After the cloaked figure had agreed to comply, Nox let him go. Now they stood face-to-face, the air thick with tension as Nox and the other man locked gazes.
Yes, Nox had ordered the man to take off his cloak. At first, he didn't want to comply, but after glancing at the limp body of his partner, all hesitation vanished.
Now, after removing the magically enchanted hood, what appeared before Nox was a middle-aged man with a short-cropped beard and sunken eyes.
His face was a bit chubby, which confirmed Nox's assumption of him being mundane.
So young, the man couldn't help but think as he observed Nox's appearance. Because the boy had sneaked up on him, he hadn't been able to see his face clearly. Now that he saw how young his attacker looked, he felt conflicted.
This... this was the reality of being Awakened. Common sense and age didn't apply to them. A hundred-year-old Awakened could still easily deal with hundreds of mundanes.
Pushing the unimportant thoughts from his mind, he straightened his posture, trying to mask the fear that was slowly creeping into his heart.
"Alright, tell me everything you know," Nox demanded in an authoritative tone. "Are you guys the cause of this beast tide? What is your goal? Which organization do you work for?"
Nox fired several questions at once, overwhelming the man, who began to tremble. Nox's tone was cold and detached. The man feared that if he delayed any longer, his head would be smashed to a pulp as well.
With great difficulty, he managed to stutter, "Y-yes, we're the cause of the beast tide. The name of our organization is the Order of the Flaming Rose."
"Dammit, if they find out I revealed this much, they'll kill me." The man held his head low and cursed under his breath. However, Nox could only hear him muttering gibberish, his eyes full of horror.
"Continue," Nox ordered, without caring how the man felt at this moment. In his eyes, someone such as this man didn't deserve pity. After all, he had just admitted they were the cause of the beast tide, which had killed hundreds, both adults and children.
The man sucked in a cold breath that traveled through his lungs as he said through gritted teeth, "Our goal is to destroy the entire human domain."
There was no use for the man to lie at this point. The coldness in Nox's eyes pierced through him, making it clear that any attempt to lie would end in death.
As he heard this, Nox slightly tilted his head to the side. His expression was unreadable as he asked, "Destroy the human domain?" There was a bit of ridicule in his voice. "You can't even deal with me. How would you guys face the experts of the Far West? Also, what would you gain from destroying the human race?"
Although he didn't show it on his face, Nox was very perplexed. This man was also a human, so why would he want to destroy his fellow humans? It just didn't make sense, and he swore to get to the bottom of this.
The man hesitated, his chubby face pale and glistening with sweat. "W-we don't really know... This information is only known by the higher-ups." He paused. "But I once overheard them say it's the natural order."
Nox's eyes narrowed, those black eyes gleaming dangerously. His face, illuminated by the flaming torchlight on the side, frightened the living daylights out of the man, who stumbled back in fear. It felt as if Nox would pounce on him at any moment.
"Natural order?" Nox coldly said as he clenched his fist. "You call massacring innocent people 'natural'? You disgust me."
Seeing the coldness in Nox's eyes, the man hurriedly dropped to his knees, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I-I'm just a pawn! I don't make the decisions. I just follow orders!"
"Then tell me," Nox asked, "who's giving these orders? Who's the leader of the Order of the Flaming Rose?"
The man swallowed hard, struggling with whether to reveal more, but he soon realized he had already said too much. Finally, he exhaled and said, "There is only one I know about. He's the leader of this operation, and we refer to him as No. 2."
"No. 2?" Nox asked with a raised brow, not expecting such a vague name.
The man continued, "He's one of the higher-ups who orchestrates everything. I don't know his true name or face, but he commands the entire organization. He's the one who created the beast tide."
Nox noticed how the man emphasized "the one." The man was fighting with everything he had to survive.
But Nox still had two more questions.
"Where can I find this No. 2?"
"I-I don't know," the man stammered. "Their location changes constantly. Only the inner circle knows where they are."
Nox stared at the man for a long moment. The man felt uneasy being scrutinized , and one could notice his trembling arms. Just as the man was starting to get more anxious, Nox finally said, "Last question."
The man swallowed for the second time since this interrogation. "Go ahead," he managed to say.
"What is this entity you talked about? The one that could destroy the entire Far West?"
"That..." The man nodded and began to explain everything he knew about the so-called entity.
Just a few minutes later, when the man was done revealing everything he knew, Nox walked through a tunnel under the man's guidance.
While he walked, he couldn't help but contemplate what he had heard.
According to the man, the entity capable of destroying the entire Far West was a mutated hybrid.
He had described them with horror in his eyes: "Their strength surpasses even the strongest Awakened humans. They are apex predators... tools of destruction bred to annihilate everything in their path."
Even the man didn't know the exact description of the beast or how it had been created, but he said it was the collaboration of different alchemists all over Eos.
When Nox had asked him to name specific kingdoms, he had called out one primary kingdom: the Eleven Empire.
Soon, they arrived at a large opening with countless robed figures.
"This is the place," the man pointed with shaky hands. Following the man's arm, Nox's eyes fell on a chamber filled with countless robed figures.