Chapter 121 - Death Sentence

  I looked to the side and saw a few men colpse to the ground, fused and disoriented. Everywhere I looked, the bck storm cloud domihe se, surrounding us as if we were trapped ihe domain of something monstrous.

  "What was that?" a soldier asked, his voice trembling with fear.

  I tried to grab my sword, but my hands shook so much that I couldn’t muster the strength to lift it. It felt like my very will was being crushed. I gnced ahead and saw the boy slowly advang toward us, and then I felt my neck f my head downward, making me adopt a posture of submission.

  What’s happening? My entire body is paralyzed with fear!

  As he approached, I began to feel suffocated, as if an invisible serpent was coiling around my neck. I couldn’t keep my head up; it insisted on bowing down, as if terrified to meet the eyes of the being before me.

  I fought against my own body, trying to lift my head and look at the boy, but the terror only intensified, as if I were standing before a colossal creature that saw me as nothing more than a rat.

  "Prostitution… human traffig… kidnapping… murder… theft," he listed calmly as he tinued walking toward us, unarmed but radiating an overwhelming presence. I g the soldiers beside me; they were pale, frozen, trapped in the same terror that gripped me.

  Thunder boomed all around us, like the sky itself was shattering.

  "I never fave this in my previous life… and it won’t be any different here…" he said, each step making my body shrink even further, as if it were trying to hide from the impending doom.

  "This is my nd, these are my people," he decred, now standing right in front of us.

  KILL HIM! KILL HIM!

  I tried to order, but my mouth wouldn’t move, my voice silenced by fear.

  "You’ve pyed with my patience long enough. When an anthill appears in the garden, we burn it to protect our pnts. You are the pests iing my garden," his voice was imposing, den with an inescapable authority.

  I tried, once again, to lift my head, but my body refused to face the boy.

  "And I will elimihe is with fire," he said, and then a sharp sound filled the air.

  ‘Whoosh!’ Fmes erupted beside me.

  "AHHHHH!" a soldier screamed as the fire ed him, his desperate cries eg as his body vulsed in agony.

  I looked at the men around me, but they were all frozen in fear, incapable of reag.

  "Fuck!" I shouted, f my body to move. I touched the ground, desperate to escape.

  This boy isn’t normal! I have to get out of here!

  The ground below me rumbled, and a stone n shot up, lifting me back to the surface. I looked down and saw the fire ing the men, their screams blending with the crackle of the fmes as they tried to run.

  When the boy’s blue eyes locked onto mine as I rose, I swallowed hard, overwhelmed by a deep sense of dread.

  WHAT IS HE?

  As soon as I reached the top, I tried to run, but my legs were still shaky, betraying my attempt to flee. I moved clumsily, stumbling and grabbing onto the walls, terror driving me away from that living nightmare.

  "Ah!" one of the women cried when she saw me.

  "Help!" she pleaded, her voice thick with desperation.

  "Who freed you, bitch?" I grabbed her roughly, determio take her with me.

  I’ll use her as a hostage in case he decides to follow me.

  ‘Woof!’ A fierce bark echoed behind me, and something yanked me violently, sending me flying through the air.

  “Damn it!” I hit the ground hard, an icy, sharp pain shooting through my back, as if something freezing was tearing into me.

  "Shit! I o get out of here with this bitch!" I yelled, struggling to get up as fast as I could.

  As soon as I stood, I froze in shock.

  "A wolf!" Standing before me was a massive white wolf, its eyes glowing with a cold, menag light.

  ‘Grrrr...’

  "A golem? A fug i!" The wolf, made entirely of solid ice, stared at me, growling with a silent fury.

  Damn it! More of these monstrous things.

  ‘Grrrr...’

  "Attack!" ordered the voice of a girl from somewhere nearby.

  "You’re dead!" I tried to raise my hand to jure aal attack, but before I could react, a bst of ice struck me. The wolf took the opening, leaping forward and sinking its fangs into my neck.

  Emma:

  I had been kidnapped four days ago and thrown into this hideout. I knew all too well what happeo women captured by bandits, and I was g in despair. Bound, beaten, and tossed into a room with other women, I couldn’t escape the hopelessness surroundihe bandit leader had stripped me down to just my bra and underwear so I could be "evaluated."

  I tried to speak to the irls, but we were all gagged, and from the look in their eyes, I could tell they had already given up.

  Sacred mother! Sacred father! Sacred brother! Sacred Life! May your blessing fall upon me, may you protect my future and deliver me from evil!

  I repeated the prayer over and over, desperately ging to any hope. I had overheard them talking about what they po do to me—that I would be sold and used.

  Please, someone, help me!

  The wooden wall shifted, and standing there was the bandit leader, leering at us with those disgusting eyes. He walked over to the light crystal, brightening the room, but at the same time, the light behind him went dark.

  I watched him approach, terrripping my chest.

  "Still got those sad faces? You’re too pretty to be g like that."

  Please… help… someone...

  He walked right up to me and yahe gag from my mouth. Fear filled me as he stared me down.

  "Sacred Mother! Sacred Father! Sacred Brother! Sacred Life! May your blessing fall upon me, may you bless my future and deliver me from evil," I cried out in desperation.

  The leader grabbed my hair and ya hard.

  "Shut the fuck up! If you start praying again, I’ll knock you out. Just because I ’t touch your face doesn’t mean yetting out of this unscathed."

  I’ll never see my family again... I’ll be sold.

  The despair overwhelmed me, and all I could think about were the people I loved, imagining what was going to happen to me.

  "Sacred Mother! Sacred Father! Sacred Brother! Sacred Life!" I whimpered through my sobs.

  "Bitch!"

  He struck me hard on the head.

  "See that? Just because I ’t hit your face doesn’t mean I ’t hurt you. You’re lucky, bitch. If you hadn’t been picked to be sold, I would’ve had my fun with you already," he said, staring at me, lig his lips.

  "Sacred mother... Sacred father..." I muttered through my tears, knowing that no one would e. I was being like the irls. My mind was breaking.

  "No god’s ing for you. You’ve been abandoned, hahahaha!"

  He ughed at me, and I k was true. No one would e to save me, and my fate would be to suffer, to be abused, and then to die.

  I gave up on praying, surrendering to my fate.

  "It seems your prayers have been answered…" an imposing voice spoke.

  "What the hell?"

  The bandit leader turned around ahe room.

  "Kinley?"

  "Kinley’s dead," the voiswered.

  "Who are you? Show yourself, that’s an order!”

  From the darkness, twht blue lights appeared.

  "Are those… eyes? How the fuck do your eyes glow in the dark?"

  The glow faded, and I heard something hit the floor.

  "Kinley!? What the hell!"

  "Apologies, dies. I’ll have to lock you up again. It’s better if you don’t see what’s about to happen," the voice said as the wall moved, sealing us inside.

  I looked at the irls.

  "What do you think that was? I felt... safe, somehow," I whispered.

  The sounds of shouted orders, spells being cast, and explosions filled the space outside our room. We g each other but stayed silent. Something was happening, but we didn’t know if it was good for us.

  We heard a loud crash, like something colpsing.

  We screamed at the noise, curling up in fear.

  For a long while, we sat there, listening to the chaos—explosions, screams—waiting anxiously, unsure of our fate.

  ‘Woof!’ A bark echoed from the other side of the wall.

  The stone wall began to freeze over, and something was hitting it, as if digging through. The ice spread across the surfatil the wall finally crumbled.

  "A wolf..." I gasped, staring at the creature made of ice.