Point-of-View: Siert Huet

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​​

"Damn it...my head hurts," Groaned Rex, as he woke up.

"Hah, that is nothing, I will introduce you to true pain soon enough," Remarked Ickho with a smirk, brandishing a corkscrew.

"Oh, you think so? Do your worst, asshole, I've been through my fair share of abuse," He responded with a wry smile.

The other two were starting to wake up too...

"Wh-where am I...?" Mumbled Ida, her eyelids slowly fluttering open.

"What's going on?" Asked Prato weakly, shaking his head.

"Ah, everyone's awake, we'll begin the fun and games shortly," Declared Ickho with a chuckle, before turning to me, "Tell me, my long-lost tool, which one should I start with?"

I felt like my body was frozen with despair, abruptly tossed back into a nightmare that I'd been trying to forget for years...

"I...p-please, do what y-you want with me, b-but let the others go..."

"Huh? Hahahaha...well, now, it seems you've learnt to say more than just 'I'm sorry' all the time! How insolent, I thought I trained you never to talk back to me!" He snapped, slamming his fist onto my stomach, eliciting a gasp of pain from me.

"You bastard! Siert, you alright, dude? And...you know this lowlife?" Inquired Rex, glaring at Ickho.

"H-he's...I used to be his slave-."

"Used to be!?" Ickho snarled furiously, "You have always been mine, that has not changed simply because you escaped for a few years! Tch, I suppose that I shall have to remind you of that fact. For now, I shall start with someone else."

He then walked back and forth past the other three, looking at each of them one by one with a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes. He then stopped and turned to face...Ida.

"S-stop, don't do it!" I exclaimed, but it was no use, there was no stopping him.

Ida let out an agonizing scream of pain as Ickho drove his corkscrew through her right index fingernail, twisting it in with a laugh.

"Leave her alone, stop it!" Yelled Prato, trying desperately to break free from the chains.

"You fucking shithead, as soon as I break out of these chains-!" Began Rex with a look of fury in his eyes.

"But that is impossible," Laughed Ickho, before turning back to Ida with a sneer, "I'm just getting started with you, your body will be covered with twisted holes all over by the time I'm done with y- argh!!!"

Ida interrupted him by stretching her neck out and biting his nose off, spitting it away with a satisfied smirk.

"How do you like that, asshole!?" She snapped, her body trembling.

"Damn it, my nose, it hurts! You bitch...! Enough, I have no use for such a worthless plaything...die," He suddenly remarked, firing a blast of Obliteration Magic at her head, blood bursting out of her neck as her head got wiped off of her shoulders, "The pain won't stop, my nose...! Tch, maybe I should have killed her slowly and painfully instead of losing my temper...grr, this hurts so much! I'll just have to take it out on one of the remaining three of you...who should I play with next!? Well!? Any volunteers!?"

"I-Ida, no...," Prato gasped weakly, before slumping with a look of shock in his eyes.

N-no, stop it...

"You'll pay for this, you f-!" Rex began, before Ickho interrupted him by suddenly grabbing his throat.

"Ah, a volunteer? Very well, you will do nicely..."

"Stop it, don't kill anyone else, I'm begging y-!" I began to exclaim in despair.

"I do not recall giving you permission to speak, maggot!" He interrupted furiously, slamming his fist onto my face, "Shut your mouth! I will need to discipline you all over again...now, beg for my forgiveness or I will kill these two right now!"

"No! D-don't...I...I-I'm sorry, f-forgive m-."

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Siert! You don't have to apologize to this worthless piece of crap, and you certainly don't need his forgiveness! I don't know what exactly happened to you in the past, but that's irrelevant!" Urged Rex, before letting out a stifled cry of pain as Ickho ran a rusty saw diagonally across his torso.

"You have spoken enough...now I want to hear you scream!" Declared Ickho viciously, as he drove and twisted the corkscrew into Rex's shoulder.

He then violently pulled it out with a sneer, drops of blood splattering on the wall as his did, I stiffened as some of the blood struck the side of my face and dripped down slowly. Ickho then continued to twist the corkscrew into Rex slowly and then jerk it out, over and over...Rex did his best to keep from screaming in pain, biting his quivering lower lip while his body trembled with pain...

Damn it, why can't I stop him...it's been almost ten years, but nothing has changed...I'm still helpless against him, he's killed three of my friends already, and I haven't been able to do a thing to stop him...I'm weak...I'm useless...lower than scum...I always have been, and...I probably always will be...

These were thoughts that often entered my mind, they were almost natural to me at this point...but this time was different...I could feel something welling up inside me...another thought was floating through my mind, a thought that I was almost too afraid to acknowledge...no, it was more than just a thought, it was a burning desire. I...I want to be strong...I want to be strong enough to stop him...I...I don't want him to kill anyone else!

'Do you desire power?'

Wh-what? Who said that? What is this...it's like time was frozen...

'Do you desire power?'

I...

'You remain indecisive as always...if you do not desire power, nothing will change...'

But...I'm weak...

'Do you wish to remain weak?'

N-no, of course I-.

'And yet, you refuse to acknowledge your desire for power. Why?'

B-because...I j-just...

'Why hesitate?'

I...I don't know...no matter how hard I try...I can't imagine...myself not being weak...

'Why become an Adventurer if so?'

I...

'Why choose to be something that requires you to be strong, when you consider yourself so weak?'

Because...because I...

'I will ask you again...do you desire power?'

I...yes...I do. I desire power...

'Why do you desire power? So that you will no longer be weak?'

No, that isn't it...no matter how powerful I become, deep down, I will always be weak...and the reason I desire power is...to prevent the people I care about from going through what I did...and to protect people that need help...but more than anything, I've had enough...I've had enough of being weak and helpless. I no longer want to be chained by the memories of my past...that's why I desire power...

'But that is not all...is it?'

That's right...there is something else that I want...I want revenge...I want to kill him...the man who crushed my spirit all those years ago and killed my friends...I want to kill Ickho, I want to kill him so bad that it's driving me crazy...

'Very well, then...power shall be yours...'

Wait...who are you?

'I am you...specifically, the power within you...'

The power...within me...? Suddenly, it felt like the flow of time was returning to normal, as power surged and burst forth inside me, and I felt my rage surfacing, overpowering my fear and lack of self-confidence...I let out a roar as I felt the chains snap, snow-white fur sprouting all over my body, my arms growing significantly more muscular as my fingernails extended out into claws, and my nose and mouth extending out into a snout.

"Wh-what the-!?" Began Ickho in alarm, before letting out a scream of pain as I swung my claws at him, slashing his third eye and blinding it, nullifying his Demonic Magic.

That felt...that felt so...satisfying...but...it's not enough. After everything that he's done...it'll never be enough.

"I'm going to make you suffer the agony of a thousand deaths, but even then it wouldn't be enough to make up for all the heartless suffering you've caused," I growled coldly, but before I could strike him again, something swung up towards him...a foot with a hooked claw on it, slamming onto the middle of his chest, gashing it and sending him crashing onto the back wall of the cave.

Who is-...wait, is that...Rex...? He looks...different...

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Point-of-View: Rex Archer

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I...I can bear this...I won't let myself give in to the pain, I won't give him the satisfaction...damn it, it's just like how things were for me before I got my Dinosaur Animas...I was a slave, like a lot of people in this world are, I was sold from place to place, at best I'd be made to do hard labor, and at worst, I'd be some rich asshole's torture plaything.

I'd had enough of this world, I thought about killing myself so many times, but I could never bring myself to go through with it. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, I was offered a position in the Retribution Tier of The Valaque Empire...and what was more, I could get behind Valaque's objective, even if I didn't like him very much...wait, what was his objective again? Rebelling against the world or something?

Huh, I don't really remember for some reason...well, anyway, once Valaque was defeated, I had been anticipating a return to the life I experienced before The Empire...but as it turned out, I was given a chance, a chance to live a free and normal life in this world...I'm grateful to Kuro and the Rustlands for that.

And since then, this has been easily the best phase of my life in this world, which isn't saying much, to be fair. I don't want to give this up...I like life in the Rustlands, it's peaceful yet not boring, and I've found myself getting along with the people there really well, I enjoy their company...I want to maintain that peaceful and pleasant feeling...

'Do you desire power?'

Say what now? Who said that?

'Do you desire power?'

Yeah, I heard you the first time, but who are you!? You kinda sound like me, but like, robotic. Wait, what's going on...it's like everything's frozen right now...

'I am the power that resides within you, I have awakened for the first time, but if you do not desire it, this power will go back to being dormant.'

Oh, I get it...this must be the True Anima power...

'I will ask you again...do you desire power?'

Well, duh...do you really think I'm going to hesitate in accepting the opportunity to fuck up this bastard? Also...you talk so formally, it's weird!

'I am a part of you...and you have expressed your desire for power, and therefore...'

And therefore, wh-...suddenly, I felt something stir inside me, followed by what felt like an explosion...an explosion of raw power inside me...I felt my body changing as time went back to normal, right as I saw a blur of white swung up towards the asshole torturing me, eliciting a scream of pain from him as he clutched his third eye with hand, blood pouring out through the gaps between his fingers and running down his arm.

I feel so much stronger than before right now...and I want to try it out on him...I swung my foot up, the chain and shackles around it snapping like thread as I did, before I slammed my foot onto his chest, piercing my raptor claw in for good measure, as he got sent flying back and crashing onto the wall with a gasp of pain, coughing out blood. I then swung my arms down, breaking the chains restraining them, before shattering the shackle on my left ankle with a whip of my tail.

"What the hell is this!?" He snarled furiously, getting back on his feet, "What are you freaks!?"

"It's time for you to die, you bastard," I responded icily, taking a step forward towards him...

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