Assassination

Volt couldn't rest, he couldn't escape, and he couldn't die.

The endless cycle of pain tormented him to his very soul, Abe burned him, and Abe healed him, then Abe burned him, and then Abe healed him.

Burn, heal, burn, heal, burn, heal, burn, heal...

Volt was a hybrid of human and barbarian, and the latter had a trait of capable to endure injury, even becoming stronger the more they experienced wounds.

But this was too much, it was as if his brain would soon melt into a puddle, the burning on his body also felt quite different, the blue flame did number on him more than casual flame.

"Give me the name..."

It's the same shit, it's the one thing he heard in God knows how long, a proud warrior he once, now a desperate chic he became.

SOMEONE PLEASE, KILL ME!

The brute prayed for salvation, the weak prayed for salvation, rich or poor, everyone was in need of salvation.

And salvation came in many ways, for a warrior like Volt, giving up was the worst outcome, he rather died on the battlefield than letting go of his sword.

So he picked dead over surrender, he picked underworld over the living.

I watched Volt persisted in not telling the truth, it's admirable, most people would have spilled the milk by now.

"AAAAAHHH!!!"

All of a sudden, Volt's scream changed; if before were a long whining, now it was a loud yell. It's like he received a stimulus of pain from elsewhere.

His empty eyes glared scarlet, the white body lifted off the ground like he was being pulled.

The corner of my eye wrinkled, I stopped the burst of flame, but Volt still screamed, in fact, his scream was nowhere softer than before.

A soul attack? My eyes darted left and right, but I found no one conspicuous, even the Bishop simply went pale after seeing my torture on Volt.

The scarlet in Volt's eyes was getting brighter, and it's like a bulb, it went off in pop, and Volt's body dropped down... unmoving... dead.

"..."

Who? Who dared to sabotage my action? A soul attack was a method to injure someone without a physical mean, it's deadly as hell and the best assassination's move, however, it's not a technique that a common person could likely practice.

Besides, manipulating the soul was a forbidden technique, I saw firsthand what would happen to someone who attempted to learn it, let alone using it.

The powerful technique existed not without a cost, an eye for an eye, those who practiced the soul technique would have their own soul be twisted, corrupting an originally pure thing was condemned by heaven and earth; their life on earth would be miserable, and when they died, the heaven would reject their soul.

However, that's not my concern at the moment, with the death of Volt, I lost one of the methods to find the traitors, making things more complicated.

"Who is Volt's right hand?" I asked the Bishop, he shook his head, tch, useless!

I found the next person to ask, which was Keanu, the researcher of the Church who had the job to observe Volt.

Keanu had long brown hair and black eyes, his attire was a light green shirt covered by a jade cape. He wore gray gloves, long light gray pants, black knee-high boots, and carries a light brown fanny pack.

"That would be me," Keanu prod his eyeglass with his forefinger, said, "but I know nothing about the traitors, Volt dealt with them in secret."

"Where do they met up?"

"Of that, I can point the place..."

...

The meeting spot was far, it was inside a forest, right within a large tree, space was enough to accommodate 10 people.

"I wait outside while Volt met them, and if it is over, he would leave first, I don't get a chance to see who is who," Keanu said.

"You can't even recognize their voices?"

"The tree was enchanted with sound-insulation magic, they are thoughtful."

"Is sound-insulation magic easy to be learned?" I wrinkled my eyebrows.

''A complete isolation? No. That required an advanced knowledge in space magic," Keanu said, yeah, tell me about it.

"By the way, what are you? A mage?"

"No, I am just a researcher," he said, I did notice nothing from this guy.

"..." I stared at him, the thought of launching sword Qi to press for an answer crossed my mind.

"If you want to torture me, please, by all means, however, you will only get an empty result, for I have not lain," his expression was so dull that I wondered if he was even a person.

Ah, whatever, I left Keanu and entered the tree, trying to find a single clue to lead me to the traitors.

Aaand, of course, it was empty, however, this also proved that the traitors had some awareness of their action, the preparation and carefulness made me thought the traitors weren't people in common positions.

I could use the "life" spell to bring the tree alive, but I had no way to communicate with it, besides, I doubt the tree would know the name of these traitors, their visual appearance, however, the tree must have remembered.

What were my options? Waiting for the women to finish their inspection? No, it wouldn't happen any sooner; if the traitors were this careful in here, they would triple their securities back at the forts, meaning it would take a longer time to actually find them.

Celestine and Olga, both were elves with a special connection with nature, maybe the two of them could help me out...

I went out of the tree first, Keanu didn't move from his spot, staring at me with empty eyes, was he a zombie or something?

"You alright?" I couldn't help wrinkling my eyebrows.

"..." Keanu didn't answer, but he glanced upward, seemingly tried to remember something.

"What is it?"

"One time, I thought I saw something... a horse' excrement," Keanu said.

"And that would indicate..."

"It has a leftover of sweet beans, and sweet beans are common in the West, they are so common that they fed their horses with it...

However, in Eos, sweet beans are a rare commodity, either you have to import it from the West or you find a proper environment to actually grow it," Keanu explained.

"So, if they are rare, that means the sweet beans can be expensive in Eos, but the owner of the horse still fed his horse with sweet beans? Either he's particularly rich, or he owned a sweet bean's farm," I said, Keanu nodded.

"And I suppose it is the habit of the people from the West? To feed their horses with sweet beans?"

"Yes, otherwise, the horses would just eat cool grasses..."

"... Thanks, this is narrow things down."

"My pleasure."

I took Keanu back to Volt's camp, and we went with the Bishop back at Ken.