Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia - Chapter 175 - Terror Error.
🕑 Added 2024-10-09 19:01:32 +0000 UTCWARNING: Very... evil scenes ahead. Cannibalism and mutalation etc.
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Lee wasn’t aware of when he fell asleep, how he fell asleep, or even when. His body was sore, which had become a feeling so foreign that he’d forgotten what that felt like. With Healer’s Touch, he hadn’t felt sore in a long, long time. It was possible, as he remembered being sore and feeling pain during his trek through the Shadowgrove, but as his level grew, so too did his healing.
Rolling over on the rocky floor, feeling and hearing the clanking chains around his bare arms and legs, jump started his waking brain into overdrive.
No longer was he in his prison cell. He was in a small, but musky cavernous room. Up along the ceiling, sharp stalactites dripped down droplets of water onto or into the surrounding cages situated up against the walls.
There was next to no light within this cavern. The only light source came from the entrance, where the flickering of shadows caused by a flame could barely be seen—A torch or brazier of some sort from around the bend.
Whipping his arms forward, the chains locking his arms into place grew taut. Immediately, Lee realized his robe was gone, but that wasn’t important. With his sense of touch, Lee followed the chains locked around his limbs to their source, finding them embedded and locked into the exterior walls of the cavern. The three-sided metallic cage he found himself in was also connected to the wall itself, with the two sides making up the wall between the other cages on his left and right.
With a grunt of effort and awkward maneuvering, Lee used his feet as leverage, placed them up against the wall, and tried his best to break the chains that bound him from their attachment point. After a minute of clinks and clanks with no give in sight, he relaxed and heaved in air from the strain.
He’d been moved. That much was obvious, but how and when? How long had he been unconscious and where was he now?
Another sound of shifting chains, ones not his own, let him know he wasn’t alone. “Quiet…” A feminine voice barely uttered, less than a whisper.
Yeah, no.
“Hello? Who’s there? Where are we?” He hissed, voice low but still carrying through the darkness.
Another subtle shift of metal in the darkness was the only reply he got.
After another few seconds of silence, Lee immediately went to cast a spell. Now that he’d been moved to this unknown location, he was no longer surrounded by enchantments which prevented his escape. This was where he’d make his stand.
With a cough, he willed his mana to move… and absolutely nothing happened. When he was trapped in the Lord’s basement, he at least could sense his mana dissipate into nothingness. Here? Here, nothing happened. it was as if he had never any mana to begin with.
With a twist of his neck, Lee tried to use Identify on the chains that held him, assuming that his captors wouldn’t have put him in chains for no reason at all.
ERROR>
With mouth agape, Lee stared incomprehensibly into the small crimson status panel floating before him.
Error? What the fuc—
The sudden sound of heavy echoing footsteps and the form of a man’s shadow crossing over the dim light from the hallway exit caused whoever, or whomever was caged with him to squirm in their chains. Lee made out sounds of several prisoners before the unknown man made his turn into their small enclosed chamber.
The man in question looked sickly, and coming from Lee, that was saying something. With a gaunt, nearly skeletal face with sunken eyes, the man scanned the room with apathy. His blood-red robes looked like a blanket by how much fabric was used in its creation. “Who is Mr. Barnes?”
The easy shifting of chains from all around was ominous. These prisoners were afraid of the gaunt man before them, but Lee needed answers. “I am Lee Barnes. Where am I?”
The man’s apathetic gaze found his cell, then he lethargically strolled forward while digging into his robe, pulling out a pair of iron keys. Lee attempted to use identify once more.
ERROR>
Seeing as Identify wasn’t going to be of any help, even with his semi-godly eyes, Lee tried a different skill. With narrowed eyes, Lee willed Miraculous Return to activate, hoping that teleporting his captor right next to him would give him the element of surprise. He felt the mental switch flip, but once again, nothing happened.
It was at this point that Lee began to panic. Without his skills or magic, he was effectively out of tools to use against anybody. When he was in the enchanted cell, at least he had the option to use his skills to fight back. Antithesis of Healing and Healer’s Touch weren’t magic, they were skills and abilities. So, that had been his go to escape plan. Now that plan was defunct, he was out of options.
The tiny cell door, barely four feet tall, swung open with a groan of rusty hinges. The red-robed man ducked and entered his cell, walked forward until he was right at the edge of the chain’s distance, then cast a spell.
The all too familiar silvery light of healing magic washed over him, searching for wounds to restore. After a second of worming about his body, the mana dissipated. The robed man lazily raised an eyebrow, but turned and left his cell without a word. Once the door was locked, the man spoke again, his voice monotone. “The only water you will get is what drips from up above. You will be fed when someone dies… Goodbye.”
The man scanned the rest of the cells, seemingly capable of seeing through the darkness. The faint sounds of whimpering and chains were the only sounds which prove the pervasive silence.
The man went to each cage, peering within. After inspecting three cages, he stopped and brought out his keyring once again. After unlocking the cell, he ducked in and returned with a limb body. Lee didn’t get a good look at the presumed to be corpse, but he did get a good look at the robed man walking to the exit. Along the wall, hidden from the light, was what must have been a rack. When the man returned with a butchers knife in his grip, Lee’s stomach dropped and his throat tightened.
With savage and brutal strikes, which was juxtaposed from the apathetic nature of the man before him, the robed figure hacked the corpse apart. Foot long cuts, which made sickening snaps straight through bones, were lazily thrown into cells.
From the darkness, Lee could hear the chains of the prisoners moving at each throw. What followed were whimpering cries, muffled by filled mouths.
Lee was lost in his thoughts about the horror taking place before him. He breathed rapid breaths, trying to calm himself and ignore the gnawing echoing out throughout the chamber.
With a squelching thud, the lower calf of the butchered corpse landed in front of him.
Lee stared at the ‘food’ provided, pupils dilated as he tried not to shake from the dread, terror, and revulsion he felt at the scene before him. He wasn’t going to eat another person, he’d just arrived here and wasn’t at that point of starvation. Even if he were, he’d rather die than eat raw human meat.
Once the ‘meal’ was doled out, the robed man didn’t spend another second meandering around. He left the cavern, turning the lit corner and disappearing around the bend.
Lee stared down at the part of human flesh on the ground before him as the gnawing and whimpering around him echoed through his ears.
He knew where he was now. He was in hell.
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Lee was missing.
Em scuttled through the empty halls of the hospital towards the room she’d arranged for Neia and Ruven, Lee’s Dark Elven friends.
Lee didn’t come back last night, and he would have told her if he was leaving.
Em thrust open the doors to the elf’s room, scanning the inside with narrowed eyes. Neia and Ruven were sitting on their beds, seemingly in the middle of a conversation as she arrived. Before they could utter a word, she spoke, resolute in tone. “Lee is missing. We must find him.”
The two elves glanced at one another, a silent conversation passing between them. Neia stood, her long silver braid dangling past her lower back, swishing through the air as she turned to face her. “Maybe he’s just busy?”
Em shook her head. “No. He would have told me he was leaving. Before you arrived, Jeremy came and led him to the Lord’s manor. That is our first destination. Grab your gear, we have a quest!” Em slammed the door, then scuttled back towards the lobby. They’d listen. She was sure of it. After all, she was a born leader and too charismatic for her own good.
Lo and behold, not two minutes of waiting later, the two tall Dark Elves were adorned in some dark leather armor. Each of them fiddled with their belts and they walked, making sure that everything was in place and at the ready. The woman, Neia, had two long sickle blades. The man, Ruven, had an ornate wooden longbow strapped around his chest.
Em pronounced their quest. “To the Lord’s manor we go! Our quest is to find Lee.”
The two elves shared a look and then shrugged in unison. They grabbed their tall pointy hats from next to the door, donned them, then gestured for Em to lead the way—As a leader should do.
Em led the way, glancing over her shoulder to make sure the duo was following her quickened pace. Credit where credit was due; they were swift.
When they arrived near the Lord’s manor, the first thing Em noticed was the vast amount of guards stationed around the exterior. She’d passed the manor a few times during her shopping and cat collecting sprees, but never stepped foot onto the property. The guards obviously noticed her. After all, she was pretty hard to miss. They stood at attention, gripping their spears with death grips as thick fear oozed out of their pores.
Em announced their arrival. “I am Em! I have come in search of Lee. Where is he?”
One of the guards spoke for their group. “He isn’t here.”
Em scuttled closer, causing them to involuntarily take a step back. “Well, do you know where he is?”
The same guard who had spoken earlier, an older gentleman in his forties with a goatee, spoke again. “No. He left last night.”
“Lie.” Ruven said as he strode to stand by her side.
Em grinned. “Where did he go?”
The guards shifted, like an unseen pressure swept across their ranks. “We don’t know what—”
“Lie. Do not lie again.” Ruven blankly stated as he unhooked his bow from his chest, awkwardly. His pointy hat was a hindrance.
Neia spoke next. “I am Neia Sindris, Daughter of Nitus Sindris, one of the leaders of the Dark Elven people. I would like an audience with the Lord of this city.”
“One—One moment.” The man leaned over, whispered into another guard’s ear, causing him to run off toward the manor.
Em looked over to her companions. “Are we going to be fighting today?”
They both smirked. “Maybe.”
Comments
rrrig756
Tyftc!
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter
