As Bane leaned back on his chair, he observed the brothel owner seated before him.
The individual in front of him possessed a slender figure, characterized by sharp facial features that were emphasized by a thin mustache. This man's extravagant existence was on full show, as he proudly wore a perfectly white coat embellished with intricate gold embroidery.
Despite the chaos unfolding below, the brothel owner maintained a calm demeanor, his mouth curving into a slight smile as he accessed the masked figure in front of him.
The tension in the room was palpable, yet the brothel owner tried to defuse it with a composed inquiry. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked smoothly.
Bane retorted, "I asked a lighter from your men, and they didn't have one." He then pointed at the goons, "Are you so petty that you can't even give them enough money for their basic expenses, despite running this lavish brothel?"
"...."
Silence followed Bane's brazen words, the room's atmosphere grew heavier. A burly man, visibly angered, broke the silence. "You bastard, how dare you disrespect our boss—"
He even moved to draw his weapon, but the brothel owner stopped him with a raised hand. "Give the lighter to our guest," he instructed calmly.
The henchmen were momentarily flustered, but complied.
One of them approached Bane cautiously while maintaining a safe distance from him, as he tried to hand over the lighter.
Seeing the man's cautious attitude, Bane put the cigarette in mouth using the slight opening in his mask, "I don't bite, you know. Didn't your boss say I'm supposed to be your guest?" He gestured towards the henchman, "come closer and light my cigarette for me."
"Don't you have your gun ready, so why are you so afraid?" Bane asked as he pointed out the man's concealed gun.
A bead of sweat trickled down the man's forehead as he glanced at his boss, who nodded in response, his mouth twitching slightly.
Reluctantly, the henchman stepped closer towards Bane and lit his cigarette.
After his cigarette was lit, Bane took a deep puff and exhaled slowly. "Thanks, baldy. I'll make your death a bit less painful than the others," he said, making the atmosphere tense. "But sadly, I can't let you leave alive as I have a debt to pay to a dead girl."
The baldy immediately retreated, along with the others, aiming their guns at Bane, ready to shoot at their boss's orders.
"What is the meaning of this? Why are you and your companion killing my men? I don't remember crossing paths with either of you or your companion in any way," the boss asked sternly. "Or has someone commissioned you to kill me and my men?"
Bane turned his head towards the boss. After a second of silence, he began to chuckle. "You don't need to maintain your facade of being an innocent person around me, as I've already gotten all the necessary information about you from your henchman downstairs."
He then pointed at him. "You were the brother of the guy Sheele killed years ago."
During his pleasant interrogation downstairs, Bane had learned about this man's history and his plans. He discovered how the brothel owner was once a gang leader, how he had selectively baited and used Mika's father to capture Mika.
After hearing this, even a twelve-year-old can deduce that this man was Mika's ex-boyfriend's boss/ brother, who had captured Mika in order to seek revenge on Sheele for killing his brother, who was also his right-hand man.
But Sheele does not know about this.
Because she was not with him during the interrogation, she remained unaware of this harsh truth and let Bane handle the boss, venting her anger on the man near Mika who had tortured her for months.
Bane could have told Sheele about this but he chose not to do so as knows that Sheele will probably live her entire life in guilt knowing that because of her, her friend had to suffer and die.
'Beside it's not like this man would have let that girl live peacefully.' Bane mused internally.
Knowing from personal experience, he understood that someone who had lost their family due to someone's actions would never allow others to live in peace, even if they had made a mistake.
He himself was a prime example of this.
The brothel owner's calm expression didn't waver. "Even if I am the boss, what makes you think I'd go to such lengths?"
Bane rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. I don't want to argue with you about this since you're going to die, anyway."
Bane then tilted his head and asked, "But answer my one question, what have you prepared to deal with, Sheele? I don't think you're stupid enough to think you can kill her, who is now one of the most fearsome assassins in the Empire, one who can easily slice you apart at any given moment. Or are you that stupid?"
The brothel owner's head dropped as he let out a low, self-mocking laugh. "I understand that I'm powerless against the monster who can effortlessly annihilate all of us, myself included." He raised his head as red veins started to surface all over. "That's why I sought assistance from those who harbored the greatest hatred towards that creature."
As he finished saying this, his slim body began to transform as his muscles began to swell unnaturally and grotesque veins bulged all across his skin.
"And because of this, they gave me this miraculous drug to deal with that woman." His white coat tore apart as he let out a primal roar.
The hulking man began to laugh, "Ha ha, with this I am invincible,"
But during his laugh, something suddenly went into his mouth, making him choke for a second.
The hulking man's eyes widened as he roared, "WHAT WAS THAT?" He instinctively looked towards the masked person, who had somehow moved a distance away, holding a black cloth.
"What the hell did you do to me, you bastard?" the hulking man screamed, a hint of fear in his voice.
Bane looked at the man as he extended his hand towards the hulking man.
Upon seeing Bane clench his fist and then subsequently opening it, the boss's eyes widened at the implications behind this gesture.
"SHIT, ATTACK H—"
BOOM!
A booming sound echoed throughout the whole first floor as pieces of flesh and blood scattered everywhere.
As the dust and debris settled the people inside the room as the men saw torn pieces of blood and flesh all over the room covering everything, including themselves, it was so nauseating that it looked no different from hell, if it even existed.
The men who had just seen their boss explode right before their eyes were covered in his remains, marked red from head to toe.
They could not understand what had just occurred for an entire minute, the blast's ringing sound still resonating in their ears. Some men began to vomit, having unknowingly swallowed the blood,While some who were near the explosion even had blood coming out of their ears, though they couldn't feel anything.
"Quite a fine art, isn't it?" The few men who could still hear, heard a voice and turned to see the masked figure tossing away the bloodied and torn cloth.
Even in this condition, the burly men didn't waste time. With their trembling hands, they aimed their guns at the masked figure who had killed their boss so gruesomely.
They weren't fools as they knew that even if the person in front of them had achieved his goal by killing their boss, he will still kill them as he had said earlier, even if they try to beg him for their lives.
"What the fuck are you talking about, you monster?" screamed a man covered in blood. How could this person call such gruesome scene art? Surely, the masked person in front of him is insane!!
Bane tilted his head. "I meant the 'explosion'. As once a yellow-haired explosion maniac said, 'there is art in explosion' and don't bother asking me who that person is as I don't know him either."
Ignoring the madman's ramblings, the few remaining fighters fired their weapons at the masked person, who suddenly produced a metallic gauntlet and used a bald man as protection.
The bald man who still could not hear and was cleaning the blood from his eyes could not react as he felt someone griping him tightly from behind.
The other men wasted no time and opened fire, killing the screaming man instantly with a bullet to the head. However, the shootout persisted even after his demise.
THAK THAK!
'It should start soon,' Bane thought, then spoke out loud between the bullet barrage. "Do you guys know what is more artistic than an explosion?"
The men's magazines emptied, and the barrage halted, but they immediately started reloading their guns, not minding to answer the ridiculous question.
SIZZLE
A sizzling sound filled the room as one of the burly men started to scream in agony.
"Ahhhhh, what is happening?" a man roared as his skin began to melt away under the horrified gazes of the others, but they didn't have time to respond as their own skin also began to rot.
"Grahhhhh!"
"Help me!"
"Aahhhh!"
As screams of agony resounded in the room, Bane let the dead bald man fall to the ground.
"A poisonous explosion that corrodes the skin itself," Bane answered.
Amidst the agonising screams, he looked at the dead man's eyes, which stared blankly up at him from the floor.
"Isn't your death less painful than the others in the room, baldy?" Bane asked the dead man, before shifting his gaze to the others, who were painfully succumbing to the corrosive poison one by one.
'Now time to deal with another massive problem,' he thought as he made his way downstairs, not wasting his time on the dying men.