I made it back to the apartment complex about an hour later, the sun was down, not even a glow left to tell the time by. I figured it was around seven. It was hard to tell in the colder months. I had one last task to perform before Sharla returned.

It wasn't easy finding the plans for this building. Eventually, I managed to come across a copy in a civil engineering building. The building had four main supports holding it up. I set to work rigging the six dwarven powder charges at the base of these posts. I covered up my work with Earth Fist. The timers were set to go off in around four hours. I ran up to Sharla's apartment and hid the last two there. These weren't set yet, but I wanted them in place if I needed a distraction.

Now, I only need to wait and hope she returned in a few hours. Otherwise, I would have to run downstairs and deactivate them again. Not something I was keen to attempt.

I waited nervously as the minutes turned into hours. Eight rolled around, then nine, by half-past nine I was sweating bullets. I was about to go downstairs when I heard the door unlock. I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from my brow.

***

Sharla opened the door to the apartment, she was exhausted from the all-day meeting. Going over the same tactics and plans over and over again. The only upside was the time she got to spend with her father.

She saw Paul standing in his usual spot. Her desire to hurt him flared for a moment before it went out. She was too tired for that tonight. She just dropped her clothing and armor as she walked. Perhaps the view would entice her slave. She smiled cruelly at the thought of rutting with the man. Instead, she just ordered him to his room but told him he must sleep on the floor. That gave her a little bit of juice as she headed to her room.

***

I watched Sharla strip as she headed to her room, my eyes not leaving her form. There wasn't so much as a twitch of attraction as I watched her, just a cold calculating look. I headed to my room to wait. She would be asleep soon.

I stared out my window until the clock in the main room struck ten. I was in luck, across the compound I saw a bright orange glow. It came from the direction that Jamal should be in. I schooled any smile before it crossed my lips. It was time to get to work.

I quietly made my way to the other charges I hid in the apartment. Setting their timers for an hour. Then I donned my new armor. I left off my leather gloves. I wanted to feel this.

I approached Sharla's room, the door was left open. I stood outside, listening to her rhythmic breathing.

Slowly I pushed the door open and went inside. She was fast asleep on her king-sized four-post bed. I stood next to the bed glaring at the source of my months of torment and Fiona's death. Even if the system didn't recognize the fact that she ordered the kill, I knew.

I was going to savor this.

I jumped on top of the woman and clamped my hand around her neck as she startled awake. I could have simply killed her with my staff but I needed her to feel some of what I felt over the past few months.

"Pau- Paul, Stop!" she forced out as I choked her.

When I didn't stop immediately her eyes went wide. She knew something was wrong. She hit me with a lightning bolt. My armor reduced the damage to forty and the shield absorbed the rest.

When that didn't stop me, she started to panic. Hitting me with other spells. I didn't care. I had let my rage out. All sounds seemed to be muted and everything had gone red. She finally got through my shield, but the spell damage was laughable with my resistance. I just squeezed harder as she tried to burn me alive with a flame spell. She lost control of it halfway through, setting the bed on fire.

She tried to pry my hands from her neck but her strength wasn't sufficient. Then she took to hitting me in the face.

The blows hurt as there was nothing to absorb the damage. I didn't care, I just tightened my grip some more as she started to turn blue. Her strikes became weaker and I idly noticed she pressed her thumb to a ring on her finger. There was a flash that momentarily blinded me, but I held on. I was pushing her down with all my weight. Her flailing arms finally stilling after several minutes. Still, I held on. I wanted to see it, I needed to make sure.

Lethal damage: You have killed Sharla Cotton

I laughed and laughed. I couldn't control myself. I started punching the dead woman in the face.

"No!" I screamed. I wanted her to suffer longer; she needed to make up for the suffering she put me through.

Eventually, I managed to get the rage back under control. I also looked at the messages I received.

You have reached level 14, modifiers increased by 1, 2 free skill slots available

Error: Unclassified resource utilized.

Defining resource...

Resource defined: Aura

Skill assigned: Aura of Rage, one free skill slot utilized for new skill.

Aura of Rage: Once per day you can cast an Aura of Rage. Aura covers 20m, anyone caught inside the aura will feel fear. Only those with higher endurance than you can resist the fear. You temporarily gain one point in all of your attributes for each individual affected by your aura while it is active. Cost 10 hp/sec, cooldown 1 day

There are many types of auras, yours has been colored by hate and anger.

I felt like I got punched in the gut as the system ripped away one of my skill points to create this new ability, one that I didn't want. I got to my feet, deciding to finally see what Sharla had been playing with on her hand.

Emergency Signal Ring

'Yea,' I thought as much. I took the rest of her gear to sort through later and headed to the roof.

As I stood at the corner of the roof, I could hear shouting coming from below. It wasn't close enough for me to make out but I had a good guess. I smiled wistfully.

"I did it, Fiona, I avenged your death."

I felt the building shake a bit and I smiled again. I guess her father found the body. It wouldn't be long now. I turned to face the door. Less than twenty seconds later the door burst open, being torn from its hinges by the force of the attack. An irate Mr. Cotton stepped out followed by Obidiah.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" the man screamed at me as he stalked forward.

"What you should have done years ago, but you are a spineless coward who can't even control his own daughter."

The man screamed and tried to rush at me but Obidiah held him back. Damn, I had hoped to take the father with me but that damn Obidiah was too level-headed. Obidiah said something to Sharla's father, causing him to step back.

I activated Area of Denial just in time. There was a loud crack and a boom. Whatever spell Obidiah had, it bypassed my Area of Denial. The crack came from my amulet as it broke to absorb the blow. Then our spells interacted oddly.

We were both flung from the roof of the building at high speed. I only knew this because I got to watch Obidiah's body slam into and through the building next door before I too flew through a building.

My spell absorbed the blow as I crashed through that building and halfway through the next one. I sat up, still sore from the impact of Obidiah's attack. I managed to stand and walk to the hole I made. There were still ten seconds on my spell so I just jumped down from the eighth floor. Shortly after landing, I heard two explosions. This was followed less than a minute later by four more. Either I had timed them correctly, which seemed unlikely, or the others were set off from the initial explosion.

Dust and debris rolled past the street I was on and I heard a creaking groan as the building started to come down. I needed to get out of the area fast. I got about a block before someone stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going, Paul?"

I turned to see William Conrad standing there with Gus and the Branch's.

"I don't have time for your shit William, just leave."

"Fuck you slave. On your knees!"

I sighed, and William smiled. He lost that smile when I pulled the collar off and tossed it into the street. I pulled out my staff.

"Kill him!" Conrad screamed as he tried to back away. It was already too late.

I cast Godly Might, Flurry, Aura Strike, and Blink Step in rapid succession. I easily wove past the Branch's, idly noting that Gus hadn't moved. William managed to get his spear up to block my first strike but my overwhelming strength flung the spear wide, causing the man to stumble backward. I had given the man a chance and he chose to ignore it. My eyes followed the tip of my staff as the bladed end sliced into William's armor. The man's eyes went wide. He tried to retaliate but he was already dead, he just didn't know it. My staff punching into him fourteen more times.

The spear dropped from his lifeless hand as his body shuddered and slid off the blade. I flicked the blood from my staff and turned on the other two that were attacking. I used Banshee's Wail on them. As they were stunned I followed up with a blow to their heads to keep them out. Last I turned to Gus, the man was holding something in his hand. Turns out it was a broken slave collar, his broken slave collar in fact.

One last act of kindness I told myself as I carved the runes to release the collars. These didn't have to be as fancy as the ones I made earlier, so it didn't take me long to finish. I removed those collars and stored them in my ring. No point leaving them lying around for others to inspect. Gus didn't say a word, he was still stunned by his own collar coming off. I was curious about it as well, but not enough to stay around. I pulled out Bella and took off.

Right now I needed speed. Chaos was erupting all around as fights between freed slaves, still captured slaves, and Black Dragon members broke out.

Bella was hit a few times, as was I, by spells and projectiles. I urged Bella on as I healed us both. Soon the wall came into view and I could see men at the top, yelling for us to stop. Instead, I hit the gate with Earth Fist. The weak structure gave way, allowing us to dash under the guards before they could stop us. I chose this guard point for a reason, I knew the two on watch were melee fighters.

I kept riding until the Chicago skyline, or what was left of it anyway, was well behind me. I moved Bella down some residential streets until I felt it was safe enough to look for a place to spend the night. This wasn't exactly the good part of town. All the homes and small businesses had barred windows and doors. I found a place, tucked behind an alley that looked promising. After securing the door I found a place to lay down and rest. I left Bella out in the house. She would warn me if anyone came to visit. Then I passed out.