Baron Iglanon was sweating buckets.
The hair all over his body was standing at its end and his emerald eyes fell on the young man whose lifeless eyes were staring in his direction.
No matter what Baron Iglanon did, his eyes kept flicking back to the young Original.
"How about you tell us more about the Shelturion friend of yours? Why did you have to meet a member of a race that is at war with the Linaton race? Shouldn't he be your nemesis?" Nial asked calmly, his smile still as bright as before.
Baron Iglanon stiffened the moment he heard Nial's voice and a dull ache began to spread through his head. The headache grew stronger the longer he waited to answer Nial's question. The Baron groaned out in pain and he clutched his chest while his mouth foamed.
"There was no major reason for us to meet...can't there be friends amongst rival races? Not everyone is bad..." Baron Iglanon answered, just to realize that his headache and the pain in his chest grew worse.
"Maybe you should tell the truth, otherwise, your body might continue clogging your veins with mana. It would be quite a hassle if you were to die right now," Nial said calmly, his evil grin growing wider with every passing second.
He could have told the Baron to tell him the truth from the beginning. With Dominion, this would have been rather easy. However, Nial didn't really want to give Baron Iglanon an easy time.
His presence was enough to annoy Nial because he knew that it had been the Linaton race's Ambassadors who caused most, or at least, half the trouble that he had to take care of!
"I...I..:I met with the Shelturion to...change the deal about the Cultivation Drug production..." Baron Iglanon finally revealed after the pain in his head and chest reached a stage where he could hardly breathe. His sight had already blurred and he was on the verge of collapsing.
Yet, upon telling the truth, his mind and body released his heart and head from the torture he put himself through.
'Dominion is really powerful...to think that I can force people to speak the truth, or they will commit suicide. That's quite funny!'
Nial was learning new things about his ability every single day, and it made him feel more excited. He began to wonder how strong his abilities would become when he reached the Deux rank, or the Keltia-rank...or once he advanced past those ranks!
His mind was going wild with the things he imagined and his evil grin would have grown wider, if that were possible, to begin with.
"I heard that the Shelturion are great Alchemists and arrogant idiots because they think that their intelligence transcends the mortal threshold upon awakening their Origin. I guess they created the Cultivation Drug pills and you guys are their...dealers?" Nial asked, knowing that he was not exactly good at interrogating others.
He was not a detective, let alone tactful with words. It was much better to let actions speak!
Unfortunately, that was not exactly helpful in the given predicament. If Nial were to kill every single Ambassador belonging to the Linaton race, without caring to check the necessary pieces of evidence, not only would the issue about the Soul Contracts still be there but the Cultivation Drug issue wouldn't be solved either.
Everything had to be solved at the same time, or in a period that wouldn't allow anyone to create a plan to counterfeit Nial and his people, let alone to run away!
"We...have nothing to do with the Cultivation Drugs!...Arghhhh!!!" Baron Iglanon screamed out loud when he attempted to lie yet again. He held his chest and bloody foam oozed out of the corners of his lips.
Tears trickled down his cheeks and he looked at Melheim and the Oracle miserably, trying to invoke their pity. However, the only thing he was greeted with was cold expressions and threats gleaming in the runic eye of the human Original.
"We are not directly linked with the Cultivation Drugs!!" Baron Iglanon shouted out and the pain in his chest receded and he took a few breaths. The Linaton had no idea how the situation could have escalated to this stage, but he was not even able to get up from the chair...even though there was nothing holding him back...except his mind!
"But you handed out Soul Contracts to a few hopeful and naive newly awakened Originals before sending a bunch of loan sharks with connections to the Cultivation Drug dealer to the doorsteps of their family and friends a few days after the Originals realized that the Mana Breathing technique was altered, which made it impossible to improve the mana core to the Prometheus rank...is that correct upto here, or am I missing something?" Nial summarized what he had concluded and the Baron nodded his head.
"The Loan sharks are not affiliated with us directly but they're a necessity for us to be able to get our hands on good quality goods once the Soul Contracts' ruling comes into effect!
The Cultivation Drug pills are manufactured by the Shelturion, and they're given to Dealers who will then forward the pills to the addicts and the loan sharks to further distribute them in the shelters. Using both the Soul Contracts and the highly addictive Cultivation Drugs to get our hands on more goods, we split the spoils of war with the Shelturion faction of the Great Wirliam. He is not related to the Shelturion's royal bloodline and doesn't act in their favor either, which is why we, the Linaton work together with him!" Baron Iglanon explained in a far more detailed way than necessary.
However, because the Baron was afraid of the heart-wrenching pain, he chose to speak rather than getting asked one question after another and trying to find a way around the truth, just to protect others. He didn't want to die, and if telling the truth made that possible, Baron Iglanon would simply tell the truth...tell everything!
This made things a lot easier for Nial, but he didn't feel pleased in the slightest. He was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in anger. His nails dug so deep in the flesh of his palms that blood trickled down to the ground.
"Do you know how many laboratories the Shelturion have? Also, do you know where they're located, and how many guards are located around them? Do they have other affiliated races to they distribute the Cultivation Drug to? If so, what races do they belong to? Where are the drug-addicted humans they have already kidnapped? SPEAK! Where are all the human slaves??" Nial was slowly losing his rationale as he thundered loudly.
His emotions were in a turmoil and the dark energy he had sealed in his Heart of Darkness oozed out of it. The dark energy spread through his body, and slowly crawled up his mind where it circulated in a tranquil and calm manner.
But it was exactly this tranquil and seemingly calm dark energy that began to influence Nial once again, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.
Nial imagined his sister, his father, Mathias, Hana, and others getting enslaved, and used as breeders to create crossbreeds of a new race that possessed the best traits of both the human race and the beings they were getting sold to.
His mind was coming up with wild thoughts and it took him a tremendous amount of effort not to tear apart the entire living room. He was not sure what was going on with his mind, but he could hardly come clean with the fact that the Linaton and Shelturion considered humans nothing but mere goods.
'They will have to die...all of them...' Nial decided as his thoughts started to become clearer. Darkness oozed out of his body and the Baron of the Linaton began to shiver.
His hands were trembling violently and he lifted them hurriedly to block his head from the attack he predicted.
Yet, nothing like that happened. Seconds turned into minutes, but even then nothing happened.
Baron Iglanon lowered his arms, just to see that Nial had calmed down. However, the expression on the faces of the humans and the...other human-like existence were slightly confusing...and a big contrast to each other.
Melheim was also angered, but the pressure he felt from Nial made him feel as if he was suffocating. The killing intent that oozed out of Nial following the darkness was more than enough to kill Peak Prometheus Originals by suffocating them. His eyes which had been filled with anger were now filled with fear.
On the other hand, the Oracle was trying to hide that the corners of her lips had curled upward.
'That's it!...Show me more!!'