3. Interrogation

Morning set over the still silent town. The action during the past night was nowhere to be seen. The fire that had been raging in the town square were nowhere to be seen, so was the proposed corpse. As noon prepared to make itself known, the first person dared take a step outside. The heat showed no mercy towards the desolate area, the sun gazing down with beams threatening to set anything flammable on fire. Sneaking its way towards the town square and the market the figure looked carefully around itself. Left, right, behind and forwards and repeat. The sole purpose of its mission to ring the bell in the market to signal the clearance of danger, and thus wake the town up from its aura caused slumber. A vast majority of the town were low class fighters, with a few middle class and only two high class. Since they weren't trained in any suitable ways of fighting and only knew how to utilize their powers for the sake of productivity the high class fighters here were nothing compared to even middle class fighters coming from the big towns on the other sides of the desert as they had had proper training in fighting methods since they awakened. Thus the people in the town had quickly lost their consciousness when the mystical figure had released his powerful aura the night before. The person moving close to the market was non other than the town chief, on of two high class fighters. Possessing a rare variant of fire power called wind flames, allowing him to have his flames flow like the wind, he was the strongest fighter of all townspeople and the first one to wake up from their long unconsciousness slumber.

Closing in on the end of the street the town chief tapped into his power, drawing the fiery energy from deep within him. Flames started dancing around his finger, climbing up his arms and dissipating into the scorching hot air. More and more powerful flames appeared before he released them with a singular chant,

"[Sensory Flames]"

The fire entered the air, trailing along even the faintest winds, riding atop like waves on the open ocean. It entered the abandoned square, turning, twisting and touching the ground, market-stands, pillars, houses, everything, information travelling back through the minuscule pathways created by the intense heat from the flames.

Thanks to his ability, senses like touch, smell and hearing could be transferred by his flames to his brain where it manifested into real senses. Smoke entered his nose, the feeling of sand and wood tingled his fingers and the distant sound of screeching creatures entered his ears. While fully disconnected from reality, the town chiefs fire was an extension of himself, acting instead of his lost senses.

After a while he withdrew his flames, having enough information to deem the place safe. But, he still entered with caution, looking nervously around him. Making his way over to the bell, he grabbed the bells swing and pulled it up. It went down with a swoosh, crashing into the bell with an ear deafening ring. The town chief continued this process eight times, signaling to his fellow people that the coast was clear and that life could continue like normal, except having a bit of caution to their surroundings. If he had rang the bell ten times, everything was normal and if he hadn't rang the bell at all after 45 minutes from mission start, he was dead. Those were the conditions he and his fellow high class had agreed upon.

Behind him, levitating in the air was a near invisible bubble. Inside, the mystical figure stood, suspended midair and looking down on the kneeling shadows.

"Let's do this again shall we?

It spoke calmly, its gaze locked on the two beaten figures.

"We can do this the easy way, or we can continue this time wasting procedure of me scorching you intestines over and over again."

There wasn't even a wimp from the two shadows before it flicked its hand, the fourth small figure appearing again beside it. The red tear fading in the light from the sun created an even more disturbingly looking mask. It unsheathed two toothed daggers as white as snow and walked forwards to squat before one of the two shadows. Dragging the two blades against each other, it created a spine chilling screech. The shadow flinched when the small figure put one of the blades on its arm and only gently put some pressure. As if the blade was sharpened to utter perfection it sank into the shadows arm, blood shooting forwards and slowly dripping down on the bottom of the bubble. Behind the petite figure the mystical figure stood silently watching the horizon.

"Its coming."

He spoke coldly before removing his mask, revealing a nut brown face with high, distinct cheekbones. His eyes were refreshingly blue, shining with a wisdom not many had seen before. His black hair cut short and pulled backwards by some invincible force.

"Kill them. We'll use them as bait."

He ordered the petite figure before stepping out of the bubble, blue energy dancing between his fingers as he descended towards the shocked people down on the ground.

"No please, don't, please!"

The shadows muffled screams slipped out under their face covering white masks.

"Then why don't you tell me your little secrets... like why you are hunting a dragon.

The little figure spoke softly as it also removed its mask to reveal a stunningly beautiful woman with pale white skin covering her face, shoulder long, brown hair framing her smiling face. Two big eyes stared the two shadows down, shining with a dark red color.

"Better speak now little friends, your lives are in my hands, remember?"

A soft laughter erupting from her before she sliced her thumb over her own throat, simulating a blade cutting through it. Still smiling gently a dangerous light shone from her ruby like eyes as flames started moving up and down on her snow white blades. The temperature rose quickly in the claustrophobic bubble, making the two shadows feel an even bigger displeasure than what they had been withstanding.

"Okay, okay! I'll talk! Please, just don't kill us!"

One of the shadows screamed hysterically before its voice cut short. The shadow collapsed. Tearing its throat as froth bubbled over, flowing down the face and spilling out beneath the mask. The second shadow looked at its brother in arms, watched as flames tore its way through the body, clashing with the fire proof robes, taking ground before completely engulfing the unconscious body. Tears filled up the last shadows eyes before spilling over, flooding down, making their way out from under the mask. Looking back at the petite woman, so many questions lingering in its head, he watched surprised as fiery red energy danced across her fingers.

"You!

It spat out, the spatter getting stuck behind the mask,

"He begged you! He begged for his life!"

The shadows screams continued to tear through the air. Still, the woman just sat there, licking the blood of her blade, tilting her head, watching with an amused expression as the shadow continued to torment its own throat. She remained silent for a couple moments before the shadow clasped its own throat with a glove-clad hand dressed in red energy, fire erupting from its palm, killing it in an instant. She remained silent through all this, but the words the shadow had spoken right before its palm exploded with flames struck her out of her trance.

"Long live the Empress."

Those were the shadows last words.

'Oh my, oh my, the big gears are turning, this is more entertaining than I thought!' A slight chuckle leaving her mouth before she burned the corpse till not even ashes remained. Jumping down from the bubble, she shouted midair to the handsome man down on the ground,

"The empress is behind it!"

The man looked up with a shocked face trailing her fall as she landed with a loud bang in front of him, pushing up large clouds of dust. A shield flickered, reflecting the incoming sand.

"Clean freak,"

The woman told him as she walked by him, extending a hand towards the town chief,

"Diana, to your service."

She shot him a bright smile when he grasped the extended hand and shook it.

"Darwin, town chief"

He answered her smile still a bit shocked from her flashy entrance. Diana turned around with the expression of a little kid on Christmas morning when the man she told was a clean freak got done with dusting off some invisible grains of sand.

"The empress, huh?" He spoke with a deep soothing voice.

"Yep, hi hi, doesn't that mean we can kill some more?" Diana both confirmed the question and asked one herself, all while looking awfully happy about... killing.

"No it does not. We'll have to be more cautious with our approaches from now onward, the empress has eyes and ears in every corner of this desolate country."

The man shot a look at the excited woman before him,

"And please, for goodness sake calm your killing intent!"

He swiped with his arm, marking all the people who were barely standing and some that had even lost consciousness, again.

"Oops... sorry Ethan"

She hurriedly calmed herself, allowing the townspeople to take deep breaths. Ethan just shook his head, turning towards Darwin with a forgiving expression,

"Thank you for your consideration Mr. Darwin, we'll depart in a few moments."

With that, Darwin had yet again to do a handshake and return the smile Ethan gave him,

"Take care, and remember that our town will always welcome you here Mr. Ethan."

Darwin gave Ethan a respectable nod before turning away to take the lead among the scared people. Ethan also turned around, tapping into his power. Blue lines entered his field of view. With mastered movements, he quickly created a shining blue portal reaching a few kilometres outside the town. If it was his mental limit that restricted him or if his power was restricted by something else, he didn't say. Turning towards Diana, he made an inviting gesture with his dark blue, robe clad arm, waiting for her to take the first step into the portal.

"Where are we going?" She asked, stopping right in front of the portal.

"To slay a dragon." Ethan answered calmly before shoving her inside and taking a step through, the portal closing behind them to the astonishing gazes of the townspeople.