51 The Organization

The thirty or so hours of travel that the two humans suffered within the grip of Ymir were the longest they ever experienced. At first, they tried to escape and even used some hidden weapons that were stitched inside their very clothes. But those were their last trick available and therefore, not of the best quality. If they were facing some monsters, it could still be able to pierce its skin, but it was tested that those small knives were useless facing a drake or something similar. And as expected, they didn't even manage to scratch the surface of the arms of Ymir. The latter knew what they were trying but didn't even bother to shake his two packages, fearing that he would kill them both if he did.

The demon was only wearing some pants and had his chest totally exposed because master Agnil was still not finished with his equipment. Even the bottom parts were not really well made, but Malakov prevented him from leaving the base naked. The supposed demon lord could have his upper body naked and expose his mighty muscles and arms, but shouldn't be without clothes. So he had to settle for some leggings that were being destroyed more and more after each jump. He was absolutely certain that if the distance was bigger, he would only have a belt staying in place in the end.

As for the lich, which was just a spy planted by Malakov to monitor the behavior of the Akûl, he had no reason to wait for it. He had to rely on himself to search the entire mountains because the undead was ordered to not use any magic before reaching the group of humans. And while he didn't have the same capability as Kardel to find his preys, his strength allowed him to browse such a large area in a short time that it was enough. The moment he found the troll village and understood that it was probably the target of the humans, he just patiently waited for their arrival. And now, he wondered why those two weaklings were so important, to him, they were probably just some errand boys.

After he arrived at the underground base, he stopped for a few minutes and watched his surroundings. Whether or not he was paranoiac, he still felt that something was lurking nearby. And as expected, even if he was that close, no lich was leaving the security of the hidden spell. That meant that Malakov had also noticed the same thing and was not taking any risks.Feeling exasperated, Ymir had no choice but to follow the backup plan. Which consisted of walking toward the South and enter the fallen Kingdom of Pankow. That was the conclusion that was reached after Davion and Meridiana returned from Avenio.

Using the same method that he used previously, the demon jumped in direction of the South. Some spirits previously scouted the optimal path from the base to the undead kingdom so he had no problem remembering the way. After dozens of minutes, the sensation of being spied was dissipated but he kept going on. Only after reaching a certain point, he turned right and accomplished a circle to return from his original location. That entire ordeal took a few more hours, making the face of the two humans even paler.

They prided themselves to be as strong as some of the top adventurer groups and to have trained their body to a strength rarely attainable. But, it had been nearly three days since the last time they slept, they had not eaten or drunk from the precedent day and had to suffer huge changes of speed during that time. If they had anything in their stomach, they would have thrown it out a long time ago. They still tried to sleep a bit but the human body was clearly not compatible with that type of travel. The only thing that they understood was the fact that they were in the Massalia Kingdom and had crossed the entire mountains.

As the demonic kidnapper stopped jumping one more time in the same location, they finally rested for a few minutes. They had no more any hope of surviving and just hoped to die as painlessly as possible. Both of them had a family but they entered a state of immense despair after seeing the very space opening in front of them.From a previously bare land, a delicately inscribed door surrounded by two terrifying statues appeared in their vision, with multiple liches oddly similar to the one they tried to fight. What they fought was the highest servant of the demon lord was just one in a mass.

The more they were transported inside the tunnels, the more they realized that it was not just some brainless monsters rallying under the banner of a mighty being. They were organized, small skeletons were carrying minerals, stones, and metals to diverse locations when bigger undead shaped like big moles were still digging in nearby tunnels. They only had a glimpse of a forge that was producing weapons and armors in masses. From the beginning to the end, they realized that they had not encountered any warriors, but they had no doubt that when they finished creating enough weapons, they will be summoned.

In the end, the two arrived in a room that was riddled with some plans, magically projected images of locations and beings and in the middle of the room, a sphere where a few names were written. They could barely see the names of Pankow, Massalia and Avenio, but they realized that the frontiers of those nations were extremely detailed in this region and blurred everywhere else. Even their superiors would kill for such a precise map, especially about the desolates mountains.

But while they were absorbed by the sight of the globe, they didn't notice the three beings that were looking at them. Only after Ymir dropped them on the ground and joined that group, did the two humans realized that they were not really alone. A woman that was beautiful enough to make their cold hearts beat faster, a strange blue man that arrived at the chest of the demon and finally, a type of lich that they never saw before. And from the way the red monster was interacting with them, he was absolutely not their superior.

Even after hearing the report of Malakov, the succubus was still slightly disappointed by the result of Ymir. They were supposed to let one go anyway because that human would have been too scared to fight back. They had absolutely expected a coward among that group of worms to betray everyone. But now, they could only kill them after extracting every information they had.

"Ymir, did that lich truly did its job or not? Because I won't expect Malakov to admit his mistakes when she is not here. What can be so hard to just pull a stunt with an incredible spell, show them how mighty you should be and boom, someone kneel and beg for his life?" While she said that, the Envoy was clearly showing his discomfort at those words. It was not his fault if they were braver or didn't fear them enough.

"I am not a human nor I like to be amongst them. But I didn't find that the lich was not up to our expectations. To be truthful, I saw that one of their weapons was capable of piercing the shield that the undead casted. As for how strong was that shield, ask Malakov."

Meridiana raised her eyebrows at this fact because she didn't hear that from Malakov. She knew that he always despised them and he only took his orders from Leilade, but that was not good to not say everything. Feeling both Davion and Meridiana looking intensely at him, the Herald of the Empress had no choice but to spit out what he knew. Otherwise, they will tell Leilade what he did and ruin the fact that he was gaining all the merits for their actions.

"Fine, it was just a minor spell shield, absolutely incomparable to the one from outside the base. From the ranking of this world, I would say that it was a 6th Circle magic? More or less. But afterward, the lich was still able to destroy those puny bolts without any issues, it's just that I ordered it to have such a low-quality shield. The orders from the Empress were to test by any means the strength of the humans. And now, we know that they have some stuff capable of really harming us."

His explanations were clearly lacking in some parts but none of them had any intentions of pointing those flaws. They had no idea what were the real orders of Leilade and while she was currently weaker than most of them, they had no thought that this situation will remain like that forever. And whatever this world had in his entrails, she will be able to deal with it. Besides "that" something from the Ancients. Turning around to face the two mute humans, Malakov approached them while beginning to cast a spell to search their soul. The room was getting colder and colder until Davion stopped the strange lich.

"Let them answer our questions before doing this. We want to know everything, unlike what will happen if you do this." The orodil was as distrustful of the Herald as Meridiana. If they expected him to say everything after conducting his search, they wouldn't have survived this long. Because he couldn't argue about that, Malakov had to step down and let them do what they wanted.

"Fine, but in the end, they will belong to me. Call me when you are done, Agnil is shouting again." Letting a lich inside the room to supervise everything, the Envoy of Leilade left the room. The two humans finally breathed in joy, because they felt that whatever they were talking about, it was really bad for them. Those four beings were talking a very strange language, that was never heard from them. When they saw the lich looking at them and approaching, they felt their last moments being near, but it suddenly stopped after the blue man talked. The latter was still looking at them, not making the two really comfortable.

"You have two choices, answer truthfully at your questions and die in peace, your souls intact. Or dare to say a single lie and the lich that you just saw leaving will have you. Now, what is your choice." For the first time, someone talked using the common tongue of the human nations. The cold voice of the abnormal man prompted to do a choice that was immediately decided. The leader kneeled while the elf bowed, but they were both shouting the same thing.

"Please don't take our souls!"

"Please let us die painlessly!"

They stayed like that until Meridiana raised their chin and made them looked at her in the eyes. "You better do what you said. If you lied, I will know. If you dissimulated something, I will know. Whatever dirty secrets you have or hidden deeds you made in your life, none of them matter to us. Now, look at me in the eyes." The gazes of the two humans were swallowed by the red light shining in the iris of the succubus. That was a small mana cost, but it will assure them of the honesty of those humans.

"Great, now the first question, what is the name of the organization that you belong to?"

Just the first question stunned the two captives because they had no idea what to answer. They said that they will tell everything, but it was far too vast to be answered truthfully. But the more they waited, the darker the expression of both Ymir and Meridiana turned. They expected them to lie, but not at the first question like that. But when the demon began to stand up and walk toward them, the half-elf suddenly shouted something.

"THE ORGANIZATION PLEASE DON'T KILL US!" Now, even Davion was stunned. He looked at Meridiana, but the latter shook her head, meaning that it was not totally the truth. Because of this, he asked once again.

"We asked the name of your organization, we know you are part of a group, now, tell, US, ITS, NAME!" He hammered the last words, but all they heard from the mouth of the two were just the same sentence.

"THE ORGANIZATION, WE BELONG TO THE ORGANIZATION!" The two were even crying while saying this, but while it didn't make anyone take pity of them, it only made them having a headache. It was clear that they were telling the truth, from their reactions, but which bloody criminal group would call themselves "the Organization"?