Chapter 614 – Brothers and War

000

Of course you will join us too

――As he looked directly into the eyes of his brother, who seemed to be asking, Raksha’s body seemed to harden.

It was the first time his own brother felt like such an incomprehensible monster.

Right now, the one in front of me is really his own brother, is he a human?

Maybe, while he wasn’t there, someone killed his brother, put on the outer skin and acted like that?

Although they are singing revenge, the eyes that clearly show that there is no such thing as resentment in it.

Watching him talk about hurting people and destroying something with a smile on his face as if it were fun, Raksha felt that his shoulder, which had been aching from earlier, became hot as if it were on fire.

Unknowingly, if he tried to put his hand there, his brother would grab it.

“What’s the matter? Does your shoulder hurt? After all, there must have been a lot of injuries in the fight with that lizard, right?”

“No… My shoulders are hot… This is like a wound-“

The brother who asks with a smile, but talks with his eyes closed, is truly afraid of him as if he has become a machine.

If you try to remove the hand that holds him tight and won’t let go, with your other hand, he will grab the hand of the Rakshasa with even stronger force.

“If your shoulder hurts, hyung will treat it. Just like always.”

“Always…?”

Looking into his eyes, the words seemed to pass through his ears and get stuck in his head.

As if, with the sensation of covering his entire brain, Raksha’s thoughts were covered by something.

──Come to think of it, I have often injured his shoulder since I was young… I have been treating him again and again ──

[It is not so! Those memories are just lies!]

In his daze, Rachal, who had almost nodded at his brother’s words, heard a voice ringing in his head and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, he feels the fog of thought dissipate.

And reflexively, Tak! And when he succeeds in slashing his brother’s hand by swinging his hand, he untangles his own bandage wrapped around his shoulder.

Then, there, an unfamiliar black and red pattern appeared on his shoulder.

No—is this really the first time I’ve seen it?

This pattern, obviously, does not allow his brother to thieves or enemies-

“Kuh…”

A violent headache struck again, and Raksa grabbed his head.

Little by little, but in the memories that came back, Rachal recalled that his brother had gained the power to manipulate people after awakening the demonic sword.

“Brother… Why, this to me…”

I can’t remember exactly when, where, or how this inscription came about.

However, what this does is clear.

A shackle-leash to keep oneself from going against him.

In other words – everything he had ever thought he could not betray – his brother – him –

Brotherly love, even more intensely imprinted on him than the feelings for him-

Instinct as a ‘subject’.

An indescribable sense of betrayal surged in Raksha’s chest.

For what purpose did I betray Nayuta and Gaios—all the people who valued me?

Naturally, Raksha’s eyes filled with anger as she stared straight at her brother standing in front of her.

More than pain, more than despair, feelings for the brother who had deceived him until now, which could not be simply defined as ‘hate’, continued to flow out.

“Ah…”

Watching the scene, rather than being surprised or trying to make excuses, the brother of Raksha was looking at it with a regretful face, as if he had seen it.

“Did you see it… I can’t help it if I saw it… Ah, originally, I didn’t want to show it…”

When he talks in a voice that says he is bored somewhere, Rachal walks backwards and distances herself from her.

“…All of the tapping on my shoulder until now…Was it all in order to engrave and control this imprint?”

“Huh? …Ah. Well, that’s it Because that side won’t doubt you either. Originally, in order to engrave that imprint, I had to make a magical pass, but you and I were blood brothers, so there was no need for that. So, I trained you to use that imprint.”

Casually, towards the brother who said that he had been used as a test subject, Raksha could not stand it any longer and clenched his fist and rushed at it.

“Aaaaa!!!”

He uttered a shrieking roar and swung his fist, and the brother sighed as he held it with one hand.

“Let’s stop. How can you beat me when you can’t even draw your own sword properly? Besides… It’s there, but it’s not different, right? You’re my sister, and you’ve done anything I ask of you.”

Looking at him talking in a cold voice as if he had done this, as if it had no meaning, Rakshak spit out those feelings as soon as they exploded in his heart.

“I am…! I am not your puppet!”

“Of course! I never thought of you as my puppet. He’s a cute little brother, and he’s the most precious brother I want to protect.”

He said that without changing his expression even in the face of Raksha’s angry voice – but in those words, Raksa felt his brother’s deceit.

“If my older brother has dominated me with this imprint, how many have I been able to choose myself in my life so far!”

“Is that important? After all, this world is covered in lies.”

A brother who talks as if he really has no interest in what he has to say.

He begins the story by making eye contact with Rakshala while clenching her fist.

“Rachal… I mean. Everything I’ve done to survive with you since childhood feels like a dream somewhere.”

“…Ha?”

Even though Raksha was taken aback by his sudden, unrealistic remark, the brother continued talking without even paying attention to his brother’s situation.

“That’s right, isn’t it weird? In our earliest memories- there was no mention of ‘parents’. As if it suddenly appeared in this kind of world…”

Did they lose their memories, or did they really not have parents like them?

To the extent that they don’t even know that, their oldest memories always started in Hell.

He could run around and talk, so he probably wasn’t that young.

I did everything to protect myself from death overflowing around me – back then.

“We really did anything. Searching for bodies, stealing, killing people. But the world rejected us more and more. Haha, it’s like people who have never been in a situation where they have no choice but to point their fingers at us as ‘villains’.”

Ah I remember

Because he was also pointed at.

They were just desperate to live, but the faces of those who said it was wrong.

“Unreasonable and absurd. That’s the world And- the voice inside me is talking. This world, from the bottom of the earth to the highest point in the sky. It’s a ‘fake’ made up by some goddamn guy. It looks so real.”

As he said that, he looked out the window he had been looking at with Rakshasa until now.

The ruins spread out beyond it, and the huge explosion that created it as if painting over it.

“There I thought. If this spectacle is all fake- that means it’s like a dream from which you can’t wake up, right? How can I wake up from this terrible dream?”

“Dream… What are you talking about…!”

No way, I couldn’t have predicted that Rakshasa, who had spent the longest time by his side, would have been such a strange person in his head.

The voice in my head isn’t talking about the demonic sword?

“So I asked. How to wake up from this dream So the guy answered. He said, ‘I can destroy this world’. See, isn’t it really that simple? When this dream wakes up, all the bad things that have happened will end up as illusions in the dream. We will be able to live happier than now.”

The madman’s lies resounded within the ruins.

Everything he said was the sound of floating clouds, and the story itself about what the voice in his head was saying felt like a joke that couldn’t be laughed at.

However, Raksha’s brother seemed to believe the story wholeheartedly.

Truly, after destroying this world, everything they went through would in fact be part of a nightmare-

“What is that…! Hyung-ah—you are just for that reason…! Asteris-! Are you planning to kill Nayuta!”

In the end, as if something he had been holding down deeply was about to burst out, Rachal raised his voice and tried to release his clenched fist.

However, the brother’s hand was like a noose, holding his brother’s hand tightly and never letting go.

As he looks at Raksha who denies the blueprint of the world he wants, he talks.

“…Is it. You really are a helpless fool.”

And the next moment, on top of his empty hand, the brother’s demonic sword ‘Echidna’ was grasped before he knew it.

Raksha’s brother had no hesitation in grabbing it and inserting it into his brother’s stomach.

There was no sound of skin tearing.

Strictly speaking, the body itself was not pierced.

However, the pain that pierced his stomach was surely attacking Raksha.

Using Echidna’s power, he cut off the soul inside him.

His demonic sword was a sword with such power.

“Echidna. Give my brother some rest He’s been away from me for two years, so he seems to have forgotten what he’s supposed to do.”

The monster, who absolutely couldn’t understand why his brother was doing this, spoke as if asking his demonic sword.

Then, in the next moment, Raksal felt the power of his entire body being sucked into the sword that had pierced his stomach.

“Ku, ugh…”

In his slowly fading spirit, Rachal had to somehow hold onto his body as it was about to collapse and hold on.

As if to support such Rakshasa.

The brother held him and brought his face close to his ear and whispered.

“Rachal… No matter how much you reject this older brother, you are my precious younger brother.”

Even in this situation, he talks about his affection for Raksha who is trying to betray him.

But- the words that followed, all of what he thought of Rakshasa was revealed.

“And… You are the easiest to deal with when you are ‘not doing anything’.”

“──”

The moment he heard those words, in his clouding mind, Rachal remembered something about what he had to do.

He clenched his teeth and clenched his fists.

And, while staggering, holding tight to his brother’s hem-

He pulled himself back, and then-

Quaang! He hit his head in the face of his brother with a headbutt so intense that it made a clattering sound.

The next moment, a fist like lightning was thrust into the brother’s face, and a heavy blow sounded.

“Gagging…!”

The brothers, at the sudden blow of Rakshasa, uttered a genuinely panicked voice and staggered backwards.

Thanks to that, his demonic sword that had pierced his body was pulled out, and he was freed from the sensation that was taking power from his body.

Just figure it out! He heard the sound of something exploding on top of his head, and it was the blood that flowed down his forehead.

Perhaps, the wound Gaios had just burst open from that shock.

Even though he himself was amazed at the fact that his attack had worked for him, he did not miss this gap and approached him, aiming at his chin and swinging his fist again.

What popped into his mind was the posture of Gaios, who used to fight with his bare hands even when training himself to wield a real sword.

Of course, it was a feat that was possible because of the dragon’s body specs, but her technique of letting go of the opponent’s attack and stabbing her fist in a vital place was because she had been hit with her own body.

The level of how to fight was engraved into his body.

Fuck!

Once again, with a heavy blow, Rakshasa’s fist landed on the bewildered brother’s jaw.

‘Go in! With this…!’

It would have been normal for an ordinary person to be unable to move their body for a while because of this shock to the brain, but is a being that feels like a monster really a monster with a body as well?

In the state where the body was bent backwards from being hit, he immediately moved his legs and performed an intense rounds kick toward the side of the rachal.

“Keugh!”

He somehow manages to block it by lowering his arm, but thanks to his body being a mess from being hit by Gaios, a shock reverberates throughout his body and pain strikes his whole body.

Haha…! I never thought the day would come when you would swing your fist at me…!”

Fixing his posture somehow, the brother wiped the blood from his broken lips and broken nose with the back of his hand.

“I guess I need to tell you after a long time… Among us twins… Why is mine the ‘big brother’…!”

Then, he swung the magic sword in his hand toward his younger brother.

The bladed sword wrapped in black magic seemed unable to cut anything from the outside, but Rakshasa knew best how vicious it was.

If he, too, can wield his own demonic sword as he pleases—

However, even if I wanted that now, I couldn’t help it.

‘Even if he’s willing to give up his arm… We have to stop him!’

Again, he clenched his fists and opened his eyes wide.

What did Gaios do?

First of all, when swinging a sword, grasp the opponent’s movement habits.

It’s because it’s not difficult to read the trajectory if you know where and in which direction you swing your sword.

Fortunately, Rachal was the one who had seen his brother’s sword the closest.

As such, he was also the one who knew his brother’s sword best.

In the eyes of Rakshasa, the traces of the swords wielded by the brothers clearly came to mind.

Next, I just need to move his body so that his body doesn’t overlap with that trajectory.

However, if it dodges too far, it may modify the trajectory and direction of the sword along its body.

So, what you do is the minimum avoidance action.

Seriously, Echidna missed by a piece of paper.

At the sword attack that cuts through the air, their own attack misses – and the brothers who noticed that Rakshasa evaded them were surprised once again.

Next to him, eye contact with Rakshasa, who was swinging his right fist –

Again, an intense impact hit his face, his flesh ripping off and his teeth baring.

This time, it was enough to hear a ‘Quad Deuk!’, So he could tell how hard he was swinging his fist.

Thanks to the absence of a cushion called a ball, that fist is more intensely locked in.

This time, it didn’t end at the level of twisting the body.

Right away, thump! It was such a shock that I rolled to the ground.

“Haha…!”

Even as Rachal sees the blood flowing from his knuckles, he talks while looking down at his brother, who is lying on the ground and trying to raise his body.

“…I’m not sending you to Asteris… Just because I can’t go back there… I can’t let what you’re about to do!”

When Raksha finally made up his mind, he shouted, and his brother, who was about to get up, stopped moving for a moment, then lowered his head and shut his mouth.

But, eventually-

When the eerie laughter that came out of his mouth slowly started to grow louder.

Haha!!!”

Loud laughter resounded throughout the room.

“Is it! Did that happen! No, I bet! After all, only one person can stop ‘me’!”

As he watched his brother spouting incomprehensible words, wondering if he had been hit on the head too hard, Nachal, who began to get a bad feeling about it, hesitated but didn’t loosen his stance, thinking of reacting immediately if he tried again.

But, next moment.

Considering that incomparably stronger magic power flowed from his sword, Echidna, that magic power was stuck in the back of Rakshasa’s brother like a needle, forcibly raising his body.

The moment I got close to that hideous magical power, I had an ominous feeling that the place would be thinly cut, so I didn’t stop.

“Why are you not fighting? What would it be There are limits to what you can do with your bare hands.”

“…Stop it bro. No matter what my brother says, I will stop him. Even if I’m-“

“…Even if it means killing me? Kwuk… Kwuk…”

He would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought of such a thing, but Rachal made no reply as he looked at his laughing brother.

Then, Rakshasa’s brother waited in front of Rakshaka for a while without saying anything to him-

“Yes… If you’re so sincere in sabotaging me. I, too, must make up my mind. My brother- my adversary.”

And when he saw what he was holding in his hand, Raksha’s expression changed in an instant.

It was the adamantite bomb that I showed Rakhar before.

At some point, he retrieved it and held it in his hand.

“If you are really my opponent, you won’t die at this level. If you said you were going to stop me, do it.”

“Wait, I can’t-“

And, the moment he threw the adamantite bomb he was holding at Rachal.

Keying-! With an eardrum-shattering sound, intense light emanated from the bomb.

And-

With a strong storm that swept the area around it.

The ruins of the old castle were enveloped in light.