“There is no escaping the truth that you are the Lord of Flies,” I said. “Denying it is pointless. However, before I kill you, I want to ask you some questions. The answers may save your life.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Why attack the city and not the colosseum? What good does it do you to rampage through a place with so few people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bitch. You do understand your situation, don’t you?”
“I’m not lying to you. I don’t know anything. You’re right, we should be attacking the colosseum. But there was a change of plans at the last minute. I was told that the circumstances were different and attacking the colosseum was pointless.”
“Told? By whom? The person who hired you?”
Bernadetta nodded.
“Was it a Rodanian agent, then?” I asked.
“No, but they had an alliance with the Rodanians.”
“Someone else is involved? Who?”
“I’ll tell you everything; I don’t intend to keep secrets any longer. Not that you’ll believe me. It’s much more complicated than you think.”
It was hard to tell from Bernadetta’s voice whether she was telling the truth. I could have used Confess to force her to do so, but if things were as complicated as she said, it would mean nothing if I didn’t know what questions to ask. My easiest and most efficient option was to have her face me so I could read her expression as I interrogated her.
I took a step back, my gun still aimed at Bernadetta’s head. “Turn around.”
She slowly spun around. A cold wind blew between us.
“I like that look in your eyes,” I said.
They were not the eyes of a sheltered princess who did not know struggle but the sharp, infinitely deep eyes of someone who had settled their resolve.
“I could fall in love with you as you are now,” I told her with a grin. “Now speak. Clearly and concisely as you can.”
Bernadetta nodded, her gaze fixed powerfully on me as she opened her mouth to talk.
“The person who hired me is—”
At that moment, the silver-haired man appeared by my side and whispered in my ear: “They’re here.”
I leaped backward instinctively just as a bolt of black lightning struck the spot where I’d been standing. Moments later, it was followed by a thunderous roar and a shock wave. I kept my silver flame pointed forward as I struggled to stay on my feet.
“Hmph. You dodged it. Precognition, was it?”
A woman’s voice came from within the white smoke of the blast. I’d never heard it before. A gust of wind blew the remaining smoke away, revealing the speaker.
“You…!”
I knew who she was immediately. I’d seen the hybrid beast with her bewitching fox ears in a photo Dolly showed me. She was the broker and puppet master of the Netherworld Faith: Reisen.
Reisen looked at me with a cruel smile and then hurled something in my direction. Before I had a chance to move, it had already hit the ground, rolling slowly at my feet.
“Dolly…” I uttered.
The woman had thrown Dolly’s head at me. Her face was frozen in a peaceful expression, and in her empty eyes there was only my reflection. I looked back up at the hybrid beast and aimed my gun at her.
“Dolly told me about you. You’re the broker. Reisen, right?”
Reisen wasn’t threatened by my gesture. She stood between me and Bernadetta. “At last, I get to meet the snake himself,” she said.
“Oh, you’ve heard of me? That means you know how this is going to end. Woman or otherwise, you won’t get mercy from me—I’ll kill you.”
“I can feel it in your eyes. Quite intimidating. Were the two of you friends?”
“No. The sheer hatred I feel right now is all the reason I need to kill you.”
“Hmph. So you hate me. I am so sad,” she said, shaking her head. “To be hated by my own child. Is there anything more tragic?”
“Huh? What did you just say?”
Reisen shot me a perplexing smile and put both hands on her ample bosom. “I’m sure it must come as a shock, but it’s true. I am the ‘mother’ of the hero you’ve become, Noel Stollen.”
There was a moment of silence, and then I burst out laughing. “Me? Your son? Has your brain rotted away? I don’t remember crawling out from between your hideous legs!”
“I don’t remember giving birth to you either. However, I assure you I am the mother of who you’ve become. You can read people’s faces, no? Tell me I’m lying.”
She wasn’t. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Now tell me,” Reisen continued. “When was the hero Noel Stollen born?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why, the very reason you sacrificed years of your life to reach the peak of all Seekers—you, largely considered the weakest of all classes. It all started with the death of your beloved grandfather, did it not? On that day, there was a gigantic back current of mana in town, and it caused an Abyss to open. Then a beast emerged…one that slayed your grandfather.”
And then I…
“You made a vow to your grandfather in his dying moments. You promised him you would become the strongest Seeker ever. That was where you were born, Noel—without that moment, the Seeker you are now would not exist.”
“You…”
“Ah, you’re a sharp one. You understand, don’t you? I am the one who caused that to happen.”
“Reisen!”
Rage blacked out all my thoughts and I remembered—I remembered Gramps. I didn’t hesitate. I fired my silver flame in an instant. The Garmr bullet flew from the barrel and slammed right into Reisen’s face, sending her arching backward.
But there was no follow-up explosion. Instead, Reisen swung back up to face me. With a grin, she spat the bullet between her teeth onto the ground.
“I still haven’t introduced myself,” she said. “My name is Malebolge. Malebolge the Chaotic. I control chaos, so I control fate…and I am one of the Valiants.”