Chapter 3853: Not Hungry (Part 2)

Her feet dangled in the air, the darkness making it impossible for her to tell whether the floor was just a few centimeters away or if she was suspended over an abyss. Xenagrosh flexed her limbs one at a time, counting at least a dozen of cuts and many more bruises.

Much to her surprise, the cuts started shallow on her face and the back of her head, becoming deeper as they moved down toward her navel. They stopped right below her right lung and extended all the way to her back.

The sense of smell that made her the best tracker in the Organization returned to her first. She smelled the sweet scent of fresh blood first, too much to belong only to her. Then, she sensed the acrid stench of rotten flesh and the metal sting of dried blood.

The air, instead, was fresh and carried no trace of dust.

’This is too dirty to be a slaughterhouse and too clean to be a tomb.’ She thought, squinting her eyes in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her surroundings.

The Shadow Dragon’s mystical and enhanced senses slowly returned to her, but for some reason, they lagged behind her consciousness. Everything came to her dull and muffled, as if she were trapped in an invisible cocoon and could perceive the world around her only through the vibrations in the silk.

The silence in the room was almost absolute, allowing Xenagrosh to sense the slow drip of something that her instincts told her was someone else’s blood. There was only one more noise in the room, but she couldn’t tell if it was a labored breath or a death rattle.

’This place looks familiar.’ She thought. ’Too familiar. I know where I am!’

The Shadow Dragon didn’t panic and started to weave a simple tier one Chaos Magic spell to free herself. Halfway through, however, the chains squeezed her wrists and turned Xenagrosh’s own mana into acid, burning her veins from within.

The sudden agony robbed her of her consciousness, her body too weak from its many wounds to endure more punishment. When the Shadow Dragon woke up again, she decided to test her strength and found it wanting.

’I’m not just in my human form. I’m as weak as a non-Awakened human!’ She tried to shapeshift, and the chains’ enchantments rewarded her with another lash of pain.

This time, Xenagrosh expected it, biting her lips to fight fire with fire.

’Whatever this thing is, it’s not very efficient. I got my claws out before the chains stopped me. Just like with the spell, I have a brief moment of freedom before the enchantment stops me.’ She called upon the deepest and truest part of her, her Eldritch form.

Xenagrosh shapeshifted only the skin on her wrists and only for the blink of an eye. The Chaos energy ate at the metal of the chains, sizzling against the magic coating them.

Xenagrosh’s attacks lasted little, and the chains self-repaired the moment they were damaged, but she felt their hold on her weakening.

Three pulses of Chaos later, she could already distinguish several shapes in the room hanging from chains no different from her own. Five pulses and Xenagrosh realized that less than half of the other inmates were still alive.

The rest were rotting, emitting the stench of decay that tormented her nose, or reduced to mummified corpses. At the tenth pulse of Chaos, Xenagrosh saw rivulets of blood flowing through furrows in the stone floor that formed pools right under the prisoners.

Something, most likely an enchantment, kept the blood from coagulating and the life force it contained from dispersing. That something also flooded the pools with the vigorous flow of world energy that only a mana geyser could provide.

The perfect meal for an Eldritch.

’I’m wounded and tired, yet I’m not hungry. Why don’t I feel hungry?’ Xenagrosh swallowed hard.

At the fifteenth pulse, a door flung open. The light coming from outside stung her eyes, making them tear up. Xenagrosh blinked fast, clearing her vision to take a good look at her surroundings.

First, she raised her eyes and recognized her restraints as the Odi chains that she had seen on Lith’s wrists back when the Awakened Council had summoned him to decide if he was worthy of joining them and whether humans or beasts would have taken him in.

Then, she looked at her fellow prisoners. The Shadow Dragon recognized Wyrms, Griffons, Leviathans, Fenrirs, Garudas, and all kinds of species possessing powerful bloodline abilities among them.

’No Phoenixes.’ She thought. ’The bastard is smart. He didn’t risk a Call of the Blood bringing Salaark to his doorstep.’

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" Lastly, Xenagrosh stared at the figure on the threshold, trying to recognize him.

"You are lucky, you know?" He sighed, his voice not produced by flesh or wood, but by his thoughts reverberating through the air. "The chains can’t lock well on your hybrid life force, so I had to keep you unconscious for a long while.

"I had to hurt you often, keeping you on the thin edge between life and death."

"How is that luck?" Since her captor hadn’t answered her questions, Xenagrosh decided to play along with his rant to keep him talking.

With each pulse of Chaos she released, the chains’ enchantments weakened. With each pulse of Chaos she released, the pool of blood and mana below her feet made her stronger.

"You misunderstand." The creature tilted his head to the side at an unnatural angle. "You’re not lucky because I hurt you. You’re lucky because I can’t afford to kill you. I’ve waited too long to find someone like you to miss this opportunity."

"Well, I’m Xenagrosh, the Final Smile. And you are?"

"Not stupid." He replied. "I know you are buying time to break free from the chains and blast your way out of here. I put an alarm on them because most of my subjects are as powerful as they are unwilling to cooperate."

He moved briskly along the walkways in the ground, standing in front of Xenagrosh and elongating his legs to reach her eye level.

"But don’t worry. As I said, you are lucky. I don’t need to hurt you anymore. Not to keep you my prisoner, at least. My experiments require a great degree of pain, but we both know you can take it. Especially after I allowed you to feed."

"You son of a-"

"Stop talking." He said, and despite every fiber of the Shadow Dragon’s body burning with defiance, she complied.

"Stop struggling." The black of Xenagrosh’s Eldritch disappeared under the pink of her human skin, and the chains repaired themselves, robbing her of what little power she had regained.

Shock and outrage made the Shadow Dragon’s heart pound against her chest when she realized what was happening. She wanted to scream, but her mouth refused to open. She wanted to kick the creature in his round, empty face, but her body remained still.

"Stop thinking." Xenagrosh’s eyes went blank, and her furious expression became peaceful.

Warm tears streaked down her cheeks as the creature cut deeper and deeper into her flesh with his claws.

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