As he finished reminiscing about days gone by, he brought his hand up to take a look at his ring, still bronze and still shining like the day he had found it.
It wasn’t an easy task converting it to a storage ring, but he had done it regardless.
“I haven’t thought about the name Feral The Man in a long time, I much prefer Fee Thi Mii, although I changed it to Feng Zhiming it’s still close enough right?” he thought to himself, trying to remember a face that he could barely piece together.
Of course he knew later that it wasn’t actually romantic love he felt for her, she was just a very close friend, but what difference was it to a seven year old, a very close friend or a girl he loved.
“Look sharp, guard coming.” Ellia spoke and broke him out of his daze.
“The ladder, it truly be the same, the ladder.” a voice came from down the hall.
One of the guards from earlier had returned to the cell.
He walked up to the bars of steel and slowly unlocked the door, in his hand he held a piece of paper.
Of course these bars couldn’t really hold the trio, they were more of a symbol. Obey the bars or you violate the will of a Dao Lord, it was a simple metric.
“Don’t climb the ladder, don't fall.” he said as he handed Feng Zhiming the paper.
Feng Zhiming looked at him with a confused expression, what the hell was this guy talking about?
“There’s no ladder here friend.” Lyra said as she waltzed out of the cell.
“Don’t climb the ladder, don't fall.” the guard just stared blankly at Feng Zhiming and kept repeating, his eyes were strangely inactive, like he wasn’t using them to see.
Feng Zhiming cleanly attacked the man’s cheek, barely grazing it.
A steady stream of blood poured down his cheek yet he did not react,
“A hypnosis so powerful that the man didn’t even react to possible mortal danger.” he thought to himself as he saw the strangely colorless blood fall from his cheek and onto the ground.
“Don’t climb the ladder, don’t fall."
Feng Zhiming realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with this man so he just took the paper and left the cell with Ellia and Lyra.
“Don’t climb the ladder, don't fall.” he kept repeating as they left.
Feng Zhiming opened the paper when they left the prison and saw a single line of text.
The ship to the heart departs in twenty minutes from the sand port at the south of the city.
He rolled up the parchment and gestured for Ellia and Lyra to follow him.
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Back in the jail cell the man was still speaking to himself.
“Don’t climb the ladder, don’t fall.”
A short man walked down the hall and to the cell where Feng Zhiming had been moments ago, he had a thick moustache and a receding hairline.
He nodded in approval.
“I didn’t sense them looking into the tower, so it should be fine.”
“Minister Fowl, don’t climb the ladder, don’t fall.” the guard spoke, his entranced expression had shifted and now his face was filled with a terrified expression.
“Good, good, I don’t need mongrels sniffing around right now, lest we become a stain to the White Coats.”
He tapped the shoulder of the man who had released Feng Zhiming from his cell.
“Good chap, now rip out your heart and eat it. I need to have a conversation.”
Tears began to fall from his eyes, but did as he was told.
His hand reached into his chest and ripped out his heart, He took the still beating heart and chomped down on it.
A deadman eating his own heart.
The impossible scene played out before Minister Fowl, who merely raised his hands in prayer.
“Devour as you please, of the viscera and of the flesh, my Liege Cordevaras.”
As he said this the man who was eating his own heart exploded, his blood lined the walls, still colorless.
“I had an inquiry my liege.” he spoke to the blood that lined the walls, it sizzled slowly to indicate an affirmation.
“Why did we allow that harvest to leave?”
The blood began to boil violently, and the man’s skin began to melt.
He smashed his head into the ground repeatedly, as he heard whispers.
“Thither Caelum (*)@&….” sound originated from seemingly nowhere.
“FORGIVE ME! I WILL ONLY CARRY OUT YOUR WILL!”
The skin that was about to fall from his bones began to return to its original place.
Minister Fowl quickly stood up and left the cell, he frowned at his own weakness, just two words and he was about to disintegrate.
This was the strength of a Heavenly Eye cultivator, how pitiful.
…
In the depths of the heart of the Wildlands a woman shrouded in a black robe knelt at an altar of human bones, with a brain that was cut into half laying upon its center.
Before her resided the black mass of indescribable properties, not engaging in any of its usual antics.
The previous fear and horror she felt was no longer there, her brown hair had long turned black, her nails looked as they had been painted the color of the night, even the red veins that would sometimes make themselves visible had turned a deep dark.
“May the deceivers writhe and shatter.”
“May the false ones fade and wither.”
“My great bestower Veridatas, of veracity and of truth.”
The dark mass shifted slightly, its eyes opened and a bright red began to shine from them.
“It is as you foresaw my great bestower, I feel the presence you divined, the approach of Caelum Juravi.”
She strained her vocal cords as she spoke the last word, but she did not bleed and her skin did not melt from her bones.
Whispers that were infinitely quiet touched her.
“Take….it……” the dark mass did not speak, the voice did not originate from it, it came from someplace else.
She clenched her chest with her hand and gritted her teeth, continuing to listen despite the stretching of her heart to near its physical limits.
“Ban…..ish lies….” the voice spoke once more.
The dark mass’s eyes closed and the whispers stopped.
This time she finally threw up all over the ground, blood darker than the darkest of nights.
However her expression never shifted from a crazed smile and the accompanying laughter filled the cave.
“It will be soon, it will be soon.” she kept repeating as her hands dug into the ground.