608 Snake God (2/2)

That much was obvious.

”END HIM!!” Zehr roared, ”He is a TRAITOR to our people!”

Cass placed her hand against Tycon's chest once more, ”Empty NIGHT! Why?! What reason could you possibly have for betraying us like this?!?”

Tycon shrugged, ”The snake god is in league with the dragons.”

Cass' eyes widened in shock, ”Dragons?! Don't!! EXIST!!!”

She abruptly turned her hand back to Zehr, ”⌈Rending Cyclone!!⌋”

A terrific burst of cutting winds forced the doppelganger to cross his arms in front of him, barely able to stand his ground.

”Run, Big Brother!!” Cass shoved him away, towards the balcony.

Tycon smoothed out the wrinkles on his shirt and placed a hand on his sword, ”I don't feel like it.”

Cass undimmed her vision, glaring hatefully, ”I'm a mana-construct, Brother. I can't ⌈Message⌋ Mom. I can't contact any of my lieutenants. I can't remember what I had for breakfast or the name of my best friend.”

”It's Suka,” Tycon offered. ”Curly black hair. Red eyes?”

...Also, her favorite breakfast food was runny eggs, topped with chives, and atop flatbread.

”GO!!” Cass shouted.

She waved her opposite hand, blasting Tycon with a chantless gust of wind... and he promptly tripped over the balcony's metal railing.

Sighing in his heart, he curled his body inward and allowed himself to rotate as he fell. He landed on one of the flat-roofed buildings, rolling with the momentum.

He felt somewhat guilty for leaving his sister to fight with an actual god... but she insisted. Anyroad, he was relatively useless in his current state.

« System, inquiry: Status of the brute-force protocol. »

⟬ System response: 79.6 quadrillion sequences checked... ⟭

...and he'd be useless for a while longer.

In his memories from ages past... he and his sister would evade their guards and their lessons, relaxing all sun on the pebbled beaches. They'd run the alleyways, stealing food and trinkets from their citizens. They'd escape by climbing walls and running the rooftops.

It seemed that his body was still familiar with the movements, and he vaulted across the buildings of Charm with ease and alacrity.

He ran. He leapt from rooftop to rooftop. The fake sun disappeared and the sky took on a shade of black and green.

He continued to run.

A massive white snake burst out from roofing in his path, battering him with the red tiles. The exceedingly handsome creature lunged at him, faster than a normal human could blink.

Tycon threw himself to the side, rolling and sliding downward... then leaping to the next roof.

The snake sprung across the distance, landing a short distance away... and dissipated into mana dust, leaving behind the humanoid Zehr.

”I'm a god, Tycondriusss,” Zehr hissed, drawing his arming sword. ”You can'ttt run from me.”

Tycon took a deep breath as he drew his sister's sword. He'd literally been running for the past several minutes.

A spatter of blood-stained Zehr's face and white cloak... probably belonging to Cass. Even though all he'd done was kill a mere mana-construct...

--seeing the result of violence on his dear sister made him want to kill a god.

”You seem upset,” Tycon teased, mentally weighing his possible avenues of attack.

”SSSSEVEN HELLS, YES, I'm upset, you in-ssssufferable mortal!!” Zehr screamed.

”I've murdered a few of your cultists before? That Saltspray pirate... that Warlock in Silva...”

”TWO! You killed two! In Caeruleum, you engineered the death of THOUSANDSSSS!!!”

Tycon scoffed as he began to circle clockwise, his weapon pointed forward, ”You threw your lot in with the dragons, you worthless god.”

Zehr stepped forward and swung his weapon wide-- an attack easy enoguh to dodge.

Tycon counterattacked-- which Zehr deflected effortlessly. Tycon tried to cut his opponent's sword-arm, but his doppelganger pulled back and hopped away.

”Do you have any idea how impossible it is to maintain neutrality, Tycondrius?” Zehr groaned. ”I did what I had to do.”

”Our people don't deal peaceably with dragons, Zehr,” Tycon spat. ”It's in our gods-damned bloodline memories!”

”The dragons made this world,” Zehr shrugged indifferently. ”It is inevitable they take it back.”

He pursed his lips, gesturing with his hand... ”I advise you... operate on intelligent rationale over ancestral knowledge.”

Tycon frowned. It was sound advice... but it implied that being born a certain way made him stupid.

The concept annoyed him greatly.