Vil and Ortho (pt1)

Vil describes Ortho as “A spudling with broken brakes who seems reasonable, but resorts to extreme measures at the drop of a hat.” 

When Vil and the rest of the over blotting group is kidnapped to STYX Ortho scolds Idia for scaring them. Vil says, “I see you possess the compassion your brother sorely lacks,” but when Ortho follows with, “Besides, subjecting them to excessive levels of stress won’t yield accurate data,” Vil takes it back, saying that the two brothers are exactly the same.

Encouraging Idia to do something about getting the development team for his favorite video game back together, Vil lectures Idia on how “Zero is zero no matter what you multiply it by, right? But if you take some form of action, that zero could potentially become 0.001. And 0.001 has a chance of becoming 100.

In which case, there’s no reason NOT to do it,” which inspires Ortho in a way that Vil had not intended: based on that logic Ortho decides to destroy the world to give Idia and himself a chance at living normal lives, thanking Vil for the “positive nudge in the right direction.”

Vil says he is impressed by the plan (“It’s a major step up from moping about change being impossible”), and while he applauds their effort, he has no intention of joining them: “Much like yourselves, I have a dream I’m not willing to yield. A dream to be the fairest one of all. If I’d already achieved my dream, l’d be perfectly happy to try for it again in your new world, but here we are. I’m going to crush your plan with everything I have.”

The students decide to descend into Tartarus to stop Idia and Ortho and a STYX technician apologizes for not being of more help, but Vil explains, “You hardly need to feel responsible. We’re choosing to venture into Tartarus. After all, it seems I was the one who incited Ortho’s actions.”