The Ancient Genes

"What happened?" Arthur muttered with frown as he slowly regained his consciousness. He remembered breaking the Elemental core in an attempt to take August and Faryl out. But, now that he looked around, it seemed he was in an unfamiliar place.

'What's going? Did they not take us out? Where is this?' He had believed that the supervisor would safely bring them out, but little did he know that he had put too much trust in them.

"You are up?" A voice entered Arthur's ear, and he turned his head to see Arnold in front of him. He sat on a rock a little ahead, his eyes seemingly gazing into the distance.

"What's going on?" Arthur asked him in confusion as he slowly got up.

"This is the result of your actions.." Arnold replied as he slowly turned his head to look at Arthur with those emotionless eyes of his.

"My actions?" Arthur's eyes widened in surprise, "Don't tell me.."

He wasn't a fool and quickly realized what Arnold meant.

It only took a second for Arthur's face to turn ugly, and he sighed, "I am sorry..I …even though I wanted to help you…I ended up.."

A smile emerged on Arnold's face when he heard Arthur, and he soon broke out into laughter.

Arthur on the other hand raised his head to look at his brother in confusion. He didn't understand what was going on.

"Whenever I think that this is your limit, you manage to say something even nastier that gets on my nerve…" Arnold asked as he finally revealed a face full of disgust, and didn't hide any ounce of hatred that he had in his heart for him.

"What are you talking about? Is everything alright with you?" Arthur asked with a worried look on his face as he tried to approach Arnold, genuinely worried if something had happened to him during the explosion.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Arnold moved and his feet went straight into Arthur's abdomen with a terrifying force.

"Ahh!" Arthur groaned in pain as saliva flew out of his mouth, and his eyes almost rolled back from the impact. He was totally caught off guard without a single inch of defense, not to mention, the fights earlier had thoroughly exhausted him.

"Arnold! It's me, your brother! Arthur! Snap out of it!" Arthur shouted at him. He was still thinking that something wrong had happened to his brother.

"How naive can you be?" Arnold smiled as he looked at the guy on the ground, and slowly stooped to grab Arthur by his hair, and then pulled him up.

"Look at me, do you think I have lost it?" Arnold asked with a crazy smile on his face.

"This is …not you.." Arthur muttered with difficulty and it pissed Arnold even more.

"Just like I thought, you would never see reality…you damn idealistic.." Arnold shook his head as he lifted his foot and once again kicked Arthur in the chest before pinning him against the ground.

"Why are you doing this? We are family.." Arthur looked at Arnold with a pleading look in his eyes. He didn't want this to happen, he didn't want his family to shatter. He knew very well that Arnold going into the wrong path would be a huge shock to his parents.

"Why am I doing this?" Arnold muttered as he lowered his head, "Are you kidding me? Do you know what I have been through all these years because of you guys? Do you have any idea what kind of injustice you have done to me and my family?"

As soon as he reached this point, Arnold tore open his shirt and revealed his body full of scars.

Arthur's eyes immediately widened on seeing Arnold's state. He had no idea about his current state at all.

"Do you see this?" Arnold asked with a crazy smile on his face, "Each of this scar on my body is the day of pain that you people had caused me? All of this to make me remember my goal everyday without forgetting it?"

"What are you talking about? We have always treated you as a family?"

"Lie!!" Arnold denied, "Ander kept me by his side because he was afraid of me taking after my father! He wanted to control me and so he did! Even now! Don't you realise why he gave you the Elemental core? It was all to assure your victory, he didn't want you to be overshadowed by me just like my father did to him."

"No! This was only meant for protection!" Arthur tried to explain.

But, his words only made Arnold break out into even more of a hysterical laughter. "See, I didn't even need to prove anything. That guy is clearly treating me as a threat. Do I still need to give any other evidence?"

"You are wrong! Father wanted to believe you, but as a Lord he couldn't do so. Besides, aren't his suspicions coming true right now? He already had seen this coming, but let me tell you one thing, he still had hopes that his suspicions would turn out to be false. It would break his heart if you do this, Arnold. Nothing is wrong as of yet, come back. We are a family. We should look after each other, and not fight amongst each other.." Arthur slowly pushed himself up onto his feet as he looked at Arnold.

"I have to give it to you…you will never change.." Arnold shook his head and then smiled at Arthur, " You really want to keep this family together?"

Arthur looked at Arnold seriously, and his expression said everything.

"Fine, show me how far you are willing to go for it…." Arnold suddenly took out a jar from his spatial ring and threw it towards Arthur.

"What is this?" Arthur asked with a frown as he caught that thing into this hand. He could clearly see a discussing looking thing which seemed to be some kind of fleshy organ throbbing inside the jar filled with fluid.

"Why does it matter? Just swallow it, and we will be back to normal. And, I promise that everything will be fine."

Arthur looked at Arnold with a frown on his face, and then at the jar with hesitation in his eyes. But, was he going to give up the last bid to save his family?