"I was waiting for this moment. Let's have fun today sweetie."

The demon got closer to Agatha, twirling a knife between her fingers. The sound of her footsteps reverberated inside the young woman's head, which together with the noise of the knife cutting the air and the murmurs that came from outside, made it impossible for her to concentrate on Borbala's words.

"Do you even know why you're here?" Asked the demon. leaning her torso towards the human who was lying on the ground.

Agatha braced her hands on the ground and pushed herself up, her arms shaking with the effort, causing her to fall.

Confused, she took a look at her surroundings. She didn't recognize the room, it was the first time he had come across the red walls. How had she gotten there? She didn't remember anything after the night before, Lorcan's face came to her mind and before that her meltdown. That explained her condition, but not how she got there.

The young woman directed her gaze towards Borbala. She saw her lips move, yet she couldn't hear her words.

"Are you listening to me?" The demon screamed once again. After getting no response she took a lock of Agatha's hair and pulled it.

"I'm sorry," cried the human. The pain in her head was three times worse than usual.

"I don't like being ignored, if you want to stay alive you must remember that you have to do what I say."

Agatha nodded as her tears clouded her vision.

"Where am I?" She asked in a whisper.

"In one of the million rooms of the mansion. You don't need to know anything more than that."

"How did I get here?"

"Do you always have all these questions? Zagar brought you, you were asleep when he carried you here. I don't know what happened before that and I don't care."

"Why—?"

"Shut up!" Borbala's scream interrupted the young woman. "I don't want to hear any other questions. We're here to test your powers and that is what we're going to do."

Agatha pressed her hands against her ears with all her might and closed her eyes.

"Get up," the demon commanded. Fire flames began dancing between her red hair.

The young woman pushed her arms against the floor to lift her body. She managed to get her chest off the ground. Her shoulders didn't stop shaking and on her face she wore a grimace of pain.

"Humans are so weak," complained Borbala. She grabbed Agatha by the arm and pulled her up on her trembling legs. "Now, let's see how fast you can heal."

The fire that danced on the demon's hair spread to her hands. She approached her prey slowly. The young woman dragged her feet a few inches, her body refusing to react otherwise, she had no strength to fight.

"Please, don't do it," she begged.

A laugh came from Borbala. Her fire grew and reached the human's neck.

"You can beg all you want, I like to hear your suffering."

The demon pulled its hand away, but the pain did not leave Agatha. Half of her neck was covered in burns, every time she breathed a tear fell.

Immediately new skin replaced the wound.

"That was fast and it looks like nothing happened. Do you think you can get a scar? Should we try it?"

Borbala showed her the knife, the blade shone under the light of the chandelier. She cut through Agatha's cheek from her ear to her mouth, the wound disappeared before the young woman could feel the pain.

Still the demon didn't stop there.

She made a new cut on her victim's forehead. He waited for it to heal and cut it again in the same place, this second time he also ran the knife over Agatha's cheeks, nose and chin. The wounds took longer to close.

"Look at you, you're a mess with that bloody face. You should take a little more care of your appearance. Aww, we also have a tear fest," the demon mocked her. "I have to admit you're holding up better than I expected, I'm telling you girl it's like you're not even there. Can you still hear me?"

"No more," Agatha managed to say.

"Sweetie, this is only the beginning, I can't help you improve if I don't know what the limit of your power is. It's for your good. Look at the bright side, after today I don't think there's much chance that you'll find something worse. The next time something bothers you, you can say that at least what happened today isn't happening again."

Borbala sent a ball of fire towards the leg of the human. A part of the pants she was wearing began to catch fire. The fire spread rapidly up the leg until the demon called it back to her.

Agatha couldn't bear the pain and fell to the ground. She needed to get as far away from the monster as possible, using the strength she had left in her arms she slowly crawled.

"Do you really think you can get away from me in that state? Your movements are even more, your movements are even clumsier than at the beginning. I assume that using your power is already beginning to affect your energy." She got closer to the young woman, she crouched down beside her and plunged the knife into her good leg.

The scream that ran through the room at that moment was so loud that it continued on its way to the corridors of the mansion.

"Come on, you can do better." Borbala took the knife out of the leg. "The burn is still not healed. Hurry up so we can continue. Didn't the Protectors teach you to control your ability? Or do you just lack strength?"

The door of the room opened a little. The head of a green-haired demon carefully poked out. He set his eyes on Borbala's back.

"Excuse me, master. May I come in?"

Agatha was surprised by the formality of his words. After having crossed paths with him on her first day as a prisoner, she would have sworn he was a mere brute.

"You can, Belphar."

He got inside and closed the door.

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"Go ahead."

"I couldn't help but hear the human's screams. I know plenty about her kind screams and cries, you know I like to play with them. I can tell by the characteristics of her scream that she reached her limit, if your intentions are to kill her then there's no problem, but if what everyone is commenting on is true and you plan to use her, then I think the wisest thing to do would be to stop before she breaks."

"Are you sure she can't hold on a little longer? I didn't do much." Borbala kicked the burned leg causing the young woman to let out another scream. "She's barely healing."

"Maybe she never trained to extend her power, that's why she's unfamiliar with the method."

"Don't you humans train your powers? How are they going to get to their next level if they don't push themselves to exhaustion? You have to break your body and mind to match your ability."

"Except for this one humans cannot regenerate, breaking the mold would mean death for them."

"Sometimes I forget how weak they are. Take her back to her room."

"As you wish, master." Belphar bowed before approaching Agatha.

The young woman raised her arm, her trembling hand reaching for the demon's ankle. Images of her first meeting with him, and the sound of his gleeful laughter as he watched her writhe in pain, resurfaced in her mind.

"Don't tremble so much, little lamb, it'll be harder for me to carry you in that state," He crouched down next to Agatha's body. "You can come with me or you can stay with her. I would say that I'm your best option. I don't really like playing with a toy that I can't get rid of when I get bored and I don't want to start a war with Zagar."

She dropped her hand.

"Excellent choice. This is going to hurt, you're going to have to put up with it, it's the only way I have to take you to your room."

Belphar picked her up in his arms. The young woman closed her eyes and clenched her fists as the pain doubled. The longing for relief led her down a path she had forgotten, it brought her back to the old lullaby her mother used to sing to her when fear haunted her.

The sweet voice played in his mind, soon the faces of his parents kept him company. She stayed there, with them, until the sensation of her body touching the bed drove them away.

"Try to recover as much energy as you can. If Borbala left you in this state, Cadoc will leave you on the brink of agony. She's more powerful but he's insane. Not even Zagar can save you from him."