This was the fateful moment, and Gilbert knew it. His heart knew that Richter isn’t the evil person that his mind tried to convince him. Training his laser blaster on Richter, he said, “I don’t want to hurt you. Just don’t make the mistake of firing the cannon”. Laughing demonically, Richter leaned against the interface and swirled his axe rod casually. “Who the hell are you? And how did you manage to get here?"
"I’m a human being, Harbinger, unlike you, and I got here thanks to my efforts of studying your commander’s space fleet and defenses” “Human? Yuck, filthy people. Hey, you look like you’re a cyborg. Why identify as the lesser species?” “The mind, heart, and gut are still human” “What a shame… Equidestruct, was it? I got Intel that you were blazing past my best underlings. I take it you’re here to stop me?” “I haven’t killed any of your men, and I won’t kill you. It’s just not in me to take a life, but don’t think I’ll let you off the hook”
Immediately, Richter threw his axe at Gilbert, who ducked and dodged it. Without leaving time for retaliation, Richter sprung towards him and fired an explosive punch, sending Gilbert crashing into the opposite wall of the room. As the black-clad cyborg picked his axe up, Gilbert stood up, while shaking. He was already bleeding profusely from the attack “You won’t kill me? Thanks! That means I can kill you!” “You don’t… ACK” Richter dashed towards a wounded Gilbert, grappled his neck and lifted him up against the wall “Finally, I get the chance to destroy the crap out of you. My master and commander considers you the biggest threat. HAH, AS IF! You weakling, I’ll have you crying for your dead grandmother!” “Agh… my… my” Richter dropped him on the ground. Quickly, Gilbert armed his shock cannon and fired a high-voltage blast that electrocuted Richter, forcing him to drop his axe. Not wasting a single second, he switched to his acoustic pulse rifle and began unleashing a continuous wave of deafening sound that had Richter scream in pain and cover his ears “My grandmother was killed by your people!“. Richter, trying his best to resist the loudness, slowly pushed himself against the sound waves and towards Gilbert. Then, he fired a kick that broke the cannon, stopping the sound. “AND EVERY BLOODY HUMAN MADE MY LIFE HELL FOR 25 YEARS!”, shouted Richter as he slugged Gilbert in the stomach hard, making him vomit blood. As if that wasn’t enough, he repeatedly threw punch after punch without stopping. Gilbert, despite winning in severe pain, and unable to speak because his mouth was filled with blood, quickly grabbed Richter’s fists and blocked him from attacking further. He turned aside to puke out all the blood, and then said “Not… all humans… are bad. Your… parents… they loved you, didn’t they?… There are good people too…”, and he dropped on the ground
The words had a stunning effect on Richter. He picked his axe up and almost swung it on Gilbert but he stopped himself “Parents, did you say?” “Yes. You say that everyone made your life miserable but I’m sure your parents didn’t” “How the hell do you know that? DON’T YOU DARE…” “Abusive parents are why their children turn evil but you aren’t… you aren’t a bad person, Harbinger…” Richter paused. All this while, he was the one actively attacking Gilbert while the latter only tried to stall him “Just… who the bloody hell are you? You didn’t try to kill me, you’re saying I’m not a bad person, and you’re taking all of my hits like they’re nothing?” “I told you I can’t and won’t ever take a life, especially that of someone with a good heart. You know you don’t want to do any of this. You seem like a kind person because your parents loved you, and they loved every human being” “I… you aren’t making any damn sense…” “I figured that out because you have a small portrait of them right there. It’s tiny so no one would have noticed though. Why would you keep that picture unless you miss them?” “You know I can kill you right now” “And I’m… urk… okay with it, but please, don’t hurt anyone else anymore, I’m begging you. Your parents… I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to do this too. I know it”
Richter didn’t speak a word. He walked towards the cannon’s interface and stood they, keying in some buttons. Gilbert was too wounded to even lift his head up to see what he was doing, but he could hear the button-mashing. “Y… you’re… please don’t… please…” “Shut up now for a second, will you?“. He opened a transmission to Doombringer
”Harbinger, you haven’t fired the cannon yet. Press the button already! Why are you calling me?” “Master Doombringer… I will do it…” “Yes! BWAHAHAHAHA! This is the day I’ve been waiting for! The pathetic human species shall be wiped out forever!” Suddenly, Richter took his axe and smashed the entire interface with it, much to Doombringer’s shock
”Over my dead body, you idiot!”
He then swung his axe and cleaved the hologram projector, cutting the comms line to Doombringer. He grabbed his family portrait and looked at it. “Mom… dad… I… if you were alive, you would have… not been happy, right? Look. Your boy will not be… will not be…“. He broke down as he kneeled down and held the portrait to his chest
Meanwhile, Gilbert, fully healing himself with the last remaining energy pod, saw what Richter did, and rushed towards him “Richter! Are you okay??” Richter didnt pay attention. He was too busy crying “I’m… sorry… mom. I’m sorry, dad… I… ruined my life. I was going to kill everyone… I can’t believe I was about to do such a… such a bad thing… I never thought of you both… I’m sorry! I AM SORRY!! AAAAAAAAAAA” Gilbert turned away and began walking towards the exit door. Suddenly, a voice stopped him
”Stop right there, Equidestruct” Gilbert stopped and turned around. It was Richter “Where are you going?” “Oh, nothing, I just wanted to give you some space” “You can’t leave or Doombringer’s elite bodyguards will kill you. I’m sure they’re already on their way here” “I know they’re coming. I can track their heat signatures” “So that was your entire plan, wasn’t it? Stop me from killing everyone on Earth and then walk out, letting Doombringer come and execute me for disobeying him, right?” Just then, the door smashed open and Doombringer’s elite supreme bodyguards, 7 of them, to be precise, stormed in “Richter Jarvisson, we have orders to execute you for treason against the master” They were ruthless and mindless assassins. Without any hesitation, they fired at Richter, who quickly dodged the plasma bolts. One of the bolts ripped through his shoulder The bodyguards came close and were about to fire the killing shot but suddenly, something happened
None of their plasma guns were working. Richter was surprised “What the…”, and right then and there, Gilbert rushed into the chamber and in front of a fallen Richter “Richter, nurse your shoulder. I’ll handle these robots” The bodyguards were no match for Gilbert, who had spent a long time carefully analysing and scanning them. Gilbert had a firm rule that he would try his best not to kill but he could draw an exception here — the bodyguards were machines. He armed his rocket machinegun and fired a stream of missiles, blowing apart all of the elite assassin robots in no time.