The Legwork couple could only stare at Caelus with a slight fear before Phil's mother hastily tried to get up and try to reach her husband, but Caelus coldly backhands her and sends her crashing into a pile of rubble. The head family stares in shock as Caelus approaches and casually steps on their legs.
The people around him could only wince as a loud crunch was followed by the pained scream can be heard by everyone. Caelus stares at the legs he 'accidentally steps on' and glances at the wheelchair nearby before scoffing.
"It seems that your legs are no longer usable," Caelus says coldly. "But given the wheelchair, I suspect it has been unusable for a very long time. What? Did your fatass wife finally paralyze you after riding you every night?"
"U-urgh..." The man was too much in pain to respond as Caelus grabbed him by the collar and lifted him with one hand. Trigger notices this and tries to stop him, hoping she could prevent her new stalking target, I mean, new friend, from doing something he would regret.
Phil had no idea what had happened ever since that loud noise he had heard from outside the dinner table, followed by a huge destruction that led to a huge chunk of the mansion disappearing, with everyone being sent flying, except for him, as a flame barrier emerged and protected him from danger.
That barrier is enough to explain everything. Caelus is here.
But something is wrong with him. Over the weeks, he had seen a lot of personality and emotions displayed by Caelus, being a goofy idiot, a wise man, a serious battler, an annoying yapper, a worrywart, and even being completely vulnerable. One thing he never saw him do is when he's in complete rage, and not just any rage, but a cold one.
Then, he just casually backhanded his mother (he silently admits that he feels satisfied seeing his 'mother' getting treated like a bitch if not for him, concerning for his friend) and breaks his 'father's' legs by simply stepping on them. Phil feels a pit forming in his stomach as Caelus lifts his 'father' up and raises his hands.
"Wait-!" Before Phil can finish his sentence, Caelus swings his hand, causing both Phil and Alice to close their eyes.
SLAP!!
The sound makes everyone nearby blink in confusion as they glance back. What they saw was Caelus casually backhanded the family head, and the man had a large red bruise on his right cheek, with some blood coming and a few teeth flying out of his mouth. Before any of them can fully process what's going on, Mem appears beside him and slaps the man on his left cheek, which also sends a few teeth flying.
They stare blankly at the brutally comedic scene of Caelus and Mem continuing to slap one of the influential TOPS members, who continues to lose more teeth. The scene lasts for several minutes till there are no teeth left, the man's right eye is bloodshot, and both cheeks are red and swollen. Caelus stares coldly at the man before tossing him towards Seed and Trigger, before glancing at the man's wife, who looks fearful but Caelus notices the calculating look in her eyes.
"W-wait..." The woman stammers as Caelus slowly gets closer. "L-let us go, and I-I'll do anything! I'll even offer my own body to you!"
Upon hearing this, everyone starts to squint their face in disgust, especially Phil. Phil had a very low expectation when it came to his mother and he didn't expect much from someone as bad as she was, but she had once again exceeded his expectations in the worst way possible.
But, much to everyone's shock, Caelus had suddenly moved faster and everyone looked surprised by his reaction while also felt disappointment growing inside them, while the rabbit Thiren couldn't help but grin slyly as she believed her offer worked for the man. After befriending this eccentric man, they had expected he was much better than this, especially Phil when he casually dismisses Nicole's attempts to charm him.
SLAP!!
"Eh?" But, it seems they may have come into conclusion much earlier as Caelus slapped the teeth out of the Thiren's mouth.
"W-what...?" Phil's 'mother' mutters in shock as she feels the stinging pain on her left cheek, her body starts to tremble.
"Sorry, but your loose hole wouldn't satisfy even the most lustful man in New Eridu. Admit it, whore, you have passed your prime to offer yourself." Caelus says coldly, and he could see the woman tremble even more.
"You brat! Did your parents teach you any manners!?" The woman snarls.
"They did. But, they also teach me to deny any woman who offers their body and cheat on their boyfriend/husband as harshly as possible." Caelus says blankly. "I should be asking you that. But, with how you offer yourself with zero hesitation, the answer was clear as day."
"That does it!" The woman screeches as she pulls out a vial from her dress and she attempts to inject it into Caelus. But, he casually catches her by the wrist and crushes it, causing the woman to scream in pain and let go of the vial. Thankfully, Mem caught the vial.
"With how you act, it seems you fear nothing, I bet it's because your family name lets you get away with consequences," Caelus says as the woman tries to squirm, desperately trying to escape Caelus's grip but to no avail. "Then, let me introduce you to a fear that every woman should fear, domestic abuse."
For several minutes, everyone could only watch blankly as Caelus gave the woman the same treatment he gave to her husband. But, unlike him, Caelus didn't stop the assault even after she lost all of her teeth.
"P-please stop..." The woman mutters weakly as Caelus stares at her coldly and drops her harshly. The woman shakes like a leaf as she holds her broken wrist and when Caelus raises his hand, she starts to cower in fear.
Without a word, he turns around and breaks Phil out of his binding. Caelus's expression softened as he gently patted the bunny's head.
"Hey, sorry for being late and scaring you..." Caelus says gently, causing Phil to scoff.
"W-who was scared!?" Phil exclaims as he turns around, earning a chuckle from the older man. Caelus pauses upon noticing Phil starts to shake and tears start to escape his eyes.
"Y-you...saved me again..." Phil mutters. "W-why?"
"You're my friend, what other reason do you need?" Caelus asks as Phil faces him and tackles him into a hug.
"I...I thought...everything is over..." Phil says shakily. "I...got kicked out of my college, I...got kidnapped by a random person....and I was brought back to my 'home', which feels more like a prison than anything...I thought...my fate is sealed...trapped inside my own family....unable to be free again, like a caged animal..."
"..." Without a word, Caelus gently pats his back as he lets the boy rant.
"I...I didn't want them to think they had won...I...I want to fight back, letting them be frustrated over me...and kick me out of the house....o-or...anything is much better than staying with them..." Phil continues as tears keep falling out of his eyes. "I....you have no idea....how relieved I am to see you..."
"...Well, I'm relieved to see you are unharmed," Caelus says gently before slowly getting up and staring at the Legwork couple.
He really wants to kill them, he truly did, but he can't do anything unless he wants to cause more issues. If he killed them, the public would see him as a psychopath who killed an influential family for no reason, and he would be chased all over the New Eridu, which makes things complicated eep him from helping the ZZZ main cast with any threats. Sure, he could let them do it alone, but he would feel guilty if he didn't do anything, especially with the powers he possessed.
Sure, he could ask for the Defense Force to help him with legal issues, but he doubts their higher-ups are willing to help him unless he's part of the squad. He is still not willing to risk his freedom just to get the Defense Force to assist him.
Also, with everything he did to the Legwork couple, he doubts they will be any threat. He had made sure to imbue some Destruction energy into the man's legs, which lets him grind his entire leg bones into nothing but dust. And with all the violence, the woman is basically traumatized.
Oh, he also silently implants a tracker inside them so his drones could finish them anytime without leaving any traces.
Another reason is that he wanted to extract any information from them with the help of Mem. They find a lot of information from them, one of them being that they're also members of Exaltists. The information they gave to Zhao regarding their bases is nothing but fake info that leads her and her organization on a wild goose chase.
Speaking of Exaltist, Caelus also gain a specific information about where they conduct their experiments on their own children. Without a word, Caelus slowly approaches the door towards the underground, which was somehow left intact.
He wasn't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.
Speaking about the experiment, he remembers how he reacted after using his Eyes of Nous on them. The information provided by the eyes made him feel helpless.
The experiment had forcefully mutated their body beyond any type of repair, and no medication would be able to fix it, not when the people in this world have yet to find a permanent way to properly treat symptoms similar to Ether corruption. And even if somehow a miracle happens, there's another issue, their mental states.
They have experimented on the children for a long time. From the memories Mem has gathered, they have suffered from their torture for so long that their minds have fractured. Their minds were so badly fractured that attempting to restore their memories would only make their mental state even worse.
Reversing time is out of the question when Mem is basically not at her full strength and his Remembrance Path levels are not high enough to do that. The amount of time needed to grind is crazy and he isn't sure if letting them be in pain for so long is worth healing them, not when the system didn't say if the time reversal could even restore their minds or not. The lack of information isn't something he could take a gamble on.
He could heal them by unlocking Abundance, but like Remembrance, it will be a long time to grind the path level and there are also no info if Abundance could heal their mind as well. Also, he fears the heal would implant them with Mara.
He isn't willing to gamble, not when the universe loves to mess with his luck.
Without a word, he tore open the basement door and the smell of rotting corpses spread like a bomb. Everyone covers their mouth while watching in silent horror.
"W-what...?" Phil mutters in horror as he covers his nose.
"Phil...your siblings..." Caelus mutters quietly. Phil is confused and tries to get closer so he can see what's in it. Caelus tries to stop him but Phil had saw everything with his enhanced eyes, causing him to scream.
The basement is dark, but Phil's eyes allow him to see through teh dark slightly, and what he saw is horrifying.
A corpse of one of his siblings is being hooked up to a chain like a piece of meat.
To be Continued