Maybe I went too far.
Jason scraped the ground as tendrils of blue aura pulled at his lost wing. He had been proud to show it to me, and I cut it off. My brother’s face became a mask of pain as he struggled to move his aura. The tendrils flailed uncontrollably.
Why did I do it?
I stared at the runes, and the disgusted feelings returned. This wasn’t hurting my brother; I was helping him. The runes had to go.
Those thoughts ended when Jason spat a mouthful of blood on the floor. Sparing was one thing, but hurting my brother was something I never wanted.
“Atom, why,” Jason asked.
“This is for your own good. Throwing away our culture for hers disrespected our Father Ra. You betrayed our culture.” I said.
“It was my choice, not Father’s, and not yours,” Jason said.
“You went against Mother’s teaching to take what is useful and leave the rest,” I said.
The tendrils managed to pull the wing back into place. A series of runes glowed as Jason’s aura returned to form.
Waves of power raged around us, throwing up frigid blizzard winds. Gravity pressed on us 10x Earth standard, crushing our bodies and forcing us to cope. Our power kept us going, supporting biological functions that would have begun to fail already.
Jason gasped for each breath, struggling with his constantly leaking energy. It wasn’t mana despite the runes; Jason hadn’t developed a magic core or refined his body to wield mana. He was using tools built for a different type of energy.
What would happen if Jason tried to build a core?
“I used to despise you. You always told on me to Father and destroyed my dreams. Sometimes, I asked myself what did I do to deserve you?” Jason said.
Runes glowed as the wing reattached. Jason moved in, and we traded blows more violent than any spar. My bones rattled as Jason’s wings rose. His speed increased dramatically.
I had gotten used to sensing a royal vampire. Jason gave up on concealment or controlling his aura. Telegraphing didn’t begin to describe Jason’s predictability. It was like playing poker when the whole table could see your hand.
His wings gave him leverage in the air, and that was the only good thing about them. My concealment mastery converted all of my PL into usable force. Jason had 75%, thanks to Nordic runes, or he was holding back. We were close to even, and he couldn’t sense me.
We broke apart, both gasping for breath.
“Yea, I was a little shit growing up. I remember you used to hit me when father wasn’t looking.” I said.
Jason looked regretful for a moment, then settled into his stance. “Father didn’t tell you the name of our culture. Have you ever wondered why?”
I didn’t like his tone.
My power hit its current plateau of 2700; every bit of it was available. Jason couldn’t say the same.
Small bolts of electricity sparked across my body from my sudden increased charge. They were the only signs that I was going full tilt. Not even a flicker of visible light or sensible aura came through; I was completely invisible to Jason’s senses. I saw it in my brother’s eyes.
“The name of our culture was cursed and can no longer be remembered. We are a mountain with no base.” A frown spread slowly across my face at the implication. There was no name to rally to, only the practices of our culture. I quickly reviewed my memories of Father, and the man never told me the name of our culture. We weren’t a group, just a family with unorthodox beliefs. I found it just as likely that our culture never had a name. “Look on the bright side; we can acclimate to another culture without mutation. I can be a mage while maintaining the teachings of Father I choose.” Jason said.
There was the obvious question. “I don’t believe you. Why didn’t Father tell me?” I asked.
“You loved our culture more than Father or I ever did. Did you think seals were a part of our original culture?” Jason shook his head. “You’re a fool; our current culture barely resembles the original,” Jason said.
Hearing that from Jason hurt more than it should have. Was it true? I couldn’t remember a name for our culture, which was incredibly important. How could I identify with something that had no name, only beliefs?
The need to roll my eyes was strong. What does a mountain need a base for floating in space? Don’t we call those asteroids.
Jason smirked, and maybe my faith was shaken in Father and my brother. There were religions without gods in the history of man, but we had no cultures without names. Ours included the name was merely cursed to be forgotten.
If I believed that to be true, I had some history to learn.
By and large, cultures worldwide had curses in some form or another. There were even some creatures that were living curses.
I flashed forward and punched Jason full tilt. He smashed hard against the reinforced wall, and I followed up with a hard kick before pointing my energy sword at his neck.
“Are you going to kill me because I threatened your identity? Our culture doesn’t exist. You are living a lie.” Jason said.
I punched him in the face because he didn’t get it.
Jason’s betrayal started with that woman. She’s the one who filled his head with bullshit. I blamed her titties; they were perky and apparently too much for Jason to resist. He asked me to help him down this foolish path. We would attack the forces of a Megacity and become wanted men for the family of a woman who saw my brother more as a masturbation aid than a human. She refused to commit herself fully until Jason saved her family. It stunk of another lover.
Who else was fucking that blonde in the ass? For all I knew, Ember might have, but she wasn’t the other man.
My mind flashed back to the problem with our culture. It was nameless and untethered. Did it hurt? I ensured my punch and kick were full tilt to show my anger. I could slap around Jason and then go on a killing spree over this, starting with Emily.
Jason wanted me to feel like my life was a lie. I took that feeling and tucked it away for another time.
I subdued those emotions through a force of will from honing my battle power. My aura hadn’t rippled or revealed its color. If Jason couldn’t force me to do it with her words, likely nothing would.
Father taught us to be skeptical for this very reason. Doubt in our culture could cause mutation-related health problems.
Does culture need a name? I knew my beliefs that’s all that mattered.
Jason still betrayed our nameless culture by accepting mage nonsense into it. If anything, he should have chosen cultivation. An improved body would synergize well with our culture. More importantly, it was our mother’s culture. Consume, digest, and defecate was her lesson; what part of that was using a chimeric combination of Norse and Egyptian runes? Failing Mother’s lesson so thoroughly to impress Emily pissed me off more.
I opened my mouth and growled out my words. “You’re so damn stupid. That girl is no good for you.” Jason gave me to most confused look I’ve ever seen from him. “She has driven you to outright infect your aura. I know your work; our home is covered with your meticulous seals. Those are the tools Father gave us to tear apart spells and wards and make them a part of us. These runes aren’t your work; they are amateur.” I said.
He eyed my energy blade, and I eased it away from his throat. Jason sighed and glared at me.
“Of course, this goes back to Emily. What don’t you like about her? Is it her tattoos, piercing, or maybe her religion?”
“Yes,” I said.
He threw a punch, and I caught the inside of his arm and punched him again full force. My brother rocked back on his feet prepared, and we traded blows again.
“Why don’t you like any of the girls I bring home? Ember is nice; I didn’t make a fuss about her. So why won’t you accept Emily? Are you jealous that Emily puts out? My girlfriend is right. Ember will feel like a corpse, and you know it.” A blow rocked my face back. “Answer me.”
“You’re letting her control you. Her family gets captured, and you decide we’re destroying the farm to save them. You failed to keep up your concealment with your power, so you added runes to your aura for static control. Do you not see a problem she’s destroying us? What’s next? Will she try to sleep with me while you’re distracted? Do you even know what those runes in your aura do? Did she come up with them, or did you?” I asked.
Jason sucked in a breath and tried to calm down.
“You’ve been holding this back for a while, haven’t you,” Jason said.
Could we still resolve this? Jason betrayed our culture and me. He tried to destroy my identity with a secret about our culture. I should blame Father for making him bear the burden of that alone. When this was over, and he married his bitch of a girlfriend, we will go our separate ways.
“I’m worried about you. Even if you’re the worst brother in the world, you’re still my brother.” I said.
“We can’t just abandon her family. We already gave our word.” Jason said.
“You agreed we would try and save them. We could not try very hard. Do you really want Emily’s father staring over your shoulder while you fuck her?” I asked.
Jason gave me a look like I was some kind of old religion demon. Honestly, I was touched.
The gravity continued to weigh on us while we slowly spared, and Jason thought it over. Really, there was only one logical choice. Who in the hell wanted in-laws filled with sour grapes? On the other hand, we could save her sister. We couldn’t manage the rest; it’s not our fault the World Gov forces were too strong.
“It would betray our trust in spirit though not in letter,” Jason said.
He needed more convincing.
“We could always save her sister and stop there. You could marry them both. I know you like her too.” I said.
I shook my head. How did we go from discussing our culture's flaws to getting my brother a second wife? Really, I was too good of a brother.
On the bright side, we were half Xanxia culturally. We could, therefore, take on many wives and concubines if my reading was correct. Mother was probably remarried by now; our sister could be a young miss in the Xia clan. We could have half siblings we know nothing about. I waited for my brother to make up his mind.
“We should give it our best, but if it's too difficult, we will prioritize saving Marian and Greda.” I snapped my fingers. “You forgot about Greda, didn’t you?” Jason said.
“Oh, get over it, you cripple. This young master only notices women with room body temperatures, apparently.” I said.
“I think we should go together to the Egypt mage college after our raid,” Jason said.
I turned off the gravity and walked out of the training room.
“Atom,” Jason said.
“Save it. I’m going to try and get to second base with my vampire. She’s probably drugged out by the sun right now.” I said.
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