Kapus’s younger brother had a high-quality prosthetic leg. It helped him perform all kinds of difficult maneuvers. He had pushed its power output to the limit.

Now, his movements were agile and his steps light, silent as a shadow.

His gaze locked onto Kapus. Beneath the mechanical visor, his eyes gleamed with a cold, cruel light.

The bullet ports on his arms had finished charging. Blue arcs of electricity danced at their muzzles, like venomous snakes ready to pounce at any moment.

Kapus was equipped with an older model of mechanical prosthetics. But as the man known as the “King of Mercenaries,” he possessed an extraordinary wealth of combat experience.

He drew a “laser” sword from his palm. Following the principle of letting the enemy move first, he remained still and studied every movement his younger brother made.

It was called a laser sword, but that was only because it looked like one.

In essence, it worked just like his brother’s arm. It drew Mana particles from the air and made them cling to what was basically a metal rod, making it look like a laser.

Kapus sensed danger closing in. His body reacted on instinct.

He rolled backward and dodged his brother’s energy shot. The moment he landed, he counterattacked.

The “laser” sword in his hand flashed brilliantly, cleaving apart the stray bolt of light that had suddenly burst from the gun barrel.

Then Kapus charged at his younger brother with the lightsword in hand. He swung it in a horizontal slash through empty space.

However, his brother had anticipated the move.

He leaned his body backward and easily evaded the lightsword. At the same time, a freshly loaded energy shot flew straight toward Kapus’s cheek.

Kapus had no time to dodge. He had no time to raise his lightsword and block the shot, either.

All he could do was grit his teeth and throw up his arm.

Sparks erupted from the surface of his mechanical prosthetic. A rapid series of metallic impacts rang out.

The projectiles left his mechanical arm covered in deep, uneven dents. Kapus glanced at it once, then continued swinging his lightsword, weaving through the bolts of light.

After emptying a full magazine, his younger brother leaped into a corner to recharge.

He understood his advantage perfectly. Going head-to-head with Kapus was no different from sticking his head out and offering it to him. His only choice was to keep moving and fight from a distance.

Kapus knew his foolish little brother intended to fight a guerrilla battle.

He drew the folding Arcane Firearm hidden behind the hilt of his lightsword. Then he aimed at the figure suspended in midair and pulled the trigger.

Kapus’s brother was still hanging in the air. He had never imagined that Kapus would produce a gun from behind the lightsword.

His body stiffened. A trace of terror flashed through his eyes.

But it was already too late to dodge.

The bullet from the Arcane Firearm instantly pierced the flesh beside his mechanical visor. It did not penetrate his skull.

Blinding electric sparks burst from the wound. Arcs of electricity wrapped around his entire body as he let out a pained howl.

His body froze in midair before crashing heavily to the ground.

“You’re still the same as ever…”

“No. Your technique has actually gotten worse. If those shots hadn’t gone wide, I would’ve been injured.”

“Your equipment has improved, but your skills have regressed.”

Kapus took only a few steps forward. He raised his gun and aimed the dark muzzle at his brother’s forehead.

“But I still want to know something. Why did you try to kill me?”

Kapus’s brother said nothing. He endured the pain in silence and slowly removed his visor.

There was no denying that Kapus’s shooting was far superior to his own. The visor had been designed specifically to protect his eyes. If Kapus’s bullet had landed slightly higher and struck the visor, the one lying on the ground would not have been him.

“You really are better than me in everything…”

He raised his arm.

It had already finished charging its final attack. That strike was powerful enough to kill a Cantata Two Magic Maiden.

At such close range, Kapus was doomed to die!

His younger brother’s entire arm exploded.

Metal fragments from within it, mixed with Mana compressed to the extreme, detonated in the gap between the two of them.

The blast sent his brother’s body flying. The armor covering his body was almost completely shattered.

After all, the arm’s original purpose was to break through the defenses of a Cantata Two Magic Maiden.

Kapus’s modified parts were certainly nowhere near as powerful as a Cantata Two shield. He was probably in terrible shape.

And afterward, the nanomachines would trigger a second explosion.

Kapus would die without a doubt!

As for him, he carried a device that could suppress the nanomachines. The machines inside his body would not explode.

He was still alive.

And his damned older brother was finally going to die.

“Heh heh heh…”

He wanted to burst into loud laughter. But the explosion seemed to have damaged his ability to speak.

In the end, he could only force out that strained, rasping laugh.

“It seems a little early to celebrate.”

Kapus’s voice reached his brother through the smoke.

As the smoke dispersed, Kapus stood before him, covered from head to toe in battered scrap metal.

“How is that possible!?”

Kapus’s brother widened his eyes in disbelief.

The Kapus standing before him was mechanical from head to toe.

He remembered it clearly. Kapus had only modified his limbs and eyes.

But now, what difference was there between him and a robot?

“You threw me onto the battlefield back then. Monsters tore into my body. At that time, I was no different from a corpse.”

“Only a few organs remained. But someone saved me and placed me inside a culture tank…”

“They showed me hope of living again. I signed a contract with them and agreed to work for them.”

“That was how they rebuilt my body with machinery. Now, aside from my brain and internal organs, calling me a machine wouldn’t be wrong.”

His body had long since been ruined. Even the parts he had originally modified were beyond repair.

The internal components could no longer be used. They all had to be replaced.

However, Kapus preferred his original appearance. So he made a request to the employees of Rouge Rabbit:

Add another layer of armor over his existing mechanical body.

After all, Rouge Rabbit had saved his life. He could never repay that debt in full.

Making a few more requests helped him feel a little less guilty. Rouge Rabbit did not stop Kapus, either.

They had already given him so much. A little extra was nothing to them.

“So that was artificial skin? And those modified parts were deliberately made that way by you!?”

A charred smell rose from Kapus’s brother. Electric sparks scorched his flesh, but he paid them no mind.

He clenched his teeth and looked toward Kapus, forcing the words out of his throat.

“Yes. That’s right. And it’s Rouge Rabbit’s latest technology.”

“Latest technology? I had that, too… So why are you still standing?”

His brother stared at the artificial skin covering Kapus’s body.

His own artificial skin had already burned away. The armor on his chest had been blasted into pieces.

Yet the machinery beneath it was still functioning normally.

“I didn’t think you were actually this stupid.”

“Anything put up for sale can only be considered relatively mature technology. The latest technology…”

“Of course, that’s an experimental prototype.”

“And you bought yours from the shop I visit, didn’t you? That place has a hidden area, you know.”

“The quality of the products on display is terrible. I’m guessing those people played you for a fool.”

Kapus’s brother opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say.

A wave of sorrow rose from the depths of his heart.

He had been too foolish. Too naïve.

“I really can’t compare to you.”

“I thought I could use the power of the Magic Maidens to climb to the top of the world. But now I see that I’m only a pawn they can discard at any time.”

“I thought I could surpass you. I never imagined that I would only see the surface—whether it was armor or the human heart.”

“That’s why I hate you!”

“I hate your excellence. I hate everything about you!”

“Why were you loved by our parents? Why were you worshiped by countless people? Why could you stand above this wasteland and proclaim your grand ambitions?”

“Why can’t I!?”

His eyes held resentment, rage, and grief.

His older brother had always stood ahead of him.

He could only hide in his shadow.

He knew very well that he lacked Kapus’s abilities. He couldn’t defeat him.

So the only thing he could do was make Kapus—his “dear” older brother—disappear from this world.

A Magic Maiden had found him.

It was that silver-haired Magic Maiden from earlier.

She told him she could make his brother disappear forever. In return, he would take the throne of the “King of Mercenaries” and become an existence who stood above all others.

He agreed.

The Magic Maiden fulfilled her end of the bargain. His brother died, and he could finally stand before everyone else.

At that moment, he had felt an unprecedented rush of exhilaration.

He never realized that he had become the Magic Maiden’s puppet.

Kapus was difficult to control.

His younger brother, on the other hand, was extremely convenient—short-sighted, ignorant, and shallow-minded.

“Heh…”

He stretched out his hand and crushed the device in his palm.

At that moment, every nanomachine scattered across the ground exploded.

A sea of fire swallowed both men.

“Looks like things have ended over there, too…”

“As for me, it seems my time is up.”

The silver-haired girl could no longer sense Kapus’s brother’s heartbeat.

The battle had ended in Kapus’s victory.

As expected of a veteran mercenary, his strength and technique were truly formidable. If he had been given powerful enough equipment, he might really have been able to kill a Cantata Two Magic Maiden.

She withdrew her gaze and looked toward Lu Shi and Qiu Sheng, who stood within the shadows.

Ten minutes earlier.

The silver figure before Qiu Sheng was clearly not a Chapter Three Magic Maiden.

She was merely an ordinary Cantata Two Magic Maiden.

The Chapter Three fluctuation Moon Owl had sensed earlier did not come from her.

It was soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, and kings against kings.

Since she was not a Chapter Three Magic Maiden, Moon Owl had no reason to act.

“I know you. Your name is Qiu Sheng. You only entered Cantata Two recently.”

“Did you come here to die? Or is it that your Twelfth District has no one left?”

Her words were filled with mockery.

Qiu Sheng, however, didn’t take it seriously.

“You’re awfully arrogant…”

“Your voice sounds worse than construction-site noise. Compared to you, the racket from a work site is practically heavenly music.”

“And that face of yours—neither human nor ghost. Don’t tell me you still don’t have a boyfriend…”

“Or is it that no man is willing to take a liking to you?”

Qiu Sheng had spent a month with Qianchun. Naturally, she had learned how clever people insulted others.

She had only picked up the basics, though. Compared with Qianchun and Blade, she was nowhere close.

“You little brat with the sharp tongue.”

The woman clearly had poor self-control. She flung all four limbs about as the fury inside her grew impossible to suppress.

She wanted to tear Qiu Sheng limb from limb and strip away her skin, turning her into the same mercury-like form.

“You’re angry. You’re angry~”

Qiu Sheng sang the words out.

A sharp silver flash tore through the air and pierced her Magic Layer, leaving a wound across Qiu Sheng’s cheek.