The Rise Of A Porter

"Tell me his name, and I'll ensure that you're shown some leniency during the trial." Arnold tried to persuade Allen into giving up the information regarding the unknown mastermind.

"Leniency? Nice try but I already knew that I f*cked up royally when the plan was set into motion. Not you, nor anyone else can help me now. So stop trying to bait me and kill me already!" Allen laughed yet again, he was officially out of his mind now.

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"Oh, you think I don't have a way to uncover the leader's true identity, without your help? Or do you think that I don't wanna kill you? You make me sick to my stomach!" Arnold spat on the floor in disgust, "I just wanted to give you a chance to clear your name... or the family's name at least, but you're rotten to your core. It's true no one can save you, not because it's impossible, no, but because you're a lost cause. I could kill you as easily as I kill the monsters because you're no different than them. But I won't."

Arnold carried on, "I won't kill you because I don't want to cause any grief to the man who gave me shelter and hope when I was at my lowest. Hurting that man is the last thing I'll ever do. Whatever happens to you from now on is solely because of your choices and no one else. I've had enough of your daddy issues. Amanda, I assume you have the contact details of Nathan, could you get them for me? He's the family head, so I think he should take care of the things here... before I do something that I'll regret for the rest of my life."

"I'm on it," Amanda replied as rushed off to somewhere.

Soon Allen was taken into custody by the Brigadier General's orders. Everyone left the room except, Arnold, the Brigadier General, Alice and the rest of Arnold's summons. After calming down, Arnold turned towards the Brigadier General. He still had his doubts about the general's weird behaviour towards him, but before he could say anything, the General cut him off.

"I know you don't trust me, and I'm fine with it, but if you still need anything from me, I'll gladly help you. After all, you've accomplished the herculean task of taking down the church by yourself, and for that, I'm truly grateful to you... also, I'm sorry for my cold behaviour towards you earlier. I might be stepping out of the line here, but what was that ability which you used earlier? I'm positive that woman was dead but you... resurrected her?"

"I'd appreciate it if this matter stays within these walls and I apologise for the rudeness but I don't think it's a good idea for me to tell you about the ability..."

The Brigadier General was visibly taken aback by Arnold's remarks, but he knew he couldn't force anything out of his mouth even if he tried to do so. His only choice was to let the matter go and hope he and Arnold were on the same page. Otherwise, the results would've been terrifying. Not wanting to risk his life, the Brigadier General left without saying another word to Arnold.

"He definitely knows more than he's showing about all this. Gotta keep an eye on him as well."

"Arnold, if you'd like, I can give you the identity of the leader..." Alice said once she was sure that the Brigadier General had left the room.

"And why do you want to tell me that?" Arnold asked her back.

Although it surprised him as to why was Alice so eager to help him, but then since everything was going well he didn't bother to ask her about it then and now that they had the entire room to themselves, he didn't waste any time and asked her about this change in her character.

"Frankly? I never wanted any of this. I didn't want to lie and lure you but my father, the president and Jake all persuaded me to go along with the plan as, if they helped the leader, it would've helped them gain them some recognition and power, and in a moment of weakness, I finally agreed. But then everything went wrong... you killed Jake... and my father was arrested and charged for crimes he never did. All I could think about was run and then find a way to take my revenge in you and your family but before I could do anything to harm the family... the dungeon incident happened.

"I was defeated. I felt miserable all I could think about was either ways to end myself or to kill your entire family... and then the leader contacted me, and soon I was at the facility that was built under the guise of an abandoned factory. At first, I was angry at him as all of this was his fault but he fueled my anger and pushed me on the same path as my father and the president. But I wasn't the only one he had contacted... there were a lot of people who were part of his secret plans. Soon, I was assigned to lead about a quarter of themselves. He helped us by giving us advance technology to tame both monsters and humans... both of which you have already seen..."

Alice kept telling him her tale, and Arnold kept listening to her. He had no doubt that what Alice did was wrong but for some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to punish her and patiently waited for her to reveal the identity of the leader. But as usual, his patience was running out.

"But then as more and more people were converted to serve me and our cause, I started having second thoughts about it all. Wherever I saw those soulless people, I cursed myself for being so cold-hearted. Soon I was tired because of it... All I wanted was to end it all but whenever I remembered about my father and Jake, I got filled with unadulterated rage against you and your family and the cycle continued. In the end, I carried on with our plan. I know you won't believe me even if I told you how happy I was when I saw that man pointing a gun at me. I thought finally this misery would end and I made sure that the bullet managed to hit me. I was so glad to die... finally, I was at peace but then you resurrected me-"

"Alice... I need a name." Although Arnold sympathised with her, his patience was running out.

Alice smiled wanly and continued, "I'm sorry I got carried away... I don't know whether you know him or not but he is quite famous so-"

"Who is it?" Arnold said as he massaged his temple.

"Devon M. Troy. The CEO of Troy Industries, financially speaking, he's the world's richest and thus a dangerous man."