The Chamber was deathly silent. Four creatures of incomprehensible forms and powers stood in a deadlock. Tense, focused, and ready for the instantaneous eruption of violence. The Pale Man in front of the three swayed on his feet, barely maintaining an upright position.
He seemed dazed, unresponsive, almost unaware of the fact that he returned to life. The seconds seemed like days under the pressure he exuded. The power that his body released seemed thick and crushing to those within his range. While the Butcher emanated pure bloodlust and will of slaughter, what they felt could only be compared to unstoppable, uncontained ruin. It brought despair and the loss of hope.
He twitched. His arms spasmed, and after that, he bent backward, taking a deep inhale and spitting out the healing sap from his insides, coughing madly he bent down, resting his palm on his knee while spewing out the gel-like substance that filled his insides.
The sound of him coughing up the healing mucus filled the chamber, the observers stayed tense and ready for even the slightest sign of violence.
As he shook off the remaining slag that burned into his body, he whimpered sounds of pain.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in vigilance, he stood straight. His Watchers tensed even more as he regained the light in his eyes and his aura became tame and controlled.
He blinked, visibly disoriented. Looking around his body relaxed from the remaining electric current still filling him, his muscles released tension.
“Where…. Where am I?” He asked, dazed, while looking around. He noticed the three peculiar creatures that stood near him.
He stumbled backwards, falling on his ass. He started screaming at them.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU! WHERE AM I?!” He yelled as his body shambled on the floor, still visibly sleepy and not working as intended. He tried to awaken his powers, and they heeded the call. Like a tidal wave an explosion of force burst from within. Primal, shapeless and Pure, he ignited with light. White, hot, crackling power surrounded him, with random parts constantly bursting into black points and popping the existence around him. The effect resembled television static visually but the feeling it gave of, even to the three, was of pure distortion of the world. A clash of concepts.
The Stitcher smiled as the flare of power hit against them, his own bloodlust aura gaining weight as it responded to the challenge.
Just as he was getting ready to engage, a slam of mind magic filled the room with resounding echoes.
“STOP IT!” Yelled the Avian directly into their minds. Cracking them slightly, the messege carried a command, an authority. Any weaker man would obey instantly. There were no weak men in the room right now.
The Stitcher spread his arms wide, and from under the Flayed Cloak resounded the Bells and Tools of Slaughter. His skin cloak started seeping fresh blood onto the floor as something wiggled under it.
Luke, seeing this, disregarded how much power he had at his disposal and focused simply on what’s in front of him. He compressed his power, it covered his trembling body, and as the first spear of pure, raw blaze and plasma started forming in front of him, he felt something prick his neck.
He grabbed it, and pulled out a small needle, covered in a green substance. His thoughts murky, he looked to the side, and noticed the small, chubby hedgehog creature standing in a ninja pose, with his arm full of small needles.
He, once again, lost consciousness. He dropped from his elbows and sprawled all over the wooden floor.
The construct he was forming collapsed without guidance and exploded in the middle of the chamber.
Boom.
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“I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN “ mumbled the hedgehog angrily as he tried to remove as much soot as he could from his countless needles.
“KUUURWA” he squeaked as he tried to reach his behind. His palms were singed and his snout was peeling from the burn he just took face on.
The Avian was pecking away at the burned feathers, visibly frustrated but trying to remain calm.
“Yes, we knew that was a possibility, I honestly expected him to at least try talking before he started blasting, when I met him before he seemed much nicer…but again, he wasn’t being attacked by a murderous maniac” he said as he gave a mean side eye to the butcher.
The maniac in question chuckled, he was untouched and his robe unblemished. He cut the incoming heat that was supposed to incinerate him effortlessly, and simply waited for the flames in the chamber to die down.
They collected themselves and took out the binding chains, wrapping the boy like a gift in a wrap. They threw him next to the violently shaking coffin that hold his sword. Both bound by silver, sigil covered chains laid there, a threat to life.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
They prepared more bindings and made sure that this time, no temper tantrum will interrupt the awakening.
After some time passed, they tried again, an attempt to reawaken the boy.
After a needle left his skin, and the concoction started working its magic, he came back to consciousness.
Groggily, he started looking around, barely digesting the information that flooded his brain.
He felt something pierce his mental bubble, and heard a calm voice:
“Be not afraid” Said the Avian monster standing in front of him. He recognized it, it was Monsoons friend. Its wide, black eyes stared deep into his mind as the singed bush of feathers waved hypnotizingly.
It was mesmerizing.
It was calming.
He felt a weight blanketing his thoughts. It was suppressing his anger and his panic.
“Thank you” he said to the bird.
As his body relaxed, so did the Threes.
He sat there, slumped with his back resting against the coffin, from which he felt a pull and dampened screams and echoes of yearning to be joined with him.
“What happened? What is that behind me? Where am I?” He asked, looking around and trying to remember anything from the sewers.
“The last thing I remember was… death…” his words slowed down.
“No… I almost died, I was taken somewhere…Oh no, NO! DID YOU FIND A LITTLE SPRITE NEXT TO ME?” He yelled as he trashed in his bindings, straining them with the power that thrummed from his heart. They shone brightly as they sizzled on his skin.
“WHERE IS HE! WHAT HAPPENED WITH MONSOON!” his anger tore the blanket from his mind, set it ablaze and pushed away the mental bridge from the Avian.
“Stop it! You are safe! Calm down so we can explain everything you rabid maniac!” squeaked the chubby spike ball.
It did something to Luke, his chest started hurting and he felt a weight press down on his insides. He looked down and saw molten studs imbedded in his chest. They glowed as they pulsed, locking his powers from him.
“Look, we are all here because Monsoon asked us to help you. He paid a lot for us to mend your wounds. I don’t know what that sprite thing is you are talking about but we only got you and that Nightmare Fuel Blade you formed that’s thrashing behind you. We..” he paused as he looked at the Robed Figure with flakes of dried blood on him. ”Some of us are close friends of Monsoon, we go way back. He brought you to us. You were attacked by a mutated Bone Rat, a battle beast on the verge of evolution. It ripped your heart out, it ate your arm. You should have been dead, a thousand times over, but you aren’t.” He paused.
“You managed to choose an even worse, and stupider option. You submerged into the Void. You ALLOWED IT to claim control. We still don’t know how you came back. It is unheard of. No one should escape its grasp. And yet, here you are. We fixed what we could, your arm… your body consumed it, gave it away to the Void. We cant regrow it, the body and the reality doesn’t allow it. Stitcher here…He made a substitute.” Luke switched his gaze at the monster to his side. It smiled as it revealed a bone construct from within its Flayed Robe, a clawed arm made of crystal bone material, pure white, almost blinding with intricate paths of deepest black running through it. The claws looked hollow, like there was something that was supposed to fill them in.
“We rebuilt your whole body, practically. Stitcher here managed to contain the Void Infection, cut away old flesh and allowed new to regrow. Your heart is something unknown to us, I had to block it so you wouldn’t set yourself and this whole place ablaze.” His showed to the bird creature in front of Luke.
“The Avian Lord managed to strengthen your mind, separate it from the Void a bit, add some structural supports if you will. Be thankful, his job was the toughest here. Also, it’s his hospitality that granted you the ability to heal so quickly, 6 months is still quite fast”
“Six months?!” Luke screamed surprised.
“Yes, in here, out there ? Only two, we were told you are a commoner. Out there ? We made a dummy of your body, officially you are in a coma after a hit and run.”
Lukas remained silent, too much information to take at once.
As the quiet filled the room, he heard a question in his mind.
“Will you behave yourself? Can I take these chains off you?” said the bird person into his mind, as it came closer, stomping on burnt wood.
“ Yes…” he answered and felt the weight drop off his body, and the restraints on his energy lessen, yet not disappear completely.
He rolled over to his right side, and lifter himself with his arm. He stood up, tall and focused.
Exhaling deeply, he looked down. As his thoughts clashed he ran his hand through his hair.
“Wait, why is my hair so short?” He asked surprised.
As two of the creatures looked angrily at the monster in the cloak, it cackled and answered.
“I…TOOK A LITTLE…OFF THE TOP…”