Satou turned slowly to face Zik. His eyes were no longer the yellow of a Hobgoblin, they were glowing crimson, traces of the transformation that had killed Vegeta threatening to resurface.

"Did. You. Know. About. This." Each word was punctuated by a pulse of bloodlust so intense that Zik was driven to his knees, gasping for air under the pressure.

"N-no!" Zik stammered, his entire body shaking. "I swear! I didn't know! I've never been down this passage! Only the elders go here! They said it was forbidden! That it was sacred ground! I thought, I thought they meant it was a shrine or something!"

His terror was genuine, absolute. He was telling the truth.

Satou's bloodlust didn't diminish. If anything, it intensified. Sacred ground. They called this nightmare sacred ground.

"Satou," Cassius said carefully, his hand not going to his weapon but positioned to restrain if necessary. "You need to breathe. Control yourself. This rage won't help these women."

"Won't help them?" Satou's voice was barely human, a growl that echoed with promise of violence. "These women have been tortured, violated, kept as breeding stock. And I'm supposed to be calm?"

"No," Cassius replied. "I'm saying you need to be controlled. There's a difference. Rage makes you sloppy. These women need help, not a berserker destroying everything around them."

The words cut through the red haze slightly. Satou forced himself to breathe, to think, to push down the transformation that wanted to take over.

"Is there," Satou's voice was still rough but more controlled, "any magic that can help them? That can wipe out their memories of this place? Let them forget what was done to them?"

Cassius was quiet for a moment, his expression unusually grave. "There is. Memory manipulation magic of that caliber requires a master caster. Morgana, the vampire mage who opened the portal for Lord Loki, she could perform such a spell. But she's not here."

"Then get her here," Satou demanded. "Use whatever communication magic you have. I don't care what it costs. These women deserve a chance to live again without these memories."

"I can contact the settlement and request her presence," Cassius said. "But it will take time. A day, perhaps two, for her to travel here even using portal magic."

"Do it," Satou ordered. Then he looked at the women again, really looked at them. Some had stopped screaming at his presence. Others were still cowering. None of them looked at him with anything but fear.

He was just another goblin to them. Another monster who would hurt them.

"Cassius," Satou said more quietly. "Can you at least make them comfortable? Put them to sleep or something? They shouldn't have to be conscious and terrified while we figure this out."

Cassius nodded, pulling out a small crystalline stone from his coat, black with crimson veins running through it. "This is a communication crystal linked to the settlement. Give me a moment."

He channeled mana into the crystal, and after a few seconds, a voice emanated from it. One of the elf leaders Loki had stationed at Satou's village.

"This is Cassius," the vampire said. "We have a situation that requires immediate assistance. I need a team of healers, preferably female, and supplies sent to these coordinates immediately. We've discovered multiple kidnapping victims, various races, in severe condition. They'll need medical treatment, clothing, food, and eventually transport back to the settlement."

The elf's response was immediate and professional. "Understood. How many victims?"

Cassius did a quick count. "Approximately thirty-five. Mostly human and elf, some beastkin. All females. All in poor condition."

"We'll dispatch a team within the hour. Cassius, should we also send guards?"

"Yes. Armed escort. And inform Jessica that we'll need her Holy Maiden abilities when we return. These women will need extensive healing, both physical and mental."

"Understood. Help is on the way."

The crystal's glow faded.

Cassius then approached the women, moving slowly and keeping his hands visible. He spoke in a gentle voice, using translation magic so they could understand him.

"I am Cassius. The goblin who just entered, Satou, has freed this settlement from the wolves that were attacking it. We discovered you by accident. You are safe now. No one here will hurt you anymore. I'm going to cast a sleeping spell to give you rest while we arrange for your rescue. When you wake, you'll be in a safe place with healers to tend to you. Do you understand?"

Most of the women didn't respond, too traumatized or broken to process his words. But a few nodded slightly, a glimmer of desperate hope in their eyes.

Cassius raised his hands, and soft purple magic flowed from his palms, spreading through the chamber like a gentle mist. One by one, the women's eyes closed, their bodies relaxing into unconsciousness. It wasn't sleep exactly but a magically induced rest state that would keep them calm and unaware until help arrived.

Satou watched, his fists still clenched so tight his claws drew blood from his own palms. "What did you do to them?"

"A variation of sleep magic," Cassius explained. "Combined with a mild sedation effect. They'll rest peacefully until the healers arrive. Their conscious minds won't register what's happening around them, which will prevent further trauma while we work."

"Good," Satou said. He turned back to Zik, his bloodlust finally receding to manageable levels. "Take me to your elder. Now."

"Y-yes, Chieftain Satou," Zik stammered, still visibly shaken by what he'd witnessed, both the women and Satou's terrifying rage.

They made their way to the main cave chamber, still supporting Kelvin between them. The young Hobgoblin had been silent during the entire exchange, his expression troubled.

"Big brother," Kelvin said quietly. "Those women, the goblins here did that to them?"

"Yes," Satou replied, his voice hard.

"Are we going to punish them?"

"Yes," Satou said again. "But first, I need to understand exactly what happened here. Who knew what, who participated, who was complicit. Then we'll decide what justice looks like."

They entered the main cave chamber where the surviving goblins had taken refuge. It was a pitiful sight, maybe twenty goblins huddled together, many injured, all terrified. They'd barricaded themselves in this chamber when the wolves attacked, and from the looks of things, they'd been slowly starving while waiting for rescue or death.

When they saw Satou enter, supporting Kelvin and accompanied by a vampire, there was confusion and fear. But then Zik called out.

"It's safe! The wolves are dead! These are the warriors from the south, the ones I told Elder Grik about! They've saved us!"

An elderly goblin, bent with age and leaning heavily on a gnarled staff, emerged from the crowd. His eyes were milky with cataracts, but his mind seemed sharp as he studied the newcomers.

"You killed twenty Dire Wolves?" the elder asked, his voice quavering with age and disbelief.

"He did," Satou said, nodding toward Kelvin. "Single-handedly. I just watched."

The goblins stared at Kelvin with awe and fear. A single Hobgoblin defeating an entire pack of Dire Wolves was the stuff of legends.

"Then you have our eternal gratitude," Elder Grik said, bowing as deeply as his aged body would allow. "I am Grik, elder of this settlement. We owe you our lives. Please, tell us how we can repay such a debt."

Satou's expression remained cold. "You can start by explaining the women imprisoned in your side chamber. The ones who've been kept as slaves and breeding stock."

The cave went deathly silent.

Elder Grik's face paled. The other goblins looked confused, some genuinely seemed to not know what Satou was talking about. But a few, a handful of older males, looked guilty.

"I don't know what you mean," Elder Grik said, but his voice wavered.

Satou's bloodlust flared again, just a pulse, but enough to make every goblin in the chamber flinch.

"Don't. Lie. To. Me." Satou's voice was quiet but carried absolute menace. "I found thirty-five women chained in a cave chamber. Human, elf, beastkin. All of them brutalized, all of them kept prisoner. And Zik told me that only the elders go to that part of the caves. So I'll ask again, and this time, I want the truth. What were you doing with those women?"

Elder Grik straightened as much as his aged body would allow, his milky eyes meeting Satou's glowing yellow ones with something resembling defiance.

"What we do in our caves is our business," Grik said, his voice taking on a harder edge. "This is how goblins have survived for generations. For centuries. The females of our kind are rare, precious. Without supplementing our population, we would die out within a generation. It's not cruelty, it's survival."

"Survival," Satou repeated, his voice deadly calm. "You call keeping women as breeding slaves survival."

"It is tradition!" another elder spoke up, this one younger than Grik but still clearly advanced in age. "This is how our ancestors lived. How every goblin settlement operates. We raid, we take, we breed. It's the cycle of life for our species."

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