Chapter 134: Cardoon Zorba [1] — Big Brother Veynar

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Cardoon Veynar, Zorba’s big brother—son of a human woman and their father, the man Zorba had killed with his own hands at the tender age of nine. Zorba often remembered the warmth of that blood on his hands and face, an unforgivable moment that had marked him forever. He still recalled the chaotic swirl of emotions: euphoria, pleasure, horror, fear, guilt, relief, happiness, and sorrow, all tangled together.

“How is this possible?”

Zorba couldn’t believe his eyes. Was this an illusion? Some mind trick from an enemy Entity? Perhaps the work of a reality-manipulating Grievance. Or maybe he was asleep again, dreaming of impossible scenarios.

“Am I dreaming?”

Zorba stared at his own hands, then at the scattered corpses of his Undead, and finally at the giant Undead Monster, Hecatoncheires, shielding him from the dark aura radiating from the man before him.

He looked ten years older now, nearly thirty. But that was unmistakably his brother: the short purple hair, the sharp emerald eyes, the slender face, the tall frame.

“You’re not dreaming, Zorba.”

His brother showed him the scar running across his neck—the very wound Zorba had inflicted long ago by stabbing him.

“Do you see this? This is where you stabbed me.”

“…”

Zorba’s mouth fell open. His three eyes widened in disbelief.

He still couldn’t accept it.

Without hesitation, he dropped to his knees. Tears streamed from his eyes.

“B-Brother… How… How is this possible?”

His brother was surprised. He had expected rage, screams, an attempt to kill him.

Instead, Zorba knelt and wept, clutching his face as tears poured through his fingers.

For a moment, only silence filled the air as Zorba sobbed and his brother watched.

“You’re crying?”

His brother approached slowly. Each step seemed to make his aura swell larger.

His face remained expressionless, unbroken.

Yet his killing intent only grew fiercer.

He had wanted to fight his brother after all these years—to make him suffer.

But what was the point when he knelt there crying so pathetically?

It somehow made him angrier.

“There hasn’t been a single day I haven’t regretted what I did…”

“…What?”

“I did it out of impulse… because there’s always, always that voice. Yes, sometimes it comes. But… but brother, I… I love you… brother… I…”

Zorba laid bare his vulnerability like never before. His brother, who had not seen him in a decade since the murder, stared blankly.

“After everything we went through, you love me?”

“Brother… I’m… I’m sorry…”

“…”

His brother’s calm expression never wavered as he looked down at Zorba.

They had diverged so far.

One had been captured and turned into a sacrificial soldier sent to kill the prince of Frostbane.

The other… had become a Commander—respected, feared, and strong.

“I will kill you now, Zorba.”

“…?”

Zorba looked up. His brother’s hand pointed at his face. Dark energy surged.

“But I will allow you to ask me one last question, for old time’s sake.”

“A-Ah…”

Zorba smiled bitterly and looked at the ground.

“How?”

“…How what?”

“How are you still alive, brother?”

“…I did die, Zorba.”

“…?!”

Veynar lowered his hand. He walked to the left, admiring the destruction he had wrought across the capital of Frostbane.

“You succeeded in killing me.”

“…!”

“But when I died and you left, after three days and three nights, I returned.”

His brother looked back at Zorba, still haunted by the memory of that night: the powerlessness, the despair, the disbelief.

“When you killed me, something within me was already slowly growing. In my last dying breath, I activated that power without realizing.”

Back then, lying on the floor of their abandoned house, covered in blood—his Spirit trying and failing to rouse him.

Deep within his rotting body, a Spiral had formed. A spiral born from hatred, disdain, and abuse.

“You know? Before you killed me, I had plotted the death of several of my friends. Each one was killed when I lured monsters close to them—perfectly engineering the timing and sequence of events so they would die without me ever being blamed.”

“…?!”

Veynar smiled warmly at his brother. “I always enjoyed playing with other people’s lives, manipulating them. I did the same with you. Perhaps the reason you still love me even now is because of what I did.”

Zorba’s eyebrows twitched as his hands trembled upon hearing the truth of his brother’s nature.

All this time he had believed his brother to be reckless and hotheaded, someone who spoke loudly and never thought things through.

“In this cruel world, Zorba, you either eat or get eaten,” his brother said. “You have to take what you need. So I was quite surprised when you did exactly that. It was a wonderful act, I must say.”

“Act…?”

“Although I didn’t plan it completely, it turned out exactly the way I needed to awaken my Spiral,” Veynar revealed. A Tier 7 Spiral manifested within him. “The Spiral of the Malevolent Plotter.”

Behind him, his Incarnation appeared: a tall black knight with a long red cape, radiating darkness and malice, crowned by a broken black crown.

“The conditions were fulfilled. It was a gamble—I started everything when you attacked me out of nowhere…” Veynar continued. “But it worked. Technically, I should thank you for killing me, Zorba. Without your reckless actions, I might never have reached the heights I have.”

“Ah… I… I don’t… know what you’re talking about? You mean… I…” Zorba stood completely shocked. The more he grasped the truth, the more he felt like…

Like a puppet dancing on the stage his brother had set, even though he had not seen him since that incident and had believed him dead.

“The condition to attain the Malevolent Plotter Spiral is to deceive someone into believing you’ve died,” Veynar explained. “Once the conditions were met and I made you believe I was gone—even though I truly did die—the Spiral activated, breathing life back into my corpse. Even now, I exist in a bizarre state between life and death. Some call me a Dead Walker. Others say ’Zombie,’ ’Ghoul,’ or something else. I don’t mind. This state has granted me new abilities, allowing me to crush the competition and reach the power I now hold.”

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