Jay stepped forward, his voice cutting through the silence. "Your son hid overseas quite well. But even if he'd run to the ends of the earth, it wouldn't have made a difference."
Fear flickered in the Chairman's eyes for the first time. His lips trembled, but no sound came.
Rownak's stomach twisted as his eyes swept over the grotesque sight before him. The body hanging from the mechanical hooks was mutilated beyond recognition, skin flayed, bones twisted, but the face was still faintly familiar.
Recognition dawned.
"Rohan…", Rownak muttered under his breath, his chest tightening.
Rohan, the Chairman's son. The same boy who once studied at their school. A bully, arrogant, and cruel. He had always hated Jay ever since the day Jay beat him down in front of everyone. That humiliation had burned deep.
Rohan's revenge came in twisted ways. He manipulated Jay's friends into betraying him and drove Sana away. He even tried the same with Rownak, but Rownak never gave in.
And yet, seeing him now, reduced to a bloody, broken mess, left an odd sensation in Rownak's throat. His eyes shifted to Jay, shaken by what his friend had become.
Jay moved closer. A pale green glow flowed from his palm toward the mangled figure on the hook. The worst of the wounds began to close. Torn flesh knit, broken limbs realigned, and the man fell free, crashing to the floor in a fit of ragged coughs. His eyes fluttered open as consciousness slowly returned.
Rownak whispered, "His body… its completely healed."
Guilt and fear clouded the chairman's eyes. He knew if Jay was healing him, it could only mean one thing. He made a small, broken sound that might have been a plea.
Rohan tried to crawl away from Jay, his voice cracking as he cried out, "FATHER!... PLEASE! SAVE ME!!"
The Chairman reached for him. "Rohan… I… "
Jay cut him off flatly. "You watched your son butcher innocents. Now watch him experience the same."
Two butcher knives materialized in his hands, gleaming under the cold lights. Jay held them up, their edges catching Rohan's terrified stare.
"Do you remember these favorite tools of yours? Time to see for yourself how they feel as they tear into flesh."
Rohan tried to speak, his voice trembling with forced defiance. "Y-You can't… I'll… "
The first cut silenced him. His face contorted as he clenched his jaw, trying to mask the pain. But when the second blade sank in, deeper this time, the bravado cracked.
Rohan's body shook violently, screams ripping out of him until his throat turned raw. Tears and spit mixed with blood as he choked out desperate words.
"Stop! Please!… Please, I'll do anything!"
The Chairman's eyes filled with horror. He lurched forward, but a single piercing gaze from Jay froze him in place.
Jay continued without mercy, and the final result was a body that barely resembled a human. Hands and legs severed. Ears, nose, and tongue gone. Skin flayed to reveal raw, punctured flesh. Empty sockets where eyes had once been.
Rownak couldn't move, his stomach churned as he watched it happen. A quiet thought broke through his turmoil, 'Was… was all this truly necessary?'
Little did he know, Jay heard his thoughts as clearly as if they were spoken aloud.
Jay's head turned swiftly, his sharp eyes locking onto Rownak with a slight frown.
"You pity him, don't you? You don't even have a clue of what he's done."
Jay continued his torture, his words hammering down with each strike.
"Do you remember that rumor back in school? The one about a kid who died because of him? That wasn't a rumor."
Jay's tone grew denser, "That wasn't the end. The parents who tried to fight back, who dared to file cases, were silenced. Taken. Killed. Brutally. And not just them. Others he set his sights on suffered the same fate, all for his twisted pleasure."
He turned his gaze to the Chairman, "And this model father; what did he do? He raised his son to feed on his own sadistic nature, and groomed him to butcher the competitors' families and crush anyone who threatened their business empire."
Jay's face was quiet, but his voice kept rising. "One hundred forty-seven. That's how many lives Rohan took with his own hands. Every single one of them suffered… begged to be spared."
He then projected the visuals of those deaths, the memories of every life lost. Rownak felt his emotions ignite, anger burning through him as he watched the cruel and unjust ends those people had suffered.
Jay continued, his tone growing darker. "If it weren't for Udhay's protection, my siblings, my parents, my entire family, would have suffered the same fate because of him. So tell me, does he not deserve this?"
Rownak looked at the ruined figure again, and this time, there wasn't a trace of sympathy left in him.
Jay's eyes locked on Rohan, an unsettling gleam of cruel delight flickering within them. "Today he will regret ever living, and I will enjoy every second."
With that, he stepped toward the trembling Rohan. The wall separating the two chambers began to close, muffling the screams until they faded completely.
Rownak no longer judged Jay for his actions. Now that the chairman's life was in his hands, he knew he would be no different when it came to exacting his own revenge, and finding the resolution he and his family had long been denied.
He stepped closer without a word, and placed both palms around the chairman's neck, and began to apply pressure.
The Chairman didn't resist. He said nothing, as if accepting his fate, knowing his time had come, and that his son's would too.
Rownak pressed harder, putting all his weight into the hold. The chairman's body struggled for air, twisting helplessly beneath his grip, until finally there was no sound… no breath.
Only then did Rownak release his hands, and thin streaks of tears slipped down his cheeks. Some came from the weight of taking a life for the first time, but most were from the long-awaited relief of vengeance, something he never thought he would live to see.
He looked up and whispered, "It's over now, Dad. The man who took you from us is gone. You can finally rest now… I miss you so much."
He remained there for a while, letting memories of his father surface one by one.
Images of his younger self flickered in his mind: his father running beside him, steadying the bicycle as he tried to balance for the first time. The wide smile on his father's face when he finally rode on his own.
The weekend mornings spent washing their old motorcycle together, his father patiently teaching him how to handle the clutch and throttle. The late evenings where they'd sit on the terrace, talking about anything and everything.
A faint smile crossed Rownak's lips, but it didn't last. The warmth of those memories only made the emptiness feel deeper.
After some time, the wall separating the chambers slid open. Through the widening gap, Jay emerged, his hair stained crimson at the tips. Behind him, Rownak saw what was left of the room: the walls splattered with blood, the floor scattered with torn flesh and shattered bone.
It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing. Those were Rohan's remains.
When Rownak looked at Jay's face, he saw the same hatred that had burned in him finally begin to fade, replaced by a quiet, heavy satisfaction.
Jay lifted his hand, and with a telekinetic wave, blood and grime on both of them lifted into the air before dissolving into nothing.
Then he stepped closer, offering his hand. Rownak took it, and Jay pulled him to his feet. Together, they walked out of the room.
Neither spoke as they walked down the long corridor. Only when they reached the living quarters area did they finally stop in front of a door.
Jay looked toward Rownak and said calmly, "There's one more. The man who planted the bomb under the Quadnite Chairman's orders."
≿━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━≾
Due to ongoing piracy concerns, the final 22 chapters of Volume 3 (Ch.351 to 372) are not posted publicly. They are exclusively available through:
📘 Amazon Kindle – Volume 3 eBook & PATRE0N
👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRQNP1ZS
🌟 Join the Free Patreon Tier to access one free advanced chapter and view exclusive artwork for public chapters! 🌟
≿━━━━━━༺❀༻━━━━━━≾
Exclusive artwork for every free chapter is now available on my PATRE0N page! You can find the link in my Discord server.
╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮
Discord Link for 'Earth's Alpha Prime' :
https://discord.gg/EmqX6fh9cV
╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯