Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

"Thats better," the boy said, his nose was about to pierce the sky.

"Ah, please forgive them their disrespect, we're just an uneducated bunch." Aldrich apologized 'sincerely'.

"Hmm," the boy nodded looking satisfied with his display of subservience.

"Well, here's the letter."

Aldrich took the letter and read it, the contents were easy and simple. It was regarding the sale of the two Aberrant acolytes eyes, apparently they finished inspecting them and are now ready to pay them their dues.

For that they were to meet at Ward Call inn, they boy will guide him there.

"Alright, the great senior inquisitor has summoned us, how can we delay?" Aldrich said flatteringly.

"We?" Cole asked in horror.

"Yes, we." Aldrich answered while giving him a look that said keep your mouth shut please.

The group followed behind the boy who didn't bother to introduce himself and rode a carriage prepared for them beforehand to the Ward call inn.

"Wait here until the inquisitors call for you."

Aldrich and company were left waiting in the reception room of the inn which was for some reason devoid of any employees or customers.

He guessed that the inquisitors must have rented the whole place or driven the others out. It was probably the former.

"The inquisitor called for us and yet he's making us wait when we got here? Has he no dignity to speak off." Frank complained.

"Hmm, while I agree with you, we should keep it down until we're done with this here." Aldrich warned because he was feeling jittery the moment he walked in to this place.

He was angry at being made to wait after they were explicitly told to come now but what could he do?

He was in an inferior position, in such cases it was better to plaster on a fake smile and hope this whole thing is over soon.

Aldrich agreed to sell the eyes to the inquisitors to make a point to look friendly. Not because he couldn't find anyone to sell them to, even if there was no one here, was it the same in Voryhrm?

Obviously the inquisitors wanted the eyes so why not take the chance to step back and have a better relationship?

However, he was also aware that such gestures could come off as weakness to weak people. But he didn't think that inquisitor Giltmere was one to not get the hint.

Well, it was just an impression after all he didn't know the man.

Soon the boy called them up to the third floor, it was quite the place, luxurious and yet classy. The green and gold contrasted one another perfectly.

Behind the door of the biggest room, a man was sitting behind the mahogany wood desk, but it was not Giltmere Voke, it was inquisitor Bernard that waited for them.

"Oh, the young heroes have arrived, please take a seat." Bernard greeted and attempted to smile. He failed miserably.

"O-oh yeah," Aldrich forced a smile of his own. "Is senior inquisitor Giltmere running late?"

"Yes, he… will be coming in a few minutes hopefully. In the meantime I will chat with you guys, aspiring heroes are a rare breed these days."

Unexpectedly Bernard was actually being nice today. If not for the giant orc-like thing behind him. He saw it following behind the carriage when he first had the pleasure of meeting with the inquisitors.

"So…" Bernard coughed, ""how have you found Ebrict so far? Not a bad town eh?"

"Yes, yes, it's actually quite pleasant." Aldrich answered, hoping that Giltmere will come in any minute.

He did not like any of the inquisitors he met so far but he disliked Bernard the most out of all of them. He did not forget how he was made to bow deep enough for his satisfaction.

"Ehem! I understand that we may have gotten aquatinted on the wrong foot."

Aldrich was surprised, Bernard was actually doing something close to apologizing.

"What? How could that be? Sir, you were only doing your duty, how can we hold it against you."

Fuck, Aldrich was about to throw up but he held on with sheer will.

"Oh, you guys must be curious about this one right?" Bernard pointed at the giant behind him.

Aldrich and the others nodded, admittedly they were indeed, they just weren't sure if they should ask.

"This is a special product, it's called the Punisher. They're not easy to make a half breed grey orc and a Sulvan hound beastmen are crossed to make even one of them. And it wouldn't even be possible without the power of the Inverted Spire."

The Inverted Spire was the headquarters of the inquisition and the empire's most notorious prison despite the lack on definitive information about it.

No one actually knew it's true location, even the High lords have no idea. For example even in the False Saint's war it was never attacked by any side and the inquisition itself remained uninvolved.

The prison is known to be a mysterious tower only it was built into the ground, the further down you go the more dangerous the sinners. However the sinners are rarely kiiled there.

Instead they all lead a life worse than death, their anguish and suffering is channeled through the inverted spire to power the weird devices used by the inquisitors.

Like the one planted on the back of this Punisher.

The Spire was the known as the Earthly hell, and it was the nightmare of all evildoers and sinners. Few criminals would hesitate in taking their own lives to never get to the inverted spire.

He could not blame them, for they were right to fear such a place, not a single soul in the history of the empire has escaped.

To that end there are many clerics who work there to make sure none of the prisoners die.

There are even stories of some foreign royalty being imprisoned there.

Most of this information was spread over the long history of the empire and there was no way to confirm what was true and what was not.