"What do we do with the Marquis and Viscount?"
The scratching of the knife faded into the background, the cabin was in a place that was deserted. So no foreign sound arose in the surroundings except the gentle rustling of the thorn bushes by the hot humid wind of the noon.
Azrael's reply sounded in the mind space, "isn't it obvious.. we give both of them to Rodrick, in a beautiful gift wrap." His voice carried a playful tone. He really was enjoying himself.
"Before we do that, we need to understand what we are dealing with."
"Who was the envoy?"
"What does this all have to do with the crystal mine and Rodrick?"
"It sure isn't simply about the crystals extracted, we have something more than that at play here, because no Marquis could deal with a powerhouse of the envoy's stature. He was a genuine peak Tier-5 or even Tier-6, if you include the transformation."
"And what is even a transformation?" Master White said all his doubts and questions in one go. It was odd for him to talk this much. But Azrael understood why he was so agitated, the envoy was the first person ever to defeat him in both worlds.
Though there wasn't much competition back on earth, here on Terralon it was different with the supernatural. Master White lost for the first time, physically.. but lost.
So he wanted answers. Answers to justify his losing.
Azrael didn't reply immediately, he was just looking at him. He was smiling, but there was no mockery. He was just trying to understand him even more.
Master White stared back at Azrael. Both of them were locked in some sort of weird tension.
Suddenly, Azrael broke it, "We were weak."
"What??" Master White was utterly perplexed.
"We..." Azrael moved his hands, pointing a finger, gesturing at the two them and continued "....are weak."
"What on earth are you saying, Azrael?" Master White snapped.
Azrael chuckled, "That was the answer to your agitation and newfound anger."
"It really amazes me, that all it took was losing, for you to become restless. I would have done it before if I knew you will give into emotions" Master White narrowed his eyes hearing that, but didn't do anything.
Azrael ignored Master White's anger and continued in a much more serious tone, "We were weak, we are weak, is that so hard for you to comprehend? I have answers or will know the answers to all the questions you asked, but this is the answer I'm giving you."
"An answer to the question you conveniently avoided. We are weak.. that's why you lost, that's the reason we lost."
Master White stayed silent for quite a while, his gaze was drowned in reflection, and sometimes his eyes would fall on Azrael who was giving him a kind look.
Seeing that for the first time, he was repulsed, but he understood that whatever he was doing, it was for the good of both them.
Master White let out a sigh, "phew.. you're right."
"We are weak. We got complacent with our discovery of power and the lucky encounter with the silver owl."
"I will never make this mistake again. And I won't let you do it either." Master White said with a determined look.
Azrael nodded with equal determination.
"Okay, now that's settled. Let's start with your actual questions, first the easy one.. what is transformation?"
Master White hinted for him to continue,
"In Terralon, everyone after awakening will step into Tier-1 and become a cultivator. Many will awaken magical abilities, right after assimilating with a beast blood. And as they progress, they will awaken more abilities randomly through their journey of cultivation from Tier-1 to Tier-8."
"And of all the possible abilities one could awaken, {Transformation} is one of the rarest ability. It allows the awakened person to change the physiology of their body and imitate the beast they assimilated during awakening. And you know how dangerously it played out with the envoy."
"It was me, who was in control when Howard was teaching this, so you don't know about that particular beast and transformation, White."
"That beast assimilated with the envoy was known as the Venomous Crawler, a Tier-6 beast. Which was said to be extinct."
"It was one of the rarest beast in the past, said to give a guaranteed {Transformation} ability after assimilation." Azrael voice trailed off to an echo, he was amused by recalling. This was his curiosity speaking.
"Would you snap out of your astonishment?" Master White said annoyed.
"Cough.. cough.. That is all there is to tell."
"But we can understand one thing from this, whoever the envoy was, he was resourceful. Extremely resourceful."
Master White nodded in agreement.
"As for the other questions, I don't know the answers." Azrael suddenly said in an unapologetic tone.
Master White who was seriously contemplating Azrael's earlier remark, glared at him, "Haan.. so much for, I know all the answers." He said without hiding the condescension.
"Hey, I did all that for getting my message across. Its necessary for the act you know?!" Azrael said with full commitment to the theatrics.
Master White ignored him like he always does.
"We have to interrogate them. And we have to find a way for them to live, live for Rodrick." Master White considered many things when he said that, first Azrael and him won't be able to escape SableWood anytime soon, and the special sac could only help for one week. So they had to interrogate and silence the Marquis and Viscount while keeping them alive.
Azrael's face contorts into multiple forms, many times his mouth opens to answer but the words don't make sense most of the time, so he stops either midway or closes his mouth abruptly just after muttering the first few words. The main crux of the problem is keeping the hostages alive, ensuring that no disturbances takes place because of them. Because any commotion will lead to scrutiny from the officials.
Azrael suddenly smiles, "White! How about we entertain my curiosity?" His voice sounded with exclamations.
"Your morbid curiosity..??" Master White skeptical enough, asked bluntly.
"Just curiosity." Azrael with a shrug of his shoulders assured with no credibility.
"We will do them just like we did with the no-name protector." Master White's ears perked up after hearing that, and he considered entertaining Azrael more for the time being.
"Though this time it would be clean compared to before."
"We will amputate all of their limbs, and cauterize the wounds so that they won't bleed to death. But this still has one problem, we have to fool the brain. The brain of humans isn't programmed to such brutal techniques and will lead to complications that we can't afford for Rodrick."
"We somehow have to find a way to sedate the brain. To make it groggy, better unconscious or even.. silent. But not dead."
"It is easier said than done." The idea was great but it had a major flaw. Master White was reluctant and contemplative.
Both stayed silent and nobody had a solution.
At this time, their best support suddenly chimes in,
[You could master the ice element and freeze the mind.]
"But normal ice won't do.. maybe the ice laced with death could do the work, right system?!" Azrael doesn't question the how, he drowns in curiosity and just considers whether it was possible or not.
[Yes.]
"If we do that, it just becomes a magical cryopreservation of the brain. Theoretically it works, but we would have to experiment with the nobles, can't we do that White?!" His voice rose to a high pitch, carrying ecstasy of the thing that killed the cat. Azrael with his wide eyes and maniacal expression, looked insane.
Ava was a silent witness to all this. Knife still rhythmically scrapping the wood in the background providing a weird ambience.
The system's suggestion was theoretical at best, lethal at worst. But the alternative, discovering that the nobles had died in the sac was equally unacceptable.
"We have no other choice. Let's go with your arrangements." Master White replied after a long time. He for once thought, that Azrael's morbid curiosity would amount to something and seeing no other way out, he gave into his demands. Because for him, at best this experiment would work, and at worst he would kill both the nobles.
Master White doesn't concern himself with Rodrick's submission. As he sees it, he was already their slave one way or another. It was all Azrael who wanted obedience wholeheartedly. Master White doesn't care as long there was plain obedience.
The scratching which had become the ambient background gradually came to a halt, the knife had fallen to the ground, Ava saw all the expressions on Azrael this whole time, but didn't see the exchange with Master White. So she was scared, then doubtful and then bored. She stopped trying to understand. This was simply how he was the expressions, the silences, and abrupt conversations. Accepting that made it easier to bear. Exhaustion finally caught upto her and she involuntarily passed out.
Azrael's voice boomed enthusiastically in the mind space, "Great. I know you would understand me."
Master White unconsciously felt disgusted associating himself with this mania of Azrael, but somehow he had been roped in by that comment.
Without giving Master White time for a remark, Azrael turned to the system with impatience,
"System tell me, how should we master ice?"