Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"I am a busy person, so you would do better in cooperating, you know," Rain said. "I didn't have many chances to relax with training thanks to you guys, so I have built up some stress lately. You don't want to be the target of my stress… this is so annoying that I am talking more than usual and saying nonsense as well."

Rain sighed. He wasn't being himself, and he knew that it couldn't be helped thanks to the situation, but it was annoying nonetheless. Doing every single thing to avoid future problems and walking in a fine line to consider the future of those he cared about every single moment while he was awake was exhausting.

Regardless, Rain healed the prisoner to make him talk, but he was pretending to be dizzy in order to buy some time and think things through. Or maybe he was expecting some allies or something…

Rain sighed… pain was something that those guys were willing to endure for their goal. Joanis probably trained them well enough to make them resist all kinds of torture.

In the end, Rain brought the guy to the beach nearby and then threw him into the ocean. The level of the sea was rising at night, and thanks to the weights of the handcuffs, the prisoner began to sink as well.

The prisoner tried to keep calm at first, but drowning wasn't something that he was prepared to deal with. He was trained to endure physical torture, not the psychological one.

"Fuck you! Fuck you!" The prisoner shouted. "I am going to die. I am going to at least make you even more pissed!

"Where is your calm now, mate?" Rain asked while frowning.

"You will lose this, bastard!" The prisoner shouted again. "Lord Joanis will make sure that you will lose everything when he beheads you. Mark my words!"

"I will tremble in anticipation," Rain said.

Before long, the prisoner began to sink into the ocean, and his head submerged as well. Rain saw him panicking, but he just kept watching until he stopped struggling. Eventually, Rain made him leave the ocean since he could control the handcuffs from a distance.

The prisoner was semi-unconscious and showing the white of his eyes with his mouth hanging open. In the end, Rain just turned him upside down and made him shake and then cough some of the water that he had drunk. The prisoner began to groan in agony, but soon Rain threw him to sink into the ocean again.

Rain understood the pressing need to extract as much information as possible from the prisoner before him. The situation had grown increasingly troublesome, and operating in ignorance was simply not an option. The stakes were high, not just for him but for the safety and well-being of his allies.

Proceeding without a clear grasp of the enemy's motives, capabilities, and plans would be a recipe for disaster. Rain was aware that obtaining information from the prisoner might come at a cost. Some details might be distorted or even false. Nevertheless, he recognized that any source of truth, no matter how small, could be invaluable in assembling the larger puzzle.

He had to coax the prisoner into revealing as much as possible, even if it meant sifting through layers of deception and partial truths.

In any case, after enduring that three more times and after Rain made the prisoner drink seawater through his nose, the prisoner looked like he was willing to talk with.

"Ugghhh… Lord Joanis is making them move from one side to the other… in order to not let you find them," the prisoner replied. "We all have special abilities, and that is why we serve him… some of us can alter light around us, and that makes us good for infiltration work and to hide things from others."

The prisoner's demeanor had undergone a profound transformation. Once characterized by defiance and resolve, he now exhibited the unmistakable signs of a spirit that had been utterly crushed.

His eyes, which had once burned with determination, had lost their sparkle. The sharp angles of his face, once defined by tension and anxiety, had softened into a wearied countenance. It was as though his very essence had been drained, leaving behind a mere husk of his former self.

Every word extracted from him had contributed to this devastating transformation, reducing a once-proud individual to a broken man. Rain's unyielding pursuit of information had pushed the prisoner to the brink, revealing the profound impact of unwavering determination and the depths to which one's spirit could be tested.

Rain didn't like to hear that… if some of those guys could become invisible or something like that, then the waterway was almost useless. Rain will have to return and teach his friends how to use magic eyes… he didn't think that they would need that.

In any case, from what he heard, it seemed that their ability was similar to the water snipers who could use water to affect the light around them. From a distance, it would be impossible to see them, and even if they were close, it would be impossible to find them with eyes alone at night.

"Who are you people?" Rain asked.

"We are his soldiers… we were created and raised to serve him," the prisoner said.

"Created?" Rain frowned. "How?"

"He conceived us with our mothers and raised us to serve him," the prisoner replied.

"... where are your mothers from?" Rain asked, already facepalming since he noticed that the ocean had grown silent a bit.

"Some of them are from the ocean, some of them are from beyond the western and eastern border, some of them are from far away," the prisoner replied.

Rain's theory had been confirmed, and it was now evident that the individuals with those peculiar auras were a distinctive mix of humans and other species. Technically, they could be classified as demi-humans. However, what distinguished them was the nature of their bloodlines, untouched by centuries of inbreeding that had diluted the heritage of most demi-humans.