“Food…”

That was the only thing on the man's mind at this moment. And it was understandable why, After all, he has not eaten anything besides insects for the past two months.

In fact, it was quite surprising how he was even alive. After all, If it was a regular person, they would’ve been dead by now.

This man roughly in his 30's is Neil. A magician.

His hair was silver and his face was smooth. He gave off a cheerful aura and was always full of life. But, that was before he got trapped here. Now, his face looks pretty lifeless, his eyes gave off a strange red glow devoid of any emotions.

Ever since the day he was adopted by a school for mages, he spent his entire life dedicated to magic. He abandoned his mortal desires and solely dedicated every moment of his life practicing magic everyday without missing a single time. He was quite obsessed with magic. But he had a reason for his obsession. He pursued the path of a mage in hopes of one day being able to escape his fate—A fate shared by every being in the world.

Unfortunately, it seems in the end he couldn't succeed. He was kidnapped by vampires whilst investigating a serial murder case in his town and this is where it brought him. Inside a strange labyrinth—with no food, and no hopes of ever getting out alive.

After these hellish two months, he came to understand quite well. The fact that his dreams have utterly and thoroughly been crushed.

***

Ever since his death, Abraham had been in a dream like state. He was conscious, but at the same time, he wasn't. He couldn't feel his entire body. Nor did he have the ability to think.

He just... merely 'existed' But that changed just now. As he felt his consciousness getting sucked. And when he opened his eyes... he was in a strange place. A cellar of some sort. Watching a man being kicked by a boy wearing strange clothes.

He still had no ability to think for himself. All he could do was simply watch.

***

It was just like any other day. Neil continued starving in his cell without a single ray of light.

Tak… tak… Tak…

The sound of footsteps could be heard. Neil got alarmed and quietly, without making a single sound- approached the bars of his cell. ‘It is that time again’

He thought. He was quite familiar with this. After all, it was a daily occurrence.

Everyday, the vampires would bring him his food. Which was a bowl of strange red liquid. And surprisingly, this was the reason he had been surviving so far.

He waited patiently in his cell like a dog waiting for his owner as the footsteps slowly got closer. Soon, the footsteps stopped right outside the cell. But, to his surprise, it wasn’t the same vampires who gave him his food,

It was a young boy. Who looked to be only in his pre teens. He wore expensive looking black and white clothes which gave off an aura that of a ‘noble’. The boy's hair was black and oddly enough, his eyes had a similar, eerie red glow just like Neil's.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The boy entered the prison and stood right in front of Neil and kicked him right in his stomach.

“Tch. This is all I get? I am royalty! I am supposed to have the best of the best as my food!” The boy spoke in an arrogant way. As if he was above everything else

Even after being kicked so hard, Neil didn’t try to fight back. Nor did he shout.

This wasn’t because he wasn’t in pain. No. He had been kicked so hard in his frail body, Of course he was going through a lot of pain.

It was simply that he had no energy to.

"Damn those bastards, I will protest to my father as soon as I get back. Just you wait!" The young boy’s eyes looked down on Neil as if he was looking at some pest. The boy licked his fingers and spoke ominously “Now then… it’s time to finish my food.”

“Can’t be staying in this filthy place too long.”

After he was done, something strange happened to the boy. His skin became red and he almost doubled in size. Strange thorns began protruding from his skin and his claws became massive. To accompany this, bat-like wings around two meters long each.

There was only one word to describe the being in front of Neil. Monstrous. It gave Neil a horrifying feeling that could make even war veterans lose their minds. But this did not affect Neil. After all, he had long lost his sanity.

But strangely, something did in fact change in him. He got up from where he was laying and looked at The boy with blood-shot eyes. His mouth dripped with saliva and there was a strange grin on his face.

This strange phenomenon had occurred to him as soon as the boy turned into this strange creature. Neil charged at the boy as on both hands and legs like a wild beast charging at its prey. Currently, he only had one thing in his mind.

‘E-at…Ea-t…Eat…E-at…’

It was quite clear now.

Neil had completely lost what remained of his sanity.

***

“Keuuk This.. This isn’t what they told me… Why the hell are you so strong!” The boy screamed in pain. As he felt a horrible burning on his entire right arm. It felt as if his arms had been dropped into molten liquid and he could barely move his right arm.

Neil on the other hand, charged at the boy like a wild beast, and each time his palm would come into contact with the boy’s body, extremely hot flames would burst out from them.

Abraham continued observing the situation like a spectator. Honestly, if he could think, he would’ve been left quite speechless.

Neil continued trying to attack the boy, but each time, strange red balls would appear right as he was about to hit him. The boys speed was quite fast, he could easily avoid most of Neil’s attacks but at the end of the day,

He was no god.

Neil’s continuous attacks left him no space to breathe. He had to continuously defend himself or he would die from the flames.

“Dammit.. To think I would have to use this against a mortal being like you..” The boy spoke as he continuously tried to avoid Neil’s attacks. Which were like a wild beast- unpredictable.

The boy raised both his hands in the air and strange blood-red patterns appeared on his hands.

“Die!” As soon as The boy shouted this, a strange chill took over the entire area. A strange red liquid-like substance, most likely blood from the smell, appeared in the middle of The boy's hands and, in the blink of an eye, got to the size of the entire room. “Keek hahaha you fought quite well. Lower existence. But you see, at the end of the day, a lower existence will always remain just that. A lower existence.”

As the Boy finished speaking, he slowly began dropping the blood orb on Neil. It was a bit slow, but Neil knew quite well. He couldn’t dodge.

From the very beginning, even though he had lost his mind, somewhere inside him, Neil despised the creature in front of him.

He absolutely detested his arrogant way of speaking, as if he was above everyone else. He knew these types of people quite well. After all, the world was rimming with them. At least before the world lost it's sun, that is.

These types of people are always nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. Not worth paying attention to.

“It seems you were just all talk.”

As he spoke this, a strange golden spear which looked to be made out of light, came out of his hands and completely obliterated the orb, making a hole in the boy’s stomach. “You… w-erent.. A war-”

The boy’s lifeless body dropped down after the light spear had disintegrated. And the blood ball rained down completely covering the floor with blood.

As soon as Neil spotted The body, He quickly lost his regained sanity.

‘Food!’

Without wasting a single second, Neil rushed to the boy’s corpse. And began devouring it. Flesh by flesh.

***

Author: everyonessenior

Editor: Stein