Chapter 156: Proper Payback
Aside from the seven Loki Familia parties, two other groups had also entered Knossos at the same time. One of them consisted entirely of Isaac's students and subordinates. They entered the manmade labyrinth from the sixth floor of the dungeon - to be exact, from the secret door where Jakk, Kalin and Mina had encountered Quinn for the first time.
The cat boy, who had been on the brink of death at the time, had grown significantly since then. No more was he a feeble, emaciated husk who could barely even move on his own. He had already reached Level 2 and had two Skills under his belt!
What hadn't changed, however, was the hatred that he felt bubbling inside of him when he thought back upon that unspeakably tortuous time in the Zagan Familia's underground sweatshop. On the contrary, it had only increased since then.
As they stepped into the magic stone lamp-lit hallways leading further into Knossos and opened the orichalcum gate, the memory of his little sister's terrible fate forced its way back to the forefront of his mind. He clenched his balled-up fists tightly and began to tremble. Tears almost snuck their way down his cheeks, but his desire for making those that had hurt her disappear from the face of the world kept them somewhat in check.
Noticing the unstable emotional state of their companion, Kalin and Mina exchanged a glance and approached him, placing one hand each on his left and right shoulder. This sudden physical contact didn't entirely snap him out of his joyless remembrance, but it made him raise his slightly lowered head and look at the two of them with a questioning gaze shining through his eyes, which were still rippling with suppressed psychological pain.
"I know that you're suffering, but recall that original desire you had when you joined our familia. You wanted to kill every single one of the bastards who hurt you and your sister. Can you confidently say that you can do that while you're this shaken up?"
Although she usually appeared friendly and easygoing - even adorable, when her lord was present - Mina's words were somewhat harsh this time. To expect a 14 year old youngster to swallow his trauma for a bit to focus on what he wanted to do was a tough order, one that might make ignorant observers think that she didn't understand what he was going through. However, due to her own experiences, she was very well aware of how difficult it would be to put her advice into practice. Her gaze stayed calm and unswerving while she waited for his response.
Of the opinion that she might have been a little too abrasive, Kalin chimed in as well, with a bright but slightly embarrassed smile on his lips.
"Just remember that we'll have your back. If you, at any point, feel like you can't go on or need a helping hand, just give us a signal. You don't need to force yourself, okay? We'll be here for you, after all!"
Despite his currently chaotic mental state, Quinn managed to squeeze out a stiff smirk at his words, then he nodded at the two of them and glanced over at the rest of his party members. Even though they hadn't all come up to talk to him just now, their concerned looks and reliable, reassuring presences made it clear that they thought along the same lines as Kalin and Mina. Once more, the two's words echoed in his mind, before his thoughts that had been akin to a stormy sea weakened until only a partially forced, calm breeze took over.
'That's right, focus! I can cry and wallow in misery all I want later. I'll be getting revenge today, so I should at least stay clear-headed until that's over and done with.'
Telling himself things like these didn't help much, but it served to anchor his conscious mind to a firm objective. His tense body relaxed once more and a cold, calculating expression replaced his previous, miserable one.
"Thanks. I'm fine now."
His response to their worries was short and concise, but nobody complained. Now that his steps had turned steady again, Kalin and Mina returned to their original positions and the party proceeded onwards.
The only one who still had a bit of difficulty with wrapping her head around how exactly the young male Cat Person was feeling right now was Titania. Out of everyone gathered here, even taking Averin into account, she had the least understanding about what exactly a sibling was, and what kind of emotional connection most people would feel to their close kin. She had grown to like Isaac's students and subordinates quite a bit during the time that she had spent with them, but although losing one of them would probably make her a little sad, or even angry, she couldn't fully comprehend Quinn's exact sentiments. Due to that, she had mostly eyed the cat boy with curiosity during his unstable moments.
'He spent more than ten years with Millina, right? So if I multiply the negative emotions that would assault me should I lose one of these people here by approximately 350… would that amount of suffering be approximately the same as what he is going through? In any case, even imagining that is… painful.'
Titania couldn't be criticized for a lack of trying, though. She really was doing her best to attempt to understand what was going on. During her time in the dungeon, she had never really needed to take heed of others' feelings and mental states, so considering that, she thought that she had been doing quite well so far.
After Isaac had shown them the exact layout of the Zagan Familia's Knossos territory, Quinn had realized that he and his sister had actually almost made it out of there back then. If they had managed to escape two rooms further… then they would have stepped into Knossos proper. They probably would have still gotten caught, but it hurt quite a bit when he understood just how close they had come.
There were four paths that led to the underground sweatshop and they had long since decided who would be blocking them. As for Quinn? He would be the wolf set upon the flock of sheep.
Unsurprisingly, Titania would play the role of an unsurpassable wall at the northern path. Mina would head to the western one alone - her recently acquired Magic made her more than strong enough to be a one-woman army. Lastly, Jakk would block off the southern path whilst Aselina and Averin would go take care of the eastern one.
Only Kalin hadn't been assigned the same duty as the others or Quinn. Instead, he would follow behind the cat boy and help out as needed. Of course, he wouldn't be getting in his way at all - his presence had another purpose.
"Everyone, split up. The assault on the Zagan Familia's base begins now!"
At Kalin's orders, the party members separated into five groups and ran off in different directions. Well, all except for one person. Jakk simply had to slowly advance upon the same exact path that they had been taking so far. He had no need to traverse any large distances, unlike the others.
"Off you go. Stay strong."
With a wave, he bade a temporary farewell to Quinn and stared at the young man's back as he charged into the distance. He was hopeful that everything would go well, but he wasn't too worried about it all. Not only had he confidence in his companions, but also in his teacher who would step in if the worst happened.
Because they were already aware that Zagan wasn't at his familia's secret site today, they knew that nobody at the sweatshop would be prepared for their arrival, or would even be aware that a raid on Knossos was currently ongoing.
Choosing to face this hurdle earlier rather than too late, Quinn conjured an imaginary opponent and activated his Berserker Skill, then he slowly let it get stronger bit by bit. He controlled the amount of anger and hatred inside of him to build up the stat multiplier step by step, until he finally made it to around 2. He didn't dare to go any further than this, because he feared that he wouldn't be able to stay rational enough to suppress the mental upheaval that would inevitably come if he did so.
Using this Skill of his was far from as easy as it might sound. His Dexterity and Magic had now been nearly halved, which made it more difficult to move his body exactly as he intended. It also took far more focus to send mental commands to it manually while not being overcome by bestial, rage-filled instincts. Those were the 'hidden' side-effects of this Skill, which had been plainly obvious due to its name.
Half a minute after he had separated from everyone other than Kalin, Quinn stood in front of a closed adamantite door. Thankfully, his teacher, Isaac, had prepared all parties for such situations. With both speed and calm, Kalin took out a newly-made key from one of his pockets and unlocked the obstacle that had been barring their path forward.
"Huh?"
A barely audible sound of confusion rang from the other side, which served to further incense Quinn. He could accurately pinpoint exactly who had been making that noise just now - it was Leeron, one of the overseers who had been in charge of the hall in which he and Millina had been forced to work. It looked like he was on guard duty today.
Giving him no chance at all to question whether the clicking sound that the lock had made was just a product of his imagination, Quinn opened the door and unsheathed his sword in the same motion. His steps only further accelerated as he took in his surroundings.
'As expected, I've never been here.'
The room that he had entered wasn't big, maybe only twenty or so square meters in size. There also was only a single door leading further into the relatively straightforwardly laid-out base. The simplicity of this structure made it easy to defend against outside invaders, but once all four of these rooms were breached, it transformed the whole place into a deathtrap.
With a quick stab straight into Leeron's heart, Quinn overwhelmed him before he had even fully realized what was happening. The eyes of the two other guards widened in shock, but they clearly couldn't keep up with his speed either.
One slash later, the head of the second guard to fall to his blade had been separated from his shoulders, while the last one had barely managed to step backwards and grasp his own weapon in defense.
"The heck is going on?! Who are you? Why are yo---"
Plainly ignoring the questions that spilled out of the man's mouth, Quinn outmaneuvered him with steady steps and cut off the hand that had been holding onto his sword. With his left arm, he pushed the man against the wall and impaled him in the same motion using the blade that he was grasping in his right hand. His eyes didn't even shake as he did so.
'I recall him as well. He was one of the many people who were handing out free food to the homeless in Daedalus Street. Scum.'
Glancing at the incredulity and fear in the dying man's eyes with disgust, he shook off the blood from his weapon and moved towards the only door that led further into the place that had so generously provided the scenery for his nightmares far too many times.
"Hey, Boris. What's going on out there?"
Apparently, despite how quickly he had taken care of everyone here, his intrusion had still been noticed. Or, well, the guard's reaction to it, at least. A group of four had been relatively close to the door that he had just opened, so they rushed towards the guard post with worried expressions.
"Fuck. INTRUDERS!! Everyone, get your weapons!"
The moment that he stepped through the doorway, the woman leading this group noticed him and shouted as loudly as she could, alerting not only everyone in this hall, but also many others all across the base as well. Even though someone forcing their way into this place was one of the least likely occurrences, she had nearly instantly wrapped her head around the situation.
'Quite competent - as expected of a Level 2.'
Everyone else that he had encountered here so far had only been at Level 1, while this woman had managed to advance one step further on the path towards strength.
"Encircle them!"
As her subordinates and the rest of the Zagan Familia members in this hall were getting into position, pointing their axes, swords and spears at Kalin and Quinn, the woman in front grasped her halberd and furrowed her brows, scrutinizing her opponents. In order to buy some time for more reinforcements to arrive, she decided to ask a few questions.
"Who are you? Why are you barging in here like this?!"
Even though he was aware of her thoughts, Quinn halted in his steps and raised a corner of his mouth in an amused smirk - as might be expected, the smile didn't reach his frosty eyes.
"I'm here to pay you all back."
The sound of footsteps getting closer reassured the halberd-wielding woman, so she continued her line of questioning.
"For what? What did my Zagan Familia do to you?"
Honestly, she could think of many people that they had slighted over the years, and far too many innocents that had gotten hurt or died. In the name of profit, they had abducted thousands of the homeless that were roaming around Daedalus Street and even ventured out of Orario to assault remote, little-known villages to capture their inhabitants. Was this young man perhaps someone who had managed to slip away during one such incident?
Before Quinn had any opportunity to respond - not that he wanted to converse any further anyway - the first group of reinforcements had arrived in the hall. It was a group of seven, who had all properly armed themselves before coming here. Their leader, yet again, was a woman - and wouldn't you look at that, she was a familiar face.
"Quinn?!"
It was the middle-aged woman who had knocked him and his sister unconscious with a gentle smile on her face, giving an empty apology in the process. She had seemed impossibly fast to him back then, but now, her advance appeared like a slow crawl to his eyes. Amongst the many people that he wanted to kill, she was close to the top of the list.
'Ugh!'
Just as he had predicted, the sight of this dastardly backstabber invoked even more hatred in his heart, causing his Berserker Skill's stat multiplier to instantly skyrocket to 2.4. This was a little bit higher than what he could comfortably handle, but because he had prepared himself for this spike, this mental impact, he quickly managed to quench the flames of his wrath a little and returned to his previous, collected state.
"Shouldn't you be dead?"
His few seconds of pause had given the middle-aged woman enough time to regain her bearings and to grow pale. He didn't know whether she was fearing that he was a ghost who had come to haunt her or whatever, but the clear terror in her shaking voice brought a small, genuine smile to his lips.
Instead of responding to her question, he leaned forward a little and kicked off the ground, bolting towards the Level 2 woman who had alerted the Zagan Familia's base to his presence. Before she could do more than to reposition her weapon so that it would pierce straight through his heart should he advance any further, he side-stepped the halberd and pushed it to the side with his elbow, causing her to stumble. That alone was more than enough of an opening to quickly stab her throat. With two more steps, he positioned himself behind her and pushed his blade straight through her heart, then he grabbed her body and kicked it towards the one of her subordinates who was closest to her - a spear-wielder. The reinforcements would still have to cross half of the hall until they would be close enough to pose a danger to him, which gave him plenty of time to clean this group up in 'peace'.
"Lori!?"
The spear-wielder hastily moved his weapon aside in fear of further injuring his companion, which spelled his death. Quinn had been following behind the body of the Level 2 woman and had approached closer to him unseen. A casual slash in passing caused another decapitation to take place.
As for the two axe-wielders and the three enemies that were armed with swords, they had all decided to take care of Quinn first and were ignoring the calmly-observing Kalin for now. The immediate threat had to be taken care of before anything else could be tackled.
Sadly for them, they were simply too slow and weak. Their attacks couldn't reach Quinn at all and they were all taken care of in a few dozen heartbeats.
"... shit."
Growing even paler at this sight, the advance of the middle-aged woman ground to a halt. She ignored her still-advancing subordinates and the huge number of loud footsteps that originated from other halls. Out of everyone currently in this room, she had the clearest idea of exactly how strong this cat boy was. After all, she was one of her familia's Executives, a veteran Level 2 adventurer!
"He is stronger than the Captain…"
Losing almost all will to fight, the woman mumbled these words under her breath. Before she could regain her mental footing again, four out of the six people that she had come with had already been eliminated. As she snapped out of it, she saw Quinn take another four steps and two more bodies hit the ground - one of them had been impaled, while the other one had been beheaded.
"Your turn."
The cold smile on the youngster's face scared her witless, but she still managed to raise her sword to put up a defense. However, before she knew it, she had already been disarmed, her weapon clattering to the ground.
"Bye. Die."
Thrusting his sword through her hastily put-on armour, Quinn stabbed it straight into her heart, staring directly into her eyes all the while. He took in all of the dread, the pain, the desperation and the shock that flickered within. With a dead-pan expression, he watched her cough up mouthfuls of blood and move her shaking hand upwards to her chest in complete bewilderment. With tears welling up in her eyes that were slowly glazing over, she quickly lost strength and fell backwards, off of his outstretched blade.
As her body hit the floor, the next group of reinforcements had finally entered the hall as well.
"ZULLIE!!"
A heart-wrenching cry escaped the throat of the leader of these forces as he saw his wife bleeding out on the floor. Although his voice had cracked due to emotion and it had been many weeks since they last met, Quinn's tail lowered and his hair stood on end at the man's voice. With slow movements, he looked up from his most recent kill and into the eyes of the leader who had just arrived. He wasn't trying to entirely ignore the other 13 people, but this one person inevitably took up most of his focus.
By all accounts, this man was clearly handsome. Even in Orario, he wouldn't have any problems with sticking out of the crowd and having a successful love life. He was tall, muscular, had breathtaking facial features and possessed a somewhat scholarly demeanour. His greyish-blue eyes were as deep as the sea, and he even had the strength of a veteran Level 2 adventurer. And yet… and yet!
'This is the bastard who said that they should 'sample the goods'!'
Quinn knew that this would happen, and yet he couldn't control the overwhelming surge of hatred that overcame him at the sight of this disgusting creature, and at hearing this voice. Never before had his Berserker Skill activated to such lengths, to the absolute maximum! He felt his rationality slipping away nearly instantly, no matter how desperately he tried to retain it. All of the plans that he had made for approaching this situation methodically were thrown out of the window, with his bloodshot eyes only focusing on this singular foe.
"Stall him! I'll get the Captain!!"
Perhaps the man had noticed that he was facing an opponent that he couldn't possibly overcome, or maybe the almost tangible killing intent pouring out of the young cat boy had legitimately scared him. Whatever it was, he bolted for one of the exits of the hall and left his subordinates behind, not wasting any more thoughts on them or on his recently-deceased wife that he clearly cared about a great deal. In the face of pretty much certain death, his flight instincts took precedence over any other emotions.
Overcome with bloodlust, Quinn passed right by everyone else before they could fully adjust to their circumstances and left them in the dust. His chase wasn't a long one. Halfway through the next hall, he finally caught up to the one person that he wanted to kill the most in this world.
Obviously, the man had taken note of his approach, so he made a split-second decision to try his hand at something that just might save his skin for the time being. He grabbed one of the workers who hadn't dared to stop their monotonous labour despite the current emergency situation, terrified of the punishment that might potentially come their way.
Holding the feeble woman that was barely more than skin and bones in front of him like a shield, he shouted at the charging Quinn.
"Stop! Any closer and I'll kill her! I'll also kill all of the others!! You came for revenge, didn't you? And to save them, I assume? So… s-stop!"
Despite his best efforts to appear confident and threatening, the man still stuttered at the end as he observed the cat boy who had halted his advance a mere two meters away. Somewhat emboldened by the clear conflict that he could make out in the youngster's eyes, and the hesitation that was dulling his killing intent minutely, the man's erratic heartbeat recovered to some degree.
"Good. Now drop your weapon!"
The hostage situation had allowed Quinn to barely regain some extent of control over his Berserker Skill that had been running rampant. He definitely felt a little bit uncomfortable with letting an innocent person die just to kill his enemy, but at the same time, he also had no intention of following along with this fiend's demands.
Just as he was caught in a state of indecision, he heard a weak voice.
"Don't do it… Kill… this bastard. Don't care about me."
The eyes of the woman who had been taken hostage were extremely resolute, far more than could have ever been expected from someone in her position. The hostage and the bloodthirsty cat boy looked at each other and seemed to come to an understanding.
Seeing his monstrous opponent nodding his head and getting into position to charge forward once more, the vile scumbag got ready to throw aside this apparently useless baggage and reached out towards another worker who stood nearby, unsure of where to go or what to do. Perhaps this one would be a little bit more attached to his life.
Before he could potentially harm either of them, however, he heard an unfamiliar voice mumbling something. It originated from behind Quinn.
"Embrace."
Both the woman that he had taken hostage and the young man whose arm that he had been trying to grab suddenly got enveloped in a sturdy barrier crackling with electricity. Because he had already been in such close contact with both of the targets of these barriers, the man's flesh convulsed and his arms as well as parts of his torso got scorched black. A burnt scent wafted through the air. The pain that assaulted him out of nowhere made him stumble backwards and away from the two workers. Eventually, he fell on his butt, his expression speaking volumes about how aghast he was.
"Argh! A… a Magic?!"
Even more horrified than before, the man felt his pants grow warm and wet. As quickly as his injured arms allowed him to, he crawled backwards and away from the two youngsters that had achieved the prestigious status of genuine nightmare fuel in his mind. While he did so, he didn't notice that every single worker in this entire hall had been enveloped in electric barriers - not just the two that he had been next to - and that the young human who had cast this Magic wasn't even bothering with him. Instead, Kalin was simply running towards the next hall, whispering the word "Embrace" once more when he got there.
"Be less of a monster in your next life, will you?"
Sighing at this pathetic display, Quinn didn't even bother with any torture, he simply beheaded the panicking man right then and there. Yes, he had wanted to get revenge, but simply in the form of extinguishing the lives of everyone involved in his sister's demise. As for letting them suffer inordinately before they died, he didn't really feel like it - the sooner that they left the stage, the better. In his opinion, they shouldn't even have the opportunity to cling onto life any longer. Torturing them might feel a bit fulfilling, but it would only waste his time in the end. He had more important things to do.
Even though he told himself these things internally, he couldn't help but stab the decapitated head a few more times, before stepping on it so hard that it burst and was squashed underfoot. The cerebrospinal fluid, the pieces of brain matter, the bone splinters and the blood which mixed with all of them painted a gruesome picture, but he didn't really pay attention to it.
Deep inside, he hoped that at least a little bit of the pain that these actions should have caused was still transferred to this dying fiend before he had entirely bit the dust.
A deep breath later, Quinn finally managed to calm down slightly and to regain full control over his Berserker Skill once more. With the stats multiplier now at around 2.3, he steeled his mind again and set out to get rid of each and every single Zagan Familia member who was fortuitous enough to be here today.
Despite the aforementioned Captain having reached Level 3 about a year ago, with Quinn's enhanced stats, he didn't prove to be a problem. They had been almost equal in stats, but Isaac's training had taught Quinn to face opponents far stronger than himself from the very beginning, therefore, the battle wasn't difficult.
There were 63 Level 1's, eight Level 2's and the Captain in this base. Around ten of them tried to run away during the twenty minutes that it took for Quinn to kill them all. Of course, they didn't get past Isaac's students or subordinates who blocked their escape routes. As a result, they could only wait for their demise whilst Quinn checked all directions and carefully skimmed through the entire underground complex to make sure that he hadn't left any Zagan Familia members alive. With them having nowhere to go, he slaughtered them all.
Yes, the entire assault on this place hadn't been a challenge. Rather, it had been a massacre.
As he was standing in front of the cells that he and Millina had been held in back during their half a year of hell, he deactivated his Berserker Skill and allowed his tears to fall. It felt like he could finally breathe again, despite his sobs making exactly that very hard to do. Kneeling down on the ground, he cried his heart out while his companions were checking up on the many workers that had been imprisoned in this base. They fed them and healed some of their wounds with potions, as well as paid their respects to the few fallen that they came across in their thorough sweep of the base - these people had died long before they had ever made it here.
Nobody bothered Quinn as he was lying on the ground in a fetal position, clutching his chest and shivering. At some point, his shedding of tears had become entirely silent. They all stopped by to check up on him, but he clearly needed some time for himself.
Around half an hour later, Quinn rose to his feet once more and wiped away the snot and tears with a couple of handkerchiefs that he had brought with him just in case. He put on a calm expression once more and, to reconvene with his friends, walked into the hall adjacent to this room that housed the cells. It was at this point that he ran into someone who he hadn't expected to ever meet again.
"Is that really you, Quinn?"
Waiting by the door was a young human boy who looked to be about twelve years old: He probably would appear a couple years older, if he wasn't this excessively malnourished. His whole appearance was very reminiscent of Quinn's condition from back when he and Millina had staged their failed escape. The human boy's scraggly, shoulder-length black hair and his amber-coloured eyes slowly overlapped with a figure that had become merely a shadow in the cat boy's memories over time.
Quinn's eyes widened in both pleasant surprise and disbelief. This guy was actually still alive?!
"... Martin?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shiro_the_Hero
Shiro_the_Hero I wonder how many of you still recall Martin... if you do, let me know! I'll honestly be impressed, after all, it's been a LONG time since I mentioned him in passsing.
That aside, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter despite its mostly grim nature! \o/
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