Yasenia looked in the direction the attack came from and spoke coldly. "Clara."
Clara, Cecile's maid with light brown skin, silver hair, and silver eyes, stepped forward.
Yasenia ordered, full of killing intent. "Take a five-man group and hunt them down."
Clara bowed and disappeared, four other maids following right after.
Clara moved through the water at an extremely high speed, her massive spiritual sense expanding outward for hundreds of kilometers. Even underwater, the extra resistance was minimal.
Her silver eyes shone, looking around for traces and even scanning the ocean currents to see any deviations. While they were on missions, they called each other by numbers, so Clara used a communication device that every maid had and ordered. "Five, go east and follow the slope; Four, accelerate and go straight forward; when I ask you, turn right. One, Two, and Three, come with me."
Clara went northeast at her quickest speed, flashing through the ocean like a mirage. Her silver eyes moved around constantly, searching for hints or energy traces. After a while, she stopped and approached a small rock at the side. 'Hm, a small shockwave moved the sand here recently. Probably, this is the spot where they shot from.'
With that in mind, Clara compressed her spiritual sense to a few hundred meters, but everything in the area entered her mind and was methodically dissected.
Her mind processed everything at ridiculous speeds as her [Hunt Intent] searched for traces all around the place. "One and Two go left from here. Three, follow me."
Clara's group of four separated and rushed in two opposite directions. Their figures blurred as they covered more and more areas, using their spiritual senses coordinately to search for clues. Just then, Clara's pupils shrunk as she found a small whirlpool 17 kilometers southwest. "All of you follow my energy pulse and surround the following area."
A ripple extended from her in an instant, covering hundreds of kilometers. All the maids that followed her made turns and covered large amounts of land with precision.
Only 20 seconds had passed since Clara started her hunt, but she was already on their tail.
While rushing through complex coral structures and other oceanic formations, she saw a broken coral and approached. She sniffed it with a technique to follow scent trails underwater and then closed her eyes, her senses spreading outward at insane speeds.
After half a second, Clara's eyes flew open, glowing softly. Energy gathered toward her, creating a powerful whirlpool. Then, she took out her bow, decisively pointing to her right and drawing it to a full moon. Her back muscles perfectly coordinated as the heavy bow bent, and then she released a single arrow.
BOOM!
The recoil from the Half-step Dantian Spiritualization arrow created a void in the ocean as it pierced through everything, creating a circular path that Maid Three followed in an instant.
After a few moments, Clara's lips arched coldly. There was a small energy fluctuation about 47 kilometers in the direction she shot the arrow. 'I found you.'
Meanwhile, a group of five people were moving at an extremely high speed through complex subaquatic biomes and erasing their traces as they moved. One of them, a merman, complained. "What the hell was that arrow? We barely dodged, and it came from who knows how far… How did she know?"
A mermaid looked sideways with a cold expression as they never stopped moving. "Less speaking and more running. We are only 15 seconds away from entering the [Missing Chasm]. There, regardless of their strength, they won't be able to catch up."
The other four nodded as they moved quickly.
They dipped down a small opening, passed through many complex caves, and after five seconds, they appeared in a small opening that connected their current cave system with the next one.
However, when they appeared there, they saw a human woman holding a sword and wearing a maid outfit falling down on them like a raptor bird.
The sword of that woman twisted the water around as a massive crescent of pure energy shot at them.
They quickly defended themselves with body-strengthening skills.
BOOM!
A shark man, the leader of the group, exclaimed. "Disperse!"
All five of them regained their balance after being flung by the large explosion and shot in five different directions.
The maid decisively chose one of them and quickly followed after.
Three seconds later, the rest rejoined at a previously planned meeting point, but the one the maid chose to follow was missing. The mermaid anxiously said. "Almost all our routes have been cut; they are slowly trapping us in."
The shark man frowned and made a quick judgment of the situation. "Let's use the dark caves route. Although it's a bit dangerous because of that thing, we can use it to distract or even kill them."
They all nodded and quickly zipped through another complex cave system, eventually appearing in an open, large cave surrounded by algae and coral-filled rocks.
As they crossed through this large expanse with a large and gloomy hole in the middle, massive algae shot from that hole toward them.
Already expecting it, the shark man used all of his high-level Epoch Core strength and swung his fist at them.
BOOOM!
The cave shook but unexpectedly didn't blow up, showing extraordinary duress.
The algae that shot at them were blasted to bits. "Move quickly. This was just a testing move. The real one will come quickly after."
Right then, they saw a brown-skinned, silver-haired woman appear from the entrance they had just used, holding a bow and aiming at them with an indifferent face.
The shark man shouted. "DODGE!"
"[Moon Shaking Arrow]."
WHOOOM!
With a deep and buzzing sound that an arrow should not make when releasing, a tremendous energy wave followed the attack, freezing everything solid even at the depths they currently were.
The faces of the four people became pale as terror filled their bodies. 'What kind of strength is this!?'
The arrow exploded, encasing the four of them in silvery ice without a chance to resist. Of course, it wasn't permanent, and the four of them were releasing all their strength crazily, slowly fracturing the ice that surrounded them.
Clara was about to move forward, but she felt something from the large hole, and her eyes moved indifferently to look at it. Then, she saw thousands of algae shot from a hole and even the ones on the walls that avoided being frozen shot at her.
The four people encased in the silvery ice could still look outside, so they became delighted.
Clara didn't give it another look and ordered. "Stop it."
Four maids broke through the solid ceiling, making the cave collapse. However, quicker than the cave collapsing, the four maids used their melee weapons to slice all the algae into pieces. One of them asked. "Zero, do we engage in combat with that?"
Clara shook her head. "No need. One, Two, and Four distract it while Five and I collect them."
The maids with the nicknames One, Two, and Four quickly dived into the black hole, and explosions began reverberating in the surroundings, making everything shake.
Five and Clara quickly opened the ice and captured all of them, tying their bodies with [Immortal Binding Ropes].
Clara commented. "Let's go. Three have already captured the last one."
One, Two, and Four exited the hole, and Clara was surprised to see that they had a few cuts on their bodies. She gave a deep look at the hole, but she didn't stay in this place any longer, and they all went back.
Yasenia was waiting on the other side, and one person from the mercenary group sneered. "You think your servants can catch them? You are dreaming. They are all trained assassins with thousands of years on their backs. As if a child like you can even begin to follow their trail."
Yasenia looked at the mercenary group leader and nodded. "You are right. I probably would be unable to do so." Suddenly, in the distance, several meteor-like lights appeared. Yasenia smirked coldly. "Thankfully, my maids aren't me."
After a few seconds, Clara and the rest of the maids reappeared in front of Yasenia, holding five maimed aquatic beast humans wearing similar-themed clothes. The mercenary leader's eyes widened. "H-How?"
Yasenia ignored him and approached. The fact that there were mermaids here meant nothing to Yasenia. It wasn't strange when some people from a race decided to deviate from the main group. She would naturally ask, but this didn't increase her doubts about the Mermaid Queen or anything.
Yasenia approached the five people tied in ropes. "I suppose that you are part of that… How was it called? Right, the [Seabed Assassin Coral Sect]." Yasenia saw that the five of them were expressionless, but she continued talking as if she didn't see their indifference. "Answer, why were you targeting me? If the answer is not satisfactory, one of you will die until I kill all of you."
One of them, the merman, spat blood at Yasenia, staining the water before his mouth. Still, that attack was blocked by one of the maids, and nothing touched Yasenia. The man smiled coldly. "Then, kill us."
Yasenia's lips arched chillingly, her golden-red eyes flashing with wicked joy. "I see. You are trained." Yasenia crouched down, looking at that person eye-to-eye. "You know, when my mother trained me in torture methods, the people I loved torturing the most were trained assassins. The satisfaction and sense of achievement after a stubborn and trained assassin finally breaks and spills all their secrets was like a cold drink on a hot day."
Yasenia didn't see any changes in their expression, but with her incredibly sharp senses as a dragon, she felt a slight unnatural twitch appearing in his body.
Her lips arched further and she asked lowly. "You see. Usually, you wouldn't have to be too scared. After all, I do not rejoice in torturing. However, this time, someone attacked my daughter." Yasenia laughed, but those who heard that laugh only felt their bodies tremble. "So… Will you become my torture practice subjects, or will you spill where your sect is, why did you attack us, and who asked your sect to attack us?"
The man in front of Yasenia smiled and spat at her again. Yasenia froze the water in front of his spit, blocking it, and then took the small disc of ice she created and used the sharp edge to slice one eye of that assassin.
Seeing the assassin's expression not change after he lost an eye, she flicked the ice disc away and clapped once. "Perfect~. You are better trained than average. Usually, after losing an eye, people react. But you managed to resist. You are excellent training subjects."
Yasenia turned around and beckoned Kaleina and Flame with a hand gesture. "Kaleina, Flame, come here. Mom will teach you torture."
The spirits, looking from the side, gulped.
Spirits were very easygoing creatures, so torture was something that none of them did. Even the "evilest" spirits would just involuntarily torture. For example, a Death Spirit that fed on negative emotions would possess a creature and show them fear just to nourish themselves. Still, it wasn't something done to make the other party suffer but more of a natural instinct.
If the spirits had a deep vendetta with someone, they would just annihilate them and everything related to it, most of the time, indiscriminately.
So, Yasenia's following actions would be something that made a few of them have a 180-degree change in how they looked at Yasenia.
They thought that she was a powerful dragon, but because of her soft side toward her family and her gentle personality toward Soluna, they felt that she was quite a good creature.
However…
"AAAHHHH!!! I'LL SPEAK! I'LL SPEAK! PLEASE LET ME DIE!!!"
Seeing the assassin who had many parts of their body where they shouldn't be, as even the nerves and meridians were visible and being touched by certain substances, they decided that making Yasenia their enemy would be placed on a black list. Somehow, they felt that Yasenia would know methods for torturing a spirit.
Kaleina blinked as her claw severed one of the nerves. "Mommy, they told us that they want to speak. Do we end here?"
Yasenia patted her head. "A little bit more. We are almost done with the lesson."
"STOP! PEASE! I'LL SPEAK! I SWEAR TO THE HEAVENS THAT I'LL SPEAK!"
Flame, ignoring the shouts of the man, used her fire to burn a meridian, which brought about another stream of ghostly wails that could create nightmares for normal people, and looked at Yasenia with curiosity. "Aunty Yasenia, why do I need to heal this meridian with this liquid after I burned it?"
Yasenia smiled softly and explained. "After feeling too much pain, trained people gain a small amount of resistance, so with this liquid, we can regenerate all the nerves, making the "accustomed" nerves be reborn and returned to their original state before the torture started. Moreover, we increase the sensitivity by enhancing their energy conductivity for a few hours. In turn, the pain becomes fresh and even stronger again."
Flame nodded with an enlightened expression. "I see. So, if I do this…" Flame dug into the man and used her flames to burn something deep inside him, making the trained assassin convulse. Then, she used a liquid Yasenia lent her, healing that part. "… He shouts really loudly!"
Yasenia looked at the screaming man and used her tail to decapitate him. He was getting too noisy. "That's right, Flame. You both did a great job; come, give Mommy a hug."
Flame and Kaleina smiled softly and dug into Yasenia's arms, sniffing her relaxing scent. Even if they were taught to have less sensibility and empathy in these aspects, there was hidden stress that could build up.
So, Yasenia used her body to relax their nerves and rewrite the possibly bad experience with her hug and pampering.
After ten minutes, she released both children, and her eyes turned toward another assassin, the mermaid, making that person urinate in fear. The dragoness asked. "Will you also become an extra lesson, or will you speak?"