A Brother's Sacrifice

Russ's face remained unfazed by its cold demeanor, but he was stunned by how the siblings were acting.

As a person with an advanced level of sensory opia, he could somehow see through a person's nature—soul, to be precise.

In his eyes, Encender appeared as a milky white silhouette, indicating that she was a pure soul with a clean nature.

However, as everyone knows, white is easily dyed by other colors.

This rare color was seldom seen among living beings, and only the Buddha would possess such a soul.

However, Russ was not going to spare her; after all, it was his job to stop all adventurers who tried to sneak in through the great waterfall.

On the other hand, Max had a color most people would recognize: dark green. He was the type to love and hate certain individuals, kind to some and cruel to others.

"Is that so? Then I have no choice but to execute you two right now."

Max absorbed Russ's words as he stepped in front of his sister. He knew that the military was responsible for the safety of the people of Ablauf.

It stood in the way of adventurers because some of their actions to gain the ultimate throne were evil—genocide, child experimentation, pollution, rape, slavery, human trafficking, drug abuse, kidnapping, and even cannibalism.

The Ablauf Nobles were also guilty of such things, but they would always claim it was for the greater good.

Despite having an alliance to stop the adventurers, the two still butted heads with each other during various meetings.

Max didn't want to use his father's identity to navigate this situation as if he were some spoiled brat. He wanted to ensure his sister became the queen of Ablauf, no matter what.

That was something he swore in his heart, being the least talented among all his siblings.

Just by looking, Max could tell he was no match for the gray-eyed man. Ability aside, his physique was built for combat, unlike Max's.

"Encender, I want you to stay away from this. I have a bone to pick with this guy," Max said with a wiry smile as he glanced back at his sister. "As you know, fire and ice don't mix."

Encender always thought of Max as a strong and cool person who stood above all. Thanks to this belief, she had no doubt in her mind that he would take care of the pale-skinned man.

She smiled from ear to ear, as if she were venomous. "Show that bastard who's boss! How dare he destroy the balloon we spent almost all our savings on?"

'Thank god she is an idiot,' Max sighed inwardly as he created a pillar of flames to block Encender's view. He didn't want to expose her to something disturbing.

A pillar of fire appeared before Encender with spikes on the sides. The young girl looked at it and had no choice but to step back as the flames slowly advanced toward her.

She felt annoyed by this little prank and cut through the flames with her swords before asking in a flustered tone, "What the hell are you doing, Max?! Are you trying to do something cool and brag about it later?! Hey, answer me!!"

Many thoughts raced through Encender's mind, and she even reached a point of cursing Max, but her brother didn't care. He was sure she would shed tears for him.

Yes, he was ready to die.

"How foolish," Russ commented, as his sensory opia revealed what was on the mind of the man before him. "Just give up; there's no point in dragging this out any longer."

Max shrugged off the man's words; there was no need for a rabbit to heed the words of its predator.

Clenching his fist, two long arrows appeared, each nearly five meters long and a meter wide.

Swoosh–!

The arrows tore through the air as they charged directly at Russ, who indifferently watched them, perhaps because he couldn't see with his eyes.

Haa...

The Deputy General exhaled cold air from his mouth, and the fire arrows rushing at him transformed into ice. However, thanks to their initial speed, they continued propelling themselves toward the blind man.

With a single wave of his hand, Russ destroyed the ice arrows, creating a small boom with the back of his hand. Max didn't have time to be surprised as he launched flying discs at the muscular man.

The discs' edges were sharp, spinning horizontally with deadly precision, capable of slicing the Great Wall of China in half. However, Russ caught the flaming disc with his bare hands before it extinguished from his grip.

Max didn't stop; he kept firing attacks at Russ, but the result was always the same, no matter how tricky his projections were.

Amid all this, Russ continued walking slowly and was now just a foot away from his opponent. "Do you have any last words?"

Max felt bothered by those words, and cold sweat washed over him as if he had been walking in the rain.

He didn't want to die! He had other things to do! Mostly, he wanted to see his baby sister achieve her dream with him by her side.

Now, he was dying for the sake of his sister's dream.

He felt happy about that and couldn't help but smile, certain in his heart that Encender would become the Queen of this world of monsters.

He turned to look at the pillar of fire roaring into the sky a few feet away before turning back to Russ, maintaining his smile.

"Please don't kill my sister; I beg of you, mister."

"Sure thing," Russ agreed right away, as he had other plans for Encender, who seemed like the type to dispel the darkness that corroded her soul.

"I will leave Encender in your hands..."

Russ brought his right fingers together and thrust them toward Max's chest. He didn't have nails, but the rib cage shattered as if struck by a hammer, and the heart felt like it was passing through water.