Trent

The Black Castle of Kazanagi lay in ruins at Trent’s feet. It was over. The last server, his final hurdle had been decimated. He had awaited this moment for fifteen years. Nothing stood between him and Roland. Soon, he would no longer have to live in shame. He wanted to smile but his facial muscles had gone rigid. Side effects of the parthume, most likely.

It did not matter. Nothing mattered anymore. He had won. As the evening rain poured over the castle’s scattered debris, he lit up a cigar to celebrate. The fumes filled his lungs with pure joy.

At long last, my war is at an end.

As he turned to walk away from the rubble, he was stopped by a voice that threatened to pierce his heart. It was Rob. “Gonna ditch your friends again, mate?”

The bearded man stood with his arms crossed in anger but his expression was one of disappointment.

“They were always expendable.” Trent attempted to walk past him.

He was stopped by an iron grip over his shoulder. “They were kids.”

“Spare me the moral lecture. They knew the risks.” Trent brushed off his arm with a snap. “Why are you here, Rob?”

Rob broke away from his gaze and peered at what was left of the castle. The downpour had washed away most of the blood and the coastal breeze had done well to mask the ghastly smell. Even so, one look at the torn arms reaching out from beneath the concrete was enough for him. Rods of iron were poking out from the rubble like massive arrows. There was no disguising the tragedy. He could hear their screams.

“Well, what is it? Why are you here?” Trent demanded.

“The old man wants to talk to ya. It’s important.” Rob rubbed his eyelids and pulled a smartphone out of his pocket.

Trent snatched it to face the screen and within seconds, he was met with President Norton’s grim expression.

“Son, you have done enough,” he said.

“No,” said Trent. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“He’s got us on the ropes, kid. Either we give in, or the Order is finished.”

“No.”

“Trent, I know how much this means to you. Believe me, no one wants to see that scum dead more than me. But as men of the world, we must pick and choose our battles. There will be another chance. I give you my word. Roland will pay. But not today. Today, you must come home.”

“Fuck. That.”

“There’s no point in debating this, son. I’ve already decided. It’s time to throw in the towel. Be a good boy and let your friend Robert bring you home. I’ll see you soon.”

The call was terminated. Norton’s words fell on Trent’s ears like a half-ton brick across the face. His mortified face was mirrored in the slick, black glass of the phone. He fell to his knees in despair. He wanted to scream in anger but his facial muscles had gone rigid.

“It’s time, slumdog.” Rob comforted him. “These things, they are beyond our control. You’ll get him another day. Come now, let’s get you cleaned up. Lord knows you stink to the high heavens. We’re going home.”

Trent could not help but laugh at his words. He laughed because Rob thought he was going to walk away. He laughed because Rob thought he would live to see another day. He laughed… He laughed because Rob thought he still had a home. He laughed and laughed until he was coughing blood. Even when he stopped, the grin was seared onto his face.

“What’s so funny, slumdog?”

“Twenty years you’ve been my best friend and you know me so little.” Trent smiled, wiping the blood from his lips.

“Oh, I know alright. I guess some part of me was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.” Rob sighed and pulled out the gun from his holster. “I want him dead as much as you, you know that.”

“No,” said Trent, pulling out his own gun in return. “If you did, he wouldn’t still be sucking air”

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“There is a procedure, Trent,” Rob bellowed at the top of his lungs. “We take one wrong step and the whole world comes crashing down on us. Do you not get what’s at stake here?”

“I’m sorry, Rob. But I simply do not care anymore. I’ve waited fifteen years for this day. Do you have any idea how much I’ve sacrificed? I haven’t seen my daughter in ages. I can’t even recall her face anymore. And now, when I am this close to getting my justice, you wish to take that away from me? No. I won’t let you. I’ve sacrificed too much.”

Rob took the longest breath of his life, then wiped away his tears, and took aim. “I don’t want to hurt you, brother.”

“Don’t worry. You won’t get to.”

Before Rob could pull the trigger, Trent shot the gun out of his hand. The bullet missed his fingers by half an inch. Before Trent could ready his gun again, Rob charged at him like a mad bull and tackled him to the ground.

“Stand down, you shit!” Rob growled as he tore the gun out of his hand and tossed it away. The former Knight clawed at his face to get some distance between them but Rob’s hefty build proved too strong for him.

“You’re coming with me, whether you like it or not!” said Rob and locked Trent’s arm in a cage-like grip. Trent squirmed in pain as the grip tightened around his bones, twisting them in unnatural directions.

“I’ve always been the better fighter, slumdog. If you could best me, you’d have done it ages ago. Stop resisting!”

In the blink of an eye, Trent’s heart rate skyrocketed till his veins were ready to pop. The parthume was taking effect. He knew this feeling; it was the same as when he’d rescued Harroun’s daughter from the militants. Another meaningless tragedy.

Rob’s boar-like voice faded away as his senses exploded with an overwhelming influx of information. Suddenly, he could feel every drop of rain in the clouds above and every speck of dust on the ground beneath him. He could taste every drop of blood in his mouth. Rob’s punches felt like boulders being dropped onto his face.

Every single neuron in his brain was screaming the same thing, “Make it stop!”

He grabbed a handful of dust with his free arm and tossed it at Rob’s face with such force that the Mad Dog flinched and loosened his grip. That was enough. Trent freed his other arm and decked his friend in the jaw with a powerful right hook, knocking him to the ground.

“Had enough?” Trent taunted him. His knuckles were on fire.

“Why, you getting tired?” Rob wheezed and spat with a pained smile.

As the brothers stood to face each other, the black clouds roared in fury.

Lightning struck and Trent dug his fist into Rob’s stomach with an uppercut. The Mad Dog retaliated with a kick to the chest that nearly sent the Red Death into shock. Trent fired back with a flurry of jabs that Rob took with no effect and fired back with a shoulder bash that sent the former Knight crashing into the debris behind.

But he did not give up. He jumped right back and assaulted his brother with every ounce of his strength, who returned in kind and then some. For the longest time, neither of them had the upper hand.

“Can’t push me away, Trent. Can’t get rid of family. We stick together through hell and high water,” cried Rob.

“Then, don’t stand in my way! Let me have this. I have nothing else. I am nothing else!” Trent roared.

“Oh, you stupid twat. You have everything. Friends, a family, a good life, a happy life. It’s all waiting for you. You’re just too blind to see it. It’s gone too far. Caroline’s… Caroline’s gone.”

“What?”

Rob choked up with tears. “She’s gone, man. She was part of your crusade and now she’s gone. For nothing. I lost her again. But I’m not losing you too.”

Trent felt as though a part of his heart had been chopped away with a burning knife. He wanted to cry but his facial muscles were too rigid. His eyes leaked tears but his face remained numb. He ripped out his hair in frustration. “No. No no no. It’s not possible. She was just the lookout. She was supposed to stay away from danger. It can’t be.”

“It’s over, baby brother.” Rob sighed, the grief washing over his wrinkled features like a hot spring. “There’s nothing left to be achieved. We’ve lost too much. First Lisa, now Caroline. I’m not losing you too. Come with me. Your baby girl’s waiting for you back home. Don’t you want to see her? See her grab your hand and call you Dada?”

“No…,” said Trent. There was nothing left. Nothing awaiting him. Even Caroline was gone. His daughter Casey would be better off without him, away from the stench of his hatred. She would have a good life with Rob. They would grow up happy. As much as it pained him, some part of him knew that he didn’t deserve happiness. And now, there was but one thing to be done. One last act of vengeance before the cancer took him. He turned around and walked away from Rob and the debris of the castle.

“Oh no, you don’t get to decide. I’m bringing you home if it’s the last damn thing I do. You don’t get to run from this.” Rob grabbed Trent from behind in a python-like grip and tightened his arms until his bones cracked. “Trust me, you’ll thank me for this one day.”

The former Knight tried freeing his arms but found them completely immobilized. He tried crushing Rob’s feet but he remained still as a statue. In a last desperate move, he leaned his skull forward and knocked it back in a powerful blow that nearly threw Rob off balance. He bashed him with his skull with even more force. Rob winced and grunted, his grip loosening ever so slightly.

That was all he needed.

Seeing his chance, Trent threw him back with the full force of his muscles. He waited to hear the musical thud of Rob’s hefty body crashing into the debris behind.

He did not hear a thud.

Trent had killed before. He was intimately familiar with all the various ways a dying man breathed his last. He knew the sound of a man dying from a gunshot, from electrocution, from beheading, and even one being burned alive.

Even today, when every muscle in his body was burning in ceaseless agony, there was no deceiving his ears. He knew the sound of a man getting impaled through the chest.

He wished he didn’t.

Step by step, he forced his body to turn around. Rob was lying motionless amidst the rubble, the rubble he had created. There was an iron rod coming out of his chest. His lungs had coughed up a puddle of blood at his feet. He was not breathing.

Trent fell to his knees and cried until the thunderstorm had engulfed all of Mitsurugi.