Vars waved to his brother from afar as he ran toward him. He stepped over Puvis's lifeless body.
"Hey hooo! Itoî! Nice work on the fight! Hahaha!"
Itoî was more disturbed by the scene that had just played out with Vars's arrival. He wasn't smiling and seemed embarrassed to look at his brother.
"You feeling okay?" Vars asked, before noticing the numerous burns on parts of his face, chest, and legs.
That's weird. He's burned in some spots, but others are completely untouched... Maybe splashes from a burning object?
He then noticed Itoî was no longer wearing his amulet and took three steps back.
"It is you, right, Itoî?" Vars asked, looking wary.
Itoî looked at his brother with sadness, then gave a slight nod.
"Yeah..."
Vars scratched his head, embarrassed.
"Sorry, little bro, I didn't mean to sound harsh, but with the demon inside you, I thought—"
"Why did you kill that guy?" Itoî asked, looking his brother dead in the eyes.
Vars frowned, caught off guard.
"Huh?"
"I'm asking you why you killed him!" Itoî repeated, raising his voice.
"What kind of ridiculous question is that?" Vars retorted.
"Doesn't killing a human bother you? I'm guessing you offed the other one too."
Vars raised his voice in turn.
"Stop thinking we live in a world where everyone's nice!"
"That's not what I asked, Vars! I asked if killing a human doesn't bother you!" Itoî yelled, stepping forward aggressively.
"No, it doesn't fucking bother me! When it's shitbags like that, it doesn't bother me!"
Itoî grabbed his brother by the collar and headbutted him violently. Vars hit the ground.
"What the hell is wrong with you, you idiot?!" Vars yelled.
Itoî pointed a finger at his brother, screaming:
"Fuck, man, do you even realize? You just killed humans! Killing monsters already bugs me, animals even more, but humans?!"
Vars got up and delivered a brutal punch to his brother's face, sending him flying three meters before he crashed against a tree.
"You don't get it? Those guys were gonna kill the Quashtis, and besides, need I remind you they captured you and wanted to sell you on the black market!"
Itoî struggled to his feet and yelled:
"So now it's my fault? You're saying it's my fault—"
Vars lunged at his brother and hit him again.
"Shut the fuck up! Damn it, it's not about whose fault it is! If you have empathy for just anyone, you're gonna end up dead, Itoî! We live in a world where the rule is simple! Kill or be killed!"
Itoî grabbed his brother and slammed him to the ground.
"Who are we to kill people, Vars, tell me?!" he screamed.
Tears welled up in the amber-eyed boy's eyes.
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Vars grabbed Itoî's hand, dropped flat on his stomach, and rolled to throw his little brother off. He tossed him to the ground before casting a spell that summoned vines. They erupted from the dirt, grabbing Itoî's arms and legs. He was immobilized.
The blonde boy exhaled and sat with his back against a tree, watching Itoî struggle on the ground against the vines that had completely locked him down.
"Listen, it's not about having some kind of right, or whatever," Vars said. "We're not here to wonder if it's 'right' or 'wrong' to kill a human, Itoî. Those people have no law and no god. What's more, they were pretty close to Grandpa's place. Imagine if those guys went after Grandpa and the others? What would you have done? Can you honestly tell yourself: 'I can take down guys who are hurting, or even killing, my family'?" Vars said, staring hard at Itoî.
"I... Grr... Fucking get these vines off me!" Itoî screamed.
"You calmed down?" Vars asked.
Itoî kept thrashing violently.
Vars sighed, exhausted by his brother's attitude.
"Alright, fine, I'll let you go," he said, snapping his fingers.
The vines vanished instantly.
Itoî charged his brother, who easily dodged and jumped onto a branch.
"You still haven't answered, Itoî."
"Shut up! Come down here!" the boy yelled.
Vars laughed.
"You good? Do you get that it's a stupid question to ask in this kind of situation?"
"Fuck off! It's not right to off people!" Itoî said.
Vars sighed.
"Fuck, you can be such an idiot, you mother—"
Itoî cried. He sat on the ground and rested his forehead on his arms, which lay across his knees.
"I-I'm sick of it, Big Bro... I'm sick of all this. Between the guys who killed my mom, Dad not being here, the little girl we saw dead in the forest, and now this... I'm so tired."
Vars dropped down and stroked his brother's head.
"If you don't want to fight anymore, I'll fight for you," Vars said with a smile.
Itoî shook his head.
"N-No... I know I have to fight. I have to protect Grandpa, Uyan, and Kaelle... A-And if I want to become a supreme mage, I have to get better... It's just that... I don't know... It feels weird to kill someone..."
Vars crouched down to his brother's level.
"I get it... You know, it's my first time killing a human too."
Itoî lifted his head from his arms, his eyes red from crying.
"R-Really?"
Vars nodded.
But the demon briefly haunted his mind:
Who says it's true? He's lying! For sure! Did you see how he killed that guy right in front of your eyes, like it was nothing?!
Itoî screamed:
"No! My brother doesn't lie to me! He's telling the truth!"
He held his head, shaking it from left to right.
Vars instantly understood what was happening and took off his own necklace to put it around Itoî's neck. He placed his hands on his brother's shoulders.
"That was the demon, wasn't it? I'm giving you my necklace, I'll go find yours real quick, don't worry. But first..."
Vars chanted a light spell for a few minutes.
"We're gonna heal your wounds, okay?" he continued.
Itoî nodded.
"That demon, Itoî, I don't know if it's thanks to him you beat that guy, but don't trust him. He'll definitely play tricks on you."
"Y-Yeah... I'm sorry, I accepted his help..." Itoî said, looking defeated.
Vars's eyes widened and his voice rose for a second.
"YOU DID WHA— ... No point in yelling at you. Just make sure it doesn't happen again. Be careful of the fiend's schemes, Itoî."
Vars finished chanting and cast a healing spell.
"Minor Heal!" he shouted before the burns and other injuries gradually vanished.
"If we take too long, the wounds can unfortunately leave scars, but since it's pretty recent, you won't have a single mark on your skin," Vars said as he continued healing his brother.
Vars asked:
"What did he ask for in exchange for the power he gave you?"
"Nothing," Itoî replied in a small voice.
"Nothing? Or do you just not want to tell me?" Vars said.
"N-No, really, nothing. The power he gave me lasted five, ten minutes, that's it," Itoî answered.
Vars said nothing more and finished healing his brother.
Nothing? That sounds fishy, but what's certain is that his aura hasn't changed. If he gave him a temporary power that short, it must be something pretty minor, probably just communicating very briefly in his head, like a few words or a sentence, which would explain why he was able to mess with Itoî for a moment back there.
"There! All good!" Vars said with a smile.
Itoî smiled faintly.
"Thanks, Big Bro."
Vars cast a small light spell and, after a few minutes of searching, found the amulet's crystal.
"Found it!" he exclaimed, putting it in his pocket.
Itoî called out to his brother:
"Are we looking for the Quashtis?"
Vars ran over to Itoî and said:
"Don't worry about that!"
He gave a short whistle, and the baby Quashtis trotted out of the bushes.
A huge smile spread across Itoî's face, his eyes shining.
"Whoa! Nice one, Big Bro! Woohoo!" he said, bouncing up and down.
Vars smiled and quickly ruffled his brother's hair.
"Do you understand why, sometimes, you have to be violent? For this, little bro. To protect, to defend the lives of the innocent," Vars said.
Itoî nodded.
"Yeah..."
Vars then said, seeing his brother still hesitating:
"Hesitating is one thing, Itoî. You'll inevitably face dilemmas in your life that will make it hard to choose what to do. But... You need to know that we live in a world where Evil is far more present than Good, and we must preserve Good at all costs, which means defending those we can. Our families, our friends..." Vars said, looking at his little brother with a tender, brotherly gaze.
Itoî nodded, looking much more determined than before.
"Yeah! You're right! I have to defend those who can't defend themselves!" Itoî said with a big smile.
The Quashtis started dancing when they saw the two boys smile. Then our two little heroes hit the road again to head back home.