The place they were brought as a residence was really the Sect's dump; everything old or thrown away by mistake was here.
"So that's how it is, then it's necessary to do a thorough cleaning in every nook and cranny here!"
Although the circle around her had narrowed, the Blood God was quite comfortable; in fact, this state of hers had even disturbed some of the tens who had just finished their meals.
"Look at those airs, you'd think they won this year's participation exam!"
When one spoke, the other couldn't resist and entered the conversation too.
"Don't even ask, one of them completed the Death Pit trial."
"Come off it, I couldn't even pass the first circle at all!"
When they caught themselves off guard and started the conversation, Nora started laughing too; the subject was going to a very interesting place.
"They heard while those leaving the meals were talking, one of them was a very beautiful girl. Like this, her blood-red hair extended down to her waist!"
After this sentence, the environment suddenly became quiet; the eyes of the ten people chewing the cud had turned to Nora.
"One of them was large-built and tough-looking, he was the one who came first too!"
While the voice of the person speaking gradually grew weaker, his last words came out of his mouth with difficulty.
"The other one's eyebrows, hair, everywhere was white. Just like how this kid is!"
The types sprawling comfortably stood up in an instant; some wanted to reach for the metal rods standing behind them. Nora felt the footsteps around stopping too; the place where push comes to shove had been reached.
"Jashua do you see, our reputation came before we did but this place is very stuffy. Would you open one more ventilation hole?"
The Young Count didn't make her say it twice this time; he extended his left hand towards the door they entered inside, and a few breaths later, a red fog came from the front and started wandering around him.
"This is Essence Manipulation!"
No matter how untalented they were, they were formerly the sect's disciples trying to make cultivation; they knew what Count Jashua did like their own names.
Amidst exclamations of astonishment, the young boy swung the blood towards the wall; while proceeding, the target of the sharpening droplets was the stones on the verge of collapsing.
The wall collapsed with a noise; fresh air and light filled inside at a gallop. The footsteps of people followed this; dozens of faces were warming with the warmth of the sun.
"Wretches!"
Count Jashua spoke looking with disgust-filled eyes at the crowd piling up in front of the hole he opened; this state of his would cause a different idea to come to Nora's mind.
"You are almost three hundred people inside the building but you can't take down the ten men standing there and get neither fresh air nor light. Why?"
The Blood God asked her question and waited for a while, then she continued raising her voice even more.
"Obviously they were thrown here because they are untalented and insufficient like you, how strong can they be? If you all attack you would drown them in a spoonful of water but you can't do it, not because you can't manage, because you don't dare.
This tiny building is like a miniature of the rest of the world that's why, the walls on the verge of collapsing and this dilapidated roof are your body, the darkness wrapping around is your fears!"
As Nora spoke, the ten people got tense; they grasped the iron rods they kept next to them tightly.
"I am sure you are waiting for someone to come and save you from these, even to break this trap you are stuffed into but in vain, that day will never come. Unless you rebel and destroy those putting the collar on your neck, unless you break the walls suppressing your self, nothing will end!"
When her words ended, Nora looked outside from the hole Count Jashua opened; this side of the structure opened to a deep valley and the scenery seen from high up was breathtaking. This place was right next to the people living a prison life inside the building, floundering inside darkness and foul smell. Only a stone wall a span wide separated the two worlds; although they saw this, they couldn't extend their hands and take it until the words of the young girl entering from the door one day.
Footsteps accelerated again; this time their target was the ten people leaning their backs against each other in front of the first crevice.
"Stop, don't take one more step!"
This time the breath of the man who stopped all of them with a single word a moment ago wasn't enough to prevent what was happening; a crowd of more than a hundred people was charging.
The struggle lasted very short; although the ten could endure for a while, then the attackers either threw those they captured down the valley or beat them until they became unrecognizable. They were left breathless, but the light in their eyes pierced through the darkness of the environment.
"You took the first step but it's not enough. Now the turn is to destroy these walls holding you captive, to smash the dilapidated roof blocking your sun to the ground!"
Those receiving the call took action; some set to work with the iron rods remaining from the ten, some with their bare hands. They struggled for a long time; starting from the breach Count Jashua opened, they tried to dismantle the stones, climb from the formed slope, and destroy the roof.
They had been struggling for presumably more than three hours, but what they could manage became destroying a place almost the exact same size as what the Young Count did.
"Alis you have no morale since the test. What do you say, shall we help a little?"
Indeed, the white-haired youth hadn't broken his silence despite all that happened; contrary to normal, the air he spread around was heavy enough not to be expected from him.
Again silently, he took his two katanas out of his inter-spatial tag and disappeared from sight under the gazes of hundreds of people watching him.
When he appeared once more, he was on top of the roof which the people in a wretched state could only destroy its tip a little, and he swung his swords rapidly.
At first, those watching him thought nothing happened, but a second later the roof on the verge of collapsing split in two from the middle and collapsed towards the edges of the structure. The time had passed noon, but the sun seemed not to have lost anything from its warmth; it reached even the most secluded corners and filled the inside of the structure.
"It became more airy like this, didn't it?"
Nora turning her face to the sky drew a deep breath; a lot of coughing sounds would follow her.
"Normal, breathing foul air all this time they even forgot how to breathe. The upper part is done but those walls are blocking the scenery, let me handle that too!"
Two whips coming out of her wristbands started cracking; with every hit, large holes opening to the valley were forming on the wall. When the upper part opened, the space becoming airy returned to normal thoroughly as the cool and windy air of the valley filled it.
Everything was all well and good, but the scene emerging after the change was beyond dire; all the filth the darkness hid was now laid bare before eyes.
It was revealed bitterly that the thought of them leaving the dead in front of the door together with the empties in the evening was wrong; the proofs of what people did to live in deficient nutrition and inappropriate conditions were out in the open.
The trio watched the surroundings for a while; although the survivors tried to move away from their works, they wouldn't allow this.
"Whatever you did you did, just don't forget why and how you did this. Now leave the poor ones to the clean arms of the valley, maybe they can find peace there!"
A feverish work started; people whose numbers reached three hundred started cleaning the inside of the structure. When the sun started setting, all sounds were cut off; with the effect of the destruction created by insufficient nutrition for a long time and negative conditions too, they fell exhausted from fatigue.
Unlike them, the trio coming in the morning was quite vigorous; under Nora's leadership, they took the empty food containers that couldn't be seen from rust and headed towards the door. What a coincidence that the trio leaving the meals in the morning was pounding the door violently too.
"Open the door, what is going on here?"