The Monster of Florence (3)

TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!

Beneath the shroud of night, that desolate field stretched out; its dirt and grass were uneven and barely visible through the dense mist.

The air was saturated with moisture, clinging to Sorin's skin as he moved, each step leaving an imprint in the damp earth. The fog had thickened, turning the surroundings into an ethereal realm where reality seemed to blur.

A faint, eerie illumination pierced through the mist, casting an otherworldly glow that revealed patches of the field in ghostly fragments.

It might have been the moon's light, obscured by the thick haze, or perhaps some distant source that defied explanation. Sorin's vision was limited to a few feet ahead, the edges of his world fading into obscurity.

His feet carried him forward, guided more by his heightened sense from his unique reign than his sight.

The dampness beneath him gradually gave way to a solid surface. As he pressed on, the ground transitioned from uneven terrain to the smoothness of asphalt.

The road materialized before him, a stark contrast to the wild landscape he had traversed.

"KYAAAAA!"

That scream again!

"Elara!" he screamed her name.

The screams were from the other end of the road. There, the asphalt stretched ahead, its surface glistening with moisture, mirroring the mist above, almost like beckoning Sorin onward.

The fog seemed to part slightly from the car's headlight's luster a little far from him, allowing a dim glow to illuminate the asphalt's expanse.

Sorin headed in the direction of the sound, gradually increasing his pace.

And here they were.

The first thing he noticed was a pair of broken white wings, a golden crown made of halos showering his blonde hair with needles of puncturing light, and his golden eyes...

His golden irises... had transformed into compressed, small golden dots.

"AAAARGH!"

BLAAAAM!

CRACKLE-CRACKLE!

The evangelic figure before him crouched atop the asphalt road, his fist raised in the air, clutching the collar of the dark figure—a man Sorin had encountered before. Then, once again.

BLAAAAAAM!

CRAASH!!

He struck his fist down, obliterating the head of the dark figure and leveling it against the unyielding ground.

Every blow resonated with a loud crash and rumble, each punch sending shockwaves that echoed through the realm, causing localized earthquakes with each impact.

"Brother...?"

Sorin couldn't recognize him.

As the dark figure finally dissipated, disappearing like the figure Sorin had encountered earlier, Sorin could finally see another figure behind Brother that was previously shrouded in darkness.

A corpse of a woman. Long blonde hair and beautiful, lifeless blue eyes.

"Brother!"

Suddenly, Sorin could hear Elara's voice drawing near. The woman emerged from the other end of the road, the opposite of where Sorin came from.

The woman looked alright, but she urgently kneeled beside Brother. She grasped his shoulders and shook him violently. "Pull yourself together! Choose carefully, Brother!"

Elara turned to Sorin, her eyes begging for help. Of course, Sorin immediately came closer and grasped him from the other angle, trying to ground the man.

"Look!" Elara forced the blonde man to turn toward the woman's corpse. "Look closely. This is not your baby. This is just an illusion!"

Brother's condensed iris started to widen. He then turned toward the corpse, noticing a gradual transformation from his initial assessment. The corpse started to melt... and then rot.

"She's not your baby," Elara repeated.

Brother had calmed down. Alongside it, the crown, the wings, and his eyes turned normal. "Of course, she's not. From the very outset, I perceived the truth in it."

"But how audacious of him to use her countenance for such profane ends...!" his eyes started to glow golden alongside his sinister snarl, "Heretic..."

SLAP!

Suddenly, Elara slapped the man. And again.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

Elara slapped Brother without any sense of mercy. "Embarrassing little simp, you are. Wake up and stop speaking like knockoff Geoffrey of Monmouth. Augh."

Sorin lost all the color in his being. He sat there like a pixelated NPC that couldn't even process what was happening before him.

Do all siblings act like this?

But thankfully, Brother seemed to come to his senses way faster because of the slaps. And the sight of Elara ruthlessly slapping her brother etched inside Sorin's mind, contrasting with his intimate memory of them inside the car.

Leaving Brother alone at the corner, Elara stood to approach Sorin. Without words, they carefully checked each other's well-being.

"Your head is intact," Sorin said to her.

And she nodded, replying, "Your head, too."

"By any chance, did you see my head explode?"

"Yeah."

"Me too."

"Uh-huh," Elara tried her best to compose herself. "But you didn't regenerate as you should be, so I was a bit..."

"It's this place's fault. By the way, did you get attacked by that black figure?" Sorin tried his best to bury the awkwardness in the air by spouting an important question.

"Yeah, that black figure chased me down the road. The asphalt road seemed endless, and I'd been running the whole time until I heard a woman's scream and Brother's... doing his thing..." Elara wondered how Sorin could still be so composed.

It was bad enough that they were being interrupted like that. And now, as they locked eyes once more, the lingering tension from earlier still hung heavily in the air.

They collectively cursed inside their heads.

"Good. It seems we already know what happened to each of us when we were separated earlier," Brother saved them from the awkward air around them.

"Like you noticed, I got angry because he used my baby's face indecently and provoked me. I assume Sorin saw Elara's body like I saw my baby's body. And for Elara, he chases you like you're some sort of a game animal," Brother concluded accurately.

"Now," Brother stood. His face was deathly grim as he said, "Sorin, if you don't want to figure this out yourself and give up, I'll step in and end it myself."

"Brother..." Elara reminded him again. "We're here to supervise Sorin and guide him remotely. We've agreed to let him experience things himself. This could cloud his judgment in making decisions."

"Are you thinking I'm doing this just to flaunt my power at him? Do you believe I'm trying to crudely display my abilities as a way to show him his potential?" Brother asked.

"Brother, you're showing him the opposite," Elara said.

As they turned toward Sorin, they realized the deep, complicated looks in his eyes. It was true that this was such a thrilling world of mystery, and it was clear what they were trying to protect.

But at the same time... seeing all this and Brother's reaction to it made him realize how personal this work could become.

Brother placed his hand on his shoulder. "Exactly. I'm attempting to demonstrate to you the life that awaits when you join us."

"Those heretics... all of them must perish."

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