Bellatrix and the rest were finally able to break through the array. They were now approaching the sight of disaster. But the closer she reached, the more horrified she got. In a huge radius below her, a scene of pure destruction had spread. Nothing was alive. The plants and the vegetation were mere husks of dark matter. There were no animal and bird corpses, only darkened pieces of bones.
Just… What the hell happened here? And how?
Is the organization really capable enough to do this?
"Holy—Fucking—Morgana… just how powerful are they?" Muttered Tonks, seriously freaked out. She was so scared that her hair had turned white… literally.
"It… It wasn't the organization," said Gorski, looking truly shaken from the view. "Even the relics can't do something like this. If they had such power, they would have been ruling Atlantis by now."
'Then who was it?! And is Axel involved?!' Thought Bellatrix as she quickened her pace. When she finally reached the clearing, she saw several figures huddled together.
Bellatrix found Rose, looking fine. But she failed to find Axel.
"Rose!" yelled Tonks, landing into the clearing. "Are you alright?!"
Rose jumped upon hearing the unexpected voice. She turned around, only to find her cousin Tonks, her Aunt, Hitwizards and Aurors loyal to her Aunt landing one after another.
"Tonks? Aunty Bella?"
Bellatrix grabbed Rose's shoulders. "Rose Potter Black, have you seen Axel?!"
Rose flinched as soon as Axel's name came up. Martina sobbed, and Akiko clenched her fists.
Bellatrix got a bad premonition upon seeing their reactions. Her gaze went to the very conspicuous severed hand in Martina's hands and she gasped.
"Is… Is that…?"
She could recognize that hand easily enough. But she still didn't want to believe it. She saw what Martina was holding in her other hand, and it only confirmed her worst fear.
"The pendant..."
The cross shaped pendant that Tristan always wore around his neck, and the one he had passed down to Axel.
"What happened?"
"What happened?!" She drew her wand and pointed at Martina.
"Aunty Bella! It wasn't her fault!" said Rose, stopping Bellatrix in a hurry. "She saved me, or I would have been kidnapped!"
Martina was not at all affected by whatever Bellatrix just said to her. She looked at Bellatrix with urgency. "Minister Black, I really need your help. Some people have kidnapped Axel Hunt. You might have heard of him. It is really important for us to save him. Please—"
Gorski stepped in at the moment, his hands raised in a calming gesture. "I think both of you ladies need to calm down first. We all want the same thing here, to rescue Axel and get the bad guys."
"Professor Gorski? What are you doing here?" Asked Rose in confusion.
"Ah, Miss Potter, that's a story for later. First we need you to tell us what happened here?"
"Okay," Rose was confused, but still quickly began recalling the details. "Well, it all started when Lockhart kidnapped me out of nowhere…"
By the time she was halfway, Gorski had to interrupt her. "Is Vodemort really in the Netherworld? And he has an army of Demogorgons?!"
This inconceivable piece of news, he just couldn't wrap his head around it. If this was true, then the situation was much more serious than he had imagined.
"So, Voldemort is the one who has Kidnapped Axel?" Asked Bellatrix.
"No! When I regained my consciousness, Voldemort was already gone, and everything around us was destroyed. Axel was still there, though unconscious. Everything seemed to have ended, but then 'they' showed up. They called themselves the Kraken or something. They said they wanted Axel, along with a load of other nonsense. They were too powerful."
"It's Kraken again!" Bellatrix was ballistic. They had taken Tristan, and now Axel too, while she could do nothing. She didn't know what to do now. She would have stomped into their base right now, but she had no idea where it was, and how to get there. The only thing she could do was to bang on Atlantis's doors and ask for cooperation, but that would take too much time, and she didn't know Axel would be alive for that long.
Though, Gorski wasn't out of hope yet. "When did they leave? And can you recall exactly how? Did they use a portal?"
"It couldn't have been more than 20 minutes, as for how, we don't know that," said Martina. "We tried running away through Teleportation, and we succeeded, but they managed to hold back Axel. We tried returning but the space was locked, by the time we returned, they were already gone, along with Axel."
"Less than 20 minutes? And can anyone tell me about these Kraken members? Their appearance, names, or equipment? Anything will do."
"They were the seventh and eighth overseers. Nerio and Theron. They introduced themselves quite freely since they thought they were going to kill us," said Akiko.
"So it's them." Gorski understood the gist of the matter. "Then there might still be hope yet," he said, as he began rummaging through his space pocket.
"What?" Bellatrix perked up. "What do you mean by that?!"
"The situation isn't as hopeless as it seems right now. Our advantage is that they don't know that I am cooperating with the British Ministry yet. Those two are arrogant and lazy enough to directly used the portal to leave, which is traceable by someone like me, if we're not too late," said Gorski as he took out a magical tool that looked like a scanner.
"Miss Valentino, can you tell me the general location where Axel was before you teleported?"
"It was around here," Martina said, indicating the area right where they were standing.
Gorski waved it around slowly, as if searching for something. Very quickly, the device started to beep.
"That's it!" said Gorski in Triumph. "They did use the portal, from right here. There are still some traces left. Now I just have to use them to find the coordinates of their destination."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go already!" Said Bellatrix.
Gorski shook his head. "It's not that easy…"
"Gorski, If you tell me it's going to take time—"
"It IS going to take time. Tracking portals is not something easy. It's a delicate work that need utmost care. So please don't waste your time on threats and let me start already."
Bellatrix didn't have any choice this time. She ground her teeth in frustration. Every moment wasted would lower the chances of Axel's survival.
"I want to help," volunteered Martina. She really didn't feel that they had much time.
….
Back in the Hideout:
"Now, let's see how long you can hold on," said Theron as the poison of the Tormentacle began to spread.
Axel's head lowered as his body started to shake.
"Yes! Did you feel that? As the poison spreads, the pain will only increase! You'll be in a paralysis, with seizures running throughout your body. You'll feel like every inch of your body is on fire, but the pain would only increase with every time your heart beats. It would be so bad that your body will involuntarily stop your heart from beating, and that's when you'll almost die..
"But you see, the Tormentacle likes its prey alive, so the poison will keep you alive, even when every part of your being wants to desperately die," Theron seemed to find describing the process quite satisfying as he looked at the shaking form of Axel.
What Theron said was true. Axel really did feel an incredible amount of pain. He was surprised to find that it was actually worse than the Cruciatus curse. But... that was it.
[Pain Tolerance: 98%]
[Poison Immunity: 21%]
If might have been a problem if he was still the weak Axel two years younger. But he could handle the pain much better now.
"So, do you feel like talking yet?" Theron gripped Axel's hair and raised his head which had been lowered. But, instead of seeing the contorted face full of agony, he saw Axel laughing with no sign of pain at all.
"Hah, I'm finally getting the hang of it, " he said while chuckling. In order to torture him, Theron had made a huge mistake, one that had helped it out a lot.
???
Nerio and Theron looked at him in extreme bewilderment. What the hell is going on? All the other victims in his situation would have been screaming their lungs out while bleeding from all orifices by now. What kind of unique creature is this guy, to be laughing right now instead?
Axel eventually stopped laughing as he just sat there peacefully with his eyes closed. His muscles would twitch from time to time, a sign that he was indeed poisoned by the Tormentacle, but otherwise he looked completely preoccupied with something else.
In complete disbelief, Nerio checked on Axel's condition. The poison was slowly being neutralized, But the fact was, there was still a decent quantity of it still running through his veins.
Nerio backed away from the monster. He couldn't believe it. It meant that Axel was feeling the same pain that the others felt, but he was not reacting to it at all!
"What… what kind of pain tolerance is this?" Nerio simply couldn't understand it. Even the toughest people had no way of resisting it. It would have still been barely within the realm of acceptance if he had just managed to resist giving information despite writhing in extreme agony. But this?
*Bang*
Theron threw the container away in frustration. "How…? Why…? Just why won't you react like a normal person for once?!" Theron wanted to kill Axel right now.
Nerio was also frustrated. If they brought Axel to Atlantis and told them that they lost the key, they would get punished rather than rewarded.
More importantly, they had seen the power of Voldermort, and the numerous specialties of Axel. No doubt they can also obtain similar powers if they could access the Netherworld through the key, or if they can access Axel's secrets about how he got his power.
Thus, getting Axel the information out of Axel was extremely important. But… how?! The boy doesn't seem to care about himself at all. And he seems to have no other weakness! Not torture, not mind reading, no need to even try the truth serum… then what can they do?!
'Right!' Nerio suddenly recalled. "Back in the forest… you went to rescue the girl Rose Potter. And you protected all three of them by risking your life," said Nerio, a look of enlightenment drawing upon his face. "You seem to have a soft spot for them. I wonder what would happen if we picked any of them…"
Axel was still not moved. "You can try it. One is the minister's niece, one is the precious daughter of the most dangerous Mafia Family, and one is the granddaughter of the Principle of Mahoutokoro. All three would be under high security after this incident."
Axel really wasn't worried about those three. By now, the place must be crawling with Aurors and they should be safe.
Nerio gritted his teeth. But what Axel said was true. "No problem, we just have to find another weakness."
Axel gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Good luck with that."
Nerio sighed, wiping his sweat. The room was incredibly humid, and the situation wasn't helping. Finding another weakness was difficult, and the brat knew it.
He was running out of options now. They couldn't kill him, neither could they castrate him. He had the royal bloodline in him, and the first hadn't actually declared his intention to kill him. So, what else could they do?
Another thing he noticed was his composure. It was almost as if THEY were HIS captives, and not the other way around. And his condition seems to be improving fast too. He was no longer looking as pale and fatigued as before.
Something about this situation was scaring the hell out of Nerio. It was almost as if they had somehow captured a higher being, who was slowly regaining his strength.
Just when Nerio was losing it, something happened. A ringtone rang in the silent room, attracting everyone's attention. It was coming from Axel's space pocket which had been confiscated earlier.
And for the first time, even if it was only for a moment, Nerio saw Axel's composure finally slip away.
That was because... there was only one person for whom his phone, which is always on silent mode, would ring.
