There were many ways one could cast magic. Creating magic circles for one, or maybe casting long spells and chants to work in a similar manner. As the mastery of one’s magic increased, so decreased the need for such long procedures. Just like how the Otherworlder could summon a blob of light at a thought, great magic-masters could summon tsunamis or tornadoes with the same thought.

But, as one’s mastery increased, so increased the internalization of their procedures. Hex type magicians internalized the structures of their spells in their tongues, similarly, for magicians like the Otherworlder and Racques who formed things with their mana, they internalized the structures and procedures into the movement of their hands or fingers.

And so, the Otherworlder’s first actions after immobilizing Racques were the most logical ones.

He broke every single one of his fingers and dislocated both his arms.

When he felt like Racques would wake up from the pain, the Otherworlder simply stomped on his head and put him back to sleep.

Next, he firmly wrapped the wires around him for extra safety measures.

By the time the Otherworlder did all this, even Vera had finished up with her end of the battle. She pulled along an almost charred form of Salt and Ketchup as she approached the Otherworlder. Not a speck of dust remained on her clothes, but the Otherworlder could tell she had a good battle from the beads of sweat on her forehead and the slight mess her hair had gotten into.

“Good work out there. You totally cooked them,” the Otherworlder said as he passed Vera the handkerchief from his coat.

“Should you be saying that? This bastard’s screams at the end made it seem as if he had seen hell a few times over.” Vera took the handkerchief from the Otherworlder and wiped away the sweat on her face. She then fixed her hair and stepped up to the unconscious Racques.

“They won’t wake up?” the Otherworlder asked, pointing at Salt and Ketchup.

“Oh no, they’ll just die in some time.”

The smell of burning flesh stung his nose. Maybe she burned them just enough for a slow and painful death. The Otherworlder didn’t mind it at all. He was certain that the waiter knew most of the details and couldn’t bother about the others.

“You really are quite intense, don’t you think...” Vera crouched down next to Racques, the waiter, and inspected his condition.

The Otherworlder wondered if she should say that after leaving two people for slow and painful deaths, but kept that musing to himself.

“Pour some water on his head.”

Vera snapped her fingers and a bucketful of water came crashing down on Racques’ head. The man bobbed his head against the sudden cold sensation and then broke into a fit of coughs as he slowly drifted back to his senses. He let out a few heavy pants when his eyes spread open and a crushing sensation climbed up his spine.

The pain of having his fingers crushed came to him all at once as he broke into a terrifying scream.

“AACCK!!!”

The Otherworlder resisted the urge to put him to sleep again and waited patiently for him to process the pain. After a few seconds, Racques’ screams stopped and his head slumped to the ground.

Vera pulled him up by the chin and flicked on his forehead a couple of times. “Hello, hello, you there?”

“Wh..at do you... want...?” Racques answered back, stuttering on his words.

“Tell us what this thing is, for starters.”

“Th-is, th...ing? You Ack–” Racques coughed out a few drops of blood. He stayed still for a few seconds before mustering the strength to turn his head towards the Otherworlder. A newfound vigor reflected in his eyes as his face turned into an expression mixed with spite and pain.

“You asshole...” Racques groaned. “I’ll never tell you... Even if not us, they’ll come here. You won’t be able to stop us!”

The Otherworlder and Vera sighed almost simultaneously at Racques’ words. In his trying to not reveal stuff, he was giving them a fair amount of information.

They are a group. Someone else will come here soon, likely to check things. Their plan depends on this sculpture thing, and the fact that someone will come to ‘check’ on them, coupled with the minimal manpower at this spot, it was obvious that there were other equally, if not more, important components to their plan.

“You don’t have a choice, fuckwit. What are you all planning? Spill it!”

“Hahaha–ack... Keep trying. You can kill me, but even that won’t stop the revival of our god!”

So they were planning to revive a god of some kind. Both the Otherworlder and Vera found it very difficult to resist the urge to just start laughing at this clown, but they had to pull through.

For the sake of his role, the Otherworlder kicked Racques’ sides. “Answer me, bastard! When does the ritual start?”

Racques groaned and writhed in pain from the kick, but soon started cackling again. “Hit me all you want... It’s just a few more hours before you feel this pain... This treacherous town will be swallowed whole!”

“Ppft,” Vera couldn’t hold back anymore as she let out a small laugh before quickly covering her face again. Seeing her reaction, even the Otherworlder couldn’t hold back and broke into a muffled giggle. Encouraged by each other’s antics, it didn’t take long for both of them to break into loud laughs.

Racques watched the scene with great confusion... “J-just what kind of sick people are you? How can you beat someone so much and laugh like this…?”

The Otherworlder and Vera stopped laughing for a second at his words. A small silence lurked in the air before it was broken by the Otheworlder.

“I don’t really care, but he does have a point.”

“Right, let’s make sure he doesn’t say anything more.”

“I would’ve preferred to get information on their numbers and movements and abilities, but I doubt he knows them. Just put this clown to sleep.”

“W-what! Wait, no! Lady, stop! NO!”

-BANG

“Well then, should we go ahead?”

“Yeah. I think these bastards have captured the bastards with my money. Let’s go take it back.”