"..."

Hank stood before the seething Kaelen and glanced down at the weapon the boy wielded, noticing that it was trembling as though it had an autonomy of its own.

"... You don’t have to do this, Kaelen."

He spoke with a forcibly calmed voice that would fool no one of his fear and anxiety.

"Come back to us, we can get through this together."

"I’m so happy that you’re still alive. You heard the Lead’s words right? You are a member of Soaring Boar now."

Hank winced, the pain on his wounded shoulder still gnawing at him, requiring immense grit to even stand upright.

"Shut up! Don’t you dare talk about him!"

"How shameless can you be?! You dare use his words to manipulate me, huh?!"

Kaelen roared, Hank’s attempts to diffuse the situation no more than gasoline to Kaelen’s fuming rage.

"Yes, you’re right and I’m sorry. But do you think Julius would really want this? You hunting us down like animals?!"

Hank’s voice echoed deep into the jungle.

"..."

Kaelen paused for a minute, his gaze planted at the ground.

"Yes, you’re right. He wouldn’t want this, I know that very well."

He spoke those words through an audible whisper and his softened gaze shifted from the ground and became as sharp as a razor’s edge as he glared at them.

"... But I’m not Julius, Hank."

"That man was... He was far more than any one of us deserves!"

"I was going to save you, damn it! With the power he gave me through his death, I was going to struggle until the end with you!"

"And what did you do huh?! You sacrificed Margaret and Arthur to save your own skin! Some comrades you are, so don’t you dare speak to me about Soaring Boar when you embody nothing it stands for!"

As the echoes of Kaelen’s shout faded, Hank and Helena could say nothing in response and an eerie silence befell the surroundings. Even the wildlife seemed to have been silent, like a quiet jury observing a prosecutor and the accused.

"I..."

Kaelen glanced at his left palm and could still see streaks of Julius’s dried blood.

"I killed him with my own hands... He begged me to, knowing I would get stronger. Just so that I could save his comrades and his children."

"Yet..."

Kaelen’s voice cracked and even more tears were shed.

"...Those very same people he gave his life for turned on him and killed those dear to him!"

He clenched a fist with his palm and the trembling of his spear ceased.

"We’re sorry... There’s really nothing more we can say. We understand your anger, but if you would just —"

"Enough... I have heard enough, spoken enough. I’m going to kill you now, only then will the cries of Julius, Margaret and Arthur torment me no more."

Crackle!

Kaelen coated the entirety of his being and his spear in Mana, and it began trembling again, but this time not because of his mental state, but because it could not withstand such power.

[We can’t talk our way out of this. I barely have any Mana left, but we can still...]

"Hank, get ready! I’ll buff you and —"

■■■ Mana Burst: Lyserødt Lyn! ■■■

Kaelen hurtled his spear with such tremendous force that it scattered gusts of wind as it tore through the air.

"D-damn it, no!"

Noticing that the pink bolt was aimed at Helena behind him, Hank swiftly shifted his body to parry the attack.

BOOOOOM!!!

"Aargh!!!"

A pink plasma erupted, engulfing Hank and leaving him writhing on the ground like a maggot yearning for soft earth under the blazing sun.

His cries were like the howls of a dying cat, but did nothing to tug at Kaelen’s heart.

"..."

The boy slowly walked over, pausing briefly to glance down at Hank and then proceeded walking with Helena in his sight.

"No!! Stop!!!"

Hank bit down the unimaginable pain he felt and charged at Kaelen.

■■■ Mana Burst: Fuchsia Gibbouse! ■■■

Despite the impeding attack to his back, Kaelen calmly, yet deftly, flipped his body upside down and unleashed a thunderous bicycle-kick that was accompanied by an explosion at Hank’s dome.

Crack!!

Hank crashed into a tree, the impact fracturing several of his bones.

"..."

Kaelen slowly corrected his posture and continued walking toward Helena with a cold expression.

"N-no! Stay back! Stay back! Please!!"

Death. The fear of death crawled up her spine and she could barely keep standing and fell to her rear. Yet, her instincts screamed at her to run and so, she began to crawl backwards like a cicada nymph attempting to burrow.

"Don’t make this harder than it needs to be."

Kaelen spoke with a bitter voice, memories of the time she’d spent with her flooding his mind, the taste of her simple, yet delectable food somehow tickling his taste buds.

Thud.

Her back was against a large tree. She had nowhere to go and could only cry and beg for her life, her nose blowing snot bubbles with every plea that left her.

"Stop it Kaelen! Kill me! It’s me that you want! I’m the one that seduced her, she loved Julius more than anything!!"

"I was jealous of Julius and so I wanted to be like him, feel what it’s like to be him!! So please don’t kill her!"

Hank crawled forward, half of his face completely charred and a couple of his limbs trailing loosely, dislocated from their joints.

"Kaelen, look at me!! It was me who abandoned Margaret and Arthur, if you want revenge then take it out on me!!"

He continued screaming and crawling, but he would never make it in time, even if he did, what could he possibly accomplish?

"I know. I saw what you did, Hank. Just sit there and wait your turn."

Kaelen looked over his shoulder and addressed Hank before turning back to Helena, who had attempted to take advantage of the distraction and escape, but it was futile.

"No! Please, Kaelen, my children have no one left but me! Please! If you kill me then who will look aft—"

Squelch!

Despite hesitating for a moment, Kaelen ran his spear through her chest, knowing that if he dwelt on that hesitation for much longer, he may have shown her mercy.

Her blood sprayed on his face, and his eyes became watery, his lips quivered as though he would break at any moment.

But... Kaelen maintained eye contact with her even as she gargled her own blood, until the light in her eyes faded, and to her last breath, she begged him to show him mercy.

[Wrong. Your children will still have someone, even after you die.]

Ding!

[She’s dead...]

He felt lightheaded, but retrieved the spear embedded in her. He couldn’t afford to break, not yet. Not when one remained.

"Kaelen!!!!!!! You bastard!!! Igor was right, we should have killed you when we had the chance!!! I’ll kill you, you hear me?!!!"

Hank roared until he spat out blood and his voice became coarse.

"..."

Kaelen slowly walked toward Hank who was still screaming at him, but at that point, Kaelen didn’t hear a single word he spoke.

"Goodbye, Hank."

Stab!

Kaelen punctured Hank’s spine and watched in silence as his writhing ceased and he began drowning in a pool of blood.

Ding!

That chime was a sound he had grown to loathe.

"..."

He raised his eyes into the vast nothingness and wept.

/

Rustle...

A couple of minutes had passed in silence until a sound earned his attention, and Kaelen turned to find the Roach, beaten and battered, staring at him in silence.

[Is he here to kill me?]

Kaelen bit his bottom lip nervously, but before he could say anything, the Roach suddenly stepped aside and bowed deeply.

Kaelen instinctively knew who would follow. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Kaelen. So this is where you have been?"

Charymos appeared from the darkness, the upper part of his garment, the leather onesie, completely torn, revealing his skin which closely resembled a walrus’s.

"A dog that dares to bite its Master needs to be put down —"

[...?]

Seeing Kaelen’s action, Charymos couldn’t help but freeze.

"I welcome you, my Master."

Kaelen planted his head on the ground and stretched out his opened palms.

"... I have had a successful hunt."

He spoke those words in a cold voice befitting a Homunculus.