Lord Siss opened his eyes, the amber irises narrowing into deadly vertical slits. The beautiful, delicate illusion of the young celestial scholar vanished entirely, replaced by the cold, ancient malice of a predator that had hunted in the dark for five centuries.
"Fascinating," Lord Siss hissed, his voice dropping an octave, echoing off the obsidian walls like the scraping of steel against stone.
The forked tongue flicked out again, tasting the air, savoring the bitter tang of their lies. The massive coils surrounding the hyenas suddenly constricted inward, stopping just inches from crushing their bones, pinning them in place.
"You smell of cowardice," Lord Siss whispered, leaning down so close that the hyenas could feel the cold, damp chill radiating from his skin. "You reek of submission. You tell me of a grand army, of soldiers and strongholds... yet your hearts beat not with the memory of a battle, but with the active, present fear of a master’s punishment. Someone has put a leash on you, little dogs. And it was not I."
The hyenas began to sob, the psychological pressure finally breaking their minds. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t speak. If they told the truth, the poison would kill them. If they stayed silent, the Snake Lord would crush them.
Lord Siss reached out, his hand snapping forward with blinding, inhuman speed. He grabbed the oldest hyena by the throat, lifting the heavy beastman off the ground with a single, effortless motion. The hyena choked and gagged, his legs kicking uselessly in the air.
"Let us try this again," Lord Siss said softly, his beautiful face mere inches from the suffocating mercenary. "And this time, you will tell me exactly what that human girl did to you. Or I will show you what a true apex predator can do."
The oldest hyena hung suspended in the air, his heavy boots kicking uselessly against the polished marble floor. Lord Siss’s pale, delicate hand was locked around his throat like a band of cold, unyielding iron. The Snake Lord didn’t even look strained. He held the massive, muscular beastman aloft with the casual ease of a man holding a glass of wine.
"Tell me," Lord Siss repeated, his voice a hypnotic, terrifying whisper that echoed in the vast emptiness of the throne room. "What did that little human girl do to make you reek of such profound, pathetic terror?"
The hyena’s vision was beginning to swim with dark spots. His lungs burned, screaming for oxygen. He looked down into the glowing, slit-pupil amber eyes of the ancient predator and realized, with absolute, terrifying clarity, that he was going to die right here, right now, on this cold obsidian floor.
The choice was no longer between living and dying. The choice was entirely about ’how’ he died.
If he kept lying, Lord Siss would slowly, methodically crush his windpipe, or perhaps drop him into a pit of acidic venom to dissolve alive. But if he told the truth... Kaya’s terrifying blue poison would activate. His veins would bulge, he would vomit black blood, and he would die thrashing in unimaginable agony.
But as the Snake Lord’s grip tightened, snapping the cartilage in his throat, the hyena’s primal instinct to breathe overpowered his fear of the poison. He couldn’t take it anymore. The psychological pressure snapped his mind clean in two.
"She—!" the hyena gurgled, clawing desperately at the pale hand choking him. "She tricked us!"
Lord Siss’s eyes narrowed. He loosened his grip just a fraction of an inch, allowing a tiny, ragged sliver of air into the mercenary’s lungs. "Continue."
"The Free Clan!" the hyena sobbed, tears and saliva dripping down his swollen face. "It’s a lie! It’s all a lie! There is no grand army! There is no massive stronghold! It was just her, the Vulture chief, and a bear! She set a trap for us in a cave! She beat us, she humiliated us, and then she poured a cursed blue poison down our throats!"
The other hyenas behind him clamped their hands over their ears and squeezed their eyes shut, waiting for the horrific sound of their leader’s organs exploding. They braced themselves, their bodies rigid with absolute terror.
"She told us to lie to you!" the oldest hyena shrieked, fully expecting his heart to burst at any second. "She told us to tell you that the army was massive! She wanted you to panic! She said if we spoke the truth, the poison would kill us instantly! She... she..."
The hyena trailed off, squeezing his eyes shut, bracing for the agonizing, bloody death he had witnessed back in the cavern.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Five seconds.
The heavy, oppressive silence of the throne room remained unbroken. There was no vomiting of black blood. There were no unnatural contortions. There was no agonizing death rattle.
Slowly, the oldest hyena opened his eyes. He blinked, looking down at his own chest. He tentatively reached a hand down to touch his stomach. There was no pain. There was no burning sensation. He was completely, entirely fine.
The other hyenas slowly opened their eyes, staring at their leader in absolute, dumbfounded shock. The realization hit them like a physical blow to the head, staggering them. The blue liquid... the horrific death of the Vulture subordinate... the ticking time bomb in their guts...
It was all fake.
The human woman hadn’t used ancient alchemy or demonic magic. She had used a prop, a terrible actor, and their own primal stupidity against them. She had subjected them to a masterclass in psychological warfare, completely breaking their minds without using a single ounce of real poison.
Lord Siss stared at the bewildered, sobbing mercenaries. For a long moment, the ancient Snake Lord did not move. His brilliant amber eyes processed the sheer, audacious scale of the deception.
And then, Lord Siss began to laugh.
It started as a low, sibilant hiss in the back of his throat, slowly building into a cold, echoing laughter that sent fresh waves of absolute terror down the hyenas’ spines. He unceremoniously dropped the oldest hyena onto the marble floor. The beastman collapsed, gasping greedily for air, trembling at the feet of the laughing monster.
"A human," Lord Siss chuckled, shaking his head, his long black hair shimmering in the emerald torchlight. "A fragile, hairless, magicless human female orchestrated this. She fed you a lie, she fed you dyed water, and she sent you running across the continent to deliver a ghost story to my doorstep. And you fell for it."
Lord Siss turned away, his massive black coils sliding gracefully across the floor as he moved back toward his golden throne. His amusement vanished as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by a cold, calculating intellect that had kept him alive for over three centuries.
"She wanted me to panic," Siss mused, picking up his silver goblet of wine. He took a slow sip, his eyes fixed on the dark ceiling. "She wanted me to pull my forces to the front gates. She wants me looking at the horizon for an army that does not exist. Which means... the real threat will not come from the front."
He looked back down at the hyenas, his gaze freezing their very souls. "You said the Vulture chief was with her. Veer."
"Y-Yes, my Lord!" the hyenas nodded frantically. "He was there! He killed our backup! He is helping her!"
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