The man looked at Viltz and exclaimed, "You.... You monster! No matter what happens to me, my family will avenge me."
"Oh, you don't seem to have realized where we've been heading all this time, have you?" Viltz grinned evilly and asked the man.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Viltz pulled out a piece of goatskin and unfolded it, revealing a map drawn on it.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, i wonder who will avenge you when your psyche is shattered and the crypt that housed your family is sealed! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha!"
Absolute horror appeared on the man's face and his eyes seemed to lose all hope as his brave facade crumbled and he began to plead in tears.
"Please! Let me go! I'll pay you anything! I'll tell you the method to get the treasure hidden in the crypt! I will be your follower! Please let me live! I don't want to become a senseless idiot! I will tell you all the secrets of my clan but don't do anything to my conscience!"
He, as the prince of an empire that ruled the entire continent in his time, had enough knowledge to know that spells that forced an individual's will usually ended up basically turning him into a mentally retarded person. He had personally seen his family use similar methods and didn't want to experience the same so he didn't hesitate to make a bunch of promises to Viltz in hopes of tempting him enough to spare his life.
"Hahaha! How funny! Like i give a shit about all that trash talk of yours! Looking at your pathetic state, who knew you were a prince. You rather look like a peasant who's about to shit his pants from fear!.
And to think you would call yourself a great prince! You are nothing but trash! Surely you were your family's waste! If you were a real man you wouldn't be crying in fear like you are now."
Viltz's words seemed to have a hypnotic effect that caused the prince's will to falter with every insult he uttered.
The prince seemed to go into a trance as his eyes clouded over and he seemed to have gone into a flashback when Viltz acted.
"Now!"
Viltz's eyes flashed coldly as he placed his hands on the man's brain.
All that trash talk he had with him wasn't for mere amusement, but to wear down his will, completely despairing him so that he couldn't resist the spell.
As cool as this spell sounded, the truth was that it was originally designed to control normal humans and could not work on wizards or other powerful creatures that could resist, but if the target lost his will to resist then the spell could continue, the only drawback was that it expended large amounts of energy constantly during the entire interrogation.
Ten minutes later, Viltz, with his whole body full of sweat, began the interrogation.
"What is your full name?"
"Soniatrax Aargus Lixenia." Replied the man with unfocused eyes and a face devoid of all emotion.
"Who is your father?"
"My father is King Legandir Aargus Lixenia."
"You said your father was the last ruler of the continent, what do you mean by that?"
"My father ruled the entire continent for a period i cannot pinpoint, until a catastrophic event occurred in the form of a meteorite that killed most of the population of the entire continent.
Our clan's fortune teller foretold what would happen and told my father, who created the ritual so that our souls would hibernate in the monoliths until someday someone would discover the cave and then we would take his body to go out and rule the world again."
Viltz's eyes sparkled at the man's explanation, but he didn't rush to ask what he most wanted to know, instead he asked him something that suddenly troubled him.
"What has happened to your father? Is he in that cave too?"
"No, he sacrificed himself to create a magical barrier to insulate the cave from any damage caused by the meteorite."
Viltz let out a sigh of relief at those words, the last thing he wanted was to have an old monster who ruled an entire continent as an enemy.
"You said you belonged to the night elf clan, are they the same as the current elves or are they another race?"
"I don't know, i haven't seen any elves from the current era, so i don't know."
"Do you have any knowledge about the methods your father used to make the souls of your clan hibernate in those meteorites? Or any other knowledge about the soul?"
"No."
Viltz frowned.
"Weren't you supposed to be a prince? Shouldn't you know that kind of information? And besides, why are you so weak? Shouldn't you know a wide variety of spells as a prince?"
"I never studied any of those things, i never needed to fight or learn magic in depth when i was a prince."
"That explains a few things, let me guess. You weren't the crown prince were you?"
"No, i was the third prince, i had no obligations so my life was carefree , my two brothers, the crown prince and the second prince were killed by some political rivals of my father during the chaos produced by the impending disaster so only i was left as the successor of the Lixenia empire."
"That explains why your will is so weak, from your previous attitude, surely you were the typical model of an arrogant young master."
Viltz rubbed his chin and took out a small box from his backpack and showed it to the man.
"What's in this box? How do you open it?"
"In that box is a memory crystal in which is engraved the various magical knowledge of our empire, to open it you need to recite a secret password in our language."
"Recite the password."
"Riigus Tiwax Maganaxsas Tregis Lamda."
The symbol on the surface of the box glowed and it burst open, revealing an oval crystal inside.
"How do you use this crystal?"
"Just pour your energy into it and your consciousness will be drawn into the memory library inside."
Viltz took the crystal and looked at it for a while before putting it away.
"I suppose the ritual your father used to hibernate your soul in the monolith and the method you used to take over Regius' body are also in the crystal right?"
"Yes. My father especially made sure to keep that method as it could prove to be very useful for the development of the clan."
"Well, the interrogation ends here."
Viltz snapped his fingers and the man's eyes returned to normal.
The man was stunned for a moment before exclaiming!
"You tricked me! My conscience is still intact!"
"Heh! You think i'd be stupid enough to leave such a huge flaw in one of my spells?
You wanted to die before so you could try to take over my body but I wonder what would happen if it wasn't a living thing that killed you?"
"What do you want to do!?" The man looked at Viltz with fear. He no longer dared to underestimate this monster in front of him.
"Let's barbecue!" Viltz grinned broadly before turning his back on the man who now had his mouth covered again by a vine.
Viltz began to gather weeds, twigs and anything flammable he could find around him.
Five minutes later, both the altar and the man lying on it were now covered in dry branches and leaves.
Snapping his fingers, he conjured a small flame and threw it against the pile of branches, causing a fire to slowly spread across the altar, burning the man lying in the center.
Viltz mounted the brown horse and rode away without looking back.
"It seems there was a time before this time. It seems that after the fall of the meteorite, the world was somehow weakened and the chaos energy disappeared or weakened and it wasn't until a few millennia ago that the world began to recover.
The existence of the Lixenia empire implies that they were already using chaos energy at that time but according to both human and elven historical records, chaos energy didn't start to be used until 3000 years ago.
And according to what I understand from the plot, this world will suffer an ice age in about 3000 years.
What is causing these disasters?
It seems that i still have a lot to discover about this world."
Finishing writing in his journal, Viltz made the horse start running.
Half an hour later, he arrived in front of a small cave. Looking deeply at the entrance that seemed to tempt him to enter it and discover what was hidden inside, Viltz grimaced and waved his hand, mobilizing the natural energy of the earth, causing the rocks on either side of the cave walls to begin to come together until the original entrance disappeared, leaving a rock wall without any cracks.
Letting out a sigh, Viltz mounted his horse and left the place.
Several days later, he arrived in front of the city gates of Oxenfurt.
The first thing he did was to visit a stable, where he bought a suitable saddle and left his horse there to be looked after.
Then he visited the academy, where he met Professor Opus Kroft and together they had a long conversation.
"I'm sorry professor, i'm afraid i won't be able to attend the academy until next year. I have a lot of things to do and i also want a bit of a change of scenery, after all, i've done nothing but study for 12 years straight."
"Haha, i understand you, don't worry. I hope the day you can formally attend my classes."
Professor Kroft didn't take it seriously and joked with Viltz.
A couple of hours later, Viltz left the academy and entered a tavern, where he rented a room for the night.
The next morning, Viltz got out of bed and started dialing the coordinates of the room he was in so he could teleport there at any time.
When he finished, he gathered his things, ate breakfast and left the tavern.
Viltz stepped in front of his horse, now with a proper saddle, mounted the horse and rode out of the city, his next direction, Novigrad.
Half a day later, Viltz rode into Novigrad.
Looking at the horse that had accompanied him on the journey, Viltz could only sigh, he wanted to board to go to the city of Lan Exeter and could not take the horse with him on the ship.
Shaking his head, Viltz took the horse to one of the stables in town, where he sold it for 500 gold coins.
After wandering and asking around for a while, Viltz made his way to one of the ships parked in the city's harbor.
"Hello, i'd like to board your boat, please."
"That will be 100 gold coins."
"Sure, when do we leave?"
"In two hours."
"Good."
Viltz handed 100 coins to the ship's captain and entered one of the cabins.
Two hours later, the ship set sail for its next destination.