CHAPTER 62: CHAPTER 61- TORTURER

Chapter 61- Torturer

"Should I end them, Jack?"

After bringing everyone down, tying them with ropes, and lining them up against the wall, Luna stared coldly at them as she brandished her sword, ready to put an end to their lives if Jack asked.

"Hm, no," Jack replied. "That man said something quite interesting that I want to understand. We won’t kill them yet."

"Hm? What did he say?"

"I don’t know yet, but he mentioned something about us being ’monsters’," he said. For some reason, those words stuck in Jack’s head and refused to leave. Something told him the man wasn’t just insulting him for the sake of it.

"Isn’t that just his reaction to being defeated?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, we’re about to find out."

After that, Jack approached the leader, grabbed him by the collar, dragged him into the street, and stomped on his injured stomach, pressing the burned spots harshly. Since Red Lightning had the properties of normal lightning except a lot more potent, its burn marks were deep and dangerous, yet also equally painful.

The man screeched in pain, writhing as he yelled.

"Let go!!! Let go!!! It hurts!!"

"I will if you answer a few questions I have," Jack said. "Who knows, I might spare you."

"What... the hell?! I won’t answ—AGHHHHH!!!"

Before he could finish, Jack pressed harder, making the man curse and cry from the sheer agony.

"What did you say?"

"You... bastard... Go... to hel—AGHHHHH!! IT HURTS!!! IT HURTS!!!"

Even though the man refused to speak, every time Jack pressed the burnt spot, he screamed louder. Blood was already oozing endlessly from the wound, the pain worsening each second.

"We can stay here all day long. I have nothing else to do," Jack said coldly. "I’ll peel your torso if I have to. Or perhaps I should burn another spot? Your arms look quite good as the next targets."

Even though Jack spoke casually, his words horrified the man even more. How could a kid speak about torture so calmly? What kind of cold ruthlessness did he possess?

"So, which is it? Do you want it the easy way or the bad way?"

"..." The man bit his lower lip, glaring at Jack before opening his mouth. "Do your worst."

The response made Jack raise an eyebrow. ’He has quite the strong spirit. I respect your foolishness, sir.’ Jack scoffed inwardly as he channeled Red Lightning into his hand.

"Well, suit yourself."

SIZZLE

"AAAAAAAAGHH!!! AGH!"

A bolt of lightning exploded into the man’s arm, leaving a deep, burned spot that reached his flesh. His cries were so horrible that chills ran down Luna’s spine. Luckily, the group had been moved far enough away that they couldn’t hear.

"You don’t have to go through all this pain. All I want are some answers to simple questions."

"NO!!! ROT IN HELL, YOU MONSTER!!!"

"... Sigh." Jack rubbed his forehead, pressing his leg on the fresh burn as he glared coldly at the man. "What did you mean when you said we’re monsters? Did you see something?"

The man didn’t respond. His expression was filled with defiance and anger. It was so impressive that for a second, Jack could only be impressed at how strong his will was.

"So it was just your own assumption? Or did you see something?" Jack asked again.

Still, the man only cried in pain, refusing to speak — so Jack pressed harder. The scene was horrific: the tortured man’s blood oozed endlessly, and his guttural cries broke his voice.

Even Luna looked away. As much as she felt no empathy toward them, she still wasn’t fully accustomed to such brutality — even when it came from her beloved. However, she had no intention of stopping him. These people tried to kill them and if they were in the same position, they would probably do the same things if not worse. It is a well-deserved punishment.

As for the others, the sight horrified them. Their friend was being slowly killed before their eyes, and they couldn’t bear to hear him scream anymore. Fear, disgust, and despair filled their minds.

Minutes passed as the torture escalated. Jack kept pressing and stomping, making the blood flow even more profusely. Eventually, the man’s cries weakened as exhaustion overtook him.

"Please... Please..."

"..."

"Please... that’s enough... He can’t..."

One of the women finally broke, her voice trembling.

"PLEASE STOP THAT!!! THAT’S ENOUGH!! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HIM!!"

"Hm? Why should I stop when he doesn’t want to speak? He chose this, and he’ll bear the consequences of that."

"I will..."

"Felicia, no, you don’t have to—"

"No! I can’t see my husband get tortured anymore! I can’t!" she cried, tears rolling down her face.

Staring into the woman’s eyes, Jack thought for a moment before pulling his leg away and walking toward her. The group tried to back away in fear of his brutality, but he ignored them and crouched near her.

"So, why is it that you people call us monsters?"

"Because... because everyone is! Not just the undead! Everyone else is a monster now!"

"What do you mean? We are certainly not," Jack said, glancing at Luna. She looked just as confused as he was.

"No! All of you are monsters! We’ve seen our friends with our own eyes! They didn’t turn into those Undead! They were different — more evil!"

"What are you even talking about, lady? What happened to your friends?"

At that point, Jack was certain something very wrong had happened — something he wasn’t aware of. Something that had made these people lose all trust in every human they saw, not just the Undead.

"It was... yesterday..." she said, her face paling as if recalling a nightmare. "After everything happened, we escaped the area where we lived to try and find shelter from the monsters. There were seven of us, and we’d already discovered that we could awaken if we killed them. We ended up finding an empty, safe building to spend the night in."

As she spoke, her hands trembled.

"We... we slept that night... and thought we were safe. But in the middle of the night, we woke up to noise. It was Emilio — he was acting completely off. When we woke up, he walked to the sealed door and started trying to open it."

"..."

"We tried to call for him, but he ignored us. So Jane grabbed him — only for him to suddenly turn around and stare at her with the most terrifying look I’ve ever seen. It was empty... hollow... It wasn’t Emilio. Then he said, ’We need to leave. We can’t be late to the ceremony.’"

"Ceremony?"

"We didn’t know what he meant. But when he said those words, Jane stopped behaving normally too — her eyes changed. She looked at us and said, ’Let’s go, guys, we need to hurry or we won’t make it in time.’"

"And then?"

"And then... they started opening the door. We tried to stop them, but they pulled their weapons and started resisting. It broke into a fight, and Elizabeth got injured, so we stopped. Then they grabbed Gomez... all three of them left and walked away into the darkness."