Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

A pause stretched, dense and suffocating, filled only by the faint drip of blood hitting stone.

*I... I just want this to end. I want the noise to stop. I want the screams to stop. Even if it means...*

Victor leaned forward until his shadow swallowed the head completely.

*Destroying your entire civilisation... grinding it into nothing... I will do it with my own two hands.*

His eyes did not flicker.

Not even once.

*And I won’t feel a single ounce of guilt.*

There was no rage in him.

No fury.

No sorrow.

Only a vast, hollow indifference, like an endless void that had swallowed everything human within him.

Hatred would have meant something still lived inside.

This... meant nothing remained.

Victor, in that moment, felt less like a man and more like a weapon given form, a cold, precise construct that existed for one purpose alone.

To protect his people.

And erase anything that threatened them.

’That’s... The Emperor,’ Xara whispered inwardly, her gaze locked onto him... almost reverent.

The man before her no longer resembled Aether.

Nor Victor.

He sat there as something far more absolute.

The Emperor.

A ruler who would trample everything in his path, crush laws, morals, innocence itself, if it meant shielding those he called his own.

This man would not hesitate.

Would not falter.

Would not stop.

’Hehe~’

A sharp tremor ran through Xara’s legs, her breath catching, heat blooming across her cheeks as her pupils dilated.

’H-He’s becoming... terrifyingly perfect. So cold... so absolute... N-No... I need to hold back... I can’t... not now...’

Her fingers curled, restraining themselves, nails digging lightly into her own palm as if anchoring her to control.

*W-What are you talking about—NO—WAIT—ARRRRRRHHHHHH!!!!!*

The scream ripped out, tearing through the room like something being dragged out of a living body.

Splash!

One finger snapped backwards at an impossible angle.

The severed body convulsed violently on the table, muscles twitching in chaotic spasms, blood surging outward in thick ripples.

The head shrieked, voice breaking, choking on its own agony.

Victor watched... calmly.

His head tilted slightly, as though observing a minor imperfection.

”No, not enough. I can hear him, but I can’t feel it in him. Can you increase the intensity?”

”Of course, darling~ I was waiting for you to ask.”

Xara’s smile widened, something unhinged flickering beneath it as she turned to the display. Her fingers moved faster now, eager, pushing every value higher, higher, until they peaked.

The rod embedded within the skull began to glow faintly, a low hum building, vibrating through bone, through nerves, through whatever remained.

The reaction was instant.

The head’s eyes bulged, veins rising like dark cracks across the surface.

Every nerve ignited.

Every signal amplified.

Pain multiplied beyond comprehension.

*W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! A-AND WHAT IS THAT THING IN THE BLOOD?! WHY CAN I FEEL IT?! WHY CAN I FEEL EVERYTHING?! T-TELL ME! TELL ME YOU FUCKING—AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!*

Another crack.

Another finger shattered, bone splitting through torn flesh.

The scream that followed no longer sounded human.

Victor’s lips slowly curved, ”Now that’s more like it... that sound... I like it.”

One finger.

Crack.

Another.

Snap.

Another.

Break.

Slowly and patiently breaking his fingers.

As if he intended to stretch the suffering, to let it bloom fully, to let every fragment of pain root itself deep before tearing it apart again.

The head screamed, a torn, animal sound ripping through the air as his fingers bent backwards beyond their natural limits, joints folding in directions never meant to exist.

Pain crawled through every nerve as if each finger were being broken inch by inch, slowly, deliberately.

He could feel the cracks, the grinding pressure, the wet tightening of blood pooling inside his mangled fingers, a suffocating sensation trapped beneath skin that refused to split fast enough.

The body in the pool thrashed violently, limbs jerking and convulsing as if it too shared the same agony, as if some unseen thread stitched the torment between head and flesh, forcing both to suffer in perfect, synchronised horror.

After breaking twelve fingers, Victor finally calmed down.

The head panted heavily, dragging in breaths that shouldn’t have been possible. Its eyes flooded with tears, veins bursting into red streaks as it stared at Victor.