"This is?!" Selina blurted out.

"A devil worshipping symbol. I… I was one of them."

Marlon pointed to the dead hooded men on the floor. "They are the Red Keepers. A demon worshipping cult. I joined them in my youth but left years ago."

"They came after you because of the finger?" Crow asked.

Marlon nodded his head. "Our cult said it's a body part of a demon and they use it to raise evil spirits."

"Why don't you want us to call the Sheriff?" Crow squinted his eyes.

"Because they will find out I was a Red Keeper. They will lock me away for years. Our government is not kind to evil cultists.

I… I made a mistake in my past but I left that cult long ago. I just want to live in peace."

Aurora and Crow turned to Mater, waiting for his decision.

The black cat waved its hand dismissively. "Just get all the information out of him and we can let him go. I don't really care. Remember to ask him about those Fake Hunters."

Aurora and Crow nodded.

Crow interrogated the Colonel for a little bit more before letting him go. Marlon quickly packed everything up and ran out of the house. No one knew where he would be going.

Crow then summarized what he had learned from Marlon.

He was in the military in the past and met these cultists on one of his missions. They promised him power in exchange for his access to military intelligence.

Everything went on quite well for a while. But Marlon was able to learn the truth of these Red Keepers and decided to leave them.

The exit was eventful but he was able to resign from the military and stayed hidden from the Red Keepers.

On his way out, he snatched the wooden finger with him.

Crow also asked Marlon about the Fake Hunters. According to him, they were a group of kids around their early twenties. They somehow were able to get their hands on a bunch of Ankh Badges and learned their true meaning. That group had been using those Badges to go around and scam people.

Marlon obviously wasn't fooled by them and was the one who notified Sheriff Carter about this.

"The Fake Hunters didn't seem that much of a problem. We just need to find them and retrieve the stolen badges. Those Red Keepers, however, might become a big issue." Mater stroked his whiskers.

"Let's interrogate those survivors as well before we call the Sheriff."

"Yes, Master."

Crow and Aurora dragged the survivors to the basement. They found ropes inside the Colonel's house so they were able to properly tie them in the chairs instead of using curtains.

Aurora pulled Selina away and kept her on the ground floor.

"What? I want to see it too!" Selina said.

"You don't want to see this. Trust me." Aurora said.

Crow closed the basement door and kept only a single light on. Mater was also present, walking around the two survivors and watching Crow do his thing.

Crow slapped the two survivors, waking them up.

"Wake up! Wake up!"

The survivors mumbled but didn't gain consciousness. Crow grabbed a bucket of ice water and poured it over the two hooded men.

The ice woke them up instantly. The two of them shivered and gasped.

"Finally waking up, huh?"

Crow summoned the Nether Spear and pointed at the survivors.

"Tell me what I need to know and I will let you die without pain." Crow said.

One of the hooded men spat at Crow's face while the other tried to use magic to conjure a fire sphere.

Crow wiped his face then kicked the one who spat him down to the ground. The chair fell backwards.

Then he approached the other one and stuffed a dirty cloth into his mouth. His mumbling mouth was unable to conjure magic further.

"If it's pain you decide, then shall be it." Crow said.

He grabbed the hair of the falling men and dragged him on the ground. Crow and him entered a different room of the basement, separating from the other survivor.

From this room, all the survivor could hear was the scream of pain from his friend. Endless screams. Scream that made the listener's heart quenched every time.

It went on for half an hour before the scream ended. Crow returned to the room, his dark clothes were all bloody.

He squatted down at the remaining survivor.

"If you try to cast your spell, I'll cut your ear off. Understand?" Crow said slowly.

The survivor nodded repeatedly. Crow pulled the cloth out of his mouth.

"Your friend over there has told me a lot. Now you're going to tell me as well. If there's anything different from what he said, it will be your turn. Understand?"

The survivor nodded like a chicken.

His mind was broken and he told Crow everything he knew.

He was simply a low level cultist inside the Red Keepers. Their mission was to retrieve the stolen finger from Marlon.

There were a total of twenty of them. Other teams had other missions. They had a leader, which was called a Crimson Hood. His hood had black lines on it. He was a level higher in the cult than the foot soldiers, which were called Red Hood.

The survivor also told Crow about their gathering place and every other related information.

"Very good. You can rest now."

Crow grabbed the hooded man's head and spun it backwards. His face was now behind his back.

Mater nodded. "Your interrogation skill is impressive, Crow. Splitting them up and breaking them one by one."

"It's one of the few tricks I learned from Aaron."

"Bring all of the cultists to the basement for me."

"Yes, Master."

Crow left the basement to carry the other bodies down. Aurora was still keeping Selina company and preventing her from going down.

Crow placed the bodies side by side.

Mater cracked his small cat neck and looked down upon the corpses. Warlock could take Chaos from anything, not just wraiths. These low level mages were weak, but they did have Chaos inside them.

"It is time for me to feast."

Mater opened his mouth wide. He drained all the magic from the corpses and transformed it into pure Chaos.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.