Chapter 49: True Wrath of a Maddened Beast
"That’s impossible. I’m not capable of that much." Ryan said that... and he couldn’t have said it.
"..."
The two stared at each other in silence, unsure what to say about that absurd request.
Ryan knew he could do what people called miracles, or even the impossible. But he also knew his limits. He was just an ordinary human being, after all. Ryan knew that people’s imaginations painted a picture of Ryan that never existed. And he wouldn’t let himself be swayed by that.
As for John, his head began to heat up, and it felt as if steam would come out of his nose and ears at any moment. His mind kept working, repeating that phrase over and over again.
He couldn’t let Ryan discover that feeling of weakness and powerlessness that everyone else knew so well.
To do the impossible, one couldn’t know the impossible.
Ryan couldn’t believe he was incapable of something, even if it was unfounded confidence, he had to have it. John thought so, Aron thought so, the Boss thought so. The entire Savant Mafia thought so.
Ryan didn’t have the right to give up.
So even if it was just to make Ryan rephrase that damn sentence, John needed a different answer. It could be a refusal. It could be Ryan laughing in Aron’s face and saying he wasn’t his servant. It could even be an invitation to a new war between the Factions.
Any answer, but not that one!
John swallowed hard, preparing to do his job as he always did. With mastery and distinction. Even if it meant a bitter taste in his mouth.
’Come on, the sooner I start, the sooner I finish.’ John thought taking a deep breath.
He then scoffed and shrugged. "Is that so? I expected more from you." He said sarcastically, standing up with a dry expression. "Aron made a mistake, it seems, but of course he did." He held back a sadistic laugh, turning to leave.
Ryan frowned deeply. "Come again?" He couldn’t believe his own ears. "Repeat that please, I didn’t hear right."
"I said I expected more." John said, lying to himself. "Everyone did. That’s precisely why Aron gave you this mission. It was already expected that you’d complete it with ease. He even had a mission lined up to follow this one. But it seems we were wrong and overestimated you... Not that there weren’t already many signs of it, we were just too blind to the truth after we lost your father... And just when we lose him, his son appears out of nowhere. Of course we were blind. But from beginning to end, you only came after your dad, didn’t you? Crying like a baby without daddy. That’s all you are, after all, a daddy’s boy who came running after people asking: Daddy, daddy, where’s daddy?"
Ryan rose from his chair with an expression of absolute shock. "So that’s it? If I’m incapable of carrying out an absurd mission, I’m the one who’s wrong? And not you all for asking the impossible? You even have a substitute?! Who would even be capable of this?! Tell me, John!"
Unrestrained rage began to take hold of him, making him speak more and more uncontrollably. John had squeezed lemon juice straight onto a wide-open wound. Ryan was going crazy with just a few words, and more and more were coming to him.
"Your father would." John said abruptly, staring him in the eye. "He always did the impossible, and the least you could do was the same. But no, clearly, all you are is a flaw. A mistake he made with that damned woman."
"Wh..."Ryan opened his mouth in silent fury, not knowing what to say."What?"
"At your age, he had already done far more." John laughed sarcastically. "Honestly, you’re a hollow shell of what’s left of him. You look like him, you talk like him, you act like him, but you’re incapable, you’re weak. A miserable fraction of everything he ever was. And you know what, Ryan? Now I’ve opened my eye, I see the lie I believed, and I choose to accept the truth. Now wait here like the daddy’s good boy you are, while I make the damn call to talk to Aron. Did you understand me? Or do I need to repeat myself, boy?"
Ryan’s eyes went completely wide.
For the first time in his life, Ryan...
Went silent.
His eyes stared at John with a burning, destructive energy, but suddenly went quiet.
Ryan simply listened in silence, his eyes refusing to release John’s gaze. "No use staring at me, you ridiculous copy. I’ll inform Aron of this miserable situation. I know he’ll be disappointed, but so be it. We have better names for this mission. Soon everyone will know of this failure, and then..."
"Repeat." Ryan said.
"What?" John frowned.
"I said." Ryan said calmly. "Repeat."
"If you wanna hear twice, so be it. You, Ryan, are a dad-" John couldn’t end the phrase.
Suddenly, an invisible pressure advanced with devastating force, threatening to annihilate the entire world.
Earthquakes took over the entire cafeteria as fissures opened up across the ground and ceiling while the windows shattered one after another.
Heavy rain fell like daggers as lightning began to roar like maddened beasts. A blizzard swept into the café, its freezing wind howling.
John could feel the entire world crumbling around him as he watched himself freezing to death, cracking and then turning to snow.
"Fuck!" John screamed through clenched teeth.
He ran out of air, suffocating.
Blood ran from his mouth, nose and eye.
He had been the target of a powerful mind attack.
All air left John’s lungs completely, making him double over, drenched in sweat, as a furious roar of unprecedented power rang out. Ryan’s eyes blazed with infernal fury. John tried to recover his breath in every way possible, but found himself unable. He then summoned his own Voice of Intimidation to counter.
But he failed.
Because the Voice Ryan was using wasn’t the one of intimidation.
’I felt anger...’ Ryan pieced it together in his subconscious, creating a new Voice by Instinct. ’I am a beast that felt anger...no, this isn’t anger... this reminds me of the Glacinata. He felt something similar that time... I am a beast just like him, feeling just like him... So what is the shape of this? And what’s the name of this?’ His teeth clenched as his body lunged forward unconsciously.
’It’s Wrath!’
Ryan quickly remembered what Wrath was capable of, after all, he had felt its effects firsthand thanks to a certain spiteful bear.
And soon the whole world would know True Wrath of a Maddened Beast.
’Let the earth split open, let the heavens roar with thunder. The whole world will tremble with my Wrath!’ Ryan struck with the Voice of Wrath, a full feral roar that sought the unbridled annihilation of his target, not mere intimidation.
Annihilation.
Ryan was crying from so much hatred. Not knowing how to express such an intense feeling, he quickly resorted to violence. His fist moving forward to silence John.
John couldn’t react in time. The fist collided with his face, sending him skidding back more than ten steps, the floor letting out a loud screech. Even so, he held his posture, refusing to fall. His eye slowly rotating in it’s socket until it met Ryan, who was already attacking again.
"Damn..." John murmured. "I went too far." He said, watching the boy so enraged he simply began attacking without a second thought.
John quickly noted it to himself: Never compare Ryan to his Father ever again.
Even so, he did not apologize.
"But since I already poured salt in the wound..." For the first time, he watched Ryan fight, and he liked what he saw. "Why not enjoy a little more?" Ryan’s fist came straight for his face again, but this time John grabbed it and immediately kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into the wall.
But Ryan nimbly contorted his body and braked against the floor, immediately drawing on his experience from the Unnamed Game. His body vaulted over the counter, off the tables, and off the ceiling. Closing in rapidly from an unpredictable angle against John, who had never seen a fighting style like that and could barely follow it with his eye.
Suddenly, a kick came from above, colliding with his skull and rattling it against his brain matter. John nearly lost consciousness on the spot, but he held on!
Ryan immediately grabbed him and drove their foreheads together, nearly knocking John out cold right then and there. He almost passed out but he still held on!
He clenched his teeth before landing a heavy blow across Ryan’s face.
Then once more, and once more!
Ryan clenched his teeth before unleashing his Voice of Wrath once again, making John break off his sequence, breathless. He then struck John’s stomach, making it fold in on itself, then pulled him down and drove a knee into his chin.
John shuddered, completely unable to resist.
John fell to his knees.
He had no strength left.
Ryan wouldn’t even let him breathe.
At the end...
Ryan looked down at John from above.
"..."
Both ceased their movements as they calmed down. Their bodies, once burning hot, now cooling rapidly. The Wrath had come to an end, as his mind began to clear. No longer attacking like a maddened beast.
But that didn’t mean the anger had been forgotten.
"Never again." Ryan said, wiping the saliva running down his own mouth. "Speak like that about me or my father." Ryan then continued. "I am your master and you are my servant. I speak and you obey. Your voice should not leave your throat unless I command it. Otherwise, there’s no reason for you to have one." Ryan controlled his own breathing for a time and finally concluded:
"Don’t get things twisted, John. Or you won’t live long enough to tell the story."
John lowered his head at that moment, a proud masochistic smile on his face. "Yes, my master. Forgive my conduct."
"Don’t repeat this mistake." Ryan said, walking out. "Now take care of Manhattan while I rest."
"As you wish." John stood and gave a slight crooked bow before laughing madly to himself. Then he murmured: "Who knows, maybe he can pass that exam after all..."
"Then again, that’s only the beginning of the problems." John grew sober once more.
But in the end, he shrugged and did as he was ordered.
He liked this new master.
Perhaps even more than the first.
