Bia walked over to the unconscious Joren, her hands engulfed in flames ready to continue his beating when she was suddenly stopped by an assassin.
"Lady Bia! Lady Bia! Please stop!"
"Hmm? What?" She grumbled
"W-We need him alive, so we can find out where the girl went." The assassin spoke, scared that he would suffer the same fate as Joren.
"Oh right, I forgot about that." She kicked Joren, turning him face up as he was lying face down on the ground. "Hey! Tell us where you're hiding Tessa!" No answer came. "Are you fucking with me?!" Once more, her hands ignited and she was about to rain fire on him.
"I-I think he's unconscious."
"Oh, that would make sense." Bia nodded. "Feed him a healing potion. Even if he wakes up, I doubt he would be able to speak in his current condition."
At her command, they fed Joren a healing potion. It was only a low-ranking healing potion so It only alleviated his pain slightly, and barely healed his wounds. His spine reattacked but barely. One sudden move and it would break once more.
"Ughhh." Groaning, Joren's eyes flickered open to the sight of Bia standing above him. She had short brown hair in a ponytail. Her eyes were also brown and she had a petite, but toned figure. She was a beautiful woman.
"Where did you hide Tessa?" Bia asked
"Heh, you'll never find her, no matter how hard you search the area." Hearing those words, Bia focused on one specific word "area" which meant Tessa was still somewhere close by.
"You think I won't find her?" She asked, grabbing his throat, slowly crushing it with her immense strength.
Coughing, Joren simply smiled at her "Y-You can t-try, but you w-will never f-find her, even if you t-torture me I won't tell you w-where she is." A wide, bloody grin appeared on his face. He held Bia's arms and tried to shock her with lightning but to no avail. She slammed him into the ground which broke his back again and he passed out.
"Search the area! She's still around here somewhere! Do not stop until you find her! Check every place you can think of, I don't even care if it's an animal's ass! Find her, or you all are dead." She grabbed Joren by his shirt and took off to the skies. 'If you think you can withstand torture, then let's see how long you can last until you break.'
...
Miles away from where Joren was brutally beaten, Tessa was making her way to the royal capital. She had been thrown a great distance which made her travel a lot safer as not only did her pursuers think she was still in the area Joren was in, but even if they didn't, she would still have a good distance between them.
She walked alongside the road, thinking about her next move. She was tired as she had been running at full speed for hours, even enhancing her speed using fire magic. Currently, she was preparing to make camp and go to sleep but wanted to keep traveling to put more distance between her and her pursuers just in case.
Just then, she heard the sound of horse galloping and wooden wheels rolling along the rocky road. The carriage got close to her and came to a halt. She turned around, on guard, and was ready to cast a spell if need be.
"Woah woah woah! I'm not your enemy. Arent you Lady Tessa Von Solight?" A man who stepped out of the carriage asked with his hands up in the air. He was a middle-aged man, dressed like a guard of a prestigious family.
"Who's asking?!" Her flames burned brighter as she became wary of the man.
"Tessa? Is that really you? It's me, Elice." Looking at the girl who stepped out of the carriage, Tessa breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Elice who walked closer to her. Elize had long lime-green hair and green eyes. Her breasts were big but she had a slim waist.
"It's nice to see you, Elice." Elize was one of Tessa's childhood friends. They've known each other for as long as they could remember and she thought of Elize as her best friend.
"It's nice to see you too. What are you doing out here?" Elice asked
"Sigh, it's a long story, but I'm going to the royal capital," Tessa spoke tiredly
"Great, hop in, I'm going there as well. I assume it's for school right? You're not skipping the academy this year, are you?" Elize asked as they both entered the carriage.
"No, I'm not skipping the academy, and yes it's for school."
"What happened to you? And why are you so, well, dirty?" Elize asked as nicely as she could
"It's a long story."
...
When Joren woke up, he was in the air being dragged by Bia. He didn't say anything as not only was he in a ton of pain, but he also didn't want to start a conversation with her.
"Drink this." She handed him a mid-rank healing potion.
"Why? Won't I just get beaten anyway?"
"Yes, but, would you rather be alive to get the beatings, or dead from one beating?" Tough question she asked him. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place and that hard place definitely wasn't in his pants.
"Fine." He grabbed the mana potion, albeit painfully, and drank it. In an instant, he could feel his body mending and a feeling of relief washed upon his body. His spine even reattached fully, although he would still need to take it easy as it was still damaged.
Off in the distance, they approached a small fortress with people guarding it at all sides. The fortress wasn't big nor was it impressive, but it had an eery feeling to it that made Joren shiver. There was a village further off in the distance behind the fortress, one that Joren never knew about.
Bia landed on the ground in front of what Joren assumed was the front gate as there was a giant gate in front of them. Six men were guarding this gate. Two at the top, two at the bottom, and two on the wall.
"Take him to the dungeon. I want him tortured for information. If he doesn't speak up, then call that guy to deal with him."
"Yes, Lady Bia. Come with me!" The man grabbed Joren by the shoulder and shoved him forward.
'This guy's mana isn't as oppressive as Bia's, 4th circle cultivator maybe?' Joren thought to himself.
As he was thinking this, a man came running with shackles in his hands, putting them on Joren and securing them tightly.
"Heh, I don't think shackles are enough to-" His mana started draining from his body at a rapid pace, so rapid that he fell to the ground as his chest felt heavy.
"Did you seriously think you'd be able to use your mana here? Sorry kid, but if so, then you're highly mistaken. Now let's move, and take a good look at this place as it will be the last thing you'll ever see." The man who shoved Joren spoke.
They entered the fortress and roamed the halls until arriving at a simple wooden door. The man opened the door and a long staircase was revealed on the other side.
"Walk!" The man pushed him.
"Chill bro. I know you were bullied growing up and you get off to bullying people who are powerless to stop you but if you do that again, I'll rip your eyes out and feed it to you." Joren knew he wasn't in any position to make threats, but that didn't stop him from doing so.
"Hmm." The man grabbed Joren and punched him in the stomach.
"Poughhh!" he cried out in discomfort and pain.
"What are you going to do about it? Even if you weren't in those chains, you're still a 2nd circle cultivator while I'm in the 4th circle, you couldn't kill me if you wanted to."
'Oh, I will kill you, bitch!' Joren kept that bit to himself as he walked down the long flight of stairs.
Finally, after three minutes of walking, they reached the bottom, the dungeon. What Joren imagined Bill's secret lair to look like was all here in this dungeon. Cries of pain and terror were heard everywhere. People half dead or fully dead were laid out in cells.
Some were badly beaten while others were severely malnourished. He saw the horrible state everyone was in as he continued to walk further into the dungeon.
"Oh there's another one"
"New members! Yay!"
"Haha, first the six three months ago, and now this one."
"A little boy. I hope I can have fun with him."
Joren was super creeped out by that last remark as it was an old, dirty-looking man who spoke those words. He hoped he at least had a cell to himself. He deserved that much right?
"Joren?"
Hearing his name being called, he turned to the familiar voice and saw Pantera who had called out to him, but she didn't look like her usual self. Her once beautiful blonde hair was now disgustingly dirty. Her beautiful face was beaten as she had a black eye and swollen lip. She had lost weight and her entire body was covered in dirt. A collar that seemed as if it was made of the same material as his shackles was around her neck, but not just her, but everyone in the cells.
"Pantera! Are you okay? What happened?" He ran over to her cell, his shackles clanging against the metal bars. As came closer, he noticed another person on the floor who looked worse than Pantera. "Derry!"
"Move along!" The man punched Joren in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"Don't worry about us, just follow what they say," Pantera advised
Nodding, Joren got up and continued walking. Along the way, he spotted Glenn, Lenny, Arnold, and Sir Carter all in cells with similar conditions to Pantera and Derry.
'What the fuck happened to them?" he mused.
They kept walking until they reached a door that had three small metal bars as a window. The man opened the door and pushed Joren in.
"Sit."
"In that? I'd rather not." In the middle of the room was a door with arm and leg straps that had dried blood all over it. In fact, the entire room was covered with dried blood stains which was very disgusting.
"You really need to know your place." The man punched Joren in the face, then in the stomach, then uppercutted him. As his mana was sucked from his body, Joren could feel how hard he was being hit as the punches almost made him pass out.
The man strapped Joren to the chair, then left the room.