Brothers (39)

Mastermind stood less than fifty feet from Neo. "Your teleportation abilities make you *seem* invincible, but even you have limits Neo. You can't keep this up forever."

Neo caught his breath. "I can keep this up as long as I want to." He charged at Mastermind, swinging his swords with great speed.

"I see you've gotten used to your father's blade." Mastermind dodged the attacks.

Neo jumped on the lake.

Mastermind chased after him, the two fought for a while.

Neo stuck his sword in the water. "Sword Art: Transform Matter!" He pulled it back out as the lake completely turned into solid ice.

Mastermind prepared to put his hands together, but two arms wrapped around his back, putting him into a choke hold. "Who is-" His eyes widened at the sight of Neo behind him.

"Then who is that?" He looked at the other Neo.

"I'm me. That's a Rock Clone behind you. I've implanted my powers inside of him."

"But when did you make it? I would have noticed." He said through clenched teeth.

Neo smirked. "During my Cloudfall technique. You couldn't see anything because of the water. I had my clone in the lake after the impact. When I turned it into ice, I used some of the power I put inside of it to teleport behind you." Neo spun the Nebula Blade in his hand. "Now. For my revenge."

Neo looked directly up in the sky and reopened his eye.

Mastermind's asteroid from earlier returned, headed straight for the two of them.

The real Neo forced Mastermind onto the ice and stuck the Nebula Blade into his chest, keeping him stuck. "

"This is just insanity!! What is wrong with you?!!"

Neo looked in Mastermind's face. "I can do anything I want. You deserve this. A fitting death for a man of your caliber."

Mastermind was visibly angry. "You're going to die too!! What happened to becoming the strongest?! You ruined that too huh?!!"

Neo smiled at him. "Goodbye. Forever."

The massive rock was basically twenty feet from the ground at this point. The wind force was breaking the ground all around it. The entire rock had to be at least a mile wide.

Neo looked at his clone, his clone looked back. They both closed their left eye at the same time. Him and the clone both teleported together.

Mastermind couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed. "This is how he thinks I die? ME?!! Not at all!!"

Mastermind clapped his hands together.

The rock hit the ground.

Everything in a three mile radius became gushing molten lava and broken rock.

After the effects died down, Neo reappeared in the same spot. There was nothing left.

Everything was molten lava or charred rock.

The Nebula Blade was floating in a steaming tiny pool of water that was left from the ice melting.

Neo flew down to pick it up.

Meanwhile, Airson was fighting Matso.

The god had a damage reduction ability rendering physical attacks almost useless on him.

Matso was literally standing still while Airson repeatedly landed attacks on him. He charged up to Ultrasonic 3 and continued to beat on him.

Eventually the lightning coming from Airson's attacks made an effect on Matso.

He gave him a solid kick to the face, and the built up damage finally made Matso react.

He took a step backward. "Ow..." Matso put a hand to his face. "That...hurt."

Matso got a bit ticked from that. He quickly got in front of Airson and punched him back.

Airson was caught off guard. *"He's fast!"*

Matso was actually fighting now, and he was near Anubis in terms of speed.

Matso opened his mouth. A vacuum of air went inside. He closed it.

*"What's he doing?"*

Then Matso opened his mouth again. A large bullet of wind shot out.

Airson stepped to his right quickly, just barely missing it. The wind force left a cut on his cheek.

Matso took an even deeper breath.

Airson braced himself. "Come on, you did it before... Ultrasonic 4!!!"

This time a multitude of wind bullets shot out, tearing up the ground as they went.

Airson could expect how fast they moved now. He dodged and planned his counter accordingly.

When the last bullet shot out, Airson quickly rushed in and sent a full powered punch to Matso's stomach.

"Crushing Fist: Ultrasonic Boom!!!"

On impact the sound of a thunderclap could be heard, and with a fierce blaze of blue, Matso was sent into the ground.

TH*OOM!!!*

Airson felt a rush of power he hadn't felt before. He couldn't stop his energy levels from rising.

He went into Super Ultrasonic 4 without much effort.

The energy kept rising.

Airson's lightning turned a silvery-gray, and so did his eyes and hair.

He felt much lighter than before, as if he lost more than a hundred pounds at once, but he was no slimmer than usual.

"It can't be...I went into Ultrasonic 5 that easily? What just happened?!"

The large body of Matso was out cold.

A slimy, gushing noise was heard from Matso's body.

A hand came out of the large belly, and slit it open.

A much slimmer man came out of it. He was covered in a transparent, slimy substance. He was tall, well toned, and had dark brown hair and bright green eyes.

Airson was a little grossed out. "What... are you?" he asked.

The man was dressed the same as Matso. He wiped some slime out of his hair and shook it dry.

He talked much like a normal human. "I'm Matso."

Airson was visibly confused. "What?"

The new Matso pointed a thumb behind him towards the dead body. "There are two of me. You killed this one. The fat Matso was like a suit of armor, he rarely took damage, and was pretty strong himself. We were born like that, but both of us were gods. Your power rose like that because I'm assuming you became a God Killer."

Airson checked himself out. He could feel his power flowing through his body in the form of lightning. He had gotten instantly stronger.

Matso cracked his neck to both sides. "Still, don't get the wrong idea. This fight isn't over."

Airson readied himself. He tried to charge at Matso, but instead missed him by a longshot. He moved nearly three hundred meters in a single second.

That's close to the speed of sound.

Airson's eyes grew wide. "What is this?" He looked back to see Matso in the distance. "Did I move too fast to even see my target?"

Matso flew closer to Airson. "I see you aren't used to your power yet. Your eyes haven't caught up with your body."

Matso instantly flew to Airson and kneed him in the gut. "Though that isn't my problem!!"

After the knee, Matso punched Airson in the face and chest a few times, then kicked him in the face to knock him away.

Airson managed to land on his hands and feet. He stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth. "It doesn't seem to hurt that much."

The gray lightning had a property that reinforced his body to make him tougher. "Okay, let's try this again!!" Airson charged at Matso, missed, but not by much. He turned around to dodge Matso's combos of kicks and punches, then managed to land a kick to his chest.

Matso slid back some. "Don't tell me you're getting used to it already..."

Airson started hopping side to side. Even though he wasn't flying at all, jumping felt like floating upwards then floating downward quickly, like it took no effort at all to jump. "What can I say, I'm a quick learner."

Airson held his right hand over his head. A large gray ring appeared, surging with lightning. "Sorry Neo, looks like I've stolen your technique! Halo!!" He threw it at Matso, who jumped over it, but Airson could detonate it whenever he wanted, so the instant Matso jumped and the halo was directly underneath him, Airson set the attack off, causing an explosion.

Matso was still in the air after the smoke cleared. "Hnn...that stung...you're an annoying one aren't you?"

Airson assumed a runner's stance. He ran straight at Matso and tried to kick him, but the attempt was blocked.

The two exchanged many blows, each countering and dodging the other's attacks.

"Why are you fighting so hard to keep me from the princess? All this fighting isn't necessary."

Airson jumped back. "It is necessary. If it means keeping the Seventh Order from taking the world over."

Matso held out his hand. "Why is that such a bad thing? Nyx will create a world where only the strong survive. A world where the weak die and the strong only get stronger. Can't you imagine that?"

Airson scowled at him. A silver thunderbolt appeared in his hand. "No. I can't imagine that. The point of being strong is to protect the weak, so that the weak can become strong. The world you're imagining is called tyranny!!" He threw the lightning bolt.

A clap of thunder was heard.

Matso quickly sidestepped left, but the bolt still pierced his chest. The lightning electrocuted his body and made him kneel.

"Impossible! The attack was so quick that I couldn't dodge in time?!" Matso exclaimed.

The lightning bolt faded, leaving a three inch hole in Matso's right lung. He coughed up some blood. "You think what Nyx is trying to do is wrong? You think *we're* the bad guys? Heh. You don't even know what's out there."

Matso put his hands together and put them on the ground. He dug his fingers into the dirt.

The ground started cracking. A green light was brightly shining between the cracks. The effect started spreading further out.

Airson flew up to avoid it.

Matso's own body started cracking. The same green light was shining through.

Airson threw two more lightning bolts at him. They both pierced through him, but he seemed to be unfazed by it.

Matso started grinning. "I never thought I'd have to use this on a human, but now I'm unstoppable!! When I'm like this, I can't be killed, but my energy will continue to wipe this entire country from the map!!"

Airson didn't know what to do.

Matso had gotten hit with the lightning bolts three times now, but the wounds had already healed. And the green light was spreading through the ground quicker now.

*"I got to think of something, fast!"*  Airson thought.

He saw something blue appear behind Matso.

"So you were hiding your true self. I thought something was up."

*shing!!*

Matso immediately went back into his normal form, and the green light breaking up the ground faded. His eyes grew wide. "What...my power..." He looked back.

Neo had cut him across the back to remove the ability he was using. "Airson, he's all yours."

Neo flew up in the air to watch.

Matso was scared now. "Wait, hold on, this isn't fair! You can't do something like this!"

Airson cracked his knuckles.

In a flash, Airson's fist was at Matso's jaw. "Crushing Fist: Ultrasonic BOOM!!!"

The sound of thunder echoed through the wastelands.

On impact, Matso's neck snapped while he was slammed into the ground with great force.

Now both Matsos were dead.

Airson felt an even larger surge of power in his body, but now that he'd gotten used to Ultrasonic 5, he could control it from rising uncontrollably.

Neo flew down to inspect the god's body.

He was dead.

"This is perfect..." Neo said.

"What is?" Airson asked.

Neo looked at him with a wild look in his eye. "We've both taken down two gods. The gods I've killed were stronger, so we aren't exactly even, but I'm in a foul mood today, so I don't really care at this point."

Neo pulled his sword out of its sheath.

"Do we really have to do this?" Airson asked.

Neo walked towards him. "This is a fated battle between blood. Did you know? My mother died before she went into labor from an illness. I had to be surgically cut out of her womb. Of course my father was nowhere in sight. Guess who was the doctor that cut me out? Mastermind. He forced me to call him my master for years, testing on me and experimenting on me, feeding me false hope that I was to be the one to receive his greatest test. The Angel Gene. I was going to be a god. But he lied to me. And guess what? He had the nerve... to say that I was really his nephew. After all this time. He knew our father. But he told me he killed him."

Neo looked down and laughed manically.

Airson was concerned for him. "So what did you do?"

Neo looked back up with an insane look in his eye. He stopped walking within ten feet of Airson. "I killed him, what else?"

Airson looked at Neo's torn clothes, the bruises on his body. "So that's where you were today."

Neo held his arms out. "So my entire life, everything I thought I knew about family was a lie. I have no family, I have no ties to anyone in this world!"

"I'm your family." Airson said. "I'm the only one you have left."

Neo grinned at him. "That's exactly why I have to kill you. It bugs me. It's holding me down. Neither of us should have been born. We survived under harsh environments and circumstances, not even knowing that the other one existed. But here we are, standing front of each other. This fight will decide our fate. Who truly deserved to live the life they were given? I'm going to be the strongest man to ever live. But I can't do that if I still have a brother that is equal to me as a human. Today I'll prove that I'm stronger than you could ever be, and once I kill you, I'll finally have true freedom."

Airson's gray lightning started flaring. "No. You'll just have an empty heart."

Neo looked at him for a moment. "Here. From me to you."

Neo pulled the Nebula Blade off of his back. "It was *his.* Our father's. You can't fight me evenly without a sword."

Neo threw the sword towards Airson. It landed straight up in the ground.

Airson pulled it out. He held the mystical item in his hands. It was the first and only thing he knew about his father.

Neo charged at him. "Now let's see if you can use it!"

*clang!!*

 The swords clashed. Gray and pink lightning flashed everywhere.

The two fought at a high speed.

The soft rumble of thunder and the metallic clanging noise of swords striking each other were the only noises heard.

Neo teleported behind him, but Airson almost instinctively moved away. He was fast enough now that he could keep up with Neo's teleporting speed.

Neo started running, Airson ran too, the two of them clashed their swords as they ran.

Neo was the first to stop. "Flame Art: Roaring Strike!" He swung his sword, unleashing a a large crescent shaped mass of fire.

Airson raised his sword in the air and cut it in half.

Neo ran at him, dragging his sword. The ground turned to sand as his sword ripped through it. He swung the sword upward at Airson. The sand immediately grew into a large pointed rock aimed at him. "Sand Shard!"

Airson swung his sword at the rock, but he didn't cut it, he just banged on the side of it. *"It's too hard!"* he thought.

Neo flipped himself over the rock to kick Airson in the head, but missed, as Airson dodged quickly.

Airson made a thunderbolt in one of his hands and threw it, but Neo expected it. He closed his left eye just in time, and quickly reopened it, letting it disperse mid-air.

Airson made a large blue ball of energy in his hand. "Sen Shoudan: Sphere!!" He threw the giant ball at Neo.

Airson watched as Neo closed his right eye.

As the attack disappeared, so did Airson. He moved into Neo's blind spot and swung the Nebula Blade.

Neo realized what happened, he was forced to reopen his eye. The attack reappeared in the spot between them.

"You've trapped yourself." Neo said.

Airson put his hand on the blue sphere. "Wrong, YOUtrapped yourself!"

Airson pushed the attack back at Neo. The attack connected, leaving a blue explosion of energy.

Neo was blown away a few yards.

"Just because you teleport my attack doesn't mean it's not still mine. And you can't control if the attack comes back or not after opening your eye."

Neo was on his back, breathing heavily. He clapped his hands together. "Rock Art: Sand Cube." he said dryly.

A mass of sand quickly appeared above and on the sides of Airson. The sand formed into a perfect cube.

Neo shot out a blaze of fire. The sand on the outside started baking, rising the temperature on the inside greatly.

Airson was sweating. The heat was rising rapidly. He charged his lightning up. The heat from his own lightning only made it hotter, but the lightning was striking the sand.

The sand started molding into glass, and deforming. Airson then charged up a blast. "Sen..." He gave one last push to his lightning. It broke the cube, but the fire was still coming. "...SHOUDAN!!!" He let off a blue blast of Sen energy, easily overtaking the fire.

Neo teleported right behind Airson, who immediately dashed away in a flash. He held his sword up, catching his breath and anticipating his opponent's next move.

Mastermind limped into his dark lab. The only light was coming from the tank that held his most prized possession.

He limped up to the tank and put his hand on the glass. "It's your time."

He forcefully dragged himself to the computer where the controls were. He hit a few buttons and the green fluid drained from the tank.

The man inside woke up.

"You live...you're actually alive! I've researched human experimentation for years! I've even given you speech, language, and historical data. And I've given you, a god, the powers of an angel to go with it! You'll be the greatest man ever made!"

The man in the tank opened his eyes. They were gray, his hair was white, and he had a grayish-white skin tone.

The tank opened up. He stepped out and looked at Mastermind. "You are the one who created me?"

The angel spoke in a relaxed, calmed tone. Mastermind nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Yes! I've been working on you for over twenty years!"

"What is my name?"

"Your name... is Legion."

"Legion? As in a crowd or multitude of things?"

Mastermind was in awe of his intelligence. "Yes... you are the result of a combination of so many humans, angelic and god cells, and years of experimentation and research. You are Legion. And I am your master."

Legion smiled. "A fitting name for someone of my caliber. But I have no interest in serving someone weaker than I."

Mastermind's expression fell. "What?"

Legion grabbed Mastermind's face with one hand.

A green waft of energy released from Mastermind's head. "No...this, can't...be..."

Legion absorbed all of his power. "I will take this world for my own. Your work will not be in vain."