A present

Once Shane entered Nemesis' illusion, he saw Nemesis' business which he had attended to in full display. The guards' bodies were laying on the ground, their bodies supported by the wall of the brothel's entrance as their heads, or pieces of heads were lodged into the wall. The blood spewed out from their heads were splattered everywhere, coating the brothel's entrance walls in a fresh, crimson red while the ground was coated in a new carpeted red.

He could see parts of brain matter littered around the ground near their bodies, blood still continuously pouring down the brothel's walls; originating from the heads of the guards.

Shane's stomach heaved at the sight, he wished to vomit but he couldn't, he could not as he felt two piercing eyes gazing at him as if testing him. Shane immediately realigned his eyes so to make it so that they were focused on Nemesis' judgmental, unnerving and probing gaze. He was standing only a few feet in front of him near the door but, to him, it felt like Nemesis was miles away, too far away to catch up to. His arms were crossed as he slowly raised his right foot onto its heel and quickly brought it down constantly, in a rhythmic tapping to show his boredom and impatience.

Shane could only stare mesmerised at Nemesis' dual coloured eyes. Looking at his eyes seemed to contradict his appearance; they were soft, gentle even! The judgmental, unnerving and probing gaze of his dissipated, leaving only kindness and… pride..?

"Shane, it's alright. No need to act tough, it's grand and all if you vomit, I won't judge." Nemesis spoke softly to Shane, knowing that this was already too much for a young 4-year old to deal with. Even if his firm had been hardened, Shane suffered from an extremely fragile heart and an unstable mental state which could cause chaos if he didn't deal with it. This was all due to his broken and harsh family. He knew if he wanted Shane to follow him, he had to quickly get Shane used to these scenes or else Shane may decide later on to leave, which wouldn't be the best move for him… after all, he didn't even know of the lengths his siblings had gone through to make sure he wouldn't survive...

"Argh… it's… it's okay really. I'll get adjusted to it, I just will need to breathe in and out. In and out." Shane meekly replied, trying his best to act tough. Although it was extremely easy to see through it, Shane was only 4 after all and wasn't an expert liar. Nemesis silently chuckled to himself as Shane took deep breaths in then released them, blowing out.

After the fourth release, Nemesis waved his hand in front of Shane. "Hello! Earth to Shane! I repeat. Earth to Shane! We gotta go deal with the brothel now." This broke Shane out of his breathing fit with an embarrassed cough and rosy tinted cheeks. "Uh.. yeah, you're right…" Shane gave a small quick glance at the two dead demons and silently gave them a prayer, building up the courage to ask Nemesis a question which irked him.

"Nemesis… why are your kills so violent? You clearly didn't need to explode their skulls, so why?"

Nemesis was stumped, he really didn't know how to answer this question. He couldn't just say that he could switch between modes with one lacking remorse and empathy who was willing to do anything to slaughter his foes, now could he? No, he really could not.

"It was a quick way to kill them really, just a simple grab of their heads and smashing it against the brothel's walls. Trust me, Shane, now hurry on up. We're going to miss the opportune moment to strike." Nemesis replied, keeping the fact that there was no such opportune moment and that was a cover for the real reason why he had to hurry up. To divert the troops which were being sent to Deale's village to [Vanquished Town], which would cause a butterfly effect, making it so that he would be able to meet her at that location, at that time.

Both Shane and Nemesis stood in silence for a minute before Nemesis spoke up again. During that time, Nemesis gazed down at his left arm and started rubbing it with his right hand in discomfort, not because his clothes were uncomfortable but due to the fact that he was in an awkward situation. His social skills really were basic as he prefered to use his fists to fight through a situation than talk it over and try to convince the other party to step down and surrender. Shane just watched Nemesis do so anxiously, pondering over several ideas, questioning whether or not it was right for him to have asked that question and if their little raid on the brothel would work.

"So… let's enter now Shane, it'll help end this awkward situation…"

"Yeah…"

Nemesis and Shane both walked past the two bodies and the open doorway, entering the short hallway right before the entrance of the lobby of the brothel.

"Shane," Nemesis spoke out, halting his footsteps as he turned to face Shane. This caused Shane to cease his walk and turn his head to look at Nemesis' eyes. "What now?"

"Just wait a few seconds, that's all I ask," Nemesis responded, turning his head back to the end of the short hallway they were in, gazing at the door. Within his own mind, gears shifted and cranked as the location of everything and everyone within the brothel was being transmitted to his brain. Three seconds later he smirked, "Gotcha."

"What do you mean, 'gotcha'?" Shane asked in curiosity, wondering why he stood still staring at the door for a few seconds.

"Shane, once we burst through that door and enter the lobby, rush straight up the stairs, head left through the hallway and run towards the door at the end of the hall. Burst through it and inside will be two demons, one is a prostitute working here while the other is probably some high-ranking guard here. Both are rank-12 [Demonic Trainees] or in your human levelling system, there are two level-5 demons. They'll both be naked and unarmed so that'll be your perfect time to strike the two…" Nemesis directed Shane on the path he would have to use until he got to where two of the six demons currently in the brothel were. Upon realising his mistake and forgetting that Shane was a 4-year-old kid, he would have to let him see the dark art of sexual intercourse… and it just dawned upon him that Shane was clearly ill-equipped to deal with rank-12 [Demonic Trainees] whose skin was as tough as the flimsy blade that he had.

"Shane… uh…" Nemesis was stuck, of course, he could do it himself, but it wouldn't help Shane, in the long run, to not have any real practical fighting experience. "Shane, do you know of the birds and the bees?" Nemesis sheepishly asked as his cheeks blushed a light rosy pink, bringing some colour to his extremely pale, almost snow-like skin.

"...birds and the bees…? What do the two have in common? Don't birds eat bees?" Shane replied innocently with a question on what the two had in common excluding their predator-prey relationship. "Ugh… if I could tell you in such a short amount of time, I would." Nemesis replied in an annoyed and confused tone. He wasn't sure what to do and time was ticking.

Shane saw Nemesis concentrating with his fingers on his temple and wondered what he was thinking but didn't dare to disrupt his train of thought and waited patiently for him to finish.

'What to do? What to do? Oh, dear Emperor, what do I even do!?' Nemesis thought hard on what to do with helping Shane not lose his innocence yet since he clearly had no idea what he meant it meant that he was just a bit too pure to understand the cruelty of the adult world. He drew in a cold breath as he started to shift his train of thought.

'If I want to not allow Shane to be corrupted by sight this early on in life… why don't I remove his sight! I could alter it, after all, he won't know what the hell those two are doing if I change his vision! Thinking outside the box is indeed the best option when times are rough.'

Nemesis finally found a plan finally knew what he was going to do to help give Shane some real-life combat experience while keeping his innocence in some subjects. He knew what allowing children at such a young age see the adult-life actions would do them and their psyche. He didn't wish to mess up Shane's brain and wanted to allow him to grow up by himself and hit puberty. Only then would be the perfect time to inform him about this taboo subject. It solved two problems at once, killing two birds with one stone as the old saying would say.

"Shane, I'll need you to trust me on this one." Nemesis softly asked, hoping that his gentle voice would help encourage Shane to trust him on this one. "What do you need now?" Shane replied, curious as to what Nemesis wished to say.

"Shane, what I'm going to gift you help you in your fight against the two rank-12 [Demonic Trainees] and don't worry, you won't have to kill them, stalling is all I need you to do. Stall them long enough for me to clear the other side of the brothel and deal with the Rank-11 [Demonic Apprentice] manager..." Nemesis first stated hoping to clarify anything if Shane thought that he would have to fight the two to the death. "But first before I gift you my present... Shane, close your eyes until I tell you to open them, your eyes will need to adjust to it." Nemesis continued and finished his sentence.

"Adjust to what?" Shane responded anxiously, dread slowly beginning to grow within himself as to what Nemesis was planning.

"Shane, please close your eyes. I don't wish to literally have my fingers on your eyelids keeping them shut." Nemesis said in a concerned voice.

Instead of rebelling, this time Shane let out an annoyed sigh and closed his eyes gently, not squishing them but just lightly shutting them.

"Can you see anything?" Nemesis inquired. "Nope, nothing but darkness," Shane replied in an annoyed voice, which Nemesis didn't mind. After all, they were supposed to be attacking the residents of the brothel right now but instead were busy standing still and talking. If Nemesis didn't know or care how severe the consequences could be for being impatient and not being fully prepared, he would obviously be annoyed too. Fortunately, Nemesis cared and wasn't ignorant of facts so he didn't let Shane have his entire childhood innocence be ruined completely. He didn't wish to one day have to be against Shane in a fight… he would certainly grieve his death and miss his company.

'Being alone for the rest of my life… if I couldn't get Deale back then, what makes me think that I can get her in this one.' Nemesis thought to himself, his pessimism on his hope for a relationship with Deale was growing as reality began to kick in. Unlike earlier, he now was clear-headed and his outlook on his failed relationship grew. He stared at Shane's closed eyes then quickly diverted his stare to his heart. Odd feelings began to grow within him, jealousy, hatred, sadness and loneliness. He didn't wish to be alone.

Nemesis looked back up at Shane's closed eyes and felt something foreign within him stir. A thought immediately ran in his mind. 'Why was I born like this. This form incapacitates me from what I truly desire… how lucky he is to be able to have it. Though, no matter how much I envy others of their ability to, it'll not help me.'

Nemesis began to sink further into a self-made depression on a fact which he found out in his previous life. A fact which incapacitated his body from several functions.

Nemesis quickly shook his head repeatedly, breaking away from the darkness which he brought upon himself and got his act together. He slapped his cheeks with his hands, making a loud slapping noise. Shane wanted to open his eyes to see but didn't wish to suffer the wrath of Nemesis, which really meant that he didn't wish to have his eyes shut tight.

Nemesis stared at Shane's closed eyelids once again but this time spoke something within his mind, 'Connect [Void Conduit] to the mainframe, alter sight. Swap demon life-form data, all skin covered with [Void Blur] and [Void Haze], exchange standard view of movement during combat to show only Void outlines.'

In a nanosecond which wasn't visible to anyone's eyes excluding Nemesis as he could see all movements no matter how fast they were, he saw that through Shane's eyelids, trillions of extremely minute, invisible lines which brought the information his eyes received to the brain alter, some became narrower while others became thicker, the faint Void presence they cast also shifted so as to be able to withstand their new view.

A small smile grew upon Nemesis' lips. He knew it would succeed, after all, that was what happened every time he changed his view of the world, though unlike his alterations, he could do it instantaneously and usually a primal instinct of his such as devour, survive, slaughter or feral would strengthen.

"Okay Shane, open up your eyes and tell me if your vision changed." Nemesis spoke in a hearty tone, completely conflicting the internal struggles he had. He didn't wish for his pressures to be brought upon Shane.

Shane sensed something wrong with Nemesis' tone. He couldn't imagine him speaking in such a jovial way and was instantly creeped out by it. Though not wishing to go against Nemesis, opening his eyes made him see something which he didn't expect.