Another One (4)
The dark elves had used the Anti-Amnesia curse to wrench memories from Yushin Gilliard's subordinates in a way that bordered on outright torture. But it wasn't easy. The targets' mental resistance was fierce.
No problem. No matter how tough a human is, they can't withstand a mental assault forever.
The dark elves, known as the Shadow Clan, were a fanatical group that revered the High Priestess as a living god. They had once lost their deity, and ever since, they had handled their missions with brutal, extreme methods. Their loyalty was so intense it even shocked Ileina.
To ensure they never repeated that miserable mistake, they would do anything they deemed necessary for their High Priestess.
Once we've read their memories, we can just mess with their minds to erase them. We can wipe out any trace that we were ever at Santander Castle.
Was Yushin Gilliard the Diablo Slayer of the Holy Empire? To find the answer, the dark elves had ambushed his subordinates.
Ileina had merely tasked them with tracking down Another Ones outside the kingdom. But the moment the dark elves concluded Yushin was definitely the Diablo Slayer, they acted on their own without reporting to the High Priestess. They figured she was still too young to approve such radical tactics.
"Guh... Graaah!!"
Isana let out a scream. Resisting mental interference was excruciating. If she just gave in, the pain would end with her memories being stolen. But Isana fought desperately, trying to hold out to the bitter end.
"Don't do something so foolish. We're masters of curses. Human, your resistance is pointless."
A dark elf woman whispered. But Isana refused. So did the others. They all resisted to the last, throwing the dark elves into disarray.
The dark elves scowled at the unexpected stubbornness. They could break a mere human's mind anytime. But pushing harder risked killing the target—and that would ruin their plan to vanish without a trace.
"No... I won't...! Guh...!!"
Isana thrashed wildly. Blood poured from her mouth. She'd bitten her own tongue. She knew a countermeasure from past experience with mental attacks: inflict physical pain to break free. Crude, but the best an ordinary person ignorant of curses could manage.
The dark elf woman swallowed hard at Isana's extreme self-harm to escape the interference.
"This one's the leader. We have to crack him, no matter what—he definitely knows the truth. We need evidence linking him to the Diablo Slayer."
The other dark elves closed in on Isana. They forced the mental interference. She screamed and vomited blood beneath them, but they pressed on relentlessly. They would uncover Diablo Slayer intel. The Shadow Clan tolerated no failure.
Overconfident in her curse, the dark elf woman pushed to the absolute limit before trying to rip the memories from Isana.
"Kuhuk... Ckck!! Guh-hek—!!"
Isana and the others who'd held out coughed violently, their bodies shuddering. It was too dangerous now. The dark elves hastily withdrew their hands after extracting memories related to Yushin Gilliard. The woman pulled away from Isana's forehead.
Isana's face, slick with cold sweat from the agony, finally relaxed. Unlike the others, he'd kept his memories from the dark elves—enduring what amounted to torture for dozens of minutes.
"Tough bastard."
She activated Amnesia. The opposite of Anti-Amnesia, it erased the target's memories. She wiped the humans' minds clean. Now the dark elves were ghosts who'd never raided Santander Castle. Memory manipulation was their specialty—no mistakes there.
"We didn't tip off Santander, right?"
"Of course not. Memory wipe complete. Time to withdraw."
"Pull the warp gate team."
"Got it."
The dark elves held orbs glowing black. Crystallized stolen memories. Direct transfer of vast memories risked the caster's mind, so they used Memory Vessels for transport.
"Withdraw!"
The moment the dark elf woman commanded, a wall exploded inward, and a blue-haired woman burst in.
"Uh, ugh...."
Before the Memory Vessel holder could scream, a ronin clan's fist smashed into her mouth. The superhuman punch landed. The dark elf crumpled in a ㄱ-shape, tumbling across the floor.
"Who the hell are you guys?"
Allen asked. Blood dripped from her fist as she advanced. She'd bulldozed straight through the walls blocking the path from the warp gate room to Yushin's men. The dark elves gaped at the countless holes beyond the breach.
"I said, what?"
Spotting Yushin's collapsed subordinates, Allen radiated menace. The dark elves clutched their chests. The ambient mana reversed flow—a fatal assault on elves who breathed it into their bodies.
"Don't think you'll leave here alive."
Allen removed her necklace. She reverted to human form. The dark elves flinched at the sudden shift from ronin to human. No tales of such power in Santander Castle. She must've been hiding it.
Even they—the elite force that could rival an elf kingdom's warrior captain in a joint assault—trembled before this one human.
"I'll rip your limbs off, you darkies."
Allen reached out. Space warped, manifesting a massive greatsword. Dragon Pursuer. Like Yushin's Lightning Sword Karus, Valua's famed blade granted only to the Kingdom's Seven Swords.
* * *
By the time Leticia arrived with Santander Castle knights and Alonne, it was over. The dark elves lay defeated. Many had limbs twisted unnaturally; others were unrecognizable bloody messes.
Realizing they couldn't beat Allen, the dark elves had tried to flee. But they failed.
"Move the instructors, quick!"
"Healers! Get the healers!"
Santander knights sprang into action. They hoisted Yushin's men. The relentless mental assault had left them all unconscious.
"Thank you, Lady."
"Rest for now. The mental interference aftermath means your head's not right."
As Isana tried rising from the floor, Leticia stopped him. She'd treated his wounds. Not a healing magic expert, but mending a self-inflicted bite was simple enough. She was the only one who could cast it right then, so she'd handled all of Yushin's men alone.
"M-Mister...! You okay...?"
Alonne asked in a trembling voice, laced with sorrow. When she'd come to Santander Castle with Yushin, his men had taken good care of her. Weak to emotions, she hurt seeing them so battered.
"It's not 'mister.' If you're gonna say it, make it 'big bro' at least...."
"Wh-what do we do! He must've hit his head!"
"......"
More a heart than head wound. Hekadi turned away with a wry smile at Alonne's innocent barb.
Yushin's men, tormented by the dark elves, were relatively intact physically. But their bruised pride wouldn't heal easily. Non-combatants or not, getting crushed without a proper fight stung deep.
"Thanks, knight."
Leticia said to Allen. Allen grimaced and turned away at the gratitude.
"Thank you, Lady Allen."
"We lived thanks to you. Almost had our embarrassing pasts exposed."
Yushin's men said. The dark elves had toyed with their memories. Not just recent ones or Yushin-related—childhood flashes, everything. Precious recollections, ones they'd rather forget. All exposed. It left a foul taste.
"Ngh...."
The dark elf woman who'd cursed Isana like a torturer groaned. Still alive. So were the others. Despite shattered limbs or lethal blood loss. Dark elves outclassed humans and even regular elves in resilience. Astonishingly, one with bones piercing organs still breathed faintly.
"Dark elves—the High Priestess's Shadow Clan! To dare assault my castle... I'll contact the other nobles and demand she answer for this!"
Bilen roared in fury at the dark elves' outrage. The Golden Santander's head saw violations of his wealth and rights as the ultimate humiliation.
Yushin's men were slaves bought dearly in Pamplona—Santander property. He couldn't forgive the dark elves who'd harmed them, or the presumed backer, the High Priestess.
Bilen ground his teeth, eyes blazing.
"Turn these damn thieves into monster chow right now!"
He bellowed. His rage targeted the bloodied dark elves. Genuine fury. They'd damaged his family's assets—his slaves. Rights infringed. To Bilen, who cherished his slave property, this was an unforgivable disgrace.
"What about Teacher? He'll never let this slide if he finds out...."
"In Maherith Palace. The High Priestess summoned him."
"Dark elves raid while Teacher's meeting her? Doesn't add up. We know they're digging into him, but why now...? If she truly wanted talks, she wouldn't greenlight something this extreme."
"They probably thought they wouldn't get caught."
Alonne shrugged nonchalantly at Leticia's words. Unlike Leticia, who craved the full story, Alonne fretted over how Yushin would react to his men getting ambushed.
"But who are you? No choke collar, so not a slave. A non-slave human... Connected to Yushin Gilliard, obviously."
Bilen asked Allen. Grateful she'd handled the intruders, but curious about the woman who'd toyed with dark elves—who could overwhelm a warrior captain in tandem—like children.