The Betrayed Necromancer - Chapter 8

 The Beginning of Revenge

"This has to be some kind of joke... There's no way this is a mistake! He must be using some cowardly trick!"

Unable to accept reality, Gaoran rationalized it that way. His pride simply couldn't stomach the fact that Crow—the very person he used to look down upon—had become stronger than him.

"Hey you guys, get in here! There's an intruder! Get your asses in here right now!"

Gaoran shouted loudly to summon his subordinates. He had dismissed them so he could talk to Gina in private, but since their rooms weren't far away, they should have arrived immediately upon being called.

Heh... It's over, Crow. Once the numbers are on my side, the tables are turned.

Gaoran wore a triumphant smile. Just as he expected, multiple sets of footsteps could be heard approaching quickly. Then, the door clicked open, and his subordinates filed into the room.

"What took you slowpokes so long?! You brought your weapons, right? Kill that idiot over there right now!"

Gaoran barked out his orders loudly. However, his subordinates didn't obey the command; instead, they stood completely motionless. Furthermore, not a single one of them uttered a word.

"Why are you just standing there silently?! Do it already!"

Gaoran approached his subordinates and yelled at them. Yet, even still, they didn't move. Feeling suspicious, Gaoran looked closely at their faces.

Their eyes were hollow and out of focus. Their skin had a dull, earthy tone, and saliva drooled from their mouths. Seeing their condition, Gaoran realized the horrifying truth. They were all already dead.

"Hiiieee...?! Th-They're dead?!"

Overwhelmed with terror, Gaoran collapsed onto the floor. His eyes were now completely frozen in fright.

"Making a fuss is a hassle. While Gina was buying time, I killed all of them. Now those guys are loyal soldiers who follow my every command."

Controlling the dead was a fundamental technique of necromancy. Killing them and turning them into puppets was a trivial task for the current Crow.

"Y-You monster...!"

"Ha, you're the last person I'd want to hear that from."

Saying this, Crow approached Gaoran and delivered a ferocious punch straight into his abdomen.

"Gah... ugh...!"

His internal organs were crushed, and burning stomach acid rushed up to scorch his throat. Overcome by excruciating pain, Gaoran nearly collapsed to the floor, but Crow grabbed him by the collar with his left hand, preventing him from falling.

Drawing Gaoran in close, Crow battered his body with a relentless flurry of blows.

"A-Ah... stop... ugh... n-no...!"

Face, chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs, back. One after another, Crow's fists drove into every part of Gaoran's body, systematically shattering it. Gaoran tried to curl his body inward to escape the pain, but Crow wouldn't allow it. He accurately struck the most sensitive pressure points, inflicting maximum pain with absolute efficiency.

When Gaoran was battered to a pulp, Crow dropped him onto the floor, stomped down on Gaoran's left knee as he tried to crawl away, and completely smashed the joint.

"Gaaaaaahhhhhhh!!"

Gaoran shrieked in sheer agony. However, Crow showed zero mercy and proceeded to crush his other knee in the exact same manner.

Another piercing shriek echoed through the room. Unable to even walk properly anymore, Gaoran shed tears as he begged for forgiveness.

"P-Please stop... Any more than this and I'll die..."

"…What are you talking about, Gaoran? Did you ever spare a single person who begged for their life?"

"That's..."

Gaoran lowered his gaze, weighed down by his own guilt. Whenever Crow had begged him to stop, Gaoran never let up. In fact, seeing them beg only excited him, driving him to torture them all the more.

A coward who took absolute delight in tormenting those weaker than himself—that was the true nature of the hero Gaoran.

"I-I'm really sorry! I was out of my mind! I'll turn over a new leaf, so please forgive me!"

Gaoran desperately prostrated himself on the floor, pleading for mercy. Seeing his pathetic display, Crow wore a look of utter disgust.

"Do you really think a transparent lie like that is going to work? If I let you off here, you're just planning to retaliate later, aren't you?"

"N-No, of course not..."

"And besides, no matter what reason there might be, I will never forgive you guys. I won't stop until I've killed every single one of you, and everyone who lent you their power."

At first, Crow had been terrified that his own anger and hatred would fade away with time. However, that worry turned out to be completely unfounded. Even after spending two years in the Abyss, his desire for revenge hadn't shrunk by even a fraction.

Crow pulled a twisted-blade dagger from his coat and drove it straight into Gaoran's abdomen. The bizarrely warped blade carved a complex wound into Gaoran's body, sending fresh red blood spurting outward.

"G-Gaaaaaahhhhhh!! It hurts, it hurts so much!!"

The dagger, crafted specifically for torture, was specialized for inflicting pure agony. Gaoran desperately tried to scramble away from Crow, but Crow didn't let him go, pushing the blade in even deeper.

"It hurts! Stop it, I'm actually going to die! I'm sorry! I'll apologize, I'll do anything, just please forgive me!"

"That's right, suffer, Gaoran. After I show you a thorough taste of hell, I'll kill you."

With those words, Crow forcibly pulled the dagger out, then drove it straight into Gaoran's thigh, unleashing a fresh wave of intense pain. Twisting the blade back and forth deliberately to maximize the agony, he churned up the inside of Gaoran's flesh.

"Gyaaaaaah! I'm dying! I'm actually going to die! Please, make it stop!!"

Gaoran wept as he pleaded, but Crow continued his sentence without changing his expression at all. For the next several dozen minutes, until Gaoran was completely paralyzed by pain and unable to move, Crow continued to subject him to unsparing torment.

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