Chapter 33: Waging a War

~Planet Cray, Large Open Fields Somewhere off Royal Paladins Territory~

"Gallatin, you okay?" Blaster Blade shouted as he saw his friend go down.

"Yeah, I'm just fine Jon" Gallatin called back as he picked himself off the ground.

Men and women, dragons and elves, giants and golems were fighting and dying on the battlefield. Swords clashed into swords. Arrows embedded themselves into flesh, armour and shields. Magic bolts struck flesh, armour and shields. Cries could be heard from everywhere. This was war. Good versus evil. Brother against brother. Jonathan came face-to-face with Michael.

"So we meet again little brother." Michael smiled deviously at Jonathan.

"You're going down this time Michael." Jonathan growled as he tighter his grip on his blade.

"That's no way to greet your older brother now is it." Michael shook his head lightly.

"You're not my older brother anymore. The Michael I once knew is no more. You, are just a monstrosity sharing his face and name. You are no brother of mine." Jonathan spat angrily.

"Now, now. That's really no way to talk to your older brother. Deep down you know it's still me Jon. Deep down you know." Michael taunted, smirking.

"I lost my brother to the blade a long time ago. You are not my brother Blaster Dark." Jonathan continued to swap banter with Michael.

"Well, whatever you say little brother. I guess there's no reasoning with you now huh? As much as it pains me to do this… DIE!" Michael howled as he charged forward with his blade.

"I'm not dying today! Especially not at your hands!" Jonathan growled as he brought up his blade to parry the blow.

"You don't have to. But until you do, people you care about and love will." Michael chortled as he stepped back for another strike.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jonathan questioned, fearing the answer.

"Well, I remember this girl you used to hang out with a lot… Akane, was it?" Michael smirked as Jonathan lunged at him in rage.

"What did you do to her, you monster!" Jonathan barked as he swung his blade relentlessly at Michael.

"Oh I didn't do anything. But my best hit squad might have done something to her." Michael laughed as he raised his blade from a parry to counterattack.

"RAAGH!" Jonathan growled as he swung his blade once more, catching an unsuspecting Michael in the midsection.

"Wha-?" Michael stepped back in shock and pain as blood oozed from the fresh wound left by the slash.

"If anything happens to her…" Jonathan left the threat unfinished as he kicked his wounded brother to the ground and walked away.

"Not going to finish me off? What, can't kill your own brother? Or too scared to kill someone?" Michael taunted as he gripped at the wound tightly.

"No, you don't deserve to die at my blade. I shall not stain it further with more of your blood." Jonathan said calmly as he forced the fear and anger down.

"Undeserving eh?" Michael grunted before standing up.

"That was always your weakness brother. Your honour and pride." Michael taunted once more before preparing for a crazed and misaimed lunge.

"You're right. It WAS my weakness. But now, I've come to terms with it. It no longer is." Jonathan turned to face Michael.

There was truth in his words as Michael saw it in his eyes. I'm not going to be able to win this time then. And in the blink of an eye, he vanished.

"You win this time brother. But you still lost anyways!" Michael's voice emanated from everywhere around Jonathan.

Slowly, each and every Shadow Paladin soldier vanished as well, called back by a very powerful teleportation spell.

"Gallatin, assess the injuries and eats and report it to me later. I need to get back now." Jonathan commanded before slinging his blade over his shoulder and running back to town.

"God I hope Akane's alright." Gallatin muttered to himself, after hearing the banter swapped by the brothers.

~Planet Cray, Royal Beacon~

"Aichi, are you sure we should be here?" Emi asked worriedly as the door opened with a slight creak.

"Yeah, this is Akane's place after all." Aichi grunted as he and Ren hoisted Akane into the premises.

"What do you think happened to Jonathan?" Misaki asked.

"Wait, who's Jonathan?" Kourin interrupted before Aichi could answer.

"That's Blaster Blade's name. And I'm guessing he's gone out to fight or something." Aichi mused after introducing everyone to Blaster Blade's name.

"Yeah and half the town too." Kai stated bluntly.

"Something big is going down, that's for sure." Ren spoke up, voice dark and sinister.

"H-how do you know?" Kourin asked him, trembling slightly.

"I can feel it in the atmosphere." Ren replied, voice harsh and cold.

"I think some of us better go out and look for Jonathan." Aichi suggested.

"And half the town!" Emi added mischievously.

"But who's gonna take care of Akane?" Kai asked, noticing Akane moaning in her chair.

"I'll stay with her." Misaki volunteered, "Don't want her freaking out if anyone else were to stay behind.

"Can I stay too?" Emi asked, not wanting to get into anything violent.

"I'll stay back and protect the town." Kamui volunteered, wanting to take charge for Emi's safety.

"Kourin, you should stay too." Kai demanded.

"What? No! I'm going with you guys!" Kourin objected, pointing her claws at Kai as a threat.

"Hmph. We don't need someone rash like yourself messing anything up." Kai glowered at her, "Plus, I wasn't suggesting. I was making a demand."

"Aichi! Tell him you guys need me!" Kourin bargained with Aichi, the unspoken leader of the group.

"I hate to admit Kourin, but Kai is right. That you should stay behind I mean. Kamui alone can't handle it, if anything happens." Aichi offered weakly as he felt an uneasiness in his gut.

"AICHI! How could you side with that jerk!" Kourin flared and violent swung her claws at Kai.

CLANG! Sparks flew for a second time as Kourin's claws clashed with Kai's shield.

"Would you guys keep it down!" A voice screamed.

"Who-?" Kourin turned to the source of the voice.

"Jeez you guys are noisy! I can't even rest properly with all that noise!" Akane shrieked as she folded her arms in annoyance.

"Wait, you're okay?" Aichi cocked an eyebrow at Akane.

"NO! Why else do you think I wanna rest?" Akane spat angrily as Misaki tried to calm her down.

"Okay, don't get so mad. You need your rest and we'll give it to you. Calm down Akane." Misaki said softly and as soothingly as she could.

"Yeah, okay. If I hear one more sound from you guys…" Akane left her threat unfinished and closed her eyes to rest.

"Okay let's all go outside." Aichi opened the door as he ushered everyone out.

"Aichi!" A voice echoed from down the alley.

A/N: And that concludes yet another chapter that should have been up a long time ago. Sorry guys just been having a lot on my mind lately. So I hope you guys enjoyed this not so action-packed chapter. Keep showing this Fic love, it is nearing its conclusion soon and I will be starting a sequel to this, although it would probably suck… But well we'll see how that goes when we get there. Anyways, let's get on to GFVG Get Together!

Aichi: Hey readers, what's up?

Kai: You know, I feel like this is the worse chapter possible to do this.

Aichi: What? Why?

Kai: Like seriously the entire chapter has been kinda morbid and dark and…

Akari: Oh don't be such a wet blanket Kai! The readers should still get to interact with us!

Kai: More like see us interact.

Me: Yeah, for once, I'm inclined to agree with Kai. I just don't feel in the mood for this right now guys.

Kai: Good then let's go already sheesh.

Me: Sorry guys I really am not in the zone lately but I will get more in the zone by the next chapter so yeah see you guys then. Sorry again.