Tatsuya moved like a predator on the hunt. One instant he’d crouch low, the next he’d spring up and let out a gurgling howl, as if blood were welling up from the depths of his throat.
“Guhka!”
To Venetim, he simply looked like a dark gust of wind streaking by.
Tatsuya swung his battle-ax one-handed, creating a whirlwind out of the falling snow. In the blink of an eye, he’d decapitated a man standing atop a wall—the sniper from a moment earlier. Fresh blood sprayed into the air.
“Kakaka!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Tatsuya was relentless, his movements never stopping. Within seconds, he’d taken out two more attackers to his left and right. With a single swing, he’d gouged out one’s throat and the other’s belly, instantly killing them.
Tatsuya is the penal hero unit’s most powerful soldier, thought Venetim.
He watched as blood, mixed with chunks of flesh, rained down before him, making him nauseated. He still wasn’t used to this.
There’s no way anyone could beat him in a fair match.
Venetim was certain of it. It wasn’t just a matter of raw strength or agility. There was something fundamentally different about Tatsuya—something almost inhuman. And from the way Neely treated him, Venetim knew she felt the same. Though he didn’t understand her words, he could tell from her demeanor. She sometimes acted as though she viewed even Xylo and Rhyno as children, but never Tatsuya. She treated him like some venerated senior, or like an aged tree, deserving of respect.
“Venetim!”
Venetim’s thoughts were interrupted as Fidius grabbed him by the collar, his eyes blazing with rage. Venetim had always feared this look. In fact, he’d told countless lies just to avoid being on the receiving end of it. Even if he was caught in a lie and scolded even more, it was still better than being scolded for nothing.
“…There’s still something I don’t understand!” Fidius shouted, voice strained. “How did you manage to get in touch with the coexisters and manipulate them into doing all this? If they simply thought about it for a moment, they’d realize I’d never collude with the likes of you! How did you find this bunch of incompetent fools?”
Venetim’s mouth fell open in astonishment. To think that there was something even his elder brother didn’t know! And it was such a simple, obvious fact. He didn’t even feel a sense of triumph; he was simply stunned.
“I was almost certain that High Priest Mirose was a coexister.” Venetim made sure to keep a straight face, despite his amusement. “So I tried to reach out to her in secret. Of course, she ignored me… But after that, her people seemed extremely cautious of me and even put me under surveillance…”
Tatsuya’s frantic movements filled Venetim’s vision. He could see his long limbs extending and retracting, each swing unleashing more hunks of flesh and sprays of blood. An enemy shot at him with their lightning staff, but a weapon like that wasn’t going to hit Tatsuya.
Under the glow of the emerald moon, he flew to and fro like a giant bat, moving from the wall to a roof, then to the top of a tree beside the road.
“And so I spoke to the person surveilling me to try to convince him to go away.”
“Like what?”
“I told him that while I was indeed a member of the Verkle family, I’d been exiled and no longer had any relationship with them. Especially my elder brother Fidius, with whom I have a long-standing feud. He and I would absolutely never conspire. I begged them to believe me.” Venetim looked away from his brother as he spoke. His furious, unwavering gaze was simply too much. “I tried to explain the situation to him as best I could, but it looks like that only made him more suspicious. I wonder if it was a mistake to let Xylo get so rough with him… At any rate, it seems like the more I explain the situation, the more people doubt me… I simply have no idea why that could be.”
“Why, you little—!”
Fidius grabbed at Venetim’s collar again, and Venetim cringed in fear. But just then, a bolt of lightning whizzed past Venetim’s cheek and grazed Fidius’s shoulder.
Fidius could smell burning flesh and feel warm blood running down his arm. He grimaced and cried out. Someone had given up on taking down Tatsuya and was sniping at them from a rooftop.
Venetim didn’t have the presence of mind to reach this conclusion logically, but he cried out on instinct, calling upon the strongest weapon currently at his disposal…
“Tatsuya!” He pressed down on his brother’s wound with both hands. “Someone’s shooting at us! Help!”
There was no reason for him to believe Tatsuya would make it in time. The next attack was sure to come almost instantly, so trying to evade was the logical option. Venetim, however, was incapable of such tactical thinking.
And, miraculously, Tatsuya heard his cries and obeyed—and managed to save them.
“Giiih!”
A strange, hissing noise escaped his lips as he leaped with incredible speed, battle-ax carving a trail in the sky. Venetim heard a bizarre, sharp crack. A moment later, he realized what it was—a lightning bolt being expertly deflected.
Fidius scowled, groaning. “Did he just…deflect that lightning bolt with his ax? Impossible!”
“Not for Tatsuya.”
The truth was, Venetim had no clue what was happening. But he couldn’t afford to look uncertain, so he put on a brave face and spoke with confidence. Then he put a finger to the sacred seal on his neck.
“…Xylo, do you see the sniper? C-can you get him?”
“’Course I can.”
A dark figure bounded across the snow-covered roof, its movements distinct from Tatsuya’s. It almost seemed to be flying.
“I’m going to corner and capture him, so focus on your part. Don’t screw this up.”
It seemed Xylo Forbartz, who had been lying in wait, had found his target. He’d soon captured the man—the one thing Tatsuya wasn’t any good at.
“It’s over, Fidius. You’re safe. A few of them got away, though…” Venetim felt his body’s temperature rapidly dropping. Facing his brother like this had him drenched in cold sweat. “Anyway, I’m counting on you! Let’s defeat mankind’s enemy together! We’ll crush the coexisters. All you have to do is trust us.”
Tatsuya jumped into another attack atop the roof, plunging his battle-ax halfway into the man’s chest and grabbing his head, then tearing it straight off his body. The man screamed as his innards spilled out, but his cry was soon drowned out by Tatsuya’s.
“Ruuuaaagaaaaaah!”
His behavior seemed far too violent and cruel for a warrior of justice.
“Look! That is the power of the penal hero unit’s strongest infantryman. I promise you that our unit will lead humanity to victory! Join us, dear brother! I respect you and wish to fight by your side!”
“You pathetic liar…!”
It seemed he couldn’t fool his brother. But then again, he didn’t need to.
“I might be lying, but does it look like you have any other option?” Venetim asked.
His brother stayed silent, then punched Venetim square in the face once more. Venetim’s vision blurred as the pain set in, obscuring his brother’s furious expression. Had that been an elbow rather than a fist? He got the feeling his nose was broken.
Well…this beats being lectured, at least. And by a lot, too.
Even as he clutched his nose, Venetim felt a sense of relief. The punch had been over in a second, and now his brother had no choice but to swallow his demands. When someone beat Venetim up, it usually meant he’d succeeded.
“Um, that hurt, Fidius.”
“…There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while.” Fidius slowly straightened up, completely ignoring his brother’s remark. His face resembled Venetim’s, but the impression it gave off was completely different. It was like a sculpture made of cold stone, hard and immutable. “How can you live with yourself? You’re an embarrassment. Doesn’t it bother you to cause so much trouble for others?”
“It does bother me… I wanted to become a decent person, like you. But I just couldn’t do it.”
“Don’t give me that crap. You never tried to be decent. Not even once.”
“I suppose you would think that… I’ve never been able to understand you or the others. But I’ve always done my best to be a good person, in my own way.”
“That’s a lie, too.”
“…Ha-ha. Looks like I can’t fool you. You’re right. What I really want is revenge. I want to get back at you and father and everyone else for expecting so much from me and then being disappointed when I couldn’t live up to your selfish expectations.”
“Enough. I was wrong to expect anything but lies from you.” Fidius shook his head and looked away. “At any rate, I’ve understood the situation at hand. I’m getting nowhere with you, so let me speak with whoever’s giving you orders.”
Fidius had always met everyone’s expectations, including their father’s. To Venetim, he seemed like some kind of transcendent being—someone completely beyond his understanding. Just how much perseverance and fortitude could one man have?
It must be amazing to be able to live like that, thought Venetim.
His brother must have an unshakable sense of self. At this point, Venetim didn’t even know what he really thought or felt. No matter how hard he tried, all he found were whatever words would appease the person in front of him.
In fact, Venetim had never given voice to what he really thought—he’d simply acted in response to others’ threats and demands. What other people wanted had always been his driving force. He couldn’t recall a single time when he’d acted spontaneously on his own behalf.
And now that record was what defined who he was.
I do respect my brother, though… At least, I think I do.
Venetim gazed up at the sky.
I wonder if Xylo got anything out of that sniper…