Aelen

Day 4

My body rattles against the frigid wall with chains. Three days have passed by, but it feels like several. I woke up chained to the wall with Phil, Rick, Markus, and Ella in the room. The room is freezing, not that I mind it. If it was any colder, it would be unfit for human survival. I watched all four of them get dragged away from this dungeon. The dark knights from the battlefield injected them to keep them immobile. It's just me left- All alone. I hope that Dominique, Blathnaid, Ivelisse, and Naomi are okay. I never saw them at all in this dungeon. It worries me deeply. It's only a matter of time before they come in and take me. They also injected the same venom into me to limit my strength and senses. I can still move, but it is depleting as hell.

To pass my time in this dungeon, all my worries engulf me into pure doom that I failed to protect the coven. I counted to 100,000 and that did not get rid of it. I pushed and pushed against the chains, wishing for them to break. No luck. I am too weak. I feel weaker than a human at this point. This is not normal for me.

The knights with branches sprawling from their backs have arrived. I try to use more of my strength. Nothing there. They unhook me down the wall. My body drops to the ground with more force than I can take, groaning. They laugh at my suffering, taunting me to get up now. They don't bother flipping me over on my back; they let my face taste the floor. The taste of dust, faeces, crimson, and vomit all in one. I turn my head and observe the details of this place.

Branches gone wild across the cold black walls. Torches from white death flame intensely light up the hallways. It hurts to look at them. I quietly whimper to myself as I close my eyes. Couple of minutes grind by. I hear a door slam behind us. I hear my chains being hooked up. I raise my head to the side. I can't see what's in front of me. Everything is pitch black.

"Hello, Aelen," a raspy voice makes its presence known. A major dark pile of goo falls from the ceiling. I hear splashing noises. A heavy creature approaches me with loud thumps. I can't see it. It's not like I care.

"Oh my, a daemon unable to stand from me," it boasts before chuckling, "How pathetic. The Gods that stayed in your universe are full of fools. You're not even a complete God, anyway."

I stay silent.

"Let's have some fun, shall we?"

Whatever you're calling fun is in your pure delight, not mine.

A feel of dark branches flip me over onto my back. The speed makes me dizzy. I take in deep breaths and close my eyes to calm it down. If I had eaten something, it would be on the floor by now.

I cringe at the feeling of a cold slimy hand across my leg. The slime from the hand dries up, leaving a very coarse skin. A cheese grater will be less rough compared to the hand rubbing my leg.

"Soft skin," the thing fiendishly coos. Its voice turns morbid, "Too bad it will be gone in an instant." Its hand shoves down on my leg. My leg stings and hurts severely as it uses its coarse hands to rip off layers of skin. I painfully howl. My muscles stiffly rage as I try to fight the venom and chains. Blood profusely oozes from my leg, coursing deeper and deeper. I try to kick him, but again, chains are stronger than me. It's so lucky that they injected venom into me, otherwise, this will be less than a one-sided match or an easy escape.

"Just as easy as scraping the inside of the Fai's throats," it insults with a haggy voice. A Fai? What's that?

It moves to my other leg. All I can do is fear what comes next. I can feel my warm fresh blood on its hand while it touches my other leg. "Such a nice build," it compliments in a sick way. Their tone changes malevolent in a split second, "Easy to destroy in bare seconds!"

All I can do is scream. My bone loudly snaps as it uses its fists to crush my ankle. More amounts of agony surge through my leg. Waves of incoherence and alertness hit me again and again as unconsciousness curses me. I know it will get worse from here if I pass out. The pain escalates from the previous hit. Many fractures of bones, joints, and tendons can be heard breaking with the sound of bamboo snapping.

It slaps me right across the face to wipe the tears from my eyes. My skin rips off. A side of my head scorches in agony. I sob quietly. It slams against my femur. A blood-curdling scream erupts from my lungs. A scream that can be heard for miles. Any louder and it will circle the world a few times. The venom takes a few hours until it wears off. As for my regeneration, it only kicks in when I am no longer in danger. It slows down if it sees I keep on getting hurt.

The next piece in the slime of horrors has begun. My abdomen bursts. A dark tree grows out of my body, shredding my organs. It all happened so fast that I didn't have time to react. I rocket up high because the trunk grows out of my back quickly. Multiple branches pierce out of my legs, arms, and head. My body is cut into half; my bodily fluids and organ fragments rain from the ceiling like red wine falling from the sky. The only hope left is that the chains are ripped off its hinges. It's horrible to find out that I am still alive. It's beyond the point of persistent severe pain. I feel myself drifting away into either darkness, death, or maybe both. If I die, there's either reincarnation or my soul disappears.

"You're the first daemon that I've killed in Verantuvia," it says from down below. It's very faint, in and out. My hearing is going away. That's a good thing for once; I didn't want to hear it. His words bobble out of my ears. It's so drowned out with death crawling near. I am already seeing the blackness in my room. Now I feel nothing pretty fast. I close my eyes and let myself fall into my final defeat.