With Dimitra leading the way, the siblings soon made it to a door revealing a set of stairs leading to an underground spabsp;

  Upon opening the door, the siblings were immediately assaulted by a pu, siing stench.

  "Ugh, what is that smell?" Cir excimed, her face t in disgust as she clutched her nose.

  Michalis, Nikoos, Eleni, and Vasiliki quickly followed suit, c their noses in a futile attempt to block out the foul odour.

  Dimitra's expression hardened as she replied.

  "It's...excrement." she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, tinged with a hint of dread.

  "By the way, did you both kill all the bandits ihe stronghold?" Draco asked Dimitra and Vasileios, his brow furrowed.

  Vasileios nodded solemnly. "After Dimitra found the celr, I took care of all the bandits within." he replied.

  "Good," Draco said, his tone posed.

  Without hesitation, he began desding the stairs, tor hand.

  The others followed suit, their faces a mixture of trepidation aermination.

  As they reached the bottom, the air grew thid stagnant, the pu smell of filth assaulting their senses.

  Eleni's face torted in disgust, and she struggled to keep her posure.

  "Ugh, how aand this?" she muttered, her voice strained as she fought the urge to vomit.

  They all had enhanced senses of varying degrees as they were all beast type demi-humans.

  Draotig their disfort, said, "Breathe through your will get better." His own expression remaioic, but his eyes betrayed a hint of unease.

  Waving the torch around, Draco surveyed the area, his gaze eventually settling on a door to the left of the room.

  "Is that the pce?" he asked, turning to Dimitra.

  "Yes," she replied, her voice barely audible.

  Steeling himself, Draco walked up to the door and flung it open, only to be greeted by a sight that would haunt them all for the rest of their lives.

  Cir's eyes widened in horror as she took in the horrific se before them.

  "Oh, gods," she whispered, her hands trembling as she covered her mouth.

  Rows of naked women, their hands a severed and cauterized, were ed to the walls.

  The s seemed to be fused with the raw, angry stumps of their limbs, a cruel and inhumane dispy of the bandits' depravity.

  Beh them, a bucket filled with a ing mixture of feces and urine collected the waste from their tortured bodies.

  Michalis felt bile rising in his throat as he took in the sight.

  "This is...this is beyond monstrous," he choked out, his face ashen.

  Nikoos, uo tain his horror, doubled over ached, his body vulsing as the tents of his stomach spilled out onto the floor.

  Dimitra's turned her eyes away, her mind uo bare the sheer brutality of the se again.

  "I don’t know why they would do this?" she murmured, her voice trembling.

  Vasiliki's hands ched into fists, her knuckles turning white as she fought back tears e.

  "Those...those bastards," she spat, her voice ced with venom.

  Vasileios could only stare in silent horror, his face a mask of anguish and disgust. Dimitra had stopped him from entering the room earlier, so he was unaware of what lied within.

  Draco's expression darkened as he surveyed the macabre tableau before them.

  "So this is what they meant by 'colle'," he muttered, his voice ced with a mixture of revulsion and sorrow.

  Looking around, the women were from various races: Humans, Pallums, tropes, Elves and more.

  Walking closer to the women, Draco pced his hand over their o check if they were breathing and still alive.

  Surprisingly some of them were still alive but pletely unrespoheir minds pletely reduced to nothing more than lifeless sex dolls.

  Turning to the right, Draco discovered another door.

  Steeling himself, he ope, only to be greeted by a simir se – rows of men, their hands a severed and cauterized, id out on wooden tables.

  Cir let out a anguished cry, her knees bug as she sank to the floor, her body wracked with sobs.

  Michalis rushed to her side, his own face twisted with grief and rage.

  "How could they do this?" Eleni wailed, her voice breaking as she colpsed against the wall, sliding down until she was huddled on the floor.

  Nikoos, his face ashen, pced a trembling hand on Eleni's shoulder, what little fort he could muster.

  Dimitra and Vasiliki stood in stunned sileheir eyes brimming with tears they refused to let fall.

  Vasileios, his fists ched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, turned away, uo bear the sight any longer.

  Draco's expression hardened as he surveyed the devastation around them.

  "This is what the world is like," he said, his voice eg through the cavernous spabsp;

  "Look very clearly at what the bandits you just killed did." he said.

  Their heads snapped up, their eyes filled with a mixture of hrief, and a newfound resolve.

  Draco tinued, his voice steringed with a hint of sorrow.

  "So hold your head up proudly, you just did a good thing. You will likely experience more things like this, but stay true to your vis, and you will be alright." he advised.

  Cir, her face streaked with tears, looked up at Draco, her eyes filled with a determined glint.

  "We won't let this happen again," she said, her voice filled with emotion.

  "We'll never agaiate. We will fight against the injustice of the world to protect what is dear to us," she decred resolutely.

  Michalis, his expression hardening, nodded in agreement.

  "Cir's right. We won't turn a blio this kind of cruelty. We'll use our strength to stand up against the darkness in this world," he stated, his words ced with a newfound vi.

  Eleni, her face set with a steely resolve, pushed herself up from the floor.

  "These types of monsters will pay for what they've done," she growled, her hands g into fists, the knuckles turning white from the sheer iy of her grip.

  Nikoos, his eyes filled with a newfouermination, pced a hand on Eleni's shoulder.

  "We'll make sure justice is served, no matter the cost," he said, his voice steady and firm.

  Dimitra and Vasiliki exged a silent, solemn nod, their eyes veying a shared uanding of the gravity of the situation.

  Vasileios, his face a mask of grim determination, stepped forward to joihers. He was of the same mind as them.

  Draco watched as his siblings rallied together, their hearts and minds united with another on purpose.

  He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at their newfound strength and vi, even as he reized the potential pitfalls that y ahead for them.

  "I am gd that you all think that way, but don't let yourself be deluded that the world is all bd white," Draco cautioned, his voice measured and thoughtful.

  "The true colour of the world is grey." he said.

  Vasileios looked up at his older brother, his brow furrowed in fusion.

  "What do you mean, Draii?" he asked.

  Draco paused, sidering his words carefully.

  "Hmm, if you found out that all these unfortunate people were all murderers, wouldn't your feelings ge from empathy to disgust, thinking that maybe they deserved it?"

  The group fell silent, the weight of Draco's words settling upon them like a heavy mantle.

  They exged uneasy gheir expressioraying the internal turmoil that his words had sparked.

  "People are the ones who make things look bd white," Draco tinued, his gaze sweeping across the assembled group.

  "I'm not saying your way of thinking is wrong, but you all should keep an open mind because not everything is usually as it initially seems." he expined.

  The siblings listeheir faces a tapestry of fusion and uainty.

  They could not fully prehend the nuahat Draco was trying to vey, the shades of grey that he insisted existed in a world they had previously seen as starkly divided between good and evil.

  Draco could see the struggle in their expressions, the iurmoil that his words had ignited.

  He khat it would take time for them to truly uand the plexities of the world they inhabited, the delicate baween justid mercy, right and wrong.

  "Just keep my words in mind," Draco said, his tone measured and patient.

  "You will all e to uand it one day." he added.

  Draco's gaze fell upon the lifeless faces of the unfortunate victims of the bandits.

  ‘What to do with them’ be pondered seriously.

  'I guess that I will leave them to the city officials,' Draused, his mind whirring with the implications of such a decision.

  'But before that, I've got to loot the pce.' he decided.

  Draco had inally sidered putting the prisoners out of their misery, a cold and calcuted act that would have spared them from further suffering.

  But seeing the fragility of his siblings' minds, he khat such a decision would be beyond their prehension at this stage.

  Expining his reasons for killing the prisoners would be a plex and nuanced versation, ohat his siblings were not yet equipped to handle.

  He was aware that he was their current role model, but raising them to be like him would be a grave mistake.

  Draco wanted his siblings tle, to think, and to grow, each of them f their own individual paths.

  He alshe importance of letting his siblings wrestle with these questions, to front the difficult truths that y at the heart of the world's darkness.

  He wahem to grow, to develop their own moral passes, to navigate the murky waters of ethical deaking.

  Cp !!

  Draco cpped loudly to pull all their attention towards himself.

  “It’s time for us to leave this horrid pce but before that, we are going to take any valuables we find” Dranounced.

  ‘Strahey aren’t bothered with the stenymore. They must truly be shook’ Draco thought.

  “What about these people” Dimitra asked.

  “We will report this to the city officials ahem deal with the rest. We ’t do anymore for these poor people” Draco replied.

  Everyone immediately began climbing the stairs to exit the prison, each of their minds filled with varyiions and thoughts.

  “Alright split up and search for a vault” Drastructed.

  ‘Ara funds will be of help to us when we arrive in Orario’ he thought.

  The sun had already begun to set meaning that they had to hurry if they wao arrive iy before nightfall.