Supreme Devil Lord: I Can Refine All Energy-Chapter 56: Helplessness of the Weak

As Eric hit him, he became angrier.

"You want Riya? You ugly bastard!" He snarled and kicked his head, covered by his hands, hard.

Bang!

The kick forced his head into the ground, and while Eric couldn’t see if it got some damage, he was sure the hand his foot landed on surely broke as he had felt that crack.

Bang!

"Ahhhhh!" Luke cried out.

Eric ignored his pleadings and continued kicking him without stop.

The onlookers flinched each time he kicked while Rosalie had turned around, not wanting to see the scene. She even wanted to plug her ears, but thinking it might displease Eric, she didn’t.

After five minutes, Eric felt his anger slowly abate and stopped. He then looked at Luke, who had become still a few moments ago... already dead, and kicked him before stepping toward Rosalie.

He grabbed her chin and made her look at him as he asked, "You don’t blame me, right?"

Rosalie’s eyes were red and wet with tears. When she stopped hearing Luke’s cries, she knew he was no more, and now his words only confirmed it.

She bit her lip and shook her head. "No... I don’t blame you. He... deserved it. If I could, I would’ve killed him myself."

She then wiped her tears. "Please forgive me. This, I... can’t help it."

"Don’t worry about it." Eric said before grabbing her hand and pulling her inside the house. "I’ll be back in a while. Gather the things important to you. And don’t include things like your clothes. I’ll buy you new ones."

Saying this, he walked out, dragged the corpses away from the house, and rushed to Liam’s home. He had only taken just over ten minutes to arrive here after he got the system alert and to kill Luke and Joan. So, he hoped, he wouldn’t be too late.

Running at his top speed, he reached Liam’s neighborhood just fifteen minutes later and immediately noticed several people standing outside Liam’s house, looking inside while whispering amongst themselves with pitying looks on their faces.

Ba-Dum!

His heart skipped a beat when he saw this, and a bad feeling arose in his heart.

As he moved closer to the house, he could hear Elsa’s and Leah’s sobbing cries.

...

Earlier... After Luke and Joan left...

Leah and Liam took his father inside and lay him down on a bed. Liam wiped the blood from his lips, but more kept coming out, and his face was starting to go pale, and his eyes had glazed over.

"Father, hey, father. Are you alright?" Liam patted his face and asked in worry. Lean and Elsa were also very worried seeing his condition.

Liam left his side, took out a small container, and opened it. There was some greenish powder inside. He scooped some and mixed it in a glass of water before rushing back to his father’s side.

When he tried to lift his head up, his father shook his head and pointed with his other hand toward the one that was clutching his chest.

Seeing this, Liam said, "Here, drink this Invigoration Concoction, father. You’ll feel better. Then we can go to a doctor and have your ribs fixed."

His father shook his head and glanced at Leah and Elsa, a gentle look on his pained face, and opened his mouth. "I... am... sorry for... Kuh! Being... a useless hus... husband and father... cough!"

He was having a hard time speaking with his mouth filled with blood, and while speaking, he even spat out a mouthful but continued speaking. But a few moments later, he started coughing, and immediately, his face twisted in a pained grimace.

The trio panicked seeing him cough out blood and seeing him act as if he was feeling immense pain, his body writhing. They didn’t know what to do.

"He must have suffered an internal injury." Liam realizing, his face going pale.

Right now, apart from the Invigoration Concoction and Black Tar, they didn’t have anything that could help. The Black Tar was for external injuries while the Invigoration Concoction was for when they felt weak, had a cold, fever, etc. This meant there was nothing he could give his father to help him. There wasn’t any doctor in the slums he could go to either.

He felt helpless, truly helpless.

Leah and Elsa had also realized this, and they felt the same, their tears uncontrollably flowing down their cheeks.

...

"W-What happened?" Eric asked the people crowding in front of the house, his voice shaky.

Hearing his voice, a middle-aged woman looked at him and recognized him as Liam’s friend, as she had seen him come here many times. Though she was surprised to see him dressed in good clothes, she suppressed her curiosity because of the current situation and said with a sigh, in a lamenting voice,

"Elsa’s father, he... passed away just a while ago."

Boom!

Eric felt an explosion go off in his mind. While he was relieved that the people who he cared more about—Liam and Elsa—were fine; this news made his heart drop.

Immediately, he started shoving the people to the side and rushed inside. When he saw Elsa and Leah sitting haphazardly on the floor, crying their eyes out, and Liam, who’s mouth was bloody, and he was similarly sobbing, looking at his father’s corpse with his fists clenched tight, he felt faint, guilt eating away at his heart.

Gathering his courage, he walked up to Liam and placed his trembling hand on his shoulder. "L-Liam..."

Liam turned to look at him upon hearing the familiar voice.

"I’m sorry, brother. I... should have killed that guy last night. I’m really sorry." Eric said, lowering his head, not able to meet his gaze.

From their injuries, he knew his earlier guess was right. Luke had come here first with Joan, beaten Luke and his father before going to take Rosalie away. And the only reason why they came here was because that spy must have told them that Liam was with them last evening.

’If I hadn’t hesitated... Only if I had killed him instead of simply knocking him out.’ He was filled with immense regret right now.

Liam stared at Eric in silence for a few seconds, complicated emotions flashing in his reddened eyes before he said, "No need to say sorry. I... don’t blame you."

Saying this, he looked back at the corpse of his father and hissed through gritted teeth. "...It’s all our fault for being weak. If we weren’t weak, that man wouldn’t have dared to lay his hands on us."

Eric took a breath and asked, "What happened?"

"That bastard Luke came. He had a warrior with him..." Liam told him everything that had happened. After hearing it all, Eric asked, "Uncle... When did he pass? I mean, how much time has it been?"

He held his breath after asking this, his fists clenched tight.

"I don’t know. Just a few minutes after they left, he succumbed to his internal injuries." Liam said, "His ribs over his heart seemed to have broken and punctured his heart."

After he died, an old neighbor of theirs had checked his body and guessed this must have been the cause of his death.

Eric breathed out upon hearing this.

He calculated the time of the notification and realized even if he had decided to come here instead of going to save Rosalie, he wouldn’t have been able to save him. Though he still felt very bad for being the reason for Liam’s father’s death, he didn’t feel as much as he would have if he could have come here on time if he hadn’t gone to save Rosalie and saved him with the system’s help. Moreover, there wasn’t anything in the system that could save him if his heart was really punctured.

While he was thinking this, Liam said, "You shouldn’t have come. They will probably get the news that you have returned and will come for you."

"So, you should leave quickly. I’ll also take my family and leave after burying my father."

"They won’t come." Eric said, his eyes flashing with a cold light. As Liam looked at him in confusion, he explained, "I have already killed them. So, they will no longer bother us."

Liam was stunned for a few moments, and then he asked, the look in his eyes changing, "You... killed them?"

"Yes." Eric nodded.

"Good."

...

A while later, he helped Liam carry his father’s dead body to the slums’ graveyard, dig the grave, and bury him.

After they returned home, Elsa hugged him and cried in his chest. Fortunately, Leah had calmed down, so she helped him console her.

After everyone had calmed down, and the neighbors had left after giving their condolences to them, Eric said.

"Liam, Aunt Leah, Elsa..."