“Cough…”

Bright light shone on Elitra’s eyes, forcing her consciousness to come back from its shut-down state. The first thing she did was let out a series of dry coughs.

‘What happened?’

Her memory was a mess, something she was used to by now. So, she immediately went to work trying to remember what happened before she fainted.

“Agh!”

A sudden wave of pain shook her body. Her skin felt like it was on fire, and even her insides seemed to have been shaken out of place.

‘What the hell?’

It was never like this before. The flames had taken over before, and she’d definitely found herself similarly unconscious, but her body had never been damaged in the process.

Her eyelids fluttered as she tried her best to open them. She wanted to quickly take in her surroundings and make sure she was safe. But at that moment…

“Looks like you finally decided to wake up.”

The unfamiliar voice of a man entered her ears.

“Oi, don’t think about pretending to be unconscious. Open your eyes already.”

Although she was unwilling, she still ended up cooperating. With her head in a mess, there wasn’t much else she could do..

The first thing she saw was a mystical pair of eyes staring back at her. Seeing them, she felt a jolt in her mind.

“Ah!”

It all began to flow back. The invasion on Astoria, and the fight she had with this man. Or at least, until he had injured her. After that, everything was just flaming darkness.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” The man waved his hand in front of her face with an annoyed expression.

Elitra glared at him. This man was obviously an enemy, and from the way he looked perfectly fine sitting on a poorly made wooden chair in front of her, she had clearly lost the battle.

It was only then that she realized her own position.

She was tied to a tree, her arms spread in a t like she was crucified. Immediately, she raised her mana to tear away the ropes that were binding her.

But the man’s hand landed on her shoulder faster. Just like he had done back in the White Dragon Grotto, he seized control of the personal vectors within her body and sealed her mana.

“Ah, don’t be hasty. I’m not a bad guy, you see, I just have a few questions I want to ask you.”

Elitra’s gaze hardened. It didn’t take an idiot to know what kind of questions he was going to ask.

“Hah! As if I’d ever tell you **!” She spat.

“Oho? Your attitude seems to have changed significantly from the prim and seductive lady you were pretending to be before.” He smirked.

“Tch, what do you know.” She grumbled. Suddenly, she began to chuckle. It was such a sudden change that even Damien was caught off guard.

“Something funny?” He asked with furrowed brows.

“Mm, mm, very funny. I was just thinking about what’ll happen to you once they find out I’m kidnapped.”

“Oh? You must be important then.”

“Important? As if merely important is enough to describe me. Just know that as long as you are within this realm, you’re already dead in my eyes.”

Damien frowned. The fact that she had confidence in this situation made her words more believable. For her status to be high enough that she’s so assured…

‘Daughter of a Commander? In the worst case, it’s a king, but I doubt it.’

“Well, since you think I’m dead meat, you might as well tell me what I want to know, right?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? I already said I won’t tell you **, so stop trying.”

Damien sighed. “You know, I’m asking nicely right now, but you don’t know how long that’ll last. Are you sure you want to risk it?”

“Threatening me with pain, huh? To be honest, that’s the worst move you could make. Do you really think you can stimulate pain worse than being burned alive every single day?” She sneered.

Damien was startled by her words. ‘This girl might actually be an idiot the way she keeps giving me info.’

Damien didn’t need information on rankings or anything like that, so he had been avoiding questions about the demons. Still, he was able to find that she had a certain level of status as well as something about the black flame so easily.

But Damien wasn’t shaken by her resolution. “Worse than being burned alive, huh. It should be doable.”

Nodding his head, he looked at her one more time. “Well, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Huh? What are you-“

Her words were quickly cut off by Damien’s hand covering her mouth. When it came to torture techniques, he obviously didn’t have many since he had no use for them.

But ever since he awakened on that fateful day almost 11 years ago on earth, he had been wondering about something. It was a curiosity he could never satiate since he wasn’t daring enough to try it on his own body.

But thinking about it, using that experiment as a torture technique would be great for testing.

Damien concentrated on the spatial layers around him. He had never tried to teleport someone by themselves before, but he didn’t think it was too hard, especially when he wasn’t trying to do it right in the first place.

Soon enough, he roused his mana and initiated a teleportation.

In the next instant, an ear-piercing shriek came from the woman in front of him.

“AHHHHHH!”

Her crucified body was now positioned a few feet lower than it was before. The only problem was, the area from her knees down wasn’t visible.

Damien watched the woman in front of him scream and plead. It was much worse than he originally thought, to the point where he almost felt bad for her.

What had happened to her was simple. He had teleported her into an area that intersected. Just like theory stated, two sets of molecules couldn’t exist in the same space and superimpose. It was against the laws of physics.

And what happened to the two sets of molecules in such a case? Well, in a normal situation, both superimposed objects would explode. The rejection of natural laws would force it to happen.

But Damien had directly interfered with the spatial layers to carry out such an action. Rather than simply superimposing, the molecules of the two structures had been forcefully fused into one.

The pain that came with such a process and the aftermath was what Elitra was being forced to feel right now.

Damien looked away. This was his first time ever torturing someone, and even if he didn’t have to truly get his hands dirty, he didn’t like the feeling at all.

His earthling mentality that barely held a shred of identity in his heart had bore its head. After all, even when he killed, he never did something so gruesome.

‘This is enough. There’s no need to go farther.’

Thinking so, he grabbed her shoulder and teleported her once again, moving her back to her original position.

But even he didn’t have the power to unfuse those molecules that had already become one. When Elitra was disconnected from the ground, she no longer had legs below her knees.

And the most disturbing part of it was the fact that even though she suffered such a severe wound, there were no signs that it was artificial. The stumps in her legs looked as if they were like that since birth.

The pain immediately subsided when Elitra was disconnected from the ground. All that was left was the sound of her silent sobbing in the otherwise quiet atmosphere.

Damien sighed. He felt like a sinner. But remembering her identity, he steeled his heart.

Right. There was never any good or bad in this world. There was only strength. He had said it to the tribe leader of the Turbulent Blizzard Leopards back then, and he had once again come into contact with it today.

‘Why do I feel like I’ve become the villain since entering this mountain range?’

He didn’t like it at all. But in the end, everything was for benefits. And today’s actions, they were for the sake of the universe.

In order to get rid of a race that threatened all others with extinction. He could no longer view the Nox or anyone affiliated with them as “people”.

His eyes turned cold. Finally settling his gaze back on Elitra, he decided to get this over with as soon as possible.

“Are you finally willing to speak up now, or do I need to help you understand again?”

Within Damien’s body, in a location that even he couldn’t feel yet, there were two formless and colorless essences swirling about.

The first was strong and made its presence known, while the second seemed to still be in its infancy.

Next to these two essences, there was something that looked like a small black marble. The marble occasionally flickered with dancing black lighting.

And at that moment, a small flicker of red and black light came to life. The marble shined black and red, causing even the dancing lightning to shrink back in fear.

And in the next instant, the light vanished, causing peace to return to that space.