It took almost two hours of waiting before the show began. Noth’s target burst into the dingy room in a jubilant mood as he dragged a victim behind him. The man seemed quite porcine and jiggly, much more than Noth had pictured, and yet somehow it seemed all too appropriate for the gluttonous cannibal. The boy stayed motionless on his perch, watching as the unsuspecting monster laughed to himself at the pitiful resistance of the little girl whose wrist he was crushing. Of course, Noth recognized the scuffed, tear-covered face of the desperately struggling girl immediately; It was the quiet girl from the trio, clinging to the flower she’d been given as if it was her only lifeline. Her cutely tied up ashen hair had been all messed up, and she was now sporting a red and swollen cheek that hadn’t been there just a few hours ago. It was all too easy to guess who the culprit must have been.

It took Thergurd a few moments to actually take in all the changes that had come about in the room; The mythical looking flowers, the tree in the shape of his son… But the most baffling one of them all was the stranger who was sitting on his butchering table and staring at him as if he were a disgusting flea. There was no way a stranger was supposed to be let down into these dungeons without his express permission, and since he obviously hadn’t sanctioned the trespassing teen, they most likely weren’t someone friendly. Thergurd had amassed a large amount of enemies over his decades spent slaving; He knew how deadly the employees of his rival slavers could be. However, as per his own orders, there weren’t any guards nearby to call on. He had to think quickly if he wanted to protect his life. Good thing he at least had a shield with him. The pig used his grubby hands to pick the gently sobbing girl up, holding her in front of him in the hopes that she could absorb the attacks that would surely be coming his way at any moment, and did his best to retreat back through the still open door.

Little did he know that he would never be leaving this room again.

The boy sighed at the rotund man’s dishonourable actions. He was already upset that the sickening man had so gleefully beaten and pulled one of the children Noth had just promised to protect into the room, but now the pig even wanted to use her as a human shield? It was stupid of him to have ever expected any kind of decency from such a man. It almost didn’t feel worthwhile to have to even interact with such a worthless sack of fat. Despite all of his indignation and anger, Noth’s voice came out sounding very bored and disappointed instead.

“Look, just… stop. ”

Never before had Noth been able to give demands in a whole sentence. The fact that he could meant that he now had access to much more detailed demands than he’d had before. The amount of power that he felt pouring off his tongue with each word was enough to feel nearly intoxicated. He almost wanted to give the pig even more demands just so that he could feel it all again. However, luckily for Thergurd, the little girl he was holding hostage was much more important to Noth than the horrible porcine man. The teen calmly got off from the wooden chopping block he’d been waiting on and made his way to the stuck and terrified girl. He couldn’t help the way his face fell a little bit from hearing her whimpers grow more and more audible the closer he came. She must have been scared out of her mind this entire time. Noth leaned down and spoke softly, hoping that his words could have any amount of a calming effect on her.

“It’s alright. I’m sorry you were hurt by him while I wasn’t there, but now that he’s here there won’t be anyone who can ever hurt you again.”

Noth carefully pried the pig’s fingers off of the trembling girl, freeing her, and then gently led her a few steps away. He slowly caressed her messy hair in what he hoped came off in a caring way.

“Thank you, you did an amazing job. So did the other two.”

When it seemed like her fear had eased at least a tiny amount, Noth smiled reassuringly at the girl and then left for just a moment, taking a quick stop at the trembling sitting pig before coming back and kneeling in front of her. He held up a small key, offering it to her with a slightly serious look on his face.

“Now, can you do me a favour and go tell the others it’s safe to stop pretending to be tied up? Then I need you to get the girl in the other cell and hide as best you can; There’s still guards roaming about, so it’s not fully safe just yet. I promise not to leave you guys waiting for me for more than an hour, okay?”

The little girl gripped the tatters of her dress tight, looking very overwhelmed, but eventually she looked down at the now crooked flower she was still holding in her hand, gave a single firm nod, snatched away the key, and quickly ran past the Thergurd and out of the room. Noth stared after her through the open door with a little smile on his face. Those kids were so brave. Was he that brave back then? He couldn’t remember anymore. But it seemed like so long as the three of them had each other, he wouldn’t have to worry about them for now.

“Serris. Do me a favour and tell me when an hour is up please? I don’t want to break my promise to those kids.”

Somewhere in the darkness of the room, a giggle and an affirmation came his way. How nice it was to have someone always there to help with the trivial things. It meant that he could focus as much as he needed on the important things, the things that really needed to be dealt with. Things like…

Noth closed the door with a menacing smile on his face.

Yes, now there were no distractions.

He was free to do as he pleased.

Now he could give the porcine man exactly what he deserved.

He could see the sweat pouring down Thergurd’s face. By now the man had realized that he was well and truly stuck in place. He’d have also realized that he wasn’t even allowed to make a single peep. The idea of how absolutely powerless the pig must have been feeling right now was really tickling Noth inside. It felt almost ironic that such a prolific slaver was being subjected to such things against his will. The boy’s mind raced with what other humiliating things he could have the man suffer through. What would be good? He climbed back up onto the table and stared down at the man, sifting through one thought after another, until finally he clapped his hands and showed a large wicked smile. He’d finally decided on a good start to the fun.

“”

And of course, Thergurd had no choice but to comply. He slowly made his way towards Noth on his hands and knees, making little snuffling sounds the whole way. The look of utter frustration and confusion on the man’s face was like icing on the cake. When he finally made it all the way to the boy who’d been sneering at him the whole time as if he was something worthless and yet funny, the pig levelled a glare upon him that would have murdered him in an instant if looks could kill. And yet, Noth didn’t even bat an eyelash before placing his boot right on the offending face and letting out a malicious giggle.

“It seems you’re not busy enough if you have the time to give me a look like that. Let’s see… This room is filthy and the floor could use some cleaning, so why don’t you for me?”

The man’s glare could no longer reach Noth with his face busilly buried in the floor as he licked.

After a few minutes of licking passed, Noth began to worry that maybe this particular punishment wasn’t quite enough. The man was a cannibal after all; Even if the floor was terribly dirty, it was dirty with the man’s own past victims. Would it be like licking an old plate that still had little bits of chicken and grease left over on it? The boy’s face grimaced at the thought. Perhaps even though he personally found it disgusting, there were people who wouldn’t?

A change of punishment was definitely in order.

“Hmmm, alright, that’s enough, pig.”

Noth kicked the man in the face to get him to stop. It was wholly unnecessary, considering he could simply will the demand to stop, but this just felt better. He watched as the flesh of his victim rippled, the fat taking an extra minute to settle back into its drooping place. This, of course, gave him an idea.

“Instead, how about you dance for me? A jig sounds good, then you can show off just how much you can ripple. ”

The spot Noth chose for the jig was the spot in the room most filled with small bits of bones and cartilage. No matter how much extra padding the man’s feet had, it would still hurt to be constantly jumping up and down on those sharp little spikes. Also this would make for an excellent test into how complicated he could make his current demands. He’d successfully given two demands at once earlier, so if he could make it to three then that would be even more amazing. The thought that he could ask for even more insane amounts of demands one day was making Noth's blood rush, and as his porcine puppet followed along to his cruel orders, the teen couldn't help but clap along and laugh like a madman at the sight of it. Yes, this was his power, true and amazing control.

...But that wasn't fully true, was it?

No, his angel came equipped with an even stronger and more evil power than this, didn’t she?

Noth had been afraid of using that power again, in all honesty. He’d seen what it had done to both Jeck and his father. Hell, his father still seemed to be suffering from it in some amount or another. It was far too strong and effective for him to risk tampering with it even more, and what it did to people was even more disgusting. And yet, Noth’s mind was overflowing with thoughts of power, infected by the rush of divinity that he was feeling. And that power trip was telling him that there was no way he should be afraid of how powerful he could be. Why not use the broken power? Why not? Didn’t he hate Thergurd even more than he’d hated Jeck? This time he was not so young, weak, and inexperienced. Didn’t Serris seem disappointed that he’d given up on it both of the other times? Why not try it again this time and impress the almighty angel?

He’d thought it would be harder to remember how he’d used the madness all those years ago, but it was actually surprisingly easy, as if he’d just done it by deeply buried instinct. He stared into the direction of the dancing man until he managed to catch the huffing and sweaty looking pig’s eyes, and then it felt like something slowly eked out of his eyes. How eerily simple it all was. It didn’t even take long before it started to take effect either, just like when he’d done it to Jeck. However, unlike the time with Jeck, the demand that the man was under to dance didn’t break as he started to transform, although interestingly enough he was now able to scream. Noth watched closely with morbid curiosity as the dancing jiggling man changed, his ears elongating upwards, and his nose growing rounder and flatter. His out of breath wheezes in between his screams started to sound more and more like snorts. Yes, this was what this monster truly was on the inside. A big, panting, gluttonous pig.

The boy scanned the room, finding a long, slightly thick, skewer-like metal implement, and grabbed it up. He poked and prodded various spots on the pig as it danced. He felt sadistic joy from the way it would squeal with every poke for a while, but slowly the fun was starting to fade, and Noth’s mind got a little clearer. Why had he even wanted to do all this in the first place? What had even been so fun about it? Despite everything he'd believed, revenge really hadn't been everything it was promised to be. With a sigh, he muttered out a small jaded sounding question into the air.

“Has it been an hour yet?”

And helpfully, Serris’s voice replied from some indiscernible spot.

Noth lowered his skewer and looked towards the door. He had children to save. Shouldn’t he be out there rescuing them, instead of cruelly torturing this man in here? Maybe the man deserved it, but Noth wasn’t a monster torturer, he was a monster slayer. Why had he even entertained such awful ideas? All he had to do was rid the world of the evil man and be done with it. And yet… The idea that he should bring home a trophy from this hunt kept nagging at him, and he couldn’t ignore it. In fact, it didn’t even take long for Noth to think up what would make the most excellent and ironic trophy. But how would he get it? The boy looked all around the butchering table, looking over all the different knives and saws that were littering the floor, but eventually he settled on the most deadly choice of them all. He stared off into a dark corner and asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

“Serris?”

“Will you please bring me the pig’s head?”