Rem found no words. He didn't want to speak at all.
He wanted to scream, but the screams themselves were paralyzed, trapped in his throat. The sight of his father's body was a heavy weight, pressing down until only a broken whimper could escape.
He covered his mouth in disgust, feeling his insides threaten to spill out. He couldn't name the flood of emotion washing over him.
Roger never looked away from Rem, who was now crawling toward his father's lifeless body on the snow. Roger had no words for the boy. His eternal rival was dead, killed by his own hand. There was nothing he could say to make the boy feel better, or worse.
Rem's eyes were fixed on his father, whose extremities were already stiffening in the cold, the massive blood loss making the process swift. Then, his gaze shifted. It locked onto Roger.
Their eyes met for a moment, and in that instant, all Roger saw was deep hatred and unbridled fury.
Rem grabbed his small wooden sword and lunged at Roger, who merely adjusted his stance to meet him head-on.
Rem's sword didn't miss; in fact, Roger ensured that it didn't.
The wooden blade collided with Roger's knightly armor. With every strike, the wood splintered, shedding pieces onto the snow. With every clash, a tear dropped from Rem's eyes, and his whimper grew into cries that tore through the wind's echo.
He didn't even notice that his wooden sword had shattered, or that the hot blood from his blistered hands was slowly dripping onto Roger's armor.
With a single flick of Destruction Bringer, Rem collapsed to the ground, trembling.
Rem saw it as one flick, but in that second, Roger had delivered a precise strike with the sword's scabbard to every nerve, paralyzing him completely.
He wanted to rise, but his muscles refused to obey.
The look of pity Roger cast upon him ignited a fire in his heart, every cell screaming at him to get up. But Rem had lost this fight too.
"You are not a warrior yet... don't waste your life trying to become one now."
"I... will... k... i... l... l... you."
"A single blow to every nerve and you can't even speak? Pitiful..."
Rem wrestled with his tears, but no one can control the rain.
He saw the soldiers covering his father's body, taking it toward the King. King Rodan looked at the corpse with **contempt**, then ordered the soldiers to continue toward the castle.
Rem fought with every shard of will in his chest, but his body was simply unable to move.
He believed that if he could just stand up, he could somehow stop the soldiers who were dragging his mother out of the house.
Her eyes were fixed on her brother, Rodan, with no will to fight. He felt every tear that fell from his little sister's eyes and heard their echo vanish into the dense snow beneath her.
His eyes were closing, and Rem felt his body start to give up, his vital functions slowing one by one.
Then, in less than a fraction of a moment, Rem saw his little sister's lips move soundlessly.
Nadya couldn't form words tears had restricted her throat. Yet, she managed to push out one simple, three-letter word
"Rem."
Rem didn't think or feel. As before, he was guided only by instinct.
He grabbed a nearby sword, which was weak and undersized, but it didn't stop him. He saw nothing but his little sister ahead. Everything else was layers of grey.
The soldiers prepared their blades, while the King and Roger watched in silence.
With a simple movement, Rem lunged, closing the distance to the soldier carrying his sister. With a single slash, Rem brought the soldier down with a deep wound to the chest. The cut was deep and clean, as if the wind itself had caused it, not Rem's blade.
As his sister fell onto the snow pillow below, Rem's focus shifted to Roger, who stood behind an army of soldiers.
Rem leaned forward, pulled his arms back as far as possible, and took a deep breath.
"A Song..."
Seeing that posture, Roger stumbled back two steps and instinctively clutched the old scar on his face. The phantom reflection of Regam in that same stance, mirrored by Rem, snapped Roger out of his moment of fear.
"Get out of the way!" Roger screamed, but it was too late.
Roger felt nothing but the blood of his soldiers raining down on him from above.
The bodies were still suspended in the air when Roger looked down, Rem stood directly in front of him.
With a simple slash, Roger's body was thrown backward. His heavy iron armor took the full brunt, shattering in some places. A look of astonishment was frozen on Roger's face as he clutched his broken armor.
Rem inspected the cracked sword in his hand as the crimson rain continued to fall.
He picked up another sword and assumed the same stance. Roger screamed.
"You! Are you a Soul Tamer?"
"A Soul Tamer?" Rem returned to his normal stance, pointed his sword toward Roger, and said slowly: "I am just angry."
"Angry?"
"Your sword... Destruction Bringer, draw it."
In the land of Dingo, asking a swordsman to draw his true blade was the deepest form of insult. For a child who couldn't even use Enza, this was unforgivable.
Sparks flew as Roger tore Destruction Bringer from its sheath.
A powerful Enza aura exploded from Roger's body, yet Rem stood motionless, without reaction. Silence descended until the red cocoon burst open.
Roger radiated a new kind of terror. The remaining living soldiers tried to pull the King away, but he refused.
Little Nadya crept and stood behind her brother, whose presence was almost erased by Roger's overwhelming aura.
Roger's short hair lengthened, Enza pathways flowed across his clothes, and the tip of Destruction Bringer transformed into a massive, spiked battle-axe.
Roger's size tripled, Rem looked like an insect before a giant. But Rem just watched.
Roger raised his immense axe and crushed the ground where Rem stood. The entire hill shook, fissures spreading toward the city. Rem's house was utterly destroyed. But the King remained still.
Roger lifted the axe, but found no trace of Rem or his sister beneath the rubble. He searched frantically.
"So this is the Soul Tamer form of Destruction Bringer..."
Rem spoke from a spot very close to Roger, yet undetected. Rem was standing on Roger's shoulder, with Nadya clinging to his back.
As if it were a casual breeze, Rem's sword moved and sliced Roger's ear completely off.
Roger grabbed his deep wound, and his screams shook the city of Korara.
Rem jumped off Roger's shoulder and stood below him, watching him writhe in pain.
"Your father... told Roger you couldn't use Enza. What is this?"
"Oh, so Destruction Bringer is talking now? Well, what my father said is true. I cannot use Enza."
"Then these movements? How?"
"I just move."
Rem's body vanished from below Roger. With a quick stab to his chest, Roger resisted falling and retreated a few steps. Rem was everywhere Roger looked, like the storm surrounding them.
Rem's movements were faster than the wind, his feet barely touched the ground before he changed position again. Roger's eyes couldn't track him.
Roger roared and blasted a powerful aura that threw Rem and his sister high into the air. As soon as he spotted them, Roger clenched his fist and pulled it back.
"End Fist!"
Roger unleashed a wave of compressed wind that sent Rem soaring into the sky, blood spilling from his mouth. His clothes were shredded, and the intense pressure made his consciousness fade completely, along with his sister's.
Rem was fast and his strikes were strong, but he was still a child, and his body could no longer handle the accumulated damage.
"He will die from the fall..."
Roger said as his aura faded, returning him to his original state. The King stood, silent.
As the moment quieted, Roger covered his ear wound and retreated with the King toward the castle.
"Do you think that's enough?"
"It will stop him... it will stop them."
All the way, neither Roger nor the King spoke a word. Rodan had just destroyed his sister's family and his closest friend, and he had no sufficient words or reason for his betrayal.
Upon reaching the castle, Rodan called a meeting and declared that Regam was a traitor executed under state law. His family was also condemned to death. Rose was imprisoned. Regam's body was thrown out to be eaten by dogs—neither burned nor buried, denied the right.
The King announced that Rem and Nadya were missing. If found alive, they would be treated as criminals, and if handed over to the Kingdom, they would be immediately executed.
...
Somewhere in the plains of Arashia, with its tall forests, high mountains, and beautiful weather, a young man in his twenties passed along a road lined with bamboo.
He held a long straw in his mouth, wore a plate-like round hat and the clothes of a common farmer, but the sword at his hip suggested otherwise.
He pulled a large cart carrying ceramic pots and corn. Inside, a little boy with severe wounds lay, and in his arms, a small girl who looked like him.