The impact of the fall echoed like thunder, shaking the ground in waves that rippled across the entire plain. A thick curtain of dust rose into the sky, swallowing trees, roots, and stones, muffling even the sounds of the forest. For a moment, silence reigned. Only the crackle of corruption consuming the great golem could be heard, like rotten wood snapping in a fire.
When the view cleared, the colossus was no longer anything but a purple mass crumbling into dust, like a corpse dissolving in the wind. At the center of the crater left by the fall, something shone. A metallic sound, almost like mineral rocks splitting apart, echoed from within the carcass, and then, with a sharp snap, a smaller figure was ejected out.
It was Norwenna. But not as before.
Around her rose a new golem, a little over two meters tall.
Smaller, yes, but far more refined. The structure looked like it hadn't been molded by human hands but carved by the earth's own forces. Pure crystals fit together in perfect geometric shapes, polished like diamonds down to the tiniest detail. Emerald green, sapphire blue, metallic gray, and earthy brown intertwined across faceted surfaces that shimmered under the light, reflecting every speck of suspended dust as if thousands of stars were dancing around the creature.
Every joint, every fold, seemed the result of impossible engineering, as if magic and ancient technology had united to forge a living weapon. Unlike the colossal golem, crude and uneven, this one exuded symmetry and perfection.
It was both beautiful and threatening, like a priceless jewel wielded to kill.
It radiated a dangerous aura. The edges of the crystals sharpened into natural blades, ready to tear through flesh and steel with equal ease.
The dazzling glow did nothing to hide the sense of imminent danger; on the contrary, it was like staring at the beauty of a freshly forged blade, still hot and craving its first blood.
Norwenna, inside that mineral avatar, looked more alive than ever. Her power pulsed — not in chaotic bursts, but in controlled waves, like a crystalline heart beating in sync with the earth itself. This wasn't just a golem. It was the perfect manifestation of her affinity — beautiful, lethal, and inevitable.
**
"This is new," murmured Leon, his eyes wide at the glimmering crystal golem.
I raised an eyebrow, trying to look unimpressed. "I've seen her do something like this before. This one's just more refined."
The answer came out naturally, but the look Leon gave me was anything but. He slowly turned his head, eyes narrowing with an expression oscillating between psychotic and possessive.
"You've been spending a lot of time with her to know secrets like the second golem," he said in a low, almost threatening tone. "Are you some kind of rogue? A womanizer who steals married women? If so, I swear, even if I die, I'll shove this spear straight up your ass."
The shift in atmosphere was so abrupt that for a second I didn't know how to react. I blinked, trying to gather my words.
"What…? No, damn it! Why would I do that? And who do you think I am?"
He relaxed his shoulders, as if my denial was a balm. "I don't know, no one does… that's the problem," he replied with a sincerity so bizarre I couldn't tell if I should laugh or worry.
"Has anyone ever told you you're insane?" I hinted, still in disbelief.
"A few times… maybe more often than I'd like," he admitted with a crooked smile, as if it were a trivial detail.
I sighed, turning my gaze back to the fight. "What I meant was that I saw a prototype of a smaller golem, similar to this one, when we were running from a Behemoth."
Leon froze. "You ran from what?"
"Behemoth."
His eyes widened even more, then he slowly stood, looking me up and down. His gaze swept over my body, my hair, as if evaluating a rival.
A sinister chill crawled from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.
"Damn…" He rubbed his chin, thinking like a lunatic. "You're making my life harder, man."
"What…?" I asked, now completely lost. "What the hell are you talking about, you lunatic?"
"Handsome… long hair… she likes that. And you managed to escape a damn Behemoth…" He took a deep breath, resolute. "It's decided. I can't wait any longer. I'm going to propose to her as soon as possible."
I stared at him, stunned, unable to find words.
Leon, meanwhile, kept muttering to himself, gesturing as if rehearsing the scene, completely immersed in his own madness.
I just sighed, turned my face back to the fight, and thought:
'this guy is definitely not normal.'
**
Beneath the fragments of the old golem, the earth shifted with a harsh sound of stones grinding.
From the wreckage, Nathanael emerged on his feet, his body marked by open wounds and deep cuts that still bled. He was breathing heavily, but his gaze didn't carry exhaustion — it carried fury.
The shadows around him began to crawl toward him like obedient beasts, swallowing every contour of his skin. Little by little, his flesh was entirely dyed black: face, hands, joints, even his eyes. There were no pupils, no irises, only absolute darkness. And a black aura flickered, giving him a bizarre appearance.
The broken bow fell from his hand like a discarded piece of junk.
Nathanael then drew two short blades from his back, similar to katanas but sharpened on both sides, designed to cut in any direction. The shadows covering him slid onto the blades like liquid poison, staining the translucent prana that shimmered above his skin — as all skilled warriors did. It turned into a deep, grotesque black, carrying a deathly aura that seemed to resonate within the soul itself.
"From this point on, it's all a mystery," Leon commented, sitting beside me, his eyes glued to the scene. He looked more excited than worried, like a spectator watching the most anticipated show of the year. "My woman has pushed the boss to the point where he has to go all out."
I didn't have the energy to argue with the "my woman" this time. I just stayed silent, my attention fixed on the two below.
Norwenna, in response, punched the ground with force. Her arm disappeared into the earth as if plunging into water, and from it she pulled something monumental. A thick root emerged, twisted like a serpent but reinforced with stones identical to those forming the new crystal golem.
Along the structure, fragments glowed in mineral colors, and at the tip of the whip, a sharp blade gleamed. Attached to the base of that blade, a red stone pulsed rhythmically, like a heart on the verge of bursting — or a bomb moments from detonation.
The contrast was striking: on one side, Nathanael, wrapped in pure darkness, death incarnate. On the other, Norwenna, shaping life and earth into a living weapon — deadly, but radiating a captivating glow.
The tension between the two siblings was almost physical, as if the air between them could shatter at any second.
"BOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The crash tore through the forest as the air split in half with the collision of the two siblings.
The whip of roots cracked like thunder, and the two short swords crossed in a perfect "X" to counter it. The impact split the forest itself: behind Nathanael, everything rotted into a blackened purple spreading like a plague; behind Norwenna, the world shimmered in vivid tones, flowers sprouting, fruits bursting from branches, even the dust glowing with color.
At the center of the clash, nothing survived — everything was pulverized.
But the battle didn't stop.
Norwenna twisted her body and lashed the whip in an arc, the red blade at its tip cutting through the air with a shriek like torn thunder. Nathanael suddenly ducked, the shadows bending with him, and slid across the ground like a predator. He lunged, and the twin blades slashed in parallel, aiming for his sister's abdomen. She leapt back, using the whip itself for support: the root struck the ground and launched her into the air in an acrobatic spin.
Before even landing, Norwenna whipped downward like lightning. Nathanael crossed his swords above his head to block, but the impact crushed the ground, forming a crater. Seizing the moment, he spun and drove a side kick at her chest. The blow landed square, but Norwenna grabbed his foot midair, twisted her body, and hurled him like dead weight against a tree. The trunk exploded into splinters as he crashed through it — yet he reappeared from the shadows behind her, blades descending like a predator's claws.
Norwenna ducked, bracing one hand against the ground, and the whip cracked in a circular sweep, encircling Nathanael. He spun in place, his swords carving black lines through the air, striking the whip that sought to bind him, breaking free. In a mad rush, Norwenna surged forward, her knee aiming for his chin — but Nathanael tilted his head aside and answered with a brutal headbutt against the golem.
The impact resounded.
She staggered, but before she could retreat, the whip gleamed, pulsing as if alive, and coiled around his ankle. Norwenna yanked hard, hauling Nathanael upside down. Yet instead of panicking, he used the momentum of the fall to spin his body, his blades sketching two deadly arcs that shredded the whip into crystalline fragments.
Freed again, he landed kneeling, one sword plunged into the ground to brace the impact. Then he shot forward like a black blur. Norwenna answered, her whip regenerating as if it had never been torn apart, and with her other hand she clenched a fist wreathed in mineral shards that gleamed like honed blades.
The two collided in the void, fist against fist.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM" — both were hurled back.
Before long they were charging each other again, with blades, fists, and kicks. Every exchange was no longer just physical, but a battle between two worlds colliding.
**
Several minutes passed as the fight grew more intense.
By now, there was no trace of control or calculation. The siblings fought as if time itself were running out, as if the only way forward was to crush the other before their own bodies gave in. Each strike carried raw desperation, and each defense was abandoned in favor of an even deadlier counterattack.
Nathanael's blades sparked, shadowed, slicing across and cleaving a massive fragment from the golem's crystalline head. The strike nearly pierced through the mineral shell to reach Norwenna inside, but she didn't hesitate — her response was immediate. A closed, pure, and brutal punch slammed into his chest.
The impact was so savage the air around them twisted. Nathanael was hurled like a missile gone astray, tearing through the ground and smashing into the earth with such force the land split in cracks. The crater that formed looked like a hungry mouth trying to swallow him whole. He sank several meters before stopping, the shadows around him hissing as if they were screaming in agony with him.
The forest? It no longer existed.
Where once stood towering trunks and deep roots, only wreckage and ash hung in the air. The nearest trees had been lifted by shockwaves and shattered like sticks; the rest simply dissolved into purple dust under the corrosive touch of Nathanael's technique, which consumed all living matter — everything except the impenetrable mineral shell of Norwenna's golem.
In the midst of that desolate field, only the two remained: a jewel of mineral power gleaming like a divine fragment, facing a ravenous shadow that sought to devour the entire world.
Nathanael rose from the crater like a specter of flesh, stumbling at first, then lifting his face in a guttural roar that reverberated across the dead forest. The sound was inhuman, as if it came from the bowels of something ancient and corrupted.
Inside the golem, Norwenna also faltered.
The weight of the fight finally showed, the mineral shell trembling and cracking as if nearing its limit. The whip in her hands shuddered and pulsed, the stone embedded in its tip thumping like a heart, each beat echoing through the ground. Her stance shifted: she leaned forward and let the prana flow.
It was as if all the energy she had restrained until now had finally been unleashed. The golem blazed, a fiery crimson reflecting across the precious minerals of its armor. It was like watching a falling star, only monstrously alive.
On the other side, the world drowned in darkness.
Nathanael's shadows were no longer mere veils — they had consumed everything, transforming the land behind him into a living wall of night. Every root, every branch, every natural shadow was absorbed and condensed, now extending into the twin swords he wielded. Once the power settled into them, the blades shimmered with absolute black, so dense it seemed to deny reality itself.
And then, silence fell. A brutal, suffocating silence. No wind, no rustle of leaves, no birds. Only two siblings, face to face, ready to decide the fate of the forest in a single clash.
Norwenna charged, her whip pulsing at its peak, like the living arm of the earth itself. Nathanael raised his blades, indifferent to distance. With a single motion, two colossal black swords, each a hundred meters long, tore through the air toward her.
The impact was inescapable.
The world split in two.
On one side, darkness devoured everything, as if all light had been stripped from the universe, leaving only a black abyss.
On the other, colors burst in divine spectacle: greens, blues, and reds shimmering like a living aurora, bathing the battlefield in impossible beauty.
And then, the collision.
The explosion swept everything away with indescribable fury. The shockwave reached us on the small hill where we were watching, ripping us from the ground and flinging us like dolls.
When I finally managed to open my eyes, the hill was gone.
The place simply didn't exist — it had been disintegrated, as if it had never been there.
And the siblings were hidden inside a cloud of dust.