Chapter 894: Brothers [1]

"...Where did they go?"

Emmet kept staring ahead. Noel waited for an answer, looking down only when his brother’s hand closed around his own.

His fingers were cold, and they trembled despite how tightly they held him.

"A nice... place."

"Will they be back? When will I see them again?"

"...I don’t know."

Noel nodded and pressed against his brother’s side, wrapping his other hand around the one holding him.

"I miss them."

"...Me too."

He still had questions, but he waited quietly, holding Emmet’s hand until it stopped shaking.

Two photos greeted them ahead.

His father and mother.

Swoosh⎯

The sand rose, twisting in the air as a steady silence settled over the surroundings.

But the silence didn’t last long.

Rumble! Rumble!

From the distance, the city’s low, steady rumble made its way to them, shattering the silence that had enveloped the two brothers.

Noel’s lips pulled into a smile.

"Haha."

He even chuckled, his voice sounding normal as he stared towards the night sky above.

It had been a while since he had last looked up.

"You’ve known all along..."

His smile grew as he shook his head.

"But of course, why wouldn’t you know? My brother... my mighty brother knows everything."

He was strong.

Warm.

And wise.

Even in the hardest of moments.

He had always been like that.

Even in that past.

"I was too young to understand, but now I do. All the sacrifices that you’ve made for me. I understand them all... That’s why I have to do this."

RUMBLE!

The rumble grew louder, causing the sand beneath them to shift slightly.

Noel felt a faint pull through the connection.

Sand closed around Leon’s legs. He tore one foot free, leaving skin behind as he brought his sword up against Tharvek’s palm. The gray cracked beneath the edge of the blade, but the next blow still drove him backwards.

Noel’s chuckle grew stronger.

"...I knew that you’d be scared."

His words came out softer than he intended.

"Coming into an unfamiliar world with no memories... Anyone would be scared. I’ve always known that, which is why I wanted you to at least have someone there when I couldn’t be."

Julien’s lips parted, but no words came out.

They trembled as he struggled to speak, and Noel waited for a moment before continuing.

"But I think I may have underestimated him a little. I’ve always thought he’d follow your orders like I had programmed him to do, but here he is... doing things that you explicitly told him not to do."

Noel let out another chuckle.

"...That’s something I’d never have expected from him."

It didn’t look like it, but Noel had raised Leon for over a decade.

He thought he’d known all there was to Leon, but it seemed like he didn’t.

Or maybe he did.

"Maybe he’s changed because of you."

Julien shook his head.

Noel’s smile weakened slightly as he looked at Julien.

"Come now, this is what I wanted. I’ve always planned for this to happen. You shouldn’t be so sad. You..."

All of a sudden, Noel’s voice weakened as Julien slowly turned his head to meet his gaze.

He had been about to tell him that he’d be fine.

"⎯I’ve lived a long time."

Something about Julien’s current expression stopped Noel from saying anything else as he leaned his head back to stare at the sky once more.

He found it hard to meet his brother’s gaze.

"I’ve lost count of how long I’ve lived. Thousands of years? Maybe more...? Or maybe less? I’ve lost track of it all."

And that was the problem.

In all those years without his brother, there was hardly anything worth remembering.

"It gets tiring after a certain point."

Living.

Right, it was tiring.

Noel’s eyes closed.

In that moment, he took in the surrounding noise. The gentle stir of the sand, the soft rumbling from the distance, and the low yet fast sound of his brother’s heartbeat. He listened to those sounds as the cool wind brushed against his face.

He had listened to that same heartbeat with his cheek pressed against his brother’s large back, his arms barely reaching around his brother’s neck.

It was a long time ago.

But he could remember it as if it were yesterday.

After all, there wasn’t much about his life that was worth remembering.

"...I can walk now."

"I thought your feet hurt."

"You’re tired."

Emmet moved him higher before he could loosen his grip.

"Hold on properly. You’ll fall."

Noel tightened his arms again. His brother’s breathing remained heavy, but he kept walking, adjusting his grip whenever Noel started to slip.

"...Just until my feet stop hurting."

"Okay."

Noel had meant to tell him when to stop. Instead, his eyes had grown heavier with each step, his cheek settling against the back of his brother’s shoulder.

"Close your eyes. I’ll wake you when we’re there."

Noel’s head moved against Julien, and a hand moved behind it to support him.

The footsteps were gone. The heartbeat remained.

"From the start, I wanted this to happen."

Noel didn’t even realize his voice had grown weaker, almost to the point where it sounded like a faint whisper.

"...I’ve spent the last decade making sure that he’d be ready to take over. For him to..."

Noel’s voice softened even further, the sound of the wind louder than his voice.

Despite this, Julien still heard it.

His words.

"⎯To take... my place."

Julien’s head lowered further as his back trembled. Even until now, he had yet to say a single word. It was as if his voice had been ripped away from him.

The hand supporting Noel drew him a little closer.

Noel’s lips parted at the movement, but for a moment, he could only look at his brother’s lowered head.

Despite this, Julien didn’t say anything else.

He just remained silent as Noel’s senses continued to pick up the noise from the distant arena.

Though he couldn’t see, he could feel it.

Leon’s desperation as he fought.

The more Leon awakened the power, the more Noel could feel it.

Leon’s fingers tightened around the hilt as the broken bones pulled back into place. He turned Tharvek’s next blow aside and drove the sword towards his throat, forcing him back a step.

Noel let his hand settle against the sand.

"I... do feel sorry."

To Leon.

In the end, he was nothing but a byproduct of his own selfishness.

He had taken him from his parents when he was very young, brainwashing him into becoming loyal to Julien ever since. At the same time, he had slowly injected more and more of his own blood into him, gradually assimilating his power into his body.

He had spent so long preparing the boy for this moment that it had become easy to forget he had never given him a choice.

Noel couldn’t die.

That much was true.

But there was an exception. And that exception was if he transferred his powers to someone else.

A little more of that power slipped away.

Tharvek’s heel carved a line through the sand as he caught Leon’s blade. A dark vein climbed towards his eye. Leon stepped closer before he could force the sword aside, pushing him back again.

Noel drew a breath to continue.

But right as he did⎯

"He... Cough! Cough...!"

Noel’s eyes abruptly opened as he turned to the side and started vomiting blood.

Julien’s eyes widened at the sight, but before he could act, Noel stopped him, raising his hand to shake his head as he smiled.

"Let me..."

Julien’s lips parted, but Noel cut him off.

"...I want to die as a human."

This pain...

Let me feel it.

He had endured so much pain that he had grown numb to it.

But this type of pain felt strangely comforting.

He could feel the darkness start to embrace him from all directions, but he didn’t feel scared by it. Rather, he welcomed it.

For the first time in a very long time, he felt that he could rest again.

He had lived like a tool for too long.

So much so that he had lost his humanity over it. Just like the others.

The things he did...

All the wrong things he did...

He no longer felt anything.

That was why this moment felt so precious to him.

Julien’s sleeve brushed against the corner of his mouth, carefully wiping away the blood. His hand shook enough that Noel could feel it against his cheek.

His big brother had stained his sleeve like that once, kneeling in front of him with Noel’s scraped hand resting on his knee.

"Hold still."

"...It hurts."

His brother immediately stopped, lifting the damp fabric away from his palm.

"Here?"

Noel nodded.

Emmet bent over the scrape and blew gently across it until Noel’s fingers started to uncurl.

"Better?"

"...A little."

Noel caught his brother’s other sleeve with his uninjured hand. Emmet let him hold it, waiting until he stopped flinching before carefully touching the scrape again.

Noel’s fingers moved against Julien’s sleeve.

He tried to catch it in the same way, but his hand barely closed around the fabric.

"Cough! Cough...!"

Blood continued to leak from his lips as he turned to the side, his face growing paler as he weakened further and further. At the same time, he could feel his power transferring over to Leon as the blood within him began to activate.

Julien wiped his mouth again.

Noel watched him do it, his gaze lingering on the blood soaking through the sleeve.

He wanted to tell him that it didn’t hurt so much anymore.

Instead, he found himself holding the fabric a little tighter.

Another pulse of power passed from him.

Leon pushed through the rising sand, his torn shoulder closing as he swung again. Tharvek gave ground, but one of the stars in Leon’s eyes suddenly flickered. His next step faltered, and his free hand pressed against his chest.

Noel looked at Julien, the pain traveling through every corner of his body.

All except one part.

"My... heart."

He tried to force the words out.

"...Make sure... you find it and give it to Leo⎯Cough!"

Even more blood leaked from Noel’s lips as he grasped the sand, feeling its coarse texture. He could hardly control his body anymore.

"⎯He needs the... heart."

Despite his best attempts at trying to transfer everything to Leon, there was one crucial part that was missing.

His heart.

...For as long as Leon didn’t have his heart, he wouldn’t be able to fully control his powers.

And even worse⎯

He’d die without it.

"F-find it. G-give it to him."

Yet again, Noel felt sorry for this.

He had forced all of this on Leon.

Even now, he was being forced to contain this newfound power that would slowly eat away at his life if he didn’t find the heart.

"Ivanth. He... has it."

Noel spoke in between breaths as he coughed up even more blood. He had now lost connection to the fight in the arena, but he no longer needed to see.

In fact, he could no longer see at all.

The only thing that greeted him was an empty yet strangely comforting darkness.

His fingers shifted against Julien’s sleeve, trying to find the hand that had been wiping his face.

He didn’t have to search for long.

Warm fingers closed around his own, holding them as carefully as Emmet had held his scraped palm.

His lips pulled into a smile.

Slowly, he turned his head to look up. He couldn’t see anything, but he could feel the moon basking its glow on him.

And before he realized it, the warmth in his hand was gone.

Julien had left him.

He was no longer next to him.