Guild Wars

The room was dimly lit even with the light from outside coming in. Misery, AP, Tunder and Armonia stood there like statues, stupefied and confused, wondering if their eyes were playing a trick on them.

As the two men related to the girl on the bed - could they even call her that? - were roaring in despair, the four young men were just utterly confused.

Well from their perspective, what they could see was a bleak room with a small and frail wooden bed with a single mattress that could hardly be called comfortable. Perhaps it might have been thick at one point in the past, but years of being laid in had compressed it.

There were some brown quilts covering the figure in the bed that looked like they had been washed only last week. However, if they knew that this was a result of Austin forcing maids to do it, they would be flabbergasted.

Then, there was the figure in the bed.

After the group had heard Austin's warning, and coupled with the knowledge that her bloodline had been extracted as a baby, they all had their own expectations about her state.

Misery had expected to find a decrepit bag of bones, like a person dying from AIDS.

Armonia had expected to see a grotesque humanoid being warped by missing blood.

AP had expected to see a pale faced beauty, like in some male-oriented fantasy novel were females weren't allowed to be ugly for obvious reasons.

Tunder had expected to see a sickly girl who was under grown and malnourished, who hadn't fully developed.

In essence, they expected horrific outcomes that were fixable as long as they took her away and stuffed her with burgers for some time after giving her back her bloodline.

None of them had expected to find what amounted to mostly a skeleton with a layer of what could be called skin, which was bronze colored.

It… she… was currently seated upright and glaring at their group with cold red eyes that showed alienation and disgust. Even worse was the slightly deformed skull which lacked even a wisp of hair".

But this was not too far from what they expected in the end. It was a bit worse, yeah, but not too inhumane.

What made the old man scream and the four men confused was that they could see a plethora of tubes connected to this girl's bony body that were continually extracting blood directly from her bone marrow.

Every second of her stay in this prison cell, her blood was being sucked out and stored elsewhere for whatever use, the group did not know. If you thought having your bloodline scraped out and removed when young was terrible, then having all your blood sucked directly from the marrow was something on the level of deities in terms of agony.

This was why the two men screamed despite being warned, because as her direct family, they could imagine how their beloved little girl had been living like this since she was born.

They themselves had been chained up brutally and tortured everyday within the Heavenly Imprisonment Tower for the same amount of time, yet they howled as if they had been living in luxury while their own little girl had been whipped everyday.

As for Misery and co, they were still stupefied and confused. There was just one question reverberating in their minds that sought an answer but suffered to get one.

Why?

Just… why?

Why go so far? Was it necessary? What did they even gain from this? Hadn't her bloodline been extracted and given to Shangtian already?

Was that really not enough to do to a baby? What could have made them decide that after all of that, putting her into a cell that they also needed to completely milk her like a cow, scraping ever bit of value from her till she died?

The issue was that this kind of treatment wasn't even given to the worst of enemies, so why was it given to their own family? One who had their own blood, the same ancestor and could trace their roots directly to you?

Even if it was punishment for a crime committed… she had just been born and subjected to this. What crime could she possibly commit to warrant this level of punishment?

Even Austin, who was a half-breed, had only been chained down here because he had literally slaughtered scores of the family in his rampage.

On the other hand, this girl was literally a direct descendant, and the reincarnation of their progenitor for those in the know, yet they still did this.

This was why they were confused. They racked their brains to think of reasons why anyone would need to go so far, but they kept drawing blanks because it didn't make fucking sense.

The problem was that there was absolutely no reason, no cause for an outcome like this. Even Shangtian himself would not be able to find a reason to do this.

If you feared she was a Chosen One and might come back into power in future, then just kill her outright. Any harm she could cause, anything you feared that she might be able to do or create, it would all be gone if you just kill her outright.

But to do this?

What kind of level of evil do you need to reach to consider this necessary?

Misery couldn't help but silently glance over at Fengtian, who was still aggrieved. The moment he did so, Fengtian's face changed greatly as his eyes reddened and he hated himself more than ever for being a Pangu Lineage member.

If it was not for the fact that he had to stay alive for Shuang'er's sake, he would have directly ended his life in shame from Misery's one glance.

After all, it was less than an hour ago that Misery told him to his face that his Lineage and clan were a den for evil devils and that their very nature was to do evil. This shook Fengtian, especially when his family's first action almost proved the man right.

In that moment, as an act of defiance to his fate and to Misery's claims, the old man had chosem to do the right thing because it would prove that he and his clan were not predisposed to evil and that even if their actions were wrong, there was still some modicum of honor and goodness.

However, that had all been rubbished this moment. All Fengtian's attempts to cleanse himself and the clan were laughable, like a thief who stole trying to argue that money was of no importance to him, only to be caught with an invoice for tons of luxurious items.

Misery had not said a word, but that one glance highlighted to Fengtian that his essence was evil. By being a member of the Pangu Lineage, he was capable of not only calculated evil like the rape they commited and the bullying, but the senseless evil like what was before them.

The worst part about it was that Fengtian could not even utter a word in defense because they evidence was right before him. This kind of treatment was not something that could have been decided by one single outlier.

Many had to have been involved on this in order to avoid setting troublesome precedents, and the ones who had implemented it all would definitely not keep quiet about such wickedness.

It would definitely have spread outside the upper echelon, and yet...

Apparently, nothing had been done for years.

If it wasn't for the half-breed Austin, she might have been even subjected to worse as she deteriorated to death.

One couldn't help but wonder what her future would have been had Draco and Eva not decided to send the core members here and now.

Her fate in the previous timeline must have been gruesome, especially since Shangtian had won in the end. Who knows what kind of fate he dealt her after Draco and Eva were killed.

Austin entered after them and glanced at Shuangtian. His eyes flashed with sadness and kindness as he approached her side.

"Little sister, these people came here to rescue you. They were sent by the prodigy of the Lucifer and Amaterasu Lineage." Austin explained to her gently.

This caused Shuangtian's eyes to flash with shock. She glanced at Misery and co, then asked.

"But why? Shouldn't they hate me? Hate us?"

The four fellows were greatly shocked by how clear and strong her voice was despite her physical form. It wasn't commanding or powerful per se, but just very sweet and feminine despite how bad she looked.

You'd expect a raspy or deep voice, not something so clear. If Eva had a mesmerizing face that could charm infinite souls, then Shuangtian's strength lay in her voice.

Still, despite their surprise, the group looked to Misery and designated him the speaker.

With a calm tone, he explained. "That's right, but they know the full story. They have already accumulated their full power and are unlocking their potential."

Shuangtian glanced at him calmly and then focused on Austin.

"They also say they've captured Shangtian and want to transfer the bloodline source back to you."

This clearly affected Shuangtian even more as her pupils dilated crazily. She glanced at Misery's group with shock, like she absolutely could not and would not believe that it could happen.

Misery stepped forward again. "According to the Evil Duo - *cough* the two prodigies, the progenitors intended for you three to copulate and mix or something like that."

Surprisingly, when Shuangtian heard that, she calmed down rapidly and suddenly showed belief, as if she knew of this beforehand.

The girl went silent for a while before her eyes fell on Litian and Fengtian who were still extremely pained. She frowned at them with narrowed eyes.

"Who are these two?"

Austin glanced at the two men who were obviously sad by the fact that Shuangtian didn't recognize them and explained calmly: "The sketchy one is your father and the old one is your direct grandfather."

Litian glared at Austin who didn't care in the least.

Shuangtian glanced at them and simply stated 'oh' as if surprised but unmoved. Seeing this lackluster reaction, Fengtian smiled bitterly as he understood that the girl did not know them and would need time to acclimate and accept.

Litian though, was not as thoughtful as he frowned. "Why such a response? Shouldn't you be happy to be reunited with your family?"

Shuangtian looked at Litian as if he were an idiot. "The same family that did this to me?"

Litian's face paled but he still barged on. "That was your external family. The rest of us, those directly related to your nuclear family were all chained up and tortured for 20 years for trying to save you 20 years ago!"

Shuangtian didn't comment, only stared at Litian silently, which made the older man gloomy and furious.

"When they stole your blood, you were on the verge of death and severely anemic. Your mother and grandmother had to sacrifice their blood, and their lives to keep you alive!" Litian squeezed through gritted teeth.

Suddenly, Shuangtian's eyes froze over. "You mean I could have died and been spared all this but you let me suffer for 20 years?"

Litian was left speechless and Fengtian sighed. He simply pulled Litian back and nodded to Misery before leaving.

As for the core members, they naturally and wisely refrained from commenting about the family issue here and taking sides. When the drama was over, Misery began inspecting the room on how to free Shuangtian while she simply glanced at AP, Armonia and Tunder.

"You three… Grandpa Pangu tells me you're in possession of his avatars. Is this true?"

The four men froze at they glanced at Shuangtian with shock, and even Austin glanced over with a hint of confusion.

"Grandpa Pangu?" Austin asked.

Shuangtian looked towards Austin with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry I never told you big brother, but one of the reasons I was able to survive what they did to me was thanks to Grandpa Pangu helping me and fortifying my mind."

The faces of Misery and co greatly changed while Austin showed surprise.

"You mean you can hear the progenitors thoughts?"

Shuangtian seemed amused as she smiled thinly.

"Hear his thoughts? I don't just hear them, I can manifest them."