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Chapter 16 - Finally they are alone

David kept staring at the ground as he responded to Catherine,

"You cannot figure out whether I'm leading a fake life or not. You can't manipulate me with lies or things you don't know."

Catherine grabbed David's shoulder and forced him to sit down, facing him as they locked eyes,

"I have some questions for you. First, why do you think I've been in love with you for so long, and we've never had any misunderstanding or even a small quarrel?"

David answered with a numb expression,

" Cause my feelings for you have never changed."

Catherine smiled tenderly as she posed her second question,

"Do you think it's completely normal for someone's feelings to remain unchanged over the course of 10 years?! To never feel boredom, irritation, or anything besides love, not even once? I'll give you the answer myself: it's not normal, and there's only one possible explanation for it. Can you figure it out?"

David's eyes widened as he replied,

"I never loved you from the very beginning… I've never ever had any feelings for you."

Catherine stood up and, looking at him, said, "You're absolutely right. The reason I died is because you never loved me. If you truly loved me, you would have stayed by my side when you realized something was odd about the lottery I won. You thought that by fulfilling my request and going there at that time, you'd prove your love for me. Instead, you should have stayed by my side and tried to figure out what was happening. That's why you couldn't sense that I was in danger. Are you going to tell me why you don't have any feelings for me?"

David felt numb, speaking almost unconsciously as he looked directly into her eyes and said,

"'Cause I can't. I have no feelings for anyone or anything. I don't give a shit about you, Steve, or any of this bullshit."

Catherine leaned down to hold his hand and help him stand up as she asked him the final question,

"Now tell me, who are you?"

As David answered her question, he felt the numbness fading away,

"I am Daiber, and only Daiber."

He stared blankly at Catherine as she uttered her final words while vanishing away,

"Take care of yourself, Daiber. Erase all of the mistakes, all the things holding you back. Whatever makes you David must be gone."

After identifying himself as Daiber and watching Catherine disappear, he returned to his senses and focused on the reality around him.

He heard the cries of three of his soldiers as they fought Stal, and realized that many others were around him, trying to protect him. The three soldiers kept screaming as way to recognize each other, but their efforts were in vain. Stal now had two slightly long bones to use as swords, ready to kill them the three men.

Daiber shouted at Stal,

"Turn on the lights, Stal!"

Stal responded with a sarcastic sneer as he shouted out,

"Why would I grant your demand? You think I'd give up one of my privileges just because you asked? Are you sure you're in your right mind?"

Daiber closed his eyes to focus on Stal's voice, then rushed toward him, grabbed his face and slammed him straight to the ground. The events unfolded so rapidly that Stal couldn't process what had just happened. He didn't even have time to swing his weapon in defense before it slipped from his grasp due to the hard fall.

As Stal's bumped his head on the ground and he began to lose consciousness, Daiber quickly bent down, rummaging through Stal's pockets for the light switch. While doing so, he continued talking to him,

"You won't need that privilege, kiddo, because I'll be the one to kill them. I don't want any advantages when I fight, and the same goes for you. I'll kill the rest to be as exhausted as you, and then we'll settle this in a one-on-one, fight to the death."

Stal had already killed twelve soldiers and relied on two crucial advantages: his weapon and the cover of darkness. He also needed to avoid being attacked by large groups. However, Daiber, on the other hand, ignored all of that, charging into battle against thirty of the organization's strongest soldiers with nothing but his bare hands.

The soldiers were stunned by Daiber's speech and couldn't believe what they were hearing—not until they saw him kill a fellow soldier who had been questioning Daiber's strange actions.

As the soldier was asking his questions, Daiber approached him with no intention of listening or speaking further. Without a word, he seized the man's face and lifted him off the ground. The soldier struggled, punching and kicking in a desperate attempt to break free, but Daiber only raised him higher before slamming him down with great force. The soldier's head hit the ground first, followed by the rest of his body with a heavy thud. After his whole body landed, he could not move any further, and he started to feel dizzy as his head began to bleed slightly.

Daiber leaned over and slammed the man's head into the ground, then did it again, this time without lifting his entire body—just by placing his hand over the man's face and lifting his head. He repeatedly bashed the man's head a hundred times against the ground with swift, brutal blows, until a piece of his brain popped out onto the floor.

The other soldiers watched in horror, completely frozen and paralyzed where they stood.