Outside the formidable barrier encircling the slums, a vast assembly of knights and mages had gathered, their presence hinting at the gravity of the impending event.
In the middle of this gathering stood a Large tent.
The knight's Commander occupied the tent.
"Sire, the barrier has dropped."
"Good."
Said a tall man with black hair and eyes, wearing knight armor and a red cape behind him.
His face showed a terrifying scar going from his temple through his left eye to the chin.
He showed no expression whatsoever as if the news he had just gotten didn't matter at all.
Standing up, the Knight commander went outside the tent and headed towards the front of the troops.
When he arrived, he turned towards them. Using some kind of sound magic, he raised his voice and commanded the troops.
With his voice amplified by a mysterious sound magic, the knight commander issued a resolute command. 'Knights, the moment we've been waiting for has arrived. I order all troops to go forth and commence a search and capture on all living beings.'
At that moment, hundreds of troops started storming the slums. Searching every corner of the place.
A man wearing chainmail armor came inside the Commander's tent a while later.
Saluting toward the Commander the knight said
"The search and capture has been completed, Sire."
Sitting on a chair with his hand upholding his chin, the Commander stared at the man.
"What are the findings"
"We have found Hundreds if not thousands of dead bodies with only one living target. Inside the slums, a church seems to have been built. We have yet to know to whom it is dedicated, but we assume it's some demonic entity."
The man said. His forehead was already drenched with sweat. Standing before the Commander, whose power was immeasurable towards an average person, caused this.
The Commander's aura made people feel as if they were standing before a lion, who was just moments away from tearing them apart piece by piece.
"Interrogate the living target and find out everything that has happened inside. If they are found out as a cult member, then execute him immediately."
Ordered the Commander, his eyes already leaving the knight's body.
"Yes, sir, I'll return with another report after we finish the interrogation."
Having said that, the knight emerged from the tent and started walking towards the location where the interrogation would be held.
All around him were tents, and in between them were small campfires.
The knights had chosen to build their temporary station north of the slums where a small plain was.
Most of the knights were still extracting the dead bodies outside of the slums, so the camp was mostly empty.
A while later, the man had arrived at a black tent.
Going inside the tent, one could see a large table with two seats, one on each side. Currently, only one chair is occupied.
It was Leroy.
He was seated with both arms in front of him, tied by a rope.
"Have you healed him enough so he can talk?" asked the man?
"Yes, Sir Abraham, we healed him just enough to interrogate him now. If he turns out to be an enemy, he can't give any resistance. Otherwise, we will heal him after the interrogation," replied a woman who was standing
She had pale red hair tied in a ponytail, and she was clothed in black robes with an emblem etched into them.
The emblem was circular, with two swords clashing against one another and a crown on top.
It was the symbol of the Human capital's knightly order.
Unlike the name knights, they weren't made up of just swordsmen. A knight could also be a mage.
"Good. Start the interrogation immediately, Isabelle."
"Yes"
After those words, Isabelle sat down in the chair before Leroy and raised her hand towards his face.
White particles appeared as they gathered around, forming a magical circular pattern.
"Awake."
With a deep breath, Leroy woke up, his eyes snapping open quickly. He started wriggling around instantly, only to find himself unable to move.
"Where am I?" He thought out loud
'Who are these people? ' Leroy thought as he started observing them closely. However, before he could come to a conclusion, his thoughts were interrupted.
"We are the knights of the Vigonna Knightly order. We have found you as the only survivor in the slums, and you are to be interrogated on orders of the Knight Commander."
'So it's true, they all died, huh... and I hoped the mage had lied. Why am I being interrogated, though? The mage in my dreams looked like she knew everything about the situation.'
"All right," said Leroy as he prepared himself mentally.
"First of all, I'd like to tell you that I will be using Lie detecting magic. If you are found lying, then I will commence an immediate execution," Isabelle said as her eyes started shining in a blueish color. Inside them, you could see a magical circle overlaid on her Iris.
Leroy just grunted and nodded his head.
"What's your name, and are you a cult member or an enemy of the Empire?" Isabelle asked.
"My name is Leroy. No, I am not a cult member, nor do I wish to be the Empire's enemy or cause harm to it."
"Starting from the beginning, tell me what happened inside the slums."
"It started when I woke up only to find my brother talking about a Sun God while looking insane, raving on and on about salvation and some other unintelligible words. Later, I went downstairs only to find Travis, the tavern owner where I lived, who told me that he had seen my little brother go to some church of the Sun God."
"Church of the Sun God?" Isabella questioned aloud.
"I've heard of them. They caused havoc on the east side of the Empire, killing hundreds for a deranged ritual of theirs." Replied Abraham, his expression already twisted.
"Continue"
"Yes, after that, I decided to go see what Arthur, my little brother, was up to as from what I had heard, there were no churches in the slums, and my older brother's expression had frightened me in the morning. Arriving at the church, I found tens of people holding their arms up while praying to that sun god; it looked like they were being controlled. There was also a priest at the podium preaching to them."
"A priest? I've heard of their cult members, but this is the first time I hear that they have people dressed up as priests. usually, it's just people clad in black robes going on killing sprees." asked Abraham.
"Yes, he was clad in white robes and was preaching to the people about giving their bodies, minds, and souls to the Sun God if they wanted salvation," replied Arthur.
Abraham looked at Isabelle, who nodded, showing that Leroy had yet to lie.
"All right, continue."
"After getting frightened by that, I started running home and sleeping that night, but I had a dream where a mage told me about this Sun God and how I was the only one left who had yet to become a puppet, a dead, moving shell of a human. She also gave me a monocle, which appeared in the real world when I woke up, which would allow me to see these red threads that were controlling the puppets."
"Stop," said Abraham as he held up his hand.
"A mage? Could you describe her appearance"
"I'm sorry, I can't. When I try to think back at it, it's as if my memory has been erased," replied Leroy while shaking his hand
"It almost impossible to recover erased memories, Sir Abraham," said Isabelle.
"All right, did we find the monocle when we found him?" Abraham asked, pointing at Leroy.
"No sir, there was no monocle on him or around him."
'What? I'm sure I was wearing it when I destroyed the crystal?' Leroy thought.
'Did someone enter before the knights and took it? Or did that mage do something again, just like erasing my memories of her face'