~Pang!

Pangord's face tilted to the side as blood oozed out his bony jaws in pain continuously.

Veins popped out of his dark-toned skin, causing them to almost tic or spasm out in his mind since he could hear the twitching noises from his body time and time again.

His damp, whitish hair coated his bloodied face, almost blinding him from his torturer.

But Pangord was unwilling!

He forced his heavy eyes to look at the man who just slapped him in hatred.

For his family, he would live!

~Pang!

"The holy Monkard is talking to you. So speak up, you lowly bastard!"

~Pah. Pah. Pah. Pah. Bam!!

Pangord didn't even flinch when they continuously tortured him.

With his goal in place, this much pain wasn't enough to drive him to insanity.

Fidelis squinted his eyes cold and raised his hands for the men to stop.

Just one look at Pangord, and he knew what sort of man he was.

Such a person could get tortured physically all day long and would never break.

One had to use another angle to get what he wanted out of him.

Fidelis massaged his beard playfully: "City Lord Pangord. You seem to be a smart man, so let's talk as men instead. You can act tough all you want, but have you forgotten that your wives, daughters, and a few of your sons are still within our custody?... Yes. You might not want to give us information. But in this case, isn't it better to give in sometimes? If all buildings collapse on your family, then their blood will be on your hands and not ours!" Fidelis warned.

His family...

.

Pangord's body trembled slightly as his eyes widened in terror.

Even though he hated to admit it, if his family got destroyed by something he could prevent, then he would indeed feel too guilty over their deaths.

No! It would be his fault.

Not only that. But if the buildings collapsed on all the other prisoners, including himself, then he wouldn't even have the chance to avenge his 2 deceased sons.

It was just that the thought of helping the enemy alone made his gut churn deeply.

Very quickly, Pangord's mind went to work.

Firstly, from what he heard, it appeared that several strange clouds or whirls of wind, taller than this 4-story structure, had appeared out of nowhere., causing worry to the enemy.

In fact, getting the description one made him somewhat fearful as well.

He has lived in this city all his life, from birth till now.

And even as city lord, he had access to some ancient texts ascribing all sorts of phenomena that took place way before his birth, like what the ancestors faced when creating Zalipnia and whatnot.

Be it the strange phenomena of complete darkness plaguing the entire Zalipnia and several other continents for 7 whole months, or even the strange phenomena of the red sky, he knew of the many abnormalities faced in Zalipnia's history.

But this was the first time he heard that there were snow tornado-winds that big and tall during winter.

Such a thing had never been seen in Zalipnia. 

So how could he not worry?

.

One shouldn't forget that a floor was akin to 1.8~2 floors in a modern home.

It was believed that unless underground, all floors must have overly high ceilings to show off wealth and whatnot.

That said, the snow-tornadoes Pangord was used to seeing here were 1~2 floors high.

So hearing that the current mushroom tornado outside was over 4 floors high, how could he not freak out?

Of course if it were that high, it meant that it would be wide and strong as well.

This... 

Pangord was dumbfounded and only hoped that the winds wouldn't destroy the buildings, killing and burying them all.

But what made him even more helpless was that this was wind and not some physical enemy.

Throughout their history, they had never been able to disperse any wind tornadoes.

All they could do was build sturdier walls, roads and even secure their winter rations as well.

Thats why to be honest, around the city, one could see that almost every home, estate or region had what some people would call indoor farms.

When it was time to let the light in, or when the weather wasn't that bad, they would open all massive windows for light and fresh air as well.

After all, these sorts of heavy snowstorms only occurred at most twice a week.

So the other days were fairly standard.

So they could open their windows and let things pass on like that.

Having outdoor farms during winter was ridiculous since the majority of the time, the snowy & windy storms would uproot whatever was planted.

Worse, someone could fly into a crop bed and destroy the harvest goods there instead.

The lives and livelihood of the people here were clear, precise and direct when it came to the weather.

Anyway, that was the common weather Pangord was used to.

But now, they told him that there's even greater monstrous weather outdoors, which shocked him silly.

Was this still the same city he was used to?

And if they could not even fight against the ordinary weather, then how could they disperse such a monstrous one?

Their only option here was to see the damage level such weather could cause.

The more Pangord thought about it, the more he felt he was right.

There's a chance that their stone buildings might be able to withstand any blows from it.

But there's also a chance that this weather might do real damage.

So they had to be vigilant.

That said, he knew that no matter what the case might be, the enemy wouldn't free them from the dungeons and might even be willing to let them get buried by the chaos.

So why not do the suicide option and die together with these bastards?

Of course, he could also manipulate them as well.

They didn't know what he knew. So he was king. In short, he held power.

A cold light flashed through Pangord's eyes.

Want to survive?

Then they had to do what he said.

.

Pangord looked at the bastards before him and sneered: "Hahahahaha! You kill 2 of my sons, make my other sons slaves, have your way with my daughters and wives, and dare come here to ask for my help? Is it that your heads have been pushed out from too much killing that you dared to show your silly faces before me?"

Pangord released all his pent-up anger, which in turn enraged the many Adonis followers as well.

"YOU SHUT UP! How dare you speak to the Holy Monkard in that manner?"

"Bastard! You should be happy that your daughters and wives had even touched his holy body."

"That is, our Holy Circle of Adonis elders cleansed their filthy bodies. Yet here you are being nothing but ungrateful."

"You dare refuse the divine blessings from above?

Tsk! It's bastards like you that make me feel disgusted!"

"F***! You better shut up!

What the hell are you complaining about?

Be lucky that you were even spared at all.

How dare you speak to the Holy Monkard like that?"

Everyone was sitting fire the more they listened to Pangord.

Where did he even get the ego to talk back to them?

Were they on the same level?

No! Did they even enjoy the same level of air or sunlight?

F***! Just thinking that this lowly nonentity was talking to them made their faces get overly distorted.

If not for the fact that they needed him alive, they wouldn't have minded slitting his throat ages ago.

How Preposterous!

(*^*)

....

Pangord didn't care much for their disdain and fixed his swollen, purplish eyes at Fidelis with a sly smile plastered on his lips: "Whether you think I'm worthy or not doesn't matter, right? After all, if I'm not worthy, then why waste your time talking to me? Aren't you all just contradicting ourselves? Well, that's neither here nor there. The main thing is that you all want to know how to disperse the winds, correct?"

Fidelis squinted his eyes coldly: "Hm."

"Hahahahaha! If you wanted a favour, then why didn't you ask like this in the first place? Heh. Don't you know that you'll make it far in life if you use this approach instead? Well, let's keep your bad manners out of the way first. You all are here to get information from me. And in truth, as the city lord, I'm more knowledgeable and have read way more ancient texts in higher Roma than most here. And since time is the issue here, you don't have time to read them. So you're all smart to come to me straight. That said, I do have some conditions if I'm going to assist you all."

Fidelis raised his eyebrows playfully: "Oh? Interesting."

Fidelis knew that this guy wouldn't be easy.

But so what?

Adonis would never let them loose!