Chapter 23: Demon Lord

"Where are those incompetent men, bring them here right now!" Xander Ling snarled as soon as he entered the place that was named 'The lion's Den' This is the place where all his men are gathered and where he runs his underworld activities, the Lion's Den is a huge place and it is not less than a small city of its own, many different people from different ethnicities and background where living there and Xander ruled them, it was not very far from the main mansion where he lives.

He walked towards the man who was supposed to report everything about Katherine and her whereabouts to him and as soon as he reached him he punched him so hard that the man saw his own teeth flying across the room with his mouth covered and filled with his own blood.

"I was away for just three weeks and you failed to carry out your task, do you perhaps have a death wish huh? You and the other men were supposed to look over her and protect her, tell me how did she get kidnapped?" Xander growled at the man who was pitifully kneeling on the hard and cold floor.

The man was afraid for his life, he knew he was at fault for not reporting everything that was happening in Katherine's life for the past three weeks, ever since his master left he had only been reporting to him that Katherine was fine, or she hanged out with her friends and about the surprise birthday party that her friends threw for her, he never mentioned anything about the recent development of her relationship with her friend Tom.

He knew his boss flew to Japan for an important business trip and he knew their branch in Japan which was facing some problems needed their boss at that moment so he chose not to inform Xander about it because he knew how Xander seemed to be obsessed and possessive with miss Katherine, he knew that Xander would immediately leave everything and come back to stop Tom from proposing to her or marrying her.

"Well?" asked the impatient Xander who was standing looking at the man who was kneeling for answers.

The man broke in cold sweat, he hesitantly opened his mouth and said "B-boss, the young miss and her friends were all doing fine u-until Mr Tom p-proposed to h-her on her birthday and she a-accepted it, and then t-they registered their m-marriage the n-next d-day" The man was a stuttering mess.

Xander was quite for a few seconds before he broke in to a fit of cold laughter, his laugh was nothing less to a demon lord promising death and destruction to all living beings if he doesn't get what he wants.

Hearing the cold and scary laugh coming from his boss the man shivered as he felt a chill run down his spine, he was about to explain further to the scary boss that Katherine and Tom annulled their marriage in that very same day when he felt Xander grabbed him and threw him across the room in such a harsh way that broke some of his bones.

The man groaned in pain when his body hit the ground, Xander pulled out his gun and was about to shoot the man when he heard the man say "They annulled the marriage later in that same day, it was after the annulment of the marriage that the young miss and her friend were attacked, Mr Tom was the one who was with her last. Please spare my life Master ple-" before the man could finish his words Xander shot him dead.

"Bring that Tom guy here and torture him to get information out, I suspect he had something to do with her kidnapping" came the order from Xander.

His assistant bowed and immediately left to fulfill his task.

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On day four of Katherine's disappearance, Tom was heading towards the parking lot of his apartment when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and he fell unconscious. When he regained his consciousness and and tried to open his eyes, he only saw darkness because he was blind folded, he tried to move his body but all his attempts where for naught because he was securely and tightly tied to a chair.

"Who's there? Why the fuck did you bring me here? Do you think you can get away with this?" Tom shouted.

Xander watched as Tom was struggling to free himself, he clenched his fists when he remembered the fact that this man had managed to convince his Katherine to marry him just the next day after he proposed to her, but luckily for Tom the marriage was annulled otherwise his head would have been separated from his body by Xander himself for daring to steal what was his.

"Where is Katherine" asked Xander.

Tom heard an unfamiliar voice asking him the whereabouts of Katherine, he had been prepared for any scenario, this wasn't planned just a few days ago in fact they had been planning to sell Katherine for more than a year now so he was more than ready to endure any difficulties until the matter settled down and nobody suspects him, he thought this man was some fan or secret admirer of Katherine so he put on his pitiful performance and answered.

"Look, I don't know who you are or why you are doing this to me but I just want you to know that nobody loves Katherine more than I do, I have been by her side supporting her since the very first time we met. We were stopped by some goons and they forcefully took her, I tried my best to stop them but they were stronger than me and they beat me until I fell unconscious, you have to believe me I'm innocent and I want nothing more than Katherine to be back safe and sound."

Xander didn't believe him, he signaled his men to start the torture and they did, Tom screamed when he felt the sharp pain of being electrocuted, after some minutes the torture stopped and he felt dizzy and the world was spinning around him.

He was glad that it was over only to be greeted by another different kind of torture as the men ducked his head in ice cold water and began hitting him at the same time.

Watching Tom being tortured by his men Xander decided to stop them and ask him again. "Tell me where she is and I will let you go" said Xander.

"I d-don't know W-where she i-is I swear" Tom answered weakly.

Seeing that the man was not willing to speak Xander decided that this matter isn't as simple as it appeared to be, he believed that there were other people involved in this case so he decided to release Tom and then put a tail on him, Xander knew that he still needed Tom alive because he believed that he was the key to finding Katherine.