Under the horrified eyes of the other pirates, Blackface screams became louder before he started smacking his face against the ground by himself, while the Risha sisters and Mellie showed some discomfort of the current scene of Blackface destroying his face until all that was left was a bloody mess, Daimon and Aisha didn't change their expressions at all.
Blackface was a mage and in his current mind state didn't use mana to reinforce his body, his body was just a bit tougher than a grown adult, so it didn't take more than twenty solid smacks, for him to kill himself.
Only then, Daimon turned to see the other pirates whose bodies were restrained by Liliana's ice from which they didn't dare to try to escape as they all had weapons pointed at their heads or necks.
Seeing the masked silver haired youth who indifferently watched their now deceased comrade, bang his head against the ground to death, now set his attention on them, made the pirates feel a chill running down their spines.
Especially because after their eyes got used to the dim illumination they noticed, that one of their main targets was in their captor's group, in other words Mellie.
"I'm pretty sure that guy was the one who knew the less so he was worthless for me, now who of you knows what is happening here, the ones who give me the best answer lives, the others… well you already saw what happened to "blackface", right?", said Daimon with a cold voice.
"Ah right, you have thirty seconds to answer or I'll kill you all and then get what I want from the guy waiting for your return, also in case you have the slightest hope of that sea magic beast saving you, I killed it as soon as I arrived at this cave".
The expressions of the pirates went from bad to worse, the bandana guy as well as the guy with the scar stole a gaze at each other, before they all talked at the same time.
"I know the plan please spare my life and I will talk!".
The remaining three seemed to not be in the same page as the first to pirates, as their answer was trying to secretly gather mana as they said.
"Fuck you, if you kill us, once our big boss finds you, he will cut that princess's arms and legs before he…".
Before the remaining three pirates could finish speaking, three lines of black light pierced their foreheads killing them in the spot.
The bandana pirate and the scar faced pirate, nearly peed themselves in the blink of an eye, three early-stage middle level Mortal mages were killed by someone from the young generation.
'The big boss said that besides the crowned prince and the guy from the neo nobles, we'll be dealing with spoiled brats, without access to anything but their treasures, so where did this cold-blooded monster came from!', they shouted in their hearts.
In a real fight without any external help, the pirates were sure they would be able to easily get rid of most the members of the young generation, as they weren't as experienced in battle, and they knew how to fight dirty, everything was valid as long as they won, a concept which the noble houses were alien with.
But then, they saw someone from that same group they disdained, mercilessly killing four grown up men, of course they were afraid, in their opinion they had the horrible luck to bump into a secret guard raised by the queen who is known to be a great strategist, to keep her sister who she adores, safe.
'That woman is as scary as the rumors say, she surely put all her resources into this guy', thought the bandana pirate, he wanted to cry but tears won't come out.
"Start speaking", ordered Daimon, the walk from here to the place where the water tunnel is, in other words where the magic beast was hidden, takes about twenty minutes if one knows the route unlike them, so they had some time before the middle stage Lord ranked outside started to feel suspicious.
"Sorry, we don't hold a high rank in the crew… but we are among the first ones that joined so we have heard a lot of stuff, the official task that was given to us was to look and capture the high "worth" members of the young generation, especially the women", said the bandana pirate.
"But one of the middle upper-level officers is someone that entered the crew with us, so he gave us an "advice", to only focus on capturing the women and then immediately return to the closest outpost of the crew", added the scar aced pirate.
Daimon saw Mellie clenching her hands, she has been targeted twice now, so of course she was angry about it.
"That can't be all you two know, speak, why should you flee, does it have something to do with that strange magic beast?", asked Daimon.
The two pirates had a bitter expression, it was obvious that the silver haired youth was too sharp for them to try to lie, if they wanted to live that is.
"That magic beast is called "Deep Bottom Shredder"… and is one of the subordinated races, of the Black Sea Snake Emperor, a magic beast which resides at one of the deep areas of the Maelstrom Sea".
"A magic beast which originally had a deal with the captain of the Silver Dawn pirates, who helped it ascend a long time ago, I'm pretty sure you know their captain was ambushed and wounded, which is true but the tough bastard managed to escape".
"So now our captain is dealing with all the allies the Silver Dawn captain had, of course engaging in a fight with a Stellar rank magic beast is a pain in the ass… so with the advice of his counselor, the captain is planning to frame the guys from the Elemental and Mermen seas of mass murdering one of its subordinated races, so they enter in conflict and weaken each other".
"In the meantime, we were allowed to use those sea magic beasts to get rid of the problematic young nobles, as none of them should be able to come unscathed of a fight with a peak stage middle lever Mortal enemy, not even the one who saved the granddaughter of the shaman, at least not without being able to use any external help, like what happened before".
Daimon frowned noticing two important things in the story of the pirates, first whoever planned all this was a hell of a scheming bastard, they were basically taking out three birds with one stone, second unlike what he thought the one behind all this wasn't Marcus, or it would have known that the limitation in storage rings was practically useless with a system bearer, as he was sure they had something similar to his inventory.
'That's not necessary the case, you have barely had any contact with other system users, so it's not weird that you don't know it, but not all the systems have the same properties and authorities".
'This ability of being unaffected by restrictions is one of the Van Helsing System properties, and while others might have something similar none can compare, I bet that Adam guy must be getting cold feet right now', said Evangeline with a proudful voice.
Daimon inwardly chuckled, as he answered with a playful voice.
'Good to know, you are awesome Eve'.
'Humph, don't think you can sweet talk me like Nasha and your soulmates, I can't tell you the properties of the system that you have already unlocked, unless you somewhat figure them out yourself… thanks Daimon', by the end of her answer, Evangeline's voice became mellower but undertone almost like a whisper.
'What did I tell you, Eve likes it when you compliment her~', added Narasha making Evangeline sigh, as her friend gave her away so easily.
The previous internal interaction didn't take even a couple of seconds, and once it was over Daimon continued with the interrogation.
"How many of you are here, how are they distributed and what's the strongest one like?".
The scar faced guy was the one to answer this time.
"Six hundred of us were dispatched to make sure we get all the main targets, in teams of six, each with a peak stage middle level Mortal Deep Bottom Shedder… as for the strongest it should be the team with the cousin of the captain, an early-stage peak level Mortal realm with the two chiefs of the Deep Bottom Shredder race, a couple of peak stage high level Mortal magic beast, his team is the one in charge of the whole operation, we don't know the location of the others, because this underwater space is huge".
'So, a recently ascended Archmage and two peak Arch rank magic beast, that's a bit of an overkill for people whose battle prowess can't go past the peak Lord rank even as a whole, I guess whoever planned this wants the job done for good', thought Daimon.
With the sum of six early-stage Lord ranks, team working properly, they should be able to bring down a peak Lord rank, as long as they have support, and tanks to keep the enemy in check.
Of course, that was a calculation made on the supposition that everyone has the same level of battle prowess, but there is a lot of things that can cause a different result.
Lastly Daimon still had a couple more of questions.
"Is there a Stellar ranked rune master working with you?".
The pirates stared at each other, with a hesitant expression but seeing that Daimon was ready to kill them is they didn't answer, or lied they spilled the beans.
"The rumors say that the eccentric Black Beard covets the granddaughter of the shaman from the Elemental Sea… and he is a Stellar rank rune master, we have had some deals with him in the past, and in part he is also responsible for the ambush on the captain of the Silver Dawn pirates, but if he is involved, we never saw him, only the captain and vice captains would know if he is involved or not".
"In any case I'm sure he isn't here, because there is no way the Trident Marshal of the Mermen Sea wouldn't notice a Stellar or even Half Stellar rank being entering into the range of the Wild Tide Reef", added the bandana pirate.
"Last question, how do I reactivate communications and the ability to use spatial treasures?", asked Daimon.
"Well, we were told that in an emergency, only the cousin of the big boss can cancel the isolation magic array that was displayed here", answered the scar faced pirate.
Daimon nodded, he pretty much got what he wanted, now he just needed to decide what to do with these two pirates.
He promised not to kill them and he was inclined to respect his word, but that didn't mean he was just going to let them go, they sold their comrades to save their asses, so of course he couldn't just trust them.
With an unnoticeable grin, Daimon made a pistol gesture with both of his hands and then two lines of black light were shot from his index fingers.
"Aghhhh!", the pirates though they were gone for sure, but instead of the eternal darkness they were expecting, what welcomed them was a horrible pain on his knees, elbows, shoulders, shins and feet.
Of course, Daimon's attack pierced through Liliana's eyes as well as the flesh and bones of the pirates, so they immediately started to bleed, making the pirates retort due to the pain of being burned with concentrated lightning and darkness in other words, Daimon's original spell "Black Hell Javelin".
"If you obediently stay quiet in this cave, you won't bleed to death, as I promised I'm not going to kill you, but all the other pirates will die, so here is my offer, you two have a lot of valuable information so it would be a waste to kill you, unfortunately I don't have the means to make sure you won't try to pull any trick, so when this is finished if you two behaved properly, I will talk with the queen to take you in as "corsairs", I can guarantee that you won't be mistreated in exchange for all the information about your former work mates of course, who knows even captains of your unit doesn't sound impossible if you ask me".
Daimon then crouched down near the two pirates who were recovering from the hellish pain caused by Daimon's attack, as he whispered.
"If you try something funny in the meanwhile… well, let's just say that all what happened here was me being reasonable and merciful, and that attack is not meant to be used as torture".
The two pirates nearly started crying, those black rays which nearly made them two grown adults who have had their fair share of suffering, cry, weren't considered torture means, then what the hell would the silver haired youth will to torture them, they wondered.
'From which damn hell did this demon came from', they both thought as they nodded and stayed quiet.
