Chương 26: Chapter 25: Tormenting the Dead

Yuto stood his ground, carefully waiting for the leading orc to get sufficiently close. The moment he was within range, Yuto stepped aside and thrust. It wasn't a simple stabbing motion, since he aimed specifically at the armpit, which was the weakest part of the body, and of the leather armor that the orc was wearing. Blood squirted from the orc's mouth. The spear had gone deep, tearing the lungs before Yuto pulled it back out. The orc staggered, coughing up blood.

Yuto now ignored him and swung in a wide, diagonal arc. The other orc, who was close behind, took a hit to the ankle. It didn't make him fall, but he lost his balance momentarily, which was enough. Yuto flicked the weapon upward in a smooth motion. The orc's arms had lowered from his face so that he could recover his balance. The spear sank into the orc's mouth and went right through the back of the skull. Yuto twisted the spear halfway as he pulled it back out, and the orc slumped to the floor, spasming.

The orc whose lungs Yuto had speared was still breathing, but he couldn't move, and blew bloody foam from his mouth as he lay on the floor. Yuto could leave him here to die. He walked to the remaining human thieves—five of them.

"No... Oh my god..." It happened so quickly. Less than three minutes had passed before the five crossbowmen on the roof, and the three orcs on the ground, were wiped out. The rest stared at Yuto in blank shock. Yuto looked like a boy of no more than fifteen, but they didn't see him as a boy at the moment. He scared them far more than the malicious, screaming ghosts that roamed this city.

"You... You f*cking monster!" A terrified thief rushed at Yuto, sword swinging. But it was a blind swing, and there was no way it would touch Yuto. The spear was much longer than the sword, anyway. It took only a short thrust to pierce the man's neck. Yuto didn't bother to pull it out. Instead, he rested it against the ground. The spear prevented him from falling over. He spluttered and choked as he tried to get it out of his neck. Bright red blood coursed down the shaft and formed a puddle on the ground.

Yuto picked up the sword the man had dropped, then turned his eyes, which swirled with impenetrable darkness, to the remaining four. This was enough to rob all of them of the desire to fight. They screamed and scattered in all directions. A massive explosion went off. It engulfed two of them in flames. Flokiro had made short work of them. He jumped toward one of the men who remained on his feet and swatted the thief's head with a small paw. It looked cute, in appearance, but the power behind it was astounding.

The head burst like a ripe watermelon, and Yuto tossed the sword in his hand at the last thief, who was busy running. The blade cut through one knee and came out the other side. The thief took a tumble, screeching in pain. Yuto strode up to him.

"W-wait! L-let me live, and I'll—""If you wanted to beg for your life, you should have done it much earlier," Yuto said icily. He pulled the sword back out, making the man twist and cry out in pain. Yuto swung again, and this time, the head came clean off the shoulders. That was fourteen of them dead—the only one who lived was the one Rivian had trapped in her vines. Yuto tossed the bloody sword away and walked right over to him.

"No... No, no, no!" The man was terrified and smelled of urine. He had pissed himself, unable to overcome the terror. Yuto pulled out his Obsidian Dagger and squatted down beside the prisoner. Their eyes met.

"From now on, answer my questions, and say nothing else," Yuto whispered quietly and frostily.

"If you don't, I will start cutting off your fingers."

"Y-yes... I understand..." the man said, and nodded so eagerly his head seemed ready to bounce right off his neck. Yuto tilted his head.

"Why are you here?"

"W-we're grave robbers. If adventurers... and fugitives from the cities turn up, we also steal from them—" Yuto's dagger sank into the ground with precision, taking an index finger with it. The man screamed. Yuto waited in silence until he stopped. Only then did he speak again.

"I told you to answer my questions, not lie to me. You are not petty criminals." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The captive moaned.

"You are armed as well as any city's guard. You can't be a mere thief out to rob some ruins. You were even in league with some orcs. Did you think for a moment that I'd believe you? Perhaps I've been too gentle," Yuto said, his voice growing lower and lower. Abyssal darkness swirled in his eyes. There was a mood about him that overwhelmed and horrified anyone who looked at him.

"I'll start by taking off all the fingers on your left hand. Perhaps by the time I am done, you'll be a bit more willing to tell the truth."

"W-w-wait! Wait! I'll tell you everything..." the man stammered, tears in his eyes.

"At first... we did come here to find anything we could that was of value and sell it. That much is true. Then we ran into some mages..."

"Mages?" Yuto asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Yes... They called themselves black mages. They captured us. We've been doing their bidding ever since..." Yuto's eyebrows twitched. He had already heard of them in the past. The mages who belonged to an organization called Dark Star, who traveled the continent and studied evil magic, had called themselves "black mages." But Dark Star had been wiped out by the time Yuto was of age, and their leader had been captured and beheaded by the Ristal Kingdom. But that only happened by the time I was twenty.

Yuto chewed his lip. Dark Star was still around at this point in time.

"What did they tell you to do?" Yuto asked. His voice, which had been cold and quiet before, now bubbled with rage. How dare black mages, the evil and nasty creatures, set foot in Velkyne's ruins and craft their plots? Yuto felt enraged. The man was overwhelmed by Yuto's animalistic anger. He quivered from head to toe and revealed the truth. What he described was far more disgusting than Yuto had imagined. Velkyne was now a cursed ruin, but it had been a powerful kingdom that had been destroyed overnight.

The city's remains still had plenty of valuables in them. The surrounding cities and kingdoms weren't interested in poking around, however, and for a simple reason. Rumor had it that Velkyne had been destroyed after making the Constellations angry, and that their anger still remained, hovering over the land as a curse. The nobles considered the Constellations to be gods, and they didn't care to explore what remained of the kingdom. That wasn't the only reason.

The Ristal Kingdom, whose king had had close ties with Luke Velkyne, the last king of Velkyne, and had been an ally of the Velkyne Kingdom, had made a strong case for the preservation of the wreckage. The territory was declared off-limits, and the treasures buried there as well. But not everyone in the world had the protection of the Constellations. In fact, there were more who didn't have such protection than those who did. Only the nobility had such a privilege.

The poor, who were born without riches and would die the same way, passing their poverty down to their children, showed a particular interest in the treasures of Velkyne. As for the criminals who had already been branded sinners, they had never cared about adhering to the law in the first place. The nobles gave up on plundering Velkyne, but many others crossed over the mountains in the night and snuck inside the walls in hopes of finding a single trinket amid the debris.

The black mages of Dark Star had already made the shambles their home by that point, however. They took control of the wrecked royal castle and captured everyone who dared to come treasure hunting.

"W-we don't do much," the man stammered.

"These ruins... contain crystals that the black mages have installed. W-we move them on a daily basis to the locations the black mages tell us... and... and make smoke."

"Smoke?" Yuto asked.

"Th-this is what we use," the man said, and pulled something from his clothes—a roll of black paper.

"A magic scroll...?" Rivian said, breaking her stunned silence. Yuto glanced at her. She moved cautiously closer and opened the scroll.

"This... This is... a kind of necromancy," she said haltingly.

"And a very evil sort, at that..."

"What sort of spell is it?" Yuto asked with a scowl. Rivian read the scroll again.

"It... contains a spell for tormenting... the soul."

"Sh-she's right," the man mumbled.

"W-we move the crystals... Then we use these... scrolls, did you call them? Then the ghosts around us scream, and a purple light comes from them..."

"My god..." Rivian said, and her jaw dropped. Yuto, on the other hand, became even more livid. He understood what was going on in these ruins now. The mages of Dark Star were using Velkyne as an ether factory of sorts. It was already full of resentful ghosts and malicious ether, and they were using the scrolls to cause the spirits even more pain. The result was a refined form of negative ether that they could then put to whatever use they wanted.

"W-we only did what we were told to, by the castle's black mages! Th-that's all! You must believe me!" the man said, flattening himself against the ground.

"Th-they were the ones who told us to get in your way!" The poor still risked their lives to come to this place in hopes of a better future. Those enslaved by the black mages took these people to the castle.

"I-I don't know what goes on in there... I really don't. I-I never wanted to do things like this. A-all I wanted was to find myself a nice ring or a necklace, the sort with gems in them... That's the entire reason I came..." Yuto gazed down at the man without speaking.

"Please... you must spare me... I'm deserving of pity. I know I am," the thief begged.

"Tell me," Yuto said icily, "everything you know. How many crystals are there? How many black mages in the castle? Why are you working with the orcs?"

"Th-the black mages brought the orcs. I don't know much about that. I was just doing as I was told... I-I can't tell you how many of them are in the castle, since I've only ever seen three of them. And... as for the crystals... They... uh..." The man seemed to have run out of facts.

"I see," Yuto said. He got up with a nod and went around the man's back. The man seemed relieved, thinking he would live. Then he balked. Yuto had just grabbed his hair. He screamed when Yuto tugged the hair up, exposing the back of the neck. On the skin was a bright red brand—the mark of a convicted thief.

"Not such a good person, are you?" whispered Yuto's detached voice.

"Only did as you were told, did you? You seemed quite overjoyed for all that, when you threatened me with your companions. How many lives have you snuffed out on that excuse?"

"I-I swear I never wanted to do it! And I answered all your questions, as you asked—""Did I say I would spare you if you did?" Yuto snapped the man's neck.