Ninya woke up in the midnight, behind a damp and dark cell with barely any light coming in except from the torches.
"Urgh.... where am I...?" She asked as she groggily stood up and looked around.
At the moment, she was definitely confused. Ninya looked around for anything like her staff, her equipment, and other things she might have lost.
And then, she realized something....
"Wait.... what did I do wrong? Have I and my group committed something criminal? Im... impossible!"
She wasn't wearing cuffs, and the coldness of the place was getting to her.
"Peter! Dyne! Lukrut! Where are you? Anyone?" In paranoia she looked around her cell a little more.
There was a bed she could rest to, but why was she put down on the hard, cold ground? She couldn't have moved around in the middle of her sleep, right?
Plus, there would be no possible way she would be suddenly put to jail like this, right? That means she was illegally jailed!
Silently, she sat on the side of the bed, still feeling drowsy as if she didn't get enough sleep. Her heart beat sped up, feeling dreadful that she was possibly captured by a certain criminal group.
Her imagination raced, she is about to die a horrible fate.
She is about to die a horrible fate, Ninya repeated this sentence in her mind, and reluctantly placed her body on the bed, silently trying to accept this fate.
And suddenly, a voice came from a cell in front of hers.
"Oh, Ninya! You're here, too? Then great, at least I'll have some company unlike the other silent girls."
It was all too familiar....
"Lord Drasil? You're also here, too?" She asked after she rose up from her bed, seeing Ragna wave both his hands which were cuffed tightly in a very enthusiastical manner.
He also had a glowing collar locked into place. And she knew what it was due to her knowledge.
This collar put onto Ragna was an artifact that prevented the usage of Tier 5 Spells and below, effectively sealing the mana of captured criminal sorcerers too dangerous to live.
What she doesn't know is that the artifact doesn't even work on him because he activated [Absolute Immunity - Type 1].
Ragna scratched his chin to remember, and nodded at her direction.
"Umu.... there's this group called the Eight Fingers, and they seemed to get an interest about me and you, girl." He nonchalantly replied, almost setting her off.
When asked about how he found out, he pointed at her developing AAA-cup breasts, which apparently, to her shock, had been almost exposed through her fabric.
She did not remember taking off the bandages covering her breast. And in an instinctive motion, she covered them with her arms and could not help but blame those who captured her.
For her, pretending to be a boy is the best course of action in order to be at ease, as it was the only way she could relieve herself over her trauma. And now it was all returning to catch her.
Her sister was also sold out to nobles conspiring with the Eight Fingers, and the only reason she knew was the emblem while she hid somewhere in her home.
She almost wanted to cry about it....
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Yet the sound of metal being smacked on the jail's bars pulled her attention back to Ragna, who was still smiling as if this was nothing bad.
Now a thought appeared inside of Ninya, why was he so confident?
When asked this, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Ninya, believe me, you talked about a lost sister recently, right? How about this? We can possibly rescue her while we break out of this crappy situation!" He replied, with a reassuring smirk that led her to not believe him.
"And how will you do that? Do you have any plans?"
"Hmmm.... no. I don't have a plan."
"Y-You... just shut up and replace that smile of yours, then! I can't believe you were with me in the first place..."
With a loud tone that echoed thoughout the hallways, she immediately covered her mouth before some of the guards from far away notice.
"You know, I suggest just going by the flow and waiting for me to save you, before following me. Other than that, I don't have anything else to think about."
".... That's still not useful Lord Drasil."
Ragna clicked his tongue thrice, and sighed. Sometimes people can't just follow his commands without a certain admin command.....
Being left with no choice, he decided to "sleep" his way throughout the night, and soon enough, Ninya did the same whilst considering the possibility of his crazy plan succeeding, which is honestly low for her.
Another few banging sounds on her cell then came, waking her up from a dream she wouldn't really remember.
This time, a guard was there and he was carrying a small plate containing what seemed to be a cheap breakfast.
"It's time to wake up, girlie! You can't just doze off there while you wait for your customer!" The guard spoke, before kneeling down to push the plate into her room before almost leaving.
"Wait! Where is that orange haired man?" She asked, and the guard merely chuckled.
"He's being interrogated by our Six Arms as of now, that bastard of a mage really shouldn't have messed with our group's members!" Was the guard's reply, ending with a mocking laughter that immediately made Ninya feel uncomfortable.
'.... I hope he's okay....'
[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]
Meanwhile.....
In a dark room, several people were standing around. Among them were the Six Arms, Executives of the Eight Fingers and a few nobles who hid inside the main base of the Eight Fingers, who were reasonably angry about Ragna.
"Hmph, while we're waiting for that guy to be brought here, he's given us more trouble than we had expected...." the leader of the Six arms spoke, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth in anger.
"Our problems had begun to stockpile harshly, first the Golden Princess' efforts are beginning to be more trouble to us. Not just that, the revitalized King Ramposa the 3rd is also increasing his efforts..... Fucking hell, he's also declared war on us and the nobles that dared to oppose him!"
With a fist that broke the table near him in two, the other members of the Six Arms took a step back, and before they could taste the wrath of the Six Arms' leader, he calmed down.
"Damn, that foreign noble really is clever.... I wonder if we can force him to join us...." He loudly spoke, before a member of the Eight Fingers approached him.
"Boss! That man the nobles requested to capture is here!"
"Good. Pull him in and tie him up by the chair. We'll give him a good and long talk."
With that command, Ragna was pulled into the room and forced down to the chair, before being tied up. Strangely for them, he wasn't even resisting and only complying.
Once he was completely tied on the chair, he gave them a cheeky, toothless smile right towards them and asked: "Oh, good morning. So what do you want from me? Cooperation?"
'He's definitely far more clever than he looks....' Zero realized, as several of his companions even looked at him strangely.
[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]
Ragna stared at the dozen of people staring at him with either disgust, fear, or even interest while he didn't really make any "suspicious" moves.
"Of course, good morning indeed, Sorcerer. We are the Six Arms, the enforcement department of the Eight Fingers. I am the leader of the department, "Battle Demon" Zero! And they are...."
In front of him was an arrogant looking bald man with a scar on one of his eyes, and he had a few tattoos of certain animals on his chest, arms and possibly on the top of his head.
He was introducing himself and his colleagues.
The second he introduced was a tanned woman in clothing reminiscent of Middle Eastern dancers, and a few schmitars floated around her, looking smug as she struck a pose as deadly as a beautiful flower..... that hasn't fully bloomed. Her name is Edström, and she is called the Dancing Schmitar.
The next to be introduced was a man named Malmvist, the Thousand Kills. He is a red haired man in a flashy matador outfit, holding a rapier which Ragna doesn't recognize in YGGDRASIL. He posed rather nonchalantly and could be a great drinking partner, now that Ragna no longer had an augmented body.
The next was Succulent, a hooded man who at least looked more like a trickster than a fighter. He looked practically insignificant.
Peshurian, Spatial Slash. Looks like a fad with his whip-like sword under Ragna's [Eye of Mystic Wisdom], causing him to just be unimpressed.
And the Sixth was the self-proclaimed Undead King, Davernoch, who was not even an Elder Lich by the look of it. And honestly in the end, he looked more like a Level 30 Dungeon boss.
Now that the introduction was all done, several nobles stood on the side, discussing about what might happen soon. Even something that would never succeed like Ragna being tortured.
"So what now? Shall we get to the point, or what?" He asked, leaning his back on the chair as if the chains didn't even do anything to him.
"Or...."
Ragna stood up, with the chains that held him already being broken due to the rust that was present on certain parts of the chain. The cuffs holding his arms also dropped down to the floor after the chains.
"...I get to take a deal with you."
The Six Arms were surprised, and Zero had become far more interested in having such a valuable member to his group.
Even the nearby nobles who'd switched topics to buying a slave for his own purposes and fun went silent immediately, glancing towards Ragna.
Zero, whose eyes had been keen the moment Ragna took all of this nonchalantly, nodded his head.
"I see..... Very well, let's make a deal."
Inwardly, Ragna smirked, and like a snake, he slowly slithered his way to the prey, in a way that blended into the background.
Even so, it does seem like one of them noticed something about him, though.
"Tsk. I can't trust this guy, boss." Succulent spoke in dissatisfaction, narrowing his eyelids towards Ragna.
"So what? I'm taking my risks and gambles this time, if he doesn't prove himself to be trustworthy, then we'll have to take our time showing him our power." Zero replied, confidently shaking his head twice. "So what's your deal?"
"I'd like to challenge one of your members for freedom, with the exclusion of you, Thousand Kills, Dancing Schmitar, and Phantom Devil. I'd prefer to have a small little fight more than something... that felt a little boring." Ragna replied, leaving Zero to begin considering it.
Flabbergasted, Peshurian gritted his teeth behind his helm, and angrily stepped forward.
"Hey! Don't underestimate the Six Arms! You're probably weaker than we expect you to be! Hah!"
Although Peshurian felt that he was insulted, Davernoch felt like he was being challenged.
Davernoch moved forward carefully. He doesn't know the capabilities of that man, so he thought he was at least an equal to him.
Even so, it was impossible for him to cast a single spell because of a powerful collar even an Adamantite Adventurer could not even resist.
"Davernoch? What are you doing?" Peshurian asked, as his path was blocked by the Elder Lich.
"As much as I wish to accept your challenge, my search for knowledge is as important as my life, however.... if you do lose, we will not waste time turning you into a chained dog." Davernoch spoke, turning around and leaving the room.
Following him was Malmvist, who scratched his nape awkwardly.
"Aww.... as much as I'd like to see a fight, I have a bar and gambling site to manage. Boss, we'll be going now!" He said, lightly chuckling while casually leaving the place after Zero lightly nodded.
"Go on, we'll handle all this in here. This room is large enough for two combatants. And Peshurian, don't go easy on him, cut an arm or leg to teach him a lesson." Zero said, crossing his arms before observing what will happen soon.
A surge of pride and confidence filled up the Criminal Knight, stepping forwards and without hesitation, pulled out his strange-looking sword and swung it forwards at Ragna, and said sword became a long whip that will rip apart any who was caught.
Ragna saw his move already, and cleverly dodged the sword whip in a way that would make it graze and begin breaking apart the collar, slowly but surely.
Rolling to the side and hopping farther, he decided to begin calculating what was needed to earn his freedom even if he could just cheese it all out.
'Cheesing out things is rather boring, but sometimes it really is needed. Therefore.....'
The Administrator decided to take things a little more seriously this time, at least that was what he thinks he's doing, but to the others, he was just playing around.
Perushian had decided to use [Martial Arts] to enhance his combat abilities, even accelerating the rates of his slashes, yet he kept finding out that Ragna kept trying to make him break his collar.
And the moment he noticed, it was too late.
"M-My Spatial Slash is being played around by this man! Why is this happening!" Perushian yelled out in disbelief, before he noticed Ragna raise his hand.
"Cause you're still an amateur amongst better swordsmen. Therefore, you still have a lot to learn! Come on, Sfeiz!" His opponent replied, grabbing the air between his palm, and manifested a large sword that had a poisonous green edge and was forged upon blackest of steel.
.... Maybe he had just moved away from his prey, leaving it alone because it doesn't seem to look that fulfilling as much as he decided to try going deep into illegal criminal activity once more like at A.D. 2130 where he had to resort to doing it against someone who could threaten his game and himself.
Still, focusing on the battle at hand, if it meant painting a target on his back, he didn't really care much. He's changed his mind at the last moment.
He let the blunt edge of the sword rest on his shoulder, crouching down and sighed deeply.
"Is that.... th-th-the the real... the real.... one of the actual Swords of Darkness!?"
"Sadly, your life ends here." Ragna replied without much wistful thoughts, activating an ability of the sword. "Devour my life force, Sfeiz. Bring despair to my enemy!"
He dashed forwards, both of his hands on Sfeiz, a Divine Ranked Weapon able to be used by anybody above Level 60, and despite the exaggerated title of the sword, the truth was that it really had an insane poison damage that could be stacked from every strike. 7.5% of the damage dealt will be given as poison damage the next two seconds, so it was safe to say it was broken.
Unless a player has poison resistance and nullification, that is.
"Deep Poison Blade!!!! Impact!!!!" He yelled, slashing down the sword with such strength that it cut through his opponent's sword, before impaling him on the abdomen. "Now you're dead."
Pulling out the sword with a swift motion of his arm, he rested it on his shoulder once again, leaving Perushian to suddenly explode.
'Wait, that's not supposed to happen.' Ragna thought, and then realized that the weapon's skill was actually active. 'Oh, right. Corpse explosion, very dangerous to anybody close to him, except me.'
Glancing at Zero, who looked quite dissatisfied as much as he was careful around him, even the other expressions from the people inside this room hadn't surprised him.
"So can I go now?"
"Just don't get in our way." Zero replied, shooing him away.
"Noted, but someday it will eventually happen."
After his figure could not be seen, everyone seemed to gain a feeling of relief. The sword emitted such a powerful evil energy that it led to everyone feeling very afraid of Ragna.
"Is that.... the power of one of the four Swords of Darkness? Now I think Blue Rose's Kilineiram doesn't even feel threatening anymore..." Succulent spoke, breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself down.
It seems like the aura of despair it emitted had been powerful enough to knock out the nobles cold, now the room had to be cleaned up and the Six Arms needed a newer replacement.
But, what if they could still hunt down Ragna? Even if that meant they painted a huge target on his back, Zero's deal with him was definite to the point where the target now looked fake, and it didn't really matter to the Eight Fingers now that a possible problem to them was gone.
For now.
[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]
Meanwhile, in the cold cell Ninya had been placed to, the girl had been quite a mess. Curling down the bed she had been on, the redhead began to imagine what had happened to Ragna.
They haven't even interacted with too much, but his cheerful demeanor was similar to those of her adventuring group's members. He was a noble like her, yet she was just a low class one, and he possibly was an exile.
She was now here, waiting for something. Maybe she'd meet her older sister soon if she was lucky? Maybe not?
Questions, questions, and many questions popped up in her mind.
"Hey, Ninya! Get up there already!"
Immediately, she got up from her bed and stared at Ragna, who had obtained a creepy, dark sword.
"Wh.... What...?"
With two swings, the bars had been busted open, allowing Ragna to enter.
"Come on, let's leave. My sword will cleave a path for us." He assured her, swinging it again, this time on air.
He slashed open a portal to somewhere else, and instinctively, she held onto Ragna, walking together with him.
When they entered it, they arrived on a location where her group members had been present, and they were hurriedly looking for her and Ragna.
Now reunited, the adventuring group of the Swords of Darkness along with Ragna continued their journey!
[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]
Author's Commentary: Who from Nazarick do you think will appear first?
• Demiurge - Will invade Re-Estize through Carne Village and E-Rantel, because reasons.
• Shalltear - Overcome by blind rage and sorrow, she attacks Re-Estize with an ever-growing army of undead.