Depravity
Jack had left his villa in the Cibolas territory and spent a few days with the assistant analyzing all of the data he had gathered. A swarm of 106 bat creatures that was active almost the entire day since they require very little rest led to some interesting discoveries. There seemed to be a general decline in the number of attacks by creatures in the territories he was guarding against except for a few attacks at the outskirts, which were accompanied by humanoids. What was interesting about these attacks was that the humanoids immediately teleported to safety as soon as the bats arrived at the scene, showing how they had indeed changed their approach. But what caught Jack's attention the most was the data he obtained from the West Alliance. His bats had been making rapid progress in reaching Seinas' capital city Zios, and it would only take 3 more days for them to arrive.
To Jack's shock, the bats had observed horrible scenes on the way. He knew that the country Seinas was the largest country on this planet in terms of population and that the West Alliance was likewise the largest when compared to the other alliances, but the sheer disregard for human life had shocked him. He saw multiple mass graves along the way where not even an attempt was made to bury or burn the bodies. He saw a human fighting arena where contenders were torturing each other to death to the cheering of the audiences. He saw slave trade fairs that were as crowded as rock concerts where slaves were being branded with some type of Sym device that seemed to make them docile and suggestible. He even saw large ritualistic sacrifices where tens of thousands of people, including children and seniors, were killed in a ritualistic fashion.
On the way, he also saw attacks by creatures and some cities that were completely decimated, but Jack felt little pity for them. The people seemed vile and evil to him. There were even more scenes that stuck in his mind and which he had been reviewing carefully. Some men were openly parading little 4- to 6-year-old kids that they had chained by the neck through the city as part of their harem. In many of the cities he had seen, there were women who were almost naked and only dressed with a few strings that were sacrificing their own children to their gods on a large altar at the city's center. But what surprised Jack the most was that he did not see any military, police, or other government enforcers. All of these actions seemed to be part of the culture and not a feature of government oppression.
Once he started reviewing the footage and realized its nature, he sent bats with invisibility abilities to gather more detailed data from areas of interest and especially from larger cities. With billions of people occupying these lands and the rumors about their practices, Jack had expected to see horrible imagery, but this was beyond his imagination. He had been looking at so many bloody and vile scenes that it was hard for him to imagine that even a single good person was living there except for those innocent children that were beaten, raped, and sacrificed.
In Jack's mind, there was not even a point to reach the capital anymore. For what purpose would he talk to the leadership? To make a deal? To have them sign the truce agreement? These people were killing more humans for pleasure than the creatures did!
Jack had to strategize. This was not a question of protecting humans from creatures anymore but a question about human values. He was not from this planet but what he had witnessed in the other alliances was very familiar to him. People were generally kind and were just trying to live a good life. But what he had seen in Seinas and even some of the other countries of the alliance was beyond evil. It was not something that could be explained by cultural differences, tradition or religion. These terms could never excuse the basic human right Jack thought every human should have in society. He felt his aggression rising and he just wanted to storm the capital and kill the entire leadership right on the spot. He was angry.
But he was not stupid. He knew that there needed to be some kind of humanity in these parts since someone must be making and nurturing babies for such a large population to sustain itself. Maybe there was another side to this story that he had not placed any attention on. He saw wide fields that looked like agricultural production, large cities with residential districts, beautiful forests where nomadic people seemed to live and lively city centers. But he could not understand how these two sides could coexist.
He needed to see for himself and then decide what he wanted to do next. One part of him wanted to gather a thousand bat creatures and have them kill every person in the entire alliance who behaved in a vile manner until it was a somewhat livable place. He could not see himself helping these people unless he can shut it all down, despite its large scale.
He decided to visit a large city in Seinas which was called Tyo. The city has a population of 35 million people according to the assistant's estimation and it had a rather humid and hot climate. People were mostly wearing white or black clothing which seemed short and simple. They did not generally wear any hats or headdresses but they often had long hair and elaborate hairstyles - even the men. Jack stepped into the city wearing a white mask that had no recognizable features outside of its two holes for the eyes. He did not feel like wearing an animal mask since he was not sure if he would be an angel or a demon to this godforsaken place.
He slowly walked through the crowds and noticed the many looks he attracted due to his foreign appearance. But nobody talked to or touched him. The people seemed polite to him and he even found them to be slightly shy, which surprised him and differed greatly from his expectation. How did such people commit such atrocities? Was he missing something? Or maybe, was his ability to judge others failing in this foreign land?
He kept walking towards the center of the city where he had seen the large sacrificial altar in the footage. The altar was as large as a concert stage and seemed to be used for ceremonial and casual sacrifices alike. If no events were scheduled for the time being, then people were allowed to use it at their convenience. Jack got closer to the altar and looked at the brownish-red color the rock and sand below had taken. No grass or plants were growing there. It was a place that had been drowned in blood for decades and maybe even centuries or millennia. Jack heard screams from the back of the altar and walked around to take a look at what was going on. He tried to walk calmly with his hands behind his back since he had decided to leave the moment he got angry. There was no point in intervening in something that was occurring every second all over the country, millions of times. Stopping one murder will make no difference to this world.
When he had walked around the altar, he had a clear eye line to the noise he heard before. He saw a familiar picture. An almost naked woman with two children by her side. The woman wore some type of dress that only consisted of vertical strings covering parts of her body as if she had taken a garment and tried to envelop herself with it. She looked dirty but it seemed to be a ritualistic paint that was covering her body. Her hair was both black and red but Jack could not tell which color was natural and which was coloring. She was on her knees and seemed to be praying while the two naked children, maybe 3 or 4 years of age, were chained to a pole next to the altar and were crying. The woman seemed to be peacefully reciting some ritualistic mantras and was oblivious to the cries of the kids.
Jack looked around the plaza and observed the people in the area. He saw most people looking at the ground and rushing to their destination, completely ignoring the depravity that was occurring in broad daylight. Was it indifference? He was not sure. Upon looking more closely, he saw some people looking scared when they glanced at the sacrifice that was soon to be occurring. To him, it felt like some of the people were fleeing from the scene as if they did not want to be involved in it. But there were also those who were spectating and were almost smiling when observing the woman. They had wicked expressions as if they were about to see a live show or go to a strip club. In some disgusting way, this sacrifice was both.
Jack's eyes moved back to the woman who had revealed a large knife from her bag, which seemed like a thin machete that almost looked like a small katana. He had seen this weapon before since it was commonly used in these rituals. She would drag one of the children on top of the altar and stab the sword into their solar plexus. After it had fully penetrated the child and the sword hit the stone at the other end, she would pull the weapon like a lever and open up the child's torso. The altar itself had a specific mold in the stone which allowed the sword to stick inside so that she could use maximum leverage to cut open the flesh. It was a simple but disgusting feature.
Jack clenched his fist behind his back and felt anger rush to his head as he watched the woman unchain the little boy while she kicked the girl who was holding his hand to the ground. All of the aggression that he felt from the Sym energy and that he had been trying to suppress over the past weeks started to emerge again. He slowly walked in their direction without even realizing that his body had begun to move with his eyes fully fixated on the woman. The woman dragged the boy up the stone stairs and lifted him up onto the altar. The boy struggled and cried but to no avail. He was not strong enough to resist and, even if he could, he seemed so malnourished and scared that he would have failed anyway. The woman pulled the sword from her waist and started chanting her mantra but this time loudly for all to hear. She lifted her hands high up into the air and prepared to slam it down into the little boy's chest. With her eyes open, she stared into the sun until her eyes were crying and then she looked back at the boy with a broad smile. Then her fists clenched around the sword handle and her arms pushed it down. As the tip of the blade almost cut through the boy's chest, it suddenly stopped.
Jack had leaped onto the altar and grabbed the woman by the throat with his left hand and stopped the blade with his right hand. His hand had deformed the blade like it was soft spaghetti and his grip on the woman's neck was so firm that he had broken her spine without even noticing. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she could not utter a word or even look at who her assailant was. She looked like a fish that had been pulled out of the ocean and did not know what was happening. A moment ago, she was swimming around peacefully and one moment later she could not breathe. Jack smiled kindly at the sight of the woman's desperation and he felt a cruel pleasure in her pain. He threw the deformed sword on the ground and put the woman on the ground as if he just helped an old lady go to sleep. With her spine broken, her body had gone completely limp and as he gently put her on the stone altar's ground, he felt no resistance. When he had laid her down, he looked her in the eyes and smiled as he fully crushed her neck with his hand.
Jack's anger had slightly subsided, but he still felt irritated from the situation. He did not feel good after killing the woman, but he felt like he needed to do more. He slowly got back up from the dead woman and looked at the boy who had fainted. He placed his hands on the child's body and scanned it thoroughly. The malnourishment and dehydration had damaged the kid's organs and brain. It also had varying bruises and scars all over its body. Jack clenched his teeth at the boy's body which told a story of abuse and hate. He activated his healing ability and used meat and water from his storage to heal the entire body including the recovery of all bruises and healing of the boy's organs. Then he placed a blanket on the boy and went down to the naked girl who looked at him in fear and horror. Jack slowly walked towards her and crouched down where she was sitting in the dirt. Her body was likewise bruised and damaged just like the boy. Jack looked at the girl who was terrified and took her right hand. With his left hand, he lifted up his mask and looked the girl in the eyes. Then he smiled. The girl first looked confused at his foreign face, but when she saw his expression of kindness and care, she started to cry. Jack broke the girl's chains and picked her up to carry her in his arms. As he walked back to the boy on the altar, he healed the girl just like he had healed him. Both children were sweet and innocent with short blonde hair and brown eyes. He placed the girl next to the boy and tucked them both into the blanket. The girl immediately fell asleep next to her brother. She must not have had any proper food or rest in days or weeks.
Jack turned around to see how the people on the plaza were reacting. He had been carefully scanning the environment with his detection ability the entire time and had noticed that many people had stopped to observe him. Some people had started to shout while others looked scared, but no one had tried to intervene. But what disturbed him most was that no one seemed to be cheering him on. He had just stopped the murder of two innocent children, yet nobody was on his side. "Should I kill all of the bystanders as well?" he thought to himself.
Then he noticed men barging through the crowd and marching towards the altar. These men seemed to carry hidden Sym weapons and other devices Jack had not seen before. They walked towards Jack and stopped two meters in front of him. They saw the dead body of the woman and the two children wrapped in a blanket who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. The men whispered to each other briefly and then two of the six walked to Jack and tried to grab him. Jack saw the anger and depravity in their eyes and he heard the same people cheer for them who were cheering for the murder of the children earlier. They must be the enforcers of this place even though they wear no uniforms.
As the men were about to touch Jack, he quickly lifted his hands and held one in front of each man's face. Then he dialed his frying hands ability to the maximum. Their heads melted in a flash and to the normal eye it seemed as if their heads had just evaporated into a red mist. The other four men took a step back in shock and reached for the guns they had in their pockets. All started to shoot, but the energy bullets only hit his barrier. Jack looked at the men with a calm expression and started to slowly walk towards them. Realizing that their attempts were futile, some tried to turn around and run away, but Jack quickly jumped and decapitated them all with his bare hands. Then he stood still with his hands behind his back to observe the crowd. What he was doing was not a good deed, nor was it revenge. It was a test. An assessment, of sorts. He wanted to know who these people are and if they deserved saving.
Jack stood still and had full control over the situation. His anger was overflowing, but he remained calm on the outside. There was a certain elegance to his rage since it made him more direct, more intentional, and more vicious than he would normally be. Usually, Jack was quite playful and daring, but now, he was a sharp sword ready to kill for what he thought was right. He was fully aware of his own bloodlust and the Sym energy enveloping his thoughts, but he also knew that he could always trust his moral radar. He always knew what was right and what was wrong. No amount of power or influence would ever change that. Those who kill children and trample human rights were wrong. Those who tried to enforce it were wrong as well. If this was only prevalent in one small city, then he would not be killing them so quickly, but since this had infected billions of people, he needed to make a statement.
Jack had thought deeply about why he ended up on this planet with the amount of power that he had. It was almost like it was fate that had brought him here. Obtaining a genetic mutation as a sperm cell from Sym energy in space, being born at all, obtaining the assistant, and then making it to this world. All of it was so unlikely. But yet, here he was. Maybe he was brought here to solve a problem. It was a silly thought, but no matter how often he dismissed it, it kept coming back.
The crowd of people who were cheering before were now silent. They all looked at Jack and started to move backwards. They felt exposed and in danger. This man had just killed a shaman woman and six priests without hesitation. They had never witnessed something like this before.
Jack waited patiently. Then more men were coming and they again pulled their weapons and tried to kill him but Jack killed all of them and then stood still to wait for more. The crowd had retreated far away from Jack and was observing the spectacle from a safer distance. After two hours, Jack had killed nearly thirty of these enforcers and it seemed like no more were coming. It looked like they had given up on sending more or they were preparing for a large assault. But Jack could wait. He had time. This was important.
He scanned the environment but could not sense any military or large force approaching. After two more hours, he had killed a total of 43 enforcers but there did not seem to be a coordinated effort to stop him. This entire city seemed disorganized and mismanaged even though it was so big. What surprised Jack was that some men, women and even children had formed a crowd close around him and were praying on their knees in front of him. They did not cheer nor did they talk. They simply prayed. Jack met the eyes of some of the people who were looking at him and he could see that they were crying. He slowly started to get a sense of what was going on in this city. Jack opened a portal and started to throw the bodies of the dead enforcers into it. It led to a large ocean which was full of large sea animals and mutated creatures so it was the perfect destination for these people. As he dropped the bodies inside, he noticed the awe of the people who seemed to have never witnessed a portal ability before or at least not one as large as his.
Jack got impatient and was just about to search for the city's government building as a woman from the crowd approached him. She must have been in her sixties or seventies but she had a calm and confident demeanor. "What is your goal?"
Jack looked the woman in the eyes, "To see if any of you are worth saving," Jack said with a cold expression. His accent and language skills were perfect due to the assistant's real-time translation and ample data of the local tongue.
The woman looked down and paused for a moment. Then she looked back at Jack, "Some of us are in need of saving."
Jack saw the sincerity in her eyes and considered her words. "Are you willing to explain to me what the hell is going on in this country?"
The woman smiled and a tear rolled down her cheek.