Once Captain Amos led him to the location where Griss Vul was supposed to be, the Arcadian Inquisitor took a moment to observe the building. After he made sure to correctly assess the building's size, Arthur told the Captain to wait in case any bandits tried to run.

  "You know, Lord Ives..." Amos smiled nervously. "I'm pretty sure that you could tell a more convincing lie than this. You don't really plan to let anyone go, do you?"

  "Oh... In that case, just contain the panic." He grinned at the Guard.

  "Panic? What panic?" Amos furrowed his brows. "Wait! Sir?!"

  Arthur just smiled at him and crossed the corner. He ignored the distressed hissing of the Captain and went straight for the main doors. The two thugs guarding the entrance looked at him with disdain.

  "Sto-" One of the men started raising his hand, but Arthur just dashed forward, his armored fist connected with the bandit's face.

  With Arthur’s strength, backed by his levels, the thug's head simply popped, exploding in a fountain of blood when Arthur’s armoured glove smashed into his face. The man was thrown backwards and hit the wall, leaving a bloody trail as he slowly slumped to the ground. The second thug managed to brace his spear, only to find out it was held immoble in the iron grip of the Inquisitor. Arthur simply pushed the man, overpowering the much weaker bandit. Using the bandit's own weapon, he pierced him to the wall, smashing his heart in the process. They were dead in less than two heartbeats and Arthur just opened the door and went inside.

  "Who do you think you are?!" The biggest of the twenty men in the room bellowed. "What are the guards doing..."

  "They’re dead," Arthur responded and raised his hand, making all the bandits grab their weapons.

  However, behind the Inquisitor, twenty magic circles appeared, and he clenched his fist.

  "Holy Javelin." He simply said and headed towards the next room.

  Most of the bandits never learned what killed them. Only a few of them managed to scream in shock but they died before they even hit the floor. Arthur took a moment to make sure that none of them survived. He decided to limit his power so as not to destroy this place. If he managed to return it to Catherine, she could have a chance for a normal life. Arthur moved swiftly from room to room, methodically killing all bandits that he found. He was surprised by their slow reaction times and the fact that none of them even tried to raise an alarm. However, except for the main room that he’d cleared with his Holy Magic, the remaining rooms contained one or two bandits each, which he simply cut down with a sword he found on one of the bodies.

  The building was big, even for his standards, so the Trade Company that originally belonged to Catherine's family must have been prosperous. The neatly laid down stone walls and excellently carved wooden details on the columns holding the floors were a testament to the effort and love put into building this place. The decorations were preserved and the place was kept clean. Arthur wondered what kind of sick plan Griss Vul had that required keeping Catherine's former home intact. He walked upstairs and his eyes fell upon a short man. The Halfling flinched, clearly surprised by the presence of Arthur and clueless that the lower floor was flowing with blood. He quickly snapped out of whatever shock he was in, seeing the bloodied sword in Arthur's hand, and drew his own dagger.

  Arthur wasn't going to grace him with a fancy duel or a heroic last stand. He simply blurred in a Dash and cut the thief almost in half, however, the captured sword broke midstrike. Before he tossed away the trash, a large Orc entered the corridor from one of the rooms. Arthur threw the broken weapon at the bandit, hitting him in the neck with the stump of the broken blade. The Orc clawed at his open throat as he slowly collapsed to the floor, drowning silently in his own blood. Arthur walked without changing his pace and ducked only to grab the Orc's weapon. It was less than ten minutes and already fifty bandits were dead. Methodically, he moved from room to room until he found a room unlike the previous. This one was clearly rebuilt. The slave cages lined the walls, and in the middle of the room was a slim metal pole looking like a strange column. Women of various races were sitting in the cages and looked at him with a hopeless gaze. He found a large crate with slave collars and took one with an ominous laugh.

  He simply left the room without uttering a word. What could he tell them? That they are saved and free? Until he was finished, they had to remain where he found them. Arthur resumed his annihilation sweep, gradually finding stronger opponents. Well... Calling them stronger was an overuse of that word. They were exactly as strong as he expected the bandits to be. He hacked and slashed his way through the building. Finally, in one room, the bandits raised an alarm by ringing a bell that loudly echoed across the building painted red in the blood of their comrades.

  "It's too late. Only twelve of you remain." Arthur said in a cold voice and raised his hand, conjuring Holy Javelins once more. "Ten..."

  Two bodies hit the floor as the Inquisitor turned around and left the room. He stopped in front of the richly decorated doors that must have led to the office that once belonged to Catherine's father. In front of them was a towering dog-like man in a strange armour resting his bulk on a two-handed metal mace... Or rather a metal bat? The thing was made of metal and had irregular, half-spherical bulges on its surface.

  "I don't know who you are and what all those bastards who should be guarding the way here are doing” The odd canine creature growled, “But you are going to die..."

  "What the fuck are you?" Arthur asked, interrupting the threat, dashing so quickly that the man lost sight of him. He stopped right next to him. "A dogkin, perhaps?"

  "My name is Shax-" The bandit received a kick that threw him backwards, opening the office doors with the impact.

  "I asked what race you are. I don't need to know the name of the man that is about to die..." Arthur shrugged as he entered the room. "Good evening, you scum."

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  The dog man was bleeding from his mouth and holding his abdomen, which had ripped open by with the force of Arthur's kick. The remaining nine bandits standing around the room looked at the scene in shock.

  "Which one of you insignificant vermin is Griss Vul?" Arthur asked with a flat tone.

  His eyes shone with a blue mana glow as he Appraised them and they locked on the man behind the huge desk. The large man with the horns of the bull and much of the bull's physique stood up. His veins were bulging out.

  "Do you know how fucked you are, boy?" Griss Vul bellowed with a raspy voice.

  "You have no idea..." Arthur laughed as he dashed to the closest bandit and pierced his neck with a single blow. "I was flung across the world..."

  Arthur couldn't be bothered with taking back the sword and he simply cut, almost decapitating the man and slashing another bandit across his chest so deeply that he managed to cut through his ribs before the sword broke. In a swift motion, Arthur drew the sword of the man he had just killed before the body hit the floor.

  "I'm in some Gods-forsaken backwater shithole that practices the worst kind of slavery..." Without losing his momentum, Arthur cut off the head of another thug and smote down the six remaining Bandits with his Holy Javelins. Griss Vul looked at the carnage with an open jaw and complete disbelief. "I don't need someone like you to tell me that I'm fucked."

  The Bull-man bellowed angrily and charged at Arthur, some kind of martial arts skill building power in his pulled back right arm. He released his skill with a victorious smirk, but Arthur just caught the blow with his open palm, closing his fingers around the crime lord's fist. The mana powering the attack harmlessly shot sideways, deflected by Arthur's overwhelming defence. The Inquisitor squeezed until he heard the sound of breaking bones, followed by Griss Vul’s pained cry.

  "I know it without your shitty input," Arthur whispered and pushed the other man to the floor.

  "Who... Who are you?!" Griss shouted with fear amplified by Arthur's Aura of Despair. He looked with shock and disbelief at the Arcadian.

  "I'm an Arcadian Inquisitor. I'm the Judge and Executioner. I am the Lawbringer." Arthur said in a proud cold voice that he lowered to an almost menacing whisper. "All the evidence I have gathered so far indicates that you will die, Griss Vul..."

  "No! I beg you! I don't know what crime I committed against Arcadia or your Lord!" Griss Vul raised his hands in a begging gesture.

  "You have sent your dogs after me and the person I consider my friend." Arthur stopped a few steps in front of the lonely and broken crime lord. "Is the name Catherine Clark ringing any bells?"

  "What does that bitch have to do with anything?!"

  Arthur laughed and took out the slave contract. "According to your law, she is now my property, albeit I detest owning another person."

  "So it was you..." He lowered his head and laughed shortly cradling his broken and bleeding hand. When he raised his head, he was still trembling in fear, but was slowly overcoming the despair. "In that case, I will defend myself in the court of law and prove that you killed my people. If you kill me now, you will hang, my friends will get me out of this mess..."

  "I'm an Arcadian Count, you scum. You raised your hand on a noble." Arthur said and took out the slave collar. "Do you know what punishment is for offending a noble?"

  "No! No, I beg you!" He tried to fall back but slipped on the dead body of his comrade.

  The crime lord was squirming with fear but his cries were silenced as Arthur threw the slave collar near the man. A single, menacing, sound of the metal hitting the wooden floor sounded louder than any explosion. Arthur found a war mace lying on the nearby table and lifted it with a smile. He tapped it a few times on his open palm and looked at the collar.

  "Put it on." He said with a cruel voice. "Or I will kill you slowly and painfully. We, the Arcadian Inquisitors, usually don't need to resort to something so barbaric as torture. But spectacular execution? Oh, we are allowed to do it in special cases... There are some really painful ways to die. I think that I will simply break every bone in your body. That alone won't kill you, but the pain? It will overload your tiny brain and you will die in unbearable suffering."

  Griss Vul started crying as he reached out to the slave collar and very slowly opened it.

  "I beg you... Don't make me put myself..." His hands trembled as he looked at Arthur. "Have mercy..."

  "Mercy? Have you ever shown mercy to the people you killed or enslaved?" Arthur's voice was hollow because he already knew the answer.

  "No..." Griss whispered. "But I swear I will change! I-"

  "I will start with your fingers then." Arthur smiled as if discussing something pleasant. "It's really hard to break them with such a large mace one by one, so I have to do it by crushing them completely. Or perhaps I should crush your hand, then heal and crush it again for every finger you have?"

  The bull man shrieked and quickly snapped the tight slave collar around his neck. Arthur noticed that the rune stone wasn't glowing and recalled that Catherine always made him touch it. So he did just that and the collar activated.

  "Have you killed, or ordered anyone to kill, Catherine's father?" Arthur asked, realising that he didn't even know his name.

  "Noah Clark? I... Yes. I ordered my men to get rid of him, my Master." Griss Vul answered.

  "Why?"

  "I wanted to take over some prospering business in the city. His shop had no backing of any Trade Company or any noble so he was the easiest target. However, that idiot didn't want to cooperate, so I removed him. I needed a place to launder the money from my other sources, my Master." Vul explained. The moment he closed the collar on his neck, there were no secrets from Arthur.

  "Why have you wanted to enslave Catherine? Why have you humiliated her so much and despite your obsession, you have let her out of your sight for almost a year?" Arthur asked in disgust.

  "Obsession? No, Master. She was and is nothing to me. Her father defied me, so after I ordered him to be killed, I wanted to make sure that no one else would even think about crossing me. So she needed to suffer for everyone to see, my Master. She was going to be a perfect example..."

  "How?" Arthur asked, uncertain if he wanted to hear it.

  "She would have been a bitch for the lowest price. For anyone to have their way with her. Even the folks from the slums could afford a round with her, my Master." He admitted with an evil smile.

  "You are sick." Arthur shook his head in disbelief and exhaled. For a reason he didn't understand, it took a significant effort not to kill that man here and now. He had Catherine's sad smile before his eyes when he turned towards the exit. "You will follow me."

  Thank you all for reading.

  I wish you all a great day and as always I wait for your comments.

  A big thanks to and who edited the chapter!