Ozul woke up to find Raven and Blaze training at one side while a big 'worm' squirming on the other.
Blaze was not an expert in tying up a man, so he had just wrapped all the rope around him, which made the man look like a wiggling worm whenever he tried to move.
They had not bothered with the man as they were waiting for Ozul to wake up.
Ozul yawned before clearing his eyes and stood up. He arrived before the 'squirming worm' as he gestured towards Blaze to untie him.
The guy even had his mouth and ears covered, how could he understand anything in that state?
When the man could finally say something, he started yelling;
"You Vile Evil Creatures! You Destroyed My Cultivation!!!"- The man screamed furiously. Only now, when Ozul looked at his face, did he notice the crescent tattoo on the man's neck.
"Evil Creatures, you say? Funny when it is coming from you."- Ozul said with his emotionless face. He continued;
"So, tell me..."- Just as he was talking, the already enraged man started yelling;
"I will not tell you Anything!!! I will never betray my God! I will never reveal my comrades' location to you; I don't care if you kill me now!..."- The man had lost all his cultivation, living would only be a torment for him.
"Done? Now tell me, what did you steal from the Duke?"- Ozul said with a deadpan face when the man was finished with his gibberish.
The man only glared at Ozul with his bloodshot eyes and did not say anything. When Blaze noticed that he wouldn't speak as quickly as the thug, he arrived before him. Just as he was about to hit him though, Ozul stopped him.
"Don't bother... He is a fanatic from an Evil Cult. And you don't know how to torture... He will die before he speaks."- Ozul knew that it would be hard to crack him if the torturer was not a professional.
'Oliver must have professionals...'- Ozul thought as he was planning to take this guy to him. He did not care if Count Oliver would also get his hands on the information.
The situation did not seem any threatening to him, but he was getting a bit anxious for some reason. Surely the lost item couldn't be one of his limbs, right?
Blaze again wrapped the man's mouth with rope and put it on his shoulder. It wasn't a challenge for him since he had advanced to a Rank-2 Fighter.
. . .
Sometime later, Ozul and the team arrived at Count Oliver's Manor. No one dared to stop them when they entered through the gate.
It appeared as the garden had become Count Oliver's favorite spot since whenever Ozul came, he saw Oliver there these days.
He did not appear in a good mood since his face was all scrunched up as he read the files in his hands.
When he saw Ozul coming, his expression eased a little. But when he saw the tied up man on the shoulder of Blaze, his face lit up.
He expectantly looked towards Ozul to confirm his guess, and he was overjoyed when Ozul nodded in response.
"He won't say anything... you have experts here, right?"- Ozul asked Count Oliver as the man on Blaze's shoulder began to thrash his body around.
However, this only caused Blaze to throw the man on the ground—which hurt quite a lot.
"Haha! Of course, I have experts."- Count Oliver was in a good mood as he gestured towards Butler Albert.
There had been no report of results from any other city surrounding the Capital! However, the capture of this man changed things.
And he would be the first person to report any result of his investigations! His higher-ups would surely reward him for this.
Butler Albert picked up the man and went inside the building, and soon the screams of despair could be heard even outside.
Ozul and the rest did not have to wait much longer as it took only an hour, and Butler Albert was back with the man.
However, the man seemed completely different than before. He was not tied by the ropes anymore, but he did not dare to run.
Some of his fingers were missing while the ones that were left had their nails removed! His left arm was twisted backward as he hissed in pain with each step he took.
There were burns on his other arm as fresh blood kept oozing out of it. It seemed that the torturer had first cut the skin open and then burned the flesh from inside!
His gory appearance would have caused anyone to puke, but all of the people here had seen worst. They had no sympathy for him since he was the one who refused to talk.
"So, you're ready to talk?"- Ozul asked towards the now half-dead man.
The man hurriedly nodded his head when he heard the question. He even wanted to die during the torture session, but no matter how much he tried, he could not kill himself.
"Now tell me, what do you know about the thing... that you guys stole from Duke Edwin?"- Ozul did not care about all the kidnapped children or other strange events.
"I... I don't k-know m-much about t-that thing."- The man occasionally stuttered as he replied. He was afraid that these people would not believe him and torture him again.
"Tell me everything that you know."- Ozul was getting impatient now as he had already wasted an hour here, which irritated him, and now the man was stuttering every other word!
"I only know t-that there are r-rumors that the item i-is something that a G-God left here. The leader needed t-that item for his master plan."- The man explained everything he knew.
Even though there was no hint of the item being one of his 'parts', Ozul's suspicious only grew stronger. He did not care about the God part as they were nothing but rumors.
When the man finished his explanation, Ozul kept staring at him as if asking for more.
"I don't know anything else..."- The man was scared shitless of his stares. What if that guy decided to torture him again?!
Ozul sighed as he knew that the guy was not lying. He stepped aside for the Count to do the rest of the questions.
"Who are you guys?"- Oliver asked. He wanted to know which famous cult was behind these events.
"W-we call ourselves the 'Eclipse's Order'. You wouldn't know because we were lying low before this."- The man began to explain.