"W-What the… hell?"
That was the first thing Aldán managed to say when he realized he was no longer in that old warehouse.
He looked around hurriedly, clearly startled by the sudden situation.
'Did I die? No. That's impossible… When would that have happened?'
He thought, looking at his hands, then at every part of his body, everything was perfect, too perfect…
The last thing Aldán had been doing was torturing one of the many bastards who had killed his family.
Since he was a child, his life had been like that of anyone his age, with the only worries being doing well in school and making friends.
He managed all of that without problems… well, except for the latter, since he never managed to get along with kids his age.
For some reason, they all looked at him with an arrogance inappropriate for children that young.
Even when he tried over and over again to get them to like him, it only provoked worse rejection, even hatred toward him.
His life in high school only got worse. His twelve year old sister had died in a traffic accident when she tried to cross the street alone.
After that, his family, made up of him and his two parents, fell apart.
The problems between his father and mother became a daily thing, blaming each other for the death of their little girl.
Aldán, who was already eighteen at the time, could only watch as his family broke more and more, without having the courage to intervene.
Even if his parents didn't say it, they also blamed him for not being a big brother who protected his little sister.
That, added to the constant mockery and beatings from the boys he had once tried to befriend, only made Aldán's mind focus on one thing:
Ending his own life.
Although he wasn't brave enough to take that path, a part of him told him that it would only make his parents' lives even more pathetic than they already were.
But everything changed when, one ordinary day at school, he overheard a conversation from his main bullies.
Aldán had thought that if they caught him eavesdropping, they would beat him endlessly, but for some reason he stayed and listened.
And what he heard made his mind abandon him completely, as his skin turned pale and his eyes lost the last bit of light they had left.
The supposed accident of his younger sister had been caused by one of those bastards, who had been driving drunk after a party the day before.
The bastard even explained that moment in detail, describing how his sister's small body flew through the air before crashing violently to the ground, blood pouring from her little head.
"It's the little bitch's fault for crossing without looking." said Lucas, one of the bullies.
"I agree, it's the brat's parents' fault. What kind of parents let their daughter cross the street alone?"
The way he said it, shifting the blame onto Aldán's parents, sounded too forced. He even said it with a smile on his face.
Yes, the whole group knew that the girl who had been killed was Aldán's sister, the boy they bullied. But none of them cared.
- - - -
Aldán, unable to keep listening because if he did he would either faint from helpless rage or do something reckless that would clearly fail due to how weak he was, left.
Too bad he didn't hear the last thing his bullies planned…
Just one week after skipping school to go to an empty field to plan, to hit things to vent his anger, and to think about how to take revenge on those people, Aldán failed to realize that their next targets were his parents…
He thought that training alone, in secret, without telling anyone what he had heard, would keep them safe, because he knew perfectly well that if he told his parents, they would do something reckless.
Too bad the reckless ones were the others.
When Aldán returned from the empty field like any other day, his hands wrapped in bandages he had put on himself after injuring them by punching a tree for hours, he decided to go back home.
Only to be met with a scene of horror.
His father was on the floor, stabbed multiple times all over his body, his head crushed in a grotesque way that made Aldán vomit.
He lost control of his legs as he cried, his breathing becoming hard to control.
"D-Da-Dad?"
He murmured as he crawled toward his father's lifeless body, not knowing where to look…
Just a few seconds later, he heard a wet groan coming from his parents' room.
He quickly concluded it had to be his mother, so he got up as best as he could and ran toward the room, only to see, in horror, what had been done to her…
His mother was naked… completely injured, covered in bruises all over, but still breathing her final moments of life.
The moment he saw her, he knew what they had done to her.
Aldán felt his heart finally shatter as tears streamed endlessly from his eyes while he walked toward her in fear.
"M-Mom…"
He muttered through clenched teeth, lifting her carefully to look at her face, completely beaten and abused.
His mother looked at him as best as she could, her eyes swollen and blurry.
"A-A…Aldán?"
"Y-Yes, Mom… it's me…"
His mother began to cry at that moment as she, with effort, raised her arm, ignoring the broken bone, to place it on her son's cheek, staining him with her blood.
After that… Aldán doesn't remember clearly. His mind seemed to shut down completely.
What he does remember, and will never forget, is that the police arrested him as the supposed murderer and… rapist of his mother, although that only lasted a few hours, until the evidence at the crime scene led to two individuals Aldán fully recognized.
Lucas and Marek…
Two of his five bullies had been responsible for his parents' murder, or so the police claimed—but Aldán knew it had been all five, because those five were equally insane.
Aldán relied on the law, believing justice would be served, but no…
They had barely been given five years each, because one of their fathers was an important politician or some shit like that.
That was the last thing Aldán needed for all the sanity he had left, the belief that good people still existed in the world, to disappear completely.
He stopped attending school, spent days and nights crying and cursing those responsible.
But it wasn't until his grandfather traveled to the country two months after the news, that he gave the boy a harsh truth.
"If the world didn't give you justice, then why not become the justice this world fears so much?"
With those simple words, Aldán's mindset changed completely.
He had five years before those two bastards would be free, and then he could take revenge. He could become strong, much stronger than this world allows.
'But how?'
His grandfather was the answer. He confessed that if he weren't so old, he would take revenge himself, but since the one who lost the most was Aldán, then he would help him.
- - - -
As a former military member of the North Korean armed forces and a wanted fugitive, he knew all kinds of torture and combat methods, which he taught Aldán over the next five years.
And just as he had planned, he killed each bastard starting only one day after they were released.
He began with Lucas, the bastard who had left all his DNA inside his mother. He didn't kill him quickly, he only broke some bones that prevented him from moving freely. After that?
Simple. He dove into the darkest side of the internet, auctioning the piece of shit off to the sickest people online.
And so it was, the man was abused day and night, over and over again for weeks by countless men of all ages with fetishes just as twisted as they were.
He didn't need to verify whether he had died or not. He found that out one random morning when the police investigated an old gas warehouse that had been reported several times after multiple vehicles were seen parking there without permission.
At first, they thought it was a drug production and distribution group, but when they entered, they only found a disgusting scene.
Aldán, being very meticulous, didn't leave a single clue that could lead the police to him.
Then, over the next five months, he dedicated himself to torturing and terrorizing those involved in his tragedy.
That led to Axel, the last bastard still alive, or well, almost alive.
He was hanging upside down, suspended by his legs, while beneath him there was a large barrel of acid.
His body was covered in cuts that made him lose blood, but he didn't lose consciousness thanks to the adrenaline Aldán was supplying him.
"W-Why… why are you doing this?"
"Why?" Aldán replied lifelessly, his eyes completely empty, without any trace of light or emotion.
His body was covered in already healed wounds, caused by the resistance of those bastards and the men they had paid to protect them.
Aldán walked slowly, without interest, until he stood inches away from Axel, who could only look at him in horror. His eyelids were stapled to his skin, preventing him from closing his eyes.
Aldán had done this so the bastard would see his reflection in the mirror in front of him, watching himself being cut and tortured.
"Don't play dumb…" Aldán muttered as he approached a lever. "You knew what you were doing… I know what I'm doing."
If they had only limited themselves to torturing him, without involving his family, none of this would have happened.
He had fully accepted his sister's death as his own fault for not being by her side.
Every night was a constant nightmare with the voices of his parents and sister for not saving them.
And tonight, all of that would end. With Axel's death, what followed was his own death.
He had nothing in life. The police already had their eyes on him due to the coincidence of the deaths involving him.
"NO, WAIT—!"
Axel couldn't finish shouting, because Aldán had pulled the lever, releasing the chains that held him, dropping him into the acid tank, where his screams faded so quickly it didn't even seem like he suffered.
Aldán simply watched the body thrash desperately before suddenly going still.
It was over.
Everything he had trained for had come to an end that night. "Grandfather… I did it…" he said, clenching his fists.
Then, without hesitation, he turned around and walked toward a table with a gun already prepared.
He was going to end his life. What reason did he have to live? The world out there was shit, people were shit, killing, raping, stealing without real consequences.
He had wanted a normal life, with his family alive, and that was it. Nothing else mattered… but that was already in the past. He couldn't go back in time.
Aldán looked at the gun on the table and extended his hand to grab it, but…
Suddenly, he was in a completely strange place.
The sun shone in the sky, completely detached from the darkness of that old warehouse.
The place was a forest no matter where you looked, trees and more trees were all there was.
"W-What the… hell?"
His voice sounded as lifeless as usual, but in his mind there was a hint of surprise at what had happened.
[Dragon System… loading…]
"Eh?"