After the man ran away, Dennis stepped closer to Diablo, curious about what had pushed him to call for the elders of Eleso faction.
"What are you planning to do?" he asked.
"I'm curious about this faction and I want to teach them a lesson," Diablo replied.
"A lesson on what?"
"We've taken it as our duty to protect the innocent, but these people…" Diablo gestured toward the ones he'd beaten, still sprawled on the floor, "…decided to force innocents into their faction against their will. We just happened to be here to witness it. Other people in other places might not have been able to resist them at all."
Dennis finally understood. From the beginning, Diablo had been against protecting others, his past had convinced him humans were selfish and cruel, like those who tormented him back in secondary school. But Dennis's influence had begun to rub off, Diablo was starting to care, and now he truly wanted to protect the innocent.
It didn't take long before six figures appeared, the man they'd released to fetch help, plus five elders.
"Hey Dennis, are those the elders?" Diablo asked.
"Why do you ask?" Dennis countered.
"When that guy said the elders were strong, I imagined stern, muscular men and slender women with femme-fatale vibes. Except for those two men," Diablo said, nodding toward Adogun and Raphael, "the rest look like trash and corrupt officials," his tone dripping disappointment.
Their mocking words carried; as Ascendants, the elders had heightened senses and heard everything. Anger flared on their faces and hostility radiated out, except from Raphael and Adogun, who remained oddly calm because Diablo hadn't insulted them.
"Damn, even fat pigs can get angry," Diablo said, feigning a shiver as if intimidated.
Dennis glanced at Diablo and shook his head at the act. When he had first found Diablo, the young boy had seemed fragile; now he looked like someone willing to challenge the world.
The three level-6 elders let their auras flare as Diablo continued to taunt them. Tense and hostile, they stepped forward. The low-level Ascendants Dennis and Diablo had rescued shrank back under that pressure.
Adogun scanned the beaten men on the floor, then fixed his gaze on Dennis and Diablo. "Are you the ones who beat my men?"
"Not ones but one," Diablo corrected.
"What do you mean?" Adogun asked, confused.
"Didn't your man say I beat them all and not both of us?" Diablo asked, unsure why the messenger had lied.
All eyes turned to the sweating man who had called the elders. He realized telling the truth would get him punished for incompetence, lying might have seemed safer. Now exposed, he had no escape from the elders' wrath.
"But you said two young men beat you and your men up," Mrs. Samirat snapped at him. He looked ready to break, and Adogun cut in.
"It doesn't matter now. What matters is how these two young men will pay for their actions," Adogun declared, his voice carrying the weight of assumed authority.
Dennis let Diablo handle the confrontation while he watched from the side.
"Pay? And how are you going to make me pay?" Diablo asked with an offhand smile.
"Cocky brat, don't you know who your elders are?" Mr. Miracle barked.
At the word "elder," the air shifted around Diablo; he hated that word. In the old world, "elders" had been people he'd asked for help when he was bullied, people who never came. Now, a stranger demanded he respect elders, and Diablo reacted.
"Do you think you deserve to be an elder with all that corruption written on your face?" Diablo shot back.
Raphael smirked. "See? Even the kid who doesn't know you sees you're corrupt."
"Not now, Raphael," Adogun warned.
Raphael shrugged, moved away, sat on the floor, and lit a cigarette, watching the scene like a spectator at a show. The others grumbled but let him be.
Adogun turned back to the matter. "So tell me, young men, how will you pay for the damages?" he asked.
Kingsley, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke. "Pay? These boys have nothing. We should just kill them and take those people back to the faction." He rolled up his sleeves as if readying to fight.
Offended by Diablo's insults, Kingsley had been holding back his anger, Adogun's patience had been wearing thin, but now Kingsley snapped.
He unleashed his level-6 aura and charged at Diablo with surprising speed for his stout frame, fist cocked to strike the younger man's face.
But Kingsley's punch was caught mid-air with one hand by Diablo. The other elders were stunned, none had expected such an effortless catch.
Kingsley stumbled back, furious. He had hoped to land a surprise blow, but Diablo's calm expression made him feel foolish, like a clown in front of an audience.
Diablo released Kingsley's hand. Kingsley jumped back, creating space, while the man who had summoned the elders secretly rejoiced that he hadn't engaged sooner.
"Is that all you've got? Your minion said you elders were strong," Diablo taunted.
That set Kingsley ablaze. "Mr. Kingsley, don't be so pompous. Stop attacking," Adogun ordered, as if reining in a volatile soldier.
"You saw how he's been speaking to us. You still want to act like nothing happened?" Kingsley countered.
"We'll be better off with them alive than dead," Adogun replied, reasoning through the faction's needs.
Raphael, listening, was surprised, Adogun sought to recruits the young men but not executions. That shift in strategy bothered him in a way that recalibrated his opinion of Adogun slightly.
"Fine. I want them dead. What do the rest of you say?" Kingsley demanded, looking to Mr. Miracle and Mrs. Samirat.
"Do what you want," they agreed; they, too, felt insulted.
Kingsley smiled, thinking he had consensus. Adogun, however, seemed powerless. He wanted to recruit Diablo and Dennis, but risking faction infighting over two strangers was a gamble he wasn't ready to take.
"Hey, boy, ready to die?" Kingsley asked sinisterly.
Diablo nodded. "Ready when you are."
The room tightened, every eye fixed on the two cocky strangers who dared to defy the elders. The tension crackled; the elders' auras pressed in like a storm about to break. Diablo's smirk never left his face. Dennis remained calm, watching, waiting for what would come next.