Inside Umbra's Ruins ✓ [Umbra's Fate #2]

ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ᴏɴᴇ: ᴍᴏᴍᴏᴛᴀʀᴏ

In front of him Uriel was shaking, trying to free himself from the ropes that tied him to the chair. He was barefoot and his feet were submerged in a large metal bucket filled with water.

I prepared him for you.

He had done all that?

"What do you want?" Uriel screamed once again. "Is this your little revenge for what I did, leader?"

"Don't call me that!" Momotaro snapped. "I'm not your leader, you made that pretty clear once you stole from me and killed Keila. I need to ask you some questions."

"If you're going to ask questions you should do it before I pass out from your torture game." The man spat towards Momotaro, saliva and blood staining the floor in front of the leader.

"You don't have the luxury of deciding what I'm going to do with you."

He took the time to observe the damage the shadow had done to his prisoner. The man was drenched, had deep cuts on his arms, his nose appeared to be broken, and some of his fingernails were missing.

"I'm going to start asking the questions and you better answer because otherwise—"

"Yeah, yeah, you're going to keep torturing me. And if I use my power I'm going to electrocute myself just from the water. You've said it tons of times, I'm not stupid."

"It seems like you still have plenty of energy." Momotaro got closer to Uriel and squeezed his injured shoulder.

"Ok, Ok. I get it, just ask the fucking questions."

"Where are the members that were kidnapped?"

"I don't know, Peters and the one in charge of the cleaning team don't say much about it. From what I heard they change locations every three weeks to avoid being caught."

"The cleaning team?"

"That's what they call the people that take care of the Protectors, is a selected group, you can only get inside if the boss wants you to."

"Who's the boss?"

Uriel let out a laugh. "You're not gonna like it." He made a pause. "Casimir is the boss. He knows enough about the Protectors to haunt them."

"That filthy rat," Momotaro yelled. "I should have killed him when I had the chance. Where is he?"

"Wherever they're taking the ones they kidnapped. You really should have killed him, now he's starting to get excited, if the rumor is true he's preparing to go after the Protectors' relatives as well."

"What do you want from all this? You ally with the demons to survive but you won't have a home to come back to when this is over."

"I didn't make any pact with the demons, I just did a job for Peters. I needed that money for personal reasons, that's all I'm going to say."

Momotaro stood in front of Uriel and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I don't want to hurt you any more than I already did. If you're telling the truth and you're not interested in Peters, do us both a favor and tell me everything you know."

"I don't know many details, I'm mostly an outsider to them so they don't tell me anything, I only know what they were talking to each other. The ancient light was requested by the demons, so I assume they must have it. I also know that they are as clueless as you are about the kidnapping of the children, I still believe that their families fall within the protection of the demons so they aren't worried about it."

"How do they know who's still in the Protectors? Some of the members they kidnapped were new recruits, Casimir doesn't know them. Was it one of the other traitors?"

"I don't think so, it must be hard for you to believe but the other former members I spoke to had no intention of torturing what they used to consider their friends." Uriel was silent for a moment, then looked Momotaro in the eye. "I have my theory and I think you're going to like it. I saw Peters hugging and talking to the mayor."

"Fuck. You should have started there. That's how they must get all the locations for the kidnappings, he was the one who gave us the new headquarters."

"Shit, the headquarters. What day and time is it?"

"It's January nineteenth." Momotaro looked at his watch. "And it's seven twenty in the afternoon."

"It's late. They're going to attack the headquarters in ten minutes, I thought today was eighteen."

"Why didn't you tell me that first? I have to let them know." Momotaro ran to the door. "Why the fuck isn't this power responding to me when I need it?"

"Excuse me, I was too busy trying to resist your torture." Uriel complained. "Don't leave me here, take me with you, at least let me help after what I did. You're going to need all the help you can get."

"Alright, but don't slow me down and I won't take responsibility if you get killed."

"Worry about yourself, I don't think it's going to be an easy fight."