Chapter 540 540

[We found all four teams and we have a lot of prisoners.] The Oath Breakers informed Cain just after he turned over the Captain.

[Why did you take them as prisoners?] Cain asked, confused.

[Most of them had been forcibly awakened, they had one mythic skill, and it was terrible. We might be demons, but it was just too pathetic of a battle.] The Oath Breaker clarified.

[Fine, terrorize them for a little bit and bring them back here. The locals can deal with them, or I can reset them to level one.] Cain agreed, thinking of the amount of work that it would be to kill and revive that many people.

It was mana intensive as well, so he wasn't sure if he could do them all in one go, or if he would need to wait on mana regeneration. That could be good entertainment for the ones that were still alive, but if the Oath Breakers were right, he might not need to go that far.

Instead, Cain sent a thought through the mental link for suggestions.

[Any ideas on how to deal with these idiots without killing them all?]

[Summon a Record Keeper to cleanse them of curses, and then put a Death Hex on them, so they get reset to level one if they betray you. Killing is easy to resurrect, but the chances that someone can stop the hex from stripping their system advancement from them is pretty low.] Victor, the Echo, suggested.

[Vic always has good ideas. I was thinking mind break them and just leave them a slobbering mess.] Nemu suggested.

[That's always an option as well. You could bring them here for us to experiment on. We are always short on research materials.] Lou, the second Echo agreed.

That wasn't much less cruel than mass murder, so Cain would skip that option for now and try the Hax first. It was a Mythic Spell, one of the ones he hadn't learned from his [Spell Crafting] book yet, but he had seen the description as he was scanning through.

"My summons are bringing a lot of prisoners back to the city, and I am going to set some conditions on them so that they don't cause any more trouble. The group this Captain was leading was one of five in the area, and we will keep hunting for more as we travel, since he so kindly told us that his former boss was targeting every city in the area, and they are all our allies." Cain informed the Elders and Prana.

"Five groups for one city? They really must have wanted us to be desperate before the boss showed up. Are you sure it's not a trap?" One of the Elders asked, making Kone smirk and Cain give him a small smile.

The leader of the hunter team that accompanied Cain to the City shook his head before replying. "If it's those same demons, it's not a concern. They are all Mythic Demons, and insanely fast. This group didn't even have a proper chance to react before they were dead and dismembered. The whole fight was under a minute, and I'm not sure that the summoned Demons even took damage." He explained.

The Elder frowned at that description. "Don't you think that it's a bit unethical to summon Demons and bind them to your will?"

That one made most of the room actually laugh out loud.

"Ethics aren't really a concern. The Oath Breakers are more than happy to help. In fact, going hunting was their own idea. I was originally only going to have them keep the group safe while we traveled, but they are an enthusiastic lot, especially when there is a chance to compete with each other." Cain explained.

The Elder looked confused now, his deep red eyebrows pulling together on his ash-gray face as he thought about what Cain had told him.

"Oath Breaker is an unwelcome visitor to most Demon communities, but you speak as if there is more than one of him among your summons."

"Thirty-Six copies of Oath Breaker all at Mythic Quality is what I sent out today. As a general rule, that should be enough to take out three scout units at once, but they managed to find and capture a fourth squad as well tonight."

That made the old demon turn a bit pale in shock, but he recovered quickly. Centuries of experience as a political leader were enough to teach a man to recover from almost any sort of shocking news.

"They are at the gates now. It seems that they took the entire group alive. We should also get moving to claim the prisoners before they kill them. Oath Breaker is using their area damage effect to torture them all at the same time, and they are getting low on health." Prana told the group after receiving word of the new arrivals from a panicked gate guard.

The Oath Breakers' method of compliance was to simply claw one of the prisoners for every minor and imagined slight disobedience, spreading the pain and damage through the group. It was proving to be very effective, and the scouts were quite meek when the Elders and Cain's group arrived at the gate.

Every single prisoner had the same curse on them when Cain checked them, so he called Record Keeper into [Merger] since the Magical Demon was nearly the only being he knew that could dispel almost anything.

[Can you take care of the curse that Morgeth has placed on all of these scouts? After that, I will replace it with Death Hex, but modified to reset their system if they disobey. Getting verbal agreement from them should be enough to activate the modified Hex.] Cain told Record Keeper, getting him up to speed on the situation.

[That's not a problem, but it would be a pain to explain the process to you. If you let me out I can do it in a second.] Record Keeper agreed, and Cain released him from [Merger]

That was understandably shocking to everyone in the area, and the guards all had their weapons out the second that the Demon appeared.

"Sorry, calm down, he's with me. He is going to remove the spell that Morgeth put on the scouts so that they can properly repent for their actions. These ones didn't actually attack anyone as far as I know, if you don't count the demons I sent to capture them, I don't see why they couldn't be rehabilitated." Cain called so everyone in the area could hear him.

In the distance he could hear the Captain of the first group swearing at him, so he sent one of the Oath Breakers to go get him and bring him over as an object lesson.

"Hello everyone, I am the Ancient Cain. I will be your captor for the moment, as I was for the Captain of the last group of scouts in the area until a moment ago. Yes, here he is, thank you Oath Breaker. As you can see, he was rude and disagreeable, so I stripped his System from him and reset him to level one.

I would prefer to avoid doing the same to you all, so Record Keeper has removed the Curse that Morgeth put on you all, and will be placing an Oath of Moment on you all." Cain's explanation didn't make them any less nervous, but they were all focused on their comrade, who was very clearly now a level one transfer.

"How is that even possible? I have never heard of the System allowing such an abomination of an ability." One of them asked.

"Oh, that's not even the half of it. I killed him and resurrected him as a puppet, fully under my control first. It was a very enlightening experience wasn't it, Captain?" Cain asked, causing the man to immediately launch a tirade of enraged cursing at him. He even tried casting a few spells, but he didn't have the mana to actually activate them.

"Okay, we will ask him later, when he has calmed down. Now, I need your solemn oaths. Do you, the assembled prisoners, agree to never betray me or my allies?" Cain asked, watching Record Keeper place the Curse on them all, and then a second curse that would hide it from their debuff status.

None of them looked happy about the oath, but they all spoke the words. "I agree."

The Death Hex snapped into place and then vanished from their status bars, but Cain could still see it active, as he was the one who cast it. The Curse seemed to be in effect, and the condition of resetting their level to one every time they tried to betray Cain or his allies was active.

If Cain's reading was correct, it wouldn't end there though. The Curse would remain active until removed or broken, so every time they betrayed the Oath, the Hex would activate and reset their level.

Of course, if they managed to remove it before it activated, they wouldn't take any harm from the spell, but in order to do that, they would most likely have to sacrifice one of their members, betraying Cain to tell someone who could free them.

"Excellent. Now, if you do betray me, you will end up in the same sad condition as the Captain here, so I would recommend behaving until the city leaders decide that you have fulfilled your punishment or repented your former allegiance."

The scouts all nodded eagerly, but the Oath Breakers informed Cain that one was pulling a dagger. The curse wouldn't activate until the transfer actually did anything, so Cain ordered everyone to wait and see what happened.

The Obsession Demon dressed in Leather armor with his face covered seemed to hesitate as if sensing that something was about to happen, but then steeled his resolve and lunged out, putting the blade to Kone's throat.

"Release us all and I will ask that Master Morgeth spares your miserable lives." He shouted at the same time that the Captain screamed at him.

"Jerry, NO!"

But it was too late, the betrayal had already happened, and the Demon's level was reset to one in a surge of Mana that seemed to sap the life from the Demon's body.

"What happened? What did you do to me?" Jerry asked, looking over himself.

"Check your Interface," Kone answered, easily moving his arm aside.

Now, he couldn't seriously hurt her even if he wanted. He wasn't strong enough to push the blade through her skin.

The rest of the scouts stared in horror, the exact same response that the Captain had when it happened to him, only this time he had a resigned look of defeat on his face.

"You damned fool, I tried to warn you. This Ancient is no normal adversary. The System is on his side, he molds it like putty, and treats everyone around him like a toy to play with." The Captain muttered.

"That's not true is it?" Cain asked Kone, who turned her face away and began whistling as if the question had nothing to do with her.

"Fine, I'm sure that at least Luna is still on my side." Cain pouted, but the baby Lamia Progenitor looked far too excited about the situation.

"Can you make them little? Then I can have a pet demon. At level one they won't even be fast enough to run away if I chase them." Luna suggested.

Alright, putting faith in her to make things look better might have been the wrong call.