The specter of Ethan’s past stared at him in horror as his hand swept down.
The next instant, a scream of pure terror tore from its throat.
"NO! AAAAAAGH!"
POOF.
A plu of gray-black smoke burst from its right leg. At the sa ti, Ethan’s true form completed a clean, decisive chopping motion across his own right calf. A section of flesh, shimring with bloody red energy, separated instantly and dissolved into crimson mist.
Ethan’s body jerked violently in midair, yet a savage grin split his face.
"I can’t kill you," he rasped. "But I can sure as hell take you with ."
In that mont, he looked more demonic than the Heart-Devil itself. His madness was sharper, more deliberate, stripped of hesitation.
"No! You can’t! You’ll die too!" the specter shrieked, its voice breaking as it shifted from torntor to desperate supplicant.
"Then I die!" Ethan roared. "Better that than letting you out to hurt the people I care about. And you know what? I should thank you."
His hand fell again.
CRUNCH.
His left leg vanished in another eruption of bloody vapor. His body pitched wildly, then steadied, suspended in the empty air as if held together by sheer will alone.
"I thank you... for showing my true path..."
His hand swept across his left shoulder. The entire arm detached at the root and dissolved before it could fall.
The specter wailed, spewing curses and pleas in equal asure, but Ethan did not react. His voice was calm now, almost reflective, even as he dismantled himself piece by piece.
"Now I finally understand the road I walk. It’s a road of slaughter, but one paved with love. I can kill the heavens, kill the earth, even kill myself. But the people beside ? No one touches them. So you’re coming with ."
He raised his last remaining limb, his right arm, high above his head. A final, raw roar tore from his throat, the scene so brutally final it bordered on the unbearable.
"NOOOO!" the specter scread, lunging forward in blind, primal fear.
Ethan’s roar collapsed into two final words.
"Soul Technique... Soul Detonation!"
BOOM.
BOOM-BOOM.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
From the stumps of his legs upward, Ethan’s torso erupted in a chain of violent, blood-red explosions, as if charges had been planted deep within his very essence. Each detonation tore him apart further, yet his expression never wavered.
The charging specter mirrored him perfectly, its own form bursting apart in plus of greasy gray-black smoke.
"Past life... goodbye forever."
"This life... see you soon."
As the remnants of the specter closed to within two steps, Ethan’s remaining head, his face twisted into a bitter, rueful smile, spoke a final farewell to both the ghost he had been and the man he would beco.
KABOOM.
The two remaining heads, one crimson and one charcoal, shattered at the sa instant.
Tendrils of blood-red energy and rivers of gray-black mist twisted together for a brief, chaotic heartbeat before dispersing into nothingness within the endless, silent world of fla.
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
The fiery realm shuddered violently. The inferno dimd, flas guttering and collapsing inward until only consuming darkness remained.
---
At the Blackfin rcenary camp, Blackie, Micah, and Victor sat together in the central compound, feasting on freshly roasted ga that glistened with savory juices.
Micah ate neatly, each bite precise and asured. Victor had an entire spit-roasted hare laid out before him but barely touched it, choosing instead to nurse a bottle of ice-cold beer. He had to give Blackfin credit. The man knew how to live. In the middle of a tropical jungle, he had sohow constructed a proper ice pit, not a modern freezer, but an old-fashioned insulated chamber packed with massive blocks of ice acquired at trendous cost. The sheer thermal mass kept it frigid for weeks. It was Blackfin’s personal treasure vault, reserved for chilled waterlon and, more importantly, beer. In this suffocating jungle heat, that first swallow of icy bitterness felt like salvation.
Blackie, however, was an experience all his own.
He ate thodically, bite by bite, yet the thod was horrifying. A freshly roasted wild bird, closer in size to a small turkey, had been placed in front of him. Without hesitation, he tore off a drumstick and then shoved the rest of the bird into his mouth in one smooth motion. His jaw unhinged, his mouth stretching impossibly wide before snapping back to normal. His cheeks bulged as he chewed with evident satisfaction.
Victor and Micah did not react.
The surrounding rcenaries, on the other hand, collectively broke into cold sweats.
’What the hell is that thing? Man or beast? Does it eat people?’
Blackfin himself had been hovering nervously nearby. When Blackie began licking grease from his fingers, Blackfin stumbled backward in shock, his heel catching against Victor’s leg. Victor reached out and steadied him.
"Th-thanks," Blackfin said, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Don’t worry. Sit," Victor replied, gesturing beside him. "Ignore him."
Blackfin shot another fearful glance at Blackie.
"It’s fine," Victor added calmly.
After a mont’s hesitation, Blackfin edged over and sat down. Victor, a forr special forces operator, knew the man’s background well. US descent, dark na, darker reputation, but with one unbreakable line. Blackfin had abandoned contracts and paid crushing penalties rather than target people of US origin. The Mirage incident had been the lone exception, forced by sheer survival against an enemy he could not hope to overco.
Victor had once romanticized this life. If not for eting Ethan, he and Williams would likely still be out here. In Ethan’s original tiline, that was exactly how it played out. Williams died young. Victor survived longer, but his end was no kinder. The money had been good, but every mission was a blade pressed to the throat. Now, with a wife who loved him and brothers who still breathed, those old fantasies felt empty. He was content to let them remain fantasies.
As Blackfin settled beside him, Victor struck up casual conversation. Blackfin dealt in guns and soldiers, not drugs, another mark in his favor. In the US military intelligence files, Blackfin was rated SSS-Class, flagged as a potentially alignable asset. Their exchange was polite, almost relaxed, though Victor could feel the tension coiled beneath the rcenary king’s composure.
Victor was just about to raise his bottle in a conciliatory toast when a sharp, piercing scream ripped through the jungle night.
It ca from the room where Ethan and Rainie were staying.
"ETHAN! What’s happening?! Don’t you scare like this!"
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