how much time has passed since this guy first came here? I didn’t really know. but time seemed to move at a crawl these days .Darom was up to his words and brought new methods to torture me everyday.
Trying everything he could to break me and make me confess about things he wanted to hear. Things I had no memory of
whips , daggers ,nails and hammers, sometimes even fire and poison .i could tell that he was running out of means and patience but right now his eyes were absorbing every movement and every twitch of my body.
in the first few days , I had to clench my jaw to prevent any voice from escaping my throat. Darom only managed to get some hissing sound as I took the pain. Nonetheless , at some point the pain became much more tolerable
A sense in my heart told me that this struggle was just a child play compared to an unknown old trauma I had before . My lack of reactions however seemed to annoy my torturer as his slack face curved into an exaggerated frown.
The healing ability that he spoke about turned out to be true .As I watched with amazement how my injuries were healing at a noticeable speed after he inflicted them. Yet with so many wounds inflicted daily , the healing ability seemed to slow down and weakened .I realized the reason when I checked my “Ethos core” like what Darom called it , the once shining core was now running low as most Ethos was exhausted on healing my injuries . the collar was preventing me from regenerating any more of it.
I wondered how much I had left before my body stops regenerating itself. I looked up at my host with a smirk ,he seemed to be thinking the same thing as he brought out several daggers out of my arms and legs.
If I realized anything from the last few days , it was that this guy in front of me didn’t like it when things doesn’t work his way. Not giving him the satisfaction he was looking for nor the answers he wanted gave me a thrilled sensation.
“what’s with that stupid smirk ?” he asked not even bothering to hide how frustrated he was
“It’s just funny, someone of your Hight and caliber only managed to get a prisoner’s name after bringing out all your fancy toys for several days, how disappointing “
“oh, you can play it all fun and all Mr.Adam .i wouldn’t be that happy if I were you. Your fate was set when you were captured on our lands, it doesn’t really matter if you spoke or not. Even if you are saying the truth about loosing all of your memories which is very hard to accept since its almost impossible for awakened to lose them, it won’t change the fact that you’ll be sent to the auction soon. I really look forward to see whose the maniac you going end up as his slave.
I am sure that whatever future awaits for you, it won’t be any better than what you are having right now” he grimaced , probably imagining what the future looked like. Not that I really cared for any of that.
“ you really are quite talkative today. my little friend down here started itching , care to give it a rub ? “
I could see a vein popping on his forehead as he approached
“ if you whish for pain that badly , who am I to deny you that ? “
And So another round of torture concluded. At the end of it Darom brought out a small blue stone and threw it near my feet.
He let loose my cuffs before he walked towards the cell door only stopping to observe me for a while.
My gaze shifted from the weird stone back towards Darom only to find him frowning back at me like he was looking at a weird creature
“ I don’t know if you are a talented actor or you really lost your memories Mr.Adam but I believe through my observation the latter would be more acceptable. This is the first time I ve seen a starved awakened looking at an Ethos crystal like he was looking at a stone on the road “
Not bothered by his weird tone I asked
“ is this crystal supposed to something important ? “
“pfff, , hahahaha, you know I am really in a good mood today , we managed to get our hands on a noble Elven girl. She is going to be the star of the auction tomorrow ,but that isn’t your biggest concern now .Eat that crystal if you want your injuries to heal. Tomorrow my servants will come to take you. “ as he closed the cell door behind him he turned to me one last time
“ one last thing Mr.Adam , don’t make any stupid thing , that is if you really value your life “ and with that , he disappeared into the hallway along with the sound of his footsteps not long after
I was again , laying in the darkness. Bleeding from several injuries around my body . despite my core attempts to heal my wounds. I already realized it wont be enough.
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My gaze was fixed on the blue color stone . He called it Ethos crystal.
It was roughly the size of my thumb. As I took it in my hand , I felt the energy source surging from it. It was small compared to my Ethos core. nerveless I was sure that it contained ethos inside it.
The first thing I taste aside from my blood was a stone, a chuckle escaped my mouth at this fate of mine.
Tempted by the energy coming from the crystal, I shoved it in my mouth. The taste was bitter and the crystal quickly dissolved and made its way towards my stomach. Nothing really happened for few moments , but after that I felt the energy concentrated inside the crystal gets absorbed towards my core before flowing through my body . The feeling was euphoric only if lasted longer. I watched as my wounds closed one after the other. Still amazed by how this body of mine worked.
The euphoric feeling didn’t last for long and I was left again ,dazing into the ceiling. During my stay in this cell , I was able to find more about this Ethos core in my body , what I ve managed to piece together from Darom’s words is that Ethos was the source of power that draws the line between normal people and Stronger beings , it exists everywhere , even in the air we breath.
Darom said that the area we are in had lower Ethos density , that’s why it was hard to awaken an Ethos core.
The awakened were divided to Ranks and classes
I was at the base tier or what Darom referred to as Rank 0 which was the starting point. He kept questioning me as why I was able to freeze those men to death while I am at this rank. It seems that base Rankers weren’t supposed to be able to have access to such powers.
I didn’t know how I fell asleep until certain footsteps and sound of two men whispering woke me up
“Rads stop nudging me !” the first guy roared in annoyance
"remember that time when we were hunting that horned mole in the fields , you said that it was okay that time too and it turned out to be a hoard of ratltings !" he finished with a horrified shout , a reminscient of whatever measerable memory he remembered
"of course i remember when the ratling took a chomp out of your buttcheek you idiot!" Kan replied in more anooyed tone
“ this place always gives the same goosebumps and you know it Kan .are you sure we shouldn’t have brought more men ? “ the guy named Rads asked , nervousness in his voice growing more with each step
“yes , he has a suppression collar on his neck and Master Darom had him starved and tortured for weeks , he wont pose any threat “ Kan replied
‘so that’s what they call this , a suppression collar’ huh
“ but, they said they weren’t able to melt that ice until now!”
As their footsteps came to halte in front my cell , i finally was able to see the owners of the voices .Rads and Kan were two dark skinned guys with leather skin armor covering some parts of their chests and their lower body. One thing I noticed was that unlike Darom and Rendal , these guys didn’t give me that feeling of wariness.
“ wake up bastard, your free stay here is over!” one of them shouted , from the way he spoke this must be Kan , the two weren’t able to see much through the darkness of my cell.
I on the other hand can clearly see them ,what I can see , one of them is shaking . they tried to show themselves as strong warriors , yet from their previous exchange .they were scared. Words about their dead comrades reached the city above huh , and that ice hasn’t melted until now , I guess I need to learn how to control that if I ever wanted to get my freedom.
“I said get up freak !”Kan roared again ,his voice saying that he was angry , but I didn’t miss the nervousness in his body language.
I snickered at their reaction and decided to play with these fools. Worst scenario , I would just getting a beating.
“what’s with this noise this early, I didn’t think Darom would be so generous to send me living fresh meat like this ,so who’s going to be the first ?” I hissed at the end as i woke up . the chains holding me to the wall clanked behind, preventing me from stepping any further . I didn’t need to get that close to know that the two men were almost shitting themselves
‘Heeh , how pathetic ‘ I thought
i groaned as my entertainment was interrupted before it could even start , as another rough voice called from the hall
“why the hell are you two taking all this time , we don’t have the whole day!”
“ b-b-but ,h-h—he said he is going to eat us..” Rads stuttered , sweat running down his bald head
I couldn’t hold my laugh at these clowns and didnt really care even when they turned their attention back to me.
The clown show ended up rather quickly when the 3rd guy came and gave me few hits before dragging me out after adjusting my cuffs .Surprisingly I was given a cold shower which was the only good thing that ever happened to me during my stay in this hole .I felt refreshed as I watched the blood and dirt and filth fall off my skin .i guess they want me presentable for whatever auction Darom spoke about
The prison I was held in was quite large. Multiple floors connected by large stairs .I was held in the deepest floors. We passed by many guards who were wearing the same leather skin armor around their chests and legs , some held spears , others swords or axes . Yet none of them had a noticeable presence like Rendal or Darom . I guess he was right that it was hard to get awakened in this area .
It took quite a time to climbing the stairs , with each floor I noticed more guards dragging other prisoners , some in worst shape than me , others half dead or even dead.
The third guy holding my chains stopped when we arrived to an wide hall .
The roof of the hall was made of several square pieces of fabric stitched together like a tent. It didn’t obscure much of the light coming from the outside .The unfamiliar sunlight hitting my eyes and skin for the first time in what felt like forever and I was delighted from the feeling.
The hall was buzzing with activity, mostly warriors moving iron cages with monsters and other prisoners. I was kept in a cell for who knows how long , it was the first time seeing this size of a crowd gathered in one place. The smell was totally something else , I wondered how many creatures you need to let them rot to get this kind of smell .
My thoughts were interrupted when the third guy pulled my chains and others were halfway to their weapons as they noticed that I was not moving.
“Move!” he grumbled.
We only stopped when he arrived into a what looked like a metal box dragged by some horse size lizards
‘ Horse and lizards? I guess that I didn’t completely loose my memories , the fact that I recognized these creatures was a good sign for me.
I was excited and the same time frustrated when the Rads and Kan threw me inside the metal box
“ it wouldn’t hurt if you add a window” I said
The only reply I got was the door getting slammed behind , followed by the 3rd guy asking the driver to leave.
“ to the auction hall now!”