"Please, let me live and I will tell you anything that you want." The Captain begged, wincing as the point of Cain's spear dug into his chest.
"How about I don't, and you still tell me everything you know?" Cain offered, spearing through his heart.
The Captain was dead in an instant, and Cain resurrected him as a Puppet using [Living Doll]. A very shocked Puppet that distinctly recalled being murdered just a second earlier.
"Now, kindly tell me what this Lord of yours plans to do with the city that is under our protection," Cain demanded.
"It is near the borders of our territory, Lord Morgeth intends to take over the Continent, so it is only natural that he would enter and kill anyone who opposed him, then take over." The Captain replied, looking horrified at his fate.
"What makes him think that he could possibly manage that?" Cain asked.
"His magic. He is Spirit Awakened, and his magic lets him force obedience on his subordinates. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't hurt him, due to the damage reduction. So he takes over every city he reaches and enslaves the population to provide for him." The Captain intoned, all the hope leaving both his voice and his eyes.
"Now that is interesting. How long until he gets here?"
The former Captain shrugged. "A month, maybe more? He has a number of other towns to pacify first, and it takes time for him to place control spells on everyone who rebels but is too valuable to kill off immediately."
The fact that he couldn't do large groups at once was a good thing. If he could just walk into the city square and mind control everyone so that they couldn't betray him it would be a huge hassle. Or perhaps he could, but it was limited by the level of his target? Cain's [Mental Domination] was like that, it took more effort for stronger targets. Even though it was a Spirit Awakened ability, Morgeth's ability seemed to be long-term, so there were bound to be limitations.
"How many other groups like yours are in the area?" Cain demanded.
"Four for this city, and five for the others in the region. Morgeth likes it when the people are already afraid and ready to submit when he shows up." The Captain explained.
"That is manageable. If it's only fifty or sixty Mythic Awakened soldiers at a time, I can kill them easily enough and ruin Morgeth's scouting abilities. That might draw him out and we can deal with him on the way to complete our Quest." Cain decided.
Kone nodded in agreement, while Jin looked surprised and Jessica was understandably upset. The Bunny was against killing sentient beings at all, much less in a premeditated and methodical manner.
"If it helps, think of it as saving the thousands that their boss would kill when he took over their cities," Kone whispered to the Bunny, loud enough for the Captain to hear and look down in embarrassment.
They indeed had to kill large portions of the population in many cities to keep them from rebelling, but Morgeth didn't care. He wanted power, no more no less. How many actual people were still alive and under his control when he took over the continent was irrelevant to him.
[Does that mean we get to go hunting the hunters? Just a little bit? We promise they will all be Morgeth's people, and not yours. The tokens that the farm gives out make the friendly ones easy to spot.] The Oath Breakers implored Cain.
That solved a lot of his problems without any hassle. If Jessica didn't know that the scouts were all dead already, there was no reason for her to get upset, and she wouldn't have had to watch the battles.
[Will you lot be alright on your own? I can summon some Mythic Plague Mothers to assist you if you need them. On their own, they can call a rather formidable army.] Cain suggested.
[We outnumber the groups. If we take them one group at a time, they won't even know they're under attack before they die.] The utter lack of concern in the Oath Breaker's voice convinced Cain that they could get the job done well enough that he wouldn't have to give them any extra assistance.
But, after a moment of consideration, Cain shifted into his Demon Progenitor form and used [Ancient Resistance] to triple the number of Oath Breakers, ordering them to go out in three separate groups for efficiency.
[As we move between cities, range about in front of us. If you see any more of Morgeth's people harassing the locals, eliminate them. If things get bad, just ask and I will activate [Ancient Wisdom] to give you all an additional spell ability.] Cain ordered them.
[If you do have to give us an additional ability, may I recommend Dominion?] The Oath Breakers all suggested at once.
[You don't want another Mythic spell?] Cain asked.
[Nope. Our area damage is at one hundred percent. If we could extend that to say one single kilometer, a simple assassination would turn into a massacre.] The pure joy in their voices was contagious, and Cain was tempted to just give it to them right away, but the range was already forty meters, so they would hit most of the group with their area damage anyhow.
[No, wait. Give us all [Swallow], that vortex that Moana has. Sucking an entire party into the void would be really funny.] One of the Oath Breakers suggested.
Swallow dealt crushing damage, then relocated the target somewhere that wasn't entirely clear to Cain, since he had never thought to question where the remains were ending up. Moana ate most of them since a Leviathan needed a large amount of nutrition, but that wasn't the only possible target.
[Let's wait until you need a little extra firepower. Ancient Wisdom affects my entire party as well as my summons, so whatever you guys get, the others will too. Setting Luna loose with a load of summons that can use Swallow might be chaos once she realizes what she can do, and I would never hear the end of it when she finds out that she can give everything Dragon Breath. Everyone loves Dragon Breath.] Cain told them off and the Oath Breakers gave up on coercion and headed out to hunt.
There were four groups left in the area and three groups of them, so the challenge was on to see who could find two groups first and take the lead in their impromptu competition.
The Oath Breakers Obsession was combat, so not competing in this situation was never an option. Cain would have had a better chance at convincing the Echoes or Carnage to not compete with each other than the Oath Breakers.
"What did you tell all those demons before you sent them away?" The lead hunter asked, confused about what happened during Cain's mental conversation with the Oath Breakers.
"I sent them out to scout for Morgeth's forces so that we don't run into unexpected trouble. If they do their job as well as usual we should be able to travel in relative safety. There might still be monster attacks though if we call back the Elk when we leave town.
The hunters accepted that easily enough, but Jessica was giving Cain a suspicious look. She had seen what those demons could do to a well-trained soldier, so sending three dozen of them out was more than a little suspicious to her, assuming that they were only out to scout the area.
"Now for you. You are going to come with us, and I will turn you over to the local authorities, then release you from my control. You will be free not only of my control but the spell that Morgeth put on you." Cain explained to the Captain.
"His spell should transcend death, and remain on the body for fifteen minutes, too long to wait for it to wear off." The Captain pointed out.
"Your body is in the Soul Gem here in my hand. That body is a Puppet. At least for now, it is. Once I release you, it will be a living body, but not your original one. I will hold on to the gem for now, and if you misbehave, I will crush it and free your soul from the puppet body. Understood?" Cain asked with a malicious smile.
"Yes sir, I understand. I won't give them any trouble." The Captain responded instantly, resigned to his fate.
What he didn't know was that when Cain released him, he would reset to level one, and have to start his training all over, assuming that they ever let him out of prison as a free person.
Cain wouldn't interfere in their process, whatever it might be, but they deserved to at least get to interrogate the lone survivor of the scouts that were sent to cut off their supply lines and demoralize their citizens.
