1

At last, Leonard arrived at his destination, steering the boat on his own. He and his wind skills. He had to stop many times along the way, yes, but what ship could fail to stop on such a long voyage, even a fully manned one?

If anything he had gone faster because he hadn't had to wait for others. Just paying attention to his own needs.

And here it was.

Elesbury, the town in the middle of nowhere that Jonathan had plunged into darkness. He was to be the only inhabitant, now.

He and the monsters he had brought with him. Surely he hadn't seen them all, had other aces up his sleeve. Which Leonard didn't care about. Even the worst rumors. About that he could make people rise from the dead, like him. Only badly. Simple tools under his will.

It wasn't like he'd come to this place expecting to survive, anyway.

If he valued his life that much, he'd be a long way from here.

Leonard walked down to the harbor and into the dead city of Elesbury, where shadows reigned.

He walked fast, without a care in the world. He was already screwed anyway. He thought it would take a long time to find him, even considered the possibility that he was no longer in Elesbury.

But he came upon him as he turned a corner, out of the blue.

He was there, in the middle of the square, standing like a shadow. His eyes, sunken and dark, his hair dirty and sticking to his forehead. He looked completely different from the man he'd known for so many years.

It almost made him overlook that he wasn't alone, consuming his attention.

The shadows were littered with the dead.

"Jonathan?"

There was no response. Not the slightest reaction, as if the words hadn't reached his ears. Leonard took a step forward, suppressing the shiver that was about to run down his back.

"Jonathan? Can you hear me?"

He jerked to a halt. For he had finally lifted his head, reacted.

Leonard had never seen him in such a pitiful state. Not even right after finding out what had happened to his family had he been this bad. Defeated, depressed. But not like this.

"What are you doing here?" Jonathan asked.

Leonard swallowed hard.

"I'm here to make peace with myself. But not with you. I'm not selfish enough to ask you to try and it's impossible, anyway. Do what you want with me."

He held out his arms to his sides.

Inviting him to do just that.

He stood still as Jonathan began to stagger toward him. He couldn't walk straight. Despite his almost ghostly appearance, with sunken eyes, hair, his skin wasn't pale. Quite the contrary. Very red. Was he drunk?

The dead moved with him.

But as if they were tied to him with invisible ropes and were being dragged along. An involuntary movement, in other words.

Jonathan reached for his sword. As expected.

"Looking back, I'm hardly able to understand how things ended up like this," said Leonard, slowly and after a while. Without taking his eyes off his brother. His brother. He should have been true to what mattered. But it was too late now, for everything. "I really don't understand, but I won't deny that I made my own decisions. And it's only my fault. I'm sorry, brother. I hope we see each other again in the afterlife."

Jonathan suddenly smiled.

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It was like seeing the ghost of the person he had once been.

Then it pierced his chest. It wasn't an instant death. Jonathan could have done it, but he didn't put the sword through his heart. Maybe he didn't want him to die so quickly. Maybe he wanted to see him suffer.

How could he not.

He understood.

"You don't have to worry," Jaonthan leaned close to whisper in his ear. "Or wait for the afterlife. I can put everything back in its place, brother."

Leonard put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing. Not to resist. Unconsciously, he sought support from the person in front of him as he began to lose his balance. Nothing more or less than that.

Over Jonathan's shoulder, he took particular notice of one of the dead.

For she was not a nobody.

It was Elizabeth, the governor of Elesbury. The previous one, that is. Now it wasn't even a place where humans could live anymore.

"What... What should I do?" The dead woman spoke. A lifeless voice, hollow and hard to understand, as if she had a mouth full of grave dirt. But she spoke.

The others still made not the slightest sound and he had thought they were reanimated corpses, nothing more, not like Jonathan. Or the Count.

He was beginning to understand.

Also what was going to happen to him.

"She's still in there?"

Leonard shivered from head to toe.

Because he was in agony.

But mostly because of the fear that gripped his heart. Jonathan had not come back well, he had lost something important on the other side. And nothing and no one would end well. Of that, at least, he could be sure.

"We will be together again. Brother," Jonathan said. He sounded on the verge of tears.

Then he withdrew the sword from his chest violently, with a single

Then he withdrew the sword from his chest violently, with a single jerk, and Leonard knew no more. He was gone.

Except for the spark that would be left burning inside his corpse, where it would remain as one of Jonathan's dead. His immortal soul trapped in the prison of his own decaying body. Far from the light. Far from life.

Far from everything, forever.

2

It was just a passing, impulsive thought, and perhaps it should have been no more than that. But Jonathan made a decision quickly. He could blame it on the alcohol, argue that he was drunk off his mind.

And yes, he was. But even then he knew that wasn't entirely true. That it didn't justify shit.

The mark on his hand burned, and his ability kicked in.

Passing from him to Elizabeth. To the piece of meat that had been Elizabeth, and immediately that opened its eyes on the table. But it didn't change anything, deep down. She wasn't dead anymore, but that wasn't life.

It was further from life than even his condition.

The dead were controlled by him. Dolls without will. He knew that. He knew that this changed nothing, that he would get nothing back, but....

The island.

The island where it had all started, where both he and Adam had been cursed. If he could keep her corpse and bring it to the island, maybe he could bring her back to life for real.

Making her like him in the process, yes.

But anything was better than death, because it was the same as nothingness.

And because Jonathan simply refused to let her die. It was a stupid idea, a crazy one. Perhaps his passing thought should never have been more than that. But, deep in his heart, he knew he had to at least try or he would go mad. Guilt consumed him.

Even though he hadn't thought twice about slaughtering Elizabeth's guards.

She'd helped him while the guards had only been in his way. It was that simple. Jonathan placed his hands on the table, clasping them together, squeezing them tightly as if to hide his trembling. As if it made sense to hide anything, when he was alone.

He was a selfish bastard. Plain and simple.

But he couldn't face the guilt. He already felt too guilty about too many things. He was full to bursting, he couldn't even take one more spoonful.

Or he would explode.

Everything would explode.

All his thoughts stopped when Elizabeth's corpse turned her head in his direction.

He had thought he saw recognition in her eyes, you see. That was what had taken his breath away. She doesn't recognize me, he thought. I only see what I want to see. As usual.

That's why I've ended up this way.

But then she moved her mouth.

Producing only the faintest sounds. Nothing intelligible. Still, it was amazing because so far his soldiers hadn't even groaned after losing body parts. They couldn't.

And she was making the attempt, perhaps that was the most important thing. He hadn't ordered her to do anything. Just like he hadn't ordered her to look at him.

"You're there. You're there, aren't you?" More than a question, it sounded like a plea.

Jonathan didn't get an answer, of course.

She wasn't capable of it yet, if she would ever be capable of it. But he felt closer to her anyway than he had ever been while she was still alive. Because now, plain and simple, he needed her for more than just killing someone. He truly needed her.

Jonathan couldn't stop the tears from welling up in his eyes.

3

It took him a while to realize that during his fight with Adam, Arise had leveled up. Not all class skills possessed different categories, so he hadn't expected it, let alone that he would be able to do something like this.

Part of him feared it had been a matter of luck.

So he was very nervous after withdrawing the sword. Waiting for it to work on Leonard, too.

Slowly, he sat up. The important thing was that he had done it, after all. Now he just needed to check one more thing.

"Who are you?" Jonathan asked. Perhaps the most important question a human being could have.

"I don't... I don't know," Leonard, his brother, replied. But maybe that was for the best.

"And who am I?"

"Jonathan."

His lips traced a smile.

"Good."

Now it was all over. Things would never go back to the way they were, maybe, but at least they would be together forever. Not even death could separate them.

He would never lose anything or anyone else again.