“Trust me in this.” Emma said very simply, her gentle demeanor and cute girly voice at that moment contrasting very starkly with the very thing she asked me to trust her with.

The complete murder of every single person in two large bases.

“Uhh. That’s a little bit too much, don’t you think?” I said while frowning slightly. “Those people have families too! They are sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, mothers…”

“Yeah? So what? I am a daughter too. And a granddaughter. They had no problems kidnapping me, torturing me and making plans to kill me.” Emma said coldly. “They deserve to die. Killing them is the same as doing the world a favor.”

“Uh… Well. That may be true for the Red Dragon gang, but the military…” I began to reply.

“Are just as bad. Do you think they have no idea that the Red Dragon gang had prisoners? And that those prisoners are innocent civillians? And that they are getting tortured?” Emma snapped. “Do you know how many times I have comforted myself by saying that the military will definitely come and… and…” Her voice cracked slightly at the end before she stopped speaking.

“Even so. Killing all of them is too much. Let’s not go down to their level.” I said quietly as I sped through the forest towards the Red Dragon base. I tried to be as quiet as I could to avoid alerting the enemy.

There was an awkward silence for a while before I finally said with a smile. “But I WILL definitely clean house on everything that I can absorb from both bases. I am not sure that I can though, definitely not in one go. We might have to stick around for a few days while I ‘digest’ everything.”

Emma stayed silent for a few more moments.

“Yes. You need to take everything from them. If not their lives, then everything else they own.” She said softly.

I was chilled to the bone. It was the first time I glimpsed her deep, and dark side, one that was so full of anger and hatred.

I was tempted to ask her right there and then why she was so angry and so full of hatred, but I held myself back.

“She probably felt that way because of the kidnapping and living under the cloud of death for so long.” I told myself. “Stop asking stupid questions!”

“How long were you imprisoned there?” I asked instead.

Emma remained silent for a few long moments. However, she eventually answered me.

“Two hundred and seventy four days.” She finally said. “You rescued me on the two hundred seventy-fifth day.”

I nodded. I was about to say something when she unexpectedly continued to speak.

“I spent those days in three prisons from three different organisations. I suffered through seven invasive ‘medical check ups’. Two operations. And countless ‘interrogation’ sessions. By pure amateurs.”

There it was. The source of her anger and hatred. It wasn’t mere imprisonment. It was torture! AND possibly rape and organ stealing.

My blood began to boil at that moment.

“Look.” She pulled up her shirt a little and showed me two scars on her thin body. Overly thin body. She was so thin that I was sure she was malnourished.

A bloody haze began to cloud my vision as anger coursed through my veins like molten fire.

All the goodness within me and willingness to take the ‘higher road’ towards Red Dragon evaporated when I saw the two badly stitched up scars that were still extremely red. True, they might not be the ones who operated on Emma, there were two other organizations who were guilty.

But it didn’t matter to me.

I was a boy in love who just discovered that the girl I loved had just suffered through unimaginable pain and suffering in the hands of an organization that I had more than enough power to destroy.

“I will kill every single one of them.” I whispered. “Those animals!”

I clenched my jaw tightly and released more of my power. At that moment, I fully intended to kill every single person in the Red Dragon base. Every single person.

Immediately, the power of eight blue mechas manifested all around me.

The density of my armor increased drastically and within my chest, I could feel a startling change happening with the mecha cores.

Spurred on by my anger, the little red mecha core pulsated powerfully in my heart and began to activate.

It filled my whole body with red energy which surged alongside the power of the blue mecha cores. The eight blue mecha core particles, which were merely circulating around my body previously and powering my mecha suit, began to be absorbed by the red mecha core.

“GAH!” A sharp pain shot through my heart and my whole body!

I stumbled and fell down hard as I lost control of my mecha suit.

“Ahh!” Emma screamed in surprise. Thankfully, she had seat belts on so she escaped that incident totally unharmed.

“GAAAHHH!!” I shouted in agony. My whole body felt like it was burning up in flames!

“What’s happening? Are you alright?” I could hear slight panic and concern in her voice. And because of that, somehow I felt slightly better even though the pain slowly intensified.

I quickly turned my attention inwards as all the muscles in my body clenched up in a reflexive attempt to suppress the pain. Slowly, through the pain, I could sense the energy of the eight blue mecha cores disintegrating and the red mecha core growing dramatically in strength and power.

I could feel that my capacity to absorb was growing larger and larger! Additionally, my senses grew more acute and they spread out over a much larger area. I could feel my resonance with all sorts of mechas and machines all around me increasing sharply.

“Yes!” I cried out internally with great excitement. “If this is the power that I get, then by all means, bring on the pain!”

The red energy was also a much purer source of energy, with each energy unit able to generate much more power in the mecha. With the enhancement, I would grow much more powerful.

And I would be able to take revenge for Emma much more completely.

“None of the Red Dragon gang would be left alive!” My rage fueled my strength and allowed me to go through that round of enhancement with relative ease.

After a few long minutes, the pain subsided.

I gasped with great relief and took deep breaths.

“Are you okay?” Emma asked me, her round eyes opened wide.

“Yes.” I replied breathlessly. “That was the red mecha core absorbing the power of the blue mecha cores I absorbed earlier.” I explained.

“So you’re much stronger now?” She asked.

I nodded.

“How much stronger?” She asked curiously.

“Much stronger.” I replied excitedly.

“That’s not a real answer.” Emma said irritably.

I chuckled at her amiably.

Whoosh! A powerful burst of energy erupted from within my body.