Chapter 548: Granting Mercy
Robert, for all of his power and wealth, had given up. He rolled on the ground like a wounded animal and began to cry from the pain, pain of the likes of which he had only ever inflicted on others but never received himself. His vision was bursting into explosions of color as the pain came about in waves, incapacitating him on the ground.
Even Brittany couldn’t help but stand back, surprised by her own power and what she had done.
As for the guards that were supposed to be protecting them, they had almost all been taken out by Amira as normal armed humans were no match for her. Even then, she felt her body moving almost weightlessly, faster and stronger than she had ever felt before as she took them out one by one.
As for Laz and Dobson, Laz noticed that Robert had fallen and decided it was time to stop playing. Dobson also understood that if anything happened to Robert, like what had already happened, he would be a dead man and his first instinct was to want to run as far and as fast as possible. His years of fighting had given him a good instinct to decide when running was the best plan and right now that part of his was screaming at him.
He turned as soon as he saw Laz’s attention focused on Robert and Brittany and started to run for the stairs, wanting to get away as soon as possible during the chance he saw.
He never could have imagined Laz would be so much quicker than him, appearing behind him as soon as his body turned and grabbing him from behind by his neck. In one quick squeeze, Dobson’s neck had been broken and he crumpled to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.
Turning back around, Laz quickly made his way through the five other young chosen who had been attacking him moments before and knocked them all out without hesitation. Laz then walked over to Brittany.
"How does it feel?" He asked, his voice soft and somewhat gentle. Laz knew that look in Brittany’s eyes, the look of feeling excited but lost. Very lost.
’This is it for her. Whether there is any hope for her future will depend on what she decides here today...’ Laz thought to himself, seeing her hovering over the chasm and knowing that one wrong move would cause her to fall in.
"This is him, the one responsible for your lover’s death. He did horrible things to her that you were unable to protect her from and yet, right now, he just seems so?" Laz said, looking to her eyes.
"Weak... he just seems so amazingly weak and useless. I... once feared him so much...." Brittany choked out as she tried to stop the tears in her eyes.
"He’s not weak, not by your standards. It’s just that at some point, you became strong, so strong that people like him were left behind. There was nothing else for him, no higher for him to rise and even if he could have, he would never had worked hard enough to get there. You, on the other hand, are the complete opposite. Ever since what happened, happened, you’ve been driven to be stronger, to be more. No, you couldn’t have protected her back then even if you were there, but now... you will never be a victim ever again...." Laz said, reaching over to place his hand on her cheek.
"She wouldn’t want me to... fall so low...." Brittany said, her eyes wet.
"Well... she’s not here right now... is she?" Laz said with a grin before squatting down next to Robert who was still rolling around in pain and sending a rivulet of black flame towards his broken crotch.
Before Brittany knew what he was doing, Robert suddenly stopped rolling and just laid there, weak and moaning.
"What...? Did you heal him?" Brittany asked, astounded.
"Heal him? No. My black flame can do many things, but it can’t heal someone. Nope. I just seared off the nerves and blood vessels down there so that the pain would retreat and the blood loss would stop. You know, simple things. Anyway, feel free to have some fun and get your stress out. I need to go take care of some things," Laz said, turning away from them. What Brittany decided to do from now on was her business. If he died? So be it.
He quickly heard cries and grunting from behind him along with the sound of leather hitting flesh. Apparently Brittany was using those leather boots for more than just walking tonight.
As Laz made his way over to Amira, he could hear the sounds intensify from behind him. Screaming and crying along with yelling, the breaking of bones and occasional splashes of blood. Most of it was from Robert’s now broken voice, but some of it was from Brittany, letting out everything she had been holding back for months now into the body of this wasted monster.
Amira was standing over the bodies of the guards who all laid out on the ground, unconscious.
"So did you have fun?" Laz asked the grinning young woman.
"It was.... so... uhh... I can’t even explain it. Intoxicating? Euphoric? I just... to hold their lives in your own hands like that. And they couldn’t even touch me... Is this how it feels to be you? Is this why you do what you do?" Amira looked like she wanted to jump him then and there, but she was barely able to hold back. The situation hadn’t come to an end just yet and she wasn’t keen on having her happy time disrupted.
"Me? No. For you it’s like beating those weaker than you, but still strong enough to be a threat. For me, If I were to blow air hard enough in their direction, I could knock them all over. How would you feel about breaking a piece of paper? Sure, it might sound cool the first time... but after that it’s just... pointless? I guess that’s the word?" Laz said, examining his own feelings.
"I guess for you, that would be true. But now what?" Amira asked, looking at the situation in front of them.
Laz couldn’t help but sigh.
"If we let them live, we risk our identities being known... or what’s worse, some sort of retaliation from the church against the innocent. And even if we did let them go, since all that happened over there, I highly doubt any of them would live to see the end of the week. Even worse, they will probably be tortured for information, then tortured for fun and then finally killed along side their families. They even might have to watch their own families being tortured and killed first," Laz said with a sour face. He felt bad for normal human’s put into this position, but that only extended so far. He had his own life to worry about.
"So what you’re saying is?" Amira asked, a little confused.
"If they die in the line of service, they don’t have to worry about their families at least. In fact, they will probably be taken care of due to this happening," Laz responded, thinking about all the information he had gotten from his time with his wives about various things.
"So we should just kill them?" Amira seemed a little shocked. After all, she had seen Laz kill someone before, but that was kind of an accident. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen worse killings before, but she had never done it herself.
"If it makes you feel any better, just consider it as granting them mercy, something they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise," Laz said with another sigh and picked up one of their guns.
"Alac merthis, kradish," Laz said, drawing from somewhere deep within he didn’t know he knew and then firing the shot, straight into the head of the one laying near him.
He repeated the saying each time before pulling the trigger, until he got to the last one when the gun clicked empty.
Laz brought the gun up and popped the clip, seeing it empty. Laz then bent down to retrieve another one of the guns and pointed it at the last man, but Amira stopped him.
She took the gun from his hand and pointed it at the last man’s head.
"What did you say to them... you know? Before?"
"I’m not sure where it came from but I said, ’Alac merthis, kradish.’ From what popped into my head... it means ’rest well, warrior.’ It’s something to say to someone when you wish them a good afterlife, if there is such a thing," Laz explained, his eyes a slight shade of gold.
Seeing the conviction in Laz, she didn’t ask any other questions but turned instead to the last one on the ground.
"Alac merthis, kradish," Amira said, before pulling the trigger.
As his body convulsed once and went still, Amira knew he was dead and that she had caused it, but she felt nothing from it.
Laz took the gun from her, used some of his black flame to destroy any trace of their DNA on both it and the other one and then dropped them both on the ground.
