Ajax decides he’s not interested in her monologue anymore, but he doesn’t interrupt her. He uses his senses to verify if she is who she seems to be. A terrorist. A suicide attacker. His instincts are still screaming at him, but he’s realized what the danger is about. His instincts are speaking to him about danger to the people around him.

It’s not some superpower he’s developed. It’s just his understanding of this situation here. It could be that this woman is trying to kill herself in some kind of self-immolation format where she only harms one person: herself. However, Ajax denies this possibility. If she were about to do that, then she would not be the egotistical person that he learned she was.

But, she’s accepted it. She’s accepted death. She’s about to die, right here, right now…

Everything she does reeked of self regard and narcissism, but right now, she was willing to die. Even speaking to him calmly, monologuing about her poor life, the life that drew her towards a life of terrorism and violence. He has no sympathy for her. Yet, her resolve truly frightens him. How is he going to deal with her?

Where is the bomb? Is it a bomb? Could it be a gas attack like sarin? A biological weapon? A magical weapon? Fuck, she doesn’t look like she’s wearing a vest. I can’t smell anything odd on her clothing or under it. Her skin smells slightly weird, but it’s not really that noticeable, just… unnatural. It’s not like she drenched herself in gasoline or something…

Before Karise can continue, Ajax stops her.

“Why are you doing this?” He asks her nervously. “Why? Why did you have to go this far? This crowd of people… aren’t they your kind? Aren’t they like you? Human supremacists? Why are you trying to… kill them?”

Ajax speaks quietly enough so his words will be drowned out, silent to the crowd around. Karise hears his words, and opens her mouth in surprise.

“You… You’re smarter than I thought you were. Well… for your trouble, I suppose I might as well give you the reason why I did this.” She smiles, the expression not reaching your eyes. “It was because of you.”

“...Me? What do you–”

“You just had to get involved, didn’t you?”

Ajax shuts his mouth.

“You just had to interfere with our plans. Well, it’s no business of yours what we have prepared. However, right now, your actions have resulted in me being given a certain… magical weapon.”

“...What is it going to do?”

“It’s a bomb! It’s something interesting, our benefactor is quite generous with this little tricky thing. All I had to do was drink it. Then, it slowly turns my entire body into a fire weapon capable of scorching the immediate surroundings. I can activate it by just exercising my mana, circulating it just a little bit within myself.”

She smiles wider and starts laughing.

“Go ahead and try removing me from the area. You’ll be amazed by what’ll happen…”

Ajax doesn’t understand. He hears the words that came out of her mouth, but he doesn’t know why she has said them. Is he really so trapped? Couldn’t he just… kill her? Absorb her body of all its heat? If he can get her body to a temperature near absolute zero, the chemical reaction of a bomb, a fire bomb or whatever would not even take place.

Though, it is a magical reaction. Would his power be able to stop a magical reaction? If he touches her and freezes her to death, this crowd here will be safe. But, then… there may be no way out if he’s unlucky.

This crowd is full of vile human supremacists. Realistically, why should I care… about their lives? Even if I fail, the result won’t be so… No, no… shouldn’t I be worried about the greater plans that her group or whatever is cooking up? What about their next step? Focus on them instead of… instead of…

Ajax tries to rationalize what he’s feeling in his head. If this woman is telling the truth, her body will combust and the hundred and fifty people, all human supremacists, in her vicinity will be set on fire. Could he really have that on his conscience? He’s not sure.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But, it’s not like they’ll die immediately either. They won’t be instantly vaporized.

They’ll scream as they burn to death. If anything… Ajax would not want to hear their screams. If he was capable of sleep, that would give him nightmares. Now that he isn’t able to have nightmares, he would hear their screams while he’s awake.

Wouldn’t it make him go insane? No, no, he cannot have that happen.

“Why… Why did you have to go so far?” Ajax asks. “You know you’re giving up your life, right? You’re so young.”

“...”

“Don’t you want to live your whole life? Don’t you want to see the chance of things getting better? Do you really want to… to die in this manner?” He starts to plead with her. Why would anyone want this? Why would anyone willingly do this? Isn’t she willing? He cannot comprehend her state of mind right now, except the knowledge that she has fully accepted her death.

“I did this for Osva. For my parents who died in poverty after beastkin were given rights they were never supposed to have. Is that what you want to hear? What is it you want?” She asks, her expression curious.

“Do you want me to regret it? Do you want me to convince you? Well, I can say that there is one reason I did it. Your expression right now…”

“What?” Ajax takes a step back. Karise walks closer towards him slowly, the smile on her face becoming more manic.

“You honestly should see your face! The helplessness… The horror… You don’t seem to understand the world you’re living in, boy!” Karise starts laughing. “I would love it if you marked my face into your memory! Who knows if this will even kill you, but you will see me in your nightmares. When you see the ash, you will think of me.”

Ajax shudders. For the first time, he wonders what this place is. Omicron.

“When you smell their flesh, will you think it smells like meat? When you see them running around, will you think of them as headless livestock? When you hear the screams… Oh, I’m so envious of you! You’re going to hear the screams!”

“Stop it…”

“I wish I could hear their screams too…”

“Stop. It.”

“I wish I could hear your screams too…”

“Stop it!”

Ajax grabs Karise by the neck with his right hand. He’s almost certain that he is capable of freezing her solid and preventing the bomb from going off. He’s certain this won’t end in death for the people around him. But, this woman… her revelry in this, what she hopes and knows in her heart will be a massacre.

He had always wondered if people like this existed in real life. Seeing them in person, he feels nothing but rage and sadness.

The people around the two of them heard his angry shout. However, they’re not sure what’s going on. To them, it just looks like a man choking a woman, rather than a man holding a bomb. Ajax doesn’t notice them. None of them leave the vicinity.

“I…” She tries to speak. She grabs at Ajax’s hand wrapped around her throat. His grip is strangling her. But then, she stops, almost as if realizing the futility of grabbing her throat when she’s about to give her life for her cause. She stares into Ajax’s face and smiles.

“I will join you, Osva, in the true heav–”

Ajax can feel it under her skin. The start of something incredible. A reaction that he has never felt before. She was not lying. She is a bomb. Her skin starts to turn red. However, Ajax is faster. He uses his power to its maximum. The energy she is trying to release flows into him. It’s dense, it flows into his soul like sweet honey.

Such dense energy.

He watches her eyes still looking at him as within three milliseconds, her body temperature has changed from slightly higher than normal to the temperature of the void of space.

This is the first time he has killed someone. He didn’t want to do this.

He keeps absorbing energy from her frozen body, desperately trying to prevent the reaction from continuing. He feels that there is an end to it.

As the energy in her body dries up, he squeezes the hand holding her neck. Her neck shatters, separating her head from her body. Her body falls to the ground and shatters. Her head falls, hardly damaged. He looks down and sees her smile. She’s still smiling.

He looks around. He realizes that everyone is looking at him in absolute horror. They are all silent. So silent that he hears someone’s voice, whispering. He tunes out all other ambient noises as he tries to isolate that noise.

“...Osva, in the true heaven.”

He turns to see another person, someone he hasn’t seen before. The man’s skin is red and already steaming. Ajax’s eyes narrow as his perception slows down to the fastest it has ever been.

He immediately sprints towards the man. The man’s clothes begin burning away revealing his bare skin. Ajax sees the man’s body catch fire when he is about a step away from him. He sees the man’s body liquify when he almost reaches his neck.

She was never going to allow me to interfere. She always had a failsafe…

The liquid remnants of the man expand outwards, like napalm. It sprays across the nearby crowd; they start screaming as the liquid remnants catch fire.

At Maz square, the protesters, the marchers and the guards hear screaming, and see a cloud of smoke rising towards the reddish orange sunset sky.