The Crimson Magister

None of them knew why Golden Fang had decided that their carriage was to stop at the side of the road just before reaching the main connecting path, they were ordered that they are to not remove cloth from the carriage under any circumstance and escape in case of attack.

Most of the escorting Thorns were confused as to why they had to go deeper inside the forest instead of going by Eastern Road towards Red Dawn, but it was not their place to question their leader.

After all, he led them for years, and not once have they run into issues while following his commands.

Most of them took their time relaxing and chatting with each other, but it was not something thorn Ivar indulged in.

After all, if none of them had their guard up, they would most certainly be found and killed by the blessed child before escaping.

He made sure to patrol the site as much as he could before returning to the carriage and leaning against it.

It was ordered to stay here until the dawn of the next day, Ivor could assume only one thing, they served as a diversion.

Golden Fang has likely taken the eastern route towards Red Dawn while leaving them to serve as a distraction.

'That would explain why he was adamant about us escaping in case of an attack…' Ivor thought as he closed his eyes.

The task was pretty simple, stay put until dawn, and then go back to the camp to wait further instructions from Golden Fang himself.

All seemed to go well, his patrols led to no discoveries, and he finally felt that he could relax.

But it was not to last, he saw a glint of silver flash and in the next moment screams of his fellow thorns could be heard.

He knew what this meant 'Shit, Blessed child found us' he thought, but it did not matter, he collected himself as he rushed back to help his fellow thorns, but most of them were already dead, and surviving ones were not surviving for long.

What he saw was insanity, a berserker, an elven berserker, with acidic green eyes slashing and melting his comrades.

He had to warn others, but it was no use in a moment the berserker's gaze was on him, and with the speed of lightning she slashed at him making Ivor fall to the ground but he was not dead.

He opened his eyes to see the mad berserker slash at him, but he was still alive.

Her sword was stopped by some kind of fiery barrier, he wanted to thank the divine, but on the other hand, he was still terrified.

The woman in front of him kept slashing at him but fortunately the barrier held firm.

For the first time since his first training session with Golden Fang himself he felt helpless.

This barrier was the only thing that was keeping him alive at the current moment.

While the woman was seemingly getting exhausted Ivor tried reaching out of the barrier and possibly running into the forest, he needed everyone at the camp before it was too late.

And yet same way the barrier was keeping the mad berserker out, it was also keeping him in, he had no way of escaping.

He almost gave up his will to live before the berserker got pulled to the ground by what he could make out to be a young elven girl.

'Another blessed child… why are there two of them here!' he felt it in his bones, one who cast the barrier was this elf, and he knew why he was kept alive, he was about to get tortured and interrogated.

'I will not allow them to break me, That berserker woman might have been scary but it will take more than that to get me to spill the information' he smirked in his mind.

He saw the two of them exchange a couple of words before thinking to himself 'When I think about it both are elves, and they are notoriously bad at torture'

He whispered words of resolve to himself "Golden Fang, I will not break!"

He saw the red-haired girl slowly approach him before crouching in front of him, he instinctively looked between her legs but she seemed to have covered herself.

'Shame, to deny me a view of woman's treasure is truly cruel' he shook his head inside his mind.

She dispelled her barrier before approaching him slowly, her face getting closer to his.

He still had strength left, he could have tried fighting his way out, but he knew it would be for nothing.

He sensed something wrong with this girl as she stared at him with her gorgeous blue eyes.

As she stared at him he wished that he would have bought himself an elf, but it was for nothing, she removed his hood before smiling.

"Now you would like to answer some of our questions, wouldn't you" the elven girl smiled warmly at him while asking him.

'What kind of interrogation method is this, Golden Fang prepared me for much worse you bitch!' he almost laughed at the girl in front of him as she asked this question.

'It seems the rumours about elves being horrible interrogators are true, these women might be powerful but they know nothing about this, they lack the finesse and skill!'

He remembered the drills Golden Fang used to do with each of his members, so many methods were drilled in his head and in the heads of his fellow thorns that there was nobody in this world that could get the information out of their heads.

Golden Fang was truly committed to creating perfect fighting machines, and he succeeded, no other band could compare to them, even the weakest of thorns could easily fight many enemies with little to no issue.

The girl turned her head for a moment, likely to check on her partner, but how wrong he was, as she gazed back at him it was no longer the warm gaze of beauty, but cold cruelty alone in the eyes.

These were not the eyes of the elf before now, these were the eyes of a monster.

Ivor instinctively tried to flee and yet his legs froze.

The woman gave him a bit of time to collect before speaking "I do not know why your kind keeps on hunting my kinsmen, and you are unlikely to know, but I see what a disgusting soul you have."

She shook her head as she caressed his face, her touch almost burning his skin. "You do not need to tell me anything, after all, extracting memory is a simple task"

Ivor's eyes widened in shock, no one could do that, and yet she spoke with such conviction.

He did not get a chance to think before she placed her hands on his head, her eyes glowing with pale blue light and her fingers enveloped by a black flame dug into Ivor's skull as his mind unraveled itself to the whims of the woman in front of him.

That was the last thought that Ivor had before he was truly gone.

His thoughts were no longer his, he relived all of his past once again, from birth to his abandonment by his family and finally to the adoption by the golden rose and training under Golden Fang, and finally the current mission.

Ivor's body spasmed as the red-haired woman in front of him stole all of his memories, as she finally let go of his head he was truly gone, his brain fried by the black fire.

His mind was scrambled, Ivor was no more, his body but an empty husk, all of his training led him to nothing, as he never got a chance to use it.

Aqua smiled cruelly before whispering to herself "We can't have Azure seeing this now…" as she looked at the empty shell in front of her.

She placed her hand on the braindead Ivor, which was his name as she learned from his memory.

Her hand glowed for a moment before Ivor's body erupted in flames before being reduced to ashes in a moment.

'You may have thought me a monster, but nothing I could do could compare to the cruelty inflicted on my kin' She shook her head before standing up and returning to Azure as she wore her usual smile.