Dust swirled through the shattered cobblestones of Ironreach, carrying the sharp, metallic tang of ozone and melted copper. Anger radiated from Arbiter Michael in waves of oppressive heat. Gold blood dripped from his left cheek, sizzling as it hit the stone, a stark reminder of the surprise hit the brothers had just landed. "You dare strike a god?" Michael’s voice resonated like a cracked bronze bell, vibrating deep inside their teeth. Spitting onto the cracked pavement, Jasper wiped his brow with the back of a thick, calloused hand. "Look, mate, we gave you a chance to walk away. You're the one crashing our happy hour." Beside him, Elias adjusted his posture, his mind running a hundred calculations a second. Light hummed around his fingers, thin needles of pure illumination ready to fire. "Based on our current trajectory, this conversation has zero return on investment," Elias muttered, his voice cold. "Let's skip to the termination phase." Flames erupted from Michael’s back, forming six wings of blinding, white-hot plasma. He moved faster than human sight could register. Only the sudden, brutal spike in atmospheric pressure warned them of his approach. Black gravity wells manifested in front of Jasper as he slammed his palms together. Darkness swelled, dense and heavy, warping the light around them. He anchored his feet, muscles bulging under his tunic, bracing for the impact. White light collided with pitch-black gravity. A shockwave tore through the street, ripping up storefronts and sending heavy dwarven carts tumbling like toys. Elias was already moving, sliding laterally to angle himself behind the divine arbiter. Three spears of concentrated photon energy shot from Elias’s outstretched hand. They hissed through the air, aimed directly at Michael’s blind spots. With a flick of his wrist, the arbiter deflected them with a shield of solid solar fire. "Amateurs," Michael sneered, his eyes glowing like miniature suns. "You wield the primeval forces of the universe like infants playing with kitchen knives." Swinging his massive arm, the god unleashed a wave of solar flares that swept across the entire boulevard. Heat melted the iron-laced brickwork of the nearby tavern. Jasper cursed, his voice booming as he erected a massive dome of dark energy to cover them both. "Hold the line!" Elias shouted, his dirty-blonde hair whipping in the fierce updraft. "I'm holding, I'm holding!" Jasper grunted, his knees bending under the sheer weight of the solar pressure. Veins popped on the big man's forehead, his jaw clenched so hard his teeth squeaked. He hated working overtime, especially when the hazard pay was nonexistent. Behind the shield, Elias did not waste a single second. He channeled his S-tier Light magic, not to attack, but to refract Jasper's dark barrier. By bending the incoming light around the dark dome, he created a perfect illusion of their position. Michael’s next strike, a vertical beam of pure solar radiation, slammed into the empty space ten feet to their left. Explosions rocked the foundation of the dwarven city. Stepping out of the refracted light, Elias fired a piercing beam of violet-white light straight at Michael's throat. Grazing his shoulder, the beam vaporized a chunk of his golden armor. It was a flawless, coordinated counter-attack, executed with the precision of two project managers closing a tight deadline. Michael barely tilted his head in time, his perfect face twisting in sudden irritation. "Keep him moving!" Jasper roared, stepping out from the shadows with a giant club of condensed darkness. He swung with the force of a falling meteor. Each blow he landed shook the air, forcing the arbiter to block with both hands. --- Sweat poured down Jasper’s neck as the fight stretched into its tenth grueling minute. Despite their devastating power, Michael was a veteran of a thousand divine wars. He didn't panic. He didn't slip. His movements were fluid, precise, and entirely devoid of wasted energy. "Your coordination is impressive," Michael said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy calm. "But you are mortals playing at divinity." A sudden burst of solar energy erupted from the arbiter’s body, a physical shockwave of heat that blew Jasper backward. Jasper skidded across the stone, his heavy boots carving deep grooves into the street. Elias intercepted the follow-up strike, weaving a lattice of hard-light barriers to block the rain of golden darts. Crackling sounds echoed through the air as the darts pierced the first three layers of his defense. Each impact rattled Elias's bones, transmitting the raw power of a god directly into his nervous system. "He's adapting to our patterns," Elias called out, his breathing growing ragged. "Yeah, no kidding," Jasper growled, spitting out a mouthful of bloody spit. "It's like fighting a regional manager who actually knows how to do our jobs." Slowly, the pressure began to take its toll. Michael transitioned from defense to a relentless, grinding offense. He didn't chase them; he simply dominated the space, forcing them to burn energy just to stay alive. Solar flares pulsed from the arbiter's palms, each one hotter than the last. Jasper’s defensive rings began to crack, spiderwebs of pale light spreading across his dark barriers. He could feel the heat blister his skin even through his magic. "We can't sustain this defensive posture," Elias analyzed, his eyes scanning the golden aura radiating from Michael. "Our mana efficiency is dropping, while his remains constant." "He's got a cheat code," Jasper muttered, blocking another fiery strike with a condensed shield of shadow. "Where is he getting the power?" Looking up, Elias focused his S-tier perception on the sky. Thin, almost invisible lines of golden light stretched upward from Michael's back, piercing through the clouds. They connected to something far above the mortal realm. It was a direct pipeline of divine mana, supplying the arbiter with infinite reserves. "He's tethered," Elias realized, his mind clicking into place. "He isn't using his own pool. He's drawing directly from the divine realm." "Can we cut it?" Jasper asked, dodging a beam that melted the cobblestones where he stood. "Not from down here. Not with physical or standard magical attacks," Elias said. "We need to disrupt his connection to the divine realm itself, or he'll just wear us down by attrition." Working under pressure was something they had both excelled at in their past lives. But this wasn't a spreadsheet; it was a battle for their lives and their comfortable retirement. If they died here, there would be no cold beers, no beautiful dwarven barmaids, and no peaceful afternoons. "Distract him," Elias commanded, his voice dropping to a sharp whisper. "I need thirty seconds to calibrate a disruptive frequency." "Thirty seconds?" Jasper let out a dry, booming laugh. "In this economy? You're asking for a miracle, bro." "Just do it." Roaring, Jasper threw himself forward, letting his S-tier Dark magic explode in a violent, chaotic display. Black tendrils erupted from his shadow, wrapping around Michael's legs. He didn't care about defense anymore; he channeled every ounce of his raw power into a desperate, grinding offensive. Michael smiled, a cruel, beautiful expression. "Desperation does not suit you," the arbiter said, raising his hand to summon a massive orb of solar energy. He slammed the orb downward, detonating it right in Jasper's face. A blinding flash consumed the street. Jasper was thrown back, his armor scorched, his breathing heavy as he crashed into the ruins of an old smithy. He struggled to his feet, his muscles trembling, but he had bought the time. Elias closed his eyes, his Light magic vibrating at an extremely high, unstable frequency. He wasn't trying to blast Michael; he was trying to create an electromagnetic pulse of pure light to scramble the divine tether. But Michael was too fast. He noticed the strange, silent buildup of energy around Elias and immediately understood the threat. --- Laughter, cold and devoid of humanity, echoed through the ruined streets of Ironreach. Michael floated a few feet off the ground, his golden wings flapping slowly, casting long, terrifying shadows. He looked down at the two brothers, his expression one of mild amusement. "You thought you could sever my connection?" Michael asked, his eyes burning. "A clever attempt. But you forget who holds the leverage here." Turning his head, the arbiter looked toward the edge of the square. A group of dwarven citizens, terrified and trapped by the collapsing buildings, were cowering in the ruins of a collapsed stone archway. Children, women, and elderly smiths clung to each other, their eyes wide with sheer terror. They had nothing to do with this fight, yet they were trapped in the crossfire. Raising both hands toward the sky, Michael began to draw massive amounts of solar energy into a single point. Michael summons a massive, world-ending solar spear, aiming it directly at a group of cowering dwarven citizens to force the brothers to choose.

Chapter 28: The Performance Evaluation