Daredevil

As he [Timothy] entered the overly sized chamber, he unexpectedly shut down like a computer, fixed, inflexible, and immobile like a sturdy and hefty rock.

The scene before him played like a videotape. He needed to process everything he spotted in that second. His pupils rounded like a pixel, and he nearly failed to breathe. They fluttered in shock and refused to believe what his eyes displayed.

Aurora's body had been smoking and oozing with blood. There were gestures of electrocution over her whole body. And in the distance, she seemed paralyzed, suffering from what must've been a dreadful nightmare; torture. She was scarcely aware. In fact, she couldn't even witness Timothy standing in front of her.

She gradually made hushed sounds of stuttering words and couldn't form a single sentence. She slobbered from her jaws due to the intense misery she went through. Her eyes looked bathed in cold tears, and Timothy could only presume her anguish within his senses, noiseless and misplaced in reflections.

"H-help..." Aurora's voice could hardly get heard, and it was as weak as ants and silent as a mouse. The words she spoke felt as if they came from her suffocating throat. To everyone's astonishment, Torque appeared floored for the first time ever.

Then Erembour laughed as he welcomed them with open arms "Oh, as usual, the timing is excellent. You just arrived on time to witness this girl depart from this world. Make yourselves at home, please. You don't understand how wonderful it is to meet you in person after such a prolonged time, Torque, Timothy. You're free to explore and are welcome to my quarters. Indeed, this is perfect."

"I understood you were a psychopath, but I definitely didn't anticipate you to torment a vulnerable girl in such a heartless method. You're too obsessed with this "virtual world" and do what your idiotic father couldn't." Torque held her hip in vexation and frustration, bearing Timothy's side.

"You demon! You practically killed her! Don't you feel any sympathy?!" Tarot shouted, feeling nothing but contempt toward Erembour, who appeared accompanied by Candel, supervising in the corner silently.

He answered with a creepy smile filled with undue assurance that no one managed to comprehend or abide. "Do you know what I enjoy the most about people like you? Their emotions of dismay, disdain, and bitterness toward a "warden" like me. And you're one of those people I plan to value deep within my soul."

He circled their frontal view, unconcerned about their presence, "And I haven't even killed the girl yet. I was lingering, waiting for you to come by and catch it with your own eyes. And now that you're here, we can initiate the trial." He lifted his hand in the air, demonstrating the stimulant in his palm, "I invented the lethal venom, so the world can finally destroy those futile gods. And while this girl doesn't possess any exceptional abilities or power, she's the perfect subject to test it on. The soul that began Dr. Ashura's ordeals will now conclude them."

Timothy's arms sagged before his knees as his torso sloped forward. "Touch her... and you die..." With his resonant yet soft-spoken voice, he drew Erembour's sight onto him, "What's wrong, kiddo? Are you upset?"

Timothy neglected him, "I warned you... do not touch her." Erembour observed Timothy's fists virtually brushing the glassy foundation, spotting his eyes widely open and his pupils shrinking. "Aside from your threats to kill me. Why would I not roll onward?" Timothy pointed his finger behind Erembour, "Because... she's already dead." His statement dragged everyone's peers onto Aurora.

And the truth revealed itself.

Aurora didn't breathe, and her heartbeat didn't race. She died eye-opened, broad and lifeless stare glimpsing Timothy's face. "What?! She can't! Hey! Wake up, you slut! Wake up now! This is not how it was supposed to go! You were supposed to live for another few minutes, so I can use this venom and see my success!" He clutched Aurora's lifeless body and started shaking it, "Wake up! Wake up now!"

However, blood unexpectedly gushed like a geyser or a flood of water, splashing the walls. As he watched his left arm being destroyed and ripped into a tangle of blood, Erembour's eyes grew wide with amazement and terror. He shivered in his boots and cried out, "My arm!?!" as he gripped his femur. He noticed a bizarre, shadowy energy sputtering through the area like wildfire.

"What did you do!?" Erembour roared, clasping his arm in horrible pain. Timothy's sinister pose and grave yet frightening expression jabbed at him like a flying polearm — soaring through the current at the speed of sound, trying to pierce the target like a dart, getting stuck in an unbendable board.

"I said... don't touch her." The perceptible face of a specter mirrored inside his blackened pupils. The dim and ominous ambiance wafted around him in mystery, trailing from his inner self into the open like a somnolent critter rousing up in the middle of the winter, lusting for fresh flesh and blood.

He gradually began approaching Erembour like the undead, permitting the fiend to perceive his intentions. "Don't come any closer! I won't hesitate to act!" he feared, backing away from Timothy's ghoulish stare.

"Hate among the wind mourns as much as devotion. It'll hide in the glooms, still and silent, only to perform the climax upon a desired mark. It'll shatter the barrier of emotions, divesting from oneself like an enigma of the missing burden. It'll flare like fire and form into a cloud of smoke — the cloud, crying above you like a halo of the divine rule. It'll take possession of you and drive you to slay..."

With every remark he made, Timothy obliterated one of Erembour's limbs with a single glimpse. From exploding his both arms, forcing Erembour to accept his faith, he terrified him and pushed him against the wall. "Y-You can't kill me! I'm the god of this world! You're only a peasant!" Timothy didn't stop nearing him, "I devoted myself to not exterminating anyone, but if somebody kills a vulnerable, powerless, and sick person — a friend — I'll break *that* promise."

"You call yourself a "god" yet you loathe them for their "rotten" remedy of the human race. Those words are errors and gags you consider will last for an eternity. People like you are the reason why the gods "hate" us." Timothy clutched Erembour's neck, raised him in the air, and shoved him against the wall intensely, looking up into his terrified eyes. "Your consciousness is the same as ours. The "deity" or not of this world cannot slaughter people without torment or poison, but *they* are as vulnerable as everyone else inside this dimension. Your body is somewhere in the overworld, hidden far away for anyone to find you, and it's correlated to your "virtual" body inside your own game. The pain you feel — and the torn limbs — affect the real world. So does my hand suffocating you."

"And it's about time I put you down and let the inner demons devour you whole. I will never forgive you... I will never forget you... I will tear you from limb to limb and give you what you deserve." Timothy pulled his right arm behind his rear, forming oddly shaped claws assembled from the darkness around him, "But first, I'll remove your cemented heart!"

He prepared to deal the final blow, but Chiaki's voice yelled from behind, "Tim! Aurora! She's alive!" In that instant, Timothy's eyes opened wide, turning back to blue, and feeling hot sweat pouring down his brow.

He became muted...

To be continued...