Chapter 59: Arc 4: The Burning Port’s Reaper (26)

“I’m talking about the planet,” the girl said, pointing to the ocean. “I come from there, rising out of the deep. It is so dark down beneath the waves, so suffocating cold.” The girl pouted. “I don’t know who I am? The only thing the planet gives me is a purpose. I was supposed to act as a precaution.” She shrugged. “I don’t even know what I am supposed to prevent.”

Borbonsi did not know how to respond to this. He did not know what the girl was or what he should do with this discovery.

“Do you want to come with me?” Borbonsi said. He did not know why he said this. Something in the girl connected with him.

“Why not?” said the girl. “What is your name?”

“Borbonsi,” the Lord said. “How about we give you a name?” Borbonsi looked at the girl’s natural regal beauty. “How about Royale?”

It was then a whim struck this strange girl, “Margo,” she said. “I think I will go with Margo Royale.”

…

The two partners then created the nation of Eleanor.

Years had come and gone. The city was built on the coast. Brick-by-brick. Soon it became the trading hub for the entire continent. Rivals were removed one after another to ensure their rise. For Borbonsi, two things immediately became clear.

Margo was talented. As the original Gold Leader, she grasped Eleanor’s flaw and shadier aspect, preventing crisis after crisis. Her potential was seemingly unlimited and her strength grew day-by-day. More importantly, Margo was like him — an immortal.

She hadn’t aged a day past her twenty-fifth birthday, inhumanly remaining in her prime. Upon facing this discovery, Borbonsi’s brief initial feeling of shock quickly turned into expectation. Margo was everything he wanted for — a friend and partner he can see as equal.

Alas, their relationship met an impasse.

…

“We can’t go on like this, Borbonsi,” Margo said, warning him. “You cannot allow the social order to degrade for an increase in your Authority.”

Borbonsi sighed. Margo was at it again. She had been complaining for ages about the deterioration of Eleanor’s socio-economic order. Borbonsi could see some of her point, but he couldn’t wrap his head around where she was coming from. Long-term or short-term, he gained only benefit from this. Humans died so quickly their suffering barely registered in his mind. The Lord of Commerce couldn’t get why a fellow immortal being like Margo would care about something as transient as human life.

“Come on, Margo,” Borbonsi tried to relent. “Fine, I will give you what you want. Maybe a tax-rebate—”

“You don’t get it,” Margo said. “The divide between the have and have not is getting horrific.”

“And what does that get to do with us?” Borbonsi said, clearly far too removed from the pulse of the problem to understand the basic concept of what went wrong. 

Margo rolled her eyes.

“You know what? This must sound like a pointless conversation for you,” Margo said. “You have never learned.” She looked into Borbonsi for. “Can you even change?”

“Why do you change then?” Borbonsi said. “Originally, you never cared about this?”

“I grow, Borbonsi,” Margo said. “But you never does, do you?”

Borbonsi raised his hands in the sign of defeat.

Margo was also at her wit’s end.

At last, it was the moment the declaration was made.

“I can’t do this anymore, Borbonsi,” Margo said. “This place will fall apart, and I will not be there when it happens. This is a goodbye.”

“I could stop you,” Borbonsi said. It was a statement of fact.

“Yes, but if you can do that, you would have done it a long time ago.” Margo said, turning to live again.

The pink-hair immortal walked away. Borbonsi had a thousand ways to stop her, but he didn’t. Deep inside, he knew Margo was right. For the first time in his life, Borbonsi felt the pain of loss, and he hated every minute, but he didn’t ask her to come back. He just watched his friend leave without moving an inch.

In Borbonsi’s opinion, the girl deserved much better than what he was.

…

Borbonsi never understood why Margo cared so much about the ant running his engine.

Until now.

Pressed beneath the beam of destruction with no way out. His sole defense shattered. The death which eluded him for so long seemed inevitable. Borbonsi must admit that the prospect felt terrifying. Maybe this was what Margo knew those folks suffering in Eleanor felt. The exception was that Borbonsi’s pain would be over in an instant. The mortal in Eleanor suffered this torment for the undying length of their existence.

Borbonsi must admit that his faith wasn’t undeserved.

As his body came apart and his mind faded, he reflected on his life. A thousand opportunities to make things right to everyone he knew, and he let it all go. Ah, what a shameful life he led. Now he was about to end it with a whimper.

He didn’t even get to beat Ciel at the game of Risk World.

No.

Borbonsi’s fading mind sharpened. Ciel didn’t blink when he called all of them stupid. He never surrendered in the face of adversity. Sure, he sulked for a while, but he always found a win even when he had no chance.

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That was a trait Borbonsi secretly admired about him. Margo also had some of those golden grit to pull out a win when everything was against her. Now, he finally understood where they got it from. Immortal they may be, but in their heart they understood their mortality and held great pride in it.

Borbonsi’s shield was completely gone, and his armor had melted from the heat. He stood to bathe in the heat. His limbs were charring and cracking, slowly breaking off into a tiny fragment. His legs were sharing the same fate, and his torso was the color of bruise.

But a tiny ember of faith still kept him alive, and as long as he lived he could make some amends.

Borbonsi would have smiled, if his face hadn’t burnt to a crisp.

This would be the first and last act of charity in his life — an apology and a thank you to his worthless people. It would be a gift for that friend of his.

Borbonsi activated his Authority one final time.

Upon the swirl of the Void, he gazed and offered the price for the final exchange.

His existence, his lifespan, for the final burst of power.

The transaction was approved, ringing his death-knell. 

Borbonsi dissolved into dust. In the end, his final recollection wasn’t about the wealth he accumulated or his time with Margo Royale.

His mind drifted to the day he foolishly agreed with his sibling to start this entire mess.

Yes, he thought as his soul returned to the Void, Ciel was right about this ‘Theomachy’ being an exercise in stupidity.

The dust that was Borbonsi then exploded into a hurricane.

…

Etaceh knew she had won, but the following event defied her expectations.

Something was parting through the river of energy that was the Prime Flash. The wave of golden dust shone with renewed luster, picking up more intensity with the more distance it traveled. Borbonsi final attack picked up the speed and momentum, completely squashing apart the purple energy like a car through water from a garden hose.

Etaceh’s smug expression evaporated, and she hurriedly turned the flying city’s defense to the max.

The golden dust collided with the runes-etched barrier. Sparks flew. The surface rippled with golden waves as the barrier convexly buckled under the pressure. Runes making up the sophisticated barrier all light up in alarm from the sudden surge in magic, and the voice of straining metal was heard throughout the city. 

Then, for the first time since its creation, a crack appeared in Hecate’s barrier. While small, this flaw was still a stress concentrate.

Pressed beneath even more pressure, the spiderweb crack crawled across the barrier and, in a push, punctured Etaceh’s proud defense. The atmospherically etched barrier shattered like glass to Etaceh’s disbelief. The golden attack continued past her face, crushed the concentrated well of power in the purple sun created from the combined output of Hecate, and sailed into the cloud. Akin to ascend of Borbonsi’s soul back to the stars.

Etaceh felt something wet on her cheek. In denial, she slowly lifted her hand and wiped this mystery liquid from her face.

It was blood.

Her blood.

Borbonsi’s final attack had missed, but it still made her bled.

Etaceh absorbed the fact in. Her mind staunchly refused to accept the hold in her invincibility.

…

In the port, Eleanor's final trade fair was over. The Prime Flash was the trigger that convinced Ciel that they did everything they could. The windy collision from Etaceh’s last attack helped persuade everyone to get the ticket to bolt out of the burning city.

While Montgomery’s fleet began their evacuation and withdrawal, Ciel remained to watch the broken barrier whose splinters continued to rain down in the burning city. He didn’t say a word. He needed all his concentration to remember his friend and greatest moment.

Without tears of pity in his eyes, Ciel made a small bow to the proud departed and opened the master gate. Plans had shifted. With the Lord of Commerce gone, Etaceh would likely be aiming for Maximus. In all likelihood, he would be fighting a three-ways battle-royale. The original plan had gone FUBAR, and he gained nothing from it aside from Hikari and majorities of the flies Borbonsi kept in his vault.

Sure, those information resources would be helpful for setting up his own business, but it wasn’t worth losing potential allies who could fight Etaceh and Maximus.

Overall, this trip was a disaster.

Worst, he would miss beating that guy in Risk World.

…

On a man-made island in the middle of the ocean, from a window-sill of a majestic mansion, a girl watched the sky with her dichromatic eyes. Her pink hair fluttered in the wind. A single drop of tear rolled down her eyes.

She wiped it away.

They might part ways for a hundred of years, but she still owned him her name. She knew in her heart that her first friend and mentor, a fellow immortal, the Lord of Commerce, had died.

Margo Royale didn’t know what his final thought was, but something told her his death wasn’t meaningless. She wanted to believe that the boneheaded lord realized his humanity in the end. 

After all this time, she still considered that insensitive idiot a friend.

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