Chapter 1599 (2/2)

“Techet…?” Raymund mumbled. His muscles spasmed and he took a half step forward. His heart ached, thinking about all the struggles he had gone through to get to this point. After another step, Raymund’s body finally began to thaw through his shock. His third step cracked the ground beneath him and teleported him to the back of the wagon in question. “Brother…!”

Raymund’s eyes cut through the surroundings. His new position gave him a better view of the military camp. A long thoroughfare was lined with off duty military personnel who gossiped and stared up at the heavy moon above them with a grim expression. But Raymund ignored those unimportant individuals and continued to search down the long line of tents. At the other end of the path, fully a hundred meters away, a six tailed fox was calmly rounding a corner.

Raymund planted his foot again and accelerated, ignoring the sharp bark of protest by a higher ranking soldier nearby. He wove his way through the foot traffic and stacked crates to the end of the lane and looked down at a meandering road leading into a deep valley. The fox he was pursuing was already at the bottom of the valley, passing into the low hills that stretched out below.

His instincts whispered that this was foolish, but Raymund didn’t listen to that voice at all. He would never mistake those tails; he had previously spent years teased apart by jealousy and guilt whenever he thought about those meaningless appendages. It was only after five years of putting his life on the line without worrying about the passage of time that Raymund now had the perspective to understand his brilliant and capricious younger brother.

The negative emotions he had buried in his heart became a barrier that couldn’t be crossed. Which was why his younger brother grew up even more lonely than Raymund had.

As he raced down across the road and into the low hills, Raymund’s gaze softened. Techet… Apologies cannot convey my regret. I was your older brother. Your auspicious birth was all the sign that the elders needed to lash our entire culture to your cart… and I shouldn’t have turned a blind eye and added my small burdens onto you as well. I should have supported you, not envied you.

I was supposed to have strength enough to make your life easier. But I just…

Beyond the hills was a bubbling creek. Beyond that creek were a few sandy ravines. Raymund ignored the surroundings and chased. As the pursuit continued, he loosened more and more of the limitations he had placed on his physical Skills. Very soon, he was moving at his full speed, still just barely moving fast enough to catch glimpse of Techetadore.

And in his wake, Raymund left a trail of sundered ground and destroyed vegetation. The physical force he mobilized was no joke. Yet no matter his desperation, the distance didn’t shorten at all.

It was only when they began traveling up a low slope to a snow-covered mountain that Raymund felt a flash of hope. There, standing only fifty meters above him on the slope, was Techetadore. He looked down on his older brother, his familiar impish grin on his face. His six red tails flared out behind him.

“T-Techetadore…” Raymund was breathing heavily, but not from having to run after his brother. He took another step and the distance between them was cut down to only five meters. Raymund sniffed; it wasn’t an illusion. This was his brother’s scent…!

“Sorry bro, I didn’t notice you were behind me.” Techetadore laughed. His eyes crinkled at the corners. Although so much time had passed in Raymund’s experience, his brother was so achingly familiar that tears welled up in his eyes. Raymund took another step forward, still barely believing what his senses were telling him. After worrying about his brother and the mysterious message about Gabriel Swacc for so long… this reunion didn’t feel real. It was difficult to even breathe-

Techetadore’s hand flicked sideways. Raymund’s eyes widened. Then he blinked.

His torn and blood esophagus bounced across the mountain road until it rolled to a stop in a ditch.

While Raymund’s mind was floundering to understand what was happening, Techetadore stepped forward. A strange image rose up within his younger brother’s body, more powerful than anything that Raymund had ever sensed before. More powerful than even the Ghosthound or Lady Vualla had been able to produce. When Techetadore thrust his palm forward, Raymund couldn’t muster a response through the thick crust of shock that had seized his limbs. This was all too much, too soon, with too little sense to the scenes that Raymund was experiencing.

The blow hit him in the breastbone and collapsed his chest cavity. All that remained of his lungs and heart were mushy goo. Raymund collapsed forward; before Techetadore, all of his confidence had become nothing.

He hadn’t even recognized a threat until the moment he was dying.

“Sorry bro. That image of yours is just a bit too similar to mine for comfort,” Techetadore said, still cheerily. He crouched next to his brother and patted his cheek. “If things were different… well, hopefully, they will be different soon… Haaaah… I’m getting tired of this farce…”

The remnant muscles in Raymund’s body were seizing. His vision was going hazy. Somehow, he seized on this lack of breath. So long as he could breathe, he would finally be able to understand what was happening-! He could speak and ask Techetadore…!

So Raymund raised his hand. His consciousness was fuzzy, but his powerful Willpower mobilized in his hand to steal the breath from the sky-

Techetadore kicked Raymund’s forearm and shattered the limb. Then the six-tailed Vulpine clicked his tongue. “You tenacious bastard… What did you-”

Before Techetadore could continue, there was the sound of a new arrival walking toward them. “Ah, Cain, you’re back. Did you manage- Ah, by the spear, did you kill someone…? Such an action will accumulate inauspicious karma…”

Raymund’s head rolled weakly backward as Techetadore straightened and laughed. “Ah, Commander Shal, you’re too stuffy. Isn’t death inevitable in this world? Besides, you know that it would only mean trouble if someone knew what we are doing here. What would the population think if they knew that the Nexus had been domesticating Nether Kings for one thousand years…?”

“You… bah. Well, the blood is on your hands. Return with me. The operation is about to begin.”

So the two left, letting Raymund slowly cool on the ground. After that first effort that was interrupted by Techetadore, his Willpower was ebbing. Everything steadily grew darker around him, as though the lights of the world were being lowered. A buzzing filled his ears.

I regret… my own failure to protect him… Raymund could find no energy in his body to curse his fate. Rather, what he felt was remorse. This… whatever the current Techetadore has become… I bear a share of the responsibility...

Raymund closed his eyes. On that mountain some distance away from the main base of the Aether Forces, his body began to cool.