A.N. Hey there guys, just a little torture session. Weak-hearted can skip this chapter. And yeah—"caution."
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Nyx entered the manor carrying a saw in his hand, his eyes cold, ruthless, and dead of emotion. He walked silently through the hallway, every step echoing like a death knell.
The others followed, but none dared to approach him. Not a word had left his mouth since the night before. Even Samantha, Ruby, and Luna stayed back, watching from a distance. There was something different about him—off.
The coldness in his eyes made their souls shiver. Even those more powerful than him felt it. An aura of impending doom loomed around him, thick and suffocating.
Nyx slammed open the door to the storage room.
Inside, Elric sat tied upside down to a chair, bloodied but grinning like a madman. Despite his condition, he wore that same smug expression.
"You bastard, you just wait. After the seal was activated, my father will send the entire royal army to deal with you along with your minions. Just you wait, fucker," Elric spat, laughing hysterically.
"He'll drag you throughout the kingdom and let the people witness what happens when someone touches royal blood."
But Nyx didn't reply. Didn't react. He wasn't even looking at Elric—his mind somewhere far darker.
"I haven't done this in a long time... so, don't blame me if it's slow."
Nyx muttered under his breath, moving more like a corpse than a man.
He raised the saw and gripped it tightly.
"You see... humans are really strange creatures. Behind all that fake—behind all the lies—the only thing they remember at the end is survival."
He stared at Elric, expression blank, voice stripped of humanity.
"So I hope you choose that too. Because if you don't, I'll show you... why people called me death incarnate."
Without hesitation, Nyx swung the saw and pressed it against Elric's thigh.
Then…
He began to cut.
Slow.
Steady.
Deliberate.
"AAAH... ARRRGGHH!!"
Elric's scream echoed through the manor, his leg muscle tearing, one layer at a time. Blood soaked the floor beneath him.
But Nyx didn't flinch. Not even a blink. He just kept sawing—until he hit bone.
Only then did he stop.
He turned, looking past Elric at Sylvia, who had frozen behind him—staring, wide-eyed and pale.
"Heal him."
Nyx's voice was flat, but final.
Sylvia, still shaken, moved without thinking. She cast a healing spell—not to mend, just enough to stop the blood flow. The flesh remained ripped open, raw and throbbing.
"Humans have only two primal instincts: to survive… and to fulfill their desires," Nyx said, looking directly into Elric's pain-wracked face. His tone wasn't threatening. It was factual—cold as the grave.
"Which one do you have?"
"Please, stop. Stop this. Why are—"
Before Elric could finish, Nyx swung the saw again.
This time, the other leg.
"I've heard a lot of this kind of story. A brother afraid of his sibling. And he decides to act—for power, for position."
Nyx stopped for a moment, eyes dark as a void.
"But you see—
I wouldn't have given a fuck if it was someone else."
Elric, almost unconscious, trembled as Nyx stepped closer.
"I vowed, when I arrived here. I vowed to start a new life, and not ever—ever—lose the people I care for."
Nyx's voice rose with each word, heavier, deeper, filled with a quiet fury that made Sylvia unconsciously retreat.
"I didn't get it. I don't understand parental love... but I know how it feels to be betrayed by the very person you love the most. And their words hurt more than a thousand swords."
He dropped the saw with a heavy thud.
The floor trembled slightly.
"I was planning to reveal the truth about Rowan Vaelthorn and leave. I wouldn't have disturbed you or your fucking father for the rest of my life."
He let out a laugh—dry, hollow, filled with nothing.
"But seeing that bitch yesterday... my instincts screamed. Screamed to kill him. To kill every bastard who comes my way."
He walked past Elric, eyes glinting like a wolf.
"I heard you were also involved in framing my father. Hahaha... let's leave it. It's not time for that yet."
Nyx let out another hollow chuckle.
"I'll wait. Wait until I reveal the truth about everything. About how a prince, despite having everything, destroyed someone else's everything."
His gaze burned with vengeance.
"Then I'll let your fate be decided."
He turned around.
"Sylvia, keep him alive. No matter what happens."
And then Nyx walked out.
No hesitation.
No second glance.
But the tension didn't leave with him. If anything, it deepened.
They had seen Nyx laugh. Fight. Bleed.
But this?
This wasn't something human.
Just watching him felt like something inside them cracked.
Even Sylvia—the one who specialized in torture—felt a shiver crawl down her spine.
She didn't speak.
Not because she didn't want to.
But because… she had no words.
When Nyx declared himself 'death incarnate,' no one doubted it.
Even the saw he carried seemed to radiate death, its aura warped—like it had been marked by something unnatural.
Sylvia stood frozen, staring at the two lumps of flesh carved from Elric's legs.
Snapping out of her trance, she rushed forward, healing him before he could bleed out.
'Who are you, Nyx?' she wondered in silence.
But she wasn't alone.
Everyone in that room—Sylvia, Luna, Ruby, Karl—felt the same.
And Karl, the man who had walked beside Nyx since childhood, realized something terrifying.
He no longer knew who this person was.