Chapter 29: Rage at its finest (REVAMPED)

When the call first came through, Jay's demeanor shifted almost imperceptibly, but it was enough for MJ to notice. Through their soul connection, MJ sensed the growing tension and quickly asked for permission to trace the call.

In that moment, Jay realized something profound—MJ wasn't an entity just manages his║STATUS║or relay System data. He was a highly advanced A.I, fully capable of much more than just assistance. With a quick, subtle nod, Jay granted permission.

Within seconds, MJ worked with the precision of thousands of high-end computers. He had already locked onto the location of the call, efficiently providing the crucial information. Jay, however, had to control the storm of emotions rising inside him.

His brother's cries of agony echoed in his mind, but he couldn't afford to act recklessly. Rage-driven threats or warnings would only escalate the situation, and Jay knew that the captors would take pleasure in further torturing Kay if provoked.

Taking a deep breath, Jay steadied himself. His mind worked to suppress the bubbling fury as he opted for a calculated approach. His voice came out cold and measured, masking the rage boiling beneath the surface.

"What do you want?" he asked, his words chosen carefully to avoid provoking them.

The response came quickly, dripping with malice. The man on the other end of the call was unfazed by Jay's calm demeanor.

"Bring the evidence your brother collected on 'Quadnite' Corporation to the address, 'xxxxxxxx,' within two hours. If you don't... fingernails will be the least of what he loses." The line cut off abruptly, leaving a chilling silence behind.

Then MJ's voice cut through the quiet, "Master, the location where they're holding your brother and the place they've asked you to deliver the evidence are entirely different. It appears they never intended to let him live."

A cold sneer crept across Jay's face, the calm façade cracking to reveal something far more dangerous. His eyes narrowed, and his voice, filled with chilling resolve, cut through the silence: "None of them will survive the day..."

The fury that once threatened to overwhelm him had solidified into a deadly, focused rage. He wasn't just going to rescue his brother—he would make sure every last one of them paid with their lives. They would all regret ever laying a hand on Kay.

***********

Kay had been restless since the moment he received his elder brother Jay's urgent voice message, sent late in the dead of night. Something about the tone had unsettled him. He tried calling Jay immediately, but every attempt went straight to voicemail.

Each unanswered call only heightened the tension in his chest. Knowing his brother well, Kay couldn't shake the sense of urgency, so he decided to head to Jay's house without wasting any more time.

Jay, being a high-end MMA trainer, often trained in locations far from the city center. His high profile client, preferred the outskirts, a quieter area ideal for intense training sessions. As a result, Jay lived on the edge of the city—close enough to his client's mansion, but far from the family home.

It was a long drive, but Kay didn't care about the distance. Worry gnawed at him, and there was no time to call for his security guard. He got in his car and drove straight towards Jay's place, hoping to find some answers.

However, before he reached his destination, everything went wrong. Kay was ambushed and captured by a Criminal Syndicate infamous in their city. That particular syndicate was notorious for its brutal initiation: killing ten people to earn a place among them, and Kay had fallen right into their hands.

For six grueling hours, Kay endured a barrage of torturous methods. They waterboarded him, electrocuted him, and subjected him to various forms of agony that left him gasping for air. The beatings came in waves, as different men took turns pummeling him until his body was soaked in his own blood. Still, despite the pain and suffering, Kay refused to tell them what they wanted to know.

Their goal was simple: they wanted to know where the evidence against the Quadnite Corporation was stored. But Kay held firm. He had no intention of giving away the only hope for reviving their Enterprise.

That only pushed the syndicate further. When the beatings and electrocutions didn't break him, they escalated their cruelty. One by one, they began removing his fingernails, waiting 15 agonizing minutes between each one, savoring his pain. Every time he neared the brink of unconsciousness, they shocked him back to life, forcing him to endure the agony without respite.

Kay's body was battered, but his will hasn't broken. Despite the torment, he remained resolute. When they realized that no amount of torture would loosen his tongue, the leader of the criminal syndicate made a final move. Taking Kay's phone, he dialed Jay's number, his malicious intent clear in every action.

Even as the pain surged through him, Kay's thoughts drifted to his brother. Since childhood, he and Jay had always admired their grandfather's unwavering vision of helping those in need and showing kindness to others.

Their grandfather had built their family's Social Enterprise on those values, dedicating his life to uplifting the less fortunate. Both brothers grew up idolizing him, believing that compassion and generosity could change the world.

But everything changed when the conspiracy against their Social Enterprise unfolded. Those same people who had once benefited from their grandfather's kindness never showed up in court. They remained silent, abandoning the very man who had saved them when their testimonies were most needed.

That betrayal shattered something inside Jay. He lost his faith in others, his compassion turning cold. The world, once full of potential and goodness, became something far more ruthless in his eyes.

As their family's enterprise crumbled, shrinking into a small, insignificant business, friends and relatives distanced themselves. In their darkest moments, the people they thought they could rely on vanished.

Even the girl Jay had loved left him, the relationship ending with the cruel reality that they were no longer rich. Each betrayal deepened the scar within Jay, and his outlook on the world worsened.

From that point on, Jay stopped attaching himself to any one outside his family. For six long years since the conspiracy, he hadn't made a single new friend, and he trusted no one beyond his family and their childhood friend, Rownak. His circle became impossibly small, and while he remained calm and rational in most things, a lingering bitterness colored his perspective on the world.

In the six years since the conspiracy, Jay hadn't forged a single new friendship, isolating himself from the world. His trust extended only to his family and their childhood friend, Rownak.

The betrayal they endured had hardened him, and though he maintained a calm and rational demeanor in most situations, an unshakable bitterness had settled deep within him, tainting his view of the world. Jay's once open and warm outlook had shrunk to an impossibly small circle, one in which trust was a rare commodity, and attachment beyond that circle seemed both dangerous and pointless.

As Kay sat in the dark, bruised and battered by the Criminal Syndicate, a small part of him hoped Jay wouldn't answer the call. He knew his brother far too well. Over the years, Jay had honed his martial skills to perfection, his muscle memory almost superhuman.

But when it came to family—especially Kay and their sister, Qew—Jay's rationality had a tendency to slip. His protective instincts would flare dangerously, blurring the lines between right and wrong.

The calm, measured side of Jay that normally assess a situation with careful clarity vanishes in the face of their family's suffering. In its place emerged a man who would cross any line, shatter any boundary, to protect them.

Kay's body throbbed with pain after hours of relentless torture, but his thoughts remained on Jay. He wanted nothing more than to be rescued, but he also knew that hearing his suffering could push Jay to act recklessly, disregarding his own life.

When the call connected, the leader of the Syndicate made sure Jay could hear every bit of Kay's agony. With deliberate cruelty, the man has his underling plucked off another fingernail, ensuring his brother's pain echoed through the phone.

As the conversation ended, the leader sent three men to intercept Jay and retrieve the supposed evidence. Their orders were clear: kill Jay. But Kay knew better. The Syndicate had made two fatal mistakes. The first was underestimating Jay by sending only three men, as if that would be enough to stop him. The second, and far more devastating, was letting Jay hear the torture inflicted on him.

Kay's mind raced with fear as he lay bound in the dark, battered and bruised. Though he knew his brother's capabilities well, worry gnawed at him. The Criminal Syndicate was no ordinary threat—there were too many of them, armed to the teeth with guns and explosives.

Even Jay, with all his mastery of martial arts, couldn't take them all on at once. Kay feared for his brother's life, knowing that sheer numbers and firepower could overwhelm even the most skilled fighter.

Time crawled painfully slow, and after what felt like an eternity—the silence broke. Distant, muffled screams filled the air, followed by the unmistakable sound of gunshots, echoing through the halls. The deep thud of explosions rattled the walls, and Kay's heart pounded. 'Something was happening. Something big.'

The leader of the Syndicate, unnerved, grabbed his radio and frantically tried to contact his men guarding the hidden headquarters. Static crackled before a voice, high-pitched with terror, shrieked through the radio: "Mo… Monster!... Monster!... A monster is att... attacking us!"

Then, silence. The transmission cut out, but the eerie screams of agony continued to rise and fall, echoing down the corridors as if those outside were being subjected to a nightmare far worse than anything Kay had endured.

The room grew tense. Fear spread like a virus, infecting everyone present. There were six Syndicate members in the torture room with Kay, including the leader and his top henchmen. Their faces were pale, eyes wide with dread.

The second-in-command, shaking himself from the shock, bolted towards the heavy metallic door at the far end of the room, a vault-like barrier designed to withstand any assault. He locked it, sealing them inside. For a brief moment, the thick steel seemed like protection against whatever horror lurked outside.

Then, the first deafening clank hit the door, sending a ripple of panic through the Syndicate members. Four more powerful metallic strikes followed, each one cracking the steel further. The door, once impenetrable, split open under the relentless force.

As the final piece of metal groaned and fell away, every gun in the room turned toward the gaping entrance. The Syndicate members stood frozen, trembling, their weapons shaking in their hands. They fired aimlessly, but the sound of gunfire was drowned by their own growing fear.

Through the haze of smoke and panic, a figure emerged from the darkness. His silhouette was sharp, menacing. He wore black chest armor adorned with a blazing golden sun in its center. In one hand, he held a blood-soaked long sword, the blade still dripping with fresh carnage. His face, though almost entirely covered in blood, was unmistakable to Kay. It was his elder brother, Jay.

Kay's mind reeled as he watched the scene unfold. The six Underground Syndicate members, their fear momentarily forgotten, unleashed a hail of bullets toward Jay. But none reached him. In an almost surreal display of skill, Jay's silver-grey sword moved as if it had a will of its own, spinning rapidly through the air and deflecting every shot with blinding speed. Sparks flew, but Jay didn't flinch. He didn't even glance at his attackers.

His eyes, cold and fierce, were locked onto Kay's bruised and bloodied body. The rage in Jay's gaze was so intense that it seemed to shake the very room. But then, something strange happened. As if some unseen force intervened, Jay's rage seemed to suddenly dampen, suppressed by something Kay couldn't quite understand. A flash of confusion crossed Kay's mind, but it quickly gave way to shock as silver bolts, like coursing electricity, crackled across Jay's body.

A moment later, a cloud of steam burst from Jay with a loud boom, spreading across the room. The spinning sword's speed scattered the steam in an instant, revealing Jay's transformed figure. His hair, once black, had turned a shimmering silver, matching the new color of his eyes.

His muscles bulged, and his entire frame seemed larger, more imposing. Jay stood at least five inches taller than his usual height of six feet, his body exuding raw power.

An oppressive aura emanated from him, heavy and suffocating. The Syndicate members, who moments ago had been shooting with desperation, collapsed to their knees, their bodies trembling under the weight of the overwhelming pressure.

None of them could move, paralyzed in Jay's presence. Yet, to Kay's surprise, he felt nothing—no weight, no fear. It was as if the oppressive force excluded him entirely.

Jay strode forward, his gaze never leaving Kay. With a simple signal, the silver longsword returned to Jay's hand, hovering for a moment before landing in his grip. Its blade glowed with a cyan-colored plasma-like energy, humming with deadly intent.

Without hesitation, Jay swung the sword, and the metallic locks that bound Kay to the electrocuting chair were sliced apart as effortlessly as cutting through paper.

Kay's body, weak and shaking from the hours of torture, sagged in relief as the restraints fell away. Jay knelt beside him and retrieved a small bottle filled with a bright, golden liquid that resembled honey.

Before he could administer it, a strange, almost comical sight appeared—a chubby one-year-old baby, with features that looked eerily similar to Jay's younger self, popped out of nowhere. The baby's presence felt surreal in the midst of the chaos, but his voice was serious, offering a stern warning.

"Master, only give him a single drop," the baby advised, "His body's constitution is too weak to handle the vitality force of the Sap of High Vitality Fruit."

Kay blinked, barely comprehending what he was seeing, but the exhaustion and relief kept him from questioning it. Jay, however, nodded in understanding.

Jay carefully poured a single drop of the golden liquid into Kay's mouth. Instantly, a surge of warmth spread through his body like a soothing wave, washing away the pain that had plagued him for hours.

The cuts and bruises covering his skin began to heal, as if a week of medical recovery had passed in mere moments. Though Jay's silver eyes appeared cold and emotionless, Kay could sense the deep concern lurking behind them, a silent promise of protection.

The chubby baby, still floating beside Jay, once again addressed him as "Master" and added calmly, "You can give him another drop in an hour. He'll be fully recovered in about five hours." Despite the baby's strange appearance, its words carried strange authenticity that reassured Kay.

As the warmth from the 'Sap of High Vitality Fruit' lulled Kay toward sleep, his brother's voice cut through the room. "Kay, rest well. I will make those who tortured you regret their very existence." The cold certainty in Jay's tone left no room for doubt.

The exhaustion finally overcame him, and Kay slipped into peaceful slumber, his body free from the agonizing pain he had endured for so long. As sleep claimed him, the tortured shrieks of his captors began to echo through the vault room, a dark symphony of retribution.

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Author Note:

I'm thrilled to share that I'm taking a big leap forward! Alongside Earth's Alpha Prime, I've launched the first sub-book for EAP.

ALTER REALITY: Online (Full-Dive VR LITRPG)

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