-----Mild Gore Warning-----

Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Finally arriving at the top of the lift and walking into the main hall, I saw Helen leaning up against the back of the throne. "Sorry if I made you wait."

Still seemingly a bit lethargic, she took a second to respond. "Ah.. no worries. Are you ready?"

With a light nod, we started heading towards the upper prison.

We didn't talk too much as we walked, but thankfully it didn't take too long to get there.

As we walked in, I finally got back to the topic at hand. "So is there anything special I need to know before this?"

"Not that I know of, but, just a heads up.. this isn't something a kid should see. I'm sure you will be fine, but if you ever need to step out, please do so." Her smile was a bit awkward but I could understand where she was coming from.

Walking past several guard posts and through several gates, we finally entered the main building.

"The farther down, the stronger the offender. We would normally go down to the 7th floor since those assassins were around S rank, but they are being kept on the 2nd for, ahem.. 'interrogation.'"

As she said the word interrogation, an out of place smile appeared on her face, but I didn't think much of it.

Going down a stairwell we came into a long hallway lined with several metal-barred jail cells, each made of smooth stone. -They sure gave this place a lot of attention huh..-

As I was admiring the craftsmanship of the cells, the people inside gave me disgusting looks. I didn't pay them much mind since they might as well be insects but Ilios didn't take kindly to them and pressured them with his aura.

As he pressured the entire room except for where Helen walked, everyone simultaneously paled and turned their gaze elsewhere.

Ilios quickly trotted up next to me, holding his head high as if expecting praise.

Seeing his adorable confidence, I couldn't help but lightly rub his head some. -Hehe… He's so cute..-

Finally coming to the end of the hallway, there was a large metal door with a certain, extremely oppressing 'stench' coming through the small window.

It was so strong it caused my instinct to go on guard. -My goodness… How much blood does it take for it to smell that strong..-

Assuming I shouldn't bring Ilios inside, I was quick to sit him down. "Ilios, you stay here and guard the door, alright?"

“Woof!” He puffed up his chest as he sat down.

Being unable to hold myself back again, I reached down and gave him a few more pets before walking inside.

Behind the door was a room divided into 5 parts, with each part having a chair and several torture devices lining the walls. Of those chairs, 3 of them were seating the assassins.

They each seemed to be rather roughed up and were bleeding quite a bit, but there was nothing too extreme.

Next to the one that was least beat up though, was a knight cleaning some bloody tools. "Ah your grace. Welcome!" He quickly set down his things and gave Helen a deep bow.

Helens face was serious, but she seemed to be suppressing a smile. "You may rise. So have you gotten any information out of them yet?"

"Nothing of note yet..." He looked a little ashamed. "It seems they're rather tight lipped."

"Alright, in that case, you try and get information from the one on the left, I will take the right. Vasilias, would you like to give it a shot on the middle one?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." Looking at the man, his glare was sharp and his face was full of arrogance. -I guess he's confident I can't pry information out of him.- I took his glare as a challenge.

"Alright, well if you can't handle something, feel free to step out." Her serious look was slowly replaced with an excited smile as she spoke.

-Whats with that look..- I couldn't help but feel like she seemed a bit too excited. "I think I'll be alright, but thanks for the reminder."

“Huhu, in that case I will get started first.” With an ominous chuckle, she turned around and made her way into the right stall.

Something about her demeanor made me extremely uncomfortable but I was quick to shake off the feeling. -Im probably just imagining things..-

Turning back to the man in the middle stall, I walked up and gave him a good look. "That look in your eyes.. I'm not too fond of it... I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though.." I bent down to get to his eye level and increased the pressure of my aura some. "If you tell me everything right now, I might leave your body in one piece."

His face paled some, but the look in his eyes didn't change.

Quickly using his tongue to move the rag out of his mouth, he spat at me. "F*ck off you noble b*stard."

I used wind magic to block the spit, but the look in my eyes turned dark. "Haah.. so you wanna take the hard route. That's fine. So what's your name?"

"As if I'm going to tell you sh-"

*Crack*

I casually broke his thumb to start easy.

The man just gritted his teeth as his arrogant glare got sharper. "Tch.. weak bi-"

*CRACK*

A gut-wrenching sound echoed through the room as I used earth magic to break everything in his left arm.

The bones instantly turned to a powder of razor sharp shards that shredded everything they touched, from flesh to nerves.

"ARRRGGHH-AAAHHHHHH" He could only grit his teeth for a moment before the pain got to be too much to bear.

-Ahh.. much better..- I felt an odd satisfaction seeing his arrogant glare turn to one of horror. "So what’s your name?"

"Haah.. hah.. its.. Torr." He could barely speak through the pain of his nerves being shredded.

"Hmm, what about your family name?"

"As if.. I'd have.. something.. like that.." His face slowly turned to a ghastly pale as he spoke.

"What do you mean by that?"

"We were.. raised to kill... They'd never.. give us names.."

"So youre something like a slave?"

"You.. could say that.."

"That's a shame." My voice didn't carry an ounce of compassion.

"We had.. no choice.."

"That's unfortunate, so where are you from?"

"Falloak.. a small town outs-ARGHH" He shifted a little causing another surge of pain to course through him. "A tiny town.. in the Holy.. Kingdom.."

"So were you sent by the Holy Kingdom?"

"Not.. quite.."

There was a short silence while I waited for him to continue. "You should spit out who sent you before I feel like taking your leg."

His eyes went wide in panic. "We were.. sent by the.. Tower… I was just.. raised in.. Falloak.."

"Hm? What's the Tower?"

"A conglomeration.. of mages.. with the sole motive of.. pursuing magic.."

"Why the hell would they make you assassinate the king?"

"I can't tell-"

*CRUNCH*

"ARRGGHHH F***CCCKK!"

"I did your other arm instead of a leg, be grateful."

"ARGGH.. Haah.. hah.." He looked like he was going to pass out from the pain, but I couldn't let that happen.

"Don't pass out or else I'll wake you up by pulling your spinal cord out of your ass."

His eyes went wide from fear. "Yes.. yes.. I w..won't"

“Now then, you can continue.”

"The tower.. w..wanted to frame.. that mage.. from the meeting.."

"Ah, Michael? For what reason?"

"Im.. not sure.. they said.. he was in the way.."

-So Michael really was implicated with the assassination..- "Was that the only reason?"

"N..no.. they never liked.. the king either... He banned.. the tower from.. entry.. to the kingdom.."

"So to dispose of an unwanted and an opposising variable huh.."

"Y..yes sir.. as far.. as I know.."

"I'm guessing you dont know what their big plan is either then?"

"N..no sir… I was.. just a pawn…"

-Hm… What could they be planning?- "Is there anything else you know about their plan?"

"All.. I k..know.. is that they’re.. ARGGH.. t..trying to gain.. c..control of.. as many.. nations as possible... They say.. they have an.. unopposable power.."

-How ominous..- Even my thoughts carried sarcasm. "Okay. So how about the tower itself now, what's the hierarchy like."

"They are divided.. by strength..."

-Simple enough- "Where is their HQ?"

"The Kingdom.. of Deacia.."

After asking a few more questions, I ran out of things to ask and wrapped things up.

-This guy was nice and compliant after I broke his pride and arrogance..- "Alright, that's all I've got for questions. You were pretty easy to work with, so do you have any last wish?"

The man didn't give much thought before responding. "I wish to live.."

"You know that's not possible." My eyes were cold, and he seemed to notice as despair washed over his face.

"In that case.. can I make an oath?"

-Hooh?- An ‘oath’ was a type of magic that simply made it impossible for someone to do something without dying. For example if the rune made it so you could never say a name, if you then said it, the oath magic would go off and kill you on the spot.

Although I didn't know exactly how it worked, Mother told me it was very risky since they would sometimes misfire and just randomly kill the person under oath.

-This could be a good opportunity to see it in action though..- "Alright, I'm listening."

"The tower will never see me again, I will change my identity and I will live quietly as a simple citizen."

"Okay. Add on top of that, that you can never injure an innocent person."

Although to me it didn't matter if he died now or killed 100 innocent people, I was more interested to see how the oath magic would try to abide by a condition like that.

He quickly nodded before gritting his teeth from pain again. "A..absolutely.."

"What about your arms, you sure you wanna live without arms?"

"Well.. my muscles are.. still there.. only the bone is gone... I think.. I can repair or.. heal some of it.."

His statement made me look at him like he was insane. -I don't know how the hell you could heal that man, but if that's the case..- Cutting off my thoughts, I used wind magic to slice off his left arm before using more magic to stop the bleeding.

*Splat*

As the arm hit the ground, the skin and muscle desperately trying to contain the mix of bone powder and blood ripped open and splattered everywhere.

"Aaargghh, w..what was.. that for.." Although it still hurt him, it was nothing compared to earlier.

"Getting away alive is already asking for too much, let alone with both arms."

He couldn't refute as he held his head down, likely just grateful he was alive.

I didn't care to wait on him though. "You ready?" My curiosity was making me impatient.

“R..right, sorry.” He quickly closed his eyes as a bright rune was illuminated in front of his head. Simply put, it was the combination of earth and water runes that would trigger a lightning rune if triggered. -So it uses lightning magic to kill them but earth and water to check if they break it?-

It was an incredibly complicated rune even for me, but I could vaguely get the idea of it. -How fascinating… What psycho came up with this though? It must've been a dragon..- I simply couldn't imagine a human having remotely enough understanding about runes to create something so intricate. “In any case, you can make the oath now.”

As I said that, thousands of small characters wrote themselves on the runes before engraving the entire rune into his skull.

-How intricate..- The characters that were written were barely understandable and were closer to math than an actual language.

After a short moment though, it finished and vanished from the air, now being completely engraved into his skull. "Alright, you stay there for a little, I need to discuss some things with someone first."

Seeing him give an exhausted nod, I turned around and walked around the divider towards Helen’s area.

As I rounded the corner, I was met with quite the odd sight.

Helens wings and clothes were covered in blood and the man she had been torturing looked dead.

Gashes in his flesh were everywhere and he had too many missing parts to count.

-How in god's name is that guy alive..-

It was a scene that would cause anyones stomach to churn, but to me it gave the same feeling as seeing an insect's guts on the wall after killing it, a little gross but that was it. -Ive truely become a dragon huh..- But my lack of sympathy was the least of my concerns at the moment. -She looks like she's enjoying that a little too much..-

Feeling my presence, the queen turned around, shining her white teeth with a somehow innocent looking smile. "Ah, are you done already?"

The crimson blood on her face and wings gave her the look of an angel that just slaughtered a bunch of demons, but her smile made her seem like more of a demon herself.