AKIHIRO ATLAS
The moment I walked away from Shu, I didn't hesitate. Because I knew that if I stayed there even a second longer, I'd start replaying his words over and over in my mind. And there are some words… that grow heavier the more you think about them. What I needed right now, however, wasn't to think, but to act.
When my body was torn apart by lightning once more, the world around me instantly lost its shape. As the night air flowed over me, the city lights turned into thin lines, and the boundary between sky and earth blurred. Every moment I moved, the electricity emanating from my body left fleeting trails in the darkness; as if the places I passed through remembered me for a split second before sinking back into silence.
But my mind…
My mind was focused on a single place for the first time.
The team building—my home.
Perhaps technically, it wasn't a "home." The concept of a "nuclear family" didn't exist there. Yet, there was a sense of family warmth; perhaps there were no childhood memories, no peaceful mornings. But sometimes, a person feels a sense of belonging to a place not because they're happy there… but because they've left pieces of themselves there, and because there are people there whom they cherish more than themselves and wish to protect. And I had left far too many pieces of myself and far too many people I loved more than myself inside that building.
My journey took longer than I'd anticipated. When I electrified my body, I was faster than everyone in the cellar.
The Cistern structure was divided into 13 distinct zones. Each team, numbered from zero to eleven, had been assigned a specific zone. There was a thirteenth region as well, one we couldn't access. This area was independent of the teams. I don't know exactly what it was for. These regions, however, were placed within some mini-universes created by our Second Founder inside the Sacred Domain known as the Cistern. Each general was required to protect and govern the region and people of their team's building.
Traveling from one pocket universe to another was possible via portals built by Team 0 in the past. I focused my lightning-transformed body directly on the portal, and after a journey that lasted several minutes, I used the portal to reach my region without the guards even noticing.
Oh, right… The administrators must have seen this.
As we approached sunset, I finally saw the building.
I could recognize it even from a distance.
That structure rising in the air as the sun's orange glow enveloped Cistern… it was an image I had replayed in my mind countless times over the past three years. I remembered the placement of the windows, the turns of the corridors, even which lights stayed on at what time. People only memorize such details for places they long for.
I slowed my pace.
As the lightning faded from my body, I quietly approached one of the upper floors of the building. When I saw the open window, an involuntary feeling welled up inside me—a familiar sense of relief. It was as if the building hadn't completely alienated itself from me yet.
I slipped inside silently.
The moment my feet touched the floor…
Something changed.
It was hard to explain.
But when you return to a place you've been away from for a long time, your body remembers before you do. The smells… the sounds… even the weight of the air feels familiar. That faint, old-metal scent in the hallway, the hum of the electrical systems in the distance, that strange silence that spreads throughout the building at night… it was all the same.
And this sameness…
It hurt me.
Because time had passed.
But this place felt as if it had been waiting for me.
I made my way through the hallways unseen. My steps were light, but the feeling inside me grew heavier. Every corner summoned another memory. Arguments. Orders. Reports that never ended at midnight. People lost. People saved. And the small, meaningless moments caught in between…
Sometimes, it's those meaningless moments you miss the most.
Finally, I reached the door to my room.
I paused. Because this room had truly… not been used for three years.
My hand lingered on the door for a few seconds.
This… wasn't fear.
But it was something similar.
Because returning to certain places is harder than one might think. Especially if that place still recognizes you.
I opened the door.
And I stepped inside.
The room…
It was exactly as I remembered it.
It was small. It was unassuming. It was the exact opposite of the grandeur people typically associate with a general's office. There were no expensive furnishings, no giant screens, and no immaculate order here. It looked more like… the room of a young man who had forgotten how to live while working.
The blanket on the bed was slightly askew; it looked as if no one had made the bed after a rushed morning. Report papers were pinned to some parts of the walls. Most had curled edges, and the ink on some notes had faded over time. In one corner of the room, files were piled one on top of another; some had fallen to the floor, others remained open. Dozens of documents were scattered across the desk—mission reports, coordinates, half-finished analyses, scribbled notes…
And amidst all this chaos…
There was a strange warmth.
Because this mess wasn't artificial.
This room wasn't trying to look "perfect."
This room… had been lived in.
I stepped inside slowly. I ran my fingers along the edge of the desk. A thin layer of dust was noticeable… it was almost too clean for three years. I'm sure Aurelia must have had this place dusted every now and then.
Exactly three years had passed.
But it felt like it had been much longer.
I pulled the chair back slightly and sat down. My eyes drifted to the underside of the desk.
There it was.
The secret chest.
From the outside, it was hidden behind what looked like an ordinary drawer mechanism. It looked so plain that no one would pay it any mind. But I… the moment I looked at it, I felt a weight in my chest.
The necklace resting on my chest, the necklace with the lightning bolt symbol… Actually, it was a key to that box. I had promised myself I'd open it again when I needed to be happiest.
Because inside that box weren't just things.
There were memories.
And when a person can't carry certain memories with them… they bury them somewhere.
This was the place I'd buried them.
I gently placed my hand on the compartment where the box was, but I didn't open it. I just held it there for a while.
"I don't even know why it's so important to me…" I thought silently.
But actually, I knew.
Because when a person starts losing everything, they cling to some small things. Not because they make sense… but because they feel like if they lose them, a part of themselves will be missing too.
That trunk…
It carried the weight of the things I didn't want to forget.
And perhaps that's why, even though I'd traveled all over the world for three years, the reason I felt like I'd truly come back… was that the trunk was still here.
I leaned my head back slowly.
I looked around the room again.
And the first clear thought that crossed my mind was:
"I really… missed this place."
Still, the place I needed to visit to ease my longing wasn't my room. Since I didn't have much time, I had to see what I needed to see first. Besides, I'll be spending plenty of time in my room again in the future.
After all, that's the perk of being alone.
As I slowly closed my bedroom door behind me, the silence of the hallway settled over me once more. The familiar warmth I'd felt inside gave way to something else within a few seconds—a sharper, more tense feeling. Because returning to a place doesn't just bring back one's longing… it also brings the things left unfinished. The dim lights in the hallway cast long shadows on the floor. Some of the white ceiling lights flickered, and the deep, mechanical hum of the old electrical system echoed throughout the entire floor. This place had never been a peaceful one. The office building was like a living organism; a structure that never fully slept, even at night, carrying the echo of constant movement within its walls.
I started walking.
My steps were steady, but my mind wasn't as calm. I was thinking about who I should talk to first. If I went down to the lobby, everyone would probably be there, I thought to myself. Voices, arguments, laughter… maybe for the first time in three years, I'd truly feel like I'd "come home." But no.
I had to see him first.
The moment that thought formed in my mind, no other option remained. But I decided the best course of action was to see my older brother first, and then head down to the lobby—the room where almost everyone was likely to be.
As I made my way toward the end of the hallway, the tension in my body grew. I knew it wasn't fear, but it wasn't complete ease either. Because there are some people; no matter how well you know them, you can never fully predict how the moment of meeting them will go. Especially if time, war, and silence have come between you.
I stopped in front of his door. I hesitated a bit before entering. After all, Mizu… Ah… Mizu. Yes.
The door didn't look any different from the others. The same dark metal, the same scratches, the same hard surface. But the moment I looked at that door, I felt the weight of the past. Countless conversations, arguments, training, orders… they all piled up in my mind for a moment.
I raised my hand and knocked on the door twice.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound echoed down the hallway and faded away.
"It's me," I said afterward, my voice calm but firm. "Aki."
A second passed.
Then a second more.
And right at the third second…
The door didn't open.
The door burst open.
The metal surface didn't bend inward—it flew outward. In that moment, my reflexes acted faster than my thoughts because what I sensed wasn't just a physical attack; it was a force carrying a direct intent to kill.
A massive spear descended upon me from the darkness.
It was so huge that it made the corridor feel narrower. Dark red energy pulsed like veins along the spear's black metal shaft, and the pressure radiating from its tip physically warped the air. The attack would have reached me in less than half a second.
My body instinctively jerked to the side.
The moment the spear passed just a few inches in front of my face, the wall behind me shattered.
The explosion shook the entire floor.
The pressure from the flying concrete and metal debris flung my hair backward. The corridor lights flickered simultaneously. And in the midst of that destruction, I saw him.
My older brother, Mizu.
He was standing between the shattered doorframe. His shoulders were tense. His breathing was irregular. But the most terrifying thing was the expression on his face. Because this wasn't pure rage. This… was something that had been suppressed for two months, now erupting uncontrollably.
"Brother—"
He didn't let me finish my sentence.
The second attack came even harder than the first.
The moment he gripped the spear with both hands and sliced horizontally across the entire corridor, the air screamed. The force was so immense that the attack wasn't merely physical; the walls began to crack before the impact even occurred.
I transformed into lightning.
As my body shattered into red light, the attack completely obliterated the area I passed through. One side of the corridor collapsed, the floor split open, and the alarm systems activated instantly. Red lights began to flash.
By the time I reformed, my instincts had completely taken over.
Red electrical waves erupted around my right hand.
"Sentry!"
As lightning coursed through my arm, my spear materialized in my palm. A slender yet deadly weapon. It looked lighter next to my brother's massive spear, but the energy within it was enough to sharpen the air in the corridor.
And in the next second, we collided.
The first contact of our spears…
It felt less like a collision and more like two disasters grinding against each other. If we'd stayed like that for just a few seconds. We could have shattered the entire building.
The sound that erupted wasn't the clang of metal. It was more like the explosion of compressed energy. The moment the energy from my brother's black lightning and my own dark red lightning collided, the pressure wave shattered the corridor's windows simultaneously. The metal plates on the floor buckled beneath our feet.
My arms instantly felt the pressure.
My brother was still terrifyingly powerful.
The weight of his spear wasn't just physical; with every strike, it felt as though his entire body was bearing down on me. My feet gouged into the floor as I slid backward. Sparks flew from the metal floor as I was dragged backward.
But I didn't back down. He was swinging his spear repeatedly and with great force, and as our spears clashed, defending myself grew even harder. He was far superior to me in physical strength.
I twisted my spear to deflect his pressure to the side and immediately launched a counterattack. Lightning spread down the corridor. The energy erupting from the tip of my spear struck directly at his shoulder.
He stopped the attack without even moving.
With one hand. As if I'd thrown a toy at his head.
The force of the collision caused the walls to crack again.
And in the next instant, he hurled me straight to the end of the corridor.
When my back hit the wall, the concrete crumbled. A cloud of dust rose into the air. My breath was taken away, but the moment I hit the ground, I lunged forward again because I knew that even a single second's hesitation while fighting him meant death.
The corridor had turned into a battlefield.
Cables were hanging from the ceiling, and red alarm lights were flashing intermittently through the dust cloud. Every spear clash created new destruction. Deep cracks were splitting open in the walls, and the floor was shattering beneath our feet.
But the most terrifying thing…
Was that my brother wouldn't stop.
Every attack was real.
Every blow was enough to kill.
The moment he brought his spear down from above, I had to block the strike. Our weapons clashed, and the floor collapsed completely.
We both fell to the lower floor together.
But even as we fell, we didn't stop attacking.
As we spun through the air, our spears clashed again and again. Blue lightning split the darkness and spread out, and his red energy made the air tremble with every strike.
For a split second, I saw his face clearly.
And in that moment, I understood.
The reason for this attack wasn't hatred.
It was fear and longing.
The uncontrollable fear born of having lost me for two months, of thinking I wouldn't return, and of suddenly seeing me standing before him.
But realizing this… didn't lessen the blows.
Because he was still attacking.
And I was still trying not to die.
In the final clash, our spears locked together.
We were face to face. At the same time, we were eye to eye.
As our energies pressed against each other, the walls around us shattered. Our eyes met fully for the first time.
And in that moment…
My brother stopped.
He really did stop. So I eased up on my grip on the spear, reducing the force of my counter.
The pressure on his spear eased as well. He wasn't pushing as hard as he had at first. In fact, he had slowly let go.
His breathing became irregular.
And the expression on his face finally became fully clear.
It wasn't anger. It was pain.
For a moment, I thought about the last things Magnus had said to me.
Truth be told… My brother suffering was the most normal thing in this universe.
Pure, suppressed, heart-wrenching pain.
"You've gotten stronger, you brat!" he shouted, and as he suddenly pulled his spear back, I was slammed to the ground.
"Damn it, you stupid Mizu! You moron Mizu!" I tried to get up slowly, but as I pulled myself up from the ground, he kicked me hard in the back with his foot, and I crashed back down.
"You'll call me 'big brother,' you little moron!"
My brother was always like this. Ever since we were kids, he's always tried to use the age difference against me—I hate this situation…
Meanwhile, I'm lying face-down on the ground right now.
"Big bro, pull your foot off so I can get up," I tried to say.
From the way he scowled and the irritating sound of his breath spreading around, I could tell he was annoyed with me, but after a while, he actually lifted his foot off me, and I jumped to my feet in a flash.
"Ugh… Now we'll have to spend the team budget to fix everything…" I said with a scowling expression.
"You see your brother after all these years, and you're still thinking about the team building, you idiot?!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, nearly bursting my eardrums. I tried to shield my ears in pain, but I had to admit he was right.
Then, I turned my head and looked at him carefully while I could still see him clearly.
Because sometimes, people carry others only as they remember them. The image in your mind remains fixed; even as time passes, you feel as though that person hasn't changed. But when they stand before you… you realize the truth is heavier than your memory.
My brother was still incredibly imposing.
As the red lights of the hallway hit his face, his light-blond hair glowed in the darkness like a faint flame. His hair was longer than before; it was messy, but not in a natural way—it looked as though it had been left untended by someone who hadn't cared for it in a long time. Thin strands fell across his face, partially shading his eyes. But those eyes…
Those eyes hadn't changed.
A sharp, heavy gaze that drew you right in.
There had always been a hardness in those pale, blue-tinged eyes, but now I saw something else beneath that hardness. Weariness. And worse… the suppressed fragility of a person afraid of losing.
His face still looked young, but this youth was not peaceful. It was more like the way war freezes a person's age. The hardness at the edge of his jaw, the faint shadows under his eyes, and the constant state of alertness in his expression… all of these made him seem heavier than he actually was.
The armor he wore shifted between deep midnight blue and black under the corridor's red lights. The intricately crafted metal layers fit his body perfectly, but this was not armor made to look stylish; it was designed directly for battle. The thick fur layer on his shoulders made him look even larger than he was. That dark blue cloak stretched all the way to the floor of the shattered corridor, trailing behind him like a shadow as he moved. And the most striking thing about this entire sight…
Was the weight he carried.
Unlike his strength, this weight wasn't physical.
It was the weight of his presence, my brother.
My brother filled the space around him. It was as if the corridor was narrowing around him. When people looked at him, they didn't notice his weapon, his armor, or his strength first. First… they felt his presence.
Even the massive spear in his hand seemed like a part of him. The red energy coursing through its black metal shaft was no longer as aggressive as before, but it was still alive; it was as if the weapon itself carried its owner's emotions. His fingers gripped the spear's shaft so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
And then…
My gaze returned to his face.
For the first time, I realized he had truly stopped.
That aggression was gone.
In its place… there was a silence that seeped into one's very being.
The way he watched me had changed. He wasn't looking at me like an enemy anymore. He was looking at me as if trying to believe I was really standing before him.
And in that moment, I understood.
The reason he attacked the moment he opened the door wasn't anger.
It was because he thought he'd lost me.
Perhaps he'd spent the past three years trying to convince himself I wouldn't return. And now, standing before him… his body had acted before his mind could accept it.
When that thought settled in, I slowly lowered my spear.
But I couldn't take my eyes off him.
Because no matter how much time had passed… when I saw him, I still felt the same thing:
The person standing before me wasn't just my brother.
He was my first hero.
"Well, you've been staring for so long. What did you find now?" he asked with a sharp, expectant tone.
"You've gotten old."
I took a hard punch right in the face.
"Damn brat!"
It hurts… I was pinned against the wall, and we'd just damaged another floor's wall.
My older brother is known as the strongest person in Cistern when it comes to physical strength. He also works as a detective and is pretty good at his job. I'd say he's solved every case in the Cellar.
So if he beat me up with those punches of his, I'd tell him everything I know.
I managed to get back on my feet, barely.
"Anyway, hmph. I'm going to check on the rest of the team—"
I tried to keep my voice especially soft as I said this. Because if I stayed here for even a few more seconds, I felt the weight of what had just happened would completely crush both of us. The hallway was still half-collapsed; pieces of metal torn from the ceiling were falling sporadically to the floor, and red emergency lights flickered dimly between the cracked walls. The smell of ozone in the air had grown stronger. The energy left behind by our lightning hadn't fully dissipated yet, and in the midst of all this chaos… there was a strange unease inside me.
Because seeing him like that…
Had shaken me more than I'd expected.
So I turned around and started walking away.
But I could only take a single step. I was suddenly forced to stop.
In an instant, I was yanked roughly by the arm.
My reflexes were about to kick in, but my body wouldn't move. Because I recognized that touch.
And in the next second…
My brother's arms wrapped around me.
Time truly stood still.
For a few seconds, I even forgot to breathe.
Mizu's arms were clasped so tightly around my back that it felt as if he feared I'd vanish the moment he let go. The instant I felt that massive warrior's body tremble, something inside me shattered. He'd pressed my head directly against his chest. The fact that the man who had just torn the hallway to shreds was now holding me like this… was an image my mind struggled to accept.
And then I realized.
He was truly trembling. This massive, imposing, and powerful warrior was truly trembling.
It wasn't a tremor left over from anger.
This… was the fear he'd suppressed for three years finally spilling out of his body.
The silence stretched on.
But that silence wasn't empty.
It held years within it.
It held sleepless nights.
It held the fear of loss.
And worst of all… it held a longing one had been forced to grow accustomed to. These things were real for both of us.
When Mizu finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. I'd heard it countless times throughout my life—giving orders, fighting, shouting, laughing… but I was hearing it like this for the first time. A tone of voice where a person had exhausted all their strength and was speaking solely with their heart.
"You…" she said slowly, as if the words were catching in her throat, "are truly the world's most foolish brother, Aki."
My lips parted slightly, but I couldn't reply.
Because his voice…
It was tearing me apart.
"Three years," he continued. "For three whole years, I heard nothing from you."
His arms tightened around me a little more.
"Do you know what people told me?" He lifted his head slightly, but his eyes still weren't looking directly at me. "They said you were dead. They said you'd gone missing on duty. Some even… told me I should stop waiting for you. It's true that your deployment duration wasn't disclosed, but… still, those things scared me."
Her breathing became irregular.
"In the end, I never gave up."
The break in her voice as she said that… settled right in the center of my chest.
"Because you've always been the one who comes back, ever since you were little." A small, pained smile formed at the corners of her lips. "No matter how much of a pain you were… no matter how lost you got… no matter how badly you were hurt… you always came back. I'd gotten used to that, Aki. I'd gotten used to protecting you."
He closed her eyes.
"And then…" he said quietly, "Shu told me again that no matter what happens on this journey you've embarked on, you'll be able to stand on your own."
In that moment… I truly felt happy. My master and my older brother never got along well. Because my older brother always saw him as a threat by my side. Even though he didn't exactly approve of us getting so close, he'd let me do as I pleased. However, hearing that my master had put my older brother at ease was heartening.
All the walls I'd been holding up inside me began to crack.
As Mizu continued speaking, his voice grew heavier and heavier. It was as if he were finally letting out everything he'd been holding inside for years.
"You know…" he said, "at first I fooled myself. 'He's on duty,' I told myself. 'He'll be back soon,' I told myself." His throat tightened. "Then months passed. Then years passed."
He pressed my head more tightly against his chest.
"And I…" he said in a much softer voice, "started walking past your room every night."
My eyes widened involuntarily.
"I knew it was silly," he continued immediately. "I knew the door wouldn't open. But I kept walking past anyway." His fingers gently squeezed the fabric on my back. "In case a voice came from inside. In case one day you'd open the door and look at me with that annoying smirk of yours."
I lifted my head slightly and saw. His lips were trembling.
"And every morning…" he said, "…that door stayed closed."
It had become hard to even breathe.
Because I was seeing him this naked for the first time.
In my eyes, Mizu had always been unshakable. As a child, he was like a wall standing before me. Maybe not the strongest person in the universe… but he was the strongest person in my universe.
To a little brother, his older brother is always his hero. To him, he is the strongest. He's the first person they look up to.
But now…
That wall standing before me was cracking.
"Do you know what the scariest part was, Aki?" he said suddenly.
This time he pulled his chest back a little, and I could see his face more clearly.
And our eyes met.
His eyes…
They looked shattered.
"At some point, I got used to being afraid of losing you."
That sentence completely shattered me.
"Do you know what that's like?" he continued, his voice now clearly trembling. "You don't forget a person. You don't stop loving them. If they're your sibling, it's even more so, because siblinghood is the one bond a person can never forget. The one bond they can never stop loving. But you make their absence a part of your daily life." There was the weight of suppressed years in his eyes. "You wake up in the morning, and you remember they're not there. You eat, and you remember they're not there. You go on a mission, you come back… and every time, your mind tells you the same thing: 'Get used to it.'"
His lips trembled.
"But I didn't want to get used to it."
My chest was burning now.
It was truly burning.
"Because you're not just my brother, Aki," he said. "You're… almost like the child I raised." He gave a brief laugh, but it was a broken one. "I remember the day I first saw you holding a spear. Falling and crying. Trying to keep up with me. Getting back up every time you were defeated…"
His eyes were welling up now. He was about to cry. It was the first time I'd seen him struggle so hard not to cry.
"And I…" he said slowly, "after watching all of that, I couldn't accept that one day you'd just quietly disappear."
I couldn't hold back anymore either.
Tears began to stream down my face. They grew heavier and faster.
Silently.
Uncontrollably. Unlike my brother, I would cry the moment my eyes welled up.
Right now, for the first time, I was truly feeling the loneliness he carried.
Mizu took a deep breath. Then he gently rested his forehead against mine.
And he spoke one last time.
"Don't ever…" he said in a hoarse voice, "don't ever make me believe my brother is dead again, Aki."
That sentence…
Weighed heavier than all the battles combined.
My shoulders trembled. I closed my eyes. I couldn't answer because my throat was tight.
But he already understood.
We stayed like that for a while longer.
Not like two warriors.
Not like a general and a lieutenant either.
Just… like two brothers afraid of losing each other.
Then Mizu slowly pulled back.
The broken expression on his face hadn't completely vanished, but he was trying to regain that familiar sternness. He placed his hand on my shoulder.
And this time, the tone in his voice was calmer.
Warmer.
"Go now," he said. "The team is waiting for you, General."
It wasn't an order.
It was… her acceptance of my return home.
I wiped my eyes. A small but genuine smile formed on my lips.
I bowed my head slightly.
"Yes," I said quietly. "I'm going."
Then I turned around.
And I began walking down the corridor.
But this time…
The loneliness I carried inside me felt a little lighter.
As I walked down the hallway, the sound of my footsteps echoed among the crumbling walls and red emergency lights, but my mind was no longer where I was; I was gazing into that silent void I had carried within me for years. People often think loneliness means having no one around them, but that's not what true loneliness is… true loneliness is burying one's pain so deep that one can't tell anyone about it, and eventually convincing oneself that this darkness is simply the natural state of things. I had been living like this for a long time. I was silently letting the things I'd lost, the fears I carried, the people who couldn't return, and the lives I couldn't save rot inside me. Because I thought I had to be strong. Because I believed a general must never break. But now I understand… what pulls a person out of the darkness is often not grand hopes or flawless ideals; it's the way someone looks at you as if they're still waiting for you to come back. Perhaps that's exactly what we call brotherhood. It's so much more than sharing the same blood… it's a bond that silently carries the shattered parts of a person. Because Mizu wasn't just someone who shared my childhood; she was the first wall standing against all the evil I'd face throughout my life. She was the shadow standing before me as I fell. It was the voice reminding me I needed to come back when I was lost. And now that I think about it… sometimes a person can grow strong enough to face the whole world, yet still shatter like a child at the mere possibility of losing a single person. Perhaps that's why brotherhood is such a sacred thing. Because while the rest of the world expects you to be a hero, a general, a warrior… your brother simply wants you to survive. And no matter how deep into the darkness a person is buried, no matter how tired they become, no matter how much they change… if there is even one person in their life who still sees them as someone worth coming back to, then they are never truly lost. Because that person remains like a small light that never goes out, even in the endless night of loneliness. And today I realized this… what I truly fear losing in this universe is not hope, not strength, not even my own life. What I fear most… is losing that voice that can still call me "my brother."
Because I almost lost someone.
END OF CHAPTER