The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac grabbed Sanna, picked her up, then tossed her against the back wall of the shed. He proceeded to do the same to the other 5 members, lining them up along the wall. Then, he bent down and held Sanna's chin. He forced her to look into his eyes as he spoke,

"Watch what I'll do to your friends and just know that you'll endure far worse."

With those few words, he let go of Sanna and stood up. Then he walked to the person at the other end of the line and pulled them to their feet. Of course, their legs were tied together so they couldn't run, but they could still stand. It was a man about 2 inches shorter than Isaac, so he looked up at Isaac defiantly.

Isaac grabbed one of his fingers and viciously pulled it back. *SNAP* The man's defiance was replaced by agony and he screamed in pain. However, Isaac didn't wait for him to recover. He grabbed a second finger and decisively broke that as well.

The man screamed again and was about to curse at Isaac, when Isaac broke a third finger. The curse on his lips could not be uttered; it turned into incoherent and pained mumbling.

Isaac grabbed the man's index finger – one of the 2 unbroken digits on that hand. But he didn't snap it immediately; he looked into the man's eyes and waited to see what he had to say for himself.

At first, the man was going to try and curse again. But then he looked into Isaac's cold, piercing eyes and his courage dissolved like salt in the rain. He gritted his teeth, still enduring the pain of 3 broken fingers, then spoke,

"I – I'm sorry! I apologise for beating you!"

There was a moment of silence as Isaac continued staring into the man's eyes. Then he tightened his grip on the finger and snapped it, before quickly grabbing the man's thumb and breaking that as well.

A shrill scream of agony echoed through the farmhouse. It was lucky this place was abandoned, otherwise the whole neighbourhood would've heard that scream.

Isaac grimaced a little since the scream came right next to his ear. He then proceeded to break the man's other 4 fingers and thumb in quick succession.

When Isaac let go of his hand, the man was snivelling and on the verge of tears; his friends couldn't bear to watch, but they were still forced to listen to his stifled sobs.

"Wha – w-w-w-w-w-what do you want from me?!" He stammered, "I'll listen to you, I'll do what you want! Why are you doing this?!"

Isaac just grabbed man's hand again and started playing with his broken fingers – twisting them, pulling on them, and bending them in directions they shouldn't be able to go.

The other 5 heard their friend's howls of pain and couldn't help but look at what was happening. What they saw caused each of them to shiver in fear, especially Sanna. If she had to endure worse than this, she didn't know what state she'd be in afterwards...

For 4 hours, screams of agony rang throughout the derelict farm area. However, nobody was there to hear them.

The 6 group members could only cry, scream, shout, and plead for help without any possibility of getting it. They even tried bargaining with Isaac, begging him to stop torturing them; they promised to do anything he wanted and questioned why he was doing this, but they got no response. It was like talking to an inanimate block of ice.

He hadn't said a word throughout the entire torturing process, giving his victims an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. They couldn't reason with him; they couldn't persuade him; they couldn't trick him, and they certainly couldn't escape – not from this demon.

They had no idea when this hell would come to an end or what they could do to stop the continuous punishment. Fortunately for them, they didn't need to do anything.

At about midday, Isaac knocked all 6 group members out again. Then he picked up one of the rusty troughs in the corner and took it with him to the nearest well (water was the most important resource on a farm, so this abandoned farm area had 3 wells, 2 of which still functioned). At the well, he filled the trough with water and brought it back to the ramshackle shed.

When he put the trough back in the corner, he caught a glimpse of the water in it. What was once fresh well water was now filled with dust, dirt and flakes of rust. The water had gone a brown-orange colour and surely tasted metallic. Perfect. This was what the group would survive on for the next week or two.

Now that they had water, they wouldn't die. Isaac put the group to the back of his mind and returned to the residential area. However, he wasn't going back to his house – he was going to visit Johan.

He'd realised something after this incident: he was extremely vulnerable. People could casually target and attack him without any repercussions (unless he saw who they were and came back for revenge, of course). Getting attacked while he was on guard wouldn't be much of a problem; he was confident he could hold his ground against – or at the very least escape from – any group of newcomers. However, nobody could remain completely vigilant 24/7 without the help of an Anima. Isaac didn't have such an Anima so there would be many times when he let his guard down, such as while cultivating or sleeping.

During the times when he wasn't completely alert, Isaac was open to ambushes. Sanna's group of 6 had proved that. Isaac judged the group's strength and abilities to be average compared to other new groups in the sect, but they'd successfully captured him and interrogated him for 2 days. If they'd found a better way of binding him, they could've held him for much longer.

If an average group could do this, Isaac might not be able to escape if an elite group chose to ambush him. The best thing he could do was deter any such groups from targeting him in the first place, and the best way to do that was by acquiring a background. If it was powerful enough, nobody would target Isaac in case the people behind him retaliated.

Of course, a background would also grant other benefits, many of which were extremely helpful to Isaac: they could sponsor you resources, help you take high-rewarding private missions, give you access to a large amount of information, and so on. In fact, Isaac had been considering joining a faction for a long time, but hadn't due to the restrictions it would place on his freedom. For example, he couldn't flagrantly break the rules, try any more scams, or do anything else which would harm his faction's reputation.

Other than the restrictions, there was a great amount of difficulty involved in joining a faction – especially if that faction was a good one. That was why Isaac hoped to enlist Johan's help.

Johan was the son of the Friberg family, a family which included several prominent figures within the sect. The family was also an important member of one of the sect's 4 major factions.

The Full Moon Sect had four Rank 5 experts, each of whom had their own faction. The Friberg family had joined the faction of Martin Sundersen, who was one of those Rank 5s. With a Rank 5 at the helm and other powerful participants such as the Friberg family, the Sundersen faction was extremely prestigious; its influence pervaded the entire sect. If Johan could give Isaac a path into such a faction, that would be the ideal scenario.

Isaac had thought all of this while he was tied up in the farm shed, so the first thing he did upon escaping was visit Johan. When he arrived at Johan's house, he gave 2 confident knocks on the door,

"If that's you Isaac, wait a few minutes and I'll let you in. If it's not, please go away, I don't have any business with you."

It seemed Johan had received a few unwanted visitors recently, so he included the last sentence. Of course, Isaac was not one of those unwanted guests, so he replied simply,

"It's me."

True to his word, Johan opened the door after about 3 minutes. His hair was wet and it appeared Isaac had interrupted him in the middle of a bath.

"Come in my friend, what are you here to see me about today?"

It seemed like Johan was no longer angry at Isaac for rejecting his plan to get revenge against the alchemy disciple. However, that was only on the surface. Johan was a person who held his grudges for a very long time, so he still remembered Isaac's refusal and he definitely remembered the alchemy disciple – he had just pushed to things to the back of his mind for now.

Therefore he welcomed Isaac in with a friendly smile. When Isaac came to visit him, it was usually with an opportunity or a good proposition, so he was more than willing to hear what Isaac had to say. However, his expression immediately turned gloomy after Isaac's first words,

"I want you to put me in contact with the Friberg family."