Created the Death Penalty?

  He only saw the message from the Blessing with that name once in his fight with Felssi, but Giselle had to be talking about the Malevolence.

  Izick strained every muscle in his face to avoid showing his true and complicated feelings.

  Was Giselle somehow involved with Alister? He did remember Scotts mentioning Alister in passing, but he couldn't tell if his hatred was personal or indirect. How much did these two actually know?

  Scotts looked down at the watch on his left wrist.

  "Giselle, I'll try to stay silent and give you 45 minutes say your piece. After that, I'm taking this back over. I recommend you stick around, Mr. Featherbelle. Your reputation, and ultimately your life, could be on the line today," Scotts said, scowling at Scout.

  Anger would be warranted at Scotts and Giselle if she had a hand in his suffering, but he had to stay calm. His emotions were running amok far too much for his liking. He had already given away too much info to the investigator Scotts.

  Scotts kept his word to Giselle and remained silent, but he was still observing Izick, gathering as much visual information on him as possible.

  Izick sighed deeply, then distilled his thoughts into a careful question.

  "Death Penalty? Are you referring to capital punishment?"

  Giselle seemed taken aback by Izick’s question.

  "W-what? No, that's not what I meant. I didn't invent capital punishment. I'm referring to Malevolence inflicted on you two nights ago."

  Giselle looked around before picking up a twig and a rock.

  "I'm not trying to expose you, but if you really don't understand what happened to you, then it's better if I demonstrate this Skill to you."

  "You're not about to use a Skill on us, right?" Mill said, keeping an eye on Giselle and Scotts.

  Scotts snorted as he walked over to Giselle and grabbed her her hands, which were still holding the twig and rock.

  "We wouldn't be having such a calm conversation if we wanted to attack you. Besides, you could probably block it with your Shielding Skills even if we tried. More importantly, Giselle, are you up to this physically?"

  "I'm fine. You're supposed to be silent anyway. Izick, Mill, we won't hurt you, but I want you to pay attention to what I'm about to do. "

  Scotts nodded before pulsing yellow bands of Mana into Giselle’s hands.

  The yellow bands of Mana raced up Giselle’s arms until they reached the top of her head.

  Izick stared at the strange exchange between Scotts and Giselle, but he took a glance at Mill beside him, who looked on with a disturbed scowl.

  Her balance began to falter, causing Scotts to end the ritual and hold her steady.

  "There's no need to push yourself. You might not be able to use Mana at all if you keep overdoing it."

  "Giselle, is your… Mana Base damaged?"

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  "Yes. I severely damaged it a few years back, sending me into early retirement as a Mage. I can only use about one Skill before my body is hit with recoil and begins to crumble, which explains my condition. Scotts here will act as a conduit in place of what I lost."

  Mill held her chin in deep thought.

  "That answers a lingering question I had before. Let's see what you have for us, Giselle. Continue."

  "I will. Please focus on these two items in my hands."

  Giselle extended the rock and twig in her hands.

  Red electricity briefly sparked around the two items before disappearing as if it was never there.

  The characteristics of the red electricity reminded Izick of the Honor Rod's Malevolence.

  She raised the twig.

  "I have activated the Death Penalty. This twig will act as a Target," Giselle said, bending down and driving the twig into the dirt. She presented the rock.

  "And this rock will be the Totem."

  She brought the rock close to the twig protruding from the ground.

  "Everything is normal when the Totem, in this case a rock, is close to the Target."

  Giselle stood up and began backing away from the twig with the rock in hand.

  "However, move out of its 15-foot range… "

  Giselle took one last step away from the twig, causing it to light up with red and white sparks. She brought the rock in and out of range to demonstrate activating and deactivating the Skill. She finally kept the rock out of range, causing the twig to blaze with sparks for around 20 seconds before a burst of red light seared a burning ring into the ground and left ashes where the twig last stood.

  Shivers crawled down Izick’s back. This was almost him in Damaran.

  "This is the basics of the Death Penalty," Giselle said, tossing the rock away. "It is a distance-based Malevolent Skill that can be imposed on unprepared, unskilled, or weakened individuals. The only way I know how to disable this Skill is by the user canceling it, killing the user, destroying the user's Mana Base, or temporarily canceling out the Death Penalty by imposing the Death Penalty on the target twice, which is what I did disrupt Izick’s Death Penalty in Damaran."

  Everything she said made sense to him and matched the events that took place in his fight with Felssi.

  He didn't know if Giselle was really the creator of this Skill, but she was definitely involved.

  Both Izick and Mill glared at the smoking ring. Izick's nostrils flared as he tried to keep his emotions in check.

  "Why did you create this Skill? It feels so disturbing and evil. I know there are countless offensive Skills made for killing, but this one seems engineered to hurt people."

  "It was made to hurt people. It's why I designed it this way. I made this Skill for Investigators under Janson Yard and the Royal Courts. I never sold them the Tome, so the Skill was never integrated."

  Mill crossed her arms.

  "So you made a Torture Skill for Investigators? You would have to be a pretty prolific and demented Mage to be personally contracted to engineer this Skill."

  Giselle couldn't look Mill in the face as she began to play with her fingers.

  "I was a prideful and naive Mage who only thought about herself. I know I can't change what I've done, but I'm not the same, and I'm not talking about my faulty Mana Base."

  Silence fell amongst them. Izick gathered his bearings as he side-eyed Scotts, who continued to quietly watch him.

  "I don't care about who you were before or who you are now. I just want to know why and how this 'Death Penalty' got imposed on me. You’re adamant that I’m affected by this Skill, so tell me how a Skill you developed gets used on me when we never met before."

  "How? Well, that's…"

  "That's enough. Times up,"

  Scotts said, tapping his watch.

  "I let Giselle say way more than I'm comfortable with because she is free to tell her story, but I still don't trust you. You could still be working for Alister."

  "We already told you that he no longer has anything to do with us," Mill said sternly while stepping towards Scotts who did the same.

  "Alright then. Prove it."

  Izick resisted the urge to fight Scotts with his words this time around and decided to actually think. Was there a way to prove his innocence to this Investigator?

  Izick nodded to himself. Wait, there might be something. One thing came to mind that could at least buy them some time.

  “Scotts, I’ll show you a difference between those traitors who side with the former Staff Hero and us.”

  Izick raised a single finger as he returned Scotts' scowl with his own.

  “Right now. I’ll betray Alister Black with one thing. I know something that might be of interest to you and Janson Yard.”