rebellion (part 1)
At the end of the day, the group gathered on the boat. Merlin and Franky had also managed to gather some information by searching around the city. They encountered many refugees trying to escape the war.
Apparently, they were in the midst of a war that had been ongoing for five years. The Wairdors had impenetrable walls, and no matter how many new weapons were created, the people of Wairdor continued to devise new defenses.
It seemed that the war had started over new territories. The Thanagarianos wanted to unify all of Egypt. Inmo's current concern was how this other nation had managed to oppose them. There might be a time traveler among them, or there could be more extraterrestrials on Earth.
While news of the war was easy to come by, the information Inmo sought was far from being found. The beetle was still elusive. So, they had to stay in the city a bit longer to gather information.
Over the days, no new information was found until, fortunately, Diana stumbled upon a hidden drawing of the beetle in an alley. Apparently, it was being used by a hidden group as their symbol.
Following this, they decided to assign Franky to spy on this group. Franky did an excellent job and soon they had the location of their base.
The next step was to corner their leader, a person who usually appeared to command the group for a few days. His face was always covered by a cloak, just like his body.
Inmo formulated a simple strategy. His powers were so far above the norm that his group didn't need elaborate plans to get things done.
One day, while this mysterious figure was in his room, suddenly all sound seemed to vanish. There was complete silence in the base.
Curious, he decided to investigate. As he moved through the base, the silence was deafening. The base was dark, making it hard to see anything.
Suddenly, he bumped into something. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was one of his employees who was unconscious. Panic surged through him.
Surveying his surroundings, he noticed more bodies on the floor, and heavy footsteps began echoing through the area.
"Boo!" Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him, a hand touching his right shoulder. It felt as though his soul had left his body.
His vision darkened, and she collapsed to the ground. After some time, his consciousness slowly returned.
Meanwhile, he overheard a conversation between two strangers. "You killed her. How are we going to find the information we wanted?" Diana was pacing back and forth as she spoke.
Inmo stood on the other side of the room near the person who had just fainted.
"How was I supposed to know a simple joke would scare her that much?" Inmo was trying to defend himself. "And Merlin said she's not dead, so don't worry."
At that moment, everyone heard a noise and turned to the figure who had fainted, watching her struggle to rise, still groggy.
Suddenly, a current of golden energy began wrapping around the mysterious figure. Her hood was removed, revealing a beautiful girl with short black hair and striking black eyes. She seemed to be around 20 years old, a young woman in her prime.
Her face displayed panic and nervousness. A silence filled the room, unbroken until Inmo cleared his throat, indicating for Diana to take the lead and talk to this person. Originally, the plan was for Inmo to interrogate the enemy, but he thought it better to let Diana handle it this time.
"Hello, we don't intend any harm. We're here for some simple information," Diana spoke with a calm and reassuring voice, but the bodies scattered around her feet made things complicated.
The girl glanced at the bodies and then back at Diana, as if looking at someone quite foolish. Diana felt a bit embarrassed and quickly added, "Don't worry about them. They'll stay like this for a few hours and then return to normal." The girl didn't seem to buy Diana's words but remained silent.
Diana, thinking progress was being made, continued, "What we want is this." As she spoke, Diana took out a drawing of the beetle and showed it to the girl.
The girl was surprised. This was an ancient relic of the previous monarchs, those who held power before the arrival of the Thanagarianos.
It was an artifact said to have fallen from the sky, thus considered sacred. One of the few remnants of ancient times, like the Amulet of Anubis, it symbolized the majesty and royal blood of the ancient pharaohs.
Yet the girl didn't say a word. "Look, we're not asking for it for free. We can pay," Merlin conjured a spell, filling the room with treasures: gold coins, exquisite objects, beautiful gems, and rare minerals. Piles of wealth lay before the girl.
Still, the girl remained silent. Diana kept trying, even resorting to threats. Inmo was growing bored when he decided to intervene.
"Oh, how nice it would be if we had something that forced people to tell the truth, right, Franky?" He sighed, looking at Franky.
Diana, who had been issuing threats, suddenly turned red. If this were a cartoon universe, steam would be coming out of her ears.
Diana stopped talking and removed the Truth Lasso tied around her waist. She lassoed the girl and asked, "Do you know where the beetle is?" The girl began to writhe as if in extreme pain, grunts escaping her, but she still didn't speak.
"What is that, Diana?" Even though Inmo knew what it was, he asked anyway. Diana responded without looking at him, "It's a Lasso of Truth. It forces people to tell the truth."
Inmo didn't say anything else but tried to stifle his laughter, occasionally letting out a chuckle. He could see Diana's ears turning red, as well as the rest of her face.
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