(Mature Warning- Scenes of graphic torture ahead)

The battle was over, and severed limbs, blood, and gore could be seen everywhere. Both sides had been hurt in the scuffle, and even one of the summoners on our side took an unlucky blow to the back after thinking everything was over. Marco and the rest of them were mourning a bit for him, but it couldn't dampen the relief that the children were finally back with them.

Seeing the little ones stacked up like so many logs getting carted off to be sold to the highest bidder made me absolutely furious given how similar a position Mira and I were in back at the orphanage. I had been able to take care of the problem, but so many others weren't and were instead left to suffer at the hands of adults. I was even more worked up considering how close to Marco's children I had gotten, the thought of not having been able to save them was sickening.

Stepping over corpses as I make my way to the wooden cart of children, I hear a loud groan after stepping hard on top of one of the bodies on the ground.

"Oh, what's this? A criminal playing possum?" I say in an innocent yet terrifying tone that promises pain on whoever it was directed towards. Normally I wasn't a cruel person, but those who would harm children or people close to me I make an exception. Maybe it's from a horrible childhood, I didn't much care at this point, but there was definitely a darker part I usually kept locked up that just seemed to come out in these situations.

All I got for my efforts was a weak whimper and horrified silence when I turned the diminutive man over from his position on the ground. It looked like one of the cactus spikes had pierced him in his side, and he decided to take the fall in hopes of surviving the conflict.

This worked out perfectly fine for me, but I'm sure he'll be regretting his decision very soon. Calming myself down a bit and returning my voice to some normalcy, I yell out to the group from my position, "Are the kids alright? I seemed to have found some trash I need to take care of if there isn't anything urgent."

Civilians would be horrified by my insinuation, but these were seasoned warriors who had felt the cruel hand of reality, not to mention that they weren't much concerned with the lives of kidnappers.

Alexis looked as if she understood a bit more what I was implying, but didn't seem to have a problem with it and just nodded her head in confirmation to my question. Now that I knew the kids were fine, and since they would still be out for a while, I could take care of this survivor. I needed answers about this little operation they had going, maybe if I was lucky I would find out their network or who was behind it.

Grabbing the man roughly by his shirt collar I tell him, "Alright buddy, you're coming with me and we're going to have a nice long chat."

I dragged him over a-ways, until the group was out of sight, although likely not out of hearing range. He seemed to be in shock at the moment and didn't even resist as I tied him up, it seemed that he still had some hope of living otherwise he would have tried to run and then get killed.

I could work with that, torture would be my tool to get him in the right mindset for telling me the truth, but it wasn't my end goal. I wouldn't mind being cruel to him, but I wouldn't draw it out more than necessary, although a certain part of me would certainly enjoy it since it was more than justified.

"Here's what's going to happen, I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to tell me the truth. If I or my grim sense that you're lying, you're going to be in for a rough time, and his abilities include sensing dishonest people." As I say this in the most menacing tone I can manage, I have Brutus shadow travel over and start leaking out darkness for intimidation.

I gave him the stick, and now it's time for the carrot. "Luckily for you, I need you alive to verify what you tell me. If you're honest, I'll let you go as your reward, I have bigger fish to fry than henchmen. But first I need you to realize how serious I am, so this might hurt a bit."

With that, I brought out a t-shirt from my inventory and gagged him with it despite his protests.

Deciding that some small but painful wounds would be best to start with, I take out my camping knife and begin to slowly saw down on the webs between his fingers with it. His writhing became such a problem, I had Brutus lay on him to hold him down.

By the end tears were streaming down his face and blood came out in rivulets down his face. My expression got a bit more sadistic as I brought out some alcohol I had leftover in my inventory and poured it on the cuts, all the while telling the man, "Wouldn't want your cuts to get infected, luckily I have this alcohol handy."

After that, I felt that he still hadn't quite learned his lesson and decided to make a little souvenir for his trouble. I took the knife once more and brought it to the first knuckle on the pinky of his right hand and without too much difficulty, I manage to slice and pry the little appendage off with the help of the sharp blade and plenty of force.

At this point muffled screams were constant, and it became quite irritating. "Oh shut up, I'm sure the kids you took would have screamed just as much if they ended up where you were taking them." That seemed to sober the man as he realized just what was at stake during this and how serious people usually got about children.

Taking off the shirt gag and placing it on the ground next to us, I got into his direct vision as he laid on the ground smothered by Brutus. "Now that you can talk, you're going to tell me why you took those children and where you were taking them."

To my surprise the man decided to stay silent and not give up any information, it seemed he was either made of sterner stuff than I thought, or he was more scared of other people than me. Either problem would be rectified with a bit more tender care, it seemed I was a little too merciful my first go-around.

"Your silence isn't making me happy, but I'm sure more tender care from me will loosen those lips real quick. Here's your gag you seem to like so much."

And so the next stage of my interrogation began, I got a bit more creative and cruel at this point since it seemed I needed to break him or get close to it before he would talk. I summoned Jotun and Emett for this part since I needed their help for some of the ideas I had.

I had Emett make sharp but very thin skewers out of mud and rocks, and then had them hardened to keep them from breaking. With those, I carefully aligned them with his fingernails, and one by one I pushed them in past the fingernail bed. I'd heard of the Asian countries doing this with bamboo skewers to prisoners of war, and thought I would try them out, they seemed to be working quite well.

That wasn't all I wanted to do, this time I had Jutun freeze the bottoms of his feet very carefully, and had him reapply the coating every now and then. This was sensory torture, and since the bottoms of the feet were very sensitive, the almost burning ice would be agony. It would be even more effective if I had a flame type summon to quickly heat it back up, but oh well.

Time would increase the intensity of the torture, but in the meantime, I played around with the skewers before moving on after getting bored. Deciding to see what else I could do that wouldn't leave too much damage, I found some ginger root amongst my storage space.

Ginger was terrible to expose to cuts I had heard, and so with sadistic glee, I carefully peeled and sliced bits of ginger before making small cuts all over his body. They weren't too deep or long, but enough that I could tuck the burning slivers into each wound without them falling out. His shirt had been cut off and his pant legs removed in the wake of this, and the ginger seemed to be doing the job as he slowly began to writhe in agony as his wounds stung worse than one would expect just from a simple root.

It still didn't seem to quite be enough, and so I decided to do be kind enough to give him some new jewelry for free. I had Emett make even more skewers, and I put them to use piercing through all sorts of sensitive areas.

By the end, he looked like he had gotten off on the wrong side of a porcupine with an odd fashion sense. His tears had run out and he looked quite out of it, it seems like it had all gotten to be a bit much for him.

Now I had to lure him into answering me through kindness now that I've shown him what angering me would do. "Look what you made me do, I don't enjoy it, but it's necessary for me to get what I want. I don't want to hurt you, I just need information. Once you give me it, we'll be taking you with us to verify the information and then letting you go once you reveal the real culprits." I was lying through my teeth, but he seemed to believe every word of it.

My act was really getting sold when I removed all the skewers, slivers of ginger, and even broke off the ice from his feet. I put a lot of effort into caring for him by offering him water, cleaning his wounds, and even wasting some salve on his cuts to really sell the act that I needed him alive.

Humans were naturally devious, and constant pain would only make him tell me anything to get the pain to stop. Instead, to get what I needed from him, I needed to manipulate and appeal to his emotions and logic. Making him think he was valuable and would be needed alive, as well as giving myself the role of reluctant interrogator would make him more likely to answer me since I seem reasonable.

"Where are my manners? First of all, my name is Thomas, why don't you tell me yours."

With a raspy whisper from screaming constantly, he answers "Emil, my name is Emil."

"Alright, Emil. What I want to know is who sent you to capture the children and where were you taking them?"

After a few moments of thinking, he rasps out, "There's an organization of some of the wealthy elites in the North American City that have a high demand for the children. I don't know what they wanted them for, and I didn't ask, I just needed the money man."

Giving him a grateful and kind smile, I tell him, "Thank you for the honesty, what was the organization's name, and who belonged to it? I need to know who to go after when I get to the city."

"I only know of one person, I wasn't very important in the group, just some extra muscle. We would capture and take the children to a man in the South sector of the city named Walter Crown. He has short brown hair, is pudgy, and always meets in one of the warehouses he owns on the outskirts. That's all I know about him."

"That's certainly useful, how many times did your group take children to him?" I asked partially out of curiosity for the case, and partly to know how much to make his death hurt.

"We only had done it once before, it seemed like easy money and we didn't have any problems till now. It was just a few the first run, we didn't know how the god would react about the children after the decree. We figured they were just words, and as long as we weren't seen we would be fine, guess that didn't turn out so well huh." He managed to let out in a self-deprecating tone, which would garner more sympathy if he wasn't a filthy child-smuggler.

"Is there anything else you can tell me that might be of use, the more you tell me the easier we'll let you off." I fished for any last bit of information he might have, but it truly seemed like he had told me everything he knew. He wasn't very high on the totem pole, so it wasn't surprising, but even this amount was enough for me to use.

In the most honest and sympathetic tone I could muster, "Emil, I truly want to thank you for being so helpful in answering my questions. I have just one thing else I need from you."

He had a relieved look on his face at the implication that he would soon be safe from any further torture, and in a way he was right.

Taking on a much more sinister and sadistic facial expression and tone, I told him, "What I need from you now is to pay the price that the rest of your comrades did in sentencing a group of innocent kids to a life of hell or an early grave."

At this revelation, Emil's face was pure panic and fear and he looked almost betrayed. In a way, I was quite impressed by my acting skills at so smoothly fooling him, but I felt nothing but righteous fury towards the man. Any pity went out the window when they took the children I had grown close to, and now he would feel how mad I truly was.

Without further explanation, I gagged the soon-to-be-dead man and got to work at breaking his body and spirit before killing him. It seems I lied about not enjoying this part, my sadistic side was having a hay day at having a justified target to take out any anger against.

First I went and lopped off his fingers one-by-one until all that was left was a bloody palm. Then I cut off the rest of his appendages, drawing out the cuts and letting him feel the true pain the children he sold off likely felt. By the end of that, he had no nose, ears, and toes, but I wasn't nearly done and didn't want him to bleed out too soon. I fashioned a makeshift torch from some sticks and cloth I had in my storage, I pressed the burning bundle into all of the wounds and cauterized them, making sure to spend some extra time with the fire on his body.

I didn't feel like doing much more to him at this point, and just wanted to head over and check on the kids, so I ordered Brutus and Jotun to tear into him like a chew toy and left them. They seemed to be playing tug of war, I wondered how long that would last, but I was sure it would be painful.