Lola and Wilfred walked out of the cell and joined up with the others before moving on down the hallway. The ball of flesh dropped onto the floor with a meaty slap, no longer being held up by Elaine’s power.

With Wilfred in the lead, the group made their way to another cell. This time however, the prisoner was already awake by the time they showed up, so the guard didn’t have to do anything.

Ed watched the snake man closely, paying attention to his reaction. If he was afraid, he didn’t show it. He is much more prepared for this than his companion. Either he’s the mastermind behind this, or he knows who is.

“Who wants to take this one?” Lola asked, receiving an odd glance from Ed. “What? I don’t wanna be the only one having fun.”

Fair enough, I guess. I’ll just sit back and watch while someone else goes up.

The room was silent for a moment, before Elaine turned to Ed. “I want to see what you can do.” She gestured towards the cell door as it opened.

Damn it. I don’t want to do this, but I guess I have to now. Taking a moment to steady himself, Ed walked into the cell alone.

Finding the space severely lacking in furniture, Ed sat down. At the same time, he formed a simple stool beneath him. That’s better. “Okay. I can see you were prepared for this, so torturing you is probably just going to be a massive waste of time. So let’s chat. Do you want a seat?” Ed asked casually, trying to keep the atmosphere fairly relaxed.

“What are you getting at?” The man squinted, staring directly at Ed.

“I just want to know why you did it. You’re clearly not strong enough to do anything to her. I saw it, she sent you flying the first time you tried to attack her. Are you just trying to throw your life away?” Ed asked while sending his threads across the floor to form a stool across from him.

The man shifted away from the chair, still eyeing Ed warily.

Ed sighed, shaking his head. “You do realise none of this matters, right? They’ll get the information whether you like it or not, so why are you fighting me here?”

The man slowly sat down on the stool Ed offered him. “What do you mean by they’ll get the information either way?

“Her dad rules over all of Hell, do you really think she can’t get whatever she wants? You telling us would just make things quicker, but we’ve got plenty of ways to get the info we want. Your companion has already been dealt with, so this is more of a formality than anything.”

The man stopped to think for a moment, mulling over what Ed had just said. His shoulders sunk slightly as he sighed. “What do you want to know?”

Good, now we’re getting somewhere. And no blood was spilled. “Why’d you do it?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I was ordered to do it.” The man said, grimacing slightly.

As I thought. He was working for someone else. “Who gave you the order?”

Beads of sweat dripped down the man’s face as he clenched his teeth. “My boss.” His breathing grew heavy.

Something’s not right here. He’s in pain.

“Interesting. He’s under a soul oath.” Elaine said. “A bit annoying, but we can get around it.”

Ed looked over his shoulder at Elaine. “What is a soul oath?”

Wilfred stepped forward to explain on her behalf. “It is a pact between two or more parties. Think of it like a contract, but one enforced on a person’s soul, as opposed to outside means. He’s probably unable to tell us anything about his mission, otherwise his soul will be destroyed.”

I should probably stop asking him questions then. I’ll leave it up to them to extract the information safely. Ed turned back around to face the snake man. His face was slick with sweat and was trembling slightly.

Ed got up and spread his threads out to make a hammock. “You can relax, I won’t ask any more questions.”

Ed’s words seemed to ease the pressure attacking the man’s soul, as he started to breathe a little easier. The man got off the stool, almost stumbling to the ground before getting caught by Ed’s threads. He lifted the man up and gently laid him down in the hammock before sitting back down.

“Booorrrriiinng.” Yelled Lola as she picked at her ear.

Ed ignored her jab and continued focusing on the man in front of him. I feel like there’s something I’m missing. That I can do more. He closed his eyes and let his senses spread out through his threads.

He felt the weight of the man’s body on his threads and studied it. From what I’ve seen, the soul is a blue smokey wisp. I should be able to find it here somewhere.

Sensing the strings of fate attached to the man, instead of following them outward, Ed focused on the connection between the strings and the body. After studying them for a while, he noticed something interesting. Why do I feel like they’re not attached to the body at all but are just passing through? The more he looked, the more certain he was that this was true.

I can’t sense what’s happening in his body at all, it’s too messy. Maybe I have to...

A miniscule amount of thread lifted up from the hammock, gently tapping against the man’s back. Not noticing a reaction, the thread gently pierced through and entered the man’s body.

Honing his senses down, Ed tried to focus on just what he could feel from that thread. It was difficult, but he managed to get a proper scan of the man’s insides.

Sitting in the centre of the chest was the man’s soul, overlapping with the man’s diaphragm as it sat there, both tangible and intangible at the same time.

Unlike what he had seen before however, a chain wrapped tightly around the soul, digging into it in several places as it squeezed it. The soul looked frail and exhausted, almost threatening to float away and disappear forever.

This must be what a soul oath looks like. It looks brutal.

The thread wormed forward slowly, lightly tapping on the chain. He felt something well up in his soul. A deep and terrifying hunger, as the thread crept ever closer to the poor excuse for a soul in front of it.

Ed snapped awake, pulling the threads back into his body. Shit. What was that?

The man groaned on the floor, as a bloody chunk was unceremoniously ripped from his back.

Ed walked back out of the cell, leaving the man on his own. After a moment of introspection, he turned to the others. “His soul is tightly bound by a thick chain. His soul is almost gone, so you should get the information you need from it quickly.”

Elaine nodded, ripping the man’s soul from his body and stared at the chains surrounding it. Without needing to say a word, a guard stepped into the cell and collected the soul before leaving.

“That should be all for today. It’s time to leave the place.” She said.

Walking back to the entrance, Ed trailed behind the group as he looked inward. What was that I felt just now? I almost couldn’t stop myself.

Lost in thought, he followed the group back up to the palace, and was sent off by Elaine. Following behind a servant, he was led to a car that drove him back home.