More days passed. Food was running dry in the cold, secret cellar. All that was left was a days supply of cold, burnt, bacteria-infested rations of random monster meat. Soon, either Rafe would kill himself, or the psychopath would regrettably do it.

It was then that Rafe woke up, for the millionth time, staring at the shadowy figure holding the same bloody peeler. It always had the same exact blood-stain as though this was all a recording being played on loop.

‘Kill…me…end…death…die…me. Die…me. Die…me. Die me. Diemediemediemediemediemedieme…die’ Rafe was only half-awake these days, his brain barely functioning anymore after all the stress.

There it came, the feeling of your skin being simultaneously fried to a crisp and torn from the meaty flesh beneath it. Rafe was used to it. Still, he felt it all the same.

‘Kill…kill…kill. Kill. Killkillkillkillkillkillkill. I…kill’ Rafe suddenly remembered the face of the man who put him through this, ‘kill…yes…kill. Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahah. Killkillkill. I’ll fucking kill ahahahahah kill’.

Then, in his shattered mind, something suddenly lit up with life, something that had been dead for a very long time; something that had been destroyed…and yet it returned with twice the vigour, beating like a second heart, pumping energy into Rafe’s broken mind.

“I’ll fucking kill you ahahahahahahahahahahah” his eye flung open wider than they ever should have. Suddenly, the innocent blue iris he once had warped colour, swizzling around like liquid until it grew to a colour no human brain could process.

[Item Received: Korgin Eye]

Rafe discarded the words in front him, causing them to dissipate into nothingness. With a callous smile, he stared deeply into the psychopath’s eyes, causing him to stumble. All of a sudden, the psychopath grew incredibly scared. Whilst the young man was all but under his control, strapped tightly to a chair, immobalised to do anything…something inside of him screamed to run; his instinct.

“Oh…don’t be so shy, friend. WE’RE FRIENDS, RIGHT?” Rafe’s voice was warped. Suddenly, traces of a dark blue, perhaps purple, mist-like existence began to dance around Rafe’s newly formed Korgin Eye.

Trying to regather himself, the psychopath wriggled on the ground, attempting to stand up again, yet his whole body shivered as though he was facing a god…or a demon.

In a silent motion, an almost invisible version of the dark-blue mist slashed through the roped, freeing Rafe from his restraints. With a wicked smile, knowing this would happen, Rafe jumped up and began to slowly step towards the trembling psychopath, inch by inch.

“Name” Rafe commanded.

“L-Leovard” the psychopath’s voice cracked.

Rafe smiled.

“I’ll take my time with you, Leovard. I’ll be reall~ slow” he said in a creepily friendly voice.

Slowly but surely his brain was coming back to life, yet the power of the Korgin Eye could only heal the functioning, the psychological damage would be permanent. Rafe didn’t even question the true nature of the Korgin Eye; how it reformed itself; how it was healing the damage done to it’s brain; how it seemed almost alive. Because frankly, he didn’t care. His entire world right now revolved around revenge, and he was going to make sure it was the most brutal, gory, warped act of revenge this twisted world has ever and will ever see.

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“Why are you looking at me like that? Oh I see,” he paused, “You’re wondering why I didn’t free myself before?”

Leovard shivered before nodding hastily.

“Because of the others. Some of them…are quite good when it comes to tracking. But now, I’m seeing things in a new light, thanks to you and your…hobbies. Why not let them come?”

Leovard couldn’t understand him at all. Others? How badly had he messed this guy up? Had he just created a monster? To break the mind of someone this powerful; to drive them this insane…what had he done? He wanted to smile at the thought of what someone like that would do to people, yet he caught view of the boy’s eyes.

‘He’s…what is he going to do to me?’ he trembled once again, something Rafe picked up on.

“Confused? No matter. Might as well get started. I do doubt the others could track me down on such a measly amount of use, so we have a lot of time on our hands before they track me down again” he smiled with a contorted expression.

Back at Ryu’s lodging, three people sat in the room with serious expressions. Scarlet seemed rather agitated over something whilst Brax didn’t seem too bothered. Sitting on one of the chairs in the corner, Twilight sat with great posture.

“We have nothing. It’s been so long I highly doubt Rafe is still with us, certainly not mentally. Sorry, Twilight, I know you had travelled together for some time” Scarlet had lost hope. Now, her focus was on pinning down the psychopath, and less on finding Rafe in whatever state he may be; dead or severely broken up.

“I get where you’re coming from, but I still believe he is alive” Twilight stated, deathly serious.

Scarlet sighed.

“Please be realistic, Twilight. If he is, he’ll be so broken we might as well consider him dead. In such a state, he’d never survive in the guard. We are not a charity, we deliver safety for work”

Brax seemed to agree with her. But he would, wouldn’t he, cold-hearted bastard. He’d probably never even tried finding Rafe in the first place, his only goal being finding the psychopath from the start.

“I know him. He’s alive”

Brax clicked his tongue.

“You know what, why don’t we play along with this little fantasy, girl. Let’s think. Hmm…Rafe is alive. He’s been tortured for several days, with the same brutality that made a man like Merl kill himself overnight. Not only has he survived it…he’s perfectly sane. Wow, dear Twilight, doesn’t sound so~ realistic” Brax mocked her.

Twilight ignored him. Though, she was beginning to doubt he had survived. That was a big hit for their little party, since Rafe was a key figure, but did he warrant her to feel this miserable? She needed to cheer up. But now, if Rafe was truly gone, it was just her and Jed. And Jed, though they talked sometimes, she didn’t really know much about. Then again, she didn’t know much about Rafe either. Were they really a group of friends, or just a temporary alliance?

‘Guess you can’t really have friends in this world; they’ll either betray or just die’ she looked down, slightly hurt by the revelation. She started to miss the nights back at the fortress back South, and the camping along the way North. Back then, things felt a lot like home, strangely enough. But that was in the past now.

Suddenly, they heard something braying on the door, likely a guard. However, why were they striking the door with so much force and urgency? Had something gone wrong? Were they under attack.

“Come in. Come in” Scarlet shouted to the person behind the door.

Hastily flinging the wooden door open, a pale guard entered with a tough to read expression. Distress? Just what was going on outside?

From the shining on his pale face, he seemed to be sweating, despite the rather cold weather they were having today.

“Well?” Brax gestured him to spit it out.

“It’s Rafe…we found him” the guard said, with a slightly shaky voice.

The three seemed rather shocked, their eyelids flying up.

“Is he alive?”

The guard nodded, his face growing paler. Scarlet noticed this.

“How is he mentally? I assume he’s shaken up, but is he functioning properly? I’ve heard of cases where they enter a vegetative state after such trauma to the mind” Scarlet didn’t seem hopeful.

However the guard would soon shock them.