266 Life or Death and You Have a Chance to Live if You Kill the Devil

Vincent Fortunato is a miserable old man...

His throat was dry, even though he had just enjoyed a good glass of wine.

His legs were weak, even though at his age he kept to a strict training regimen.

His heart was racing so fast that he wouldn't be surprised if he had a heart attack at any moment.

He is a smart man, otherwise he would not be where he is. His mind had gotten him out of seemingly hopeless situations many times in his life, especially in his youth. But now he couldn't think of anything that could save him.

*Vincent's POV*.

WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!

Of all the people in the world, why did it have to be you who became her fiancé?

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!!

MY ENTIRE EMPIRE WILL BE DESTROYED!

I've been meticulous in every step I've taken, extremely cautious even when I had hundreds of cops on my payroll and several friends in the government. I never let my guard down.

I never killed on my property, never committed crimes where I could be seen always had a backup plan, always had an alibi.

This building is mine! Everyone in this building belongs to me! Although each of my subordinates is loyal to me, I have ways to threaten them if necessary. Although I have had several veteran subordinates for two decades, but I have never fully trusted them.

WHY?! WHY ARE YOU HERE, ALLEN WALKER?!!

When Ididn't answer, he grabbed my head and forced me to look at him. I felt chills, he only needed to tighten his grip slightly and my head would turn to pulp. That's how fragile I am in his eyes, how fragile almost everyone in the world must be.

"I told you to say that to me again..." he said in a serious tone, no insults needed, but it was chilling enough to make my hair stand on end.

I WOULDN'T DARE, YOU DAMNED MONSTER!

What am I going to do? What do I say to not get killed?!... No, that's impossible...

I just kidnapped Allen Walker... I just threatened Allen Walker... I just mocked and despised Allen Walker to his face!

I... I... TRIED TO STEAL HIS WOMAN?!... What the hell!... I'm dead... no, worse than that... if he wanted to kill me, he would have done it already; he wants to make me suffer.

I'd prefer a bullet in the head if it would end this quickly... I've seen what he's done to the villains of Arkham; I'll be thrown into hell like the guy called Scarecrow, or locked in a perpetual nightmare for eternity, tortured mercilessly.

DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT! WHY OF ALL PEOPLE DID YOU HAVE TO SEDUCE THIS THING, TEARJU-!

"Don't ignore me, old shit..." his impatient words were followed by the sound of something breaking.

*Crack*

"Urgh!!"

I felt something snap in my head, very lightly, almost imperceptibly, but I felt it.

He squeezed his fingers and my skull cracked, but he was careful, he did it in a way that I could feel it without causing a fatal rupture.

His scarlet eyes stared at me, his face shadowed, could he read my thoughts?! Or is he just holding back from killing me right now?

I'm fucked...

No! I'm Vincent Fortunato; I won't go down without a fight! For now, I'll buy time! I'll buy as much time as I can; I don't care if I end up in jail if it means I can save myself from whatever he has planned for me!

*End of POV*.

Fear, he couldn't be more afraid. Fear, despair, melancholy, regret, anger, helplessness - all the negative emotions Fortunato had instilled in others throughout his life were swirling around him in a wave of psychological torment, the irony, the karma.

In the river, in the cemeteries, there must be hundreds or thousands of corpses rejoicing at this moment, Vincent had kicked a concrete wall.

...

Allen had not yet killed him. Vincent mistakenly believed that this meant that he had a small hope to live, unfortunately, this was not the case.

The whole conversation to the end was not to understand Vincent Fortunato, it was to make up Allen's mind, if Allen felt the slightest bit of empathy, pity, or compassion for this man, though he would not forgive him, maybe he would be more lenient, but Vincent Fortunato proved to be what Allen had already expected, a piece of shit from start to finish, without the slightest qualms when it came to executing someone.

Vincent regained some of his ability to think, unaware that Allen had already decided his fate...

*Bang*

Vincent's face froze just as he was about to speak, using all the guile and cunning he had ever had in his life to gain a few more moments of life, one of his subordinates shot Allen.

This was normal, run, freeze, or fight, for the most part, everyone was paralyzed with terror, but the survival instinct of one of the gangsters overcame his reason and forced him to shoot.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Vincent shouted but it was too late, people have something called mirror neurons that make them copy the actions of others in certain situations, like yawning when they see someone yawn. That is why what started with a single bullet was followed by a hail of point-blank shots at Allen from multiple directions.

No one was thinking, they were simply acting on an unconscious impulse, relying on what they had to survive. But that was no excuse, they fired with the intent to kill Allen.

Vincent tried to stop it, but it was too late, a gangster pulled him by the arm.

"We have to get out of here, Don Fortunato!"

"Shut up you killed me!!"

Vincent wanted to slit their throats, but none of that would change his situation. He was dead, there was no escape.

...

[That 2B becomes more emotional was inevitable, although the stoic 2B has her charm, I don't dislike seeing her smile ;3].



...

Amid a storm of bullets and smoke, Allen fell silent, the infinite left all the bullets suspended in the air.

"Master, there's no need to get your hands dirty..." 2B said with a cold tone over Allen's left shoulder. "If you allow me, I'll finish them off."

"She's right, I can handle this, Allen" Artoria added, standing on his right shoulder, her tone soft as she tried to prevent Allen from forcing anything in this situation.

[Host, I can handle this, too]

Even Allen's innocence reacted; it had been dormant for a long time, though it felt more like it was developing. After all, all Allen knows about her is that she reacts to his thoughts, changes when necessary, adapts to his soul and takes the form of his desires.

For a long time, the innocence has not had such a response and has shown strange behavior; is it a human invention or truly a gift from God? The only certain thing is that Innocence has abandoned its original purpose of continuing or finding Allen and protecting him.

The innocence is an external element, the only power Allen would have if he had never known his system.

Allen closed his eyes as he controlled his emotions, but he didn't erase his anger; it was impossible. Of all the things that could make him angry, not just annoyed like when he argued with his chat, but angry, and needless to say, Vincent Fortunato had done just that.

...

"I'll give you a chance..."

Vincent heard Allen's words as he ran down the hallway, the gangsters with desperate looks heard him too, the whole building could hear him.

"No cursed energy... no magic... no ki... no haki... no breaking limiters... no demonic power..."

Fortunato reached the elevator and quickly called it as his guards brought military-grade automatic weapons and even a rocket launcher.

"No infinity... no cursed medallion... no fruit powers... no techniques or skills... no save point..."

Fortunato hit the elevator button desperately as his whole body lost blood.

"I'll even limit my strength, endurance, speed, and basic reflexes to a millionth..."

Vincent opened the elevator and entered with two "bodyguards" while five others protected the elevator.

"In exchange for all this... I won't hold back..."

Damn!!!' Vincent couldn't help but shudder at Allen's statement, there was no doubt in his mind that he was a monster in every way. At this point he didn't even care about keeping up appearances, he was running away miserably in dirty, pissed pants with wine stains and a terrified look on his face.

You can blame him... many people prefer to live in ignorance, they don't want to know that their neighbor is a would-be murderer, or that the lady downstairs is a drug dealer. People usually choose to know as little as possible so they can live their lives without the paranoia of knowing too much. But Vincent was different, he knew everything about Allen Walker, he needed to know so he would never bother him.

But why? Because he had to live in New York, because out of ten million women he had to choose Tearju Lunatique, no, Vincent was fully aware of why, and also of Allen's reputation as a womanizer, it was quite possible that this would happen. Had Vincent not been so blinded by Tearju's beauty and so hypnotized by her, he would have thought of this possibility.

"Then they won't be able to complain that it's unfair..." Allen declared before closing his eyes.

While Vincent's head was about to explode in the elevator, Allen's last words came as a fatal and irrevocable sentence.

Vincent could no longer appeal to Allen's good heart, at this moment he was no savior, he was a monster with the sole intention of making him feel desperate.

Allen kept his word and his powers began to fade. This was not done to humiliate Vincent, this was the last ounce of decency he would show them, not because they deserved it, but for the sake of Allen's conscience.

As his powers waned, physical changes were evident in Allen's eyes, which returned to their natural hue.

Bullets that had been suspended in the air by the infinity began to fall to the ground. The new bullets that had just arrived were able to advance until they almost reached Allen.

Time slowed down as Allen's eyes opened with a calm expression, although he was still angry underneath, but once he decided on his actions, there was no need to think, only to act.

At this moment, even bullets can make Allen bleed, Allen is not invincible, does this mean that there is a chance that he will be killed?

No!

Allen stamped his foot on the ground, it didn't seem to be too powerful, but it made the whole place tremble, shattering the ground, even the gangsters lost their balance and stopped shooting for a moment.

"Now..."

Allen picked up one of the pieces of debris that flew into the air with his stomp and struck it with his finger, piercing one of the gangsters in one of his lungs, and staining the wall behind with his blood.

The gangsters were in shock, they watched as this happened, after knowing the identity of who was in front of them, they acted without thinking, but this moment of pause gave them a chance to understand what they had done.

"No... I don't want to die!"

One of the gangsters dropped his gun and ran, Allen appeared behind him, grabbed him by the head, and slammed him into a door, shattering it instantly.

"You should have thought of that a long time ago...it's too late now," Allen said, releasing the man who fell silently to the ground, blood pouring from his head.

Both men were dead...who knows.

Allen didn't want to kill them specifically, but at this point, he didn't care if they died or not, that would depend on the luck of each of them. But that's okay, Allen is "weak" at this point and they did not want to caress him with the rain of bullets, but to kill him so they must take the consequences of their actions.

Allen walked out the door, leaving a dozen gangsters in the room.

"Artoria... 2B... do what you want."

"Thank you, master."

A silver-haired beauty appeared in a short gothic-style dress, carrying a large katana, but the amount of pent-up anger in her was evident despite her expressionless gaze.

"..."

A peerless beauty wrapped in golden ashes appeared next to the gothic beauty, she was noble, wearing armor with a red robe worthy of royalty. She wore a crown on her golden hair that suited her very well.

"They didn't think they could threaten someone's loved ones without consequences..." Artoria said coldly, "I have no mercy for you."

Artoria glared at the gangsters. She drew her sword without hesitation as a great oppression appeared on their shoulders. Gentleman's code? honor? it didn't matter to her at the moment.

"I don't think you know what you've done... and I have no intention of explaining..." Artoria said as her last words to them.

"YoRHa Model Two Type B, 2B, from now on and forever YoRHa declares you enemies!" 2B's explanation was simple, she did not see them as humans, but as targets.

The value of humanity... the original orders and purposes of the YoRHa... were irrelevant to her at this point, she could not see the value in humans like them, but most of all she did not know that so much dislike, hatred, anger, disgust and murderous intentions could be felt for someone.

...

Allen turned down the hallway as pitiful screams and cries of terror, punctuated by gunshots, rang out from the room she had left behind.

Allen saw the elevator at the end of the hallway, bullets began to rain down, but he ignored them and pushed forward, destroying the floor beneath him.

The gangsters fired desperately but it was as if Allen had bullet repellent and none of them hit him, of course, that's a lie, Allen was slower at this point but even being so slow he was still faster than the bullets.

One of the gangsters aimed the rocket at Allen, preferably they didn't want to use it here, but it didn't matter if the building was damaged.

"DIE!!!" 

Accompanied by a scream of fear, the missile was fired, Allen waiting for the last moment to grab the missile from the back and redirect it.

The gangsters watched in horror as a flash of light preceded an explosion.

From the first floor of the parking lot, Vincent could hear the explosion, but he didn't care and got into his car.

"Where are we going, Don Fortunato?!"

Fortunato held his head not knowing what to answer, it was only natural, where would they escape to...is there any place on earth that would allow them to be safe?!!!

"Just drive!!!" the co-pilot scolded his companion, Allen fell into the elevator bucket and didn't care, when he saw the elevator going up, he didn't mind and he went through it.

Allen arrived at the parking lot only to see that Fortunato had already escaped. Two pickup trucks turned on their lights and rammed Allen. The drivers wanted to stop him there.

Allen took a few steps to the side, and as the first truck passed him, he reached through the glass, grabbed the driver, and pulled him out of the vehicle that had crashed into another.

The second truck came at Allen, not caring that his companions were being held by Allen. 

Allen threw the man he was holding through the windshield of the second vehicle, which lost control and crashed into a pole.

...

"Take me to the quack!" shouted Fortunato.

The Mafiosi had their doctors, who they would ask to see them without fear of being found. He had a plan, it was a desperate plan, but he had to do it, Vincent Fortunato had to disappear from the face of the earth, he would go to a clandestine doctor for a facial reconstruction.

The plan was the best he could think of, Fortunato could not imagine a scenario where he would survive in this world after committing such a great offense against Allen Walker.

"You're not going anywhere..."

Allen fell from the sky in front of Vincent's vehicle, the driver decided to speed up and run him over, he would never think of something like that unless Allen stated that he had diminished his powers.

However, they were ignoring something... 

Allen Walker fought between stars and space, Allen Walker faced destroyers of worlds, killers of realities, and inevitable apocalypses.

Even without skill or power...

They are not qualified to be his opponents!

Allen clenched his fist and met the impact with a blow that buried the body of the vehicle in the ground.

"So... where were we, Vincent?"

===

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