Chapter 9 Interrogation, A Disaster

*Drip*

"Mhn..."

Gastov grunted as the pungent smell of amonia went up his nostril, afterwards he groggily woke up slowly opening his eyes. Gastov slowly looked around the place although his vision was a bit blurry he still recognized that he was not no longer in the DriftWood Forest, his mind raced trying to remember what had happened.

"Good morning, did you have a nice nap?"

"Who?"

Gastov whimpered while he struggled to stabilize his wobbly head trying to take a good look at the source of the voice in front of him, at the moment Gastov can see 2 silhouettes of person albeit a bit blurry, but as a assassin of the Dark Guild this is irrelevant because he can sense people without the aid of sight, or smell.

"What do you guys want?!"

Gastov threatened them while he reached out for his daggers, however the said daggers are no longer in his possession.

"Looking for this"

Alexei brought out Gastov's daggers from his pocket whilst playing with them. After Gastov's vision became clear his face turned pale as he can see that his missing daggers are now in Alexei's hands.

*sniff*

"The fuck... Did you just pissed on me or something"

Says Gastov as the smell keeps getting stronger the more that he gets sober from being knocked out.

"Hmm... although it's a bit gross this is how i remember being woken up by some terrorist leader"

Aldelio mumbles to himself as he stared at Gastov with cold chilling eyes.

'Those eyes!'

Gastov was slightly taken aback due to the amount of pressure Aldelio gives off to him, his body stiffened and cold sweat together with urine runs down his forehead as he swallowed his saliva.

'He has the same eyes as our Guild Master'

"Now then, since you're awake now, can we ask some questions?"

Gastov tried to look for another exit cause Aldelio and Alexei are currently blocking the door, completely ignoring Aldelio however he couldn't bear being exposed to Aldelio's pressure any longer which made him squeeze out a few words.

"What... questions?"

Alexei glared at Gastov as he throwed the daggers in his hand at Gastov's head, Gastov tried to dodge but he struggles to do so while being exposed to extreme pressure that is much more potent.

'Move!'

*fthuck*

"The only one who can ask questions is us"

Alexei sneered against Gastov as he managed to move although he got a scratch on his cheek it's a small price to pay rather than getting killed.

"Stand down Alexei, cool off for a bit, there's no need to scare him that much"

Aldelio said in a very deep tone at the end of the sentence as he glared daggers at Gastov.

'F-fuck'

Gastov panicked, he hurriedly grabbed the dagger stuck in the wall after Alexei threw them and he rushed in a straight line towards Aldelio.

*bang*

Aldelio brought out his shotgun and with a loud bang he shot Gastov by his right knee at point blank range, blowing off chunks of his flesh and a blood fountain spewed out.

"AGHHH!"

Gastov wailed in pain as he rolled over the floor with blood splattering all over. Aldelio snickered as he approached Gastov slowly, step by step making his shotgun found his way pointed directly at his head.

"In this type of situations is where you can find rope useful, it's a shame that we didn't find any, if we did we could've probably avoided popping your knee off" Aldelio made a deep sigh as he rubbed his temple. "Care to answer my questions now?, otherwise I'll make your head explode next"

Gastov grimaced, gritting his teeth in pain while his whole body shivered in fear as he felt the cold steel barell pointed at his head.

"F-fuck, I'll answer... "

"Alright, that's what I like to hear... As for the questions let's start with the [Black Dragon], what is the purpose of this organization considering that you're a member yourself, you must know right?"

"The [Black Dragon]?"

'Are they trying to get information out from me?, but I'm not actually a part of them, I'm just a spy sent by the Dark Guild'

"Yes, the [Black Dragon] aren't you a member, right? You have that signature tattoo afterall"

'Looks like they must have thought that i was part of them'

"No, you got it wrong I'm not a part of-"

"Are you trying to lie to me?"

Aldelio threatened Gastov with his finger by the trigger ready to explode his head at the moments notice.

"Let me explain!, I'm just a spy sent by the [Dark Guild] !"

Gastov shouted in fear and his breathing became incoherent, his chest heaved up and down. although it was brief, Gastov managed to saw the Soviets pulled the trigger with the weapons that he never saw before and with every pull one hobgoblin dies. As a person who saw first-hand how dangerous those weapons are, his eyes were now filled with despair as one of those said weapons are now pointed at his head.

'If only, I threw the Daggers at him, I might have some chance to escape but...'

Gastov had despair washed all over him due to the mistake of him rushing head first into danger.

"The [Dark Guild] you say?"

'A Chance!'

"Y-yes, I've been sent from the [Dark Guild] to spy against our enemy"

"Enemy?, explain"

"Lately, our branches of the [Dark Guild] were getting attack by those members of the [Black Dragon] although we don't know the reason why, we certainly cannot let them attack us as they pleased however as you might know they are very Mysterious and our information about them is very limited, so as a way to get information our guild master decided to plant spies amidst their ranks and if possible sabotage them"

Aldelio squinted his eyes full of suspicion.

"Keep talking"

Gastov takes a deep breath, taking a break from constant chatter although his hand still pressed over the open wound of his now non-existent leg.

"Alexei, bring a bandage to stop his bleeding"

Alexei nodded as he took off to fulfill the order.

"Thank you"

"Save your breath, i just can't let you die because of blood loss"

A few moments later, Alexei came back in the isolated room of the fort with a bandage in his hand.

"Now then, so you were saying that you spied on the [Black Dragon], could you tell us what happened in this place then?"

Says Aldelio while he was tying the bandage all over Gastov's open wound completely stopping it from bleeding more.

"We were doing experiments in this place, and the thing that we are experimenting with, is the [Monster Pot], since you and your allies had already destroyed all the hobgoblins that resides in this settlement i am certain that when you have explored the place you have already encountered one of these [Monster Pots], although I don't really know how it works in detail however I do know that it increases the evolution rate of monsters but nobody knows how to use this dangerous item, until now"

'I see so the fleshy Cauldron thing might be the [Monster Pots] but rather than a pot won't it make more sense to call it a cauldron?'

Aldelio joked to himself inwardly and stops abruptly as if remembering something.

" 'Until now' you say? Then, can you to tell us how they figured it out"

Gastov shooked his head.

"No, only the [4 Scholars] knew how it works"

"The [4 Scholars]?"

"They are the brightest mind of the [Black Dragon], at least that's what i heard"

Aldelio held up his chin while thinking of whatever else that he could ask Gastov as Alexei is just watching by the sidelines narrowing his eyes on Gastov like a eagle on it's prey, instigating fear on Gastov.

"Anything else?"

Aldelio couldn't get any ideas on what to question this spy, so instead he asked him.

'They still haven't asked anything about the [Dark Guild]?, could they be also after the [Black Dragon]?'

Suddenly a wicked thought surfaced inside his head coupled with a smile that as wicked as his thought. Although Gastov still had a hood hiding his face, Aldelio could feel something was wrong with this incapacitated spy.

"I can tell you where their bases are... "

____________________________________________________________________

Driftwood Village, a remote village that was established in the far outskirts of the Aeindel, although this village was not inside the area of governance and it was outside Aeindel's borders, it's inhabitants were still the citizens of Aeindel Kingdom regardless. Lately, the village has been attacked by monsters and it's currently recovering.

*whoosh*

With a gust of wind, coupled with the now missing villagers and ruins of destroyed houses, a burly old man clad in knightly armor mounted to his brown steed, made a frown on his face.

"What's going on?, where are the villagers?"

He, and together with several young knights under his command were confused of the situation.

"What do you think happened to this place?"

"I don't know, but don't you think it's kinda eerie?"

"~~~"

The young knights whispered amongst each other before being interrupted shorty by Dain's glare, making them flinch.

"I want everyone to search up the place and find out what happened, split up to groups of 2 and be vigilant"

Dain was the knight captain of the Teroi Town Branch of the 'Silver Guard' tasked to evacuate the villagers, however when they haved arrived at the village they were greeted by an empty village.

'I need to find out what happened here'

Shortly after Dain barked out the order, adventurers haved arrived in the village via carriage.

"What's the situation?"

A blonde woman named Natalia, came out of the carriage, revealing herself to Dain together with her party of females.

"O-Oh, it's the A-Ranked party[Thorned Roses]!"

Dain stuttered because the adventurers standing before him is a famous only-female party named [Thorned Roses], their party name was originally supposed to be [Roses] however due to them being so attractive to many eyes of males they are often than not being hit upon, but ever since Natalia, a B-Ranked adventurer joined in as the new party leader, those that did so end up being answered by her fist. After that, their reputation now no longer only persist in their beauty, they are now also unrivaled in strength as well, ever since Natalia retrained the whole party. Hence the name 'Thorned Rose' replaced their old party name.

Dain cleared his throat before answering Natalia's question realizing that he was mesmerized by their stunning beauty.

"It appears that, the villagers have gone missing although we don't know why, we are currently investigating on it"

"Missi-"

"CAPTAIN WE FOUND SOMEONE!"

While Dain and Natalia were having a discussion they were interrupted shortly by a young knight.

'Damn brats, why do you have to get in the way of this virgin old man, it's not like it's everyday you get to talk with a beautiful woman'

With vein popping in his head, Dain cursed inwards while he began to think of the punishment he will give to the young knight who interrupted him.

'I'm gonna triple your training when we get back to the town'

Suddenly the aforementioned knight had shivers in his body.

'this feeling, did my mom find out that I was the one who broke her precious vase'

Unbeknownst to the young knight, it is not the vase he had broken accidentally when he was playing with his wooden sword inside the house, it was something far scarier.

____________________________________________________________________

In a bedroom inside a house, there are a few knights who are currently trying to convince some children hiding under a bed to come out of hiding.

"Hey, it's ok you can come out, we're not gonna hurt you"

When the children heard the knight's statement, instead of complying to it they had done the opposite and snuck deeper inside the bed.

"Are you sure you're trying to convince them?, it sounds more like you're threatening them to me"

"How about you try it then"

The knight retorted to his fellow knight seemingly annoyed to his remark however when one had a look at this knight, his face basically screamed intimidation which anyone will be naturally scared, so it's no wonder that the children will be sacred.

"Heh, this will be easy, I'll show you-"

"Where are they?"

"ah?!"

Both knights flinched as Dain suddenly appeared between them.

With a sigh they began to recollect their form, now standing firm they began told Dain what they have founded.

"I see, they probably know what might have transpired in this village however it's a problem that they don't want to cooperate"

Dain held up his chin thinking of a way to convince the children. While Dain was in a deep thought, Natalia approached the bed and lies down in the floor with a warm smile making her face visible to the children.

"Please come out of hiding, we're here to help"

The children stared at each other before making a sigh of relief and finally getting out of hiding under the bed.

"Eh?"

Dain and the others were dumbfounded as the children listened to Natalia's plead.

"Hehe... Looks like they just don't like scary men"

"Shut!"

"Looks like I'm right, haha"

The duo bickered at each other again, seemingly forgetting that Dain was still between them.

"Will both of you stop making such loud noises, especially so if you're this close to me?!!!"

Dain snapped at the lack of discipline this two had in presence of their captain.

"Shhhh, you're gonna scare them again, Knight captain Dain"

Natalia Shushed Dain, as the children were shaking in fear due to him snapping at his subordinates. Dain cleared his throat as he apologized to the children for scaring them.

"Mhn, now then to start off, which of you kids is the oldest here?"

A girl raised her hand in response to Natalia's question. Natalia gestured for the girl to come closer to her.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Eya"

Natalia gave off a warm smile while kneeling under Eya's eye level making her have a good look at Natalia's facial features. She had bluish green eyes similar to that of an emerald staring at Eya, coupled with her gorgeous plump pink lips and together with her bright peach colored skin made Eya skipped a beat for a second. This is the face of the woman which managed to wooed many male adventurers.

"Can you tell us what happened here?"

Eya was captivated by Natalia's beautiful face which made her unable to respond. However when one of the children tugged her by her shirt, she snapped back to reality realizing that the child who tugged her shirt was his young brother who had swollen red areas around his eyes signifying that he had cried alot earlier. After taking a deep breath, Eya said something which caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"Everyone burned to death... "

With a grim expression Eya held a firm grip on her clothes as she began to explain what had happened.

____________________________________________________________________

Few hours prior, after Aldelio and his allies had defeated the hobgoblin horde.

"Everyone!, gather at the village square, the village chief has something to announce!"

One of the Villagers shouted beside the Village chief. As the villagers heard this they had stopped whatever it is they are doing and began to gather at the village square.

"haaa... And here I was, about to eat Elder sister's [Nacht Pie], why do they have to call in a village meeting now"

Tane complained whilst sighing tiredly. Eya giggles at the sidelines due to his younger brother's antics.

"Now, now it's not like they will run away or something like that, you just need to wait it out until the meeting's done then"

"But I like your homemade [Nacht Pie] hot, I don't like a cold pie"

Tane wittily said to Eya as glimmering stars can be seen in his eyes. Eya can only shrug off as they continue to walk onwards to the village square.

"psst, Eya, Tane over here"

A green haired woman was whispering over to Eya and Tane, gesturing for them to come over, this woman was none other than Fila, Eya and Tane's mom. Currently almost all the villagers are now present at the village square making it quite noisy due to the constant chattering of the villagers.

"Looks like you siblings are finally here, have you found your dad along the way?"

Fila frowned after the siblings shooked their head over their mom's question. Murmurs began to pop up in the villagers.

"What do you think it's happening?"

"I don't know, but I sure do hope, that it was not another bad news"

"Do you think that the village chief has decided to abandon the village?"

"With the hobgoblin business earlier, i think he will"

Unrest began to stir up in the populace as each and every moment passed. After all the villagers had finally gathered at the square the old village chief struck his cane to shut off the loud mouths of the villagers.

"Now then.... let's begin"

The village chief said as he manifested a black mist around him, enveloping his entire body for a few moments. Afterwards it grew in size for a few moments before dissipating shortly after, when the mist had dissipated it had revealed a man wearing a tattered brownish robe with the infamous symbol of a black dragon inscribed in his chest.

"For the sake of our research, of the [Black Dragon], you lots must die"

The village chief now transformed as Devant raised his cane over the dumbfounded villagers as he began to chant his spell.

[Flame Explosion]

With a dot of flame forming at the tip of his cane, he aimed it at the cluster of villagers. Suddenly the villagers realised that they were about to be killed and they have began to came back into their senses, but they were to late.

"ahhhh!"

With a scream Devant's spell shot out from his cane towards the clusters of villagers making big explosions of flame, burning everything in it's path. Black smoke began to fills up the air from the burnt bodies of the villagers however some were unlucky enough to be burnt into nothingness and Eya's mom was also included in that unlucky few.

"M-Mom.."

Tane cried, his hips went limp losing strength out in his legs making him kneel down into the ground. Eya in the other hand was frozen in place, cannot comprehend what just had happened in front of her.

'What just happened?, did mom just die?, she died?... Mom died?, it can't be...No that can't be right...No... No... NO, NO, NO, NO'

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Eya screamed in despair before fainting down to the rocky floor of the village square.

"S-sis?!"

Tane called out to Eya as he tried to stand up but to no avail. Devant suddenly stopped using his spell as if he was remembering something, he began to furrows his brows before doing a facepalm.

'Whoops, gotta save some of them so they can spread about the good news'

Devant, just like Gaston, was also a spy of the [Dark Guild] and he had received orders as well to sabotage the operation of the [Black Dragon].

'Hmm... Looks like I manage to missed some kids'

Suddenly Devant had a bright idea to get the Kingdom's attention. He rummaged through his pocket looking for something.

'Aha!'

Devant managed to grab something from inside his pocket as he brought it out slowly.

"Looks like I still have one of these [Monster Knife]"

The [Monster Knife] which is being held tightly by Devant's hand was a normal looking kitchen knife no matter how one look at it. However in just a few moments the knife vibrated as it began to transform revealing it's true form.

"Ugh.. Still disgusting as ever"

It's wooden handle was now replaced by a purplish coloured flesh similar to that of the [Monster Pot], it's blade formerly iron was now made of a long bone of some kind. At a glance Devant might be a mage due to his cane however his real job is actually a assassin. The cane which he has in his possession was actually a [Magic Weapon], [Magic Weapon] is a special type of weapon which can come in any varieties and each of them worked differently, in Devant's case his [Magic Weapon] [Flame Wrath] was a [Magic Weapon] in the form of a ordinary cane. It's ability was to let the user use the spell [Flame Explosion] one time before the cane crumbles to dust. Gastov also had a [Magic Weapon] which allows him to add [Curse] status debuff to his attacks, the [Curse] status debuff is a powerful anti-mage debuff in which it prevents mana regeneration in combat although it was effective against Aldelio when he was trying to get modern weapons, it was still useless regardless if he cannot defeat him.

"Well... There goes my [Magic Weapon], I'm expecting that the amount of trouble I'm going through shall be payed handsomely by the [Dark Guild] "

Devant mumbles to himself while he looked at his hand full of dust due to the [Flame Wrath] crumbling. Devant stared at the now fainted Eya trying to be woken up by Tane, while staring back at his [Monster Knife], suddenly he flashed a grin in his face as he threw the knife towards Eya.

"Eya!!"

Tane cried out, with helplessness visible in his eyes as he desperately tried to stand up trying to grab her older sister away from harm however try as he might, he still can't reach her, however a sudden intervention transpired, a man shielded Eya and in turn, it had stabbed his back. Eya slowly opened her eyes just to see that the man in front of him was none other than his father, Cain.

"Ngh... Are you alright?... My daughter?"

Cain grimaced in pain as he forced a smile in front of Eya. Eya had her eyes widen with tears began to form in her eyes. While Devant was dumbfounded seeing that he had missed his target although he didn't pay too much too it cause even if he missed he can just pick it up again.

"Shhsshhssh.... Don't cry... Big girls don't cry, right? Eya.... Agh!"

"Dad!"

Eya sobbed as the skin around the wound were Cain was stabbed began to change in color, it's texture also began to change from that smooth skin to a hard blistering one.

"Eya, listen to me... EYA!"

Eya flinched as she stopped crying for a moment, Cain stared straight into Eya's eyes, full of warmth coupled with a smile that seemed to embraced her entire feeling however that didn't last long as sounds of flesh tearing apart could be heard.

"Aghhh!....haaa...haaa...listen, Eya I want you to.... Grab... Ngh!... Tane and get our of this place"

"But Da-"

"DO AS I SAY!"

Eya flinched again, with a gloom expression this time however she accepted his order. Cain nodded with a smile as he stands up slowly while sounds of his flesh, tearing apart could be heard. With his back now in view of Eya's she could see the skin of her father turning purplish with blisters as his back, began to be bloated out of proportion, his right arm also contorted with several small purplish fleshy arms protruding out in his shoulder.

"Can you... Tell... Gahk!... Me... Why?!, why did you.... Do this?!!"

"Strange... You should've already turned by now... Meh who cares"

"Why... Won't.. You... ANSWER ME!!"

"DAD!"

Cain rushed towards Devant while his purplish body grew in size along the way. His arm muscles became overly massive and disproportionate making him use them like some sort of crutches, his head rapidly shrunk due to his body being bloated and surrounding his head by his large neck fat. His facial features were nowhere to be seen as it became a fleshy overgrowth of monstrosity.

"Phew... That's one ugly mother fu*ker"

Devant sidestep by his left making Cain miss his target as he demolished a house by ramming himself over.

"Dad...."

____________________________________________________________________

"After the brown robed man had dodged my Dad he disappeared from my sight like some ghost, then while my Dad was busy destroying the house I had tooked the chance to escape with my Brother"

The atmosphere at the room became tense as they now figured how serious the situation can be.

"Shit, i think Drake and Yuz are on their way to the village square"

Dain cursed as he remembered that two of his knights were on their way to the village square.

"then what are we doing here for?!!, we gotta stop them, NOW!"

*crash*

Suddenly a loud noise of houses being destroyed can be heard echoing throughout the village.

"Shit"