Roland
The Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s aura was calm and restrained as normal, but she’d been injured. Her dress was ripped slightly over her left abdomen, the fabric covered in her blood, and there was an open gash on her right arm, though both wounds were closing as she channeled her qi into them, guided by some Law Roland hadn’t seen before. Still, given what type of monster she was, it was hard not to be at least somewhat affected by her, and Roland had to fight those feelings down.
“Who are you?” the leader of the rebels asked, her eyes looking from the Mistress of Oaths and Deception to the Heavenly Spark Soul King and back. Given the lack of lust in her eyes, the barrier around them seemed to block her from being able to sense the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s aura, so she didn’t show any fear at all.
“Isn’t that obvious?” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception smiled, her apparent confidence boosting Roland’s morale even further.
The rebel force’s beastmen were powerful, each requiring more than 100 live sacrifices to create, and they all had the racial ability to sacrifice other sentient lifeforms to boost their own stats, though the conversion was absolutely abysmal. In return, the race couldn’t advance past E rank, but in an F rank world what did that matter?
“You’re the Mistress of Oaths and Deception,” the woman answered, looking contemplative. “You can speak.”
The Mistress of Oaths and Deception started laughing and it was the most pleasant sound in the world, some of the male beastmen seemingly affected as well, but the female leader didn’t seem to care.
“You work for the prince, yet he somehow hasn’t cleared the quest to subjugate you?”
“The other way around, dear. He works for us.” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s face grew serious and her wounds were somehow already completely healed. “But I take it you are not surrendering.”
“No.” The female leader smiled herself. “There are rewards for your deaths and if you can talk, it means you might work as a sacrifice. I wonder if sacrificing you and the tall one might even allow for a racial evolution.”
Then she raised her right hand to point at the barrier. “Everyone, attack!”
The first to attack were the five archers and seven mages, but the effect of their onslaught was minimal. The mages’ attacks—lances of fire, ice, and lightning—all just disappeared as they hit the barrier, but the arrows, half covered with elemental effects as well, made it through, though any qi, mana, or psyforce powered ability attached to them did not. And, when the arrows passed through the barrier, their flight was somehow altered and they headed right for the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s left hand, promptly disappearing from existence when they got close.
The rest of the beastmen were all melee fighters like Conido, so they ran toward the barrier. When they got close, however, they all rose into the air as if pulled up by their left ankles, and then they just hung there, unable to get any kind of leverage or physically touch whatever was holding them.
Then, as the archers and mages watched on in horror, one by one each of the fourteen melee fighters were stripped of all their weapons and clothing, four invisible hands seemingly undressing each of them in turn in only about half a second.
Their clothing and weapons were then clumped together in the air and flew at the Heavenly Spark Soul King at speed, disappearing when they approached his left hand.
The mages and archers tried to attack again multiple times during the eight seconds it took to incapacitate and strip the melee fighters, but it was to no effect. The attacks of the mages seemed to just stop being able to exist when they hit the barrier, the mana constructing them fizzling into nothing, and, while the arrows could pass through, their effects all fizzled at the barrier as well and the arrows vanished when they grew close to the Heavenly Spark Soul King.
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The twelve mages and archers then joined the melee fighters, being pulled up into the air by their left ankles as well by an invisible force, and the archers’ weapons were all taken in the process. Then they were unceremoniously stripped as well and their clothing, weapons, and other artifacts were collected into what Roland assumed was a subspace in the fingerless glove artifact on the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s left hand.
One of the melee fighters then reached up and tore off his own foot, obviously hoping to fall back to the ground and escape, but it didn’t work. Instead of him falling and his foot staying in the air, his foot fell and whatever grip was holding him up just moved to below his stump.
“Guardian,” the Mistress of Oaths and Deception said, still looking at the beastmen, “I said their original chance to surrender was the last they would have without pain. Would you be a dear and break them a bit for me?”
Roland was pretty sure the Heavenly Spark Soul King was not just the muscle in the relationship between the two monsters. For one, the two skills he’d shown so far had been rune creation and an extremely powerful version of telekinesis, both of which required an insane level of multitasking to accomplish. Two, the amount of Spirit required to power the telekinesis so easily overpowering the 26 individuals was immense, meaning the man was likely primarily a psychic. Third, and probably most important, he was almost certain the Heavenly Spark Soul King didn’t understand a word the Mistress of Oaths and Deception had said, the two instead communicating in their native tongue over some sort of psychic connection.
The fact he didn’t speak the native tongue, however, made it difficult for the Heavenly Spark Soul King to provide the right type of intimidation himself. So, the idea he was someone the Mistress of Oaths and Deception, the one initiating the contracts with all the beastmen, could control created a much better story to get the beastmen immediately compliant.
And this was especially the case when, immediately after she asked, the Heavenly Spark Soul King crushed the lower leg bones of every one of the beastmen’s right legs, all while still maintaining an unbreakable grip on their left ankles.
“Let me ask this again.” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s voice hadn’t changed at all, even as most of the beastmen were screaming. “Will you surrender and become slaves of your planet’s prince, or should Guardian here kill you?”
“We’d rather die than become the slaves of the spawn of that bastard!” yelled the beastman who’d tried to rip off his own leg. “You might as well just—”
The Mistress of Oaths and Deception pointed at the man and his head burst, as if massive force had pushed in on it from all directions, the man likely killed by the Heavenly Spark Soul King. “Okay.” Then she looked at the others, smiling, and Roland, who objectively knew he was on her side and was pretty sure she was acting, felt a chill run down his spine. “Any of the rest of you interested in death? I promise it won’t be quite as painless.”
“I surrender,” one of the mages was quick to say, and his declaration was almost immediately followed by six others.
The Mistress of Oaths and Deception then nodded at the Heavenly Spark Soul King and those seven were lowered half way to the ground, the telekinesis now holding onto their waists and shoulders rather than their left ankles. Then they were brought into the barrier and the Mistress of Oaths and Deception moved over to the first mage who’d surrendered. She then sent her energy into his leg as the Heavenly Spark Soul King used telekinesis to brace the broken bones.
As a mage, his Vitality wasn’t very high, but the Mistress of Oaths and Deception was skilled and it only took about thirty seconds for his leg to be back on the road to a full recovery, his own Vitality able to fully heal it in under a day.
“I surrender as well.” Seeing the healing process, four others surrendered, and the Heavenly Spark Soul King brought them into the barrier as the Mistress of Oaths and Deception moved from beastman to beastman, healing their wounds.
After a couple minutes, the beastmen leader, who was growing pale, finally surrendered, and the rest all followed.
Without any further talking, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception continued healing each of them, getting more and more skilled with each leg she healed, and Roland realized she was using them for practice. Then, when she was done, the Heavenly Spark Soul King used another telekinetically controlled minor whirlwind to clear out the entire clearing, leaving firm, albeit wet, ground for everyone to sit on.
Then, with the same blank disinterested expression he’d had since the beastmen had arrived, the Heavenly Spark Soul King stood up and walked away into the jungle, leaving the mess for his chamberlain to clean up.
“So, I guess we should start with an interrogation?” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception smiled at the 25 now sitting beastmen, completely ignoring the corpse the Heavenly Spark Soul King had left behind them, and, seeing the obvious fear on their faces, Roland almost felt bad for the mass murdering bastards.