<h4>900: Root of Evil</h4>


    We began our assault on the dragonkin in the underground hall. Though outnumbered, we quickly managed to gain the upper hand.


    Our initial ambush took ten of them down, which shook the dragonkin up quite a bit. That’s when Fran, Urushi, and I sted away with spells.


    Though the hall wasrge, we were still in a confined underground space. They didn’t have sufficient room to avoid our spells, so our barrage struck down one dragonkin after another.


    Furthermore, Urushi attacked from the shadows and neutralized the weaker dragonkin. If they managed to survive the mauling, they still couldn’t move with their legs torn off.


    It also seemed like the dragonkin had a mission to protect the blueish-purple crystals emitting evil energy, so they avoided using any techniques that might damage them.


    They even dove in as human shields when any of our spells were about to hit the crystals.


    Once we realized this, the battle was practically over. Even the strongest of the dragonkin got taken out after jumping in front of a crystal.


    We had our share of injuries, but no one died. Practically a wless victory.


    「Guh! Who…… are you……?」


    「No, who are you? We know you attacked the Adventurers Guild and the Beastmen Union. What are you after?」


    「……」


    「Answer me.」


    「……Hmph!」


    Fran gave him a beating, but the dragonkin leader refused to open his mouth. He was a wielder of life magic, so he seemed to be capable of mitigating any pain he felt.


    My appraisal also revealed that he had the Perseverance skill. This means we’d have a hard time getting him to talk.


    His name was Meruba, and it seems he was the rumored life dragonkin. Just like the other dragonkin, his status was also “Domination”.


    Also, his stats were really high. So high that the rumors about him being rather weak didn’t make sense. Did he train really hard or something?


    Among his skills, there were a few Innate Skills I didn’t recognize. The most nasty one was probably “Dragonshout”.


    The skill was simr to Dragonblood, but the elemental effect can be applied directly to mana without needing blood as a catalyst. It seems he could use it to cast powerful magic without requiring any chanting.


    However, that meant it was also less potent than Dragonblood. The average dragonkin wouldn’t be able to deal much damage with it.


    But this Meruba guy’s magic stats were incredibly high. If hebined Dragon Form with his Dragonshout skill, that could exin the devastation left behind at the Adventurers Guild. The powerful magical shockwave and healing inhibition effect from the life-attribute must have been the result of his powers.


    Then the question is how did he be so strong so rapidly?


    There were plenty of things we wanted to hear from him, but the life dragonkin continued to remain silent.


    That’s when Dry and the others approached us, perhaps disapproving of Fran’s brute force method of interrogation.


    「Um, ck Lightning Princess-san, would you like us to handle this?」


    「We’re pretty used to this kind of thing.」


    「Really?」


    「Yeah! No worries, leave it to us.」


    So she decided to let them have a shot. The roon beastman working for Dry seemed particrly talented, having skills in Interrogation, Torture, Mental Guidance, Hypnosis, etc.


    In the meanwhile, we checked out the crystals. Well, we already had an idea of what they were.


    （Master, this is……）


    『You remember too? There’s no doubt about it, these are evil crystals.』


    （I knew it.）


    These evil crystals were used as ritual tools by the fiendmancer Linford. He managed tomunicate with the Evil God and obtain a tremendous amount of power.


    The crystal’s appearance and evil energy perfectly matched the ones we had seen previously.


    The only difference being this underground hall had even more evil crystals than before.


    「This magic circle matches too.」


    『Yeah, the ritual preparations might already beplete. Nothing good cane out of evil crystals, so let’s destroy them.』


    「Nn.」


    As Fran readied me, one of the dragonkin screamed at the sight. Not the life dragonkin under interrogation, but another of the dragonkin we had tied up.


    「No! Stop! STOOOP!」


    He started thrashing about in a fit of madness. Even those his limbs were tied up, he repeatedly attempted to crawl towards Fran.


    And he wasn’t the only one. The life dragonkin under interrogation, as well as all the other dragonkin, soon began shouting at Fran simrly.


    Such panicked and crazed expressions made me wonder if they were truly sane.


    「Ugrahhhh!」


    「Stop! Stoooop!」


    Dry was also taken aback by the unusual behavior of the dragonkin.


    「Umm. ck Lightning Princess-san, what are these blue crystals?」


    「Evil crystals. The source of this room’s evil energy.」


    「I-I see. They may be under some kind of hypnosis to protect them.」


    That’s certainly possible. Rather than hypnosis, it seems to be the work of whoever is dominating them.


    I told Fran to sheathe me for the time being, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get info out of them anymore. After seeing this, the dragonkin seemed to rx a bit.


    They were still breathing heavily, but they were no longer half-crazed. Showing hostility towards the evil crystals must be the trigger.


    『We can destroy the evil crystalster, since we don’t want the dragonkin to go berserk. Our first priority is to interrogate them and find out what’s going on.』


    I couldn’t say for sure if the dragonkin would stay sane after we destroy the crystals. If theypletely lost their minds, we wouldn’t be able to get anything more out of them.


    So we decided to check out the rest of the room instead. That’s when we found another secret passage, probably the dragonkin’s escape route.


    We’ll have to check out this passageter.