Lu An slowly approached the father and son who slept soundly. He noticed the dwarf’s product on their wrist and ankles. He stood there for a while, observing the two, thinking who would he start with.

It did not take that long for him to get the answer, Arbane. The father was someone who had been on the battlefield numerous times. It would take longer to crack the father than the son. 𝒐𝔳𝓛xt.𝗇𝓔t

Lu An approached the two and was about to grab Arbane’s ankle, but Revalor opened his eyes. His hand tried to reach Lu An’s neck, but the latter was faster. Lu An caught the wrist and squished the wrist.

Blood trickled down from the gap between Lu An’s grip. The sound of a cracking bone rang in the room followed by the pained cry from Revalor. Despite the pain, the former elven king kept his voice low, grunting while staring at the young man in front of him.

Revalor then looked at the chain on his wrist and ankles, realizing he did not have the mana or strength to fight back. He gave up fighting back and scoffed at Lu An, “Heh, if not for these chains, you will be dead. Did you learn that cowardice from your emperor?”

Lu An stares into Revalor’s brown eyes, not wavering in the slightest, “Nice little tricky you have there. If you think that I will unchain you for such a cheap provocation, then you make a mistake. I don’t care if it’s cowardice or not, but I will make sure you and your second son suffer, more than what Virion experienced before he died.” He kicked Revalor in the chest, sending the man back to the wall as he grabbed Arbane by the hair.

Arbane immediately awoke as Lu An grabbed his hair. He was startled, looking around, trying to understand his situation. The last thing he remembered before passing out was that he and his father fought her aunt, and he did not remember what happened afterward. He immediately felt the pain on his scalp as someone pulled his hair, dragging him to the ground. He tried to muster his mana to fight back, but he quickly realized that he did not have mana in his body. Not just mana, but he did not even have the strength to break free from the grasp.

“Keep struggling, you worm. That’s what I want!” Lu An threw Arbane at the other side of the room.

Arbane frantically tried to get up after his body hit the wall, but he was too weak even to muster his strength to stand up. It took him such a long time to get on his feet, but what greeted him was a kick in the chest when he got up. The sound of chain clinging rang in the room. Lu An pinned the elf prince on the wall with his kick while his face got closer. Arbane’s eyes shook with mixed feelings confused, shook, and fear.

Lu An saw fear in Arbane’s eyes when their eyes met. Arbane was the first one to look down, looking away from Lu An. However, Lu An caught his cheek, forcing the prince to look at him, “I see fear, but I don’t see regret from killing your own brother.”

“Come fight me if you dare, coward! You know you can’t beat me, so you pick my son!” Revalor yelled. He sacrificed his eldest for the sake of his vengeance, but he was not prepared to lose his second son.

“Don’t worry. You will have my time later, but not now. I need to speak with your son…privately,” The shadow burst out from Lu An, wrapping half of the room with the shadow. Revalor could only just watch as his second son was swallowed by the shadow. His chest heaved up and down. He tried to gather all the strength he had, dragging his body closer to the shadow.

Revalor did not know what happened beyond the shadow. He could not see through the shadow, and he could not hear anything either. That just made him even more anxious than watching his son tortured. He wanted to help Arbane, helping his son get out of this predicament. The sound of clinking chains rang in the air as Revalor’s nail dug into the floor, pulling him closer to the shadow. After five minutes, of crawling on the floor, digging the floor with his nail, he was finally right in front of the shadow. His hand stopped midair, hesitating to put his hand into the shadow.

The hesitation just a while as he put his hand into the shadow. He could feel the same floor as his nail dug into the floor once more. Before he could get into the shadow, Lu An came out of the shadow. Picking him up like a dog by the neck and throwing him at the other side of the room. Revalor hit the wall and shadow bound his hands and feet, rendering him immovable. This time, he could not crawl his way into the shadows.

Revalor had his back on the wall with shadows bound to his hands and feet. There was nothing he could do but stare at the shadow. His eyes wide open, staring into the shadow. Five minutes passed…

Revalor did not even blink in those five minutes, staring into the darkness.

Five minutes earlier, Inside the shadow

Arbane panicked as the shadow wrapped him. He could not see anything, he could not hear anything, and he could not feel his surroundings either. What he knew was that he was leaning against the wall and his feet were still touching the floor. The fear in his eyes intensified.

“You have two choices, Arbane. First, answer all my questions, then there will be no pain. Second, you can keep silent, but you will suffer the pain that you never experienced before,” The familiar voice entered Arbane’s ears. He felt like someone was talking right next to him. He turned to the side, but it was just darkness.

“Who’s behind you and your father? Whose order do you take from? Tell me, and you don’t need to suffer!” The voice got louder in his ear as if it would shatter his eardrum, “You have ten seconds to answer.”

Arbane frantically looked around, trying to find the person who spoke to him. He kept his mouth shut despite the fear and panic. Ten seconds of silence, right on the dot, and Arbane did not answer the question. In the eleventh second, his eyes widened before letting out a scream.

“ARRGGGHHHH!” Arbane felt like a dagger just pierced his right foot. That was not the end of it as he then felt a liquid fall on the same spot, and it amplified the pain. He let out a suppressed grunt, enduring the pain after the initial scream. He clenched his teeth and smirked, “That’s it. I can endure this all day. You are too young for the job.” He tried to taunt Lu An, but he got no reply. Silent followed after his taunt, nothing but just his heavy breath.

“Who’s behind you and your father? Whose order do you take from?” Lu An asked the same question.

“Kiss my ass, then I might tell you,” Again, Arbane kept trying to taunt Lu An. He expected another jab on his left foot after his initial taunt, but nothing happened. However, the stab hit him when he least unexpected it. He subconsciously screamed once more as his left foot was stabbed by another dagger. He felt the same liquid poured into the same spot, and he endured the pain with a grunt. He breathed heavily, enduring the pain as sweat soaked his back and face.

“Who’s behind you and your father? Whose order do you take from?” Arbane heard the same question for the third time. His eyeballs moved around while maintaining his silence. He did not taunt Lu An anymore because of the pain. Once more, in the least unexpected timing, his achilles heels were cut, on both sides. He forced his lips to close, not letting any voice out. What Lu An wanted was his scream, and he would not let Lu An get what he wanted. The same cold liquid was poured on his achilles heel as the pain amplified once more.

Arbane then heard the same question once more. He would not speak, and this time, Lu An plucked all his right toenails, five of them before pouring the cold liquid on them. He took a deep breath and held the pain. Tears fell from his eyes because of the pain, but he still did not speak. Next was his left toenails, and this time, he gave up and screamed. He could not endure the pain anymore.

“Who’s behind you and your father? Whose order do you take from?” The same question was uttered, but Arbane remained stubborn by not answering the question. He did this for his father, and he also hated the Emperor. Because of the emperor, he lost the woman he loved. This was not just for his father’s vengeance, but also his vengeance.

Arbane did not give up, but then he felt tickling pain in his right knee. He could feel a knife on his knee, not too deep, just the tip of it. Then the knife moved to the side, circling his knee before the knife went down. His eyes widened as he realized what Lu An wanted to do. He tried to move his feet, trying to kick, but the shadow bound his feet. He could not move, his whole body could not move but just his fingers and toes. His fingers and toes moved frantically, but there was nothing he could do while Lu An peeled off his skin. The movement was smooth as he could barely feel the pain. At least the pain was nothing compared to what Lu An did earlier. However, he realized what awaited him after Lu An finished peeling his skin. Then Lu An started to peel his left foot as well.

“NO! PLEASE NO! DON’T! NO!” Despite his plea, Lu An kept peeling his skin down to his heel. He could feel that his feet no longer had skin, and what he feared the most happened. Lu An poured the cold liquid on both sides at the same time. He let out an uncontrollable scream. Not just that, he heard the sizzling noise before he smelled the burnt. That was a different liquid than the earlier ones, this one burnt his skin.

“AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!”

“Who’s behind you and your father? Whose order do you take from? You better answer me before I get into the most interesting part,” The voice whispered in Arbane’s ears, right from behind. Arbane could feel someone touching his pants, starting to lower his pants. He quickly realized what the most interesting part was.

“I WILL ANSWER YOU! I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! PLEASE STOP! STOP!” Tears flowed down from his eyes.

“Good boy,” Lu An forcefully opened Arbane’s mouth, pouring the healing potion, “This is a reward for a good boy.” The healing potion soothed the pain as all the wounds started to heal, “Now answer my question before I start it again.”

“The Giteron Dynasty! Reinar Thamsen!” Arbane answered before getting into the details, “A few weeks ago, my father and I snuck into the Dimensional Tower. We were gathering information to find what happened in the tower, and we met Reinar Thamsen…” The elf prince went into detail about the meeting, and what his father planned.

“Do you have spies in our ranking? Does your father have people to spy on your brother? Tell me honestly before I change my mind.”

“We do! My father has loyal followers, and most of them don’t join the war with Virion. They stay at home. If we fail here, we will return to the Elven Kingdom and take over the kingdom. Then we will use everything to attack the empire’s capital!”

“Why did Reinar Thamsen want to take over the Tang Empire?” Lu An was a little bit confused with the Giteron Dynasty’s involvement. If The Giteron Dynasty wanted to take down The Tang Empire, he could join the other two factions to take the Tang Empire down instead of scheming behind them.

“I don’t know their real intention, but he seems to fancy Zh— Supreme General Zhang. He wants her, and The Emperor’s other wives. At least, that’s what I know, and that’s the reason why my father agreed to join hands with him! I don’t really know why they eye the Tang Empire.” Arbane was quite smart to know that was not the only thing that Reinar Thamsen or the Giteron Dynasty wanted. Lu An guessed what the Giteron Dynasty wanted was Earth.

“Do you have anything on you that you could use to contact Reinar Thamsen?”

“Yes, we do. Reinar Thamsen gave us three different orbs to give him a signal. It’s more giving him a signal instead of communication,” Arbane took out the three different colors of orbs, “The red one is for an emergency, in case we need his help. He told us to use it if we are in danger. He will come, but he will only save us if the situation is not that dangerous, and we can only use it if we have a chance to escape. The green orb means we succeed in the plan, and the orange one is a change of plan, the plan b I just told you about.”

“Anything else you know but you haven’t told me? I can tell if you are lying, Arbane. You better be honest before you regret it!”

The pain was gone, and his wounds were healed. Arbane was fine now as if nothing happened; as if what happened before was just a nightmare. However, he knew it was real, not a nightmare, “No! I have told you everything I know about Reinar Thamsen and our agreement.”

A silence followed, and his heartbeat raced up. The silence scared him because he did not know when Lu An would change his mind and start torturing him again. The fact that he could not see was the source of his terror. The darkness made things worse because he did not know what would happen next.

“Alright, you passed. The last question, and we are done. Why did you kill your brother? You can still do your plan by keeping your brother hostage, but why did you decide to kill him? Why?”

“My father! It’s my father’s order! I am just following his order! He promised me that he will make me the new king of The Elven Kingdom, and my father also said Virion is loyal to The Emperor. Virion will be an obstacle to my father’s vengeance. That’s why he told me to kill Virion! I swear, I am telling the truth! It’s my father’s order!”