(Regaleon's POV)

"HOW DARE YOU!" Gladiolus roared in fury.

The sky rumbled with him. Lightning flashed and thunder roared.

'It looks likes he was the one controlling the weather since earlier.' I thought to myself. 'Like mother, like son.' I readied myself for his attack.

I heard a pretty loud roar of the thunder and looked up at the dark sky, many flashes of light and roars of thunder can be seen and heard. Then light flashed all around, indicating that lightning was clearly about to strike. I can feel the hair all over my body stand up in attention. My body was telling me that I was in the line of danger.

"FIRE ARMOR!" I quickly don on my fire armor and used my fire to fly away from where I was standing. And like my instinct has told me, the lightning had struck the ground from where I was standing.

"I too can play in that game." I heard Gladiolus said with fury in his eyes.

In just a second, I can see his whole body was enveloped in electric current, his long hair was now standing up from his head. And with just a blink of an eye, he was gone from where he was standing.

'Where is he?' My eyes darted from left to right, feeling that an attack was coming. It was at the last second when I looked up and saw Gladiolus charging downwards towards me.

"Ahhhh!!!" I can hear Gladiolus' scream. He was holding a long spear made out of electricity, aimed right towards me.

With no time to waste, I coated my steel sword with my own fire magic to guard against Gladiolus' upcoming attack. His thunder spear and my fire sword had made contact and the wave it made in impact flew everything away from around us.

The force was so powerful that it made a huge hole from where I was standing. I can feel the pressure that Gladiolus was emitting while still holding his thunder spear at bay. I looked up and saw his eyes filled with pure rage.

I concentrated my magic power on my sword to blast away Gladiolus who was still above me.

"Ahhhh!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, forcing my magic out to push Gladiolus away, and it did the job perfectly.

I directed my fire magic upwards and it made Gladiolus jump out of the way before it hit him.

"Hah…hah…" I was panting hard just after the first contact with Gladiolus' attack. 'To think I would use full force to turn my defense into an offense.' I thought.

It just proved the fact the Gladiolus was not someone to take lightly. He was from the direct line of Atlantian royal blood, a direct descendant of the Almighty One himself, purely conceived out of familial incest.

"I hate to admit it, but his magic abilities is not something to be looked down on." I said. "To think he had powered up since the last time I fought him. Tsk…" I can feel the irritation, knowing that I cannot beat Gladiolus easily.

I saw Gladiolus from a distance. He was also panting hard due to my attack from last time. I saw his left arm was burned from my attack. Judging from the color, it was burned beyond the skin. He buried his thunder spear on the ground and hovered his right arm toward his burned one. Water started to form around his left arm, slowly enveloping it.

'Come to think of it, I heard from my sources that Gladiolus' magical aptitude was leaning more on the water attribute. To think he can control the weather as well. It is definitely a feat that only members of the royal blood line of Atlantia can do.' I thought. Our magic attributes are polar opposites, as if telling us that we really are each others rivals. Water can put out fire but raging fire can evaporate water. 'I would never lose to him.' I promised.

After Gladiolus made first aid to his wounds, he picked up his thunder spear once again. I also made my stance, watching his every move.

"You have stolen what was rightfully mine." Gladiolus said with raging eyes. "Alicia who was my betrothed by birth right and the dominion over the Atlantians."

I scuffed, thinking that he was spouting his delusions once again. I was sure that these were ideas that his mother, Queen Patricia, had instilled inside his head.

"Do you really believe everything that your mother tells you? Are you a mother's boy that will blindly follow everything that she tells you?" I asked. "Your mother tried to kill Alicia, back in the Jennovian palace. You saw it with your own eyes."

"N-No… she said that was just a mistake." Gladiolus' voice wavered.

I could tell that Gladiolus' trust towards his mother was dented after he saw his mother trying to kill Alicia. I might resent him for it, but I knew he also hold feelings for my wife. Someone who had genuine feelings cannot overlook the danger the befalls his or her loved one, and I know I can use this to my advantage on Gladiolus.

"I know you do not truly trust your mother's words. I can see it in your eyes." I said. "Queen Patricia wants to kill Alicia, and that is for a fact."

"No… you are lying." Gladiolus replied to my provocation. I am sure that I have successfully planted suspicion on his mind, seeing that he was wavering. "You are just doing this to confuse me. Well, I am not buying it."

Gladiolus charged up his thunder armor, preparing for a more powerful attack.

"I will take you down with this next attack. Prepare yourself!" Gladiolus yelled.

'It was kind of him to warn me.' I thought to myself.

I also focused all my magic to my fire armor for defense and to my sword for offense. What ever will come will surely be more powerful than the first attack.

After charging his armor, Gladiolus charged towards me in full speed. His surroundings blew away from the force. I opted to meet him head on, and so launched myself with all my strength as well.

Both of us are blowing everything in our way. And the next second, we made contact. The impact from the first attack was nothing in comparison with what we are having now.

*CRACKLE CRACKLE*

Both of our magic was fighting each other, fire against electricity. I was surprised that he was not using his water magic and only using his thunder armor more. He maybe thinking that it was the best offensive magic rather than using water. This was a great help for me, knowing that having to deal with water would be more troublesome.

Our magic were clashing against one another, fighting for dominion. My fire sword was against Gladiolus' thunder spear, fighting for supremacy.

*CRACK CRACK*

The sound of something cracking made me break eye contact from Gladiolus and look at our weapons. Both of our weapons are starting to have a crack and it was running little by little, and in both our surprises they broke.

This made our point of contact break, and our magic that was fighting one another had blown out of proportions. Gladiolus and I flew in opposite directions and fell on the ground.

"Ugh…" I groan with the pain of impact. My fire armor died out after the impact.

I can feel bruises and scratches all over my body from the fall, it tore my clothes in places that hit the ground. I tried to stand up slowly, feeling the pain all over my body. I looked at my right hand that was holding my sword a while ago. I was still holding the hilt of my sword, but the blade was already broken.

'To think that our magic was equal in strength.' I thought.

I looked at where Gladiolus fell. He was a few meters away from me, also standing up. He was also evidently in pain, his thunder armor also nullified and clothes were also torn in places. We are currently in a draw, our magic was equal in ways of strength.

"F*ck!" Gladiolus cursed. "How could you, a mixed blood, have the same magic strength as I, who was with pure blood."

"Heh." I scoffed at him. "You are still believing your mother's words. Like I said, not everything your mother tells you are true."

I can see doubt forming in Gladiolus' eyes. The suspicion I have planted in him is starting to work. We were both at a stalemate so far in our fight, and having him doubt his reasons for fighting can give me advantage.

"Your majesty!" I heard Alex's voice calling out to me. I looked around and saw him not too far away. He was waving his hand, holding something. "Look, your majesty. The key fragments." He said with a huge triumphant smile.

I saw him waving the two key fragments in his hand. I was surprised because I have the other key fragment. I looked at my pocket and saw that it was torn.

'It must have fallen when I fell.' I thought. I looked at Gladiolus and thought that the fragment he had stolen had fallen too, like mine.

I looked again and was about to tell Alex to run away with the key fragments while I distract Gladiolus, but my eyes widen when I saw Clara standing behind Alex with an evil smirk.

"Alex, behind you!" I yelled, but it was too late. A sword was now piercing on his chest.

"Y-Your majesty... *cough*" Alex had a grave look towards me and coughed up blood.

"NO!" I shouted in the top of my lungs.

edited by: nalyn