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Arc 2: Kingdom Goddess - Chapter 61

Underground in the depths of the dungeon the air was still and dank. Drip drip drip. The sound of water droplets falling into puddles of water from the stone ceiling above, a sure sign that it had been raining on the surface world as rainwater filtered through the earth. All around the walls were solid stone in colors of brown and gray, the moldy green patches the only splatter of color to be found. Strong iron bars barricaded in the cramped cells that lined the hallway. This was the place people came to die, forgotten and alone to waste away in the dark.

Not so was the plight of one particular prisoner: Neske Felelem. The vampiress had already died once before and she wouldn't allow her final death to happen in such a disgusting locale. No. She would escape and flee to her master, get revenge on those that imprisoned her here. It was an affront to her beauty and power, things that should be respected by filthy mortals. How she hated them for their blissful ignorance of the world. How she hated goddesses for loving them.

Here in this castle dungeon she had been locked away for over a week now with no chance of escape in sight. The grimy goddess had done well in enchanting her shackles which prevented her from using any of her usual tricks. She could easily shape shift into something to escape or cast some manner of magic elsewise. These damnable shackles! Though there was a method of escape before her even now.

Yoko, the disgusting user of void magic, was her ticket to freedom. Even the magic of a goddess could be unraveled with the proper application of ruination itself. All order descends into chaos and the goddesses were not immune to the perpetual march of entropy. With his magic these shackles could be destroyed.

Just because the solution was in sight doesn't mean it was simple to follow through on it. Neske was severely crippled in terms of power while bound in this way. Her hypnotic eyes were useless with the suppression of magic. She did however still have her womanly charms, though the half crazed mage was quite resistant to her wiles. Over the last week she had tried to charm him but failed in every instance. Either his mind was too far gone or his dedication to his goddess was too powerful.

Of course there were plenty of other humans around to seduce as the mage couldn't be awake every minute of every day. They were sadly completely useless now as they didn't have the magic to break her chains. It had to be the mage. So with romance having failed she had switched to sympathy instead. Pleading and tears only got you so far with a manic man so instead she had settled on conversation.

Now after an entire week of being alone together for the most part the two had actually come to understand each other to some degree. Mad as he was the poor Yoko was starved for attention from the opposite sex. No one wanted a crazy man who wielded chaotic and dangerous magic. It was through this weakness that Neske was able to worm her way into his heart. For between bouts of madness he had moments of lucidity that allowed his true personality to shine through. Despite his power he was still a mortal. Weak.

What she was waiting for now was for the perfect opportunity to convince him to use magic close to her. Then she could somehow get the chains into the magic and free herself. Today was the day and she had waited until night to come to finally enact this plan. Right now she had the mage sitting down at the table across from her and talking with her. The time was ripe and her patience would soon pay off, she could feel it in her withered heart.

Neske let out a small sigh and tossed her curly red hair out of her face as she looked over to the sickly man.

“You know you're not that bad Yoko.” She said with a flirtatious smile. “I suppose it does take a woman as powerful as me to fully understand you though. Human women can't hope to comprehend your magic.”

Yoko was sitting in a rather relaxed pose as he had come to be more comfortable around the vampire. The ever perpetual battle between his magically twisted mind and original personality was in a state of perilous conflict in this moment. Beneath that strange look in his eyes there was a yearning for understanding struggling to surface. He sat with his hands on his lap in an almost shy pose.

“It is true.” He replied with a smile. “And you are a much prettier corpse than most.”

Neske grinned back at him while trying to keep her fangs hidden, though this smile was more from malice than kindness.

“You know its not polite to call a lady a corpse.” She said through her teeth. “Besides undeath just means I'll be forever young.”

The mage nodded while thinking about something. His eyes were focused on her but his gaze was looking through her. She took this opportunity to press her plan.

“You know what ruins my eternal beauty?” Neske said with a pitiful look. “These horrible chains.” She lifted her hands up until the chains were pulled tight, their metallic rattling echoing through the stone room. “You know I wouldn't dare escape and incur the wrath of your adorable goddess. It seems she isn't interested in ever freeing me either.” She lowered her arms and her head, peering up at him. “Do you think you could help me into a more comfortable arrangement?”

There was a hint of true pity in Yoko's eyes, the exact look his manipulator wanted. The underlying personality was showing. He sighed and shook his head.

“I-I can't do that Neske.” He replied with a downcast look. “I'd have to ask the goddess to come and change things around for you.”

Neske perked up in fake hopefulness, her face like that of a pleading child. The sinister machinations underneath still threatened to bubble to the surface and she had to be careful to control herself.

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“You'd really do that for me?” She asked timidly. Then she paused for a moment before getting excited. “But... Your magic! You could remove my chains yourself!” She looked down and to the side. “I'm sure with your magic you could create something else to contain me. Besides I'm too afraid of your magic to fight you.”

At this point Yoko was looking very uncomfortable, his true self now fully in control. This would only last a few moments however and Neske needed to strike while her prey was weak. As he sat struggling she lifted up her right hand and smiled weakly at him.

“Please?” She pleaded.

The battle within had appeared to reach a tipping point and the attention starved inner mage had made his choice. This was an outcome that even the goddess herself hadn't foreseen and was a testament to the patience of the vampire seductress.

“Alright.” Yoko said standing up. “But I'm only breaking one of them just in case.” He looked her in the eye. “I can't fully trust you. You understand.”

A glint of pure excitement flashed through Neske's eyes and she quickly reeled her emotions in before the dripping malice surfaced as well. This would be good enough. With one hand free she could escape. She wouldn't even need to fight this stupid man either. Finally everything was paying off.

“Of course!” She replied with a solemn nod. “I-I wouldn't want to push you past what your comfortable with. Thank you so much!”

Yoko stepped around the table and next to the prisoner. He then reached out and took her right wrist in his hands, the cold metal of the shackle radiating with divine magic. There was a look of hesitation on his face as he debated one final time. Surely this couldn't hurt anything. Besides he could obliterate the vampire with void magic if he really needed to.

Neske was itching for him to follow through but understood this was a critical moment in the process. Anything that made him doubt her in this moment would undo everything she had been building up inside of him. She remained silent and simply looked up at him with a gentle smile.

This seemed to do the trick as Yoko let out a final sigh and muttered some magic words. Reality itself bent and broke around the shackle as the chaos of the void itself ripped into the physical. It was in this moment as the horrific magic flowed through him that the man realized what he just done. His eyes went wide as the serene understanding of madness itself flooded into him and suppressed his emotional desires once again.

It was too late. The instant the shackle had begun to break Neske had flexed her arm and shattered it into tiny pieces. Glowing motes of light scattered around the room as the pieces of now mundane metal clattered to the floor. With less time it took for a human to blink the vampire had already moved to fully free herself.

Neske let out a horrific screech of victory that stunned the already shocked mage standing beside her. Then her eyes, still locked with his, suddenly alighted in a sinister glow. Her bonds were weak enough for her eyes to work once again and she blasted the foolish mortal with as much hypnotic magic as she could muster. The effect was immediate and profound as Yoko was utterly paralyzed, not even the voices of madness in his head able to compel his body to move.

With her only real threat neutralized, if only for minute, Neske was safe to continue her escape. Swiftly she brought her powerful and clawed right down down on the wrist of her left. The sound of snapping bones mixed in with her screams of pain as her hand was fully removed from her arm. It landed on the floor with a splatter of blood, the now useless shackle clattering along with it.

Now she was completely free from the horrible magic of that good for nothing little girl goddess. She wasn't free from danger yet however as this dangerous mage could wake up at any moment. Thus in less than a second her mind solidified the myriad of escape plans she had come up with this past week.

First she dove out of the chair to the side, scooping up her hand and making a dash for the cell door. The metallic bars were no match for her supernatural strength and she simply used her shoulder to bend aside the bars enough for her slender form to squeeze through. As she did this she pressed her amputated hand back onto her arm where it belonged, her undead nature allowing her to reattach it.

The sounds of panicked men could be heard coming down the stairwell at the end of cell block. There were already clattering footsteps as armored boots made their way down the stone stairs.

“Hey!” A male voice called out. “What's going on down there?”

Neske hissed as her newly reattached hand twisted about to test its mobility. After only a few seconds it was already as good as new. A few human guards were no problem for her now. She left the still stunned mage behind and flew down the hall while barely touching the ground.

The first thing she saw when starting up the stairs was the face of a surprised and terrified guard. He reached for his sword as the horrific visage of the vampire came into view but it was too late.

Neske swiped with her left hand and her long fingernails ripped into the man's throat. He collapsed to the ground with blood gushing from his neck, his hands grasping at the wound in a pointless but desperate attempt to save himself.

Behind her first victim a second guard already had his sword drawn. The look of horror on his face didn't stop him from swinging down on the monster before him while screaming loudly. This didn't worry the vampire however as she simply transformed into a cloud of mist, the sword passing through with no effect.

As the man stopped in confusion the watery cloud passed around him and reformed into the form of a woman once again. There was a terrible sneer on her face as Neske grabbed the man around the neck with her left hand. Immediately after the sound of snapping bones could be heard as the spine was crushed into powder. She released her grip as the now dead man collapsed in a heap, his lifeless body tumbling down the stairs and making quite the racket with his armor.

Neske took only a moment to look over her handiwork. She would normally raise these two pests as zombies and set them upon the castle but time was short. Without a moments hesitation longer she whirled around and sped up the stairs with unnatural swiftness. It took only seconds for her to reach the ground floor of the castle. Then she sped through the halls in search of a window.

The people she ran past screamed in fear as the bloody creature went past like a blur, those guards aware enough to draw their weapons finding their target too far away by the time they had fully reacted. All of them would go on with their lives not known just how close they had been to death that night. If there hadn't been the threat of a goddess the monster would have surely slain them.

The hallways and people were a blur to Neske as she went through them, half flying from how quickly she was moving and fully flying in times it was required. After less than twenty seconds of searching she found a window. The cold air of the night blew through and went unfelt on her cold dead skin. Outside the light of the moon and stars beckoning a creature of the night into their company.

Neske leapt to the widow and pulled herself through, flinging herself into the air beyond. She didn't fall to the ground oh no, she instead transformed into a large and hideous bat and took to the sky. Up and up she went, spiraling into the heavens and leaving the panicking mortals behind. It seemed that against all odds even the power of a goddess couldn't keep her from her master. To him she would always return.