The inside of Hayes’ torn mouth filled with blood, and a bitter metallic taste spread across his tongue. Hayes’ arm grasped at nothing. The family who had stood just beyond his reach had been sent flying by layered magic attacks. Countless gashes ran across his own right arm but compared to the lethal blows his youngest brother must have taken, they were no more than scratches.

“What were you thinking?! Do you want to die, Hayes?!”

Hayes shoved away the person who had rushed over to him. Being forced to drink livestock vomit would have felt better than this. Forcing down the sour bile rising in his throat, he shouted the name of the one who had carved countless wounds into the ground.

“Leetiaaaaa!!”

“Ah!”

With bloodshot eyes, he searched and found the former adventurer who had naturalized into Libertoa. As he closed in on her, the girl’s shoulders trembled in agitation. Hayes reached to grab her by the collar but a man stepped in to block his path. There was no need to confirm who it was. It was Lefty, another former adventurer.

“Move, Lefty! Don’t shield her just because she’s your woman!”

“Calm down, Hayes. And besides, I was the one who gave the order.”

Whether Lefty had been protecting Leetia or not no longer mattered. Hayes had still been speaking with his brother. Though Walm had a stubborn streak, at his core he had been reasonable, honorable man. There might’ve still been a path to reconciliation.

“I was still talking to my brother! Why?! He stood up to calm himself down, to sort out his feelings! Why did you attack him?!”

“That’s exactly why. If he regained his composure and started observing his surroundings, there was a risk he’d notice. Company commander Hayes, you don’t know what your brother is like on the battlefield. If we let that thing escape, how much damage would he cause? Remove one pillar, and in the end Highserk suffers fewer losses.”

“Spare me the justifications, just tell me the truth! It’s your personal grudge speaking, right? Because my brothers seized your homeland?”

He pressed the two former adventurers, but Leetia only lowered her head. As for Lefty, whose expression had always been scarce to begin with, not a flicker crossed his face.

“Are you trying to kill each other? Get a grip. You’ve got family, don’t you?”

Lefty spoke as if to admonish him. Hayes ground his molars so hard they nearly shattered and kicked the earth in a fit of rage.

“Yeah, they were right there until just now. Damn it. Satisfied?! For the sake of family, you made me abandon my family!!”

Even as Hayes raged, the Libertoa soldiers scattered around them remained vigilant and began collecting the body. In preparation for the failure of negotiations, thirty elite troops had been selected from the homeland for the sole purpose of killing his brother.

An effective invasion route into the vicinity of the Imperial Capital had yet to be secured. Given the difficulty of sending large forces across the border, it could be said that the foreign minister, scarred by past burns, had carefully handpicked these men to kill Hayes’ brother.

“Losses?”

“None. Seems like the Hellfire Beacon was not worth his title.”

“So the Demon Fire user is just a man when standing in front of his brother.”

Among the group were even those who had once clashed directly with his brother. Hayes silenced the chattering soldiers with a glare, but suddenly dizziness overtook him and his vision narrowed. His footing felt as unstable as if he were standing in a swamp.

How had it come to this? Had he failed to consider his brother’s feelings? Or perhaps he had never been trusted as an older brother to begin with.

Hayes repeated short breaths, trying to steady himself, when the soldiers surveying the surroundings suddenly grew restless and uttered words he could not ignore.

“There’s a body here… Hey, he’s still alive?!”

“Finish him o—”

Without a sound, Hayes drew his sword and declared,

“Stop. I’ll drag him back to Libertoa if I have to. Where’s the healing mage? His wounds—”

The air froze in an instant.

From among the soldiers who stood stiffly in place, one man stepped forward. It was Howard, one of the Libertoa soldiers who had saved Hayes at the border. He was a member of the company Hayes commanded in the demonic territory, and they had saved each other’s lives more than once.

“Hayes, I get how you feel but even if he’s your brother, we can’t save him. It’ll be disobeying orders. And… take a good look.”

Hayes turned toward his brother, sprawled on the ground. Thanks to his sturdy armor, he had narrowly avoided instant death but his condition was pitiful beyond words. Wind Fang had carved evenly across his entire body, his life spilling into the earth. His limbs were twisted unnaturally like withered branches, no arm or leg remained intact. His chest rose irregularly, suggesting his heart and lungs were no longer functioning properly.

“Sorry, but prepare yourself. They’re fatal wounds. There’s no saving him.”

Hayes didn’t need Howard to tell him. His experience as a soldier screamed the same conclusion… there was no hope. As if driving the point home, Lefty called his name.

“…Hayes.”

“Yeah, I know. I know! He’s my brother so I’ll do it.”

Still gripping his drawn blade, Hayes dropped to his knees beside his brother. He looked like a sinner kneeling to beg forgiveness and confess his sins.

“Walm.”

At his brother’s call, Walm coughed up frothy, viscous blood. Air leaking from his torn throat rendered his voice horribly indistinct, but he forced out words.

“Ha… Hayes… w-why…?”

Unable to grasp what had happened, Walm voiced his confusion. Hayes’ teeth chattered as he repeated apologies he knew could never be forgiven.

“Walm… I’m… sorry… truly…”

“I… trusted… you…”

When Hayes looked into his brother’s eyes, a chill ran down his spine. Just as war had changed Hayes, it must have changed Walm as well. The golden eyes that had never existed in his memories were dark and clouded beyond measure.

“You betrayed me.”

That single sentence accurately described the present reality. The result of plotting against his own blood lay before him.

“I love you, Walm… just rest…”

Hayes quietly drove the sword in. Whether Walm lacked the strength to resist or had never intended to, was unknown. An unbelievable mass of blood poured from his mouth, and his breathing ceased.

He had seen countless corpses but there was no way he could be accustomed to the corpse of his own brother, killed by his own hand. An unbearable psychological weight crushed him.

Now all his blood-related brothers were dead. One he had failed to protect, and one he had killed.

His stomach convulsed. Unable to suppress the rising nausea, he turned from the body and vomited stomach acid onto the ground. Hayes collapsed onto the blood-soaked earth. His legs trembled like a newborn fawn’s and refused to support him. His vision swayed left and right, unable to focus. Unable to watch any longer, Howard rushed to him.

“Hayes, I know it’s hard, but we need to move. With this much noise, Highserk patrols will be here any minute.”

“Don’t. I don’t need support. I can stand.”

He had no right to play the victim. His brother had done nothing wrong. Hayes rose and looked down at his brother, who was growing colder by the second. This was reality. The face that had smiled at their reunion was nowhere to be found.

“We’ll take proof back. Step aside, Hayes.”

A soldier approached at a trot, carrying a head bucket and an axe. The thoroughness of their preparation was enough to make him retch. What was about to happen was obvious at a glance.

Without replying to Lefty, Hayes turned to leave when something slipped from his brother’s hand.

It was the grotesque demon mask mentioned in the prior report.

What thoughts had driven his brother to wear such a bizarre mask on the battlefield?

“A demon… mask?”

Ugly though it was, it was still a keepsake. As Hayes reached to pick it up the mask, which should have been motionless, began to tremble.

A piercing shriek shook the abandoned village. Hayes clamped his hands over his ears as the mask split cleanly in two before his eyes. From the fracture, slick flesh oozed out and shot in every direction. Soldiers caught in it were pinned to the ground and crushed as though devoured, their screams cut short.

Hayes leapt back instinctively, staring in stunned disbelief.

“Damn it! Three of them got swallowed!!”

“Keep your distance! Don’t get close!”

“That wasn’t in the reports! What is that thing?!”

Fresh blood continued to gush out without end, spreading into a crimson sea. The swelling and contracting mass of flesh spiraled inward, converging upon a single point… the very center where Walm’s body had lain.

Blood sprayed down, staining the earth red. What emerged was not his brother’s corpse. Hair long and deep as the abyssal sea flowed down. Eyes like those of a reptile gleamed gold. The figure stood two heads taller than Hayes.

Wrapped in ominous Demon Fire that scorched the earth was a female demon.

◆

How much time had passed since her body had been destroyed by the detestable exorcist and a raging Asura warrior?

Her ashes and consciousness had been sealed within that hateful mask, condemned to suffocating tedium. Even after she slipped into the human world amidst a great fire, those who wore her failed to offer sufficient sacrifices and all perished in war.

To begin with, she was a demon with particular tastes. Those she permitted to wear her could be counted on one hand.

At times she gathered dust. At times she lay buried in soil. Passed from human to human, the mask that had once been a demon wandered the world. After two catastrophic world wars among humankind, she eventually arrived in a foreign land worthy of being called the crucible of chaos.

The Unification War had entertained her greatly. And yet, it was still not enough.

She waited. At last, she found a man worthy of wearing her, a man from her homeland.

He continued to meet her expectations, offering blood and flesh without cease. Unlike those good-for-nothing killers who knew only slaughter, this one struggled with conflict and anguish as he fought on. How endearing. And now that very man was about to leave his corpse exposed upon the earth, betrayed by the treachery of his own kin. Would another ever appear who possessed such physical and spiritual strength?

Above all, she was a demon of discerning tastes. Though she favored a hands-off approach, even she would rather cooperate than lie buried for a century or two more, only to fall into the hands of someone she despised.

How she had mellowed, she mused with a tremor.

At the fortress’s memorial stone, and within the grotesque serpent’s intestines. She had lent aid before. But this… this was a debt beyond the line.

Until the demon fully manifested in this world, the man would have to continue offering sacrifices. And above all, how delightfully charming it was for brothers to slaughter one another at the end of love and hate.

The sacrifices offered thus far were insufficient, but if she used the man who had absorbed the eyes of her kin as a vessel, it would suffice for a time. Weighing in on this, she decided to consume the accumulated offerings.

Quivering as if in ecstasy, the mask split in two, and a sea of blood overflowed. The surrounding air grew hot as growing flesh engulfed the man. The demon, using the man as her vessel, was born into the world.

Even flesh and gender shifted for the Ashen Child, and this time, she took a female form.

The great demon who had reduced people, cities, even nations to ash, manifested. Through her five senses, the world poured in and she trembled with joy. Drawing air deep into her lungs, she released it as a voice, and the great nation-burning demon roared at the foolish opponents facing her.

Translator – Lyxxna