Interrogation!!!

My lovers, the Eminence in the Shadow—Velzard, Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera—returned to the City of Eternal Nights, bringing with them the Seven Clerics of the Luminaries. The clerics were bound and bruised, their spirits broken after being swiftly captured. They had no idea what awaited them in this darkened city deep within the Jura Forest.

The room was silent except for the distant hum of the city's energy. It was a place where secrets were crushed, and the truth was forced out, no matter the cost. My lovers were the perfect instruments for such a task.

Velzard, with her cold, imposing presence, took the lead. Her aura was so chilling that even the air seemed to freeze around her. She paced in front of the clerics, her eyes cold and calculating. "You have all been a thorn in the side of our world, but your usefulness has run out," she said, her voice low and menacing. "You've been playing a dangerous game, hiding behind your robes and words. Now, you will answer for your actions."

The clerics, already terrified, kept their heads down, knowing that resistance would do them no good. They had tried to put on a brave front before, but now they were visibly shaking. They knew who they were facing.

Testarossa stepped forward next, her eyes gleaming with amusement. Her voice was smooth, but there was an undercurrent of malice. "You've been manipulating the course of events, interfering with forces far greater than you. It's time you confessed," she said, her words sweet but filled with venom. "You will tell us everything. Starting with who is behind your little plot."

Ultima remained silent, standing to the side. Her presence was a shadow that stretched across the room, quiet and still. It was the silence that made her so terrifying. And Carrera... Carrera was a whirlwind. She moved like a shadow, always one step ahead, her unpredictability unnerving. She was the one who liked to get up close, her sudden movements making even the most hardened of individuals flinch.

The clerics could no longer hide their fear. They tried to stay strong, but the pressure was building. They had already faced the shock of capture, but now they were up against an enemy whose methods were terrifyingly efficient. They were in the hands of Eminence in the Shadow, and they had no idea what that meant.

One of the clerics, his voice shaky, finally spoke. "You don't know what you're dealing with. Granbell Rosso... He's the one who's been controlling everything. He manipulated us, gave us the Dragon Buster sword, and ordered us to target Hinata."

The confession came fast, spilling out like water from a broken dam. It wasn't a single cleric speaking, but all of them now, their voices trembling as the truth poured out.

Testarossa raised an eyebrow, a faint smile curling her lips. "Granbell Rosso, huh? I thought as much. But let's hear more," she said, stepping closer to the trembling clerics. "Tell me everything. How far does this go?"

Another cleric, shaking uncontrollably, added, "Granbell has been behind this all along. He's not just some religious leader. He's been manipulating Hinata, using her as a pawn, giving her the Dragon Buster sword to ensure she could defeat Rimuru. His ultimate goal is to gain control over humanity. He believes that only absolute power can protect them, and he'll stop at nothing to make that a reality."

Carrera's hand shot out like lightning, grabbing the throat of one of the clerics. She lifted him off the ground with one hand, her smile predatory. "You think you're in control, don't you?" she said, her voice dangerously soft. "But you're not. Now, tell me more about Granbell and his plans."

The cleric gasped for air, his body wracked with fear. "He... He trained under Emperor Rudra, became a Light Chosen hero. But something broke inside him. He realized that protecting humanity wasn't enough. He needed to control them, to rule them. He left Rudra's side and came to the West, where he manipulated everything. He used us, the Clerics of the Seven Luminaries, to make sure humanity would be ruled by someone with the strength to keep them in check. And that someone... is him."

Velzard took a step back, her expression unreadable. "He's been playing this game for centuries," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "All of this... the manipulation of Hinata, the creation of the Dragon Buster, the schemes with the clerics—it was all part of his grand plan."

The cleric nodded, his voice faltering. "Yes, he's been using his spirit to possess a secondary body. He's been hiding in plain sight, controlling us, making us carry out his orders without question. He's the one who pushed us to manipulate Hinata. He wants to control all of humanity. He wants to be the one to lead them. And he'll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens."

Testarossa let out a low chuckle. "Interesting. So Granbell Rosso isn't just some misguided zealot. He's a man driven by power. No wonder he's been such a problem."

The clerics continued to spill more and more secrets, each word they uttered a further unraveling of the complex web they had woven over centuries. Their will was breaking under the relentless pressure of my lovers' interrogation techniques. In the cold, shadowed halls of the City of Eternal Nights, the air was thick with tension as they were pushed to their limits. Velzard, Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera, draped in dark cloaks that masked their identities, held nothing back as they extracted every ounce of information from the Seven Clerics of the Luminaries.

Each of the clerics tried to maintain their composure, but the combined force of my lovers' presence shattered their resolve. The methods were precise and unforgiving—psychological manipulation, physical pain, and the constant fear of what would happen next. They were no longer agents of their own will, but broken vessels spilling all they knew in the hope of escaping the relentless torment.

As they continued to speak, the grim truths they revealed painted a far darker picture of Granbell Rosso than anyone had anticipated.

Granbell's machinations were even deeper than they had imagined. Over the millennia, his grip on the West had only tightened, manipulating events from the shadows. He had done so under the guise of safeguarding humanity, but the reality was much darker—his obsession with power had corrupted him. It had all started innocently enough, with the alliance with Luminous Valentine leading to the establishment of peace and the creation of the Council of the West. Under this council, he played the puppet master, directing the flow of resources, alliances, and even conflicts to serve his growing ambitions.

But what truly began to shape Granbell's path toward tyranny was the loss of his wife, Maria Rosso. The death of his beloved had shattered him, and he had never recovered. Instead of mourning and moving on, Granbell turned to forbidden magics, using the Raise Dead spell to preserve her body and infuse it with unnatural energy. His obsession with reviving her became all-consuming, and it wasn't just any energy he sought—he used the Love Energy granted by Luminous over the years, and even harvested the power of Otherworlders.

The Servant he created from Maria's corpse was a grotesque manifestation of his madness, a living symbol of the twisted love he could not let go of.

Granbell's pursuit of absolute control didn't stop with the resurrection of his wife. He became the unchallenged ruler of the West, using his economic monopoly to ensure no one could challenge him. Through the Five Elders, a group of his descendants strategically placed in positions of power across the Western nations, Granbell manipulated the entire continent. He ruled in the shadows, never taking credit for his actions, but always ensuring that every move served his interests.

Even his former mentor, Rudra, was discarded once Granbell realized the East's goals didn't align with his. He severed ties with Rudra and began plotting against the East's attempts to invade the West. The dwarves, merchants, and spies all became pawns in his scheme to ensure the West's safety—at least, that was what he claimed. To the rest of the world, he appeared as a benefactor, a protector. But beneath the surface, he was using his powers to manipulate, sabotage, and control.

The final revelation came when Granbell discovered that his granddaughter, Mariabell Rosso, possessed immense latent power. Seeing her as the future of the Rosso family, he groomed her to be his successor. But it wasn't a kind gesture—it was another calculated move in his endless pursuit of power. He saw in her the potential to continue his reign, to take the Rosso family's ambitions into a new era, shaped and molded in his image.

As the clerics revealed more, it became clear just how far Granbell's reach extended. He wasn't just manipulating the economy or politics—he had planted himself at the very heart of Western society, controlling everything from crime syndicates to the leaders of nations. He had created an empire in which he was the undisputed ruler, and even death itself was a tool in his arsenal.

With each confession, the clerics began to break even further, their spirits crushed under the weight of the truth they had to reveal. They had served Granbell and Luminous without question, their loyalty never wavering, but now, under the relentless pressure of my lovers' interrogation, the cracks in their resolve were evident.

This wasn't just about politics anymore. This was about the darkest depths of human ambition—an ambition so consuming that it had twisted Granbell from a noble hero to a tyrant who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. And with the information now in hand, the pieces of his grand design were becoming all too clear.

As the clerics' final words were extracted from them, their bodies limp and broken, my lovers stood, their expressions unreadable. They had gathered everything they needed—Granbell's deep-rooted conspiracy, his manipulation of the Seven Luminaries, his ultimate goal of ruling the West, and the twisted fate he had planned for his granddaughter. It was all there.

I turned to my lovers—Velzard, Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera. They stood tall, cloaked in their dark garments, their eyes unreadable, yet I could sense the cold determination in them. They were not like the clerics—they were far beyond the fragile nature of human loyalty and weakness.

"Eliminate them," I said, my voice cold, but with a finality that left no room for argument. There was no redemption for these traitors. They had been tools in Granbell's hands, manipulating events for centuries, and now they had played their part in this twisted game. There was no longer any purpose for them.

Testarossa, the Demon of Lust, stepped forward with a wicked smile. She didn't need the formality of spells or weapons—she had her own way. She moved with an unsettling grace, her footsteps barely making a sound on the cold floor as she circled the frozen clerics. Her hand, glowing with a crimson hue, reached out toward the eldest of the clerics, and in an instant, his body began to distort, the dark energy consuming him from within.

The cleric's scream was nothing more than a faint whisper as his body melted away, disintegrating into nothingness.

Ultima, the embodiment of annihilation and destruction, was next. Her power was a force of pure entropy—unraveling the very fabric of existence itself. With her sharp eyes, she took in the remaining clerics and raised her hand, causing an energy wave to erupt. The sheer force of her magic disintegrated the remaining clerics, leaving nothing but scattered ashes in the air. Not even a trace of their existence remained.