......
The tension was palpable in the streets, both brothers standing opposite to each other Atis standing there with a relaxed posture hands in his pocket, a chilling smile on his face, Issei's face on the other hand was a mixture of myriads of emotions ranging from surprise, betrayal, grief and anger. Anger that even the brother who was missing for so many years is back and the first thing that came out of his mouth were not words that he wanted to hear. What the hell was wrong with his fortune why are so many people after his life suddenly.
Atis on the other hand was calm entirely too calm a chilling smile on his face enough to cause a shudder to the dragon in Issei's gauntlet. "Partner who is this assassin, it seems you have some personal connection to him..." asked Ddraig feeling a myriad of emotions in his partners heart. Other then the emotions going through Isesi's heart Ddraig's instinct told him the man standing in front of them was not someone to truffle with, the presence he excluded was overwhelming so much so that even he the dragon of dominance had to acknowledge it.
Hearing Ddraig's words issei replied " The man in front of is my elder brother Atis....." Issei replied his voice sounding nostalgic as if remembering a long forgotten memory. Hearing it Ddraig was surprised to say so his partner had a mysterious brother who he never heard about not even in passing whispers, what was this some kind of bizarre tale part 2 duel of brothers...that thought aside after awakening Ddraig had access to all of issei's memories but he had never heard of this Atis in any of them.
Issei stood there frozen for a brief moment, the words "I've come to collect" echoing inside his head like a mocking thunderclap. The street around him remained eerily silent, the tension so thick it felt like the air itself had turned solid. His knuckles turned white around the Boosted Gear as he gritted his teeth.
"Why now, Atis? Why come back now—like this?" Issei's voice cracked slightly, the emotional weight far outweighing the threat of combat.
Atis's expression didn't change. His eyes, however, gleamed with a subtle flicker of something — guilt, perhaps, or regret — but it was so quick that to Issei It seem nothing but an illusion. He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket and flicked something into the air.
A black coin.
As it flipped, it shimmered, inscribed with ancient runes that seemed to burn red against the twilight sky. The moment it touched the ground, the coin erupted in a perfect dome of translucent violet energy around the two of them — an Isolation Barrier Field, far beyond anything Issei had ever seen. It wasn't just to trap them in battle; it was to keep the world out.
The violet dome shimmered like liquid crystal around them, pulsing with a low hum that echoed into Issei's bones. It was suffocating. Not because of the magic, but because of the weight behind the act — a declaration that this wasn't a spar. This was a battlefield, chosen and sealed by his own brother.
Issei stood frozen. He didn't summon any more power, not yet. His voice came out low, trembling under the weight of raw betrayal.
"So… even you. After everything... after all that's happened… you're just like them."
Atis stood still, hands now free at his sides, fingers subtly curling and relaxing. "No contrary to what you belief I am nothing like them."
"Then why?! Why the hell are you here, talking like a stranger, setting up a barrier like you're my damn executioner?!" Issei's voice cracked again, his breath heavy as fury and sorrow boiled together.
Atis exhaled slowly, the faintest crease appearing in his brow. "Because mercy comes in many forms, Issei, and me coming here to kill you is one such form of mercy."
Issei scoffed bitterly, the Boosted Gear on his arm glowing faintly. "Mercy?! What kind of twisted mercy has someone beaten into the dirt by their own brother?"
Atis's gaze didn't waver. "The kind that saves you before they get to you."
Issei narrowed his eyes. "Who? The mage association, why are they after me, haven't I done enough for them already. Issei replied confusing Ddraig"
Atis took one step forward. "The pieces are moving. The system is broken. The moment they decided you were no longer useful, they marked you. This bounty? It's not about guilt or justice. It's about convenience. I stepped in… to make sure you didn't get shredded apart by someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill you like an insect."
Issei's lips trembled, then pulled back into a grimace. "Then why attack me at all?"
"Because you wouldn't believe me otherwise," Atis said, his tone cold and final. "You need to fight back — to remember what it means to stand alone. You've been leaning on for too long."
Suddenly — movement.
Atis vanished from his stance and appeared in front of Issei like a phantom, not through teleportation, but through raw speed. His fist came forward, clean and sharp like the tip of a rapier. Issei barely brought his gauntlet up in time.
CRACK!
The impact sent Issei sliding backward, heels carving grooves into the pavement, teeth grit as he absorbed the blow.
Before he could regain footing, Atis was already upon him — flowing from one strike to the next. An open palm to the gut, a pivoting elbow to the chin, a spinning knee that came crashing toward his ribs. Issei dodged only the first two — the third landed with a thud, sending him sprawling.
Atis didn't chase. He stood with the grace of a martial artist and the lethality of a killer. His fighting style wasn't showy. It was like watching a storm — unrelenting, fluid, terrifying in its elegance. Each movement spoke of endless practice, of honed instincts and battles fought in darker places than Issei had ever known.
Ddraig's voice whispered in Issei's mind, cautious.
"Partner… he's not holding back in skill. He's trying to break your form — make you shed your hesitation."
Issei wiped blood from his lip, rising to his feet.
"Then I'll stop hesitating."
He flared his aura, just a little — not the full Balance Breaker yet. He wanted to understand this. To feel what Atis was trying to show him.
"Fine," Issei growled. "Let's see if mercy hurts more than betrayal."
Atis's expression remained unreadable, but for just a second — just one — his left eye shimmered with a flicker of something that wasn't malice.
Then he charged again.
The clash resumed with a thunderous crack as Atis closed the distance once more, his steps soundless but swift — like a shadow slashing across the light.
Issei braced himself, this time more prepared. His gauntlet surged with a faint pulse, catching Atis's first jab. But Atis wasn't aiming to hit hard — he was testing.
Testing distance. Testing reactions.
A feint with the left.
A low sweep with the right.
Issei jumped back instinctively, only for Atis to pivot mid-motion and slide forward, shoulder-first, knocking the wind out of him with surgical precision.
"Gah—!" Issei gasped as he was thrown back, tumbling but catching himself with a backward roll.
His boots dug into the broken pavement. BOOST!
The gear chimed again, its power slowly building with each activation. Issei's aura flared and his breathing evened out. "You're fast, but you're not untouchable!"
He charged.
This time, he launched a feint of his own — a downward hammer strike with his gauntlet, fully expecting a counter. Atis moved to sidestep — just as Issei twisted mid-air, swinging his leg outward.
CRACK!
The kick connected.
A clean hit to Atis's ribs.
He slid back, skidding along the ground, black dress shoes scraping violently against stone. Issei landed with a heavy breath, readying himself for retaliation.
Atis looked down at his side and gently dusted off his suit.
"…Impressive," he said softly. "You've improved."
Issei blinked, momentarily stunned by the acknowledgment.
But Atis wasn't done.
He rushed again — this time with more force. The graceful calm remained, but the tempo changed. Now it was a flurry.
A palm to Issei's shoulder — redirected.
A backfist to his temple — narrowly dodged.
An upward kick toward the chin — connected. The impact cracked the air and sent Issei airborne. But he twisted mid-flight, firing a blast of aura beneath him to regain control and land on his feet.
He panted, sweat beading at his forehead. "You're not thinking You can defeat me with only your fists even though you were stronger then me in the past I am the red Dragon emperor now …"
"Oya, such bold words Ise." Atis said, stepping forward again, this time slower. "Looks like I really underestimated you little brother…"
He raised a hand.
A subtle pulse of power followed.
Seven glowing sigils began to rotate around him — each a different color, each etched with intricate runes.
"…I was trying to get a feel of this fight to enjoy it but you really wish to die so soon."
Issei's eyes widened. Ddraig's voice was sharp and urgent.
"Partner! Those… those aren't sacred gears or spells. They're something far older. I can feel it — each one is like a sealed entity!"
Atis held his palm out. One sigil dimmed as it collapsed inward a ripple was formed in the space right to Atis and from it he drew a Black sheath radiating pure chaos.
From it, he slowly drew a single, gleaming blade.
A curved katana, pitch black, with crimson veins running through the metal — "Yamato" Atis sad.
"I was hoping not to use them but you leave me with no choice Ise," Atis said, voice low and steady.
"I was hoping to take it easy on you grant you a merciful death but you my brother deserve to know why they fear me."
Lightning cracked across the sky within the barrier.
Issei tightened his stance, gauntlet humming with energy.
And as the wind whipped around them, swirling with unnatural force, Atis pointed the tip of Yamato toward his brother.
"Now… shall we begin for real?"
The moment Yamato was drawn, the air inside the barrier shifted. Reality itself seemed to hesitate — warping faintly around Atis like space didn't quite know how to contain him anymore. The silence between them stretched for a beat.
Then —
"BALANCE BREAK!!!" Issei roared, his voice shaking the street beneath his feet.
A brilliant explosion of crimson and emerald energy erupted from his body as the iconic red armor of the Welsh Dragon enveloped him in a blinding flash. The [Boosted Gear Scale Mail] activated in full force, its core pulsing like a second heart.
"[Welsh Dragon Balance Breaker!!!]"
Twin dragon wings erupted from his back with a fiery scream of power. Issei's aura surged — chaotic, wild, alive.
But he wasn't done.
With a flick of his wrist, a blackened, jagged blade appeared in his hand — as though reality tore itself open to hand it to him.
The Sword of the Beast.
Forged from the remnants of Trihexa's chaotic aura, born in the depths of Issei's mental landscape after he overcame the beast's final manifestation. It pulsed with destruction — raw, primal, unrefined. The blade seemed to snarl in his grip.
The contrast was stark.
Issei — a crimson juggernaut wielding a monstrous, barely-controlled weapon of pure force.
Atis — calm and cold, holding Yamato like a conductor about to direct a symphony of death, the edge so perfect it cut the space it moved through.
Neither spoke.
They moved.
CLASH!
Steel met steel.
The impact cracked the ground beneath them as the first swing collided. Sparks and distorted air exploded outward. Issei pushed forward with raw might, the Sword of the Beast roaring with demonic howls as it clashed against Yamato. Atis deflected the blow with a sidestep, Yamato's blade slicing the very fabric of the air to redirect Issei's momentum into the void.
"Tch!" Issei twisted midair, bringing the sword around again, this time with both hands, unleashing a devastating overhead slash.
Atis didn't block.
He slipped through the air.
A shimmer of space folded — a step not of speed, but dimensional displacement. He reappeared to Issei's left, Yamato drawn horizontally.
Slice!
A gash appeared in the armor across Issei's chest, shallow but clean.
"Damn it… that sword of yours," Issei growled, backstepping. "It's cheating!"
Atis gave the faintest smile. "Yamato doesn't cheat. It simply corrects reality."
Issei's gauntlet hummed. "[BOOST!]"
The power doubled.
He charged in again, unleashing a wild flurry of swings. Each attack caused shockwaves, craters forming beneath their feet. The Sword of the Beast tore through the air with pure devastation, leaving trails of corruption where the edge sliced.
Atis moved like flowing water — one motion becoming the next. Each parry was an evasion, each step a spatial redirection. He wasn't overpowering Issei — he was outmaneuvering him.
But Issei refused to go down.
With a sudden feint, he spun mid-swing and drove his knee into Atis's side. The impact landed — Atis grunted, the wind knocked from his lungs.
"Got you!"
Issei followed up with a slash of the Sword of the Beast, black flames coating the blade. Atis narrowly blocked it with Yamato, but the impact forced him back — cracks forming in the barrier floor beneath his heels.
The flames curled toward him, burning with the essence of Trihexa's wrath.
Atis narrowed his eyes.
"…Absorb."
A ripple appeared in front of him— and the fire was consumed. Erased. Silenced.
Issei's eyes widened. "What the hell—!?"
Atis exhaled and slowly raised Yamato again, pointing it forward.
"You're strong, Ise. Stronger than they ever gave you credit for."
He stepped forward, the wind dying around him.
"Not bad brother you have truly become strong, now I know why those old geezers are after you….no wonder you were able to break free from your evil pieces influence but now...."
CRACK!
The barrier cracked from the force of what came next — not from an attack, but the release of intent.
Yamato shimmered in his hand.
"allow me to give you a glimpse of the edge that severs the space itself."
He vanished.
Issei spun, roaring: "[BOOST!]"
CLASH!
And then — everything froze.
A single frame.
Yamato at Issei's throat.
The Sword of the Beast at Atis's gut.
Both barely holding back.
Neither bleeding.
A silent moment, thick with tension.
One wrong move… and it would be over.
"Looks like only skill will not be enough o bring you down Ise, you're fast and have a good defense to it seems unfair you know a TANK with speed of a jet."
Atis slowly stepped back, each movement deliberate, his eyes never leaving Issei's. The faint shimmer of spatial distortions still clung to Yamato's edge, but now, something else stirred behind him. One of the remaining six sigils orbiting his form glowed — dull gold, ancient and divine.
With a flick of his wrist, Atis pointed Yamato downward and uttered, calmly but with weight:
"Card 2 — Enkidu, Chains of Heaven."
The air shuddered.
From behind Atis, the sigil bloomed like a divine sun, casting long rays of gold light across the battlefield. Then, without a sound, they descended.
Chains.
Dozens — hundreds — of radiant golden chains shot from the ground like divine spears, each link etched with heavenly scripture, their ends tipped in anchoring seals meant not to kill, but to bind. They didn't just fly — they hunted, drawn to Issei like predators to prey.
"The hell?!" Issei shouted, wings flaring as he leapt into the air.
But the chains followed.
Some curved midair, striking from blind spots, others erupted from the ground, responding not to movement, but to will. Enkidu — the chains meant to bind gods — were targeting the divinity in his aura.
"Ddraig! What the hell are those?!"
Ddraig's voice growled with warning.
"Those aren't normal chains — that's Enkidu, the weapon forged by gods to bind King of Uruk to them but why does a mere mage possess them."
"Then I guess I need to stop holding back."
Issei closed his eyes for a brief second — then flared his wings wide. His armor cracked and glowed, and a second surge of energy erupted outward, this one deep and ancient. The scale mail darkened slightly, glowing with pulsating red-gold lines that crawled across the plates like veins of magma.
Issei's eyes snapped open — his pupils now reptilian slits.
"Great Flame explosion"
The temperature spiked.
A wave of energy burst outward, vaporizing the chains nearest to him. Fire laced with divine pressure and wrath curled around Issei's body like an infernal cloak. His presence became heavier, a pressure even Yamato hesitated to slice through.
But Atis didn't flinch.
He adjusted Yamato's grip, and several chains froze midair, then repositioned — moving with calculated coordination. Atis was directing them with micro-gestures, like a puppeteer with absolute battlefield control.
A chain whipped toward Issei's leg.
He ducked, countered with a burst of fire — but two more wrapped around his wrist.
SHINK!
He slashed through them with the Sword of the Beast, but they regenerated, reattaching themselves with a divine hum.
"They regrow?!" Issei snarled, twisting midair, barely evading another barrage.
Atis dashed forward — Yamato in one hand, chains whipping behind him in a synchronized dance. One slice tore open space, causing the next wave of chains to teleport around Issei's blind spot.
The battlefield itself was no longer his.
It belonged to Atis.
"Don't rely on brute strength, Ise," Atis called out mid-dash. "That aura is strong — but if you don't refine it, it'll burn you out."
"I'll refine it when I punch your face in!" Issei roared, lunging forward with a flaming punch — his right gauntlet blazing with dragon fire.
BOOM!
Atis met the punch with a parry from Yamato — not blocking the force, but cutting the space where the blow was meant to land. The punch passed through harmlessly… until Issei twisted, allowing his aura to pour out and ignite behind the spatial cut, forcing a shockwave back into Atis's blindside.
CRACK!
It hit.
Atis skidded back, boots tearing through pavement.
He stood, coughing once, his coat slightly scorched.
He smirked.
"…That's more like it."
Above them, the sky within the barrier warped as both draconic aura and divine suppression collided — one raw and instinctive, the other refined and precise.
Chains rattled.
Swords hummed.
And then — silence.
Both stood across from each other again, panting, power radiating in waves.
One warrior born in chaos and fire.
One forged in silence and mastery.
And as the wind whipped between them, the balance hung on a knife's edge…