Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

There was a reason why Eren was so proficient at torturing people.

Reva Rain's demonic ritual required her to torture mortals before killing them. The sudden spikes in the emotion of pain and suffering made her ritual more effective for her, allowing her to progress by leaps and bounds in her elemental attainments.

Reva Rain was also able to strengthen her Ability by torturing mortals. So it was imperative for her that she inflicted more pain, asking her henchmen to do the same.

Torturing mortals was a delicate job.

Mortals' bodies weren't strong enough to sustain the same level of torture as rankers. They could die easily, making the demonic ritual useless or less effective.

The Paladin of Pain was taking huge risks by distributing defective ranking techniques among mortals. That's why she didn't like it when mortals died without allowing her to extract their worth from them.

Under Reva Rain's tutelage, Eren had to learn many ways of torturing mortals without killing them right away. He often had to employ non-magical ways to agitate the victims' pain receptors.

He also had to become creative with mortals' anatomy to make them suffer more without them losing their minds. This was imperative because mindless people wouldn't be able to register the same amount of pain as sane ones do.

Renar, Fiona, and others had experienced Eren's torture methods firsthand. It could be said that they had a permanent scar on their psyches because of that.

The Paladin of Pain made effective use of Eren by assigning tasks like these. She would force him to suffer through torture sessions for the silliest of mistakes. Sometimes she would torture him for made-up reasons as well. She would always tell him that she was torturing him so he could torture his targets more effectively. So that he could do his job better.

Eventually, Eren learned to dissect mortals' bodies while keeping them alive for a short amount of time. His victims would be made to stand up as he dissects them. Their bodies would be suspended inside a spatial array that kept them levitating, preventing them from moving their muscles for precise cuts. He would then often pull organs from their bodies before placing them in his raised hands.

In his past timeline, the butcher used to kill in this way because it made his job as a torture specialist easier. It was done so that he could torture more without the organs spilling on the floor.

After all, the spatial array in which the victims' bodies were suspended also had a cleaning mechanism integrated into it. The array would burn anything that fell out of victims' bodies, releasing a smoke of cooked meat.

To prevent this odor from entering his nostrils, Eren would carve out victims' organs and place them over their raised hands and shoulders. It could be said that what he did as nothing but a job in the past timeline became his habit in the current timeline.

Eren's mastery of butchering mortals and rankers grew because of Reva's shady assignments. The hacking of body parts had become his daily routine, turning him callous about everything that was related to blood and gore.

The butcher had to say that being part of the Escalon guild was the most brutal and bloody chapter of his life in his past timeline. It made him live a life of quiet desperation.

During his tenure in the Escalon guild, Eren's hands remained bloody from innocent mortal blood. And since he was diligent in his efforts despite his hate towards Reva Rain, he mastered the art of torture and slaughter.

Eren was Reva Rain's top-performing henchman. Reva's victims, who suffered through the butcher's torture, would feel the most amount of pain. As a result, Reva was able to extract pure forms of feelings from them for her demonic ritual.

Eren was one of the most crucial pawns Reva had in the past timeline. And all he received as a reward was torture and more torture.

Eren's psyche was deeply impacted after butchering rankers and mortals alike.

Killing opponents and rankers is one thing. But killing them in such a way that they would suffer more before dying was another. Experiences like these changed Eren as a person. They made him even more insensitive toward people's lives in general.

This was why Eren preferred neat and efficient kills on this timeline. As much as possible, he tried to break away from his habits. A silent way of proving to himself that he was a different person.

The butcher provided easy deaths for opponents who asked for the same from him through their words or actions. Meeshah was just one of the victims on the list.

***

Even Reva Rain had to acknowledge Eren's skills at butchering and torturing people. She would often call him Benign Butcher, which sounded like a mockery because it highlighted his helplessness in front of her.

Of course, Eren could see that Reva Rain was not a normal ranker by any stretch of the imagination because of her activities like these.

However, he assumed her to be a cultist in secret. And employing cultists in the shadows was a norm for shady guilds like the Escalon Guild.

Eren was not aware of the Anfang Alliance or Reva's identity as a demonic ranker. Therefore, he could never use that information as leverage against her.

Eren also learned to sustain pain and suffering as much as he was capable of inflicting them. His pain tolerance kept reaching new heights, thanks to Reva Rain's consistent 'training sessions.'

"Those who inflict pain must have the courage to bear it as well."

The Paladin of Pain was the original speaker of that sentence.

Reva Rain would often whisper those words into Eren's ears while "educating" him. As a result, that sentence just stayed with the butcher, getting played in his mind like a broken record.

The Paladin of Pain was used to cover her tracks flawlessly. As a result, Anfang Alliance or establishments were unaware of her activities. After watching her clear the kill site in a precise manner, the butcher also learned to do the same.

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AN: A throwback to chapters 129, 808, and 943.