[Author's Note: *takes off shades* mother of god, I can't believe I wrote such a long chapter...]
[This chapter also contains somewhat graphic descriptions. Read at your own risk!]
"Splash!" Cold water was poured onto a youth that looked to be in his mid-teens. "Wake up boy, it'll be your turn soon," a disgruntled voice was heard.
Opening his eyes, the young man weakly raised his head. He felt a splitting headache and soreness in his legs and as he tried to sit, he felt a sharp tinge of pain from his shoulders. His wrists were chained towards the ceiling, forcing him to remain standing even while he was unconscious.
A simple yet effective method to weaken the prisoners, both physically and mentally.
Looking around himself, he found that he was chained inside a damp room sealed by metal grills and a metal door, with strands of hay strewn about on the stone floor. A prison cell. Outside of his cell, he could see other prisoners wearing tattered white robes, who were chained in the same manner. He recognized one of the prisoners, Kira, who was till standing unconscious.
"KUUUAHHHH!!!" Screams could be heard from the room that was sealed by a metal door at the far end of the prison.
"PLEEAASSEEEE!! PLEEAAASSEEEE!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Cries of mercy and pain came out from the metal door, making some of the prisoners stir uncomfortably, as the hairs on their skin stood on end. They were afraid to find out what was happening behind the metal door.
Looking around his cell, he could see sorry excuse of a window in the stone wall, allowing little sunlight to seep in.
"Aunt Kira! Aunt Kira!" The youth tried to wake Kira up. Stirring slightly, she was starting to regain consciousness, before shivering from the cold air that seeped through the holes in her tattered robes.
"Huh? Where am I?" Kira moaned. She was still delirious, and could barely understand what was going on.
"I think we're in a prison chamber.." The youth answered. "Aunt Kira, are you OK?"
Kira's arms and legs had several bruise marks, and blood was dripping down her nose and lips.
"It hurts..." Kira moaned. Her usual sily smooth hair was now corase and messily strewn about her face. "Yong, where are the others?"
During the mass teleportation spell, all the disciples had gathered in front of Elder Moba, and was about to be teleported when all of a sudden, a spear flew out from the distance and lodged itself into Elder Moba's stomach, causing him to fly a few feet away before the spear stabbed in to the ground, blood dripping down from Elder Moba's body and onto the spear.
Elder Moba had been killed in a flash!
"Aaaaahhhhh!!!" The disciples screamed at the sight and started to panic, running at all directions. A split second later, eight figures shot down from the roofs who were wearing black robes and masks, immediately started to kill the disciples on the spot. Only the disciples who had reached the 4th level were able to fend off the first few strikes, before being killed or knocked out.
"Nnngnnn...." Kira tried to channel mana into her arms, but there was no effect. The chains had anti-mana enchantments, making them harder than ordinary steel and prevented the prisoners from using mana.
"Damn it! What is going on?!" Yong wanted to pull his hairs out of frustration. He couldn't believe that there were so many high level warriors that could infiltrate White Serenity School, unless...
"There was a traitor!" Yong realized. Someone must have sneaked the assassins inside, otherwise how could they have avoided the notice of Blood Devil Shane and the Elders?
As Yong was struggling to fend off the attacks, he watched helplessly as the weaker disciples he had known since his childhood, were struck down mercilessly. Just the sight alone was enough make an ordinary person go mad.
Finally, the screams had died down. "Skreeeeee..." The metal door screeched as a burly man wearing nothing but a leather apron walked out, dragging someone by the arms across the floor.
Yong recognized the unmoving body as Lori, Elder Moba's disciple! On his chest area was a huge gash, revealing his chest muscles, ribs, sternum and costal cartilages.
"Tsk... Another failure..."
The burly man lifted the body onto his shoulders, and walked towards the huge pile of bodies at the far end of the hall before throwing the dead disciple to join to pile. "Sccreeechhh...." a swarm of rats scattered away from the pile of bodies.
Taking a closer look at the dead bodies, Yong could see rats chewing off the fleshes of the dead bodies, and there were maggots writhing about on the bleeding areas of the bodies. Almost vomiting at the sight, he quickly closed his eyes and tried to regulate his breathing.
"Oh? Looky looky, Yong yong woke up has woken up!" the burly man said in a sing song voice.
Walking towards his cell, his lips curled in to a menacing grin as he pulled out a bundle of keys from his apron pocket.
"Cling!" The burly man inserted one of the keys into the metal grills, and entered Yong's cell. He then unlocked Yong's shackles. Finally relieved from the shackles that made Yong stand for hours on end, he helplessly fell down onto the cold stone floor.
"Now's not the time for you to rest, boy. It's your turn now." The burly man grabbed a fistful of Yong's hair and hauled him towards the room that Lori had been screaming in.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP! PLEASE, STOP! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! PLEEEAASEEE!!! PLEEAASSEEE!!" Hot tears flowed down Yong's cheeks as he weakly kicked at the burly man in a futile attempt to resist. "AUNT KIRA, HELP ME! HEELLPPP!! HEEELLPPPPP!!!"
But Kira could only powerlessly watch Yong being hauled off into a room. She was only a mana manipulator and did not have the strength of a warrior. Even with mana, she could not break out of her enchanted shackles.
"BANG!" The metal door slammed shut, sealing Yong's fate.
"KUUUAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Meanwhile in the deeper levels of the prison...
In a dimly lit prison cell that was approximately ten cubic metres big, there were four elderly men shackled to the stone walls. Forcibly fed with the Seven Coloured Toad poison, which had the effect of sapping both physical strength and mana, they could only sit and watch what fate had in store for them.
"Elder Karim, your hand..." Poong's voice weakly escaped from his parched lips.
Karim, who had been emptily staring at the ceiling, looked down at his arms. Of the four elderly men present, he was the only one whose hands were not tied to the walls. Why?
Previously.....
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"RRRAAAARRRRR!!" The 50 thousand men strong legion were already 100 metres away from the stone steps that Shane and the Elders were standing on.
Preparing their sword techniques and spells, Shane and the Elders were bracing them for the imminent clash. Focusing the entirety of their concentration on the legion, they had not noticed that the disciples who had been standing behind them the entire time were now now glancing at each other and nodding. Their fingers had been on their weapons, ready to strike at any moment.
""Schhliickkk!" Shane was about to unleash his 'Blade of Grand Destruction' upon the legion and almost did not notice the sharp pain in his chest. Looking down onto his chest, he saw the bloodstained tip of a sword poking out of his chest.
"Plick..." Droplets of warm blood were now dripping down from the tip of the bloodstained sword.
"W-wha..." Shane coughed out blood, but before he could react, the attacker swiftly pulled out the sword, and slashed horizontally, cutting off strands of Shane's long red hair and his head in an instant!
In the distance, Coran who had been watching the beheading of Shane, was now sighing with a mix of disappointment and fulfillment. When he had heard about Varca's death 12 years ago, he had flown into a rage. But at the time, he did not have the military power to command an army for his personal purposes.
Furthermore, Shane had already sealed himself in to his residence, preventing the spies he had inserted within the White Serenity School from interacting with Shane.
Finally, after 11 years, he had ascended to the 8th level as a Warrior, qualifying him for the position of General. He had then took 1 whole year to scheme, including mixing with the inner circles of the nobility so that he could feed the King with lies of Shane killing Varcas without a valid reason.
The naive King had then commanded Coran to lead a legion to arrest Shane, and bring him to justice. Except that Coran had plans of his own...
"Sigh... I wanted to cut off Shane's head by my own hands, but watching him die like a dog is already more than enough for me!"
The Elders who were still stunned from Shane's sudden death, were too slow to realize that their disciples had already drawn their weapons, ready to attack their respective teachers.
"Give me your spear!" Coran ordered a footman, and promptly threw it with his right hand towards one of the temples in the distance...
"My arms may have been cut off, but I still have my legs." Karim spat out a glob of blood. "You on the other hand, are in a much worse state than I am!"
Where Poong's legs had been at, there were now two stumps in their place, with red flesh sticking out on the ends. His left hand had been chopped off at the elbow. Only his right hand remained unharmed. Even if Poong could get out of this situation, it was highly unlikely that he would ever be able to stand and walk ever again, even with the aid of healing spells.
"At least you're still sane, look at these two..." Karim sighed. To his left were the other two Elders, Roza and Claude. Roza was giggling to himself, and would sometimes mutter incoherently. As for Claude, he was constantly staring at Karim and was constantly drooling at the mouth.
Hearing footsteps appraching their cell, Karim and Poong frowned.
"Clang!"
The metal door creaked open and at the same time, a man wearing a military general garment followed by four heavily robed figures strode into the cell.
"Who are you?" Karim croaked, his throat throbbed with each syllable. He had not had any food or water ever since he woke up in the prison cell. With no source of sunlight, it was impossible for him to tell how many days they had been locked up.
"Ho'Vah," the man wearing a military general garment turned his head sideways, commanding this 'Ho'Vah' with his eyes.
"Yes, my lord. 'Fireball'!" one of the heavily robed men bowed, then raised his left palm upwards, activating the 'Fireball' spell. Now that there was a source of light, the Elders could see the face of the man that seemed to be the leader of the heavily robed men.
"CORAN!!" Poong bellowed, now recognizing Coran, struggled to break free from his bonds, causing the cell to echo with the sounds of metal grinding.
"Greetings, esteemed elders of the White Serenity School. I feel somewhat honored that you know my name." Coran chuckled. "Now then, I have a little question for you two." Coran's smile disappeared as fast as it had appeared. "Where is the Secret Vault that contains your school's Secret Arts?" A glint of greed appeared in Coran's eyes.
Over the past few days, Coran and his most trusted men had turned White Serenity School upside down, trying to find the Secret Vault that contains the most sacred techniques of White Serenity School, but to no avail.
Finally giving up, Coran started to regret having killed Shane too quickly, as he could have tortured the answer out of him. The chances of the Elders knowing where the Secret Vault was hidden at was close to zero.
"Pui!" Karim spat at Coran, instantly earning himself a slap from one of the heavily robed figures. Defiantly turning his head towards Coran, he said "Even if I knew where it was, I would never tell you!"
Looking closely at Karim's eyes, Coran could not detect a hint of deceit, and that was all he needed. "It's all right. After all, I came here bearing gifts for the four of you." Coran faked a smile. "Give them the Elixers!"
As the four heavily robed men stepped towards the Elders, Poong and Karim realized that each of them was holding a bowl. "Uuuurrghhhh...." The heavily robed men forced open the Elders' mouths, and pouring pitch black liquid into their mouths.
"You should all feel honored to be the second batch of test subjects to receive the Elixers!" Coran cackled as he walked out of the room, leaving with the four heavily robed men, right before screams of pain came out of the prison cell.
[Author's Note: I will release another chapter in around three or four hours. Writing and editing this chapter seriously took a lot out of me. Once again, please let me know what you think of this chapter and help me identify grammar mistakes. I wonder if I went overboard with the descriptions...
P.S. If one of you guys have enough time, perhaps you could draw a picture to be used as Re:Asura's book cover? Even if you can't draw decently, I will not mind! You can email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading, gaises!]
Chapter 14: The Kind Guard