“Ha ha! You’re feisty too. Good. I’ll deal with you later. Right now I have business with you, newbie witch.”
“M-Me?!” Sarah’s whole body trembled in fear.
“You heard of Victor Odim?”
She gasped, her face going rigid. It seemed like that was the last name she wanted to hear. She managed to stutter, “H-How do you...?”
“We know him real well,” Gaine replied. “We lost a lotta men and money to that jerk’s research. Torturing and killing you will at least make us even.”
“Y-You...? B-But his research—”
“His research is a bunch of crap!” Gaine was smiling as he spoke, but his words dripped with fury. “I’m gonna make you understand what we went through. He thinks that just because it’s magic, he can say whatever he wants—that we won’t get it! That jerk lied to us! There’s no such thing as eternal life!”
Sarah looked terrified of him. Shannon, on the other hand, was unbothered. In fact, she trembled with delight at the possibility that this Victor Odim guy was just whom she was looking for. They said he was researching eternal life—immortality!
No matter the era, people always wanted everlasting youth. In thousands of years, the only real example of it that Shannon had ever seen was her own body. Everything beyond that was a sham. In all likelihood, Victor wouldn’t have the answers she needed, but she had to at least meet him.
“Even if...you say that...” Sarah panted loudly, on the verge of tears as she struggled against the man’s grip. He only tightened his arms around her further. She couldn’t escape. “Ugh!”
“That guy has the money and power to do what he wants whenever he wants, so it’s hard for people like us to get back at him. It was frustrating. But then I had such an amazing idea.” Gaine tapped his temple. “I’d grab up the mage working for him and make her feel a world of hurt!”
The men around them offered cries of “that’s right” and “you tell ’em, boss!”
“Heh, cut it out,” Gaine said. He rubbed under his nose, looking full of himself.
“You’re lame,” Shannon cut in.
All of the grunts turned toward her. One of the lackeys yelled, “H-Hey, you! How dare you say that about our boss!”
“Just look at your so-called boss. He can’t even speak from the shock!” Indeed, Gaine was dumbfounded, opening and closing his mouth wordlessly. “Looks like I hit a nerve!”
“Y-You stop that!” another grunt blabbered. “He’s sensitive about that sorta stuff!”
“You idiot!” barked his comrade. “You think anyone’ll take us seriously if you say things like that?! Besides, our boss doesn’t think like that! Right?!”
“Oh cr—” the blabbermouth began, but then a cacophonous thunk echoed through the air. He collapsed to the ground with his limbs splayed.
For a moment, no one spoke.
“So...” Gaine cracked his knuckles, and his eyes glittered darkly as he pretended that mortifying exchange hadn’t just taken place. “Which one of ya said I was lame?”
But Shannon was not the type to back down from a threat. “You are lame. You can’t stand up to Sarah’s boss, so you went the coward’s route and came after her. You’re just taking out your anger on an innocent person!”
“Shut up,” Gaine growled. “My idea is genius! If we beat the girl to a pulp and bring her to Victor Odim’s house, even he’ll understand that he should be terrified of us. Then we’ll drag him out. He won’t be able to beat me.”
“That’s right!” yelled one of the grunts. The other lackeys joined in with roars of admiration. Gaine was an idiot, but he did, at least, seem to be competent as their leader. They were all united in loyalty to him.
“Sorry to tell you this,” Gaine went on, producing an enormous knife from within his clothes, “but I’ll be cutting you up now.”
The knife had been designed with torture in mind. It was stained with blood, and rust too. It wouldn’t kill someone easily, but it would make their pain that much more agonizing. Sarah went pale at the sight of it. It seemed she had lost the willpower to even scream.
“And I assume you’ll torture me as well?” Shannon asked.
“Obviously. You dared to insult me, so you’ll be joining her.”
Shannon slapped her hands over her mouth.
“Ha ha, you shoulda been scared earlier. It’s too late now. Your foolishness is about to bring you a world of...” He paused. “Hey, are you laughing?”
It had been a while since Shannon had been tortured. There were plenty of ways that torture could kill someone, and this Gaine guy probably didn’t mind taking people out. Unlike Sarah, Shannon was going to get tortured as revenge for deliberately making him angry, so it was possible he’d agonize her to the very limit before offing her. Maybe torture would be the way she’d finally go!
True, torture was not as cruel as some of her previous deaths, but she hoped that the evil intent behind it would help her transcend her immortality. In fact, Shannon didn’t know how much pain and death her body could withstand. Even if the chances were low, she couldn’t suppress her curiosity about the possibility of dying by way of torture.
As soon as that thought flashed through her head, Shannon smiled. “Go ahead and torture me. I can take it.”
Gaine paused for a moment. “You’re crazy. What are you laughing about? Did fear make you lose your marbles?”
“Hmm? This is how I always am,” Shannon replied, puzzled.
The men could sense that there was something off about her. A healthy dose of apprehensiveness sprung up among them.
Sarah finally found her voice again. “W-Wait, Shannon! Don’t do that just for my sake. I just met you, another mage—I don’t want to lose you! You’re my friend!”
“Sarah...”
Shannon had to admit that the idea of getting tortured was tempting. If she got hurt, however, Sarah would too. Involving this weak, greenhorn mage in the kind of torture that might get Shannon killed was something she wouldn’t stand for. And Sarah’s words were true: She was Shannon’s first mage friend in a long time.
She wasn’t going to drag this girl down into death with her. Most people only lived one life, after all, and Shannon valued justice; she wouldn’t get such a terrified girl mixed up in her affairs.
“I changed my mind!” Shannon declared.
“Huh?” Gaine boggled.
“No torture for me! Things are different now.”
“Oh, so now you’re getting cold feet?”
“Nope, that’s not it. Don’t you think it’s wrong to use a cute girl like Sarah for your revenge?” She folded her arms, nodding righteously. “I guess I’ll just have to eliminate you guys!”
Gaine burst into laughter. “Whoa, whoa, you really are crazy, girl! Thinking you could beat all of us?!”
“That’s funny! Outrageous, even!” someone roared. The other goons erupted in laughter.
Shannon might not have had the home field advantage, but she wore a calm smile as she looked at Gaine. It gave him pause.
“I don’t like that look you got,” Gaine said. “That cocky attitude either. You think you’re the center of the whole world, don’t you?”
“That’s not my belief, no.”
“No? But you don’t seem scared, grand mage that you are,” Gaine said sarcastically. “Your head must be empty! Ain’t that right, Sullivan?”
A bespectacled man with swept-back hair stepped forward. “Indubitably,” he said in a polite tone.
“You have a go at her. Start with one of her arms, then take your time toying with her.”
“Understood,” Sullivan replied, quietly drawing a sword from his belt.
“Sullivan here has a top-class sword arm,” Gaine boasted. “Think he can take on a mage who ain’t even had more than a few years of training?”
Sullivan adjusted his glasses, then slowly turned his sword on Shannon. “I must admit, I don’t like killing women and girls.”
“Well, you aren’t going to prove a point like that when you’re shoving a sword in my face,” Shannon replied.
“I don’t like it, but when I’m ordered to kill, I won’t hesitate to do so. Personal hang-ups have no place in my work.”
“Show her what you can do, Sullivan!” Gaine urged him. “Teach her what the world’s really like, who she’s really up against!”
“Sh-Shannon!” Sarah screamed. Tears streamed down her face, and every bit of her radiated despair.
Gaine laughed. “Cry, you witches! Today’s the day you d—”