“Hello, come speak up?” Cain waved his hand in front of the still silent Lich. The witch’s outer appearance didn’t change much, except for the massive scar on her torso.
“The cold befall on us, as does the memory of ice.” The witch mumbled.
Cain started knocking on her forehead. “Did you have brain damage or are you just messing with us?”
“Absolute Zero, his power is slowly returning to the world. With it, the memories of a long-forgotten war have started to surface on the ice.” The witch kept mumbling. This time Cain started to get a hang of what she was talking about.
“I know who Absolute Zero is. What I want to know is why in the nine hells you fuckers were here blocking and killing people on the road.”
“The power will choose the coldest host, to become that we must master ice magic. Even if we didn’t get the power, we need ice magic to survive after his heir is chosen. The world will slowly get consumed in layer upon layer of ice.” The witch said in an ominous voice.
Cain stared at her for a while and then sighed. “Damn it, this is what happens when people run out of speculation.”
“What does this all mean?” Chad asked, to him at least the witch seemed legit in her words.
“Well she isn’t lying; this is what she believes, what most people who knew about absolute zero believe.” Said Cain as he stretched his arms.
“Let me explain.”
In ancient times, a great war raged. The devils of hell wanted to invade the mortal world in an attempt to seize control over the world tree.
All mortals banded together to fight off the devils’ invasion. Among all the men who fought in the war, there was a man called silver. That wasn’t his real name, he was just called that since his whole armor and weapons were made of elvish silver that is effective against devils in certain situations.
Silver started as a human, but we don’t the exact path he took, only the fact he was a master of cold magic. The mortals eventually managed to win the war, mostly thanks to the dragons taking the lead.
Yet, there was a single person who didn’t get enough devil blood on his hands. Silver’s wife got killed by the devils as they invaded, and his son was turned into a devilish monstrosity.
Enraged, silver jumped into the Hell Gate after the devils retreated. He probably wanted to take revenge by killing the devil lord.
After eons have passed, silver stayed alive in hell since no one can die there. It’s a place made for infinite suffering. He kept killing and killing and killing until he reached the eighth layer of hell.
It was then when he stopped, for some reason, the hero who terrorized hell gave up at the last moment and decided to settle in the eighth layer of hell. Now the eighth layer of hell is a frigid wasteland due to the hero’s existence in it.
With time people started calling him Absolute Zero, the devil lord of the eighth layer of hell. The second strongest devil after Asmodeus the king of devils.
What the witch was talking about is the possible return of Absolute Zero or a shred of his power to the mortal world. But Cain knew that in his past life, such a thing never happened. On the contrary, the devils never tried to invade the mortal world again due to Absolute Zero constantly harassing Asmodeus and ruining his plans.
“Yeah, the world isn’t about to end yet. Take us to your hut immediately!” Cain pushed the witch from her back.
“Can you be a bit gentler? My back is still damaged.” The witch complained.
Cain was surprised by her words, he didn’t expect her to be able to say something without being ordered to talk.
“Yeah, you’re right. I need to take care of my tools.” [Destructive wave] Cain blasted her to a tree causing her body to be severed in half again. “Is that what you thought I’m going to say? Next time only report what damage you have taken!” Cain yelled at her. Having her act like that meant that she could possibly sway Amaya in the future. A soldier report what happened to his superior, not give them suggestion about how to act.
[Create undead] Cain then gave her enough necrotic magic to fix her back and completely close the wound.
After all, of that, The witch guided them through the frozen forest to her hut. A hut was the general name for the place a witch lives in, for this witch’s case, it was a base built inside a cave.
“This is the entrance. I already dispelled all the traps.” The witch said slowly.
“Sofia, this might be a bit hard for you to see. Do you want to stay outside?” Cain asked with a worried face. There was a clear line in witch’s types. The chaotic good like Zaleria, and the horrendous crime against life type like Morena. This witch and her whole family were clearly from the second type.
“No I’m a witch as well, I have to see,” Sofia said, she knew to not takes Cain’s warning lightly so she steeled herself.
With a nod, Cain started walking behind the witch, Chad and Sofia slowly followed him. Soon enough, they reached a steel door.
Behind the door was what looked like a normal living room, nothing that looked out of place for Sofia. But strangely, Chad’s expressions were getting stiffer.
“Here is the lab,” The witch said as she pulled a bookshelf to the right and revealed a secret entrance.
“The details?” Cain poked her back.
“The lab is a straight hallway with rooms to each side. The slave room is the first to the right, the flesh lab to the left facing the slave room. Next to the right, you will find the breeding room, to the right, and the nursery behind it. And facing it is the ritual room followed by the alchemy lab. After those, you will find the library and the storage room. In the end, you find the miscellaneous rooms for my husband, my daughter, and me. We use them to conduct our personal experiments.” The witch briefed Cain about what they are going to find inside. It was better to know what they were going to see.
“Fine, stand still until I call you back!” Cain immediately teleported the witch to the maze.
CRIIIK! Cain slowly pushed the door, he heard faint gasps in the slave room. “The witch is dead, calm down!” Cain yelled and ran toward the slave room.
Inside it was eleven people locked in cells. Seven women and four men. They were all naked and riddle with scars, life seems to have left their eyes.
“Where is the key…” Cain tried to find the key around but he suddenly heard the sound of metal twisting. Chad grabbed the cell bars with his hands and stretched them to the side. “My hands are the keys,” Chad said.
The slaves haven’t uttered a word, they all curled up together like chickens awaiting their demise. “Let me handle this.” Cain entered the cell with them.
“Can you speak? We’re here to help.” Cain said kneeling in front of them. They just closed their eyes in terror. They only expected abuse, hope had completely left their souls.
Cain dragged one of the women to the side and inspected the inside of her mouth, she had lost her tongue and teeth. Some of her nails were torn off as well. ‘Witches don’t need to cut tongues. They must have done it so they won’t talk back’ Cain expected it to be the case for all the slaves.
The slaves weren’t even corporate with Cain, they were too scared to take help or believe in him. “Sorry about this, but’s for your own good.” [Sleep] Cain knocked them all off.
~Alice, do you mind coming? Also, you’re going to see something horrendous so be careful~ Alice immediately teleported to him. The moment her eyes fell upon the slaves her expression stiffened.
“What is happening here?” She asked.
“It’s a long story, can you heal them as much as you can for now? We will go and check the other rooms.” Cain said as he walked toward the door, what was left is worst.