Chapter 122 - A Tornado

I stared at the taller boy dead in the eye.

He flinched, but frowned soon after. It seemed like I hurt his pride.

The taller boy scowled.

"How dare you look at me like that! Do you even know who I am?"

I took a deep breath, trying to control my feelings.

"...You can beat me up, but you can't take the money."

The shorter boy smirked.

"Oh really? Just watch me!"

He began pocketing several of the coppers.

It felt like they were tearing my soul away with each coin they took.

The taller boy sighed.

"If only you had a bit more... though, what can you expect from someone like you."

He chuckled.

"It's probably your life savings, isn't it?"

My fingers tensed up from anger.

"It is."

The taller boy smirked.

"Then that's even better! It's only fair for giving us so much trouble for nothing."

...It's only fair?

I was the one causing trouble for nothing?

The tone of my voice subconsciously dropped.

"...What are you even talking about?"

The taller boy frowned.

"This is your fault for healing so fast! You made us waste so much time for nothing!"

...This is my fault?

A strange swirling sensation came over me, making me see things.

I saw myself in the center of a tornado. The winds raged on, tearing apart several houses violently.

My clothes and hair whipped violently. Although I was currently safe from the savage force of the tornado while within its eye, there were only a few steps between me and its frightening gales.

In other words, if the tornado moved too fast for me, it would tear me to shreds.

Yet, I wasn't afraid of it.

After all, it was a tornado that came from me.

From the depths of my heart, it had revealed itself. It was as though the tornado was excited, seeing the outside world after so long.

I took a step forward, and it moved along with me.

The tornado seemed to be screaming out as loud as it could. If it had a throat, it would surely be bloodied by now.

As I walked, the tornado continued to rip apart the surroundings, gathering more debris around me.

Then, I began running.

Even more houses were destroyed, filling the tornado with debris.

I ran faster and faster.

Until eventually, the debris blocked out all the light from outside.

And as the darkness fell upon me, a small smile formed on my face.

"I guess you're right."

I felt a wave of heat surge through my body, especially so for my mind. It was getting hard to think coherently.

"It is my fault."

The taller boy furrowed his brows and began to hesitate. On the other hand, the shorter boy nodded.

"That's right! This compensation is only fair."

I heard a voice.

"...Didn't you hear him?"

It sounded like mine, but was far deeper... and more sinister.

"It is only fair, no?"

The shorter boy reached for another one of the copper coins, but before he could reach for it...

"GAAAAAAHHHHHH"

The shorter boy recoiled in pain, and rightfully so.

After all, I lunged forth and bit off his fingers.

I couldn't help but smile wider, which must've looked a bit frightening with the blood dripping down my chin.

The shorter boy's eyes widened in fear, while the taller boy took a few steps back.

My eyes were slowly widening.

The shorter boy stumbled backward before falling onto his rear.

"It hurts! It hurts so bad!"

His uninjured hand grabbed tightly onto the other, which was currently bleeding out. There was a nasty grimace on his face as his entire body trembled, especially so for his hands.

"Ah... Ah..."

The shorter boy continued to groan in pain, which made me a little scared.

Not of the boy, but myself.

Because I was enjoying it.

...I was enjoying it too much.

A giggle seeped out of me.

"It does hurt! You could say it hurts a lot!"

I walked over to the boy, who began crawling backward once he saw me approach. However, his crawling was simply too slow.

I had reached him.

Tears streaked down the shorter boy's face, unable to withstand the pain he was facing. Unfortunately for him, it was going to get far worse.

I grabbed onto his uninjured arm, forcefully pulling it off the other.

The boy tried to pull back his arm.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!"

But I was too strong.

Casting so many healing spells may have torn apart my mind time and time again, but it also did something else.

Rip apart my body, before healing it once more.

I had already become far stronger than a normal person. So much so that even as the boy struggled, he could not make me budge.

Not even slightly.

My grip around his arm tightened as a mocking smile appeared on my face.

"It really wasn't hard for us to do things peacefully, you know?"

I burst out in laughter, as though I said a terribly funny joke that made even me crack up.

Though I was the only one laughing, so it wasn't that funny apparently.

"I wonder... what do you think will happen now?"

The shorter boy shivered.

"W-What are you doing! You should know my family name has weight around here! Nearly every- AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH."

He threw his head back and screamed out in pain.

I had straightened out his arm before placing the base of my palm on his elbow.

...Then, I pushed forward, making a clear cracking sound ring out.

The shorter boy almost sounded like a pig being butchered, as they are not killed cleanly, but very painfully.

After all, the pig's throat may be slit, but it is still alive.

In this way, once it is hung up, the blood will leave it faster, drying it out for proper preparation.

The pig's heart continues to beat, but with every second, it only speeds up its own death.

The shorter boy could hardly breathe with the tears and snot running down his face, but he still managed to look at his counterpart and form a few words.

"...He- Help... me..."

The taller boy's face became pale. He was frozen in fear before, but the scream of the shorter boy seemed to wake him up.

The taller boy began to run away.

But I wasn't going to let him go.

He ran for his life, meaning he was going far faster than he even thought he could. Yet, it seemed so slow.

Because I was simply too fast.

The taller boy looked behind him, but before he could see anything, something grabbed onto his face.

It was my hand.

I lifted him up off his feet as a giggle seeped past my lips.

"Do you know what happens to things that go up?"

The taller boy cringed.

"Wait, I can give back the money! Just let me g-"

A clear frightening crack resounded.

I slammed his head onto the floor, directly shattering his skull. But I wasn't done there.

I flipped him over and dragged his face against the cobblestone path. He let out muffled moans of pain that sometimes got noticeably louder, and sometimes became quieter than a breath.

It was almost like a cacophony of dead souls, still crying out in pain from the time that they were killed.

I kept scraping his face against the ground, letting the stones tear away his face. In the end, I lost myself with the screams of agony, pressing the taller boy's head down as though it was some kind of instrument. 

...And eventually, the cries of pain stopped.

I curiously flipped the taller boy over, as though I was a little child opening a long-awaited present.

The skin of his face was nowhere to be seen, replaced with bloody flesh and the occasional bone that peeked out, almost like it was trying to say hi.

The taller boy's nose was completely crushed, leaving only a bloody patch where it once was. As for his teeth, they were partially covered in blood and flesh, but his mouth and cheek were nowhere to be seen.

As such, his teeth and gums were fully exposed, almost like the appearance of a scary monster.

Those details along with the flesh that was ground away made his face look eerily flat, like it was a cutting board.

But that wasn't the most jarring aspect.

As for what that was... it would be his eyes.

The eyelids had already been torn off, unable to protect the delicate eyes underneath.

As such, they became a milky, yet bloody paste.

The taller boy was no longer breathing.

He had died a few moments ago.

There were a few whimpers coming from behind me.

It was the shorter boy.

He was dragging his arms along the ground as he moved forward by raising his knees.

The shorter boy was moving slowly, sometimes stopping since he could no longer bear the pain.

I should help.

By removing his arms.