Chapter 493: Conviction Succumbs to Hope (3)

Crack, crack!

Eilles twisted and turned madly. The chains made of flames around him were pulled taut. He screamed and roared in resentment.

"A-AAAAAAAAHHH!!"

Eilles drew out what little remained of his power of frost. His entire body was screaming at him in pain but he paid it no mind; pain was nothing before immense resentment.

"I WILL KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!"

Crack, crunch.

Eilles reached for the demon, smiling brightly, in front of him but the chains of flames pulled him back. He clenched his fist; frost energy gathered around it and grew claws exuding freezing air. He thrust the claws at the demon's neck.

Crack—!!

"Kurgh! Gaaaaahhh!!"

However, the claws stopped in their tracks along with the sound of bone breaking. Eilles had extended his arm until the claws were away from the demon's neck by a hair's breadth, but it would not go further no matter how hard he tried.

"You sure are fired up," the demon said as he looked down at Eilles with an entertained smile.

Rage surged from Eilles again. His head was getting burning hot and he was tearing up.

"Haaa, haaa," he panted heavily. The tears that were welled in his eyes trickled down his cheeks. "Hurgh, urghhhh. Arianne... Arianne..."

Eilles would be lying if he said he didn't expect this to happen. The first thing he thought about the moment he was captured by the demon named Oh Kang-Woo was Arianne. He had been relieved even as he was getting tortured because his pain only gave his daughter more time to escape. However...

"Hurghhh. Ari...anne." Eilles's tears wet the floor of the destroyed temple. "Oh... Kang-Woo."

He looked up and glared at the smiling demon. His captor was not a hero or a saint; he did not blabber endlessly about ethics and morals. Hence, the demon likely knew that the best way to make Eilles talk was not physical pain but to use Arianne.

"Well, then." The demon lightly kicked away the piece of ice on the floor toward Eilles. "Are you up for talking now?"

"Shut up!" shouted Eilles in rage.

His blue eyes shone with bloodlust as he stared daggers at Kang-Woo, but only for a moment. His glare soon lost its strength and was replaced with tears.

"Please..." Eilles lowered his head and wept as he begged, "Please... anything but my daughter."

"Hahahaha!!" Kang-Woo burst into laughter with his stomach clenched. "Man, what a tearjerker. Wouldn't you agree?

"I would never expect you to be a being who's trying to eradicate humanity if I didn't know any better."

Kang-Woo looked down at Eilles as he giggled. Eilles, who was crying for his daughter, did not look like a villain in any way.

"But why don't we try reversing our roles?" Kang-Woo suggested.

"Let's say you captured a human with valuable information. But damn, the son of a bitch won't talk no matter what you do. Just as you're getting stressed out of your mind, you happen to find out that the human cares deeply for their child. With all that information, what would you have done?"

Kang-Woo patted the silent Eilles's shoulder.

"Don't be frustrated. Don't be sad. Don't act like you're the victim. It's just that I can do what you would have done as well. That's all there is to it."

"BASTAAAAAAAARD!"

Eilles twisted and charged at Kang-Woo again.

Fwoosh, fwoosh!

The chains of flames were pulled taut to restrain him again.

"Oh, and of course." Kang-Woo grabbed the struggling Eilles's head, brought his head close to Eilles's ear, and whispered, "I'm better at it."

Kang-Woo cackled as his shoulders moved up and down.

"Now, then."

He extended his arm toward the chains of flames, which were slowly losing their strength, and used the Authority of Sealing again.

Fwoosh!

The flames which had been slowly getting weaker the more Eilles thrashed around burned brightly again. Kang-Woo turned away from Eilles after recharging the Authority of Sealing.

"One a day."

"What?"

Eilles stared at Kang-Woo with trembling eyes. The demon pointed at the severed piece of ice.

"It'll grow by one each day."

Eilles's eyes widened. He looked in despair at Kang-Woo. "Wh-What do you mean?!"

"Come on, you know exactly what I mean, don't you?"

"You son of a...! Y-You scumbag!"

Cutting off one finger each day... not even Eilles had expected such an atrocious act.

He shouted at Kang-Woo who was about to turn his back to him and leave, "S-Stop! N-No, please stop!!"

Fwoosh, fwoosh!

He desperately reached out for Kang-Woo but the chains of flames wrapped around his arm.

"A-Aaaahh," Eilles groaned in despair. "ARIAAAAAAAANNE!!"

He roared like a beast as tears flowed down his cheeks.

***

The number of familiar pieces of ice each day. Eilles's despair grew with each passing day. His mind broke little by little and he was becoming insane as the days passed.

"Arghhh..." Eilles groaned as he looked down at the pieces of ice on the floor.

Humans might see these pieces of ice and think they were gems made of ice, but to Eilles, they could not be any more hideous.

"Hurgh. Hurghhhh. A-Arianne..."

Eilles lowered his head and touched the piece of ice with his nose. There were four pieces of ice on the floor. Frostborn did not have flesh made of skin and blood like humans but they were not free from the fear of dismemberment. In terms of regenerative capabilities, the Frostborn were no different from humans.

"I'm... I'm so sorry."

In other words, his daughter would no longer be able to use a sword.

"Hurgh."

Eilles thought about his daughter smiling as she danced with her sword. She had been like a beautiful fairy befitting her title of Sword Princess. Heart-wrenching agony attacked Eilles, far worse than his skin being torn, his flesh being gouged, and his bones being broken.

"Why don't you start talking now?" the demon whispered.

Rage no longer surged from Eilles. The only emotion left to him was his immense sense of powerlessness and despair weighing on his shoulders.

'I...'

His world was falling apart— no, it might already have. The loss of everything he had was inevitable the moment he had lost to the demon. Eilles closed his eyes. He could feel his conviction, which he believed would not succumb to anything, wavering. It was slowly being broken down.

Eilles opened his eyes.

'If I tell him...'

Arianne's life might be spared.

"What will... What will happen to my daughter?" he asked.

"She will live as long as you tell me what I want to know. That includes you, of course," said the demon in his sweet whispers. "I love to lie, but I always keep my word at the very least."

Eilles knew that the demon's sweet whispers were complete bullshit.

However, the demon's lies were too sweet to resist; Eilles felt as if the demon's lies were numbing his brain.

"Here, can't you see Arianne is also begging?"

The demon placed a transparent crystal orb on the floor in front of Eilles.

- F-Father...

A familiar voice flowed out from the orb.

"A-Arianne!!"

Eilles rushed toward the crystal orb but the chains of flames restrained him.

"A-Aaaahh." Eilles thrashed about as he burst into tears. "Ari...anne. Arianne..."

- It hurts... so much... Father...

She sounded as if she were on the verge of death. The immense despair weighing on Eilles was crushing him.

"I'm running out of time to spare now. Hurry up and talk," said the demon in slight impatience.

"I..." Eilles lowered his head within the endless swamp known as despair. He continued, "I..."

He raised his head, a small light glinting in his eyes as dead as that of a corpse.

"I... will not talk."

"What?" The demon's eyes shook. He continued in irritation, "The fuck? Are you crazy? Huh? You still won't talk even after your daughter is in this state?"

The demon grabbed Eilles by the collar. "Talk."

"..."

"Tell me everything you know about Bael!!"

The demon glared at Eilles in madness.

Eilles ignored the demon's shouts and looked down at the transparent crystal in sorrow. "I'm sorry..."

He thought about his daughter, who was likely suffering from intense agony across that crystal.

"My daughter... My Arianne." Tears flowed down Eilles's cheeks. He wept as he lowered his head. "Please forgive... this horrible father of yours."

"Shit!"

Bash!

The demon punched Eilles in the face and stomped his foot as if he did not expect this turn of events.

"I didn't think he'd be so tenacious..." muttered the demon as he pulled on his hair. "... Should I give up?"

The demon sighed.

"I should consult with Lilith first."

The demon turned around, off in his thoughts.

Step, step.

The demon disappeared, leaving Eilles alone on the floor of the giant temple.

"Arianne..." mumbled Eilles as he wept, his voice echoing throughout the destroyed temple.

Time passed and darkness filled the temple. Eilles was on the floor, his eyes devoid of light.

Fwoosh.

Just then, the chains of flames restraining him shook. Eilles's eyes shone.

'Come to think of it.'

The demon came to see Eilles every day to add more strength to the weakened chains of flames.

'But he just left today.'

Eilles's eyes glinted with blue flames known as hope.