I took a deep breath to contain the growing excitement within me. I should not lose myself in this extreme emotion, it would be my undoing, especially in this risky situation. And getting too excited might become problematic. The bandits were slowly killing themselves, but I shouldn’t let this go on lest their heads turn back to normal. At least they were all distracted at the moment.

I had determined high value targets, ones that I’d spare. Therefore, I knew which ones I should kill to dwindle their numbers. I subtly pulled out small daggers, pressing them between my fingers. Thinking about the strength of the people in this land, I shouldn’t underestimate these bandits. Therefore, I must be swift in killing them, a surprise attack.

I poured a good amount of mana into the fibers of my flesh as I stepped forward.

“Let me start, Velar.” I whispered.

I halted and firmed my body. With my eyes, I began aiming at different targets. Once I was ready, in an instant, my cloak flapped open as I swiftly spun around, followed by six small daggers piercing through the air at staggering speed. The intense speed of my daggers didn’t allow for anyone to see them, nor block them in time.

The daggers hit flesh, and in the next moment, magical slashes exploded, shredding bodies apart.

“W-What the hell?!” one bandit exclaimed as he witnessed his own opponent explode into a shower of red guts.

I extended a hand aimed at the bandit and a strike of lightning emerged from my palm. To my surprise, he used his magic coated sword to block my spell. To think he could react to that attack. Instantly, ice crawled from the soil before me towards him, and a spike grew out of the ground and pierced the back of his knee.

“Gggh! How—” another ice spike stabbed his arm.

I took the chance to pounce on him and cut off his hand. He cried in pain, blood spurting out of his cut off wrist, his sword falling to the ground. I punched him on the cheek, stunning him for a moment. But still, he was sturdier than I had hoped. I quite felt that slightly hard sensation in my fist. But of course, I was pretty loaded with Physical Enhancement so it wasn’t that big of an issue.

As he tilted to the side, I severed his right leg. He tumbled to the ground.

“W-What the h-hell?!” He writhed on the soil as he slowly bled out.

I noticed another running towards me. I didn’t need that guy. I was curious how much power I needed to execute a single bandit with a single magic. A ball of flame formed in my hand as I held it out towards the enemy. I condensed a good amount of magic, guessing how much I would need to obliterate him. But not to the extent that it would be too mana expensive.

The bolt of flame shot out, leaving a small burst of air as it went. The bandit cast a magic shield to protect himself. However, it immediately broke into pieces, and he instantly burst into flames after the fire bolt broke through. Once the fire dissipated, what was left was a smoldering corpse dropping.

I glanced at the last bandit, looking at me with wide eyes. But Velar was already beside the man, and had pointed a sword at his neck.

“Don’t kill him,” I said.

Velar nodded. “Don’t try to resist,” Velar warned.

“Shit!” The bandit quickly dropped his weapon and raised both hands. “I give up!”

Now that the last guy was taken care of, I turned towards the amputated bandit crawling on the ground. He was the bandit leader.

“Don’t move,” I said.

He froze, gritting his teeth. I approached him and cast a ball of flame at his bleeding arm.

“AAAAH!” His flesh and blood sizzled for a moment as I cauterized it. I did the same to his leg, and he cried even more in his agony. He squirmed all over, he wanted to stand, but he couldn’t. “Fuck you! Magic can’t grow fucking limbs!” He glared at me. “I’m forever a cripple!”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Stop squirming.” I waved my hand and ice immediately wrapped around his limbs and body to restrain him. Crouching beside him, I said, “I don’t care if you’re a cripple. You have something I want.”

“W-What the fuck do you want?!”

“Do you know of a person named Yachi Miyagawa?”

His eyes widened, and he looked away with a firm expression. “I don’t know that guy.”

“Oh? Really?”

I gestured for Velar to bring the other one. With a smile, I asked the other bandit the same question.

“Do you know Yachi Miyagawa? If you don’t answer, well, I’ll cut off your penis.”

The bandit froze in horror. “That’s cruel!”

“Cruel? Says the one who wanted to violate me. Answer me now. I’m losing my patience.”

The bandit pursed his lips. “... I know him.”

“You idiot! Don’t say anything. He’ll kill us!”

“Screw that!”

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“They’re bounty hunters!”

“I don’t care! The boss will kill them, anyway.”

“And we’re fucking next for snitching, you fucking idiot!”

The bandit who confessed clicked his tongue.

“Hm. Good man right there.” I pointed at the snitch. And suddenly, I kicked the bandit group leader on the head, knocking him out. His head turned to the side, eyes closed.

I approached the other bandit and leaned in close. “As for you, I need you to tell me where this Yachi is. Where is your base?”

The man hesitated for a moment before pointing in a particular direction. “The base is on the hills to the west. A couple hours of walking from here through the forest.”

“Is that so?” I turned towards the unconscious bandit. “Keep a good watch on him,” I said to my knight. “I have something I need to do. But before that.”

I retrieved all my daggers that were scattered around the area. I didn’t conjure the threads this time as they would only slow me down, I had no time to retract them. The goal was to eliminate the enemies as soon as possible. And it was doable if I just threw my weapons.

Once I was done retrieving all my daggers, I approached and grasped the unconscious bandit’s shirt and began dragging him into the forest.

“What are you planning on doing?” Velar asked, curious.

“Verification.”

“I really shouldn’t leave you alone in there.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I walked into the forest, and honestly, it was a bit creepy. I approached a particular tree, and I easily lifted the man up and pressed him to the tree upside down. Ice magic wrapped around his body and secured him to the tree trunk. I left his other hand exposed for later.

Hm, I just knocked him up. Would he wake up?

I slapped him multiple times and his cheeks started turning red. It took a while, but his eyes started fluttering and looking around.

“W-What? W-Where am I?” His eyes widened upon seeing me. “I’m upside down?!” He tried squirming, but it wouldn’t budge. He stared at the ice that enclosed him. “What the hell is this? Why’s this so hard?!”

“Calm down, will you? I just want to ask some questions.”

“Ggh! What?!”

I gave him a condescending look. “I don’t like the way you talk to me. Be more respectful.”

“Fuck you!”

“You do know you’re wasting too much time lashing out at me like this. By every passing moment, the closer you are to dying.”

“W-What…?”

I conjured an ice chair and sat down on it, glaring at him at eye level. “Why so confused? I’m certain you know about it.” I smiled. “You’re flipped over, blood rushing to your head.”

He gasped in horror when he finally realized the danger he was in, aside from the other dangerous things…

“Blood is essential to the body,” I continued. “But too much blood to the head, now that is deadly.”

He groaned. “What the fuck do you want from me?!”

“Where is your base? The base where I can find the bandit big boss named Yachi.”

He gritted his teeth. “No fucking way I’m telling you!”

“Are you really that loyal?”

“He’s helped us many times. Gave us good livelihoods! I ain’t giving him away just like that.”

Hearing the absurd words that came out of his mouth, I couldn’t help but snicker. “You consider banditry a good livelihood? I’ve never heard something so stupid in a while.”

“Screw you!”

“But I would rather you answer my question.”

“No fucking way I’m talkin—”

A flash of a blade swept through the air. And the next that could be heard was the bandit’s cry of agony, as his other hand was severed.

“Ggggh! Fuck you! You’re an evil bitch!” He shouted, tears coming out of his eyes, and saliva drooling down his mouth.

I slapped him in the face. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?” I picked up his hand with my fingers as if I was picking up something disgusting. “A shame, you have no hands left.” I casually threw his hand away into the wilderness.

“I’m not talking shit!”

I conjured a ball of flame and cauterized his bleeding arm. His wound sizzled loudly.

“AAAAAGH! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“I was never really a torturer. It was never my role. But I learned a thing or two. You see a lot of torture in my line of business.”

The bandit gasped for breath as he bore the intense pain. Looking at him, he looked like shit, no arms, missing a leg.

“Y-You took everything!” He shouted at me with evident scorn and hatred.

“Yes, I guess I did. Without your limbs, you can’t do anything anymore. How miserable.” I sat back down in my frozen chair. “I can remove your last leg if you refuse to talk.”

“You… You already took it all. It’s pointless. Just kill me.”

I narrowed my eyes, falling silent for a brief moment. “Those who seek death will not find it. They will long to die, but death will elude them.”

“W-What are you…?”

“Just a quote you ought to remember. It refers to a time of great suffering, where people desire death due to their torment. But death will not come. And suffering will continue.”

“Continue… For me?”

“Your suffering will continue until the reaper has what it wants. In this case, I am your reaper.” I rose from my seat and I placed a hand on the ice. “Speak the truth, and you shall be free from suffering.”

“...” He kept his mouth shut.

“A deathless torment it is, then.”

I poured my mana into the ice. The ice inside the encasing shifted, and slowly they turned into countless small needles, they grew and gradually pierced into his skin. The bandit started screaming in agony, but that was only the beginning of this hellish torment.

The countless needles inside his body began branching. They slowly dug through his muscles and fibers, and the sheer coldness penetrated his body. More and more of the needles branched all over his body, his chest, his shoulder, his groins, his legs, his neck, and from there, to the head.

The man screamed and cried. His voice echoing throughout the woods. His scream was so intense that the sound may as well have reached the skies.

“I will demand no answer just yet.”

I removed one hand from the ice and held it out on his head. After casting ice to cover his mouth, green light began emanating from my palm — healing magic.

“I want you to feel this. Focus on it. I want you to think of nothing but the pain.”

Magic truly was a splendid thing. Torture had never been simpler and easier.

***

I emerged from the woods as I stretched my neck. Precisely controlling the ice was a bit more challenging than I had hoped. But at least I got to practice it well, truly effective in developing my precision in mana manipulation. That guy was a good practice dummy.

And by the way, despite how tough he may try to carry himself, eventually he cracked. And I had to say, he had a bit of a hard time speaking after that experience. Might have broken him a bit. And so, when I was done with him, I put an end to his misery, and left his corpse to be eaten by nature, or any creature that might be in this scary place.

“Lady Estelia, I heard a scream,” Velar said.

“Yeah, I had to do something to make him talk.”

He nodded. He didn’t seem bothered by what I did. That was good.

“Did you get what you needed?”

“Yes,” I stared at the bandit, who was tied around the body. “Turns out, what he said was true. They both said the same thing.”

“I see.”

“The hell? You didn’t trust me?!”

I glared down at the bandit scum. “You expect me to take your word for it? I’m no fool.”

He curled down a little and lowered his head.

“And the bandit,” Velar said. “Where is he?”

“Oh, he’s dead.”

“I see. Well, we no longer need him, anyway. But what about this one?”

The bandit formed a worried expression. He still had a role to play.

“I need you to lead us to your base, where our target is located.”

“Wha— You can’t be serious!”

“I’m serious. Unless you want me to cut off your limbs one by one until you do as demanded?”

The man pursed his lips before nodding meekly. “Alright.”

“Good. Then start moving.”

I pushed the man forward, and he started walking. We followed close behind.