Mage And Wolf
Chapter 294

Chapter 294: Chapter 294

The proceedings aren’t as exciting as I might have hoped, just a lot of tedious data sets and written evidence that showed that the Titans of the city of Deimos weren’t all that good at actually running an illegal enterprise. Perhaps they thought they’d never be discovered or questioned, which was true for many years, but that’s still no excuse for such a haphazard criminal organization.

After an hour of written evidence detailing those suspected of being immortals, the other Dignitaries started bringing in witnesses. Almost all were low-level cultivators, as the stronger ones all left the moment their collars came off, but the ones they brought were all born immortals.

The highlight for me wasn’t the witness testimonials though. I’d been there and done that. No, the best part was the faces of the Titans who were called out by name or had formerly enslaved cultivators detail the personal lives of their families. You can’t pay for entertainment like that. Even Ragnar smiled at some of the reactions, despite rarely seeming to look up from the sword he was polishing.

It was now at a high shine, and the edge razor-sharp, earning the Dragon’s approval and turning his attention to the proceedings.

"Next up, we would like to call Young Miss to the stand. As we all know, she is a High Priestess of the Black Dragon in the Immortal Realm of Cultivation and a born Immortal, being half Lycan and half Demon, due to some unique circumstances. Please tell us what transpired that led you here to us today." The mediator, Zircon announces.

"It would be my pleasure. Mila, you look lonely. Would you like to come to sit over here?"

"Sure! I always knew you were secretly the friendly puppy and wouldn’t bite like Daddy said puppies do." Every Titan in the room managed to facepalm in unison, the resounding smack of hands-on foreheads echoing through the room as Mila happily came to sit on the oversized witness chair so I could sit in her lap.

"The first thing I recall is being thrown through a portal and ending up in some holding room. I was unconscious for a time, and the room was empty except for a pair of Titan guards when I woke up. They slapped a slave collar on me and brought me to the Mayor, who was expecting a new Lycan pet or slave, which one wasn’t clear at first.

He was informed of my name before I arrived in his presence and had me wait in his office until his shift at work was finished. After that, I was brought to his home, declared the family puppy, and remained as such until I met the visiting council members the next day. They recognized me from a prophecy-changing mission, after which a bit of friendly ribbing got out of hand and caused the slave collars to glitch out, which caused the mess that brought you all here today. I think that about sums it up."

The Nephilim Representative stood up after I finished talking to ask his question. "At any time while you were a captive, were you mistreated or abused?"

"No, though being called Puppy might seem rude in most situations, Mila here has become a good friend of mine. The Mayor’s overnight cage is quite comfortable, with a mattress, pillows, and blankets, in a well-heated room. Truthfully, other than the lack of freedom and ability to cultivate, I have little to complain about."

That was not true for most of the witnesses they’d interviewed so far. Most were horror stories of abuse in every form imaginable, with some even suffering under medical experiments in an attempt to alter their genetic makeup.

The Titan representative is up next with the follow-up. "So other than the collar that restricted your cultivation, could you definitively say that you were, in fact, a slave and not a prisoner?"

That’s an interesting choice of defense. The Titan representative is going for accusations of imprisonment instead of slavery to get around the rules governing immortal species.

"I don’t think I was a slave in the same way as the witnesses before me. I was taken and collared as a pet, not an enslaved servant."

That makes the Lycan contingent all growl in anger, and the demon’s eyes flash with anger. Weaker Lycans in the Mortal Realm are often taken as pets; the same as weaker Demons are summoned and kept as familiars, pets, and servants. Both get pretty upset about it, even when it’s not technically against the rules and only involves mortals.

In fact, the sheer number of Lycans found here might be enough to tip off a multi Planetary war, even if they didn’t find immortals. I haven’t personally seen any demons enslaved here yet, though that doesn’t mean much, given my limited interactions.

"Any further questions for the Young Miss?" The mediator asks the room.

"Just one more question. How in the world did you break out of the collar?" One of the demons calls from the back row.

"Now that’s a fun question. And one that a Demon might fully appreciate. I’m a High Priestess of the Death God. I cultivate Death Energy, and it lingers about me without needing to gather it." Most of the room nods along in understanding so far.

"The slave collar prevents the external use or gathering of energy. But I already have energy gathered and a lot of it. The cages for Lycans prevent the use of cultivation energy or the activation of inscriptions. The collars become inert inside the cages. But inside the cage, only cultivation energy is blocked. If you use Death Energy to block the pathways of the inscriptions on the collar, you can prevent it from activating properly when you come back out of the cage.

That’s what I did. I modified it to allow me to do as I pleased mostly. I’m not a good enough inscriptionist to fully disable the collar, but it was enough that I could activate my Domain and use Death Energy freely."

The demons look like I just handed them a fancy wrapped Christmas present. The same cages are often used for demonic familiars, though the binding is through the summoning spell used to bring them to that world and not a collar. But the idea of being able to use demonic energy inside the cages and not break the summons but modify it to better suit their desires is highly lucrative.