Chapter 117: Devil
In a small room, I looked in front of me with amusement and excitement.
In the ground, a tigerman slept peacefully while breathing heavily. His head was a few centimetres away from the bed as if he lost his consciousness on the way.
Which, in fact, literally happened.
After making Glutton pour a sleeping potion — That painfully cost me 120k EC — into his drinks everyday, it finally worked.
It was a special potion that starts taking effect only after drinking a specific amount of it.
The tiger man was drinking beer at this inn 2 times a day. Glutton would always be invisible inside the inn and make sure to pour the right amount of sleeping potion into his cups.
And now, it was the time to harvest the result of my efforts.
[OUR efforts!]
Casting a light breeze, the door of the room closed, then I glanced at the other invisible figure beside me. I couldn't directly see him, but I could still sense him.
He was Zephyr, wearing an invisibility cloak that I made for him and improving his stealth using his affinity.
Instantly, I carried the tiger guy and made him sleep on his bed before taking a strange black cube he was clenching in his hand.
'Tsk, he slept early. I have to use it myself.'
The metallic cube had a small hole on it, the same size of a small mana crystal.
Seeing this familiar mechanism, my mind drifted to the runes under Lynn's inn.
'I need to study these runes someday.'
I took a small mana crystal from my storage and put it into the cube.
Immediately, it started shining as a cubic barrier surrounded the room. Then I took 2 big scrolls from my storage, put them in the middle of the room, and activated them.
Instantly, 2 additional barriers covered the room. The first was a wind barrier for sound, and the second was a normal mana barrier to keep the room safe and stable for emergencies.
Then I took a long chain covered in purple runes and 2 syringes out of my storage before looking at the tiger, but suddenly, Zephyr whispered.
"You look suspiciously too calm. How many times did you do that exactly?"
I turned my head to him, a wide grin on my face. "Since my birth? Only once."
I shrugged. "Who knows, maybe I was a killer in my past life, right?"
•••
[Taigo's Pov]
"ARGHHH—!"
Pain!
The moment I woke up, all I felt was an overwhelming, burning pain.
'When-when did I sleep? What is — Argh!'
"Did you make this yourself?"
"Yes. I can sell it to you when we finish this."
"Wait, let me try it again."
I heard 2 familiar voices talking casually beside me. I was trying to make sense of my situation, but all of a sudden, I heard a strange sound, like metallic chains rubbing each other.
*Crackle!*
"AAAAHH!"
The same burning pain returned, like thousands of small flaming daggers shocking and stabbing under my toenails.
After a moment, my blurry eyes began to be clearer with each blink, until finally, I saw 2 familiar figures standing upside down before me.
The first was an elf. He had a pair of bloody-red eyes and long flowing white hair.
He was holding the tip of a strange chain covered in purple runes with his hand, looking at it excitingly as if looking at a new toy.
The second was a man covered in black clothes. He had black hair with purple highlights and was holding a cup of coffee in his hand.
His piercing, sharp purple eyes locked into mine. And on his shoulder, a black raven with azure eyes looked at me the same way.
Those eyes didn't see me like a beastman, but the first seemed to see me like a corpse, while the second as a food.
My body began to shake aggressively as I felt their pressure and bloodlust, an emotion I had forgotten since a long time returned to me.
Fear.
Instantly, I tried to unleash my aura pressure to counter theirs.
"...."
The purple-eyed man took a sip of the coffee and smiled. "Doesn't work, right?"
My heart sank as the realization hit me. He was right — My aura wasn't working!
Panicking, I began to channel my mana, but just like the aura, it wasn't working!
I looked at myself to see my situation. My entire body was tied the chain that the elf was holding. They weren't upside down, it was me! Looking at my feet, I saw blood leaking from my toes and moved over my body.
"Who-who are you!" I asked loudly, trying to remember when I had seen their faces before.
The black-haired man's eyes widened in shock before falling heavily as if in sadness.
"Did you… forget me…? Maybe we spoke directly only 2 times… but you have made a change in my life with them."
The elf locked at him with wide eyes. "Dude, that feels a little gay…"
My eyes suddenly burst open as I remembered — they were first-year students! And 2 of our highest prioritized targets!
"Y-you are Raylin and Zephyr… right? Where are we! Let me out first so we can leave this place together."
Raylin blinked twice before smiling. "You don't seem to realize what's happening. I'll make it clear for your little brain."
My jew fell as I saw him taking a black cube out of his pocket.
'The perception filter?!!'
Raylin's smile widened. "Taigo, you are a traitor involved in helping the demons, convincing girls to join you and you are a fucking degenerate!"
His smile widened, showing his white teeth as he walked closer to me, his eyes just a little away from mine.
"I judge you guilty, therefore you shall answer — who are your allies on that?"
I blinked, then looked around. Seeing no one else around, I muttered under my trembling teeth. "Who-who do you think you are! Just kill me and finish this!"
I was caught obviously, but when I started this, I was ready for such a conclusion.
I wasn't going to talk and expose anyone, especially for a mere student like him!
But it was better than I expected, to be caught by normal students instead of someone experienced. If I made him kill me now, a certain ghost wouldn't steal my memories.
Lord Vereshia didn't find a way to counter his ways yet according to what I heard. He was a ghost that had to die under any cost!
Raylin sighed as he took a small needle out of thin air.
"You see this, Zephyr? They always choose the hard way. It's not my fault when they are making it harder on themselves."
He used a hand to press the skin under my eyebrow and brought the needle closer to it.
"W-what are you doing!"
Instead of answering, he pierced my skin using the needle and left it.
He ignored my screams, and used his hands to make a square before his right eye as if examining the needle.
"Not too far from your eye nor too close, just perfect to stab your eye whenever you blink."
'What!'
I forced my eye to stop trembling, afraid that the needle would stab me anytime.
He suddenly took another needle and did the same with my other eyes. That student… he wasn't an amateur!
I didn't fully understand my situation. I was just returning to my room after taking the new target out. How did all that happen!
I was fully exposed, unable to use any power, and 2 students and a raven where here to torture me?
Weren't only the fourth year students who experienced harming prisoners?
"I have many things to ask. How did you end up helping the demons? Where were you meeting or how were you contacting each other? Who are those working with you?"
"How do you know if the girl has an unawakened mana core or not and even their families? Someone with a high position is definitely leaking information, right?"
No matter what he asked, I never talked, ignoring the aches in my eyes from keeping my eyes open.
Raylin stood close to me again. He forced my mouth open with a hand and put the empty coffee cup on my mouth while enhancing it with lightning.
'What is he—!'
*CRACK!*
Suddenly, he slammed my jaw, forcing my mouth to close as the lightning cup shattered inside.
"Mmmmm!"
The hot sharp shards pierced and shook my mouth. I tried to open my mouth, but he was holding it firmly.
Unconsciously, I closed my eyes from the pain, but that was a bigger mistake as 2 needles pierced them.
"MMM! MMM…!"
My eyes burst open instantly. My entire vision changed into blurry red as I heard someone burst laughing.
"Hahaha! Are you screaming already? I didn't show you my creation yet, right?!"
He turned into his friend who was looking at him with wide eyes, leaving me to finally spit the blood and the glass shards out of my mouth.
"I knew you were crazy, but what the fuck!"
"At least I'm not a crazy idiot like you."
The chain holding me began to shake a little as Zephyr handed its tip to Raylin.
"You have noticed the stabs at your feet, right?" Raylin suddenly talked, a wide smile plastered over his face.
That smile… it wasn't… humanoid. That smile wasn't humanoid! Seeing that smile, I had finally understood the title given to him.
A devil.
He was a devil!
"Tens of lightning needles are stored inside this chain," He continued, "By channeling my aether to a specific place to it, the needle inside will burst out!"
"Argh!"
As if proving his point, a barrage of needles suddenly stabbed my ribs, but each one of them stabbed the same spot 2 times!
The smell of my burning flesh and the sound of laughter lingered together in the air. "It will stab you once, then return. Stab you again, then return. One more stab, then return! Each piece of you will suffer, will bleed, will burn, without you able to do anything."
"There is no limit. There are no cooldowns. It will keep getting stabbed, until you slowly, painfully, DIE!!"
My chest rose and fell as I breathed heavily. He, with light, soundless steps walked to me after leaving the chain with his friend.
He brought his head beside my ear, and whispered, his voice venomous and cold: "Or until, you start cooperating, of course."
"Ask yourself, whoever you are working for, are they, at this moment, more dangerous… than me?"