Chapter 47: The Interrogation Part 1

"Father Corvin," John began calmly, leaning in slightly. "You’re in a modern military detention facility. And we have some questions."

Captain Hayes stepped into the room with a rugged tactical tablet in hand, pulling up a blank debriefing file. He stood beside John, eyeing the trembling priest with cold professionalism.

"I will tell you nothing, heretic!" Corvin spat, though the quaver in his voice betrayed his terror. He tried to draw upon his righteous indignation, puffing his chest out against the orange fabric of his prisoner uniform. "The secrets of the Holy Church and the sacred champions of the Radiant Goddess are not for the ears of defective trash! You may have surprised our vanguard, but my faith is an unyielding shield! Smite me, curse me, kill me—the Goddess will receive my soul, and your doom is already written!"

John didn’t flinch. He simply exchanged a glance with Hayes.

"Uncooperative," Hayes noted flatly. "Subject is hiding behind religious posturing."

"Standard zealot denial," John said, standing up and stepping away from the table. "He thinks his pain tolerance matches his rhetoric. Let’s disabuse him of that notion."

Hayes motioned toward the door. Two stone-faced military police specialists entered the room, wheeling in a tilted steel restraint gurney and a set of utility restraints.

Seeing the cold, clinical apparatus, Corvin’s eyes darted frantically around the room. "What is that?! What are you doing?! Unhand me! I am an ordained Father of the Sun!"

The specialists efficiently transferred Corvin from the chair to the inclined board, strapping his ankles, torso, and shoulders firmly against the padded metal so that his head rested lower than his feet.

"Last chance to do this the easy way, Father," Hayes said calmly, placing a dark cloth over the priest’s face. "The capital defenses, the fleet rosters, and the current status of the Hero Party."

"The Goddess... the Goddess will strike you down!" Corvin screamed through the fabric. "I will never yield to—"

A steady stream of cold water poured over the cloth.

The effect was instantaneous and primal. With his head tilted backward and the cloth saturated, the water triggered the mammalian dive reflex while simultaneously suffocating any intake of air. Corvin’s body went rigid against the straps, his hands convulsing within the cuffs as the sensation of drowning overwhelmed his nervous system.

The stream cut off, and the cloth was pulled back.

Corvin coughed violently, gasping for air, water dripping from his chin and nose as he choked on the sudden rush of oxygen. His arrogant posture had completely shattered, leaving him shivering, drenched, and wide-eyed in absolute panic.

"Let’s start again. Are you ready to talk about the summoned heroes?" John said.

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk!" Corvin wheezed frantically, shaking his head against the board, tears mixing with the water on his cheeks. "Please! Stop! I’ll tell you everything! Don’t do that again!"

Hayes raised his tablet, ready to record. "Start with the summoned heroes. Names, assigned classes, and power levels."

Corvin swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he spilled every detail.

"The... the Japanese class... forty students were summoned in total," Corvin stammered, desperate to keep the cloth away from his face. "The church divided them into specialized squads under the Imperial Paladin Order. The leader is a boy named Kemji Sato—he received the S-Rank Holy Sword Master! His holy aura can cleave through castle walls with a single swing!"

"Yeah, I remember that guy. So he is the one leading the class huh?" John said, remembering the times when that guy was running his mouth. "Go on. What about the rest?"

Corvin rattled off the remaining names in a frantic, stammering rush. He detailed the high-ranking summoners, the elemental mages, the grand paladins, and the specialized support classes—spilling every tier, role, and rank the imperial church had meticulously assigned to the thirty-eight remaining students.

Captain Hayes’s fingers flew across his tablet screen, logging the data streams into the secure network.

"And where are they operating right now?" Hayes demanded, tapping the stylus against the rim of the device. "Where is their primary deployment?"

Corvin swallowed a mouthful of water and bile, his chest heaving under the tight nylon straps.

"They... they are currently deployed in the Abyssian Dungeon!" Corvin gasped out, his bloodshot eyes darting between John and Hayes. "Under the guidance of the Imperial Paladins, they have been clearing the surface wilderness beyond the southern gateway! The church uses the dungeon’s high-tier beasts and demonic hordes to power-level their skills!"

A twisted, fanatical smirk began to break through the priest’s shivering lips. Even soaked, strapped to a torture board, and stripped of his holy vestments, the lingering delusion of divine superiority crawled back to the surface.

"They have already cleared the twentieth floor!" Corvin rasped, his voice rising in trembling hysteria. "Their levels have skyrocketed. The Hero Party has become the undisputed apex military unit of the Holy Solarian Empire!"

Corvin stared directly into John’s eyes, coughing up a wet laugh.

"You think your strange iron weapons and loud explosions make you a god, John Smith?! You are still just the defective, mana-less trash cast aside by the heavens! When Kemji Sato and the Hero Party return from the depths and cross the sea, they will tear your little metal toys into scrap with divine wrath! They will hunt you down like a rabid dog, and I will be there to watch you burn! You might have conquered this room, but we will have the last laugh!"

John stared down at the raving priest without a single flicker of anger. In fact, an amused, icy smirk slowly spread across his face.

"Power-leveling in the Abyss, huh?" John murmured softly, adjusting the collar of his tactical fleece.

"And you think the Holy Solarian Empire launches an expedition across the Endless Azure Ocean without protocol?!" Corvin sneered, straining against the nylon straps. "Our vanguard was tasked with securing the beachhead, erecting the primary sanctum, and sending the first divine courier ship back to the imperial capital! We are bound by a strict imperial timeline!"

Corvin’s bloodshot eyes widened with venomous glee.

"If the High Pontiff and the Imperial Admiralty do not receive our scheduled dispatch within six months, they will know this vanguard was destroyed! They will not send another minor reconnaissance fleet. The Empire will mobilize the Grand Armada—hundreds of warships, tens of thousands of elite crusade veterans, high paladins, and the summoned heroes themselves!"

The priest’s chest heaved as he glared up at John.

"Six months, John Smith! That is all the time you have in this world! Six months before the full might of the Radiant Crusade descends upon this coastline and turns your little machines and every filthy beast you protect into ash! You cannot hide from the light of Goddess Viona."