Criminal X : Epitome Of Evil

"Can anyone break your shadow?" Pablo asked.

"No. I mean, I don't know. I haven't captured anyone that powerful yet."

The visitor was inside Draxus' shadow. He and Pablo had captured the man.

"He is wrapped around chains and is drunk. We can be assured that he will stay inside for a while." Pablo said.

Draxus nodded. "Now what?"

"First open the lights."

"No. My shadow is the strongest when there is darkness around. If lights came, who knows, the man might really break free from it."

"Can you see anything right now?" Pablo asked.

"More than you."

"Is that so? Then…" Pablo paused and spoke again :

"How many fingers am I holding?"

"None. You have your hands behind your back."

"Nice. Then did you see the man? Who was he? What was he wearing?"

"I saw none of that. We captured the man just after he entered."

"Makes sense. I was thinking of tying him to this metal bed and questioning him. But I can't do that in the dark. I managed to bind him by chains only by hearing his steps. I am blind right now."

"If you don't mind, czar.." Draxus spoke, hesitating. "I can do that."

"Do what?"

"Tie him and all. I can see just fine and when he is restrained, you can ask all you want."

"Can you handle him alone?"

"You are forgetting, czar. If you can't see anything then this man is also not able to see anything in the dark. I have an advantage here. If you open the lights then I might face problems as the man would get his sight back and can attack us."

"Yes. You are right. It seems I am too exhausted to think straight. Take him out when you are ready. When he comes out, hit him with something, make him unconscious, and then tie him up. Wait, before that, remove that General from the bed."

"You are thinking just fine, Czar."

Draxus heed Pablo's commands and untied the dead General from the metal bed.

He threw him to the corner of the room.

"But czar, what if after tying him up, he wakes up and uses his Ego to break free?"

"Don't worry about that. Twelve hours are up. Questioning him is optional now. I have some other ways to get what I want. You just take out the man."

"As you say."

Draxus grabbed a metal rod lying around the room. What it was doing inside the red room, Draxus didn't want to know that.

He held the rod tightly and moved his shadow in front of him. Now the man would appear right at his face, not behind him.

"Three."

Draxus started counting backwards.

"Two." Pablo counted as well, standing behind Draxus.

And ending the countdown they both spoke in unison.

"One!"

SWISH!

THUD!

Pablo heard two sounds.

First, he believed it was the sound of the man coming out of the shadow. The second sound, however, sounded like something hitting the floor.

"Um, czar."

"Yes. What happened?" Pablo asked, anxious. Not being able to see was a pain.

"Our plan failed… successfully."

Pablo remained silent for a while.

"What?" He asked eventually.

"Turns out, we don't have to do anything. He is sleeping." Draxus finally revealed what was up.

"Check. He might be acting."

"He is not. As soon as he came out, I hit the rod but he was on the floor to begin with. So the rod hit the floor just beside him. If he was acting then he would have gotten up by the sound."

"Does he still have the chain around him?" Pablo asked.

"Yes."

"And how does he look? Who is he in the military? What's his uniform like?" Pablo asked many questions. The important questions.

Draxus didn't answer right away but soon with a smile, the answer came.

"He is an Abyssal Butcher, czar."

Pablo's hands twitched.

'Calm down. He may not be the same rapist.' He talked some sense to his body. Just by hearing Abyssal Butcher his body reacts out of his will.

"If he is an Abyssal Butcher then he must be strong. Tie him. And since he is sleeping. There is no need for this darkness anymore. I have to recognise him."

"Keep the lights off for a few more seconds. Let me tie him first. If he happens to move, my shadow can trap him in darkness."

"Fine. Do it fast. I have to see him."

"He is a fat man. If this is what you want to know."

Fat. A fat Abyssal Butcher. Pablo remembered such a person. It was one of the rapists. His body made movements again.

'Calm down. He was not the only one who was fat in the military. Let me see his face to confirm it fully.'

He held his own hands to control them. They wanted to kill the man just by hearing the description given by Draxus.

"Tie him and then open the lights." Pablo decided.

Draxus was going to do that anyway so he started the preparation.

He dragged the man near the metal bed, chain still wrapped around his body.

Pablo was at the mercy of Draxus at the moment. He had no choice but to believe in his right hand man.

After some dragging and chain rattling sounds, Draxus finally said the good news.

"He is tied, Czar."

"Now switch on the lights, will you?"

Draxus this time didn't oppose Pablo and finally opened the lights of the room. Everything was clear again.

And the first thing that Pablo did was to look at the man at the metal bed.

His eyes fell on the man and as soon as that happened, his body lost control.

He jumped at the man.

"Stand down, you bastard!"

Pablo shouted and Draxus looked left and right. Who was Pablo shouting at? Him? But he didn't do anything.

Unknown to Draxus, Pablo was shouting at himself.

He used all his will power to stop himself from falling on the fat man.

In the end, Pablo's body listened to him.

He let out a tired sigh. His hands were still twitching uncontrollably though.

All these things suggested one thing and Pablo was sure of it as well.

The man tied on the metal bed was one of the five rapists of his sister.

"I take it he is one of them?" Draxus asked.

Pablo nodded. "Dilinger is the name."

"Why you jumped though?"

"You won't get it."

Draxus didn't ask further.

On the metal bed, Dilinger was sleeping peacefully. The alcohol was too much for him, making him sleepy. But Pablo didn't like that. The man shouldn't be sleeping peacefully like this after what he did with his body's owner's sister.

"First things first."

Pablo reached out his hand and placed it on Dilinger's hand.

'Use the second one.'

[ Mimesis Malefica in use! ]

[ Keep touching the target for five seconds. ]

[ You are copying this Ego for the first time. ]

[ You will be shown the Target's memories now. ]

Images entered directly inside Pablo's mind and Pablo watched them with full attention. He won't miss even a single thing.

Draxus also said nothing to disturb Pablo as he looked very focused.

After five seconds, Pablo finished watching all the memories of Dilinger and his Ego finished its work as well.

[ You successfully copied the Target's Ego! ]

[ You can keep it for Twelve hours. ]

'Show me.' Pablo commanded. He had seen Dilinger's Ego in his memories but he wanted a detailed explanation about it.

[ Behemoth (Dark Brown) : You can eat anything and convert it to strength. But that strength will only last for one day. After that, you have to consume things again to be strong. For example, you can eat a hundred trees and get unimaginable strength but that strength will only last for one day. The next day, you have to start from scratch again. ]

'Shit.'

Pablo jerked his head at Draxus.

"Find something to cover his mouth. Something that can't make him open it."

Startled by the sudden order, Draxus looked here and there. He didn't ask why Pablo asked for something like that.

Pablo also looked for something to wrap around Dilinger's mouth but then a question arose.

'Can't he eat the very thing that will be wrapped around his mouth? That's a bad idea. I have to make sure he can't eat anything while he is tied.'

"Stop, Draxus." Pablo stopped looking for something.

Draxus did the same. He was perplexed about Pablo's intentions. One minute he says find something, another minute he tells to stop. What was going on?

However, Draxus didn't ask anything. Pablo's sister's rapist was in front of him so it was obvious his czar wasn't able to think right.

"We have to make sure he isn't able to eat something. He is in the best position as he is. He can't move his head to eat something."

"Okay? Now what?"

"There are four more rapists. I can kill this one without making him say sorry or other shit like that."

"Alright. How do you want to kill him then?"

Pablo thought for a while. He had many things on his mind. He didn't want to give the fat man an easy death. His body won't be satisfied with that. The man should feel pain.

Pablo thought of punishments along the lines with that and after a few seconds, he came to a conclusion.

"We will boil him alive."