After Alexander was subdued by Marcus, Ethan and the others were taken out of the prison that was under the village.
Alexander was imprisoned in one of the hospital rooms and placed under heavy guard until the Old Man decided what to do with him.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Ethan were transferred to the hospital for treatment.
**(At Ethan and Lucas's Room)**
Ethan was asleep in his bed while Lucas was quietly reading a book.
Suddenly, the door to their room opened, and Marcus, Nicholas, and Jenny entered, along with the doctor who had saved Ethan from the parasitic worm penetrating his arm.
Everyone moved towards Ethan, while the doctor kept staring at Lucas with shocked eyes, as if he had seen a ghost.
Lucas noticed the doctor's suspicious looks and asked him in confusion, "What?"
Tears started to well up in the doctor's eyes, which further confused Lucas, who continued, "Are you okay, my friend?"
The doctor didn't utter a word and simply removed his mask and hat, revealing his features to Lucas, whose face showed shock. He then said in a surprised tone, "Jason?!"
Jason quickly approached Lucas and hugged him tightly, tears filling his eyes, as he said with a mix of happiness and sadness, "Lucas (crying)... I can't believe what I'm seeing... I can't believe you're alive (crying)... I thought you were dead!"
Lucas hugged Jason back as his own eyes began to cry, "Me too... I also didn't think I would survive after all I've seen."
The emotionally charged moment between Lucas and Jason continued while the others in the room watched the scene in silent astonishment.
Jenny and Nicholas tried to understand the relationship between the doctor and Lucas, while Ethan woke up due to the sounds of crying.
After a moment of hugging, Jason stepped back slightly, holding Lucas's shoulders, and looked at his amputated arm with expressions of worry and anger, "What happened to your arm?! What did they do to you?"
Lucas's face darkened as he remembered what had happened to him, then said, "Don't worry, brother. In the end, I'm still alive, and that's what matters now."
Jason replied excitedly, "What do you mean, don't worry? Your arm is amputated!"
Lucas placed his hand on Jason's shoulder, looked at him with a faint smile, and said, "Believe me, brother, this is a good thing compared to what would have happened to me."
A slight smile appeared on Jason's face, and he replied, "If that's the case... then I'm happy you're alive."
Tears began to slowly drip from Jenny's eyes, affected by the scene, while Ethan covered himself and went back to sleep.
Nicholas turned to Ethan, pulled the cover off him, and said in a sarcastic tone, "Wake up, you lazy one! We're having touching moments here, and you're sleeping like a sloth!"
Ethan looked at him with a mix of annoyance and exhaustion, then gestured with his hand as if asking to be left alone.
Jenny intervened, saying to Nicholas, "Leave Ethan alone, man. He went through a lot last night; he deserves some rest."
Marcus looked at Nicholas and said in his usual calm tone, "Let Ethan rest for a while, Nicholas. What happened to him today must have drained his energy."
Nicholas reluctantly agreed and threw the cover back on Ethan's face, saying, "How can this idiot sleep with all this noise?"
Nicholas turned to Lucas and said, "Alexander is currently imprisoned in the hospital. They are now thinking about what to do with him."
Lucas replied with a tone tinged with hatred and resentment, "What are you saying? He should be sentenced to death for his crimes! Although that's too lenient for him."
Marcus responded, "Well, that's true. But we still don't know what he was doing to the people he kidnapped. Since you were there for a long time, you probably know at least a little about what he was doing. So, please tell me everything you know."
Lucas continued, overwhelmed by a heavy feeling of anger and sadness, "I don't know where to start.... On my first day there, there was another prisoner near my cell. I don't know how long he had been there, but he was probably there for a while. The important thing is that he was normal like all of us. He didn't talk much, but he mentioned his name was Edward or something like that. I talked to him for about a day, I think, until that ***** came and took him by force to that ominous room. The room wasn't next to mine, but I could hear his screams from afar... screams full of pain... and the sound of metal from the metal bed... those were the sounds I usually heard there. Anyway, after a while of taking him, the screams stopped, which made me think he had killed him... but he had done something worse. After about an hour or more of silence, I saw that ***** dragging something using a rope. It was a human body without legs, with short arms, and instead of eyes, there were his ears, while his face was stitched up as if it had been reassembled. It didn't take minutes for me to realize that that deformed creature was Edward himself... He conducts experiments on humans. (His agitation increased) He disfigures their shapes and makes them suffer through their deformed bodies."
Marcus replied, "Well, that's useful, but how did you know that creature was Edward?"
Lucas replied, "Edward had a tattoo of a falcon on his arm; that's how I recognized him."
Marcus replied, "Well, that makes some sense. This information will be enough to convict him."
Marcus turned towards the door and left the room without a word.
Jenny looked at Jason and asked in an inquiring tone, "Doctor, what is your relationship with this man?"
Jason replied with a faint smile on his face, "He is my younger brother. He disappeared 15 days ago. I searched for him for a week, but despair overwhelmed me, and I thought he was dead. But here he is, alive and well in front of me."
Jenny replied, "So he's your brother. Well, I'm happy for both of you."
Lucas looked towards the sleeping Ethan and said in a grateful tone, "I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for that boy's help. Even though I was just a burden to him, he ran with me, trying to save me. I will never forget this favor as long as I live."
Jason looked at the sleeping Ethan with a mix of shock and relief on his face.
"He's the same child whose arm the worm penetrated. Hehe, who would have thought that a kid like him would save my little brother. Truly, this life is unpredictable."
**(Transition to Marcus)**
Marcus arrived at the place where Alexander was being held to find two guards guarding the door and the Old Man standing in front of them as if he was waiting for him.
When the Old Man saw Marcus, he approached him with a serious expression and said in a stern tone, "You finally came, Marcus. I have an important decision we need to make quickly."
Marcus replied calmly but seriously, "Does it concern Alexander's fate?"
The Old Man replied, "Alexander's fate is predetermined, either execution or life imprisonment. He is a danger to everyone. He was storing hordes of Varigan right beneath us. Who knows what he was planning to do with them?"
Marcus remained silent for a moment, then said, "Sorry for what you're about to hear, Old Man, but those creatures are not Varigan."
Expressions of astonishment appeared on the Old Man's face, and he said questioningly, "What are you saying? It's obvious they are."
Marcus replied in a serious tone, "According to the testimony of Lucas, the sole survivor from that place, those creatures are not Varigan, but rather citizens whose bodies were disfigured by Alexander."
Expressions of shock and tension appeared on the Old Man's features, and he replied with tension in his voice, "You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking!"
Marcus replied calmly, "No, I'm not, Old Man. That's what Lucas said verbatim. Additionally, if you want my opinion, based on what I saw of those monsters while I was there, almost all of them have a human-like appearance or at least have human skin, which makes Lucas's words logical to me."
After hearing this, despite his old age, the Old Man ran quickly towards the corridor, with expressions of shock and horror on his face, which puzzled Marcus.
The Old Man continued running through the hospital crowd until he left the hospital, then kept running towards the location of the prison, wishing from the bottom of his heart that Lucas's words were wrong.
The Old Man reached the door leading to the underground prison, entered quickly, and shouted with all his might, "Stooooooop!"
The people inside turned to him with expressions of astonishment and confusion.
The Old Man advanced towards one of the cells and ordered the man in front of it to tell everyone to stop the liquidation while he entered the cell where the creature lay killed on the ground.
The Old Man slowly approached it and began examining it carefully, noticing that the creature indeed had semi-human features.
Expressions of terror appeared on his face, and he began inspecting the cells in the place, noticing that they all had semi-human shapes, which confirmed the truth of Marcus's words.
The Old Man was struck with panic and shock, muttering to himself, "Oh my God.... They were really humans... I must stop killing them quickly."
The Old Man left the cell and shouted at the top of his voice, "Everyone who hears me, stop killing them and tell the others to stop immediately!"
The workers started moving quickly while the Old Man sat on one of the walls, breathing heavily.
Seconds later, Marcus entered the prison and approached the Old Man, saying in a calm and inquiring tone, "Have you verified the truth of my words now?"
The Old Man looked at Marcus with eyes full of anxiety and said, "I can't believe I rushed my decision like this... I killed humans thinking they were Varigan."
Marcus replied, "It's not your fault. In the end, who would know that those creatures are humans?"
The Old Man replied with a mix of anxiety and seriousness, "This is an unforgivable act... This Alexander deserves no pardon or mercy; he should be executed immediately. He is a danger to everyone... But before I do anything, I need to ask him some questions first."
**(At the Interrogation Room)**
The Old Man entered the room slowly, with a serious expression on his face.
Alexander was sitting on a wooden chair, his hands and feet shackled, with a face full of despair.
The Old Man approached Alexander, looking at him with glances full of hatred and contempt, then said to him as he sat on the chair, "I suppose you know why I've come, you animal."
Alexander raised his head towards the Old Man and replied coldly, "To tell me my sentence, I suppose."
The Old Man replied, with much anger in his tone, "With all you've done, your sentence has been clear from the beginning."
Alexander took a deep breath and replied with a tone of annoyance, "Then why did you come to me? It's impossible that you came just to tell me I'll be executed and then leave!"
The Old Man replied while adjusting his sitting position, "Actually, I came to ask you some questions."
Alexander replied while scratching his head, "Fine, ask whatever you want."
The Old Man took a deep breath and said calmly, trying to restrain his anger, "Why do you disfigure humans? What is the purpose of all this? And how were you able to do this in the first place? We don't have such advanced medical tools here."
Expressions of annoyance appeared on Alexander's face, and he said, "It's like an addiction, Old Man."
Expressions of astonishment appeared on the Old Man's face as Alexander continued, "The more I perform those experiments, the more I cut off their limbs and reassemble them the way I like. It gives me a kind of happiness, a kind of comfort that I only feel when I do that. And to be honest, I don't really like what I do. Even though performing these operations makes me feel ecstatic and happy, those feelings are followed after a while by a feeling of regret for what I've done, a terrible feeling that punishes me for my heinous actions. But even when I decide to stop, that irresistible urge comes to me to perform other operations, and the same scenario repeats itself!"
The Old Man remained silent for a moment after hearing Alexander's confession, while his astonishment grew upon hearing his words, then he replied in a tone of astonishment, "So tell me, since when have you had this addiction? And why didn't you seek help from any psychiatrist to solve this problem? We have many of them in the village."
Alexander coughed for a few seconds, then replied, "This problem isn't new, Old Man. I've been like this since I was young, but less dangerously. Specifically, at the age of 10, I used to stitch lizards' tails together or seal animals' mouths for fun. That made me want to learn new things. New ways to do what I love. And with the spread of those creatures on this continent and the collapse of laws that might prevent me from doing what I want, I set out to learn surgery at the age of 14. I used to go to hospitals, take the necessary tools, and take books to learn how to perform surgery and amputate organs without harming the organ itself. I always tried what I learned on those creatures, or if I was lucky, I would find some humans to experiment on. In the beginning, the fate of every creature I experimented on was death, either from bleeding or something else, but that changed later when I found one of those creatures that was a lifeless corpse at the time. I approached it and started my experiments on it and on another creature. And for fun, I took some of its blood and put it inside the hand of the second creature and cut it off, only to be surprised that the hand was still intact and still able to move for a few minutes. I was shocked by that, but I continued the operation, and after that, I was able to create my first artificial monster. A monster with different limbs, and life still flowing in it. From that moment on, I only performed that type of operation after taking all of that monster's blood. And after several years, specifically when I reached the age of 20, I started to feel a sense of regret, a bad feeling about everything I had done. I realized then that what I was doing was something monstrous, something worse than bad. But even with that, even with my acceptance of the fact that I was doing brutal things that no one should do, that urge to perform experiments never left me. Over all those years, this habit became an integral part of me. Even when I entered this village, I tried to change. I decided to become a doctor to help people and to help myself stop. But this was wrong... As soon as I entered the village and got a job as a doctor here, the desire became stronger and stronger due to the presence of many humans around. Every operation I performed to help someone here increased my lust and addiction to an irresistible degree. But I couldn't do anything because there was no safe place for me to perform my operations. So I kept tormenting myself from my lust and desire to perform operations for days, weeks, and months. Until one day, while I was walking outside the village, trying to restrain myself from doing that, I saw a small hole in front of one of the trees, which aroused my curiosity a bit. I passed by it, and suddenly I saw a ladder to some place underground, and I later discovered that it was a hidden prison underground. And from that time, my lust completely took control of me, and as you know, I started kidnapping people in the dead of night and performing my experiments there. Plus, how am I supposed to say this to a psychiatrist? Do you want me to tell him that I have an urge to experiment on people? That would have gotten me expelled from the village or even executed! So I kept my condition hidden."
The Old Man remained silent for a while, looking at Alexander with glances of shock and disgust, then stood up and said in a stern tone, "Sickness or lust, I'm not interested in that. Your actions have exceeded the limits of brutality. No one can justify this amount of suffering you've caused to others. Even with the absence of law in the world, in our small village, the punishment you deserve will be carried out."
Alexander looked at the Old Man with an empty gaze and said in a cold voice, "Do whatever you want."
The Old Man left the room, leaving Alexander shackled to the chair, resigned to his fate.
Outside, the Old Man met Marcus, who was waiting for him by the door.
Marcus asked him, "Are you finished now?"
The Old Man nodded and replied in a calm but heavy tone, "Yes. In short, he will be publicly executed in the middle of the village in an hour, so that the citizens can rest easy with the disappearance of the killer who had been terrifying them all these days."
Marcus replied indifferently, "Good... The important thing is that after the execution and all this is over, I hope you keep your promise and return one of our carts to us."
The Old Man replied calmly to Marcus, "Don't worry. When we're done, we'll give you the vaccine for the plague and give you what you want. After all, you're the one who helped us."
**(In the Middle of the Village)**
The villagers gathered in the middle of the village after the Old Man announced the execution of the man responsible for the citizens' disappearances.
The Old Man stood in front of Alexander, who was shackled, kneeling on the ground, with expressions of despair and resignation on his face.
While the noise of the citizens filled the air, the Old Man raised his hand, and silence fell afterwards.
The Old Man lowered his hand and spoke loudly and clearly to everyone, "People, we have gathered today to make a fateful decision. Alexander, whom we trusted as a doctor in this village, later turned out—based on what we saw and Lucas's testimony—to have committed unforgivable crimes against the citizens. It was revealed that he kidnaps citizens and performs horrific experiments on them, leaving them in lifelong agony through their own bodies."
Silence dominated the place, and expressions of disgust appeared on the faces of the attendees.
Some exchanged glances and whispers in low voices.
The Old Man continued, "The continued existence of this monster is a direct threat to each one of us. He lived among us. We thought he was one of us. But he committed unforgivable crimes against every one of us."
The Old Man looked towards one of the guards in the place who was carrying a pistol in his hand (the same person who threatened Marcus with the pistol at the beginning) and nodded, ordering him to prepare for the execution.
Then he looked at Alexander, whose face showed expressions of despair and coldness, and said to him, "Do you have any last words?"
Alexander looked at the citizens to find them looking at him with expressions of disgust and hatred. Alexander took a deep breath and said in a voice filled with pain and sadness, "I will not ask for mercy, because I do not deserve it. Everything I did was driven by an impulse I couldn't control. I tried to stop, but I failed. But this is no excuse for what I did to others. And here I am, sitting before you, ready to receive my punishment."
The echo of his words spread among the crowd of citizens.
Nothing but anger and disgust appeared on their features, with their shouts filled with hatred and resentment filling the place.
The Old Man looked towards the guard and signaled him to begin the execution.
The guard advanced towards Alexander and placed the pistol at the back of his head.
Alexander's body began to tremble, and sweat poured profusely. Despite his acceptance of his death, his body refused to believe it. His body. His mind. His heart. Every cell in his body did not want to die.
Alexander tried to say something, but the guard pulled the trigger, and the bullet entered his head, dropping him dead to the ground. A pool of blood began to spread under his head, announcing the end of a life full of turmoil and crimes.
The sounds of the attendees, filled with joy at their victory over the killer, prevailed.
The Old Man signaled to a group of guards in the place, who then wrapped Alexander in a black cloth and carried him away from the place.
People gradually dispersed; some still felt angry, others felt relieved by the killer's death, and others were sad about the state the village had reached.
In a distant corner, Marcus watched everything in silence. He turned his head to the Old Man and said in a calm tone, "Old Man, can I go check Alexander's body? I need to verify some things."
The Old Man nodded in agreement to his request, and before he left, he turned to Nicholas and said, "Take the cart that the Old Man will give you and wait for me outside." Then he walked away from them.
Nicholas looked at him in surprise for a while. But he ignored his feeling as soon as he saw a group of men carrying the same carts they had brought previously to them.
The Old Man approached Nicholas, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, "Well, this is what we promised Marcus. One cart from the ones you brought and the plague medicine for you. I think that's everything."
Nicholas turned to Ethan and Jenny, who in turn exchanged looks with him. Then he signaled them to help him carry the cart.
They headed towards the cart, and the three of them cooperated, carrying it outside the village.
They placed the cart outside and all sat down to rest until Marcus returned.
---
"My head hurts."
"My memory is fuzzy."
"What happened?"
"Was all that a dream?"
Alexander slowly opened his eyes. He found himself on one of the hospital beds.
He couldn't get up at first. But he eventually got up from his place.
He couldn't see anything because he wasn't wearing his glasses. So he started moving his hand around, feeling everything he touched, hoping to find them.
After not too long, he managed to find his glasses, which were on one of the tables in front of him. He picked them up from the table and slowly put them on his eyes, after which his vision improved.
Alexander began looking around carefully.
There were dozens of medical beds, on which were what appeared to be dead humans, all covered with a black cloth except for their feet, which were visible on all the corpses.
Expressions of anxiety and astonishment appeared on Alexander's face, and he said in a tone tinged with anxiety and tension, "W...Where am I? The last thing I remember is that I was executed..... Could it be... that this is hell?"
Seconds after finishing his speech, he heard a voice from behind him. A voice familiar to him: "No, not hell yet."
Alexander slowly turned around, with expressions of shock and confusion on his face. The man standing behind him was Marcus, looking at him from afar, sitting on one of the beds.
Alexander said, with shock controlling his features, "What are you doing here? And how did I end up alive? I'm sure the bullet penetrated my brain!!"
Marcus replied, "All I did was modify the pistol of the person who executed you before the execution. I made it too weak to kill you but strong enough to make them think you were dead. Do you have any other questions?"
Alexander remained frozen in place from shock. Trying to comprehend everything that was happening.
Marcus continued, "If you're wondering why I saved you, it's simply because you are an incredibly useful person. Just think: there are still doctors who can reattach amputated limbs to their owners. Not only that, but even transplant them into other humans the way they want—it's truly indescribable."
Alexander remained silent for a moment. While his eyes widened with horror and tension as he heard his words. And he said in a voice that grew more tense and nervous over time, "Are you in your right mind? After all I've done. You save me just because I'm useful? Are you crazy?! I tortured hundreds of souls just because I couldn't control myself and my lust! I won't be of any use; I'll just repeat the same scenario again!"
Marcus replied in his usual calm, serious tone, "If you're worried about that lust of yours. I can cure you of it. Therefore, you can't consider it a problem."
Alexander replied in a tone filled with shock and confusion, "What? What are you raving about? How can you cure me?"
Marcus got up from his chair and started walking slowly towards Alexander until he reached him. Alexander raised his head tensely to find Marcus looking at him calmly from behind his mask.
Marcus directed his closed fist towards Alexander's head and said, "Do you remember when you found your hand suddenly broken, but you didn't remember how it happened to you?"
Alexander answered with difficulty, "Yes..."
Marcus continued, "I was the one who did that to you. But you didn't remember because I used this on you."
Suddenly and without warning, Marcus slammed his hand against the wall with force, making Alexander step back a few steps, frightened by what he did.
He opened his eyes in terror, with expressions of astonishment and confusion on his face.
And amid all these conflicting emotions. Alexander glimpsed something strange in Marcus's arm. It started vibrating strangely and rapidly, which aroused his astonishment.
Marcus continued, "Nuxis. It's a special technique that allows me to create specific frequencies sent directly to the brain, which I usually use to erase a minute of a person's memory starting from the time they receive the blow, but the duration doubles with each blow delivered. You might wonder what this has to do with your addiction? Simply, I can use the same technique but with different frequencies to target the organ that causes your addiction and reduce its activity, and here you are, cured."
Alexander looked at him with glances of doubt and disbelief, "Are you sure you can do any of this?"
Marcus replied, "Yes, and if you don't believe me, how about taking a look at the place."
Alexander replied, "What are you ta___"
Alexander was surprised that they were not in the same place and that they had moved to another room different from the previous one: "What?! Where are we?"
Marcus replied, "Do you believe me now?"
Alexander looked at him in astonishment while a faint feeling of hope began to appear in his heart. Then he said in a hasty tone, "What are you waiting for? Do it__"
And before he could finish his words, Marcus delivered a strong blow to a specific area of Alexander's head, causing him to fall to the ground from the intensity of the pain. Then he said to him in a calm tone, "Well, we're done. Get on your feet quickly; we don't have much time."
Alexander got up from the ground with difficulty, only to find that he was outside the village. He stood for a few seconds, trying to regain his balance and full consciousness. After waking up completely, a strange feeling came over him. A feeling he had never felt before.
"What is this feeling? I was always used to feeling incomplete when a period passed without performing my operations, even if it was short, but it was a permanent feeling for me. But now it's different... That feeling has completely disappeared. I don't feel the usual discomfort. I no longer feel the desire to perform any operations. He really did it! He was telling the truth! But I didn't expect to feel this so quickly. I thought I would know after several hours, which is the time I usually become active to do what I do."
Marcus interrupted his thoughts, saying, "Didn't you hear me? I told you quickly; I don't want night to fall on us halfway."
Alexander replied, "Wait a moment, my tools and the materials I used are in my medical room. I can't do much without them."
Marcus sighed and replied, "Unfortunately, they searched your room and your cell and took those materials you were using. And they are now trying to find out their source and how to make them so they can benefit from them in medicine."
Expressions of annoyance appeared on Alexander's features, and he said, "To your misfortune, all those things I do basically need those materials to succeed."
Marcus replied indifferently, "It's not a problem. You can tell me how to make them on the way, and I will provide you with everything you need. Just do your job and give me the best results."
Alexander replied, "If that's the case, then there's no problem."
Marcus replied, "Then let's leave this place."
So Alexander and Marcus set off towards the team who were waiting for him.
Everyone was surprised that Alexander was still alive. But Marcus told them that he would explain everything to them on the way.
Then they went on a long journey back to their original village.
**(End of Chapter)**