*

In the outer rings of Latvi, the red-light district was bustling even past midnight. Women in skimpy dresses could be seen walking around, accompanied by men searching for some entertainment or someone to vent their frustrations on.

The smell of poverty and hardship permeated the air, seemingly corroding even the poorly built buildings in the area. Moans of pleasure interspersed with the occasional screams, but no one seemed to mind as everything went on in normalcy.

Quinn Nodas was walking along the pavements, keeping his distance from the women who approached and tried to touch him, looking like he had become accustomed to it.

This was surprising because he looked to be only in his teenage years, no older than 16. Although his physiology was visibly malnourished, one could infer that he would grow up to be a very handsome young man complemented by striking golden hair and clear blue pupils.

Some of the women he walked past called him by name, showing that he was someone who either lived in the area or someone who frequented it.

Alas, neither his gaze nor gait ever faltered as he walked straight towards a downtrodden building in one corner. Moans that were clearly forceful could be heard from inside the building.

A thrilled voice of a man shouted, "Squeal for me! Squeal like the pig you are!"

The moan was now mixed with a tinge of pain. Quinn arrived at the door to forcefully kick it open and saw a naked man grabbing the hair of a similarly naked woman who showed great shock in her eyes, "Quinn! What are you doing here?"

The man slammed her head on the bed, "Quinn? What the fuck is this? Get out of here before I beat the shit out of you and make you parade naked in the streets!"

Quinn ignored him and turned his head towards the woman, his mother.

She looked to be in her early thirties, as she had birthed Quinn when she was young. He could see the bruises on her body and the lumps of hair that had fallen on the bed. Although he could not see her face, he could make out that it was scrunched up in pain.

The man shouted again, "Oi! Are you deaf or dumb? Get out of here now, or this will be the last time you see your mother."

Quinn eventually looked at the man, "I told you last time what would happen if you ever laid hands on my mother again."

The man laughed as he pushed himself off the bed, standing naked. His body was well defined, and he stood a full head taller than Quinn.

He slowly walked to Quinn, "Your mother is a whore who has been fucked like a dog by everyone from the three rings. Did you think that just because you found a job that earns peanuts, you would be able to free your public urinal of a mother? And no, I don't recall what you told me. Mind repeating what you said?"

Quinn did not back down, and even though he looked small compared to the man, his straight back showed his bravery, "I said that if you ever touched her again, I would cut your filthy maggot-sized penis and shove it down your throat."

Quinn suddenly pulled out a knife hidden in his back and tried to stab the man. Alas, the man effortlessly thwarted the attempt and snapped Quinn's wrist, eliciting a painful cry.

The man snatched the knife and kicked Quinn in the chest, sending him flying out of the house. The man casually put on his pants and said, "I'm a respected guard of Latvi, someone deemed worthy of using the legendary breathing technique. You think scum like you, a bastard who is a melting pot of all filth, could ever harm me?"

Quinn's mother groggily got up from the bed and ran up to stop the man upon seeing the situation but was knocked out by the man with a punch to her face. Her body crumpled on the floor with a few teeth flying out of her mouth.

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Quinn got up with difficulty, and his breathing was extremely laboured. His eyes lit up in rage as he saw the state of his mother.

He charged at the man, "Fuck youuuu! Die!"

The man simply stood on the spot and swung the knife down, expecting Quinn to at least stop or dodge. To his utter disbelief, Quinn simply put up his left arm to receive the slash without slowing his momentum.

He thought the kid had gone crazy.

The knife buried itself into the arm, not completely cutting it off due to its dullness even with the man's strength. He showed a split second of surprise, wondering if it was planned from the beginning.

Quinn used all his momentum to knee the man in his groin, sacrificing his hand in the process!

*Crash*

The man's surprise was overtaken by pain as he keeled over due to one of his balls being crushed.

The man tried to scream, but a fist struck his face with a thud, followed by one after another.

A crowd had begun to build as the beatdown went on, watching as Quinn punched the man with his right hand while his left arm dangled about.

He did not even seem to mind his mutilated arm, "I said I would cut your filthy dick off and feed it to you!"

Quinn stopped momentarily and picked up the knife that had fallen a few feet away. As he walked toward the beaten man, he could see the fear in the latter's eyes.

The man took shallow, raspy breaths; his eyes unfocused as he tried to let out words in short and scattered syllables, sounding like weak breathy pleas.

Eliciting that nature of emotion made Quinn feel a sense of power, and he hungered for more.

The man pleaded again incoherently, but he was hindered by his swollen mouth.

Quinn smiled, "That's it, those are the same eyes my mother had given you time after time. Did you stop then?"

Quinn's face was like a monolith, looking like he had become something else. His mother had been the only constant in his life, as she had raised him with difficulty when it would be hard enough to find food for her own.

The sacrifices she had made and the love that she had showered. Quinn remembered all of it.

Alas, just as he was about to cut the man, he heard quick footsteps approaching him. He turned around to see three guards in uniform charging at him and forcefully subduing him.

Quinn no longer had the element of surprise, and even one guard was more than enough to overpower him. Try as he might, it was impossible to resist.

The people watching the show cheered for the guards, "Lock that monster up! He is bringing shame to us all!"

"What a scary young man. Is he even human?"

"Make sure to never release him!"

Quinn's anger boiled up again as he looked around like a beast that had been caught, and questioned, "A monster?" and looked at the guards, "You cannot create a monster and condemn it! When I look inside the mirror, I do not see a monster but all of you who made me! Stop looking at me like that, with disgust and pity in your eyes."

He continued to shout, "All I am is a tragedy to you, right? Stop it. Stop fucking looking at me like that, all of you! Do you hear me? I will break you with my bloodstained teeth!"

One of the guards knocked out the struggling Quinn, finally ending the rant.

Another guard looked at the beaten-up man, "Clive? What the fuck happened? And how were you beaten by a kid?"

Clive got up with difficulty and walked towards the unconscious Quinn with fire and venom oozing out of his eyes, ignoring the questions.

A guard stopped him in his tracks and whispered, "Not here, not now. We're taking him back to the prison."

Clive took deep breaths to calm himself down, as he had never been embarrassed like today. He looked towards the woman still knocked out in the house, "Let's bring her too."

*

Quinn woke up and found himself naked and tied to a chair. He looked around groggily and saw Clive in front of him with a smile.

Clive spoke slowly, "Wakey, wakey. How does our little vigilante feel? I thought I would immediately torture you, but I'll leave that for later."

He walked around to a corner and dragged out the body of a naked woman in front of Quinn, "Remember her? Your mother, right? She was raped to death by the filthy prisoners here. I planned to make you watch her being ravaged like the dog she was, but she did not even stay alive that long. What a weak woman!"

Clive felt utmost satisfaction seeing the expression on Quinn's face and continued, "I'll let you stay with dear old mother for a while. Spend your last few hours with her. Hahaha!"

Quinn did not even look at Clive as he left, only staring mutely at the body of his mother, his only solace.

He did not even notice the passage of time, as tears threatened to fall, but they found themselves locked up in his eyes.

Quinn heard some shuffling and slowly looked up, accepting his death. Did he regret doing what he did? No, maybe he and his mother would go to a better place. One that was not filled with filth.

But he did not see Clive.

A man dressed in all black with a half-mask covering his face stood outside his cell, and only the iron bars were in between.

The young-looking man had black hair and pupils, and slowly reached out to touch the bars with his hands. Quinn watched with surprise as the metallic bars turned to dust.

The masked man entered the cell and reached out with his hand again, "Do you want revenge? Will you follow me?"

****