*bang*

The large warehouse doors opened and Richard walked into the warehouse without masking his presence.

"Damien! You’re here!"

The moment he appeared, Robert immediately greeted him with a smile moreover, at that moment-

"Damien..."

A light of realization washed over Andrea’s eyes as her clouded sight turned bright.

This did not escape Richard or Robert’s eyes.

The two men reacted immediately and-

*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*

The sound of safety’s being turned echoed in the warehouse, it was an audible metallic clicking sound but the volume which it echoed was unnatural.

Richard was about to make a move but he paused as Robert had his hands around Andrea and the moment the two noticed the chance in the woman- Robert quickly shoved his live gun in the woman’s mouth.

No matter how powerful Richard became, no matter how great his mastery of the mystical arts were-

Andrea’s life could not be saved if Robert decided to pull the trigger.

"Robert..."

"What is Damien? Something is bothering you?"

Robert spoke in a mocking tone as he showed off the fact that the gun was still in Andrea’s mouth.

The eyes of the woman who he loved stared at him, a pleading look could be seen in them, the emotions she held-

Richard could feel it.

But if only he was a bit more perceptive, he’d realize that her pleas were not for life but for him to escape.

Unfortunately, Richard only saw her expression as a plea for rescue and Richard, whose emotions were already in an unstable state, only found stability in the thought of saving his beloved.

"What do you want?"

Richard did not beat around the bush, he did not try to buy time like a main character of some soap opera.

He had pride but compared to the live of Andrea...

"What?"

But his question seemed to baffle Robert who looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"What do you want?!"

Richard raised his voice a bit when repeating his question but Robert reaction to this was-

"Kuha...haha...ha- hahahaha!! Damien Dixon... the man, the myth, the LEGEND! Are you... begging... pleading? Right now?"

Robert’s reaction showed his thoughts, Richard knew him, he understood him and so-

*drop*

Amidst the deranged laughter that echoed from Robert’s mouth, the loud sound of metal hitting the floor echoed as Richard dropped the gun that was hidden under his jacket, he raised both his arms up in surrender and answered-

"Yes"

"..."

Robert stared at Richard in silence, his deranged laughter stopped the moment the gun fell and his thoughts calmed down the moment he saw Richard raised his hands up high in surrender.

The silence was deafening but nothing happened, neither Richard nor Robert spoke until-

"You think I’ll give in?"

Robert broke the silence, his voice echoing with a dark foreboding air.

"Huh?"

Richard did reacted with a bit of shock-

Isn’t this what Robert wanted?

To make him surrender?

If he asked him to kneel-

"Damien... oh Damien! Do you know- HOW MUCH I FUCKING HATE YOUR PISSY FACE?!"

Robert exploded as he dragged Andrea up from her seated position but still keeping the gun in the same position.

But he didn’t just drag her up, he pulled her in front of him as he kept his arms around Andrea and the gun inside her mouth.

Richard had to calm himself, even Ragnar wouldn’t be able to save Andrea in this situation. He had to endure but the pain he endured was not from the shame of being unable to do anything but from the suffering he could see Andrea enduring.

His pain, his suffering, all of it was nothing.

What truly hurt Richard was Andrea’s pain and whether Robert understood it or not, the fact was that the deranged bastard was using that to his advantage.

"Brother, you really are a pussy aren’t you?"

"..."

Richard did not react, he listened quietly, waiting for Robert to give his demands but-

"Do you know? I fucked her brains out the day you planned to propose"

Instead of saying anything, Robert started to narrate his exploits.

"..."

"Whenever you did something amazing, whenever your net worth increased by a certain amount. Darling Andrea here would celebrate with me- right babe?"

He showed a disgusting expression while licking Andrea who continued to look at Richard with the same pleading gaze.

*clench*

Blood dripped down Richard’s raised hands as his clenched fist tightened.

"OOOHHH!!! BLOOD BATH!"

Robert joked as the blood that oozed from Richard’s palms dripped down his hands, some of them dripping directly onto his head.

He was bathing in his own blood and was being made fun of but he didn’t show rage.

Or should he?

Was that what Robert wanted?

The bastard continued to narrate his actions, what he did to Andrea, what he made her watch-

The false show of love he did at the parties he visited with the fake. The public appearances where he kissed a fake Andrea...

Robert showed such videos to Andrea while he assaulted her. He assaulted her whenever Damien Dixon did something amazing, whenever Damien Dixon appeared in the headlines...

Robert’s tale- he framed himself as nothing but an actor, the fault lies in Damien.

It was Damien’s fault that Andrea was assaulted.

If Damien didn’t get an award, if he didn’t increase his networth, if he didn’t succeed- then Andrea wouldn’t have had to suffer.

’Damien’s joy is Andrea’s suffering’

That was the idea that Robert wanted to push, it was the image he wanted to plant inside Richard’s head but Richard... he endured.

"You really..."

Seeing as Richard didn’t even flinch at his words and continued his act, Robert seemed to have lost interest in the whole scenario.

"This isn’t fun..."

"It isn’t, how about we have a deal?"

"A deal?"

Robert answered quickly to the first words that Damien answered him with and he immediately shot back... continuously

"Make a deal with you? For what?! My safety? That you oh great descendant of Merlin would let me go? Would you allow me to live after all I did to your beloved Andrea?"

Richard did not answer immediately, he paused for a moment before answering with great difficulty-

"...yes"

"HAHAHAHAHA! You’re fucking crazy!"

Robert erupted once more, he called Richard out on his bullshit and told him a lot of things that cleared up the mist that covered Richard’s eyes.

"You killed that bitch didn’t you? She would’ve been here by now if you hadn’t... I was planning on dominating that pussy but I guess that’s never gonna happen now"

Robert had a look of calm over his face as he said those words. He paused for a moment as he stared at Andrea before turning back to Richard.

"Damien... you know- I fucking hate people like you"

"You have everything, talent, fate... fuck! I thought I had it all but you? You were the main character! I had money! That’s all! Money from my daddy which would disappear once he dies!"

"WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO ME THEN?!"

"All I am... is an idiot who was born to wealth but... that bitch- she showed me a new world... a magical world- a world where I thought, "wouldn’t I beat Damien if I become a powerful mage?", but you know what that bitch told me?"

"SHE SAID I’LL NEVER EVEN TOUCH YOUR TOES!"

Damien didn’t intervene and let Robert let out his emotions. So long as he didn’t pull the trigger...

"And you know what?! SHE WAS FUCKING RIGHT!"

Robert pulled the gun out of Andrea’s mouth as he pointed it at Richard.

"Look at you, a week ago, you were just some wimp who had billions, I took that all away and now? What are you? Some kinda magical superhero? Doctor fucking St*ng* or something? HA?!"

Robert did not point the gun back at Andrea but the other men made sure to keep their on her.

"Seven years... I SPENT SEVEN FU-CKING! YEARS! To get where I’m at but what could I do? Fucking run 10 miles without rest? Bench 250? The things I achieved- they were achieved by other people already!"

"I SPENT SEVEN YEARS SUFFERING THROUGH MAGICAL EXPERIMENTS AND OTHER CRAP! All I got was a body that was slightly stronger than the AVERAGE MAN!"

His eyes were burning with rage, the gun waving around but still pointed at Richard.

"But you.... Damien, youuu spent one week training with some hermit master who knew your great, great, great, great grand ancestor-daddy and now you have abilities that are better than mine?"

Richard tried to bring some reason back to Robert responding with, "That’s not-"

"Not true?! The bitch you killed could kill me even if I already have my gun pointed at her! She’s unfazed even with the threat of death! Look at you! Look at your face!"

Robert’s points were true, even the gun that he waved posed no threat to Richard.

That was a mistake, maybe if he cowered or flinched...

"But I have one thing over you"

Robert’s voice dropped suddenly and then-

"ROBERT NOOOO!"

*BANG*

*ratatatatatatata*

The movement was quick, sudden and mixed in while he was acting chaotically.

Should Richard have tried to make a move?

No, whether he moved before or after-

The final results would still be the same.

The only thing he could do was-

<I won’t let you>

The voice of the Goddess echoed, Richard’s world slowed down but the will he tried to push out into the world was stuck into his own body.

Instead of salvation- what Richard went through was torture-

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

His mind echoed, time slowed- but only for him as he watched subsonic bullets pierce through Andrea and Robert.

The two were gunned down by Robert’s men the moment Robert pulled the trigger of his gun.

Even if he didn’t point at Andrea, it was likely that the results would be the same.

Robert had no plans to survive, he never planned to intimidate or fight.

From the very beginning, his plan was simple-

Richard stared at the smug look grin that Robert had on his face, his eyes that stared into his soul.

’I win’

Robert seemed to whisper as bullets penetrated his and Andrea’s bodies.

The sight was not pretty, it wasn’t like the movies where red dots appear all over the bodies of those being shot-

No...

The wall of lead tore through the bodies, it was like a repeat of what Richard did to the fake Andrea.

But... the worst part of it all was the fact that Richard could only watch, everything happened slowly and as much as he tried to turn his eyes away-

His body too was frozen, only his thoughts had been accelerated and so, an endless hell.

By the time he came out of the frozen time, only seconds have passed and the two lifeless bodies fell limply on the ground.

Richard fell to his knees, a bad decision as the men didn’t bother to think about their actions.

They pointed their guns at Richard and pulled the trigger.

Some reloaded others didn’t, it didn’t matter as everyone was just firing at Richard wanting to turm him into mince meat.

But the sight of lead tearing through Richard’s body never happened as the wall of lead bounced off the young man as if they were hitting a tank.

Yet, even the large calibre rounds shot from an anti-material rifle bounced off like it was a bb’s.

Still the gunfire did not let up.

Showing their professionalism in dealing with illogical events and individuals, the agents all started to change their weapons.

Some loaded special bullets, others started to lob grenades.

But the special bullets didn’t do crap.

Though the grenades-

*shift*

Richard vanished suddenly as he caught all the grenades, the man holding an AK that was standing behind Robert reacted immediately but he was still too late.

The grenade was in Richard’s hands, the young man did not really hold the pin or anything. He held it liike normal but the grenade appeared like a dud but-

*SHOVE*

Richard grabbed the man by his collar and lifted him up before shoving the grenade into his mouth.

Emotionless, his expression lacked any emotion whatsoever as he stared at the panicked man.

When Richard saw the man’s eyes beg for mercy, he let go- not of the man’s collar but of the spell he placed on the grenade-

*BOOM*

The grenade exploded like an air burst bullet, the force was directed towards a certain direction-

Richard was unaffected, despite his palm touching the grenade, the force and shrapnel all exploded towards the direction where his palm was facing.

The man’s head exploded cleanly, a decapitation, his neck did not spew blood as the heat and pressure completely cauterized the flesh.

*THUD*

Richard dropped the man’s body on the ground as the gunfire went silent.

He didn’t move towards the other agent who was already on his ass pissing his pants. Instead, Richard slowly walked towards the corpses of Robert and Andrea.

*crack* *squish* *splatter*

Unceremoniously, he walked over the corpse of Robert as he gently picked up Andrea’s corpse.

<You can’t bring her back>

"Isn’t necromancy possible? Didn’t you say that Cindy would turn me into a zombie if I died? Then why-"

<Did you make a pact with her?>

"..."

<Our pact is what allows Cindy to bring you back, Andrea... unfortunately, her soul is->

Before the Goddess could finish her words, Richard already stood up, he laid Andrea’s corpse on a "clean spot". Covered her body in a magical barrier and turned towards the agents who worked for Richard.

<...>

The Goddess stayed silent, she was not going to let Richard self-destruct but his rage had to be quelled.

"They’ll pay"

With those words, Richard made his move and the horror of a man struck by grief echoed through the cries of the agents who had to bear the brunt of his rage.