[21:20 | April 11, 2035]

Shin and Fuyumi sat in silence. Shin looked over at Fuyumi to find her brow furrowed. He wondered if she was going through the same moral dilemma.

The silence was interrupted by a dry cough coming from in front of them. Blood spilled on the floor as he coughed. His voice was worn and raspy.

Fuyumi handed Shin his coat back.

“You insolent fools… What do you think you’re doing to me? I’m not carrying any silver on me.” He said with coughs interlaced between each sentence.

Fuyumi stood up and drew her blade, holding it at his throat. Syros flinched and tensed up.

“You’re going to give us every last piece of silver you have.” Fuyumi demanded.

“A-and why would I do that?”

“You’re not really in a situation to barter with us.” Shin said, crossing his arms.

“If you kill me… I’ll just come back at the church.” He muttered.

“Then we won’t kill you.” Fuyumi answered back.

She removed the dagger from his neck and made a long but narrow cut down his chest. Blood slowly ran down from the wound.

Syros winced in pain but kept his composure.

“I told you I don’t have any silver on me. I’m sure you’ve already checked.” He said, grinding his teeth.

“Then… You’re gonna go get it from the guild storage.” Shin replied as he kicked Syros’ face.

“Pugh.” Syros coughed and spit out blood along with a tooth.

Syros took a few seconds to recover from the kick.

“You think you can get away with hurting me within the city walls? I’ll be shielded by the goddess’ grace. Even now, my guild members are probably already out looking for me now.” Syros said, wearing a smug grin.

Shin grabbed Fuyumi by the arm.

“H-hey, what’s going on?”

He took her to the front of the cave.

“He’s right to some extent. But, I do have a work around that I figured out thanks to a buddy of mine.” Shin explained.

Before Shin and Nightingale split ways, Shin asked him to do some research on the church and respawning mechanics. After an hour, Nightingale managed to discover the church’s mechanics.

“It’s true that we can’t get to him in the city. The church is normally a solo instance. However, if we manage to party with him, we should be able to enter the church when he respawns. No one else will be able to go inside that instance since they won’t be in our party.” Shin said, practically repeating Nightingale’s research.

“Even if we do get in the church, what would we do to convince him to give us the silver in the guild storage?” Fuyumi asked.

“We thought he would be carrying at least some silver on him or the his carriage. The guild storage is our last hope.” She continued.

“Kill him again… and again… and again.” Shin said flatly.

“Wow… you’re even worse than I thought.” Fuyumi replied sarcastically.

“I like that.”

Shin and Fuyumi returned to the deeper part of the cave.

Shin took a length of rope out of his item pouch and wrapped it around Syros’ mouth. Syros struggled and yelled out but the rope reduced his screams to those of a elderly man with no teeth.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Shin took out his broken dagger, playing with its dulled edge. Fuyumi took out a pair of pliers from her item pouch.

Syros’ eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen to him. He attempted to open the game menu and log out but he couldn’t while his hand was restrained. Realizing this, he struggled and pleaded.

“Dmph gmmddesm gphracemmm protemmmct mm.”

Shin teasingly ran his broken dagger up and down Syros’ thigh. Syros looked down in panic. He began to progressively apply more pressure until the dagger cut through his skin, staining his leg red.

Fuyumi stood on the other side of Syros, intimidatingly opening and closing the pliers in her hand. She bowed down and kneeled next to Syros’ foot.

“I’ll give you my best pedicure.” She said in a terrifying voice.

She rested the pliers’ jaw on the nail and wiggled it back and forth.

“Nghh…” Syros tensed up in preparation.

Fuyumi yanked the nail toward her, pulling the nail clean off.

“Gmmmm!” Syros’ muffled scream filled the cave.

---------

About an hour passed. The ground was covered in a pool of blood. The subzero temperatures froze some of the blood, turning it into a sheet of deep red ice.

Syros’ body was mangled. One of his eyes was gouged out. His nails were torn off, revealing the pink flesh underneath. His arms were broken and his skin was branded by the blade of Shin’s broken dagger.

Fuyumi stood in front of Syros, who was on the verge of fainting.

“Do you feel like talking yet?” She asked while cutting off the rope restraining his mouth.

“F…Fuck you.”

Fuyumi cut into his shoulder in retaliation.

Shin was leaning against the entrance of the cave alcove on lookout. They heard galloping horses earlier and faint voices calling out the guild master’s name, but they haven’t heard them in the last half hour.

Shin used that as an excuse to stop doing most of the dirty work. Ultimately, his doubts and conscience began to take over. Even though he convinced himself that what he was doing was justified, he couldn’t bear to be the one torturing him. He had to take a break every few minutes.

Shin was surprised at how ruthless Fuyumi was. But he couldn’t blame her. This was the man who ruined her life and caused the death of her last family member. She was finally able to vent out all her anger and frustrations.

Fuyumi began making small cuts into his chest in the shape of an upside down cross.

“You… whore.” He muttered.

Upon hearing that, Shin shot an arrow into his calf.

“Why don’t you join our party?” Shin asked casually.

“A-are you insane? What kind of question is that?!” Syros responded in confusion, coughing out blood while asking.

“Just a suggestion. Maybe we’ll let you go if you do~” Shin said mischievously.

Shin sent a party request to Syros. He accepted the invite by headbutting the prompt.

Shin then pulled out a potion from his coat pocket.

“I got this from the commercial district. It should heal you a small amount. Lucky for you, I still have some left after using it on Fuyumi.”

Shin forcefully emptied the contents of the potion into Syros’ mouth.

“What’s the meaning of this? What’s the point? Who are you people?” He asked.

“Maybe... I had a change of heart.” Shin responded, pointing at his own chest.

Fuyumi sheathed her blade and walked behind Syros. She stood on top of a raised part of the cave, leveling her out with Syros who was still tied up to the low ceiling.

She leaned in closer to Syros’ ear and whispered.

“Maybe… You remember this.” Her breath was cold enough to freeze the air.

Fuyumi unsheathed her dagger and grabbed his long hair, pulling him back. She then cut off his hair, snapping his body violently forward. Fuyumi then made deep gashes on his back. Blood immediately gushed out. She then began kicking his remaining arm.

Each kick made a small frozen patch on impact.

“How! Does! It! Feel! To! Experience! What! She! Felt!” She yelled out in anguish between each kick.

Syros’s body jerked forward with each kick. He groaned and screamed with each consecutive kick.

“Wh-Who is ‘she’?!”

Syros’ entire upper arm was frozen solid. Fuyumi stopped for a moment to calm herself.

She breathed out slowly. After exhaling, she kicked him at full force.

The ice cracked and broke, severing his remaining arm from the rest of his body. Chunks of frozen flesh shattered as they hit the floor and walls of the cave. Syros faceplanted on the floor. He turned his head in an attempt to look at Shin as if he was going to save him. Shin looked back at him in disgust.

Syros looked the other way and saw Fuyumi. She hopped down from the raised rock.

Fuyumi pulled up her shirt halfway, revealing a cross-shaped scar on the right side of her abdomen.

“Y-y-you… You’re Nishikawa’s daughter…”

She put her shirt back down and took out her dagger. She slowly walked toward Syros. Her dagger and eyes began to glow a deep blue. A frosty mist began to cover the black blade.

“P-please… I didn’t think that she would die from something like th-”

Fuyumi slashed downward, creating a thin wave of ice that cleaved straight through Syros. It ran along the cave floor before shattering against the wall, leaving a gouge in the rock face.

Syros’ head rolled around from the force of the attack before coming to a stop.