*double update! read chpt 23 first if you haven't aready*

twenty-four

Two men face off against each other, fire in their eyes as they wait for the other to move. Father and son, no different from any other except for the fact that they belong in myths and fairy-tales.

The son stares down his father, still as a statue save for the wind that rustles his clothing. In the blink of an eye, he vanishes into thin air, briefly disorienting the father. In a second, the other son pounces aiming his bolt of lightning right at his father’s heart, eyes merciless and emotionless. Only to be blocked with a counterstrike.

I watch frozen as they fight, Chen doing everything he can to best Cronus, while Kai is nowhere to be seen. Blow against blow, grunts, hisses and heavy breaths mixing as they continue to meet head on, unable to get a hit on each other, both too equally matched.

However, the tides begin to turn the longer the fighting goes on, Chen slowly gaining the upper hand to finally land a scrape against Cronus’ arm, blood welling up from the wound to drip on the ground in splotches of blood. I’m a little surprised; I actually thought that they’d bleed gold or something, but I guess they’re no different to humans.

A moment later, Kai reappears behind Cronus and with a grunt of effort, he swings his staff in a wide arc to land a blow right into Cronus’ side, sending him flying into the stairwell door. Kai proceeds to murmur the final line of his intricate trap, red light pouring forth from where he stands his staff on the ground. Black chains form and wrap themselves firmly around Cronus’ limp body until we see nothing but a black cocoon. One final word from Kai and it disappears.

Chen also takes a deep breath and the sky begins to clear, the storm clouds blowing away, leaving only fluffy white clouds behind. It looks so blue that it makes everything that just happened for the last few hours appear to be a horrible nightmare.

I rush over to Kai when he slumps to the ground, looking worn out. There’s a gash on his hand that I hadn’t noticed earlier. I quickly heal him even when he tries to refuse me. Chen comes limping over and pats Kai on the shoulder. I look over Chen as well, healing whatever I can see – minor cuts, the large bruises and his limp.

“Well, that was a lot easier than any war I’ve had to fight before,” Chen chuckles.

“Yeah, well, you’re cleaning this up,” Kai replies, pointing at all the monsters lying there on the rooftop. Most of them are glaring at me, the occasional snarls leaving their throats as they watch me while still incapacitated by the vines I’d wrapped around them.

Kai shakes his head at the ones near us, clicking his tongue as he glares at them. They glare right back but stop their growling at least.

“Of course, I’ll clean it up, after all, I watch over the mortals anyway,” Chen sighs.

“Right. Well, we’re heading back. I need to make sure the new prison is even more unbreakable than before.” Kai turns to look at me, taking hold of my hand, “Let’s go home?”

“Yes, let’s,” I nod.

***

Several days have passed since the fight with Cronus. Every time I think about it and remember, I realise how silly it all was, t