Silva got up from his throne and walked closer to Ezra.
“Remember that you belong to me now. I own you and everything that is you. Lying to me is the worst sin that you can commit,” Silva said and grabbed Ezra by the neck, raising him up.
The entourage with Ezra tried to do something, but Drake appeared out of nowhere and blocked them. He immediately tied them all up with blood binds.
Silva looked Ezra deep in the eyes as he spoke. “Ezra, tell me the truth, the unfiltered truth. Were you trying to betray me?” Silva asked again.
“I-I didn’t mean it. I was forced,” Ezra said.
“Is that so? Tell me all about it then,” Silva said. He let go of Ezra so that he could talk. Ezra immediately got on his knees and started talking.
“The Empire… The Empire got word that I had joined with you, and so they came to my castle secretly to kill me.
They gave me a few options: to give them all I know about you or to die. But I told them of the bind I have with you and why I am unable to say anything.
They tried to find and break the bind, but nothing worked. So they decided that they would still find a way to use me against you.
They asked me to give any information that I was allowed to give, and so I told them about your birthday and the fact that you were celebrating it.
It would be the best time for them to strike since the whole capital would be jolly, and the defenses would be dropped.
But I told them that you are strong, and that was the best information I could give. So they had to find a way to weaken you.
Then they handed me this sword as a gift for you. They didn’t tell me what the sword could do because if I knew how it could harm you, it would read as betrayal, and the bind would attack me.
So I took the sword blind to what it could do. And that brings us to today, where I am holding the sword here,” Ezra said.
“Hmm, I see. Take the sword and pour some mana into it, Ezra,” Silva said.
When Ezra heard that, his eyes opened wide in shock and fear.
He knew that something was up with this sword and that if he poured mana into it, something would definitely happen.
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He looked up, trying to reason with Silva, but Silva looked at him with cold, distant eyes. There was no way he would accept anything that Ezra would say.
So Ezra swallowed hard, and with shaky hands, he took the sword and slowly poured mana into it.
“Go faster,” Silva said. Ezra complied and poured mana into the sword more. Immediately after that, spikes protruded out of the sword and pierced his palm.
They kept growing like vines and stabbing into Ezra, but not in places that could kill him. The vines latched all over him and tied him up as he bled.
“Crazy, to think this is the sword that I almost held,” Silva said.
When he had seen the sword the first time in the box, he immediately got a sense of danger. That sword surely had something in it, and that was how he knew that Ezra was trying to harm him.
Silva could tell that Ezra was still alive, but he wanted him to feel the punishment more. There were more important things to do.
There was a part that Ezra missed in his story, and that was the fact that some assassins were coming for him, hidden in the crowds.
They would attack when they were certain that Silva would have received the sword, and that would be game over.
But Silva had plans to make their lives a living hell, and that would start with capturing them, which was easily done using Lily’s ability to see the future.
She looked into the future and saw each person that was an assassin. After that, she sent the guards to pick them from the crowds.
He had telepathically told her to be on guard when he saw the sword with Ezra. Now that those people were captured, he wanted to torture all the information out of them.
He left the throne room and went down into the dungeons where the assassins were kept.
His footsteps echoed through the narrow dungeon. It was like a sound in heavy contrast to the in-between silence.
The torches there allowed his shadow to be cast in a scary way. When he arrived at the depths of the dungeon, he started talking.
“All the way from the Empire, you came to my town, and you’re trying to kill me. Isn’t that crazy?” Silva asked, but there was no response.
“I always wondered when I would come in contact with the Empire. I have a mission there, a task. So today, even if I have to squeeze it out of your cells, I will,” Silva said and used a key to open one of the doors and went in.
That assassin saw this as an opening to attack and charged Silva, but immediately he took a step, a dark bullet pierced through his chest and slammed him into a wall.
“Think you are fast?” Silva asked. He walked to the man and sent a punch to his gut, a punch so powerful that the man coughed up the pill he had kept inside his mouth.
It was similar to a pill that assassins from the Empire used as well. They would crush it and immediately die. It was called a suicide pill and was used to ensure they didn’t give out any information.
Silva stepped on the pill and crushed it, then grabbed the man by the neck and started squeezing tightly until the sound of crushing bones could be heard.
“Tell me why exactly they sent you. I want all the details. I want every little detail,” Silva asked, but the man was still struggling not to talk.
But Silva was a dragon, a dark dragon at that, one that was very powerful, and his intimidation factor was no joke at all.
His eyes glowed as he stared at the man. The man began shivering in fear, trying not to look at Silva’s eyes. But no matter how he turned away, he still looked back at Silva.
After some seconds, he could no longer endure it, and he started spilling the secrets.
“We were sent to analyze the demon king candidate and, if possible, take him into captivity. We heard reports that you were strong but not at the level that you were.
We estimated that you would be a newly evolved being with a powerful legacy capable of fighting lots of levels ahead, but we didn’t know to what extent.
So we estimated, at best, that you would be able to fight a normal evolved human at level five or six. Then we brought the sword as what we would use to get you because the sword is capable of capturing anyone below level ten evolved.
Since you are here, I can say that you were not caught by the sword. That is all I know. We never ask questions, we never say anything, we just take the mission that is handed to us and do it,” the man said.
“No, there must be more that you know, like future plans. What do they have in store for us? When will they move against us? All those details—I want them,” Silva said.
“I don’t know really, I swear. But there is something I overheard. They are making numerous moves to kill you in hopes that they kill you and then weaken the next generation of demon kings.
Not everyone is in agreement with this, and that must be why there hasn’t been a general move against you, only small assassination attempts at best.
I believe that it is because half of the people believe that war will break out if you die. And even if we can hold out in the wars, innocents will die in this political war.
Demon kings and heroes have been in peace for years, and many do not want the greed of the leaders to destroy that peace.”
“You turned out to be more useful than I thought. You have bought you and all your men their lives. I’ll find a way to release you all,” Silva said and left the dungeon. He shut the door and left.
He saw the guards of the dungeon outside, and he stopped. It was two Minotaurs in full gear.
“Kill them in the most painful way. Record it on a crystal and send it to me. I want to send a message to the Empire,” Silva said and walked away.
Again, he was a hypocrite and a selfish dude. Those idiots didn’t deserve his honesty. As he walked away, the guards went in, and soon the shouts of men filled the air.
The sounds of blood and the crushing of bones—a gruesome song played all night.