While Braverte is fighting the mob, her parent’s killer has found a chance to grab Pulmo and hold her hostage. The killer checks and waits for the perfect moment when the mob surrounds Braverte and obscures his view so that the killer can run and hold Pulmo hostage. Braverte is covered in blood and decapitating his assailants left and right. The mob is now trying to overwhelm Braverte with numbers and closes in on him.
The killer thinks to himself that now is the perfect time. He runs at full speed towards Pulmo, who through all the mayhem can see that one man is moving differently from the rest. The man is running towards her, and as he closes in Pulmo recognizes the killer. She wants to scream but fear grips her throat and not a sound is produced. The killer is now only meters away from Pulmo, and stretches his arm out to grab her as soon as Pulmo comes into range.
Pulmo can see the hand of her parent’s killer closing in. Still unable to scream she closes her eyes in the hopes that she will be safe in the dark. The killer thinks to himself that this will prevent Braverte from fighting.
The killer’s stretched-out arm is sent flying through the sky. The killer screams in agony as he falls to his knees. He looks ahead to see what took his arm and there stands a stone sword-wielding clone of Braverte that spawned from the ground. He set this trap to protect Pulmo and he did it this way so that other possible assailants would think there might be more traps and get discouraged before even trying.
The killer rips off part of his jacket and ties his arm up to stop the bleeding. Pulmo opens her eyes and sees a stone clone in front of her with a bloody sword. She sees the killer on the ground in pain with his arm cut off. She quickly puts 2 and 2 together to realize that Braverte protected her even in this situation.
The killer in rage knows that he fell for the trap Braverte set and looks back to curse Braverte. But what he sees stops him. Braverte is standing in the middle of a sea of corpses and decapitated heads. His figure was darkened by the blood of his victims. Braverte is standing there with his head down as blood trickles down his face. There are still a few stragglers left of the mob who didn’t engage with Braverte. Their fear saved their life. Braverte straightens his posture and from the side looks at the killer whose arm is missing. The killer felt a chill run down his spine as if the grim reaper himself gazed at him.
Braverte then scans his surroundings once more to see the remaining few who have completely lost the will to fight. Braverte knows that the fight is over and doesn’t see a need to prolong it anymore he looks at the stragglers.
“Kneel.”
The stragglers know that obeying the order is the only way for them to survive. So they all raise their hands as a sign of surrender and kneel. The killer knows that his chances of survival are slim already but if he loses his backup it will be zero.
“What the hell are you guys doing!? He’s exhausted, this is our chance. GET UP!”
Braverte looks at all of them kneeling.
“Heads down.”
The stragglers all put their heads down. Braverte waits till all of their heads are down. The killer is still trying to get them to fight back.
“GET UP! We can take him, he is finished.”
Braverte raises his right leg and stomps on the ground. At that exact moment, a blade emerges right under the stragglers’ necks and decapitates all of them. Their heads roll on the ground as the killer is sent into despair and his last glimmer of hope disappears.
Braverte breathes out as if that was the last of the mob. He now looks at the killer who has fallen backwards and is on his ass looking at Braverte walking towards him. Braverte with each step releases small waves of Higher Reasoning. When he is five meters from the killer Braverte stomps the ground again. When he hits the ground, multiple pillars jump up from the ground with so much force that whatever is on top of them is sent flying upwards.
Braverte smiles as he looks at the pathetic-looking killer.
“For you.”
The killer is confused about what’s happening and so is Pulmo. But then the first one lands. A decapitated head lands right next to the killer. Followed by many more. It’s raining heads. The killer tries to protect himself with his one arm, as the heads fall down like horrific hail.
When the barrage of raining heads stops the killer is covered and surrounded by heads. Braverte has now lost his smile as he stares at the killer.
“How did you arrange all of this? You don’t have the resources.”
“He helped me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, he called himself ShaSha.”
“Where can I find him?”
“I never met him, we only talked on the phone. I don’t know what he looks like.”
“Why target me?”
“He said you messed with his business. He promised me freedom if I did this, I just followed orders.”
“That is an excuse?”
“I’m just a pawn, there’s no need to kill me, I can help you get ShaSha.”
Braverte looks at the killer with a contemplated look. The killer sees this as an opportunity to save himself. And decides to embellish his importance a bit more.
“ShaSha has a whole network all over this universe. I’ve seen it for myself.”
Braverte with one quick smooth motion of his sword cuts off the killer’s hand. The killer screams in pain and falls to the ground. Braverte stomps on the ground and the killer is entangled in chains that spring forth from the ground. Braverte walks past the killer to the young Pulmo and squats in front of her.
“Do you want to take revenge? Do you want him to live and face justice? Or do you just want to walk away and leave him be?”
Pulmo looks Braverte in the eyes. She thinks it through to find what she in her young heart really wants. And with a soft voice, she utters her wish. Braverte stands back up and gives her one of his flyssa swords. Pulmo takes the sword into her hands and stands up. She walks towards the killer who is still screaming in pain. But when he sees Pulmo stand next to him with a sword in her hands he realizes what is going on.
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! Don’t do this. I can help you. I’m sorry. I was just following orders. I didn’t mean it. I’m really sorry. Forgive me.”
Pulmo looks the killer in his eyes and she can tell that he isn’t sorry. He is just scared and will say anything to save himself. Pulmo raises the sword with the blade facing down. The killer is now completely overcome with fear and pleads for his life.
“NO, NO, PLEASE!”
Chapter 58 fin
