HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-211

"Hello, Rita." With wand in hand, Bellatrix walked towards towards Skeeter.

"I had thought you'd learnt your lesson after our last session. I didn't think you'd need another one."

Rita shook in her chair, trying to back away. "Minister... I... I'm really sorry. If you'd just hear me out, I'm sure you'd understand—"

Bellatrix casually sent a cruciatus curse toward Skeeter. Rita let out a shriek so high that it made Daphne and Martina flinch. "Noisy." muttered Bellatrix, waving her wand and sealing Skeeter's mouth shut. She then proceeded to continue the torture.

"So, have you heard from Axel yet?" She asked, turning to Daphne and Martina.

Even though Daphne and Martina had never tortured anyone, they had witnessed it multiple times due to their family. So, they were able to regain their composure despite Bellatrix's brutality.

"Uh… there's no news." replied Martina.

Bellatrix frowned. "What about that girl? Akio? No, Akiko. Did she tell you something?"

The girls were confused by that question. "No. How would she even know anything?"

Bellatrix looked at the two clueless girls and burst out laughing. "You guys don't know?"

"Don't you what?" Asked Daphne.

"Akiko is in Atlantis too. Did she not tell you?"

?????????

"....What….?"

"Is… Is that true?!"

"Of course. Atlantis is under a state of war. Her grandfather has been worried sick about her."

Daphne and Martina looked at each other, their mouths agape.

"...Traitor…"

"That BITCH!"

Then, both of them exploded together.

Both Martina and Daphne were blown away by this revelation. As far as they were aware, Akiko had just returned to Japan with the Japanese Delegation.

Just yesterday, while talking about how much they miss Axel, the girls had also admitted to missing Akiko a little bit as well. The duo had also talked about how innocent and cute Akiko is.

"It is always the quiet ones that are most dangerous." murmured Daphne, gritting her teeth. Right now, Akiko was alone with Axel in Atlantis, while they are stuck here, twiddling their thumbs.

Never in her wildest dreams had Daphne imagined that Akiko would backstab them like this. Thinking back, Akiko was awfully casual about Axel leaving for Atlantis. As if she didn't care at all.

And when they discussed ways to help Axel or go together with him, Akiko was always silent. Now she understood why. The bitch was already set to accompany Axel. While they were agonizing, she must be looking down at them from her high throne, secretly mocking them.

Meanwhile, looking at the distorted expressions of Daphne and Martina, Bellatrix chuckled, shaking her head. "You girls remind me so much of me."

She turned her attention back to Skeeter, who was a mess by now after 20 seconds of Cruciatus. Bellatrix removed the silencing charm. Then, she took out a vial of veritaserum for her pocket and made Skeeter choke on it.

As expected of Bellatrix, the torture was just for fun. The interrogation was going to be done through the truth potion.

"Now, start talking. How the hell did you find out all those things? You need to tell me everything. Don't leave anything out. I'll search your mind to confirm later," she said, pocketing the vial.

This was a new variety of the truth potion. It doesn't complete make the consumer out of focus. Instead, it has a compulsion that makes them think it is alright to speak their true thoughts and reveal their deepest secrets.

"Everything? Asked Skeeter, looking up at Bellatrix. Her eyes had gone foggy due to the potion.

"Yes, everything. Start from the beginning" Answered Daphne in her stead. The amount of information Skeeter had was truly creepy. To gather it just after Axel's disappearance seems too impossible. They needed to know how she found out so much and if there were other people working with her.

Skeeter launched into her explanation, her voice monotone.

"There are two reasons I love my work. One is learning secrets. And the second is to reveal them… at the right time. There are two types of targets I report on. One, small term targets, the ones I report as soon as I learn their secrets, second, long term. These people have multiple juicy secrets. So, instead of revealing what I learn right away, I wait until I've found everything. Axel Hunt…" A hint of passion appeared in Skeeters eyes. "He was in the third category."

"The third Category?" Asked Martina.

"The people I get personally interested in."

"What does that mean?" Asked Daphne sharply.

Rita looked lost. "I'm not sure either. Axel is the first person to appear in this category. The first time I saw him was in Diagon Alley. Shopping with Andromeda Tonks, of all people. I was instantly interested. Who was this handsome boy? And why is the minister's sister personally bringing him around? A love child? Why was he walking like that? Is he injured? So I turned into my animagus form, a fly, and followed them around. I followed them until I saw the whole Black family at the New Cauldron." At this point, Bellatrix's face stiffened.

"I didn't go in because I was scared of the minister. But I waited outside. After a while, I saw Axel come out. Not long after, I saw the minister come out as well. Then—"

"Wait."

Bellatrix interrupted Skeeter before she could talk further.

….

Meanwhile, in the Trench, Axel looked at Aslot, who had already found out about his identity.

"Axel Hunt... was it? Don't be so shocked. I knew both of your parents. You have the same annoying traits like them. Honestly, they were annoying till their deaths."

Axel wanted to pretend that Aslot had guessed wrong, but his eyes narrowed when he heard those word. 'Annoying till their deaths?'

He recalled what Tronis had said in his fight against Ender.

What did he say? 'She didn't know that 'that man' was on also our side. We managed to separate the relic from her.'

Axel looked at Aslot.

"You... you were there, weren't you? You were there when they died."

This must be was the man due to whom his parents lost the final fight. They must have expected that he was still alive.

Aslot sighed.

"You're right. Unfortunately, I was there. And I regret it. Not because we had to kill them. But because of what I lost." As he said that, his body distorted and began to change. Until now, he looked like a handsome old man with white hair and blue eyes. But now, his body rapidly shrivelled down, and gruesome scars appeared all over it, overlapped with excessive blue markings of Kraken which seemed to be permanently active.

"Your parents destroyed the Key, also destroying our plans." said Aslot, hatred dripping from his voice.

"It caused a Dimensional storm. The Royal Relic tried to follow your mother into it. In order to prevent that, I almost ended up losing my life for the second time. As you can see, thanks to your parents, it took more than a decade for me to return. And that too in this condition, barely alive due to the power of Entity. So," Aslot paused his rant as The water around him compressed to form a shining silver Trident, which also had the Kraken's blue marking all over it.

"So, You'd have to forgive me if I project some of that hatred onto you." With that, he pointed the Trident at Axel.

"Well, I'm not exactly thankful that you killed my parents." Axel also mobilized all the water around him. This oldie had a really twisted nature. The fucker could have fled, but ended up almost killing himself because of his greed for the Royal Relic. And then he thinks its justified to take it out on Axel, who was completely unrelated to the incident.

With his anger fueling his bloodline, Axel invoked all the water elemental energy in nature he could muster and sent it towards the incoming tidal wave.

The result? It was a complete L for Axel. Somehow, the water under Aslot's control was much faster, heavier, and destructive. It completely overpowered Axel's attack, proceeding to come towards him in the form of a water dragon.

[Water Monarch + Unshackle]

Before getting engulfed, Axel barely managed to stop the water by combining his water affinity with his special skill to free the water from Aslot's control, thus managing to survive.

???

Aslot stopped and looked at Axel like looking at some rare animal. "Such high mastery…. how?"

'What the fuck?'

On the other hand, Axel clenched his molars, trying to hide his shock. What happened just now was not a casual clash. It was a clash between the affinities of the two water rulers. And Axel had lost. Even before he had the chance to resist.

'What… in the actual fuck?' Axel was shaken. To lose in terms of water affinity… and to lose with such an overwhelming difference…

[Axel, use Teleportation.]

The amount of outrage that line gave Axel could not be expressed in words. The system was telling him to run away.

'Son of a—! Then why the fuck did you give me this mission?!'

If the opponent was so strong, then why issue the mission in the first place?

The System's missions are usually within the realm of common sense. But how is he supposed to beat this guy? Axel had just thought it was some small fry using the power of the relic, but it turned out to be a legit villain with Royal Bloodline.

[It was meant to be completed by borrowing the help of the rest of the relic wielders. You should have guessed you couldn't beat him alone when it was revealed that a whole team of Relic Wielders couldn't beat him.]

The System doused cold water on his anger. He thought he could win, because… come on! This is water! Axel couldn't imagine someone beating him in this field. But faced with the reality, Axel realized that he had to make a choice. Run away or fight.

[Now that you have learnt your lesson, you can still leave. Aslot has locked the space through his water territory, but it's not enough to stop Arcane Travel]

Seeing Axel's frozen appearance, Aslot chuckled. "You know, you can't run, right? We have a lot to talk about."

Axel slowly shook his head. Facing stronger opponents is something Axel has done his whole life. He won't run away just because the opponent is stronger. A fight is not decided based on strength alone.

[Occlumency Max]

The gears of Axel's mind began spinning at a rapid speed as he thought of a million ways to win. "No… I'm not going to run," he finally said, making his decision. He was NOT going to run away.

Hearing that, the corner of Aslot's wrinkled mouth lifted. "Good. Because you need to tell me how you managed to awaken your affinity to that extent."

Axel sneered.

'By doing a 30-day 'Awaken your Bloodline' course.'

Or. 'By minding my own goddamn business.'

That's how Axel would have replied if he wasn't at such a disadvantage right now.

So, he just shrugged. "Well, if you really want to know, you'd have to beat it out of me."

Aslot grinned. "Well, I like the spirit. It's just too bad you don't have the qualifications to back it up."

Aslot was completely confident he would easily break the kid into a crying mess very soon. But still, that confidence made Aslot look forward to that time. Not more than 14, and that level of Water Control? If he knew how, he would be able to finally become more powerful.

With the Royal Trident in hand, Aslot began walking towards Axel.