A few weeks passed, and there was a noticeable change at the mansion caused by the constant absence of Dom and his butler, Flick. The only days they were around the mansion 24/7 were Monday and Friday when the trainers would come around.
Harrison also took training seriously as he wasn't okay with his mother's shaken faith; he had always been her star child, and now he felt his position was being threatened.
That evening at dinner, there was no exchange of words; Harrison, who usually filled his mum in on how his day went, the girls he hung out with or the progress he made in training, was silent.
"Dom, you and your brother will be fighting tomorrow afternoon", Lady Diane announced, breaking the silence.
"Wow, just like that, here I thought you would inform us a day prior", Dom replied, unmoved.
"Doesn't give you the right to be sarcastic" Harrison said.
"You sure know a lot about what's my right and what's not but everything seems to be your right, the good treatment, the fame, the glory, the girls, the title and thankfully, I don't want any of it, I just wanted to live my life on my terms but you feel otherwise, why?" Dom said dropping his cutleries.
"With everything that was sacrificed for you, you are lucky to still be breathing," Harrison said with a look of disdain.
"You speak like you sacrificed anything for me or like it was the entire house that made that sacrifice when it was just one individual, you may not believe in me but Grandpa did and that is all the motivation I need to keep going and with my current progress, I just might beat you in the fight and I will prove to you that all that grandpa sacrificed for me wasn't in vain" Dom stated.
"That's enough, the both of you; it's either you eat your meal in silence or go to your room", Lady Diane warned.
"There seems to be the only place one can find peace in this place", Dom said, getting to his feet before leaving.
"You could have handled yourself better; you need to be both physically and mentally fit for that battle; don't let your emotions distract you", Lady Diane advised her oldest son.
"I'm sorry, Mother; it just doesn't seem right to struggle with him for anything". Harrison said.
"Life's always a struggle, I'm sure you have experienced that already," Lady Diane said.
"I know, but I'm just not okay with the sudden care you're showing towards him. First, 1st you grant him his training request, then you offer him first training rights; I fear you may give him my throne in the future", Harrison confessed.
"I feel your worries are unjust; your brother has no interest in family affairs, not to mention the position of leader; he merely wants to make a life for himself and have nothing to do with us", Lady Diane said calmly.
"Then let him go, why are you being nice to him?" Harrison asked.
"Don't be foolish Harrison, I didn't raise you like this, it's clear that your brother is going to be very powerful and everyone would want to have him on their side and whichever side he picks will have a large advantage which we would lack, our reputation amongst the noble families may not be bad but it isn't the best either" Lady Diane explained.
"If I can beat him tomorrow maybe he will stay or better still I will add it to the bargain, if he wins, he gets first training rights, full access to our resources with all rights and is free to come and go as he pleases but if he loses, he will never be able to leave this family and will do whatever we say forever," Harrison said.
"That's quite a lot to lay on the table; you do know the elders will be present and made aware of the things riding on the fight, right?" Lady Diane asked.
"Yes, I'm aware of that; I will win, don't worry, mum", Harrison replied.
"Do as you wish" Lady Diane said in finality.
Soon, dinner was over, and Harrison made his way to Dom's room.
Hearing the knock on the door, Dom and Flick exchanged glances. Of Course, Flick had eavesdropped on the conversation in the dining room and had come to tell Dom.
"Come in," Dom said.
Harrison stepped into the room; he glanced at Flick, who was putting some clothes away and glanced back at Dom.
"Fine, Flick, please excuse us, come back in the next five minutes," Dom said.
"Of course, Master Dominick", Flick replied before exiting the room.
"What brings you to my room this late?" Dom asked.
"I have come to raise the stakes on tomorrow's fight" Harrison replied.
"Okay, let's hear it,", Dom said, feigning ignorance.
"If you win, you get first training, full rights to do whatever you want, free access to all our resources and complete freedom but if you lose, you will only accept what we give you and you will do whatever I say for the rest of your life" Harrison explained expecting to see fear in Dom's eyes.
"Deal, make sure to put all that in a contract before the fight tomorrow; also, send Flick in on your way out", Dom replied.
A bit shaken by Dom's courage, Harrison bade Dom goodnight and left the room, a few minutes later, Flick walked back in.
"I'm surprised you didn't falter with that threatening tone he used and that you didn't refer to me as 'your butler'" Flick said.
"I was initially, but I remember my friends at school and how much they believed in me; a lot is riding on tomorrow's fight", Dom said.
"All the more reason to win it" Flick replied.
"Yeah, I better get some rest; see you tomorrow, Flick", Dom said.
"Goodnight, Dom", Flick said before leaving.
The next day, the estate was bustling with activities; what was said to be a mere fight was turning out to be as important as the appointment of a new leader. All the families tied directly or indirectly to the House Pavla were gathered within the estate at a battle arena, all waiting to see the spectacle unfold.
They all bowed as a sign of respect as Lady Pavla stepped forward to address them.
"I welcome you all here to witness this fight between my sons, usually sons fight for power, for the title of Lord but my sons are different, they fight for validation, they fight for their rights, they fight to prove to each other who's view is superior, the stakes for the fight have been made known to the elders via the shared signed contracts and with no further hitch, the fight can now begin," Lady Diane said before taking her seat.
She was seated at an elevated VVIP section alongside an individual none could recognize as he sat farther behind the Lady of the house, not to mention the distance between the VVIP section and the normal seats.
Dom and Harrison were out in the middle of the arena, both sizing each other up in an attempt to gauge the other's strength.
Harrison moved first by shooting a beam of light into the sky immediately after small arrows of light rained down, and Dom blipped around the arena, avoiding the attack while shooting plasma balls at Harrison.
"Pathetic; I can't believe Mum thought you had a chance", Harrison scoffed.
The next moment, Dom blipped right in front of Harrison with a punch heading for the latter's abdomen, but Harrison blocked it last minute and leaped a few paces back.
When he looked ahead again, Dom had vanished.
"Damn, that blasted affinity", Harrison cursed.
Kicking dust into the air around, Dom coughed giving away his location and Harrison immediately leaped towards him ready to blast him away but the moment he hit Dom, he turned into something slimy.
"A lot of you forget that my affinity is illusion, not invincibility", Dom said.
The next moment, Harrison found himself surrounded by many Doms, confused and startled. He was about to try his first attack again, but Dom wasn't just sitting idle; the army of illusions instantly charged at Harrison, cutting him off before he could make the shot.
Amongst the punches of the illusion, the real Dom was strategically launching his own strikes, changing position in no particular pattern.
Frustrated, Harrison sent a ring of light towards the illusions on all sides, destroying them.
The real Dom made a shield of light, to protect himself from the attack.
"Enough playtime, time to wrap this up", Harrison said as he sped towards Dom, hitting him right in the midsection and sending him crashing into a nearby wall, the chants from the crowd now feeding Harrison's ego.
The next moment, a flash of light shot out of the dust, hitting Harrison right in the chest and sending him to the other side of the arena, quieting the chants from the crowd.
Dom made his way out of the rubble, there was too much at stake for him to lose this match.
"Grandfather didn't sacrifice his life for me to become a slave" Dom yelled.
Harrison got out of the rubble speeding towards Dom once again. Taking a deep breath, Dom recalled all the flights from his first year, from the teleportation mix-up, training, Alphite Industries and the revaluation. Looking ahead, he readied himself to fight for his life.
Only Lady Diane and some elders noticed the sudden power increase in Dom, it was by no small amount.
Harrison, thinking Dom had given up, threw a plasma punch right for his face, only for his fist to be stopped a few inches away from Dom's face.
"What's happening?" Harrison asked confused as he couldn't free his hand from Dom's grip.
"This fight is about to end" Dom replied as his eyes lit up.
He flung Harrison into the sky and sent him crashing down onto the floor with an elbow to his back, Harrison coughed up blood as he attempted to get up, seeing Dom coming back for another attack, he decided to also go all out, a beam of light enveloped him and when it dimmed out, he was clad in shining armour made of pure light.
Dom shot a blast at him which he deflected with the shield before leaping into the air with a sword in his hands, the attack was faster than Dom expected but he was still able to dodge and use Harrison's momentum to fling him back to the ground creating a crater in the arena but of course, Harrison wasn't out of the fight just yet.
Before Dom could land, Harrison blasted into the sky, not knowing where he was, Dom had his guard up, looking left and right for any signs of his brother.
Suddenly, a punch from nowhere sent Dom flying but another punch sent him back and with that, a barrage of consecutive punches was unleashed on Dom, the attacks got stronger and faster with each hit, Dom was getting worn down, and a memory suddenly popped into his head, not one with his grandpa but one with Brandon and the others.
"Come on, Dom, just because you can't see me doesn't mean you can't sense me; your ability is light; feel light on your skin, feel where it wavers and where it's steady,", Brandon said.
"Where's it steady and where it wavers?" Dom repeated in his mind.
The next moment, Dom threw a punch in front of him and his fist instantly collided with Harrison's fist sending a huge shockwave and creating a wall of dust what happened afterwards shocked everyone, those close to the central arena could hear the sound of cracked bones when the dust cleared, Dom could be seen standing in the centre of the arena heavily breathing while through a hole in the wall, they could see Harrison, he was unconscious with a lot of broken bones..
The arena was silent as Dom glanced at where his mother was seated before leaving the arena. No one said a word, but everyone knew what transpired: Dom had won fair and square.
"You look terrible; I prepared you a bath; clean yourself up and get some rest,", Flick said.
"I won, I won" was all Dom said as he walked past Flick.
"Yes, you did, the whole mansion is talking about it," Flick said with a chuckle.
The next day, Dom was summoned by his mother.
"Welcome, Dom, this is the master of light; he will be training you till you leave for school next year; I will leave you both to get acquainted", Lady Diane said.
"Hello, my name is Cerian Vale; you may call me Master Cerian" " the old man introduced himself.
"As in, Brandon's Master Cerian?" Dom asked.
"I see you know my disciple" Master Cerian chuckled.
"He's a close friend; he trained with me in school and helped me become who I am now", Dom said.
"That warms my heart; too bad I couldn't stay long after he arrived; I had to leave the next day", Master Cerian replied.
"I have his number; I could call him if you want to talk to him", Dom offered.
"Don't worry about that; the important thing right now is training you, let's start with your power output", Master Cerian said as he kicked off Dom's special training with a lecture to which the latter paid close attention.