“Close the door, please,” Mathew requested as soon as he stepped into the classroom.
Leila and Daria were well awake. Yet, one didn’t need to be a genius to see that it was Daria who was far more perturbed by the situation than her partner.
“Sure thing,” Leila replied after throwing a quick glance at her female partner before pulling away from Stephen and moving towards the doors.
“Is it done?” Daria whispered her question when Mathew passed right by her.
“It is done,” Mathew didn’t hold back his answer at all. “And from the look on your face, you saw something,” he pointed out, stopping in his tracks and turning around to take a good look at the girl’s eyes. “Right?”
Daria averted her eyes to the side.
“Yeah,” she replied. Her arms then rested on her waist as if she was attempting to hug herself. Yet, even when in this defensive stance, she didn’t move her eyes back on his face.
“How bad was it?” Mathew asked, pressing the topic despite how clearly uncomfortable the girl was with it.
“It felt as if I jumped out of a car, only to smash into a road sign,” Daria revealed. A shudder shook her body from the core. “Listen, this power…” she raised her eyes at Mathew but failed to finish her sentence.
“It ultimately comes from those who caused this entire apocalypse,” Mathew said. “I learned some things… I’m actually not even sure if you could call it learning,” Mathew’s revelation quickly turned into an expression of his own doubts.
“So I guess I’m not the only one worried about it all,” Daria said and shook her head.
“We are all worried,” Leila rejoined the discussion once she pushed the doors of the classroom shut. She kept her chin rested on her solar plexus for a moment before slowly raising her face up. “But that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we need to do.”
“She’s right,” Nadia said, tightening her fingers over Mathew’s hand. “Dealing with this guy is the last thing on our list,” she pointed out, forcing Mathew to move his attention back to the topic at hand.
“And we all deserve some rest, don’t we?” Leila added before a small smirk took over her lips. She then rested her back against the doors she had just shut before sending a meaningful look toward Stephen’s unconscious body.
“I guess we need to deal with that kid first,” Mathew admitted, not seeing any benefit to stubbornly refusing when the girls were fully right.
He then approached the lifeless body of his former enemy, only to wake him up with a solid kick to the stomach.
“Ghaaa…”
The first thing Stephan did when he came back to his senses was to desperately struggle for his breath.
‘Did I go a bit too far?’ Mathew thought, looking at the back of his former schoolmate’s head.
And so, he kicked the guy on the ground again. This time, however, he directed his foot to Stephen’s back just so that he would be beaten up evenly.
“Wakey wakey,” Mathew called out, taking two steps to change his position…
Only to send yet another kick, this time straight towards Stephen’s face.
“The fuck!” Stephen uttered when the kick sent him roughly a meter away from where he lay before.
The tight bounds on his wrists and ankles prevented him from moving up, keeping the guy in a weird, curled-up position.
“Shut your crap,” Mathew ordered and brandished his ax. “Now then,” he added, lowering his weapon and putting the sharp edge of the blade right on top of Stephen’s neck.
‘All I need is to press it down,’ Mathew thought coldly while a strange feeling of power filled his soul.
“What do you want?!” Stephen barked, struggling to push any words out of his mouth with how his lips were basically pressed against the floor. Unable to change his clearly uncomfortable position, his ability to retaliate was now limited to just sending cold glances at Mathew and the girls.
“First off, I know exactly what you can do with that system of yours,” Mathew said as he leaned down on his knees over the man’s face. His hand slid down the handle of his weapon so that he could still control the man’s life with as much as a twitch of his hand. “And I want you to give it up,” Mathew added with a smile growing on his lips.
“Fuck you!” Stephen called out. He then started to move his lips and jaw around. A moment later, he turned his head to the limits only to gather his saliva and…
“No, you don’t,” Nadia stomped down on the side of Stephen’s face, breaking his momentary stability.
But for the phlegm that Mathew’s enemy had already gathered and set in motion, it was already way too late. As a result, with his attempt to spit stopped in the middle, Stephen ended up dirtying up his very own face.
“Let me explain, then,” Mathew smiled, hiding the disgust that filled his mind. “You can either comply with my orders and stay alive,” Mathew stated, instantly raising his hand to stop the girls from voicing out their complaints.
“Or you can keep acting up, in which case, I will simply press on my ax’s handle,” Mathew explained Stephen’s options. He then gently pressed his weapon down just to make the guy understand how real the threat was.
The blade dug into Stephen’s skin, allowing the blood to decorate Mathew’s schoolmate’s throat.
“I know your system,” Mathew announced again. “The moment you attempt to use it, I will cut your head off,” he claimed before pressing the weapon down a little bit harder.
The blade dug even deeper into Stephen’s neck.
“Tic Toc, it’s time to make your choice,” Mathew hurried his adversary up. Yet, rather than focusing all his attention on Stephen, he turned his eyes to the girls. “Could you hold him up for me, just in case?”
“Sure thing,” Leila was the first one to react, rushing to pin down Stephen’s legs to the ground. Yet, it was Nadia who reached out of her target first, standing above the man and grabbing his hair, ready to pull his neck up, right against the blade of Mathew’s weapon.
“Wh-what do you want?” Stephen uttered through his tightened lips. Due to his throat being stretched to the back, he could hardly gather enough air to utter those few simple words.
“I wish to sacrifice my system and…” Mathew glanced over the man’s back, right where Daria caught his hands and pressed them against the young man’s back. “My system and my pinky to get rid of my own system,” Mathew gave his adversary the formula. “Now, say it yourself.”
“I-I wish to sacrifice my system… cough, and my pinky,” Stephen slowly uttered the words through his tightened throat.
Noticing his earnest attempts, Nadia relaxed her pull on his hair a little, allowing his throat to return to a more natural position.
“to get rid of THAT GUY’S…”
Stephen didn’t get to finish his words. Before he could do so, Nadia let go of his hair… Only to smash her fists into the back of Stephen’s head.
And this girl’s power wasn’t to be trifled with.
Stephan’s head bounced off Nadia’s fist only to strike the floor and bounce right back.
“That was quite shrewd of you,” Mathew claimed, his eyes darkening. He then raised his face and looked at the girls. “Turn him around,” he ordered.
“Nadia, stuff his mouth with something,” Mathew ordered, only to see the girl tear away a small part of her own cloth, only to then force it into Stephen’s mouth.
“Now then, do you want to castrate him?” Mathew then asked, standing up and bringing his ax up to his shoulder. “Or should I do the honors?”
“Feel free to do it,” Leila said, only to shake her shoulders. “But I would prefer if you didn’t try to touch his parts, they must be disgusting,” she added before spitting on the floor, right by Stephen’s face.
“The brutal way, then,” Mathew muttered.
“MHHHMM!” Stephen attempted to shout something, only for his words to end up muffled by the makeshift gag.
Mathew then changed his position to stand in front of his enemy. He then brought his ax down, cutting through the bounds on Stephen’s legs in a single strike.
“Let’s open him up a little,” he said before kicking both of his legs open.
Reading Mathew’s intention, Leila and Daria both rushed to hold Stephen’s legs as far apart as possible, allowing Mathew to get into his position.
“Now, then,” Mathew muttered as he stood sideways between Stephen’s knees, slowly swinging the butt of his ax as if it was a golf’s club. “There… we…” he muttered, using his words to time his wings as he took aim…
“MHHAHAMAHMMHMH!” the sound of desperate cries came from Stephen’s mouth as he realized what was actually going to happen right now. Yet, thanks to the makeshift gag, Mathew’s group didn’t need to hear his pleas.
“GO!” Mathew shouted happily, finally using some force when swinging his ax, smashing its butt right into Stephen’s balls!
“MAHAHAMHHMMH!!!”
Stephen’s entire body tensed up, and his back formed an arch.
‘Damn,’ Mathew thought as a shiver moved through his body. ‘I felt that too,’ he thought.
The insane pain visible in Stephen’s eyes somehow transferred to Mathew’s brain, making him aware of the scale of the torture he put his enemy through.
‘Fucking solidarity of balls,’ the young man thought before bringing his ax to the throat of the tortured enemy.
“I sacrifice my system and pinky to recover my testicles,” Mathew said as he took aim at Stephen’s neck. “Nadia, pull it out,” he then ordered.
‘It’s better if I give him a reason to be obedient,’ Mathew thought, ready to push his blade and cut Stephen’s throat the moment his words would derive from what Mathew dictated.
“I-I…” Stephen attempted to speak, only for a bout of pain to block his words in his throat. “I sacrifice my system and my pinky to recover my testicles!” he finally shouted.
“It’s happening again,” Daria suddenly announced as her eyes turned wide.
And then Mathew felt it.
The same kind of power that he noticed when the fortress came online. At least, this time, the scale of the event was far smaller. In fact, the young man could barely notice it.
Yet, regardless of what this strange power was, it suddenly invaded the classroom and rushed into Stephen’s body, congregating on his balls.
Stephen suddenly relaxed, as if all the pain that Mathew inflicted on him a moment earlier finally disappeared.
And then, with a strange ‘Plop,’ the power disappeared.