"I...I.. I'll tell you everything, please, don't...", she stared at the eyes of Lucas for but a mere a second to realize that she would most likely die here. Lucas placed his hands on his back before staring at her from above. Taking some time to calm himself down, he tried to not let his anger get the better of him.
While he did use his aura in a way that proved to be very effective, it was at the cost of his own mental state. His dome was covered in scenes all too familiar, driving him insane. It took his other half's full attention to not brutally slaughter her right away.
"You will tell me everything you know. If you tell me something I don't like or if I think you lied to me, I'll cut off one of your fingers. When you don't have any fingers left, I'll move on to your limbs.", his voice was unnaturally calm as if he was repressing his fury. The words felt cold and cutting.
"So, assassin, let's start simple, tell me your name and occupation."
Selicia stared into the bottomless eyes that seemed to envelop her. Her heart was starting to beat at a rapid pace, and without magic, she couldn't calm herself down. Her mouth shut tight, her body started to shake a little.
Her eyes darted around, trying to find some kind of way to communicate until she found some charcoal, perhaps from the previous skin of the man in front of her.
She quickly grabbed it and wrote down her name.
"Ruby Titus?", Lucas said in a questioning tone, before she quickly wrote her occupation and an equal sign.
"I see, so your assassin name is Selicia. Then tell me Selicia, what do you know about me?", instead of asking who send her, he asked for what she knew about him. Selicia found her heart getting grasped by an ice-cold hand.
He didn't care about who was after him, rather, he wanted to know how much was still hidden about him, which cards he could play, how much they were underestimating him. Selicia wrote down everything she could think of, irrelevant or not, it didn't matter.
Some things she wrote down were interesting, like his name was still Conrad to them. His power and intelligence were still being somewhat underestimated, but Lucas liked it that way. Other pieces of info were extremely useless, like the clothes he was wearing the last time he was seen in the world above and who his teachers were.
Frankly, Lucas knew enough to feel comfortable. "How many of you were sent out to kill me?", to which she quickly wrote down 2 only to have the tip of her fingers cut off in an instant. A sharp sword made out of pure mana had precisely cut off two of her fingers. The blood stained the weapon quickly turned turbulent and vanished, even Lucas had trouble to use his spells in this place.
Selicia grasped her hand only for her stomach to open up again. The pain was unbearable, and Lucas wasn't helping her in the slightest. He simply stared at her, waiting for her to write again. With each beat of her heart, the pulse in her hand made the blood come out, the pain surged every time.
Tears started to form as she couldn't suppress the pain any longer. It was only after a while that a bit of Light magic entered her body, healing up the wound in her gut.
Her breath ragged, she looked up at him and slowly opened her mouth. "..Only two..", she groaned as the words came out, hurriedly clasping her abdomen again, trying to contain the pain as best she could.
"Fine. It was a useless question.", Lucas didn't even blink as he kept questioning her over all sorts of matter. Who send her and Grok, who her master was, overall general questions until he started to ask about runes.
Without her full index finger she had a hard time writing things down. Speaking was too difficult as well, especially since his pressure slightly increased.
She was lucky that the pain from using the blood from her fingers was less painful then the other options. Choosing the easiest route, she tried her absolute best to answer each of his questions.
"You know how to fly, teach me those runes.", Lucas said in the same tone as he asked every question. Selicia brought her finger down to the earth, the sting of pain ran from her hand to her brain in an instant, perhaps lodging something loose.
He had already asked a ton, and now he wanted to know how to fly to get out of this place. It was the one thing he needed to escape. If she gave him that information, would she still hold some kind of value?
She looked into his bottomless eyes and pulled her hand back. The sword swung once more, completely cutting off her left hand. The pain almost made her go unconscious, but the cold stare from Lucas kept her lucid.
'If I teach him the runes to fly... I'll die, and he'll go rampage the world.'
She let the blood flow out as she mustered all her strength to face the man. "..Will you let me live?", the line felt painful and the blood pooling in her mouth certainly didn't help. The irony taste and high viscosity made her spit it out.
While she was battered and broken, she was still a professional assassin in the end. Enduring this pain was necessary for her survival here.
Lucas stood still as he stared at her, it certainly didn't look like he would. "I know you don't have a way to contact your cult, so I won't kill you if it means you'll teach me the runes."
She stared almost through him as Lucas felt more and more annoyed with each passing second. Closing his eyes and pinching the bride of his nose, he conceded.
"Fine, I swear on it, I'll create a contract, give me a second.", he pulled out one of the pieces of parchment from the ring and started to write the conditions.
He learned how she thought after asking a few questions, there was no way she would budge with just his words. To Lucas, Selicia must've thought he was absolute scum that would go back on his word without hesitation.
And while she would be correct to have this assumption, it made it a lot harder for Lucas to convince her. When he was searching for some clothes, there were a few parchments to make contracts between other strange items. If he could sacrifice such a scroll to gain a bunch of runes, it was more than worth it.
"Here, you provide me the runes of the spells you know, I'll keep you alive and make sure that you'll be able to walk and talk again like a normal person. You don't have to teach me every single spell, so the contract will stay active. If I don't fulfill my promise, I'll lose my magic. If you kill or intentionally harm yourself, the contract is nullified."
Making sure there weren't any loopholes he presented the contract to her. The blood dripping from her hand was enough to activate it. Lucas did the same to activate the contract. An unpleasant feeling nestled into his core before it felt like normal again.
He quickly healed Selicia to the best of his abilities, making sure to give her plenty of water and food. Selicia's world suddenly turned upside down as Lucas carefully picked her up and princess carried her to a nearby town.
Her wounds were healed on the way, but her stamina was still at rock bottom. Besides, losing her hand caused her plenty of pain, even if the wound was mostly healed. Lucas had to run a long way since most of the woods and its surroundings had been reduced to rubble and ash.
The closest town was actually quite far away. Luckily, Lucas had no need to eat or sleep, but Selicia was different. He needed to take momentary breaks and provide her with food, water and rest.
As the cycles passed, Lucas eventually arrived in a small town. He was welcomed by the people, not due to his position as an advisor to the Emperor, but purely because of his religious status.
As a Starborn and the fact that he could request any amount of gold from the Empire's treasury made his living condition in the nearby inn quite comfortable. Since Selicia reverted back to a normal human being with a Mental Sphere, she was quite the opposite of the natural inhabitants of the Underground.
Still, many people came to the village to meet the two enigmatic Starborn, praying to them like they were some sort of Gods. Lucas occasionally let Selicia meet some of them. Seeing them being so obedient and serving, filled one of Selicia's earliest wishes. She was in a terrible state, but her heart felt a strange joy.
Since Lucas had no special healing capabilities, he could only provide basic healing. It didn't do much, but it certainly helped. Cutting off the hand and fingers wasn't such a good idea since it delayed the recovery quite a bit.
The cycles passed as Lucas cared for Selicia, and she taught him the runes. Every morning he brought fresh bread from the bakery. After breakfast, she would teach him some runes before Lucas would try to patch her up. Afterward they would take a walk around town.
Without a hand, there were a lot of things Selicia had trouble with, making Lucas help her with everything. Even just basic feeding, he helped her out, making them look like a cute couple for any bystanders.
They took plenty of walks outside and spent time together like they were meant for each other. As they enjoyed the nature and performances people would perform for them, they lived like royalty.
Time passed slowly for Lucas as he kept a smiling face the entire time. For Selicia this was extremely awkward, or at least at first. After some time, she found it quite relaxing, all she had to do was teach a very studious student while enjoying the luxuries of the local shops.
Lucas never let his mask slip for even a moment, always caring and friendly. He was never annoyed or frustrated, always trying to cheer her up.
Whether it be clothing, sweets, books or general entertainment, Lucas provided everything and anything. He went the extra mile to make sure Selicia enjoyed her time. Since many people came to visit them on a pilgrimage, merchants came as a natural result.
This gave Selicia the opportunity to experience more of the culture outside this little village, only increasing her entertainment. At a certain point, Selicia started to forget her previous self as she grew more open by the day.
With all the people who praised her for simply being a Starborn, she grew more and more bolder.
And after how many days passed, a knock came from the door. Perhaps it was the owner of the inn bringing them their meal like she had done so many times, but as Lucas opened the door, four rough looking men stood waiting.
The man in the front bowed low after recognizing Lucas. There was a drop of sweat forming on the side of his forehead, yet his movements were clearly practiced. "Lord Starborn, as per our deal, we have performed the auction only allowing magic crystals as a form of currency."
The man, still in his bow, reached for his belt to grab a rather large bag and presented it with both his hands. Lucas grabbed it, taking a peek inside. There were magic crystals, albeit low ranking ones, and a bunch of gold coins.
"I thought I specified that I only wanted magic crystals.", his voice reverted to his usual cold and stoic one. A shift that surprised Selicia who was listening in on the conversation. The man almost seemed to shudder, but he was a trained mercenary with plenty of experience. He wouldn't show a bad sight now.
"See it as a gift, Augustinus sends his regards.", Lucas nodded before closing the bag and putting it in his ring. "The deals complete, take her."
His words sent a shock through Selicia, she didn't know what Lucas was talking about, what could he auction that costed magic crystals in this place? But then it hit her.
"Thank you for your cooperation and making use of our service.", the man straightened his back again and walked into the room with the other men following behind him.
"Miss, you'll have to come with us. Please don't retaliate because we are authorized to use force.", the man already looked threatening enough, but his companions completed the picture. Their big hands reached for her body, Selicia, out of pure instinct held out her hand and tried to conjure her magic, the men quickly shielded themselves.
But nothing happened. "I thought I made it clear she can't use magic anymore, you have nothing to fear. She's as strong as the lass who owns the inn. Don't show fear, it doesn't suit you."
The men felt embarrassed before they solidified their confidence and rushed to grab her. Selicia kicked and screamed, but against four trained men, she stood no chance. It didn't take long before she was cuffed, and a prop was forced into her mouth. Tears were flowing down her face as she struggled with her entire being. Being dragged on the ground, she kicked around to no avail.
"Thank you, Lord Starborn, may the Stars guide your way.", the leader of the group said before turning to leave the room.
"You still remember the details of her usage?", his voice was low, almost threatening.
The man quickly turned around again and bowed slightly. "Of course! We can exploit her however we see fit as long as we drive her to suicide. We are not allowed to harm or kill her, she has to kill herself.", almost shaking in his boots, the man recited every word of their contract perfectly.
"Good, you may go.", Lucas let the man run out his room as sat down on the chair.
He let out a large sigh.
'That was such a fucking pain.'
'But it wasn't a waste of time, was it? While annoying, we got all the important runes and some currency for the world above. It's time we searched for the final trail. Now we are suitably prepared.'
'Was it necessary to be so friendly to her? It was disgusting to watch.'
'It was, the more she enjoyed her life the bigger the fall. She has to kill herself as soon as possible, this was the only way to accelerate the process. The moment she harms herself, the contract will be nullified, and we won't have to worry about this loose end.'
Having his rune collection almost doubled, his available spells skyrocketed. All he had left to do was memorize them perfectly and experiment with them to create new spells. The spells that Selicia used were also extremely useful.
Especially the runes necessary to block willpower. Having this tool in his hands, he was able to create a ton more traps, of course, he could only block the willpower of people on his own level, and even if he knew the runes, he didn't know the arrays.
He could've exploited Selicia a bit longer, but he just wasn't able to handle the attentive personality for long. Happy with his gain, he quickly made his way north. With no obstacles in his way, he made quick progress.
Walking through the aftermath of Selicia's trap, Lucas realized how lucky he was. No, it wasn't luck, it was a ton of preparation and work. His fast calculations before the stalactites hit and his combination of spells was the only way to survive.
The pain and suffering was terrible, having experienced burning alive, he was quite confident that this was the most painful experience he had never experienced.
He would've prayed to some God for help in the future if he was a believer, but he never received any kind of aid from some invisible force. Only relying on himself, he would forge his own path.