Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Brothers and Companions
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“Companion?”
I look up at the boy from beneath his feet and say. Due to a broken vocal component, static noise creeps into my voice.
This is clearly an opportunity given to me as well. If I deceive the boy a little more here, I could fire the cannon at the moon and then immediately overheat Ember to blow the planet away too.
“...”
I gaze at the boy through the powerless blue light and lenses. His appearance, viewed through degraded components, is blurry with scattered light and utterly pitiful.
Is Joo-ho crying?
Or...
Has moisture fogged my lenses?
“Brother!”
Even at the moment of the brothers' reunion, someone was crying. In a nest of birds perched midway up a high, rugged mountain, the two young men met again.
“No... Brother, your wounds...”
At a glance, the older brother was in critical condition. But he had resisted three winged women to the end, actually tearing off one of their wings and leaving scars on the other two that wouldn't fade easily.
Of course, because of that fierce resistance, the three women had no choice but to resort to rather cruel hunting methods.
They darted around swiftly, stabbing their talons into his body and fleeing repeatedly, letting blood drain out through the punctured holes.
Eventually, he would lose too much blood and collapse. No matter how strongly he resisted, he couldn't seal the wounds that had already been made.
“Let my brother go! He's hurt too badly... Please, just spare him!”
The younger brother cried out, clutching his blood-soaked brother.
But the women paid him no mind. Grim-faced matrons gathered in a circle around the brothers, exchanging stories among themselves.
How difficult this hunt had been, why they couldn't bring back the ferocious male unharmed,
how they would treat those massive wounds from now on,
how they would use the two males,
who would take seed first, and how they would rotate mating...
“At least treat him! Some medicine or...!”
Even then, the younger brother tore his own clothes to plug the holes in his brother's body, devoting all his strength to stopping the bleeding. But soon, he realized there was no need for him to intervene.
Of course there wasn't.
Males were precious.
The more, the better.
“Let's start with treatment. Letting him die like this would be a loss.”
“That bastard broke our wings! He bared his claws at us! We need to discipline him so he never climbs up here again. That's the priority.”
“If you leave him like that, he'll die. Treat him first.”
The younger brother fell silent and watched the women's treatment quietly. There was no place for him to interfere.
The women were just as serious about saving the male as he was. They were angry at the unexpected counterattack, but they all desperately worked to keep the brother alive.
“As long as he survives, it's not too late for anything. I'll give priority to you three who hunted him down.”
This desperate nursing was precisely the malice the younger brother should fear. Especially watching the three women struggle fiercely to save his brother, he was gradually realizing the dire situation they were in.
“Once the bleeding stops, let's hold a festival. Tonight will be a very long night.”
“Companion, my ass. I haven't lost yet. I'm the only one who can handle the Embers. You have no choice.”
I say without pretense. There's no reason to drag out this pathetic, drawn-out psychological warfare any longer. My story ends here.
“I'm going to kill the moon and turn everything on this planet to ash. Load me into the cannon. Let's kill the moon first. Then I'll end you and everything else.”
Despite my uncooperative stance, Joo-ho slings me at his waist and heads for the cannon. Even the one remaining arm clings limply, having lost all power.
The only part of my body still functioning normally is my head. But even that seems unlikely to perform properly now.
Of course, even losing 80% of my body poses no problem for operating my brain. Yet for some reason, my mind isn't working right at the moment.
It's not a functional issue.
Absolutely not.
“What do I do now?”
“...Bring the Ember crystals and fit them into the clamp-like structure at the lower left. Don't touch them with bare hands—it's dangerous. I made a reverse field generator so you can move Ember from a distance. Use that.”
We move the Ember together, harboring unresolved grudges. I'm just a dangling burden, but I don't mind particularly.
Joo-ho handles me with careful consideration so I don't swing too much. For a machine left with just one arm, shoulder, neck, and head, it's an extravagantly kind gesture.
Anyone seeing this would think I'd been wandering around like this for months. Ridiculous.
“I call this the injector. After putting it in, you need to give the Ember time to overheat. Waiting is necessary. It's about letting the right amount of power build up in this extremely unstable substance.”
But there's something curious. My mind feels strangely at ease.
Right now, I'm not deceiving Joo-ho to steal the Ember,
nor begging for my life now only to betray him far in the future.
Yet my heart is calm. In fact, as death draws closest, I feel detached from everything.
“Ember is a dangerous substance. Beautiful in one way, though. For men like us, it's a miraculous gift that lets us stand against the native women, but also a bomb that could explode at any moment.”
With a calm I've not felt in ages, I explain Ember to Joo-ho. It's a brief, rushed lecture, but he listens intently and absorbs my knowledge.
“This massive cannon, which handles Ember most violently, stimulates it excessively to make it detonate. The long upper part directs the resulting energy straight to the moon. I've already calculated the angle. Simple computation. The biggest issues are the moon's orbit and the projectile's speed.”
“Will you teach me the formula too?”
“Even if I did, could you use it?”
My mind finds the boy admirable,
but the words spilling from my mouth roughly dismiss and mock him. I still have so much to teach. If only I had a little more time.
“...Hurry and insert it. Let's see this through.”
Joo-ho pushes the Ember crystals into the cannon. They begin stacking at the center, vibrating with iridescent light.
Inside the cannon, they bind to each other, becoming even more unstable. The cannon prevents their explosion, holding that immense energy until the right moment.
“Now the final step. Pull the red handle right in front of you. Pull until you can't anymore. It won't break.”
It really feels like the end.
I've told him how to activate the cannon,
now it's Joo-ho's decision.
“...”
Before activating it, he takes a breath and steps outside the space. It's the last moment for contemplation as we walk the temple corridors together.
“Will the moon really die to the Ember cannon?”
“If my calculations are correct. If the moon isn't a tougher monster than my analysis.”
The boy's contemplative face hardens into that of a resolute man. It's a heavy emotion unfit for his young, refined features. He should have been sharing innocent love with ordinary maidens on his planet.
“Even if it doesn't die to this cannon, I'll kill it somehow. Don't worry.”
Joo-ho has no intention of abandoning the task he's shouldered. Only a thorny path lies ahead, but he'll press on, bleeding from his soles.
“A final farewell, then.”
“Something like that. You won't back down in the end, right? Neither will I. So there's only one conclusion.”
I doubt Joo-ho will let me live.
He's kind, but not weak.
If he must kill, he'll do it gladly.
But afterward, he'll agonize over it, blaming himself for everything, weeping quietly where no one sees.
“Where are you going?”
But it's strange.
Joo-ho doesn't draw his dagger to pierce my skull or aim the door cutter at me.
“...”
He moves silently in a certain direction,
and despite myself, an untimely worry grips me.
“I asked where you're going, boy. What are you planning?”
We arrive in the cluttered space filled with my inventions.
Among them,
Joo-ho stands tall before the escape rocket tailored exactly to his size.