Chapter 112. Burn
On the fifth floor of the Pillar of Treachery, Lysa stared at Leo from the bloody table, her wide eyes shaking with fear. Leo stood in the broken doorway, his beaten, blood-soaked body looking more like a monster than a man.
His crimson eyes burning with rage, looking at the two masked cult soldiers, who froze under his glare. Then he glanced at Lysa who flinched under his gaze. Relief softened his face for a moment—she wasn’t Vivien. He turned back to the soldiers, voice low and raw. "So, you guys with this weird cult? Good. I’ve got questions."
The soldiers charged at him, no weapons. Leo’s Blood Dragger vanished into his item box as he charged. The first soldier swung a heavy fist, but Leo ducked, slamming his knee into the man’s stomach with a bone crunching force and giving him an uppercut sent the soldier crashing down, his mask flying off, showing a bloody, gasping face.
The second soldier’s punch came, but Leo caught his arm, twisting it with a gross snap. The man cried out.
Seeing his cry Leo made a cold smirk. "You feel pain? Nice. I was getting bored." He grabbed the soldier, smashing him into the wall, cracking tiles, then hit again, knocking him out.
He turned to Lysa, who flinched, shrinking back on the table, her skinny body shaking. Her eyes shut tight, tears falling as she whispered, "Please... don’t hurt me."
"Hey, little girl," he said, voice warm. Lysa peeked through her tears, surprised, seeing Leo in front of her, a small knife in his hand, his bloody figure less scary up close.
He looked at her, examining her body, pale, starved, with strange features and needle scars, a huge slave collar tight around her neck. The cult’s experiments on people twisted his stomach. Kneeling, he cut the leather straps on her wrists and ankles, moving gently. "How’d you get here?" he asked.
Lysa stared at her free hands, shocked. She slid to the table’s edge, voice shaky. "I... don’t know. They took me from my town... locked me here. It’s been so long." Her legs wobbled as she tried to stand, and Leo steadied her with his his bloody hand.