Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Damilla's words caused a wave of both confusion and apprehension in the room. They could mean anything.

Terian was the most confused.

As per his thoughts, this could only go either of two ways.

Either Skullius was guilty, in which cause Damilla would be elated and spend the rest of her days rubbing it in his aged face, a possibility that he genuinely hoped to not be true.

Or, Skullius could be innocent, in which case Damilla would just sulk to herself and watch Silrat and Erkus gush over Skullius' class while brushing off her instinctual observation.

With that in mind, what was with this excessive reaction?

"What's wrong?" he asked Damilla who shot him a glance, seemingly not yet recovered from what she had seen. The middle aged woman then blurted as she pointed at Skullius, "He did it! He's the one who caused the incident, but..."

Skullius' silvery irises shrunk as he reflexively tried to activate a skill!

Unfortunately for the Discount Human, while this action was still in the form of a thought in his small head, a blazing circle of orange fire roared from the tiled floor and surrounded him and his seat, illuminating the entire room with sunny light!

From the gushing flames, a massive creature, its entire build being one of the scorching orange element emerged and clenched its jaw hard at Skullius who was still seated, yet to even act!

Only the creature's head had appeared from under Skullius, its image being something that utterly terrified the Discount Human!

It was a shark!

When the rows of blazing teeth bit Skullius from both sides, the Discount Human did not see himself take damage as he had expected!

Instead, he saw flames flicker over his entire being like resplendent vortices and with this effect applied, he could no longer move anything other his head!

...!

At the same time, mana from his core refused to budge, resisting his will for it to move it so that he could manipulate it into different forms!

When wisps of it did move, the flames that circled around his body would... burn them.

Burn mana.

'WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS?!' Skullius screamed in his mind, panicking.

He had never felt something like this in a while!

Something other than just overwhelming strength!

He momentarily shook as he found himself in this perilous circumstance.

The shark's firey teeth that locked onto him from the chest down, leaving on his chest and head untouched while effectively nullifying his vision of anything of his body beyond that point made him realise just how screwed he was.

Terian's calm gaze was locked onto Skullius with his mana gushing around his body.

He emitted a sigh of disappointment as he gazed at the Discount Human, Erkus and Silrat similarly having the same expressions.

"And here I was hoping that I had found someone I could nurture for the actual good of the city for a change. I must say, I'm very disappointed," Terian said.

Strangely, Silrat still had on his sly smile but Erkus wore a furious visage that needed no words to interpret as his current state of mind was not hidden.

"Indeed. I can't believe someone with such a rare class, a practitioner of the energies, would do something so unsightly. Ending many lives, destroying property afforded to the commonfolk and for what? Enlighten me," Erkus said in a subdued voice but his tone was rather chilly.

"To even be bold enough to try and cast a spell in our presence, haha, you're quite brave, Festos," Silrat added.

This little detail had gone a long way in verifying Damilla's words as a shaky individual usually had something to hide.

Skullius sweated, but all the water he expelled from his body was toasted by the heat.

He was lost for words.

As Erkus, Terian and Silrat stood, surrounding him, he felt so little.

"Wait..." Damilla's voice echoed from behind the three men.

She still had on a petrified expression as she gazed at Skullius.

Terian was confused.

What else was there?

"What is it?" he asked.

"The things I saw... this man... he... he seems to be accompanied by an inhuman creature that possesses a strange power! He brought it into the city! Something tall and dark with sparks of lightning all over!"

Erkus and Silrat looked at each other, then at Skullius whose eyes opened so wide that they threatened to spill from his sockets!

'Is she talking about my Penetrator form?!' he thought with his nonexistent heart beginning to exceedingly fast!

Terian's body flared with a mighty presence, the energy characteristic that Skullius had felt over the man minutes ago, turning out to not be some form of imagination but reality as an array of wild forms, crafted with white light of mana surged from his body with a tremendous heat while exploding upwards!

The old man's hair danced in the air while his calm eyes spat out orange flames that engulfed the room, burning the air such that it swayed but didn't touch the furniture or the four other people that were present!

At this point, Skullius was shaking.

This...

This was the power of a Mage on display!

Merely on display without the intent to harm... yet.

"Boy. I'm too old to engage in prolonged questioning. Your actions have heavily defended the fact that you are responsible for damage to precious life and property. That is a heavy crime, even for precious human resources like Energy Formers. However, to collude with profane creatures is a very serious offense that warrants a fate worse than death..." the old man said in a low voice that wasn't so low.

"Now. I will only request this of you ONCE. If you fail to acquiesce, I shall rend something of yours from you permanently."

Terian said as his hand stretched out to Skullius, seamlessly entered through the flame shark's body and touching the Discount Human's chest under the flames.

"I will destroy your core and steer the rest of your Direction as I see fit."

...!

Skullius felt not the heat on his skin, but the burning sensation that scalded his core as Terian laid his hand on his chest.

After having said his piece and giving evidence as to the truthfulness of his words, Terian finally spoke of what he requested from the Discount Human.

"Tell me. Who are you and what is this creature that you have brought into this city?"