"Ercale!!!"
The shout hit him mid-motion.
Ercale froze.
It wasn't hesitation born of danger—it was recognition that hadn't fully formed yet, something deeper, sharper. His body locked for the smallest fraction of time as the voice registered, familiar in a way that didn't make sense.
*What?*
His eyes shifted.
Slowly at first, then snapping fully toward the source.
And when he saw him.
Saw the face without the mask.
His thoughts fractured.
The recognition didn't settle gradually—it slammed into him. Memories surged forward all at once, five hundred years collapsing into the present in a violent flood, each image as sharp as if no time had passed at all.
"Bram?" Ercale said, the name leaving him before he could stop it. There was no composure in it, only disbelief. "How in the hell are you alive?"
"I can ask you the same thing after what happened, you bastard!" Bram shot back immediately, his voice hard, eyes locked onto him with a glare that hadn't dulled in the slightest.
X appeared beside Bram like he had always been there. "Hey," he cut in casually, glancing between the two of them, "I know you'd love to catch up and all, but we have something to deal with, in case you forgot?"
Bram let out a sharp, frustrated grunt, dragging his focus away. "Alright," he muttered, tightening his grip on his sword before turning fully back toward the battlefield. "Before we catch up…" His gaze settled on King Domine, who was already pushing himself back to his feet in the distance. "We deal with that thing first."
Ercale exhaled once through his nose, the disbelief still lingering, but it hardened quickly into focus as his attention shifted. His eyes locked onto the Demon King, irritation and hostility overtaking everything else. "Agreeing with you on anything is grating," he said flatly, "but you're right."
Without another word, he leaped forward from the crater's edge. He landed beside Bram with a heavy impact, stone cracking beneath his feet as he straightened. "We have a stain to clean up."
X looked between the two of them, his head tilting slightly. "Well," he said, almost amused, "good luck with fighting him directly. I'll continue to run interference."
Ercale's eyes snapped toward him. "Who the hell are you, and why do you—"
X was already gone.
Ercale clicked his tongue in annoyance, irritation flashing briefly across his expression before he turned his full attention forward again.
Across from them, King Domine stood upright. His gaze moved between the two figures now standing side by side. Then he smiled.
"Would you look at that," he said, spreading his arms slightly in a mock gesture of welcome. "The two of you are reunited—against me. I should feel honored, right?"
Neither of them responded.
They only glared harder.
"Just shut up and die, you bastard/insect!" they both snapped at the same time—and then they moved, both of them charging the Demon King together.
Ercale moved first.
"Blitzkrieg!"
The word snapped out as his body vanished into motion. Lightning burst from beneath his feet and wrapped around him in jagged arcs as he shot forward, the distance between him and King Domine collapsing in an instant. His fist drove in first—then another, then another—each strike landing in rapid succession, too fast to track cleanly. Impacts stacked on top of each other, short, brutal punches crashing into Domine's torso and jaw before the Demon King could fully turn.
Ercale didn't stop there.
His momentum carried him through.
He passed Domine entirely, appearing behind him in the same motion as the last strike landed. A dozen small crackles of lightning erupted across Domine's body a half-second later, each delayed discharge snapping outward from where the blows had connected.
"Even your magic is not going to do anything to me, Mortal Killer!" Domine snapped, already turning, his arm coming around in a vicious backhand slash aimed to catch Ercale mid-recovery.
Ercale dropped low.
The strike passed just overhead as he ducked under it.
And Bram was already there.
He came in from the side, low and fast, his blade angled down as he drove it toward the back of Domine's knee. The timing was precise—meant to hit while Domine's weight was still shifting from the turn.
Domine reacted instantly.
His palm snapped toward Bram.
"Dominus Caeli Secare!"
The air changed.
Wind compressed, sharpened—then exploded outward around Bram in violent currents, each gust turned into slicing force, invisible blades tearing through the space around him from every direction.
If it were anyone else, they would be cut. If it were anyone but the greatest swordsman in Aetheria, they'd be dead. Bram?
His sword moved.
A single motion—then another—then another.
Each swing cut through the incoming currents, not deflecting them, not enduring them—cutting them apart. The invisible edges split under his blade, breaking open just long enough for him to step through the gaps as if carving a path through the attack itself.
"Not going to work on me!" he snapped.
Domine's leg came up immediately.
The kick landed hard against Bram's guard. His sword came across his body just in time to catch it, but the force still drove him backward, his boots grinding across the fractured stone as he slid.
"But that will, won't it!?" Domine said with a sharp laugh, already turning back—
Ercale was on him again.
A punch came in fast toward his ribs. Domine caught it on his forearm, the impact cracking against him—but Ercale didn't disengage. Another strike followed, then a kick, then a second punch from a different angle, each one chained into the next without pause.
They locked into close range.
Ercale pressed the assault, his movements accelerating as lightning traced along his limbs. His fists blurred as he drove rapid strikes toward Domine's head and torso, mixing in sharp kicks aimed to break stance and force openings. Every hit came from a slightly different angle, his body constantly shifting position to keep Domine reacting.
Domine kept up.
He blocked, deflected, slipped past blows by the smallest margins—his movements tighter than his size should have allowed. His claws met strikes head-on, redirecting them just enough to prevent clean impact, while his own counters threaded through the gaps between Ercale's attacks.
Then his tail moved.
It snapped in from behind in a sudden, brutal arc aimed to disembowel Ercale.
Ercale vanished in a crack of lightning.
He reappeared several meters back, the tail tearing through empty space where he had been.
"Come on!" Domine called out, his voice rising with amusement. "Don't be so disappointing! Aren't you two meant to be legendary for this world!?"
Bram had already recovered.
He stepped back into position opposite Ercale, the two of them now flanking Domine. For a brief moment, they looked at each other.
Then they nodded.
No words.
Just understanding.
They moved again.
"Trying the same thing?" Domine asked with a low chuckle, shifting his stance to meet them.
Ercale's hand crackled as a spear of lightning formed, condensing into a focused point before he hurled it forward. At the same time, Bram stepped in, his body coiling as if preparing an upward strike.
Then his hand opened.
He threw his sword.
The lightning spear streaked forward, passing Domine's side.
And into Bram's hand.
It didn't harm him.
It wrapped around the blade the instant he caught it, lightning coiling along the edge as he completed the motion seamlessly.
At the same time, Ercale launched himself in.
A flying kick drove straight toward Domine's guard. Domine raised his arm and blocked it cleanly—but the impact forced him to brace, his stance locking for just a moment.
Ercale used it.
He pushed off the block, kicking himself upward and away, creating space as Bram stepped in with the now lightning-wreathed blade.
*What are they plan—*
Darkness.
Something dropped over his head.
Thick. Heavy. Suffocating for most.
A tar-soaked sack sealed over his face, cutting off his vision entirely.
"I think I helped," X said to himself from somewhere nearby, a grin in his voice.
"Give him all you got!"