Murellia has officially escaped the battle. All that we have left to clean up is the Bashar Knights and the unfortunate adventurers that were possessed by the Evil G.o.d.
[Kuina, Protect Mia and Kiara!]
Right after I send the warning, I blanket the entire area with lightning magic. Well, with opponents of this level, it really is just that easy. The adventurers-turned-evil probably would’ve run away if things had looked bad for them, but by using lightning magic we were able to paralyze them and stop that altogether.
“Guuuuuuu!”
“Uugghhh”
“Shut up.”
We finished tying up all the adventurers, but once the paralysis wore off they started screaming and moaning, trying to break free of their bonds.
“...”
On the contrary though, the knights have remained completely silent this entire time. What a troublesome bunch both of them are.
“I want to return our adventurers back to sanity, but I think there’s something wrong.”
“It doesn’t seem like it’s something that’ll be dispelled easily.”
Mare, who’s recovered from her exhaustion, and Guendalfa stand above the restrained adventurers with their arms crossed and worried looks on their faces. Actually, I’d already tried casting purifying magic on them, but it seems like there’s either no point, or my skill level is too low.
Actually, maybe I’m going about this the wrong way.
(Master, kill them?)
[Hmm… I’d kinda like to save that as a last resort, but I have something in mind.]
(Nn.)
[Can you touch my blade to one of them for a second?]
(Understood.)
This might work better than purifying magic. Thinking along these lines, I request Fran to put me in direct contact with one of the possessed adventurers, taking care not to hurt them. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting it to be so effective.
“GYAAAAAAAAA!”
[Woah!]
The adventurer screamed and began writhing in his bonds. I watched closely, and slowly but surely, a strange black energy bubbled to the surface of his skin and boiled away into nothing. Evil’s Bane might be a whole lot more useful than I had even antic.i.p.ated.
I mean, sure, the adventurer freaked the h.e.l.l out. But other than that, it looks like the energy has completely. I was a bit worried about the scream, but I checked out his status and his health hasn’t decreased at all, so is it safe to call this experiment a success?
“Hey hey, what did you do to that guy?”
“Purified evil.”
Guendalfa, who doesn’t understand the situation, makes a face at Fran. From his perspective it probably looked like fran just hit the guy in the shoulder with my blade and caused him to scream in pain. That would certainly be a cause for worry.
Guendalfa walks up to the adventurer and taps his cheek.
“Oi, you alright?”
“Ugh… Where…”
Huh, looks like he’s returned to sanity. He’s responding well enough, and it looks like his memories cut off at the point that he was struck by Murellia’s black bullets. Hopefully, this means it’s safe enough to perform on the other adventurers. The screaming is a bit… unsettling though.
“Higyaa!”
“Raaaaugh!”
“What in the world…”
Guendalfa, the only one who doesn’t understand what’s happening, is baffled by the sight that is taking place before him. Though this time around he knows Fran doesn’t mean any harm, so he’s not stopping us.
Around five minutes later, all the previously brainwashed adventurers were waking up, sanity newly restored. All I had to do is touch them to expel the evil energy, pretty simple.Even then it’s Fran that’s actually touching me to them, so I’m doing even less work!
But anyways, Evil’s Bane is amazing! To think that it was as simple as touching me to snap possessed people out of the stupor. I didn’t think that such a panic spreading force such as the Evil G.o.d’s influence could be banished with just a tap. This will surely be an incredibly useful skill for dealing with Evil Ent.i.ties in the future.
I entrust the adventures to a very confused Guendalfa. Fran and I head over to the knights group to see if we can’t get some useful information out of them.
“Alright fellas, we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
The knights look at Mare without even a hint of fear or intimidation in their eyes, in fact, it’s almost like they’re looking at her with contempt. In their eyes, we can clearly make out the gleam of determination, making clear their hatred against beastmen.
“Look, I know that you people are from the Bashar Kingdom. What is your relations.h.i.+p with the evil being Murellia?”
“...”
“What were you trying to accomplish here?”
“...”
Geez, tough crowd. If they’re this stubborn about giving up such basic info, these guys are gonna be a pain in the a.s.s to get anything out of.
“Can’t help it. I really didn’t want to do things this way but… Kuina.”
“Understood.”
The interrogations begin in earnest. They start by simply asking questions, then threaten them before moving to actually hurt them, and then hurting them even more. Even this wasn’t enough. There isn’t even a hint of one of their mouths budging.
They tried a bunch of things. They tried to say they’re only trying to help reduce casualties. They claimed that they don’t want to hurt the knights. They threatened them. Tortured them. Nothing worked, the light in the knight’s eyes s.h.i.+ned just as brightly as it did in the beginning. It’s hard not to be impressed.
“This is the last time I’ll ask. What is your relations.h.i.+p with Murellia?”
Even if they singled a knight out and asked questions while slowly bending all of his fingers back, one by one, they only silently screamed while violently clenching their teeth.
“Hah… These guys are the real deal, I doubt we’re going to get anything out of them.
“Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.”
Kuina agrees with Mare’s statement, taking her hands off of the man’s fingers.
“I guess we don’t have any other option. Kuinda, please.”
“I understand.”
“What are you doing?”
“Kuina’s going to go question that guy.”
As I watched, Kuina walks up to a knight that’s been singled out from the rest. The knight’s ident.i.ty is Johan Magnolia, the leader of the knight group. He was severely injured by Fran and I’s attack when he used his body as a s.h.i.+eld for an attack meant for Murellia, but he’s since recovered from a potion Murellia gave him along with Fran and I’s healing magic.
Still, he’s not completely recovered, and he’s currently lying on the ground, but that’s better Kuina’s purposes.
“This will go smoother if the target is not at full strength.”
Kuina said, and begins activating her Inherent Skill, Phantom Dream Matrix. In addition to having Illusion effects mixed in, it also appears to have a slightly hypnotic effect. Since the main effect is the illusions, the hypnotic effect is weak. It seems that Kuina had to use every bit of MP she could in order to successfully put him in a hypnotic state.
“Now. Look into my eyes.”
“Geh-”
Johann lashes his sore body away and looks away from Kuina.
“Fufu. I lied. I don’t need your gaze to apply this technique.”
It seems the purpose of that was to split Johann’s attention away from the fact that he was being hypnotized for a brief moment by making him concentrate on something else. Johann, focusing on looking away, showed a small gap.
A considerable amount of magical energy erupts from Kuina and shoots towards Johann.
“Hmm, let’s see if it took. What is your name?”
“Johann Magnolia.”
“Success.”