"Who, who goes there?"
In that instant, the two turned around in panic. The young boy was so stunned that he stumbled to the floor, the metal strand in his hand snapped in the keyhole.
However, the only thing they saw was the streams of water released upon them. And in that brief moment, they couldn’t react in time, and were instantly drenched in Benjamin’s water spell, losing their balance in the process.
"Nghhh…"
The young girl struggled, and attempted to use spiritual energy to repel the gushing stream. Yet one instant later, the gushing stream grew into crashing waves, which more or less filled up the entire palace hallway, and slammed into them head on!
Following the tides and turns of the water flow, the two were knocked around the walls and floors several times. At last, they fell on the wet flooring, bruises covered their bodies, and fell unconscious.
Benjamin then slowly stood away from the wall.
"It’s over, Your Majesty." He dispersed the water flow, shouted aloud at the room, "I have already dealt with these two."
A moment later, the king reluctantly opened the door, and walked out from within.
"Is it really over?" He glanced at the washed out brother and sister, and shook his head, "What nonsensical cult this is, even children this young were deployed as assassins."
"Do not underestimate them Your Majesty, their strength rivaled that of Spencer’s."
The king listened, jerked again before he rushed back into his chambers, fearing that these two may still be conscious. Benjamin observed the situation at hand, shook his head as well, wrapped up the siblings with steam, and brought them to a secluded room in the palace.
He planned to interrogate both of them thoroughly.
However, the circumstances in interrogating members of a foreign cult, differed greatly from interrogating mages.
Although he effortlessly subdued these two, it was only due to him having the perfect setup for an ambush, and that his opponents didn’t get a chance to fight back. But once the interrogation began, these people don’t need to chant to cast spells, their movements were subtle as well, it would be problematic for Benjamin to even consider restraining them for long periods of time.
"Is there a way to seal their abilities to cast spells?" As such, he was in no rush to wake them up, and thought to himself.
"Extremely difficult," the System slowly said, "Current magic nullifying techniques could only seal their use of the elements, the ones that interfere with spiritual energy are rare. However, you could try using potions."
"Potions?"
"I recall it was recorded in "Introductory Potions", a failed brew of a spiritual energy recovery had a negative side effect, which was drastically lower the spiritual energy of others. You could feed them a few bottles, they shouldn’t be able to pull off anything for a short period of time."
"..."
Such an application existed?
Benjamin shot the siblings a few more glances, nothing came to mind no matter how much he thought for a solution, he could only come to this method. Naturally, no one would carry bottles of failed potions around. But… he could brew them on the spot.
Since it would be failed products anyway, this was perfect for an amateur like him.
With that said, the palace servants bought some ingredients for him, Benjamin took around half an hour to create the finished products. When the two people woke up, Benjamin casted a few water explosions to knock them out again, everything went well without any hurdles.
At last, as he forced the black goo of the failed potion down the siblings’ throats, Benjamin casted a healing water sphere to adjust the side effects of the medicine, to prevent them from dying. A few minutes later, the two slowly regained their senses.
"Where… where is this?"
The young boy was the first to open his eyes, realized then that he was in a dark room, his entire body ached with no end. Even more frightening however, was this drained feeling he had, his mind felt empty, it became troublesome to just even think.
In front of him however, stood that personal guard who slept at the side, now wearing a devious grin, set his gaze at them from above.
At the time, the young boy couldn’t help but shivered.
"This was so troublesome…" Benjamin looked at them, shook his head, and said, "Alright, both of you fell for the trap, now truthfully cough up the secrets of your cult, or else I won’t hesitate to get rough with you."
"You… you’re….."
The young girl woke up. She looked at Benjamin with a questioning look, dazed for a brief moment, then suddenly came to a realization. A look of horror painted across her face.
"I’m the mage Benjamin. You probably have heard of my name." Benjamin cocked his head, grinned as he said, "My apologies, I accidently ended the life of your high priest, but rest assured. This time around, I definitely wouldn’t let my hands slip."
In that instant, both were stunned at where they were.
How, how could this be…
The young girl snapped out of it, started to struggle for her life. However, they were bound tightly by ropes. In an attempt to cast a spell, a sharp pain stabbed her mind, nothing materialized. This led her to panic more.
"What did you do to us?"
"Poison." Benjamin replied coldly, "Don’t even think about casting those weird spells, your current spiritual energies are far weaker than normal people."
"What? How could there be such potion…"
The two once more expressed despair on their faces.
"Done screaming? If you’re done, tell me how to dispel the piece of spiritual energy lingering in the king’s mind." Benjamin waved his hand, ten tiny icicles appeared in the thin air, "Otherwise, do you see these needles? I will teach you the methods employed by mages through and through."
The two froze in that instant.
Their faces paled, trembled non-stop… Based on their age, they obviously never had gotten themselves in this sort of confrontation before. However, perhaps it’s their devotion that stopped them from admitting defeat.
"You...why don’t you kill us already! Our Goddess above shall avenge us!"
"Is that so? Hmph, interesting. If your Goddess truly is almighty, then how did you end up within my grasp?"
"That’s because… that’s because this is all according to the Goddess’s plan!" The young girl gritted her teeth and said, "It was her who guided us toward here, it was also her who bestowed upon us our extraordinary powers…"
Benjamin cut her off, said nonchalantly, "It wasn’t her who guided you here, I lured both of you to come here. I intentionally requested the palace security to be loosened, as for the powers you possessed, I could easily rob them away with a potion."
"You… you shall not desecrate our Goddess! It’s our Goddess who created this world, created the millions of life which walk this Earth, and bestowed us the spiritual energy to protect ourselves! You have no right to say all this!"
"Really now? Yet how come the spiritual energy bestowed by your Goddess, is possessed by an outsider such as myself?" Benjamin wore a chilling grin as he shook his head, "So would this be the fault of your Goddess, or perhaps these are lies forged by others to deceive you?"
"You’re… you’re lying…"
Clearly, these two were nowhere close in experience to battle-scarred priests. Although they bore faith, their wills were far from strong. Though Benjamin only said a few words, already they had no idea on how to reply.
"Did you guys ever think, that despite your earnest devotion to your Goddess, you were only left with protecting the islands since the very beginning, enduring disasters from the sea and magical beast attacks. It was nigh perilous to even migrate around the shores. As for us who bore no faith whatsoever, had the luxury of vast open lands and nutritious soils. How are we the ones living out our lives without worries of shortage in food and shelter?"
"This… our Goddess has a plan for all this."
"Yet she never once arranged for anything good to happen." Benjamin shook his head, and said out of pity, "If that’s the case, why would you still have faith in her?"
In that moment, he saw a change in their faces.
"Who, who goes there?"
In that instant, the two turned around in panic. The young boy was so stunned that he stumbled to the floor, the metal strand in his hand snapped in the keyhole.
However, the only thing they saw was the streams of water released upon them. And in that brief moment, they couldn’t react in time, and were instantly drenched in Benjamin’s water spell, losing their balance in the process.
"Nghhh…"
The young girl struggled, and attempted to use spiritual energy to repel the gushing stream. Yet one instant later, the gushing stream grew into crashing waves, which more or less filled up the entire palace hallway, and slammed into them head on!
Following the tides and turns of the water flow, the two were knocked around the walls and floors several times. At last, they fell on the wet flooring, bruises covered their bodies, and fell unconscious.
Benjamin then slowly stood away from the wall.
"It’s over, Your Majesty." He dispersed the water flow, shouted aloud at the room, "I have already dealt with these two."
A moment later, the king reluctantly opened the door, and walked out from within.
"Is it really over?" He glanced at the washed out brother and sister, and shook his head, "What nonsensical cult this is, even children this young were deployed as assassins."
"Do not underestimate them Your Majesty, their strength rivaled that of Spencer’s."
The king listened, jerked again before he rushed back into his chambers, fearing that these two may still be conscious. Benjamin observed the situation at hand, shook his head as well, wrapped up the siblings with steam, and brought them to a secluded room in the palace.
He planned to interrogate both of them thoroughly.
However, the circumstances in interrogating members of a foreign cult, differed greatly from interrogating mages.
Although he effortlessly subdued these two, it was only due to him having the perfect setup for an ambush, and that his opponents didn’t get a chance to fight back. But once the interrogation began, these people don’t need to chant to cast spells, their movements were subtle as well, it would be problematic for Benjamin to even consider restraining them for long periods of time.
"Is there a way to seal their abilities to cast spells?" As such, he was in no rush to wake them up, and thought to himself.
"Extremely difficult," the System slowly said, "Current magic nullifying techniques could only seal their use of the elements, the ones that interfere with spiritual energy are rare. However, you could try using potions."
"Potions?"
"I recall it was recorded in "Introductory Potions", a failed brew of a spiritual energy recovery had a negative side effect, which was drastically lower the spiritual energy of others. You could feed them a few bottles, they shouldn’t be able to pull off anything for a short period of time."
"..."
Such an application existed?
Benjamin shot the siblings a few more glances, nothing came to mind no matter how much he thought for a solution, he could only come to this method. Naturally, no one would carry bottles of failed potions around. But… he could brew them on the spot.
Since it would be failed products anyway, this was perfect for an amateur like him.
With that said, the palace servants bought some ingredients for him, Benjamin took around half an hour to create the finished products. When the two people woke up, Benjamin casted a few water explosions to knock them out again, everything went well without any hurdles.
At last, as he forced the black goo of the failed potion down the siblings’ throats, Benjamin casted a healing water sphere to adjust the side effects of the medicine, to prevent them from dying. A few minutes later, the two slowly regained their senses.
"Where… where is this?"
The young boy was the first to open his eyes, realized then that he was in a dark room, his entire body ached with no end. Even more frightening however, was this drained feeling he had, his mind felt empty, it became troublesome to just even think.
In front of him however, stood that personal guard who slept at the side, now wearing a devious grin, set his gaze at them from above.
At the time, the young boy couldn’t help but shivered.
"This was so troublesome…" Benjamin looked at them, shook his head, and said, "Alright, both of you fell for the trap, now truthfully cough up the secrets of your cult, or else I won’t hesitate to get rough with you."
"You… you’re….."
The young girl woke up. She looked at Benjamin with a questioning look, dazed for a brief moment, then suddenly came to a realization. A look of horror painted across her face.
"I’m the mage Benjamin. You probably have heard of my name." Benjamin cocked his head, grinned as he said, "My apologies, I accidently ended the life of your high priest, but rest assured. This time around, I definitely wouldn’t let my hands slip."
In that instant, both were stunned at where they were.
How, how could this be…
The young girl snapped out of it, started to struggle for her life. However, they were bound tightly by ropes. In an attempt to cast a spell, a sharp pain stabbed her mind, nothing materialized. This led her to panic more.
"What did you do to us?"
"Poison." Benjamin replied coldly, "Don’t even think about casting those weird spells, your current spiritual energies are far weaker than normal people."
"What? How could there be such potion…"
The two once more expressed despair on their faces.
"Done screaming? If you’re done, tell me how to dispel the piece of spiritual energy lingering in the king’s mind." Benjamin waved his hand, ten tiny icicles appeared in the thin air, "Otherwise, do you see these needles? I will teach you the methods employed by mages through and through."
The two froze in that instant.
Their faces paled, trembled non-stop… Based on their age, they obviously never had gotten themselves in this sort of confrontation before. However, perhaps it’s their devotion that stopped them from admitting defeat.
"You...why don’t you kill us already! Our Goddess above shall avenge us!"
"Is that so? Hmph, interesting. If your Goddess truly is almighty, then how did you end up within my grasp?"
"That’s because… that’s because this is all according to the Goddess’s plan!" The young girl gritted her teeth and said, "It was her who guided us toward here, it was also her who bestowed upon us our extraordinary powers…"
Benjamin cut her off, said nonchalantly, "It wasn’t her who guided you here, I lured both of you to come here. I intentionally requested the palace security to be loosened, as for the powers you possessed, I could easily rob them away with a potion."
"You… you shall not desecrate our Goddess! It’s our Goddess who created this world, created the millions of life which walk this Earth, and bestowed us the spiritual energy to protect ourselves! You have no right to say all this!"
"Really now? Yet how come the spiritual energy bestowed by your Goddess, is possessed by an outsider such as myself?" Benjamin wore a chilling grin as he shook his head, "So would this be the fault of your Goddess, or perhaps these are lies forged by others to deceive you?"
"You’re… you’re lying…"
Clearly, these two were nowhere close in experience to battle-scarred priests. Although they bore faith, their wills were far from strong. Though Benjamin only said a few words, already they had no idea on how to reply.
"Did you guys ever think, that despite your earnest devotion to your Goddess, you were only left with protecting the islands since the very beginning, enduring disasters from the sea and magical beast attacks. It was nigh perilous to even migrate around the shores. As for us who bore no faith whatsoever, had the luxury of vast open lands and nutritious soils. How are we the ones living out our lives without worries of shortage in food and shelter?"
"This… our Goddess has a plan for all this."
"Yet she never once arranged for anything good to happen." Benjamin shook his head, and said out of pity, "If that’s the case, why would you still have faith in her?"
In that moment, he saw a change in their faces.
