Aleister sat on a comfortable chair inside the City Watch Headquarters, which was as lively as ever. Even though Kyoko gave him sufficient access, she never gave him the correct papers, and thus he was stuck out here.

How annoying. I can't even concentrate in a location like this.

He put his spellbook back in his bag and closed his eyes, entering a meditative state. His Rank One soul had now reached Terminal Step. He could have reached this point over a month ago, or at least that's what he like to believe, but Syn still refused to tell him how to cultivate his soul.

"You are Aleister?" a female orc officer asked him.

"That is correct."

"Your authorization is now in order. We at the City Watch would like to apologize for the inconvenience we may have caused," she said with a bow.

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault." Aleister stood up and stretched his back. "Where's dungeon six located, by the way?"

"Head straight, take a left, and then take the second left, after the intersection. I can guide you there if you wish."

"I got it, have a good day."

Aleister slung his bag over his shoulder and followed the officer's instructions. In the end, he found himself in front of a set of metal gates. The officer who stood post in front of the gate had been informed and was waiting for him. From there, he walked down a few sets of stairs. Along the way, he heard faint musical notes and as he reached the sixth floor, the noise of plucked strings grew even louder.

"You forgot to hand me my papers," Aleister said as he walked up and stood next to Kyoko. In front of her was a glass panel that peered into the prison cell. Inside, Myra played her lute.

"I gave them to Aunt Lavinia," she said, crossing her arms underneath her chest.

"That would explain it."

Kyoko knocked on the glass pane. Myra lifted her fingers from her lute and stood up, leaving the room through the door on her left.

"Yes?" she asked whilst walking out. "Aleister?"

"I could hear your note playing from miles away," Aleister grinned as he placed his hand on his heart. "I couldn't help but be drawn to such a beautiful noise only reproducible from an angel who descended from the heavens."

Myra buried her face in her hands.

"I'm going to choose to ignore this coercionary tactic," Kyoko said, turning to face him. "Now go do what you came here to do."

"But what if I fail?"

"I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my mom if she can contact someone who can extract information from a prisoner, but she's been extremely busy as of late. Surely you won't fail though."

"Who knows?" Aleister shrugged and entered the prison cell. He turned around and noticed that on the inside, the glass was solid. "This is the first time I've ever tortured someone."

He stared at the three prisoners. Each of them looked at Aleister lazily, which to him indicated they weren't fully aware of what was going on. Clearly, Myra's doing.

"You know, this would be easier if I was Rank Three."

"How so?"

"There's a level two spell that would allow me to skim their surface thoughts."

"Such a spell exists? Unless it buried deep within my memories, that's the first I've ever heard of a spell like that."

"Yes, shame that I won't be able to learn it for a while if only there was a way to speed things up a bit."

"So we can die faster? No thanks."

"I'll figure out how to cultivate my soul on my own eventually, anyway. Why delay the inevitable?"

"In that case, since we're going to die anyway, why don't you just jump off a cliff and end yourself right now?" Syn said. "Now get back to the business at hand."

Aleister sighed. Ugh, what to do? Shame that torture doesn't actually work most of the time. Ah well.

He examined the three prisoners with his eyes. His first priority was to find out who of these three was in charge. He summoned a minor illusion spell card in his hands and tossed it on the floor. Before it activated, he covered his ears.

"Wah-wah!" The sound of a baby crying rang out at a deafening volume.

The prisoners who were half-asleep all snapped straight as their eyes widened, now fully awake.

Even with his fingers plugged into his ears, Aleister winced.

"Is this your plan? Because honestly, it might work."

Not long after Syn's comment, the inmate all the way on the right shouted, "Make it shut up!"

Aleister looked over at the dragonborn man and mouthed random shapes. He could clearly hear the man's words, but he wanted to mess with him first.

"MAKE IT STOP!" the dragonborn screeched. His guttural voice carried power and clear undertones of his draconic heritage.

Of course, Aleister pretended not to hear him.

The dragonborn stared at him. His beady eyes became more and more bloodshot as Aleister mouthed more random words. Eventually, a minute passed by and the noise subsided.

"Phew," Aleister let out a sigh of relief. "What a loud baby."

"I know what you're doing. You won't get a word out of me," the dragonborn spat.

"I should have deduced it was you in the first place," Aleister said as he summoned his Instigate Fear card. The card flew across the air and lunged itself straight through the man's brows as it activated. Besides identifying the leader, the other purpose of the baby's sounds was to distract the dragonborn's mind and shuffle it into disarray, so he couldn't resist the initial activation of his spell.

Now, I'm not too sure how strong the effect is, so I guess I'll have to instigate even more fear.

Aleister walked up to the man on the left. He cracked his knuckles and placed his leg on top of the prisoner's leg.

"I won't say anything," the man spat, his spit landing on Aleister's cheek.

Aleister tugged on the man's hair. "I don't need you to. Oh, and this will hurt." He pulled the man's head down and slammed it against his knee.

Blood spattered out from the man's broken nose. He brought the man's head down again. A few teeth clattered against the floor.

"Hey, you can't do this," Kyoko said as she opened the door.

Aleister let go of the man's hair and kicked the chair he sat in on the floor. "Well, I just did."

Kyoko gritted her teeth and closed the door.

He moved on to the man in the middle.

"Please, I'll tell you everything I know."

"It seems as if the babies' cries deafened you. I don't need to know anything."

Aleister smashed his fist straight into the man's face. The man let out a heavy gasp, but Aleister didn't give him the chance for another as he crashed the bottom of his foot straight into the man's stomach. He toppled over and coughed out a sticky and clear liquid. Finally, he ended up in front of the dragonborn.