As soon as the short one fell to his knees, his upper body rolled and fell to the ground with a muffled sound. It separated from his lower half, and intestines and blood scattered on the moist soil, forming a dark puddle that emitted a sharp metallic smell, mixed with the scent of mud and rot in the forest air.
The nearby trees trembled, and their groans rose with the echo of death.
Christopher did not move. His eyes were focused on the tall man, who froze for a second in front of the sight of his severed brother. He watched how the gray aura around his brother's corpse faded, and how life leaked from his wide-open eyes.
Then he heard his footsteps.
The tall man stepped on the blood slowly and raised his head toward Christopher, his eyes blazing with repressed madness, and his voice came out like the growl of a demon:
"Did you cut my brother... in half?"
The aura around his body began to ripple and erupt like a volcano. Dust and pebbles rose from under his feet, and his sword began to emit a loud hum, as if it was screaming with him.
"I'll make you pay for every drop of blood he shed!"
Then he disappeared from his place, charging at Christopher with mythical speed, and struck with his sword with full force. The two swords clashed in a single flash, and the auras exploded in a violent burst of energy that made the ground shake beneath their feet.
Christopher pressed with his foot, countered the strike, and pulled his sword in a dark arc:
"Pay the price?..." His voice was sarcastic, but heavy like lead.
"Try it."
The tall man roared and charged again like a beast that lost control. His sword clashed with Christopher's in a series of crazy strikes, each one creating a pressure wave that blew leaves off the trees and caused cracks in the ground beneath them.
But Christopher, despite the violence of the blows, remained steady.
The tall man was laughing as he fought, a hoarse laugh as if coming from a mad clown:
"Aha haha! Did you see my brother's intestines? They were artistically twisted!"
He swung his sword violently, almost cutting off Christopher's head, then continued with a trembling voice from excitement:
"Now I'll cut you up and put each part of you in a different box! And I'll sing over your corpse! Aha haha!"
But Christopher was unaffected, only watching, waiting... until the opportunity came.
A faint glint appeared in Christopher's eyes, he raised his hand and clenched his fist.
"Shadow Seal."
The shadows under his feet suddenly exploded, branching out strangely, like the roots of a tree from hell. They crawled across the ground at incredible speed, then suddenly rose toward the tall man, branching and wrapping around his limbs like shackles, then pulled him up and hung him in the air.
The tall man screamed, swinging and flipping in the air like a puppet tied with invisible strings:
"Haha ha! You are strange and strong, purple-scarf! But don't think killing me will be that easy!"
And in a sudden moment, despite the restraints binding him, his body flipped at lightning speed, and his eyes shone with indescribable madness:
"Take this!"
Suddenly his holy power exploded, freeing his arm from the restraints, and he struck with his sword a diagonal slash from top to bottom, launching through the air like an arrow to hit Christopher's chest with force.
Christopher staggered back two meters in pain, blood dripping from his mouth, his body swaying from the force of the strike, but he remained standing.
He whispered with a voice mixed with pain but steady:
"Damn you..."
He raised his sword with difficulty, then smiled a grim smile like a crack on the face of a demon behind the scarf.
"Your turn."
He leapt into the air, gathering his mana into his sword, which turned black with dark, cold mana.
He shouted as he rushed toward his enemy:
"Shadow of the World Sword!"
He swung his sword from bottom to top, while the tall man was screaming laughing, but the strike was lethal.
The tall man's body split into two halves in the air, and the blood exploded like a raging fountain, suspending intestines and torn ribs in the gray forest sky.
The upper half fell first, his arms still moving as if clapping fiercely.
As for the lower half... it hit the ground with a frightening silence.
Christopher landed on his feet, blood dripping from his mouth and chest wounded by the tall man's attack, then muttered in a low voice:
"Two and a half minutes..."
Christopher looked at the scene in front of him. The ground was covered with the remains of two bodies, and the blood was still bleeding with heat, emitting a suffocating metallic smell. He quickly turned. He felt the auras of the masked pursuers approaching his location quickly, as if they sensed the intensity of the battle.
He did not hesitate. He pressed on the ground as he whispered:
"Shadow Steps of the Earth."
His shadow exploded beneath his feet, and he disappeared from his place like a flash, leaving behind a whirlwind of dust and blood.
---
Several hundred meters away, two and a half minutes earlier, the white-haired commander was running fast, cutting through the forest with twenty of his followers, leading them with a disturbing calm.
Suddenly, the air in front of them shook with a violent energy explosion that made the trees tremble and their leaves fall.
One of the followers appeared beside the commander with agility and speed, bowed slightly and whispered seriously:
"Sir... it seems the immortal twins clashed with the purple-scarf hunter."
The commander showed no emotion, only whispered without slowing his pace:
"Yes... it's them. With their presence, his death should have been certain. Even if he wasn't killed, they'll delay him for a few minutes enough for us to arrive."
He paused for a moment, then continued in a cold and decisive voice:
"Then he'll be dead."
From the back, one of the followers, named Thirty-Six, spoke in a low voice:
"Sir... do you think the twins can stop him? What if he escapes?"
Another replied with bitter sarcasm:
"Are you stupid? The twins, when united, are unbeatable. Not easily. Even the commander prefers them."
Thirty-Six nodded slowly:
"Yes... that's true. Still... I have a bad feeling."
The other follower gave him a side glance and said:
"Don't let feelings ruin your focus, Thirty-Six. We don't want to bury you with their corpses, if the worst happens."
---
Their steps continued to pierce through the forest silently, only the sound of wind between the trees and their regular breathing was heard. After minutes of running, suddenly... three strong auras rose on the horizon.
One of them gasped:
"Two holy auras... and that third one?! It's dark!"
Some of them stopped for a moment, exchanging looks.
One of them said: "The immortal twins... and the dark aura, no doubt it's the hunter."
But the white-haired commander didn't slow down, continuing his run saying:
"Keep moving, don't stop."
Long exhausting moments passed before one of the holy auras suddenly disappeared. It went out as if it was crushed, or... its owner died.
One of the followers spoke with slight disbelief:
"O-One of the twins... fell?!"
A moment of charged silence prevailed, before a rough voice responded from the back:
"Impossible, one of them can't be killed this fast. Maybe he retreated... or deliberately hid his aura."
But those words were soon shattered, as the second holy aura also vanished, and only that dark aura remained, trembling like a sharp blade.
Some held their breath, their steps weakening involuntarily. One of them said slowly:
"Did... did he kill them? Did the immortal twins... die?"
Another whispered, his voice tinged with panic:
"This... is not possible."
The white-haired commander at the front kept running at the same speed, showing no surprise or disturbance, remaining calm as usual, his eyes scanning the horizon without blinking, although internally he did not deny being a little surprised by the strength of the purple-scarf hunter. Nevertheless, he did not slow down, did not hesitate.
Suddenly, the silence was torn by the voice of a person from the middle of the group, who had long black hair tied behind his head, wearing the same black mask, but his aura carried a majestic weight.
He spoke in a loud voice that shook their bodies:
"Silence."
The whispers stopped, and all eyes turned to him.
"Are you afraid of just a hunter? At the peak of the intermediate level?!" He mocked in a harsh tone, then pointed with his finger to the ground:
"Shame on you. Look at our number, and look who leads us."
Another person replied hesitantly:
"But… the immortal twins… were killed… and they… weren't ordinary…"
The black-haired man gave him a cold look and said:
"Yes. They were killed. And this proves that this hunter is not ordinary... and that's all."
Then he turned toward the commander and said:
"Sir, allow us elites to be at the forefront, I swear by the name of my Lorini family that I'll bring his head to you."
The commander didn't reply with a word, but he raised his hand slightly, signaling to proceed. He didn't need to speak, for his presence alone was command enough.
One of them whispered to another:
"That man… he's one of the elites, right? Alex, the one with frozen blood."
"Yes… that's Alex Lorini."
---
Only three minutes later, they stormed the battlefield.
The white-haired commander stood in the front calmly, his eyes roaming over the corpses of the twin brothers.
The short brother's body was split in half, and the other was in no better condition, his body torn in a similar way, as if whoever did it made no distinction between them in fate.
A heavy silence prevailed, no one dared to speak.
Then, in a voice as cold as ice, the commander spoke without changing his tone:
"How long will you remain lying down?"
The echo of his words spread through the place, as if it were a slap laced with sarcasm.
Some of the followers blinked in surprise, and others exchanged confused glances. They knew the twins did not die easily... but what they saw now shattered all their beliefs.
Then suddenly, their corpses trembled gently, and faint gray threads rose around the two bodies.
The limbs of the two brothers began to tremble.