by Max Jager
He's still alive…? he thought, completely surprised that Red's body was durable enough to survive his strongest, most lethal move.
Red pointed his index finger at Abe, and Abe screamed in immense pain as Red shot a continuous stream of lightning into his body with no mercy.
Abe had never felt so much pain in his entire life. He trembled as his eyes rolled back, and continued to scream as Red made him suffer.
Twenty seconds passed before Red finally stopped torturing him. Red watched with apathy as Abe panted heavily, and cleared his throat as he watched Abe finally fall unconscious.
As I said before, Abe…I will not kill you… You can't die…until you've told me what I want to know…until you've endured…more suffering than anyone in this world could possibly imagine…until you've begged me for your life…and believe me…
…you will…
Judge, Jury and Executioner
Four hours after his defeat at Red's hands, Abe lied motionless on the cot in his prison cell. He was awake, but his suffering had left him much worse for wear, and he was incapable of moving without great pain.
He heard the door to the prison room open, and listened as several men walked into the room. Thinking that they were going to torture him as Red's men had done before, he paid them no attention until he heard one of the men scream.
"Please!" the man yelled, "Don't do this to me! I'm begging you!"
"Silence!" he heard Red shout.
Confused as to what was going on, Abe slowly turned in his cot to look at the situation unfolding before him. He saw Red and two of his men, but he also saw a man being restrained by Red's henchmen. He was held in between them so he could not escape their grasp.
Red looked at Abe for a brief moment as he spoke.
"I want you to see this…" he said as he averted his eyes from Abe.
Red signaled to his men, and the men threw their victim onto the ground, causing him to grunt in pain. The man quickly forgot about the pain, however, when he looked up and saw Red walk towards him. He quickly put his hands up in submission as he spoke.
"Wait!" he exclaimed in fear, "Wait…!"
Abe looked at the situation in confusion as the man continued.
"You don't have to do this," said the man as he looked into Red's eyes, "Please…spare me!"
"Spare you?" asked Red as he placed his hands in his pockets and looked at the man indifferently, "You mean like I spared the countless number of people who I punished before you? Oh, wait… I didn't spare all those people… I made them suffer…a lot…and I made them come to know…complete…and utter…despair… I did not spare them…so why would I spare you?"
Red brought the vermillion crystal out of his pocket, and showed it to Abe as he spoke.
"Pay attention," he suggested, "This just might be what happens to you."
Abe furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Red's victim beg for his life.
"Listen to me," pleaded the man, "I don't know why I've been brought here, but I promise you, I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Yes, you have," said Red as he looked the man in the eye, "You are the man…who approved of the Ice Lands' research into the mechanisms of the power gene's Manna barrier."
The man looked at Red in complete shock, for that project had ended seven years ago, and was supposed to have been a secret known only to its researchers.
"What…?" he asked, "What does that have to do with…?"
Red raised his eyebrow, and the man continued to look at him in complete confusion until he realized just how dark Red's red hair was.
In that instant, he realized exactly who he was dealing with, and he immediately tried to turn the situation around in order to avoid Red's wrath.
"No… No, wait! Wait a minute! I am not the only one who conceived the project!"
"Perhaps…but I have already killedeveryone else involved…including my father… You…are the only one left."
Desperate, the man tried once again to direct Red's wrath elsewhere.
"No… I'm not… You're mad because of your mother's death, and I get that, but…I am not the only one at fault who still lives! I am not the one who-!"
Red slapped the man before he could finish his sentence, and the man held his face in pain as Red knelt down to look at him at eye level.
"Don't…" he asserted as he glared at the man, "I've already punished him… but he was not the only person at fault. He is not the reason things went that far…It was you… You and your associates got her killed!"
Tears began to fill the man's eyes when he realized that his life was about to end much sooner than he had hoped.
Red grabbed the man by his neck, and Abe watched as he lifted the man up to his feet.
Is he doing all of this because of what happened to his mother…? he thought, confused by the conversation the two were having.
The man gasped for breath as he tried to reason with Red.
"You don't have to do this…" he said in pain, "…This isn't who you are… It's your anger and heartbreak… Those things have warped your mind… You're just another victim to them…but I can help you…!"
"I don't need your help…" said Red grimly as he shook his head.
"What your father did to your mother was wrong…but you can't go around killing everyone involved with the project… We shut it down before he experimented on your mother! It's his fault, not anyone else's, and you know that!"
"What I know is that everyone who was involved with the project must pay…" said Red as slight tears filled his eyes.
I don't understand… thought Abe as he watched Red put the man in a chokehold, What's the whole story here? I'm just getting bits and pieces…
"Do you regret it…?" asked Red as the man trembled in fear.
Tears ran down the man's face as Red continued.
"Do you regret having anything to do with the project…?"
"Yes…" said the man weakly as he looked at Abe.
Unfortunately, Abe was in no position to save him.
No one was.
After several seconds of silence, Red broke the man's neck in one swift motion, and Abe watched as the man's body collapsed to the floor.
"Take him away," said Red to his men as he stepped away from the man's body.
The men picked the deceased man up and carried him out of the room as Red looked at Abe.
What happened to make him like this…? thought Abe as he watched Red walk towards him.
"I hope that little display…taught you something…" said Bandit without looking at Abe, "…If you do not tell me what the weapon does…I will do what I just did to that man…to all of your friends…but not until I've made you suffer…even greater pain than I have suffered…and trust me when I say…"
Abe swallowed nervously as Red looked directly into his eyes.
"You will…"
Abe could only look at the emotionally damaged man who stood before him with shock and awe.
He had no idea just how much Red had suffered, but he had a feeling he would come to know how much he suffered soon enough.
Meanwhile, a man under a hood walked through the city of Virtue and towards Red's headquarters.
Damn it! he thought as he gritted his teeth in anger, I have to reach them before it's too late! This isn't going to end well… Why…? Why? Why did things have to go so horribly wrong?
In his office on the top floor of his main headquarters, Red placed his hands in his pockets as he walked toward the window. He swallowed as he looked down at the land, at the men he had under his beck and call, and proceeded to look at the land that rested just outside of the city, where all the Icelanders resided under his reign.
It is said…that when Dante and his people…conquered the land now known as Dante's Inferno…Dante roared with pride… I think I'm beginning to understand why…
He sighed as he looked back at his henchmen, and raised an eyebrow when he noticed a change in the movements of a few of them.
What
…? What's going on?
He stood with his mouth agape as he watched some of his men begin to walk towards the main gate of the city.
What the hell is going on?
He was becoming increasingly nervous, and he quickly noticed that everyone in the city was now walking in the same direction. He gasped in surprise, for they were headed in the exact same direction, the gate that led into the city.
Huh? he thought, confused, They're leaving…but…
…why…?
Elsewhere in the headquarters, Scarlet Blood, a young, voluptuous twenty year old woman, sat in the dining room with Sar Nasu, a man who, like Red, had mentored her, and taken care of her during her adolescence. The two were particularly close, and she had, over time, come to see Sar as a sort of substitute father.
They had been in the middle of a conversation, when Scarlet's older brother walked into the room with a scowl on his face.
"What is going on here?" he growled viciously as he looked at Sar.
Sar cleared his throat as he looked at Red as though he was a child.
"First of all…you should watch how you speak to me, boy," he asserted, "and secondly…I haven't the slightest idea what you're referring to."
"Why are allof my men leaving the city?" asked Red irritably, "What the hell is going on here?"
"I have no idea," said Sar as he looked away from Red, "I suppose it's possible that…even the most deviant of those Icelanders have finally grown tired of working for you."
Red scoffed as he balled up his fists.
"Fine…" he said as he closed his eyes, "If that's how it is, I'll just have to make them stay! Sar, get the Cosmic Sword and start slaughtering them. Don't stop until they retreat back to their posts."
"I'm sorry, Red," said Sar as he stood up, "but I'm afraid that will not happen."
Red looked at Sar in confusion as he spoke.
"What…did you say?" he asked with rising anger.
Sar remained silent, and Red gritted his teeth in fury as he glared at Sar.
"Who do you think you are, old man?" he asked, frustrated, "You work for me, which means you'll do as I say!"
"No," asserted Sar, "I won't…and not only because I do not want to…but because I can't."
Scarlet gulped in slight nervousness as she watched her brother walk towards her surrogate father menacingly.
"I do not have time for games," asserted Red angrily, "Do not start babbling nonsense, you senile old man! I don't need your help! If you won't put those degenerates in their place…I'll take care of them myself!"
He was about to storm out of the room, but Sar stopped him in his tracks by telling him something he had not previously known.
"Do you know that Sean Parker, the man in charge of collecting the taxes of the people in this land, is dead?"
Red's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Sar in disbelief.
"What?" he asked, dumbfounded, "Why? Who?"
"I don't know why," said Sar indifferently, "All I know is that his body was found with a spear of ice stuck in it."
Red grunted and gritted his teeth when he realized exactly who killed his head tax collector.
"Damn it… It was clearly Bandit!"
"It would appear so," said Sar.
"So, you think so too?" asked Red.
Sar simply nodded his head, and Red began to tremble with anger.
"Well?" he asked, confused by Sar's behavior, "Have you tortured him yet?"
Scarlet's eyes widened in surprise, for despite how Red felt about their brother, she had never thought she would hear him suggest someone should torture him.
"No," replied Sar.
"Why?" screamed Red, whose anger was truly beginning to reach its boiling point.
"Why would I have done that?" asked Sar, upset by Red's suggestion, "He's your brother!"
"He's the enemy!" yelled Red, "It matters not who he is! All who stand against me shall pay, and that includes him!"
"If you truly believed that, you would have killed him before today!"
Red gasped in surprise as he remembered sparing his brother's life the day he invaded the Ice Lands, and gritted his teeth in fury when he realized how big a mistake that had been.
It's about time…you stopped trying to act like he doesn't mean anything to you," suggested Sar.
"He doesn't!" asserted Red, "Not anymore! I'm going to take care of him, just as soon as I put those rogues back in their place!"
He was about to storm out of the room, but he stopped as he thought about words Sar had spoken to him moments earlier about killing their men.
"I won't…and not only because I do not want to…but because I can't."
"What…did you mean…" he began as he slowly turned around to look at Sar, "…when you said you can't…kill those men?"
Scarlet looked at Sar worriedly as Sar crossed his arms.
Please... she thought as she shook her head, Don't…!
"I got rid of the Cosmic Sword," announced Sar.
Don't…!
Red's eyes widened in surprise, but slowly transformed into eyes of hatred and fury.
"Is that so…?" he asked.
Stop…!
"I did what your brother did before," said Sar, "I put it in the ocean…and we both know…that because of the unstable nature of your abilities…swimming in a large body of water will electrocute you to death."
Red looked at Sar with his mouth agape, and Scarlet gasped in surprise when he spat on Sar.
Oh, God…! she thought, knowing what was coming.
"You…old…bastard…" said Red as he trembled with even more anger than before, "You think you can betray me?"
Sar looked Red in the eye as he spoke.
"I remember the first person I killed," he began, "She was a War… It's a day I will never forget… I was fighting in the war against the War family. I did not want to fight them…to kill them…but I had no choice. Their cumulative power was far too great…and considering their rebellious nature…it would have been naïve for the rest of the world to allow them to live… So I killed a few of them…because I thought that those people…those people who the power gene…and Manna…the energy that flows from the gene…originated within…could not be allowed to live…"
"But after killing my best friend…who unintentionally revealed himself to be a War…I realized that I had acted too quickly…too hastily… So I sought another way to deal with them…which led the United Army and the War family to establish the Treaty of Boocs in 1838, sentencing them to live and stay in Twilight Valley. From then on…I promised myself…that I would only kill if I truly needed to…and I don't need to kill your men…just as you didn't need to kill hundreds of people the day you came here…and just as you didn't need to kill innocent people whose only crime was that they did not pay their taxes, or drank when they were underage, or spoke blasphemy about you, you impudent brat!"
Red glared at Sar with insurmountable rage as he continued.
"When I joined you…I did so because I truly believed that you would make this land a better place. You possess more innate power than anyone I have ever come across, and I have lived for over a century. That is why, despite your genocidal actions towards the War family, I joined your cause. I had nothing but complete faith in your ability to change this land, and perhaps the world itself, for the better…but now…I have to hear the screams of that innocent War child…who has done nothing wrong but defy you… For all you know…he truly has no idea what that weapon does…yet you will continue to torture him for the rest of his days. Such would be cruel and pointless…and that is why…I will not allow you to act as judge, jury and executioner any longer… That is why-."
Before Sar could say anything else, Red shot a bolt of lightning at his chest from his index finger, causing him to scream in great pain.
"Sar!" screamed Scarlet in horror.
Unable to stand, Sar fell forward, but Red caught him by his neck before he could fall to the ground, and put him in
a chokehold.
"Do what you feel you need to do," said Sar as Red tightened his grasp on his neck, "but know this, Red… Death…affects everyone…not just you… Everyone is forced to deal with the death of loved ones at some point or another in this life…yet you seem to be the only person in this land truly incapable of accepting it…and moving on… You are an impulsive, reckless, violent, aggressive, arrogant, cruel, cold, sadistic, cynical, ruthless, and emotionally unstable child with complete disregard for all life except your own…and that is why…despite whatever you've accomplished up to this point…you will fall…and you will…die…"