Jay suddenly awoke, feeling cold, biting metal in his flesh. These were most likely cuffs, but he didn't know why he would be imprisoned. Jay felt numerous wounds, all of them open and bleeding, though he was in no danger of death. He didn't bother to open his eyes just yet, blasting a small amount of The Harsh, Lifegiving Sun to heal himself.

  Jay suddenly screamed, the power hitting a seemingly unbreakable wall and coming up short. This triggered some kind of reaction which raised the metal he felt to incredible temperatures, making the area suddenly smell like burning flesh. Now he realized exactly what the metal was. Chains. Embedded in his flesh and bone.

  Slowly, Jay opened his eyes, taking in the room. It was a traditional cell, a stone room with no exit other than a single door made of solid steel, a barred window at the top center. He was hung in the center of the room, a chain struck through each of his limbs, holding him in place. Slowly, he looked around, ignoring the aching pain of his burnt flesh and the stinging coming from his open wounds. There was nothing in the room close enough for him to use. Jay's eyes turned to the chains. They were embedded in his wrists, not his arms, which would make it harder, but he could rip them out. And with The Harsh, Lifegiving Sun, he would heal.

  Jay twisted his right arm around, grabbing the chain stuck in the wrist of that same hand. Gritting his teeth, he used it as leverage to pull himself away from the chain stuck in his other arm. The chain slowly but surely pulled free of his wrist, taking the entirety of his hand with it. Jay screamed as it fell off, the bloody piece of flesh landing on the floor with a 'thump'. He used The Harsh, Lifegiving Sun again, this time through his left arm, localizing the Aura released to his stump. It slowly regrew, a new hand growing into place, coming out of his stump.

  Jay panted after screaming so hard, watching the offending chain hang in the air with a piece of his flesh and bone stuck on it. Honestly, it was somewhat of a miracle that his arm hadn't pulled off at the shoulder. After it healed, Jay turned to his other hand. Twisting, he managed to grab his right hand's chain with his left hand, yanking it out with a hard tug. He screamed, once again, before falling to the ground, finally able to properly see where the chains in his legs were. Both were embedded through the bottom of his shin.

  Jay let his arm regenerate for a little while, simply sitting and waiting for the pain to slowly fade away. When it did, he inspected his new arm before sighing, turning to his legs. No more stalling. Grabbing both of the chains, he ripped them out, luckily only pulling out a chunk of his leg and not removing his entire foot. Jay quickly let the chains drop, healing his feet with The Harsh, Lifegiving Sun before standing and walking around the cell. The entire thing was made of some kind of stone which Jay couldn't pierce through even when he was using a Water Bullet with the entirety of his Mana pool poured in.

  Absolutely nothing worked on the walls, all of his abilities simply bouncing off or doing nothing, so Jay stepped away from them, turning towards the door. He used a fully powered Water Bullet, as he had before, but nothing happened this time, either. He thought he saw a little light on the other side of the door, through the small, barred window, but it was probably nothing. Jay paced around the cell, inspecting every crack. There had to be something, right?

  Eventually, it dawned on him. He was not some storybook hero. There was no escape, at least not yet. Amon? You there?

  He received no response. It appeared he was truly alone.

  Jay didn't know how long he waited until something happened. Footsteps suddenly sounded, incredibly loud to his ears, which had gotten used to the quietness of the cell. They stopped in front of the door, and he saw someone peek through the barred window. Jay immediately shot a water bullet between two of the bars, but an invisible barrier of some kind stopped it. The light shone again, and this time Jay was sure he saw it, but he ignored it in favor of someone else. The man looking through the window. Or, not man, but Zarlan.

  Striaster stared through the window with an eerie grin. "You fell for my abilities! Idiot! There's a reason why they called me the business demon! No matter who you are, you'll trust me!"

  At the end of every single one of his statements, there was an unpleasant shift in tone that made them suddenly sound like exclamations of some kind. Jay stared at Striaster, and shook his head. "No reply?!"

  This seemed to be a question of some kind, and so Jay answered. "You're just on my kill list now. I don't care for monologuing. Unlike you, it seems."

  "Ha! That was a stupid joke!," Striaster said. "I monologue only when my opponent is truly in my clutches! Like when they're in my mother's prison!" Jay's heart sank. That was bad. "No one's ever escaped! This is also the only time at which I remove my abilities from my victims!"

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  Jay shook his head once more. "What do you gain out of this?'

  Striaster grew a malicious grin. "To use you to kill Diamond! He has emotional investment in you so we can use you to kill him!"

  Jay started laughing. He just realized something. An important fact that would get him out of the prison. "That's not how it's going to work out for you, bud. Be on your way now."

  Striaster walked away, seemingly obeying his command, though Jay didn't know how his mind really worked anymore. Pushing thoughts of Striaster out of his head, he waited until he could no longer hear footsteps before making his move.

  He'd realized what the light on the door was. Light from glowing runes. Probably some kind of durability enchantment. Striaster had also taught him the method of drawing runes-use Domination and force the world to allow you to make them.

  So, to remove runes, it should be the opposite. The opposite of Domination, to be exact. If he could figure out how to make a reversed version of that energy, he should be able to get rid of the runes using it. Escaping? He'd think about that afterwards.

  Jay pulled Dominion and Will together, forcing them to fuse and create Domination. This was far easier than before, with his greater experience, though it still required some mental gymnastics to pull off successfully. Jay grabbed the black crystal that had formed, inspecting it. The familiar scene of him ruling over everything beckoned to him, but he ignored it, having seen it before. The crystal was filled with some kind of... corruption, which coated absolutely everything. The Will and Dominion he'd sent in were utterly gone, converted into this new energy, laced liberally with corruption.

  He grabbed the corruption, attempting to pull it out. It didn't move, though it did flow slightly towards his hands. Jay's eyes widened, and he attempted to pull it in other directions. It didn't go anywhere. Tentatively, he tugged it towards his hands.

  The corruption flew towards his arms with insane speed, some almost making it out before he stopped pulling. "Well, here goes nothing," Jay said, just before pulling the corruption out with as much strength as he could wield.

  It came out, flowing easily into his hands. Jay braced himself, expecting pain, but none came. He sat there for a moment, confused, before he found out that it was actually heading towards his Chains.

  Quickly, he got there before the corruption and watched it enter, futilely trying to block it or stop it in some way. It quickly approached the chain connecting his consciousness and soul, throwing itself at the pearlescent links. Immediately, a small war started, the chain ultimately destroying the corruption with a wave of white light, but not before a price was paid.

  A small chunk of the link was broken, leaving a crater in its surface. Jay approached it, touching the crater and pushing power into it.

  Slowly, the chain healed, until it was whole once more. But there were still cracks, visible to Jay, that would not heal, no matter how much he tried. From now on, taking corruption into himself would be a last resort.

  He left his chain space, looking intently at the crystal in front of him. The first thing of note was that the color had changed. It was white now. The power within was also pure, with all of the corruption gone, and it seemed almost... benevolent, now.

  Jay pulled a little bit of the power out, attempting to discover its name. It didn't take long, the energy willingly surrendering it at his lightest touch.

  The crystal of Mending answered his call, and healed the wounds the Domination-created runes were in the world. Jay's breath caught in his throat as he pushed on the door, half expecting it to not have worked.

  But it did.

  The door slowly swung open on creaking hinges, letting him out into a corridor made of stone. Now only to escape. Jay turned a random direction and started walking, meeting no one along the way. All the other cells he passed were empty, devoid of all life. He eventually found a pair of sets of stairs, one set going up, and the other going down. Jay decided to take the one going up. Offices and things that weren't cells were more likely to be above, and so were exits. He found another corridor of cells, but there were more sets of stairs to scale, until he finally smelled fresh air. A courtyard sat there, with numerous people milling about, all seeming to be prisoners with gruesome wounds on their arms and legs.

  They turned to him, examining his wound-free state for a moment before seeming to dismiss him. He heard one mutter, "Healer. No problem."

  Jay shrugged. What was he to do if they underestimated him? Then a voice came to them over the wind, and he suddenly knew why he should be concerned. "Most of you know the rules. If you kill a person, I let you go to the next trial."

  Jay sighed as the entire room turned to him. He Summoned the Ocean and prepared to fight.

  They still thought he was a healer.

  The blood beast stared at the large wall, with a portal within. There was no reason to attack now. After Prey teleported away from this area, which it expected to happen soon, it just had to break into the building it was next to. The blood beast sniffed. Good. It was filled with massive amounts of living bodies. Free blood. Enough to hopefully kill the Prey.

  The blood god took control of it once again, but it didn't care. It was a tool to the god's cause. The beast shuddered in pleasure as the god inscribed more runes onto it, increasing its regeneration capabilities past even death, which is what they had been able to survive before. Now, if something hurt it, not much would happen other than it simply ignoring the wound as more blood filled the hole.

  There would be only one chance for the human to live. If he unleashed his inner insanity. That would solve the blood beast's goals as well, for then the God of Blood, its master, would be free to kill the human. That would be a welcome end to this. It knew her master longed for this kill.

  The blood beast licked its lips with a tongue of blood, tasting the familiar, slightly metallic, taste of blood. The hunt was on.