After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

"Mr. Ain, you're here? Just as you expected, that bastard really escaped to that forest, and I caught him red-handed!"

On the ground in front of him, there was a pile of things that could hardly be called a human.

It was Rufus.

Not only was he covered in dirt and blood, he was also beaten directly, leaving his face bruised and swollen, his facial features almost completely deformed, and several of his teeth missing.

Due to not taking the medicine for too long, the body transformation has been lifted and it has returned to the female body.

Judging from his handsome appearance as a man, his original appearance should be quite good-looking, but now his original appearance is completely invisible.

The physical condition is even worse.

All four limbs were twisted off very roughly and now lay there limply. Like a mollusk, the existence of bones could not be felt at all.

That's why we use this quantifier to describe it.

At least he was still breathing, and the one eye on his face that was still swollen and deformed was staring at Aize.

This scene made Aize frown involuntarily:

"Isn't that too harsh? If you want to torture him to death, at least wait until you've finished questioning him. What if he dies suddenly?"

Groot scratched his head and smiled sheepishly:

"I couldn't do anything. This girl kept resisting and even tried to sneak away using magic. I don't understand magic, so I had to break her hand."

It's a simple and crude solution.

Advanced magicians can cast spells even without hands or feet, but the prerequisite is that they must be highly focused.

The witch probably couldn't bear the excruciating pain of having her limbs twisted into pieces, so it could be considered a blessing in disguise.

All I can say is that this seemingly amiable and even a little funny old man has perfectly inherited the violent genes of the orcs, perhaps even more so.

In fact, there was no place for Groot in the original plan.

The sudden attack from Constantine after putting on makeup would have pierced Rufus' heart, completely eradicating her ability to detonate the collar physiologically.

As a result, Grote, who roughly understood what happened, asked for help regardless of the consequences.

He probably didn't understand what had happened to Alicia, but the mere knowledge that someone was persecuting her was enough to make him furious.

So, the plan was revised.

Constantine's first blow would not kill her.

And his and Uriel's seemingly casual stance afterwards, including Uriel's demonstration on the roof of the carriage, was all to force her to escape into the forest.

Then he was captured alive by Groot.

This way, not only can I get more information from her, but I can also do Groot a favor. There's nothing wrong with that.

The reason they were brought here was to avoid being discovered by the angry villagers, so that they could be beaten to death before being interrogated.

But even though he's still alive, it's a bit...

Ai Ze held his forehead and sighed:

"Thank you. Go and have a rest first. I want to have a good chat with this guy."

The matter may involve some inside information and secrets, so it is better to minimize the number of people who know about it unless it is absolutely necessary.

"Okay, I'll be leaving first then."

The orc nodded, opened his mouth, and yawned like a roar.

"I'm so sleepy. I'm going to sleep. Mr. Ain, be careful. This guy is not honest."

After watching the orcs leave, Aize sat down on the bench and leaned over to look at Rufus.

Then he smiled and said:

"It's only been a short while since we last met, and you've already switched sides. Isn't that a little funny?"

"Ugh... cough cough cough——"

Rufus wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth he spat out a lot of blood foam and kept coughing.

Perhaps the blood choked into his trachea, and the word "embarrassing" could not describe his condition.

"Kill...Kill me...cough cough cough——"

"Death is easy, Mr. Rufus... No, should I call you Ms. Rufus? That's not your real name, is it? But it doesn't matter, just call me that."

Aize acted relaxed and casual, without any of the aggressive attitude that should be shown during an interrogation. It seemed as if he was just chatting with a friend.

"Can you tell me about your plan, specifically, Duke Brian's plan to usurp the throne? As his confidant, you must be aware of it."

"Ah--"

Rufus sneered, and then his throat made an unclear sound, as if he would be choked to death at any moment.

"I... am already dead, so... kill me... I won't say anything..."

Aize shook his head, stood up, and paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back.

"In the past two years as a hero, I've interrogated quite a few people, both demons and humans. At first, most of them were like you, refusing to say a word. But after a while, most of them would talk non-stop, no matter if I asked them to stop."

Then he stood still and said:

"But for you, I think the usual interrogation methods would be a bit boring, so I've prepared some special surprises for you."

Chapter 126 Academic Exchange

Looking at the former hero smiling in front of him, an ominous premonition surged in Rufus's already hazy consciousness.

"Surprise? What... ahem—what is it!?"

Aize didn't answer, but just snapped his fingers lightly.

With a creaking sound, the wooden door of the house was pushed open again, and a figure appeared there, walked in slowly, and stopped beside Rufus.

"Is this the witch housekeeper of Brian's? The one who hurt you before?"

"Yes, that's him."

Female voice.

The tone sounded calm, but the anger contained in it even made Rufus, who had already decided to die, feel uneasy.

She raised her head with all her strength and saw a woman with purple hair.

She had seen the same appearance many times on the puppet when she was monitoring Aize, and she knew that the two were pretending to be a couple.

But this is the first time facing him in person.

As a witch, she was naturally sensitive to magic and could feel the magic power surging from the other person, which was many times greater than her own.

This terrified her.

"You... who are you——"

The purple-haired girl curled her lips in displeasure:

"You don't even recognize me. Are you really a witch? Are you some third-rate magician impersonating someone else?"

"I……"

"Cough-cough-"

Aize interrupted her with two dry coughs.

"You don't know her identity yet, right? Please allow me to introduce her to you. She is one of the thirteen leaders of the contemporary demon clan and the supreme ruler of the witch clan, the Great Witch Villian."

"Great Witch...Virlian? Ahem..."

Rufus's mind was in a mess.

Although she is a witch, it has been many years since she left the witch's territory and went to the human world, and she has never returned since then.

But even so, she had heard of the name of the new Great Witch, Villian.

He suddenly appeared with unknown origins, easily killed his predecessor and took over. His ability to perceive and control magic is so strong that it is rare in history.

In the first few years of his tenure, he not only easily solved many academic problems that had troubled witches for centuries, but also actively improved the use of puppets and combat magic.

This made the seemingly weak witch become one of the most threatening fighting forces among the demons, and even frightened the human army.

The witch next to Aize, is she!?

Why would she, one of the Thirteenth Leaders, act together with the Hero?!

The housekeeper was extremely shocked, but she did not doubt the truth of what she said.

After all, with such exceptionally powerful magic right before their eyes, who else could it be but Villian?

At the same time, she also found it ridiculous.

After all, until an hour ago, she was even seriously considering how to deal with this witch.

It's really overestimating one's abilities.

"I can't talk like this, there's nothing I can do..."

Villian squatted down, held Rufus's head with a look of disgust, and activated her magic power.

With a flash of green light, Rufus' body instantly recovered a lot, and the pain was completely blocked and disappeared.

"stand up."

Villian snapped her fingers coldly, and gleaming shackles appeared at the ends of Rufus's limbs, dragging her up and floating her in mid-air.

Now, the two of them were staring into each other's eyes.

Rufus was horrified:

“What…what do you want to do!!”

The Great Witch sneered and said:

"What? Of course, I want to have some academic exchanges with you. Isn't this very common among witches?"

"Academic...what academic exchange?"

"Before, when Aize sneaked into the house and was caught by you, he used the little props I made to seize control of your puppet, right?"

Rufus nodded blankly. Violet blinked and continued:

"I heard that you are very dissatisfied with this and want to compete with me. Now, I will give you this opportunity."

As soon as he finished speaking, the magic shackles took effect, forcing Rufus to spread the five fingers of his right hand and extend it in front of Villian.

Villian took a half step back, raised her right hand and leaned forward, and began to gather magic power at a point where their palms were only two centimeters apart.

"How dare you use that half-baked puppet to slam Aize against the wall? That's unforgivable. So, the theme of the academic exchange has been decided to be 'The Production and Control of Flesh and Blood Puppets.' Do you understand what I mean?"

Of course Rufus understood.

Because I understood it, it seemed as if even my blood had frozen and turned cold at this moment.

The essence of a puppet is that the witch injects her magic power into the object, shapes it, and manipulates it.

The foundation of this technique lies in the understanding of the nature of magic power, which is that magic power is an extension of the user's will. Therefore, injecting magic power is actually injecting will.

Due to the strength of the materials themselves and the affinity of magic, puppets used in combat need to be made with specially formulated materials. But in a broad sense, all materials can be turned into puppets.

Including living things.

But as mentioned before, magic is an extension of will, and living things themselves possess will.

Therefore, using living creatures to make puppets not only consumes an astonishing amount of magic power, but also causes all kinds of strange problems due to the resistance of the body, so it has no practical value.

But for the witch, it's different.

Witches value their works and academic achievements, and even regard them as more important than their own lives.

And all the works come from their own magic.

Now, Villian wants to transform Rufus' body and the magic power inside it into a puppet, that is, into a puppet.

It was the ultimate insult to a witch.

In the eyes of any witch, it is far more terrifying than death.

“Stop…don’t…don’t do this!!!”