"Yami?"
Leo whispered the name, his voice trembling.
In that breathtaking moment, the realization crashed over them like a tidal wave. They weren't just brothers by blood; they were the echoes of two souls who had been everything to each other in a world of cold concrete and gray skies.
It was Yuki's death that had broken Yami's heart—literally—and now, fate had given them a second chance under a sun of pure mana.
Without a word, the two boys lunged into a fierce embrace. They sobbed into each other's shoulders, the weight of two lifetimes of loneliness finally lifting. The "monsters" of the royal palace were gone; in their place were just two best friends, finally home.
"Are the princes... alright?" one of the maids asked from a distance, pointing toward the two small figures shaking with sobs.
Prince Marcel watched them, a look of quiet confusion on his face. "I think they're fine," he said confidently, though he thought to himself, I will never truly understand what goes on in the heads of those little monsters.
Once the tears dried, the rest of the day became a blur of joy and genuine childhood. They went swimming in the cool basin of the falls, hunted fish with laughter instead of clinical precision, and even tracked down a wild boar for the evening feast.
The night was a symphony of dancing and storytelling around the campfire. They were closer now than they had ever been—not just as siblings, but as partners in a cosmic secret.
The next morning, the carriage began its journey back to the palace. The trip was eerily peaceful; not a single monster or predator dared show its face. Unbeknownst to the guards, the two princes had slipped out the night before and conducted a "cleaning" of the entire region, clearing every threat from the campsite to the kingdom's gates.
Leo and Leon slept soundly the entire way back. Prince Marcel looked at his younger brothers' peaceful faces and smiled. I hope they had a great time, he thought warmly. It's good to see them finally take their minds off magic for once.
The moment the carriage gates opened at the palace, the "peaceful" princes vanished. They sprinted toward the royal library with such speed the guards barely saw them pass.
"They can't even take a single break!" Marcel muttered in mock annoyance, shaking his head.
For the next four days, the library became their war room. They pored over texts, debating the fate of the final three demons left in the vault.
Finally, they reached a conclusion. These last specimens wouldn't be used for spell research. Instead, they would be used to test the boys' physical prowess.
"If we ever end up in a situation where magic fails," Leon reasoned, "we must be strong enough to win with our bare hands."
With the King's permission, Leo and Leon requested to be sealed inside the royal library.
They claimed they needed five hours of absolute silence for their studies, and since they were the youngest princes with no immediate public duties, their request was granted.
However, the moment the heavy library doors clicked shut, the brothers didn't reach for books. They reached for the fabric of space. In a flicker of light, they teleported back to the heart of the forest they had visited days prior. It was time for the final experiment.
As they arrived at the clearing, Leon raised his hand to erect his signature impenetrable barrier. Leo quickly interrupted. "Let me handle it this time."
"Don't worry," Leon countered, a competitive glint in his eye. "I've fixed the flaws. You won't be able to slip through as easily as before."
"Actually, mine is conceptually different," Leo explained with a confident grin. "Instead of stopping people, it lets them pass through—but space is looped. Anyone walking toward us from the outside will simply emerge on the other side of the mile-long radius without ever seeing us. To the world, we don't exist; to us, the world is gone. No alarms, no interruptions."
Leon analyzed the logic and found it flawless. "Brilliant. Do it."
Leo lifted his hand toward the canopy. "Open Space Distortion: Bel-Ra-Phal!"
A massive ripple surged through the air, covering a mile in every direction. The distortion settled instantly, blending so perfectly with the environment that the forest looked entirely undisturbed.
The stage was set for a dual-purpose test: could demons learn to coordinate against a superior foe, and how would the brothers fare against B-rank threats using only physical prowess?
Leon produced the three remaining jars and, with a swift motion, shattered the seals. The demons erupted from their prisons, letting out synchronized roars so powerful they sent physical shockwaves through the trees.
"Finally! It is time to unleash hell upon this world!" the first demon shrieked. But his voice trailed off as he noticed two small boys staring at them with clinical, unsettling curiosity.
"Who are these whelps?" the second demon hissed.
"Perhaps they are sacrifices meant to replenish our energy," the third suggested, licking his lips.
"Sacrifices don't look at you like you're a bug under a glass," the first demon noted warily. "Maybe they released us to make a deal."
The second demon loomed over the boys.
"Hey, kids. Were you the ones who broke our seals?"
"Yeah," Leon replied, his face a mask of cold indifference.
The three demons shared a sinister look, their confidence returning. "Very well. For our freedom, we shall grant you one wish each. Speak, and consider it done."
Leon's lips curled into a dark, predatory smile. "One wish? Hmm... then my wish is that you entertain me."
Leo stepped forward, his voice completely devoid of emotion. "And my wish? I wish that you don't die as quickly as the others did."
The words hit the demons like a physical chill. These weren't children; they were something far more ancient and terrifying. For the first time in centuries, the predators felt like prey—and they had a sickening feeling that this day would not end well for them.
Instinctively, the three demons began a synchronized chant. The princes watched with genuine amazement; it seemed even creatures of the abyss could learn to cooperate when their lives were on the line.
"Hell's wrath in blinding flames, summon the powers of a demon lord! Summoning: Unholy Disintegration!"
Massive yellow magic circles manifested above the princes. Leo swiftly conjured a reinforced shield as the circles unleashed a torrent of blinding yellow light.
When the brilliance faded, Leo noticed something unsettling: his shield, capable of withstanding a direct bomb blast, was webbed with cracks. The pressure had been immense.
However, to his surprise, Leon was standing completely unfazed. He hadn't used a shield at all, taking the full force of the attack directly—yet he didn't have a single scratch on him.
The demons stood paralyzed in shock, but Leon merely looked at them with an unimpressed sigh.
"Hey, how did you survive that without a barrier?" Leo asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Because it's a fake," Leon replied flatly. "That isn't what Unholy Disintegration actually looks like."
"Really? What's the difference?"
"The true spell is crimson, not yellow, and it erases everything in its path instantly. Their version was just a localized gravity increase—roughly ten thousand times normal. I simply used an anti-gravity field that perfectly matched their output. That's why it had no effect."
"Oh, I see," Leo sighed, his shoulders slumping. "How disappointing."
"How could a brat like you know it's fake?!" the first demon roared.
"Yeah, you're bluffing!" the second added, though his voice wavered.
"Oh, that?" Leon looked at them with a cold, distant gaze. "I once fought a Demon Lord to a stalemate, and he used the real thing against me. Frankly speaking, it was significantly more potent than your little light show."
"Argh... alright then," Leo said, his patience finally snapping.
He moved with speed bordering on the speed of light, vanishing from his spot and reappearing instantly in front of the first demon. He delivered a brutal kick to the creature's gut, sending it hurtling through the air like a cannonball.
Before the demon could even hit the ground, Leo was already hovering above its fallen form. The other two demons watched in terror as the child levitated in the air, a predatory smile lighting up his face.
"I'd like to try something," Leo said, pointing his palm downward at the crater. "It might be risky, but what's life without a little reward?"
He took a deep breath and began to chant the very words the demons had used, but the air around him began to glow a terrifying, malevolent red.
"Hell's wrath in blinding flames, summon the powers of a demon lord... Summoning: Unholy Disintegration!"
From the heart of the pulsating crimson circle, a torrent of thick, obsidian-hued energy erupted with a violent roar. The beam plunged into the earth with the weight of a collapsing star, carving a gargantuan, bottomless crater into the forest floor.
The first demon did not even have the time to scream; it was instantaneously obliterated, its physical form and spiritual essence erased so thoroughly that not even a trace of ash remained.
"He... he perfectly mimicked a Demon Lord's ultimate spell?" the remaining two demons stammered, their voices trembling with existential dread.
"They aren't children... they are monsters. Living catastrophes!"
Terrified, they turned to flee, pushing their bodies to their limits to breach the perimeter of the distortion. However, the moment they stepped through the shimmering edge of the dome, they found themselves instantly looped back into the center of the clearing, facing the two princes once more. The spatial loop was absolute. Panic, cold and paralyzing, seized them—a primal fear they had not felt since facing the legendary heroes during the Blood Moon era a thousand years ago.
"You cannot escape, no matter how desperately you try," Leon remarked, his voice echoing with a chilling calmness. "But do not worry. We are about to even the playing field."
Simultaneously, the brothers placed their hands over their hearts. "Anti-Magic!" they muttered in unison.
A localized seal rippled over their bodies, voluntarily locking away their ability to utilize mana for the next hour. Realizing the brothers had intentionally crippled their greatest advantage, the demons' terror shifted into a sudden, arrogant surge of confidence.
"You have underestimated the pride of a demon!" the second demon barked, a jagged laugh bursting from its throat. "Now, you won't live to tell the—"
The threat was cut short by a brutal, bone-shattering kick to the jaw. Leon stood where the demon's head had been a millisecond prior, his expression one of pure boredom. "Shut up," he said coldly. "You bore me."
Leon launched himself at the airborne demon, a blur of physical violence. He unleashed a devastating series of punches, each hit sounding like a hammer striking an anvil. The demon attempted to retaliate with desperate dark energy blasts, but Leon's reflexes were supernatural; he dodged every projectile with his eyes closed, sensing the displacement of air alone. With a final, crushing blow, Leon sent the demon spiraling into the dirt.
The creature attempted to use a high-speed teleportation to mount a surprise attack, appearing directly behind Leon with a dark energy sphere charged in its palm. To its absolute horror, its hand passed through thin air. It was an afterimage; Leon had moved long before the light could even reach the demon's eyes
.
Meanwhile, Leo was systematically dismantling the other demon. His speed and agility far exceeded the physiological limits of any mortal being. Every strike Leo landed felt as though he were carving away the demon's very life force.
The creature tried to blink across the battlefield using short-range warps, but every time it materialized, Leo was already there, waiting with a heavy strike.
Leo was moving faster than the concept of teleportation itself. He moved with such lethal precision that he even found the time to carve sigils into the demon's armored hide using nothing but his bare fingertips—flesh and bone slicing through a demonic skin known to be ten times harder than forged steel.
In that moment, the true nature of their predicament dawned on the demons. These were not mere mages or prodigies; they were apex predators, monstrosities capable of terrifying the very things that haunt nightmares.
Leo delivered a final, concussive punch into the demon's gut, the force of which caused the creature to crater into the ground, hemorrhaging black ichor from its eyes, nose, and mouth.
As the demon lay broken in the dirt, its comrade came crashing down beside it. Leon's opponent was equally battered, its limbs twisted and its spirit shattered. The two princes stood side by side, looking down at the fallen entities with identical expressions of unimpressed disappointment.
At that exact moment, a familiar surge of warmth radiated through their veins. The hour had passed. Their magic had returned, and they had won without using a single spell.
The demons stared up in pure horror. If they could not defeat the boys when they were magicless, how could they possibly survive now that the princes were once again the masters of the arcane?
"We definitely need to find someone physically stronger for the next test," Leo muttered, wiping a speck of dust from his tunic.
"Obviously," Leon added, crossing his arms. "This was hardly a workout."
"Anyway, it's time to conclude this," Leo said, his voice flat. "If I were to rate this battle, it would be a two out of ten. Pathetic."
Leon pointed two fingers downward at the trembling demons, the air around his hand beginning to hum with lethal intent. "Since you've served your purpose as training dummies," he said, "it's time to die."