After Zerra was humiliated by someone who called himself Mendoza, Zerra had to recover from his injuries and decided to not show his face to his fellow Immortals. At least until he felt that he's mentally prepared to look at their eyes without feeling embarrass, or cringing hard when he remembers that he was repeatedly slapped by that guy.

The hatred he felt for that Mendoza continued to rise, and every time he remembers Mendoza's face, who was looking at him like he was nothing but an ant, Zerra couldn't help but want to murder him and all of his family. Unfortunately, he didn't know anything about that guy. And from the expressions of the other Immortals, they also didn't have any idea on who the hell is this Mendoza.

To calm his mind, he decided to descend to the planet that they're observing, and pretend like a normal mortal. He would look for a beautiful woman that he thinks is quite rare to see, seduce her, play with her, and throw her when he got bored. This type of hunt is what made Zerra excited, since mortals are mostly ugly in his point of view, finding a beautiful woman who could transcend the normality of the world and obtained a beauty comparable to a cultivator, is very exciting for him.

For starters, he decided to descend in a small country comprise of small and big islands. From what Zerra knows, this country is called Philippines. And it has three main islands, the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital of this country is located in the Luzon Island, so he directly descended there.

Zerra already saw different worlds when he was traveling the Mortal and Immortal Realms, so seeing huge buildings that standing straight, some weird vehicles, weird cultures-- he didn't bat an eye. He just walked and observed the so called capital of this country, Manila.

While he was walking mindlessly, he felt something stir in the surroundings space. Immediately, he became alerted and prepared to protect himself.

The power of space isn't really that rare in the God Realm, but, a vibration in space that could make even an Immortal Lord like him uncomfortable, is definitely something only Immortals or those who are stronger, are capable of. That's why he waited and didn't move. Unknowingly, couple minutes passed, but still nothing happened, so Zerra decided to continue walking while making sure he's prepared for any surprise attack.

Unknowingly, he arrived in place which people in his surrounding calls, an amusement park. A place where mortals enjoys life by spending money and riding some weird vehicles that they rarely see. This kind of place is something Zerra already seen in lot of worlds, so he was not surprise to see something like an amusement park in this world as well.

As he was walking inside, he felt his soul trembled, and his anger re-lit. Even though the smell, strength, outward appearance, and the soul, are not entirely alike, the truth that its kinda similar as that fcker Mendoza, gives Zerra some suspicions about the identity of the young man in front of him.

Standing in front of the young man, Zerra learned that it was just a normal human who became a cultivator because of the project they're doing now. And from the looks of it, this young man didn't even have any bloodline, special talents, a burning karmic luck, or a huge cultivation base. This young man is only a mortal who just unlocked his second meridian, and almost died by consuming a whole Foundation Pill.

Zerra is an Immortal Lord, so inspecting a mortal using only an instant and learning everything about his body, is way too easy. The only thing is, even after inspecting the young man, Zerra still couldn't think of the connection between this young man and that Immortal Mendoza.

At first he thought, they were father and child, but looking at this young man, the whole idea became stupid. He also thought that maybe they're teacher and student, but looking and thinking it carefully, thats also a wrong answer. Then why do these two have some similarities?

Thinking like this while looking at the young man, and remembering the repeated slap Mendoza gave him that day, Zerra felt his anger and hatred burned a lot more hotter. Since he couldn't think of anything, then he wouldn't waste any time to think about that. He decided to just bring the guy, question him, and release some stress while at it.

Torture is also one of Zerra's favorite hobby.

Anyway, even if this guy died, it doesn't matter. There are ninety-million chosen to cultivate and was given a lot of resources. Losing an average cultivator like this guy isn't a huge waste, and probably wont notice by anyone. But just to make sure, Zerra wont kill him. Instead, he will destroy his everything and let this guy suffer until he lost his mind.

*******

Gabriel's face contorts to a disgusting look, as he cries, screams, and trembles, as his left arm twist and compress like a citrus when it's juice is being squeezed and extracted. But in this case, it was his blood, his grinded bones and muscles are the things that are being squeezed out.

The pain was terrifying but he couldn't do anything except screams, gasps for air, and continuously cry while his body trembles uncontrollably. His body continuously tries to cringe as a self protection and lessen the pain, but like before, his body wont follow his demands. His tears, snot, saliva, and blood, mixed with each other as the time passes, making his whole face and body looks pretty unsettling and kinda disturbing.

But his pain didn't end there, the more Gabriel suffers, the more enjoyment Zerra could feel.

It has been a while since Zerra tortured a mortal like this, and he knows that the pain tolerance of these people are a lot lesser than people like him, those who were born with a better body constitution. That's why torturing them is kinda boring, but the way they express pain is fascinating.

Since Zerra already broke his left arm, he decided to start the torture from there.

Using a devil flame, he decided to burn his left arm slowly starting from his fingers until it reached the shoulders. When it reach there, Zerra is planning to stop and make this young man in front of him suffer in a different ways.

Even though Gabriel's left arm is already like a twisted cloth, for some reason he could still feel them like normal. That's why the moment the flame touched the tip of his finger, slowly burned and started climbing to his hand, and to his shoulder--- his screams became even more cracked, and it sounded more of a beast growl than a human screams.

Seeing Gabriel's body trembles while trying his best to suppress the pain, the look of helplessness and intense suffering on his face, the whimpers and broken screams he makes--- are fcking beautiful for Zerra to watch. And imagining that this is actually Mendoza made this whole torture scene wonderful for him.

With an excited look, Zerra decided to raise the bar by randomly picking a branch, grabbing Gabriel's hair and pulling him close to him, Zerra put branch closer to his ear, and slowly, very slowly and yet forcefully, he inserted it towards his ear.

Seeing the branch getting closer to his ear, Gabriel broke down and with a small voice and gasping sounds, he begged Zerra to stop, repeatedly. But this only made Zerra excited. Immediately, the feeling of a rough, hard, and twistedly pointed object started to invade his ears. The pain and the scratching of the branch and his bleeding ear kept echoing on his mind, making him suffer even more. And when it reached the eardrums, Zerra pushed it forcefully making it explode and blood started gushing out more. Gabriel screamed even more and his body trembles repeatedly while slowly becoming weaker and weaker.

Seeing that Gabriel is slowly dying, Zerra immediately used a medicinal water from the God realm, instantly making Gabriel more energetic and more alive. But he is only physically and mentally alive. His left arm is already burned, his ear erupted, and his whole body kept releasing blood. His body didn't heal, Zerra didn't want Gabriel to heal. At least not yet.

"After all.." Zerra sneered. "We just barely started."

*******

Inside of a room in a condominium a couple miles away from Zerra and Gabriel's position. Mendoza and a woman who looked like she's in her early twenties, attentively watches the things that's happening real time in the clairvoyance crystal in front of them.

The crystal shows the image of Gabriel losing an eye by repeatedly being poked by blood drenched tree branch. Its also shows the image of Zerra laughing maniacally, while mocking and insulting Gabriel in every way possible. The sounds of blood drops, Gabriel whimpers and screams, and the disturbing sounds of body getting tear down slowly--- was easily heard and captured perfectly by the crystal.

Looking at the things happening, the young woman continuously clenched her teeth tightly as she tried her best to suppress her anger and kill intent. She's really having the urge to kill that fcker and save Gabriel with all she got. On the side, Mendoza's calm face could also be easily seen. And from how he acted as he watches the torture, its difficult to guess what's he currently thinking.

After Gabriel lost another eye, the young woman couldn't take it anymore and looked at Mendoza with eyes full of killing intent.

"Can we stop it now?" she said with trembling voice. "If this continues, he'd die! And from that fcker's face, I'm sure he wont mind doing that."

Mendoza looks at the young woman for a couple seconds before sighing slightly.

"Not now." he said simply. "We cant stop it yet."

The young woman frowns and smirked.

"What? Is it because of the 'rules'?"

Mendoza looked at the young woman's eyes, and nodded his head.

"Yeah." he simply answered.

Hearing this, a huge pressure descended and enveloped the whole room. And before even a second passed, all the windows, mirrors, and all the things that made of glass exploded and slowly turned to a powder floating in the air. With stars as her background, and the floating glasses that shines and reflect lights in her surroundings, she gives an impression of a lonely goddess living in the mortal world.

As tears falls down her face, and the glasses evaporated to nothingness, she whispered words that she has been keeping in her heart for a long time.

".. I hate these rules."

Seeing the young woman break down like that, Mendoza immediately stood in front of her and silently hugged her trembling body. He never wanted to see her cry, or sad for even a moment. But he really couldn't do anything.

Of course, both of them know that Gabriel wont die. And even if Zerra wanted him dead, Gabriel would be save by them easily. The young woman just couldn't tolerate the fact that, because of the rules she hated, the people that she considered important to her, kept suffering while she could only watch and do nothing to help.

Right now, the young woman isn't really in her right mind and mood, so Mendoza can understand why she acted like that. And to be honest, he felt guilty about everything that's happening around them. Even though he didn't know how they got here and why they are here, Mendoza felt responsible for everything.

Since the very beginning when they appeared in this place, to the moment that they accepted that they couldn't do anything, Mendoza felt like a normal person that was pushed to a stage and was forced to be a character in a play that he didn't know anything about. The plot, story, or even some of the characters playing the role--- except for knowing some key points while having some partial informations, Mendoza didn't have any idea what the fck is going on.

From the very start up to the present, Mendoza was forced to be passive while doing an impromptu play in a story that he didn't belong to.

This made him realize, that in the sea of fate and karma, even Immortals are nothing but small fishes that rides the waves and face the storms.