For the first time in a long time, Cassius smiled and laughed.
Cassius stood no, rose but not as he was.
Fire wreathed him, shaped him. It didn't burn him; it wore him. His face was lost behind a mask of roaring flame. Hair no longer hair, but a crown of fire, wild and upright, like it answered only to rage.
He could feel the cathedral burning behind him. The heat, the crack of warping flesh-walls, snapped him out of the high.
His weapons vanished in streaks of light, recalled to him.
The cultist, what was left of them, lunged. It was fast. But Cassius felt the difference now.
He opened his mouth. No words, just a hiss of steam and heat, like the exhale of something infernal.
And Cassius thought:
"Is this what power feels like? … I love it."
He dropped to the ground. Hooked a cultist foot with his heel.
The moment he touched it, the thing turned to ash.
Cassius stood. He stared at his hands. He smiled again. Then laughed again.
Worse this time.
He burned them all.
A wave of heat tore through the cathedral.
Flesh, bone, pews, robes, everything blackened.
Cassius exhaled. Fire spilled from his mouth.
Only one cultist remained. Cowering behind a bench.
It trembled.
Trembled?
Cassius paused. That shouldn't be possible.
They were dead. Mind-bound. Puppets of some unseen will.
They shouldn't feel. Not fear.
So what were they seeing?
Cassius stepped toward it. It whimpered.
Maybe it wasn't a man anymore.
Maybe it wasn't Cassius.
Maybe they were seeing something else.
Cassius then wondered about his clothes, but sure enough, they weren't burning, but Cassius in this state didn't feel cold, at least not to the degree he had before.
Cassius continued walking towards the cultist, ignoring its plea for help, and raised his hand, cuffing its limbs into the ground.
Cassius sat atop the cultist, ignoring its muffled pleas. He raised a hand, flame-cuffing its limbs into the scorched floor. Then he lifted its jaw and began stomping.
Once. Twice. Three times.
By the first kick, the cultist was dead, its skull cracked inward. But Cassius didn't stop.
He kept smashing. Punching. Heat-packed blows over and over.
Thirty minutes passed, and he was still beating a corpse into molten ash.
That's when they arrived.
Cedric. Liora. Avaia. Lucius.
The cathedral was gone. The walls had collapsed into a void. The ceiling no longer existed.
Only the floor remained a slab of blackened bone and soot. Everything else had vanished, as if space itself bowed to Cassius.
They stood at the edge of it, speechless.
Cassius kept going.
"Cassius…!" Cedric called. No answer.
"Cassius!" Avaia screamed. "Stop!"
"CASSIUS!"
He finally looked up. But what they saw wasn't their brother.
It was a devil flame-wreathed, faceless, steaming from the mouth like a dying engine. Cedric stepped forward. The only one who could. Flame answered flame.
"It's okay," Cedric said softly.
Cassius stared at him. He didn't recognize the voice. Or maybe he did and hated it.
He grabbed Cedric by the throat and hurled him backwards, knocking him into the others. Then he flickered. Instantly, he was in front of them again.
The cathedral burned to cinder behind him. The void sealed shut, returning the world to normal.
Cassius raised his fist. Flames coiled around it like snakes. He wasn't holding back.
Avaia threw up her barrier. It shattered on impact.
"CASSIUS, STOP! IT'S US!"
But he didn't stop.
He didn't even hesitate.
He moved to kill her.
In that instant, Cedric caught his wrist and flung him down the hallway. He drew his sword.
"Maybe he's in a trance," Cedric said coldly. "Maybe not."
He took one breath and dashed forward.
"But he's made his choice."
"And I've made mine."
They met in the middle flame versus flame.
Cassius reached for Cedric's wrist.
Cedric switched his longsword to his left, grabbed Cassius instead, and slammed their heads together.
A crack of bone. Cassius dropped low, swept Cedric's leg, and tried to burn straight through his thigh.
The flame didn't take.
He pushed harder.
Azure fire erupted.
Cedric groaned, teeth clenched, grabbed Cassius by the throat, and drove his sword into his brother's neck.
It didn't stop him.
Cassius pulled back a fist. It burned bright blue.
He punched Cedric in the face.
Then again.
And again.
Twenty-four times. Each blow hotter, louder, heavier.
It wasn't a fight. It was execution.
The others didn't move. Couldn't speak.
But Cedric didn't fall.
He rose, flames rising to match the azure blaze.
He headbutted Cassius four times. Grabbed his wrist. Flipped him over. Slammed him into the floor and chained him down, flame-formed shackles embedding into the ground.
Cassius screamed. Not in pain. But something else. Something deeper. Something inhuman.
It shook Cedric to his core.
Was that still his brother?
Or had he finally given in?
Cedric made his choice.
He summoned his longsword and plunged it into Cassius' chest.
The scream that followed was primal.
A roar that cracked the stone beneath them.
Cassius ripped an arm free, seized Cedric, and hurled him down the corridor.
Cedric flipped midair, landed hard, blood trailing down his chin, hair soaked red, leg scorched black.
He blinked, and Cassius was already there.
The punch came fast, an uppercut straight into his gut.
Cedric flew. Through what remained of the ruin.
Out into the snow.
His siblings, finally shaken from their trance, sprinted after him.
Their siblings jumped up from the ruins into the winter expanse, saw Cassius approaching and Cedric stumbling to get up, but Cedric still got up, grabbing his sword, exhaling, red eyes shining slightly as if he understood it now.
Cedric dashed forward, Cassius meeting his grace, but this time with a sword.
Steel rang. Flames clashed.
Cassius drove forward with raw power, blade sweeping low to high, but Cedric slipped past it, pivoted, and raked his sword across Cassius' ribs, no cut, but enough force to stagger.
Cassius turned, swung wide, missed. Cedric parried with one hand, the other flicking heat like whips around Cassius' ankle. Cassius flared up, shaking the flames off, launching himself forward with a burst of heat.
Cedric met him in the air. Their blades locked, crackling, hissing, fire and flame twisting in the wind. Cassius jabbed with his elbow, missed. Cedric spun midair, landed behind, and slammed the hilt into Cassius' back. Cassius rolled forward and swung without looking.
Cedric ducked. Cassius struck low, Cedric kicked high, both of them moving so fast it was almost a blur in the snow.
Cassius snarled, flames brightening; he was losing patience. But Cedric's eyes gleamed again, and something shifted. Cassius caught the glint too late.
Every strike Cedric threw began to land.
Every movement had weight, grace, and timing.
Cassius couldn't keep up. He swung hard; Cedric deflected, closed the gap, gut-punched him, slammed his knee into Cassius' jaw, spun, and slashed across his shoulder with just enough flame to stun.
Cassius tried to blast him with heat, but nothing happened. The flames flickered, choked out. He staggered, eyes starting to shut, sword falling limp in his hand.
One final swing, sloppy, desperate, met Cedric's clean parry, and Cassius collapsed into him. Cedric caught him as they both fell back into the snow.
Liora shouted, "Cassius!" Avaia broke into a run. Lucius was already sprinting. They all surrounded him as Cedric exhaled, lying back in the frost with Cassius slumped over him.
"He's just tired," Cedric muttered.
"Tired?" Liora said, blinking. "He just went full infernal mode and collapsed. That's not 'tired,' that's like possessed by a demon."
"Yeah," he muttered. "Still tired."