BXBX NOVEL Chapter 226 Hasta's Interrogation (2)
"Unlike the seven of us who are well versed in using advanced spells and weapons, they were only trained to use curse weapons." Hasta replied with bloodshot eyes as the hatred in his heart intensified with the information freely flowing from his mouth.
"Why so? If you know how to use advanced curse spells, then why not teach the basic ones to others?" General Farauld asked with interest.
This does not follow the normal course of logic.
To any man who had obtained an unbelievable source of power, he would have greater feats to aspire to and that mainly includes expanding his power through getting more subordinates.
"Of course, that would mean that the competition to find curse replenishment will increase!" Hasta tried to bite his tongue to fight off the urge to spill the truth, however the self harm detecting array activated and stopped his act.
Without hindrance, he could only continue;
"Unlike mana which is available in almost every part of Prasinos, curse magic is scarce. The easiest source for us to replenish our magic is to take away people's lives. If we do not do it, the curse magic will try to get a means to survive on its own. That means devouring the nearest source of replenishment, which is the user's life.
If a hundred of us need to replenish our magic, then that would mean we have to kill at least a hundred people, depending on the scale of the curse magic we used. For an intermediate level spell, I have to kill at least ten people devouring their essence. Wouldn't that raise the enemy's attention if that's the case?"
With so much valuable information coming out from Hasta's mouth, General Farauld wanted to ask a few more follow up questions but the time was not able to give him a chance. He had to stick to his roster of questions.
General Farauld: "Are you under the Duke and Empress's Orders?"
Hasta: "Yes."
General Farauld: "Who is the main chain of command and why?"
Hasta: "The Empress, she is the real successor of the Vesala."
General Farauld: "Real successor of the Vesala? What does that mean?"
Hasta: "I am not privy to that information."
General Farauld: "Does the Empress and Duke know how to use curse magic?"
Hasta: "Yes, they were the ones who trained us personally."
General Farauld: "Do you know how they are able to learn to use this magic."
Hasta: "No.. not one of the seven dark knights knew of it. We only know that they were our teachers."
General Farauld: "Do you know why the Duke and the Empress trained men like you?"
Hasta: "I don't know. Maybe to take the throne."
General Farauld: "Tell the truth!"
Deeply surprised that Hasta did not know the specifics of the Empress's plans, General Farauld checked the glass timer and looked at Kayden with doubt. However Kayden only gave him an assuring nod.
"Well didn't you know if I am telling the truth or not?" Hasta replied in a mocking tone.
General Farauld could only sigh briefly and continued, "Is the First prince aware of the Empress and Duke's association with curses?"
Hasta gritted his teeth, he figured out that the effect of the potion he ingested had a time limit from the way General Farauld was interrogating him. But his mind and body wouldn't listen to him.
He could only witness himself spill the truth like a free flowing fountain, "No... none of the second generation of the Vesalas nor the First Prince knew of these things. They only knew that the Vesalas had some forces underground, but not as deep as knowing that these powers had something to do with the curses."
General Farauld: "Do you have connections with the Spectre."
Hasta: "They are our closest partners."
General Farauld: "Where are these people right now?"
Hasta: "They are mysterious, after you guys had driven out their henchmen, we are having a hard time reestablishing our connection with them!! All we know is that they were spread out in the mainland, having people in every jurisdiction of the continent."
General Farauld nodded and asked another crucial question, "What are the plans that the Empress and the Duke want to implement inside the Empire?"
"As far as I know, we are preparing to station our people strategically accross the Empire and cause some chaos. Of course, I am not yet aware of the specifics but I only know that this had to be done with the intention to increase the people's trust on the Vesala Clan and stabilize their status in the empire. Nothing more nothing less."
With Hasta's last answer, the sand in the glass timer was fully consumed, signaling that the truth potion was no longer in effect.
However, General Farauld did not relax nor showed a fluctuation in his demeanor. He tried to squeeze out a little more information by bluffing, letting Hasta think that he was still under the truth spell.
He was able to extract more than three locations where the Empress and the Duke's hidden people were stationed before Hasta realized that he was no longer under the truth potion.
"D*mn!!!" Hasta angrily roared upon realizing that he was deceived. He was about to let out another bellow, when a mouthful of blood came out of his mouth.
Right after the potion had lost its effect, the curse magic immediately kicked in and devoured the last of Hasta's soul.
"Ahhhhhrrrr!" Hasta could feel that his body was thrown on a fierce and demonic flame.
He felt that every bit of his body was being burnt mercilessly. The pain caused his senses to no longer function as the only thing that he could do to express his suffering was to let out a shrill sound and writhe in pain.
The entire team felt a cold wave of goosebumps crawl all over their bodies while they witnessed the devastating effect of the curse on Hasta's life. They could see how his life was spent under the fearsome torture of the curse.
All of them were left in a daze for a good few seconds after Hasta's struggle ended with silence.
Even General Farauld and Leon, who had witnessed the most bloodcurdling kinds of deaths in the battlefield, stood still in a trance after realizing the horror of getting one's soul be devoured by the curse magic.
"Sigh…Joab, let's clean this up." After some time, it was Keren who came out of the daze first.
She patted Joab's shoulder and reminded him that they have to take Hasta's body out of the interrogation room. They have to start cleaning up before preparing it again for Igor's interrogation the next day.
The rest were also awakened by this, they started to wrap up with a shaken heart, ensuring that the transcription of the interrogation was well documented. Soon, everyone worked on their own tasks without one telling the other what to do.
"Urrrrrr..Not.. Enough…" Suddenly, a weak eerie voice came out of nowhere.
Eli was deeply bothered by the sound, "What was that?" She asked with a worried and surprised tone.
But she was dumbfounded to see that everyone was absorbed with their own tasks and responded to her perfunctorily, "Is there a problem, Eli?"
"Not Enough…." The eerie voice sounded again, this time it's tone was more demanding.
"Are you not hearing something?" Eli furrowed her brows while she looked around to see the team's puzzled faces.
Her eyes darted around the interrogation room, ignoring the puzzled faces of Leon and the rest. She frantically searched for the source of the voice until her gaze stopped at Hasta's lifeless body.
"Not enough, Not enough… not enough.... NOT ENOUGH!!!" This time the voice was intensely angry and scarier. It directly came out from Hasta's dead body.
Finally knowing the source of the evil voice, a wave of terror rose in Eli's heart.
After hearing the bellow of the voice, she saw a ball of black fire, as large as the size of an adult fist, emerge from Hasta's chest.
The flames of the black ball of fire wriggled like hungry tongues in search of something that could satiate their thirst.
"Food… Food… FOOD!" The voice rang again, and Eli saw that the ball of fire approached the clueless General Farauld, who was busy organizing the files he had at hand.
This all happened without any warning.
"Papi!" Eli desperately called out.
She used the shadow step that she had learned with the Crimson Blades and dashed through the mirror partition recklessly.
She didn't mind the glass shards wounding her body as the only thing in her mind was to ensure that the ball of flame would not reach General Farauld.
Crash!!!!
The sound of the mirror breaking and Eli's frantic scream took everyone by surprise.
By the time they realized what happened, Eli was already in front of General Farauld, shielding him from the approaching sinister looking ball of black flames without any form of protection.
"Eli!!!" Leon and the rest cried in alarm.