The Mercy of the Blood Cult
The young orc glared at Kyle with a face soaked in blood, his breath coming out in ragged gasps.
“Krr…!” Foam of blood bubbled from the corner of his mouth. Despite the agony, he still bared his teeth and forced a laugh.
“You filthy human! Do you think I’d reveal my tribe’s location just because you chopped off my limbs and drove a blade into my neck?!”
His voice still dripped with venom even as pain twisted it. Kyle watched the orc and smirked faintly.
“Of course I’d be thinking exactly that.”
“What?!” The orc’s eyes widened in shock. Kyle’s cold smile deepened.
“I didn’t expect you to spill everything so willingly anyway.”
There were many ways to make an orc talk. Among all the memories Kyle carried from his past lives, the most common and effective method was water.
Drown them face-first until they couldn’t breathe. A technique that broke the survival instinct without destroying the body too badly. Water, more than anyone, knew the answer.
‘But there’s no clean water around.’
The surrounding snowfield was frozen solid. Melting snow could work, but time was short. So he chose something else. A faint red glow shimmered over Kyle’s emerald eyes.
‘Blood Life Flowing Pain Art.’
Blood Life Flowing Pain Art, one of the Blood Cult’s techniques. Originally meant for healing. It forced closed arteries that had torn, mended flesh that had been ripped away, and snapped the fading consciousness back to wakefulness. It crammed life force into the veins, pulling a body on the brink of death back from the edge. On paper, it was an extraordinary method. The problem?
‘It hurt like hell.’
Healing itself was painful enough. The Blood Cult had simply compressed that pain to the extreme, twisting tissue back together and knotting severed vessels shut.
Shock was the real killer—the heart would stop, the mind would shatter, and the body would die before recovery finished. When the Blood Cult first tried the technique on the battlefield, countless prisoners had died under treatment. Interrogations went the same way.
‘About a hundred and fifty dead, right?’
They weren’t killed by the wounds. They couldn’t endure the pain and died. The Blood Cult had known the problem all along, so the leader, elders, and technique masters had spent decades reinforcing the method.
‘Not by reducing the pain.’
The Blood Cult cared only about keeping their captives alive. Heartbeats were forced back into rhythm. Consciousness was slammed awake whenever it began to slip. Hemorrhage was sealed with terrifying thoroughness.
As a result, the Blood Life Flowing Pain Art became a torture method that refused to let even death be an escape.
‘Roughly a third of the Blood Cult’s infamous reputation came from this one technique.’
Kyle agreed. He looked at the young orc and said, “Your body will heal. Your mind will break first.”
“Wha…?” The orc’s eyes shook.
“I’ll heal you.”
“Heal…?” Before the orc could process the words, red light dripped from Kyle’s fingertips.
Ssssss—
The blood-red energy seeped into the severed stump. At first it felt only like something cold and sticky sliding beneath the skin. Then…
“……” The orc’s eyes bulged until they looked ready to split. The limbs weren’t regrowing—they never would—but the wounds that had been bleeding out were closing at terrifying speed. Every inch of recovery was pain.
“Kk, aaaahhh…!” The orc’s mouth opened in a scream that never made it past his lips. Kyle’s finger pressed a blood point beneath his chin.
“Ugh…!” The scream was instantly choked off. The orc’s body convulsed like a fish on dry land. Veins on his forehead and neck swelled until they looked ready to burst. His eyes were bloodshot and tears streamed down his wrinkled face.
He wanted to faint. He couldn’t. Kyle’s blood qi kept his heart beating. Consciousness was forcibly held awake. He wouldn’t die. He wouldn’t faint. He wouldn’t scream. He would simply endure the agony of his body healing, wide awake.
The orc’s gaze shattered in seconds. The unbreakable vow he’d made moments ago lasted less than a minute. He stared at Kyle with raw desperation.
‘I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! Just stop…!’
But Kyle deliberately ignored it.
“The treatment isn’t finished yet, orc.”
“I’ll be kind when I treat you. If I stop halfway, it can reopen. Please endure until the end.”
“Krruuuuh…!” The young orc was thrown straight back into hell.
“Good. You’re healed nicely.”
Kyle gave a small nod, then let the orc drop to the ground. He moved to the next prisoner.
The old orc had watched the entire scene. He hadn’t understood the principle, but he knew one thing: the moment that red energy entered the young orc’s body, his mind had been destroyed.
“Krr…!” The old orc tried to crawl backward on instinct, but his legs were gone. Blood flowed. His body refused to obey. Kyle crouched in front of him.
“Your wounds look serious too.”
“N-no! I’m fine! I’m okay…!”
Kyle first pressed the blood points on the old orc’s neck, sealing his voice and pleas.
“Since your body is weaker, I’ll be extra careful.”
Red energy flowed again.
“Ugh…! Krruuuuh…!” The old orc’s body twisted violently. He reacted faster than the young orc because he had seen what was happening. The moment the pain entered, his mind snapped. His eyes rolled back. Tears cut tracks through his wrinkled cheeks. He trembled at Kyle’s feet.
‘I’ll talk! Just stop this…!’
Kyle ignored him and kept treating.
A short while later, both orc stumps had sealed shut. The limbs were still gone, but the bodies were perfectly healed. Consciousness remained sharp. The only difference was that both orcs’ eyes now held nothing but terror.
Kyle dusted his hands and stood.
“Haken. Morris. Delph.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
The three guides approached. Their faces were filled with curiosity they could barely hide. They didn’t know what Kyle had done, but the result was obvious: the two orcs were completely broken. Their bodies had recovered, yet their eyes now looked like those of the dead.
This time Haken didn’t ask. Neither did Morris or Delph. They simply waited for orders. Kyle jerked his chin toward the two orcs.
“Tie them up and carry them. The wounds are sealed, so they won’t die on the march.”
“Understood.”
Haken immediately drew ropes. Morris and Delph moved as well. The orcs didn’t resist—they couldn’t. Even while being bound, their eyes remained fixed on Kyle, terrified that one wrong move would trigger the hellish treatment again.
Kyle watched them calmly.
“By the time we reach the commander, they’ll be begging to tell you everything they know.”
Haken nodded at the orcs.
“It seems the Young Master’s words are true.”
Kyle’s mouth curved in a faint smile.
“Good. If they still resist, I’ll give them another treatment.”
At those words, both orcs’ bodies convulsed at the same time. If their mouths hadn’t been sealed, they would have screamed that they would tell everything.
The three guides securely bound the orcs and carried them on their backs. Kyle then turned to Leina and Wulfran.
“We’re returning now.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Mm.” Leina looked beyond the northern hills.
“My lord, aren’t we going to check the main force ourselves?”
Kyle shook his head.
“That’s Commander Volkrik’s decision.”
His voice stayed calm.
“We’ve scouted, used ourselves as bait, eliminated the enemy, and secured an information source. Anything beyond that—pursuing the main force or launching a preemptive strike—would be crossing a line.”
Kyle hadn’t forgotten the words he gave before leaving. Keeping that line was also an important order on the battlefield.
“What I need to do here is finished.”
Kyle turned toward the castle.
“From now on, it’s the commander’s judgment.”
“Understood.”
Leina and Wulfran bowed at the same time. Kyle glanced at Haken’s group.
“When we return, don’t waste time covering tracks. Save your aura and come back as fast as possible.”
“Yes!”
Haken answered loudly.
Unlike the departure, the return was a race. The enemy bait was already gone. The war horns were smashed. The main force’s odds of knowing the situation soon were low. Speed of information mattered most.
Taaaat—!
Six men sprinted across the snowfield, carrying the two bound orcs on their backs.
***
The castle of the Northern Frontline. Before sunrise.
“You’re back already?”
Commander Volkrik Iron Side gave an intrigued look when he heard the report. The scouting party that left at dawn had already returned. No casualties. Instead, they brought two captured orcs.
Volkrik strode out of the tent. The two orcs lay in the wide courtyard, trembling, their limbs gone. Yet their wounds were strangely clean.
Volkrik’s eyes narrowed. Kyle offered a polite bow.
“Commander.”
“Report, Grand Duke Heir.”
“The fifty orcs we captured were bait. More than fifty elderly ones are hiding beyond the hills—also bait.”
Kyle spoke calmly.
“We eliminated over a hundred directly. We also destroyed the three war horns that would have signaled the main force. It’s unlikely they received any warning.”
“Then you’re saying the main force is somewhere else?”
“Yes.”
Kyle jerked his chin at the two bound orcs.
“These two know everything. One young, one old. Since they couldn’t communicate, separate interrogations will allow cross-verification.”
“Hmm.”
Volkrik nodded.
“As expected of the Grand Duke. You act like you’ve seen a lot.”
A faint satisfaction crossed his lips.
“Still, good work, Grand Duke Heir. Better than excellent for your first deployment—better than I expected.”
Those words weren’t empty praise. The results Kyle showed were exactly what a frontline commander wanted.
Kyle gave a small nod.
“I only did what had to be done.”
“Leave the interrogations to us. Our interrogators know how to loosen an orc’s tongue.”
Volkrik’s voice carried confidence. But Kyle glanced at the bound orcs on the ground.
“It probably won’t take long.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll release the sealed blood.”
Kyle walked over to the orcs. He lightly tapped the young orc’s chin with his toe.
“Ugh…!” Kyle lightly tapped the old orc’s neck as well. The sealed blood points on both orcs opened.
The next moment,
“I’ll talk! I’ll speak first! The main force has gathered every usable soldier!!”
“No! I know more! Right now the main force has no choice but to attack the castle! There’s a terrifying thing behind them!”
Both orcs screamed at the same time.
“There’s also an Orc Great Warrior! He wants to level the castle and march straight to the imperial capital!”
“The Orc Great Warrior has gone mad with glory! He’s desperate! Please, please don’t treat us again!”
Even though no questions had been asked yet, the two orcs were already spilling every secret they knew. Surrounding knights and soldiers stared in stunned silence. Haken, Morris, and Delph looked away. Volkrik slowly turned to Kyle.
“…Grand Duke Heir.”
His voice held both disbelief and suspicion.
“What exactly did you do to them out there?”
Kyle smiled with genuine satisfaction.
“Nothing much.”
He looked down at the howling orcs.
“They were wounded, so I showed them mercy and healed them. They woke up grateful for the kindness.”
If they hadn’t woken up grateful, he would have kept healing until they did.
