Shattering Humanity-Chapter 109: Who Knows Why People Enslave Each Other

Nephilim, Tristan, Silpheed, and Bethany are in the Blackhawk helicopter on the way to Roronora City.

Nephilim is back to sitting with Tristan and Bethany. Tristan and Nephilim are sitting across from Bethany.

The young, engaged Tristan looks as the beautiful young woman reaches for her pocket and pulls out a generic lip gloss. He watches her slowly applying it to each lip and she blows a kiss at him.

Tristan realizes she saw him, watching her apply the cosmetic and he blushes, turning his head. She smiles at the husband-to-be and switches the position of her crossed legs.

Bethany: "Don’t get jealous, Tritty. I’ll rub you on my lips too if you really want me to."

Tristan, side eyes her in disgust.

Tristan: "Where’s your father?"

Bethany: "Probably dead, never knew him. Where’s yours? Does he look like you? Is he single?"

Tristan grits his teeth at her shamelessness.

Tristan: "Do you even listen to yourself when you talk like a writhing skank? Why do you talk like a prostitute looking to seal a deal? It’s gross and unattractive. Real men don’t look to marry women who talk like that. They make them stories. That’s all you ever will be Bethany, if you continue acting like a whore."

The promiscuous ’bedroom eyes’ of Bethany EyeEngage with the "taken" man.

Bethany: "Awww, Tritty, did I strike a nerve? I know a spot on you with millions of little nerves, that feels good if you’ll let me show you."

Tristan rolls his eyes. Nephilim is smiling and lets out a sigh.

Nephilim: "I hope you won’t mind me giving your tricks away Ms. Bethany but, Tristan, you may not see it because in the moment you get upset from her words, your true anger doesn’t allow you to realize it. She’s doing it for a reaction."

Bethany’s lustful smile turns to a frowning gaze quickly after his reveal.

Nephilim: "Life is about filling in spots of boredom to pass the time until we’re dead. Some people have realized they get a dopamine hit when they say something that makes others uncomfortable or it gets an overreaction. It is entertainment for those people like Bethany here. Even if they don’t really believe those things or aren’t willing to go through with the things they say, they are ’bluffing for the reaction’. Hell, I’ll admit, when we were going to land in Hanabi, I wasn’t going to attempt to fight or catch Daisuki. I just wanted to see what I could say to them to get them riled up."

Tristan looks from his General to Bethany with her cheeks puffed in aggravation.

Tristan: "Why? Is there really no better way to feel satisfied other than making people feel uncomfortable or offended? Bethany, beauty and the willingness to put out doesn’t grant success and the things you say could get you in trouble with the wrong man. Plus, it doesn’t work on me, but what happens when some poor fool thinks you’re serious and you play him?"

Bethany is blushing and speaks through puffed cheeks.

Bethany: "If you think I’m bluffing, try me."

Tristan lets out a sigh and shakes his head.

Nephilim pulls out his map, the folds create two visible two lines setting the cities into 4 quadrants. The Sister Mountains are in the middle where the lines meet. Roronora City stretches across both left quadrants.

Nephilim: "Okaaaay. Since Daisuki and his band of merry assholes aren’t in the mood to talk, let us skip to the second task of the day.The confidential information that only the ’Sisters’ knew is, there has been a ’society’ living in Roronora City but they are all ruled over and protected from Icemen by a Mafia style body of government."

Tristan: "Mafia style? Like mobsters and ’Dons’?"

Nephilim nods.

Nephilim: "Just like the movies."

Bethany twirls her short, shoulder length black hair.

Bethany: "I mean obviously there was some other place with survivors. There had to be. The factories and scouts scavenging would never be able to produce what Mount Nona supplies."

Nephilim: "Yes, but unfortunately, like how most mobsters are known to be, they are very loyal to their ’family’ but have little to no respect for anyone else. This specific ’Godfather’ in charge of Roronora City, is named Don Laban."

Pilot Silpheed can see the city in the distance, half of a skyscraper is still standing.

Nephilim: "He’s a very powerful and influential person in the city. Right now he’s building a society of all IceEye users as citizens."

Tristan: "And they use those without alien eyes as slaves because the alien eyes make humans with them more powerful, right?"

Nephilim shrugs off the assumption.

Nephilim: "Who knows why people enslave each other, young Tristan. In the end, it’s the slaves who don’t fight back that create more slaves in the future."

Bethany gives the stink eye to the General while Tristan squints his eyes at the General’s victim blaming statement.

Bethany: "You possibly want to elaborate more on that incredibly offensive statement?"

Nephilim smiles at the now upset woman.

Nephilim: "I surely hope I didn’t strike a nerve Ms. Bethany. But what I mean is, if everyone who had realized they were being enslaved, acted like a rabies infested animal , and fought to the death for their freedom, over a period of time, those who were trying to use other humans for unethical work would be the ones to give up hope. Nobody with power or influence would try to enslave because it would be too much of a hassle."

Bethany: "Not everyone is a fighter!"

Nephilim: "Yes, but all true fighters respect the heart of another true fighter."

Tristan’s squint quickly goes to wide-eyed, the skepticism turns to realization.

Bethany: "Yea, and most fighters are dumb men who believe their happiness is the motor of the universe. So if this Don guy is cooperating with those Sisters, that must mean the Sisters have IceEyes too?"

The General folds his arms and shakes his head with closed eyes.

Nephilim: "I know Nona doesn’t from the intel I get from one of his concubine wives. As for Morta, he was trying to kill that Amazonian with the ’Mirror Eye’, so he definitely doesn’t. They always have their faces in the shadows. The thing that makes me the most upset about Decima’s death, is that there was no face to see."

Tristan: "So if these guys are actually gangsters, rule over my old home and enslave people without IceEyes, why did they cooperate with the Sisters if they’re ’inferior humans without alien eyes’?"

Nephilim: "Because, Decima was actually part of Don Laban’s family. He was the only reason the mountains haven’t been broken into, sieged, and conquered"

Tristan gets worried thinking about Stephanie and the girls back home.

Tristan: "Why!? We have eye users too?! I thought they were fair with eye users?!"

Nephilim fans up and down slightly with his hands.

Nephilim: "Relax, relax young Tristan. That’s why WE are going as ambassadors. Most mobsters may not be too friendly to those who aren’t part of their family, but they are usually more rational to those who show them respect and share an interest in ’growing’. Not just in their own physical size, but the growing of each member of their family, the size of the family, and the wealth or power their family has."

Tristan remembers the uncountable times that the quadruplets were fighting and teasing each other at home.

Tristan: "Yea, but sir, even in a family, people fight. A lot of people believe the first murder was between two actual blood related brothers, so what’s the point of being the peacekeeper of everyone, if people in the family are going to think they’re going to get away with whatever they do not under the Don’s watch and won’t be reprimanded?"

Bethany chuckles and the two men look over at the cross legged woman.

Bethany: "Look at you Tristan, and here I thought you couldn’t get any cuter but seeing your philosopher side is a different type of turn on."

Tristan grimaces and sucks his teeth.

Tristan: "Tsk. If you’re not going to contribute to the conversation, just sit there and look pretty."

Bethany: "Awe, you think I’m pretty?"

Nephilim lets out a laugh.

Nephilim: "Hahaha! You perfectly set up and then walked right into that one, young Tristan. Haha! Ahh, but to answer your question, was that not why the personified concept of ’God’ was created in the first place? You see, thing in common between people like the Don Laban, myself, Silph, and you two, is that we don’t need to believe there is a form of justice and happiness that can be controlled by an ultimate force. We here all believe, with our whole heart, whatever we hope to achieve, we can do it with ’hope’ in ourselves and one another. That WE are the ultimate force itself."

Tristan is still worried.

Tristan: "But now that Decima is dead, by you, the ’Commanding General’ of all our people. Along with the fact the owners of the mountains aren’t ’equal humans’ in Laban’s view, there’s nothing stopping Laban from not seeing a reason to side with us and begin harassing us for resources? That is, if he is as powerful and influential as you claim he is because I know that you know, General Nephilim sir, that we are still in an apocalypse and who knows when that devil Leviathan will show up again."

He looks at their stored SunSwords underneath the bench-like seats of the copter. Nephilim is aware of his gaze and looks at the weapons. The first of the weapons that have allowed humanity to fight back against the Icemen.

Nephilim: "The Research Labs like to boast their plumage, like they came up with the SunSwords. However, from the complete library of disclosed information I have had the privilege to read since becoming General, the first model of the SunSwords were a replica of something titled the ’Sword of Laban’. I just figured it was someone on the research teams codenaming it with mythology or religion."

As soon as the helicopter flies into the city, Silpheed’s red eye grows seeing, at what first seems like a flare being shot into the sky, but then the flare *POPS* and the ’tailed flower’ of a firework explodes over Roronora City.