Chapter 21: Injustice

"Huff. Huff. Huff. Finally made it."

Rex was carrying an unconscious Conroy as he arrives at the ark.

He lumps the archer on the bed and takes a moment to catch his breath.

"Now for the big palooza."

Pale was nowhere to be seen as Rex only arrived with Conroy. Where could he possibly be?

"Undo shadow realm prison!"

The shadow lurking around Rex swells as the large warrior appears out of it.

Rex had used snatch steal once again and copied Max's relic. He then activated the shadow technique that Max used to send Rex to the shadow realm when he was in a critical condition.

It was all so that he could carry the both of them to safety while Max wraps up the battle.

"Now where did we stash old man Dexter's medicine?"

Rohan was kneeling with his arms spread apart as awaits his faith.

Jake clenched the handle of his sword hard as he charges at the other swordsman.

Rohan closes his eyes and a great silence enveloped the room. He opened his eyes to see the blade pointing at his forehead.

He raised his head to see an infuriating look on the face of his former friend.

"You think that death will make things better!?" He punched Rohan so hard the sound of bones cracking could be heard.

"All we want is justice! Justice for the way that we were treated!" He wiped off the tears on his face.

The five friends were abandoned by their nation, why? Because they agreed to become a unit that uses the very thing the nation stood against.

Although the nation decided to have a unit that uses relics, they were abandoned because of the conniving planning of Moon.

"Is it wrong that we wanted revenge for what he's done to us?"

Rohan had an apologetic look on his face and couldn't bring himself up to answer Jake's question.

He felt like the worse kind of thrash that turned a blind eye to the injustice that befell his friends.

He felt guilty because he repeatedly chose his brother over the people that were also like family to him.

He even went to the extent of attacking Max when his brother was reported dead.

Rohan loved and cherished his brother. It was this same love that forced him to make the wrong decisions that he made.

He knew apologizing was as useless as a glass hammer.

Crack!

Wam!

Crack!

Jake was sitting on top of Rohan and was brutally punching him as he wailed.

"They took everything from us! We had to live in an abandoned mansion away from prying eyes in another region!"

Crack!

"And yet, you came all the way here with reinforcements too just so you could save your brother? Everything's for your brother!"

Wam!

Blood splatters on Jake's face as he keeps up on the assault.

"If you're really sorry, kill your brother with your own two hands!"

Jake stopped the assault as he stood up, seethe's his sword, and turns his back.

Rohan sat up, his face swollen and covered with blood.

"If that will make you guys forgive me, then so be it. Take me to my brother."

The two began to head towards the hidden dungeon room of the mansion.

Meanwhile...

"I-i-i surrender." Kelly who was sweating bullets and breathing heavily said as she plopped to the floor.

Max exhibited a level of killer instinct that made her feel as if she had died ten times over in the past few seconds.

She had been in countless battles and life-threatening situations but what she experienced today was something inhuman.

A monster, a beast, a fiend. She couldn't even begin to imagine the type of childhood that the man in front of her had.

True to what he said to her.

"Your darkness is greater than mine." She bowed her head as she admits. Compared to what Max had experienced in his life, her current condition was a luxury.

Max's shadow returned to its natural position as the ex-assassin had his usual smile on his face once again.

"As I said, I don't care about your revenge as long as I get what I want. I hold no enmity with any of you."

That was the case. Max had fun during his encounter with the Titans clan. He fought someone who could move faster than light and another who could attack the very soul of her opponents.

'I can sense that Rex and the rest are safe and okay in the ark.'

That was another reason he wasn't worried.

He had used seismic sense to grab a hold on the current condition of their battles.

He could sense the pulse of the others in the ark. They were also currently out of danger and awake as Rex had administered the special medicine they had received from Dexter prior to their arrival to Rose town.

"It seems Rohan had found his brother."

He looked on to Kelly as he offers her a hand.

"Take me to where Moon is."

She pauses for a moment as she stares blankly at the radiant smile on his face as he offers her a hand. She could feel her heart skip a beat as she grabbed hold of his hand.

'Was he the same person that was exhibiting so much killer intent just now?'

She obliged following the sacred codes of war. The loser has to give the winning side what they want.

She smiled as he stood up.

She had completely forgotten about her revenge and was lost in the ex-assassin's blue as sea eyes.

Her heart throbbed more and more.

She had nothing but admiration towards her opponent.

If a regular person had experienced half the things Max had gone through in his life, they'd be locked up in an asylum by now.

But this man had the mental strength to push forward and seek out an adventure instead of living in the past as she did.

She might not know exactly what he's been through but it was evident from the way he acted earlier that he was no ordinary man.

She respected him more as he hadn't lost his smile provided the kind of life that he lived.

Kelly didn't know when her hunger for vengeance vanished and the void was filled with another emotion.

At one, she gazes upon his eyes which were as blue as the seven seas and the clear sky above. Her cheeks turned red as she stutters in her speech.

"F-follow m-me."

She looked innocent as Max couldn't help but admire her natural beauty.

She was tall, confident, and had the person figure in the right proportions. No man could look at her and not admit that she's not divine.

In the hidden dungeon of the mansion.

"Hello, brother."

Moon raised his head to be met with the gaze of his younger brother on the other side of the steel bars made with Fellium metal. He had his arms spread apart with chains.

Jake unlocks the cage with a key and steps ahead gesturing for Rohan to enter and keep with his words.

What better way to take revenge on Moon than to have him die at the hands of his beloved brother?

Moon seemed to have grasped the current situation as he closes his eyes and spoke.

"Just get it over with."

Jake had a devious smile on his face as he eagerly awaits for their revenge to finally be achieved.

Rohan draws his sword and grabs the right shoulder of his brother. He looks at him in an apologetic way.

He feels sad that there was no other way now, he had to end this cycle of hate and the injustice that befell his childhood friends.

He closes in on his brother's ear and whispers 'I'm sorry, brother. Thank you for raising me.'

He pulls his sword back ready to thrust it through the General's heart and finally put an end to things.

Rohan paused and chuckles a bit.

He was laughing at his strange fate.

He attacked Max whom he deemed as an enemy only to suffer a crushing defeat.

He later learns that his brother was very much alive and devised a plan to save him.

He ended up making a deal with Max, a relic user. The very kind of people that were declared sworn enemies to his home Region.

He would join the clan of this stranger who had offered him help to save his brother.

After all the struggle and the battles that raged on in the mansion, his heart gave in to the accumulated guilt that he had buried deep inside of him.

He gave up on his life and saving his brother to repent for the injustice that befell his friends which he had indirectly played a part in.

And now, he was told that the only way for him to repent is to take his brother's life with his own hands.

Rohan shook his head and cleared out these thoughts as a look of determination spread across his face.

He tightened the grip on his sword and thrust it forward as blood splatters all over his face.