NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51: Vex (1)
The man on the ground glared up at Vex, a silent defiance burning in his pain-glazed eyes.
He clenched his jaw, refusing to give the satisfaction of a reply.
A low, guttural sound was the only thing that escaped his lips, a mixture of agony and sheer hatred.
Vex, who seemed like he wasn't expecting a reply anyway, simply tilted his head.
"I am quite curious," Vex began, his voice low, and calm. "Why did Aegis give something so important to an infant?"
The insult was delivered without malice, as a simple statement of fact.
To a man of Vex's power, this branch and the man in front of him were indeed children playing with forces they could not comprehend.
The man still didn't reply, his face a rigid mask of stoic suffering.
He would not betray his organization.
He would not justify himself to this monster.
Vex sighed, a soft exhalation that spoke of immense boredom.
"It seems you are not willing to talk," he observed. "But don't worry, I have the perfect way to make you interested in the discussion."
He took a step forward, his polished shoe clicking against the floor.
The man instinctively shifted backwards, dragging his broken body across the floor.
It was a pitiful sight, a desperate, crablike scramble.
There was a huge difference between them.
Vex was perfectly fine, his movements fluid and controlled, while the man was broken and practically crawling, making it impossible to escape.
Each pathetic scrape only emphasized his utter helplessness.
Vex soon reached him, looming like a thundercloud.
The man stopped shifting, his energy spent.
All he could do was glare up, his breath coming in ragged, painful hitches.
"Your pride is commendable, but..." Vex's words hung in the air for a moment.
Then, with a movement so casual it was chilling, he raised his foot.
He didn't stomp or kick. He simply stepped on the man's already injured leg, applying his weight with a calm, inexorable pressure.
The action itself was almost gentle, but the result was catastrophic.
The ground itself seemed to shake when his foot met the man's leg.
There was a wet, splintering 'crunch' that sounded sharply.
The man's leg broke anew, the bone yielding completely.
A raw, primal scream tore from his throat, a sound of pure, unadulterated agony that seemed to suck all other sound around.
Vex looked down, his expression unchanged.
"... Pride without strength, is stupidity."
The lesson was delivered with the cold finality of a judge passing a sentence.
The man continued screaming, the sound devolving into choked sobs.
Vex was just looking at him plainly, like this was a normal sight he has seen many times.
Which he had. The suffering of lesser beings was as mundane to him as the ticking of his pocket watch.
"Now I would ask again," Vex continued, his voice still that same, infuriatingly calm monotone. "Why did Aegis give something so important to your branch?"
The man, lost in a sea of pain, remained silent. And that silence cost him.
Vex pressed down again with the foot that had just broken the limb, grinding the shattered bones against the hard floor.
The man's cry hit a new, piercing octave. The will that had held him together finally shattered along with his leg.
"It was for security!" he blurted out, the words a desperate gasp between screams.
Vex removed his foot, his gaze never leaving the broken form beneath him.
"Elaborate."
"The Aegis headquarters gave us the ability core..." the man panted, tears of pain and humiliation mixing with the grime on his face. "So we could store it here for a day! The reason is because all our secret storage houses were invaded by a maniac, all just because of that ability core! They didn't want to continue switching it to different storage houses so they took it to this branch instead. We were a backwater, an afterthought... they thought no one would look here!"
The confession spilled out of him, a torrent of information fueled by terror.
'Another villain also tried to collect it,' Vex thought 'Well, It's no surprise.'
"I see..." Vex said, the pieces clicking into place. His eyes flickered toward the blocked passage. "So is that the reason you blocked the passage with stones? A final, futile act of a failed guard dog?"
The man's body stiffened. Fresh sweat, cold with a new kind of fear, beaded on his forehead and dripped down his temple.
He had given up the secret, but this accusation was different. This was a personal failure.
"Just because you failed to protect what you were given to protect doesn't mean you should be more miserable. Blocking a passage, with mere stones, from me?" Vex's voice held a note of genuine, almost academic disappointment.
It was beneath him. The attempt was an insult to his intelligence.
He raised his leg again, the implication clear.
The punishment for such a pathetic, pointless gesture would be severe.
But before he could bring it down, the man found a last reservoir of voice.
"It wasn't me...!" he cried out, the words laced with a frantic need to be believed.
Vex stopped. He looked down at the man who was practically shaking apart on the ground.
"Then who did?" Vex asked, his curiosity seemingly piqued.
"I-I don't know..." The man stammered, his voice trembling.
Vex was silent for a long moment, his icy gaze seeing right through the man.
He shrugged, a small, elegant movement of his shoulders.
"Okay."
Vex's foot hovered in the air again, a final verdict poised to fall.
But the man on the ground, sensing the imminent end, clawed for one more moment of life.
"Someone was there..."
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[Author's Note:]
Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter where Vex continues to be the walking, talking definition of a "high-risk, high-reward" employer.
[Vex has applied +100% CRIT damage to 'Leg'.]
[Enemy has developed new trait: 'Motivated Talker'.]
Dude really gives a whole new meaning to "stepping on someone's toes," am I right?
Well, that was a thing that happened. Vex out here treating people like step stools and plot devices like they're his day job.
So... As always, thanks for reading! Power stones, and Golden tickets are greatly appreciated and help the story get seen. Catch you in the next chapter!