章 43: Chapter 43: Bending the Knee
"This is a free market. No one is forcing you to do this job. Of course, there are no other alternatives, and without this job, you and your family will likely starve and freeze. Still, you have your freedom and your choice."
- Ji'nara, System Director of the Lilith Interplanetary Corporation.
---
It turned out that the men working at this hotel were cautious. They even went as far as coming up with a secret knocking pattern to know if the ones knocking on their doors were friendly or not. Unfortunately, because the guard was a careless idiot who told Alexander the pattern willingly, all of that went down the drain.
One by one, Alexander led the hotel employees down to the first floor. Maybe it was because they were just woken up. Maybe it was because they never expected foul play, especially not from a single unarmed young man. Either way, none of the employees suspected Alexander was up to something when they followed him down the stairs in a hurry.
Even as Alexander suddenly struck them down and knocked them out, not a single man was able to react quickly enough. Even the strongest of them was only able to stumble a little before collapsing when Alexander hit him in the back of the head.
Interestingly, Alexander was only able to incapacitate these men so quickly without harming them because he had a ton of practice back in Darkbane Prison. If he hadn't done things like this countless times before, many of his victims here might find their skulls cracking. It would be terrible for all parties involved.
Soon, all 12 employees in the hotel were taken down. The entire process was mostly quiet. Sure, the talking and the footsteps were inevitable, but that wasn't nearly enough to wake up the guests of the hotel. Just like this, by using clever tricks of deception, Alexander took over the hotel without firing a single shot.
Of course, even so, his actions would inevitably be discovered by tomorrow morning. When the guests left their rooms and couldn't find a single employee in sight, they would start asking questions. That was why it was imperative for Alexander to convert all the employees before then.
The young man went right to work. He didn't quite have the help of his Disciples, which meant he had to get his own hands dirty. It wasn't ideal, but Alexander was fine with that.
The first thing Alexander did wasn't to start peeling off skins right away out in the open. No...the first thing he did was take some time and carefully examine the ins and outs of the hotel. Since this establishment belonged to the Allen Family, it likely had some modifications made to the structure. His assumption was correct, as fifteen minutes in, he was able to find a basement behind a locked door. One of the magnetic keycards Alexander snatched off one of the employees opened the door.
The basement appeared to be acting as some sort of storage space for the hotel. Alexander noticed almost as soon as he entered that it was filled with all sorts of crates. Alexander opened one of the crates and found himself staring down on a stack of shotguns and handguns. No gauss weapons, but still enough for the employees of the hotel to defend themselves against random thieves and muggers and even enforcers from other gangs. Another crate seemed to be filled with piles of Imperial credits.
He ignored all of those, for now. One by one, Alexander dragged the men into the basement. One of them almost woke up on the way down, but Alexander caught it quickly and knocked him out once again before he could let out a cry for help. The red marking on his head would take a long time to disappear, not that it was that relevant.
Finally, as the last man was taken into the basement, Alexander shut the door to the basement. If he slipped up, perhaps the layer of wood would be enough to block the screams.
Alexander spent a while tying up all 12 men with some rope he found in the basement. The rope was tough, which led Alexander to wonder what purpose it was originally meant for. Still, as the last man was bound and gagged, the Lord of Agony started to choose his target.
The first man Alexander worked on was the clerk. As soon as Alexander woke him up, the man started struggling against the rope that held him still. He had no idea what was happening as his brain tried to recover from the multiple head traumas as well as the excruciating blast he received in the chest. It wasn't an easy task. Even now, he could still feel a tiny fire in his body.
Alexander snapped his fingers and caught the prisoner's attention. When his eyes landed on the young man standing before him, the clerk was clearly confused for a moment. For the briefest second, the poor man looked as if he wanted to reach out to Alexander and ask for his help. Yet when the seconds passed and logic and memories returned to him, the clerk realized that the young man was anything but his friend, and nor was he the innocent hotel guest he pretended to be.
"Hmmm…" He tried to speak, but the gag in his mouth prevented that. Alexander made sure of that.
Alexander knew the clerk had questions, but he didn't have the time to do a whole question and answer session. No...he had a lot of victims to work on, and efficiency was a must.
"Listen to me very carefully," Alexander said slowly as he knelt down before the man so he could stare the man in the eyes. "This is not a joke. This is not a lie. I want you to pledge yourself to my service and swear to obey my every command until death. I want you to say a set of oaths. If you refuse, then I will torture you until you agree. Are we clear?"
The clerk stared at Alexander for a while before laughing. Well...laughing as much as his situation allowed. As far as he could see, the young man with black hair in front of him was crazy. Crazy! After all, what sane person would knock someone out, type him up, and demand for his eternal loyalty?
Then again, as his eyes scanned across the room and landed on several familiar bodies, he realized that even if Alexander was mad, he wasn't just any madman. He was a madman who managed to take out all twelve of them in their own establishment. He was a madman who could decide his fate, and the fate of all his colleagues.
Soon, he wasn't laughing, but it was clear he had no intention of obeying Alexander's wishes either.
Alexander sighed and reached his hand out. He never pulled out a weapon or a blade. He just didn't need to. Instead, he just stood there and rested his fingers on the clerk's left hand. Soon, the poor man watched in horror as a wave of black and red shadows started spreading across his limb. Wherever these shadows touched, excruciating pain followed. For a moment, it reminded the clerk of when he put his hand over a candle a long time ago, except this was a hundred times more excruciating. It was as if his very nerves were lit aflame. Its intensity was beyond anything he had experienced before.
The man tried to scream, but the gag kept him from doing so. He tried to resist, but the rope held him in place. He tried to beg, but he had no voice. The only thing he could do was stare at the young man before him, the young man who caused all this, with pleading eyes as his body shook in agony.
Yet the young man did nothing. First of all, the clerk was anything but innocent. Who knew how many he had mutilated or killed? Even if this clerk had been a good and innocent man...Alexander had shown his hands to him. The moment Alexander stepped out of the boundaries of an ordinary guest, the clerk's fate was sealed. He could bend the knee, or he could die. There was no third option for him.
For ten full seconds, Alexander stood there and watched as the Essence of Agony worked on the poor clerk. The Essence represented the concept of pain. It wasn't something people could shrug off by being tough or resilient. It was more than just physical suffering. Given enough time, it could break the strongest.
Finally, as the clerk's back was covered with cold sweat, Alexander waved his hand, and the Essence of Agony on the man's hand slowly faded away. For the briefest second, the pain that tormented the man for what felt like an eternity was no more.
Alexander, who had watched the man struggle with cold and merciless eyes, spoke up once again.
"How about now?" He watched as the clerk tried to say something through the gag. "Nod if you agree."
The clerk nodded, and Alexander removed the cloth from his mouth.
"I...fine! I will do whatever you want! I will say whatever you want!" The man coughed briefly before begging. Yet even as he said those words, his mind was racing. Did he mean what he said? Of course not. How much of an idiot did he have to be to pledge his life to someone who stormed his hotel, tied him up, and tortured him with some sort of unknown method? Then again, if saying some random words were all it took for this maniac to back off, then he would gladly do it!
"Very well." Alexander nodded approvingly before telling the clerk the words that made up the oath.
The clerk eagerly repeated them, and when he was finished, he turned his attention back to Alexander Wolf and prayed to the Holy Emperor that this madman would be satisfied and simply leave him be.
His prayers were not answered.
Alexander didn't even have to close his eyes to know that no connection was formed between him and the clerk. Unsurprisingly, the clerk didn't mean what he said. It was unfortunate, really, for both of them. He had to waste more time, and the clerk, well…
"Wrong answer." Alexander said quietly before suddenly putting the gag back into the clerk's mouth.
And the screams continued.
---
4 hours. That was the time it took for 12 people to be fully broken by Alexander and offer their eternal service to him.
When the sun once again shone upon the city of Valoria and the guests of the hotel popped their heads out of their rooms, they quickly realized that the employees of the hotel were already hard at work. And just like that, everything went on normally as if nothing happened at all. As if this was just another day in the hell that was the Southern Districts of Valoria.
But something did happen. Over the course of one night, without anyone having the slightest clue, Alexander converted all 12 employees of the hotel into his Disciples by force. In the past, these 12 employees were hotel workers on the surface and Allen Family operatives in secret.
Now, they had a third identity. They have become Disciples of Agony, and this was an identity that trumped everything else in terms of loyalty. This meant Alexander was able to get his own eyes and ears into the Allen Family, which allowed him to put the rest of his plans into motion.
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