The Rise Of A Porter

"ARGH!"

Gui's blood-curdling scream resonated throughout the mansion. However, it wasn't the first time it happened. Chiang had stabbed his son for the seventh time under Natasha's control.

Both the father and the son were in tears and in pain. Their pain was entirely different and yet was the same. While Gui's pain was purely physical, Chiang' mental pain was pushing him on the verge of a breakdown. He couldn't bear how Natasha was forcing him to slowly torture his son, while she savoured every second of it. However, their suffering was far from over yet.

Gui slowly grabbed his dagger again. Even though he was drenched in blood from the numerous wounds on his body, he was still willing to fight for his life. Sadly for him though, the more he fought back, the sooner he would end up dying. Out of the seven blows Chiang had dealt to his son, none of them was deep or fatal enough to kill him immediately.

But the blood loss through those wounds was alarming. The Adrenaline that had been fuelling Gui's body to fight till now eventually started working against him. The more adrenaline that got secreted into his bloodstream, the faster his heart pumped the blood which increased the already dangerous blood loss even further.

On the other hand, thanks to Natasha's proficient control over Chiang's body, there wasn't even a scratch on Chiang's body. The only pain he felt was mental. Every time Natasha forced him to stab his son, Chiang's heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He didn't want any of this to happen. Especially not to his son.

At this point, he was just cursing himself for not picking up the dagger of his own will. That way, at least he would have been able to quickly kill Gui and not cause him so much pain. Had he known Arnold would take his revenge on him in this way, he would have killed the brother and sister back when he had power over them. But he didn't, he thought he had done enough. He now realised how wrong he had been.

But his rage soon faded away. He knew it was his greed that had brought him there while he felt regretful for everything he did to enrage Arnold. He only wished if he could turn the time back, he would leave everything to Arnold and run away with his son. But it was too late to dream about what-ifs. At that moment he only wished, that Arnold would find it in his heart to kill them off soon.

"I'm sorry... my son..." Chiang managed to mumble before he broke down crying.

Arnold remained indifferent to the sick display. In his mind, he was justified in doing so, but a small part in his mind was questioning his methods. Will his parents be proud of what he was doing to his family? Will they be able to forgive me if they saw who cruel he had become?

'It doesn't matter.' Arnold shook his head, 'Ends justify the means... right?'

The one-sided duel carried on without a hitch. By this time Chiang was emotionally dead. He wasn't even reacting to Gui's screams anymore nor was he fighting against Natasha's control over him. He was already dead inside completely broken. He was no different than the automatons Arnold made.

"Enough!" Arnold stopped Natasha, "Enough... playing around, just finish it already."

"As your wish, master..." Natasha gave Arnold a quick bow before clapping twice. As soon as she did that, Chiang did an acrobatic jump over Gui, slashing his throat in the process.

Gui no longer had the strength to even try and stop the bleeding. The dagger slipped from his hands as he just fell on his knees, before collapsing in the pool of his blood. All the while his eyes were fixated on Arnold. He opened his mouth to most likely curse at him, but only blood gushed out of his mouth, nothing else.

But his eyes told the entire tale. Arnold could clearly hear the things Gui wasn't able to say, "Someday, you'll die a worse death than me... mark my words!"

After that, Gui took his final breath before his eyes turned white. Natasha revoked her control over Chiang and the weight of his actions finally dawned on him. He fell on his knees right next to his son, begging for forgiveness.

At that moment Arnold nodded towards Yan. Yan understood his master's intention and resurrected Gui as a normal undead.

"My son..." Chiang mumbled before turning towards Arnold, "Thank you! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

Chiang thought Arnold had forgiven them and thus decided to resurrect Gui to show his kindness. Little did he know Arnold's sick revenge was far from over yet. While Chiang was screaming his thank yous to Arnold, the undead Gui slowly got back to his feet and grabbed the dagger that his father had used to kill him.

"Death isn't enough for people like you." Arnold gave his reply to Chiang's parade of thank yous, without a tinge of emotion on his face.

Chiang was confused as to what was Arnold trying to say. Just what did he mean by death wasn't enough? What worse could he do with them now? Arnold did not make him wait much longer to find the answer.

A moment later, Gui pushed the dagger through Chiang's skull, killing him in an instant. Chiang's eyes were wide in horror. He genuinely thought that Arnold had forgiven them, but in his last moments, he knew Arnold wasn't someone who'd forgive those who had wronged him. There was only death waiting for his enemies. After Chiang was dead, Yan added him to his army of undead.

That's what Arnold meant when he said that their death wasn't enough to pay their debts. He intended to make them work as his lowly servants for the rest of his life. Only then he might be able to finally forgive them for what they did to him and Nicole. But something felt wrong.

Arnold finally had the revenge he had been waiting for, for more than a decade. He thought he would be elated and happy when it was all set and done. He wanted to feel good but strangely enough... he didn't. Was his revenge even worth it? He didn't have an answer to that question.

"Clean this place up." Arnold instructed his summons before walking towards Yu Zhung. It was time to get Yu Zhung on his side.