PURPOSE

Felix looked at the man chained in front of him ,his heart beating faster and his blood begining to boil.

" Even in this condition,this bastard is smiling. That smile."

Felix grit his teeth.

Marconni's body was hanging by a chain limp and broken. It was the same spiked chain that he had used to pierce Felix but instead of only his limbs,the chains passed through his flesh and knotted around his arms,large spikes protruding from them.

The merchants skin now a canvas of twisted, pulsing wounds. There were several crystaline spikes that had been driven into various parts of his body and his flesh still protruded, their sharp tips glinting in the dim light. His single eye, once bright and calculating, was halfway removed from its socket and was red and littered with veins now stared blankly into space, the pupils constricted to tiny pinpricks while blood flowed down like tears.

The air around him was heavy with the stench of sweat, blood, and something else - something sweet and acrid that seemed to cling to the back of the throat. Marconni's body seemed to be... seeping, as if the very pores of his skin were leaking out a noxious, yellowish fluid that pooled on the floor beneath him.

Despite the overwhelming stench, Marconni's chest still rose and fell with a slow, labored rhythm, his heart beating with a dull, muffled thud that seemed to echo through the air. His lungs inflated and deflated with a faint, wheezing sound, as if the very act of breathing was a struggle.

Marconni's body was a twisted, nightmarish mockery of its former self, a testament to the unspeakable agonies he had endured. His skin had been turned inside out and was was stretched taut over his skeleton, pulled tight like a drumhead and threatening to split apart at the slightest touch. His muscles seemed to be... twitching, as if they were still reacting to some unseen stimulus, some lingering echo of the torture that had been inflicted upon him. And his entrails has been wrapped around him like a rope.

Taking a step back his body was disassembled. His body parts positions had been exchanged and were twisted in weird, opposite angles.

It was a jarring, unsettling contrast, one that seemed to defy the very laws of nature. Marconni's body was a grotesque, nightmarish ruin, a testament to the unspeakable agonies he had endured.

Felix looked back at Eden who by this time had cleaned up his mads and was watching them with his arms folded. He'd been able to accomplish this effect by using his ability to manipulate probability altering the variables so that he could do whatever he wanted, inflict as much pain as he wanted and not kill Marconni. Probably send him to deaths dirr but preventing the man from crossing its threshold. Felix shuddered.

He looked back at the merchants sorry form.

He wondered his mouth to say something but then closed it again. What was this emotion he was feeling? He wondered.

Was it Compassion?or Doubt? Or did he see this vioe human being as pathetic and deserving of this treatment. He gazed into Marconni's eye.

Kill him.

He gasped and took a step back. It was the voices.

So that's what it was?

Fear.

Felix began to sweat.

As the minutes ticked by, Marconni's body seemed to be... shifting, as if it was still trying to adjust to the trauma that had been inflicted upon it. His muscles twitched and convulsed, his skin rippling and flexing like a living thing. It was a strange, unsettling sight, one that seemed to defy the very laws of nature.

And yet, despite the overwhelming strangeness of it all, Marconni's gaze still remained on Felix. After a while,he spoke.

Marconni's voice was weak, but laced with venom.

"So, Felix, you've come to gloat, have you? To make fun of me in my current state?"

Felix stood silently, his eyes fixed on Marconni's twisted form.

Kill him.

Felix took out the dagger instinctively. His hands were trembling.

Felix Felix's blood began to boil once again. He turned to Eden, who stood silently in the shadows and was stifling a yawn.

"Have you extracted all the information you need from him?"

Eden nodded, his voice low .

"Yes, I have all the information I need. And with the contacts he's provided, we now have access to his entire network.Even if we were to kill you now, it would have no consequence on the grand scheme of things"

Felix turned back to Marconni, his eyes cold and hard. He took a step forward and raised the knife but hesitated at the last minute.

"Ah, so you are here to take your pound of flesh, then? Honestly I'm disappointed you didn't come sooner. I was sure you'd come after me the moment I was caught. But it seems I didn't rear your well."

Felix then stabbed him in the shoulder. The blade easily entered into the tender flesh and dark blood burst out of the wound and began to flow. Marconni yelled but laughed then coughed out blood.

" After all that resolve,this is the best you could do?"

Felix had flashbacks of the last when he was being maltreated and took a step back.

He began to sweat as he gazed at Marconni,his eyes widening.

He thought he could do it. That by coming there he could move past his trauma. But things didn't seem that way. It was like he was the one chained while Marconni held in to his leash.

"You think you're free, don't you? " Marconni's strange laughter was like a cold wind, sending shivers down Felix's spine it was a strange sound he'd never want to hear again.

" You've only changed masters. It's as simple as that. Don't delude yourself into thinking you have purpose other than being subject to the whims of others."

Felix tried to speak, to tell Marconni to shut up, but his words caught in his throat. He stuttered and stammered, his mind racing with memories of the past. He saw himself as a child, cowering in the corner of a dark room while Marconni loomed over him, his eyes blazing with cruelty, hot metal bar in hand.

Felix!

Kill him!

He caused all this!

Redeem yourself!

Avenge Us!

"You'll never be free, Felix. You'll always be a captive, a prisoner of some person or the other. You're an animal, a beast to be kept in a cage and used for the convenience of others. You always have been and you always will be." Marconni continued,his breath becoming more ragged by the second.

Felix's eyes dropped, his shoulders slumping . He felt like he was drowning in a sea of memories, each one more painful than the last. He felt as if the hands of the people he had killed, people he had kidnapped, people who Marconni had killed while he didn't intervene fellow slaves,all those who had suffered because of his weakness grabbing him, clawing at his very soul. The pulled him under the waters of regret wishing to drown him in remorse.

His memories flashed. He saw himself being beaten, being tortured, being forced to do unspeakable things.

Marconni's voice was the only sound in the room, echoing off the walls and bouncing off the floor. "You're a slave, Felix. A slave to your own fears and doubts. And you'll always be a slave, no matter how hard you try to escape."

Felix's body seemed to shrink, his very soul shrinking away from Marconni's words. He felt like he was disappearing, like he was being erased.

" You are a tool. My tool. You belong to me."

Marconni's began to wheeze and cough violently

"Kill that man. Kill him and help me escape. Serve me like the animal you were meant to be."

Felix's eyes snapped up, his gaze locking onto Marconni's face. For a moment, he seemed to be looking at something else, something beyond Marconni's twisted features.

Kill him

Make Him suffer

Felix!

Felix!!

Felix!!!

Felix walked up to the chained man and pulled out his dagger.

"Good boy, Felix. Good boy."

The next moment however,the blade flashed across Marconni's face and blood spilled in the floor. Then his lower jaw fell. Marconni squirmed. His eyes were wide with pain, his body squirming in agony as he tried to scream, but all that came out was a mangled, guttural sound.

Felix's expression was cold, his eyes blazing with a fierce intensity.

"You have some nerve,still trying to own me me, even in this state," he spat, his voice dripping with contempt.

As he spoke, Felix let his killing intent wash over Marconni, reversing his ability and making his hatred palpable instead of concealed. Marconni's eyes went wide with fear, his body trembling with terror as he realized that he was staring at death.

"It doesn't matter if I'm going to serve someone for the rest of my life," Felix said, his voice cold and detached.

"What matters is that my sisters and I are happy. And serving Lady Koniko is the way to that happiness ."

Felix bent down, his eyes locking onto Marconni's as he let his own hatred wash over the merchant. His irises seemed to shrink, becoming like slits that emitted a soft glow.

He raised his dagger, the blade glinting in the dim light of the room. But instead of striking, Felix sheathed the blade, a small, cold smile playing on his lips.

"I understand the world now," he said, his voice dripping with contempt. " Thanks to you. You have my gratitude for giving me the knowledge and experience to keep my family safe."

Felix turned and walked away, leaving Marconni to his agony. Eden watched him approach the door .

"Are you going to let him live?" Eden asked, his voice curious.

Felix didn't turn he just paused then spoke his voice cold.

"I gave him a cut for each time he abused someone," he said, his voice dripping with contempt.

"Forgiveness doesn't exist for scum like that."

He then exited the room.

As Felix left, a vertical slash appeared on Marconni's face, followed by another and many more in his body. His body then burst into a pool of blood.

"I'm surprised," Eden said to himself as he dismissed the tools he'd made with his ability and walked over to the pool of blood "His movements were so fast that even I didn't see them until the final cut."

As Felix emerged into the sunlight, he was greeted by his sisters, who were smiling and chatting as they walked towards him.

"We ran out of ingredients, so we had to close early," Finn said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Felix smiled, his eyes warming with affection.

"It's fine," he said, his voice gentle. "Let's go get some then."

" Aww man. But u just got here. Why don't you and Fiona go?"

Her sister whacked her on the head.

" It's not ladylike to be slothful Finn." Fiona scolded her.

" If you come along I'll buy you that bracelet you like" Felix said.

Finn quickly cling to him.

" Hey Fiona your delaying us let's go."

Fiona cling to his other side.

" Brother,youre spoiling Finn." Finn stuck her tongue out at her.

" I want something nice too" she added. Felix just smiled and patted then both on the head.

" I'll get something for both of you." He said.

The three of them walked off into the sunlight, hand in hand, their laughter and chatter filling the air as they walked.