"What should we do commander?" The young officer asked.
"Kill the girls and take him back for another session with the Dr," the commander said, pointing her hairy fingers toward Lizzy, Izzy, Emily, Velmuuth, and Zoey.
With mounting rage, Ryan's hostile glare was as sharp as daggers and was directed at the two human scum. He recognized them, he recognized them all too well as he relived the scene buried deep inside him. A scene that the empire didn't want him to remember.
The scene began to claw its way into his conscious thought. Ryan tried to tamp it down and focus on the mounting threat that the commander posed, but the memories captured his attention.
He was in a clearing, deep in a mountain range.
"Hit him harder, officer!" The commander shouted, "Our goal is pain!"
It was the same commander that stood frozen before him now. It was as if time had stood still and allowed him this brief look into his past.
The sadistic woman was chuckling softly, brandishing her whip.
Smack!
The whip had stung and had peeled the soft flesh from his bones in cruel strips.
"You shall know what true pain is," the commander had said, as a searing pain still in his memory, shot up from the site of Ryan's agony.
Stinging, burning pain had become the whole of his world. With every lash of the officer's whip, the commander had repeated a hypnotic phrase.
"Pain causes you to forget."
Not wanting to loose to these scum, he had chanted his own phrases, 'Pain causes me to remember,' in his mind after each time the commander repeated the chant.
Smack!
"When you experience pain, you will forget."
'When I experience pain, I will remember!'
Smack!
"Pain soothes your soul."
'Pain creates hate!'
The whipping continued without respite or relief and had turned him into a freak of flayed skin.
By the time they were done with him, his voice had given out from screaming; only his tortured brain was the last line of defense, screaming with shrill cries of revenge.
Vengeance was his lover, hate his only emotion.
===
Only a split second passed in reality, but in that split second, Ryan's aura had changed, his hate igniting like arson in his veins.
"Take care of subject one, I'll get the rest-," the commander tried to say but was interrupted by Ryan's fist. Ryan's knuckles knotted with hate, he struck the first blow.
Ryan hit hard and strong as he rained down a flurry of blows.
Since increasing to E-Rank, Ryan had felt an obscene amount of power inside of him. He felt he was at least 5x as strong as his F-Rank body, and could crush his previous self in under a second.
"You taught me skills, but why?" The cauldron of his eyes burned with scalding fury as he smashed the commander's face in.
Every word was filled with enmity, every look with hate.
"You brainwashed me, to be your puppet, but why?" Spit sprayed and hate flew from his cruel mouth as he spoke.
Hate came off him in waves. His hatred made him blind, but at the same time, it gave him the ability to see.
"You took away my memories, you took away my emotions, you took my soul!" Ryan screamed, a black curtain of hate falling over his graveyard eyes.
Storm clouds gathered overhead, black and terrible. The black clouds clashed with the clearness of the sky.
"I will never forgive you!" Anger burned hell-hot in his gaze as he looked down at the battered and beaten commander at his feet.
Standing over her, Ryan's angry voice stabbed the air, "I will burn down your empire for what it has done to me." Rain poured down in sheets, soaking everyone to the bone.
"I will send you down to the flames of the ignis cruciatu pit," Ryan said, as he started to speak in Latin, the language of the gods. The storm raged and lightning struck nearer each time.
"For my name is Velox Metam the Harem Overlord of Ravier. I swear by the heavens that the human empire will be no more ten years from this day, and will be destroyed by my hands."
[Warning Inhabitants of the world Ravier: A heaven's chosen has made an Oath of Critical Magnitude]
[Should they succeed in their quest, the world will be deemed to have birthed a significant chosen, resulting in the expansion and reclassification of the world, and the official integration of Ravier into the Multiverse. Please prepare in the event of an integration.]
The nose pulped, the fingers smashed, and still, the beating continued, "Lustitiae primum servitur (Justice is served first)."
The commander's skull exploded from the eyebrows up, vaporizing brain and bone.
Everyone stilled, the officer looking downcast at her fallen commander before saying, "Long live the Holy Alliance," and before anyone could stop her, she swallowed a pill with a knowing smile.
Her breathing became labored, her footsteps unsteady as she collapsed to the ground and gurgled something inaudible; the only thing Ryan was able to make out was ". . . LI . . . ZA . . . won't . . . win," before she died.
Ryan fell to his knees as a sharp pain assaulted his senses.
[Warning: Curse has started corroding your soul. Current corrosion percentage: 2%]
Ignoring the message Ryan closed his eyes, feeling the raindrop on his skin as he replayed the dying girl's last words.
'Liza? No, she said something in front of it. Maybe it's a code word?' Ryan thought will all his brain power but the haunting similarity to the name Aliza made his brain unable to make any actual progress.
'She's dead Ryan. She died in front of you on the hospital bed,' forcing his thoughts to sober, he felt the anger, hatred, and sadness in his heart grow stronger and a notification popped up.
[Warning: Curse is corroding your soul. Current corrosion percentage: 2.01%]
Clicking on the notification he received a somber message.
[Curse Corrosion]
[Percentage of soul corroded: 2.01%]
[Time until imminent death: 454 Days 23 Hours 58 Minutes 46 Seconds]
[Description: You will fundamentally change every time you let a piece of your soul be corroded. Although the effects are reversible, even the gods have difficulty doing so.]
[Every being has flaws, even the gods. The curse was put in place to see if you were worthy of power. Think of the curse like an academic course. You have failed the first test but can still pass the course. You only need to do a little extra credit to pass.]
[Note: The time until imminent death will not change with the increase in soul corrosion, but unless completely gone, your end guaranteed.]
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