Chapter 224: The traitor
Selena gathered everyone in the main area of the cave. The place was large enough to hold everyone, and they stood at attention in three rows.
"I’ve called you here because I’ve gotten word that there might be a traitor among you. Someone has been secretly giving Carlito information about our plans and location, jeopardizing our chances at rescuing the tower master."
Everyone shifted uncontrollably, looking at the people next to them. hoping they weren’t the traitors.
"Now, I’m sure that the traitor wont just give themselves up freely and will try to escape or pin the blame on someone innocent. Because of that, I have no choice but to assume all of you are traitors and treat you as such."
Selena raised her pointer and middle fingers together, and a pink rune appeared on everyone’s forehead.
"As you know, each of you takes an oath to swear loyalty to the tower master, and this loyalty can be tested through this rune grafted onto your forehead. Now, let’s see who’s actually loyal." She activated the rune.
"Arghhh!!"
"Ahhhhhh!!"
"It hurts!!"
"W-We’re loyal! We’re loyal!"
"P-Please, stop!"
"Wow, that’s hardcore." Kai approved. He had an easier method to get answers, but he still approved.
"Ugh, that reminds me of the slave seals." Kyana and Nadya touched their necks, remembering the slave seal and collar that was placed on their necks to have them be loyal to their master and the slave establishment.
"Those runes were based on slave seals," Abigail confirmed. "There were times when people would steal confidential information from the towers, selling it for a large profit. So, after getting tired of this, the tower masters came up with the idea of placing loyalty runes on the sorcerers to prevent this from happening."
"Smart." Kai nodded.
People continued to scream and roll all over the ground in agony, begging Selena to stop. She hated the fact that she had to do this, but she had no choice. As the tower master’s right hand, it was her duty to rescue her master and purge anyone who stood in her way.
"Hmm?" Kai noticed something odd in the back. A man was yelling in pain with a rune on his head, except the rune wasn’t pulsing with mana like the others were.
"Hey, Selena, check that guy over there." Kai pointed at the back. "It looks like he’s faking it."
She leaned to the side, spotting the man Kai was talking about, and frowned. He was indeed faking it because she couldn’t feel the rune connecting to her.
Quickly, she deactivated the rune and pointed at the man. "Arrest him!"
Seaweed and his men acted quickly, running over to the man to capture him. But he moved fast, throwing down a smoke bomb and using an invisibility spell to hide himself as he escaped.
"Dammit!"
Kai stepped forward. " Don’t worry, I got this." Kai spread his mana all over the cave until he felt where the man was. He was nearly out of the cave when Kai spotted him.
"Time to reel in the fish!" Kai pulled his arm back, and the man was dragged back into the cave until he landed right in front of Kai’s feet.
"Ahhhhh-ooof!"
"Hello, traitor." He smiled
"You’ll never get anything out of me!" He shouted
"Why did you do it?!" Selena blasted him into the cave wall, keeping him pinned there with a constant stream of wind magic. "Why did you betray the tower master?!"
"I-I was never on your side to begin with! My loyalty was always toward Master Carlito. I hated working under that bitch! So, when he told me he was coming back, I was more than happy to work as a double agent!"
"Wow." Kai laughed. "Didn’t you just say we wont get anything out of you? But here you are, yapping your gums off on your own. Thanks for the free info, dumbass."
"Tell us where the master is being kept!" Selena demanded, crushing his body with the wind.
"Hahahahaha! Even if I do, you’ll never win against Master Carlito! He’s a Tier-10 Sorcerer! None of you will stand a chance against him!"
"We’re tier-10 sorcerers." Kyana raised her hand.
"Well, we’re way stronger than that, but yeah, I guess we’re tier-10 sorcerers." Gwen raised her hand as well.
"Does this mean we can fight if we tell them how strong we are? I’m that strong as well!" Amaya raised her hand the highest, standing on her toes.
"W-Wait, what?!" Everyone was confused.
Selena looked at Abigail. She nodded her head and explained that they were also S-Rank adventurers. While she didn’t know that they were Tier-10, she knew that they were at least Tier-8.
"I-Impossible! Do you know how hard it is to reach that level?! And you’re telling me a bunch of kids reached it already?!" The man was furious. He didn’t know if Carlito could take on six tier-10 sorcerers.
Kai wiped imaginary tears from his face. "Cry about it."
The man couldn’t help but laugh at this moment. "You’ll all die anyway! Master Carlito is using the sphere to wipe this place out! You’ll all die!"
"You’re lying!" Selena put more pressure on him, forcing the man to cough up blood.
"D-Do you want to test that theory?!" He asked with a bloody smirk.
"Bastard!" She crushed his chest, killing him.
"Kai, I know this isn’t your battle and you were only hired to escort the young lady, but can you lend us your strength? With your help, we can turn the tide of this battle!" Selena was hoping, praying that Kai would agree. Otherwise, they would most likely lose.
"You paying?"
"W-What? If it’s money you want, I’m sure we can work something out." Regardless of how they got his help, she would accept any condition.
"Nah, I’m just kidding. I already agreed to help. By the way, what’s the sphere?" He asked
"The sphere is the tower’s most powerful weapon ever created. It’s a combination of years’ worth of magical engineering and spells. Once activated, it can use any spell in the Blue Magic tower’s library instantly without any casting time, and the mana consumption is greatly reduced. It’s the ultimate weapon." She explained as a cold sweat dripped down her face.
"Oh, that’s it? I thought it would be scarier than that, haha. Okay, let’s go reclaim that tower!"