A chilling smile spread on the boy's face. His disfigurement making the smile even more ghastly than it would have otherwise been. "Probably writhing in pain and crying for his father, where I left him," came the calm answer. There wasn't even the slightest hint of emotion as he spoke of what he'd done.
An equally cold smile crossed Zarek's lips. "That boy hates me," He reported with no shift in his emotions. One would have been forgiven for thinking he was talking about a stranger and not his own son. "He would sooner die than call out for me when in pain," He added.
The smile on the boy's face widened, almost as if he'd been expecting this exact answer. "You'd be surprised how honest with themselves people can be when in pain," He replied. "Who do you think a boy that has so desperately been craving his father's love all his life will cry for when driven right to the edge?" His brother's son posed with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Zarek's jaws couldn't help but clench as he was forced to consider the possibility of his son crying for him even as he was tortured. Unconsciously, his hand clenched into a tight fist and his gaze turned murderous as he regarded the one before him. However, given the lack of reaction from the boy before him, either he didn't notice the change in his demeanor, or he just didn't care. "Now, now," Roka spoke up moving his bloody hands in a placating manner. "No need to get angry. I'm not cruel enough to permanently separate a father from their son," In spite of himself, Zarek couldn't help but shudder at the amount of venom that was laced into that statement. "Soon enough, the two of you will be together, writhing in pain as a family," He added in a glacial tone.
A derisive snort left Zarek even as the ground beside him bulged up into a heap before being pushed aside by the gigantic head of the one dark crawler that he'd kept by his side, just in case of anything. He hadn't planned on bringing it out so early in their encounter. However, seeing the look of shock and fear on the boy's face, wiped away any qualms he might have had with it. For a moment, he even considered letting the boy know that there were currently two dark crawlers under him, just to see what expression he would have. He, however, chose to keep that ace hidden. One thing years as a hunter had taught him was to always respect his prey. Overestimating oneself, or underestimating one's prey has on many occasions been the cause of many a hunter's death. "Am I supposed to be scared?" Zarek asked even as he placed his hand on the head of the terrifying monster beside him.
Despite the fear that had momentarily clouded the boy's expression, he quickly regained a determined expression. Zarek could see that this wasn't an attempt to hide the fear he felt. It was the resolve to fight despite it. "Before I send you to explain it to him, I need to hear it myself," Roka spoke up. "Tell me, was my father not kind to you at every possible opportunity?" The boy asked, causing a sharp stab of guilt to strike at Zarek's heart. "Was he not your brother?" Roka continued, piling hot coals on the wound that Zarek had been doing everything to ignore. "Weren't the two of you orphans? Didn't my father take care of you when the two of you had no one else to turn to? What great sin did he commit that you would take his life?" Roka posed. "And what about me?" The boy further pressed. "What wrong did I do you that you would do this to me?" he asked, raising a hand to indicate his disfigured face
A harsh sound that was meant to pass off as laughter escaped the man's lips. "Tell me Roka, how do you plan to send me to explain to my brother?"
"STOP AVOIDING THE QUESTION!"
Roka's shouted reply made him flinch in spite of himself. The boy had clearly seen right through his weak attempt at deflection and was having none of it. There was a long silence between the two of them. A part of Zarek wanted to ignore the boy and avoid the question. A bigger part, however, felt compelled to answer. Not just for the sake of the one before him, but for his own sake. The look of complete shock in his brother's eyes when he realized that his very own brother was to be his killer, had haunted Zarek every time he closed his eyes. Even worse than the pain that he'd been forced to suffer since he first picked the staff up, was the silent 'why?' that had been in his brother's eyes as life left him. Unbeknownst to him, when forced to face and answer for his actions, Zarek said something that would always stick with Greg throughout his journey to the top. "You may never get to understand this Roka," The man spoke with forced calm in his voice. "But power requires sacrifice," He said simply. "It may not be what you want to hear. It may not be satisfactory in your mind, but that is the simple, brutal, and honest truth of the matter," He stated. "I killed my brother, not because he was a bad brother to me, not because he deserved it, but simply because it's what I needed to do to gain even more power," He explained.
The more the man spoke, the calmer he became. It was almost as if a weight had been shed from his back and he had obtained a new clarity in the way he looked at life. As he looked up at Roka, his gaze was no longer cold. Instead, it was just indifferent. Just as there was no need to coldly look at the step in a set of stairs that would help one climb to higher ground, there was no need to coldly look at the boy. He was simply a step on Zarek's journey to the top and nothing more. "It is for that same reason that you will die, Roka," He stated plainly. "Not because I hate you. Not because you have wronged me in any way. But simply because your death will help me gain more power," He calmly declared.
Zarek calmly watched as an almost deranged smile crossed the boy's expression. "You think just you and one worm will be enough to kill me?" he asked reaching behind him and pulling out a dagger. As soon as the dagger came out, Zarek couldn't help but seriously assess it. Mundane as the thing looked, alarm bells had started going off in his head the moment he saw it. It's almost as if, on an instinctual level, he knew that it posed a lethal threat to him. "Bring it on then!" the boy half-growled, half-shouted as he suddenly shot forward.
Zarek's eyes went wide at the speed of the boy. There was no doubt that if the worm at his side hadn't instinctively reacted to the threat to its master, then the boy would have killed him in one move. As soon as the boy took his first step, his whole form disappeared in a blur of speed. The worm beside Zarek, however, shot forward at almost the same instance as the boy had moved and met him in the middle of his charge. The man couldn't help but worry that the dark crawler beside him would kill the boy directly. For his ritual to work, he needed the boy alive. Fortunately for him, the worm seemed to instinctively understand what his master wanted. Owing to this, when its pincers closed, it wasn't around the boy's midsection which would have split the boy in two. Instead, the dark crawler's pincers closed around the boy's knees.
The forward momentum of the boy caused his body to keep on flying forwards despite losing his legs from the knees down. Zarek couldn't help but respect the boy's dedication as he completely ignored the excruciating pain he must have been in and pulled his hand back in midair, ready to stab him at the end of his flight. The man, however, had no plans of giving him the satisfaction. Taking a few quick steps backward, he allowed the boy to fall face down on the ground before him. Pushing up off the ground, the boy turned his dirtied face in his direction. In the boy's eyes was a single-minded desire to kill. Even with his legs cut off, the boy didn't allow himself to utter even a groan in pain. Instead, he just dragged himself forward, his legs leaving behind two trails of blood behind him, as he tried to get to him.
Strong as the boy's desire to kill him was, however, Roka only managed to make it within a meter of him before he collapsed. Having summoned the things using his own flesh, the man was perfectly aware of just how excruciatingly painful the things could be. Despite the boy collapsing and slowly bleeding out, Zarek wasn't willing to approach him. After his introduction to magic, the man knew that Roka didn't necessarily need to strike at a critical point of his body to leave a lethal wound. If the dagger the boy held in hand was enchanted, then perhaps, a nick from it would be all that was needed to do him in. Summoning the dark crawler that had taken the boy's legs, the man had it take off the hand that was holding the knife. With a sickening crunch, the pincers of the dark crawler closed around the elbow of the boy's hand. With the loss of half his arm, the boy finally seemed to break as a cry of agony tore out of the boy's throat.
