As we continued stretching our limits beyond comprehension, we soon reached the densest layer of the mist.

Over who knows how long of a period of time, everything felt the same. Yet everything was drifting away from us. Everything was...unnoticeably different?

Oh. The mist.

It now seethed so loudly that its presence was unavoidable. Our bodies lost heat slowly as our senses dulled.

Our walk become a gentle sway as we strolled like drunken men.

The world energy in my grasp become loose and fiddly as Audra's eyes opened and closed inordinately.

If I were to describe my senses and emotions they were, drowsy?

My emotions had gone blank, clean, and backstage.

All we could do was follow the goal, and that goal was to search deeper within the smoke.

My body began to falter. My legs pushed themself forwards on whims as my blade slid in and out of my sheat wildly.

I hadn't a clue what was exactly happening anymore.

The hissing of smoke had raised, undeniably so yet it didn't affect our deadpanned expressions as our bodies drove us further and further from the light.

It was then that I noticed that Audra had fallen.

Her hair was disheveled and her eyes had long rolled over.

Oh.

I bent down to pick her up yet my consciousness crashed with me.

I slumped by her side halfway through my lazy attempt to yank her up.

My eyes dimmed considerably as my muscles lost all strength.

My skin was an unnatural pale as I looked at it for a while.

It was then that I saw the smallest light pierce through the most minuscule smoke cloud.

And the ghastly grimness of realization fell down.

They had not just sent down normal smoke.

It was the smoke that sent the bulls to sleep.

It was the smoke that silenced weeping wails.

It was the end of tales for muscled men.

It was the smoke of the Crows.

When my eyes squinted at blinding and beaming lights of a multitude of colors I realized that the atmosphere was... different.

I was no longer in a smokey capsule, I was in a small brick-walled room.

I had been laid done and I could not breathe through my mouth due to a rag that was tied to the back of my head.

I attempted to move my limbs but soon realized each and every one of them was tied together with an oddly strong rag.

It felt like elastic and its color was of a raven-like black.

There were no windows, just a drab ginger-maroon wall that scaled around me.

The room was small and there was no sign of anything over than a concrete floor and the same dreary brick borders.

Elastic-like restraints were snugly tightened around my wrists, ankles, knees, mouth, elbows, and ribs.

My mind gradually observed the situation.

My body was although constrained, in peak condition.

Although I couldn't tell the time my fingernails had grown from my last sighting of them. At least I think they had...

Clearly, time had passed but not to the extent of years or even months.

And therefore... I've been kidnapped.

I then searched for signs of Audra and swallowed paranoidly when I realized that I truly was stuck.

My thoughts wandered to that of Ken and the Count but I highly doubt they were down for the count.

I was probably to be sold as a slave along with Audra by the cloaked assassins.

Wasn't that charming?

I prepared 5 sources of world energy around the room, although I probably wouldn't use them, lest I get stuck in this room with an unconscious corpse forever.

As long as I managed to eliminate the assassins and find Audra then I would be set to leave pronto.

I then realized an accurseddilemmaa to my far from immaculate plan.

There was no door.

No trapdoor.

No secret-super-sneaky door present.

Therefore, I was actually stuck. And a dreaded thought came to mind. Whoever had decided to sell me off. They were no regular muscle-back rat-brain.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

They probably possessed some kind of advanced mechanical system if not a mystical thing similar to teleportation magic.

And therefore I was screwed.

My treasured blade had been taken away and my clothes were still the same scruffy merchant-son clothes.

My hair was still neat and kept whilst my body was around the same height.

The room was questionably well-lit despite the avoidance of light present.

Honestly, I probably shouldn't even be awake right now.

I firmly shut my eyes.

Oh.

So what now?

Would I just starve to death?

I slumped there, silent and still for minutes on end.

I took extreme care to avoid budging from my original position and waited.

Fwoosh.

All I could hear was wind gushing upwards as I felt as though someone had appeared within the room.

My eyes almost quivered as an odd ethereal purple light coated the room before slivering down.

He wasn't panting yet his breaths were clear through my somewhat enhanced senses.

He was definitely somewhat tall, at least taller than me. He seemed to have been wearing some sort of robe due to the flapping sounds.

I just assumed his gender on a whim. The breaths felt too hoarse and unrefined to be of a woman and the stature seemed quite lanky.

I had developed several stereotypes over several lifetimes and now it was time to use them, I suppose.

He stayed for around 15 long, painful minutes.

It felt as though I was holding my entire body still.

Not a single finger flinched as my breathing remained immaculately controlled.

I don't know how, but I felt refreshed when he left.

I felt the sweat that had swarmed me slowly droop down as the purple shade faded from my closed eyes. My breathing became long and coarse.

Not to the state of panting but to the state of relief.

It was as if he had used some sort of sorcery to cure my hunger and the aches that had formed in my arms from struggling with the elastic-like apparatus that restrained my small figure.

I let my body loosen itself up in preparation for a long, long journey.

As long as I don't die or get some mental condition...

It should be fine.

Right?

It's been a week.

7 days.

Luckily for me, my caretaker arrives on a very tight schedule.

At the point which I consider 12 he comes in, rejuvenates me then leaves.

He's done this action 7 times and the gaps in between each are like a whole new branch of torture.

I can't even release any of my built-up stress for fear that he would know.

Although I highly doubted his combat abilities, I'm sure at least a few of those assassins would be kept at the home base, and then what? Even if I had glanced for a split-second upon a dark-haired lanky lunatic, would it be the same man for the 8th time?

Would I even have another chance at enslavement or would it just be into the gutter for me?

I cursed silently.

There was one thing to do in this plain ol' place though.

Recently I had been tightening and compressing world energy to the breaking point.

Each time I felt as though I had gone a bit further.

It was repetitive and I felt an undergoing level of pain with every spurt and new level I discovered yet it was all one could do. I couldn't even finish the job as it may alert someone near me. Therefore I just watched drearily as my compressions gradually loosened and my iron grip slipped away.

I'm selfish.

That's probably why I had subconsciously made up my mind, to escape this place.

Selfish people only want the best for themselves.

And I had unsurprisingly grown conceitful desperation for this place and its numbing brick walls.

And such is the reason why I needed to escape.

Although at first, everything seemed like a movie. Everything had changed so fast from carriage to smoke. From smoke to brand-new confinement. I thought that everything just had to calm down and it would be fine.

But nothing calmed down. Every single day I am reminded of that by the care keeper.

The chilling fear and fright that painfully fails to soothe my confidence time and time again.

If he reapplies the sleeping spell then I'm probably gone.

That's yet another reason why I must go.

I'm strapped to a time bomb.

The only blessing this place possesses is lackluster for desecration. It seems my urges vanish and my nutrients are supplied by the silent spell that the keeper casts once a day.

At least I had a chance to feel something then.

Now I just sit around throwing around world energy within my limits.

I held hundreds of scenes within my mind of what could presume.

Would I be unbelievably successful? I had prenominations like these. Like blissful and heavenly dreams.

Would my attacks be deflected thoughtlessly? Would they reveal that they had indeed known the whole time and it was laughable, my efforts?

Or would I win? But at a cost far deeper than any slave-master bond I would have to experience later?

The dreading questions bombarded my mind as I stayed in the same position that I had been stuck in for a week.

It wasn't too hard to stay. After all, most of my body parts were confined to one position.

But I doubt I could ever forget the cold crevices that formed within every part of my being when the care-keeper stood above my weak and deplored figure.

My muscles tensed but not visibly.

My mind carved itself so that my face would remain expressionless and unused.

All so that the care-keeper, who probably barely looked down or concentrated on much anyways, would notice nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It felt o-.

It felt humiliating at face value.

And I was tired of just sitting, not even sitting.

I was tired of just slumping around and acting dead before I was even dead.

I had read enough awful gores in a certain life to know that the way of the slave was not for me.

And so I forged a plan. From boredom and sweat. From blood and boredom. (Yes that was entirely deliberate repetition it's late and I'm bored.)

The Plan To Regain Movement In My Limbs.

1) Make hundreds of awesome world-energy compressions.

2)Absolutely obliterate Karl. (His name is definitely Karl.)

3) After absolutely obliterating Karl, make him remove the restraints and steal his lame teleportation magic.

4)Teleport to Audra, run away and get back to the dukedom in a manly fashion.

5) Get thanks from the count and hopefully lots of money and swords. (I need a new sword.)

I chuckled to myself lightly.

A light-hearted chuckle that soon deformed into a deafening silence.

Ah.

The time.

I shut my eyes.

A strong wind gusted through the room as the same old cloak flapped downwards.

I haven't a clue why but.

I had developed an unexplainable hatred towards this man.

Or Karl.

Karl seemed like a pretty hate-able guy.

I mean... who just helped an organization that kidnapped kids like that?

As my mind flew around from boredom and border insanity I began practicing with world energy.

It felt nice to do something behind Karl's back.

I kept doing this and that with it before reaching the highest compression layer I had ever done.

It would be a waste to just let it fade away.

I struggled between conclusions as I slowly drifted the small compact ball toward Karl's head.

Should I? No. I can't.

As I moved it from and forth his head, it somehow got even tighter.

My body lay slumped as Karl's grim reaper pranced around his timid face.

It was at bursting point and dangerously close.

But it wasn't like anything would end up making me releas-.

Pain.

Series of pain coursed through my veins rapidly as my senses dusted.

My contemplating thoughts were replaced by dense emotions as my control went wild.

It felt as though a metal hammer had smashed down on my right hand. Not only that but all over my hand, sharp piercing actions ensued.

A sharp spiky shoe had accidentally swattled over my pale and fleshy wrist.

The World-Energy was completely rogue.

And like a balloon flailing around at a party.

This balloon went out with a bang.

BANG.

It swirled in the air for a rapid second before unleashing its full force.

Poor Karl could only hear a faint wheezing sound before his world ricocheted out of his control.

Karl's head knocked forward before his body smashed against the maroon-bricked wall.

It crimpled there before slumping over.

A wave of blood had bolstered out of his ginger head the instant I lost control.

I felt my plans and scenarios disappear without a trace at the appearance of this new development.

My head felt queasy as I retraced the memories of the World-Energy flailing around before bursting right into Karl's unsuspecting figure.

Did I just kill off my last hope at escape?