The Mastro's Power

Valentine and Mastro Gianni didn't have to wait too long until someone came in their direction. It was someone gliding in the air with his giant wings that were made of severed tiny wings stitched together. The flapping of his wings was loud enough for them to hear from a distance.

"We have our first guest. I'll be welcoming him. You stand back," said Mastro Gianni calmly.

Valentine, who was already standing some distance away from Mastro Gianni, walked even farther away. He didn't want to get caught in friendly fire.

The flying man, Horror, saw Mastro Gianni but he didn't seem to have any intentions of engaging him. He was flying straight towards the broken gap in the barrier behind the two men, trying to get away.

Woosh!

He folded his wings and dove through the air right towards the highest point of the gap, which was only barely visible thanks to the faint silver outline. The man squinted his eyes to protect them from flying dust and his unnatural green hair was blown back by the wind. Although he was an enemy, Valentine must admit that the man had an air of majesty around him while in flight.

Mastro Gianni definitely wouldn't allow his prey to escape from him. He raised both hands which made Horror suddenly guarded. He stopped midair with an acrobatic move and spun around with his wings around him. He then quickly flew higher to avoid whatever the Mastro was trying to do.

Whip!

Suddenly, around Mastro Gianni, there were countless thorny vines growing from the ground. Instead of plant-based, they looked more like stingrays' tails, grey in color, and thin like whips. The vines were lashing and whipping everything in their reach, leaving behind a trail of violet miasma that looked to be poisonous.

If Horror had tried to continue his glide towards the exit, he would have been caught by one of the vines.

"Who are you? And why are you attacking me?" he asked while flapping his wings up high in the sky, away from the reach of the dangerous thorny vines. He hadn't seemed to notice Valentine who was under concealment.

Mastro Gianni smiled.

"I'm just an old man helping an old friend. You don't need to know the detail. Just come with me in peace and you won't be in any pain," he said with a friendly tone, but there was a threat hidden behind his friendliness.

"There is no way in hell I'm doing what you want! Get the hell out of there and no one will be hurt!" threatened Horror. His voice radiated confidence and anger.

The man didn't carry the lute that he had been playing before anymore, so he took out a small flute from under the green coat that he was wearing. He began blowing air into the flute and the sound filled the area.

"Screech!!!!!"

Instead of a beautiful melody, the flute created an ear-piercing sound that made Valentine's head feel like it was about to explode. Because of his boosted hearing, he was weak against sound-related abilities.

"I hereby declare the sound made by the flute a secret!"

Suddenly, a thin yellowish mist descended and covered the flute, muffling its sound completely. Only silence came out of it.

"Huh?" said Horror in confusion, and then put the flute back under his coat, "So the Shroud is here somewhere. It's too dangerous for me, then."

He began flapping his wings more vigorously and got ready to take flight. However, before he was able to do so, a vine stretched up high while the rest seemed to get shorter somehow. Once Horror was within a range of ten meters from the vine, it made a swiping motion as Mastro Gianni shouted.

"Your intention of running away is mine!"

Something glowing suddenly appeared on the tip of the thorny vine. It coiled around the glowy thing as if it was guarding it against others. That single vine then retracted rapidly while the others returned to their normal length.

Horror, who was now flying in confusion in the air, looked around in alarm. He seemed to have forgotten what he was about to do. He then looked at the Mastro and began flying higher to gain some distance.

There was a smile on Mastro Gianni's face as he opened his mouth.

"Your intention of flying up will be strengthened manyfold!"

Suddenly, Horror lost control of his wings as it kept taking him higher and higher at a frightening speed. He couldn't stop himself as his intention had been distorted by Mastro Gianni. He kept shooting straight at the sky without being able to do anything.

"Shit shit shit shit!!!" he kept swearing as he tried everything to stop himself from flying higher. He knew what was waiting for him up there.

Crash!

He hit the top part of the barrier!

Although the barrier felt jelly-like when touched gently, when something hit it hard, like what Ghastly had done before, it somehow hardened and injured the attacker. Horror, who hit it headfirst like that, must have been badly injured.

Valentine couldn't see clearly what had happened to the man because he was too high up in the sky, but he could hear perfectly the sound of the impact. Slowly after that, the man began descending, or more precisely, falling from the sky.

As he was about to hit the ground, the injured horror quickly flapped his wings to prevent the impact. He managed to avoid being turned into mincemeat by the cold, hard pavement, but there was a visible injury on his head. After what Mastro Gianni had done, he didn't dare to fly up again and just maintained his current altitude.

"You! Even if you kill me now, the Pale Lord's descent is unavoidable! He will make sure all his enemies will perish and only his worshippers will thrive!" said Horror in anger. Blood was flowing down his forehead onto his face reddened with rage and humiliation.

Mastro Gianni let out a polite smile and a chuckle.

"Young man, I have no intention of killing you. You'll come with us Fratello Maggiore and become our lab rat," he said politely. There was no malice in his tone as if what he was saying was perfectly normal.

Horror looked surprised by how calm the man was saying that. Fear began forming in his heart.

"Shit! You are crazy!!"

Horror began flapping his wings again in order to run away, but once again one of the vines stretched out and made a swiping motion.

"Your intention of running away is mine!"

Another glowing thing appeared on the tip of the vine and it quickly coiled around it, protecting it like a treasure. Now, there were two vines with glowing 'objects', each of which was coiling around their own treasures tightly.

Horror was once again stupefied as he had forgotten what he was about to do. He then began flying higher instead to avoid any subsequent attack from the man. He did so very carefully and the moment he showed an abnormality, he knew what to do.

He got higher slowly, but nothing had happened yet.

"You cannot make him shoot up to the barrier again?" asked Valentine curiously.

Mastro Gianni only smiled without saying anything. It seemed that he was unwilling to tell the secrets of his abilities.

"G, it seems that his ability to distort intentions has a kind of limitation. We should remember this in case we fight someone with an ability similar to his," muttered Valentine quietly while looking over his shoulder.

"If I cannot run away, then I'll just kill you!" shouted Horror.

Valentine knew that the man was probably just bluffing. The birds that he had used before had probably been all killed in the explosion, otherwise, they would have been there with him. His lute was nowhere near him whereas his flute had been restricted by Valentine. The man didn't seem to have a lot of options for attacking, except by using a weapon, which was not a good choice since the vines would just get him if he got into melee range.

"I'd like to see you try," replied Mastro Gianni calmly. The friendly smile hadn't disappeared from his face. He was like an old man playing with a young child and knew exactly that the child couldn't win against him.

Horror flew higher and opened his mouth wide.

"Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!"

He began screaming like a wraith!

The sound that he made had a similar effect to the flute ability before, but stronger. Valentine's head felt like it was about to burst while Mastro Gianni's expression showed that even he was affected. Valentine now couldn't even open his mouth to place the restriction because he was in too much pain. He collapsed on the ground while covering both his ears. His head felt like it was being hammered down by the Deities themselves.

Mastro Gianni opened his mouth and Horror, who felt the sudden surge of danger, quickly closed his mouth. If he had given the Mastro the chance to distort his screaming intention, he might have lost control over it and ruptured his throat in the process.

Valentine slowly recovered and was breathing heavily. Mastro Gianni was also breathing heavily from what Valentine could hear. Once he was back on his two feet, he could see how much the man was actually affected; his face was pale and his expression was ugly. It was the first time Valentine had seen him like that. The vines surrounding him, despite not having ears, were visibly weaker as well. They looked like tall grass that had started withering because of drought.

"That's the expression that I like. That's how it should be! You should show fear before me!!" shouted Horror with a twisted expression. The blood on his face only served to enhance his depraved look.

"Your intention to keep speaking and looking down on us will be intensified manyfold!"

Mastro Gianni quickly distorted Horror's intention, making him unable to stop talking.

"What have you just done?! It doesn't have any effect on me. Does your ability not work anymore? Have you lost your power because of my ability? Then cower before me and I might give you a chance to live longer-- that is after I've done playing with your body," he kept blabbering. Although he felt that something was amiss, he couldn't stop talking and it somehow made him feel good even.

The sight of his enemy still weakened because of his scream and the fact that he was in a higher position than them because of his wings boosted his ego and fueled his perverted personality.

"I will make sure to kill you slowly and painfully if you don't give up now. Your vines are powerless against me. All they've done was steal something that I don't even need. Escape? I don't need to escape if you are the ones who will die. Yes, the two of you. Once I deal with you and your vines, your Shroud friend will also feel the rage of my melody," said Horror with a sinister expression. His voice was full of arrogance.

Mastro Gianni looked at Valentine and smiled meaningfully.

Swoosh!!

One of the vines suddenly shot towards Horror who was still blabbering nonsense as the others shortened to give it the necessary length to reach the man. The vine aimed at Horror's forehead and positioned itself a little higher than the flying man.

Horror saw the vine and quickly dodged downward.

"Your intention of flying down will be strengthened manyfold!"

Swoosh!

Horror suddenly fell down uncontrollably instead of just moving down a little. He shot through the air and hit the ground hard.

Crash!

"Fuck!! How dare you do this to me! I'll make sure to pluck that tongue of yours so you cannot distort people's intentions anymore!" he shouted in pain while trying to recover from the impact. He tried to stand up while bearing with all the pain.

"Your intention of standing up in place will be strengthened manyfold!"

"!!"

Horror stood up, and after that, he couldn't move! He was locked up in one spot without being able to get away. Even his wings refused to take him away from that spot because his intention was to stand up in one place.

Swoosh!

Taking the opportunity, the vines, which had also recovered and somehow looked like hungry snakes now, slithered quickly towards the immobilized man. Horror couldn't get away and could only see as the thorny vines entwined around him, stabbing his flesh with their sharp thorns. Blood came out of his body and the purple miasma seeped into his wounds.

He had been paralyzed!

The vines then lifted Horror and dragged him back to Mastro Gianni's side, who was still smiling politely at the man whose expression showed horror and anger mixed into one.

Mastro Gianni then took out a scroll, whose color was completely black and whose aura made people shiver, from under his suit. He looked at Valentine who had a curious expression on his face.

"This is my artifact. It allows me to store prisoners inside," he explained kindly.

Mastro Gianni put the scroll on the ground and controlled the vines to redirect the paralyzed man in the direction of the scroll. The black scroll, which was only the size of his one hand, couldn't possibly be able to store a whole human inside, so Valentine was confused and intrigued about how it worked.

Crunch!

Suddenly, there was the sound of bones breaking as the man was pushed into the black, rolled up scroll. Horror slowly began turning paper-thin as he entered the artifact with the sounds of his bones being crushed into pieces filled the air. It looked to be a very painful process, and the paralyzed man couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't even scream and could only show his expression of extreme agony and terror.

Crunch! Crunch!

Very slowly, his bones were being turned into shreds as his body entered the artifact and once his skull had been crushed, the man was completely gone!

Mastro Gianni controlled the vines to pick up the still rolled up scroll on the ground and unrolled it. Inside, there was a 'painting' of horror whose expression was indescribable. His eyes were wide open while his mouth appeared to want to say something. However, there was no sound coming out, although Valentine could somewhat hear a faint cry of pain from the scroll.

"Don't worry. He'll return to normal once I release him," said Mastro Gianni kindly.