"You—" Celia shook with rage. Emma tossed her to the ground with a heavy thud. Then she pulled out the chain Corvin had repaired for her, the same one that had once bound Malrik. Corvin's bag had been restored and slightly modified before being returned to Emma as a toy. Celia's pupils constricted sharply the moment she saw it. "What are you doing?!" Emma smiled coldly. "I'm letting you taste what Malrik suffered." The pain Malrik had endured, Celia would now feel in full. Seeing Emma advance like a demon, chains in hand, Celia's fright became real. "No—you can't! I'm Malrik's mother—"Emma ignored her and snapped the chain shut. Click. Hundreds of thin needles pierced Celia's skin at once. "Ah—!" Her scream tore through the hall. Emma casually dislocated her jaw and removed her storage band. Celia choked and trembled, eyes bulging as she watched Emma open it. … Nearby, Marcus and Drake had long beaten the elders into submission. Kieran, Edric, and Malrik worked efficiently, tying the elders up in neat bundles across the floor. "Emma, spare us!" the elders pleaded. "We're innocent! We didn't know anything!" One elder, tears streaming down his face, crawled frantically toward Celia."Emma, it was all Celia and Dahlia! Not our doing!" As he wailed, he shoved all the blame onto them, pretending he had done nothing wrong. "Yes, yes, it was them!" The other elders nodded, scrambling to absolve themselves. Emma didn't look at them. Instead, she pulled out several chains identical to the one on Celia and handed them to Marcus with a smirk. "Put these on them." Marcus obeyed immediately, stepping toward the elders. Their faces drained of blood at the sight. Their fearful cries rose sharply. "No—Emma, please! You can't do this to us!" "We're innocent!" "Innocent?" Emma's gaze was razor-sharp. "My eyes say otherwise. You took bribes from those around Malrik, helped Celia capture him, watched him suffer, and did nothing. And now you dare claim innocence?" Her voice was soft—yet every word dripped with killing intent. "You're all accomplices. No one walks away." Ignoring their screams, she turned back to Celia's storage band. Marcus and the others worked quickly, securing the elders' chains in moments. Clack! The spikes sank into flesh, and agonized screams echoed through the hall, chilling anyone who heard. Emma remains unfazed. They were transparent but of unknown material, thumb-sized, each containing a thick black liquid that moved sluggishly and exuded a strange aura. "Mm… mm…" Celia's pupils shrank violently the moment she saw the bottles. She was thrown into a frenzy, thrashing violently. The chains dug deeper into her flesh as she twisted, blood staining her clothes. Yet she seemed oblivious to the pain, her gaze locked on the bottles, full of panic and desperation. Emma, observing Celia's intense reaction, did not hesitate to store the bottles in her storage band. She didn't know what the black liquid was, but Celia's response told her it was important. Better to keep it safe. Celia's eyes grew bloodshot as she watched her prized possessions vanish, her body twisting even more violently as if madness had taken hold.