"And what’s wrong in that?" she hissed.
Severin shook his head. "Are you not the loyal servant of your master again?"
"How dare you talk like that to me when you have the power already? The nature of the world is above and below. Those who are strong and those who are weak. I am weak and had to submit to my strong master.
"But if the said master made a mistake, then I will make it my gain so that I can be the strong! Don’t tell me, boy, you are among those who think they are righteous and all?"
Severin paused. "If I was, I wouldn’t be here pointing my sword at a spider."
She snorted. "A shame. I like those righteous better, they are so easy to kill."
Then she laughed, dry and cracking like dried bones. "You shouldn’t have let me buy time, boy."
Behind her in the web, countless red eyes appeared and the web of darkness shook as if countless legs were walking on it. A small spider half the size of a man appeared.
It looked like a spider but made of white material that looked suspiciously like human bones. Its head was that of a crying human. And it kept mumbling, "Feast! Feast! Feast!"
"Do you know what makes a Master a Master? The ability to mobilize a force. To be honest though, it was my own master that gifted me these pets. How do you like them?"
More and more of the human-head spiders appeared, mumbling as they moved forward.
Her hand shot forward and she gripped one of the monsters, rubbing its head tenderly. "You shouldn’t have come, boy! Or do you fancy yourself some kind of hero?
"There’s a reason there are not more heroes around anymore. There’s a reason it turned into a nickname for those with abilities. Heroes don’t die old or well."
Severin frowned beneath his mask as he saw the monsters coming closer. "I see. So you have a backup."
"Of course! They are weak individually but I have a lot of them. They are like the tide! They will swallow you whole!"
When Severin was in Sector Delta, he did a bit of a quick experiment.
Of the one hundred percent of the Pain power that he had, he could only lock eighty percent, keeping the rest of twenty inside him.
And even then, he couldn’t use the full force of the twenty percent so easily and for long.
Severin raised his sword. "Do you know the nature of pain? It is to twist. To sink and to make heavy. It twists the mind and sinks the soul, it makes heavy the heart."
More red light began to spill into his sword. "Pain. Five percent."
The red light that spilled at the end of his sword formed into small, short tendrils.
Severin grinned. "It just so happens that I have a technique to fight against multiple foes. It sounds better in my head, let’s see how it goes."
Since one of the ways to use his powers was to twist, that meant that Severin could shape his power any way that he wanted to.
The monsters ran at him, their spiked legs making clicking sounds on the ground as they rushed forward. Their mumbling heads were filled with wide mouths with sharp fangs covered in green liquid.
Time seemed to slow as Severin raised his sword and slashed.
The tendrils grew fast and shot forward, forming a tree branch that cut in all directions in the air.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The sword cut up all the monsters rushing at him in quick succession. Green blood flew up and splattered the ground, hissing with smoke.
Severin looked at his handiwork in satisfaction.
But more monsters were still rushing at him. They seemed almost endless as they climbed the web and jumped down to the ground below.
"This shouldn’t take too much time."
Instead of waiting, he jumped into the midst and his sword flashed in the air. Each slash was thirteen slashes that cut up everything in its path.
The monsters around him were reduced to immediate pieces.
It didn’t take long for him to clear all of them, the ground littered with chunks of them.
Teresa stared at him and her pets in shock. "How?"
Just then, her hands trembled and then the pet she was holding was crushed to death.
Severin walked closer to her. "As I said. It won’t take long."
She flinched, her hands clenching and unclenching. She took several steps back until she was pressed against the wall. "What do you want to do...?"
Severin’s voice was calm. "To kill you."
She shook her head wildly, her eyes darting around. "Wa...wait! You don’t have to kill me. I have information. Lots of information!"
Severin paused, and then he lowered his weapon. "I’ll think about it. Now tell me about the information that you have."
She froze. "Well. What do you want to know?"
"Tell me about the Obsidian Bleed."
She trembled slightly as she heard the name. "Where did you hear that name?"
The sword that he was holding flared to life, red light lit up around it.
She raised her hands. "Alright! Alright! I’ll tell you!"
"The Obsidian Bleed is a secret organization. The secret organization of the world. And they... we are very powerful."
"Is that so? Tell me about the structure and its goal."
She looked at him. "The structure? Well, we have the members. Although the members of the organization... their ranks also differ because of the roles they play. Above the members are the Masters, like me.
"We are given tasks in a particular area to control or monitor. Masters are marked with their ability to put together a fighting force. Although we are the Masters, we don’t make major decisions by ourselves.
"The real decision-makers are the Grandmasters. They are major powerhouses."
She kept quiet after that until he asked, "What’s above Grandmaster?"
She shook her head. "I don’t know. I’m not strong enough to know."
"Who is your Grandmaster?"
She shook her head and whispered, "Dolor."
Severin frowned. Even Dolor was only a Grandmaster?