"Hahaha! Not a bad catch," Asura chuckled. "She'll do the dirty work for us. She'll really make a good assassin. I saw the pursuit of great art in her eyes!"
"Yes, that's all you can think about," I replied, taking out a folding table, various knives, preparations, and some other torture devices from my spatial bracelet.
"I am merely a humble artist whose canvas is human lives," Asura feigned being a poet. "If you have trouble with the torture, just call, and I'll come to help you right away."
"Certainly, my friend," I replied dryly, laying out all the tools on the table and taking out a folding chair.
I injected the light mage and the woman with a sedative; I wanted to leave them for last, so to speak, for dessert. Gradually, Vita brought the others, or rather, she dragged them, as she was too weak to lift them. I put all the mid-level mages to sleep, and simply hung the three low-level mages. They should wake up soon, after which the fun will begin. Among these three mages were two young guys, about twenty to twenty-five years old, and one girl, around the same age. She was quite pretty, but nothing more. Also, while no one had woken up yet, I removed all their clothes, so ten mages were left hanging in the basement unconscious, naked as they were born.
"This..." Vita's voice was heard from the corner of the basement as I began to undress the mages. She blushed slightly, but given the general situation, she understood what was about to happen. Soon, the first guy, a low-level mage, woke up.
"What? Where am I?" he began to struggle, looking around. "Who are you, how dare you do this to us!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Then he noticed Vita, who had shrunk into the corner, covering her face with her hands, not wanting to see what was about to happen, but she also didn't intend to leave. Although I hadn't ordered her to stay. "You're Vita, right? Help me kill this guy while he's asleep!" the guy shouted. I deliberately pretended to be asleep, sitting on a chair.
"Huh?" Vita looked up and looked first at this mage, then at me. "I won't kill him, I serve him now!" she said confidently, hiding her face again.
"Disgusting! Scum! How dare you betray us! You traded your worthless life for us? Is that why this guy found us? Wait, the elders will find out and kill both you and him! And then they'll find that Jiaxing Yun and take his dragon's tooth!" the mage began to scream incessantly. Vita sat silently, trying to ignore him.
"Vita," I said, deciding that remaining silent was useless. As soon as I spoke, the guy fell silent. "You know who he is, right? Is he an important person in the clan?"
"No, sir, he's just like me, an outer circle student sent here for experience," she replied calmly, looking up at me.
"I see. Just don't call me sir. If you don't want to use my name, it's better to call me teacher," I said, standing up from the chair.
"Okay, teacher," she nodded, but there were no further movements from her.
"What are your relations with him?" I asked Vita. A thought came to my mind. This promised to be amusing.
"What kind of relations can I have with her? She's a loser who can't control her stars properly! Her natural talent is even defective; her inner world simply can't contain her poison energy, and she poisons her body! Ha, she's a complete loser! I don't know why you kept her, but if you did, you're a complete fool!" the mage began to scream like a madman upon hearing my words. I continued to wait for Vita's answer, examining his quite sturdy body.
"We..." she hesitated slightly, but seeing that I was patiently waiting for her answer, she continued. "Actually, he annoyed me quite a lot. He was the one who bullied me back in Russia."
"What are you talking about, you fool! When did that happen!" the mage began to scream as soon as he heard her words.
"I see, Vita, come here," I said, smiling slightly. She hesitantly stood up and came to me, standing next to her, opposite the mage. "You can create a poison star path, right?" I asked, receiving a nod in response. "Then use your magic to slowly poison him. The main thing is that he doesn't die instantly after the first contact with the poison."
"Okay," Vita said, extending her hands and creating a greenish haze of poison at the fingertips, gradually, a little uncertainly, bringing it to the mage's right side.
All this time, this guy was screaming and yelling, threatening and cursing. This caused Vita's concentration to falter a couple of times, and the spell didn't disappear. Seeing where she was trying to bring the poison, I slightly lowered her hand and directed it a little to the left, precisely opposite his groin. From these actions, she blushed and became embarrassed, but did not resist, only brought her hand very close to his dignity.
At such a short distance, the cloud of poison easily transferred to him and began to spread through his flesh. Such a scream of pain arose that even the dead would have woken up, and the sight of his flesh disintegrating was nauseating. Pieces of meat literally fell off him, his skin turned green, and blood flowed through all the cracks. Gradually, the poison rose higher, corroding his organs. His legs quickly turned into a bloody mess. He had already stopped screaming, lowering his head, his eyes were empty, devoid of life, but he was still alive.
From what she saw, Vita vomited, and she staggered back to her corner. I also felt sick from such a spectacle, but my training from long hunts helped me maintain self-control and watch all his torment. If they hadn't kidnapped Lin Yun Er, their death would have been easy. From his screams, the two remaining low-level mages woke up and stared at him silently, not daring to utter a word.
"Well, now it's your turn, right?" I asked, turning to the two remaining mages. They swallowed hard, seeing how the remnants of the mage's flesh were gradually turning into a liquid. Quite strong magic, most likely decomposition, an accompanying effect, and judging by the reaction, she herself didn't know about it. Not bad, I like it. "Vita, are they someone important?" I asked the same question again.
"No, they are like me, trainees, just like that guy," she said, raising her head. When she saw what her poison had done, her eyes almost popped out of their sockets in horror. And she herself vomited. Unlike the first guy, these two silently watched everything that was happening, apparently resigned to their fate.
"Well, I'll question you in more detail," I said, seeing their cooperativeness. "Do you know any clan secrets? Anything interesting about it, any information will shorten your suffering."
After my words, they started babbling everything, telling me that the clan's disciples were divided into outer, inner, and successors, those who would take the place of the elders and the leader. Much more interesting stuff, but I already knew most of it, thanks to the report about the guardians I had bought. So I didn't bother with them for long and, to their screams, began the torture.
First, I injected them with painkillers, not very strong, but they would numb the pain for a while. Then I ripped out their fingernails, cut off their legs and arms, and tormented their bodies in every possible way. Soon, the painkillers wore off, and the pain hit their heads with immense force. They screamed in agony, but another drug prevented them from falling unconscious, making them feel everything as vividly as possible. I can't imagine what was going on in their heads, but they probably will never be able to return to a normal life; their psyche is completely damaged. In the end, I got tired of playing with their bodies and injected them with a strong drug that would quickly kill an ordinary person, but since they were mages, they would first experience a whole spectrum of hallucinations, and only then would their hearts stop beating.
There were five remaining mid-level mages, including three girls, a light mage, and the main female mage, who was last in line. All the time I was torturing the two mages, Vita sat in the corner and trembled; I even felt a little sorry for her.
"Who are these five mages?" I asked Vita. "If you tell me, you can go upstairs. You shouldn't see what's going to happen here yet."
"They are outer circle apprentice mages. All except that woman; she is an inner circle disciple. She brought us here and was in charge. It was she who called you and arranged the meeting, Master," Vita said, her voice trembling slightly, but besides the tremor, her voice was filled with reverence and respect. It was a rather strange combination.
"Alright, you can go," I said, waving my hand. "Sleep somewhere upstairs. When I'm done, we'll go buy you some clothes; I don't think you have many."
"Yes, Master, thank you, Master," she said, getting up from the corner, bowing slightly, and walking upstairs unsteadily, holding onto the wall. During the half-hour torture, she had vomited three times; this spectacle was still too much for her.
After waking the five mages, I asked them questions, but they couldn't tell me anything new. They said the clan was in a very difficult situation, lacking money. Moreover, the Khabarovsk clan, their old rival, was trying to seize as much land and resources as possible. They complained a lot that the monsters had become more aggressive lately and were attacking the clan's lands more often, and that they were glad they were sent to look for some snot-nosed kid. However, they had no significant contacts with other guardians in China.
For their torture, I decided to try injecting them with a different drug, a weaker one, but one that amplified all sensations. I started with the guys, firstly, there were fewer of them, and secondly, a special program was prepared for the ladies. Gradually, I ripped out fingernail after fingernail, then moved on to their teeth. Then I started cutting off finger after finger. Yes, I didn't have much variety in torture, and my imagination wasn't quite geared for it. But I tried to do everything so that their souls would be engraved with what happens to those who dare to harm my loved ones, especially Lin Yun'er.
The basement was full of small iron pipes, which also came into play, blocking all unnecessary passages for both girls and guys. Their screams echoed in my ears, gradually drowning out the hellish flames that had been raging in my soul all this time, and filling the void left by the conversation with Lin Yun'er and parting with her. Gradually, the guys stopped screaming; after checking their pulse, I realized their hearts had simply stopped.
After that, I moved on to the girls. They were already writhing, hanging from ropes attached to the ceiling hook, due to the iron pipes left in place. I didn't rip out their fingernails; instead, I slashed open their chests. Blood and fat flowed out, their breasts deflated before my eyes, sticking to their bodies. After that, I moved on to the standard fingernail-ripping, but I left their teeth, not wanting to spoil their smiles. They shrieked, screamed, tore their throats from unbearable pain, but what I used didn't let them die. They were lucky; I didn't have enough time to fully enjoy the torture, just one night. So, I didn't use medicine to keep them alive; they found relief from their suffering in death. But seeing that they were at their limit, I used a slightly modified cursed seal again to inflict maximum damage on their souls. However, the seal gradually weakened, and its effect became less and less. I'll have to buy some new ones, along with bait, because I've run out of everything.
"Simply a work of art, albeit a crude one," Asura interjected amidst the screams of pain, clearly enjoying the spectacle.
"I can't agree with you. It looks quite disgusting," I replied with disgust. "However, they must all understand what awaits those who have angered me. They made a big mistake by capturing Lin Yun'er. But the most interesting part is yet to come," I said, looking at the light mage and the inner circle disciple.