Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 199: Death of Brotherhood

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

Hornfels didn't even seem to notice me. The blonde dwarf's eyes were entirely focused on the body of his dead twin, unaware of my existence. He looked like he'd been put through a blender–his hair was burned in patches, a deep cut stretched across his jaw, and standing out on his bare shoulder was a dark bruise.

The dwarf tumbled forward, kneeling at his brother's body. His hands reached out in a painfully familiar way as he tried to staunch the bleeding over Skarn's mana core. "Come on, brother," he wheezed, his voice breaking. "Please, not like this. No! You're fine. You're okay! This... This is nothing!"

The words themselves were a statement, but they echoed into the din of the cavern as a silent plea.

The blood slowly drained from my face as Hornfels' intent washed over me. I stumbled back, tears gathering at the edges of my vision as it assaulted me from all sides. It hit me like a hundred hammer blows constantly falling, grinding the nails of truth deeper into my flesh. The grief–the familiar denial and bitter terror. The pain of having a brother wrenched from you before your eyes.

I bit back a sob as I stepped backward, twofold grief and guilt assaulting me and making my head swim. I blinked, and suddenly it wasn't Hornfels mourning the body of Skarn. No, I saw myself kneeling over Norgan's body, trying desperately to quell the flow of blood as it leaked from his sternum. My vision flashed red, the two images overlapping in an impossible truth.

I tripped over a jutting bit of rubble, my vision shaking as painful, raw memories tore their way through my skull like liquid fire. I fell hard on my tailbone, a jutting rock slicing through my leg as I struck it.

The sound of my fall seemed to rip Hornfels Earthborn from his grief. He looked toward me with familiar eyes. Eyes that had just lost everything and saw no reason to exist.

I bore those eyes, once, I thought, feeling the urge to vomit once more as Hornfels held my gaze like a cruel vise.

Aurora sensed my emotions. She felt my grief. My panic. My confusion and disgust. She felt my madness. I could vaguely hear her as she tried to speak to me; tried to pull me away. But I... I couldn't. My thoughts flowed like tar as I stared at the man I'd just stolen a brother from.

And then Hornfels seemed to understand. He roared in bestial rage as he grabbed his dead brother's axe–the same one that had nearly relieved me of my head–and threw himself at me like a rabid animal.

I scrambled to the side, all form and technique gone as I clawed myself away on pure instinct. Skarn's axe embedded itself into the ground, sending chips of stone and waves of mana all around in a whirlwind. Those shards of stone opened small cuts all along my body, but that was inconsequential as I pulled myself to my feet.

Hornfels turned wild eyes toward me, his face locked into a rictus snarl. He swung that axe at me again, the blade heavy and laden with earth mana. I barely deflected it with the edge of Inversion, all my martial forms abandoning me.

Suddenly, I was the same Toren from nearly a year ago. The Toren who had watched his brother die to an unknown enemy, forced to watch helplessly. At that moment, I didn't know any martial arts. I didn't have any knowledge of mana or self-defense. I was just as wild as the dwarf across from me as he tried to crater in my skull.

"I'll kill you!" Hornfels bellowed, his cry wrought with grief. He bore no technique either as he tried to avenge his twin. "You fucking monster!"

The edge of his axe clipped my side, drawing a line of blood and sending me tumbling down. I rolled to the side, barely avoiding the edge as it nearly took off my head. I swung Inversion, my breathing coming in rasps as I tried to ward off my attacker.