Inquiry

The imp vanished into the air. I think it was not just an invisibility spell, as I couldn't notice the subtle magic ripples. However, the worm monster ended up dying from his spell. As a minor victory, I have captured the human.

When things got quiet, Jel and Matila went outside to check whether everything was alright. They saw me standing beside the mage, then ran in my direction.

"Are you alright, sir cleric?" Jel asked me.

I was a little surprised by her unconditional trust because she followed my instructions to protect Matila without any questioning. And now she was uneasy with the whole scenario.

"I am fine. However, I was unable to capture the imp." I told her.

"Imp? What is an imp?" Matila questioned.

Her question was odd, I was pretty sure the word imp existed in the Goblin dialect. While I was a bit confused, Jel interrupted and explained to her, "I guess that is the name of the small flying human. Is it a monster?"

"Yes, I am sure although, but I believe he is a kind of devil, like this worm here." I elaborated a bit about the definition of what an imp is, then I pointed to the worm.

"Jel, do you have a rope? I would like to tie this fellow here and make a round of questions."

"I don't know. I will look for it in the main hall. Matila, wait here with Sir Rufus, please." Jel said, and she went toward the biggest building in the village.

"Have you ever seen this man before, Matila?" I asked the little goblin, but she shook her head negatively.

While we were waiting for Jel to come back, I searched our new friend for his possessions or some clues about who he was. Luckily, he had a small pouch attached to his waist under his robe and some notes in his pocket.

I took the notes to inspect. I took the opportunity to evaluate the fact that the paper was very rudimentary, probably a former version of modern paper. In these pieces, there were some signs and drawings, unfortunately, I couldn't make much sense from them.

Jackpot, his small pouch had subspace magic. It seemed that the principle governing the usage of such a tool here was similar to Olympus because, as soon as I inserted my hand inside, I had a grasp of what was there.

While I was looking into the mage's stuff, Jel returned with a rope in her hands. She saw me holding the satchel and asked, "Sir Rufus. Is everything alright?"

I was certain that I was bad at hiding my emotions, as this is something I should work on. The contents left me aghast. The number of things that this pouch could carry was significant. However, there were only two kinds of stuff there: goblin corpses and human corpses.

I didn't know how to ask it without disturbing the girls, especially Matila. There were about 80 goblin corpses inside and 20 human ones. "Let's tie this guy first." I said.

I was not good at this kind of stuff, so I left this task to Jel. As a huntress, she should know how to tie down this fellow. She fastened his arms and legs together, as I expected, she had the expertise for the task, but he was braided like a hunted wild boar, his arms were twisted and tied up with his legs.

I think we need to get off from here, Jel. That imp might call reinforcements and turn this into a worse nightmare. The huntress was tense, but she agreed with my point of view. I asked whether she knew about some safe place to rest until the day. "I believe this mage here is a necromancer. The undead were made by him."

"If you already know that, we must kill this monster." Jel judged, sentenced, and began too eager to execute him. Her bloodlust and anger were palpable.

I was unable to kill him in cold blood, as he was a defeated and tied-up enemy. Even though I can't sympathize with him because the number of corpses in his bag was something beyond reasonable. Moreover, he referred to the undead that I purified as toys.

For certain, I had sufficient evidence to make a final decision. Nonetheless, I couldn't do that, so I requested that Jel guide us to somewhere safe. She was clearly uncomfortable with my call, but consented anyway.

So, we departed from the now-abandoned Goblin Village.

The night had already settled in, and the goblins could see in the dark, as well as me, who could do the same thanks to my dark vision spell. The mood between us has plummeted because she was really mad at us for dragging the necromancer along.

We barely started to move when the tied fellow woke up.

"Release me, your damn beasts." Demanded the obnoxious mage.

I kept dragging him on, then I noticed that he started to murmur a spell. So before he could finish it, I pulled out my staff and hit him again, at his weakest point. Jel wore a small smile at my punishment. Matila was laughing.

"That always works, so now keep quiet. I can notice when you are trying something funny." I coldly explained to him his current situation. He pushed his body as if trying to put his hands in his intimate parts to minimize his pain.

After a few moments of silence, he got the guts to speak again: "What? Who? Who are you? From what damn hell did you rise?" 

He was definitely a bothersome fellow.

"This is not going to work, sir cleric. If he keeps talking loudly like that, the night monsters will find us." Jel said worriedly to me.

I forgot about this detail, and I lacked the proper training to cast a potent sleeping spell. He would wake up as soon as I started to move him again. So, I pushed for a harsh move. I stopped our movement and said to our captured mage, "I do the questions here. Who are you?"

He tried to spit on my face. I avoided it; this kind of villain is so predictable…

I gave him a new sequence of bashes with the staff.

"Feel free to kill me. You are going to face the consequences later, stupid cleric."

"Oh yeah. Will I? What is going to happen to me?" I raised my staff and prepared to restart the beating.

He was unfazed by my threat. My Authority of Healing was disturbing my concentration because the longer I was close to this man, the more angry I became.

"Coward." He spouts to me.

Jel didn't understand what he said, though she didn't care and was becoming angrier, too. "Cleric, we can't have him with us. What are you thinking?"

Of course, her reason for being angry was different from mine. I was feeling my Authority raging inside, uncomfortable, so I released a part of it over him.

The girls trembled by my side as I released it for the first time. So far, I have been using my Authorities to empower myself, but I can release a divine aura, as if I were an incarnation of the gods. Naturally, my aura was nothing compared to the real deal, but I guess it could make people shudder.

Now the necromancer felt afraid as he looked at me, terrified. He peed on himself in fear.

"Sorry. Please." I guess the effects of a divine aura were too much for mortals to handle head-on. The goblins were frozen in their places, the aura was not direct to them.

---

"Contain that shit. Now." Hercules screamed at me.

"Mortals, even in the divine realms, can't endure the full brunt of a divine aura." He continued.

I didn't know how to suppress it. "How do I do that? I was supposed to learn about Authorities by myself."

He scratched his head, annoyed. "Hermes briefed me about your circumstances. Let me show what mortals are going to feel."

The mythological Greek hero released his divine aura. I didn't feel anything. However, a few seconds later, I felt as if two hands were choking me, I didn't even have a physical body. But I felt all the equivalent sensations, as if someone were trying to kill me.

"You are really tough. Let me increase the intensity."

Okay, before it was hands, now it seemed that walls were trying to smash me.

"Do not forget this feeling. That is what mortals will experience when you release your aura."

---

I contained my divine aura back. Matila fainted, and Jel fell to her knees. The mage, who had already peed on himself, has evolved to poop.

I chanted a healing divine in prayer for Asclepius to ease their pain. Fine-tuning the divine aura is a tricky and complex skill, I had for a moment lost my head to my internal fury.

"I am sorry, Jel. I lost my mind for a second." The goblin huntress was breathing heavily, but she seemed to relax a bit after my spell. She looked frightened at me.

She didn't say anything and took Matila into her arms. I was embarrassed, and my first allies were now afraid of me.

"Who are you? What were you doing?" My voice was still filled with fury when I spoke to him. I was unleashing on him my faulty behavior.

"I am hired to kill all the goblins. Please do not kill me! Please!" He was begging while covered in his filth, and he was crying like a little child.

Then, was he a mercenary? For the number of bodies in the satchel, I think he fulfilled his contract. What am I going to do?

Unexpectedly, Jel jumped on him and smashed his throat with her bare hands. The mage started to choke, and she went on bashing him. 

I pulled her back, but I failed to notice that she had an arrow in her left hand. She pierced his head with the makeshift weapon.

She looked me in the eyes and said, "You were not going to kill him. But I understood when he said 'kill the goblins', and I couldn't forgive that."

I was dumbfounded by this, the culture shock. I thought that was ready. But I wasn't. The worst part was not Jel bloodied after killing the necromancer, but the relief and joy that my Authority of Healing was sending to me.