21 Chapter 21: The Roles Reverse

"The quickest way to change someone's mind is by putting a blade to their throat."

- Common Imperial Saying.

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"As such, I have been ordered to...dispose of you."

As soon as Alexander heard those words, he felt his heart race. He didn't expect this! Not at all! As a matter of fact, he expected to have a lot more time to train himself, expand his Disciples, and plan his moves! But...but by the looks of it, he would meet his end in this damn room!

At that moment, as he felt the cold metal pressed against his skin, Alexander's mind turned faster than he thought possible. He could still feel the psychic connection of a hundred Disciples. Despite being trapped beneath layers of steel, Alexander could still communicate with them. With one command, he could send them into motion. Yet...what could they possibly achieve in the cells? Getting them to move right now would only lead to their meaningless deaths.

In other words, he had to save himself.

Through the two months of incarceration, Alexander had grown faster and tougher than ever before. He was confident that in a fair fight, he could take out the Warden. With some injuries, he might be able to disable the two guards as well. Yet right now, he was restrained to the seat with metal cuffs, and the Warden was just about to pull the trigger.

He only had one option left. One risky plan that was nothing more than a desperate gamble.

Just as Warden Locke was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly felt a surge of agony exploding in his chest and quickly expanding across his entire body. As a former Marine, Locke had experienced pain, but the pain echoing through his bones was worse than anything he had ever felt before. It was almost as if the pain acted directly on his nerve system, bypassing whatever resilience he had built up over the years.

Within seconds, the man was brought to his knees by the sudden blast of agony that came out of nowhere. Pained screams left his mouth. It was a sound foreign to the Warden himself.

"What the...sir!"

The captain and the other guard quickly rushed to Warden Locke's side. Neither of them had any idea what was going on. Maybe the Warden was suffering from a random heart attack? Even in the modern age heart attacks were still a thing, especially for those who couldn't afford genetic modifications or enhancement pills. Either way, for a second, the two guards had no idea what to do.

As the guards were distracted, Alexander started struggling against the handcuffs on his wrists. The attack on Warden Locke took a significant level of Essence of Agony from him. The woman that called herself Agony could cripple an entire squad of CSF troopers and knights without breaking a sweat, but he wasn't even close to that level.

Still, the young man focused whatever power he had left on his wrists, using the corrosiveness of the energy to wear down components of the cuffs. He also pulled against the metal with his bare wrists. It wasn't a comfortable feeling as cold steel dug into his skin and flesh alike, but he kept on struggling. After all, this was his only hope of survival. He couldn't fail! Not here! Not now!

Beside Warden Locke, the captain finally decided that he couldn't figure out what was wrong with the Warden. He wasn't shot or injured or anything, and his breathing seemed fine. Still, he decided perhaps it was a problem more suited for medical personnel of the facility to answer.

Just as he was about to walk to the thick blast door, push it open, and call for help, the captain suddenly felt something ramming into him from behind. Something fast and strong. That figure ran into his back and pushed him right into the wall with a terrifying level of strength. The captain hit the wall and turned around, only to see Alexander charging at him once again. The young man raised his leg and, before the captain could react, kicked him in the left leg.

Following the sound of bones cracking, the captain collapsed on the ground and screamed in surprise and pain.

Alexander knew he couldn't waste a second. Perhaps he didn't start off as a fighter, but the two months in the cells sparring against some of the most vicious criminals on the planet was enough to give him a crash course on the art of fighting. Against two armed foes, he needed to cripple one of them first before trying to storm the other. In that case, time was of the essence, and one second could be the danger between life and death.

With lightning speed, he was able to catch the captain by surprise and send him to the ground, but Alexander had to admit the stake of this whole thing did have an impact on him. After all, he wasn't sparring against a Disciple of his. No...right here, he was fighting for his life, and if he died here, he would be finished. There was no load save. No going back and trying this again. He had one shot and one shot only.

The consequences of this all weighed down Alexander a little, which was why he was a little slower than he hoped. By the time he launched himself at the second guard, the man already found the time to raise his shotgun.

Yet as he took aim at the advancing Alexander, for one reason or another, he didn't fire on the young man and kill him as soon as he could.

Perhaps it was because he didn't want to risk the shrapnels hitting his captain. Perhaps he wasn't as fine with taking lives as his recruitment officer and superiors were led to believe. Perhaps he believed Warden Locke would be interested in finding out what Alexander did to him or how he got out of the cuffs. Perhaps he simply thought the sight of the shotgun raised was enough to stop Alexander in his tracks. Perhaps...

In the end, he didn't fire when he could, and that cost him, and a lot of other much more powerful individuals, everything.

History was often crafted by the details.

Alexander didn't share the same hesitation that the guard had. Ok...he had to admit he was a little scared when he saw the shotgun aiming in his direction, but he forced himself past that fear. If he backed down here, or even if he just stopped for one second, he would be finished. Everything he wanted would be lost.

So instead of freezing, Alexander moved even faster upon realizing he was in danger. Before the guard could react, he grabbed onto the shotgun barrel, pulled the weapon to the side, and smashed his knee into the man's belly.

The man hit the ground with vomit coming out of his mouth. He made one last attempt by going for his sidearm, only to be stopped as Alexander kicked on his dominant arm with all his strength. The arm shattered, along with any chance the guard had of saving himself.

The agony on Warden Locke was starting to wear off, but before the Warden could get back up, a new pain consumed him. It was the pain of having both his arms snapped by the prisoner he was supposed to execute.

Within seconds, Alexander was the only one standing in the interrogation room. The interrogated have become the interrogator, and right now, the interrogators were the ones screaming in pain.

As the victor of this brief but dangerous skirmish, Alexander took a deep breath and looked around the field of the carnage. The Warden, the captain, and the guard were all on the ground, too wounded to offer any resistance. Of course, for most prisoners, that didn't mean much in a situation like this. What could they do? Hold the Warden hostage and demand a safe passageway out? Or maybe just shoot the Warden and then himself and get this over with? In either case, escape was impossible.

But for Alexander...that was a whole different story.

As a Lord of Agony, Alexander had access to powers beyond what most people could imagine. All he had to do was get the Warden to say the oath whole-heartedly, and he would have the head of Darkbane Prison under his command. That would make converting this entire prison, not just the prisoners but also the guards, a lot easier. In that aspect, the risks he took here were well justified, not that he had much of a choice when making it.

When Warden Locke came to see Alexander himself instead of ordering his guards to perform the execution, he was feeling somewhat ambitious, hoping that he could somehow personally extract some information from the doomed prisoner. Instead, he got himself in Alexander's hands.

Alexander first took a glance at the door. The sentries outside obviously didn't hear the screams. Even if they did, maybe they thought he was the one doing the screaming? Alexander knew very well that there were cameras in the interrogation room, but he also knew they were likely turned off during his interrogation. In fact, he saw his interrogators order it done many times...right before they started working on him.

After all, Alexander had always maintained his innocence during the torture, and the last thing Warden Locke wanted was to leave evidence proving that the story backed by Duke Wells, Countess Valentine, and Count Lamb to be a lie. If the video was seen by hidden Wolf loyalists and someone got out and landed in the wrong hands, namely in the hands of factions in conflict with the three...regardless of how unlikely this possibility was, Warden Locke couldn't afford to take the chances. People have been burned for less.

Plus, the guards never thought anyone could not only free themselves in the room but also get rid of the guards. Even if they did, there would be no way the prisoners could make it out the door.

All of these factors came together and made Alexander's plan somewhat possible. Now, all he had to do was get the guards and the Warden to swear their souls to his service.

After making sure all three of his captives were disarmed and their communication devices were stripped from them, Alexander made his way to a counter and retrieved a few blades. He had to admit he wasn't the most comfortable with the thought of torturing others, as weird as it sounded for a Lord of Agony. He was willing to do it, but he definitely didn't enjoy it. It was a means to an end and nothing more.

Alexander first made his way to the guard who had a chance to kill him but didn't do it. He removed the guard's dark helmet, revealing a relatively young face. The guard was older than Alexander, but not by much. Alexander could see the look of fear in the man's eyes as he stole glances at the blades in Alexander's hands.

"I am sorry. Trust me. This is not personal." Alexander whispered before putting the blade to use.