Chapter 238: Rescue (3)

Puhwak-.

A fountain of blood erupted.

The underground ceiling soared skyward, and the arm of the man who had been threatening him was severed.

Though it unfolded vividly before his eyes, Douglas found it all surreal.

Moreover…

Thump-thump-thump-.

His heart hammered wildly, and his entire body trembled as if gripped by malaria.

These symptoms had begun with the arrival of a single figure.

He didn’t know what method had been employed, but this being had torn off the arm of the bastard who had been threatening him.

A figure visible only by the pristine white back of their head.

Could it be…

The sole curse that plagued the dwarf race.

The vile instinct, that dreaded curse, only ever manifested under one condition, and in all of Douglas’s long life, today’s phenomenon had occurred only once before.

Gulp.

As Douglas gazed at the snow-white nape of the neck before him and swallowed hard, a figure plummeted from the sky.

Whoosh—!

“Douglas! Floria!”

Erica called out to her friends as she folded her wings and landed on the ground.

Tears welled in her eyes at finally seeing her cherished friends again. “Thank goodness… thank goodness. You’re alive!”

Having confirmed their well-being, Erica helped Floria up and approached Douglas.

“Erica… is that really you?”

“Yeah! It’s me! But Floria… your eye…”

“It’s alright. They just took my prosthetic eye.”

“You goblin bastards!”

Floria smiled at Erica, grateful for her anger on her behalf. Then she asked, her expression puzzled, “What exactly happened…?”

Douglas, looking stunned, muttered, “Birdbrain, if I’m not seeing things wrong, that person is…”

Erica grinned at Douglas’s dazed question. “I brought reinforcements!”

And not just any reinforcements—the strongest support troops on the planet.

Thud-

The leader of the Intruder group, his arm severed, slumped to the ground.

Louis slowly turned away from the writhing figure on the ground, his gaze shifting to face the trio and the one who stood apart.

“Heh heh heh.” Douglas still stood frozen, his expression vacant.

“This aura… could it be?” Floria frowned, finally sensing Louis’s presence and wearing a puzzled expression.

“Heh heh heh.” Erica giggled incessantly, her laughter echoing like tinkling bells.

Across the expanse of 250 years, the disciples of Dexter had finally gathered.

Louis approached the huddled group at a leisurely pace. He clicked his tongue at the Mana Restraining Rings binding Floria and Douglas. “Tch. How careless to be captured like this.” His hand clenched around the Mana Restraining Ring.

Crack.

The Mana Restraining Ring shattered with alarming ease.

Moisture welled in Douglas’s eyes.

“Truly… Truly, are you the Tower Lord?”

Louis smiled in response.

“I’m sorry. I was a little late.”

His words might have referred to the time Douglas and Floria had been abducted.

Or perhaps they spoke of the past 250 years.

But it didn’t matter.

Whether it was four days or two and a half centuries—

What significance could that hold?

The only truth that mattered was his return.

“Heh heh… Hahahaha!”

Louis chuckled softly as he watched Douglas erupt in laughter, his entire being overflowing with relief.

Louis’s gaze fell upon the wrinkled, liver-spotted face of the elderly dwarf.

“You’ve aged quite a bit, old man,” he remarked.

“If you’d been any later, I might have died without seeing you again. Heh heh.”

“You’ve been through so much…”

Louis patted Douglas’s shoulder before turning to Floria.

“Our Floria is as beautiful as ever.”

“Ah…”

Floria let out a soft sigh and smiled, her face blooming like a flower.

Just as they were enjoying their brief reunion, voices erupted from all directions, interrupting the Tower of Wishes’ assembly.

“Captain, what’s going on!”

“Captain!”

The warmth that had been in Louis’s expression instantly turned to an icy, arctic gale.

“We’ll discuss the details back at the Tower. First, we need to secure this area.”

As Louis turned, his gaze fell upon the nameless figure collapsed on the ground.

“Ugh…”

His face was ashen from blood loss. Anyone would have died from such a wound, yet the man still clung to life.

No, no. You can’t die like this.

Even though he had acted impulsively to threaten Douglas and Floria, this man couldn’t die without revealing his purpose.

I still need to find out so much from him.

First, let’s take care of these pests.

Louis sensed multiple auras approaching from his surroundings.

With a flick of his wrist, Louis executed the first step of his plan.

Snap.

Screams erupted from all directions.

The blind Floria, her curiosity piqued, asked, “What’s happening?”

Erica and Douglas answered in stunned voices.

“Uh, well… they’re flying.”

“Hmph… ‘flying’ is hardly accurate. More like they’ve been flung into the sky.”

As they spoke, people soared through the hole in the ceiling and hurtled skyward.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“W-what’s this?!”

“Uwaaaaah!”

Defying gravity, they were instantly propelled tens of meters into the air, their arms and legs flailing in shock.

The captive troll met the same fate.

-Krrgh?!

The sight of a troll, easily weighing several hundred kilograms, soaring into the air like a balloon was truly spectacular.

Equally dramatic were the severed arms of the man Louis had just dismembered, which shot skyward as well.

With the troll and the intruders gathered in mid-air, Louis remarked,

“Now for the main course.”

Snap.

Louis snapped his fingers once more, summoning a black void that instantly swallowed the troll and dozens of invaders whole.

This was Louis’s realm, a space likely to transform into a hellish battlefield between predators and prey.

The lucky ones might survive.

Having effortlessly disposed of the small fry, Louis seized the lone survivor remaining on the ground—the armless leader.

As Louis grasped the man’s face, a crimson energy surged from his hand and flowed into the leader’s skull.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

The man, half-dead, let out a horrific scream.

“Agh! Ugh!”

As his convulsive movements, writhing from brain-splitting pain, gradually subsided, Louis gently lowered him to the ground.

The man now appeared impervious to pain, but his pupils remained dilated and unfocused.

Louis leveled his question at him: “Name and affiliation.”

Under the Confession Sacred Scripture, a low voice escaped the mercenary’s lips. “Hurum… First Strike Leader, Black Gold Mercenaries.”

Startled by this revelation, Douglas exclaimed, “Black Gold Mercenaries?! Hah… So they actually exist?”

“You know of them?” Louis pressed.

Douglas then recounted what he knew about the Black Gold Mercenaries.

“The Black Gold Mercenaries… they’re the lowest of the low.”

While mercenaries would do anything for the right price, even they had certain lines they wouldn’t cross.

A shred of morality and humanity.

At the very least, they wouldn’t stoop to acts that no human should commit.

But the Black Gold Mercenaries were different.

For them, moral values were mere trash when gold was involved.

It was impossible to even determine if they were real or just a rumor.

Louis nodded at Douglas’s explanation and continued the interrogation.

“Who was the client for this operation?”

“I don’t know.”

Louis’s eyebrows twitched.

Now that the Confession Sacred Scripture had been activated, the man wouldn’t dare lie.

If he didn’t know the client’s identity, it must be the truth.

“You received a commission, but you don’t know who commissioned it? Then who relayed the request to you, or who knows the identity of the client?”

“We killed them.”

Louis clicked his tongue at this response.

How ruthless.

As the Black Gold Mercenaries dealt with affairs that drew condemnation from the world, their clients must have been equally shady individuals, yet capable of paying exorbitant fees.

To ensure their peace of mind when entrusting commissions, such clients would require robust safeguards.

The safety measure guaranteed by the Black Gold Mercenaries was to cleanly sever all connections to the client the moment the commission was accepted.

Neither the client nor any intermediary remains.

The traitor within the Tower of Wishes must have exploited this very characteristic when utilizing the Black Gold Mercenaries.

“What exactly was the nature of the commission?”

“Acquire information on the Grand Masters’ whereabouts and Grade 1 Transcendent abilities. Regardless of whether we obtain the information, eliminate the Grand Masters and stage their deaths as accidents using trolls. Deliver the Grand Masters’ belongings to the Tower of Wishes.”

As soon as the words left his lips, Douglas, Floria, and Erica’s expressions hardened.

“You sons of bitches!”

“No wonder there were trolls underground… they were capturing them for purposes like this.”

“Who the hell would do such a thing…?”

The trio shuddered at the cruelty of whoever had orchestrated this.

“The reward?”

“Five Grade 2 Transcendents.”

The Tower of Wishes produced only ten Grade 2 Transcendents a year at most.

With demand far exceeding supply, and prices skyrocketing, five Grade 2 Transcendents would have been more than enough to cover the cost of eliminating the Grand Masters.

This revelation further confirmed to Louis and his group that a traitor within the Tower of Wishes was responsible for the incident.

“Magic Resistance Armor and five Grade 2 Transcendent Techniques…”

“The traitor must be a high-ranking official within the Tower.”

Access to either the Magic Resistance Armor or Grade 2 Transcendent Techniques required at least Master-level authority.

As the two murmured to each other, Erica’s expression darkened. She then revealed the location transmitter hidden in her leather strap and Paula’s story.

“I’m sorry… I failed to properly train my disciple.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. The child might have been manipulated. You can blame yourself and Paula after all the facts come to light.”

”…Thank you, Douglas.”

While they exchanged these words, Louis extracted further details from the confession.

By the time Louis had extracted all the information he needed, the confessing man suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Streams of crimson flowed from his eyes and nostrils. Then, with a soft thud, his body collapsed like a puppet with severed strings. He had bled to death, his last breath escaping his lips. Even without the fatal blood loss, the Confession Sacred Scripture would have rendered him an empty shell, a brain-dead husk. Yet Louis showed no outward sign of agitation at the man’s demise. He remained deep in thought. “What to do…” Should he simply gather the others and storm the place, overturning everything? But if he did that, the traitor in the Tower might conceal their identity and feign ignorance. Fortunately, Louis had an easier, more straightforward solution: “I’ll just torment William until he spills everything.”

Now that he had people to vouch for his identity, Louis could finally deal with William without worrying about the consequences.

But Louis shook his head.

Then… it would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

These were the bastards who had vandalized his tower.

Louis wanted them to taste profound frustration and despair.

That would be true revenge.

An eye for an eye, a prank for a prank.

A chilling smile spread across Louis’s face as he plotted his scheme.

Douglas and Erica, seeing that smile, shuddered.

“H-how can that smile remain unchanged after 250 years…?” Douglas stammered.

”…For once, I envy your blindness. I’m terrified, Floria…” Erica trembled, burying her face in Floria’s arms.

Floria gently stroked Erica’s trembling back.

The next day, Louis rescued the Grand Masters.

An urgent message crackled through the emergency communication network connected to the Tower of Wishes:

That single line of news sent shockwaves through the Tower of Wishes, shaking its very foundations.