While thinking of a method that would inflict the most pain without injuring Damian too much, Christian pushed his imagination to its limits… only to be interrupted by his sister's voice from the side.
"How about we just finish things here and get going already?"
Turning toward her, he found her aiming a pistol at Damian. And Christian's eyes widened in shock.
"What the fuck are you doing?!"
Why was she granting him mercy? Damian didn't deserve that!
Christian couldn't help but get worked up. Death, this soon, was nothing but mercy for someone like him.
But did Annabelle think the same?
And her thoughts were even more extreme.
She, too, believed that death was far too easy for someone like him.
But was her reasoning the same as Christian's?
For Annabelle, taking revenge didn't hold any meaning.
Her parents' lives were more precious than anything, and no matter what she did… time wouldn't rewind. Her parents wouldn't come back to life.
So, if it wasn't for them, then making Damian atone for his sins by going to court and being judged by the law should have been enough for her.
But when she later realized that he wasn't someone a mere "law" could judge, she settled for the next best thing… a life for a life.
Even if her parents were alive, they wouldn't have wanted her to dirty her hands with the likes of him anyway.
Then why did she share the same opinion as Christian?
Because she already had someone more precious than anything in her life… be it in the past, the present, or the future.
Her brother's place in her heart wouldn't change no matter what!
... No, actually, it would probably elevate more!
And Annabelle found it hard to accept that her brother had to face all he had recently because of someone .
Someone so pathetic that he couldn't even hold his bladder, and ended up doing it in his clothes!
All their past misfortunes, and the recent ones… Damian was responsible for them!
Annabelle wanted him to pay for that.
But even then, here she was, aiming the pistol she had recently practiced with, with Eva's help. She had decided there was no need to prolong all this because she had her priorities.
She wanted her brother even when exposed to this new side of the world, to never allow himself to sink into its atrocities, where there wasn't even a trace of warmth left between family members!
She didn't want him to lose himself, to reach a point where human life meant nothing to him.
If she were alone with Damian, if Christian didn't know what she was about to do, she would have loved to take her time. Ask for Iris's input. Then, practice all kinds of torture methods on him.
She would even ask Eva to come and do her part if she wanted, as Eva, too, could be resenting Damian… though perhaps not as much, as she had hardly given him any thought and had always done as she pleased when it came to him, never allowing him a say in her life, after all.
Either way, Annabelle had never cared about humanity when it came to her brother, and lately, she had only become more honest with herself about that.
… But while she didn't mind adapting quickly. For her brother, who was still young, she wanted his development to be as slow as possible.
Because she had already come to understand that practicing Essence techniques extended one's lifespan, and while the increase wasn't much, just a few years, or at most a few decades, that was only for the techniques known on Earth, their mother planet, which lagged behind other worlds by several ages.
And for those more developed worlds?
Annabelle, who had only recently begun learning about them, felt that a lifespan increase of a few hundred years was no problem at all.
She had no idea that even this high estimation was laughably low.
So low that, someday in the future, she would look back on this very moment, on these very thoughts, and laugh at herself for how naive she had been in underestimating what Essence truly was!
"Chris, let's just get this revenge thing over with already!" Annabelle suddenly said, locking eyes with her brother before continuing.
"You're injured… and Damian seems to hold more importance to the Ashvale family and Infinitel company… or rather, to his father."
"So, to account for any 'what if' situations, it's better that we finish things quickly and leave."
Seeing how bewildered he looked by the notion of just letting him die peacefully… clearly unconvinced and intent on arguing again, Annabelle paused to think before adding, "Look, Chris, our lives won't end today. And the people who let this trash get away with his crimes are still free, still in power, doing whatever they want."
"So later… in the distant future, when their existence becomes too insignificant to us, we can take our time deciding how to punish them."
Christian, still listening to his sister's words as she tried to persuade him, closed his eyes and began reevaluating his recent actions.
… Was he being too fixated on this trash?
He wondered at first, but then, remembering who had started all this, he felt that his action was still being reasonable!
But more than that, as he considered the complications of his actions and what was going to happen next, he couldn't help but think that maybe he was being a little too hasty.
But then again, he didn't regret it.
The main culprit would finally die at this moment, after all.
As for the others… he could settle his debt with them slowly. He wasn't in a hurry anymore, anyway!
"Okay, there's no problem with killing him immediately, but…" As he said that, suddenly, after opening his eyes, Christian took out the pistol that had previously been in Brian's hands and aimed it at Damian.
His gaze fixated on his sister's eyes as he continued, "But I will be the one to kill him!"