Facing a High Elf bent on death, David showed not the slightest mercy.
Just as vigilant with the Drow, he treated the High Elves with equal disdain.
If the Drow, who had inherited much of the dark aspects of the High Elves, were synonymous with conspiracy and betrayal, then the High Elves, in their complete form, were master manipulators akin to crafty lotus masters.
According to the Dragon legacy, in the years following their settlement on the prime material plane named Toriel, the elves had managed to displace the ruling dragons and achieve unification of the continent. Yet, due to their self-destructive tendencies, they nearly blasted through the earth's crust. Subsequently, they plunged into a Crown War lasting three thousand years over the right to rule, from which they never recovered.
Some elves, no longer able to tolerate the status quo, made the same choice as their ancestors and opened Teleportation Gates to flee to distant lands.
However, while their ancestors had done so to avoid a cataclysmic end, these elves were trying to escape the endless wars.
Some of them settled in this material plane called Elariya and started anew.
But ironically, after many years of proliferation, they once again fell into the same patterns due to their nature. One-third of the High Elves, under the leadership of one named Anastasia Sameriel, reconnected with the dark faith of the Spider Mother, Rose. This reignited an ongoing struggle over the throne with the High Elves once more.
Faced with such forgetful creatures, prone to gamble their destiny and continuously court disaster, David felt no remorse at their death. Even if many perished before him, he would only clap his claws in enjoyment and then say,
"Good riddance!
Please continue your performance."
But just as David had decided this, he saw his loyal Drow canine slowly approach with an empty barrel, waiting for his command.
David immediately curled his claw, signifying she should speak her piece.
The Drow immediately stepped on the barrel and, straining on her tiptoes, finally managed to reach David's ear flap, whispering,
"Master, this elf may be young, but her background is not simple. In the New World, she has even earned the title of the Fox of Dewensen."
"From what I know of her, she always managed to recover after years of defeat on the battlefield. Yet now, she is eager to die."
"There must be more to this than meets the eye."
"Oh?" Prompted by the Drow, David also began to feel something was amiss.
"Master, for safety, should we interrogate her first?"
"Agreed." David nodded gravely, giving the High Elf awaiting execution a deep look.
He had thus spared her life for the moment.
But what the Drow said next slightly irritated him:
"But someone as resolute as her, who has also learned counter-interrogation techniques, might comply with normal methods. However, if she is hiding something, it will still be hard to uncover."
"What do you want?" David, already deducing the answer, gazed into the Drow's eyes and asked.
"The Soul Prism."
Before David's pupils could narrow into dangerous slits, Hiatt quickly bowed her head and explained,
"There's still some space in the Soul Prism. I hope that when the time comes, Master, you will allow me to shove her soul into it as well. This way, I can slowly sift through her memories to ensure nothing is missed, without fail."
The anger rising in David was appeased, but he was still curious.
"Doesn't the Soul Prism require the subject's consent to function? She doesn't seem like the type who would easily relinquish her free will."
Some people would rather die than give up their freedom.
David said this somewhat uncertainly and looked to Tania, who was beside him. She nodded.
"Yes, that's difficult unless we have devilish methods and invest the time to slowly torment her..."
Tania, seeming to envision a gruesome and cruel scenario, couldn't bear to continue.
The Drow, however, smiled proudly and said,
"Please leave that to me, Master. If it were another race or person, I might indeed have no good solution.
"But since it's a High Elf, and she is the Fox of Dewensen, Yevgeny, some of my methods might actually work. Of course, that's provided you authorize me to use all possible interrogation techniques on her. She might experience..."
David merely waved his tail dismissively and interrupted,
"She's all yours now. Just get out of her what I want to know; I couldn't care less about the rest. Her life or death does not matter to me."
"Thank you for your trust, Master."
Hiatt thanked David for granting the interrogation rights, turned around, jumped down from the barrel, and, like a black cat, elegantly strolled toward the increasingly anxious High Elf.
"Alright, now it's our private time. It can be very short if you cooperate, or it can be very long, which I am happy to accept and enjoy."
As Hiatt spoke, she began undressing in front of everyone.
"What-what are you going to do?" Yevgeny glared at Hiatt.
"What do you think I am going to do?" Hiatt replied with a lascivious smile.
"...But we are both females... You don't even have the tools," the Elf began to panic, backing away.
"Then you are seriously underestimating us Drow."
Hiatt's expression turned serious as she licked the handle of her Drow curved knife, brought to her mouth, and sneered,
"Who says you can't kill someone without a spearhead?"
"..."
"Mage, come help out here."
"Alrighty!" The nearly invisible Drow Mage immediately scampered over, eager as a devoted fanboy.
"Web, Bind, and cast Agile Fingers on me."
"Yes!"
"Give her a little appetizer. Cast Enhanced Perception."
"Understood!"
"Superior Perception, Perfect Hearing, Cat's Grace, Eagle's Insight, Mind Reading, Mage Hand, Tremor, Flavor Identification..." Hiatt listed off abilities like a seasoned surgeon citing instruments.
"You-you slow down! My casting speed can't keep up..." The Drow Mage was already getting numb.
Just as the resilient Elf's pupils began to dilate uncontrollably, and her ears heated and trembled to the point of her screaming and struggling, Silver Dragon Tania revealed a nearly glitching gaze. David raised a paw to cover her involuntarily curious eyes and dragged her back into the cabin.
"We are still young dragons; we shouldn't watch such eyewatering stuff. It's bad for our development."
"Oh..."
With that, as they entered, David's 'Elizabethan ruff' precisely reconnected with the cabin.
Only this time, it was reversed.
Only David's pert behind was sticking out, purposefully ignorant of all the sins happening outside the cabin, seeing nothing.
Finally, after spending three days and four nights in the cramped cabin and bulking up on supplies from the High Elf, the David siblings obtained the intelligence they were after, as the Elf, with a vacant gaze and sporadically twitching body, 'voluntarily' squeezed herself into the Soul Prism.
But just as he had anticipated, it was indeed not good news.
Drow Hiatt also spoke with a heavy heart:
"Master, things have become a bit complicated.
"In her attempt to preserve an escape route for her people, this woman dispatched her confidant back to Dewensen ahead of time and reported your existence and value to her lord.
"I think it won't be two weeks before we might have to face a High Elf force several times larger than this one."
"...FUCK!"
David: [Wrath].
This isn't over yet, is it?!