Feeling the sheer pain of having his limbs torn apart, the man's bravado shattered, his voice pitching into a scream.
"This ain't how it's supposed to go!" He wailed, thrashing futilely. "You can't just kill me like this! You'll never know why we wanted Charlotte! Ain't it obvious? You're doin' all this 'cause we tried to take her, right? If you kill me now, you'll be in the dark! You won't know what's comin' for her next!" His eyes darted, searching Mika's face for a crack. "You need me alive, kid! I got answers, info you can't get if I'm dead!"
Hearing this, Mika's brow twitched, a faint flicker of interest, and the chains paused, their pull halting.
The man seized the moment, his confidence surging, thinking he'd found a foothold. "That's right!" He pressed, leaning forward, his voice urgent. "You can't just end me! You need what's in my head! That info's gold it'll stop more attacks on her."
"My organization? They need Charlotte, and they ain't stoppin'. This plan failed, sure, but they'll try again, tomorrow, next week, whenever! If I'm gone, you'll be blind, and she'll get snatched when you least expect it!" He forced a grin, his eyes gleaming with desperate cunning. "Keep me alive, and I'll spill everything. The cult's plans, their hideouts, all of it! I swear, I'll talk, just let me live!"
In his mind, the ploy was perfect. Anyone would take the bait, prioritizing intel to protect someone they cared about. He braced for Mika to hesitate, to question him, to prolong his life.
But to his horror, the chains tightened again, the runes pulsing with a sinister glow. His joints creaked, his limbs stretching to their limits, pain lancing through him like fire.
"What the hell?!" He screamed, his voice cracking. "What are you doin'? Didn't you hear me? You deaf or just stupid? You care about that girl or not? Kill me, and she's screwed! My cult'll take her, and you'll have nothin' to stop 'em! I'm your only shot at savin' her!" His eyes bulged, sweat mixing with the blood on his face. "Don't you wanna know why we're after her? What we're planning'?"
Hearing the last part, Mika stopped, his head tilting, and for the first time, a reaction flickered across his face, a smirk, cold and sharp.
"Purpose?" He echoed, his voice low, almost amused, as he looked up at the dangling man. "Why the hell would I need to know your purpose for going after Charlotte?" His smirk widened, a cruel edge to it, as if the man's words were a child's tantrum. "You think I care about your reasons? Or anyone's, for that matter?"
The man's breath hitched, his confidence crumbling as Mika stepped closer, his blood, soaked figure a specter of death.
"I mean, you have to know that Charlotte's one of the daughters of the goddesses who saved the world." Mika continued, his tone conversational but laced with a chilling certainty. "You think I don't know what that means?"
"...That half the planet loves her, her beauty, her power, her riches, the fact she's the Blade Maiden's kid, or just because she's such a loveable girl"
He chuckled, a low, dark sound that sent shivers through the man's bound body.
"But the other half?...They hate her guts. Jealous of her strength, pissed her beauty outshines theirs, coveting her wealth, or nursing sick thoughts about that body of hers."
"Some want her as a bargaining chip, others for a cult sacrifice or worse...My point is, everyone's got an angle, love, hate, lust, greed. It's a million different intentions, and I don't have time to play therapist with every single one."
The chains tightened, the man's joints popping audibly, his scream stifled as Mika's words sank in.
"You think I'm gonna sit down with every bastard who wants a piece of her and ask, 'Hey, why you hate her'?" Mika's voice turned mocking, his smile vanishing. "That's tedious as hell, and frankly, I don't give a damn. And your cult's reasons for wanting her?...Could be power, revenge, some twisted ritual, but it doesn't matter to me. I don't need a list of motives when the outcome's the same."
His eyes turned icy, his gaze boring into the man's soul.
"All I actually care about is two things."
He held up one hand, casual, like he was explaining a simple rule. "If someone's intentions are good, if they love her, admire her, mean her no harm?..Fine. I don't care how much they fawn over her, long as they keep their distance"
His expression darkened, his other hand rising, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "But if their intentions are bad? If they've got even a flicker of ill will, thinking of hurting her, touching her, pulling even a single hair from her head?...That's when I step in."
His eyes burned, a cold fury that made the man's blood freeze.
"Anyone who means harm to Charlotte, to my world, doesn't get to exist. It's my job to make sure they don't. And you?"
His smirk returned, cruel and final.
"...You're on the wrong side of that line."
Hearing this chilling proclamation, the man was beyond horrified, not just by his predicament, bound and powerless, but by the chilling epiphany sparked by Mika's words.
This boy wasn't just a killer; he was a maniac, a vortex of madness that eclipsed the twisted fanatics of his cult.
Mika's eerie calm while butchering a room of men was unnerving, but when Charlotte's name passed his lips, his demeanor shifted.
His dark eyes ignited with a deranged glint, a possessive ferocity that screamed ownership, as if Charlotte was his alone, untouchable by any other soul.
The man saw it now, Mika's devotion wasn't protection; it was obsession, a vow to annihilate anyone who dared approach her, not with reasoned duty but with a crazed claim that she was his and his alone.
He'd tear apart millions, billions, without blinking, all for her, and the thought sent ice through the man's veins. He cursed himself for crossing this lunatic, a demon who made his cult's depravity look like child's play.
Desperate to claw back his life, he forced words through his trembling lips, his voice weak and quivering. "F-Fine, you don't give a damn about our purpose, I get it!" He stammered, his eyes darting to Mika's impassive face. "But you gotta care about her safety, right? My cult, they're still comin' for Charlotte! If you kill me now, you'll be blind to their next move! You won't know when they'll strike again!"
Mika paused, his head tilting, and a smile curled his lips, not warm, but wild, playful, like a wolf toying with prey.
"You're right." He said, his voice light, almost teasing, sending a shiver down the man's spine. "If I kill you now, I won't know what your little cult's scheming, when they'll try for her next." The chains slackened slightly, and the man exhaled, a flicker of hope igniting, thinking he'd bought time, that Mika would crave the intel to shield Charlotte.
But hope shattered as Mika's eyes turned colder, his smile sharpening into something cruel. "So, to fix that." He continued, his tone casual, as if musing over a trivial fix. "I'll just wipe out every single one of your cult."
"...Problem solved, right?"