"Brother Nick, you can't!" Shadow Two suddenly stood up in agitation. Those were his brothers, after all.
"It's out of my hands now. Their lives are in you Master's hands." Nick replied, with his eyes still closed.
Master Crow frowned slightly but his hands kept moving as if he didn't care about the lives of Shadows Three and Four. Either that or he still thought Nick was bluffing.
"Don't Master! I swear to you that Nick isn't lying! The place he has them stored isn't somewhere you can find!" Shadow Two was screaming by this point.
"Hmm." Master Crow seemed to have thought of something all of a sudden and he smirked.
"Wait a minute. Shadow Two, do you perhaps know where your brothers are being held captive?" Master Crow then turned to glance at Nick. Trying to gauge Nick's reaction to all of this. And to his excitement, Nick suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Shadow Two while frowning. From his expression, one could tell something was troubling him.
"Well, yes Master, I do, and I don't…" Shadow Two didn't know how to put it. He knew that Nick had transported them to the Palace, but he didn't know where exactly that Magical palace was located.
"What kind of nonsense is this?! Either you know or you don't! Why are you playing games all of a sudden?!" Master Crow stood up from his seat and began heading towards Shadow Two.
Shadow Two wouldn't do anything that would put his brothers at risk. And even when he came here and agreed to Nick's plan, it was on the premise that they would be safe. Shadow Two had even made Nick swear an oath on it. But now that things have gone this far, he didn't know what to do, if he did help Master Crow then he would lose the only leverage he had, but if he didn't Nick could end up killing them.
"Master, can't you just let us go? I promise that we will set Brother Three and Four free as soon as we get far enough." Shadow Two began pleading.
"Hehe, there's no use in negotiating now. Either tell me what I want to know, or I will make you tell me! You know that I have ways of making people talk." Master Crow now stood over the kneeling Shadow two.
Shadow Two shivered in fear. He knew exactly how masterful Crow was in the arts of interrogation. He had seen many people, much stronger and willful than him breaking in Master Crow's hands. But just as Shadow Two was trying to decide, Master Crow placed his hands-on Shadow Two's forehead and said, "Time's up!"
"Ahhh!" Shadow Two's eyes rolled backward and his pupils were no longer visible.
Shadow Radio, Third level! Mind reading!
This was the scary third and final level of the Shadow Radio technique that Master Crow has hidden from his disciples. And this level allowed him to read the minds of those that have cultivated the Shadow Radio technique, well, except for those at the third level at least, but since he only gave the Shadows the first two levels, this wouldn't be a problem.
The memories started…
The Shadows were chasing after Nick in the dark, but suddenly, Nick jumped onto one of the roofs and disappeared from their sight. And no matter how they looked they couldn't find him. So, they decided to split up and look around. And a few minutes later, Shadow Two returned to the roof, cursing his brothers and Crow out. Apparently, he felt like he would take the fall for Nick's disappearance even though it wasn't his fault. But then someone appeared behind him all of a sudden and knocked him out.
And then…a video began playing in the memory, of a cute little panda, rocking back and forth on a rocking chair, while knitting what seemed to be a sweater…and this went on for a long time until suddenly, Shadow One appeared in a forest. Master Crow recognized this forest, it was the one right in front of this mountain. Shadow Two then sent him that ridiculous message about peeing in his canteen and then had a little exchange of words with Nick, who was right beside him, and then…that panda returned and continued knitting, but this time, it was humming a tune.
Master Crow frowned, something seemed to be blocking him from seeing certain memories. Which he found odd since no one should be powerful enough to do so, especially remotely! And not only did some of the memories get blocked with the image of the panda popping up, the most annoying part was when it got to the juicy parts in the conversation and he could hear something crucial on Shadow Three and Five's whereabouts, but a loud Oink would also replace the words and a picture of a large foot would appear right beside the speaker's mouth preventing him from reading their lips!
"What is going on?! Shadow Two, tell me, where are your brothers?!" Master Crow roared and he pushed his powers to the limit while using the Shadow Radio.
But then…
"Ding! Warning! You are trying to read classified files related to the ******! Please, don't do it again. This is your first warning." Both Shadow Two and Master Crow had said this at the same time! They spoke in a monotone voice and resembled robots for a few seconds before they went back to normal. It seemed like the System didn't quite enjoy being pestered like this. And was sending out a warning.
"What is this?!" Master Crow let go of Shadow Two's forehead and stepped back multiple steps with his face dripping in sweat.
Nick's frown lifted as soon as he saw all this, and he immediately realized that Master Crow mustn't have gotten anything of value. Nick had been worried because he already knew about the third level of the Shadow Radio technique, and he didn't know if the system could keep the palace hidden even when someone was reading your memories, but it seems he had underestimated the system a little. And even though those above words were spoken by Shadow Two and Master Crow, that 'Ding!' had let Nick know that the one in control was the System.
"I don't believe I can't get the information out of you today!" Master Crow snapped and then went back to grab Shadow Two's forehead and began channeling even more energy into the skill, and one could see the veins on Shadow Two's forehead throbbing and his face twisting in pain, apparently, he couldn't take this much energy and it was hurting him.
"Ding! Warning! You are trying to read classified files related to the ******! Please, don't do it again. This is your second warning." The same thing happened again.
"What is going on here?!" Master Crow was close to losing his mind. Since when did he, the great assassin Crow become so weak until he couldn't even read the mind of someone at the transcendence realm?! And what was the warning about?! Who dares to warn him?!
Unable to believe it, Master Crow tried again, and with even more power this time. Causing Shadow Two's nose to start bleeding.
And…the same thing as before happened.
"Ding! Warning! You are trying to read classified files related to the ******! Please, don't do it again. This is your third, and final warning!" Both Master Crow and Shadow Two sounded serious when they sent out the warning this time. Which felt kind of weird since Master Crow was practically warning himself.
"Why not give up, Master, look, Shadow Two is on the brink of death! And you look tired as well, not to mention the fact that something weird is happening every time you try it." Shadow Five began pleading with his Master.
Master Crow looked at Shadow Two, who was bleeding excessively through his nose and then decided to try one more time before giving up. He wanted to know just what this mysterious entity would do once the warnings ran out.
"Ding! You have not heeded the warnings, So, you shall receive punishment!"
"Punishment lottery has been initiated, please wait a moment…"
"Ding! Congratulations, you will suffer from eternal baldness, and a minor blow to the chest!"
Psht!
And immediately Master Crow's hair caught fire! And yet, unlike regular fire, this fire was black and quick, and in just half a second Master Crow's hair was gone! But that wasn't the end of it! Right beside Master Crow's chest, a large vortex suddenly opened up, and although Master Crow had already regained control of his body, the entity within the vortex seemed to produce the pressure of the world because Master Crow found it hard to breathe let alone move in its presence! And from the vortex, a shriveled hand emerged, that had slowly stretched out, not in any hurry to attack. And finally, it calmly rested on Master Crow's chest…
Boom!
Master Crow's chest sunk and his bones broke as some of them punctured his lungs! But he still stood there as if he couldn't move and looked in horror as the hand calmly went back into the Dark vortex.
Boom!
Weirdly, as soon as the Dark vortex disappeared, Master Crow seemed to have just experienced the hit, as he flew away and crashed into his throne. Breaking it to smithereens in the process.
"Did you see me, brat?! Even though this man played with you like a toy, I just gave him one slap and he turned into a rag doll! Now, do you see how awesome I really am?!" Suddenly, the Old geezer began yapping in Nick's head, waking him up from his shocked state.
"That…was you?" Nick asked sarcastically. He didn't believe the Old bastard one bit.
"Hell yes, it was! Why?! You don't believe me?!" The Old geezer got irritated. He could have just done a random smack and then left but he had wanted to etch his awesomeness in Nick's head so he had shown off. But the bastard was now refusing to believe it was him that did it?!