Chp.39: In the den of the criminals (part 2)

In the Jurao Kingdom, approximately 80% of the population was made up of humans, and virtually all of the political class was as well. Despite this, however, walking through the city it was possible to meet members of other races, such as elves, beastmen or orcs. Since it was an organization that had connections throughout the capital, 'The spider' often came into contact with these individuals, so his bosses were hardly impressed by the oddities.

But the one who unfolded before them as Sisna removed the illusion wasn't a member of another race. It was an abomination.

The body was undoubtedly that of a fairy, as evidenced by the four stumps on the back where the wings once were, but it was by no means healthy. The color was cadaverous, many parts of the skin were exposed, and several stitches were present on it. But then there were also substantial changes. The eyes were far too large and looked as if the eye sockets had been broken out to be enlarged to make room for them, and they had vertical pupils like a feline's. The mouth was slightly enlarged and instead of teeth there were extremely sharp fangs. The shoulders, arms and legs had many muscles exposed, which were far too big to belong to a fairy. Instead of feet, finally, there were clawed paws similar to those of a beast. "You... are you zombies, by any chance?" exclaimed Samodì, giving himself no other explanation for the cadaverous appearance of that body.

"Zombies? I don't know what race they are, but if we met them, we'd certainly eat them!" Sisna replied laughing. "We are predators. We are what you call monsters. We are what your pathetic race hides from as soon as it hears them coming. We fear nothing of this land and devour everything indiscriminately"

There were many lies in that sentence. It wasn't true that they could eat everything, much less that they feared nothing. And even when they became adults, they would still have to watch out for certain dangers. But since she was trying to scare the people in that room, she was overdoing it a bit. "What you see now are nothing more than pathetic avatars. Nothing more than bodies that we have improved to eliminate the weaknesses of these stupid carcasses" she explained touching every part of her body. "The eyes of a cat, designed to see in the dark. The jaw muscles of a snake, which increase bite force. A teeth of a lion, to tear apart prey. The muscles of an ogre, to increase strength physics. The bone plates of a great basilisk placed around the bones, to prevent them from breaking too easily. The paws of a tiger to increase the base of support and the grip on the ground. And, of course, a heart containing a level adamantium mana core. I would have preferred to add other modifications too, such as tail, horns or wings, but someone could have noticed them if they had touched me in certain parts of the body, so I left it alone. The hands too... I would have liked to add them some claws, but since you humans are used to shaking hands, I had to settle for just making a small change!"

Having said that, she moved quickly and grabbed the face of the hitman who had cut off her head. The man screamed in pain, and when Sisna released him, everyone could see that his face had been completely melted away. "The venom of a great basilisk. There is a small sac hidden inside my hands, and some tubes that allow it to come out of the palm. It took me days to modify the nervous system to be able to control the valve that allows it to open the pipe and get the poison out, but it was worth it"

The people in the room couldn't help but shake, and some even wet themselves. Not only these women were absolute abominations, but they were also capable of performing such atrocities! They were terrifying. One by one, all the remaining hitmen and guardsmen were knocked out by the girls. Most of them had lost the will to fight after seeing their looks, convinced there was nothing they could do, and had gotten themselves shot hoping to be killed, but in the end they had only knocked them out. When the fighting stopped, silence finally returned to the room; whereupon Sisna grabbed the armchair she had thrown away earlier, put it back in its place and sat down in it, and then shot a not reassuring look at all the nobles. "Now, can we talk business?"

Somadì shivered slightly. Though he was struggling to keep his composure, his heart was pounding. Now he realized he had it all wrong. He was convinced that it was 'The spider' who were trying to extort something from 'The dragon's shop', but in reality those girls had always been monsters disguised as delicate human women and were in turn looking for the location of their hideout to be able to extort something. The only thing that kept him from going completely insane was the knowledge that if these women wanted to kill them they would have already done so, so they had to want something from them, and so they still had a chance to negotiate. "We listen to you"

"Wise decision" Sisna said, drumming her fingers with satisfaction. "To begin with, let's make one thing clear. You can do nothing against us. As I already said, these you see in front of you are only avatars. Our real bodies are elsewhere, very far from the capital. Even if you could find someone strong enough to destroy them, it would change nothing for us. I'll prove it. Finiar?"

Hearing her signal, Finiar put her head in her hands and squeezed it until it exploded. The headless body fell lifeless to the ground, and filled the ground with thick black blood. The aristocrats emitted a cry of disgust, but the ten women didn't flinch: on the contrary, Malchia took the dimensional bag that Finiar kept hanging from her belt and extracted from it another body that she placed on the floor. After a few moments, the body began to move and it stood up. "I'm back. Did I miss something?" it asked with Finiar's voice.

"See? You can't kill us" Sisna said. "Even if you destroyed our current bodies, we could just create others. If you revealed our identities to someone, and that someone captured and killed us, we would just have to use our illusory power to create a new appearance and a new identity, and we could return to the capital unhindered and pick up where we left off. There's nothing you could do, except slow down our plans. But you... you can't swap your bodies for others. You are made by flesh, bones and blood. If we hit you, you feel pain. If we kill you, you die. And even though getting angry with you from our point of view would be like getting angry with a fly... we're still good at holding grudges. Do you understand what I mean?"

Somadì fully understood, and his fists clenched as he realized that monster was right: there was nothing they could do against them. They could have reported them and let the authorities eliminate them: since they were all nobles, it would have been easy for them to organize such a thing. But that wasn't going to stop those monsters in the slightest. He didn't know what magic they were using, but since their real bodies were elsewhere, there was no way to kill them. They could just make more of those animated corpses and come back in a few days. They'd already proven that they could disguise themselves flawlessly and that they really could switch bodies as often as they wanted, so he had no reason to doubt those words. If they, too, succeeded in extirpating them, they would return and continue what they had left unfinished. Which also meant that there was no way to defend themselves from their possible revenge: since they were all level adamantium, it would have been impossible to prevent them from coming to kill all the aristocrats present directly in their homes. "So, what do you want from us?"

"From you? Absolutely nothing" Sisna replied. Seeing the astonished faces of the nobles she let out a chuckle. "Do you really think you can provide us with something we don't already possess? You are nothing to us. The only reason we came looking for you is because you dared to disturb us and became a nuisance. And the only reason you are still alive now is because it's not in our interest to wreak havoc in the capital by eliminating so many aristocrats, since that way it's easier to carry out our plans. But otherwise, you're worth less than a cockroach from our point of view"

They actually needed them, that was why they were in the capital, but it was better not to reveal it. That way they would be even more frightened. Had they believed that their lives mattered to them, the aristocrats would surely have negotiated very hard; on the contrary, by pretending that they had no value, in their eyes their only way to stay alive was to try not to anger the monsters in front of them. It was the same principle that Haku had used when he tortured that fairy druid: instead of asking her questions directly, he feigned carelessness and experimented on his own, until the fairy broke down and started voluntarily giving him the information he wanted. And judging by the worried expressions of the nobles, it was working this time too. 'Brother, your teachings are priceless...' Sisna thought.

None of the nobles seemed to have the courage to speak. Somadì was sweating like a fountain; the thought that he had no means by which to bargain, and that his life depended on the whim of those monsters, gave him a terror such as he had never felt in his life. "So... you came here tonight... just to tell us you want to be left alone?"

"We wanted to make sure you get the message. If you want there to be no problems between us, just don't interfere with our business ever again. You can continue whatever you did before, when and where you want, just don't step on our toes" Sisna replied, then she smiled wickedly. "Although… it wouldn't be fair not to give you at least a little punishment. After all, you meant to punish us, right? We challenged you and you tried to make us pay and submit to us with worse conditions than you initially imposed on us. Well, see that is how it works among you humans, then now it is your turn to submit to us with worse conditions than your initial ones. If you had stepped aside we would have been glad to let you continue your activities without interfering… but since it wasn't so, now you have to do some work for us. Every now and then we will give you some tasks: deliver a message, find a certain object, create a new identity, or other things that are really boring to do, and then we will be very glad to entrust to you". Sisna's smile widened, then she pointed to the armchairs. "And since you tried to take some of us from us, we are now going to take some of you. Please sit down, everyone; I don't think you want to watch the show standing up"

The aristocrats didn't like those words. "What... show?" Somadi whispered, sure he wouldn't like the answer.

Sisna narrowed her eyes. "I just want you all to really understand what happens to those who dare to make us angry. Some might think we'd settle for killing... but we're not so limited. And since we have many insects here, that this place is soundproof and that there are at least three missing hours to dawn, we can show you very clearly. Now, sit down"

This time the tone didn't allow for replies. Somadì gulped, then sat down in his armchair. One by one, all the nobles sat down. At that point, Sisna's sisters kicked each of the unconscious people, who woke up to find they had been tied up.

"If any of you try to look away, you will join them. You can vomit, cry or scream, but if you close your eyes it will be the end of you" Sisna said. "We can begin. Sisters, they are all yours"

"Finally!" Jatara gasped, and then she sank her teeth into the shoulder of one of the men. He screamed in pure pain as she tore off his flesh and then chewed it. "Mh. We did well to replace the muscles and teeth, as the fairy ones were too weak to tear the flesh so well. However, the sense of taste still isn't good. The fairy tongue isn't able to taste well human flesh... well, we'll think about it later" she concluded, and then she pounced on the prisoners again followed by all the others.

For three hours, the room rang with horrific screams. The dragons tore all their captives to pieces without any empathy, being very careful not to touch the vital organs. The aristocrats were paralyzed with fear, but they did their best not to look away, mindful of Sisna's warning.

Only when it was a few tens of minutes before dawn they stopped and finally allowed their victims to die. At that point Sisna walked towards the door and said: "This afternoon send some of your subordinates to our shop, we will tell them the first task that falls to you. Remember, we expect flawless work". Having said that, she went out followed by all her sisters.

For several minutes silence reigned in the room, then Somadì tried to get up; but as he did, his legs gave out and he fell to the floor. His whole body was shaking and his clothes were damp with sweat. When he looked at the disemboweled bodies of those who had been his subordinates until a few hours ago, he felt the urge to vomit. "Somadì... what shall we do?" Baron Eriston whispered.

"Do you even need to ask for it!?" Somadì snapped as he seemed about to faint. "We do what they want"