Hermit Wizard

The Curtain Rises (6)

Noel looked down at the alien and spoke. “Okay, then. You come with us.”

=…W-What?!=

“You don’t have to be interrogated here. Many of our colleagues are full of inquiry and creativity.”

He paused there and looked at the wizards being carried out by the apprentices. Most of them were hard to call people—those who escaped from the silent torture chamber and entered the organization’s hands.

“The reason I made those humans like breathing bodies that cannot speak… is because the purpose isn’t an interrogation. But don’t worry. Our colleagues will be very loyal to the original concept of torture.”

No one saw Noel’s eyes, smiling like a crescent moon.

“We have so many things we want to hear from you. Eugene couldn’t find out all the details. Why do you have to come over to this dimension and do this experiment… What is the purpose of forcing them to go over the wall?”

The alien groaned, and its mouth was wide open.

“You have three mouths. You can scream as much as you want. There’s nothing to prevent telepathy, so scream as you please and scream with your brainwaves. You’re an alien, so we must wander a little at first. If we pierce and cut you here and there with a faithful inquisition, we’ll soon know where the pain is most sensitive.”

=Ugh! =

The will of the alien was mixed with fear.

Looking at it, Noel continued, “And, you’d better look forward to it. Our specialists are more inspirational when unfamiliar materials come into their hands.”

=How are you dealing with the later problem? =

“The later problem?”

=If you do that, there’s room for conflict between dimensions. Kidnapping and torturing a saint! I don’t know what dimension you used to live on, but the Apostolic States will surely find you and retaliate! =

The alien stuttered his six arms while continuing to express its thoughts. Among them, the two movements on the back were strange. Two arms stretched at a completely different angle from the four arms on the sides. Flicker said, looking closely at the dance-like movement of the finger.

“Noel.”

“Hmm?”

“The two longest arms on its body…”

Noel pointed his finger at the part that Flicker was talking about. Then the snake nodded.

“Yeah, that thing on its back. Tear off all the fingers at the end.”

The body of the alien hardened in an instant.

=…W-What?!=

The reaction was unusual, but Noel didn’t ask Flicker’s words back. He didn’t even ask why Flicker said that. He quickly pulled out his hand, which penetrated the alien’s shoulders as soon as the serpent’s words fell.

=This…=

The alien body, which was struggling in the air, fell to the floor with a thud. Before twisting or turning over, Noel put one foot on the back. The weight of the body was loaded and pressed gently to lock it in place.

-Kraaaack!

The saint struggled, suffering from the weight pressing the thorax. Noel’s transparent hand approached. Noel grabbed the wrists of the alien. Then he grabbed six smooth fingers with his other hand. All six were wet on the surface, but Noel quickly realized that they were surrounded by tough armor outside.

That wasn’t going to work with normal force, Noel murmured inside. The fingers were as hard as metal.

On the other hand, the alien felt that something that couldn’t be seen touched the end of its body. At that moment, its whole body began to twitch. The alien was terrified watching its fingers lean up.

=Now, wait! Stop! It’s my fault! I’ll stop right now! =

Noel pulled out six fingers at once without a single word of mockery.

-Zheeeeck!

The steel-like exoskeleton of the fingers burst out and tore off. The screams that tore through the air echoed with no time difference.

-Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaak! Kwaaaaaaaaaarrrgh!

The saint’s body shook like a fish that was just taken out of water. Fluorescent bubbles leaked out of the mouth. As if body fluids were spewing out of the skin like sweat, the clothes it was wearing began to stain without distinction between the upper and lower bodies. As the garment’s color became darker due to the secretions, the unpleasant smell filled the room.

Blaster grumbled, trying to vomit in vain.

“Hmm! It’s disgusting. Is it a race that excretes through pores? That’s why it is peeing shit right now.”

Flicker was taking the word as if it was fun.

“Wow, it shits all over the body? It looks like shit. Does it take off its clothes every time it does business?”

“Since the skin is the excretory organ, so maybe it can get rid of it together when it washes its bodies.”

“Hahahaha! What a real headache! Does it take a shit every time it takes a shower?”

The snakeheads started joking around with each other. Meanwhile, the alien couldn’t overcome the pain and hit the laboratory floor like crazy with his head, making cracks on the concrete floor with a thumping sound.

-Khuaaaaaraaaaaaaaaaaagh!

=Kill me! Please kill me! =

It was a violent reaction that wasn’t comparable to when the shoulder was pierced.

‘Is the finger on the back a vital point? They’re unusual.’

Along with the screams, the telepathy of the alien resonates. Noel looked at the six fingers in his hand without any hesitation.

The hard shell burst out, but it wasn’t completely cut off despite his great power.

Noel frowned at seeing a long stretch of elastic cartilage that was utterly different from human finger bones. Six thin milk-colored strands dangled from the fingers held by Noel and the hands of the alien.

Flicker was asking to pull out its finger, which Noel interpreted as perfect cutting was needed. His blades cut through the air.

=… No!=

Simply enough to make the alien scream. Six tubes were cut off and completely separated the fingers from the body.

-Kwaaaaaaaaargh! Kwaaaaaaaargh!

=It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts…! =

Pink and white liquids were mixed and flowed down from the cut-out tubes.

“Hmmm…”

Blaster looked at the madman as if it were interesting, and its eyes suddenly stopped to the human wizard who was carried beyond it.

At the peculiar strange scenery, Blaster murmured inside. There was a young wizard with blond hair on a stretcher. He was the one whose two feet were being burned in the torch flame until a while ago. His body was still paralyzed, so he was facing forward with the stretcher raised and his head bent.

An expressionless young man was lying on the floor on his cheek. His eyes were facing toward the alien, which was rolling on the floor.

‘It said that his senses are all alive, and his vision must be fine, so he must be watching this very well.’

Blaster found the situation extremely interesting. What would it feel like to see the alien, who had been torturing in silence so far, screaming and struggling with pain?

Blaster curiously guessed what the wizard, who couldn’t move his body but still had his senses and thoughts, might be thinking. In the meantime, the alien screamed sharply and choked up.

-Uuuuuugh…! Uuuuuugh…!

All three vocal cords were ruptured, and at that moment, it was barely making any sound.

He begged telepathically.

=It hurts! Please! Stop it! I’ll tell you everything! It hurts! It hurts! How could you break the Holy Armor with force like that? I’ll tell you everything!=

The alien was quick and eager to share its thoughts.

=We had no choice but to conduct this experiment because all the other native tribes were destroyed in our dimension! It’s not that animals can’t cross the wall. Still, in probability, the higher the intelligence, the higher the probability of crossing the wall, so we turned our eyes to another dimension! That’s why we’re targeting humans of this dimension…=

The alien acted instinctively in terrible pain. In a half-distracted state, it vomited information it knew to stop the torture. At the same time, it moved its back finger to use a trick to escape from the spot. It was an attempt it wouldn’t want to try if it had a calmer mind.

One head of the Double-Headed Serpent told him to pull out its fingers since it had already figured out the function. However, the alien, whose reason had been blurred, couldn’t even think about it.

Noel’s hands were already moving before Flicker urged him.

“It’s useless to tell me here. We have specialists. Have a friendly secret talk with them.”

Noel began to pull out the rest of its fingers with all the information it had poured out in his head.

=Stop! It hurts! It hurts! Please! I’ll tell you everything, please! We needed a sacrifice! I needed a sacrifice! To dedicate the spirit that crossed the wall to the apostle. God wants a noble soul! The soul that did not cross the wall is meaningless to God… We wanted to offer more sacrifices. More… and more…=

The alien race, who were confused by pain, began to pour out all the information they wanted beyond simple plea. It wanted to stop this pain somehow. Sadly, Noel intended to pull out all of its fingers, as Flicker said, no matter what information it gave or didn’t give.

Noel’s hand moved without hesitation.

-Craaack! Craaaaack!

All remaining fingers were also pulled out and cut off.

=Kheaaaaaarghhhhh!=

The alien race screamed out of its mind.

The snakeheads also listened to the information, but they knew there was no change in the justification for removing the fingers. Flicker spoke.

“Every time it moved its finger on its back, the Mana vibrated slightly. It seems to be the kind of magic that forms a spell with the movement of its fingers. It was wonderful.”

“Huh, huh, what?”

Blaster asked back as if he was dumbfounded. It was a completely different system from their common sense, which constituted spells by voice. Noel didn’t know why he had to do this until he pulled out all 12 fingers in both arms. Noel nodded his head.

“It’s a strange race. It is protected by exceptionally thick outer armor. It seems like a vital spot among the vital places when we see such a violent reaction after it’s damaged. But why the fingers?”

Noel, who was muttering like, suddenly stopped talking. He observed the body. Four arms were raised on the side, and two arms were raised behind the back. Only the two arms’ fingers removed at that moment were exceptionally long and wrapped in solid material.

“Ah… they are not your arms? Not even your fingers?”

“Huh? What are you saying?”

Noel carefully expressed his speculation.

“No matter how much I look at these two on its back, I don’t think they will function as a hand. And compared to the arm on the side, the shape is a little different, and the fingers are different…”

Flicker tilted its head.

“If they are not hands…”

Noel took the serpent’s words.

“Any vital spot that is sensitive to pain and protrudes outside the body, then its function is usually…”

Currently, the same answer passed through the heads of Noel and the two snakes.

“Ah… this can’t be…”

Noel looked at the twelve fingers in his hand with a terrifying expression.

“Ah, shit!”

He threw them on the floor as if he had touched something dirty. To Blaster’s and Flicker’s eyes, those looked like fingers in the air seemed to fall out of the air suddenly.

Even in Flicker’s eyes, who had the highest Mana level in the place, Noel wasn’t seen. However, Flicker read Noel’s expression through the vibrations of the air.

Flicker burst out laughing pleasantly.

“Puahahaha! That’s amazing. So that bastard eventually built-up spells by swinging ‘that’ instead of its fingers?”

After the moment of pain passed, and the alien, who had barely started to regain its reason, barely shed its thoughts, spreading on the floor under Noel’s feet.

=…You, devilish bastard…=

Noel laughed at him and replied.

“Are you back to your senses?”

=Euu…=

“We have also disabled the magic, so let’s go.”

Noel dragged the alien along. Blaster muttered behind him.

“I can’t believe they make people crossing the wall by stimulating the soul with the negative feeling. It’s a method I’ve never imagined.”

Noel answered back.

“If it succeeds, it will be incomplete because it isn’t the proper method… Still, I couldn’t have looked at Eugene’s personality. Imagine the sight of human demons who cross the wall from this support.”

“Hmmm…”

“What would the Great One say when he sees the scene after being resurrected? ‘Human’ who has crossed the wall should not increase a single one since he came. This is a strict rule.”

“Even if it’s an offering to the god of diarrhea.”

“Let’s see if what it has just said is real. Even if everyone who crossed the wall was kidnapped to its dimension, what if some of them stood out?”

The alien, who was listening to their conversations, ground its teeth to see if it was gradually coming back to its senses and asked,

=What the hell are you…! =

Noel glanced at it and replied.

“Hmm. You don’t know, but our policy has been like this so far.”

=What do you mean?!=

“Avoid all-out war with the alien races.”

=…=

The exception was an alien race with mental abilities. It was going around alone without a group and came into the hands of the U.S. government. They tried to intervene and get it out of there. Unfortunately, the result was a failure.

“In the case of other countries, if there is a mix of alien race instructors… We would just let them go because we don’t want to make an enemy. When a human wizard pretends to be on a rampage, most of them will run away while hiding instead of intervening. It’s dangerous to get caught up in a crazy wizard. After that, there were many cases where the contract was automatically canceled, and they returned to the original dimension… But the story has changed a little about your people.”

He continued his words as he moved on.

“Do you know how we’ve been managing these humans in this dimension over the years? It was enough to erase the existence of magic from its history. Will the soul rise? I’m afraid about that. We’re also in a bad temper with the magic that has been spreading out little by little. These bad methods to force the soul to evolve? It sounds like a big deal.”

Hearing the transparent beings’ words, the alien realized something was different from their own guesses. What on earth were these people?

To the confused, self-proclaimed saint, Noel said with laughter.

“Anyway, congratulations. All of your race that have come over to this dimension will not be able to die easily.”