Chapter sixty-nine - Broken Authority

"Now just wait patiently while my reinforcements arrive! There is nothing you can do against my power!" The cultist began to laugh.

"That voice…I know you! You are Paloma Garcia! The famous singer!" The Sister Sandra yelled.

"Look at this! I never thought that the nun would be the one who recognize me by my voice..." The cultist removed her mask and cloak, revealing her beautiful face, she wore makeup to enhance her beauty, she was about thirty years old and her eyes were a beautiful green color, she had black shaved hair on the left side of her head, on the right side she had long silver hair that fell over her face.

"Just because I live in a convent doesn't mean I don't use the internet! Plus you're very popular with the novices…" The Sister Sandra replied, with a sarcastic smile. "I never imagined that a public personality like you would be part of the cultists..."

"What can I say? The Heralds invested in me from my childhood... In fact, it was thanks to them that my career got to the place it did... It's a tremendous pity that you can't see things from our point of view, don't you do you realize that this world could be so much better if magic became common knowledge?"

"No, it wouldn't be, ordinary people already have too many things to fear, they don't need to be afraid of the boogeyman either!" Durand replied, she realized that although she couldn't attack the woman she could still go to her mate, she reached down and checked on Garrard.

"Oh, don't worry about him! He's fine, just passed out," Paloma commented as she covered the smug smile on her face.

"That's good to know... Hey, dragon boy, you can finish her!" Durand replied.

"What? What are you—" Before Paloma could continue to speak she felt something behind her, before she could turn a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Surprise Motherf*cker!" A black electrical charge invaded Paloma's body and the woman screamed as she lost consciousness.

"You took a long time to make a move…" Durand commented. "I thought for a moment that you were affected by her power too!"

"Hey, you were the one who came up with the idea of ​​waiting until you confirm your partner's safety, if it were up to me I would have dropped this one as soon as I walked in... Although this stealthy approach gave me a chance to do this..." Locke touched the unconscious woman's head and activated his Memory seek spell, the unconscious woman's face twisted in pain as Locke analyzed all the information that interested him straight from her head.

Durand, Tamar and Sister Sandra watched the process with confusion and curiosity. Whatever he was doing to the woman seemed painful, but they believed that Locke was not the kind of person who would hurt someone for the sheer pleasure of cause pain, so they were very interested in what he was doing.

After a few moments Locke released the woman and stood up, his draconic face seemed to have taken on a cold and worried expression, he began to think about something in silence.

"... What did you did with her?" Durand questioned.

"Well, I can use magic to look at people's memories..." Locke replied still distracted by his own thoughts.

"Can you look at others' memories?" Durand's expression turned horried, along with that of Tamar and the nun Sandra.

Locke snapped out of his thoughtful stupor and looked at the three women, he noticed the women's expressions and soothed them. "Don't worry, this is something I try not to abuse... I usually only use it against my enemies..."

"...And what did you see in her memories that made you so worried?"

He sighed and began to speak. "My magic can catalogs the memories of others as if they were data from a computer, I can ignore all the useless data and focus on what's important, I focused on information about her power, about the cultists' plan and why she was part of them, it was good that we took a sneaky approach because this woman… well, she's just a puppet!"

"Care to explain?" the nun questioned.

"You see, this power she's so proud of is just the broken authority of an ancient creature that was worshiped as a god, unlike what she made it look like it's a power full of flaws and conditions to be activated, to begin with, you can only give someone an order after that person refuses to fulfill a reasonable request, that's why she first asked you to just deliver yourself peacefully, the orders she gives also have a cool-down time and the more intense the order, the longer it needed to can be given again, she has been holding the order 'kill yourself' as a trump for a long time... Apparently she received this power during an accident on a trip she took with her parents when she was still a child, the cultists became aware of her skills and worked for years in her head through heavy indoctrination and brainwashing, all to achieve the perfect tool of mass influence, they were also working on a way to augment her powers... This one woman has never had a choice, she doesn't even have a reason to fight for the cultists, she's obligated to do that..."

The women looked at the singer with a mixture of pity and empathy.

"What are we going to do with her? Is there any way to break that control over her?" Tamar questioned.

"I don't know, I don't have that kind of power, all I can do for her is this!" Locke touched the woman's chest with his claw, the women think he was ready to kill the singer when he took his claw, the wound was deep but didn't look fatal, he then raised his hand over the wound and began to concentrate, little by little a strange substance, looking like liquid gray flesh, began to come out of the woman's chest and fly in the air, forming a sphere.

"What is it?" one of the women questioned.

"The fragment of that ancient god, this thing had adhered to her organs and lived a parasitic life, draining her life force, her gray hairs are not dyed, they were caused by the indiscriminate use of its powers! Luckily I could clearly see the mana of the foreign body that lived inside her and despite parasitizing her, this thing has no conscience..."

"What are you going to do with it?" Durand questioned, visibly worried, she didn't want to see the man in front of her get even stronger, he was already too much of a danger to the BPD;

"Things like this only serve one purpose..." Locke replied, black flames engulfing the gray substance and burning it with ease. "There, one less problem in the world!" he took out a bottle of elixir and drop a single drop into the cut on the woman's chest, which closed with visible speed. "Now we just need to decide how we're going to deal with her when she wakes up..."

"Can you leave this to me?" Tamar, the panther woman, approached. "I have some experience with brainwashing and being used for years against my will…" She reached down and picked the woman up. "Can you get us out?"

"Be my guest!" Locke responded, he touched the leopard woman's shoulder, she was enveloped in a sphere of black mana and disappeared.

"What else have you discovered?" Durand questioned.

"Well, now I know the cultists' plan, they've been storing negative mana for years for this moment, they intend to use that accumulated mana to activate an ancient artifact and circumvent the seal that protects our world, my father's seal, if they succeed, they'll open a one huge portal, they believe that the number of monsters that can cross this portal will be so large that it will be impossible for the governments to hide it from the public, in addition the presence of alien mana will make the earth's natural mana act violently and this will cause many humans to awaken powers, they think that after that humanity will be forced to acknowledge the existence of magic... at least that's what she knew, but considering how much control these f*ckers had over her, the plan may be different..."

"Damn, anyway we have to fix this as soon as possible! What was it you used to heal the woman's wounds?"

"This thing?" Locke tossed the glass bottle filled with the golden elixir to Durand, who picked it up without difficulty. "This is just a basic potion but it should help your fallen friends there! A few drops each should suffice…" Locke moved to a corner of the room and sat down in a lotus position. "I will regain my mana while you help your friends, if you need more elixir just let me know!"

Durand watched Locke from a distance with a complicated expression, she opened the bottle and smelled the liquid inside, the quality of that elixir made her be surprised, she couldn't believe that the dragon man had called that treasure a 'basic potion'.

She turned her attention to her fallen companions and, along with the nun, began to wake up one by one, pouring a few drops of the elixir on those who had wounds from previous battles.

Garrard opened his eyes in surprise, standing up at once and looking around with promptness and concern, as soon as he realized that it was Durand who had woken him up he relaxed a little, though again he raised his guard when he noticed the figure with scales. black women meditating in the corner.

"Don't worry about him, he's been cooperating with us while we rescued you, if it wasn't for him we would all have died…" Durand commented softly. "...He is the son of Eradan!"

Hearing the name of the protector of the world made the man widen his eyes in surprise, he watched Locke again with a completely different expression, then turned to Durand, only through his eyes did she understand what her good friend wanted to tell.

The Bureau needed to know this information.

The other soldiers and clerics were awakened soon after, as well as Garrard they were frightened by Locke's presence, but when their leaders ordered them not to worry, not to question and, above all, not to do anything that might arouse anger from the figure. They understood that whoever he was, he was someone very important.

Soon Locke opened his eyes, his mana was almost full again, but he had to stop before the full filling because he felt two mana signals coming his way. "You guys can talk outside!" He spoke as he raised his hand, his mana enveloped all the soldiers and clerics, along with Durand and Sister Sandra as well.

"Wait! I want to stay to help!" Durand yelled.

"That wasn't our deal! I said I'd help you guys get back together with your friends and I did, but I'm already tired of playing babysitter on you, so bye!"

All the soldiers were trapped by spheres of black mana that imploded and made them disappear. In the city, near the shelter, similar spheres formed in the air and broke up to reveal the soldiers who had fallen to the ground.

"Damn it!" Durand punched the ground angrily, she was miles out of town now and felt useless. Garrad grabbed her hand, helping her to her feet and soothing her. "We have to talk to the bureau!"

In the building, Locke waited patiently for the two figures to enter the room, one was a huge, muscular woman, completely naked, with only gold chains and jewels dangling over her body, her skin shining a golden light, and a golden mask in her face.

The other was a female figure covered in a red robe and a golden mask, she floated in the air and had lightning running through her fingers, the two figures watched Locke for a second, they scanned the surrounding area and then adopted an attack position.

"Where's Paloma?" the big one questioned. "What have you done to our sister?"

Locke watched the two women for a second without reaction, the only thing he could answer was another question:

"Why are you naked?"