Lutiel judged that it must have been his fate now. To spend the rest of eternity in nothing but darkness and shackles. Hindered in the arms, he stood there, his legs able to maneuver around, unlike the two times prior.

Although he had woken up just about an hour ago, it wasn’t anything different from this. Having slept on the piercing, wet sand mixed with dirt, the chains connected to the ground were already on him. Unable to do anything other than wait, he stood up instead, inspecting the space around with his legs and feet that could at least extend somewhat.

Two bars of metal struck his toes, followed by a thin, yet opaque cloth beyond the cage he was inside. Even with the somewhat large space separating each bar, running away would have been in vain.

Not only were the chains extremely sturdy and heavy, he had no idea what this place was. Though, listening to his surroundings and recalling what the red-skinned demon told him, he could easily guess it.

As time gradually passed, startled wails reverberated all around him, ugly sobs of realization that there was nothing they could do here filling his ears. Just like him, they were aware of what was going to happen to them.

The awareness of the fact had prompted them to cry even more. Forming a cacophony that assaulted his ears, though they weren’t forced to get accustomed to it. In the end, they must have acknowledged their fates, or they simply fully cried their tears out.

“Why are you so quiet? You up?” A voice directly to his right asked. Unlike the saddened echoes of other cages, the man on his side beamed with tranquility he found only around Raphael and other heroes.

“I am,” Lutiel replied. “Though, a nightmare would have been nicer than this.”

“Maybe you’re right,” the man chuckled at his statement, despite the circumstances they were in. “But, don’t you feel quite happy at the same time? Aren’t you ready to clap some demonic cheeks after all of this is over?”

“No.”

An internal wave of disgust engulfed him all of a sudden as he spouted autonomously. Similar to the instance with the demonic girl, his mouth spoke before the mind could gather fully.

“Ahhh, you’re no fun,” with prolonged disappointment, he added. “Life’s quite short nowadays. You have to use up any chances, you know? This is practically a haven for wives that aren’t satisfied with their husbands.”

“So you’ve been here before?”

“No, I can’t say I have, but I’ve met a few champions that survived until they were either bought out or slain in the next batches.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, startled yet intrigued at the same time.

“That’s just the custom of the merchant that we’re being sold by. Any of his slaves that don’t sell, he puts them to a fight until one remains for the next batch. Even though this is a mens’ batch, even male demons come just to watch two or more humans battle to the death.”

Something churned inside his body after hearing the explanation, but none of his face muscles moved. Any internal struggles were extinguished by the calm tide flowing through his body.

“I see, thank you,” with a sincere thought, he thanked the man on his right.

“You don’t have to, it’s the least I can do in this situation,” he replied with a “However, please do tell me your name. The world must know of such a gentleman.”

“Lutiel.”

For a second, there was no response, only for a tumultuous laughter to spread out into his right ear immediately.

“Oh, really? There are quite a number of our namesakes nowadays, aren't there? I am also Lutiel. Lutiel Tvenai, to be precise.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met a second one.”

Although it was a strange sensation to meet a person that bore his name in such a place, with the experiences he was living through, nothing seemed very odd anymore.

“What Kingdom were you born in? Here, every other man is named Lutiel.”

“Qniuve,” said the man, quickly getting a heated reaction from the side.

“What’s a qniuvenian like you doing in Helasta? This is as far away from the imperial capital as it could be,” the man asked with genuine curiosity, shock entwined.

“Fighting demons, but you can see how that ended,” he said, getting a brisk reaction once again.

“Well, aren’t we one and the same? Though in a slightly different way, I also battled with the demons. Underground. I was the leader of the revolutionaries, but it all ended in a one-sided massacre on our side,” the other Lutiel laughed, as though reminiscing of good times.

The voices around them were increasing with each breath they exchanged. However, Lutiel couldn’t hear them from around the cages near him. No, they came from beyond the sands they were standing on, beyond what must have been the arena.

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With words very similar to the demonic tongue he caught back in the caves, both of the Lutiels listened in on the din of unknown origin.

Very soon, as the voices threatened to break up into calm silence, the other Lutiel spoke up.

“It seems our time is up, good luck,” he said before immediately shutting himself, similar to the rest of the cages.

Finally, after what seemed like a good few minutes, all of the noises subsided, making way for the loudest one so far, resounding throughout the arena and the cloths that hid the cages. However, as blaring as it was, it was a voice in its purest, unadulterated form, coming from a merchant that wanted nothing, but to lure in his potential buyers.

“Kozs’i la geas bei’yr, cinaefr? Tis nadia elie un geas la v raf galf on larune,” the loud man spoke, reaching every corner and ears of the slave market, especially those that stood right on display. “Jun li gotovelie dho cinste’ie tias yast chod nuen kiz vet’uj involnia teug pekuc bola mortevan!”

Cheers accompanied his words, but Lautiel had no idea what any of it meant, the same as when the party of demons awakened him.

Yet, despite all of it sounding like gibberish, his stomach somewhat revolted and thrown off when hearing it, the demonic language interested him. Listening to it made him remember how the priests at the monastery forced him to listen to their drunken tirades, quite close to that.

Eventually dying out under the reverberating sound of the announcer, the humans kept inside the cages stayed as quiet as they could. Their sobs muffled out by the voice, the demons were unable to hear their dirge.

“Praeci ausapre un junt, Tis tome’in in rotov recroche espe,” the voice spoke through the masses, carrying itself with a hint of excitement. “Dlar dho cinste’ie involni tika’a, elie un dho involnia la e espe urpo.”

Once again, claps and mellow cheers spread around the arena. Kept to themselves, they seemingly awaited the next words from the person that retained his voice filled with vibrance and clarity.

Holding the slaves in suspense, they could do nothing other than wait until something happened, maybe think about potential future masters they would get. But, that was only the best-case scenario, from what Lutiel gathered.

There was also a decent chance they would simply be left to fight for their lives, though he still had no idea in what kind of a battle. Nor did he want to know.

“Treped tias rivelu recolvi, aefrkozs’i, Tis yast timaunroche kiz petavir. Timaunroche ferai vizne,” he spoke, the voice deepening at the end. “Dho cin kozs’o meci elie un jun possle. Dho cin un teva kiz lied tias kiz zvycta!”

“Tis tene biem kiz vitacu,” at the cusp of sentence, his pure excitement spoke instead. “Cin un dho istati kapitre un jun istati tika, Zyponia un Afiern!”

Although he already hadn’t been moving at all, hearing the name get uttered, his body flinched before wholly immuring.

Finally, instead of the impassive glare, his brows furrowed the slightest bit.

‘Why is she here? What is she doing here?’ he asked fervidly, the question reverberating through his head. However, as quickly as the reaction escaped his grasp, the face once again returned to its usual composition, scouring through the dark world around him.

Left alone with his thoughts, the sounds of cheers, claps, and even whistles intensified as the name was heard.

Judging from the half-screams bouncing off of the cloth around his cage, he had little to no problems figuring out just how excited they were to see her.

At the same time, it was no wonder. Being one of the eight demon lords, her power and status were above any of the normal demons he had seen in the past. Though, even the normal demons he fought were superior in every aspect compared to the average knight of the empire.

Despite never seeing her in person, he always heard about her position as the strongest demon lord. As for whether it was true, he couldn’t ever know.

“Panyi Zyponia yist vitecu tias, vic tis tane’in maci jun e verge’no ksperien,” his voice bloomed the interest of the listening hearts once more, quickly engulfing the arena with an eerie serenity. “Juve tias zacin!”

With more gusto than ever, the voice roared, followed by the sound of something cranking in the distance, at least the way Lutiel’s ears could hear it.

He, along with all the other slaves, understood the sound perfectly. A cage of a certain slave was being revealed to the masses.

“Chod’yr nuen ze e demezinaumafi, ars li e raf mez v hoze. Dlar ars’e involni czec, tias meci secur kiz osta ars’o ferai slun. Ars’e zacin’yr vota li kren dracara, bie cinolvi vanr jun nolvirec?”

As the words fell, Lutiel still stood in total darkness. It wasn’t him, who was revealed. Still, feeling the loud shouts that tried to eat each other, he practically felt bare against the invisible crowd.

Not able to fight it, he simply waited as the commotion ended, human shrieks coming to his ears a few minutes later.

“No! No! Please! Don’t take me! Argh! Ah! No! Leave me be! Plea-,” The man screamed, his voice fading into the distance with each passing moment.

Within mere seconds, the clatter of armor around the cages, along with the hysterical bellowing, disappeared altogether. Yet, before any of the slaves could acknowledge whatever happened, the voice of chains being pulled up resounded for the second time.

Standing still, Lutiel waited, hearing another next few sentences of the merchant. Minutes passed before he finally caught the specific chime. Two metals hitting against each other, they bounced around in his head before another human bawled their throats out.

Every time he hadn’t been revealed, his heart began to shake. From what he counted earlier, there were around eight cages including his, but it was already the sixth. It almost felt as though they purposely kept him antsy.

With each new slave being put on display, so did the amount of time needed before everything settled. The merchant gave more and more information each time, the shouts becoming louder every time.

Once again, after the sobful voice disappeared from the arena, the chains started being pulled, and another cage was being released. Not his.

Standing in the dark for yet another few good minutes, the man stood up-right, breathing deeply with a straight face.

“Jun mez li e ferai este cin, Tis gade ges. E lied’o un dho lvere, haha!” For the first time since the beginning, the merchant laughed, completely breaking the image of him inside Lutiel’s head.

“Lutiel Tvenai li ars’e emi. Ars prebe kiz hanba tias’o! Tias’o! Dho Cinseria! Timaun un dho ligty!”

His screams reverberated throughout the arena, met with rackety cheers and applause that didn’t stop no matter what, even when the merchant began speaking.