?Bill, consumed by anger, stormed towards Victor, his fists clenched, ready to exact his revenge. The scene was a chaotic mix of emotions, with Erin standing resolute, still holding her combat knife, and Nathan, who had just saved Bill’s life, closely following behind.

Victor, on the other hand, was whimpering in pain and clutching his severed hand, the sniper rifle now fallen to the ground. His plan to take Bill down had failed miserably, and he was paying the price for it.

As Bill approached Victor, his face contorted with fury, he finally vented his rage. “YOU BASTARD!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the tunnel.

He kicked Victor straight in the teeth and proceeded to give him several punches in the stomach that made him cough even more blood.

“Haven’t you had enough!? *Punch!* Haven’t you killed enough!? *Punch!* Haven’t you hurt us ENOUGH!?” Bill shouted as he continued punching and kicking Victor repeatedly.

Victor who had barely any strength left couldn’t even activate his hardening ability again and was now at the complete mercy of Bill and Erin who also joined in, throwing the occasional punch as well.

“What did I do to you!? You invaded my territory… and were trying to follow me so that you could catch me and interrogate me! What major sin have I committed if I did the same before you could?!” Victor finally shouted in desperation to get Bill and Erin to stop.

He was heavily wounded and badly beaten to the point that even breathing was causing him pain. He was barely able to open one of his eyes, but the expression on Bill and Erin’s faces made him curse at himself that he was better off keeping them closed.

“YOU HAVE THE BRASS NECK TO SAY THAT AFTER YOU…” Bill shouted as he became even more enraged and walked toward him once more, ready to deal him even more pain.

However, just as Bill was about to get to Victor, Erin intervened, standing in his way with tears in her eyes, “Bill, this guy might not even realize the harm he’s caused. Let’s make him understand the suffering he’s brought upon us, so he knows that the pain he’s feeling now is just a fraction of what we’ve endured.” Her voice was resolute.

Nathan didn’t know what was going on, but he felt like Victor Voss had used some extreme measures while interrogating the three of his teammates, and those methods had caused them such pain that they had become so broken.

He understood this feeling of being so broken that pain no longer felt like pain anymore, and wanted to find out what had Victor done to them for them to unlock such great power and be so full of rage.

Bill, while still furious, understood Erin’s words as she was just as angry and broken as he was. He took a deep breath, attempting to regain a bit of his composure before grabbing Victor’s leg and dragging his body toward the dark room at the end of the passageway.

“Wait! What are you doing!? Where are you taking me!? STOP! Wait, please…” Victor began to scream and struggle as he realized where Bill was dragging him. It was the torture chamber, next to his office where he had kept the three of them prisoners.

If Bill was dragging him there, it could only mean one thing, he was now going to use those torture devices on him. Just the thought of this made his heart shudder with fear as there were other tools on that metal table that he didn’t even get the chance to use and were a lot more painful than the ones he actually used on the three of them.

Victor was already so hurt and barely had any strength left, he tried punching and kicking to try to get loose from Bill’s grip so he could make a run for it, but to no avail as Bill had an iron grip on his leg and was dragging him along with ease.

He tried releasing his aura, but before he could cast out any skill, Erin’s blade was already next to his face with the tip of the blade a few mere millimeters away from his eyes.

“Try anything funny and I will gouge your eyes out.” She warned as they continued walking toward the torture chamber.

Together, the trio secured Victor and finally made it to the torture chamber where Bill, Erin, and Iris were held since the afternoon. In the span of barely 15 hours so much had occurred and changed in each of their lives, but no more than what had been taken from Bill and Erin.

They entered the room to find it empty with the moonlight barely illuminating the room from the tiny windows located at the top of the walls.

The room had several pillars with futuristic-looking cuffs and a metal table that had an assortment of different gadgets placed on top.

Just by looking at the vibe that the room was giving off, Nathan couldn’t even start to imagine the pain that Victor must have inflicted on them; however, he was still oblivious to the truth as moments later, his eyes fell towards the center of the room where something large was covered up by large empty sack.

Bill quickly threw Victor against the wall and proceeded to restrict him by cuffing up his arms and legs. Even though these power-restricting cuffs weren’t strong enough to block Victor from accessing mana, he was still so weak that it would take him quite some time to recover and even more time before he had enough mana reserves again to overpower the cuffs and use an ability.

After making sure the cuffs were as tight as possible Bill started walking back toward the center of the room. Victor’s heart was pounding at this moment as he couldn’t even imagine the pain he was about to receive from the gadgets placed on the metal table; however, to his surprise, Bill didn’t reach for the metal table and instead went towards the pile in the center that was covered up by an empty sack that Victor hadn’t even noticed.

Bill’s hands began to tremble as he reached toward the sack while Erin who couldn’t hold back her tears turned away so she wouldn’t have to see the horror that was hiding underneath the sack.

“You wanted to know what you had done for us to justify our anger and rage…” Bill said with extreme pain in his voice as he pulled on the sack, ” This… is why…”

The entire room became silent with not so much as a whisper that could be heard as Nathan and Victor absorbed what Bill had just revealed.

Underneath the sack wasn’t a pile of things like Nathan had predicted, but rather it was a dead body.

The body wasn’t wearing the uniform that the gang members were wearing, but rather it was a dress Nathan was quite familiar with as he had seen it being worn a day prior. Shock and horror filled Nathan’s heart as he realized who it was, but he didn’t want to admit it.

The dead body was normal for the most part other than the fact that it was covered in blood-red spots all over and the face was so mangled and mutilated that it looked like somebody had thrown a bucket of acid on the face and left it to melt.

There was no way to distinguish the identity of this person, but the dress gave everything away as there was without any doubt that this body belonged to Iris Jade Cooper.

Iris was lying dead on the floor with no pulse. Her face was so badly mangled that Erin couldn’t afford to look at her again or else she might have just lost it completely.

Bill gripped onto the sack cover with great strength as he fought back his tears, ultimately failing to do so.

He quickly covered her body back with the sack and then turned toward Victor whose skin had turned completely white after realizing what he had done.

He had placed an iron mask on Iris’ head which injected toxic fumes into her face causing extreme pain, irritation, and visual nightmares. The gas wasn’t lethal in small dosages, but he had forgotten about it and left it on her as one of the goons approached him and explained the situation to him.

After he had left, Bill tried everything to try and break free from his cuffs which were restricting all of his power and so was Erin who couldn’t even activate her mutant gene.

At first, they planned to just wait it out as they had faith in their friends but soon afterward, Iris began screaming and trembling as she was in extreme pain and was trying to claw out the mask off her face, but to no avail.

Iris’ painful screams filled Bill’s heart with adrenaline as he tried harder and harder to get to Iris and try to save her but he was still not strong enough.

Iris was in such pain that she began trembling on the floor and shaking violently with her screams echoing through the iron mask while her skin became littered with red spots.

Bill and Erin could bear to see Iris in this state and were slowly making progress as their eyes began to slightly glow from the overabundance of hormones and emotions in their body, and yet the cuffs did what they were intended to do and blocked them from escaping.

It was only after Iris had stopped moving and looked like she had drawn her last breath, becoming a limp lifeless body that anger and rage surged through Bill’s body in such extreme quantity that he unlocked the second form of his mutant gene and broke out of the restraints.

He rushed towards Iris’ dead body and quickly removed the mask with Erin following suit closely behind after successfully awakening her mutant gene as well.

However, he wished he had never removed the mask as the state of Iris’ face that he saw was something he knew was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Bill…” This was the last word that came out of Iris’ tangled mouth which didn’t even resemble a mouth anymore before she drew her last breath and died right in Bill’s arms.

********************

Alright Guys! This is the end of the First Volume of the Universal Power System! I hope you guys enjoyed the story so far and will continue to do so as the plot continues to thicken with new challenges and new threats! .𝒎

Side Note: I am extremely sorry for the past month if you have ever seen a re-upload of the same chapter or the chapter is not complete with the end part being a repeat of a previous chapter. I had hired an editor to edit and then publish the chapters and I recently found out that he had been cutting corners and doing stuff like this instead of actually doing work. Rest assured that he has been removed from this position and will no longer hinder your daily uploads. Thank you for your patience!

New novel chapters are published on .𝒎