This day is a day i have prayed never to come. Dark clouds fill the sky making it at noon as black as midnight. The great world cities twist together like weeds. It's become impossible to tell were New York and Paris end and where Tokyo and London begin. Big Ben and the Eiffel tower stand side by side as the Empire State Building looms over them both. But the epicenter of the madness is Liberty Island were Tokyo tower has penetrated the grand lady as easily as if she were a common streetwalker. And at the top of the twisted monuments stands the fiend responsible for the travesty which has befallen the world. His unholy minions surround me, my sword of light my only defense. It glows with the power of heaven in it's holy blade. With it i hack through the demonic spawn as if they were mere fodder and to me they are. My eyes lie not on these grotesque underlings but on their sinister master. A man who reads from a book of darkness and conducts the winds of apocalypse to tear through the world like a hurricane. He revels in the death and destruction he causes, to him this chaos is the natural state of the world. He is a true monster whose purpose is to destroy all of creation. He is my brother, and everything else that he has become is my responsibility. God, how did it all come to this?
***
Five years earlier.
I remember how it all began, when we were so much younger. We naively believed that each man carved his own destiny. We wanted to carve ours together as brothers. We were twins, identical down to the birthmarks on our butts. We had always done everything together it was only natural that when we graduated high school we wanted to go into business together as well. We each loved cooking and wanted to open our own restaurant.
"going into business is more difficult than you think." Our mother said, "Go to college instead, then start a business." We were too impatient to listen to her. We wanted our success to come quickly and without hard work. "Getting a loan will be easy." I told my brother, "All we have to do is use our natural charm." Our natural charm as it turned out got us kicked out of every bank in town. My brother started to talk about visiting a local loan shark, I warned him against it. "What if he wants to break your legs and breaks mine instead," I joked. But I was seriously worried that he would do something stupid. I had heard a strange rumor about a man who awakened people's destinies. Men would go to this old wizard and return to town having accomplished their life's ambition. My brother and I trekked through the woods at the outskirts of town. He was skeptical of the story but something in my bones told me it was true. We reached the hut at around dusk and the old man stood out front as if he knew we were coming.
"I have waited for this day," he said, turning to enter the ramshackle house.
"You can help us start our business?" My brother asked.
"If it is your destiny." The man replied, "it however is not."
My brother became irate and stormed out of the old man's hut.
"Your just some old nut!" He shouted. "I'm going home."
The old man stepped out after him with a short sword in his hand. As my brother walked toward the tree line the sword flew past his head and stuck in the tree in front of him. My brother turned in shock as the old man laughed. "That sword is your destiny boy.” He said. He then handed me an identical blade. "And this is yours. Twin swords for twin wielders." As I held it in my hand I knew that I possessed a power that I had never dreamt of and that I shared it with my brother.
the old man then returned to his hut and began to close the door. "My time as guardian is over." He said, "The demons of this forest are now free to kill you, unless you can kill them first."
And then we were surrounded by hideous monsters.
***
I have reached the top of the spire and with it my brother. He is not the same man that i remember. He has been twisted into something truly unrecognizable, though we are still as identical as the day we were born. The change that has overtaken him is one on the inside. He has become filled with hate, rage and despair. He does not wish to hand the world over to demons for the sake of being evil, he wishes to do it to regain that which I have taken from him. Even now his eyes burn me with their hatred. To be so hated by your brother whom you love is like being stabbed in the heart by a thousand knives. He draws his sword, the same sword that he received from that old hermit. It is identical to mine save one detail, while my blade is illuminated with the light of heaven his is enshrouded with the darkness of hell. The twin blades clash. A power that was not meant to oppose itself sparks with the fury of divine indignation.
"Stop this madness!" I shout, "I don’t want to fight you."
The hatred in my brother's eyes becomes more focused as he swings his blade wildly. The speed of his movement is so hard to follow that my shoulder is sliced by the demon blade. As my blood splatters onto my brother's face he smiles viciously.
"Did you really believe that you could stop me with words?" He asks. "After what you did, not even your life is enough!"
He's right, I was a fool to try to reason with him. What I did to him was unforgivable, but what he's doing to the world is equally unforgivable. It has become apparent that one of us must die. I caused this madness so it should be me, but that will not stop the destruction my brother is creating. No, in spite of my guilt my brother has to be the one to die. I must kill my brother for becoming the monster that i turned him into.
***
Three Years earlier.
For two years we had battled side by side, driving the darkness away with the combined light of our swords. We were the guardians and nothing could stand in our way. At first we had resented being forced to give up on our dream of running a restaurant together, but in time we came to love the battle. Fate led us around the world, wherever we needed to be the means to be there would come to us effortlessly. More than the adventure of travel there was purpose in what we were doing. Every demon that we killed represented human lives that were being saved. The demons did more than just eat people, they caused sickness, madness and murder. We truly believed that killing these foul beasts was not only right but the most noble action a human being could take. Together we had vowed to rid the world of the demon plague.
I don’t know when exactly it was that he met her. We had gone to Kyoto Japan, the city was absolutely infested. For every demon we killed three more would take it's place. We had only expected to be there a week, four months had passed. When he brought her home to me she seemed like a delicate flower. I was suppressed to learn that she had let him impregnate her, more so to learn that they had married without telling me. My brother always thought I was jealous of her. I wasn’t, I was suspicious of her, she reeked of deception. The longer she stayed with us the weaker our powers became and the more numerous the demons grew. I tried to warn my brother.
"She is somehow responsible for this." I said.
"Your jealousy has made you mad." He replied.
The more time that passed the more certain I became. She was evil, every bone in my body told me that. She had cast some spell on my brother and made him a slave to her will. It was not until she went into labor that I realized what was truly happening. That night lightning filled the sky. It was an electrical storm like none Japan had ever seen. Wailing demons filled the sky like migrating birds. As they passed in front of the blood moon their hideous forms became visible. In the birthing chamber my brother's wife was speaking tongues as she levitated. The oppressive forces in that room were so dense that I felt I could cut them with a knife. My brother had gone to find a doctor but I knew that no doctor could cure the evil that was about to be born into the world. I held my sword in my shaking hand, knowing that I had to do my duty as a guardian. I plunged it into the witch's belly, her scream was earsplitting. The earth shook and the demons in the sky fiercely wailed and bellowed as if the world was ending. Even as the unborn devil was slain my brother's wife assaulted me with her unnatural powers. Quickly I pulled the sword from her stomach and with a swift motion cut off her head. It was then that I saw my brother's horrified face in the doorway. He looked at me for the first time with those burning eyes full of hate. Had he not been so shocked I am certain he would have tried to kill me on the spot. Suddenly and without warning his dead wife's eyes opened up. The eyes were black and demonic and they were starring right at my brother. In a moment of hatred he accepted something evil into his heart, a power of darkness that his wife had once commanded. My brother turned his back on me that day, he left the house that we had shared and walked away. Stopping only long enough to share his hatred of me.
"You are not my brother." He said, "When next we meet I will kill you and this cruel world."
There was nothing I could say to him that would make things right. It was then I understood that he had always known that she was evil but he didn't care. He had let himself be blinded by his love, placing her above both his loyalty to me and his loyalty to the human race. He was aware of the fact that fate had placed he and the woman he loved on opposite sides of the eternal battle between good and evil but was hoping to forge his own fate. I had killed that hope with my own hands, my brother was doomed never to be happy again. He did not simply hate me for killing her but he hated himself for being naive and he hated the world for letting the tragedy take place.
All of this hate led him to the place he is at now. Crossing swords with me in a desperate attempt to destroy reality so that he can rewrite it. The deals he's made to get this far have guaranteed that any reality he creates be a hell on earth.
***
We've dealt each other some serious blows but we continue to fight. I don’t think either of us can last much longer. I can feel both of our powers waning. I destroyed his spell book, that was a smart move but it cost me the fingers on my left hand. My brother is bleeding pretty badly from his side, i must have punctured an organ when I stabbed him. With the book gone reality is slowly returning to normal, but my battle cant end yet. If my brother escapes he will return twice as powerful as he is today. I know that I cant live with killing my brother though, it would turn my soul inside out. My only choice is to give us both peace. I lunge at my brother with my sword, he lunges at me in the same manor. We stab each other, neither of us bothering to block the other's blow. Perhaps he is thinking what I am thinking or perhaps he is thinking that his magic will aid in his survival. Either way this is the end for both of us, I see to it personally. With the last of my strength I push us both over the tower's edge. The last thing I remember is falling and thinking that as we do I see a slight smile on my brother's lips. Peace at last.

