“Keep squeezing until he goes unconscious, the other boy can die if necessary!”
Ribold wailed as the bones in his forearm continued to snap into smaller and smaller pieces. His breathing was ragged and his free hand flailed as he tried to reach a surface to summon something, anything to turn the tables.
“You should give up,” Chakken said, “I’m not going to slacken the chains. The more you struggle the tighter I’ll make it. You keep struggling and I’ll crush your friend until he’s nothing but pulp and juice.”
Ribold wasn’t thinking clearly. He felt as if his arm was being violently disassembled and Alfso too as beyond his limits having already passed out and turning blue. Ribold in his desperation got a radical idea, but he couldn’t concentrate at all to think it through. He jumped up and land down as far as he could. His arm still continued to twist and snap. Ribold’s decision was twofold. First if he could tip over Alfso and himself he could reach the ground and summon some animals. Failing that he’d snap off his own arm and do the same. He tried again and again and Chakken and Viti watched in horror as this stubborn trapped child was mutilating himself rather than simply giving up.
“Hey Viti, we need him alive right? If he actually snaps his arm off he could bleed out. Also didn’t they want him intact?”
“I don’t remember how specific the order was but you need to continue tightening your grip until he goes unconscious.”
“If I go any further the other kid will die. As it is I felt through the tension he broke maybe 3-4 bones already.”
“Doesn’t matter subdue Ribold. Alfso is a secondary concern.”
“Viti can’t you just restrain him yourself? My chains can’t bind more than one person and we got lucky he reached within our trap.”
Viti smacked Chakken across the face so hard it echoed through the cavern, “Don’t you dare question me!” SMACK! “You know better than to question me!” SMACK! “Do your job or I’ll kill you! You worthless fucking piece of trash!”
Chakken happily embraced his punishment and accepted his own worthlessness. However the blows were so hard he almost lost consciousness resulting in the chains loosening up just enough for Ribold to break free. He slammed his good hand on the ground and fell unconscious. Several animals appeared in cages and coffins rising from the ground. A chicken with a broken body, a fast little fox, and a skeletal pig. The chicken let out a garbled cluck, the fox let out a shrill bark that faded into a growl, the pig snorted. All three attacked Chakken.
“Help me Viti!” Chakken shouted but Viti had other plans and only watched. The fox bit into Chakken’s ankle while the pig tackled him trying to knock him over. The little broken chicken hobbled over and leaned to the side it’s broken neck favored and began biting Chakken’s exposed toes with its beak. Chakken summoned his chains to return and Alfso fell over freed. Alfso shakily raised his hand and summoned his own champion.
A large wooden box rose from the ground and revealed the hybrid that Vol had lent him until he could would one day create his own. This was an Exmoor pony with the head of a velociraptor. It let out a terrifying road and lunged atop of Viti. He drew a dagger and plunged it into Chakken’s beast but it’s undead nature meant this fatal blow meant nothing to something that never needed pumping blood to attack. The raptor head bit straight into Viti’s exposed throat and shredded his flesh like 30 durable razors through wet paper. Viti gurgled his last breath as the raptor pony tore off his head, swung it skyward by a piece of hanging skin and caught it midair. Violently snapping again and again crushing it to swallow it into a half exposed ribcage that would have once been the path to the stomach. The beast turned to Chakken and sneered with a twisted curious bloody grin and began to approach.
Chakken had used all of his chains to stop Ribold’s creatures from harassing him and was horrified to see Viti die so unceremoniously in front of him. He used his chains to toss Ribold’s creatures away and immediately sent a torrent of rusted chains to try and stop the raptor pony. As the chains surrounded it, the malevolent monster leapt with all of its strength, it’s snapping jaws stopping just at Chakken’s face, close enough to leave a single toothed mark before the chains pushed it back. The creature dug itself into the sand and began to push forward again, snapping and roaring at the last remaining enemy. Alfso with his own broken arm and three ribs stumbled over to Ribold to try and help him. He shook Ribold until he began to awaken.
“Stop this thing!” Chakken screamed wildly. Chained to the pole as a prisoner Chakken couldn’t leave the room if he wanted to. And seeing the creature that killed the most powerful man he knew continuously come closer and closer to devour him alive meant Chakken was desperate and out of options.
“What happened?” Ribold said in a pained voice.
“You saved us Ribold!”
“It’s not over yet. The chain user is still… alive.”
“Fuck you Mr. Special! Let me go! You two have ruined everything! We should never have taken that job!”
“You promise to stop attacking us?”
“Yeah just call off this fucking monstrocity!”
“Alfso stop it.”
Alfso nodded and stood up. A few moments of the monster struggling with the chains later he said, “Stop... Stop it. Stop it now! Stop attacking! Goddamnit just stop!”
The monster turned to Alfso and snorted, still frenzied it pushed perpendicular to Chakkens chains and ran straight at Alfso mouth opened. Ribold looked about at his own summons on the ground and then passed out again. Alfso saw a fish splash past him and for an instant it seemed to be looking at him before landing in his frenzied monster’s mouth to be devoured into mincemeat that gruesomely landed on Viti’s skull debris and dripped through the creature’s ribcage onto the cavern ground below. In Alfso’s arms Ribold spasmed wildly before going limp. The creature stopped and looked at Alfso quizzically before walking up to him slower this time like a dog in trouble. It nuzzled Alfso, smearing his cheek in Viti’s blood and Alfso nearly wretched from the mixed smell of fish, blood, and death. Alfso at this point thought the creature was too dangerous to keep loose and with his mind ordered it back into its box, which it did with some unholy imitation of a sad whimper before the door closed and sank back beneath the earth.
“You can drop the prisoner act now,” Alfso said exhausted, “There’s no point in masquerading as my prison buddy anymore.”
Chakken looked at him from his own pole, “What are you talking about?”
“The restraints. Take them off. It’s creeping me out.”
“These are real kid.”
Alfso shouted in anger. “Don’t screw with me or I’ll call it back! Even if it kills us all!”
“Please don’t kid. I… I really can’t escape.”
Alfso’s eyes widened in realization. Chakken’s body was much more exposed now that his chains were sent to restrain his enemies. Still he was fastened to the pole by even more chains and his body looked to be completely emaciated and was covered with scars and bruises. “How … How long have you been like that?”
“As long as I can remember. So congratulations on that by the way. Your monster just killed the closest thing to a father that I’ve ever known. I don’t know whether to kill you or to thank you. Without Viti I don’t know anything… anymore.”
“So it is done.” Draihan said appearing from the darkness with the severed heads of the bandits he’d killed hanging from his belt. Chakken was horrified, these cruel men were all that he knew, and these three enemies had slaughtered them. Viti had told him to never get involved with necromancers despite he himself having an innate power similar to them. But Viti and the gang’s greed overrode their usual judgement and they foolishly tried to capture Ribold. Seeing Viti’s headless corpse spilling blood into the stone floor indicated this was a foolish decision. To be fair none of them knew how dangerous their effeminate prisoner was.
“You… You even killed Gaston, Lilly, and Marx?” Chakken said his face turning pale.
“And yet the most dangerous one lives?” Draihan said disgusted. Turning to Alfso holding an unconscious Ribold Draihan unloaded, “You’re temerity almost cost you your life you fool!”
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“I’m so sorry Master Draihan,” Alfso said as he started sobbing from a mixture of pain and guilt, “I never meant to cause you trouble!”
“Not you!” Draihan scowled, “Ribold! Now answer me!”
“He’s unconscious!”
“Tell me what happened!”
***
“That goddamned fool!” Draihan punched the cavern wall with such force the stone shattered and crumbled. Alfso whimpered at the impact. Chakken now realized that the little boy with the monsters was far from the greatest threat. Draihan of the Unholy 7 was here and he was not pleased.
“I don’t understand.” Alfso pleaded.
“The fish that saved your life wasn’t an act of god, it was Ribold! That fool got himself devoured! Now his mind is ruined! He may never recover!”
“That was him?” Alfso gasped choking on an avalanche of grief. “He did that to save me?” Alfso began to bawl his eyes out. Chakken didn’t fully understand but if Ribold was truly dead then the church was gonna be a big problem. Their messenger surely had contacted the church and they would be on the way. And not just warrior clergymen, Viti had sent for the Cardinal of the Interior. The same man in charge of inquisitions. He’d spare no effort in punishing those whom displeased him. Chakken’s mind raced,and he decided to tell them nothing. Whenever Viti was in this situation he’d kill the deadweight to move the gang faster and prevent witnesses. He’d have to make his escape when the Cardinal engaged Draihan.
Draihan ignored Alfso’s cries and turned his sneering face to Chakken, “You. Why should I leave you alive?”
“Uh, Master, sir, I’m just the slave here! I just followed orders!”
Draihan thought back to when he was but a mortal man, when Donatien Gagne was restrained and helpless as wife Louise and daughter Peggy were taken to the gallows. He could still hear their screams and within it, a young catholic man with a torch who said “I just followed orders!”
Draihan lunged at Chakken and tore his stake out of the ground. Chakken attacked with all of his chains and Draihan summoned his own as well. While Chakken had more chains Draihan easily broke out of everything Chakken restrained him with. Draihan grapsed Chakken’s chains and swung them in a rage striking Chakken again and again. Draihan was going to beat Chakken to death with his own chains. Draihan stopped and looked at his handiwork. Chakken had been released from the pole and was badly beaten. Draihan raised the chain he was holding again to end his misery when Alfso stepped in the way.
“It’s over.”
“He’s dangerous!”
“He was an enemy and now he’s not!”
“The only way to be sure is to kill him! If you like him so much take him as a thrall!”
“Why are you doing this!”
“Because of what he did to Ribold!”
“Then hit me! I’m the one that had Ribold devoured alive! Me! Chakken did what he was told and lost. But it was my failing, my fault, and my responsibility! So hit me!” Draihan obliged and with a metallic snap Alfso took a heavy blow to the face from the chain. His vision blurred and his head felt like it exploded from the pain. In this moment Alfso forgot about the rest of his broken body. Alfso collapsed on the floor gasping and coughing from the pain. Draihan dropped the chain and knelt down. He wandered over to Ribold’s body and felt it. Still warm, and there was still a pulse.
“He may yet live.” Draihan announced to no one in particular.
“We need to get out of here.” Alfso said as he felt the right side of his face swell up.
“Just let me go!” Chakken pleaded.
Draihan wanted to garrote Chakken’s head clean off with the rusted chains but seeing Alfso’s bruised face made him recoil. As time went on he wasn’t getting better from his family’s tragedy he was only worsening. Time hadn’t healed his wounds, it simply allowed his darkest impulses to metastasize. Draihan realized in his fury he’d made a terrible mistake. He dropped the chain and held out a hand to Alfso and Alfso stood with his help.
“I’m sorry. But know that I will never lose another child.” Draihan whispered suppressing the heartbroken pain in his voice.
Alfso smiled, “That’s ok. It’s what friends are for. When it gets to be too much we help each other. I’m sure you’d do the same.”
“I’m not fit to be a master to him or to you.”
“And I’m not fit to be an apprentice to Vol or you. But I’m working on it.” Alfso looked down at Ribold’s sleeping face, “And for his sake I have to do better next time.”
Draihan simply nodded, “Let’s get out of here.” Alfso nodded and struggled to lift Ribold with a broken arm and three broken ribs. Draihan turned to the boy who had never been free before. “Chakken was it? If you want to live make yourself useful.” To the boy who had never not known attachment he clung to Ribold’s other side with the ruined arm. Draihan turned and healed it, using necromancy to reconstruct the bones and repair the ligaments. Chakken shook as he heard a sickening crackle as Draihan forced Ribold’s arm back together. For now Ribold’s arm would work but the phantom pain from the trauma would take time to go away. Furthermore, there was no telling the damage done to his mind. Draihan slung Ribold over his shoulder and began to walk towards the entrance.
***
Draihan rounded the corner with Ribold in tow and saw a crimson figure on a pale horse. For a moment Draihan stiffened in fear. The figure was fumbling with his saddlebags and hadn’t turned yet. “Quiet!” Draihan whispered. He lowered Ribold gently as Cardinal Della Rovere turned to see his beloved child in the hands of one of the Unholy 7. He immediately retrieved a golden sword from a sheath dangling off of his pale mare. Turning back towards Draihan, Cardinal Della Rovere ignited the weapon and strode forth with purpose.
“Alfso, Chakken. No matter what happens. Do not ever allow this boy to fall into their hands.”
“Yes sir!” Alfso said dutifully. Draihan thought about his life and the perilous situation they were in and briefly considered killing Ribold. It was the smart choice, considering Della Rovere was powerful enough to suppress other cardinals and slay the Unholy 7. Yet a tired Draihan didn’t have the heart to simply kill Ribold here and now nor order Alfso to kill his best friend. Instead Draihan passed Ribold to Chakken who was still the most intact of the two before marching out to the fight of his life. As Draihan walked away Alfso and Chakken heard, “Take care of him. He’s our future.”
Maybe I’m not as evil as I thought. Draihan reflected to himself. Ever since Donatien Gagne watched his wife and daughter be burned at the gallows because he chose to separate from the church for an independent France. Held down by a dozen hands watching all that he loved, Donatien Gagne’s bitter soul died seared in the merciless flames and hadn’t stopped burning in rage and hatred ever since. Even as he was tortured and beheaded as a small mercy from a new squeamish inquisitor he had held onto his hatred, and a spark of necromantic talents had allowed him to survive even being beheaded. He still remembered being the pitch black numbness of being buried under hundreds of other severed heads while his body worked to retrieve him and become whole again that night. From that day on, he took the name Draihan and spent his life getting stronger so he could take out his rage on the clergymen that had participated in his family’s inquisition.
Cardinal Della Rovere spoke first, “So, you are Donatien Gagne, or would you prefer ‘Draihan?’”
Draihan leapt forward with a right hook that Della Rovere blocked with his flaming sword. The impact of the blow blasted out air for several meters and Della Rovere looked through the flames to see his sword was cracking. Draihan kept his balled fist in the flames as he took a step and pivoted his entire body delivering a short armed clothesline that slammed Della Rovere’s head into the gravel earth. Draihan shook his now flaming right fist and stomped down at Della Rovere’s head. Della Rovere blocked again with the sword but the shock of Draihan’s enhanced blows shattered the sword. Della Rovere used the sword’s momentum to steer Draihan’s boot past him slamming into the ground. The explosive force of the sword shattered sent tiny fragments into Della Rovere’s face. Undeterred Della Rovere swung the now broken half of the flaming sword he held and cut off Draihan’s leg just below the knee. Draihan landed atop of him with his elbow extended and his lower torso now on fire. Della Rovere gasped from the might of the blow and before he could recover his breath Draihan was on him, on fire and trying to strangle him. Draihan pinned Della Rovere to the ground and as he kicked and punched Della Rovere realized Draihan was recovering faster than the fire burned. Della Rovere reached into his pocket but Draihan took one arm off of his throat and grasped the wrist going for the yoyo inside. Della Rovere intensified the fires and stabbed Draihan through the skull with the broken flaming sword; and a screaming Draihan bit down trying to bite off Della Rovere’s face. Della Rovere blocked Draihan’s open mouth with his off hand wrist and felt Draihan’s crooked teeth tear into his flesh and start pulverizing the bone beneath. As the flames engulfed his head Della Rovere seized the shift in weight and threw himself with all of his might to the side and managed to get atop of Draihan.
Draihan’s grip slipped as the flesh melted off of the hand he used to strangle Della Rovere, and the Cardinal was thankful that the almighty god had rendered him immune to his own flames. Della Rovere stood over a wailing Draihan with a cardinal's sword through his skull. His capacity to survive and regenerate exceeded anything Della Rovere had ever seen. The cardinal tore his wrist from Draihan’s twisted teeth and with his good arm grasped the sword. With Draihan still flailing and the stench of burning flesh overwhelming him, Della Rovere planted the sword into the ground and further intensified the heat. A separate fire erupted on the partial stump of exposed bone and pouring blood in his wrist and Della Rovere too regenerated his damaged body without leaving so much as a scar. Desperate to catch up to his son he ran down the cavern as Draihan continued thrashing and screaming behind him, pinned to the ground with a blazing sword through his skull.