"50 seconds left, my dear. You can do it! Only 121 layers left!"
"Yo! That one has its whole core connected to the gate circuit on the 44th layers, so try doing the 89th first. Quick! You only have 42 seconds now."
Both of the devils whispered to Carla side by side in her ears. The Angel was grinning ear to ear, excited to see how it would turn out, while Foel decided to help out the ferrakhian out of pity, giving tips and advice at every turn with a poker face.
The pressure was immense, tears overflowing but her hands couldn't rest for a second. Otherwise her head would touch the ground in a gruesome way if she was late in deactivating it, even a second was not affordable .
'Scary! Scary! Scary! Who are these people!? They are way scarier than the head chief in the village, hueeeee!'
Her heart was pounding terribly as if it was trying to escape from her body, it would be a lie if it didn't affect her concentration.
"My dear, you're sweating too hard, stay focused!" MF created a handkerchief and gently wiped the tears away from her mortified face, dramatically swaying the piece of cloth away after every droplet was absorbed.
Foel frowned a little bit. "Those are tears, you're distracting her."
"Ah, is that so? My bad."
25 seconds left, there were 57 layers left.
Carla has experienced death, Carla has experienced times where she would've died again had she been careless. But this, this tops it. Being wedged in between two unrelenting and excited 'boulders' that were slowly crushing her bones little by little while trying to defuse some sort of bomb. Two 'boulders' who were also bombs themselves.
Because in Carla's eyes, they were fully engulfed with something akin 'killing intent'. While in reality, it was more likely how prey would glance at the terrifying power an apex predator had. They didn't emit any bloodlust, but the small creature would still see them full of malicious intent.
"Dissecting the alchemical converter by the stored formula socket within the 11th layer could give you a grasp on the 9th one, there is an emitter there that prevents concealed leakages so try piercing the socket connector on the 8th layer first." said the tanomobi in fast pace without a single stutter in her words, slick and clean.
"This is more entertaining than torturing. Might force others in this situation in the future too," stated the pseudo-angel while mentally torturing someone.
'Hueeee! Someone, save meeeeee…!!'
10 seconds left, 20 layers left!
"Carla! Carla! Carla! Carla!"
"Yo! Three more!"
At the last second, she was able to deactivate the massive barrier.
"Auuuhw, Ay dwid it!"
A moment later, she fell unconscious as her face kissed the ground.
"So, may we give her a present?"
"Indeed, it would be awful if she didn't get any reward for all of the trouble."
And so Foel implanted a slaving mark on her, because she was being generous, she placed more layers to wrap the slave formation right into her soul for Carla to deactivate if she ever attempt to free herself.
Foel sneered awfully. "She's got the strongest slave mark I've ever created! I'm so kind!"
"Hmm, it wasn't enough, we need to take her life away~" MF conjured a destructive blood shaped into the end of a spear. "A good girl needs to be rewarded heavily after all~"
"... Won't that just make my gift nulled?"
"Oh yeah, that won't do then." MF morphed the blade of the spear into an ominous material. "Cast a mana vein disruptor into the blade, let's play doctor and medically puncture her into a crippled cultivator instead."
"Kekeke, good idea."
The moment Foel casted the formation, Carla instantly got up and sprinted from the scene like a wind.
Turned out, the ferrakhian faked being unconscious, hoping that she could fool them with some thread of belief. Like a prey holding their breath and lying down on the ground, Carla used her ultimate technique to no avail.
Because it was one of the ferrakhian special traits as a whole, they could hold their breath for hours! Carla however, used this genetic upper hand to fake her being unconscious—to no avail.
MF and Foel already noticed this the moment the ferrakhian fell. There were some nerves and brain activity that could be noticed with high perception. Normal cultivators wouldn't be able to tell but they could So they trolled the poor ferrakhian.
Just like a jester that was done with their tricks, they laughed it off before chasing the runaway pitiful soul.
'It always worked before! Why didn't they just let me be!!'
Foel coated her existence with her mnimis, then ran at full speed. Her agility was heavily influenced by her massive sets of symbols pills, 20 of them alone were focusing on agility and perception.
MF didn't even need to put in any effort, a single powerless leap and she skipped 30 meters in an instant.
Two seconds later, both devils appeared beside the running Carla, grinning playfully. With two horrifying individuals on the left and right, Carla felt like she wanted to pass out legitimately.
MF amputated her left arm, the blood bursted like a sprinkler as the ferrakhian rolled on the ground.
Both of the two owners of Ouranos still didn't like a usurper in their vicinity a single bit. Even Elon was heavily monitored, if that lucky bastard didn't have Fortune's blessing, MF might have killed him already.
They were cruel, certainly it wasn't something to be debated about but there was a reason why they postponed the execution.
There were two ways to convert someone to be utterly loyal to their master. One was to be there when they were at their lowest, feed them, shower them with praise and gold after trial, show them mercy while showcasing horrifying cruelty to those who oppose, either in mindset or proof.
When they feel grateful that they choose the right path by being on their master's good side, most of the time. They had the fear of letting their master down, thinking to the best of their capabilities to see what they could do to subconsciously maintain their status of loyalty in their master's eyes.
Might not always be successful all the time but this method was the most effective, with the exception of the other method.
It was through fear, there was no praise, love, or even a gift. Shall there be pain for those who achieved the majority of achievement that those of a normal mortal couldn't put their hands only, when they wanted to utterly kill themselves, give them a chance and promise them the moon and earth, something that was impossible that it forced them to choose to be be used as a tool.
It was the fastest kind of loyalty but it needed power to execute it.
As for why MF wanted to convert her? It was simple! Carla had the aptitude to crack an extreme amount of formation layers in a short period of time. Normally, it took more than six hours yet she did it in 3 minutes! Subtract the pressure.
"This time, there shall be no trick or feint." MF eerily giggled "I assume that you know that it's futile to run, so let's play another game~
"You see this shiny orb?" MF conjured a ball full of concentrated destructive blood. Carla stared at the ball with perpetual anguish, expecting nothing but her own doom as she listened to the devil's deal carefully. "I will move this ball into the air above you by a few centimeters, if you move your body or run away by the time I'm releasing it, you will be dead.
"If you don't move an inch, we will assume that you've become our possession. But dirty deeds are done really cheap, so to give you some upper hand, you can run now and we will chase you after one minute~
"So choose! Mortal!"
Carla closed her eyes, trying to hold her tears in the hope that it could clear her mind. She knew that running away would be a wrong choice as both of them could immediately chase her effortlessly.
'Jaro… where are you…'
She knew that if she were able to reach Jaro, she would be saved but she couldn't move her legs even if she tried.
'There is no choice, huh…'
Out of nowhere, a bright flash of silhouette entered the scene, cracking the ground and gushing the trees and everything in between. There was no mana used but the entrance was so inhuman that there was no way a mortal could have done this.
Foel casted a mana layer for both of them, both of their faces were unamused but curious at the same time of who was this foreigner.
'A weird timing,' MF thought. 'A welcomed one, regardless!'
Standing in front of the helpless Carla was a tall young man with an assuring grin and a confident gaze. Topless, his body was extremely buffed and trained but not too out of proportion, not wearing any shoelace below his loose martial artist's long pants. Black short hair with no animalistic trait supposed to be a demi-human. Both of his hands were beneath a pair of giant battle gauntlets.
Carla's last vision was the back of this man, soon after, she lost her consciousness due to phobic stress and blood loss.
His teeth shined brighter than his fiery blue gaze, fully prepared to fight with vigor! His grin began to slip, a manly, powerful, yet childish voice.
"Everything will be alright! Cause I! Jaro Lagoon! Have arrived!"