Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Alright, open it. Head down there and get her attention, leave the rest to me after that," Remarked Colt, before thinking to himself as the maid knelt down and grabbed the handle of the trapdoor, "I need to make sure she's in front of me...the last thing I need it to get locked down there or something. Granted, I haven't seen any signs that she's deceiving me, but you never know...she could just be a really good actor."

"Okay, I can do that."

The maid then lifted the trapdoor up, a loud creak ringing out before Colt stiffened as bone-chilling screams and cries rang out, his blood running cold as a rageful hatred welled up inside him.

"I see, the basement is soundproofed," Realized Colt through gritted teeth, as the maid headed down the staircase below the trapdoor.

"Hm? What are you doing down here? I'm still not done, you Commoner bitch! I've told you countless times to never interrupt me, I've made that quite clear! Or do you want me to add you to my little collection down here too!?" A woman's voice echoed out, as the maid reached the bottom of the stairs.

Colt restrained himself from rushing down there as his rage surged, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling to compose himself.

"U-um, no, ma'am, I was just-...," Began the maid shakily, trembling in fear, before trailing off as Colt, having heard enough, shot down the stairs and extended out a tendril of blood, sending it shooting out towards the woman.

"What the-...!?" She started to exclaim in alarm, before letting out a choked gasp as the blood tendril wrapped around her neck and constricted tightly, her face turning pale as she clawed at the tendril, but to no avail.

Colt then unwound the tendril as the woman lost consciousness, collapsing onto the floor of the basement with a thud.

"Huh? I...I thought you said you were going to kill her. Why did you just knock her out?" Responded the maid with a dismayed look on her face.

"Calm down, I'm just getting started. I had been planning on killing her quickly, but after seeing all this...I've changed my mind. I have nothing against sadism, I'm quite a fan, in fact...but this is just vile," Replied Colt in disgust, looking around the space.

The woman he'd knocked out had been standing over an operating table, where a young woman was laying sprawled across, with her wrists and ankles shackled to the table.

She had been stripped naked, her body covered in horrific, brutal scars. Her fingernails had been ripped out, she had bruises and gashes all over her face and body, several teeth were missing from her mouth and one of her eyes had multiple needles pierced into it.

And next to her on the table, was a whip slick with blood, a small hammer, various other tools that Colt had never seen before, and a bowl filled with teeth and fingernails, floating in blood.

And by the walls of the room were rows of metal cages, each with young men and women locked up in them. They were all naked and badly injured, some of them with looks of fear and despair in their eyes, and others with broken, empty expressions, devoid of any emotion.

Colt walked over to the table and unlocked the shackles, freeing the young woman before helping her off the table, his chest tightening as she winced in pain as he held her arm to support her, her body shuddering as she let out a slight cry.

"I'm sorry...I wish I had a Healing Spell on me, but I don't," He said to her quietly.

"I-...th-thank you," She uttered weakly, before her eyelids fluttered shut and she lost consciousness.

Colt grabbed her shoulders before she could fall, slowly lifting her up before gently placing her against the wall. He carefully pulled out the needles in her right eye, allowing the eyelid to fully close as he tossed away the needles, clenching his fists in anger.

He then turned his gaze towards the woman he'd knocked out, his expression darkening. She was the target he came here to eliminate, Baroness Kay Amber.

She was in her mid-forties, with scraggly blonde hair, murky grey eyes, a pale complexion with freckles and heavy acne, big ears and crooked teeth, with a fat, short build.

She was extremely self-conscious of her objectively unattractive appearance, and she decided to deal with her insecurities by capturing and torturing young, attractive Commoners, both men and women, in order to make herself feel better.

Colt grabbed the back of her collar and dragged her towards the table, lifting her up and dropping her onto it, before shackling her limbs.

"Um, over here...she keeps Healing Spells in here," The maid called out to him, opening a drawer in the corner of the room.

"Huh? Strange...I mean, that's convenient, but why store them here?" Responded Colt uncertainly.

"Sh-she...she uses them on us. S-sometimes, when she injures us too severely, she h-heals us to keep us alive, s-so that she can keep torturing us," Spoke up one of the men in the cages shakily.

"I see...well, I promise you this. When she regains consciousness, I'll make her endure at least a fraction of what she did to all of you...you have my word on that," Replied Colt, as he extended out several blood tendrils towards the cages, slashing through the locks to free the captives...

Meanwhile...

"Well? What's this urgent matter? Hm? Wait...I don't recognize you. I'm sure I don't have a maid with such...," Frowned Baron Petalite, trailing off as his gaze wandered down to Lexia's chest.

"Whatever, I don't need to keep up the act any longer," She shrugged, before firing a blunt bone projectile at the Baron's neck, hitting her mark and eliciting a sharp wheeze from him, before she shot towards him and leapt forward as she formed a pair of bone daggers, driving them into his shoulders and giving them a violent twist.

As he began to cry out in pain, she swiftly slammed her palm over his mouth and extended out a sphere of bone from her hand, a muffled yell ringing out as the sphere filled the inside of his mouth.

"Mpfhh!?"

Baron Firth Petalite, the current head of one of the two Noble houses tasked with ruling Amber Village. He was a man in his late-forties, with longish, balding grey hair that was tied in a short, low ponytail, green eyes, a fair complexion, and was of average height and build.

"There we go, now no one should be able to hear you. You know, as far as our targets among the corrupt Nobility go, you're far from the worst...if I remember right, we actually weren't sure whether or not to put you on our list of targets. But then I noticed something, and after we investigated further, we ended up adding you to our list," She informed him, as she traced the tip of one of her blood-soaked bone daggers across his cheek.

"Mpfhhh!"

"Fine, I'll elaborate...you did tell your staff not to bother you, after all, so I doubt anyone's coming. I know that you're the one in charge of setting the tax rate in the village, not Baroness Amber, and while the civilians here are pretty heavily taxed, it's actually a fair bit lower than in some of the other villages and towns. But after we investigated, we realized why you weren't taxing your citizens as heavily as some other Nobles do...you don't want to village to collapse while you're in charge.

And the reason for that is because you want to maximize your wealth...if the village collapses too soon, you'll stop gaining more wealth, so you decided to be careful not to ruin the village too soon. See, I'm pretty good at math, if I do say do myself, I doubt my comrades would have picked up on it if it wasn't for me. At the current rate of the village's economic decline, it'll financially collapse by the time you're around seventy or so...which is generally the age where heads of Noble houses retire and have one of their children or younger relatives succeed them," Remarked Lexia, narrowing her eyes at the man.

"..."

"I'll take your silence to mean that I'm correct so far. To sum it up, you only care about yourself, you aren't prejudiced against Commoners in the open, direct way that most other corrupt Nobles are, the way you do it is different. You see them as nothing more than tools to help you get richer, and you've carefully calculated the tax rate imposed on the village to a percentage that'll maximize how much you benefit from it before you retire. You're nothing more than a selfish, materialistic piece of shit.

You couldn't care less about what happens to the village after you retire, so long as you maximize the amount of money you can gain through taxation, nothing else matters. So, do you have anything to say for yourself? No? Alright, guess that all but confirms our deductions. And that's good enough of a justification to kill you...but out of consideration for the fact that you're marginally less terrible than most of our other targets...I'll put you out of my misery quickly. Look on the bright side, the last thing you'll ever see is my cute little face...not the worst way to go out, if you ask me," Smirked Lexia sadistically.

Muffled, desperate cries rang out from the Baron as he stared at his impending death in the face, helpless to do anything about it...

Meanwhile, back in the other mansion...

"Wha...? Where am I? What's going on...?" Muttered the Baroness in confusion as she began to regain consciousness, before her eyes widened as she realized she couldn't move her limbs, her body stiffening before she frantically began to struggle, "What is this!? What the hell is-...!? Arghhh!!!"

Colt interrupted her by piercing her right eye with one of his blood tendrils, branching it out inside the eye before giving it a sharp yank, tearing her eye right out of the rocket and tossing it away.

She howled in agony as blood poured out of the empty eye socket, struggling and thrashing desperately against her restraints, but it was no use. Her blood ran cold as she noticed the eyes of her victims around her, staring at her with hatred and rage.

"No need to be so loud, all I'm doing is giving you a taste of your own medicine, it's only fair that you experience it for yourself, just this once," He greeted her, before picking up the fingernail remover and inspecting it, "I've never seen this tool before, so I'm not entirely sure how to use it. Well, I'm sure I can figure it out with a bit of trial and error...I mean, how hard could it be?"

"N-no, stop! I-I'll...I'll do anything! Y-you can have it all, I'll give you everything I own! Just please-...arghhhh!!!" She screamed, as Colt ripped off one of her fingernails.

"Ah, there we go, figured it out on the first try. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. As for your offer, sure, that sounds good...see, my friends and I are pretty broke, so we could use the funds. Except, well...what's to stop me from just taking it after you're dead? I mean, it's not like you'll have any use for it once you're a rotting corpse, right?" He pointed out with a chilling smile, before ripping off another fingernail, the Baroness's body spasming in pain as blood spurted out of her finger, screams of agony echoing through the basement.

Colt then picked up a pair of bloodstained pliers as she continued to scream, before clamping it around one of her teeth, meeting her gaze with a cold smirk as tears welled up in her eyes, before he ripped the tooth out with a sharp twist.

Blood gushed out of her gums, staining the rest of her teeth red, as Colt slammed his fist onto the middle of her face, breaking her nose with a crunch, blood pouring out of her nostrils and streaming down as she wailed excruciatingly.

"P-please...please s-spare me! I-I'll do anything, s-so please...!" She sobbed in despair.

"Yeah, okay. I'll stop here," Nodded Colt, as he reluctantly set down the pliers.

"R-really?"

"Mhm, really...I won't kill you, as much as I want to. After all...this room is full of people who want you dead far more than I do. It's only fair that I let them have the pleasure of dealing the finishing blow...although, I suspect that said finishing blow won't come quickly," He replied quietly, as he turned around and began walking away.

The Baroness's eyes widened in horror as her former victims approached the table, their positions now reversed. She shakily shook her head as she let out a whimper, tears streaming down her face as they each picked up one of the many tools that she had mercilessly used on them.

"N-no, wait, d-don't do this, I-...arghhhh!!! No, s-stop it-...ARGHHHHHH!!! I-it hurts! Y-you...you damned filthy Commoners!!!"

"Don't forget to make sure to kill her once you're done. And don't take too long, wrap it up once you've had your fill and go home, you don't want to be here if and when the Knights show up," Colt called out, as he headed back up the stairs, the Baroness's screams continued to ring out behind him as her former victims got to work on tearing her apart...