Bashiku
1st Level Orange Feather
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Well chapter four is finished in record time... still not the tickling story writer you would like, but I am not aiming that direction so much yet. Any critics and ideas are welcome with full heart.
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Sammi was feeling pretty depressed. Not only that she lost to the half witted ninja girl, but she ruined her favorite dress and torched half of their supplies. She gently touched with her pale fingers the bandages that Michael used to heal her wounds and stop minor bleeding. Pain was almost instantly felt, because of burns. No matter how many times she thought about it, it doesn’t seem any clearer, those techniques were not something a standard warriors would know. Such a high level fight and she was indeed how that dark haired person said, just a pawn. Even Michael ignored her for past few days, obviously in some sort of power hungry trance. She became a burden to him after all, if there was only a way for her to repay him.
Just then she saw a pair walking in the distance to their right. A snobbishly looking knight with its shiny light armor and a sword that looked like a knife compared to the Michaels, and a bratty aristocratic girl, dressed in finest white silk mixed with black threads making beautiful patterns. A wide grin stretched across her face as she devised a plan to repay Michael. She patted Michael on his shoulder hoping to get his attention.
“What is it?” he asked coldly as usual.
“Well I wondered how you would feel about a little style change. It is my treat.” She smiled like a little kid.
*****
It was day three of Kimiko’s continues torture. Or it seemed like day three to her, she stopped counting after first second. The restless Umojar waved to her with his tentacles as she woke up yet again, she blacked out at least a dozen times by now. Her never ending tears still didn’t give any effect on ruthless torturer. Now she knew how her victims felt. She felt something brushing the soles of her feet. With all remaining strength she jerked, but to no avail. Her bondage was too hard to break. So she was destined for a death by tickling. -What a horrible death it will be. - She thought about it in pauses her tormentor made to make her last longer. Quick death was almost bliss right about now. Not an inch of her ticklish body was left without a supervisor. Two tentacles for every of her ribs, one for each armpit, three for each sole, even her neck and spine were not left behind. The sensation of shivers and tickling was killing her remaining will.
“You know…” started Umojar “I would usually give you an option of selling me your soul right about now, but it seems that master has something else stored for you.” He finished with one last furious attack filled with all remains of his frustration. He felt so at easy now, so he decided to give a little time off to the girl. He let her tired body fall on to the ground and watched her chest breathing heavily. She probably had a high level of pain tolerance, but nobody could teach you how to endure this dreadful torture. Slowly he tied her hands behind her back and her bare feet together. Even if he didn’t bind her, she couldn’t regain enough strength to run away from two of them. He putted a plate in front of her with a piece of juicy meat on it, he wanted for her to regain that old spunk.
In the meantime Samael was enjoying the furious wind that danced around him. It reminded him of old days, days of Globe and its great battle. His ruthless red eyes almost formed a sad expression as he remembered those days. Umojar coughed behind him, stopping his remembering and pulling him back into the reality.
“Excuse me master I have few questions to ask.” He started, but Samael knew all too well that the master part was obviously just a play. He would never accept him as a true master, not until he witnesses his true power. “I was wondering about events few days ago. Was that all you had or were you just playing with them?”
Samael could only laugh. –All I have? If that was true I would’ve never escaped that place. – He looked Umojar into his yellow eyes with such a terror that even the demon himself felt fear “Do you think that a person who plans to destroy the God has only so much power? If that is true then our goal was destined to fail at the very start. If that was true we would never have met at all. Now if you don’t mind I want to use your new playmate for something more useful IF she is willing to cooperate.”
Kimiko didn’t need to be told twice. She would do anything at this point to escape this torture. Quickly she bowed as much as her bondage allowed her. Her new master was pleased with results, Umojar broke her spirit and he had new pawn to use. Shogi is even more interesting game than chess. He raised Kimiko gently, raising her chin with one finger to look at her face carefully. “Exotic.” He said as he examined her carefully “You are not from this continent am I right?” he asked, but he didn’t want an answer. With a single hand movement he untied her and looked her carefully again. “I think that change of garments is in order. Umojar bring me the Shadow Princess dress please.” He commanded as gentleman at the moment, Umojar viewing him as a parental figure dressing his human offspring. He never could understand those human feelings, but he made lots of profit on them, soul profits of course. With a wave of the hand his body transcended to his own plane, ninth circle of hell.
Oh how depressed it looked, with its countless souls spending an eternity in eternal damnation, some hunted by demons only to appear again, some tortured by most vicious monsters, but most of them burned in fires of Hell which is told to destroy the very essence of the being and made it into a pure energy that God took back. That was why Umojar started to collect souls on his own, even if it was a forbidden art in demon world. That way he achieved powers he couldn’t imagine before and earned a certain degree of immortality. Time was running out and he was spending it on the sightseeing. Quickly he grabbed the coffin he left last time, covered with magical sigils that protected it from anyone else. Almost at last second before he was detected he went back to mortal plane, he really didn’t want to have a family reunion with his one million cousins and greedy relatives.
“That was quick Umojar. Does it mean you are fully yielding under my power?” teased Samael as he smiled at Kimiko, caressing her face with back of his hand. Umojar could still see the fear in her eyes, but something else surfaced while he was gone, eagerness for revenge. –What have you told her? - He thought as he presented the coffin to his so called master.
*****
Sammi felt so good after changing her old ruined outfit for this new silky one. Her raven hair with few strands of purple matched the black silk sigils on the dress and purple colored necklace she stole. Pale skin of her body couldn’t be differed with white silk, on distance people would though something this author can’t express without taking serious lawsuit. She felt a gentle caress on her whole body every time she moved or wind gently blew. It tickled her a little, but she mostly smiled because of sense of success. She even enjoyed the nice black high heels, even though she never liked them. She felt so fancy and funny, but was utterly happy. Even Michael, the guy whose heart is cold as ice, expressed his full gratitude as she presented new armor and some money to him. He didn’t wonder where she got them from, his mind was focused on something more important, but at one moment he though something important about Samantha.
“Umm… where did you put your weapons?” he asked shyly as he looked her from head to toes. There was no backpack, no pockets, and no secret compartment. She was probably defenseless.
“I am not telling.” She answered, mocking him and stick out her tongue. Only for a moment Michael felt relieved to be travelling with such a tomboyish person. She made him feel relax and normal, like in the old days. The moment was over fast and only proof that it did exist was a small cough that was used to cover his almost silent giggle. Soon they will be at capital town, Empyrean, and they could already seen its highest building, Marduk’s Tower. Actually they saw it two days ago, but knowing that tower is ascending almost one thousand feet high it was no wonder. Almost every city in the state could see Empyrean and its tower. Michael unfortunately never saw it before. He was neither impressed nor scared of such a humongous building, he just wanted to finish his vendetta.
“Michael do you want me to explain something about Empyrean?” Sammi asked with the sweetest voice she could. She was just dying to prove her history and political knowledge.
“Sure… knock yourself out.”
“Well… Empyrean has become a capital city not so long ago, due to it being only city which wasn’t destroyed in the Infinite Darkness war. It is governed by three factions. First one is of course the king and he represents the people. The current king is quite capable and also very friendly natured. He almost never declines an audition with him. Second faction is the Mage’s Guild supervised by Marduk Keeper of Seven Kingdom himself! They are mostly wise people that think before acting, but their support was always good natured. Third faction is the Church of his Divine Majesty, lead by priests of five elements. As their name tells there are five of them, each specialized for one element out of five, water, wind, earth, fire and thunder. There are rumors that they have embedded some kind of divine beast into themselves to become invincible. They are mostly passive, only concerning with questions of religion and faith.”
“For a thief you are very smart.” Michael coldly added. Sammi face turned red in anger making contrasts with her dress, now looking like a demon in white dress.
“You know I read what I steal.” She answered impulsively. Only moments later she comprehended what she just said and tried to take it back, but Michael wasn’t listening to her anyways. He was concerned how to find Darren in the polis with around of ten thousand people, if he was still here that is.
From far behind them an ominous figure was carefully spying them, looking at pair with hate. In one blink of an eye, the person disappeared from where it came.
*****
Back in Judecca, everything was going smoothly, as long as Journia could evade Belial for period of next fifty years. By some twist of luck he ran into him at very entrance.
“Oh my… lord Belial… how’ve you been?” he said with a terrified face. He felt a fearful aura enveloping him, choking him, as Belial just stood there silently. His green lenses glowed with fury as he watched over little Journia.
“You have failed me. Such an insolence shall not be tolerated!” he yelled, but softened his voice after a second or two “But I will forgive you if you best me in combat.”
Journia felt a sudden relief. He is an excellent fighter and as he heard from everyone in castle, Belial is no match to him at pure speed. If he could just make everything go according to the plan he will be safe. Slowly they approached the stadium on the outer edge of the castle, one more reason why they killed the architect. It was a circular battle ground covered with many spikes and other mostly esthetic values with seats that could accept five thousand people. Not that anyone would come on open stadium at rainy day. The two contestants stood at center of the stadium, only Journia bowing in respect. In the instant of thunder strike they started the match. As fast as he could Journia leaped to the side and rushed toward his commander. With few finger patterns he already enveloped his commander with his strings, now it was only the finishing touch. He started his mostly deadliest pattern, the one that would cut almost whole commanders mechanical body off, but he was interrupted. Belial grasped his technique all too quickly and grabbed wires tight with his human arm, using them to pull Journia closer to him. When he was only half of meter distant from him something happened with his mechanical right arm. Few bolt and containers that were out in open were put together with rest of his arm resulting in mechanical power up. Journia would be crushed by that hit, but he managed to jump back, but the shock wave alone was enough to knock him down. Defeated and humiliated only thing left was to beg for forgiveness. He hated that part so much. He apologized for his failure and for losing Kimiko in the process. Belial didn’t look too shocked when he heard that.
“I don’t care for that little girl, she is expendable like all of you. I want that persons head. Next time I might not be in such a good mood, so be careful.” He said hissing and breathing heavily. With lot of noise he moved out leaving Journia with a clear message ‘Do it right or you won’t do anything’. He rose from muddy ground finally sure what needs to be done. Duke would also help him in this new plot of destruction.
*****
They entered through the front gate without any problem. Looking as good as them nobody would even make a suspicious look. Michael was already blending in the standard army type of the guy, while Sammi enjoyed few praises she got from some bystanders. She was in no rush at all now that they were here, but Michael went through the crowd like hot knife through butter. His goal was Darren of the Dragon Order and nothing was going to stop him now. The crowd was enormous, monstrous actually, probably because it was noon and they were having two for one sale at nearby candy shop. So many smells combined, each leading both Michael and Sammi to different part of town. Peach for example led them to the nice cake shop, where they enjoyed a cream peach cake, well Sammi enjoyed, Michael was only there to pay the bill like a gentleman. Smell of fresh bread led into the residential area where they could see little children playing, enjoying start of their lives. There were so many kids that reminded him on his painful memories, so Michael hurried past the offspring’s of humanity. Smell of fish drove the away from market area, even though they could smell the weak fragment of expensive perfume and wine. So many new colors, new smells, new experiences, soon both of them were dead tired and it was almost night. They had to rent two rooms in local tavern, leaving their unfinished business for some other time. They soundly slept while in Judecca two warriors were ready to leave for new journey.
*****
You could feel the tension rising in castle Judecca by every second. The news of Kimiko ‘departure to home country’ spreaded quiet fast, inclining to possible warfare actions very soon. Soldier were already armed and prepared for combat without even given command, prisoners were screaming even stronger, everyone was fulfilling their duties perfectly. Everyone except Duke and Journia. Both of them were slacking in their great view café, waiting for wizards to prepare for their ritual. The ritual they were waiting for was a higher demonic agreement, in short it worked like this ‘We move you around and you give us your souls’. Being a free spirit, Journia solved the problem by offering two souls for safety of his own and three souls for safety of Duke, demons tax heavy armors separately. While enjoying his coffee he carefully studied Berith, like countless times before. He could never enter his mind, the mind of genocide killer. His silent attitude, his creepy silence and the point that nobody knew how he looked made Journia curious. -What kind of man is he? - He wondered.
While his curiosity lured him away from screams of flesh tearing prisoners who were offered next door for making of a demonic seal, he couldn’t help but not ignore two facts. First one was lousy location of the café, right next to the sacrificial chamber, the very place were you don’t want to be when you eat your favorite cake or drink hot coffee, while you could see someone’s entrails being blown across the room and possibly right next to your meal. Second fact was that the coffee was not hot. Furious he stood up quickly followed by Duke. They will deal with chef later.
As soon as he stepped on the demonic seal he wished he hadn’t drunk that coffee after all. He saw two maidens on his side, his sacrificial tribute, while there were three besides Berith. Journia actually felt jealous for not wearing heavy armor at that moment. At the same moment when chanting started Journia felt uneasy. He never liked traveling fast, not like this. The world around him became swirly, many demonic images were appearing, from nice innocent ones to gruesome torturers tearing maiden’s souls apart and leading the remains into bowls of hell. If he hadn’t a strong stomach the demons would probably transport his puke too. He wondered how much they would charge that. In one blink of an eye, they were gone to Empyrean. In one that moment they flew across countless fields and great water surfaces, it almost seemed like they traveled across the world few times. The pictures of surroundings were getting indistinctive, noise uncomfortable, but all they could do was to stand there, watching. Pretty soon they were confronted with a final flash. Unthinkable has happened, demons made a wrong turn and threw Journia in the mud amidst of Empyrean park. Feeling sore all over his body, noticing that Duke Berith is nowhere in sight, he cursed the demons. They probably found out that one of maidens was not a maiden after all, not after Journia took care of her. He could only laugh now, enjoying that at least he is at his destination.
“I will never forget you Alice…” he spoke as he lifted himself “… or was that Martha? Shelly? No, that is not right. Who was I talking again? Ah yes Duke… where in bloody hell is he?”
On the other side of city Duke was having an embarrassing moment. He suddenly found himself in a bathroom, more precisely in a wooden bathtub with a middle aged woman in it. Both of them exchanged confused glares, but it was Duke who made first move by taking his helmet off.
“Good evening madam.” The skull said smiling, well as much as skull can smile. Poor woman fell unconscious moments later, remaining in her bathtub all that cold night, where she later got ammonia and years later infected one tenth of population. Duke is such a cruel mass murderer. The hollow skull looked carefully around before putting back his helmet on and leaving the house, viewing the first sunrise rays of another beautiful day… to kill.
*****
“What do you mean I can’t meet him? Tell him it is an urgent matter.” Michael demanded to the clerk for almost half of an hour. They came in the castle almost before sunrise and still had to wait three hours before they started to accept clientele. They said it was their ‘administrative policy’. Michael argued with her about meeting with General Darren without any achievement so far, but he wasn’t going to stop or give up. His revenge had a priority. Samantha on other hand just wanted to smash that girl’s face with her circular glasses onto her wooden deck leaving bloody trail behind her. She cherished that though in her mind replaying it again and again while her veins were appearing on her forehead.
“Like I said again and again General doesn’t take students anymore! He is busy man, so if you could just move on to some other Empyrean related topic I could help you, I would be pleased. And please move this creepy looking lady away from the table, she is ruining it by leaving her claw mark on it!” clerk yelled at them especially annoying Sammi out of her wits. She was ready to clobber her.
“Who are you calling creepy!” she yelled in self defense, her eyes filled with fury. If she could she would skin this girl and chop her left over into dust.
“You madam. You are by far the creepiest person I encountered in my life and trust me I saw necromancer ambassador. You are ten times creepier than him.” Verbally she attacked Sammi, obviously out of woman proud. She wasn’t even to her kneel dressed like that. Unlike Sammi who was in pure silk at the moment, which she stole from a lady and gentleman still tied on the field not far from the city, the clerk girl looked plain in her blue officer uniform with sparkly yellow accessories and big round glasses. Her hair was neatly tied up in a single ponytail and she wasn’t allowed to wear any make up on her duty. Even her chestnut eyes looked compared to Sammi’s.
“Why listen to me missy…!” Yelled Sammi, but she was interrupted by the girl in a blink of an eye.
“First administrative officer Valeria! Please refer to me in my title!” Valeria replied calmly, but giving an impression of a jealous woman. Only thing that Michael could do while the two girls were arguing was to wonder how he ended up in this kind of mess. Their arguing continued for what seemed hours without any side gaining any advantage and they used most of their arsenal. Bitch, nerd and fatty were just a top of an ice berg they started to melt. Even Michael realized that Valeria, the clerk wasn’t watching on him anymore, so he decided to take a walk around castle in hope to find Darren. As much as it sounded easy it wasn’t. The castle corridors soon confused young warrior’s mind and he felt like he was walking in circles. Around and around, up and down, to the left, then to the right, he found no sign of General. He was about to give up when he crossed path with a soldier who almost walked across him. With a single contact from him and Michael fell down, feeling sore from not so obvious power that soldier kept secret. He raised his sight and noticed a brown bearded man with long light brown hair that fell up to his shoulders. His shiny azure armor was blinding Michael as he stood to finally greet his to be master.
“Watch it boy or the next time yer aren’t gonna stay in one piece.” Spoke the General. His accent sounded more like a pirates than a highly regarded warrior of the Globe.
“General Darren?”
“Aye this I!”
“My name is Michael of Ellermoor.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Certainly not with it destroyed.”
“My apologizes mate. So how can this old bag of bones help ya?” asked the General barely using ‘Har’ at the end of his sentence.
“I want you to teach me higher level of combat.” Michael asked without hesitation. He didn’t looked to uncomfortable to ask for help, but Darren looked a bit concerned about his request. His way of stroking his beard assured Michael he was thinking about doing it.
“Nay can’t help ya mate!”
“Why not?!”
“With yours desire for revenge ya could be death of us all. Ya blinded with rage and ridiculous quest for achieving self gratification. This old General didn’t win Battle in the Globe with that in mind and continued living for another eighty years. Well the living on part is fault of that old geezer Marduk and his elixirs, but that is not the…”
“What do you mean you refuse!? Do you know how I felt when I saw my whole village slaughtered and obliterated?!”
“Aye I know mate, I know. We all went through the same pain during that bloody war.” Darren stated, but Michael was not eager to listen. He stormed from that place as fast as he could, grabbing Sammi with him and stopping constant fighting between two girl who were center of fun to the surrounding soldiers.
“Why did you drag me out of there?! That girl needs an attitude adjustment and I was going to give it to her hard way!” yelled Sammi not noticing how depressed Michael looked at the moment. He felt so sad for not being able to achieve his goal and failing all villagers, especially Seline.
“He won’t train me.” He said for the first time with emotion of disappointment. Not even Sammi could miss that part. She wanted to pat him, to say that they will find another way, but before she could do that she was interrupted by a silent whistle in front of the castle gate. She looked around and found a little old man in green eastern cloths, hugging a bottle of alcohol, toddling himself towards them.
“Spare a coin for a old man.” He said with a red face and big puppy eyes. He was obviously drunk, so Sammi assumed he would just leave them alone. Unfortunate for them he didn’t. He followed them for another half of hour before they had it with him, well Sammi had enough of him.
“Listen grandpa! Leave us alone!” she yelled at his ear, but he looked at her with confused stare.
“Leaves are lost? No they are not they are all around us.” Old man muttered, seemingly because of alcohol he drank. Another round for argue started for Samantha, as she was fired up from her last argument with that geeky looking girl with uptight attitude. Yet again she concentrated a large number of soldiers around them, but this time not in role of a bystander, but as officers of law and order.
“What seems to be wrong madam?” one soldier politely asked.
“This creepy old guy has been harassing us all day.” She answer perfectly playing damsel in distress. Her acted seemed to be effective, because all soldiers ganged up on old man and tried to subdue him. “Oh thank you so much.” She said confidently and innocent, not noticing one of soldiers flying over her head. She certainly noticed second and third soldier, ‘cause her face was astonished by what she saw. That senile old man was moving in flashes around city guards evading their clutches. When he was at a safe distance from them he took a sip from his bottle and jumbled it in his mouth before it came out in form of a fire breath. Both Sammi and Michael were dumbfounded at their newly found miracle, probable solution to his problem. As soon as battle ended with the old man victorious he rushed toward him and grabbed his collar.
“Can you teach me how to fight better?” he asked desperately.
“Can you pay me a whole week meals?” asked the old man still wobbling around in one spot. Michael looked at Sammies direction, asking her with his eyes about their financial state. She just signed and turned around.
“I will go borrow some money.” She said walking into side alley and disappearing from their sight. Only thing left for Michael now was to entertain his guest for a while.
*****
Samantha came back with money quite fast, with loads of it. It almost seemed she robbed a bank to get so much. Soon Michael was leading the old man to the tavern for another round of drinks, hoping that he won’t forget how to fight or die from drinking. Sammi on other hand didn’t want to stick to that smelly old man anymore, not after few hentai sentences which were censored due to their gore and simple mindless. Also she had a score to settle with a little bratty girl. To a lady with charms and act it wasn’t hard to enter the castle. To Sammi it was. She had to bribe the guards to enter the castle under the explanation that sounded like ‘personal vendetta against snotty nerdy ugly little brat with flat chest’. Guards recognized the description perfectly and even offered to pay her some money to torture her for them. She entered the dimly lighted hall, sneaking carefully in her silky dress, watching Valeria as she read some book. –How lucky- she thought as she came around at back of reception and entered the dressing room that was there. A small quiet dressing room was perfect for her plan with few preparations. She recounted her supplies again. Bunch of ropes, few scarves for gags and a feather. She learned from that demon what it means to be tortured and this time she planned to be the torturer. That was of course before she heard some quiet muffles from other side of the door. She took a sneak looks through the keyhole and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Valeria, her to be first victim, was tied and gagged, being held over shoulder by some pale man with long fingernails. She tried to look at him better, but her view was limiting. She could only listen to conversation.
“Oh my dear counts Umbra, what a splendid job have you done. And you even found a new playmate for yourself it seems?”
The voice that followed was filled with strong accent, but it seemed like an aristocratic refine talk “Indeed Liege of Netherland. I am mere a boy playing with my food before I consume it. First thing I am going to do is just a fragment of a pleasure I will get from sucking her up, every last drop of sweet blood.”
Sammi felt unspeakable fear. It was a vampire, a true vampire at this day and age. They were practically unbeatable fiends and a plague that haunted these lands long before war of Globe, but they should’ve been all wiped out.
“Truly magnificent attitude. Now I understand why you got the nickname like ‘Undivine Shadow’ in the first place. Well I must apologize for leaving, but I can’t keep my dear friend waiting. I have a kingdom to conquer. So long count. Don’t let the Sun bite you!” other person which Sammi later recognized as Samael, the red eyed warrior from before, left leaving only Valeria and Umbra alone behind counter. His fingers were already gliding across her neck, making her wail from laughter and fear. Count was enjoying this very much, for he had no entertain in more than one century. As he was ready to make the first bite, the most memorable bite to victim, probably the last one, Valeria notices someone’s eye looking through the key lock. How Sammi wanted to kill her at that moment, if she was discovered she was in deep something, from which you don’t come out smelling like roses. Umbra seemed disturbed by his victims behavior, he knew how they act, screaming, jerking, but never talking to anyone else besides him. He concluded that she hoped that someone was there to rescue her, another victim if he plays cards right. From edge of his black eyes he streamed across the surface where his victim was looking and he could see a little shadow dance from behind a door. He slowly stood up and approached the door ever so slowly opening it, bringing Sammi to brink of sanity, for in this shabby looking dress room she had nowhere to hide. There where only two chests barely size of a human child and few hangers with blue officer dresses on them. This time lady luck was not on her side. End seemed near.
Will Sammi get out of this situation? Will Michael finally get on with his goal? Will I ever learn how to write? Learn about those questions in next chapter.
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Sammi was feeling pretty depressed. Not only that she lost to the half witted ninja girl, but she ruined her favorite dress and torched half of their supplies. She gently touched with her pale fingers the bandages that Michael used to heal her wounds and stop minor bleeding. Pain was almost instantly felt, because of burns. No matter how many times she thought about it, it doesn’t seem any clearer, those techniques were not something a standard warriors would know. Such a high level fight and she was indeed how that dark haired person said, just a pawn. Even Michael ignored her for past few days, obviously in some sort of power hungry trance. She became a burden to him after all, if there was only a way for her to repay him.
Just then she saw a pair walking in the distance to their right. A snobbishly looking knight with its shiny light armor and a sword that looked like a knife compared to the Michaels, and a bratty aristocratic girl, dressed in finest white silk mixed with black threads making beautiful patterns. A wide grin stretched across her face as she devised a plan to repay Michael. She patted Michael on his shoulder hoping to get his attention.
“What is it?” he asked coldly as usual.
“Well I wondered how you would feel about a little style change. It is my treat.” She smiled like a little kid.
*****
It was day three of Kimiko’s continues torture. Or it seemed like day three to her, she stopped counting after first second. The restless Umojar waved to her with his tentacles as she woke up yet again, she blacked out at least a dozen times by now. Her never ending tears still didn’t give any effect on ruthless torturer. Now she knew how her victims felt. She felt something brushing the soles of her feet. With all remaining strength she jerked, but to no avail. Her bondage was too hard to break. So she was destined for a death by tickling. -What a horrible death it will be. - She thought about it in pauses her tormentor made to make her last longer. Quick death was almost bliss right about now. Not an inch of her ticklish body was left without a supervisor. Two tentacles for every of her ribs, one for each armpit, three for each sole, even her neck and spine were not left behind. The sensation of shivers and tickling was killing her remaining will.
“You know…” started Umojar “I would usually give you an option of selling me your soul right about now, but it seems that master has something else stored for you.” He finished with one last furious attack filled with all remains of his frustration. He felt so at easy now, so he decided to give a little time off to the girl. He let her tired body fall on to the ground and watched her chest breathing heavily. She probably had a high level of pain tolerance, but nobody could teach you how to endure this dreadful torture. Slowly he tied her hands behind her back and her bare feet together. Even if he didn’t bind her, she couldn’t regain enough strength to run away from two of them. He putted a plate in front of her with a piece of juicy meat on it, he wanted for her to regain that old spunk.
In the meantime Samael was enjoying the furious wind that danced around him. It reminded him of old days, days of Globe and its great battle. His ruthless red eyes almost formed a sad expression as he remembered those days. Umojar coughed behind him, stopping his remembering and pulling him back into the reality.
“Excuse me master I have few questions to ask.” He started, but Samael knew all too well that the master part was obviously just a play. He would never accept him as a true master, not until he witnesses his true power. “I was wondering about events few days ago. Was that all you had or were you just playing with them?”
Samael could only laugh. –All I have? If that was true I would’ve never escaped that place. – He looked Umojar into his yellow eyes with such a terror that even the demon himself felt fear “Do you think that a person who plans to destroy the God has only so much power? If that is true then our goal was destined to fail at the very start. If that was true we would never have met at all. Now if you don’t mind I want to use your new playmate for something more useful IF she is willing to cooperate.”
Kimiko didn’t need to be told twice. She would do anything at this point to escape this torture. Quickly she bowed as much as her bondage allowed her. Her new master was pleased with results, Umojar broke her spirit and he had new pawn to use. Shogi is even more interesting game than chess. He raised Kimiko gently, raising her chin with one finger to look at her face carefully. “Exotic.” He said as he examined her carefully “You are not from this continent am I right?” he asked, but he didn’t want an answer. With a single hand movement he untied her and looked her carefully again. “I think that change of garments is in order. Umojar bring me the Shadow Princess dress please.” He commanded as gentleman at the moment, Umojar viewing him as a parental figure dressing his human offspring. He never could understand those human feelings, but he made lots of profit on them, soul profits of course. With a wave of the hand his body transcended to his own plane, ninth circle of hell.
Oh how depressed it looked, with its countless souls spending an eternity in eternal damnation, some hunted by demons only to appear again, some tortured by most vicious monsters, but most of them burned in fires of Hell which is told to destroy the very essence of the being and made it into a pure energy that God took back. That was why Umojar started to collect souls on his own, even if it was a forbidden art in demon world. That way he achieved powers he couldn’t imagine before and earned a certain degree of immortality. Time was running out and he was spending it on the sightseeing. Quickly he grabbed the coffin he left last time, covered with magical sigils that protected it from anyone else. Almost at last second before he was detected he went back to mortal plane, he really didn’t want to have a family reunion with his one million cousins and greedy relatives.
“That was quick Umojar. Does it mean you are fully yielding under my power?” teased Samael as he smiled at Kimiko, caressing her face with back of his hand. Umojar could still see the fear in her eyes, but something else surfaced while he was gone, eagerness for revenge. –What have you told her? - He thought as he presented the coffin to his so called master.
*****
Sammi felt so good after changing her old ruined outfit for this new silky one. Her raven hair with few strands of purple matched the black silk sigils on the dress and purple colored necklace she stole. Pale skin of her body couldn’t be differed with white silk, on distance people would though something this author can’t express without taking serious lawsuit. She felt a gentle caress on her whole body every time she moved or wind gently blew. It tickled her a little, but she mostly smiled because of sense of success. She even enjoyed the nice black high heels, even though she never liked them. She felt so fancy and funny, but was utterly happy. Even Michael, the guy whose heart is cold as ice, expressed his full gratitude as she presented new armor and some money to him. He didn’t wonder where she got them from, his mind was focused on something more important, but at one moment he though something important about Samantha.
“Umm… where did you put your weapons?” he asked shyly as he looked her from head to toes. There was no backpack, no pockets, and no secret compartment. She was probably defenseless.
“I am not telling.” She answered, mocking him and stick out her tongue. Only for a moment Michael felt relieved to be travelling with such a tomboyish person. She made him feel relax and normal, like in the old days. The moment was over fast and only proof that it did exist was a small cough that was used to cover his almost silent giggle. Soon they will be at capital town, Empyrean, and they could already seen its highest building, Marduk’s Tower. Actually they saw it two days ago, but knowing that tower is ascending almost one thousand feet high it was no wonder. Almost every city in the state could see Empyrean and its tower. Michael unfortunately never saw it before. He was neither impressed nor scared of such a humongous building, he just wanted to finish his vendetta.
“Michael do you want me to explain something about Empyrean?” Sammi asked with the sweetest voice she could. She was just dying to prove her history and political knowledge.
“Sure… knock yourself out.”
“Well… Empyrean has become a capital city not so long ago, due to it being only city which wasn’t destroyed in the Infinite Darkness war. It is governed by three factions. First one is of course the king and he represents the people. The current king is quite capable and also very friendly natured. He almost never declines an audition with him. Second faction is the Mage’s Guild supervised by Marduk Keeper of Seven Kingdom himself! They are mostly wise people that think before acting, but their support was always good natured. Third faction is the Church of his Divine Majesty, lead by priests of five elements. As their name tells there are five of them, each specialized for one element out of five, water, wind, earth, fire and thunder. There are rumors that they have embedded some kind of divine beast into themselves to become invincible. They are mostly passive, only concerning with questions of religion and faith.”
“For a thief you are very smart.” Michael coldly added. Sammi face turned red in anger making contrasts with her dress, now looking like a demon in white dress.
“You know I read what I steal.” She answered impulsively. Only moments later she comprehended what she just said and tried to take it back, but Michael wasn’t listening to her anyways. He was concerned how to find Darren in the polis with around of ten thousand people, if he was still here that is.
From far behind them an ominous figure was carefully spying them, looking at pair with hate. In one blink of an eye, the person disappeared from where it came.
*****
Back in Judecca, everything was going smoothly, as long as Journia could evade Belial for period of next fifty years. By some twist of luck he ran into him at very entrance.
“Oh my… lord Belial… how’ve you been?” he said with a terrified face. He felt a fearful aura enveloping him, choking him, as Belial just stood there silently. His green lenses glowed with fury as he watched over little Journia.
“You have failed me. Such an insolence shall not be tolerated!” he yelled, but softened his voice after a second or two “But I will forgive you if you best me in combat.”
Journia felt a sudden relief. He is an excellent fighter and as he heard from everyone in castle, Belial is no match to him at pure speed. If he could just make everything go according to the plan he will be safe. Slowly they approached the stadium on the outer edge of the castle, one more reason why they killed the architect. It was a circular battle ground covered with many spikes and other mostly esthetic values with seats that could accept five thousand people. Not that anyone would come on open stadium at rainy day. The two contestants stood at center of the stadium, only Journia bowing in respect. In the instant of thunder strike they started the match. As fast as he could Journia leaped to the side and rushed toward his commander. With few finger patterns he already enveloped his commander with his strings, now it was only the finishing touch. He started his mostly deadliest pattern, the one that would cut almost whole commanders mechanical body off, but he was interrupted. Belial grasped his technique all too quickly and grabbed wires tight with his human arm, using them to pull Journia closer to him. When he was only half of meter distant from him something happened with his mechanical right arm. Few bolt and containers that were out in open were put together with rest of his arm resulting in mechanical power up. Journia would be crushed by that hit, but he managed to jump back, but the shock wave alone was enough to knock him down. Defeated and humiliated only thing left was to beg for forgiveness. He hated that part so much. He apologized for his failure and for losing Kimiko in the process. Belial didn’t look too shocked when he heard that.
“I don’t care for that little girl, she is expendable like all of you. I want that persons head. Next time I might not be in such a good mood, so be careful.” He said hissing and breathing heavily. With lot of noise he moved out leaving Journia with a clear message ‘Do it right or you won’t do anything’. He rose from muddy ground finally sure what needs to be done. Duke would also help him in this new plot of destruction.
*****
They entered through the front gate without any problem. Looking as good as them nobody would even make a suspicious look. Michael was already blending in the standard army type of the guy, while Sammi enjoyed few praises she got from some bystanders. She was in no rush at all now that they were here, but Michael went through the crowd like hot knife through butter. His goal was Darren of the Dragon Order and nothing was going to stop him now. The crowd was enormous, monstrous actually, probably because it was noon and they were having two for one sale at nearby candy shop. So many smells combined, each leading both Michael and Sammi to different part of town. Peach for example led them to the nice cake shop, where they enjoyed a cream peach cake, well Sammi enjoyed, Michael was only there to pay the bill like a gentleman. Smell of fresh bread led into the residential area where they could see little children playing, enjoying start of their lives. There were so many kids that reminded him on his painful memories, so Michael hurried past the offspring’s of humanity. Smell of fish drove the away from market area, even though they could smell the weak fragment of expensive perfume and wine. So many new colors, new smells, new experiences, soon both of them were dead tired and it was almost night. They had to rent two rooms in local tavern, leaving their unfinished business for some other time. They soundly slept while in Judecca two warriors were ready to leave for new journey.
*****
You could feel the tension rising in castle Judecca by every second. The news of Kimiko ‘departure to home country’ spreaded quiet fast, inclining to possible warfare actions very soon. Soldier were already armed and prepared for combat without even given command, prisoners were screaming even stronger, everyone was fulfilling their duties perfectly. Everyone except Duke and Journia. Both of them were slacking in their great view café, waiting for wizards to prepare for their ritual. The ritual they were waiting for was a higher demonic agreement, in short it worked like this ‘We move you around and you give us your souls’. Being a free spirit, Journia solved the problem by offering two souls for safety of his own and three souls for safety of Duke, demons tax heavy armors separately. While enjoying his coffee he carefully studied Berith, like countless times before. He could never enter his mind, the mind of genocide killer. His silent attitude, his creepy silence and the point that nobody knew how he looked made Journia curious. -What kind of man is he? - He wondered.
While his curiosity lured him away from screams of flesh tearing prisoners who were offered next door for making of a demonic seal, he couldn’t help but not ignore two facts. First one was lousy location of the café, right next to the sacrificial chamber, the very place were you don’t want to be when you eat your favorite cake or drink hot coffee, while you could see someone’s entrails being blown across the room and possibly right next to your meal. Second fact was that the coffee was not hot. Furious he stood up quickly followed by Duke. They will deal with chef later.
As soon as he stepped on the demonic seal he wished he hadn’t drunk that coffee after all. He saw two maidens on his side, his sacrificial tribute, while there were three besides Berith. Journia actually felt jealous for not wearing heavy armor at that moment. At the same moment when chanting started Journia felt uneasy. He never liked traveling fast, not like this. The world around him became swirly, many demonic images were appearing, from nice innocent ones to gruesome torturers tearing maiden’s souls apart and leading the remains into bowls of hell. If he hadn’t a strong stomach the demons would probably transport his puke too. He wondered how much they would charge that. In one blink of an eye, they were gone to Empyrean. In one that moment they flew across countless fields and great water surfaces, it almost seemed like they traveled across the world few times. The pictures of surroundings were getting indistinctive, noise uncomfortable, but all they could do was to stand there, watching. Pretty soon they were confronted with a final flash. Unthinkable has happened, demons made a wrong turn and threw Journia in the mud amidst of Empyrean park. Feeling sore all over his body, noticing that Duke Berith is nowhere in sight, he cursed the demons. They probably found out that one of maidens was not a maiden after all, not after Journia took care of her. He could only laugh now, enjoying that at least he is at his destination.
“I will never forget you Alice…” he spoke as he lifted himself “… or was that Martha? Shelly? No, that is not right. Who was I talking again? Ah yes Duke… where in bloody hell is he?”
On the other side of city Duke was having an embarrassing moment. He suddenly found himself in a bathroom, more precisely in a wooden bathtub with a middle aged woman in it. Both of them exchanged confused glares, but it was Duke who made first move by taking his helmet off.
“Good evening madam.” The skull said smiling, well as much as skull can smile. Poor woman fell unconscious moments later, remaining in her bathtub all that cold night, where she later got ammonia and years later infected one tenth of population. Duke is such a cruel mass murderer. The hollow skull looked carefully around before putting back his helmet on and leaving the house, viewing the first sunrise rays of another beautiful day… to kill.
*****
“What do you mean I can’t meet him? Tell him it is an urgent matter.” Michael demanded to the clerk for almost half of an hour. They came in the castle almost before sunrise and still had to wait three hours before they started to accept clientele. They said it was their ‘administrative policy’. Michael argued with her about meeting with General Darren without any achievement so far, but he wasn’t going to stop or give up. His revenge had a priority. Samantha on other hand just wanted to smash that girl’s face with her circular glasses onto her wooden deck leaving bloody trail behind her. She cherished that though in her mind replaying it again and again while her veins were appearing on her forehead.
“Like I said again and again General doesn’t take students anymore! He is busy man, so if you could just move on to some other Empyrean related topic I could help you, I would be pleased. And please move this creepy looking lady away from the table, she is ruining it by leaving her claw mark on it!” clerk yelled at them especially annoying Sammi out of her wits. She was ready to clobber her.
“Who are you calling creepy!” she yelled in self defense, her eyes filled with fury. If she could she would skin this girl and chop her left over into dust.
“You madam. You are by far the creepiest person I encountered in my life and trust me I saw necromancer ambassador. You are ten times creepier than him.” Verbally she attacked Sammi, obviously out of woman proud. She wasn’t even to her kneel dressed like that. Unlike Sammi who was in pure silk at the moment, which she stole from a lady and gentleman still tied on the field not far from the city, the clerk girl looked plain in her blue officer uniform with sparkly yellow accessories and big round glasses. Her hair was neatly tied up in a single ponytail and she wasn’t allowed to wear any make up on her duty. Even her chestnut eyes looked compared to Sammi’s.
“Why listen to me missy…!” Yelled Sammi, but she was interrupted by the girl in a blink of an eye.
“First administrative officer Valeria! Please refer to me in my title!” Valeria replied calmly, but giving an impression of a jealous woman. Only thing that Michael could do while the two girls were arguing was to wonder how he ended up in this kind of mess. Their arguing continued for what seemed hours without any side gaining any advantage and they used most of their arsenal. Bitch, nerd and fatty were just a top of an ice berg they started to melt. Even Michael realized that Valeria, the clerk wasn’t watching on him anymore, so he decided to take a walk around castle in hope to find Darren. As much as it sounded easy it wasn’t. The castle corridors soon confused young warrior’s mind and he felt like he was walking in circles. Around and around, up and down, to the left, then to the right, he found no sign of General. He was about to give up when he crossed path with a soldier who almost walked across him. With a single contact from him and Michael fell down, feeling sore from not so obvious power that soldier kept secret. He raised his sight and noticed a brown bearded man with long light brown hair that fell up to his shoulders. His shiny azure armor was blinding Michael as he stood to finally greet his to be master.
“Watch it boy or the next time yer aren’t gonna stay in one piece.” Spoke the General. His accent sounded more like a pirates than a highly regarded warrior of the Globe.
“General Darren?”
“Aye this I!”
“My name is Michael of Ellermoor.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Certainly not with it destroyed.”
“My apologizes mate. So how can this old bag of bones help ya?” asked the General barely using ‘Har’ at the end of his sentence.
“I want you to teach me higher level of combat.” Michael asked without hesitation. He didn’t looked to uncomfortable to ask for help, but Darren looked a bit concerned about his request. His way of stroking his beard assured Michael he was thinking about doing it.
“Nay can’t help ya mate!”
“Why not?!”
“With yours desire for revenge ya could be death of us all. Ya blinded with rage and ridiculous quest for achieving self gratification. This old General didn’t win Battle in the Globe with that in mind and continued living for another eighty years. Well the living on part is fault of that old geezer Marduk and his elixirs, but that is not the…”
“What do you mean you refuse!? Do you know how I felt when I saw my whole village slaughtered and obliterated?!”
“Aye I know mate, I know. We all went through the same pain during that bloody war.” Darren stated, but Michael was not eager to listen. He stormed from that place as fast as he could, grabbing Sammi with him and stopping constant fighting between two girl who were center of fun to the surrounding soldiers.
“Why did you drag me out of there?! That girl needs an attitude adjustment and I was going to give it to her hard way!” yelled Sammi not noticing how depressed Michael looked at the moment. He felt so sad for not being able to achieve his goal and failing all villagers, especially Seline.
“He won’t train me.” He said for the first time with emotion of disappointment. Not even Sammi could miss that part. She wanted to pat him, to say that they will find another way, but before she could do that she was interrupted by a silent whistle in front of the castle gate. She looked around and found a little old man in green eastern cloths, hugging a bottle of alcohol, toddling himself towards them.
“Spare a coin for a old man.” He said with a red face and big puppy eyes. He was obviously drunk, so Sammi assumed he would just leave them alone. Unfortunate for them he didn’t. He followed them for another half of hour before they had it with him, well Sammi had enough of him.
“Listen grandpa! Leave us alone!” she yelled at his ear, but he looked at her with confused stare.
“Leaves are lost? No they are not they are all around us.” Old man muttered, seemingly because of alcohol he drank. Another round for argue started for Samantha, as she was fired up from her last argument with that geeky looking girl with uptight attitude. Yet again she concentrated a large number of soldiers around them, but this time not in role of a bystander, but as officers of law and order.
“What seems to be wrong madam?” one soldier politely asked.
“This creepy old guy has been harassing us all day.” She answer perfectly playing damsel in distress. Her acted seemed to be effective, because all soldiers ganged up on old man and tried to subdue him. “Oh thank you so much.” She said confidently and innocent, not noticing one of soldiers flying over her head. She certainly noticed second and third soldier, ‘cause her face was astonished by what she saw. That senile old man was moving in flashes around city guards evading their clutches. When he was at a safe distance from them he took a sip from his bottle and jumbled it in his mouth before it came out in form of a fire breath. Both Sammi and Michael were dumbfounded at their newly found miracle, probable solution to his problem. As soon as battle ended with the old man victorious he rushed toward him and grabbed his collar.
“Can you teach me how to fight better?” he asked desperately.
“Can you pay me a whole week meals?” asked the old man still wobbling around in one spot. Michael looked at Sammies direction, asking her with his eyes about their financial state. She just signed and turned around.
“I will go borrow some money.” She said walking into side alley and disappearing from their sight. Only thing left for Michael now was to entertain his guest for a while.
*****
Samantha came back with money quite fast, with loads of it. It almost seemed she robbed a bank to get so much. Soon Michael was leading the old man to the tavern for another round of drinks, hoping that he won’t forget how to fight or die from drinking. Sammi on other hand didn’t want to stick to that smelly old man anymore, not after few hentai sentences which were censored due to their gore and simple mindless. Also she had a score to settle with a little bratty girl. To a lady with charms and act it wasn’t hard to enter the castle. To Sammi it was. She had to bribe the guards to enter the castle under the explanation that sounded like ‘personal vendetta against snotty nerdy ugly little brat with flat chest’. Guards recognized the description perfectly and even offered to pay her some money to torture her for them. She entered the dimly lighted hall, sneaking carefully in her silky dress, watching Valeria as she read some book. –How lucky- she thought as she came around at back of reception and entered the dressing room that was there. A small quiet dressing room was perfect for her plan with few preparations. She recounted her supplies again. Bunch of ropes, few scarves for gags and a feather. She learned from that demon what it means to be tortured and this time she planned to be the torturer. That was of course before she heard some quiet muffles from other side of the door. She took a sneak looks through the keyhole and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Valeria, her to be first victim, was tied and gagged, being held over shoulder by some pale man with long fingernails. She tried to look at him better, but her view was limiting. She could only listen to conversation.
“Oh my dear counts Umbra, what a splendid job have you done. And you even found a new playmate for yourself it seems?”
The voice that followed was filled with strong accent, but it seemed like an aristocratic refine talk “Indeed Liege of Netherland. I am mere a boy playing with my food before I consume it. First thing I am going to do is just a fragment of a pleasure I will get from sucking her up, every last drop of sweet blood.”
Sammi felt unspeakable fear. It was a vampire, a true vampire at this day and age. They were practically unbeatable fiends and a plague that haunted these lands long before war of Globe, but they should’ve been all wiped out.
“Truly magnificent attitude. Now I understand why you got the nickname like ‘Undivine Shadow’ in the first place. Well I must apologize for leaving, but I can’t keep my dear friend waiting. I have a kingdom to conquer. So long count. Don’t let the Sun bite you!” other person which Sammi later recognized as Samael, the red eyed warrior from before, left leaving only Valeria and Umbra alone behind counter. His fingers were already gliding across her neck, making her wail from laughter and fear. Count was enjoying this very much, for he had no entertain in more than one century. As he was ready to make the first bite, the most memorable bite to victim, probably the last one, Valeria notices someone’s eye looking through the key lock. How Sammi wanted to kill her at that moment, if she was discovered she was in deep something, from which you don’t come out smelling like roses. Umbra seemed disturbed by his victims behavior, he knew how they act, screaming, jerking, but never talking to anyone else besides him. He concluded that she hoped that someone was there to rescue her, another victim if he plays cards right. From edge of his black eyes he streamed across the surface where his victim was looking and he could see a little shadow dance from behind a door. He slowly stood up and approached the door ever so slowly opening it, bringing Sammi to brink of sanity, for in this shabby looking dress room she had nowhere to hide. There where only two chests barely size of a human child and few hangers with blue officer dresses on them. This time lady luck was not on her side. End seemed near.
Will Sammi get out of this situation? Will Michael finally get on with his goal? Will I ever learn how to write? Learn about those questions in next chapter.
