11 Talent isn't as important as determination!

"I. I can't trust you..." Shane said, then paused building up suspense. Nemesis unconsciously retracted his hand back to his side and sucked in a small portion of his upper lip into his mouth, gently biting it, weary of the answer Shane would give. Shane then continued, "But, I know I can't do it without your aid. Those... whores... are at least [Rank - 12 Demonic Trainees], while the manager there is a [Rank - 11 Demonic Apprentice]..." A flush of embarrassment entered Shane's expression as he slowly scratched his cheek, " I. I'm not strong enough to beat that... I'm a." Shane stopped for a moment, pondering on whether or not he should tell Nemesis the truth, but then remembered Hunger's words, 'the most talented son', so with a deep breath, he continued, "I'm only at level 6."

Nemesis stopped biting his upper lip, opening his mouth to exhale the long breath he had held in. Shane was forced to work with him due to his strength being insufficient to deal with the manager. Nemesis gave Shane a smile, a caring, pleasant smile which lightened up Shane for a moment, removing him from the darkness which he was falling into.

"Shane, don't be like that. Being a level 6 human at the young age of four proves you've got not only an amazing amount of talent but also shows the sheer amount of determination you have! I mean, talent is only a handicap given to reach the end, though shall never let people reach the end. Determination, however! Now that is what allows those to reach the end! Shane, don't listen or even consider the words of your parents, they don't understand how much hard work you've put in. They simply just see all the hard work you've done and throw it aside, granting your talent all the satisfaction you should've felt." Nemesis gave a small speech to Shane about his rock-hard determination. Making sure Shane would never again downcast himself to just a human who has an immense amount of talent and put no work into where he was now.

Shane felt as if a giant unknown mountain which had blocked his road, began to crumble, cracks appearing in the seemingly indestructible obstacle, then... He heard a loud rumbling noise as the mountain began to collapse. Within a few mere seconds, the mighty object which stood firm in his way was gone. Once the dust faded, a stretched out hand entered his view. He slowly lifted his head up to see a calm face, one as pale as a ghost with two different coloured eyes, one a peaceful azure blue and the other a wild yet somehow tame emerald green eye. A sweet, comforting smile was on his face, it looked so natural! It was different from all the fake smiles he had seen before while living in the castle. Even Eve's smile wasn't as bright or comforting.

It was strange. Both times he had seen Nemesis smile with gave him an unknown feeling, both of which also happened right after something he wished he didn't know of happened as well. A false kiss and... Shane quickly shook his head, then looked back at Nemesis, only to see a look of worry slowly form on his face, one more motherly than even his own mother had ever given him.

"Shane..? Are... are you alright? I'm sorry if I overdid it, I'm not the best at this kind of emotional pep talk..." He heard Nemesis' words practically filled with uncertainty and concern, a far cry different from his usual confident although quite feminine voice.

"Ye-yeah, I'm fine. It's just that I'm not used to such a warm voice and smile..." Shane stated quickly so as to hopefully revert Nemesis back to his former self, and not the cannibalistic or overly concerned one. Instead, he saw confusion quickly appear in Nemesis' face. He saw Nemesis begin to think of something, probably on whether or not he should ask why.

"Why then? How aren't you used to it?" Nemesis finally asked after rattling his brain on why he wasn't used to it. He knew that his father didn't care much about him, but didn't his siblings care? What about his birth mother? That was the tasks of mothers, to care for and nurture their children.

"My mother didn't care about me either, didn't you know?" Shane quickly saw a look of shock and anger appear in Nemesis' eyes, the tranquil azure and neutral emerald both flash into a cold, heartless black for a millisecond. For that millisecond, Shane felt the room turn ice cold, the bloody smell strengthened in the room and he could not feel his body.

"Sorry..." Nemesis pitifully said in a quiet, weak voice.

"No- no problem, but... did you seriously not know? I thought you knew about my past?" Shane quickly responded, asking his question.

"No, I just thought it was your father... let me guess then, your siblings hated you for your talent? Am I correct?" Nemesis pried.

"Yes. They despised me for it." Shane nodded his head.

"What..." Nemesis paused for a moment then decided to finish his sentence. "What about Eve? Did she know?"

Shane was baffled for a moment on how he knew Eve, but then quickly fixed himself, remembering that Nemesis knew a bit of his own past... not all of it like he thought. "No, she didn't..."

"Here, take my hand. If you do, that means you're willing to come with me to destroy that brothel, if you don't, just go... go away, I'll do it myself." Nemesis told Shane, hoping he'd accept him and join him on this. He just wanted a friend.

To his surprise, Shane instantly grabbed his hand. "I'll trust you... for this, after it, I'll see how it goes." Shane then gave him a cheeky smile. Nemesis just kept the warm, soothing smile on his face as he softly held Shane's hand, as if it were something delicate which would break if he put even the slightest amount of force on it.

The two then left the room, walking down the hallway. When they were several feet away from the door hole, Shane glanced back only to see that the broken door and the gaping hole in the wall its destruction had caused, has vanished. He rapidly turned his head to face Nemesis, only to see him looking down at his right hand. He looked down then heard a snap. Nemesis had snapped his fingers, he then told Shane, "Look back." To which Shane did, seeing that the hallway looked like it had as they left the room. The door was still destroyed and a door shaped hole was in the wall.

"How'd you do that?" Shane inquired, curious as to how a snap had caused it to look destroyed again.

"All I simply did was lower the illusion I had cast, anyone outside of its area of effect would see only what I wanted to be seen." Nemesis said with pride, a confident smirk stuck on his face as he gazed at Shane.

Shane just nodded his head as he and Nemesis both walked to the exit, which was at the end of the bar inside the tavern. The moment they appeared, the entirety of the tavern's patrons stared at the two. Seeing the two, they quickly discerned the fact that Shane was the one in the black cloak and not some girl that Nemesis fancied.

Shane sniffed and a wave of cheap beer, perspiration, mould and... blood! Yes, blood, hit his nose. He quickly darted his eyes only to notice that the scent of blood came from... him, Nemesis and most if not all of the patrons. The blood on the two of them must've come from the mangled body in that room, but the others... they must've personally killed other demons to have that scent of blood.

Shane was now on guard and couldn't help but glance at Nemesis through the corner of his eye. He saw a cold, confident look on Nemesis' face. He had a dominating aura which seemed to scream, 'I dare you to even breath!' The crowd also seemed to sense this aura and all cowered away, returning to their cheap drinks while occasionally glaring at Nemesis and Shane.

"Come on, let's go." Nemesis said, not in a cold voice, but an emotionless one.

The two quickly left the tavern and so did the dominating aura Nemesis had as well, causing several held breaths to be released.

----------

The two returned back to the alley they had first talked to each other. The two stared directly at the brothel, its magnificence figuratively glowing.

"So... it's going to be destroyed now?" Shane couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, Shane. The poor souls inside who were forced to do this... shall now be free."

"Free?" Shane questioned.

"Yes, free... The freedom from the living, the suffering and wondering of how days go by and yet nothing happens. Selling their bodies for Spites, doing nothing, being entrapped within that brothel. I see no difference between that and death, so in my eyes, I'm just their savour, an emissary of death, leading them like sheep as a shepherd, away from this twisted world." Nemesis passionately said, then continued.

"Now Shane, watch out. Don't freak out okay? I'm just going to do something."

"Do what?" Shane couldn't help but ask. He was extremely curious about what Nemesis was planning.

Nemesis said nothing as he lightly tapped the tip of his right shoe against the rock ground slowly, three times. Each resounded with a soft and quiet pat. Pat. Pat. Pat. Once the shoe connected with the ground for the third time, a circle around Nemesis formed. The outline was purplish-black, just like the [Void].

Before Shane could ask what was going to happen, the circle outline extended upwards, shrouding Nemesis inside a... [Void Cylinder]. A cylinder made out of the Void, nothing else about it was remarkable. In under thirty seconds, the cylinder rapidly began to return back into the ground. Once it retreated back into the ground, the circle outline it made vanished, leaving not a single trace of it.

Shane didn't care though, as he was perplexed at the scene he saw.

Nemesis was standing in the same position. His clothes still the same, the same unknown rune still etched onto his suit, same emerald green and azure eyes, same pale as a ghost skin but some things were different. His hair for one was longer, from being extremely short to fairly long, with a decent amount of hair covering his left eye. Another different feature was the fact that he was now around 1.75 meters tall! He wouldn't have been able to see his left eye if it weren't for the difference in size! Nemesis looked more mature, not the maturity of an adult had, but the maturity of a... teenager!?