For a while already, a Mark-shaped hole was present at every family meal at the Afronte dinner table.

Throughout their time living in Starhold, Mark had been growing busier and busier with every passing day, barely finding the time for his family even though they lived pretty close to one another.

But, at the very least, he never let a week pass without visiting. Now, it’s been almost two full weeks without any of them seeing him. And they’d had enough.

As soon as Mark’s father walked into the room and smelled the food, he called, “Did Mark show up?”

“No, honey!” his wife yelled back. “I’ve sent him a message, though! Maybe today he’ll—”

“Come,” the man called. “Call Sarah, too.”

“What?” the wife yelled. A second later, she stormed into the hallway with a scowl, wiping her still-wet hands on a small kitchen towel. “Where are we going? The dinner will be done in—”

“Call Sarah,” he interrupted her. “We’ve given Mark plenty of freedom, but I think it’s high time we check in on him and see what’s happening.”

His wife looked reluctant at that. Her hands slowed as she gripped the towel and lowered her head. “But I don’t want to force him…”

“Well I do,” he asserted. “Sarah!” he shouted.

A second later, the blonde teenage girl popped her head out of her room. “Huh!?” she yelled while pulling earbuds out of her ears. “Did someone call me?”

“Yes, dear. Put your shoes on. We’re going to visit your brother.”

Less than five minutes later, they were all standing right outside Mark’s room. They rang the bell. They waited patiently for a long few minutes, but nobody answered.

“Maybe he’s out?” Sarah proposed.

Instead of retreating, her father pulled out the spare key he had of Mark’s room.

“Honey!” his wife called. “Don’t you think that’s going a bit far? We promised not to intrude on his privacy…”

“I don’t care anymore,” he said. “I’m done waiting for the stars to line up. We’ll have our damn family dinner even if I have to drag him home by the ear!”

His wife looked like she wanted to protest that but kept her mouth shut. All of them wanted the same thing, even if they weren’t comfortable with the approach.

The man inserted the key into the hole and tried turning it. It was stuck.

His wife’s eyebrows shot up. “Did he change the lock without telling us…?”

“No,” the man said, “There’s a damn key on the other side.” He pulled the key out and placed a palm against the lock. The man focused, exerting his metal affinity, and broke the lock.

“Dear!” his wife yelled. “What about the—”

As expected, the alarm was triggered.

“He can sue us if he wants.” He pushed the door open.

Piles upon piles of filthy dishes were lined up in the kitchen. Trash and dirty clothes were everywhere throughout the living room. The place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in forever.

“How horrible…!” the wife exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth. “What on Earth are the maids doing!? This is awful! Why didn’t he…?”

“Mark!” the father shouted. “Mark! Are you in!?” The only answer he got was the alarm, which was still blaring in the background. “I don’t like this…” He rushed toward the room and tried opening the door. It was also locked. “Mark!” he shouted and knocked. “Are you inside!?” Nobody answered. “Shit…” the man cursed as he kicked the door in with a Tectonic Strike.

The sound of his wife and daughter screaming behind him reached him just a moment before he saw the sight.

In the middle of the filthiest, messiest room he’d ever seen in his life, his son was hanging by his neck, dressed in nothing but a white undershirt and boxers, with blood running down his legs from his severed wrists.

“Mark!” he shouted. “Oh, dear God, Mark, what did you do to yourself!?” he rushed and pulled his son off the rope. “Mark!” He slapped his cheeks. He pressed his fingers to Mark’s neck, but before he could feel whether there was still a pulse, a voice came from behind them.

“Hands up!” a guard shouted, pointing a crossbow at them. As soon as the man realized what he was looking at, he lowered the weapon and lifted a communication crystal to his mouth. “Send medical help immediately!”

***

Mark’s eyes slowly cracked open. He was greeted by a blurry, pearly white sight. “Am I dead…?” he whispered through cracked lips.

“Mark!” someone’s muffled voice called. “Mark, can you hear me!?”

“Ugh…” he groaned as he tried moving. His head was pounding, and his whole body felt weak. But he was, indeed, still alive.

He closed his eyes as he realized his situation. The blurry white was the sterile shade of a hospital ceiling. His forearms had been stitched back together, and the rope had been cut.

He had been saved.

Well… interrupted.

Once he opened his eyes again, the image was a lot clearer. They were in the emergency room. He saw his mother’s worried face looking down on him, with his father and sister standing behind her.

He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “Hey there, guys… Haven’t seen you in a while.”

His mother burst into tears as she buried her head in his chest. She wept and sobbed, clearly trying and failing to say something. His father’s expression was steely, and his eyes demanded an explanation. Sarah… she just looked afraid.

Was he a coward for what he’d done?

Obviously.

But what other choice did he have?

After everything he’d done, he still had to look his family members in the face and tell them that they’d lost everything.

His sister had missed out on education—no two ways around it. Any academy that would accept her with her background and age was either far too expensive or far too inadequate.

Even though she’d already accepted a combat talent, she would never be an elite. She would never find a secure position. And neither would he. Both of them were living on borrowed time until early retirement or… death caught up with them. And that was if their lack of protection didn’t result in an even worse fate for everyone involved.

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“Why…?” his mother muttered. “Why!? Why would you do that!?” she screamed. “Does our love mean nothing to you!? What happened that would push you to such a decision!? What!?” She looked up at him, mouth trembling as she slowly whispered, “What happened, Mark…?”

Bitter. He felt bitter. Bile slowly moved up his throat, and he didn’t even bother swallowing it. “You want to know what happened?” Anger bubbled in his chest. “Fine. I’ll tell you what happened: Kraven Industries is disbanding. Those bastards used a legal loophole to scam us of what was promised to us—Sarah will never go to the academy.”

His mother and sister paled at that.

Yet, his father looked angry. “How could you!?” he shouted. “For this!? Are you seriously that stupid!? Something like that was enough to push you to… to… to try and kill yourself!? I can’t believe that you’d act like such a coward!”

“I killed a man to get this opportunity!” Mark spat out before he could think twice about what he was saying. At that moment, he felt like he had nothing to lose.

So he told them.

He told them the fate of Freddy Stern. The deal between him and the Kraven. The bullshit story about the “lucky opportunity” he stumbled upon when he entered the clinic to get his arm amputated fell apart as the horror of reality settled.

His sister stared at him with open eyes, her hands covering her mouth. A moment later, she sprinted out of the emergency room. His father looked like he wanted to say something, but he bit his lip and followed after Sarah.

Despair clouded his mother’s face, but she forced herself to swallow it. “They need some time to process it. Don’t be mad at them.”

He wasn’t angry at them. He was sad. His breathing hastened as he teared up, regret washing over him as a sob escaped his lips. “They hate me,” he declared.

“They don’t hate you!” his mother insisted, trying to cup his face to turn his head and meet his eyes, but he refused, pushing her arm away and shaking his head.

“I sold my soul for us, Mum,” he declared with such palpable sadness that it looked like it crushed his mother’s heart. “And yet we still have nothing.”

“Don’t be silly…” she tried, clearly forcing herself. “You’re still alive,” she reminded him. “I don’t care what you did. Demon or angel, you’ll forever be my son. I will always love you, Mark.” She grabbed his hand and brought her forehead to it. “Do you think that man would forgive you if you disappeared?”

“A monster wears his skin, mum. I will never be forgiven.”

“It… what!?” his mother asked with a scowl, but he turned away.

“Nothing,” he said. “I need some time alone.”

“No,” his mother denied. “I’m not going to give it to you. I’m staying.”

“Mom, please…”

“No! You’re coming with me.”

As soon as Mark’s condition was full stabilized, he was taken to his family’s residence. They had three guest rooms, and before long, one of them was his. There, he lay in the bed, feeling exhausted. He’d lost a lot of blood. But still, no matter how tired he felt, he couldn’t force himself to fall asleep.

He knew what was waiting for him there.

They tied him to the bed so he wouldn’t hurt himself again until a psychologist could declare his mental condition as stable.

That evening, his mother brought him his favorite meal—pizza. Just a simple pepperoni pizza. Just the way he liked it back when he was little.

His apetite was nonexistent, but his mother forced him to have a few slices. Before he realized it, he ate the whole thing.

Then, his mother brought him some tea. As soon as he saw the pink shade, he scowled. It was milky pink alia. He hated this tea. People drank it a bit too casually as far as he was concerned. It was a pretty damn potent drug.

He despised the feeling of losing control over himself, be it from alcohol or any other substance.

“Take it,” his mother offered. “I know you don’t like it, but you need to get some rest.”

There was no rest for the wicked. But instead of saying anything or throwing a tantrum, he took the tea and downed it in one gulp. “Thank you, Mum,” he said, smiling at her. “I love you.”

She smiled back at him. After giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead, she left the room and turned the lights off.

Before long, the tea kicked in. Every bit of stress left his body within minutes. For as long as he could, he tried to remain awake.

He didn’t last long.

Yet again, he found himself in those cursed woods, and once more, the small pond bubbled as a figure crawled out of it. The image of a half-rotting body covered in muck and filth stood tall, shooting him a fierce, mocking grin. It wore Freddy’s face. “Well, well, well…” it cackled at him. “What do we have here?” it mocked him. “Even after putting me through hell, you still didn’t get anything. And you lost so, so much.

“Your father, oh those beautiful eyes! The hatred and scorn bubbling, held back only by the fact that you’d hang yourself again if he is too harsh.” It laughed. “And your sister? Kiss her innocence goodbye. Even worse, she’d ask herself why she couldn’t at least get a ticket to the academy given what you did—and she’d hate herself for it.”

“What do you want?” Mark asked, feeling no patience for this creature’s mockery. “If you’re just going to echo my thoughts to me, you might as well wrap it up and let me rest.”

“What do I want?” it asked, cackling vociferously. Then, it suddenly grew deathly serious. “I thought you’d never ask.” Suddenly, it slithered forward, melting into the muck as it wrapped around him and placed its hands on his shoulders. It started massaging him. It slowly whispered into his ear, “Tell me… Do you want to get revenge?”

Mark bit his lip. “On who?”

“You know who.”

Mark’s bravado deflated slightly upon hearing those words. “Of course I do. If I had the power to do it, I’d slaughter every single one of them.”

“I can give you that power.”

Mark snorted. “How? By taking my body over?” He sneered. “I know what you’re after, you foul being. I’d rather kill myself than let that happen.”

“You’re wrong,” it said, unwrapping itself and slithering behind a nearby tree. Two glowing eyes peeked behind the wood, almost shyly. “Your former boss was hiding a secret from you.” It suddenly shifted and slithered behind another tree in the blink of an eye. “You see, my two loyal minions were captured and imprisoned by the Kraven. All you have to do is free them. I’ll give you the power to do it—no strings attached.”

Silence ensued between them. What did Mark really want? If someone had asked him while awake, he’d say he wanted to protect his family. He wanted a better life for them.

But was that really what he wanted? Would he have made the decision to leave them all on their own if that was the case? Well… he did want that. He knew that he wanted that. But in the quiet depths of his mind, where all his thoughts lay bare, he knew that there were things he wanted just as much. He wanted to be free of it all. He wanted to be someone else.

And he wanted to slaughter those bastards.

They had misled him from the start.

It wasn’t like he knew Freddy would lose his life when he was made that offer.

They had deceived him.

They had robbed him of his soul.

And what did he do?

He moved past it.

And why?

Because their old patriarch, the bastard responsible, was gone?

The new one was just as evil.

He was just as much of a villain.

He deserved to die.

They all needed to die.

The blood they smeared over their hallways wasn’t just a decoration.

This whole time, they’d been telling him exactly who they were.

Monsters.

No…

Demons.

After a long moment of silence, Mark cracked his mouth open. “How do I know you’ll hold up your end of the deal?”

The creature’s grin split Freddy’s face in two. “Oh, you’ll know.”

***

Mark opened his eyes. It was the dead of night.

His entire body twitched and spasmed. Power coursed through his veins, bulging his muscles and rapidly healing his wounds.

Within his soul, his gathering skyrocketed, blasting through bottlenecks as a supernova exploded with the manifestation of his third star. He felt his talent evolve again. From Rebalanced Musculature at the first star, it had become Superior Musculature at the second. Now, it felt like it was on a different level. The power within him was something that even three-star elites would envy.

But that wasn’t even the most shocking part.

No, what surprised him the most… was the presence of a second talent.

Mark’s mouth spread into a wide grin.

With a twitch, he broke the restraints keeping him locked to the bed and got up. Once he left his room, he encountered his bleary-eyed sister on her way to the bathroom. She jumped back in fright upon seeing him. “Mark…” she called. “You scared me.”

She kept her head down, looking like she couldn’t meet his gaze. Suddenly, she scowled. “Didn’t Mum say you were…” Her words trailed off as she raised her head to look at him. She squinted in the dark as she took a cautious step back. “Mark… what’s wrong with your eyes?”

He smiled at her. “Don’t worry, chief,” he rustled her hair. “They’ll look like that from now on.” He turned towards the door. “Tell Mum and Dad I’ll be back soon.

“I have something to take care of.”