Naturally, Liam couldn't go from a simple mountain boy to a resolute killer in mere days. As tragic as his recent experiences had been, too little time had passed for his mindset to transform radically.
It didn't help that Liam had lacked control over himself on both occasions. Something that belonged to literal legends had taken over him the first time, while he could blame the second instance on drugs.
Yet, tragedies had a way of showing people's true colors and enforcing radical decisions. Liam had done that after his family's death, and things weren't different now.
Liam loathed himself for killing those two kids. He felt disgusted about the act and the memories it had burned in his brain. He even despised how powerless he had been to oppose the compulsion to follow those terrible orders.
However, Liam hated the Divine Cult more. He did blame himself. His conflict about his desire for revenge hadn't faded, but he couldn't just allow others to play with his life in such a cruel manner.
Besides, that square room was a cage that reminded Liam of the closet where he had hidden during the Bloodline Screening. Back then, he had been too scared and young to do anything, and he wouldn't commit the same mistake again.
Even if it were stupid or hopeless, Liam would oppose his predicament. In his mind, pain and death were better than being a coward again.
So, Liam waited, half-squatted at the center of the small room, the entirety of his body ready to snap at the first odd detail that touched his senses. As a seasoned hunter, he had learned to spend hours in that stance without stretching or making a single sound, preserving his strength to unleash it at his prey.
Time flowed until a slight tremor ran through the floor, followed by a rumbling noise to Liam's right. The wall was moving, revealing a square cavity that opened into the room, turning into a stone door.
A hooded man clad in a black robe and cloth stood before the entrance, but his eyes widened when something filled his vision. Liam had appeared before him, his fist already a mere centimeter from his nose.
Yet, before the fist could connect, something heavy slammed on Liam's chest, stealing his breath and flinging him away, throwing him on the floor and making him slide over it.
Liam wanted to gasp, only for his lungs to oppose it. He couldn't breathe but gritted his teeth nonetheless, rolling backward, lifting himself with his arms as his feet touched the opposite wall and generated another charge.
Liam crossed the small room in no time and launched a primal battle cry, leaping to throw the entirety of himself at the hooded man. However, the cultivator stepped forward and caught him mid-air, holding him still by his collar.
"You are too loud," The man calmly said, moving his other arm in front of him to block Liam's rising kick.
The man's arm felt like an unmovable stone. Liam's leg hurt, but that didn't stop his assault. He punched the arm holding him in the air repeatedly, uncaring of the pain in his knuckles, eventually biting onto it.
Needless to say, Liam's teeth felt on the verge of breaking. He believed he had bitten steel instead of flesh, but his jaw didn't relax. Even if it were impossible to escape that man's clutches, he would try.
"Aren't you feral?" The man chuckled. "That actually hurt a bit."
Liam bit down even harder, only for his world to turn upside-down. Somehow, he found himself on the room's ceiling, his spinning vision hiding the pain radiating from his back.
Gravity did its thing soon enough. Liam fell, his balance too messed up to perform a proper landing. He could only put his hands in front of his face before crashing to the floor.
Still, Liam recovered quickly and tried to straighten himself, only for something to do that for him. The hooded man lifted his head from his hair, using his free hand to smear something warm on his forehead.
Liam's spinning vision had just begun to recover, but something even stronger hit it now. The foreign confusion he had experienced earlier expanded inside his mind, rising through him to take over his awareness.
"I heard shouting," A different, stern voice reached Liam's ears while his awareness kept dwindling, which barely allowed him to recognize the white-masked man.
"This one was awake," The hooded man said, letting go of Liam's hair. "He bit me."
Liam's foreign confusion should have made him fall, but he straightened himself instead, sitting on his knees, seemingly waiting to receive orders.
Movement happened in front of Liam until a white, expressionless mask filled his wandering vision. He felt the vague hunch of doing something, but his awareness kept receding, suppressing any trace of his thoughts and character.
"It seems we got our hands on a little beast," The white-masked man commented, inspecting Liam's eyes.
That vicinity finally gave Liam the chance to notice the brown in the white-masked man's eyes, but that information went directly to his subconscious since his mind was growing dark.
"His high tolerance might empty our reserves earlier than planned," The hooded man pointed out.
"That it might," The white-masked man agreed, "But such resolute seeds become the best weapons once they break."
By then, the voices had become muffled for Liam. He was on the verge of fainting, but felt the white-masked man patting his head.
"And you will break, little beast," The white-masked man said. "They all do. You'll happily give your life so that the Divine Cult can shatter the foundations of the Dragon Kingdom."
Liam was too far gone to absorb or study those words, but they reached his subconscious nonetheless, clicking with something else deep inside him.
Unknowingly to Liam, a smile broadened on his face, earning him a nod from the white-masked man. Then, Liam's consciousness finally gave in, bringing complete darkness to his senses.