“That’s what I like to hear,” Vaan nodded before directing bring the two unconscious High Witches with them, “Carry those two things with you.”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” the witch merchants obeyed fearfully.
They did not want to be beaten up like Dorothy, who had her face reduced to an unrecognizable state, even with the miraculous healing properties of Vaan’s blood.
Sometime later, Vaan and Dorothy’s group returned to the lord’s estate, where Astoria and Solana waited for them outside.
Vaan filled Astoria and Solana in on the details before he asked them to interrogate the rest of Dorothy’s group with truth-confession spells.
As for Dorothy herself, he intended to take her to the dragons for information extraction. An anti-confession spell protected her mind. Thus, he required the assistance of experts.
Just like his last prisoners, Vaan took Dorothy north of Sunpeak Town into the mountains, crippled her vision and hearing, and knocked her unconscious before he activated the black cube and entered the spatial gateway.
“Welcome back, Supreme Leader,” Astarot immediately greeted as if he had anticipated his visit ahead of time. Then, he handed over a white orb. “The information extracted from the prisoners has been compiled inside this memory crystal.”
“How do you want us to deal with these four prisoners, Supreme Leader?” Astarot asked shortly after, glancing at the four unconscious members of the Assembly of Silent Night beside him.
“I still have a use for them, so I will be taking them back with me.” Vaan accepted the memory crystal and brought the unconscious Dorothy forward. “I will have to trouble you again to extract information from this person.”
“It’s no trouble at all, Supreme Leader.” Astarot shook his head and said, “We managed to learn some vital information from the prisoners you’ve brought us.”
“Humans have grown much stronger than we’ve expected. I’m afraid there are many more Rank 5 beings among humans now. However, this growth also seemed to be the work of the demons. So, it’s hard to say they side with humans,” Astarot added.
After Vaan read everything recorded inside the memory crystal, his knowledge of the Assembly of Silent Night’s strength and world powers increased significantly.
Besides the seven witch kingdoms, there were three empires, twenty-four other kingdoms, and a hundred and eight city-states grouped into multiple alliances.
Altogether, they make up the supercontinent, Pangea.
Vaan wouldn’t have realized how much information the seven witch kingdoms had kept from the public until he saw the information for himself.
In the past, the seven witch kingdoms were the most powerful forces on the Pangea supercontinent. But after three hundred years, the three empires, several other kingdoms, and a few city-states have risen to rival them in power.
For example, the three emperors were all High-level Rank 5 Aura Kings. Although they weren’t as powerful as the Transcendent Witches, the standard power of their military forces eclipsed the seven witch kingdoms.
In a war between the seven witch kingdoms and the three empires without any of the Transcendent Witches and Aura Kings’ involvement, the three empires would win without a doubt.
The three empires didn’t just have bigger armies; their soldiers were also stronger and better equipped.
Their countries were simply more developed than the seven witch kingdoms over the past three hundred years.
However, this wasn’t because the empires had better management than the seven witches. On the contrary, being patriarchal societies, they were just as bad as the seven witch kingdoms.
But at the very least, they had access to more developed countries that did.
On the other hand, the seven witch kingdoms were cut off and alienated from the rest of Pangea due to their sharing borders with the three empires.
Nevertheless, the most interesting piece of information Vaan learned was about the Holy Knight Empire’s imperial family.
They were called the Bravehearts.
Moving onward, dark organizations like the Assembly of Silent Night were small in numbers, but they boasted a high number of experts.
Even if Vaan killed off two of their S-rank Witch Hunters, they still had five others on the same power level and even more A-rank Witch Hunters.
Vaan being able to decimate a third of their whole force showed how much importance the Assembly of Silent Night placed on their mission in the Sunpeak Region.
Still, the most crucial information about the Assembly of Silent Night concerned their leader, Ulrich Salazar.
The world knew there were six Devil’s Contractors hiding in Pangea, and they also knew of an Ulrich Salazar. The person was a Marquis in the Holy Knight Empire and the Lord of Equinox City.
However, the world did not know Ulrich Salazar was one of the Devil’s Contractors. They also did not know the same person controlled the Assembly of Silent Night.
Nevertheless, after learning the Assembly of Silent Night was backed by a Devil’s Contractor, their strength became understandable.
They had the wisdom and support of Gehenna.
“It is said that Ulrich Salazar’s strength is estimated to be around Peak-level Rank 5. Do you think you can defeat such a person, Lord Astarot?” Vaan asked.
“If Ulrich Salazar is purely borrowing a Great Devil’s divine power to be a Peak-level Rank 5, I should be stronger, Supreme Leader. Dragons are innately stronger than their peers,” Astarot stated.
In other words, they might be at the same level but not the same strength. There were more factors than just power that determined one’s overall strength.
Shortly after, Vaan went around the Red Dragon Clan, checking on the dragons’ progress, settling some matters inside the Trial by Fire, and supplying the dragon lords with resources.
Once Vaan finished his business, he left the Red Dragon Clan with the four crippled prisoners.
Then, he packed up the black cube and killed off the prisoners shortly after, storing them inside his Heaven-Swallowing Space and saving their blood for later.
He also collected the bodies of the dead witches outside the lord’s estate upon returning, but he did not summon the blue flames to seal off Sunpeak Town again.
Development and trade would stagnate if Sunpeak Town continued to be sealed off from the outside world.
“Have you finished interrogating them, Astoria and Lady Solana?” Vaan asked, seeing how Solana was viciously stepping on one of the curled-up Peak-stage Senior Witches from Dorothy’s group.
“You bet we did, Sir Vaan! This bitch was part of the group that ambushed Dahlia!” Solana stated.
