"So you're telling me you found incredible logs of all of the activity here, but no name for the person behind this whole thing?" asked Striga reading through one of the log books with a revolted face.
"That's the one, yeah," said Donis, bitterly.
"Well, I mean good work kiddo. Don't worry too much about that for now, you've been a help to incriminate the people who've bought the slaves here," she replied, patting his shoulder with her free hand.
They were currently back in the banquet hall, with all of the slaves surrounding them. They were wolfing down the food as if it was their first meal in days. Donis didn't have the heart to ask if it really was or not.
There was plenty of clothing left over from when they were all kidnapped and there was food to last months upon months.
"It looks like this 'master' of theirs loved to host parties, huh? Like, look at this chicken leg, it's juicy and of high quality," said Jimmy as he bit into a gorgeously crispy chicken leg.
"I can't even imagine what sort of people would have no qualms with coming here and having a party, eating, and laughing in the wake of absolute misery around them," sighed John.
"It doesn't look like he liked sharing his food with the slaves here," said Cypher as she pointed towards the scrawny, and clearly malnourished slaves behind her.
"That's what I'm saying. Maybe he's gonna come back? Gark, when does your master usually return?" asked Jimmy with his mouth full.
"How can you even eat like that?" asked Rona, unable to even look at food right now.
"Well, in my line of work, you see all sorts of horrors. Ya get used to it," he said after gulping down a mug of fine quality ale.
"U-uh, the master, he comes back once every month! I think anyway, I'm not sure, he tells me it's once a month..." said Gark solemnly.
"No worries little one, your help is appreciated nonetheless!" said Striga.
Gark smiled at the giantess in front of him. She easily towered above him, and initially he was scared of her, but her constant calm demeanour really helped him get over it. Striga knew of her imposing nature, so she spent a lot of extra time with Gark to try and get him to open up to the scariest one in the group.
After all of the slaves were well fed, and satiated, the group felt a little bit more at comfort knowing that no one was going to die on their watch.
They took it upon themselves to count the people imprisoned here, and they totalled to 65 women of all ages, and 3 young men.
They split up once again to try and scour the place of any and all hints towards the vile figure behind it all. Never certain of what was or wasn't a clue, they all brought back a slew of items to the centre of the banquet hall.
It had decently piled up with notebooks, pictures; both drawn and taken magically, and other assortment of items. To go through all of it would take hours, days, weeks, they're not sure. All they knew is that they didn't have that sort of time.
Morick suggested to the group that they give all of the evidence to the RI, or maybe even bring this up to some official that isn't on the list in the logs, so they know that they will be punished. Though to know who isn't in the log books would still require them to read through everything.
"Giving this up to the RI could compromise the mission as well. We don't actually know how far their reaches go," pointed out Striga.
"Anyway, we'll figure this out in a bit, I have some news. I figured out where the entry and exit is. Turns out that whoever the master is, they found this place years ago through a separate entry point. Our entry was like the main hall, and they found the backdoor!" she continued.
As soon as she said that smiles erupted all around. At least there was a way out now!
Donis had stayed quiet the entire time, brooding and unable to eat the food at the table. He took some food from his [Inventory] and munched on that as he couldn't bring himself to eat the same food that was being dangled in front of the people they just saved.
"How are we going to deal with this? What can we even do?" asked Donis in an increasingly dispirited tone.
"This is going to be really really hard. I don't think we can do anything right now, since the only people we can trust is ourselves. I think we should bring these back to our headquarters and research everything ourselves, and until we get a clear image of what's going on, say nothing to the government," said Cypher.
"Good idea Cyph," said Striga.
"Alright, then what about the 68 people behind you? We don't have enough space in the headquarters for them!" pointed out Donis.
Hearing this, the people began trembling, fearing the worst. They didn't want to be left alone again, to be discarded. They were just shown embers of hope, and they didn't want it to be snuffed out so quickly just yet.
"Look, we'll bring them back there and discuss our further motives, okay?" sighed Striga.
"Wh-what about me?" asked Gark meekly.
"Don't worry, you wont be left alone little one!" smiled Striga.
A quick sigh of relief escaped Garks lips.
"So, the goblin has revolted?" spoke a deep voice from behind them.
The entire group turned their heads and saw a man standing covered in all black. His eyes and face were covered by a mask made of what looked like belts, with only a single hole for an eye. Easily standing at 195cm, and a broad build, the man looked imposing.
There was dark red flames beginning to grow in the air around him. He looked like a demon coming from hell, and that's exactly what the former prisoners thought so too. It didn't take long for screams to penetrate the silence.
They threw themselves into action, and Striga launched the first [Dark Lightning], and took out her Corpse Carver. Everyone else shot out their signature spells and took their weapons. Within just seconds the air was littered with screams of spells and not people, for it was deafening.
The cloaked man responded by creating a shield made of the dark red flames which absorbed the barrage of spells unleashed upon him. As soon as the barrage ended, the flames were snuffed out.
"Oh? That's a lot of firepower for a pitiful group like yourselves," laughed the cloaked man in a disguised voice. It was like listening to a voice being passed through metal grating of varying pitches and tones.
Gark was horrified at the display and tears began flowing down his face. The supposed power of the group that was just about to save him wasn't enough to stop the master right in front of them.
Donis was able to get a good look at the master in front of them, but something obstructed his vision.
The only thing that came up when Donis [Inspected] the master was question marks. Two options popped into Donis's mind. It was either some sort of device to stop people from being [Inspected], or it was another Champion, blessed by a god. The second option would have never come into his mind if not for the previous encounter with Variis, and knowing Variis, Donis didn't quite believe in chance encounters.
He still didn't know how to differentiate them, but those dark red flames weren't registered in the [System] when he saw them being summoned. It gave him a foreboding feeling.
"Gark, I knew you were worthless, but even now you surprise me. Betraying me? After all of the love I've shown you? Die along them so," said the master.
With those words, the dark red flames turned into runic writing that resembled ancient Hran. A sea of dark red flames spewed out of the writing and threatened to envelop the group.