Freeing the Slaves

After disguising themselves as patrol soldiers, Kuma and Ivankov visibly relaxed. They quickly followed Kane to the outside of a massive warehouse.

After Kane had Kuma blast away the guards at the entrance, he led them inside.

Inside the vast, dimly lit warehouse, countless huge wooden crates were stacked in neat rows.

Kuma's pupils suddenly contracted. Even with his faceplate in the way, he could still smell the strong scent of gunpowder and weapons in the air!

He made a rough estimate. The weapons here were enough to arm several thousand people!

And this was only the first weapons warehouse Kane had found for them!

Kuma could not help swallowing, while Ivankov had already begun dancing excitedly.

"Mysterious boy, you're absolutely incredible! Hee-haw!"

Kane glanced at Ivankov, discreetly moved a little farther away, and asked:

"Have the people receiving them been arranged?"

"Mm." Kuma nodded.

"Send them over."

Kane patted Kuma's shoulder twice. Kuma could tell Kane had not put any force into it, yet the pats still stirred his emotions.

"Thank you!"

Even though this had already been discussed during their planning, Kuma still gave a heavy word of thanks before walking toward the crates. Wherever his palm passed, mountains of wooden crates vanished one after another.

But when Kuma reached toward the last few enormous barrels, Kane suddenly stopped him and raised his foot to kick them all over. Premium fuel with a distinctive fragrance poured out.

"Move!"

Kane decisively led the two away. Under his precise, scalpel-like arrangements, the three of them emptied three warehouses in succession.

Yet the operation had gone so smoothly that it felt unbelievable. Kuma began to feel a powerful unease, and his longing for Ginny grew even stronger.

He swallowed and tried to suppress the tension in his heart. He wanted to ask something, but did not know how to begin. While he hesitated, Kane's voice suddenly reached his ears.

"You're nervous. Are you thinking about Ginny?"

Kuma abruptly raised his head, a faint gleam flashing in his eyes behind the helmet.

"Have you ever wondered why you've never been able to find any news about her?"

Even Ivankov pricked up his ears at that, widening his eyes as he moved closer to Kane.

"Mysterious boy, the Celestial Dragons said they married Ginny as a wife..."

"Unless I see it with my own eyes, I won't believe a single word the Celestial Dragons say." Kane shook his head with a firm gaze.

"If she had truly become a Celestial Dragon's wife, she would certainly have gained a degree of freedom. With her abilities, contacting you would have been effortless.

"Yet a year has passed. Aside from the news claiming that a Celestial Dragon married her, there has been no other information, and Ginny has not contacted you. Isn't that strange?"

The instant he finished speaking, Kuma's face turned deathly pale. Ivankov also cried out anxiously.

"Mysterious boy, don't talk nonsense! Ginny is definitely still alive! Definitely!"

Kane understood that they had misunderstood him and immediately explained:

"I'm not saying she's dead. On the contrary, I'm even more convinced than you that she's alive.

"What I mean is that over the past year, she has been unable to contact anyone. She has been...

"Imprisoned and monitored."

Some color finally returned to Kuma's face, though panic remained in his eyes. His rapid, violent heartbeat could even be heard through his chest and armor.

Ivankov, however, let out a long sigh of relief and slapped Kane's back hard, producing loud banging sounds.

"Sorry, mysterious boy. We blamed you wrongly, but you really scared Kuma and me."

"You can save your strength for fighting the Celestial Dragons instead of using it on me."

Kane glanced at Ivankov, suspecting he was taking the chance to vent a personal grudge.

If not for the armor blocking the blows, he probably would have been slapped hard enough to cough up blood.

But time was tight, and Kane had no time to argue with him. As they hurried onward, he explained:

"Since she is imprisoned and monitored, the security around her must be extremely tight. So she definitely cannot be held where ordinary slaves are kept.

"And if we want to infiltrate the place where Ginny is being held and rescue her, we first need to throw Mary Geoise into chaos.

"And it cannot be ordinary chaos. It has to be chaos on such a massive scale that even if it draws in the Five Elders and God's Knights, they will be too overwhelmed to deal with everything."

Kuma and Ivankov listened intently. During their previous planning, Kane had only described the general outline, saying that the specific actions could only be decided after infiltrating Mary Geoise.

Now that Kane had begun making concrete arrangements, they immediately focused all their attention on his words, afraid to miss even a single one.

More than a hundred meters away from them stood a huge building guarded by numerous soldiers.

The guards stood around in groups of three or five, chatting and laughing without the slightest vigilance. Some even carried wine bottles, taking a swig every so often.

"This batch of slaves delivered today is pretty good."

"With so many fish-men in there, how could the adults not like them?"

"Speaking of which, don't you think fish-men are slimy and disgusting?"

"You ignorant idiot. Fish-man slaves make excellent mounts!"

"You're the idiot! Huh? Why did two hands grow out of your stomach..."

The soldier froze for a moment and lowered his head. Sure enough, two arms had grown out of his stomach.

But before he could react, those two hands suddenly clamped around his neck and unleashed an irresistible, enormous force.

With a crisp crack, the soldier's neck snapped instantly, and his head drooped limply.

As his vision gradually dimmed, strange, powerful arms grew from his companions' bodies one after another, ruthlessly snapping every one of their necks.

At the instant darkness completely swallowed his sight, swift footsteps suddenly sounded by his ear, followed by a shocked male voice.

"Mysterious boy, you're practically mystery itself! Hee—haw!"

Kane sidestepped Ivankov's enthusiastic bear hug, removed a key from a soldier's corpse, and handed it to him with a teasing smile.

"With this many slaves, I hope the people receiving them won't be exhausted enough to curse me out."

"Mysterious boy, don't underestimate my companions' enthusiasm!"

Ivankov excitedly kicked open the doors and ran inside with Kuma.

Cries of alarm came from the warehouse, but they were quickly replaced by tears and words of gratitude from people who had been given a new life.

Standing outside, Kane created four Flower Clones. They stripped the clothes from the corpses, changed into them, and swiftly scattered in different directions.

A moment later, Ivankov emerged from the warehouse while performing a strange dance, while Kuma's breathing was slightly hurried.

Sending away more than a thousand slaves at once had placed quite a burden on his stamina, even with his exceptional talent.

"Can you keep going?"

"Let's go to the next place."

Kuma answered steadily, his eyes gleaming and his expression strangely excited.

Kane nodded and immediately led them toward the next place where slaves were being held.

However, the goddess of luck who had been watching over them seemed to have grown drowsy this time.

Outside the second slave warehouse they were about to reach, an ornate carriage was parked at the entrance.

Because of the carriage, the guards stood alertly with weapons in hand, as though waiting for an inspection.

Meanwhile, an arrogant, furious voice came from inside the warehouse:

"You damned mermaid, how dare you defy me! I'll hang you up, dry you into fish jerky, and feed you to my pet cat!"

Along with the furious insults came the sound of a whip cracking and a woman's miserable cries.

Before Kane and the others even saw the warehouse, they heard the commotion. Kuma instantly clenched his fists, and Ivankov's expression darkened.

Only Kane's expression remained unchanged as he continued toward the slave warehouse.

He had already sensed what was happening here through ultrasonic waves. Encountering a Celestial Dragon had also been within his expectations; it had merely happened a little earlier than expected.

Seeing that he did not slow down, Kuma and Ivankov were both worried, but they still followed closely behind him.

Unbeknownst to them, what had happened outside the previous slave warehouse was happening again outside this one.

Several arms suddenly sprouted from the bodies of the alert guards, cleanly and efficiently snapping their necks.

By the time Kane and the others reached the warehouse doors, not a single living person remained outside.

Kane and the others entered the slave warehouse without obstruction. Inside, a male Celestial Dragon was viciously whipping a silver-haired mermaid while cursing loudly.

The silver-haired fish-woman, whose lower body was a fish tail, was already covered in wounds and could not dodge the Celestial Dragon's whip at all.

She could only curl herself up tightly, but every lash brought pain that pierced deep into her soul, making her cry out uncontrollably.

A guard standing behind the Celestial Dragon spotted Kane and the others. Seeing them dressed as patrol soldiers, he immediately frowned and barked:

"Who let you in? Can't you see Saint Andel is disciplining a slave? Get out!"

But the moment he finished speaking, Kane's fist slammed viciously into his face.

The guard was sent flying without even a grunt, crashing heavily into the male Celestial Dragon and knocking him flat on his face.

"Bastard! Who—"

Before the Celestial Dragon could get up, he began cursing furiously. But the instant he opened his mouth, Kane seized him by the neck and lifted him up.

"I need someone familiar with Mary Geoise to act as a guide. Do you think you can handle the job?"

"Bastard! Idiot! Who do you think I am? Put me down right now, or else—"

The male Celestial Dragon still did not understand his situation and glared at Kane as he cursed angrily.

But he quickly became unable to curse, because he could clearly feel the hand gripping his throat tightening without hesitation. Breathing instantly became extremely difficult.

Especially those pitch-black eyes behind the faceplate's narrow slits, which shone with an eerie, bloodthirsty light.

I'm going to die...

He's going to kill me!

Cold sweat instantly poured down the Celestial Dragon's face. He frantically beat at Kane's arm, terror and despair filling his expression.

Kane loosened his grip slightly and said coldly:

"I usually only give people one chance to answer again. I hope you can seize it.

"Now answer me. Do you think you can handle being my guide?"

The male Celestial Dragon coughed violently, yet he did not dare hesitate for even a moment before answering urgently:

"I-I... spare me! I'll... I'll agree to anything!"