Arad and Gojo walked across the busy streets, standing out like a sore thumb. A large man as thick as the mountains and a slender one with white hair and an alluring face. Just their stares scared people as if they stared at their souls.
“Where is your party?” Arad asked, looking at Gojo and then around them. The people left a clear way for them to walk on.
Gojo smiled, “Each one is doing something, except Gug. She is asleep.” Gojo looked around, lifting one finger, conjuring an ice rose. “Even I, right now I’m working on a spell,”
Arad stared at the rose with a smile, “This looks beautiful, what is it?”
“Ice bane, the spell will freeze the water in the air and cause it to blossom like roses on everything.” The ice rose floated above Gojo’s finger and evaporated. “A good distraction,”
“Why would you need that?” Arad stared at Gojo, “For the mission?”
“Don’t underestimate humans. No matter how strong you get, they can find a way to win. They are the heroes to slay monsters, after all,” He stared at Arad with a grin,
“Dragons fell thousands of heroes, yet always they lose to someone in the end. And it’s usually the last one expected since they didn’t plan for it.” Gojo waved his hand, “The little girl of the fire mountain slaying a dragon, the crazy wizard of Alora slaying a devil, and the serial killer who ravaged the god of murder plans, forcing him to get weaker.”
“Who are those?”
“Heros that the world doesn’t speak off enough. They only know the adventurers who publically slay monsters, but who do you think is better? A man fighting for money and fame, or the ones trying to survive?” Gojo waved his hand, “Powerful people have their own plans,”
Arad nodded, “Information about S-rank powers is hard to come by. It makes sense that if someone isn’t intending to get famous, they won’t.”
“That’s the point,” Gojo smiled, “Don’t underestimate people. It doesn’t matter if they looked weak.”
Arad approached a small tavern and pulled a chair in their outdoor set. Gojo sat facing him as the bartender approached, “What can I bring you?” He smiled.
Gojo stared at him, “Two beers would do,” He waved his hand, “And if you have something light to eat, bring it as well.”
As the two faced each other, Gojo extended his hand to Arad, “Mind shaking it?” He smiled.
“Why?” Arad stared at Gojo’s hand, getting a feeling that he shouldn’t do it.
“Don’t worry,” Gojo smiled, “The worst that could happen is you getting blasted to the other side of the capital,”
Arad stared at Gojo’s hand, “That’s dangerous,” He sighed, shaking his hand.
Nothing happened, and Gojo laughed. “Do you know, can you realize just how magnificent this small action is?”
“We just shook hands. What of it?” Arad stared at Gojo, gripping his palm.
“The fact that we can touch,” Gojo smiled, pulling his other hand with a cube floating on top of it, “Thanks to this one, I call it the black cube.”
Arad looked at the cube, and Doma stirred, ^[I can’t understand the magic swirling in it,]^
“Want to see what happens if I turn it off?” Gojo smiled, and the cube started spinning.
“I get blasted to the other side of the city?” Arad replied with what Gojo said earlier.
“Not just you,” DING! The cube stopped spinning, disappearing into thin air.
As if time stopped, Arad could sense the magic around him scream, his chest constricting, and his soul shook.
Their hair started dancing as Gojo smiled, his body levitating back, and soon Arad realized the same was happening to him. BAM! Like a massive hammer, something heavy hit them on the chest, sending each one flying in opposite directions at a blinding speed.
To the bartender, they were shaking hands in one second and got blasted in the blink of an eye.
Arad snapped back to reality, his body flying back at an insane speed. He tried to breathe but couldn’t. Something was pushing on his chest.
He glared forward, seeing Gojo getting blasted in the distance as well.
Arad tried to fight against the invisible force, but his arms broke. He can’t push forward no matter what.
As Gojo flew back just as hard as Arad, the cube emerged again and floated between them, shining with a purple radiance. The force suddenly stopped, and the two fell several miles apart, staring at each other.
Stuck in a shattered tree trunk, Gojo lifted his right palm, staring forward with an arcane radiance. “Spatial Void: Frozen end.”
Arad could see the space between him and Gojo bend, to the point they almost touched. The city around them twisted and extended, disappearing into pure darkness.
CRACKLE! Arad fell on the pure dark ground, looking around to see Gojo standing before him. Extending his hand, “I will help you stand,”
Arad stood on his own, “What is this?” He gasped, “Did you blast the city?”
Gojo shook his head, “No, the city is safe. To them, this would only look like a white flash.” He glared at Arad, “You know what this means?”
Arad stared at Gojo, “You’re a void dragon. I can feel it now.”
Gojo smiled, “And not just anyone. I might as well be your brother. I catch a similar scent to mine in you.”
“I was the only egg around,” Arad growled, “And we don’t even look alike,”
“I was born a year ago. I’m older than you. And, we void dragons take our appearance from the humanoid parent. Since I suspect we have the same mother, our fathers are different.”
Arad approached Gojo, “Do you know who Mother was?”
Gojo shook his head, “Sadly, no. I searched for her and my father but to no result. She’s better than us at hiding.” He opened his palm, “I first suspected my father to be that old man named Cain, but I was wrong. He’s a different kind of monster. My father is someone else, probably with white hair and blue eyes.”
“Why only tell me now?” Arad growled, “I could have used a brother in the past weeks,”
“We could have ended up killing each other if we didn’t share the same mother. I also needed to keep my distance tuning this thing,” Gojo pulled the cube again.
“What is it? It’s the reason we aren’t repelled now, right?” Arad touched the cube.
“Since I was born a year ago, I was presented with two choices to fix our race problem. I felt that mating and having a lot of eggs is useless, only treating the symptoms, not curing the problem.” The cube started spinning in Gojo’s hand, “So I decided to abandon that and focus on finding a cure, and that’s how I ended up finding this thing,”
Arad looked at the cube, “The magic in it, it’s strange.”
“I can’t understand it as well, trying to learn more about it,” Gojo smiled, tucking the cube in his pocket.
“How did you get it?” Arad looked at Gojo’s face, trying to read his mind.
“Want to have a look? Be my guest.” Gojo smiled, a blue flash glowing in his eyes.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
~Hello, can you understand me?~
Gojo’s and Arad’s minds intertwined, their memories merging as their thoughts transferred between them at a blinding speed. Arad could see Gojo waking up in the forest, walking down the river, and finding an abandoned tent.
The tent was filled with wooden sculptures of elven feet and hands, to the point that Gojo wanted to burn it whole. Soon after, the elf called Vars came out and attacked him, thinking he was a thief.
Gojo lost the fight having just been born, and Vars locked him in a glass bottle and forced him to listen to him rambling about the beauty of elven feet.
“Vars have a problem,” Arad said, and Gojo sighed, “Keep looking. I did get to punch him once.”
After one day, Gojo managed to control his void, and a voice spoke in his head, telling him to find a mate. He immediately blasted the bottle open with a breath and escaped. The voice in his head kept urging him to find a mate, find a human settlement. But he wasn’t having any of it.
After a short confrontation with Vars, they identified the voice as a shard of Gojo’s mother, chained to him with a curse. To the elf, it wasn’t hard to break the curse and bind the voice to an object.
With the voice gone, Gojo lost all of his human feelings and started to think more like a dragon and less like a human. The void dragons’ life circle now meant nothing to him.
“Where is your shard of Mother?” Arad growled.
“As you saw, Vars and I extracted it from my soul and linked it to a necklace. I’m keeping it stored away.” Gojo replied, “As long as you have it inside you, you’re urged to live like a human. I need to be a dragon if I’m to find a cure. Keep watching,”
Arad closed his eyes, seeing a horde of barbarians fighting in the middle of a forest, a large temple burning in the back. A large woman with a battle age ran on the corpses, axe held up high as her eyes darted around, seeking escape.
Gojo and Vars lept out of the burning temple, the artifact in their hands as they saw the woman, Gug running with a gaping wound on her stomach.
Vars called to ignore her, but Gojo lunged and snatched her from the battlefield.
As Gug growled, Gojo transformed into his draconic form and flew away with them.
The memories of great fights, deadly foes, and countless near-death experiences flashed across Arad’s mind, and Gojo have grown faster and faster. As tough as the void dragons come, he devoured his way across everything, freezing and eating them.
Arad opened his eyes. In one year, his brother had experienced more than a human can achieve in a full lifetime, and there he stood an Adult void dragon.
“I saw it, your memories.” Arad gasped.
“So I did,” Gojo smiled, “It’s how we void dragons catch up to each other.”
Arad scratched his head, “But, I still feel it was dangerous to travel with someone as unhinged as Vars. A necromancer and a student of the forbidden arcane arts, and also obsessed with feet for some reason.”
Gojo scratched his head, “I know Vars can get weird, but dangerous is what you need in a fight. You saw him raise hordes of undead, didn’t you?”
“I did, and that’s powerful,” Arad smiled, “I can’t fault, I also ended up with some bad company,”
Gojo laughed, “You mean yourself? A vampire wyrmwolf combination, and a curse witch living freely inside your head. Vars can help you rip all of those out if you wish,”
Arad shook his head, “No thanks, I need them for now,”
Gojo smiled, “Now that we caught up, dear younger brother. Would you help me steal the second artifact we need?”
Arad scratched his chin, “Inside the royal castle treasury,”
“Vars and I already stole this one,” He showed Arad the cube, “And the results are magnificent. I bet the second one would get us one step further toward curing our race.”
Arad scratched his chin, “You intend to see what can be done with it before giving it back to the elves, and Vars agreed to let you have it for a while before returning it.”
Gojo nodded, “We will eventually give it back to the elves, but only after we get what we need from it.”
Arad smiled, and so did Gojo, “For the Voids!” Gojo giggled.
“We void dragons never got the chance to work together due to that cursed disease, but now we can,” Arad giggled, shaking Gojo’s hand.
“Two brothers, one goal. No one can stop us,” Gojo said, flicking his finger and returning with Arad to their seat.
***
Two seconds earlier, Arad and Gojo still sat on the table, and the bartender turned to bring them their order. SWOSH! A violent gust of wind blasted, and he turned back to see the table empty with the chairs falling to the ground.
Ding! A white light flashed across the sky, and the two men appeared standing beside the table as if nothing happened.
“What?” The bartender gasped. 𝙚𝙙𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢
Gojo stared at him with a smile, shaking his palm, “Sorry, a magic trick. I tried a light spell,”
“Was that really magic?” He cried, looking around.
“Yeah, it was a bit too bright. Sorry, I won’t test it again around people.” Gojo bowed slightly, and the bartender sighed, “Fine, just keep the fire away.”