"What do you mean by the Curse of El Diablo? Who is this person?" Erin asked with curiosity.
"Who is El Diablo?..." Bill said while caressing the key-shaped burn mark on his hand. "He is a person far worse than death! That is what it means to be El Diablo!"
Bill's words had made both Erin and Iris shake with unease as they couldn't fathom how could a living person be worse than the final end; death itself!
Natasha and Haruto could also be seen shaking as that name was mentioned by El Diablo. They understood that their enemy knew all of their secrets and their outcome as well. Now they were completely at the mercy of the group of five cadets in front of them because they knew that if they didn't receive any mercy from them, they were done for as the word "mercy" wasn't in El Diablo's dictionary.
"I still don't understand what you are on about. How can a person be worst than death?!" Iris said with a disturbed look full of worry.
"Hehe... So tell me, Iris, what would you prefer? Die a quick death and get it over with or get skinned alive in such an intricate manner that would deliver the maximum amount of pain without killing you so you can quickly be healed up by healing pills only to go through that process all over again as long as he wishes with no breaks or possibility of escape." Bill said.
Bill's words caused Iris and Erin to cover their shocked wide open mouths as the sheer thought of such a brutal thing caused them to shiver down their spine with fear. Natasha and Haruto had looks of horror on their faces as they looked toward Bill with a shocked expressions as they didn't expect anyone else to know about such punishments.
"How do you kn... Huh!? Don't tell me... You too?..." Haruto said to Bill with a myriad of emotions to which Bill only nodded yes.
"The punishment that I just shared with you is one of many ways El Diablo tortures those who couldn't complete a task that was entrusted to them by him. There is no mercy. There is no forgiveness. You have to complete the task by any means necessary or else it is better to die on the mission than to have to face that man." Bill added.
Bill's statement was followed by a moment of silence as everyone absorbed and understood the severity of the situation which had the fate of two people riding on it.
"Who is this El Diablo? Why did he assign these people to hunt Mako in the first place?" Iris asked.
"El Diablo is the leader of the biggest gang in Emerald City called Los Carlos. He runs almost all the major sectors of the city and has involvement with 90% of the crime that occurs in the city. There are rumors about how strong he really is with the most well-known being that El Diablo has 4 high-level abilities all past level 5." Mako said.
"All past level 5?! What kind of a monster is he?" Everyone except Bill exclaimed in unison.
"Nobody knows for sure how strong he really is as he never had the need to go out, even against his rival, the leader of the second biggest gang in Emerald City called the Dark Raven. The Dark Raven was the only one capable of maintaining some sort of balance within Emerald City against Los Carlos which is why it has not fallen into absolute chaos." Mako stated.
"And for some unknown reasons, El Diablo had done nothing to upset this balance as the tension between the two gangs remained constant. For the longest time, both gangs had come to a stalemate with neither making a move against the other and not involving themselves in each other's matter." Mako added.
Leon noticed that Mako didn't associate with him while talking about his father's gang which he appreciated because he didn't want to be known as the son of a gang leader and rather wanted to build his own personality. This was the reason that Leon was always distant even when the five of them conversed and dodged any question that was targeting his backstory or past.
Leon knew the general information about Los Carlos and El Diablo but since he never involved himself with the gang other than to participate in tournaments and fights under the name, "Dark Assassin", he really didn't know much detail about this as well which was why he also had a shocked look on his face as Mako and Bill started to reveal information about the most feared man in all Emerald City, El Diablo.
"However, that just enabled El Diablo to do what he did best without anyone interfering. El Diablo's gang would easily recruit almost everyone and give them power, making them believe that they were on top of the world and that they would be living an easy life as long as they did their bidding, but for most, they would face the harsh reality a month or two in that nothing was as it seems and that they had actually signed a deal with the devil himself." Bill added in after Mako's statement.
The group got the basic idea of who El Diablo was and what made him so dangerous, but they still couldn't figure out how did Mako and Bill know so much about him in the first place. Even Haruto and Natasha had no idea that El Diablo was rumored to have 4 high-level abilities.
Mako and Bill both sighed as they knew they were going to open up about their past interaction with El Diablo. However, they felt comfortable sharing this information with the group because even though it had only been a couple of days, they had really grown together as a team in this short period of time and they felt their bonds of friendship to be genuine.
They began to explain how it all began and how El Diablo played a role in both boys' lives. They made sure to only tell bits that would give all of them the general picture without giving them too many details and refrained to talk about several things that Mako knew El Diablo didn't have any information about and since Haruto and Natasha were also listening, they didn't want to potentially leak any information by letting them listen.
By the end, everyone including Leon was gasping as they heard about Mako and Bill's journey up to this point. Leon himself was feeling a lot more embarrassed as his resolve to take revenge based on his experience was weak compared to what the two of them had gone through.
Now that everyone was on the same page, they looked back at Haruto and Natasha who were sweating with fear awaiting the final decision that would decide their lives. Will they eliminate them and make them face a terrible fate or will they show mercy and let them continue to take the test?
The silence was getting too much for Natasha. She completely broke down in front of the group and started to cry her eyes out while bowing down on the ground.
"Please! Please! We were only following orders! We didn't have much before we were accepted into the gang. As long as you do good work, you will get the fruits of your labor and we thought that we could work our way up and earn the good life but we soon found out the consequences of failing." Natasha began to explain.
"We couldn't quit or resign so we were stuck doing his bidding and did it the best we could so that we too could enjoy life. This was our last mission before we would be promoted and we wouldn't have to do these kinds of missions anymore. We could go to military school and make a good life for ourselves, but now all that is in ruin." She added.
"Please spare us! We know what we did was wrong but we didn't have a choice! Please don't make us go back to face that monster!" She pleaded again.
There was another moment of silence where Natasha continued to prostrate on the ground crying her eyes out while Haruto just stayed still in position with his head down full of regret and disappointment.
After some time, Mako was about to say something but Erin beat him to it.
"Let them go," Erin said.
Haruto instantly lifted his face up as he stared with astonishment into Erin's eyes as he heard her verdict. Natasha also stopped crying as she slowly looked up at Erin's face in awe while keeping her prostrating position.
All four of them looked back toward her with shocked faces as they heard her words because she was probably the one carrying the most amount of hatred against them for ruining Andrew, Sven, and Finn's chances of achieving a good grade in the recruitment test.
"Nobody should go through that level of torture and it is not like they killed Andrew and the rest. You are free to go, but if you dare show your faces during this test again, know that I won't be able to hold myself back!" Erin said with authority and power.
Haruto was too stunned to speak as it looked like he was still processing what had been just said while Natasha had burst out laughing again but this time it was out of happiness.
Their reactions didn't matter too much as Erin was still holding herself from finishing both of them off but she stood by her ideal and wished for no one to go through the things that Mako had told her about.
"Don't ever mess with us again! Now scram!" Erin shouted.
Natasha could sense somewhat of what Erin was feeling ad knew that this may as well be the only window they have to escape and so they didn't stay a second longer than they had to and quickly picked up their backpacks which were near the original location were they were originally kept hostage and made a run for it away from the mountain.
