The Strength of Brothers
Jayce
Iroar and push forward, lightning surging from my fists, wrapping around me in arcs of silver light. The power in me grows, buzzing with intensity. My fist connects with Helios, and the shockwave sends him sliding back several feet.
His smile fades. His golden eyes flare brighter. “You may carry the will and strength that he does,” he says, his voice filled with fury and contempt, “But you are not Zeus.”
Then he moves, faster than I can comprehend.
One moment he’s in front of me, and then the next, he’s behind me before I can even take a single breath.
His fist connects with my spine, and agony explodes through me, as I feel something crack.
My face smashes into the ground, my helmet protecting my skull.
Before I can move, Helios grabs me by the back of my cloak and yanks me upright, his face inches from mine.
“Know your place, I am a god,” he snarls, his breath searing against my skin, burning with anger.
“But everything you have, everything you want, everything you hope to ever be is already mine!”
He slams me down headfirst into the ground. The ground cracks, splintering outward in a web of molten gold. He rips my helmet off, smashing my head into the ground, my vision dizzying as a scream splits the air.
“Enough! If he dies, you know the consequences!” Sienna’s voice is shrill, but filled with something I’ve not heard from her before.
“If he dies, you are mine for eternity,” Helios chuckles, unbothered. I hear one of my brothers try to attack, but Helios casts him aside like a ragdoll.
This fucking dickhead! Theo’s snarl rings in my head.
I see his shadow behind Helios, who has let go of me, holding his scythe that has power wrapped around where it had broken.
It pulses with power as he drives the jagged blade into Helios’ back.
I twist, seeing the divine mark pulse gold beneath his armour.
I raise my hand, snarling as Theo drives the blade deep, and I punch him in the chest, slamming him backwards, driving Theo’s blade into his armoured back.
For a moment, Helios’ eyes widen, but then he turns, tearing free from the blade.
His armour breaks, and he rips it off, tossing the heavy metal to the ground, and I’m satisfied to see liquid gold blood drip from his back.
But it has only angered him.
“Guess we’re more alike than you think,” Theo says, as he pulls me to my feet with one hand. “Gods bleed just like mortals.”
Helios doesn’t reply; instead, he raises his hand and sends an immense blast our way. Theo shoves me away, and it hits him directly, throwing him halfway across the arena, his body slamming into a pillar with a crunch that makes my stomach twist.
I hear a snarl of rage from the stands and see Alessandra standing, her aura raging around her, her eyes red, whilst Heaven is beside her, eyes wide with horror. But they can’t interfere; no one can.
I drag myself up, summoning my power. One thing different here is that there is no end to the power I can draw from around me.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I growl. I can see Ares moving from the corner of my eye.
Helios looks down at me, the mark on his chest faintly glowing. “You think you can destroy me?” he asks quietly, almost pityingly. “You really think the sun can fall?”
“I don’t think – I fucking know it can,” I spit blood.
Ares’ voice bursts in my mind, Now, Jayce!
The ground beneath Helios shifts, water surging upward from cracks in the marble, glowing a deep teal, and it wraps around Helios’ legs, trying to pull him down.
It’s now or never.
I channel everything I have left, lightning fusing with the churning water. The storm builds around us, lightning and water twisting together until it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Helios roars, breaking free, the heat so intense my skin burns. He thrusts his palm forward, and a wave of sunfire tears through the arena.
I spot Carter running forward before I can. At some point, he must have shifted back into human form, but he now shifts back into his wolf, diving straight towards the blast. Helios shifts direction, and the fire hits him full blast.
“Carter!” I thunder.
The smell of burnt fur fills the air. He hits the ground, his body limp, chest barely moving.
Renji is next, leaping at Helios from behind, biting into his shoulder as his body becomes engulfed with the sunfire. He’s badly wounded, but somehow, we’re all still alive. Hades…
Lightning surges around me, brighter, faster, harder. My gauntlets crackle, their runes glowing white. I launch forward; this is my chance. My fist slams into Helios’ chest, sending shockwaves in all directions, the impact sending lightning splintering outwards.
For the first time since we began this duel, Helios stumbles as his huge form is thrown to the ground, his head bouncing off the cracked ground.
His molten gold blood drips from his lip. His hand shakes slightly as he wipes it away, eyes glowing brighter with fury. “Scum.”
He raises both hands, summoning a dazzling ray of light.
The heat hits first, followed by blinding pain that consumes everything on the arena floor.
My wolf’s rage that has been one with me all this time changes to a low growl, confusion blurring my thoughts.
Where am I?
Pain, pain is all I can fucking feel.
But through the burning haze, I hear a voice, “Jayce! Stand up!”
Sienna…
Her voice pulls me back. I lift my head, my body broken but still burning with power. The world spins, the light unbearable, but I will not lose. My eyes find Helios, the divine mark on his chest glowing faintly.
I take one step. Then another.
My body feels like it’s turning to ash. But I keep going.
The air tastes like metal. Every breath burns.
The ground of Solaria glows red beneath our feet, cracks running like veins of fire through the ground, burning my feet and my legs, agony tearing through me.
Helios straightens, his golden aura blinding, heat rolling off him in waves.
His voice fills the arena, echoing through the domed sky as he looks at me with scorn.
“You think strength alone will save you, son of Andronikos?” He raises his hand, a golden sword appearing in it, its blade a strip of living sunlight.
“Yes,” I manage to spit out.
“Then come, withstand it, show me what true strength is.”
He lunges, a blur, and I do the same, not knowing where I find the strength.
I meet him halfway, our auras exploding when they collide.
So powerful, so intense that it feels like everything is being destroyed.
I feel the ground beneath us cave, and we are falling deep down, everything around us shattering.
His sword cuts through the storm, grazing my ribs, the heat searing my flesh, but I swing back, fists wreathed in lightning. Each blow I land tears through his sunfire. He defends with his blade. We are a blur of power and speed, sparking a storm in our wake.
I will not lose. We will not lose.
Block, attack, defend, counter… It’s a dance of power, but I’m not yielding; the force is slowly but surely driving him back, each hit getting closer and closer to him. The mark on his chest flickers.
Now, Theo! I snarl through the mind-link.
Theo’s energy hums from somewhere unseen. A mist twists beneath Helios’ feet, tendrils of it coiling up his legs like chains.
Ares! I shout.
Ares surges forward, water roaring with him, his body drenched in water.
“Move!” he growls. I jump back just as he brings both hands down, and the sea itself crashes into Helios, sweeping him off his feet and slamming him into the cracked stone before it begins to wrap around him, the splashes cooling my own burning skin.
Helios jerks, his eyes going to the bindings that hold him, as water too strengthens its hold.
Renji and Carter are already here. They leap at once, almost a mirror of one another, fangs bared. Renji’s sink into Helios’ arm, whilst Carter’s rip into his shoulder.
Helios roars, fire bursting outward. Renji is thrown first. He hits the ground hard, blood smearing across the rock. Carter clings on longer, but Helios grabs him by the scruff and hurls him across the sunken crater.
I move through the chaos, my gauntlets blazing white.
Helios rises, his chest heaving, his hair no longer braided or neat but unruly. His body is covered in dirt and marks, and not all his wounds have healed. His eyes burn with a fury far too powerful to put into words.
“Your defiance ends here,” he hisses. The ground trembles. He swings his sword, but he isn’t aiming at me, but at the sky.
The heavens split open.
A column of fire descends, molten and pure, swallowing the centre of the arena, opening a bottomless pit.
I grit my teeth, throwing up a barrier of lightning. The edges burn through, heat singeing my arms.
I’m on it, Theo’s sharp voice comes through the mind-link.
He moves silently until I see him behind Helios, bloody, bruised, and injured, but his scythe gleams black with his aura. He swings low, slicing across the back of Helios’ legs, causing him to stumble, and that one precious moment, even as he turns to destroy Theo, is all I need.
I dive forward, lightning tearing from my hands in violent streaks. I raise my fists, ready to put everything I have into this, and time seems to slow…
I hear a rumbling laugh echo in my mind, a voice I don’t recognise. That’s how you play with a god.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Each hit, slamming into the divine mark. If he were human, my hands would have been through his chest.
Helios’ roar shakes the entire realm. The sunlight blazes so bright I’m blinded.
One last time. All of us. Together, I rasp.
“Enough!” He slams his palm into my chest. The blow launches me backwards. I crash into the ground, ribs splintering, lungs empty. The pain is deafening.
Through blurred vision, I see him stalk toward me, sword raised, the sunfire cascading from him like a waterfall. “You will kneel before the Sun.”
Theo appears behind him again, but Helios has learned.
He spins, sword flashing, and the blade catches Theo’s side.
Blood splashes everywhere, a stark darkness in comparison to the light.
A second later, Carter, now in human form, has sliced Helios’ neck with his sword.
Renji’s jaws clamp around his hand, making his grip on his sword weaken.
Theo doesn’t move to defend himself; instead, he raises his hand, his claws out as he rakes them down Helios’ chest. Helios’ other hand plunges into his stomach, blood pooling at his feet.
“Theo!” I shout.
He staggers, dropping to one knee, his scythe clanging to the ground. “Just… fucking hit him, Jayce.” His voice is hoarse, but that smirk is on his face. “We’re almost there.”
My heart pounds.
“Let go!” Helios snarls, but Carter and Renji hold on with everything in them.
Ares rises from the wreckage behind Helios, his eyes glowing like the sun itself, seafoam dripping from his fists. He meets my gaze.
Together, Ares says.
I nod, our eyes meeting. We work great together, we always have, just like Renji and Carter do, whilst Theo used to play the solo game with an ace up his sleeve. With time, Ares and I somehow grew apart, but right now it doesn’t feel like that.
Lightning arcs from my body, water surges from his. They twist together, storm and sea, fury and force, and we both launch at once, our hearts beating as one.
Helios turns, both hands gripping his sword, bracing himself. Theo rises from behind him, wrapping his arm around Helios’ neck.
It’s too late for him.
Ares and my power combine, becoming one, and I pull it to me. Ares nods, allowing me to take it forward. I raise my fist, the sheer force feels like it’s ripping me apart, and I drive it straight into his chest, right through the divine mark.
The sound is like something I have never heard before. The sound of something that should never break – breaking.
The explosion hurls us all backwards, the light swallows everything, my ears ring, and my heart beats violently. I hit the ground, but I can barely register the impact.
And then the glare fades. The world is silent…
The crowd, the Divine Order, Helios, us, nobody moves. Nobody speaks.
I open my eyes to see Helios on his knees. His sword lies shattered beside him, his hand pressed to- My eyes widen, my heart leaping as realisation hits.
His hand is pressed to the fractured mark, now a cracked ring of gold burned into his skin.
Smoke rises from his body, and the light of the sun has forsaken him.
He looks at me, and for the first time, the god looks almost mortal.
“You…” And his voice no longer resonates within my mind. I can hear him just as I would hear anyone… “What are you made of?”
Were the gods once… like us?
I meet his gaze, every muscle trembling, my chest heaving with the effort to stay upright.
“Humility, humanity, hope. A mortal who feels it all. Maybe that’s where my strength lies.
” He blinks, the light in his eyes dimming as I continue, my voice raw.
“When I fight, I don’t fight for glory, or power, or possession.
I fight for the ones I care about, the ones who’d bleed for me just the same.
That’s something you’ll never understand. ”
Silence.
I can barely move as the voice of the Divine Order echoes from above, ethereal and thunderous. “By the divine law, the mark is fractured. The duel is ended. Victory belongs to the sons of Andronikos!”
The barriers collapse. The crowd erupts in a roar that feels a million miles away. I barely hear it, and I fall onto all fours, every muscle screaming.
Theo stands up, limping towards Carter, his gaping wound making me wonder how he’s walking. “Now, why the fuck wasn’t there a cameraman? That was epic.”
Then I hear a sound I haven’t heard in years.
Laughter.
Ares is laughing.
A deep rumble as he gets onto his knees. “For once, I agree with you,” he says breathlessly, clutching his ribs. “But we’re fucking fried, man.”
“I’m alive, if anyone’s wondering.” Renji’s amused but weak voice comes, as I turn and smile weakly at him, managing to get to my feet, but I don’t get far. Stumbling, my knees hit the ground, but Renji’s beside me, refusing to allow me to fall.
“We did it,” he says, his eyes sparkling. “We did it. You can rest now,” he murmurs.
My head drops onto his shoulder, and I turn to look at Helios.
He’s still kneeling, golden blood dripping onto the destroyed ground.
Our eyes meet, and I wonder how it feels to hold a grudge for so long…
What stemmed from one woman and love became something he could never let go of…
He looks away, his gaze turning to the dimmed sun in the sky above, and his eyes fill with something that looks close to sorrow.
“The sun,” he murmurs. “... has fallen.”