As the man awoke, the electric shackles began to rise into the air, leaving him hanging. At that moment, his eyes focused and finally locked onto Zoe. The beautiful knight stood before him with a cold expression, a dangerous glint in her blue eyes.
The man, caught between surprise and confusion, tried to speak, but just then, the stunning young woman before him spoke in a voice as cold as ice, laced with murderous intent.
"We have little time and many questions, so I'll ask, and you'll answer. First—how many like you are on the other side of the temple?"
"You're going to—"
The man tried to reply with a hoarse voice, but in that instant, he saw the woman's shapely leg—encased in a striking, form-fitting suit of plate armor—lift up, then come down at high speed, driving her heel into his forearm and shattering it instantly.
But before he could scream, and as if thinking it wasn't enough, the beautiful woman lifted her leg again to shatter his left leg and one of his ribs with a fluid, almost choreographed movement. Her gorgeous face bore a cold, impassive expression.
The man felt his body writhe in pain, but no matter how hard he tried to scream, he couldn't—the kick that broke his ribs had knocked the air from his lungs. Yet there was something even more terrifying—he couldn't move his mana. No matter how much he tried, his mana seemed to have vanished completely, and his muscles were rendered utterly immobile by painful electric currents.
With an expression full of terror, the man struggled to breathe in near desperation, glancing around in an attempt to understand where he was. But at that moment, he saw runes materializing around him, releasing a greenish light that began healing him at great speed.
"I ask, and you answer. How many like you are on the other side of the temple?"
Still gasping for air, the man once again heard the woman's cold voice, which made him look at her with equal parts apprehension and defiance. In that instant, he saw her reach for her waist, grasping the hilt of what seemed to be a sword or a saber. She drew it calmly, producing a strange tapping sound.
"Last chance—how many like you are on the other side of the temple?"
"You—you can't kill me!!"
Managing to catch a sliver of oxygen, the man shouted with a hoarse voice. But in that moment, he caught a flash of silver, followed by the sound of a blade being sheathed. Confused, he looked at the terrifying woman—yet at that same instant, he felt an odd hot, wet sensation in his hand, prompting him to glance up.
"AHHHHH!!!"
The man couldn't stop himself from screaming when he saw his hands covered in blood, while four of his fingers—two on each hand—sprayed thin but powerful streams of blood in different directions. Panic-stricken, he began writhing like a worm in the air, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"You damned bitch!! My fingers!! You'll pay for this!!!"
Almost in sync with his screams, the runes conjured around him increased in number, then focused around his hands—at which moment a dark glimmer caught the corner of the man's vision. Looking down, he saw what appeared to be a forty-centimeter-long dragon standing before his four severed fingers, seemingly about to roast them with dark lightning gathering in its mouth.
"Wait! Don't do it!!"
The sight made him turn even paler, and perhaps even more terrified than before; the man screamed at the top of his lungs. Zoe, her hand still resting on the hilt of her katana, replied in a cold, measured voice.
"Answer my questions—no tricks, no games—or next will be your hand."
The moment her words ended, the man saw the dragon fire a bolt of dark electrical energy, reducing his severed fingers to dust. Watching his digits vanish, the man's eyes turned bloodshot, and he quickly looked at Zoe with madness in his gaze, clearly wanting to kill her with his bare hands.
After a few seconds of breathing to calm his furious emotions, the man studied the beautiful woman's cold expression and knew that if he didn't speak, she really would take his hand. This forced him to compose himself while thinking deeply.
(She seems in a hurry… which probably means my people must be looking for me. For now, let's buy some time.)
"… On the other side, there are four more. A leader at Revealed-Skilled level and two golems." The man spoke in a hoarse voice, dripping with murderous intent, enduring the horrible pain flooding his body. Zoe nodded and, in a cold voice, asked while staring directly into the man's eyes.
"What alarms do you have?"
"There's an alarm formation in the second temple. It activates the moment someone passes through the door." The man answered with ferocity, returning Zoe's gaze with eyes gleaming with murderous intent. Zoe asked again, utterly indifferent to his expression.
"How do you disable the alarm?"… While Zoe asked her questions, Erik—who was near the cave entrance, hidden in the darkness with Tiberius—watched the situation with a calm expression. At that moment, Ebonique came to his side, holding before her an intact severed finger, and asked with curiosity through the contract.
[Why did you want this finger?]
[To do a bit of research. I don't know much about knights, and I'm curious about their mutated cells, so I decided to take the opportunity.] Erik replied in a calm tone. Ebonique tossed the finger toward Erik, then commented in a quiet voice.
[I see. I hope you learn a lot.]
Erik nodded calmly as he caught the frozen finger in midair. After examining it a couple of times, he sent his mana into it while letting the Myst wrap around it, splitting his attention between Zoe's exchange of questions and answers with the man, and what he could sense through his mana and the Myst.
Although reattaching a finger was not difficult with the right potion or spell, growing one back from scratch was a completely different matter—especially for a knight at the Revealed level or higher. From the Revealed level onward, mana users split into two paths: mages created magic cores, while knights mutated their cells to store mana.
Storing mana in every cell made knights incredibly strong, fast, and resilient—but this did not come without drawbacks. From the Revealed level on, a knight's body was a treasure. If they lost a limb, even if it regrew, it would be "normal," without the mutation to store mana, and certainly without the years of accumulated power.
Thus, they would have to train it from scratch, which was not only expensive but also complicated. After all, their entire body—mutated and saturated with mana—would usually reject the new limb, making it necessary to rely on potions and special techniques to keep the rejection under control. But there was something even more terrifying than that, especially for a "young" knight.
Because of the treatment and the constant rejection by their own body, until the new limb was "synchronized" with the rest of the body, they could not improve—their level would remain stagnant. This was something that could practically kill the talent of any young knight in their early years, which were literally a race against time.
It reached the point where many who lost a limb in their youth chose to remain without it for centuries—or even millennia. But this only made the process of restoring the limb even more difficult and costly, and as they grew accustomed to the loss, very few ever chose to recover their missing limbs.
…
"Where is the 'exit' in the garden? Give me a route with three visible landmarks."
After a few minutes, while Erik was examining the finger, he suddenly heard a question from Zoe that pulled him out of his small investigation. Quickly, Erik focused all his attention on Zoe and the man, while at the same time conjuring a few runes around the finger, which began releasing cold air that froze it in an instant.
"I don't know where it is."
At the question, the man replied in a cold voice. But at that instant, a subtle silver light flashed, causing him to open his eyes in disbelief before quickly looking at his hands and shouting in rage.
"Bitch!!"
Just as he feared, he saw his left hand separate from his arm, a large amount of blood pouring out as the electric shackles reformed to "bind" his forearm. At the same time, Zoe's cold voice echoed through the cave.
"Where is the 'exit' in the garden?"
"Wait! Wait!! I really don't know!! I never saw it!!" The man looked at Zoe and cried out in partial panic, but when he saw her grip the hilt of her weapon again, his eyelids couldn't help but tremble.
Seeing the situation, Erik stepped forward and appeared beside Zoe, surprising the man, who stared at him in confusion. With a calm smile on his face, Erik placed his hand on Zoe's shoulder and spoke in a casual tone.
"Looks like he really doesn't know—there's no need to attack him further."
Hearing the young man who had appeared out of nowhere, the man couldn't help but let out a discreet sigh through his lips while clenching his teeth tightly. The runes continued healing him, and the pain mixed with an almost maddening sting. But ignoring that, he focused on the newcomer, certain he might be someone naïve and easy to deceive, and quickly tried to speak.
"Help m—"
"But there must be something you do know." Erik looked at the man and asked with a small smile, cutting him off. "What's your full name?"
"…"
The man stared at the calmly smiling youth in front of him, a bead of sweat running down his cheek. Though he gave off no murderous intent and even seemed kind and scholarly, from the depths of his being the man felt as if death itself were staring into his eyes.
Something about this green-eyed young man was wrong—something didn't add up. It was as if an unnameable beast were pretending to be human… a bloodthirsty beast playing the part of an innocent boy.
"Didn't you hear the question? I want you to tell me your full name."
The man heard the question again, but his mind was practically short-circuiting—every alarm in his head screamed at him to run, yet at the same time, he felt paralyzed, his body refusing to respond. But just then, he saw the corners of the young man's smile widen slightly as he took a step forward.
"L-Lucien D'Arvos!"
Filled with panic, the man answered in a slightly high-pitched voice, which made the young man before him nod in satisfaction. But Lucien caught a faint—almost imperceptible—hint of disappointment on the youth's face, which made every hair on his body stand on end with terror. Soon after, however, the young man's calm voice sounded again.
"Perfect, Lucien. Then, what kind of noble are you? Do you have a rank or something like that?"
"I—I can't say! I'm under a curse! If I speak, I'll die!"
Lucien quickly replied, gripped by panic. For some reason, he felt a hole in his chest widening with every passing second, filling him with such terror that it practically made him incapable of going against the young man's words. At that moment, Lucien saw the bright green-eyed young man turn to look at the woman beside him and then calmly ask.
"Do curses like that exist?"
"They do, and there are several types. You should be familiar with one of them—blood pacts made with assistants can cause effects like that."
Lucien turned to look at the woman who had answered in a calm tone, noticing she wore a slightly surprised expression as she looked at him. Yet she seemed relaxed—even at ease—standing next to the terrifying young man, which drove him into an even deeper panic.
(How can she not realize the monster she's talking to?!! That's no human!)
"Oh, so that's how it is. Do you know of any House D'Arvos or something like that?"
At that moment, the green-eyed youth asked in a casual tone, causing Lucien's heart to pound wildly. But when he saw the woman shake her head, he allowed himself a subtle sigh of relief. Just then, Lucien saw the green-eyed young man look back at him and, with a smile, ask.
"Well, Lucien, now I need you to explain to me how you receive orders and your daily routine as a leader."
"I—in my storage pouch there's a medallion we use to communicate… Every day I have to make three reports and stay alert for orders."
Lucien replied quickly, feeling the "hole" in his chest widen so much it was becoming hard to breathe. The green-eyed young man spoke with a smile, stepping closer.
"Perfect. I want you to explain in great detail how the messages must be sent—what you have to say and how. Don't leave anything out. I wouldn't want to have to scour the entire Meridian Federation for the surname D'Arvos. That would be… really exhausting."
"…It's you…"
But instead of answering, Lucien spoke with a charged tone, his eyes fixed on the young man's hair. When the latter moved, a sliver of light revealed, for the first time, the star-like pattern in it. The star-haired young man looked at Lucien with curiosity and asked as he stepped even closer.
"Did you recognize me? Am I him… or one of the targets of this attack?"
"…Hahaha!" Instead of answering, Lucien began to laugh almost manically, then stared straight into the green eyes of the young man before him and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"It's you! This is all your fault!! No matter what happens, you will die!! I swear in the name of th—"
"Gaze of Arkhé."
***
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