This guy’s no good, but that doesn’t mean I need to escalate things until he does.

I shook my head. “Why don’t we talk first, Benny my boy. What is that you want from me, assuming I go with you?”

His frown grew into a vicious scowl when I called him Benny, and he had to force his hands to unclench. “If you know my name you will speak it properly, but I digress. You will submit to our questioning and examination. From there you will be brought to our leader, and he will decide how you will be used.”

I cringed internally. Yeesh. Dude talks as if this is the most natural thing in the world. Used? I’m not an object! And I certainly don’t belong to them so why and how have they decided that I do?

He smirked at my silence, stepped forward, and his cronies fanned out behind him, their hands reaching for what were probably weapons concealed in their robes. “It is good that you can comprehend your place so quickly. I will overlook your initial resistance and–”

Nyx. Tase. Magnetic hold. Magnetic hold.

I snapped my fingers as I rapid fired spells. In an instant, their magic buffs and defenses were disabled, his cronies were incapacitated, and then the doors behind them were shut while all their weaponry was gathered at my feet.

Benny boy gawked, first at his own hands, devoid of the once pervasive magic, and then at his downed subordinates crumpled and convulsing on the ground around him.

Honestly, I was afraid that wouldn’t work. Pulling the doors shut with magnetism is easy enough, as is collecting the weapons of the stunned stooges. But I was worried I wouldn’t be able to take out all their support magic in one go with a basic spell, let alone drop them with tase since these guys aren’t exactly slouches! The least of them is comparable in stats and ability to Carmella, and with how diverse their abilities are I couldn’t be sure it’d all go off so well. I guess I can thank their arrogance. Heh, ironic.

I returned the smirk that once adorned his smug face. “Overlook? You’re not in any position to overlook anything. In fact, you should be begging to be overlooked, given all you’ve done wrong.”

He slid a step back, and started to circulate mana through his body in preparation to cast or fight. “Wrong? What could I have possibly done wrong? Everything I’ve done has been sanctioned! I have no sin!”

I raised my chin to look down on him, and activated my intimidation ability for the first time in a while.

Iskel, though not in a direct line or even a target, started to tremble before dropping to his knees–head lowered, and hands clasped in prayer.

Benny, on the other hand, just froze, wide eyed, lower lip quivering ever so slightly, while his starting to recover goons stopped trying to stand and simply laid still as if playing dead was going to help them escape my notice.

“No sin?” I practically spat the words. “You’re a murder. Liar. Disturber of the peace. Destroyer. Corrupter. And blasphemer! Do you deny this?”

His eyes grew more and more bloodshot by the minute. It was but a twitch at first but his head slowly started to turn, shaking side to side, eyes never leaving me. “N–no. I. I was absolved. It was God’s will. I’ve only ever done God’s will!”

“God’s will? How long has that line been used to mobilize the foolish and justify the ignorant? Anyone can claim that something is God’s will but that doesn’t make it true!” I slowly walked down from the dias, my every step echoing awkwardly in the otherwise oppressive silence, but that didn’t stop me, and I continued until I was right up in his face. “None of your sins are forgiven. All of them are retained. Unless you go from here and repent, that will not change.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I mean, based on what I’ve gathered from the system most deities worshiped in this world are false except for the one known as the creator. Assuming he’s God from the old Earth, this should be accurate information. Though… Why the heck did I just get so passionate about it just now? Because he’s the second awful person to annoy me today? Probably.

Benny practically fell away from me, stumbling as if struck, but he still managed to retain his footing. “You–! How would you know? What even are you?! You should be exhausted from the display outside the gates, from restoring this place! How are you still so powerful? How do you know so much about me? About sin and forgiveness?”

I frowned. Do they not teach that stuff anymore? But even if some of it is just my assumption, I’m more appalled he still won’t listen to what I’m saying.

“What truly pointless questions.”

One of his followers groaned. “Oh God. We’re doomed.”

He glowered at the whiner, likely latching onto the outburst to mentally escape from me, even if only a little. “S–silence.” He shut his eyes, and I watched his mana gather as he muttered a spell from the corner of his mouth. Once it was ready he paused its release and said. “And you. You are still coming with us!”

I rolled my eyes.

Nyx

He swung his now magic-less hand at me, likely due to the spell requiring touch to activate, and I just caught his wrist and patted his shoulder with my free hand.

“If your little meltdown is over, I think we’re done here.”

Scintillating barrier, magnetic hold, hurricane.

With that thought, I coated the walls and floor in a protective shield, flung the doors wide, and then blasted the lot of them outside with an intense, albeit short, storm.

The still dazed and slightly stunned goons helplessly scattered and flopped into the dirty and dingy streets soiling their clothes, but Benny boy managed to land on his feet thanks to a quick spell–though he still slid until he lost his footing and fell onto his knees.

I marched up to the entrance, closing the door behind me so that Iskel would be left alone and hopefully forgotten about, before I declared. “Get out of my sight, and do not return to this place unrepentant.”

Benny lit up his hands with the chaos spell ‘warping will’, and the order spell 'controlling command’, before he shouted. “Oh no! This isn’t the end, you don’t just get to run away! My master will have you, no matter what it may cost us!”

I narrowed my eyes at him. With his glasses crooked, his once neatly combed hair messed up, and robes disheveled, he looks like your stereotypical raving lunatic. And what better way to deal with such a lunatic than with the time period appropriate shock therapy!

I raised a hand and let it drop. Spark shower.

A bolt from the blue split the sky and crashed down onto Benny’s head.

To my surprise he reacted to the attack and even managed to partially deflect the bolt with the combined power of his two spells, but all that did was make some of his goons suffer too. He wasn’t even able to retain his consciousness in the end.

Huh. Thought it’d be harder to deal with him given he’s stronger than the demon infused Larissa. Though now that I think about it I took them out with one bolt too, and it wasn’t until after that I had difficulty. But I know more now so that shouldn’t be the case this time.

I reapplied my intimidate ability, and glowered at the few mooks that remained. “Followers of Gregorious Durdanhal, I trust you will not make me repeat myself?”

They collectively gulped, and the moment I lifted the oppressive force of my intimidate they scrambled to get their boss and buddies as far from me as they possibly could.

I watched them from the stairs and sighed. What should I do? The obvious move would be to follow them to find out where they’re based, though I could also try to look into this Gregorious person who sent them. Oh! And it looks like Calden and co. are done with their big talks so I could go back and update them on the situation too.