Adrius was as usual sitting in his room reading some book about history. It was a normal day. He hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. He went to the lab and cultivated a little, and then he sent for Mary to bring him some food and ate. It was a very normal day. So when the door got knocked on it was a very confusing situation, not a lot of people knocked on his door because the last one who knocked got beaten into a bloody pulp.

But he had a good reason for why he beat him. The man knocked on his door while he was reading an important piece of history. He was at the end of the story and it was the climax. And that person interrupted him while he was reading so he put all of his frustration and anger on him, it was 100% justifiable. In his eyes at least, But for others it was mainly unnecessary violence, which he disagreed with.

He got more annoyed by the person’s girlfriend when she came and started to protest that he killed him and screamed. He thought of cutting her tongue out but he thought better of that. If he did that then he will be in very big trouble because it will be a disfigurement of a student and that is not legal in the Academy. But he broke two of her fingers so she could shut up. And from that time on, no one knocked on the door. Thinking about it he still doesn’t know why that person knocked on the door. Maybe it was important…. I don’t know.

So the knocking now made it sound very confusing. Who is it? Who is brave enough to knock on his door? So he used his favorite trick , he used a shadow hand to open the door and put on his mask. He doesn’t want anybody to know his face. It's already hard enough when people know his mask and knowing his face will be much harder. He still doesn’t have the ability to change his appearance. Thus if his face becomes known throughout the Academy. He wouldn’t be able to disguise himself as another person.

Also the door was standing a servant, he was looking at him with fear in his eyes. He doesn’t know why a servant came to his room, the only servant that is allowed to come to his room is Mary.

“ What do you want? Who sent you? And you should probably speak fast I don’t have a lot of time” Questioned Adrius

The servant was trembling in fear he knew that what he would say now will probably get him killed but if he didn’t say it then he will probably die anyway, so fuck it: “ I’ve got a message to you, my Lord. The message said: We have Mary and your child. Meet us outside the Academy in the forest three hours from now, and come alone or we will take out the child and make her eat it. And then kill her in the most painful way”

Looking up at Adrius the servant caught his eyes and his legs became soft with fear. He swore he saw a black flame burning in his eyes, he blinked and it was gone. And the cold darkness resumed its existence.

“Is that all?” Asked Adrius with almost annoyed tone

The servant nodded and Adrius motioned for him to disappear. Closing the door the servant almost took off running back to his safety, it was not safe anywhere besides the room. Only when he got out of the building did he feel safe.

Sitting inside the room Adrius was thinking about what the message meant, who would want to get Mary? And why did it say his child? Also do they really think that he will sacrifice himself for a servant? What is he a damn hero from these cheap novels from his old world? The novels where the hero saves every woman he can and make him part of his harem and then becomes the ruler of the universe, it is not a story, it is real life. His life is worth more than that of Mary’s and her child. Maybe it was a setback to his plans if the child dies, but that doesn’t mean that he will put his life at risk for it. It was not his and even if it was his. He would not care, why would he care about something else other than him? It will only make him weaker and his enemies will use that against him. So he will only care for himself and no one else. But he was intrigued to go, not because of Mary but because he wanted to know who was the person doing that and the person that was ambushing him?

And then it struck him! It is fucking Illyan Trant, that delusional bitch with hero complex that thinks that he is the evil of the world and should be killed. This is getting very very amusing to him now, she wants to kill him so she could have more respect in the Academy. She wants to kill him so she could have fame, this is getting very amusing. He is thinking about going there now but he doesn’t want to risk his life. He doesn't know how many people she has. Or how many traps she has, so why not use someone who is immune to such things? Why not use Croft? He’s already a magus so literally no one can hurt him except for the other Magus so he could use him to his own benefit.

So with that in mind he took out his book of contacts and contacted Croft immediately.

After a few seconds Croft answered: “ yes Adrius, what do you want?”

“ Professor, I need your help, some students kidnapped my maid and her child from my calculations. They are a group of people. I cannot go alone to save her so I was wondering if you can do me a favor and go bring her back but can you do me another favor and bring them all alive to me, I have some new ideas of toxins to try on them and maybe you can help me with it. What do you say?” Asked Adrius in his most innocent pleading voice.

Croft sighed: “First of all, don’t use that fucking voice again, I hate it. Second. I want to see the new toxin. But I will also take half of them. I have some experimenting to do and free magus apprentices are very appreciated. And don’t worry about the Academy rule. I will expel them immediately from the Academy and they will be rogue magus so I can do whatever I want with them and nobody can say anything. And if they say, we can tell them about the thing they did and I’m pretty sure the headmaster will side with us unless they have someone big backing them. Do they have someone big backing them?”

Adrius considered the answer to the question, does he tell him that the Trant family probably backs them or not? In the end he decided to lie: “ No I don’t think so”

“ Good, now give me the coordinates and I will be back in an hour at most”

He gave him the place they said to meet them in and ended the call.

An hour passed quickly and suddenly his room door was wide open by itself and walking in was Croft and he was dragging four people with him and there was a fifth person coming behind them it was Mary she was mostly unharmed. There was a hand mark appearing on her neck but it was not very noticeable if you don’t focus on it.

Looking at four people there were two women and two men, one of them he recognized immediately it was none other than… Illyan Trant. The mad bitch herself.

He looked at Croft and he saw the old man smile: “You can choose any of them, I sealed their cultivation. So they are mortals now.”

He looked at Mary: “ Mary, who was the one who kidnapped you?”

Mary pointed to an average looking guy and the guy started to trumble. He knows what will happen.

Adrius nodded and he pointed to Illyan and the guy: “ I’ll take these two, you can have the rest”

With that sealed, Croft walked out of the door while whistling in a happy way. Adrius didn't want to know what would happen to these people, but he knew it was not good.

After sending Mary away and telling her to go rest he closed the door and turned to his two prisoners with a beaming smile on his face. They couldn’t see his smile but he knew they saw it because their eyes went wide with fear. But they will know what fear is very soon. He went to his table and lifted it up making it stand like a wall and then he took out some bounds inside of the table and put four of them on each side symbolizing the forelimbs of humans.

After he was done with the table he went to the guy and dragged him by the hair and bound him to the table. The guy couldn’t resist because his cultivation was sealed.

The guy was screaming when he bound him to the table: “ Please spare me, I’m sorry! She made me do it, please you have to believe me” Tears poured from his eyes uncontrollably.

“Hush, don’t worry I won’t kill you”

“Really?” He said with tears still pouring from his eyes.

“Of course not, I will not kill you. But I will make you wish I killed you”

Adrius then went to a cabin and took out a suitcase. He put it beside him on the table and opened it. Inside there were different types of knives and other sharp things.

“W…what are you going to do to me?” Asked the guy in a shaking voice that was filled with fear.

Adrius grinned at him: “Why I will flay you of course”

Adrius then took a knife and started to cut the man’s clothes while the man was pleading for him to stop. After he was done and the man was naked. He started with the arms, started cutting the skin delicately so he won’t damage the muscles. The screams that came from the man made him smile in happiness. That’s right, that's what you get for messing with me.

Illyan was on the floor trembling with fear at the scene of a man getting flayed in front of her. She has fucked up, she has angered someone that should not be angered.

The screams of Mark when Adrius started to pull the skin from the muscles made her lose control over herself and she sat there with a pool of urine of her own making.

She wanted to look away but she couldn't. It was like an invisible hand holding her in place to watch Adrius flay poor Mark.

This was hell! And the worse thing is, it wasn’t her turn. So if this is hell, then what will happen to her then?