Zane was crying, not looking at his father. The boy had recently pissed himself.

"You damn dicksucker!" Faye shouted at the executioner.

He was huffing in frustration. For almost half an hour, he had worked on Xavier, but the man didn't scream once. He only growled as the red-hot metal burned his skin.

The executioner couldn't do much more than that. The man's hands and legs were embedded into the wall, so he couldn't put needles under his fingernails. Also, as parts of the man's hands and legs were outside the wall, he could easily move and twitch, which made it hard to hold his head to rip his teeth out.

Besides that, the executioner knew that his master liked to torture people in the most elaborate ways, so he usually only used the most common methods.

But the prisoner's stubbornness irritated him a bit nonetheless. Why did he refuse to scream?

"I will make you eat your own shit, you hear me, dickhead?" Faye didn't stop. She didn't really care about Zane listening anymore. The executioner was amazed by the noblewoman's wide and deep vocabulary. He didn't know that she had been through a war, that she had heard enough never to run out of curses.

"Shut your mouth, you filthy fuckhole." The executioner approached her and gave her another kick in the stomach.

"Mom!" Zane cried.

Because of his occupation, the executioner had heard many people swearing too, so he knew how to respond to her. "If you won't shut up, I will knock your teeth out, shove them up your ass, and then mix it up with my dick!"

"How dare you!" Xavier roared.

Lady Gauss was still there, though she turned away from them in disgust. She definitely didn't like what was happening.

"Maybe I can convince her to help us?" Xavier thought, his furious mind turning into a calculating intellect. For some reason, her identity was hidden diligently, so he didn't know her name and didn't know how to address her.

"Lady Gauss, what are you doing here?" he started. "I can see that you don't enjoy watching the torture," Xavier growled.

"Harper... Is this bastard making you watch? I can get rid of him if you let me out." She flinched but didn't say anything.

The executioner interfered, "She won't go against Lord Harper; she never did. Besides, she can't use magic, so she wouldn't be able to free you from the wall behind you even if she decided to help you."

Xavier frowned. The torture continued.

Xavier lost track of time. How was the executioner still not tired? It seemed like no more than half an hour had passed. But maybe it actually hadn't been long since Harper left?

For him, it seemed that his legs and hands were going to rip off soon. Hanging on them for so long definitely isn't good for health. Most sensitive spots of his body were covered with burns.

At least, while he was being tortured, his family was safe.

Suddenly, he heard someone's footsteps. Xavier wondered if it was Harper coming back to the party.

The footsteps approached, and it became clear that there were two people – one walking confidently, the other mincing hesitantly.

Soon, they entered the room. It was Harper Gauss and his son, Bruno, whose hair were green just like his father's. Fear was evident in the boy's face.

Xavier was shocked. That cruel bastard brought his son to watch people being tortured! Was it a tradition of some kind? Could it be the reason why all of them were serial killers?

But Bruno was five, just like Zane! Wasn't it too much even for hereditary psychopaths like the Gausses?

Harper spoke, watching Xavier. "This felon," fury reflected in Harper's eyes, "is the descendant of the demon who killed our god, the Lord of Life Inzournate. It happened five years ago, soon after you," he looked at his son, "were born."

"They," he continued, looking at the prisoners, "are the recently abducted Nocturne family. Your test is to watch my actions without turning away or closing your eyes. Of course, you can blink," he smiled gently.

Bruno's mother approached him and lay her hands on his shoulders. Harper took the red-hot tongs out of the executioner's hands. "Take a good look, son." He held it up to Xavier's face, and...

Bruno shut his eyes, but he could still hear how, for the first time, the warrior's growl turned into a scream.

"I told you not to close your eyes!" Harper shouted.

Lady Gauss squeezed her son's shoulders. She wanted to help him somehow, but she couldn't. Or was she simply afraid to do so?

The boy opened his eye a little bit. Xavier turned his face so that the boy wouldn't see a gaping hole where his left eye was.

Of course, Harper didn't like this act of heroism. "Show it! Show it to him," he ordered. The warrior didn't flinch.

"Still wanting to be an unbending awesome guy?" Harper asked calmly. "Very well."

"There are many ways to torture people, son. Sometimes you don't even need to touch them," he grinned, approaching Zane and Faye.

"No!" Xavier shouted, "Harper, if you do something to them, I will cut your heart out! Through your ass!"

The disgusting torturer laughed, "You see, Bruno? It's very effective."

Faye covered Zane with herself, but Harper pulled him out of her tied arms. The boy was crying and kicking, so the man slapped his face.

He put Zane's tied hands on the concrete wall. Then he pushed them into it, and the boy's hands immersed in the wall as if it were viscous fluid.

Harper neither moved his hands nor said something to cast a spell. Xavier couldn't understand, how that worked. Perhaps demigods could use magic without spells?

Zane's hands were now walled in just like Xavier's.

Bruno watched in horror; he was afraid of disobeying his father.

Harper grabbed a vice and approached Zane again.

Lady Gauss couldn't take it anymore. She closed her son's eyes with her hands. Zane could still hear voices, though.

"Hey, boy, why did you go limp? Did you pass out?" his father said, addressing Zane. "You bitch, why did you close my son's eyes? He must watch!" he noticed his wife's little riot.

Her hands squeezed her boy's head, and she was quiet for a few seconds. Then the storm broke out.

"Leave us alone, you crazy maniac! You and your family are a bunch of madmen! I won't let you make my son into one!" she cried terribly.

Harper laughed. "What can you do about it? He is like me already; blood is thicker than water. His dark side just hasn't awakened yet."

"Then I'll hope that he has more of my blood in him than yours!" she shouted.

Xavier was glad his son passed out because it would at least delay the torture. However, he was worried because of Zane's loud, heavy breathing. That was not how unconscious people usually sounded. Did he really pass out because of fear?

Suddenly, his son's strange breath turned into a scream, and he started convulsing.

"Zane!" Xavier and Faye shouted.

Bruno was terrified. What was happening?

Zane was thrashing about as if a demon had possessed his body, but he couldn't break free from the wall.

Harper was looking at the boy in surprise.

It seemed that Zane was a doll, that an alien force lifted his legs into the air and then slammed them back onto the floor and the wall time and time again.

That made his parents afraid that their boy could accidentally rip his hands off. What could cause this seizure? Was it painful?

Harper frowned, "Drop the act, boy. Now."

A few seconds after that command scream ran out, Zane's body went limp, hung on his hands recessed into the wall. It suddenly got very quiet in the room. "Very well," Harper grinned.

He slapped the boy's face, but the boy didn't come back to his senses. Harper slapped again. "What's wrong with him?" he said.

Xavier and Faye were going crazy with worry, shouting, "Zane! Are you alright?"

Zane groaned, his eyes finally opened.

"Son?" Xavier asked anxiously.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Faye couldn't understand what was going on. Could Harper be torturing their son in some elaborate way? But the madman appeared to be shocked just like she and Xavier were, even though Harper tried to hide it.

Finally, Zane spoke, "What," his face contorted with pain, "What does the word 'kerfuffle' mean?"

Harper's face changed. He stared at the boy in fright. He only knew one person who used this word. But the boy in front of him couldn't be that blue-haired bitch, could he?