Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Chapter 50

He smiled, cruel and cold. "No one’s coming to save you. Your precious big brother is buried under a building, probably dead. And even if he’s not, he can’t help you now."

The goblins and orcs who could still move scrambled to their feet despite their injuries. They formed a protective line in front of Jessica and Kelvin, their weapons raised despite knowing they stood no chance.

Grimnir stepped to the front, his axe held in trembling hands, blood streaming from a dozen wounds. His face was pale from blood loss, but his eyes burned with determination.

"You’ll have to go through all of us," he said, his voice steady despite the pain.

"Yeah!" Ragar added, gripping a broken spear with both hands. "We’re not letting you touch them!"

Finn moved beside them, swaying slightly but standing firm. "We’ve come too far to give up now!"

Mira nocked an arrow with shaking hands. "For the settlement!"

Vegeta stopped, tilting his head as he studied the scene before him. Wounded warriors forming a protective wall. Each one knowing they couldn’t win but choosing to fight anyway. It was like a parody of heroism, monsters playing at being noble.

He laughed. It started as a chuckle, then grew louder, echoing across the ruins. "This is too perfect! This exact kind of heroic nonsense! You monsters actually think you can stop me with courage and friendship?"

His laughter grew manic, tears forming at the corners of his eyes from the sheer absurdity. "Oh gods, this is precious! You’re like children playing at being warriors! Do you have any idea how many times I’ve seen this exact scenario?"

His shadows expanded dramatically, tendrils writhing like serpents, rising up behind him in a display of overwhelming power. "Let me tell you what happens next in your little story. You charge at me. You fight bravely. You die screaming. The end. That’s how it always goes."

He took another step forward. "So let me teach you monsters a lesson about reality. About the difference between you and me. About why heroes always win and monsters always lose."

Kelvin pushed past the defensive line, his body trembling with fear but his eyes blazing with defiance. He stood directly in front of his sister, broken spear raised, placing himself between her and certain death.

"I won’t let you hurt my sister," he said, his voice cracking but firm. "Never."

Vegeta’s laughter stopped abruptly. He stared at Kelvin for a long moment, his expression shifting through emotions too quick to read. Then his face settled into something almost resembling respect.

"Brave," Vegeta said quietly. "Stupid. Pointless. But brave."

Then his expression hardened into cold cruelty. "Which is why I’m going to make this hurt."

He vanished.

In less than an instant, he was in the middle of the defensive formation. Time seemed to slow as his shadows exploded outward like a bomb, a sphere of pure destructive force that expanded in all directions.

Bodies flew through the air like ragdolls. Grimnir’s axe was torn from his hands as he was launched backward, his body slamming into a wall hard enough to crater the stone.

Ragar’s cry of pain cut off abruptly as a shadow tendril wrapped around his throat and drove him into the ground. Finn tried to tackle Vegeta from behind, but a shadow blade materialized and drove through his shoulder, pinning him to the earth like an insect.

Mira loosed her arrow at point-blank range. It struck Vegeta’s shadow armor and shattered. A tendril caught her by the ankle and slammed her repeatedly into the ground until she stopped moving.

In three seconds, the defensive line was completely shattered. Warriors who’d fought so bravely, who’d stood despite their wounds, lay broken and bleeding.

Kelvin charged with his broken spear raised, a desperate war cry on his lips. He knew he couldn’t win. Knew this was suicide. But his sister was behind him, and he would die before he let this monster touch her.

Vegeta didn’t even look at him. His movements were casual, almost bored, as if swatting away an annoying insect.

His hand shot forward with surgical precision.

It passed completely through Kelvin’s stomach.

Time seemed to freeze.

The world went silent. The sounds of fire, of groaning wood, of distant battles all faded away. There was only this moment, crystallized in horror.

Kelvin’s eyes went impossibly wide. His mouth opened but no sound came out. He looked down at the hand protruding from his abdomen, at the blood already pouring from the wound in rivers, and couldn’t process what he was seeing.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Big brother was supposed to protect them. They were supposed to be safe.

"Kelvin..." Jessica’s voice was small, broken, disbelieving.

Vegeta withdrew his hand slowly, almost gently, letting Kelvin see every inch of bloodied flesh as it pulled free. "Nothing personal, kid. You’re just in my way."

Kelvin’s legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground, blood pooling rapidly beneath him, spreading across the scorched earth in an expanding crimson circle.

"No!" Jessica’s scream tore through the settlement like a physical thing, a sound of pure anguish that seemed to shake the very air. "KELVIN!"

She dropped to her knees beside her brother, her hands pressing frantically against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. But there was too much blood. It poured between her fingers, hot and sticky, staining her hands red.

"No, no, no! Kelvin, stay with me! Please! Don’t close your eyes!"

Kelvin’s hand weakly grasped hers, his fingers cold despite the blood. "Sis..." His voice was barely a whisper, blood bubbling at his lips. "Run... please..."

"I’m not leaving you!" Jessica sobbed, her tears mixing with her brother’s blood. "Big brother will wake up! He’ll save us! He always saves us!"

Vegeta looked down at the scene with cold indifference. "How touching. But your big brother isn’t waking up. He’s buried under a collapsed building, probably choking on his own blood right now."

He raised his hand toward Jessica, shadows gathering around it. "Your turn, little girl. At least you’ll die together."

Jessica looked up at him, her face streaked with tears and blood, her yellow eyes filled with despair and rage and hopelessness all at once.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?"

"You existed," Vegeta replied simply. "That’s enough."

The shadow construct formed into a blade, poised to strike.

Jessica’s scream echoed again, raw and primal, carrying across the entire settlement. "BIG BROTHER! HELP US! PLEASE!"

That scream cut through stone and rubble and unconsciousness itself.

Far across the settlement, buried under tons of debris, Satou’s eyes snapped open.