Dino was upset by Niklas' weird strength. He stared into his 'victim's' eyes and saw anger. He struggled to free his hands but failed. He attempted a headbutt, but Niklas ducked and shoulder tackled him on the abdomen. He fell to the ground, groaning and yelling in pain, calling out to his friends for help.
Dino's friends were disgusted that he lost to the 'twig.'
"You will no longer hang with us, fool," one of Dino's 'allies' said to Dino.
The four friends surrounded Niklas, wary of his moves.
One of the bullies said to Niklas, "Twig, you can't defeat us. We will beat you to a pulp and take your money. After that, we will walk into your house, molest your mother one by one, and beat your brother into a worse condition."
The threat of his mother being molested kindled a furious rage in Niklas' heart. In the past, after the death of his father and the loss of wealth, his mother had been molested on a few occasions, and he couldn't do anything about it.
He grabbed the idiot who threatened him by the neck with his right hand. He moved so fast that the other three couldn't see him.
"Let go of me, you son of a whore," the man who Niklas held by the neck said. He hit Niklas' grabbing arm, trying to set himself free. The efforts were futile; instead, Niklas' grip became tighter.
"Let go of him, bastard," a second ally said as he rushed in on Niklas from behind.
Thanks to his exceptional perception, Niklas didn't need to look behind him to dodge the attack. He tossed aside the first ally in grip, dove in time to dodge the punch from the second man, did a 180-degree turn, and replied to the attack with an upper cut that knocked out and dislocated the jaw of the second ally. The move left the other three stunned into stillness. Dino was still on the floor, crying and wallowing in pain.
Before one could say 'jack', Niklas grabbed the first ally again by the neck. He also grabbed his genitals.
"What in the world! Leave my pee-pee alone! Let go of me, pervert!" the first ally cried, desperately struggling to break free of Niklas' grip.
Niklas said, "You have molested her before, right?"
The first ally sorted out ways to break and thought that provoking Niklas would provide the opportunity. He revealed to the demi-god,
"Yes, I have molested your mother on three occasions. I break into the house when you are away, and I do my stuff. From your reaction, I know that she doesn't tell about it so that her lanky twig wouldn't cry."
He laughed in conjunction with the other allies.
The third ally said to Niklas, "I followed him on the recent trip. Your mom is quite a fountain for a bedridden person."
Another round of laughter ensued. Tears flowed uncontrollably from Niklas's eyes. The first ally thought that his ploy worked as Niklas' gaze seemed lost. He signalled to his comrades, and they began to sneak up on the lanky 20-year-old man.
Niklas said to the first ally, "Your recent trip was your last trip and pass to the afterlife."
He proceeded to rip off the first ally's genitals. The shock and pain from the attack killed the ally on the spot. Wasting no time, Niklas quickly moved to the third ally and performed the previous attack on him. The third ally fell to the ground, writhing and shrieking in pain as he profusely bled his way to the afterlife.
"Did you follow them to molest my mother?" Niklas asked the fourth ally, who was so scared that he was shivering.
"No… No... No," the fourth ally stuttered.
Niklas said, "Before now, were you aware that they were molesting my mother?"
The fourth ally said, "I swear by heaven that I had no knowledge about it."
Niklas didn't believe the lie. This led him to unintentionally tap into the ubiquitous mystic forces of the world, which caused visible, simultaneous, and sustained lightning sparks all over his body. Dino, who was in pain, saw this phenomenon and forgot about his pain to stare in frightened awe at his former victim. The fourth ally was terrified.
Niklas, who now looked like a terrifying god, said, "If I find out that you lied to me, I will kill every member of your heaven-forsaken family."
The fourth ally confessed to having knowledge of his dead colleagues molesting Niklas' mother. Niklas began walking to the fourth ally with his arms slightly spread apart from his body. Sparks of lightning concentrated in his hands, like a god about to deliver judgement as he approached a sinner.
"Please, please, please, spare me! Please!" The fourth ally pleaded while on his knees. "I swear, I will not tell anyone what happened here! Please, don't kill me!"
The pleas fell on deaf ears, and Niklas didn't stop walking.
Dino's pain came back, but he forced himself to speak. He said,
"Niklas stop! I know that you have suffered and that you want justice to come to those who wronged you. But committing murder isn't characteristic of you. I don't know what gave you this power, but it is turning you into a monster."
Niklas stopped in his tracks. He realised that, for once in his life, he agreed with what Dino had to say. His philosophy of life didn't involve murdering people for whatever reason, be it justice. He changed his mind not to kill Dino and his two living allies. The second ally had regained consciousness and entered a trance because of the shock from witnessing the extraordinary power Niklas used in committing murder. Niklas zapped the bully back to consciousness with an electric bolt from his right hand.
The bullies were shaking in their bones, expecting the worst from their former victim. Niklas switched glares from each of the bullies for three minutes while he concocted a lie that would ensure that the bullies wouldn't tell anyone about what happened here after he let them go.
After a tense three minutes of waiting, Niklas took a deep breath. The bullies braced themselves for death and pain, but Niklas said to them,
"The heaven court of Hades has decided to show mercy to your sinful souls. Hence, I, the faithful earthly messenger of the heaven court of Hades, will not kill you. However, to prevent future wrath from me, the heaven court of Hades requires that you do not bother the Agu family, being my family.
"Secondly, no soul should hear or know of what transpired here. As you know, the punishment for defaulting is death. Third and final, you are required to make a sacrifice to the heaven court of Hades at the village's altar of Hades to show that you appreciate the grace shown to your useless souls."
The bullies cried in unison, "Praise be to Hades! May his name be heard for generations to come!"
The two bullies supported Dino, and together they left the scene. Niklas was glad that the bullies bought his lies.
The fellowship of the Heaven Court of Hades was massive. This was because of its 'presence' on earth. Its presence was attributed to supernatural people who referred to themselves as 'messengers of the court of Hades.' The messengers claimed to have descended from heaven to dispense justice to the unjust. This was the reason Niklas made use of the heaven court of Hades in his lie. However, nearly half the population of Astro did not believe in religion.
Niklas dragged the corpses from his compound and dumped them in the deeper part of the forest. His house was located near the edge of the forest, surrounded by trees. The distance between his house and the residential area of the village was just a 20-minute walk. There were neighbouring houses within the edge of the forest that were spaced a good distance from each other.
"Oh my stars, I haven't checked on my family," Niklas said in realization. He entered the house.
The house Niklas and his family resided in was a batcher house, a fragile building built with wood planks. This was the main reason it was situated in the forest: the trees would act as a windbreaker, so it wouldn't be blown away by heavy winds. There was an unpleasant, rampantly patched, rusty roof on the house. White waterproof sheets held firmly to the underlying woodwork by nails were used as the outer wall to save the wood from the effects of rainwater. The house had just a single room and toilet. Its residents would have to find a place to cook and have their baths. For Niklas, this was a nightmare because he had bedridden family members who couldn't clean themselves. He jumped over this issue by cleaning them up in their beds with towels and buckets of water.
Niklas entered the room to discover his brother was sound asleep, but his mother was awake, looking worried. He guessed it was because she heard the hassle outside.
Agu Nnedi, Niklas' mother, examined her son. Niklas was smart enough to hide his bloody left behind him, so he looked fine to her. But it didn't make her less worried. She asked,
"I heard screams from outside. They were not ordinary screams; they sounded like death screams."
Niklas asked, "Did you hear anything apart from that?"
"I heard dialogue, but I couldn't discern a word because I was on the bed."
Niklas said, "Don't worry yourself, mom. The noise was because an angel was helping me deal with the bullies, the bastards who molested you."
Nnedi's expression changed to that of sadness; her son finally discovered that she was molested. Niklas wiped the tears off her face and said to her,
"Everything is alright. You and Zack will walk and feel better soon. I want you to trust me and not worry at all. Also, no one will ever bother you because things have changed now. The heavens have finally smiled on us."
Nnedi couldn't stop shedding tears. She nodded at every one of her son's words in mere belief, thinking it was a possible future.
Niklas dropped the backpack in a corner. He took out of the backpack a wallet that didn't belong to him. There was a tinge of grief in his heart as he stared at it. He took a deep breath to make him forget. He inspected the wallet, and it was loaded with cash.
He said to his mom, "Mum, I want you to chill. I'm going out to buy us better food."