I woke up to darkness and earth, a familiar mix which brought me dread.
The image of the Ironclad Ants and their underground nest which I spent days stuck in with no food came to mind. My trial had done an excellent job in injecting the fear of underground areas in me. I hadn't mentioned it before, but goosebumps ran through my forearms whenever I saw ant trails on the ground while I was in the awakened academy.
Rivers of electricity ran through my body, all demanding me to get up quickly and fight against whatever…whatever put me here.
As images of my first trial cut through my head, I turned my torso and put a palm to the ground.
My entire body burned as if I was engulfed in a raging inferno. I screamed for a second, curling into myself in a fetal position, tears stinging my eyes. Those burned too.
It burned, it hurt.
I took a breath when it hurt a little less, and I looked at my own hands. Layers of red flesh and pulsing veins greeted my eyes, my arms were skinless.
I gritted my teeth and studied the rest of my body--the sight almost made me vomit.
What prevented me from vomiting was that the pain from doing it would be worse than the sight of myself.
What did my face look like?
…
CLANG!
I woke up to a start, realizing that I had fallen unconscious again. To my disbelief, I was still in the nauseating embrace of darkness and earth.
I did find that my body looked more…manageable.
I turned to the source of the sound that woke me up, finding to my pleasant relief that it didn't hurt like before when I moved.
In front of me were iron bars in a criss cross pattern making me prisoner in this dirt room, I didn't find it enjoyable that my only plausible escape route was sealed off.
Behind the iron bars-
Mongrel's mask stared at me.
My brain shut off and a primal fear surged within me, screaming at me. My heart went off like a bomb, my chest straining from the pressure of holding back my heart.
I remembered everything now, my companions. The Great Plateau, the chained isles, the two figures with Mongrel's mask--all of it. I even remembered how I was turned into a gorey art piece by the masked woman on the surface of the gargantuan chains which connected each floating island.
It only took off the weight of a feather from my mind when I saw that the masked figure in front of me wasn't the woman with the obsidian sword, her silky white hair cut unevenly on all sides coming from the back of the mask.
Instead, it was the gigantic man whose mask was too small for his face, letting me see his dried, flaky lips.
He smiled, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth. I wondered if I was actually worse off with him.
"Took only three days to regenerate all the damage, not bad for a sleeper with just one regeneration attribute--my past self would've been envious of you." He crossed two large arms, each the same length as me, gods he really was huge. He was hunched over by a substantial amount, yet his forehead still grazed the dirt ceiling.
I wondered if he was a human with a physique like that, which guided my eyes to look for the other two arms he possessed back when he first ambushed me and my cohort on the chains. They weren't there.
So, those were either because of his aspect or an enchantment…
The gigantic man stopped smiling, then knocked the iron bars. "Stop being so quiet, it's boring talking to someone who doesn't make a peep. I would come in there and snap a few bones to make you talk, but I've been told not to--but I'm impulsive so don't make me change my mind. Now, get up." The last words had a lining of venom, stabbing deep into my head. He wasn't joking, actually, I should consider any word he says as reality at this point.
Fighting against the soreness in my joints and muscles, I walked up to the bars hesitatingly. Now being closer to the man and looking up into the darkness of his mask, I wasn't sure if he would keep his word about not breaking my limbs.
The second I was a foot away from the iron bars, they shattered into a million sparks blinding me for a moment.
The iron bars were a memory…
He turned his back to me immediately and moved further into the darkness at a quick pace, forcing me to follow him.
The stench of rotting flesh came quickly, flooding my nose and making me choke. I felt tempted to stop in the middle, but I didn't know what the large man would do to me.
Attacking him was out of the question, and even begging for my life was risky—it could lead to the opposite outcome if I wasn't careful.
What happened to the rest of my cohort? Ford, Eternity, and Lorelei—where were those three?
The last thing I remember was seeing Ford and Lorelei fighting against the four-armed man, yet the gigantic man walking in front of me without a scratch and the two sleepers who fought him were nowhere to be seen.
Did they die by his four hands?
The thought sent ice spreading through my veins, fear freezing my mind.
The two of them were the strongest sleepers at the academy for our year, not even counting their aspects and echoes, yet they were so easily bested.
I gazed upon the back of the gigantic man, his back muscles rippling against each other like coiled serpents.
"…you know, you don't ever stop thinking do you?" The gigantic man hissed pleasantly, locking the two dark eyes of the demon mask with my quivering eyes.
He flicked a long tongue in and out between his lips, "I can smell fear, it's one of my attributes and quote a useful one at that. Besides being practical in that I can gauge my enemies mental state, I can also gain some instant pleasure. You're the same as the rest, yet different…"
He pointed one clawed finger at me, "…you're thinking about ways to kill me aren't you?"
I stood there with my mouth open, unable to comprehend what he was saying. "I-Why would I try to kill you?! You just wiped out my entire cohort."
"Same question I wanna ask, but it seems you're not aware of it either. Kekekehe, do you perhaps have some bloodlusted side that is hidden within you? It isn't a simple want to kill, it's hunger. A pride…"
The words passed through me like an inferno, bruning my consciousness from what he was accusing me of. Didn't I just disregard that idea in my own head a minute ago? How could I have it? Was this guy just making things up to make me scared? No, that definitely made sense—yes, he told me that he gets pleasure from people's fear, that sick bastard!
The gigantic man then moved his left arm, and to my complete surprise, he slipped off Mongrel's mask which covered the top half of his face.
Deep dark jade pupils stared at me, his black reptilian irises ripped vertically through the jade pupil like a cut in a gem.
Curling grey locks of hair spilled down the side of his face, and swirling tattoos like black fire dotted the left half of his face. His bronze skin was smooth yet tough, blemished only by a few scars that refused to heal, though it helped in providing him a wild allure.
He smiled with his full face, the black fire tattoos dancing across his skin with the motion. "Lucius was right about you…like he always is, and always will be."
A name drop…Lucius. Who was that? Whoever it was, the giant man clearly had some feelings towards the person—Though I couldn't tell whether it was respect or hate with that tight smile of his.
The giant took another step, before a thunderous quake shook our surroundings. Little pellets of dirt fell from the tunnel's ceiling and I wondered if the entire place would collapse under us.
The giant man shook his head dejectedly, "Speak of the devil and he makes his entrance."