Psychological Warfare

Back to a certain basement;

Leus was waiting with his crossed arms and glowing eyes.

'It's interesting to see how the heart pushes Life Force to heal the lungs and the brain with every pulse'

It was the first time Leus saw something like that, and he was fascinated by it.

A while passed like that.

Suddenly, the door opened and four men entered

"Scar, Bones, Kyle, and .. Maxton?"

Bones was taken aback for a second by Leus' glowing eyes, but he quickly regained his wits and spoke

"Yeah, this guy insists that as your escort he must remain by your side"

Leus looked at Maxton and the guy was just looking back at Leus with reverence and admiration.

Leus inwardly sighed

'This isn't the time'

Leus pointed up and said

"Kyle, how about you stand with Maxton at the Basement's entrance and make sure that no one disturbs us?"

Kyle nodded

"Sure"

Maxton nodded as well and said in a very awe-struck tone

"Yes, Boss! Sure a thing"

After Kyle and Maxton left the room Bones sighed loudly

"Man ... I was on the verge of beating that guy"

"Maxton?"

"Yeah, he's telling legendary stories to everyone about you, how there was a huge circle of whirling water in the middle of the snowstorm and you were calmly attacking it or something like that.

And he refuses to move from the house to do any task claiming that he's your appointed Escort or whatever, he's lucky I didn't have time to deal with his nonsense. You're spreading cultists among us."

Scar just laughed

"Looks like Leus got another fanatic"

Leus tilted his head

"Another? There are more?"

Bones nodded

"Yeah, Kyle leads a club of them"

The revelation was ...

'Weird, but let's take care of the matter at hand first'

Bones asked

"So ...what's your plan?"

"Plan? it's more like an experiment"

"Experiment?"

Leus nodded

"I've never tried anything like that before, in theory, it should work, but I'm not sure"

"... Alright, what do you want us to do?"

Leus pointed at a glass filled with a white color liquid

"Hold this, it's the cure."

Bones held the glass

Leus cast Cleanse on the four failed experiments, turning them into normal water

'In case he tried to resist, the room shouldn't be filled with weapons for him.'

Leus then picked up the glass that had what Leus named

"Elixir of Death"

'It should slowly drain his Life Force'

Leus approached the man but Scar called him

"Ah, Leus, your eyes are glowing, is that alright?"

"Yeah, I can hide it but I don't want to"

Leus' reasoning was

'Maybe seeing my aura and eyes will scare him a bit more'

"Get ready, I'll wake him up now."

Both Scar and Bones nodded.

Leus approached the blue-haired man

'He is fully healed, he should get up any moment now'

He quickly forced his mouth open and poured the Elixir of Death inside it.

The man got up from the terrible taste and tried to vomit, but the Elixir already made its way down his throat.

While the man was violently coughing, Leus was inspecting his body with Advanced Mana Vision.

As soon as the poison made its way down the man's throat, his Life Force slightly dimmed.

'Perfect!'

Leus was standing directly in front of the man, Bones and Scar were behind Leus on either side.

After the man stopped coughing he looked at Leus.

For a moment and was surprised by his intense aura

'It's exactly how I remember it! I wasn't imagining!'

' ... And what's wrong with his eyes'

When he tried talking, his voice came out hoarse

"What did you do to me?"

Leus replied in a casual tone

"Good morning buddy.

As for your question, I'm not entirely sure, but my Elixir is supposed to drain your Life Force until you die."

When the man heard that he didn't believe Leus, but at the same time he knew that something was wrong with what Leus shoved into his throat, and he sensed that he was gradually becoming weaker and more tired.

'Like something is draining my mana'

Leus continued

"However, I have no experience in these matters, you're my first subject."

The man spoke

"You won't kill me"

Leus replied with a sly smirk

"What I choose to do or not is my business.

The real question is, are you prepared to stake your life on that assumption?"

Hearing that was scary because Leus was right ...

'Am I ready to bet my life on something I'm not sure of'

Leus moved back and sat on the table then started talking with Scar

"You know, this torture chamber is pretty good, but it lacks chairs, we need more chairs here."

Scar replied

"If you want, I can ask someone to bring some chairs."

Leus shook his head

"It doesn't matter, I can see his Life Force, it's slowly becoming dimmer and dimmer, he won't live for long."

Scar shrugged

"Then I'll add chairs for our next time."

Bones was amused by their conversation, he only kept smirking without saying anything.

Something about how Leus took the entire situation so casually shook the man to his core.

He had no way of telling if his Life Force was actually becoming "Dimmer" or not, but he clearly felt the Poison's impact on his body.

'My body feels sluggish, I can feel that I'm becoming weaker'

Ultimately, The man was truly scared.

Minutes passed like that, no one said anything.

Leus got bored, so he decided to say something

"Honestly, I have no idea if the poison can do permanent damage to you.

I've never tried it before, I mean, I don't specifically care if you die, but it'd be better for me if you tell me what I need to know, after all, I won't gain anything from killing you."

Hearing that, the man became even more worried

'He doesn't really care if I die or not, but if I don't die then it's just more convenient for him ... '

He was scared.

The Slums is known to be a lawless land, people die here all the time, and his status outside as a Crimson Guard isn't of any use here.

Leus could see the worried expression on the man's face

'Just a bit more and he'll break down'

"Are the secrets you're trying to protect truly worth your life?"