Don't be afraid, darling ✔[COMPLETED]

Chapter 29: Sibling Rivalry

Third person's POV:
Cassian slowly opened his eyes and took in his surroundings.

A sprawling, desolate landscape, dark red foliage less grounds, sinister red sky with low hanging rust coloured clouds.

Most malevolent of all: the smell of blood, sulfur and fear in the air.No one in sight and not a sound to be heard.

He knew exactly where he was.
Hell. Literally.

The place where the dishonorable dead, demons and underworld spirits dwelt. The place which was dreaded by every mortal, immortal and creature. One second in Hell could break anyone. Take away all hope for survival and happiness of life. The mortals over the millennia, had brought out several perceptions about Hell. Most of them were crudely inaccurate. They thought there was a Devil who ruled over the Kingdom of the dead, that was Hell.

Fools.

There was no one Devil. There was no Kingdom. There was only survival and existence of the strongest. Of the most powerful. If you couldn't learn to bear the cruelty and harshness of Hell, you would cease to exist all together. If you couldn't push your way to the top, you wouldn't last another moment over there. You would be wiped out like a drop of water on a car's windshield.

And Cassian was not someone who was going to be wiped out. His grandfather had moulded him into a monster even more fearsome than the most terrible of the underworld demons.

He stood ramrod straight, shoulders tense and fists clenched. Always catious. Never let his guard down. He knew perfectly well one should never let his guard down in front of Zorraine Mantzari.

BOOM!

A loud blast rang out to his left as he doubled over, clutching his ears. When he straightened up, a dark, smoky apparition shot towards him.
But this time he was ready.
Summoning a ball of hell fire, he focused all his anger in it and flung it at the apparition. The spirit emitted a blood curling scream and vanished.
Cassian dusted his hands and snorted in disgust. He had expected a little more finesse from his brother.

"Oh no, brother. You lost me a fine pet!"

Cassian whipped around, hands filled with flames, ready for another attack,
"Fine pet indeed, brother. It hardly lasted a second in front of me."
Zorraine laughed easily, "Who said it didn't last?"

Cassian barely had time to move when he felt his hands being bound together with a dark, smoky rope. It cut into his flesh and extinguished his fire. But he knew better than to express his pain. He forced a scornful smile, "You shouldn't start a war that you can't fight, Zorraine."
Zorraine slowly walked towards him and pulled his hands out of his pockets, "Who said it's a war, Cass? It's a game. That you started. I'm merely playing along."

Cassian growled and flicked his fingers. The spirit started to steam as a sheen of white hot flames coated his hands. It wriggled and twisted tighter around his wrists, trying it's best to stay around them.

But Cassian suddenly yelled in frustration, and his entire body burst into flames. Not only did the spirit disintegrate, Zorraine was forced to shield his eyes because of the blinding light emitted by his brother.
When he opened his eyes again, Cassian was nowhere to be seen.
Irritated that he had lost one of his finest spirits, he knitted his brows together and looked for Cassian.
He did not have to look for long.
Just in time, he leapt away from the spot he had been standing on as a meteorite sized boulder of fire smashed into the ground there.
Brushing the bits of rock off his jacket, Zorraine turned around to see his brother standing in the air.
Yes, he was literally suspended in mid air like the creepy guy from Brightburn. But there was nothing remotely funny about the situation.
Cassian's hands were filled with a gigantic ball of ink black fire.
Zorraine took the smallest step back, threatened.