"You sure are stubborn" Ray calmly cleaned his bloody hands as he addressed the man hanging in the cell by a couple of chains. This man was the assassin Mane and Abelard had captured. He was hanging in a makeshift jail cell in the basement. His face was so bloody that he could hardly be recognised. His entire body was in a similar state with a huge hole on the right side of his chest stealing the limelight.
"But even the densest of metals can be melted with the right technique and a powerful flame" the only other person in the room with the exception of Ray and the assassin stated coldly. He had his arms folded as he leaned on the wall and observed the entire interrogation process. His green eyes gleamed brightly as if he wanted to see through the assassin.
"You have to do more. You are a powerful spiritualist. Surely there must be a way to get the information without having to work this hard" Indra said. Ray wasn't a Spiritual God, but he was a Spiritual Emperor. If he wanted to pry the information out of the assassin's mouth he would be able to.
"I would rather not use such a method" Ray shook his head. It wasn't that he didn't have any other methods. Rather he didn't want to use the methods at his disposal.
"Would you be harmed?" Indra wondered. He didn't know much about spiritualists but from the little he knew, the techniques that could invade the minds of others didn't pose much of a threat to the spiritualist. The danger associated with most of those techniques was that they could backfire if they were used on someone with a powerful spirit. But this assassin was a measly earth realmer. Indra couldn't see any possible way Ray would suffer from a backlash.
"It wouldn't harm me. But I would rather not cause another to lose his mind" Ray sighed. He really didn't want to depend on 'that' skill. Normally he wouldn't be this reluctant. But when he thought about the fact that this assassin was Zandorian most of his courage will disappear. It wasn't because he had a soft spot for Zandorians. It was because he felt pity for them. He didn't need a genius to tell him that whoever this Master person was, he/she was related to the Dark God Seth. Zandorians were just pawns in the Dark One's game.
"Your son mentioned that they fought Possesseds. You heard what he said. If we don't find out who the Master is, how will Mane even know where to start? We must leave this person to him and his team so that we can focus on the Dark God." Indra tried to convince Ray that invading the assassin's consciousness was the right thing to do.
"I know that you are right" Ray sighed sadly. Indra was correct. Mane said he wanted to find a way to break the Possession skill without having to kill the person. His son couldn't just start his investigations. He needed a thread to follow. He needed to know where it all began – and with whom it began with. The where was the Eastern Empire. But it was a big place. They needed to narrow down the location. So they needed the 'whom'. This 'whom' was the Master.
"I'm sorry" Ray apologized to the assassin who already knew that there was something wrong. Although he wasn't being spoken to directly, his fuzzy consciousness understood that it had to do with his fate. One of his captors wanted the other to use a particular method to glean the information out of his mind. But for some strange reason the other one was unwilling to resort to such means – whatever they were. The assassin smirked disdainfully. To him the brown haired man was a hypocrite. After doing all this to him and bringing him so much pain, he was trying to act all nice and was even apologizing.
"No matter" the assassin thought. It was clearly a plan to trick him into revealing the status of the Master by letting him believe that they were regretful of their actions and wished to make amends. The assassin didn't even consider that they could invade his consciousness and take what they wanted. To him that wasn't possible unless they were part of the Northern Empire's royal family. But the assassin had seen the members of that royal family. None of these men were amongst them. Besides, he was brought into the Western Empire so that wasn't possible.
"Don't resist. That's the only way you can come out of this alive" Ray warned. However the assassin didn't pay him any mind. Why should he listen to the words of his torturer?
"Augendae: Invadendi" Ray augmented his lease. He didn't know if any restrictions had been placed on the assassin's soul so he had to be careful. The assassin shook violently once the lease was casted. He shook like one being viciously strangled. This continued for about half a minute before he finally ceased trembling. However his body still twitched from time to time.
"So?" Indra didn't even care about the assassin. He wasn't a resident of Zandor neither was he a philanthropist who had to worry about this person who had tried to kill children. He wanted something else.
"I know who the Master is" Ray had a surprised expression on his face after going through the assassin's memories. The assassin had met the Master only once – when he was receiving his blessing.
"In fact we both know who this person is" Ray smiled bitterly and said.
"Oh? Who?" Indra's curiosity was peaked.
"Remember the Assassins Association's Head?" Ray asked.
"Yeah" Indra nodded. Of course he remembered the man. He had used one of the man's men to spy on him for a very long time so he remembered.
"Are you saying-" Indra realized what Ray was trying to say.
"Yeah I am" Ray rubbed his temples in exhaustion. He still couldn't believe it. Someone he could have easily killed a few months ago was now an underling of the Dark God. He assumed that the man had accepted to be the Dark God's minion, but he didn't think the Dark God would regard him so highly that he would centre his plan for world domination on his shoulders.
"If he's the one giving the blessings then it means he isn't a normal servant" Indra rubbed his chin and said.
"Yeah" Ray assented. An average servant wouldn't be capable of sharing his master's power with others. Unless the servant was a high leveled one, it would be impossible.
"Brimstone" Ray quickly disposed of the assassin. The man had lost his mind now. Apart from his occasional mumbles and twitching, he could do nothing else. All Ray could do was put him out of his misery. He couldn't use normal flames because it would take a bit of time to completely burn the body. That would be painful. So he used brimstone. It burned the man to crisp before his feeble consciousness could register what was happening.
"You know, I am curious about something" Indra suddenly said.
"What?" Ray wondered.
"You are a lightening elementalist. I am also one so I can feel their presence around you. Yet you hardly use it. Why?" Indra was truly curious about this. He was a powerful lightening elementalist himself so he could feel that the lightening energy coursing through Ray's veins weren't weak. They rivaled his! Yet the Brute King rarely resorted to using lightening. Apart from his carnage in the Northern Empire where he destroyed the Assassins Association's Headquarters, Indra hadn't seen the man use lightening again.
"That? I'm not sure. I guess I hadn't used it for so long that I forgot it was there" Ray said innocently.
Indra almost threw up in anger upon hearing his explanation. Lightening was one of the most destructive elements in the universe. Many would be elated if they could command it, yet this god could but didn't. And even scarier was that he seemingly had little training in using it yet from his display in the Northern Empire a few months back he was highly talented in it. If he trained it properly he would be unstoppable!
"I guess I would have to focus more on it though" Ray mumbled. He didn't like to use lightening when he was younger because he didn't like his father then. But he had grown so used to fire that he didn't really depend on lightening. He only used it a few months ago so that people would rule out the murder of the Assassins Association as a natural disaster.
But he couldn't ignore it any longer. Not for himself but for Mane. His son was unconsciously taking his father's route. Mane rarely used lightening. In fact his son's understanding of the element was limited to his passive glow 'Son of Lightening'. That had to change.
He needed to understand lightening better so he could help his son in his training. He didn't want the boy to go looking for Indra.
"He's here" Ray stated and looked at the door. Indra nodded in reply. He could also feel the presence of the young life approaching the door. Ray thought about the identity of the Master and smiled bitterly
"I guess he would have to clean his father's mess"