in short, tight gasps and his eyes were heavy-lidded from pain. "What's happening ..."

"I don't know." Yukio continued to stare as Satan's bones snapped and rearranged themselves, as leathery wings tore out of his back and sprayed blood and bone to the smoky air. Swallowing thickly, Yukio repeated, "I don't know."

Rin's eyes flicked towards the ground. The fighting seemed to have been put on hold, for all faces were now bent towards the sky in abject horror. Tearing his gaze back towards his father, he said, "If ... If Satan kills us ..."

"We're trapped here," Yukio breathlessly supplied. "Forever."

But Rin only shook his head. "No ... No, then everyone else will die, too." Wiping his brow, he painfully rolled to his knees, then limped to his feet. "We can't ..." A gasp as he stood upright. "We can't let that happen."

Yukio glanced at his brother, unable to find any comfort in the fact that he was still alive. "R - Right," he stammered. But the words rang hollow. Empty. How could they, as weak and small as they were, defeat something as ancient as time and more powerful than any other being? Well, with one exception, of course. But Yukio couldn't see the big man upstairs coming down to help.

Rin flicked his eyes at Yukio just as Satan's transformation finished. "Do you ... still have Kurikara?" Satan appeared more beast than man, now; bone horns spiraled from his temples and his eyes were pitted black and smoldered like hot coals. His nails were now onyx talons; his wings appeared to have been torn from a dragon's back, and the world seemed to orbit his terrible existence.

The dread Yukio felt was not the sharp, twisting sense of dismay he felt before speaking in front of crowds. It was the cold calm of staring out into a stormy sea, of being aboard a ship moments before a wave crashed upon its deck and dragged it into the dark. The despair was not the despair of watching a fire flicker and die before snowfall, but the knowledge that an entire lifetime had passed, wasted and unused, and there was no turning back the clock. It was the sense of a book coming towards a heartbroken conclusion. Of cloud cover obscuring the rare eclipse. Of light fading, flickering, and winking out in a dark world.

Yukio wordlessly held Kurikara out to Rin. Its hilt felt wrong in his hands anyway, its weight wrong, everything wrong. Everything was wrong. Everything was wrong, everything -

"Calm down." Rin placed a firm hand on Yukio's shoulder and squeezed, his fingers flattening the torn fabric. Yukio blinked at his twin's dirty, smiling face. "We'll be okay."

"How do you know?" Yukio breathed.

At that, Rin's smile sharpened and he turned back to Satan, his gaze as dark as the sky above them. "Because," he whispered as Kurikara's flames trickled up his arm, "I will ensure it."

And with that, the fighting begun. Satan opened his mouth and roared, roared loud enough that the world trembled and the stars rattled about the distant sky. Rin flinched but held strong to Kurikara, as strong as he could despite his trembling limbs. He spoke big words a moment ago.

All of it was lies.

"Yukio," he gasped as Satan's flames rushed past him, burning the sweat off of his temple, "hang on, don't fall behind, stay near -"

- me.

But Satan lunged past him, almost quicker than his eye could follow. Rin was moving moments later, his bones cracking at the strain he put his body through as he lunged forward, blade in hand. Kurikara's blade trembled as he slammed it against Satan's clawed hand. The talons scraped across Kurkara's iridescent surface, leaving behind deep gouges that were in no way repairable.

Satan's eyes flicked to Rin, and his lips widened enough that Rin could see his jagged teeth locked together. "Good," the King of Gehenna hissed. Rin's muscles screamed in protest against Satan's strength; Yukio was near hyperventilation. "Very good."

But not good enough, Rin knew. Desperation, along with the knowledge that his muscles would fail at any moment, made him kick his leg out. His boot connected with only air as Satan snapped backwards.

"Yukio!" Rin shouted, not daring to take his eyes off of Satan. "Yukio, I can't do this by myself, you have to -"

You have to help me. But the words died in his throat. Was it a fair question to ask his brother? Could he destroy his brother's life, to possible condemn him to a lifetime in this place, to risk his life in a last-ditch effort to save ... what? What was he fighting for, exactly?

But a hand suddenly rested on top of his own. Rin blinked in surprise as Yukio's strong grip pinned his own hand against Kurikara's hilt, forcing him to continue holding the blade.

"Sorry," Yukio murmured. His voice was gritty, rubbed raw by the screaming and warped by the ventilator, yet remained strong. "I ... I wasn't myself a moment ago. But I'm okay now." He turned to Rin, his sapphire eyes burning with inner fire. "Let's kick this guys ass."

Despite it all, Rin found himself grinning in return. "We wouldn't be Shiro's sons if we didn't."

And just like that, their flames surrounded them, cocooned them, and became amplified. The twins' power became one. The two halves became whole. The world trembled beneath them.

.o. .o. .o. .o.

Darn, and here I was hoping that this would be the last chapter ... but that would make it a little too long and convoluted, so it'll have to wait for next week. The struggle is real.

ANYWAY, my book is free on Amazon Kindle for limited time! (For reference for future readers, today is 12/10/17). If you're interested in fantasy/ general badassery, either copy/paste or click the link below. And, like always, if you do download the book, please send me proof and I will write you a one-shot of your choosing! PM me for more details :)

Thank you!

-Random