“What are… What are you going to do to me? P-Please don’t kill me! Please, please don’t!”

Ajax is hearing the teary eyed voice of the person sitting on the sofa who he’s holding in his grasp. A woman that he’s never met before fears for her life, fears that Ajax will kill her.

“Ha… Haha…”

“...Ajax?”

“No, no, Shaula, it’s… it’s nothing… It’s just… isn’t it kind of funny for her to think that I would kill her? Like you know me, right? Me? Kill someone innocent like her?”

Shaula looks at him for a moment and thinks it over. How has Ajax seemed to her since she first became true friends with him? A good person, a person aiming to be a paragon of virtue, a person so oddly naive as a person living in the 21st century…

Shaula smirks. Her lips quiver as she tries to suppress her urge to laugh.

“Oh yeah, that’s pretty funny... Pfft… Hahahahahahaha!!”

“I know, right? Seriously, what a farce… When we get back home, I’m gonna smack Ahura Mazda around a few times for putting me through this shit.”

This odd reaction from Ajax and Shaula only makes the woman more unsure of herself and her fate. They’re laughing in this situation where her life is in his hands. She can feel his unmoving, vice-like grips on her forearms. She cannot lift her arms even a little.

This man could kill her without even thinking about it.

“You… How did… How did you find me?”

Ajax and Shaula look over at the man who speaks with calmness while trying to hide his dread. The man who they came to see. The man who was named Ilna Fautre.

Ajax stops laughing as he looks at Ilna. The woman in his grip notices his hands trembling. She looks at his face as his eyes stop looking at her and look only towards him. His grip starts tightening. His hands grow… colder.

Shaula notices immediately, from the noise of the woman’s joints creaking at Ajax’s force.

“Ajax. I know you’re angry, but remember to be careful with her…”

The woman in Ajax’s hold sees Ajax return to his senses. He looks at her with a look of… fear and regret.

“I-I’m so sorry, ma’am! I didn’t mean to hurt you! Are you ok?”

Ajax loosens his grip and lets go of her. He only meant to grab her to pull her away from Ilna, he should have let go when he got her to safety, away from Ilna but he became overcome with… an emotion he can’t quite express, seeing Ilna.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. N-Now could you… could you tell me what you’re--”

“I’m sorry, lady, but we’re not here for you, you were just dragged into this. Also by the way, smart thinking there, Ajax, getting her away from him.”

“Yeah, thanks, Shaula. I really wasn’t expecting him to bring a woman back to his place… It doesn’t make me feel good at all that this shithead is just living his life. Also, uh… What’s your name, miss?”

“I-It’s Jem. Why did you… What are you talking about? What was smart about separating me from him?”

Shaula’s face twists into a slightly out of place smile.

“Well, we’re really glad you asked! This man here, this Ilna, is really not a good person! He’s so fucking shitty that I really just hope Ajax can control himself while we talk to him…”

Jem looks at Ilna as she comprehends the meaning of Shaula’s words. Her eyes turn fearful in anticipation of the truth about him.

“...What did… What did he do then?”

~

Three hours have passed since Ilna left the inn in defeat after his battle against Ajax. Meanwhile, Ajax sits in silence. He holds his hands, his fingers interlocked and hiding his face.

He sits on the roof of another inn. It is an inn made of concrete unlike wood like the other one which burned down. The women are no longer beside him. They are inside the inn, talking amongst themselves, sleeping and keeping watch.

Claris is currently in her room talking to the other awake girls about how heroic Ajax looked while saving Hila. Hila nervously gives Ajax her own praise while blushing. She also appreciated what he did for her, how he rescued her from certain death.

Ajax can hear them talk from where he is on the roof of this four-storied inn. He isn’t sitting and listening to their conversations alone. Shaula is sitting right next to him. He isn’t speaking at all though.

His shirt which was destroyed by Ilna hasn’t been replaced yet, nor the pants that were slightly torn after Ilna cut off his leg.

After Ajax stopped the fire at the inn, the girls had found this new dwelling to sleep at for the rest of the night. They were being accompanied by Ajax who continued to protect them as they walked along the dimly lit streets of the Linis slums.

His face appeared lifeless, drained of all colour and vibrancy, but they didn’t tell him how he looked to them.

Hila, in response to his despondency, simply helped the girls move to their new place without drawing attention to his state or bothering him while he dealt with whatever he was dealing with.

Once the girls found this second inn, this time Ajax absolutely refused a place with them in the inn. He started to believe that his place in the inn caused--

“Shaula.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you… Did you see what happened to the… to the…”

Ajax’s voice starts wavering as he feels his eyes start watering.

After Shaula heard Brai speak about sending his enforcers to deal with the girls, Shaula had returned first to the inn and saw the remains of a fierce battle.

The pile of wood that was once a burning inn, is no longer even smoldering. Rather than hot or even warm, the pile was partially frozen. Shaula knew who had done this. But… she also smelled something that even that frost couldn’t hide.

A scent she recognized after encountering it once before. Most memorably when she had used her power to kill the two men, Gratia and Andal.

The scent of burnt human flesh. Multiple bodies.

Now, she sits next to Ajax without speaking because… it wasn’t just the bodies of Ajax’s enemies, right? Ajax hasn’t been flinching when Shaula started killing their enemies in self defense recently.

He hardly even questioned her about why she decided to kill that man named Dirn. He knew in the back of his mind that Dirn should remain alive.

He hardly even seems to register their deaths. He has grown to accept the reality of this world in at least some small part. So, there must have been something else that--

“I was… I had gone back into the building to see if anyone could be saved after that… after that scumbag set the building on fire. There were… two random people dead on the second floor in their rooms, completely burning in the fire. I couldn’t tell their races in that fire and I just… I ignored it when I heard people on the first floor who could still be saved. There was no one in the main lobby area of the first floor, not even people working. The staff had already left… I think they knew what was about to happen so they probably just left ahead of time, I guess? But… There were two people on the first floor; I couldn’t even hear their heartbeats clearly because of the fire, but I could hear their screaming… and I heard it stop. Two of them who… who… w-who…”

“It’s alright, Ajax, it’s just… Take it slow, Ajax. I’m going to be listening here regardless of what you say.”

“It was… it was a kid…”

Shaula’s face darkens. She grits her teeth in anger.

“The kid’s dad or grandpa or whoever c-couldn’t even jump out the window, he had a cane and he looked old… He tried to get his kid out but… the smoke got too thick… and by the time I got to the room, the guy was already burned to death and… the kid… maybe five years old was… was…”

Ajax couldn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t need to finish it for Shaula to understand the depth of the wounds to his soul. He starts sobbing. He doesn’t stop for several minutes. Shaula holds him in her arms, while gently stroking his hair.

“Shaula. It was all caused by one man who… tried to escape with his shitty fucking life! I need to… I need to find him. I remember his smell. I’m going to find him!”

~

“I’m not going to say the details out loud but… Ilna killed innocent people in order to escape with his life… It isn’t very important that you know of his vile actions beyond that much, Jem. It’s only important that he realizes that those actions are why we’ve come for him. All that I’ll say is that we probably just saved your life by separating the two of you.”

Ajax refuses to mention exactly the evil that Ilna has committed. But… he mentions just enough for Jem to turn towards Ilna in disgust. The reason why Jem was taken from Ilna.

Ilna isn’t unaware of what Ajax is mentioning. Obviously he remembers. The fact that he set their battlefield on fire in order to escape to fight another day.

People probably died in that, he was counting on the threat of such an outcome at least to force Ajax to turn his attention away. Perhaps one of the whores under his protection had died in that fire?

Ajax separated Jem from Ilna because Ilna could have taken her hostage to force Ajax and the woman referred to as Shaula to retreat. Ilna bites his lip in frustration. As if the two situations are even comparable!

In that inn, most of the guests except for the staff were beastkin.

Ilna’s expression turns cold towards Ajax. Ajax would assume that Ilna would do something like use a human being as a shield, especially the woman that he was about to share his bed with? How absurd… His role as a holy knight has always been to safeguard the human race.

He would knowingly threaten the life of an innocent human, rather, his current lover, to escape? Ludicrous.

Shaula sees his expression of contempt towards Ajax. Her eyes narrow.

“What’s with that face? You would dare to look at Ajax with such an ugly expression?”

In a quick motion, Shaula grabs Ilna, currently standing, by the back of his neck and forces him to the ground.

“Can I hurt him, Ajax?”

“No, not yet. I just want to ask Jem a few questions first. Jem, when you came home with Ilna, did you come because you wanted to or because he... forced you to?”

Ilna grits his teeth on the ground. Shaula looks at him and for a brief moment her eyes shine with a red fire. Jem speaks,

“H-He was kind to me and protected me from t-two men at the bar I worked at… Are you sure you have the right person? He doesn’t sound like the kind of man who would… do something like that.”

“Yes, there’s no doubt. I wouldn’t forget the face of the man who hit me with a lightning bolt.”

A lightning bolt. When Ilna had displayed his power to her, Jem had seen a spark hit close to those two men. A lightning bolt sounds to her like what’s thrown to the ground from thunderclouds…

“L-Lightning--”

“Forget it, it's not important. So… you were nice to her? You seduced her with a display of your strength and ‘kindness’, I guess? Just getting on with your life after what you did…”

“I merely won her over with my blameless personality, that’s all, son.”

A nonchalant yet pompous response from Ilna while being pinned on the floor. Shaula frowns at Ilna as his eyes stare at Ajax. Has he already accepted his inevitable death? Is he just trying to make it quicker, less painless?

She expected something less boring, something more satisfying; she had hoped that, through Ilna’s death, Ajax could find some closure.

“Why are you here? You have me in your grasp now. I’ve been captured by your woman. Where’s my death?”

Ajax holds his own head in his hands covering his face as he sits on the couch next to Jem. Jem looks at him with concern mixed with fear. Ajax is trembling with… sadness.

Why did he come here? In truth, Ajax had wanted to confirm something. That’s why Ajax didn’t confront Ilna right after their battle. Ajax has been following Ilna’s activities on and off for the past few days.

It wasn’t a pure waste of time, however, because as a result, Ajax and Shaula learned of the man who rules the underworld. They heard the conversation that Ilna and that man had about the two of them.

Moreover, they learned the deeper connection between the organized crime of Linis and the state itself.

Such a thing wasn’t that surprising to Shaula who has seen events like this throughout history but it can be supposed that reading about something in books is different from seeing it in real life.

Shaula wasn’t able to find the scent of the person of interest himself but she obtained enough smells to be able to track his associates and closest underlings.

People who she could force to talk, should the need arise, to find out the details of the Linis underworld…

This night however is the moment of truth for Ajax. He had wanted to see up close and personal the life of a man who would perpetrate such a heinous action without thinking twice about it. What did he wish to learn in the end?

Regardless of what it was, Ajax didn’t learn it. In the end, his hatred only increased as he noticed Ilna walk around the city with impunity after having burned a father and child to death.

“I’m here to… to see if… no. In all honesty, I’ve learned nothing of value about your ugly soul. I’m just here to kill you to see if it makes me feel better.”

“Oh… How childish you are… Then, go on. Just kill me and spare me your moralizing…”

Ajax feels anger well up from within his heart.

“Moralizing? A kid died in that fire, you piece of shit!”

Jem looks over at Ilna and gasps. Ilna disregards her reaction.

“A beastkin, right? They were all beastkin in an inn like that… Who cares? Can you stop being such a baby about it?”

“Ajax, can I hurt him or not?”

Shaula pushes Ilna’s face further into the ground of his home. Jem looks at Ilna for a second as she considers what he has done. He’s killed beastkin children. In truth, Jem has been raised to value the abolition of demihuman slavery as a morally righteous deed.

But, she still views Ajax with fear. People who take justice into their own hands aren’t very different from the people who commit acts of violence in the first place; such is her belief…

Violence is wrong, isn’t it? Isn’t revenge an ugly thing that people in a civilized society should put behind them? Isn’t it true that it doesn’t pay to seek revenge and only ends up hurting oneself?

Ajax stands up from the sofa. He paces back and forth thinking about what he expects from this confrontation. Then… he notices the portrait on the wall displaying Ilna’s family.

The father in the painting doesn’t look very much like Ilna so Ajax assumes that Ilna must be one of the young smiling boys. Ilna is a sentimental person it seems, at least about his family.

“This picture here… Your family, I guess, right?”

“So what?”

“Oh, just curious.”

Ajax reaches his fingers to touch the surface of the painting. His index finger touches the surface of the painting and in an instant, a layer of frost forms on the picture. The painting cannot be seen behind all of the ice right now.

Then, Ajax shatters this solid piece of ice, resulting in the complete destruction of the painting. Jem holds her breath as she looks at a brief display of Ajax’s abilities.

Ilna grits his teeth in anger and resentment. He has very few sentimental objects related to his family. The portrait was one of his most important…

“Did that make you feel better, boy? What did that accomplish, huh? Do you feel better seeing my suffering”

Ajax ignores his question but sees the anger in his face.

“Shaula, get off of him.”

Shaula moves off of Ilna’s back. He immediately rises to his feet and takes a familiar stance. Ajax has seen a glimpse of this in their previous battle.

“Birliu Carthrer: Cloud Speed!!”

While Ilna was being pinned by Shaula, he had simply been gathering mana in preparation for an opening. This is probably his best chance! Jem retreats from the bright appearance of Ilna as his body radiates a strong lightning armour surrounding his entire physical form.

He grabs a small knife from his right pant pocket.

He thrusts at Ajax with the knife in his right hand, aiming for Ajax’s left eye. His physical movements and motor skills are enhanced by the raw power of Cloud Speed but…

“Nice try.”

Ajax grabs Ilna’s right forearm with his left hand, stopping the thrust of his knife. Ajax squeezes with all of his might.

“NNNNNN!!!”

Ilna tries to stop himself from screaming at the pain of his forearm being mashed by Ajax’s left hand. Ilna realizes that Ajax has only gotten stronger since their fight just a week ago.

He kneels on the ground and holds his left arm with his right while trying as hard as he could to not look at it; for it was the ugly result of Ajax’s exertion of power.

Ajax stands over Ilna’s face. He wishes to remove each of Ilna’s limb piece by piece and torture him to death. He wishes to force Ilna to run after he shatters his kneecaps. He wishes for all manner of horrible torment, the things he imagines demons in hell would do to Judas.

All manner of ugly vile revenge.

Ajax stops. He realizes the dangerous way he’s thinking. Is he really about to torture and kill another human being?

D-Does anyone deserve that? Torture is wrong. He’s believed this for a long time. The dignity of the individual is crushed when they’re subjected to inhuman levels of pain, right?

It would… it would not be… it would not be the right thing to do. This course of action would not be the--

“Ajax.”

“...Huh? What is it, Shaula?”

“You know I love you, right?”

“...I love you too, Shaula.”

“Why do you think I love you?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“What about you do I love?”

“Uh… My sense of right and wrong? The fact that I’m a good person… Me being your friend for so long?”

“Yeah, all of that. That’s why I love you.”

“...I see. Alright, Shaula... I’ll--”

“Do it.”

A clear, crisp indication of Shaula’s true heart. A heart that she doesn’t like to show often to Ajax but a heart that he has nonetheless been fully aware of for quite a while now. He looks at her with an expression of confusion at her true thoughts.

“Huh?”

“I can read your face, moron. You’re… You’re thinking of all that you want to do to him before you kill him, right?”

“...What are… I mean, yeah, I-I was just thinking some stupid thoughts, that’s all but... but--”

Ajax looks at Ilna who looks at him with only fear now. Jem looks at Shaula. She initially had more fear for Ajax who held her with such strength, who displayed unarguable power, yet now…

“Ajax. You’re a good person. And I will always love you for how you treat those who can do nothing for you, how you treat the innocent, the powerless, the weak… Isn’t that the mark of a good person after all? But…”

Shaula looks at Ilna with coldness. A coldness emblematic of death itself.

“Ajax. This man is not innocent, he’s not powerless and he hasn’t been weak until he came to face us. He is our enemy. A monster. A demon wearing human skin. Nothing less than that is this man who killed a child trying to save his own pathetic life!”

“Shaula?”

“He’s worthless, Ajax! No family. No reason for living besides making the world worse for non-human races. No worth! You heard him in that fucking place, right? Wanting to serve Rurik or whoever? What is this fucking piece of shit worthy of serving, of protecting, of supporting!?”

“Sh-Shaula--”

“Ajax, wait, just listen. You and I both know that if he doesn’t face punishment here, he’ll never face it. You don’t believe in hell. You don’t believe in karma. You know what you believe in? You believe in being a good person to try to make this world a better place. But this man dying a painless death? There is no value in that. Kill him while making him feel the pain those two felt at the moment of their deaths. You can do that and I’ll still love you. I promise that if you do that, I’ll still love you with all of my heart. I’ll still value every moment we continue to spend together. I’ll still hold you close to me and be with you in your sadness and happiness! I won’t leave you. I won’t let anything take you away from me.”

Ajax looks at Shaula as she smiles towards him. Ajax knows. This is Shaula’s true heart. At this moment, he can see her. He can see her kind eyes reflecting an abyss. An abyss of hatred and pain that has already long since swallowed her soul.

And yet…

“Do it, Ajax. It’s not wrong to punish the wicked.”

Ajax reaches for Ilna’s face. With his right hand, he touches Ilna’s left cheek. Ilna tries to bat his hand away with his left hand but as soon as his left hand makes contact with Ajax’s skin, his forearm, almost up to his left elbow, freezes solid.

Ilna screams.

As Ajax holds Ilna’s left cheek, he freezes the surface of his cheek, his teeth, his jaw and his nose. Then Ajax slaps his face.

Ilna screams again in a much cruder manner as his jaw flies to his right, leaves his head entirely.

Ajax then proceeds to use his right index finger to puncture Ilna’s left shoulder, straight through Ilna’s rotator cuff. He does the same for Ilna’s right shoulder, just for the sake of symmetry.

Ajax then cuts off Ilna’s lower legs below the knee, using only pure physical strength rather than simply freezing them off. Blood pours from Ilna’s legs profusely.

Ajax’s actions only become more and more crazed from there. He acts out his revenge. Every bit of hatred he has felt since arriving to this place, to the world of Omicron itself, he lets loose on Ilna’s body. Ilna continues to scream louder and louder.

Ilna had not underestimated Ajax’s capacity for cruelty. He had, however, been unaware of the person who loves him. The person who he views as most important, who guides the fate of his soul. The woman who is his dark side and his light.

Ilna feels Ajax perform all manner of torment upon his body. What has he done to deserve this? Why would the divine Sapiora allow him to die this way?

Due to his tremendous vitality as a former holy knight, he remains alive and conscious through all of it. Then finally… Ajax speaks to Ilna his final words

“You've robbed people of their lives. I’m sure you’ve done it countless times before. You tried to hurt Hila. You ended up killing people and in the end you showed no remorse at all!”

Ilna sees the angry face of Ajax as he releases every last ounce of his blood lust, his sadness, his pain, his hatred in this ritual of cruelty. Tears are shed on his visage while an odd peaceful smile appears on his face.

Ajax has felt his heart wring itself clean of all impurities as he takes part in the complete destruction of this evil man.

Shaula looks upon Ajax’s work and smiles. She truly believes that this is what Ajax needs to find closure. Anything less than this is… meaningless. He won’t obtain closure by forgiving this man. He won’t find closure by giving this man a painless death.

How empty are the demises of those who died never having faced the punishment for their sins?

Ajax performs his last punishment. He pierces Ilna’s chest with his right hand. He grabs hold of Ilna’s now weakly beating heart. He pulls it out of his chest to show Ilna the moment of Ilna’s certain demise.

Ajax freezes Ilna’s heart before his eyes, one of which has been gouged out already.

Ilna dies, having received the pain he is entitled to.

Ajax then freezes solid Ilna’s corpse and smashes it across the floor of Ilna’s home, turning it into nothing more than powder.

Having seen the end of Ilna and the rebirth of Ajax into a new being through this hellish crucible, Shaula walks towards Jem. Jem is currently covering her eyes and ears and sits in a ball on Ilna’s sofa while trying as hard as she can to not look at… what Ajax had been doing.

Shaula looks at Jem’s face and says,

“I’m sorry you had to see that but… he’s been through a lot and he really needed an outlet to deal with it. You can leave now, we’ll be burning this place down soon. Oh but, don’t tell anyone you saw us; I remember your smell now and I can track you down.”

Jem understands that this is the best opportunity for her to leave and so she departs. Ajax doesn’t even notice her leave.

Then, Shaula touches Ajax’s right shoulder. She is right; he feels… at the very least, not any worse for doing this than before. He just feels like he can move forward now.

An evil man died tonight after receiving everything that was coming to him.