Dungeon of Niflheim

111 Chapter 111: Church of Light’s slave tattoos

“Those two kids were clearly turned into slaves illegally, most likely due to their race potential.” Frost’s ears perked up at this comment.

“What’s a phoenix kin and why would that be reason to illegally enslave such young kids.”

“Haaaaa” Ryuu sighed deeply.

“As I mentioned before I’ve never seen phoenix kin outside of books, they are an incredibly rare species of beastman and that usually translates as being powerful.”

“Powerful?” Frost didn’t sense much from the kids when he first saw them, but they are just kids after all.

“Yes, some beastkin when they reach maturity and or achieve a certain level of strength can use something called beastification wherein they become more animalistic in appearance and stature in accordance with their bloodline. It increases their strength and power but can occasionally have side effects such as uncontrollable rage, and or degradation in intelligence.” Frost listened with curiosity eager to learn more.

“Beastkin with the blood of higher levelled monsters such as dragons, behemoths, Fenrirs and of course phoenixes are on a different level. Beastkin with their bloodline are very powerful even if they don’t train. Their beastification is also incredibly impressive, once entering that state they pretty much become like their progenitors, full blown monsters with all the trimmings. By the time they come of age their bodies will awaken and they’ll become formidable fighters, instantly jumping to C-rank at the very minimum even without beastification. Do you see the value in enslaving such potential?”

Frost silently pondered that thought.

‘They would be impressive once they come of age, but still seems a little risky.’ He frowned.

.....

“You don’t think it’d be worth the risk?” Ryuu replied with a glint in his eyes.

“No, regardless of their slave status they would hate their masters and use every chance they could to escape and or get revenge.” Contracts even slave contracts have loopholes, what happens when the master dies, or when the victims get strong enough to resist the magic. Frost didn’t think that many illegal slave merchants would be strong enough to cage something like a phoenix let alone two.

“Ptuh! That’s what infuriates me most.” Ryuu spat in anger as his killing intent leaked out again.

“You saw the glowing tattoo under their choker, right?”

“Yeah, it gave off a creepy feeling and when I tried to investigate it the girl suffered from immense pain.” Frost frowned as he remembered the young girls painful expression.

“Yeah, don’t do that, they’re incredible reactive to outside influence.” Ryuu spoke sternly, slightly admonishing Frost’s actions.

“You know what it is?”

“Unfortunately, yes I do.” Ryuu sighed deeply rubbing his temples with his hands.

“It’s a slave tattoo and one of considerable power, a forbidden technique that thoroughly enslaves the subject regardless of their future strength permanently. Within a month or two those kids will be nothing but soulless robots unable to resist a single order or even be able to survive without a master’s input.”

Frost’s faced warped and his face turned pale, he was hoping for something less daunting. For a moment he felt the two kids were probably right to ask him to grant them the eternal slumber.

‘That’s no way to live if you can even call that living.’

Crack!

Frost fists cracked loudly as he clenched them, he was furious.

‘I should have made Adam suffer for a lot longer.’

“Is there no way to help?” Frost was practically pleading at this point.

“Yes and no, the slave tattoo can never be removed, those two will be slaves bound to a master forever, however we can prevent any further degradation to their will, meaning they’ll likely be able to function like any other slave albeit for their entire lives.” Ryuu spoke with a pained look, but Frost smiled, he was relieved.

“So, we can help, as long as they are bound to a good master, they can live decent lives.” Frost released a constrained breath as a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

“Hold your horses Frost it isn’t that simple, the Church of Light’s techniques can’t be undone so easily, plus the laws of the Northrend empire make this case much more difficult to deal with.”

Clang

Frost dropped his glaive in shock.

‘The Church of Light.’ His body visibly trembled so much was the fear ingrained into his body. He didn’t even hear anything after Ryuu mentioned Church of light. His vision shook and his ears buzzed, and his breathing became erratic.

“Hu hu hu” Frost gasped for air with each breath, his mind was awash with terrifying thoughts of death and being hunted. He was quite frankly having a panic attack. He wasn’t ready to face down the Church of Light. His current strength was pitiful and right now he was alone, his guardian was not by his side.

His reaction shocked himself, but he couldn’t control his physical reaction. All the tales mentioned by Maya came flooding back and his back was drenched in cold sweat.

“Fr....Fr” Ryuu noticed the unusual situation quite quickly and called out, but Frost couldn’t hear him.

“Frost!” Ryuu slammed his hands down grasping Frost’s shoulder with great force hoping to knock some sense into the young man...it worked.

Frost’s trembling came to an end and his breathing evened out; the physical contact of an ally managed to bring him solace.

After 20 seconds or so Frost was back to normal albeit quite embarrassed and with lingering fear. Frost was quite a confident person by nature, but he was also intelligent and knew when he was truly outmatched. The Church of Light and their so called Holy White empire were a group that even his father and the Light God couldn’t intervene against thus it was left the denizens of Nova and he knew how that turned out.

Only when every country and nation residing in the four directional continents worked together did they manage to restrain them, not defeat just restrain. Even Maya with her minimum S-rank strength was filled with hatred and anger towards them but didn’t go on the offensive even after centuries, no one did. The ingrained fear was too great.

“Sorry about that and... thank you” Frost gazed gently towards Ryuu with gratitude and offered a small bow.

“No need for that, all I did was call out and gave you some physical stimulus... was it because I mentioned the Church of Light?” Ryuu smiled gently before changing to a serious look.

Frost trembled again at the mention of them but regained his faculties this time.

“....Yes” he averted his gaze embarrassed to show his fear. Ryuu simply smiled warmly and tapped Frost on the shoulder.

“Your reaction is not only understandable but the correct one. You’re still young and from what little you’ve told me just recently left your village or town within the Glacial mountains no?”

Frost nodded in agreement.

“Then your elders taught you well, the Church of Light especially for those that aren’t human should always be portrayed as an object of fear, because they are and by being afraid you will always be wary of them.... Don’t be embarrassed by your body’s instinctual reaction....embrace it, it may one day be the thing that saves your life.” Ryuu looked at Frost as though he was an experienced elder trying to calm down a frightened child. It filled Frost with warmth.

“....Thank you Ryuu” Frost no longer embarrassed looked directly into Ryuu’s eyes as he gave thanks, he was truly very grateful for this lesson.

‘He’s right, it’d be sheer arrogance and stupidity if I wasn’t afraid and wary of anything related to such a powerful and evil entity.’ Frost took Ryuu’s words to heart and felt himself mature ever so slightly because of them.

“My pleasure young Frost hahaha.”

“With that out of the way should I continue?”

“Yes please,” Frost still wished to know more about the slave tattoos regardless of them being linked to the Church of Light.

“Ok... the slave tattoos were created by the Church of Light to permanently enslave non-human races and even to this day we can’t remove them. The magic involved is too complicated and sensitive that any attempt to reverse engineer it causes it to destroy itself along with any victim its attached too. A form of preventing their technology from being researched and debunked and a very effective one. In the present times it’s very, very rare to encounter anything related to the Church of Light on the Yangmir continent and at any point such an item does crop up its dealt with by the ruling countries, usually being disposed of immediately.” Frost frowned, he understood their reasoning, but these two children were innocent victims and going by what Ryuu said it was likely they’d be disposed of. Which was actually what the girl and boy wished for, but not him.

“Now you see why I said this issue was more complicated than you thought.”

Frost nodded, asking Ryuu to continue.

“Slave tattoos restrain not just the physical body but also the soul. The victim cannot disobey their master in the slightest, performing any and all orders even if it means their death. A horrible practise but it has one loophole....it takes time for this to happen, around a month or two.”

“Those two kids were likely placed under the slave tattoo’s effects less than a week ago which means we can still help...the problem comes after that. By Northrend law, Church of Light items must be eradicated whenever found, but of course they don’t simply see in black and white and would likely understand this situation and grant the two children life however as I stated earlier, they require a master to survive otherwise they’d slowly lose their freewill and be unable to even initiate acts such as eating, sleeping, drinking etc...” Frost’s eyes opened wide in understanding in which Ryuu responded with a slight nod.

“No one can legally have a permanent slave meaning it’s illegal to form a master bond with the children ergo they’d die eventually.” This matter was truly complicated and difficult to find a positive solution.

“That’s” Frost frowned and clenched his fists in frustration.

‘Do I really need to kill them just like they requested.’ He’d already made an internal promise to find another way but according to Ryuu there was none, at least legally and even then, it was a life of permanent servitude.

“I know...it’s a grey area in the law and unfortunately one in which we cannot disobey since that would set a nasty precedent for those who unlike us aren’t kind in nature.” Ryuu sighed, there wasn’t anything he could do, this problem was not just practised in Northrend but pretty much all the nations on the Yangmir continent and those in which it was sort of allowed was not one he’d recommend sending them, they’d be better off dead than there.

Frost and Ryuu stood in silence, they went over all the details in their minds and tried to come up with a solution. Out of everyone Frost knew Ryuu was probably the most knowledgeable, not only was he an experienced high ranking mage he was also involved with administration of not just Furano but also occasionally had to work in the capital, he knew the laws like the back of his hand.

Even though Douglas and Leo were landed nobles even they wouldn’t be exempt from the law, not even the royal family could take in these slaves, so abhorred was the Church of Light. Frost was at an impasse, no one in Northrend could help or would due to the heavy penalty of the law, the ruling family were incredibly strict in this regard, usually jumping straight to execution.

The Northrend empire was an empire wherein all races were accepted and treated equally, although the royal family was human many nobles and those in important positions were not. The Northrend empire was very proud of this state of affairs and treated anything related to the Church of Light with utmost aggression since their philosophies were polar opposites.

Ryuu and Frost continued to stand in silence as they thought. Ryuu particularly having difficulties given his thorough knowledge of the law, the fact that the young boy and girl were phoenix kin and so young made the situation even worse. Their species was so rare it would be a crime to allow them to fade away when they could help.

Luna meanwhile was getting on very good terms with the two children even though they couldn’t talk back, she even had them smiling, something they hadn’t been able to do in a long time. Eventually she walked out the dank jail like room with the two children on either side, she wanted to know what her father and Frost where going to do in regards to these two children.

She was unaware of the slave tattoo’s origin and simply believed they were your standard illegal slaves. The sooner they got to a slave merchant the sooner these kids could be free.