บท 16: Revenge is pleasurable.

Disclaimer: This chapter contains scenes of torture that may cause discomfort to certain readers, if you don't like this type of reading, I recommend that you skip this chapter!

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The old man's body began to fall upon the cold, hard stairs of the basement. It had been years since they were polished, and all the corners were serrated and broken, something that, fortunately for Strax, helped old Oswald to shatter completely.

Still lying on the ground, he screamed in pain through the bindings in his mouth, which still managed to muffle the noise of his cries. He was so badly hurt that his knees and ribs probably even broke. However, did Strax care? Not at all.

He descended the stairs slowly while turning on the lights, seeing the man, unable to move, looking at him, he had only one reaction.

He walked over the broken body of the man, while Jason just watched the scene, with conflicting feelings.

"He's not the young master I knew..." he murmured. "What made him change so much in just six years?"

"Pay him," Strax said as he picked up an old chair, which had two braces on the legs and two on the arms, which served perfectly to... restrain someone.

"The Baron was someone I didn't like very much, but he loved to kill some people who bothered him. One day I came down here and saw him torturing a man, I was hidden, of course," Strax said and Oswald's eyes widened.

"Put him there, I'll get some things," Strax said and went to the storage area at the end of the basement, which was filled with liquor.

Jason didn't see anything, but heard noises of metal against metal echoing through the walls, as if it were a toolbox.

Inside the box were things like hammers, wooden saws, and nails, as well as a sort of crowbar.

"We'll have a lot of fun tonight, Oswald," Strax said, taking out a hammer, as he started to approach the man's completely immobilized body on the chair.

He leaned close to his face and uttered, "It's like they say, all it takes is one bad day for a man to go insane," Strax said with a smile as his red eyes showed how crazy he was.

With the hammer in his hands, he looked at the man's hands. He wasn't that old, probably in his middle age, close to forty years old.

"We'll test this one first," Strax said, pointing the hammer to his fingers, then a strong blow came.

"Mmph!" The muffled cry came when his index finger was crushed, surpassing the gag in his mouth and echoing through the place. "Oh, so you felt that...," Strax said. "I wonder how it felt to attack Beatrice, isn't it?" He commented and again, another blow on his second finger, his middle finger. "Mmmph!" A louder scream, which didn't make Strax pause for a second. Followed by another, "Mmph!" when his ring finger was gone, then the thumb. "Ungh!", then the pinky. "Ghh!", and finally the index finger again. "Mwah!", over the top of his hand.

His first hand, the man's dominant hand, had already been completely broken, all its bones had been completely compromised. He was already crying in pain, but Strax? He didn't care.

Blood began to drip from his hand and created a pool on the floor. Strax then ripped the gag from the man's mouth.

"Please... I... I had no choice...," Oswald said, his eyes filled with terror.

"You had a choice, and you chose to betray Beatrice's trust," Strax replied, his voice as cold as the steel of the hammer he held. "Did you find it funny? Treating me as inferior because my mediocre family abandoned me?" He questioned.

"Please, sir, I beg you... I can explain... they betrayed me too," sobbed the butler, his words drowning in sobs of agony.

"Did you hear that Jason? He was also betrayed! It's funny, isn't it?" Strax asked and Jason nodded. "A man who betrays his master deserves death." He commented, despite being a knight, he was still a man and a warrior, he knew exactly what Strax was doing.

Getting revenge.

The torture continued, now, however, it was the turn of Oswald's other hand, the one that was still intact. It had the same fate as his dominant hand, but Strax didn't stop there.

"Let's see... A crowbar," Strax said and picked up the tool. Holding it firmly, he struck Oswald's face.

"Aargh!" He screamed in pain as he felt the metal piece hit his chin. He could barely stay conscious; everything in front of him was fear, just fear and more fear. His eyes, that's what Oswald felt the most fear of, so much fear that he started to want to die rather than spend another minute in that basement.

"Ki... kill me...," he muttered, but Strax... "Of course," he agreed, as he turned to the back of the basement.

He went to fetch something, which he found when he grabbed the tools... An old, rusty pickaxe, just like the one he used in mining.

"Go to hell, and never come back," he said, and with just one blow, the pickaxe pierced through his chest, making blood splatter everywhere. But Strax didn't stop there.

Again another blow, another, followed by another and a few more, as if... he was mining the man's still living body. Only his eyes could move and see the whole scene happening in front of him; his strength was draining away.

He could no longer speak, he was in a deplorable state, but there was a reason why he didn't die immediately... Fortunately for Strax and unfortunately for him... His cultivation saved him, although he was a beginner, it didn't let him die immediately.

"That is!" Strax shouted, hitting his legs, which were taken out by the impact of the pickaxe on the joints of his knees.

"For hurting!" he shouted, ripping off his arm, again hitting the shoulder joints.

"My wife!" he shouted even louder, and this time, the pickaxe pierced his skull, killing him instantly.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!" he said and spat on the dead man's body, as he turned to Jason. His body and clothes were completely blood-soaked, and he had a huge smile on his face.

"It feels so good to get revenge on a worm like this," Strax said, sighing with relief. He honestly didn't care about killing this man who caused him so much suffering. He was going to be the strongest of all, just as the owner of the body asked.

[You have obtained Revenge, your story is being written]