My Soul card is a Reaper-Chapter 1041: Dreams of the Past: The Triplets fight with Aurelius (Part-2)

For a brief moment, it looked like they were winning.

Rael's scythe grazed Aurelius' sleeve, cutting fabric and leaving a trail of black death energy in the air.

Eon's Hourglass released a pulse that made Aurelius' step falter for half a breath.

Raphael's seal struck Aurelius' shoulder, locking his arm for a single second.

And in that single second, Rael's eyes flashed.

"Rain of Death."

A black cloud formed above the arena, swirling like a storm of ink, and the spectators panicked as they felt the temperature drop. Then the rain began to fall, thick drops of black liquid that hissed the moment they touched the ground, melting stone, dissolving dirt, turning the arena into a steaming graveyard of corroded earth.

Aurelius looked up.

The rain fell toward him.

But before it could melt his skin, his body released a simple pulse of energy, a raw burst of demigod power that erupted outward like a dome.

The rain vaporized.

The cloud shattered.

The black storm was erased in an instant, leaving only a faint mist drifting in the air like the ghost of an attack that never mattered.

Rael's eyes widened again.

His breathing grew heavier.

That skill was supposed to be catastrophic.

Aurelius had deleted it like it was nothing.

Eon stepped forward, her voice finally breaking the silence, sharp and urgent. "Rael, don't waste your soul energy! We only get one use!"

Rael clenched his jaw.

"I know," he hissed.

Raphael's eyes remained cold, but his voice came out low and controlled. "Stop thinking of him as Father. Think of him as a wall that needs to crack."

Rael didn't answer.

Eon didn't either.

But their bodies responded.

Because despite the tension between siblings, despite three years of distance and Raphael's presence feeling like a blade at their backs, his words were correct.

Aurelius was not a father right now.

He was an enemy.

Aurelius stepped forward.

And the arena trembled.

His fists blurred, and the pressure behind each movement was so heavy that it looked like the air itself was being punched into submission. Rael swung his scythe to block, but the impact sent a shock through his arms that nearly shattered his grip, and his feet dug trenches in the earth as he was pushed back.

Eon tried to flank again, her body flickering as she used her passive time freeze, slipping forward by one second.

Aurelius' elbow caught her shoulder.

Eon crashed to the side, rolling across the ground, her Hourglass almost slipping from her fingers.

Raphael launched another seal, larger this time, his Zodiac spirit shifting into a lion form that roared soundlessly behind him, and the seal slammed into Aurelius' chest, glowing with suppression runes.

Aurelius looked down at it.

Then he simply grabbed the seal itself, gripping the light as if it were solid, and crushed it in his palm.

The entire arena shook.

Raphael's eyes widened faintly.

His body tensed.

And in that opening, Aurelius moved.

He crossed the distance between them in one step and slammed his fist into Raphael's stomach.

Raphael's body lifted off the ground.

For the first time, his expression broke.

He coughed blood.

His Zodiac spirit flickered wildly behind him, shifting forms uncontrollably, and he crashed to the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath his back.

The spectators gasped in unison.

Rael's breath hitched.

Eon's eyes widened in shock.

Raphael tried to rise, one hand pushing against the earth, his jaw clenched, but Aurelius' foot came down beside his head, not stepping on him, but planting itself like a warning.

"You've improved," Aurelius said calmly, looking down at Raphael. "But your control is still built on arrogance."

Raphael's teeth gritted.

He didn't respond.

He couldn't.

Aurelius stepped away from him like Raphael was no longer a threat, and that dismissal alone was more humiliating than the blow.

Rael's scythe flared.

Death energy surged again, his anger rising like a storm.

"Cursed Land."

The ground beneath Aurelius transformed instantly, turning into a dark quicksand-like terrain, and black skeletal hands erupted upward, clawing at Aurelius' legs, gripping his boots, attempting to drag him down while siphoning his life force.

The spectators recoiled.

Even knights looked pale.

This wasn't sparring magic.

This was death.

Aurelius looked down at the hands calmly, as if he was observing weeds growing in a garden, and then he stomped.

The stomp cracked the earth like thunder.

The cursed terrain shattered.

The hands disintegrated.

Rael's breath caught.

His soul energy trembled.

His strongest skills were being erased like chalk drawings washed away by rain.

Eon rushed in, her eyes sharp with desperation now, and she raised the Hourglass.

Her voice came out cold, absolute.

"Time Stop."

The world froze.

The wind stopped.

Dust hung in the air like suspended stars.

The spectators froze mid-blink, mid-breath, mid-thought.

The entire world became silent.

Except for Eon.

And Rael.

And Aurelius.

Eon's pupils trembled as she felt the pressure of forcing the world itself to stop, and she grabbed Rael's arm, pulling him forward as they moved through the frozen arena like ghosts walking through a painting.

"Now," she whispered, voice strained. "Do it now."

Rael's scythe pulsed violently.

He could feel the thirty-minute limitation like a chain around his neck, because he had already used Rain of Death, already used Cursed Land, and his soul energy was thinning like blood spilled into sand.

But he still had one thing left.

The one skill he had never dared to use lightly.

His eyes locked on Aurelius.

A portal opened behind Aurelius, black and silent, like a hole punched into reality.

"Claws of Death."

Two enormous claws emerged from the portal, massive skeletal hands coated in thick death energy, and they slammed forward to pierce Aurelius from behind, aiming to lock him in place and drain him until nothing remained.

The claws struck.

The sound was muted in the frozen world.

For a fraction of a second, Rael's heart surged with hope.

Because the claws pierced.

They grabbed.

They locked.

And then Aurelius turned his head slightly.

Even in stopped time, Aurelius' gaze moved.

His eyes shifted toward Rael.

And Rael felt his blood turn cold.

Because Aurelius was moving.

Not fully.

But enough.

The claws trembled.

Aurelius' body flexed, and the claws cracked like glass, death energy splintering into fragments that scattered into the frozen air.

Eon's Time Stop shattered.

The world resumed.

Sound exploded back into existence.

Wind screamed.

Dust fell.

And Aurelius' fist came forward.

Rael barely raised his scythe in time.

The blow hit anyway.

Rael's body flew backward again, crashing hard, his vision flashing white.

Eon tried to move, tried to step in, but Aurelius' palm struck the side of her Hourglass, sending it spinning out of her hand, and the artifact slammed into the ground, embedding itself into the earth like a fallen relic.

Eon's breath hitched.

Aurelius struck her next.

A clean blow to the chest.

Eon collapsed.

The arena fell into stunned silence.

Raphael lay on the ground, struggling to rise, blood at the corner of his lips, his Zodiac spirit flickering weakly like a dying constellation.

Rael's arms trembled as he pushed himself up again, his lungs burning, his ribs screaming, and his scythe felt heavier than ever.

Aurelius stood in the center of the ruined training ground, surrounded by cracked earth, melted stone, and remnants of death and time magic that had failed to even scratch him.

He exhaled slowly, then spoke, his voice calm, almost satisfied.

"That was good," he said, looking at them with a strange pride that didn't soften his eyes. "You fought with intelligence. Your coordination was better than expected. Even Raphael, despite his arrogance, managed to support your assault effectively."

Raphael's eyes narrowed in humiliation.

Rael's teeth clenched.

Eon's body trembled as she forced herself upright, one hand pressed to her chest.

Aurelius stepped forward slightly, his aura relaxing, his posture loosening as if the battle was already finished.

"You have improved," he continued. "All of you. If you continue like this, then tomorrow's ceremony will not be a problem. You may stop now."

For a moment, Rael's body wanted to obey.

His muscles screamed.

His soul energy felt like it was drying up.

His vision blurred at the edges.

But then he glanced at Eon.

He saw the stubbornness in her eyes, the refusal to accept defeat, the quiet rage that burned behind her calm expression, and Rael realized something.

They weren't fighting to win.

They were fighting to prove they could stand.

Eon looked at him.

No words.

No signal.

Just a glance.

And Rael reached out.

Their hands met.

Fingers intertwined.

Aurelius paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as if he sensed something shifting.

"What are you doing?" he asked, tone calm but curious.

Rael's voice came out low, rough, and unwavering. "The Battle hasn't over yet, Father."

Eon's breath steadied, and her Hourglass trembled in the ground behind her, as if responding to her will.

Rael's Death Scythe pulsed.

Their soul energy began to synchronize.

At first, it was faint.

Then it grew.

The air around them distorted.

The spectators stepped back instinctively, because the pressure that rose from the twins did not feel like ordinary arcana anymore, it felt wrong, ancient, and impossibly deep, like two rivers of power merging into a single ocean.

Raphael's eyes widened as he forced himself to lift his head.

"What… is that?" he whispered, his voice hoarse.