“What happened to the other one?”
Varek slowly turned his gaze toward Malakai, who stood there with a cold, piercing stare.
The boy couldn’t even stand properly, leaning all his weight on his scythe. His body was a mess, blood smeared across every inch of him, clothes torn, and breathing ragged.
Yet, as Varek met his placid eyes, a realization hit him. A Bloom, no, not just any Bloom, but the Red Eclipse, was kneeling in front of this boy.
Which simply meant, the boy currently held all the power.
Varek couldn’t help but gulp.
He tried to bow, to show respect, but his body wouldn’t budge, no matter how much he tried. Despite still kneeling and not even sparing him a glance, Nyx’s aura on him was absolute, paralyzing.
Then, in the next second, that suffocating pressure loosened. His head dropped instantly in a deep bow.
“N-Ninth Vein. I’m glad to see you’re aliv—”
“Answer my question,” Malakai cut in sharply.
The old Varek would’ve been furious, being interrupted like this, especially by someone he once saw as trash, would’ve ignited his temper. But that was the old him.
Now, he kept his head lowered, expression unchanging, demeanor respectful.
The one he once considered trash now had a Bloom kneeling at his feet. Varek wasn’t tired of living.
Quickly, Varek answered Malakai’s question. “The target got away, Ninth Vein.”
“You let him escape?” Malakai’s voice was calm, but the weight behind it wasn’t.
“No!” Varek’s head snapped up, but he instantly regretted it. That overwhelming aura came crashing down again…
“Hrgg—!”
His head jerked down, his figure staggering slightly under the pressure.
‘That bitch!’ Varek gritted his teeth, but made sure not to let anything slip through his face. Nyx’s aura had pressed him back down the moment he tried to rise.
“N-No, Ninth Vein… I had to rush over the moment I got the chance,” Varek said, his voice trembling slightly. “Securing your life was more important than capturing him.”
Malakai watched Varek lower his bow.
He knew exactly what Varek had done, using the importance of a Vein to cover for letting the enemy go.
The clan would question him when they returned. Varek was already calculating how to dodge punishment. Malakai knew the man didn’t care about him.
‘Looks like he thinks now,’ Malakai noted.
He’d always seen Varek as someone with a short fuse, impulsive, reckless. The kind who switched off their brain once anger took hold. But now… he was seeing another side.
“Did you know about the ambush beforehand?” Malakai asked suddenly.
Varek’s eyes shot wide, and intense shock surged through his veins like fire.
‘What the hell…?’
If not for the aura pressing him down, his face would’ve been painted in disbelief.
“W-What do you mean, Ninth Vein?” he stammered, completely caught off guard.
Malakai’s tone remained calm. “The people who attacked us, were you colluding with them?”
Varek’s heart froze. A cold chill wrapped around him like a noose.
‘Is he trying to frame me?’
He hoped to the high heavens Malakai wasn’t doing what he thought.
A Bloom knelt at his feet. They were deep in the wild, in the middle of nowhere. He could kill him now and simply say he died in battle. No one would question the word of a direct descendant, especially not now that he had evolved.
Varek’s body began to shake. His lips quivered.
“N-No, Ninth Vein…”
Malakai didn’t respond. He simply turned toward Nyx.
Seeing this, Nyx gave a small nod.
‘Looks like he’s telling the truth,’ Malakai thought.
Malakai had hoped to use this opportunity to gather information. He had never once trusted Varek, especially knowing how much the man hated him.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think he was working with Khana, the one who wanted him dead.
And if that was the case, this forest, isolated, quiet, and far from any eyes, would’ve been the perfect place to break him and drag out the truth about Khana.
But… his suspicions had been wrong.
When one’s mastery over blood reached a certain threshold, something like truth detection became possible.
By observing the minute fluctuations in blood flow, heart rate, and pressure, someone like Nyx could easily tell a lie from the truth.
Blood didn’t lie. And under her control, it couldn’t hide either.
Noting this, Malakai turned his gaze toward Delmas.
‘I’ll just have to make do with this one.’
His eyes turned cold.
Delmas, who was bloodied and beaten, caught the shift in Malakai’s gaze. His expression darkened. His body began to tremble as a wave of dread crashed down on him.
He knew what was about to happen.
But Malakai didn’t give him a second to think.
“Make him talk,” he said.
“By your order,” Nyx replied from her kneeling position.
She rose. And with her movement, Delmas’s trembling worsened.
In the next second, her palm rested on his forehead once more and then…
Pain.
“HHHRGGGGGAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
Delmas screamed at the top of his lungs, his cries echoing through the desolate forest.
The pain he felt couldn’t be explained. It radiated from every inch of his body.
What Nyx was doing could only be described as cruel.
Using her mastery over blood, she surged it through his veins at inhuman speeds, creating friction between blood cells and vessels, friction that generated heat.
In simple terms, she was boiling his blood.
“ARRRRRGHHH!”
Delmas’s screams intensified as the heat climbed higher and higher.
It felt like every single vein in his body had turned into molten fire.
Wisps of smoke started rising from parts of his skin.
In the middle of his agony, Delmas turned his bloodied eyes toward Malakai and Nyx, only to see them looking at him calmly, unmoving, unfazed.
Those crimson gazes… they looked like death incarnate.
“Hrrrrrg—!”
The heat spiked. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.
Yet, there was no sign of it ending.
Delmas was a Blood Champion, his body’s vitality was monstrous.
As he burned, he healed. And that only added to his torment.
But the pain wasn’t what shook him the most.
He had been trained to endure torture. The Maugrim had drilled it into him, pain resistance, mind control, psychological warfare. He wasn’t new to this.
What broke him was something else.
They weren’t even asking questions.