"Mr. Toto? I have some news with regards to your request to find a few specific individuals."
"I found them."
Otto's face was half covered in shadow.
His smile was sinister.
"Location?"
"Xxx.xxxx.xx on a small planet called Treinta located in Xxx System."
"Great work. I've sent over a tip."
There was a small noise on the other side before an unreasonably high pitched voice rang in his ear.
"Thank you Mr. Toto!! Than-"
Otto cut the communication before she had time to finish.
He contacted Aeselvell,
"I need the fastest route to get to a small planet called Treinta, ASAP."
"Yes sir. One moment."
"Ah! You're in luck. There's a teleport circle on the other side of the Pantheon that will take you directly to that planet. No need for a space ship. Estimated time of travel is 1.5 hours in total. Also,"
| сom Aeselvell hesitated slightly but eventually spoke,
"It's a planet with no safe zone."
Otto's eyes gleamed as he nodded.
"Couldn't be better. Send me the route."
He cut the line, but was surprised to notice a figure approaching him slowly from behind.
It was Elliott.
He stared at Otto, his eyes slightly rimmed with red.
His breathing was rough, and his expression carried a rarely seen chill.
Otto could tell that he had figured something out.
"We know where you're going, Otto."
He steadied himself.
"I want to come with."
Otto didn't immediately shake his head.
"It won't be a pretty sight, Elliott."
"I know, but…I need to see."
Elliott's voice broke slightly as he spoke, but when Otto gazed seriously into his eyes, he was only able to read determination.
Still, Otto sighed lightly and his tone unconsciously softened as he warned once more,
"Elliott, this isn't something you'll ever be able to unsee. I'll be blunt. There will be torture. The same kind of torture used on Mirabelle."
He paused for a second,
"Where are your teammates?"
Elliott pursed his lips,
"They all wanted to come, actually…" he lowered his voice, "I told them not to."
He knew something like this wasn't good to show, no matter how angry his team felt about it in the moment.
Otto raised a brow,
"Are you sure you want to see this?"
Elliott nodded.
He had never been more certain of anything in his life.
Anything he saw, witnessing this, was absolutely nothing in comparison to Mirabelle's having lived it.
But in order to empathize better, even if only a little, Elliott deeply felt...that he had to know.
"Ok. It's your decision to make."
He walked forward at a brisk clip.
Elliott followed behind, his stance resolute.
They headed towards Treinta.
*****************************************************************
If Area 1 was a city, and the Pantheon would be located 'downtown' right in its heart, Treinta was in a small district near the slums.
Otto and Elliott arrived and both immediately wrinkled their nose.
The very air reeked of heavy pollution, though not of the smoke and exhaust variety that Otto would find on Earth.
It was, instead, the familiar scent of magical, chemical waste.
Otto instinctively understood that this planet was one of the numerous dumping grounds for magic tech byproducts throughout Area 1.
What surprised him slightly was that the planet was so crowded.
He and Elliott had arrived in the center of a vast throng of challengers moving to and fro as fast as they could.
Together, they carried another unpleasant scent of unwashed bodies and even a faint whiff of urine and feces.
Otto snapped his fingers and cast [Substantiated Mana].
Two masks appeared in front of his face. He gave one to Elliott, and placed the other around his nose.
The smell vanished.
Just because Otto had the willpower to ignore such pollution, even including his heightened perception, didn't mean he wanted to use that willpower.
They were not inside a safe zone.
In fact, Treinta was a rare example of an inhabited planet that didn't have a safe zone at all.
Otto cast his eyes to a dead body of a challenger on the ground.
The crowds had apparently trampled him without noticing, which truthfully was quite the feat to do to a challenger with a supposedly enhanced body.
Otto ignored the sights, grabbed Elliott by the wrist, and cast a light [Shockwave] to open up space for them to travel.
The crowd flew back and looked at Otto in shock and slight fear. They avoided his gaze and simply ran around him.
Otto shot forward in the direction of the slave traders.
It wasn't long before they arrived at a large complex of worn down houses that the slave traders supposedly called home.
The houses were closer to shacks than houses, so bare that Elliott could literally make out furnishings inside from his position outside the complex.
He also spied urine and a few unidentifiable brown stains littered around them.
A large yellow sign in front of the complex stated,
"Rent by month. Units from 1.4 Small Wasnacht/month. Contact xxxx.x-xx for details. MURDER IS FORBIDDEN."
A hasty scrawl was written under it,
"NO Muracha Narcotic."
Elliott gaped at the sight.
He knew that they belonged to the upper crust (Otto never seemed to run out of money), but he hadn't ever felt it so deeply as he did at this moment.
Otto on the other hand, looked completely indifferent to the sight.
"Let's go."
He brought Elliott to a comparatively roomy shack near the outskirts of the complex.
An argument was raging inside,
"Then where the FUCK are we gonna get the money?"
"Yeah, ever since you stopped working, we can barely afford to feed ourselves!"
A woman's voice answered,
"Well, gee, you think I wanted to stop? I was making some good money! It's your own goddamn fault for getting me slapped with that stupid narcotic violation. Now look where we are. Fucking losers."
"Why don't you support your own fucking habit? Well, great working with both of you. Been a real fucking pleasure."
Then, the sound of a slap echoed throughout the house, and the woman screeched,
"You dare HIT me!?"
"Damn ri-"
Otto wasn't interested in listening any longer.
He directly burst through the door.
"Who is-"
There were three men and a woman in the room.
Otto silently matched the three pictures the organization had sent over with the faces of the four in the room.
He didn't give them even a moment to collect themselves before casting the same spell four times:
[Dark Bind: Unlimited]
Dark Element
Level 16
Bind a target with shadow and immobilize their limbs.
Requires ((320 + 20% magic power)/5) Strength to escape.
Mana Cost: 186
Duration: 15 seconds
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
All four sported looks of sheer panic on their faces as they realized they'd been captured by an unknown enemy.
An teenaged unknown enemy with a gray mask, no less.
A burly man on the left who Otto appropriately nicknamed 'Uggo' yelled,
"Do you know who you're dealing with, kid? We got some dangerous contacts!"
A sneer appeared on his face.
Otto hit him with a cast of [Agonizing Pain].
[Agonizing Pain: Unlimited]
Dark Element
Level 11
Place a target in constant, agonizing pain equal to 55% of their maximum tolerance.
Mana Cost: 34
Duration: 6 seconds
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
It was a simple, easy to learn, easy to use spell.
And 55% of one's maximum tolerance was not to be underestimated.
In humans, at least, there were neurological limits placed on the amount of pain a person could feel, after which they would directly faint.
Otto estimated that limit was normally set at 10 or 15%, though this wasn't a scientific value by any means. Perhaps in challengers, that number was increased.
But 55% was a terrifying amount of pain.
As evidenced by the noiseless scream of pain and the terror that filled Uggo's face as soon as Otto cast the spell.
Uggo's tears and snot ran down his face and hit the ground, but Uggo didn't even notice.
His face was frozen in a distorted grimace.
Elliott looked disgusted, but didn't turn his head away from the proceedings.
Otto cast [Analyze] to figure out which three exactly were his targets.
[Manson]
Floor Cleared: 4th
Class: Brawler
[Gato]
Floor Cleared: 3rd
Class: Bandit
[Amberly]
Floor Cleared: 1st
Class: Seductress
[Elmer]
Floor Cleared: 3rd
Class: Warrior
Their attributes were all low enough to be ignored.
It was obvious they had all passed their floors on [Basic] difficulty. Moreover, they hadn't been training their attributes at all, so had not gotten much stronger even after three or four floors.
Apparently, Uggo's real name was Manson.
Also, Amberly was not among the people who had hurt Mirabelle.
His gaze turned towards her, and he released her bindings.
"Leave immediately."
Amberly nodded in fright, barely able to unglue her eyes from Manson's face for a split second in order to dash out of the room without looking back.
She understood that these three had finally offended someone they shouldn't have!
Her only thought was to escape this planet as fast as her legs could carry her.
Otto was sure she was nothing good, but truthfully was he? He wasn't interested in punishing someone for any additional perceived moral wrongdoings.
He was here for one reason and one reason only.
To get revenge for Mirabelle.
Simple as that.
And these three were the ones who had tortured her.
Just thinking back to her scar-filled upper body made Otto's blood boil almost uncontrollably in anger.
But he forcibly calmed himself down.
Now, the perpetrators were already in his hands.
They wouldn't be living an easy life.
Manson couldn't let out a scream for the entirety of the six second duration of [Agonizing Pain].
It wasn't until after the cast was finished did a yell finally emerge.
He looked towards Otto, face white as a sheet, tongue lolling out of his mouth, brows deeply creased, his pupils the size of his irises in utter, abject terror.
Otto abruptly smelled the scent of fresh urine.
It was acrid and powerful enough to even be smelled through his mask.
But Otto was no longer in the mood to care.
A small magical picture of Mirabelle's upper body appeared in his hand, scars and all.
He showed it to the three of them.
His voice was curt and indifferent,
"Recognize her?"
The other two shook their head with wide eyes and braced themselves for the onset of pain.
Manson was no longer in the state of mind to respond. His eyes cast around the room aimlessly, looking completely lifeless.
Otto immediately felt annoyed and cast [Lesser Heal] and [Purify] on him to jab him awake.
Soon, Manson shook his head, too.
Then, Otto brought out another picture, this time of a small colorful bird.
"What about now?"
The eyes of all three constricted immediately.
How could they forget that little singing bird?
Thank goodness they were having too much fun playing to kill her...otherwise, how would they have made so much money...
Otto's nostrils flared as he understood their expressions.
His eyes glinted.
They would soon regret it.
Of that, he would make certain.
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