Covered in blood, Khalil returned to his sanctuary to find two men waiting for him in the darkened room.

The Spectre was crouched in a corner of the room, idly picking at his fingernails, his black hair hanging loose and low on his forehead, his face covered in blood, and there were even shreds of flesh hanging from his body.

Seeing this scene, Karyl knew that he was afraid that he had torn more people alive.

As for the other......

Khalil looked over at them, the woman unconscious, her metal right hand gone, severed flush from its attachment at the shoulder.Judging from the rough cuts, Spectre had probably torn the arm off hard.

"Is he dead?" the Spectre asked suddenly.

"Dead," Karil said. "Also, could you step outside for a moment, Spectre?"

"Why?"

"You stink, Spectre, that's why. I thought we agreed you had to take care of your personal hygiene."

The Spectre frowned, "Aren't you covered in blood too?"

"Don't get me wrong, Spectre."

Kahlil smiled angrily as he removed his blood-stained cloak and tossed it out the door, grinning as he walked over to the battered chair and sat down.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"......"

The Spectre said nothing more, but turned and walked out the door; his hearing allowed him to hear clearly what was going on in the room even from a distance, so it really didn't matter if he was actually there or not.

However, he still didn't understand why Khalil insisted on letting him out - maybe one day in the future he would.

The battered door creaked shut, and the smile on Khalil's face instantly faded.The skin loosened and a calm settled over the pale face.

"It's time for you to wake up," Karil said. "Pretending to be asleep is not a good option."

The woman ghostly opened her eyes, she was calm and looked like she had a clear idea of her current situation.

Unfortunately, it wasn't clear enough.

"So the Vengeful Fierce Spirit has help..." the woman said slowly. "But you don't realize what your helper has done, do you?"

"He killed some damn people."

"He tore up my car in public, tore up my bodyguards....And I spoke my name to those lowly bastards before I was forced to leave.Soon enough, the Skolewalkers will know what happened here."

A slow, sardonic smile spread across the woman's face, a malice that she did not hide; the descriptor she used for the matter of her captivity was even 'forced to leave'.

That's really interesting.

A smile appeared again on Karil's face, which had already calmed down.

"Is that so?So which family do you belong to?Which Earl?"

"You know quite a bit..."The woman sneered.Karil's words seemed to make her more certain of something.

She was covered in blood and sitting on the dirty ground in a pitiful state, yet she acted as if she was the one who held the sovereignty.

In response, Kalil's smile became more pronounced, but he didn't speak, just breathed slowly as if he were brewing something.

The woman, on the other hand, mistook this harbinger of things to come for something else.

"If you don't want to be tormented for a decade or more, you'd better let me go....You can't run away, Vengeful Fierce Spirit."

She glared at Karil in his chair with hatred, pronouncing Karil's ridiculous title very heavily.

"I don't know who's behind you, and I don't know who gave you the technical support to even be willing to give you an iron golem with low intelligence.............................................................."

She shouted at that.

"But the Skolewalkers are coming for you! And your only chance to survive is to let me out of this filthy hellhole!"

Karil finally let out a deep chuckle.

"Iron Golem......Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha ......"

His laughter echoed through the darkened room."I can't believe you think he's some kind of killing machine created by those tinkerers......".

"Isn't it?Don't try to bluff me!"

"You really do have a sense of humor, ma'am," Kalil said quietly."But I hate humor."

He stood and kicked the woman without hesitation, using just the right amount of force, kicking her in the abdomen to make her feel intense pain, but also to keep her from losing her speech.

This was nothing to the nobles.

They had a deep-rooted tradition of throwing their still-growing heirs into the Lower Nest, leaving them to be hunted by gangs and commoners, and those who survived would assume a certain title within the family.

The woman spat out a mouthful of blood as she struggled to her feet, her only remaining left hand hammering angrily on the ground, "I'm going to skin you for this! You lowly piece of trash! What do you think you are?"

Karil didn't say anything, just kicked her again, this time with a little more force, enough to hurt and humiliate her, but not enough to send her adrenaline to some kind of peak.

He needed her to feel fear, not ignore it out of violent anger.

Khalil was able to control his power with precision, so he did this easily; it was one of the many reasons he had survived Nostramo so far.

The woman flew backwards and crashed into the place where the ghost usually liked to be, breaking two ribs and knocking several teeth out of her toothy mouth.

After a cry of pain, she was filled with indignation at being humiliated, and without hesitation, she climbed up and lunged at Carlyle, even whimpering and muttering indistinct curses under her breath.

A pale hand came out of the darkness, stopping her blind attack and squeezing her neck. After feeling such real power, fear finally appeared on the woman's face.

She finally realized that this so-called vengeful and ferocious spirit that had been wreaking havoc on the ground of the Nestorian capital for the past year and a half didn't seem to be quite what they had assumed.

He wasn't a private soldier sent by some noble before the Great Purge, nor was he a secret agent planted in advance.......

He did not care about the 'rules of the game' that the nobles knew by heart and that everyone followed!

Khalil squeezed her neck and led her out of the room, where the ghost had jumped up to the roof of the shelter and crouched there like a wild animal, staring down at what was going on below without saying a word.

And tonight in Nostramo......it was still raining.

While the darkness never ends, the neon lights that the gangs use to announce their spheres of influence pierce the night, casting a treacherous light across the sky.Acidic and poisonous rain fell from the sky, threatening to intensify.

In the midst of the torrential downpour, Kalil spoke slowly.

"I guess you're probably racking your brains right now trying to figure out who's behind me, daring me to be so bold."

The woman's one remaining left hand slapped his right hand with difficulty, trying to get him to let go.The combination of the lack of oxygen and being on the ground had left her with no strength to fight.

"But I have no one behind me," Khalil said."There are no nobles behind me, no family behind me to support me.Unbelievable, isn't it?"

He laughed and let go of his hand as the woman collapsed on the ground in a heap, covering her neck and breathing heavily, interspersed with a violent cough.Karil didn't even look at her, just raised his arms and enjoyed the torrential downpour.

Searing pain coursed through his exposed skin, but he didn't care.

He'd gotten used to it long ago.

He crouched down.

"Let me tell you something, ma'am."

Khalil looked into her eyes and spoke softly. "Not everything in this world is run by your rules."

"For hundreds of years, Nostramo has followed your rules.The people of the Lower Nest lived in miserable conditions like dogs, gnawing at each other's corpses in the dark.The gangs divide and rule, collecting taxes and squeezing the public instead of you."

"And you? All you have to do is sit in your palaces and have a grand old time, and you invent all sorts of ways to enjoy your depraved lives.You even have to take a few on a damn regular basis to relax."

Khalil grinned, his teeth white and exposed to the humid air.

"I'm upset about this....Seriously, I'm upset."

He raised his right hand and showed the woman the wrist tattoo.Her eyes widened and a name was immediately called out by her, "Lohals!"

"You got it right......".

Khalil nodded with a soft smile and stood up, an elegant courtly salute born in the next second, and his voice, a low one.

"From the remnants of House Lohals, Khalil Lohals, greetings to you, ma'am."

The woman finally let out a scream of fear and crawled back on her hands and knees, trying to escape, and Kahlil had laughed and pounced.

Blood and flesh flew.

-----------------

"I thought you were going to torture them."

"Uh-huh."

"But you didn't seem to get her to say anything."

"Ah, did you?"

"You wouldn't let me kill her, but you killed her yourself."

"......Can you leave me alone for a moment, Spectre?"

Khalil turned his head impatiently and glared at the Spectre sitting in the darkness, "I'm planning what to do next!"

"Oh."

Silence.

Khalil closed his eyes and finally managed to keep his lips from moving.Turning his head again, he asked, "Were you curious about what the woman said?"

"She said your last name and seemed scared to death of it."The Spectre nodded."Why? Does she know you?"

"No, she doesn't know me, but she knows the tattoo."

Khalil said as he raised his right hand and showed the tattoo to Spectre.

"A knife dripping blood?" the Spectre said suspiciously. "What could this pattern represent?"

"It represents a family."

Khalil smiled mockingly. "A family that specializes in executions.Their methods are so cruel that even those nobles who enjoy being tortured and abused cannot stand it.That is why they are afraid."

"The last and final count of this family was named Gaius Lohals, also known as the Count of Decapitation.He was a cruel and unethical and inhumane executioner with a penchant for killing."

"As for the House of Lohals......Its founder was a very lucky scumbag.He climbed to high office from the bottom of the heap five hundred and thirty-one years ago.He went from being a dirty gang dog to a member of the oppressors in the great purge of the nobility."

"So you're an aristocrat too?" asked Spectre.

"No."Kalil shook his head."Don't compare me to them, Spectre."

"The Lohals broke the rules of the game during the Great Purge twenty years ago.Gaius Lohals attempted to assassinate a lord and annex his territory, and his actions were denounced by traitors within the family, whereupon the entire family was put to death."

"And they all died?"

"Yes, they're all dead."

"But..."

"But?"

"But you're not dead."

"Yes." Khalil smiled slightly, "I'm a traitor, so I'm not dead."

Instead of loosening his tightly furrowed brow, the Spectre, upon hearing the explanation, frowned tighter and tighter."But you're the wrong age....Twenty years ago, you were just a child.How could you be a betrayer?"Khalil asked.

"A child born in sin, a child born of the blood of his victims and raised by sucking their flesh."

Khalil's tone gently corrected the Spectre. "The traitor is someone else, and I......"

He shook his head.

"It's the whole damned aristocracy I'm betraying," he said."Believe it or not, it's up to you, Spectre.As for the truth......Heh."