(Raijian's POV)
Despite the inferno surrounding us, the King stepped closer and unsheathed a black blade hidden at his side. He swung it at my neck, grazing the top layer of my skin.
"How do you think glass is made?" Vetro began. "I've had plenty of time to master Earth and Fire. Thousands of years longer than you. You think a little fire is enough to stop me?!"
As he spoke, an overwhelming heat arose from his body colliding with mine. The pressure from both of us was wearing away at the walls, and the palace began shaking and rumbling.
I was having trouble keeping the pressure on my father after he revealed his weapon, and slowly more of the black metal flowed into the room through cracks in the floor, adding to his blade until it transformed into a zweihänder.
The weapon became so heavy that it cracked the marble floor when he let it fall.
I applied heat to his sword, but the metal was not melting or bending at all.
"You're lucky this metal is rare... so it took forever to gather it all here," Vetro stated in a cocky voice.
I wish I had a secondary element that I could use, something to even the playing field again.
He swung the sword down on me, and I barely managed to roll away.
The wall behind me got destroyed, revealing servants in the hallway who were immediately struck by the heat.
Some grew weak and fainted on the spot before bursting into flames, while others used their powers to guard themselves as they ran off.
He then flipped his wrist, swinging the blade horizontally and slashing through my chest.
The pain was much more intense than I expected... it wasn't just a normal cut, there had to be poison.
I tried to fly away, maybe break the roof and escape, but as soon as my feet left the ground, he threw his sword through my shoulder, pinning me to the back wall.
I'd been too confident; I should have gotten help.
"Wait!" Tana yelled, rushing in through the hole in the wall.
My father immediately lowered his temperature, and I was too weak to keep the temperature as high.
"Crystal's prophecy said she needs all seven of the Chosen alive for this war to end! What are you doing?!" she chastened while rushing past him to help me.
She tried to pull the sword out of my body, but it wouldn't budge. After a long moment of watching her struggle, Vetro sighed and assisted, yanking it out of me roughly.
I screamed, blood dripping from my mouth.
Then he threw the sword over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing.
"What are you doing here, Tana?" Vetro's voice sounded more worried than annoyed.
"I heard what you were up to! Over the Infaniyan bride?! Really?"
"He slept with her! He—!" Then she cut him off, still healing my wounds as she shouted,
"Did he rape her?!" My father grew silent. "Is she a grown woman capable of making her own decisions?! Hmm... if the answer is yes, then why are you solely mad at this boy?" she interrogated sternly.
I felt my breathing return to normal, and for just a moment I saw Tana as a normal being, not an evil force to focus all my dark impulses.
It's odd to witness her being so rational.
"She was... special... You saw her! She looks so much like—"
"Angel... I'm aware."
After she cut him off this time, my father frowned.
"Not as much as you... She's not here to replace you," he assured gently.
She scoffed, so he pulled the hand she was using to treat me away and held it in his. "I mean it... I owe you so much," Vetro whispered.
"This isn't about me... It's about him and that woman," Tana clarified.
Vetro then frowned again and looked at me, who was still beaten up somewhat, but at least my arm was back connected to my shoulder.
"Fine... Son. I'll make a deal with you," my father muttered.
I didn't want to talk to him or even look at him, so my only reply was a curt,
"What?"
"I'll let you decide how I punish my wife."
I gasped and got riled up again, ready for a rematch.
"Don't touch her!" I yelled.
Just imagining him poking her with a fingertip disgusted me.
I had tried to force myself to accept that she would have to go back to someone else, but knowing that person is him is impossible to accept.
What is he going to do? Visit her once a month, while allowing her to be tormented by his gaggle of wh*res?!
Making her feel worthless every day until she feels like she deserves him and is just happy with the small drops of affection he tosses her way?!
If the person she's meant for couldn't possibly love her, then she should be with me!
He responded to me by laughing heartily and saying,
"Fine... but neither will you. I'm going to send you away to Earth. If she cares about you. I'm sure that'll be punishment enough... and when you return, you'll find just how happy she is being MY wife."
"No! She'll never be happy with you! Do you know why? Because you're a deranged, unlovable piece of sh*t!"
That's when he stepped closer and punched me so hard that the room began spinning.
"Why would you hit him like that? Are you trying to kill him?!" Tana's voice echoed over the ringing in my ears.
I heard my father click his tongue.
Moments later I collapsed to the floor and everything faded to black.
When I awoke, I was at my bio-brother Markis's house on Earth.
"You really screwed up, Dad is pissed!" Markis teased while cleaning his guitar strings.
I lay spread out on a dingy couch in a small house that smelled like cigarettes.
"Why am I with you?" I inquired, glancing around the room.
There were many take-out boxes on the floor; some even had mold coming out of them.
"Isn't it obvious? As your big brother, it's now my job to take care of you."... I would rather be dead.
To live on Earth, Markis carved runes into me that slightly reduced my growth rate and drilled into me that I had to pretend to be human.
That meant attending school with kids around the physical growth level I had already reached. I had to lie about my age and say I was fifteen.
The human school was boring; the only excitement I found was in electives or human history, since the rest I had already learned in my first few years of life.
The war between our planets had been at a stalemate for over eight thousand years, with Infaniya winning sixty percent of the battles.
In contrast, the humans had more than just one war, and they had it amongst each other on the same planet.
They even created weapons in such abundance that they could easily wipe out every living being on this planet ten times over.
There were many disagreements and some resolutions.
So many political changes, communication issues, and misunderstandings. It's amazing how quickly things change here.
Maybe it's because of how short human lives are; they feel an urgency to make things better sooner, rather than later.
"Hey, Jeremy, right? I sit next to you in Geology," a girl said, taking a seat next to me in the library.
"I can't believe I'm speaking to him, I'm so nervous!" she thought.
I hate the alias my brother chose for me, but I did my best to smile and say,
"What do you want?"
She shrank in her seat, timidly. Maybe I chose the wrong words... but if she goes away now, I won't be upset.
"I just... you always do so well on tests. I thought you wouldn't mind if I borrowed your notes?"
Thinking to herself:
"If he says no, I'll just go away..."
"I don't take notes," I answered while flipping to the next page in the History book in front of me.
"That's not technically a no. Maybe I should keep trying," her mind echoed.
"Th-then maybe we can just do homework together?" she asked.
I was spending time in the library to avoid going home and seeing my brother laid up with some new woman or the crowd of adults he called friends who got a kick out of testing my patience.
"Fine..." I reluctantly agreed.
She squealed with joy, and I closed my book and reached down into my backpack to pull out my homework.
"My name is Innoccence by the way, just in case you didn't remember." I chuckled lightly, then looked into her eyes and said,
"Of course, I know who you are, Innoccence Sinclair. You sit right beside me."
She blushed and looked away from me as she thought, "Wow, he knows my name! And he's so good-looking! I can't look at him anymore, my heart is beating too fast! I might die!"
She cleared her throat, and I tried to hide how amused I was by her internal dialogue.
"Alright, let's get started. We were just going over the different layers of the planet." She began.
"Yeah, the crust, asthenosphere, and solid mantle, the liquid outer core which generates the Earth's magnetic field, and the inner core that's solid." She gasped and said,
"Oh, thank god you remember them! Wait, we have to label them on this worksheet, so say all that stuff again but slower this time."
I laughed before doing as asked. I patiently pointed to where she needed to write the names and helped her locate the definitions and answers for the rest of our homework in the textbook.
It was about an hour later when we wrapped everything up, and she said, "Bye, Jeremy, I'll talk to you tomorrow!"
As she turned to leave, I yelled,
"Call me Jey!"