#121. A Flower Blooming in the Mud (10)
—
Having defeated all enemies on the rooftop, Ray immediately took his next action.
He closed his eyes.
*Wuuuuung───!*
A sensory synchronization with his familiars.
Countless sights flashed before his mind.
Unlike last time, these weren’t the perspectives of the rats.
[*Nyaaahhh───!*]
[*Miyaaaaooong──!*]
This time, it was the vision of the cats that had been waiting in hiding outside the abandoned building.
Nero and his subordinates.
Among them was a plump brown-furred cat with a scar over one eye.
Like lightning, the cats stormed into the abandoned building, sweeping through every corner.
*Squeak! Squeeeak!*
They bit down and slaughtered every rat in hiding.
The battle inside was still raging, but thanks to Ray’s precise control, none of his familiars were injured.
“……”
Ray opened his eyes after completing his task.
Now, the enemy officer would no longer be able to spy on their situation.
*Rustle.*
He pulled out Walter’s ring to confirm the enemy officer’s location.
The arrow drawn by the binding magic still pointed steadily toward the center of the sector.
…Not even the slightest movement.
‘It doesn’t seem like he plans on moving. Maybe he’s waiting for me to come to him..’
Considering the arrogance the enemy had shown, it wasn’t an unlikely assumption.
Ray started walking.
As much as he desperately wanted to rest, there were people whose safety he needed to check first.
*Clatter──*
He opened the door to the management office building.
Inside, Veronica was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed.
Beside her, Philip, looking completely drained, spoke.
“She used too much magic and passed out from exhaustion.”
As Philip said, Veronica’s shoulders were rising and falling steadily in sleep.
“…The plan… was it a success?”
Philip hadn’t yet been able to check the outside situation.
The silence and the fact that Ray had opened the door suggested that they had succeeded.
But the operation had been so massive that he couldn’t be entirely sure.
“It was a success.”
“Oh, whew.”
All the tension drained from Philip’s body as he slumped down beside Veronica.
“Get some rest. I’ll finish up the situation.”
“You sure? You look pretty exhausted yourself…”
“I’m fine.”
Both his body and mind were utterly fatigued.
But he would only rest once everything was over.
*Clatter──*
Ray closed the door again and looked around.
The two Pro faction members who had been guarding the rooftop entrance were gone—perhaps they had gone downstairs to provide support.
‘Did they go to assist the lower floors?’
He had the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something important.
But with the heaviness in his head, he couldn’t recall what it was right away.
*Whish.*
His gaze shifted again.
Lightning and electric magic.
Two men, momentarily frozen in shock from the earlier burst, had resumed their brutal fight.
“Grrrk…! Cough! Niles… that idiot…!”
“Shut up! You bastard who doesn’t even know basic human decency…!”
Colin had Brook pinned against the railing.
His hand, veins bulging, was mercilessly squeezing Brook’s throat.
“Guh! Niles… that sucker… guh!”
Even with his entire upper body hanging dangerously over the railing, Brook didn’t stop mocking his opponent.
“Heh… guhh! ‘Making a safe distance for Nisoha’…! Guh…! Bullshit…! That kind of… idiotic conviction…! Guh! He just wanted to keep all the money… to himself…! Guh…!”
*An idiotic conviction.*
*Tap.*
Ray, who had been approaching, stopped in his tracks.
“……”
His mind, which had returned to an empty state after the battle, was now boiling with red-hot rage.
A fury of the highest order.
It was strange.
He hadn’t been trying to focus his emotions on purpose—yet here he was.
…Was this a natural emotion?
Thinking back, he had also felt an overwhelming rage when facing the golem.
‘I didn’t try to stir up my emotions then either.’
Was this the same now?
He wasn’t entirely sure, but one thing was clear.
Right now, his mind was filled with the singular thought of erasing this man from existence.
*Whirl─!* *Clack!*
Brook’s gun, which had been lying in the corner of the rooftop, soared through the air and landed perfectly in Ray’s hand.
*Click!*
He loaded the weapon and stepped forward.
From a distance, he could see the massive hesitation filling Colin’s vessel.
‘You said you were friends since childhood.’
Even though Colin was cursing him out repeatedly, he still couldn’t bring himself to finish Brook off.
Neither strangling him harder to snap his neck—
Nor pushing him over the edge to fall to his death.
*Tap──*
*Tap──*
As he walked, Ray thought.
‘A friendship is when people help each other without expecting anything in return.’
Brook had done nothing but betray Colin, trying to take both his life and the entire Nisoha organization.
That wasn’t friendship.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t call it that.
‘You’re not friends anymore.’
Whatever their past may have been, the present was different.
That’s why Ray couldn’t understand Colin’s hesitation.
“If it’s too much for you, I can—”
He stopped mid-sentence.
He had noticed something.
Colin’s vessel.
The emotions hidden behind his hesitation.
A warm, reddish glow intertwined with a dark, shadowy hue.
*Affection and hatred.*
Two opposing emotions were tangled together in a single mass.
The day after arriving at Sector 46—
When they had gone out with the 1st squad to steal supplies—
Ray had seen something similar before.
But back then, the emotions had kept a certain distance, repelling each other like magnets.
‘They appeared at the same time in the vessel, but they pushed each other away.’
What was different now?
Why were they swirling together like this?
Strictly speaking, their colors weren’t mixing.
Instead, they were interwoven, spiraling like milk stirring into coffee.
Even as they intertwined, the boundary between them never collapsed.
From afar, they might appear as one, but up close, their distinct nature was clear.
…It was bizarre.
‘Could opposing elemental forces be combined in a similar way…?’
Ray shook himself from his thoughts, realizing he had more urgent matters to handle.
He examined the other parts of Colin’s vessel.
Beside the storm of affection and hatred, there was an immense amount of rage.
‘Even compared to my own fury, the volume isn’t lacking.’
In terms of intensity, Colin’s was even stronger.
Colin, too, was feeling an overwhelming, uncontrollable anger toward Brook.
…Which made sense.
After all, Colin had spent more of his life with Niles.
To Colin, Niles had been family. A brother. Perhaps even a father.
“……”
Ray realized that someone else was more suited to vent this anger.
So he decided to wait.
*Shaaah──*
The fight continued.
Even without Ray reinforcing him with magic, Colin had the upper hand in strength.
And then—
The storm of emotions in Colin’s vessel began to reverse its rotation.
*Wuuuuuung──!*
As the two emotions slowly started to separate—
“C-Colin, p-please… listen to me. J-Just hear me out.”
Brook seemed to have regained his senses.
His eyes regained focus.
His speech returned to normal.
More precisely—he was afraid.
A terror so profound that it overwhelmed all the other emotions in his vessel—rage, inferiority, greed.
Fear. Terror.
A primal emotion all living beings feel before death.
Brook was now dangling off the edge, barely holding onto Colin’s arm.
“Y-You know I didn’t kill him, right? Th-There’s been some mistake. I-I can explain everything. Please, please! We’re friends, right? Right?”
*Friends.*
At those words, the vortex of love and hatred, which had been separating into two emotions while rotating in reverse, began to slow down little by little.
Noticing Colin’s hesitation, Brook pleaded even more desperately.
“Th-Think about it! W-We used to be s-so close! M-Me, Niles, and you! Th-The three of us together!”
Colin remained silent.
Even as Brook’s weight on his wrist gradually tilted his upper body further over the railing.
Instead, at some point, Colin was no longer looking at Brook’s face but was staring at a particular spot on the railing.
“Brook.”
The moment he spoke—
The vortex of love and hatred, which had been slowing down, suddenly regained speed and began to spin once more.
“Did you know? That my brother was still alive.”
“Wh-What are you…? Th-That’s impossible. I-I definitely k-killed him….”
The vortex’s rotation was not as fierce or violent as the anger its owner harbored.
But it never stopped for even a moment.
“A boy from Sector 50 told me. That my brother was alive.”
Love and hatred, separating at a steady pace.
“And he told me my brother said this about you, the one who pushed him off the bridge.”
At last, the emotions became fully independent of each other.
Mimicking the tone of the person he remembered, the man spoke:
‘As I was drifting down the river, I felt sorry. I thought, I should have taken better care of him. He wasn’t someone who would’ve gone astray like that.’
Brook’s pupils trembled violently.
Shhkk!
The knife Colin drew slashed across the back of Brook’s hand.
At that moment, it was unclear exactly why Brook let go of Colin’s arm.
Was it the physical pain?
Or the mental shock?
But with a vacant expression, he gradually shrank into the darkness—
Thud!
—And crashed.
Brook did not move, and the sound of rain filled the surroundings as if nothing had happened.
As Colin blankly stared downward, he turned his head and spotted Ray.
“Ah.”
A faint groan escaped him.
Seeing the gun in Ray’s hand, he quickly grasped the situation.
With a respectful nod, he bowed his head.
“Thank you. For allowing me to tie up this loose end with my own hands.”
“It seemed like the better choice.”
“If I hadn’t finished it myself, I think I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.”
After asking about the boy’s condition, Colin glanced around the rooftop.
Now that the situation had settled somewhat and his emotions had calmed, he had the presence of mind to take in his surroundings.
‘Did Ray really wipe out the Murcred members…?’
As the tangled emotions surrounding Brook unraveled, the void inside Colin emptied.
And in its place, a surging, electrifying emotion filled him once more.
“If you can still move, it would be best to head down and provide support. The war isn’t over yet.”
Ray was right.
The battle on the rooftop had ended.
But below the rooftop, the battle was still raging.
They had pushed a radio toward Colin and Brook while they were grappling.
But due to the slight distance and surrounding noise, it was unclear if Brook’s confession had been transmitted properly.
Colin nodded.
“Yes. Let’s head down immediately. Given that the squad leaders haven’t radioed in, the situation must be dire.”
As if to confirm this, a dull noise echoed from below.
Just as the man and the boy turned away from the railing—
“…….”
The boy hesitated.
He stood frozen in place, watching the man walk toward the exit.
A pull—an undeniable, irresistible pull from behind.
Once again, he turned toward the railing.
And at that moment, below—
Waaaaaaaah───!
A massive roar surged outward from the entrance of the abandoned building.
…….
And he finally recalled what he had forgotten.
A murky darkness had settled, and the rain had turned the ground into a muddy swamp.
But there—amidst it all—starlight was beginning to spread.
