Va'dia stirred, eyes slowly fluttered open as a nauseous feeling swam in her head. The area beneath felt soft like fabric and slightly cold. Above was a gray ceiling whose rough texture had been exposed by a dim yellow hue.
In a daze, she curiously moved her head left, since then she would notice that the soft surface beneath was a bed. Anyway, she saw a small — wooden drawer, on top was a lamp with its head being transparent enough to see a yellow magic stone hung on a string.
Without anything in mind, she pushed herself up sluggishly as though there was something heavy on her back. She swung her legs off the bed and stared at the concrete floor for a moment, taking in some air before looking up and observing the room.
To her right was a rather ornate steel door with a small gap for view, at the left corner next to the small cabinet was a herb-like plant grown on an orange clay pot. She glanced at her white bed, then to the gray pillow, and there was no blanket.
She shifted her attention toward the door, specifically the small view gap. Flickering orange hue could be seen on the stained — white-ish tile roof. Curious, she stood up and walked toward it.
With slight difficulty peeking to the left, she saw a bonfire, and around it were two casually dressed men with brown holsters, their weapons were crossbows — lying on the ground unloaded.
In her memory, she remembered being strangled by an abnormally big gloved hand, at this point she would say it was those Kjech, but surprisingly none of them had gloves on nor a big physique.
Her thoughts automatically set aside by something churning in her chest. It went up and rose to her throat in no time, she turned away from the door then coughed into her palm, otherwise it would be loud.
On her last cough spat out a tiny puddle of black liquid onto her palm. As a human, her eyes widened in dread at the strange stuff.
'W-what is wrong with me!?'
As fast as the thought arrived, she for whatever logical reason decided to smear it onto the wall near the door. A black line stretched down accompanied by her hand. A bit more wiping on the wall later, she retracted and looked at her dusty hand. Although there were some still stuck in the palm creases, she didn't mind too much.
The low sound of fire crackles went on as Va'dia curiously crouched down and looked under the bed. Darkness shrouded there, barely able to see a metal bucket. Doing this made her brain feel like it was about to slide off.
Honestly doesn't know what else better to do, she stood up and moved the bucket out to the light with her foot. This bucket obviously was here for defecation and urination, once it filled up all hell would break loose.
That was her first imagination upon looking at it, clearly she wasn't right in the head.
Soft thudding sound slipped in, she turned at the door and stared beyond the gap. It seemed like it came from a collective of footsteps, she guessed that those were the Kjech.
Va'dia quickly stepped into the corner near the door to hide and watch them when they arrived. Not even ten seconds later, she could see two men approaching and waking their comrades up.
They simply nudged and all of them stirred, slowly rising up. Sitting on the tile floor, she could see their mouths moving, whispering about something that might be of great importance to them judging by their serious and frightened expression.
She wanted to know what they were talking about or at least hear one, two words. Unfortunately she was too far away, this fact filled her with dread, not knowing why they brought her here was an unpleasant feeling.
Definitely for ill intents. At least that was what she thought. The men had started talking a bit more audibly now so she could hear some syllables related to the word "B" and more focused hearing later, an "O".
With that, Va'dia crouched down and started connecting the dots. Criminals were often solo, they would do anything to steal the wealth from others, sometimes they would go in groups for an easier time and planning. Higher than that, was an organization.
'Boss… I think that's the word. Are they scared about getting punished by whoever is above them?'
She quickly shook her head, it wasn't something that had any worth. Back to square one, she stood up and focused on listening. This time they were talking casually, as clear as crystal.
"Back to the main point. The boss said that we have to keep her here for three days, feeding, no harm."
"Huh? What's the point of that!? Why do we have to babysit a grown-ass woman who killed our two comrades!?"
"Calm down man, it's our boss' orders, we have to follow it."
"Yeah, of course, you should stay obedient, there's no way we can fight back and escape his weird orders."
"Tch…"
The four Kjech stopped talking, letting crackles of the bonfire take its place. So they were here to do their boss' bidding, the concept was quite interesting for Va'dia. Having free food for three days straight was absolutely delightful, because her stomach had been empty ever since the Oritha incident.
About the wounds, she stood up and stepped toward the center of the room, looking down, touching the right-waist. It had been covered with white cloth, no wonder why it felt tight around the lower area. Pretty much both of her wounds had been treated, whoever did that remained a mystery.
Va'dia finished inspecting and sat on the bed, then lay down curled into herself as the Kjech's nonsense ramblings reached inside her cell. Despite this, she remained still, plus, not even annoyed at all.
○◇○
Two days had passed, this was the third day. Nothing good in the last two days aside suddenly getting a fever and coughing out more of that strange liquid. Today was different, her condition got worse.
Her head throbbed with that exact same pain when she was in that burning kingdom. Curling on bed and clawing at the head was the best she could do while fever sucked out every energy she had.
The men outside panicked, they had been giving her special herbs, but somehow had made zero improvement on her health.
"Ugh…"
"It's totally going to be fine man, just keep giving her meds man."
Only angry-dude and vocabulary talked, maybe the other two were out for supplies or making herbal medicines silently. Va'dia continued to shiver in pain, her medium-length hair all over the pillow, sweat exuding.
Feeling something churned, she exhaustedly rolled to the right and coughed violently. Each time bringing her closer to a vomit. A minute later, her head and lungs gradually eased, she remained still with eyes closed.
Outside the steel door the two men cautiously watched her like some scientists studying on their experiment. There was no possibility for them to be bored, either they were filled with apprehension or attracted to Va'dia's athletic build.
She suddenly opened her eyes wide, gulped, then a large mass of black streamed out of her mouth and into the bucket. Luckily, she was fast enough to avoid releasing that onto the bed.
"That's bad news man."
They hurriedly went left, where the other two were making herbal meds. No idea what kind of process they needed to go through to produce and put them into her food. Those men already had a horrible mindset since the first day, so seeing Va'dia in a bad state would make them lazy and demotivated to continue treating her, thus figuring out a way to escape with no responsibility.
The others seemed to not think about betrayal except angry-dude. While each man was doing things like plucking leaves off, grinding the herbs in a pestle, and cooking the beef ribs, he said in a rebellious voice, aiming toward them to create realization.
"Honestly, what are we even doing? Staying in this broken place to follow orders would not make us wealthy!"
The three stopped, looking at him for a moment, realization spread in them as they glanced at what they were doing. All meaningless. Quickly, leaves-grinder, the man closest to him spoke.
"How are we going to not get hunted once out of here?"
Angry-dude chuckled, there was literally nothing funny, definitely thinking himself as some kind of genius leader. On the other side, abnormalities had begun showing on Va'dia's skin.
Her veins started to slowly turn black as she gritted her teeth in agony, it felt like something was crawling under the skin, feeling itchy and painful at same time. Eventually the liquid came up and she vomited.
Though after puking, the abnormalities didn't spare her. Around the right side of the neck, a black spot emerged, then it quickly exuded a bloated black mass that spread down her arm and her back quite a bit, consequently making the pain even worse. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
From the mass, tentacles grew, from long to small. One of them independently moved toward the lamp and wrapped around the small string. With a slow downward movement the entire cell enveloped in darkness.
At the same time, the flickering orange hue faded, the Kjech had eaten the ribs as a little celebration, a bit too soon but now they could not undo it. Picking up their crossbows, they grabbed the arrows that were lying near the wall and pulled it backwards against the string.
With a devious smirk, they slowly walked toward her cell, cautious about Va'dia's combat potential. Darkness was their biggest advantage so logically they would put out the bonfire.
Angry-dude went to the door first, without hesitation he kicked it open and took aim. His eyes landed on the bed first then the room itself. Even though born with a special ability to see in the dark, for some reason, he couldn't see through the pitch black darkness that covered half of the cell.
Despite this, he didn't let his guard down nor stop aiming. Then he pulled the trigger, the arrow tore through the air, instantly reaching the other side where it answered back with a sharp clack.
He lowered the crossbow and looked to the left where his comrades were.
"She's gon—"
Two black tentacles pierced his head and split it in-half, blood sprayed, a few droplets even reached the ceiling. The corpse still managed to stand for a few seconds before going limp and fell to the floor.
The tentacles retracted, the remaining three quickly raised their crossbows in terror — aiming directly at the door.
A human hand slowly reached out, gripping the wall. They frowned in focus as Va'dia sluggishly walked out. Her eyes were hollow and soulless while the mass pulsated ever so slightly. It seemed like she could see in the dark now, but was she really in control?
An arrow shot forward, by then she had already leaned aside. She lunged forward in a blur as if teleported, and delivered a crushing punch into the outer left crossbow-man.
Horrified, the remaining two ran away, dismissing their crossbow.
Not getting any farther, one of the tentacles lashed out like a spear and pierced them both like some meat on a steel stick. The tentacle retracted, leaving a tiny hole on the concrete wall where it stopped. Their corpses went limp on the floor, blood poured outward.
She glanced at the bodies for a moment then walked into the hall behind, face completely devoid of emotions.
Somewhere deep in the complex connection of hallways, a group of six Kjech was navigating toward their lobby, some of them holding a large bundle of gold coins. Not that those were stolen from some nobles but earned through black-magic stones deals in the black market.
The group had no rangers, only having two green-hooded mages wielding staffs tipped with black-magic stone. They went to the left silently, small smiles could be seen on their faces.
Halfway into the empty concrete hall, a blood-curdling scream reverberated throughout the complex, startling the group to look behind. It sounded masculine and the cries went with many variations, just like that of being tortured.
"Boss! Is that you!?"
The hooded mage farthest behind shouted on top of his lungs, not at whoever was screaming. Right after he said that, everything went abruptly silent. He knew and had seen this kind of behaviour from the boss.
"I…I don't think that's him."
Rapid footsteps approached, the sound bouncing off the walls. The seven sword-wielders quickly got up front and got in their battle stance, either holding with both hands or just one.
Before them was pitch black darkness despite their ability to look through it. The footsteps came out as Va'dia, lunging toward them at incredible speed. From behind, the two green hoods chanted.
"O god of creation and destruction, grant your servants swiftness and strength!"
With two of them chanting the same spell at the same time, the sword-wielders' capabilities would be enhanced and doubled. The aura of gray light around them dissipated, they dropped their bundles then charged.
The closest man swung his sword down at Va'dia, only for it to kiss the concrete floor; in that heartbeat, he was sent backward by a palm strike to the head. More surged forward, sensing the danger, the long tentacle shot directly at the two young men, wanting to pierce them both.
However, the duo sidestepped it and with their enhanced speed, they quickly sliced the tentacle before it could retract. Lashing out at her after that.
Of course just like them, she dodged with unnatural ease as if they were slicing air. Out of all the enhanced, the bald man in front of her was the weakest, even in his stance he was still too slow to react — so consequently he ate a nasty punch into the face. Eyes popped out.
Right before the duo behind could do both downward slash and stab, the backup long tentacle tore out from the mass and impaled one of them. Va'dia sidestepped the stab then finger strike into his throat, splitting the pipe in-half.
They both fell onto the ground.
That wasn't all of them, there were still two terrified green hoods remaining. Before the one on her right could open his mouth and chant out a bunch of fog, the backup tentacle lashed out, this time so fast that it severed his head.
The last hooded ran away while screaming in terror, if he wasn't then this corridor would be quiet. Va'dia stood emotionless, chest falling up and down, it seemed like the thing inside her had calmed down.
She looked around aimlessly as the mass stopped pulsating and was shrinking into her skin. Slowly, she regained control, a wave of dizziness washed over which caused her to stumble into the wall.
"W-what happened…?"
Four corpses accompanied by swords scattered on the floor, the memories were a bit delayed but soon came into her mind, which caused a massive headache. She clawed at her head while walking near the left wall.
Twenty minutes later, her headache dissipated, she also realized she could see in the dark now.
'Why did I step down here!? I'm such an idiot!'
She cursed inwardly, clawing at her head once again. If this was not enough to drown the despair then she would bang into the wall multiple times until her head became a bloody mangled mess.
As though an angel had descended upon her to prevent such a horrific future, a stray cat, coming from the darkness ahead, walked toward her, tail swaying for a moment. Spotting it, she stared with widened eyes.
'A cat?'
"Aww~"
Unable to resist its adorableness, she smiled, crouching down with intent to scratch its chin. Of course, she was a total stranger and moved too fast which made it startled and ran back into the darkness.
She stood up in disappointment, but because of the cat, her attention now shifted toward the four glowing eyes.
Deep crimson was nearest to her, while to the right, orange, gray and cyan sat close together.