POV: Arthur

A cold gust of wind brushed against my face, stirring me awake. I found myself chained to a wall in a damp cell, with nothing but some old rags to cover me. The chains were attached to my wrist, keeping me several feet above the ground. I couldn’t help but muse that if it weren’t for my passive skills, I would be in a significant amount of pain right now. Thankfully, I was spared from it. At this point, I didn’t even remember what pain felt like anymore. The very idea of pain had become foreign.

My train of thought shifted as I tried to remember what had landed me within my current situation.

Ah, right! The stranger that had entered the cavern right as I was about to leave it with the orb. An unfortunate train of events, that… Still, there was some hope left. I was still alive, for one. That meant that whoever had locked me up here still needed me for something, which meant that I had leverage, however little, to hold over that person.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t looking like that stranger had any plans to visit me anytime soon, so I resigned myself to other things. Inspecting my environment, for one. The cell I had been given had no windows or distinguishable features. Instead, it had smooth walls of unknown making and a single door at the other end of the room. The door had a latch to look through, but it was closed.

Well, since these strangers had deigned to lock me up unjustly, I decided I deserved a few tries at testing their security. When I tried to activate my skills, however, something happened. The chains attached to my wrist started coursing with blue lightning the moment I moved my mana, sending their electric current into my body and making me spasm involuntarily. Out of shock, I stopped moving my mana and watched the current abate, before waiting for my passive skills to heal me back to health.

“Whew. That was a close one… I think.” I muttered to myself, not quite sure as to how to feel about the situation. I mean, sure, that lightning posed a threat. But my mana itself hadn’t actually been disrupted at all.

For the next half-hour, I continued testing the chains’ limits, in search of any more serious measures. Luckily, nothing happened. Apart from the lightning intensifying when I used more mana, everything else worked perfectly. Did these fools not think far enough ahead to keep people with pain tolerance chained up? I almost felt slighted, to be imprisoned by such idiots…

For a moment, I considered trying to escape right away, but I abandoned that line of thought. Lack of patience was what had gotten me caught in the first place, and it paid to be well aware of the situation before trying anything drastic. Furthermore, even if I could break these chains, that didn’t mean that I could get out of this cell, let alone whatever lay beyond it. No, I decided to wait for the perfect opportunity instead. That was the plan, for now.

I didn’t have much more time to myself, because a little while later I finally had a visitor. My cell door opened with the rough sound of grinding stone and a suit of armor stepped inside. Presumably, someone was occupying the suit, but I didn’t dare make assumptions anymore at this point.

“Necromancer Arthur?” an elderly, female voice asked. The voice originate from the armor, so that answered my earlier question. Wait a minute… That armor reminded me of something… Its white coloration obviously reminded me of the church, but the actual shape of the armor was nearly identical to the suit that Doran, my paladin mentor, always wore! This guy was a paladin… Great. Just what I needed.

“Not a necromancer… but that is my name, aye.” I responded listlessly, sensing where this was going.

With a gruff ‘hmmphh’, the older paladin waved her hands, making the chains attached to my wrists disappear, but leaving the actual wristbands themselves. I fell to the floor beneath me and collapsed in a heap, not willing to let on how effective my healing was.

The older woman picked me up like a sack of potatoes and slung me over her shoulder, before leaving my cell behind.

“Let’s talk while we walk, shall we? What’s your name?” I attempted, half in jest. When I didn’t get a response after a few seconds, I gave it a second try.

“You already know mine, of course. I assure you, sir, that this is all just a big misunderstanding. While my affinity is dark, yes, I don’t actually have any insanity skills, as they’re called. Can’t you just do a forced appraisal?”

“Quiet, prisoner.” Was all she deigned to reply, unfortunately.

I tried to pick up as much of my surroundings as I could, but didn’t find anything worthwhile. All I saw was cell after cell, without pause. Eventually, though, we reached the sole room in the building that wasn’t another cell. The paladin brought me inside and threw me on top of a wooden board of some kind, where he waved his hands again and created straps out of nothing. They attached themselves to my wristbands, keeping me tied to, what I was now realizing was a torturing device of some kind.

A second paladin entered the room, though he wore no helmet. A young man with golden, flowing locks poked through the armor, wearing a gleeful grin. He tried to approach the table I was strapped to, but the older paladin held out a hand and stopped him.

“Where’s the inquisitor?” she asked sharply.

“An emergency at a small church nearby, captain. He told me to get started with this one’s interrogation while he dealt with the situation on the surface.” The young man replied pointedly, holding the older woman’s stare.

After a tense moment, the captain decided to let the matter go and left the room, closing me in with this new fellow. Emergency at a small church… Wait a minute… Surely Emeri hadn’t!

As this frightening train of thought threatened to take over my mind, I felt a cold sensation near my stomach. I looked down and found the young paladin drawing a surgical knife down my chest, cutting deep enough to tear it open. He stared at me with a wide grin, all the while, expecting a scream of pain, I suppose. For a moment, I considered indulging him and acting like I could feel the pain he was trying to inflict, but thought better of it. Indulging this maniac would only bring me grief.

“Tell me your secrets, foul creature! Before I cut you into pieces! I can heal you over and over, so don’t think an end to your pain will come without my say-so!” he threatened gleefully.

When my only response was a pair of raised eyebrows, he grew infuriated and became red in the face, before resuming his activities.

“Wow, your technique is awful…” I couldn’t help but mutter, before I shut my mouth. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to hear, because he was too busy trying different body parts to solicit a more extreme reaction.

After a while, he was just stabbing and cutting whatever he could get his hands on, breathing heavily from the exertion.

“Your tier isn’t too high huh, bud?” I suddenly realised. If he was already tired after just a little botched torture.

“Don’t act like you can’t feel this, dirty animal! I’ll make you squeal like a pig before I’m through with you!” he declared, pulling a bigger dagger out of his back pocket and aiming right for my sensitive parts.

Again, he only got an unimpressed stare from me, instead of a scream. Those only took seconds to regenerate, after all.

In fact, it was only now that my handout rags had been torn to shreds that my body finally became visible. Apart from a little blood, it was spotless.

“You…” my torturer began, eyes wide.

“Heal? Yeah, I do. Not bad, huh?”

His eyes became bloodshot, his golden locks already painted with my blood. It made for quite a sight, to be honest. It became even worse when his temper tantrum was replaced by a cruel form of confidence.

He slowly turned to me, staring me in the eyes. “I wonder if you’ll heal when I cut off your head?”

I gulped, not sure either. Step by step, he approached me, bringing his dagger to bear. He held it over my throat, while I prepared to create a burst of mana and apparate right before he reached me. I didn’t want to try escaping this early, but if I had to…

Just when the maniac was about to force me into a disadvantageous situation, the door opened and the older paladin stepped in, followed by the man I recognized as the one who had knocked me out.

I realised both me and my torturer were holding our breaths when the paladin captain drew her sword.

“Granius. Out.” was all she said, but it was enough to make the maniac shiver in fear and leave with his proverbial tail between his legs. His captain followed suit, leaving me alone with the mysterious stranger that had captured me by knocking me out somehow.

He circled the wooden table I remained strapped to like a predator, inspecting me with hawk-like eyes.

“Finally awake, are you? I see that a dissenting subordinate has already gotten ahead of himself. At least he did a good job healing you back up. That will make this much easier…”

Fuck. This guy was at least tier 5, if not tier 6. Escaping from him would be difficult, if not impossible. Welp. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Uh, sir. I would like to introduce myself. I am Arthur, one of the most recent victors of Roa’s royal tournament! Please bring any issues you might have with me up with my country. Specifically, my uncle, the head of Roa’s royal guard.”

Fuck it. If justice couldn’t get me out of prison, nepotism surely could.