Promtus’s interrogation session continued, but Rem upped the stake.

I love you

you love me

We’re a happy family

Promtus looked dead.

“Please stop,” the S-Ranker begged. “This is inhumane.”

“I know,” Rem sympathized. “But certain someone,” he glared at Cytortia and Luxinna who was helping with the questioning, “insist I pursue less violent interrogation method. So, sadly, you are going to suffer through more Barney.”

“How can you withstand this!?” Promtus screamed. “You have been playing this for hours!?”

With a great big hug

And a kiss from me to you

Won’t you say you love me too

“How can you withstand this god-awful song?” Promtus wailed

Rem smiled whilst internally screaming in agony. “Guess willpower is made differently,” Rem glared at Promtus. “Okay, mate, tell me what you think is Acrisius’ next game-plan and the connection this Melosov got with him. I don’t mind locking you for a month with Barney on loop.”

I love you

you love me

We’re a happy family

With a great big hug

And a kiss from me to you

Won’t you say you love me too

Rem turned on the volume. Truth to be told, he slowly used [Tenshou] to pervade Promtus’s mental state, deepening the pit of discomfort with the Barney song as precipice. It accelerated Promtus’ eventual mental breakdown by amping Barney’s existing power of cringe.

I LOVE YOU

YOU LOVE ME

WE ARE-

“Stop!” Promtus cried. “I don’t know who is Melosov.”

“Let me guess this straight,” Rem turned the volume of Barney the Purple Dinosaur down. “Your—Let us say buddy. Your buddy, Acrisius, let a member from the Isle of Knowledge — an unregulated Monopolistic tech-hoarder with fifty Doctorates and penchant for WMD — into his coup de gang with no background check. And none of you raise any question?”

“We did,” Promtus feebly attempted to defend himself. “He clear the background check.”

“Then what is his background?”

Promtus shrugged, “The typical IK scum. He sells weapons. Have a dozen of researches under his name. He seems to get along well with El Acerbia.”

Rem wasn’t having it, “Thank you for listing things I can get from snooping  around in the Isle of Knowledge’s lobby. What about the real stuff? His past? His girlfriend? Did he cry during the fucking Titanic? Is Kill Bill his favorite movie? The personal stuff that might help draw a picture of what going on in his mind. I want to know about Nereo Melosov the human.”

“We know he is pretty secluded, but he did good work,” Promtus answered.

Rem’s voice deepened, “So, not much loyalty to you, then. Why is he here?”

Promtus still didn’t get it, “Why else but expanding his connection? He is a typical IK scum.”

“That is the point. If you are an IK scum who trades weapons and illegal tech for a living, why risk your neck to come here? Do you think El Acerbia will risk having his brain being under the mercy of a man with hundred-twenty-thousandish possies who can order his death on a random Saturday?” Rem’s point echoed around the room.

Cytortia and Luxinna glanced at each other. That was a good point. Why those secluded merchants of death risk coming to the war-zone where he was vulnerable? Promtus also realized the point and the intellect of the man sitting across from him?

“Maybe he preferred face-to-face meeting?” Promtus put out a dumb suggestion.

“Who else did he meet face-to-face?” Rem killed the idiocy.

Promtus used silence. It was ineffective.

“I can’t believe this. An S-rankers such as you walked past him multiple time and felt nothing. One glance at his face and the way he talked and you should know he is bad news,” Rem grilled the old man. Looking through [Clairvoyance] at the man named Melosov sent a chill down his spine. That man was dangerous.

“He isn’t a threat,” Promtus cried.

“Bullshit!” Rem declared with fury before toning his tone back to the one resembling an FM radio. “But back to a point, what he is selling you.”

“Performance-enhancing drug,” Promtus sweated. “Weapons.”

“What kind of drug and weapons?” Rem kept a cool.

“A booster to help over solider temporary boost their combat performance.”

“That is a start,” Rem noted down to get the sample. “Do you know the ingredient?”

“Melosov said it is a trade-secret.”

Rem nearly snapped the pen in his hand.

“You let your own soldier took a jab while having no idea what is in the juice?” Rem slipped into a glowered.

“It got IK-mark on it,” Promtus said dumbly.

“And you fucking trust a monopoly,” Rem facepalmed. “Fine. I don’t believe getting the samples will be that hard. What about the weapon? Magic Sword? A Pterosaur with cryogenic canon? A random man who name is ‘Dracula’ spelled backward.”

“A siege engine.”

“Well, that is anticlimactic,” Rem sound disappoint. “What type of siege engine?”

“A kind that easily destroyed the capital defense. It shattered the protective barrier in an instant and made thing way easier for us. Melosov showed it at a capital before signing the sale contract,” Promtus grumbled. “The bastard can’t stop showing off.”

Rem squinted with his [Clairvoyance].

“Five magically fortified castles. Two climatic battles included siege, and he didn’t bust that out,” Rem said.

“How did you know?” Promtus silently freaked at Rem’s ability to pry into the past.

“I know what I need to,” Rem squinted at the imaginary fact. “Why didn’t he bust the sale pitch earlier? What is so special about the capital?”

“Maybe he wants to make a climatic showcase,” Cytortia suggested.

“If it is me, I will show it during the first battle and loan it in the next one to milk maximum profit,” Rem mused. “Either it isn’t ready then, or he got a reason.”

Rem’s [Clairvoyance] gazed into the past using Promtus as a window as Barney’s dreaded music ruined the atmosphere.

“You break those prior sieges using Kakia’s raw, penetrating ability. She broke the wall and everything in it in those attempts. Wow, the casualties are horrific. I see. Melosov probably tried to avoid the repeat of that. He wants the capital intact or more likely someone in it, which is strange because torch the capital anyway.”

Rem peered into Promtus soul to witness that night, “You and Acrisius are trying to find the Hidden Vault and Melosov is there. Meanwhile, Kakia is off trying to roast the capital, but you guys are panicking at the end. Probably because of the target switch. You guys are convinced the Penelope will use the royal army as a shield, but you are wrong. Kakia flew in pursuit of the Princess. Wait. Can’t you just continue pursuing the main army, while leaving the Princess for Kakia.”

Promtus’ eyes twitched and Rem suddenly had a feeling his prior assumption went off by a mile.

“Okay, what is it I got wrong with your strategy? How is splitting Kakia to deal with Penelope a—” Rem saw Promtus twitched again before he ended the sentence.

“Hey, old man, I think those over-the-top rumors are an exaggeration, cultivated as an excessive propaganda, but how bad is she?” Rem watched Promtus’ face explained everything in dread. “Oh hell, the rumor about the dungeon and sexualized murder is real, isn’t it?”

Luxinna’s heart took a deep sink.

“Rem, what the heck are you talking about?” Luxinna asked him in slow materialization of horror. “You said she is only a loose cannon.”

It was Promtus who answered. It was almost like the difference between him and his tormentor shrank. It appeared a monster in human-flesh often allied strange bed fellows against it.

“Loose cannon? Lad, multiplies what you heard about her by twenty. That bitch is a monster. Do you know the state of those girls—”

Luxinna disappeared in a flash.

Bang!

The elf lifted Promtus by the neck and dragged him to the wall with such a speed the following slam shook the chamber and splintered wall of the dingy interrogation room.

“Those girls?” Luxinna repeated in a voice of barely control disbelief. “Explain. Everything.”

Promtus gulped as raw, barely contained power pressed down on him and cracking the crumbling wall, “Look. I don’t know everything, but it is an open secret that Kakia has a dungeon she drag girls she fancied for a session. Most case, they came out as a cold dead corpse and the living one kill themselves later. I try to ignore this.”

“Ignore this?” Luxinna’s facial impression was indecipherable beneath the shadow, but her grip around Promtus’ neck tightened. “You are ignoring this!?”

“Try to listen to the tenth times you hear a girl being whipped in the bloody mess by that sadist, while watching her sister being rape to death by Kakia’s personal hunting hound,” Promtus shivered. “I would like to say there are luckier one, but that bitch is just unstable.”

Luxinna froze stiffed the moment her brain confirmed she wasn’t mishearing. 

Cytortia sensed immediate danger and strove to make herself a home in the room's corner. The girl knew she was still out of her depth in handling intra-group Molotov.

“You are exaggerating,” Rem spoke. Sure, he was familiar with how the gang did things, but beastiality-rape was the stuff of Hentai fantasy, but then [Tenshou] give him an alarming confirmation. “Oh shit. You aren’t kidding.” Even Rem’s the unflappable demeanor was utterly blown away. “This is serious.”

“Lad. This isn’t a thing anyone cracks a joke about. Do you know how she celebrated her birthday? She selected a gaggle of nine-years-old girls and forced them to dance on the pole impaling their—ack.”

Luxinna cut of old man wind supply, “How many? Just how many!?”

“I…” Promtus choked. “I lost count. I will—”

“Shut. Up.”

Promtus gasped. To his utter shock, he noticed specs of light like countless fire-flies of gold flying around the air while the surface layer of golden glass crept across the room, attempting to smother everything in the haze of anger.

Promtus looked toward the girl with the golden fire ignited in her eyes, and shivered. He met a lot of S-rank in his times, dozen stronger than him, but this girl was another animal. Her very cyclone of shifting emotion was downright terrifying. He held no illusion that the girl in front of him couldn’t be stopped until her mission was completed.

If Promtus had a consolation prize, it was the fact the world would soon be one unrepentant bitch down.

Luxinna stepped away from Promtus, and toward the door, but alas, a voice stopped her.

“Where are you going, Ace,” Rem spoke.

“To finish the job, Dream,” Luxinna answered.

“Understandable, but it has been a day,” Rem stated. “The bitch is probably right inside Acrisius’ main base.”

“Good,” Luxinna growled. “Hundred twenty thousand is just a number anyway.”

“You are tearing apart a lot collateral damage to go after a bitch you put half-foot in the grave. You will be forcing Acrisius to bring out a human shield.”

“She should be in the grave.”

“I agree,” Rem nodded. “But we aren’t a death squad.”

It was then Luxinna exploded, and golden glass erupted across the darkened room, turning the place into a cave of mystic.

“NOT DEATH SQUAD! That is your answer!?” Luxinna jabbed her finger at Promtus, who knew better than to attempt an escape. “You heard him! We don’t even know the numbers? I have her under my freaking thumb, and I fail them all! I could end that leaking can of evil right there, but I let her slip. I toss that hell-spawn right back into the medical bay with my own bloody hand!  All those girls’ humiliations. All those… all those.”

Surface of glass grew around the room creating features similar to stalactites and stalagmites, turning the room into magical hotspot.

“I could have made sure no one else has to suffer. At least, let me correct that mistake.”

“Ace,” Rem still stuck to the codename. “We are in professional mission. We can’t afford to let emotion govern over decision. I am sorry, but we are guardian not murderers.”

Luxinna was outraged.

“You actually defend this!? You of all people.”

“I am defending the system called ‘Innocent until proven guilty’. Yes, that cunt is probably guilty of every crime against humanity, but we have prosecution system to maintain. We have a rule, Ace, killing is against our tenet.”

“The prosecution system that let that evil-worshipping filth like Illma and this bitch floated for this long. Just how many of those girls need to die on the torture rack and humiliated for those sick freaks until we decide to throw out the restraint. Let be honest here, Dream, you made the no-killing rule because you already expect to happen.”

“Exactly.”

Sparks discharged from the growing golden icicles in rage, “I can’t believe this! You can see everything, and yet you hamstring us to protect a failing system anyway!”

“Let me get this straight. The failure of the system allows Kakia to pile a graveyard of innocent woman and you are about to exploit the same failure to avenge them. Yeah, that is poetic, but let shelved the rhyming, and talked about the precedent this set. You are encouraging more bastard to exploit the same failure to satiate their own twisted emotion — just like this bitch is encouraging you to do it.”

“Can you hear yourself? I am not her!”

“Yes, you aren’t. Yet. Things about twisted mass-murderer like dear old Orwell and Wayward is that they always begin with one murder. After that christening, they found it is easier to justify the rest. We are agent of justice, not fucking vengeance. I know you are upset, because I am also upset with myself for throwing this out as rumors. But the system would not be fixed, if we keep failing to uphold it.”

Rem stood to confront the raging elf, “This is what will happen. We are going to select a most bloodless way to handicap this little civil war. When the dust settle, we gather every single victimized household that suffered under Miss. One-Eye-Wonder, raid her stupid dungeon to find every incriminating evidence we can get our hand on, drag the bitch to the court in chains. We will let the defense yell everything they want before they got immolated under Everest of signed affidavits and evidences. After the judge read the execution sentence, I will gleefully help you drag her sorry behind to the gallows and hold her in place when you parted her neck from the shoulder. Then we are going to embalm her corpse, impaling it on the stick like what my buddy Vlad Tepes did to the Turk and putting her preserved remains into a museum with whatever addition we want as a cautionary tale that we aren’t fucking around. That is how we do things. Until that day, I want you to calm down and stop emulating the self-hating ass called Frank Castle.”

The two of them glared at each other.

“I can’t let her go.”

“Then get her next time,” Rem replied. “How about this, I will triple the surveillance on Acrisius. If Kakia somehow extricates herself from the hospital ward, I will task you with her capture.”

“I need to go for a walk,” Luxinna said, and walked away without waiting for an answer.

“Feel free,” Rem silently nodded to Cytortia. They communicate with a glance. The goddess nodded at Rem’s silent request and walked out along with Luxinna.

The boy slowly made his way back to the chair, sat, and changed the torture song.

Over the hills and far away

Teletubbies come to play

One (one)

Two (two)

Three (three)

Four (four)

Teletubbies!

Time for Teletubbies

Time for Teletubbies

Time for Teletubbies

“What is that god-awful song?” Promtus cringed at what was coming.

“A penance for both of us, buddy,” Rem spoke the truth, gazing at the interrogation room that was transformed into a glass cavern. “Now, let continue our hell.”