L readied herself for battle, if what this man said was true, V was indeed dangerous. Even more-so however, was the man himself. He could have attacked her while she was first gazing at V in confusion, however he had chosen to speak with her instead. L figured that this indicated the man's confidence. Also, if he knew she was the Champion of Honor, it was a bold choice to reveal himself as the Champion of Evil, assuming he spoke truly. "What is it you want with us? I have little time for games with the likes of you." L kept one eye on V, who was currently cutting something into the downed man's chest, and one eye on the Champion. As she looked at him, something about him looked familiar. His form was generic, a human, brown hair, average build, and yet, for some reason, she felt as if she may have met the man before. "No need to be so concerned! I am here to help." The man brushed his hair out of his eyes casually as he spoke. "This whole thing, murdering a small girl in the middle of the day, ostensibly an innocent one. This... whatever you want to call this..." He gestured to V and the man, who was somehow still barley alive. "It’s all very droll. It makes people like me look bad! It barely qualifies as evil, its more along the lines of farcical." The man frowned disapprovingly, "Maybe a betrayal from a best friend, right at the end of their shared journey, or perhaps saving a starving orphan, only to train them to be the world’s greatest killer, there are many forms of glorious evil, but this... this has no subtly, no class, other than the absolutely stunning brutality we are witnessing, this whole situation has no redeeming qualities!"

She hesitated, initially unsure how to respond. On one hand, the situation seemed fairly evil to her. On the other, perhaps he was not lying, if he was a....purveyor of evil acts, then this was bottom barrel. "There is no way you intend to help for free. Even if I believe you are here to help, there is no way to convince me you have no demands, or ulterior motives." The man smiled softly, "I am aware. I can read your heart as easily as I can read your status. What I desire in exchange is simple really. First, once we fix your... master over there, you contain your distaste for me long enough for me to speak with him. Secondly, all I truly desire is for you to know who you are serving. Or at-least part of who he is." L narrowed her eyes, she could only imagine what the man wanted with V, she hoped that V would be wise enough not to go in with any schemes created by a self-proclaimed Champion of Evil. Additionally, she had no idea how exactly this man intended to fulfill his second desire. "How do you intend to do that? I am well aware of his relative lack of morality." The man’s expression hovered between bemusement and mirth. "Well first I wish to ask you, did you ever think he would be capable of something like that?" he gestured at the man on the ground, who's tongue had been ripped out of his mouth, but was currently somehow still breathing. "Look, he’s a master! I doubt the blessing of motherhood would also have given him the skills to carry out such an impressive punishment." L furrowed her brow, the man had a point, she always knew he was at best, a petty criminal. Until this moment, she had considered that he, at worst, was a street thug. However, the state of the dying man did lend evidence to V having a darker side than she had first perceived. "Is that it then? Is your second condition fulfilled?" The man shook his head, "As fun as that look in your eyes was, no I have something more... meaningful in mind. If you would take my hand a moment, I will show you. He held out his hand, like one would when meeting someone for the first time, a handshake. L had seen the practice done by one of the other champions before, when she first came to this world. At the moment, she had little choice. She could not afford to make an enemy of the Champion of Evil at the moment, and frankly, she also had no way of dealing with V. If the situation was left as, it was, it was likely that both her and V would be dead relatively soon.  As much as she hated the idea, she reached out to shake his hand. "I’m T by the way. Nice to meet you."

T's blessing activated, and L suddenly found herself in a strange black void, she reached for her weapon, but realized she was naked. Or rather... she had no physical form at all. It took her a moment to adjust to the situation. A voice entered L's mind, "You could call this V's heart. I wish for you to know how he truly was, before you met him. But first, just a small, very small, taste of the current state of his heart." A small window like gap appeared in the black void, as it did, the void was instantly filled with a swirling red vortex, cracks ran up and down the void. For a moment, L felt the same unrelenting rage, hate and desire for suffering that V carried. Only for a moment. The gap closed, and it returned to a black, calm void, L gasped for breath as she recoiled. "That...that was so horrible..." As she recovered the voice softly chuckled "Yes it was, frankly I doubt even I would be able to resist feelings that powerful for too long. However, where do they come from? What do you really know about the man called V? Unfortunately, I only have access to his heart, not his mind." Without bothering to explain what he meant, T caused another gap in the void to appear. Through it flowed fear, and sorrow. L had felt sorrow this deeply before, but only once. Right before she died, the moment she saw the lifeless eyes of the child beside her... however, she had never once felt fear on this level. L, wanted to curl up and cry, and perhaps she did. It was hard to perceive what was actually going on with her physical form. The void filled with a dark blue and purple color, the void itself shook "Bear with it for a few moments, I wish to explain what these feelings stem from. This is the first memory in his heart, interestingly, the gods took this memory from his mind when he was sent here. They have taken memories from all of us. His heart remembers however. This is the moment he watched his mother, get murdered in front of him. His exact circumstances are difficult for me to determine, but I do know what happened next."

The gap in the void closed again, "Whoever killed his mother decided the boy was worth a good laugh." a gap opened again in the void, this time pain flowed forth from it. The void turned pink and blue, and distorted. L experienced pain, but it was not just physical. The pain of hopelessness, the pain of worthlessness, and physical as well. Again, L had never experienced anything so horrible. She struggled to speak as she felt tears streaming down her face, her voice trembling. "W..what is this?" T spoke with a hint of mirth "This is perhaps, the worst years of his life. For a long time V was the plaything of a gang, the same gang who had killed his mother in front of him. He was used in every way you could conceive of. Forced to kill other children for sport, used to commit other various crimes, and last but not least, he was even physically used by his gang's leader. I have no idea what their motives were, in-fact I know little about them, only what V's heart felt. They seemed quite the bunch of sadists, didn't they?" The gap closed, bringing relief to L. T seemed to be giving her a moment to recover, as no new gaps appeared for a time. "I did not know that he came from such a dark world..." T's chuckled "Indeed, I would liked to have seen it! It sounds interesting, but this is just one man’s experiences, perhaps he was simply unlucky." A new gap appeared, this time letting in the first positive emotion, hope. The void turned a soft gold, L inhaled deeply, a sense of purpose filled her. "Pleasant, isn't it? Do you know what V's first memory of hope was? It was when a man from a true criminal organization caught him during one of his crimes. Nothing like the petty gang he was enslaved to. The man offered V a chance at escaping his captors. All he had to do..." The gap closed, and another opened quickly. This, L knew. Killing intent. The desire to kill threatened to overwhelm L. The void shook and trembled, it was so powerful that she had only felt like this a single time, once again shortly before her death. "Kill one of the man's rivals for him. Who knows if the man actually believed he could succeed? You can feel it can’t you? This desire to kill held all of V's hopes in it. Hopes for escape, hopes for revenge." After a few lingering moments, the gap closed. "We are nearing the end of our little journey through V's heart. Do keep it together. This next one will be something entirely new to you I suspect." A slim gap, slimmer than the rest opened in the void. From the gap a sickly green color seeped. It slowly infected the void, an almost manic feeling slowly, ever so slowly, filled the void. First fear and confusion filled L, but it slowly transformed into glee and sickening delight. It was like the sweet sickly smell of a corpse. It made her ill but she wanted more. As L tried to keep her head clear, T spoke. "This is certainly a moment that forever haunts V's heart. The gang that had made his early life a living hell had been delivered unto him. The man had fulfilled his promise. The gang’s lives were in V's hands. At first, he simply wished for them to be killed. However...." he paused a moment, as if he was breathing deeply "Once he saw the first of his torturers fear and despair, a sweet feeling came over him. Satisfaction. Seeing his tormentor die screaming awakened his desire for revenge. At first, he only wanted freedom, but now..." The sickly green fog grew thicker and thicker, choking L. "The remaining members of the gang begged for death before the end. His first triumph, his first act of freedom was one of such sickly-sweet evil." T's voice lingered for a few moments before the gap closed again.

"After that moment, his life was a series of conflicting emotions. He cursed the ones that tortured him as a child, and swore to never be like them, however that moment of sweet revenge haunted him. Should you find yourself on the receiving end of V's ire, you could expect a lingering death. On the flip side, he often donated his ill-gotten gains to children in need... He was often hypocritical. An extremely evil criminal with a heart of gold? It's rather quite funny." T paused, giving L a moment to think. "And at the last, we have V's heart after he was brought to this world." Several gaps opened in the void at once, a barrage of emotions assaulted L. She could feel V's hope at a new chance, she could also feel his suppressed anger with the Mother Goddess, for throwing him here so unceremoniously, fear of the unknown, and mostly, a strong desire to control his own destiny. T spoke, "And then the first thing he witnessed a murder." The emotions turned into a cloud of fear and anger. "V's heart knew he would not be able to leave his past behind, that his old skills, murder, thievery, all manner of evil, would be needed here." The gaps let a new emotion in. It was hard for L to describe, it was a mix of hope, and perhaps pride. "Then he saved a small girl. He realized that he might yet find some form of redemption is this world. These hopes quickly faded as he realized that he would have to sacrifice the girl to escape a hulking monster." The void filled with fear and the stink of betrayal, it was bitter and made L retch. "However! A savior arrived! A woman wielding a sword put herself in harm’s way to protect him and the girl." As a new feeling filled the void, L became confused. The feeling was one of relief, and admiration. She spoke " I would not have guessed...." as she absorbed this information, T continued "Yes, you would not know it, but in his heart, he was thankful that you saved him from having to sacrifice the girl. On the other hand, his hate for the hulking monster only grew. He felt as if she had ruined his new life, he targeted her as the one who forced him to almost immediately return to his old ways." A new cascade of emotions rolled into the void. "Over the next few days, his heart was in turmoil. Revenge against the beast, desire to be free of his past, the longing to survive this game... There is one more thing I wish to show you before we return to the present." Through the gaps, desires flowed, one after another. It took L a moment to adjust, but she realized it was his desires toward the random people they pass in the street, the travelers on the road. Often, she felt the feeling of desire, and hate, and jealousy and anger. "He considers those with "normal lives" to be contemptuous. They live in bliss, never having to go through what he has, not having to participate in a death game, not having to bear the burdens he bears. In his heart, he knows he would kill them if it would bring his life peace..." L spoke "If you truly desire to work with me to save V, then answer me a single question. If all of this is true, and not some strange illusion created by your Blessing, why have I never seen any of this? Why has he always been so... level headed? I have witnessed almost no fear or anger, or much of anything else." T chuckled. "Sorry dear, I only know what his heart feels. Not what his mind thinks. If I had to guess, he knows his heart is dark and ruined, and tries to ignore it as much as possible. Instead relying on thoughts rather than feelings. And let’s be honest, he was right! Look at what following his heart has got him!"

Suddenly L was standing in front of T again, still shaking his hand. Based on her surroundings, virtually no time had passed. She gazed at V, perhaps there was truth to T's words. Perhaps the monster in front of her was V's true being. A self-serving being who enjoyed the suffering of others... perhaps. However, L was not a child to be jerked around by a man of evil. "If this is V's true form. If this is who he is in his heart. Then you have only bolstered my opinion of him. I had thought he was a low life, a man who gave in to any impulse that crossed him. If what you showed me is true, then V is to be lauded. If he is able to restrain... this" she gestured at V's raging form. "If that is who he struggles to keep hidden day in and day out, then he is stronger than I am. I could never contain emotions like those." L spoke with admiration in her voice. If V's heart was this much of a monster, then the man himself must have the iron will of a god to control his impulses. T shrugged "Ah well, I was sort of hoping you would go the other way. And say that "Even if he contains this sort of thing, this is his true self." That way I could convince you to help me kill him. Win some lose some. Of course, that is why I added my other condition, that you allow me to talk to him after we help him regain his self-control. Which uh, I hope you have the strength to keep him busy for a few moments."