How Evil Dies: Chapter 3 – Strength and Violence

Chapter 3 – Strength and Violence

It’s finally done. My armor, my symbol of strength, and my continuation of my family’s legacy are complete. After fighting and killing my parents in combat, I’ve taken their skin and bones to make a skull helmet and sewn their skin into mine just as their parents and grandparents did before. Included in this mixture are the bones and skin of their most worthy foes that they have bested that also have their own mixture in their bodies.

Looking into the mirror, I see a warrior worthy of my family’s name. I see Vi who is not a simple knave like the rest of the people in the Fighter’s district and who will instead become the Victor, who is the strongest person in the district. To obtain the title of Victor is to reach the summit of life and to lose it is death and to never reach it is tragedy. Strength and victory are everything. To become strong and obtain victory over everyone is life’s goal. Today, I seek to honor my family’s legacy by starting my hunt for new strength afresh with my new enhancements.

The streets of the Fighter’s district are soaked with blood and the people here either have guards with them, are feared, respected, bold, or incredibly idiotic. There would be endless fights in the streets if most people didn’t agree that a fight should only happen when challenged. Still, some will start fights unannounced or kill their prey in cowardly ways like they do in the Business district through tools such as poisons, explosives, mechanical “accidents”, or overwhelming numbers. The acquisition of strength should be through head-on fights, which seem to be getting rarer these days, especially with all the chaos that is happening in the other districts. Regardless, the new prey coming into the district is perfect for the weaklings and those looking for a job. I, on the other hand, am only looking to further my strength.

As I look for the perfect target to practice my newfound strength on, I eventually find a group of weaklings who are pretending to be strong just because they’re protecting a merchant of alcohol and drugs from the Sense district. They look at me as if I’m a foolish lost child and whisper to themselves while laughing.

“I challenge you all to a fight,” I say to them.

“Challenge us? There’s four of us and only one of you,” one of them says.

“I need something to test my new enhancements and you four look like good practice.”

“Practice, huh? We accept your challenge and you’ll see that we are more than mere practice. We’re your last fight.”

All four guards come at me at once as the crowd around us spreads out to give us space to fight. To clear some space for myself, I use my blade arm to make the guards back off so I can go on the offensive. Leaping forward, I cut one of the guards in half with my blade arm and then immediately go to crush the next guard’s head with my large left arm. The last two guards try cutting at my left arm and breaking it with their own blade arms and stone-like fists and I let them try to test the strength of my arm. Nothing happens as a result of their attacks even as they switch to attack my face and then body, which reassures me of the quality of my newfound enhancements. To make them stop their pathetic attempts at piercing my skin, I cut both of them in half in one swing to end the fight.

Around me, the crowds disperse to go see the next fight that is happening down the street with the rest of them carrying on as if nothing happened. That fight was a bit too easy, but at least I know I won’t have to take the skin of these lowly guards and that what I have now is of good quality. Now I have to find a better challenge since I hardly broke a sweat during this fight.

“Excuse me, sir,” the merchant says.

“What is it?” I say.

“Well, since you killed my guards, I thought I’d offer you the job to replace them. It’ll just be for a few hours, but you’ll be paid as if you worked the entire day.”

I could use the money. My enhancements do make me stronger, but they don’t negate the need for me to eat and drink. I need to get those particular ones from certain mighty warriors of legend, which is a challenge that I’ll seek when I think I’m ready.

“I’ll take it.”

“Thank you! I really appreciate it and you won’t regret this.”

What the merchant claims seems to be correct as I escort him to the people he deals with and encounter many people who challenge me to a fight or try to take his life because he is either their competition or because he’s from a different district. By the time the merchant pays me, twenty people have been slain by my hand. Because of this display, I get triple the amount of wealth along with the promise that he’ll hire me again and recommend me to his friends.

“Can I hire you for one last request for the day? It’s a small one, but it may be needed for my safety,” the merchant says.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Could you escort me back to my stronghold in the Sense district? Even though I’m sure that you struck fear into everyone in this district and others will think twice about coming after me, I still can’t be too sure, especially in this economy.”

“I accept.”

“Thank you, thank you a million times over!”

At first, the merchant’s fears look to be a result of paranoia and the reality of being in the Fighter’s district. That is until we are approached by the Victor just as we are exiting the district. Everyone moves aside as he walks towards us, his eyes on all three heads unblinkingly staring at us and his mouth dripping fresh blood and drool. Since he is obviously looking for a fight, I watch his blade arms, muscular legs, and bloody stomach mouth that chomps at us as if it’s unable to control itself at the sight of perceived prey. The other parts to note on him are the heads of his victims that hang on a string around his neck and his crown made out of fingers and intestines.

“Vi! You’ve been making quite the name for yourself after defeating your parents in a duel. I would’ve let you be, but your sudden rise in popularity has piqued my interest in dueling with you. What do you say? You’d really make a name for yourself and your family whether you live or die,” the Victor says.

This chance I have at becoming the strongest in the district is so alluring that I begin to salivate and smile uncontrollably.

“I accept!” I say before leaping into battle.

To defend himself, the Victor meets my left fist with his blade and hand arm. When our blows collide, both the blade and arm are broken by the force of my attack, but he keeps attacking with it as if nothing happened and he doesn’t feel any pain. I continue my attack with my blade arm to dismember this broken arm and then cut at his muscular legs to stop his constant advance on me, which hardly slows him down. Using his last arm, he tries to impale me and keeps stomping his feet down to crush my feet. I keep backing away until I use a trick I have up my sleeve or rather on my back. When I turn my back to the Victor, I use the spikes on my back to impale him before turning back around and cutting through his last arm and his head.

While backing away, the Victor thrashes around with his dismembered arms and damaged legs until I cut and beat him down until his body is nothing more than bits and pieces. Victory is mine. The honor of being the new Victor now belongs to me and my family is honored in that way. I raise my arms in the air and yell out as the crowds around me either cower in fear, plot my death, or yell out with me as tradition dictates when one Victor is dead and another takes their place. By the time the high the victory gives me is over, I realize that I have completely forgotten about the merchant.

He should be fine so close to the Sense district and with everyone being distracted by the duel and my victory. This is what I think at first until I eventually find him dead at the hands of a warrior from the Fighter’s district. The warrior throws the body of the merchant to the ground as if it were wet putrid trash and then looks at me with a kind of fearlessness that takes me back a bit. He must’ve not witnessed me win the fight or have been so focused on getting to the merchant that he didn’t know it was going on.

“I was protecting that man,” I say to the warrior.

“Well, your contract with him is up. You can take your pay off his body if you want and you’re fine with dirty money,” the warrior says.

“I had a responsibility to protect him and I intend to avenge him because of that.”

“Are you willing to die for that piece of trash? He had my daughter and the daughters and sons of many people that he sells to the perverse.”

“I had a responsibility and that is it. I hope you felt better after killing him because that is the last thing you will do.”

As I fight the warrior, I begin to see two of him. What kind of trick is this? Am I tired from all of today’s fighting? Did he or the previous Victor poison me somehow during the fight? I don’t feel anything, and yet, the secondary phantom of him persists and results in me getting thrown off and hit and slashed several times. Now I’m hearing a quiet voice distracting me. It’s audible and not. It’s outside of my head and not. What’s going on? All these inescapable distractions give the edge to the warrior leading to my skull helmet being smashed off my face and my getting knocked out by him.

Waking up sometime later, I find myself tied up in chains and laying in some kind of soft green bed. At first, I think I’m dead because no one fights another in this district without killing their opponent. After realizing that I’m still alive, I struggle to get out of it thinking that the soft green things are like the drugs that the people in the Sense district use. A few minutes pass and it’s obvious that I’m too weak from the fight to move at all. It’s then that the warrior walks into the circular room that I’m in.

“It’s good to see you’re awake,” the warrior says before sitting on a chair.

“Good? Why’s that? Why didn’t you kill me?” I ask.

“Because I had the feeling to. It was probably the Quiet, blessed be the holy silence.”

“The Quiet? That must’ve been what was distracting me. I should’ve known.”

“Did it now? What makes you say that?”

“While we were fighting, I heard an inaudible voice. I also saw an afterimage of you as if there were two of you fighting against me at the same time.”

“I did silently pray for help from the Quiet. I didn’t expect it to help me that much. Again, blessed be the holy silence. May it be blessed and honored until the end of days and beyond it.”

“Well, if it made you spare me for whatever reason, I struggle to think of the reason. Because my reign as the Victor was cut short, I am an embarrassment in the eyes of everyone in the Fighter’s district, the Complex, my family, and myself.”

“You want to die because I embarrassed you? Trust me when I say that being feared and honored in this world doesn’t mean a thing.”

“Then what does?”

“Living and dying in the right way for love and truth.”

“Pfft. What a ridiculous goal in life. What use is love and truth without power and strength? What even is truth? What is love? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s what the strongest person defines it as.”

“You sound like the young man who blew up the main generator in the Business district and was hanging while still alive. Did you know that he was taken down recently and said to have been influenced by the Quiet? It’s said that his body was removed because he had a weird peace to him that was infecting whoever looked at him. The bodies of his parents do much the same to whoever goes near their graves and his parents were said to have been influenced by the Quiet as well.”

“Well, I won’t end up like him in fate or in mindset.”

“I thought that way too when I was younger, but the Quiet can change that faster than you think. I should get going. Like I said, my daughter was being sold by that merchant, so I’ll be back with her.”

“Do you really think you can do that? You have a target on your back as the new Victor and will face many lust-obsessed slavers.”

“I beat you in a fight, didn’t I? If the Quiet allowed me to do that, then I have high hopes that I’ll be allowed to rescue my daughter. Goodbye, for now.”

As the new Victor leaves, I struggle to get out of my chains until I realize the reality of what I said before. Since I was defeated, I am an embarrassment, a pathetic waste of life that doesn’t deserve to live anymore for bringing shame to my family and my name. I should let whatever calm from this greenery overtake me and hopefully end my suffering. Again, I pass out, hope I have died, and instead wake up feeling better. The Victor walks into the room with fruits, vegetables, and water on a tray and sits on the same chair as before.

“Did you find your daughter?” I ask.

“I did and thankfully I was able to get to her before she could be raped. She’s kept her purity, but since she fought against them, they beat and dosed her with their drugs. It may take a while for her to wake up,” the Victor says.

“Speaking of drugs, what is this green plant that you have me laying in?”

“It’s no drug or artificial plant. It’s just plain soft grass. I know it may seem strange to you since everything natural was expunged from the Complex though true nature still exists beyond these walls, hallways, and impossibly high ceilings. Did you really think that from the beginning of time that the world was always one man-made building?”

“It’s not something that I’ve cared to think about though I have heard that schools in the Business district teach that.”

“Here, taste these. This is what true nature tastes like.”

The Victor carefully feeds me an apple as if I’ll bite his hand off. When I taste the apple, I find that it tastes better than I expected.

“This tastes good. Where did you get it?”

“I found it growing from the ground. It’s better than what the plastic, artificial plants can grow, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

I am fed and given drinks by the Victor until he has nothing left to give me. The strangeness of the situation hasn’t hit me until now.

“Why are you doing this for me?” I ask.

“Because the Quiet has influenced me to do so and who I am to argue?” he says.

“It’s a mystery to me as to why that is.”

“That’s the way the truth is. While I was in the Sense district, I heard that the woman who burned the red veils over there was influenced by the Quiet and is being tortured by the Sense. The Sense loves to play with her food, but it seems like this woman is driving the Sense insane with her resistance to the point where she’s nearly given up on breaking her and now rarely visits her. I’ve heard whispers of a plan to get that woman out of her predicament. It’s a wonder to me how both the young man and woman were able to put up with being tortured and somehow holding on. The Quiet must truly be with them and has blessed them tremendously.”

“I’d hardly call being tortured day in and out a blessing.”

“Oh, but it is, in a way. To suffer for true love is an honor above all honors. It’s said that in true suffering you can sense the Quiet the most and have a taste of what real peace and Heaven feels like.”

“Ha! Then Heaven must be a Hell just like this world is.”

“Boy, I have a lot to explain to you about how reality truly is.”

For the next week or so, the Victor tells me about the Quiet and nature of truth and love. He also tells me his real name and tells me not to refer to him as the Victor anymore. I was never one for philosophy and deep thought. Instead, my mind has always been centered around the ways of the fist, blade, and strength, and yet, Semper does pique my interest in what we talk about a lot of which is a lot for me to take in. What I remember most from our conversations is his past as a bodyguard for a wealthy family in the Business district. He used to work for the Board before his conscience was influenced by the Quiet. After which, the Board saw no use for him and tried to kill him, but he somehow survived, got married to a woman from the Sense district that he converted, and started his family here in this underground section between the Fighter’s and Sense district.

“It’s still surprising to me that I was able to change my wife’s way of living and thinking. People over there don’t get married or like relationships that aren’t one-sided,” Semper says.

“Where is she now?” I ask.

“Unfortunately, she died protecting our daughter. I was too slow and weak to protect either of them that day and…no. There’s no reason to regret it now. I did what she wanted me to do.”

Semper wipes his face as if he were wiping away invisible tears. Some time passes and he begins to loosen my chains and take them off one day at a time until they’re all off. He backs off a bit with his fists clenched to see if I’ll do anything.

“You can trust me. I have no reason to fight or kill you,” I say.

“You never know who you can trust these days. Everyone is out for themselves more than ever before. You should know by now that even the blunt warriors in the Fighter’s district even trade in lies and rise through the ranks by using underhanded means,” Semper says.

“It’s a symptom of being the last district that hasn’t been adversely affected like the other districts.”

“I know. That’s why I need you to sharpen your skills. I have a feeling that the Quiet is going to inspire someone to do something radical here to change it just like the other districts. Spar with me and let’s get your skills back up to snuff.”

“You want me to fight with you?”

“I need you to help me protect my daughter. I have a feeling that’s one of the reasons why the Quiet made me spare you.”

“Okay. It’s not like I have another purpose to live anyway.”

Three weeks pass of training and more talking with Semper. His daughter feels better by the second week and I’m even allowed to see her for the first time. She’s a petite young woman with short brown hair draped in a colorless grayish-brown shirt and a long skirt. Her name is Usha and she is looking at me as if she’s trying to figure me out. We make small talk and nothing happens for the last few days of the three weeks.

The next week comes and I am introduced to the underground community full of runaways who didn’t want to live on the surface anymore. Not many people here have enhancements on their bodies and some even seem to have mutilated themselves to remove them. The buildings here are made of wood and scrap metal and the area is lit up with torches and basic lights. This place has a simple feel to it in contrast to the Complex above. To be honest, it’s not bad and feels quite refreshing. I help the citizens of this place by carrying around heavy things, helping them create weapons, and teaching them how to fight properly.

One day, we are attacked by the people on the surface. They come from holes formed from explosions and entrances we thought were secret making it obvious we were sold out by someone. I can’t worry about who it was now as I fight back the hordes of assassins and kidnappers while trying to keep an eye on Usha and Semper. As our enemies’ numbers begin to overwhelm us, they separate us to pick us off faster. Eventually, Semper gets overwhelmed and Usha gets taken away.

“Save my daughter!” Semper says before dying.

That was strange. I could swear that I heard two voices in Semper’s at that moment. The second voice was quiet and weirdly sounded like the Quiet itself. Shaking off the distracting thought, I tear my way through my enemies while making my way to Usha. I cut and crush my way to her and carry her in my arm and leave my blade arm free so I can defend us and push forward.

“Where’s my dad?! What happened to him?!” Usha says.

“He’s dead. I’m sorry,” I say.

“What?! You’re lying take me back to where he is and let me fight!”

Usha struggles in my arms and because I’m already struggling to fight while holding her, she slips out of my hands and begins to fight with me. She fights like her father and looks like she is fighting with an afterimage of herself fighting with her, but not as well. Even with her help, we can’t make much headway either way and I am eventually stabbed and beaten down by the overwhelming numbers. For some reason, I want to keep on fighting and can feel something within myself still kicking. There’s a quiet voice telling me to fight and continue on. Is that Semper’s voice or the Quiet’s? Why can’t I tell the difference? Following the voice’s advice, I fight in the darkness of my unconsciousness until I wake up in a cell.

My body is completely repaired with the patchwork of different pieces of strong skin that I don’t remember putting on myself. I am chained in a bloodstained cell that has pieces of skin on the floor and corners of the room. A couple of guards are outside my cell, one of which goes away once noticing that I’m awake. This guard brings several guards along with a warrior clothed in the heads and fingers of several people similar to the previous Victor to my cell.

“We were debating whether or not to beat you until you woke up, so it’s a good thing you’ve woken up on your own,” the warrior says.

“What do you want? Where’s the young girl I was with?” I ask.

“She’s safe and well taken care of, at the moment, but her safety depends on your answer to my question. Will you fight and die for her?”

“I will.”

“Oh, don’t answer so quickly now. Don’t think that you’ll be fighting to an end. You’ll be fighting endless waves of every knave, warrior, and guard that I can hire in the district and beyond. You will die and be rebuilt as you are now and given the choice again and again for my entertainment and the entertainment of my spectators.”

“My answer is the same. I have an obligation to keep, so I’ll play your sick game.”

“Haha! I like your grit. I guess it’s to be expected from a former Victor. It’s the whole reason why I’ve let you live and given you this choice. If you choose to let the girl go, I’ll give her to the perverts in the Sense district and you can become one of my guards. A life of comfort and honor awaits you by my side. Again, I’ll ask you. What is your choice?”

“Again, my choice remains the same.”

“Ha, we’ll see after you die a few times.”

The guards unlock a few of my chains and don’t unlock the rest until they’re behind a gate and I’m in the center of a colosseum. I’ve visited colosseums like this in the district with my family to see knaves and warriors fight to the death. Up in the most luxurious seats is the warrior who I just talked to and next to him is Usha who is chained in a cage. She looks at me with hatred in her eyes though this hatred is probably not for me.

As the first wave of knaves enters the Colosseum, Usha screams, “Kill them all, Vi!”

After nodding at her, I plug myself into battle. At first, the knaves and warriors that are sent to fight me are simple to take care of, but as time goes on and as the challenge grows, I grow weaker and sloppier until I suffer my first death. Again, the warrior from before gives me his offer, and again, I reject it. I fight and die several times over with Usha cheering me on and praying for me each day. It feels like I’m living one continuous day with no breaks and feeling of relief or release even in death.

Despite this, I feel something giving me the strength to continue on. There’s that quiet voice again that I hear in Usha’s voice now that I can hear even amid battle. In this quiet, I can vaguely hear Semper’s voice giving me advice and cheering me on with his daughter. Around me, the crowds of the Colosseum cheer me on as well for various reasons. Many come to see me fight until I die a gory death and bet money on how many I kill and how long I survive. The people who are betting on my death take great pleasure in seeing me suffer as shown by the expression on their faces. This is especially true of the warrior who controls all of this as he profits the most from my battles and has seemingly nothing to lose.

After one of my deaths and coming to see me again, he asks, “Tell me, why do you continue on like this? Few have gone through as many deaths as you have and still chose to continue fighting.”

It takes me a second to think about it, but when it’s clear to me, I say, “For truth and love.”

When I say my answer, I can feel and hear the quiet voice that’s been speaking through the silence, Usha, and Semper. The Quiet is now a part of me now that I’ve accepted it.

“Ha! What are those things but tools used by the powerful to exert their will and become gods?”

“They are…a person.”

“Now you’ve really lost your mind. Maybe something went wrong during the surgery. Your next death should clear your mind.”

Today’s another day to fight and die for Usha. As I look up at her, I notice that she’s sad and crying. To raise her spirits, I raise my fist in the air and scream.

“Usha, today, I offer you my life, blood, and suffering and will continue to until your chains are broken and you are freed from your cage. I promise you that you will be free and that they will run out of slaves to throw at me before they break my will,” I proclaim.

The crowds are really excited now. Usha’s sadness is gone as she smiles and continues her prayers for me. In addition, the warrior who runs this and his supporters seem more interested than ever. During today’s battle, I take out more warriors, knaves, and guards than ever before and am even still standing after both of my arms are cut off. For the remainder of this wave, I have to fight with my teeth, legs, and head, and somehow manage to get by. Everyone in the crowds is wilder than before including the supervisors of the Colosseum that are arguing among themselves.

I can see the next wave ahead of me running away in fear as the guards chase after them to get them to fight me. Looking back up at Usha, I see that she’s more hopeful now than before. Now I know the peace of the Quiet and why Semper and others dedicated their lives to it. Even as I stand bleeding and in pain, I am strangely at peace. The guards eventually manage to force some knaves, slaves, and people from the crowds to enter the Colosseum to fight me. With my head held high and my body ready to fight, I give my life in service to love and truth, the most tremendous honor a man can do.