Devils didn’t need as many words like humans. Instead, they picked up body language and trusted it much more than whatever came out of someone’s mouth. Precisely because Devils were so good at deception, they had learned to trust these signs much more.
Therefore, the man who had just shouted at the person smashing his door in and called the woman a ‘wh*re’ without even thinking immediately got a big punch on his teeth. Not a compassionate punch, but one aimed at breaking teeth and the nose in one swift motion.
The man's posture had suggested he had already been ready for some violence as soon as Epagogia smashed the door in. Some would think that would be the natural response to someone breaking into your place during the apocalypse. But that wasn’t exactly the case. There was nuance to an aggressive stance. It could be reactive or proactive, it could suggest past violence or just the will to defend oneself.
And what Epagogia hadn’t liked was what she had picked up from the man who reeked of blood in the second after looking at him. Oh, she hadn’t liked it one bit.
Therefore, there was no reason to wait before exercising some honest and straightforward violence.
“You crazy b*tch,” the man was on the ground and was spitting his teeth, not expecting what was going to happen next.
Epagogia stomped on his left shin, crushing it into a paste. Usually, people would first ask questions, then break your legs if you didn’t answer. But that wasn’t Epagogia’s modus operandi.
Compared to Epagogia, Jacob’s ruthlessness was a child being petty.
The man screamed so loud, but she didn’t even flinch. Instead, she grabbed him by the throat and raised him close to the ceiling of the room.
The man's mouth was a mess of broken teeth and blood, and a leg was now hanging fairly uselessly by his body.
“So, let’s start by saying that you are going to die,” Epagogia started with a deadpan tone, “now, you can die while telling me everything that happened in this little village, including whatever you did to that woman. Or I can fish out the truth from your Soul. I can even just torture you, destroy your soul, and then move on to the next filthy scum that will tell me everything. So, you have three seconds to start making sense.”
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The man could feel the cold and unflinching gaze penetrating his very being, baring his self naked in front of that crazy woman.
“What—” the man could barely articulate any sound with all his teeth being half- or fully broken. He was also concussed, and the pain in his leg was making it impossible to think.
While Epagogia had the man two feet from the ground by the throat, Rose and his child entered the house right after Jacob. Rose immediately covered her son’s eyes, or at least tried to. The child’s jaw dropped on the ground at that sight, but an exciting expression came over his face the next moment.
Jacob looked at the kid’s eyes and immediately turned toward Epagogia, who was now looking too at the kid. She winked toward Jacob and broke the neck of the man right after with a swift chop.
“Time’s up,” she swung the body toward the door. “Well, I’ll go burn his corpse outside, sorry for the blood,” Epagogia said, carrying the body with her as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
For Christ’s sake, Jacob thought. He apologized to the shocked woman and followed Epagogia outside.
“Come on, Jaji-boy, are you really going to say something?” she turned to smile at him.
If there was one thing he had learned after all the years she had spent with the woman was that she took decisions in a split-second and stood her ground. Epagogia had always taken full responsibility, even when wrong. But she always refused to change her way of doing things.
“A Queen has to make difficult choices. The more you stall the difficult choice, the less of a Queen you are. To be a Queen means to act swiftly, ruthlessly, and being unapologetic for it,” Jacob recited those words without breaking his stride.
“Look at you, Jaji-boy, you are ready to be the next Queen of Devils!” she laughed while tossing the man on the side of the road.
“Do not Soul-Search him at least, please,” Jacob said.
“Oh, Jaji-boy, I’m not going to taint my Karma just because a disgusting slob acted like a disgusting slob,” she pointed her hands toward the man, and a flurry of black flames enveloped him.
Thanks to the Mantis realm flames, the corpse became ash in less than a minute, as if it had never existed but for the blackened dust and stone under him.
Rose and her kid slowly approached Jacob and Epagogia. The woman had to restrain her son, looking at the tall and beautiful woman as if she was a God to venerate.
“I—” Rose didn’t know what to say.
“We are here to kill people like the one who abused you,” Epagogia said with a smile, “you don’t have to thank, apologize, insult, nor anything else. You can just go home and rest if you wish to. But, if you can point us toward the problematic people in this town, we can solve your problems very quickly, as you might have seen,” Epagogia pointed at the now flying away cloud of ashes.