Chapter 236 - A Painful Reunion
"I would start praying that they are safe and sound.. If I were you." Said Der with a deadly serious tone, to which the oldest son of his deceased enemy quickly responded to by nodding his head nervously.
For how calm and composed a person could be, nobody would be able to be completely impassive towards an encounter that could very easily culminate in their death.. And yet, surprisingly enough, this man was able to maintain his calm pretty well.. That, was despite the fact that there was a very high possibility, that the girl this man was looking for was already be dead. After all, she had been left under the care of his younger brother.
After witnessing to how Der had taken care of his father and grandfather like two worthless sacks of potatoes, he felt his right arm being grabbed by him. "Where, and how distant."
Without wasting a single second, he raised his free arm, and pointed towards a specific direction, while also saying "Eighty-five thousand kilometers in that direction.."
Instead of moving by himself, Der let go of the man's arm, and turned to look at Daniel.
Daniel had, of course, heard every word the two had said.
He then closed his eyes, and focused on his production and control of immortal essence.
Invisible to the eyes of everyone but the two of them, waves and waves of immortal essence engulfed the entire area, just like a cloud. It slowly seeped through the ground, the people, the air, and everything else.
Once Daniel's immortal essence covered an area big enough to include every single member of the army of the coalition, this immortal essence turned into spatial essence. The very next moment.. The entire valley had been teleported in the air just above a large city, along with the ground on which the army stood, down to five meters deep.
They were floating at about a hundred meters from the ground, and on a spatial platform that stood in the air right above the capital of the Karalis Kingdom.
At the same time, a few unlucky spiritual cultivators had been shifted, along with the large portion of sky where they were flying in, in the area where the battle had taking place. Underneath them, was a massive crater, which they looked at with extreme confusion.
The moment they teleported back to Karalis, Der let go of the young man, and immediately dashed towards the territory of the School of the Everlasting Fury. "MEA! MASTER KYE!" He shouted after arriving at the entrance of the huge mansion.
After Der's disappearance, and the discovery that Daniel was a student of the old master-at-arms, the School of Everlasting Fury had raised itself to the position of hero of the people. They had claimed to have discovered the betrayal of one of Karalis' most important generals, while also being able to discredit the master-at-arms, whom had never accepted him as a disciple, of keeping a world-changing secret from his own country. All of this, had allowed his school to prosper, and become one of the most powerful groups not only in the kingdom, but in the entire area.
Their influence and power grew exponentially as they swallowed the territories of various other groups, and now, they possessed a third of Karalis' capital. The mansion had been destroyed, and reshaped into a massive castle which could be compared to the royal castle itself.
Der's powerful shout was sent through space like a powerful wave, causing pots and glasses to shatter in thousands of pieces. A few guards dashed out of the entrance, and along with them, a young man, and a young woman.
The woman was in training attire, and seemed to have been interrupted in the middle of training, while the man, was wearing casual clothes stained by fresh blood. His very face was covered in droplets of blood as well, showing that whoever was the one to whom that blood belonged, hadn't parted with it painlessly.
These two people were, of course, the other two children of the late leader of their school.
The moment Der had appeared, they knew that they could do nothing to him, so, they each took a talisman out of their rings, and destroyed them as quietly and inconspicuously as possible.
"Who are you?! Don't you know whose territory this is? Do you dare to tresp-NgH" Barked out the youngest of the two, before being grabbed by the neck by Der.
Startled by Der's lightning fast speed, the girl stepped back, and said "W-who.. Who are you?" She was hoping to buy time for his father, or grandfather to arrive.
"Mea'hor Rulin and Master Kye.. where are they? A wrong word, and I pull your brother's spine off of his body, along with his head." Responded Der with an extremely threatening tone.
The girl was beyond terrified. She wasn't as cold blooded as her older blooded, nor stupid as her younger one. Faced with someone as dangerous as Der, she could do nothing but obey. "T-t-they are i-in the d-dungeon.." she said with a trembling voice.
After hearing the girl's response, Der let go of the younger of the three siblings, and Dashed into the massive castle.
The moment Daniel saw the young man being released by Der, he raised his arm, and pointed at him with one of his fingers, from which a sharp metallic needle was forming.
The oldest of the three siblings, which was close to Daniel, turned towards him, and said "We spared your life once.. He deserves the same treatment.. At least once."
"I don't dare to claim your brother's life myself.. He will die in honor to those whose blood is dripping off his hands.." Responded Daniel with a cold and detached tone. He still remembered how vicious this young man was the first time they had met.. If Daniel hadn't stepped out, he would have killed a little girl and her mother for daring to dirtying his clothes. He also did not believe that he hadn't killed any innocent person in the five years in which he hadn't seen him, and his negative karma was the proof of it.
Just as the last of his words entered the ears of the older brother, the metallic spike was sent flying at a speed impossible to see with the naked eye. Not even the Golden Cauldron old man was able to see the projectile, despite being the most powerful being in the area after Daniel and Der.
*Ptuh* "AAAAAARGH"
Before the oldest of the siblings could even retort to Daniel's words, his younger brother had already fallen on the ground.. The needle which he had thrown towards him, had perforated his leg, and turned into a hook halfway into his flesh, while the other hand, had gone through the ground.
"Your brother's death will be as painful as he deserves.." Added Daniel.
His meaning was extremely clear to the oldest of the three siblings.. The death of his brother couldn't be stopped no matter what.. The only thing he could hope for, was that he hadn't gone overboard with the prisoners, and had managed to put a stop to his malicious nature.
-----
Der was walking in the many corridors of which the castle was composed. He had tried to use his immortal essence to feel the presence of his daughter and his master, but he could only feel hundreds of indistinguishable people. If the children of his old evemy hadn't lied, then, the two were amongst the many trapped people.
The reason why he could not feel their power, was likely because they had been chained with power suppressing chains, causing them to be constantly drained of their spiritual essence, or ki.
"WHERE!?!" Shouted Der once again, causing the citizens of the entire city to drop on their knees from the sheer power of his voice.
Daniel, who could feel the deep anger in Der's voice, sent a wisp of sound essence into the ear of the woman, saying "You better answer.."
Caught by surprise, the girl looked left, right, and behind her, in search of the source of the voice, but unable to find it, she said with a fearful tone "The lowest floor.. The torture room.."
After hearing her voice, Der's immortal essence moved out of his body, and seeped into the massive rocks of which the floor was composed, then, it directly pried the floor open. Once he finished creating a more 'direct' passage, he jumped into one hole after the other, until finally, he fell into a corridor in the last floor.
This corridor was dark, and dimly lit. The only two sources of light, were two semi-consumed torches, which threatened to turn off at any minute. At the sides of this corridor, only two doors could be seen.. and they both led to the massively large torture room.
Der did not wait for a second longer, before he walked directly through the thick wooden door as if it was made of paper.. But then, what he saw next, shocked him into a frozen state.
The massive room was filled with torture devices.
A brazen bull with a person's hands hanging out of its semi-closed entrance, racks on which skeletons and fresh bodies lied with dislocated limbs, and even iron maidens which stood above pools of dried blood.
But for as shocking as this scenery was, nothing could compare to what he was looking at.
On one of the racks, lied an old man who he could immediately recognize as his old master. His right arm and left leg were chained, and pulled to a point where they had dislocated from their joints. The other two limbs had been sawed off, and the wounds had been cauterized in order to prevent him from bleeding to death.
In another area of the torture room, was a big table. Tied on this big table, was a girl in her early twenties. She was completely naked, with burn injuries all over her back, as well as big drops of blood which were dripping from in between her thighs, and down her legs.
This girl, was Der's beloved Daughter Mea.
With a speed that could only be considered instantaneous, Der removed the chains which restricted both his daughter and his master, then, while holding his unconscious daughter, he felt a stabbing pain in his heart.. Hate, fear, panic and sadness were emerging all at the same time, which he released by shouting "DAN!!!"
Daniel instantly appeared next to him, and without waiting for him to say anything, he placed one of his hands on Mea's back, and injected an infinite amount of powerful healing essence into her body.
The burn injuries on her back quickly recovered, along with any other injury which she had sustained during her torture.
Right after he finished healing Mea, Daniel turned to look at the sorry state of the once distinct master-at-arms. He was still awake, but he couldn't speak.
"This will hurt.. But it will end soon.. I promise." Daniel said to him with an apologetic tone. He then formed two blades out of metallic essence, and cut the cauterized part of his teacher's stumps. If he tried to heal him then, his missing arm and leg would simply cicatrise, but he wanted them to regrow completely.
After cutting the burnt part, he injected large amounts of powerful healing essence, which came out of his bloody stumps like some sort of dense milk, which quickly took the shape of bone, muscles, veins, and skin. At the same time, his other arm and leg popped back in a couple of deaf cracking sounds.
He then turned to look at Der in order to reassure him of the fact that they were both fine, but he had already disappeared. Mea was lying on the ground unconscious, covered by her father's large coat.
-----
Der emerged from the massive door of the castle. His eyes were blinded by an indescribable fury, and moved left and right in a random motion.. Only stopping after they landed on the youngest of the three siblings.
One step after the other, he approached him with the demeanor of a ferocious best.. And after he reached him.. He grabbed his jaw, and broke it open. He then produced an healing pill from his spatial ring, and shoved it into his mouth.
With the assurance that he would not die right away.. He grabbed his left arm, and pulled it with enough power for his flesh to rip apart.. Then another, and another.. And another..