A week had passed.
Rueben was now in a large dome room, his entire body riddled with wounds, large nails with attached chains stabbed through his body, binding him tightly. He was hanging in the center of the dome.
Coughing out another mouthful of blood, Rueben pushed his chin up and stared down at Kasaya, who was sitting down on a stool, drinking tea.
She stared at him with pursed lips as a large spike made from metal pierced his chest and landed on the other side of the dome. Rueben let out another mouthful of blood before the wound started healing.
Kasaya shook her head to the side, now stumped. She didn't know what to do anymore.
She used all methods of torture, even practiced those she didn't manage to use on others because Rueben's body was something equivalent to immortality. Any wound she inflicted on him would just heal sooner or later, no matter how severe.
Though cutting off the connection between his head and his body did stop his regeneration, only when she attached it back to his body did he begin healing again.
He did react to all torture she gave him, but somehow, his will wasn't giving up. His mouth was still shut.
She did get some information, small bits.
From the information given to her by those low-ranking little ones, he wore something that those of that mad country wore.
The Mad Country, Arkvem.
Their entire military consisted of seemingly immortal soldiers with immense combat experience and techniques. They had devastated countless nearby colonies before settling down in the Forest of Depravity.
Kasaya had heard of Arkvem's infamous reputation.
And judging from what little info she got from Rueben, she believed he came from that country.
There were countless spies from other kingdoms and countries, but they were caught as soon as they stepped foot inside their territory. Once they came face to face with her, they coughed up all the information they had for the Church to use.
This was the first time that Kasaya encountered someone so stubborn.
Feeling a tremble in her right hand, Kasaya stood up from her stool and looked up at Rueben.
"I will leave you be for now. But the curse stays on, my little slave."
She then turned around and left the room, leaving Rueben behind.
Rueben let out another cough of blood as a large nail manifested in front of him and pierced his mouth. It then disappeared slowly, leaving hundreds of small nails inside Rueben's stomach.
"..."
Rueben looked up, revealing that both of his eyeballs were scooped out, but they were slowly healing. Though his eyeballs would get scooped out again after they regenerated.
Rueben looked down, his eyesight recovered, and he stared at the chains binding him. He tried to force them to break but was unable to do so. The more force he applied to the chains, the tighter the chains would be.
Also, the chains were made from immaterial things. Unlike those made from iron or steel, these chains were made from shadows, or was it darkness? Like the one used to bind me back then?
Theoretical Magic Affinity...
Rueben's eyes narrowed as he thought to himself.
Suddenly, two large hands manifested in front of him. The hands then formed into spoons. The hands formed into spoons drifted in front of him for a moment before stabbing themselves into his eyes.
Rueben flinched, feeling the pain of his eyes being scooped out by countless folds before feeling a sort of release as the spoons scooped his eyes away.
The hands then disappeared, and his scooped-up eyeballs fell down to the floor beneath him.
Now that that was done, Rueben continued thinking of ways to escape.
He didn't bother trying to keep the scoops away from his eyes. Over the week, his eyes had been scooped out countless times. He did all he could to stop them from scooping his eyes, and he had failed countless times.
He knew that the woman was making him feel even more pain before doing that curse thing to him again. But he just let her be, after all, there wasn't much he could do.
And he was confident that if the woman were ever to pull the same move, he wouldn't break, nor bend. His will...
My Will to keep moving forward.
...will never cease.
***
"Why did you call for me, you country bumpkin?"
The man in armor stared at Kasaya in a daze before letting out a sigh while shaking his head.
He then gestured for her to sit down on a comfy armchair while putting down his sword into a glass case.
He slowly took off his armor piece by piece as Kasaya sat down. She grabbed a few tea leaves from his desk and poured herself a cup of hot water.
She placed the tea leaves into the cup and looked back at the armored man, who was shirtless.
Scars riddled all over his body, though of note, there was a large scar on his back, from the left shoulder all the way to his right waist.
The man grabbed a shirt and put it on before turning back to Kasaya.
Kasaya stared at him as he sat down behind the desk and poured himself a cup of hot water. He then grabbed some tea leaves and placed them into the cup.
"So?"
Kasaya's eyebrows raised while she spoke.
The man let out a soft sigh through his nose and opened his mouth. "I lost him."
Kasaya stared at him blankly, then let out a giggle.
"Oh, that was good, Jerone. That joke was good." Chuckling to herself, she shook her head side to side as she sat.
"..."
"What are you going to say next? That you got beaten up by the kid? That's hilarious."
"..."
"..."
Kasaya stared at the man, Jerone, who was looking at her with a blank and dazed face, before it finally clicked in her mind.
"...A kid managed to hide himself from your eyes...?"
A nod.
"How about your Internal Aura? With your level, you should be able to detect him a few kilometers away?"
Shaking his head.
"..."
Kasaya stared at him in shock before deflating back into the chair.
She placed her hand on her head while looking at the ceiling.
"We're gonna die, aren't we?"
Jerone hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
"Don't worry, the Holy Pontiff won't execute us yet because of our talents. We are invaluable to the Church."
Kasaya then stared back at him.
"No. Like seriously." She gave him a glance before pointing toward the direction where Rueben was held.
"It's been a week since I tortured the fucker, a week. Not a single thing came out of that tightly shut mouth! I used everything in my arsenal, every method I could think of to get him to cough up the information, but somehow, he's still going strong!"
"..."
"If the higher-ups know that I can't even coerce information out of a spy's mouth, my reputation would be in pieces! The Church would also doubt my abilities!" Kasaya sat down and wiped her forehead.
"..."
"Did you know? That guy's body regenerates like crazy, like an Arackin or something. The only way I found that stopped it was by cutting off the connection of his head to his body. But if I reattach the head to his torso, he'll heal up again."
"..."
The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Kasaya spoke. "...Should we run away together?"
"..."
Jerone leaned back into his chair and let out a grunt.
"That'll make us heretics, Kasaya. We'll be hunted down for treason."
Kasaya leaned forward. "I'd rather be a heretic than become a part of this... this cult."
She crossed her legs, grabbed the teacup, and took a sip.
"The Church has changed, Jerone. Everyone can see it. Ever since the Saintess took the Holy Pontiff's seat, the entire Church has been corrupted."
Then she placed the teacup back down and continued, "I'm not even sure if we're worshipping the same Moon compared to who the Holy Pontiff worships."
The Crimson Moon, holder of the Authority of the Moon, who ascended alongside the Heavenly Sun God. Her divine ability was spread amongst the clergymen, helping them against the prominent church of the entire world back then, the Church of the Heavenly Sun.
The faith of the Heavenly Sun God wasn't well liked even back then, but they did manage to spread their belief all around the world. But due to the recent acts of racism and the corruption of the church, they died down a few centuries ago.
At the Crimson Moon Church's hands.
"..."
Jerone stared at her for a moment before letting out a grunt.
"The Crimson Moon's holy words have always told us to help those in darkness and banish those in vice, to uphold equality for it held might, to bless the weak for it strengthens the soul, to hold empathy for it frees the heart of its burdens."
"..."
"Those are the Crimson Moon's holy words, her expectations for us as her believers. Yet, look at us now. Inquisitors hunting down heretics, not knowing if who they were hunting were people of sin or not, nuns letting their lust control their hearts, priests' pockets full of coin. The elders seek amusement, the cardinals seek freedom."
Kasaya leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.
"This is what the Church has turned into. An amalgamation of vice and sin."
Jerone gave her a glance before sitting up straight.
"It is foretold in the Bible that the Church will someday drown in sin, its believers losing themselves in evil. But the Crimson Moon also foretold us to never fear evil, to never kneel before sin. A blessed child will come and purify the sludge of waste so that the corrupted Church shall become holy once more."
Looking at her straight in the eyes.
"It is only a matter of time until the Blessed Child accepts his divine destiny, but before that happens, we should lie low and wait for the opportunity."
Kasaya gave him a glance before closing her eyes.
"...Are you really sure that the Saint Candidate is the 'Blessed Child'?"
Nodding his head, Jerone looked out of the window and spoke. "I'm sure. The day he finally accepts that he is the Church's Savior will be the day the Church of the Crimson Moon becomes what it was before."
Jerone's eyes shone as he watched the gloomy skies. "Pure."
"..."
Kasaya stared at him before leaning back into her chair and sighing deeply.
"But will that purity be what the Church once was, or will it become something new? We hesitate, and the price for that hesitation will be our people." Looking down at him, Kasaya glared.
"Are you willing to pay that price?"
Jerone stared at her and nodded. "Better to lose a couple than all."
"..."
The two of them went silent as they watched the clouds stir, feeling rain coming up. Both of them let out a sigh at the same time.
"We'll see what fate has in store for us, Jerone. But we can't put all our eggs into one basket and hope that the Saint Candidate is the one who'll clean the Church."
"I know. That's why I told you to wait for an opportunity. If we immediately stab the Church's back, not only will we become the villains of this story, more people will suffer because of us."
Kasaya crossed her legs, her lips pursed into a pout as she listened. She watched as Jerone pointed a finger at her as he continued.
"The moment the believers feel that the Church is corrupt will be our chance. Before then, we prepare."
She nodded her head as Jerone continued.
"The trade with the Dwarven and the Anils race has amassed us countless inventions and weapons, enough to arm the whole city. We should also develop more talents in the guise of creating loyal priests or nuns for the Church."
"I will personally train Bernard and other talented people. You develop the paladins and inquisitors."
Jerone nodded his head. "We'll leave logistics and politics to Lola. We need time to develop..."
They made plans before they nodded their heads. "We'll tell what we devised to Lola in the near future."
Jerone rubbed the back of his neck and leaned forward. Kasaya grabbed the handle of the cup and took a sip while Jerone pursed his lips and spoke.
"How about the spy's weapons? Did you study them?"
Kasaya pursed her lips for a moment, then three objects appeared in front of her, lying on the table.
"Here."
A blackish-red cane, a black silver-lining revolver, and a gold-lining bulky revolver.
"They're well made, top-notch." She grabbed the revolver and spun it around.
"The trigger is quite hard too, must be made for someone strong in mind."
Jerone grabbed one of the revolvers, the one with silver linings, and started disassembling it.
"They also made it with minimal parts too. Whoa, what the hell is this hammer made out of...?"
Jerone then remembered something and pulled out two pieces of jewelry from his desk and put them down on the table.
Kasaya stared at them for a moment before looking back toward Jerone. "Is this... a proposal?"
Jerone stared at her blankly before shaking his head. "No. Before you grabbed the spy out of my hands a few weeks ago, I found the spy hesitating to grab these two accessories. I just remembered that I grabbed these."
Kasaya gave the two pieces of jewelry a glance before her eyes narrowed. "This... huh? What is this?"
She grabbed the earring made from glass and pushed her head closer to have a look.
The earring had a simple design. It had a glass-like gem embedded into the motif. Its design was split into two: the top part of the earring had patterns resembling cracks you could see in mirrors. The bottom had circular wave-like patterns all across it down to the bottom tip.
The entire glass-like gem was enclosed tightly by a similar glass-like metal with a darker gradient. Then a thin golden wire attached to the enclosure of the earring, making it into a dangle-type earring.
Overall, it looked quite normal but fancy.
Though there was this weird, ominous feeling that made her flinch. An unfamiliar strand of something.
"What is it?" Jerone asked as he watched her pull out a thin pair of tweezers from somewhere.
"Something is enchanted into this earring. Though the enchantment doesn't seem to be from SASE or any other energies that I know of."
"Oh?"
This feels... otherworldly.
"As if the enchantment is something not innate to our world, no, it is innate to our world? But how does this..."
What is powering this enchantment? The Runic Path? No, there's no inscription anywhere, so this can't be the work of an Artificer, nor is it from an Alchemist... Kasaya put the earring down and looked at the other piece.
A ring. Just a glass ring with no other decor except for zigzag patterns across its body. The ring had no other decorations except that. Though, just like the earring she inspected, this ring also had that unfamiliar ominous feeling to it.
"This one too... Same materials, same feeling... Is it made by the same person? An artifact? But what kind of artifact is it?" she muttered as she inspected the ring closer.
No matter how rich Arkvem is, though I doubt that, nobody in their right mind would give valuable artifacts to a scout, much less a spy that might die while gathering information. Unless...
Kasaya turned her head to look at where her prisoner was currently held.
This guy is someone important, important enough for their higher-ups to take out two artifacts for his safety.
Jerone stared at her for a moment before snapping his fingers, snapping Kasaya out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" Kasaya stared at him in confusion as Jerone spoke.
"So?"
Clicking her tongue, she glared at him. "I have a theory. But I'm not sure if it's accurate just yet..."
Kasaya shared her thoughts with Jerone for a while.
***
In a shack within a forest.
A woman wearing a white coat stood still as she let the drizzle fall, not even trying to take cover from the rain. The woman fixed her cuffs as she waited.
Soon, someone in robes rose from the ground. The robed figure only had its head out of the ground, its other body hidden beneath.
"Shivera?"
The woman in the white coat stared at the head before speaking. "Fascinating. So this is what you call the Theoretical Magic Affinity System?"
The robed figure stared up at her before fully revealing themselves.
"Yes. This is one of the paths."
The white-coated woman let out a smile.
"Then I assume you must be my fellow artist?"
The robed figure stared at her before shaking their head. "We have different views, but we share the same goal. That is why I contacted you."
"Oh, I know."
Shivera gave her a glance.
"The destruction of Arkvem."
The robed figure nodded their head.
Shivera smiled as flesh dripped down from her legs. It squirmed around and formed a makeshift chair, which she sat on. The robed figure watched in silence as Shivera crossed her legs.
"But I must wonder, my friend. Why do you want Arkvem destroyed?"
The robed figure spoke softly. "That is none of your business, Shivera. I came to confirm if you're useful to the plan."
"Plan?"
The robed figure nodded. "Yes."
Shivera pursed her lips before speaking. "Tell me of this plan of yours, and I'll consider whether I'll join you or not."
The robed figure shook her head. "No."
"..."
Shivera stared at her before chuckling. "I'll join you then."
***
Rueben stared at the ceiling, seeing a small indent and what seemed to be cracks. He slowly moved his eyes to the chains binding him and slightly expanded his muscles. Feeling the chains tighten, Rueben looked down at the door.
"..."
Rueben continued to observe. Biding, waiting for his time to strike.
After all, a patient hunter is a good hunter.