Kai had no plans of letting Phantom V die. Not just yet.
That would've been far too merciful for a man responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people. A man who helped turn a peaceful town into a war zone.
No, death would be the easy way out.
And Kai wasn't in the business of letting people off easy.
The blood Phantom V had lost? It wasn't pooling in the dirt. It was flowing backwards - threading through the air like crimson strings, re-entering his torn flesh under Kai's command.
It was the technique Kai had come up with on a whim when he tried to save the old woman with nothing but instinct and desperation. It somehow worked, and now he could force someone to live if they were dying primarily from blood loss.
Whether they wanted to or not...
The bullet wounds in Phantom V's body had missed every major organ, intentionally. Kai had made sure of that. Painful, incapacitating, but far from lethal.
He knelt beside the trembling man and spoke flatly, "We'll get all the answers we need from you. Then I'll let Nadya have her fun."
He looked him in the eye, and there wasn't a hint of sympathy.
"I can only imagine what she'll do after what you did to this place."
Then Kai began to describe it.
Being thrown around a room by Nadya's explosive rage. Bones breaking. Then healed by Amina, only to be shattered again. Days left starving, frostbitten, and alone in the cold. Weeks of mental torment until sanity slipped away like a dream. And when nothing of the man remained, they'd toss him into the Wolfsgrave Woods, where the starving wolves would shred him to pieces.
"That," Kai said, voice calm, "is the bare minimum of what you deserve."
Phantom V stared at him, wide-eyed, horror blooming in his chest. Never in his life had he thought he'd wish for death. Yet here he was, clinging to the edge of life - and that edge kept pulling him back.
The pain remained, intensified even. Yet his body was somehow sustaining itself through Kai's twisted technique. And the red-eyed man crouched beside him, watching it all with chilling detachment.
"D-Demon… You're a demon…"
Kai chuckled, low and cold.
He didn't care about the insult. If being a demon got him the answers he sought, so be it. He'd walk through hell and back to regain his memories and learn the truth behind his mutation. And he'd do more to make Nyx pay for every single moment of agony he inflicted.
As for Phantom V, he quickly realised there was no way out. Even the angel of death couldn't save him.
It wasn't a bluff or an empty threat. Kai truly would torture him. Tear the information from his mind and body through any means necessary. And then, the true torment would begin once he was handed over to Nadya.
He didn't even care about the Association anymore. Loyalty? Secrets? None of it mattered. Not enough to suffer this. Not at the hands of a man like Kai, who was far worse than any monster.
Then again, maybe not worse than Nyx. That twisted bastard.
Phantom V's life was flashing before his very eyes, with the deranged man's laugh echoing in the background. One recent memory stuck with him in particular. There was something about it.
It was the glint in Nyx's eyes as he handed him something small and round and told him it might "come in handy" before sending him on his current mission.
"If you're ever at your wits' end," Nyx had said with a cackle, "this'll at least let you live… just as something else."
At the time, Phantom V had no idea what the hell that meant. However, knowing Nyx, he had no intention of consuming it. But right now, anything was better than his current predicament.
With trembling fingers, he moved his jaw and bit down hard.
A sharp crunch.
Kai's eyes narrowed as he saw the man swallow something.
Then the shaking began.
Convulsions racked Phantom V's body. His eyes rolled back. Veins bulged across his face, twitching and pulsing unnaturally.
'That bastard foresaw all this,' was the man's final thought, as his body contorted violently. 'He knew this would happen…'
And then, nothing.
Darkness took him.
Kai stood, watching the whole thing with a distant expression. His eyes lingered on the man's body, which now lay still.
"Poison," he muttered. "Same shit that guard used back at the lab."
He clenched his fists, feeling a little frustrated.
"He got off the easy way in the end. And I didn't even get any damn answers again."
All that effort. All that pain. And the one lead he had on Nyx had slipped through his fingers.
'I was hoping he'd at least tell me where that bastard's hiding…' he thought bitterly.
But then he exhaled, long and slow.
"No matter," he said aloud. "We'll cross paths eventually."
He turned, crimson eyes scanning the wreckage of the town. Nadya and Takeshi were still fighting, holding the last line against the remnants of the monsters.
He couldn't rest just yet.
Kai clenched the pistol before tucking it into his trousers.
There was still work to do.
But deep in his gut, he felt that things still weren't over.
And if Nyx had planned for Phantom V's death… he likely had something even worse in store for them...