Starbound: A Space Odyssey 71 The Floran Colony 24

"Looks like you haven't been torturing him enough..." Jevil retrieved his hand from the man's chin and casually took a handkerchief that was in the pocket of his suit, and wiped clean his face.

After cleaning it up, he threw a side glance at one of the armoured men. "I'm sorry, master Jevil." The soldier lowered his head and apologised to Jevil.

Jevil retrieved his eyes from the soldier and stared at the man that was tied at the chair. Despite his wretched state, he was actually smiling; it was a b.l.o.o.d.y smile. He didn't have any teeth because all of them were taken out as a way to torture him.

"I usually don't like to involve myself in this kind of... Activities, but now..." Jevil flashed another smile, but this time it was extremely frosty and filled with some dark aura around him. "I'll enjoy breaking your... Determination and loyalty."

*Bam*

Jevil sent a heavy punch straight at the man's chest.

*Crack*

The sound of bones being crushed travelled to all the soldiers' ears that were present. They slightly trembled as they felt the chilling atmosphere around Jevil.

*Cough, cough, cough...*

The man coughed a mouthful of blood at Jevil's hand, staining it in a crimson red colour. But it didn't end there. He kept coughing blood for quite a while before he was able to recover his breath and stop.

"How about it?" Jevil grabbed the man's hair and lifted his head so that his eyes could match with Jevil's eyes. "Do you feel it? The pain? The agony? The helplessness? The desire....to die?" Jevil's eyes shone with a mad light. "Don't worry; I know how all this feels. After all, I have been tortured quite a few times as well."

"..." The man silently stared at Jevil. His eyes were filled with determination and mockery.

"I never actually said a word during my time being the one tortured, you know why?" Jevil's smile widened. "Because all they were able to use against me was physical pain. I didn't have any weak spot or neither close friends or... Family."

He stared at the man's expression that had started to change. "I then understood that when dealing with some types of people you can't use only pain to make them submit. You have to break them, emotionally and psychologically." Jevil took his hand from the man's hair and started to look for something in his PIPS. "Let me show you something that I think you would be very, very interested at."

The man felt some foreboding feeling that had started to cloud his mind.

"Take a look..." Jevil crouched by the man and showed his PIPS' holographic screen.

The man's eyes were a little blurry, but he was still able to discern the image that Jevil showed.

His expression turned into disbelief for a split second before it went normally. He calmly turned his sight from the screen to Jevil. "What do mean by showing this image?"

"Oh, you don't know them?" Jevil faked a surprised expression on his face. "This beautiful woman and her two children. I really thought you knew them."

The image that Jevil was showing was, in fact, a video that showed a family of three happily walking in a park, a beautiful woman in her thirties, and tow small children, a boy, and a girl.

"You know.....this isn't a recording, but rather a live video." Jevil wickedly smiled as he saw that the man's expression completely froze. "If you don't really know them, then... I don't think I have a reason to keep them alive."

"Stop!" The man momentarily lost his composure and roared. He realised that he committed a mistake and tried to correct it. "Are you a man? I mean involving innocent people in something that is between you and me."

As the man spoke, he suddenly remembered something. He flashed a mocking smiled at Jevil. "Oh, sorry. I forgot that you aren't a man anymore, after all, you been used and abused as a toy for men for quite a while when you were young."

The armoured soldiers all trembled by the terrifying and frosty aura that was coming out from Jevil.

"Oh?" Jevil acted casually, as he lifted his black-rimmed gla.s.ses. "Trying to make me angry so that my judgment would become cloudy and like that you could save your wife and kids from my wrath by taking it on by yourself." His eyes gleamed with anger and madness as he stared at the man. "I usually don't like to involve Innocents in my machinations and conflicts, but when they are on my way to achieving what I want, I have no other choice than using them or eliminating them."

The man's face completely changed. "No, NO!" He didn't care about anything anymore and angrily roared like a beast. "DON'T TOUCH THEM!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Jevil coldly smiled. "I'm pretty sure that if I torture them right in front you, you will spill out the information that I want in no time."

"NO! I'll talk! I'll talk, just....just don't touch them." The man lowered his head and actually started to cry.

"Give me what I want then I'll only grant one wish of yours." Jevil leaned closer and whispered by the bloodied ear of the man. "Choose one of them. I let you live and kill them, or I kill you, and they live. You have 10 seconds to deci-"

"Kill me..." The man said without waiting for Jevil to finish his lines. "Kill me and let them live." He fearlessly stared at Jevil; his eyes showed no hesitation whatsoever.

"..." Jevil's smile slowly faded away from his face. "I thought this was going to be a hard choice and I was going to watch some internal struggle, but..." He sadly sighed. "Tell me then. Where's Arianne?"

"I want you to promise first, promise that you will not touch them."

"I promise not to touch them."

"..." The man stared at Jevil for a while before he gave up and gave all the information about Arianne to Jevil.

*Bang*

Jevil pressed the trigger if his handgun and watched as the bullet smoothly went through one side of the man's head and left in the other.

"See? That's how it's done." Jevil threw a side glance at the armoured soldier and started to walk away. "Dispose the body and clean up the mess that you made."

"Yes, sir!" The armoured soldiers saluted and went to work.

Jevil left the bas.e.m.e.nt and went directly toward the living room of the house he currently was staying. The house wasn't big and neither luxurious, it was a simple house that belonged to the man that had just died.

He sat down on the couch and absent-mindedly looked at the wooden ceiling.

[I have become a monster...] He thought. [One day after another go by and I grew more and more like the people that want I want revenge...] He sadly sighed and closed his eyes. [I have already hopped in the train, there's no stopping and turning back now. The only way....is forward.] His eyes flared open and shone with determination and ruthlessness. [I must... Go on.]