"Enough!" Degol raised his hand and struck Marcus's chest—the first blow he had landed that night. "I will not lose to a bunch of little insects who think they have the right to something they don’t even know how to use properly. I am responsible for the expansion of new sectors in Kappz. My brother and I expanded the industrial sector. We are the ones who deserve it."

Marcus raised his gun at him again.

"Shut up."

The shot from Marcus sent Degol staggering before he got back up. His ISE carbine was already reaching the limit of its Cosmic Energy. The plan was to take down one of them before it ran out, but he hadn’t expected things to go this way.

When he saw Dante striking Meliah over and over without taking a single hit, Marcus couldn't help but think that even if he weren’t there, the old man would still have the situation under control. Fighting two people was far too easy for someone who had wiped out an entire Felroz zone.

As soon as Degol got up, his expression had changed. What was once rage now looked like amusement. His filthy, rotten grin dominated his face, making his yellowed teeth glaringly obvious.

"I thought I made it clear that all this shit is going to be ours. I came here in the middle of the damn night. Kappz will be ours. We’ll rebuild it from the ground up. We’ll build an entire city. So, you're going to hand over that damn battery, even if it has to be the hard way."

Marcus kept his arms up, the ISE aimed at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Your aim has improved, little shooter." Degol Jones let out a broken laugh. "But can you shoot all of our men in hiding?" He shouted, looking around, "Men—move in and take Clara Silver. We’ll take the battery and her, and that’ll put an end to any future problems."

Marcus’s jaw clenched, and he pulled the trigger on his carbine. Just as he was about to fire, he saw Meliah move toward his brother and punch him in the back of the head.

The figures moving in the darkness saw what happened and immediately froze. Degol hit the ground, clutching his neck and cursing.

"Shit, Meliah. What the hell are you doing?"

"Who gave you permission to order them forward?" Meliah kicked him in the ribs, sending him back down onto the cracked concrete of the street. "Since when do you think you can make my decisions for me?"

Degol stared at him, confused.

"This is our chance, brother. If we take Clara with us, no one will be able to do anything. We’ll have a hostage and the battery. It's perfect—"

Meliah kicked him in the face, leaving a mark.

"I’ll ask you again. Who gave you permission to do this? I’m the older one, you idiot. And even if I weren’t, you don’t get to give capture orders when it isn’t even necessary. We made a bet."

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"A bet?"

Dante sat back on the car, watching. Marcus hadn’t expected this reaction from either of them. He lowered his gun as Meliah Jones landed another punch on his brother’s face.

"You think I look like a fool?" Meliah shouted at him. "We came here for a mission, you got that part right, but don’t you dare say that bets aren’t valid. If we won, weren’t we going to take the battery? Then you shouldn’t even consider going beyond that. We are honorable, above all else, because we are human."

"Screw honor," Degol shouted back, standing up and pointing a finger in his brother’s face. "Ever since Dad died, you’ve been stuck in this bullshit about deals and negotiations. Nothing in this world is fair, not even a stupid bet. If we want the battery, we have to take it however we can."

"You’re wrong."

Degol Jones took two steps back, gesturing to himself.

"Am I? You’ve got to be joking." He pointed at the building, toward Clara. "What do you think they’re going to do with the energy? Light up the city? Brighten a street? We need it for Sharm, we need it for your—" he smacked a hand against Meliah’s chest, "people to be safe. And you talk about honor? What kind of honor did Dad leave us? Just fear and trauma from dark nights. You want to be honorable, brother? Then get me out of this hellish world and put me in one where I can sleep at night without waking up at every noise outside. You want my honor? Shove it up your ass."

Meliah didn’t respond. Marcus and Dante stood side by side, waiting for the outcome, but the two brothers just stared at each other in silence. Their eyes spoke between the sparks. Dante simply laughed at the situation.

"Why didn’t you finish off Meliah? I’ve seen you fight—you wouldn’t even need five seconds to take him down."

Dante shrugged.

"I’ve only killed one man in my life. The feeling isn’t pleasant. I was made to fight monsters, not people with mental issues." Dante scratched his face before continuing, "They weren’t going to take the battery anyway. If they sent people up there, Jix would have beaten the hell out of them."

Marcus still found Dante’s choice not to take out Meliah inappropriate, but he didn’t argue. During the gunfire, there had been three or four shots that could have put Degol Jones down for good.

A weapon is made to take lives, whether it's a sword, a spear, or an ISE carbine. Its creation has always been for that purpose. Choosing whether to take a life or spare it is the burden of the one who wields it.

"If they really wanted to cause problems, they wouldn’t have walked openly through the city." Dante waited for Meliah to land another punch on his brother. "They wanted to make a deal, even a small one, to gain access to the battery. I doubt they’d kill anyone here, or even hurt them."

"But they caused problems. They should be punished. They caused too much trouble."

Dante stood up.

"If you go to Luma and ask for a fruit tree, and she refuses, but you insist and say you’ll do anything, does she have the right to kill you?"

"The difference is huge in this case, old man."

"Yes, and your hypocrisy is just as big."

Marcus felt insulted by Dante’s words. Compared to what Meliah and Degol would have done, Marcus would never raise a gun at Luma.

"The battery is essential for the city to function," Marcus told him. "A… tree is not. They are resources of different value, with different weight."

"I protect the people who took me in for a reason. If that reason is the battery or a specific person, then I do it with my fists. If we went to the industrial area and took any material, they could call it a personal attack. Deciding what is essential or not depends on who holds it. In this case, something worthless wouldn’t make a difference. That’s the principle behind battles. If you want to kill one of them, you’ll have to bear the burden alone. I kill any creature that has no consciousness, but I won’t take the life of a man who isn’t asking to die."

"And if he crosses that line, Dante?" Marcus wanted to know how far he was willing to go. "What would you do if someone crossed the line you set for yourself?"

"Then taking a life is no longer a matter of value—it becomes a matter of wisdom."