Cindy and the others arrived late to the basement, the three non-mystics were already in tatters- actual tatters.

They were kept alive through Richard’s will as their bodies were... not in the best of states.

Describing it might cause some people to wench in disgust- Yuna was one of such people as she ended up vomiting at the sight of Richard smiling towards her while covered in the blood, guts and bones of five men.

Richard didn’t seem to be bothered by their reaction to his state as he calmly explained everything he learned from the group.

"Did you need to do that torture? All you had to do was kill them and interrogate their souls"

Yuna asked, as a veteran of the mystical world, the type of knowledge she had and the things she witnessed gave her a lot of information about the possibilities of mystics and mystical abilities.

Yet Richard’s response to her was blunt, he did not try to sugarcoat his mad actions, nor did he try to justify himself. All he said was-

"Sometimes, what you experience before death is more horrifying than what comes after. Moreover, most of such horrors are reflected quite heavily in the afterlife"

Richard pointed at the souls of the five men that were in an even more gruesome state than their physical bodies.

Yet Richard did not do anything to their souls.

The appearance of the five men’s souls were nothing more than a reflection of their suffering. A truly gruesome sight but Cindy was already used to such things and was unbothered. Instead, her focus was directed at Richard. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He had freed the kidnapped group of people but he didn’t seem happy.

Cindy did a quick scan of the faces, she did not memorize all the missing people but she did have a goood familiarity with the faces of those that disappeared in the past month.

The people that were rescued... all of them were accounted for- except for one.

"SHIO-CHAN!"

Maiko pushed her way through and charged into the basement but the moment she saw the group of people that were rescued... her mood instantly dropped.

"All missing people in the past month are accounted for- save for Karen Tamashiro"

Richard did not react as she expected, Cindy believed that the person named "Karen" should have some sort of connection to Richard. She did not know but Cindy trusted her instincts.

Yet, Richard did not react as expressively as Maiko who looked as if her whole world had shattered.

Curious, Cindy walked up to Richard and tried to pry into what his true emotions were but then she noticed it.

"ᚢᛁᚦ ᛊᛃᚨᚢᛗ ᚦᛁᚲ "

It was a line of runes, even Cindy could not read it. The two only stared at it until Ragnarr walked up to look and said-

"We see you... What does that mean?"

The old viking read the runes easily and his words caused the two young mystics to give him questioning looks. It was obvious what they wanted to know so Ragnar only sighed as he tried to make out the meaning behind the runes.

"I don’t know how you go about looking at this- all I could say is that it looks like something Vanir would write. Only they use this archaic method of writing... mostly in protest to the Aesir who made the new runes that were just 16 compared to this old text that has 24. The Vanir are also the ones who would go to such lengths to make a statement... though they were allied to Merlin so I don’t know what’s going on"

Ragnar’s explanation was all over the place but Richard who was already used to the vikings roundabout method of articulating his thoughts had grasped the idea.

"The Vanir, an ally of Merlin huh..."

Richard could already tell what was happening-

"Karen should be fine"

He spoke to Maiko but the yokai couldn’t calm down.

"What do you mean "should be fine"? What’s your basis? Why would you say that after seeing this!"

Maiko pointed at the group of missing people who were now knocked unconscious since most of them were not part of the mystical world.

Cindy had already declared that they were all accounted for. Which means that all of those that went missing for the past month were here... except for Karen.

This meant that Karen was somehow "special" or was targeted by another group.

"We already have a lead... trust me, if there’s anything good I inherited from Merlin, it would be my ability to faintly grasp at fortune and Karen is not fated for anything bad... this could even be a certain group’s way to catch my attention instead."

"Huh?"

Richard did not explain anymore, although he knew that this whole situation revolved around him, he did not want to say such things out loud.

[I warned you]

The Goddess’ cryptic words resounded in his mind but Richard didn’t try to defend his choice and actions, instead he chose to move forward.

"Ragnar, do you have a way to connect with the Vanir?"

"No, after Merlin was sealed in the tower, Freyja vanished at the same time as Skadi and the other goddesses who had a "good" bond with Merlin"

"She brought her entire race with her?"

"They were all demigods leaving them out to the world would only create a repeat of the Age of God’s"

Hearing the name of Freyja made a certain image pop up in Richard’s mind.

’If only she was the same...’

[Unlikely]

Richard’s dreams were crushed though as the Goddess denied his wishes outright. He wanted to retaliate but doing so would only make his own image worse.

[It already is]

Ignoring the Goddess, Richard turned his attention to the unconscious missing people. Now that they found them, Richard had to think of how to deal with them.

"First to separate those kidnapped and those who wanted to disappear"

There were many problems with that and one thing that Richard did not understand was how these people who disappeared would continue to live after they fade away?

Most transactions... no, everything in the current society requires identification.

It wasn’t the middle ages where people could lie about their identity and no one would care since going to a small village tens of kilometers away to confirm the identity of a single person was not worth.

In the current age, confirming identities could be done through government connections, public databases and official documents such as ID’s issued and ensured by the government.

To fade away from the world would mean to abandon all that.

But that brings in the question... how do you live?

Richard could do his disappearing act because he had a way to get money and even had his own stored prepared for such an occasion.

What of the youth who just spontaneously decided to escape from their current life?

They escape the problems that plagued their life but their new identity, new name... all of it came not from the government but from a bunch of kids who learned how to counterfeit things.

Simply put, the vanishing act was something that would likely lead to people in a bad spot just directly falling into hell.

Yet... Richard still tried to create a plan to ensure that those with nothing to return to would be able to get... at the very least, some way to live.

While Richard was focused on trying to make a plan to deal with the rescued civilians, in the Philippines, within a remote forest, a small offroad truck stopped in front of a hidden manor.

The doors opened and a woman, Japanese with black hair and blue eyes, was dragged out from the backset.

She was not bound by anything but her expression said it all.

She was neither a guest nor was she a captive. Her position was weird but soon-

"Is that her?"

A man with brown hair opened the door to the manor, he scanned the woman up and down before licking his lips while showing a disgusting expression.

"Haven’t tasted an Asian babe for a long time, this one looks young too- should I start my-"

"Silence"

The man was about to grab the Japanese woman’s breast when a booming voice echoed from within the manor.

The man with brown hair was pushed to the ground by an invisible force. He struggled but was unable to even push his body up a few millimeters before getting driven deeper into the concrete.

Blood started to leak out of the man causing the Japanese woman to back out in fear.

"There’s no need to worry miss Tamashiro, within this manor, you are our guest"

A calm female voice followed the loud declaration and Karen turned towards the woman who spoke.

She found a beautiful lady walking towards her, her appearance was ethereal and out of this world.

No exaggeration could do justice to explain her beauty, all Karen could do was marvel at the woman who came to her rescue.

"Unlike this worthless thrall you are a treasure that needs to be protected"

The woman smiled as she spoke, her beauty moved even Karen who felt a sense of comfort as the woman came to hug her. She did not resist and silently rested herself on the woman.

As this happened a few men appeared, they had the same faces, same expression and same build.

They looked like clones of one another and a passing mystic would mistake them for homunculi but in between their joints, one could see lines that separated parts of their body.

These two "creatures" did not speak and walked in a natural yet unnatural motion. They carried the brown haired man who had long passed out and turned towards the beauty who coldly stated-

"Burn him, he won’t die but that is his punishment... yes... 13 days would do"

The man tried to protest but the pressure that pushed him down had caused one- no, multiple of his ribs to break and puncture his lungs.

He could feel his body slowly regenerating but it was not like he was w*lver*ne or d**dp**l. The brown haired man could only silently scream in pain and silently resist but-

A man who could not speak was a man whose fate was left to those who could.

Karen did not seem to mind the woman’s words as she was already sleeping on her bosom.

"Good girl"

The beauty smiled seeing Karen fast asleep, despite having a devious air, her smile still made the men who brought Karen to this manor react.

Their lower bodies had obvious bulges since they wore tight pants.

How they could bear to wear such clothes in a sweltering nation like the Philippines was beyond her as she only cared for Karen.

"I wonder what would happen next?"

The woman muttered to herself as she called for another servant to carry Karen to a room.

"Take care of her, we don’t want out prized guest to suffer do we?"

The servant did not respond with words and only nodded mechanically before taking Karen into its arms and leaving.

The woman turned towards the two men and asked, "What?"

Snapping out of their delusions, the two men panicked, they looked down and found wet spots on their crotch right at the peak of the tent.

"Go now and stop parading your tiny excuse for manhood"

The two men felt ashamed, they knew they were not that well endowed in that area.

What could they do? Genetics is a bitch and it gave them the worst roll.

If only "rerolling" was possible in real life.

Unfortunately for them, what they got was all they could work with.

The two men ran back to the truck before driving away.

As the truck vanished, the woman looked up to the sky and smirked before turning around and entering the manor whose doors closed automatically without the need for anyone to move them.