In the face of the oncoming wind, the dark elf’s expression changed abruptly. He quickly retreated backward while reaching for his waist, but Eugene was faster and was onto him before he could do anything.
This was an inevitable outcome. The summoned wind was only for the sake of surprising the dark elf. Eugene had used the Blink spell for movement.
Without holding any weapons, Eugene pounced on the dark elf with his bare hands, but the dark elf wasn’t making it easy to capture him. He bent his body backward, and then, in this unstable position, the dark elf swiveled in place, in a movement that could almost be called acrobatic. By doing so, he brought his leg swinging around toward Eugene.
Eugene snickered. He twisted his outstretched arm and blocked the dark elf’s kick with the back of his hand. It wasn’t just an ordinary block either — the wind covertly swirling around Eugene’s hand swallowed the dark elf’s body.
“Ugh!” the dark elf grunted.
The wind was as sharp as a blade. Engulfed the center of this storm, the dark elf protected his head with both of his arms while drawing on his strength.
Crash!
Gray-colored mana wrapped around the dark elf’s body.
‘His mana is quite high-level, but his demonic power is nothing special,’ Eugene observed.
The dark elf was only a little better than the lower-level demonfolk in terms of demonic power. However, his skills were far superior to any of the lower-level demonfolk.
Just like elves, dark elves also lived a long time. Although a hundred-year-old human would be so old that it wouldn’t be strange for them to die at any time, a hundred-year-old elf was treated like a child by their own people.
The elves were one of those races who were blessed with an overflowing amount of time. Even if they just diligently cultivated their mana during all that time, any elf could become strong enough that no human would be able to look down on them.
With all that said, were elves unconditionally superior to humans?
That wasn’t necessarily the case. Three hundred years ago, Vermouth had definitely been a human. Molon, Anise, Sienna, as well as Hamel, had all been humans. Humans were so numerous that they outnumbered the elves by the tens of hundreds, and amongst this overcrowded population, one could sometimes find monsters who were able to ignore the difference in lifespan.
The dark elf who had come here today couldn’t have imagined that he would be facing one such monster.
But now, there was no need to imagine it. The reality of the situation was clear.
The dark elf couldn’t understand why or how he had been thrown to the ground. The reality that he was facing right now had far exceeded the limits of his common sense.
“...Gagh!” The dark elf coughed.
Even though he had yet to understand the situation, his lips opened by themselves as blood sprayed out of his mouth. It had looked like a clean and simple back throw, but was that really all there was to it? No — before the dark elf had even hit the ground, Eugene had struck him a few more times.
Eugene had first reached out to the hand that was holding onto a dagger, grabbed it, and twisted it. As the dark elf’s arm was pulled in toward his side, his elbows were slammed against his own ribs. His mana shield was crushed by this blow, and the bones in his arm were broken.
A rising fist then slightly brushed against the dark elf’s chin. For a moment, the dark elf completely lost consciousness.
In the next instant, the dark elf landed onto the ground back-first. His arms, ribs, and shoulders… his whole body trembled as if it had been electrocuted. Not only were his bones broken, his internal organs had also been damaged, so every time he took a breath, the fishy smell of blood filled his throat.
Struggling any further would be trivial and futile. What had happened to him was so one-sided it couldn’t even be called a fight. The dark elf gasped for breath as he glared up at Eugene. Although he was aware of these facts, the dark elf wasn’t a true warrior. He didn’t feel any respect for the opponent who had just defeated him.
“A human boy like you…!” the dark elf growled angrily.
Drawing the dark elf here had been intentional. Rather than attacking the dark elves’ stronghold, Eugene had been intending to get the dark elves to pursue him by using Jackson as bait.
If Jackson had been terrified enough to keep quiet, he wouldn’t have been able to draw out any of the dark elves, but Eugene had made sure that he wouldn’t just keep quiet. That was why he had cut off one of Jackson’s hands.
“I’m not sure how I should react to that. I am a human, and I’m young enough to be considered a boy, so should I still take your words as the insult they were intended to be?” Eugene muttered as he brushed off the dirt that had splashed up onto his cloak.
The dark elf coughed up another mouthful of blood, and tried to push himself up with his still-intact left arm.
“I’ll kill you…,” the dark elf groaned out.
Eugene had gotten used to hearing such words in these kinds of situations. This meant that he knew there wasn’t any value in continuing to listen to them. Without any hesitation, Eugene raised his foot and stomped on the dark elf’s left hand.
Crackle!
There went the sound of bones being crushed.
“Gaaaaah!” Unable to endure the pain, the dark elf screamed.
One feature of the dark elf’s appearance that stood out as much as any member of the elven race was his long ears. As their length suggested, these long ears expanded the range of their hearing.
This excellent sense of hearing allowed the dark elf to know precisely what kind of situation he had found himself in. The screams that he let out weren’t spreading into the distance, and were instead echoing back within a small, confined area.
‘A spell…!’ the dark elf realized.
The sound wasn’t able to spread because it had been blocked from doing so. The dark elf didn’t let out any further screams, and just grunted with effort as he tried to free his pinned-down hand. However, Eugene refused to release the dark elf’s hand, and just crouched down on the spot so that he could look into the dark elf’s eyes.
He had brown skin and crimson eyes. The characteristic traits of a dark elf hadn’t changed since three hundred years ago. Eugene reached out to him with an apathetic expression.
He pulled off the dark elf’s cloak, then he tore open the collar as well. The dark elf’s eyes started to shake. His face twisted into a grimace, and he spat the blood that collected in his mouth onto Eugene’s face.
“You son of a bitch!” the dark elf cursed. “I’d rather die than be violated by someone like you—”
Eugene interrupted him, “What kind of nonsense are you yelping, you bastard? Why the hell would you think I’d be interested in violating you?”
In the first place, this dark elf was a man, and even if it had been a woman insted, Eugene would have rejected taking such an action without even blinking. Even when he was making a living as a mercenary in his previous life, Eugene had never once forcibly taken a woman.
“Let’s see now…. That’s right, just as I thought,” Eugene muttered to himself.
Eugene stared down at the tattoo that marked the dark elf from his left collarbone to his chest.
It was in the shape of an upside-down goat’s skull, the horns of which had an unusual form. They were actually two pairs of horns growing out of the same base, one curved and one straight.
An upside-down goat’s skull with two pairs of horns was the sigil of the Demon King of Fury. The fact that this dark elf had a tattoo of it on his chest was proof that he was a subordinate of the Demon King of Fury.
‘But if he was alive three hundred years ago, there’s no way that he’d be this sloppy,’ thought Eugene.
This meant that he had probably become a dark elf relatively recently, and had just entered Iris’s service. Or else he could just be young. Either way, this dark elf was definitely one of Iris’s subordinates.
“There are a few things that I want to ask you, so if at all possible, I hope that you can kindly cooperate with me,” Eugene requested.
“Just kill me,” the dark elf spat out.
Wasn’t it obvious what kind of questions a slaver would ask? The dark elf had no intention of loosening his lips and betraying his people, even if it meant his death.
Eugene tried to persuad him. “If you’re going to die anyway, wouldn’t it be better for you to die painlessly.”
Although he had at least tried to convince the dark elf, Eugene didn’t believe that it would be so easy to get this dark elf to open his mouth. That was why he had placed a seal on this location so that any sounds wouldn’t carry for too far.
Eugene didn’t like torture. However, he also wasn’t the type to hesitate in its use when the situation called for it. Eugene now held the dagger that he had stolen from the dark elf in one hand.
“It looks like this might take a while, so why don’t you go get some sleep first instead of waiting up,” Eugene offered to Kristina.
“Allow me to offer you my help,” Kristina said as she stood up.
Eugene snorted and turned around to look back at her, “And how do you intend to do that? Are you going to make him repent by reciting prayers at him? Or are you thinking of smashing his fingers into bits with a mace?”
“I don’t need to use such rough methods,” Kristina said with a smile as she walked over to Eugene’s side.
Eugene shrugged and stepped over the dark elf, then pulled on the dark elf’s left arm so that it was twisted behind his back.
“So what are you planning to do?” Eugene asked.
“An interrogation,” Kristina said as she pulled out her wand.
The cross at the end of the wand was held up to Kristina’s chest. With a calm smile, she stared at the dark elf.
Eventually, Kristina’s lips twitched.
Fwooosh!
A short spell was cast using her divine power. The blue jewel embedded into the center of the cross shone in resonance with the divine power that Kristina had aroused.
This flickering light was directed at the dark elf. As dark elves were corrupted by demonic power, they instinctively rejected divine power. The dark elf started sweating profusely as he tried to twist his body free of Eugene’s hold.
“Look at me,” Kristina whispered.
Her smile exuded benevolence, and her voice rang as sweet as a child’s.
Eugene was startled. ‘This is….’
Still holding the arm of the dark elf behind his back, Eugene had a front-row view to what Kristina was doing. However, he couldn’t tell what holy magic Kristina was currently using. Anise had never used a divine spell like this.
On the other hand, while studying magic at Akron, Eugene had gotten to know various different types of magic. Although it was impossible for him to personally learn any divine spells, he had read a few books on holy magic.
Mental magic was of a different category from normal magic. The only place that dealt with mental magic in depth was the Black Tower of Magic.
However, if one went beyond the strict boundaries of ‘magic’, it wasn’t black magic that was most adept at manipulating the target’s mental state according to the caster’s will. The true master of this kind of activity was holy magic.
Three hundred years ago, back when black wizards were still widely reviled, the Holy Empire of Yuras’s Inquisitors were the greatest fear of all black wizards. In those days, everyone was united in their hatred of the black wizards, but the Inquisitors of Yuras in particular didn’t even see black wizards as human beings.
In today’s era, Inquisitors weren’t as fearsome as they used to be three hundred years ago. This was because they were no longer in an era where they were given free rein to go wherever and do whatever they wanted in the name of hunting these black wizards.
However the Inquisitors could still be found in Yuras. They watched over the priests of the Holy Empire, and served as a warning not to falter in one’s faith.
“...You even know how to use this type of divine spell?” Eugene commented.
“I don’t enjoy using it,” Kristina said defensively.
“It would have been better if you had just used it earlier,” Eugene complained.
“Are you talking about using it on the informant? He might have had a bad temper, but he was just an ordinary human, he wasn’t even a lapsed follower of the God of Light,” Kristina lowered her wand and straightened back up.
The dark elf, who had been stammering while under the control of the spell, was now muttering to himself with his head bowed low, in a garble tongue where it was impossible to make out any actual ‘words’.
“...As you can see… now that his will is broken and his mind has collapsed, I have managed to extract a confession straight from his heart,” Kristina explained.
Although it might have been possible for her to do so, Anise had never once used such a spell.
“Taking this into account, the interrogation spell isn’t one that should be used lightly, and I personally also dislike using it. However… since this is a fallen elf, there was no reason to hesitate in interrogating him,” Kristina said as she brought her hands together in prayer. “Through his confession, we will be brought one step closer to completing our divine mission. Surely God’s ear will be drawn towards listening to this poor soul’s confession, and his hand shall guide this soul darkened by corruption back into the land of light.”
“So you’re saying that it’s alright to kill him then?” Eugene surmised.
“It’s not about killing, it’s about purifying the soul,” Kristina said with a broad smile.
What a snake-like woman.
Although it wasn’t exactly the same, Kristina also had an unknowable side to her, just like Anise. They were also similar in the way that they sinisterly hid their true feelings behind a smile.
Eugene grabbed the limp dark elf by the collar and dragged the elf up with him as he stood up. Despite the rough treatment, the dark elf was still vacantly muttering to himself. Although Eugene had been intending to go find a quiet corner in which to execute the dark elf, Kristina didn’t stay put as expected and instead followed Eugene.
He decided to let her do what she wanted. Instead of just slicing open the dark elf’s throat, Eugene laid him down onto the ground and placed a hand on his chest. A few moments later, the dark elf’s heart suddenly stopped.
After watching this scene take place with some surprise, Kristina walked over to the side of the pulse-less elf and knelt down. Then she placed her hands together, and after spending a few moments in prayer, she lifted her wand.
Fwooosh!
The light summoned by Kristina swallowed the dark elf’s body. Not long afterwards, the dark elf’s body transformed into ashes and then completely disappeared.
“...Almighty God of Light, please receive this corrupted soul and render unto him your judgment. Please light up the darkness in his soul with your light, and burn away the karma that he has accrued during his life with your flaming torch,” Kristina prayed.
Kristina’s prayers were similar to, but also different from the prayers that had been engraved onto Hamel’s grave. But the basic core on which their prayers were based could still be seen in both cases.
“Was my help of some assistance?” Kristina asked as she finished her prayer and stood up.
“Yep,” Eugene answered honestly.
If it wasn’t for Kristina’s interrogation spell, he would have had to spend a long night in this forest torturing the dark elf.
“Let’s postpone our rest for tonight,” Eugene proposed.
“Are you worried that we might be pursued?” Kristina asked.
The dark elf was alone and hadn’t brought any companions. That said, it was still better for them not to keep camping there, at a place where they had already come into contact with one dark elf. And since there was nothing wrong with being careful, it was better for them to keep moving during the early hours of the morning.
“We also have a long way to go,” Eugene added.
They had learned several things through the interrogation.
They may have already confirmed it with the tattoo, but the dark elf had personally admitted to being Iris’s subordinate.
He was a member of Fury’s Independence Army. With Iris at its head, the Independence Army was an organization made up solely of dark elves. While they were increasing their manpower by recruiting the elves who came to Samar, they were also searching for the undiscovered elven sanctuary.
Apart from that, they had also learned something about the elves.
There were still elves who had rejected their persuasion to become dark elves and who had instead headed into the depths of the rainforest. These elves knew that they were highly valued as slaves, and they also knew that many of the barbaric tribes that lived in the rainforest had no regard for the elves.
The guiding purpose of these elves was to find their way to the elven sanctuary where the World Tree hopefully still stood tall. However, as the road leading to it was blocked, the elves who weren’t able to enter the sanctuary had gathered together and formed a new village.
To reach this village from the outskirts of the Samar Rainforest, no matter how fast they traveled, it would take the two at least a month to get there.
‘...Then there’s the matter of the guardian…,’ Eugene mused.
In the village where the wandering elves had gathered, there was said to be a guardian who protected the village from attacks by slavers and other barbarian tribes.
“...It’s said that the elves living there shun all contact with humans,” Kristina brought up cautiously.
“We just need to make them feel welcoming,” Eugene stated confidently.
“How do we do that?” Kristina asked uncertainly.
“Just because they’re elves, do you really think that they would reject all gifts?” Eugene replied with a shrug. “There’s no one in the world who doesn’t like a gift.”
The dark elf that they had just interrogated didn’t know anything about the elven sanctuary. Just like Eugene had expected, he was a young elf who hadn’t been born within the sanctuary and had instead been born somewhere outside the forest.
What Eugene was looking for was elves who had lived inside the sanctuary.
‘If at all possible, it should be someone who also knows about Sienna,’ Eugene thought hopefully.
If it was an elf who had left the sanctuary around two hundred years ago, they might have even run into Sienna on their way out.
