《Innate Undeath》 First Look I opened my eyes. I was standing in the center of a stone courtyard, with towering arches and stone battlements surrounding it. The noon light of the sun shone brightly, and I felt a wave of warmth beat down on my cold body, and I shivered momentarily. Just a second before I was standing in a freezing blizzard, waiting for my best friend Michael to answer the door that I had knocked on. I had been bored, so I decided on a whim to go and hang out with Michael. It was Christmas vacation anyway. My family was atheist, but we still celebrated Chrismast. We thought it was a fun holiday. As I listened to Michael¡¯s muffled footsteps get louder as he neared the door, I felt a strange feeling wash over me, and I blinked, and then I was here. Suddenly, my three layers (a T-shirt, a sweater and a coat, along with gloves) seemed stifling in the grand heat, and I considered taking them off. I found it incredibly peculiar that I was not panicking in this situation. I had just suddenly appeared in a foreign place, a supernatural event equivalent to teleportation, and I was simply standing calmly without any nerves. I heard someone yell, and I looked towards the source just to see a projectile blur towards me and encompass my entire vision, then a sharp and sudden pang of pain, and the world went black. ______ I opened my eyes. I was standing in the same courtyard as before, the sun still blinding and hot. The same battlements stood upon towering stone walls, and as I remembered what happened just a moment before, I panicked, and jumped backwards, falling on my ass, before frantically crawling away from the wall. Then, as if struck by lightning, I remembered that something fast had stabbed into my skull a second ago. I opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue enough that it hurt, and screamed at the top of my lungs. I stopped crawling and held my head with both of my hands, shook my body sporadically, as if convulsing, and screamed even louder. Out of the corner of my eye, through the tears and snot, I spotted a bright shine, heard a twang, a thunk, felt a violent and sharp pain pop in my skull, and, once more, the world went black. _____ I opened my eyes. Once again, I stood in the stone courtyard surrounded by battlements and towering arches, and I realized that I stood in the equivalent of a medieval castle. I stood there silently, unmoving, my jaw slack and open, drool slipping out past my lips and slowly trailing down towards the floor. It felt like the world was spinning around me, and a phantom pain blossomed in my skull. Nauseated, I vomited the contents of my stomach all over the floor, with some of it landing on my coat. I was no longer cold. In fact, I was burning hot, and the blood in my veins pumped faster and faster, and I felt like my heart was about to burst from how much it was pounding. ¡°Ahhh¡­ Ahhh¡­¡± I moaned aloud, and I felt my eyes spin chaotically in their sockets. ¡®I¡­ I had been shot in the head with an arrow, twice. I had died, twice! What the fuck! What''s going on!?¡¯ I thought, and I hastily spun around in place, nerves and adrenaline causing me to move in a panic. A sudden flash of light distracted me, and I turned towards its source, spotting a fully armored person, who looked like a knight, letting loose an arrow from a huge longbow held in his grip. I watched, as if in slow motion, as the arrow neared my head, and I screamed one last time before it hit me, and then the world turned black. _____ I opened my eyes. ¡®How could that arrow kill me? It hit my head, and as far as I know, arrows can''t break past the skull.¡¯ I thought in confusion. For some reason, I was now eerily calm, as I had been before when I first opened my eyes. ¡®What is happening to me? Am I stuck in a closed timelike curve of some sort?¡¯ I turned slowly in place, observing the polished and slick looking walls that surrounded the courtyard I was in, and realized I had no way to escape. If I could not dodge the arrow that the knight would shoot at me, I had nearly no way that I could think of immediately surviving. ¡®Perhaps I could attempt to negotiate with him?¡¯ I thought. That could work. Maybe. I turned until I spotted his frame, and waved at him in a jolly and relaxed manner. He responded by letting loose the arrow that was lodged in his enormous bow, and standing still as it struck my head, and buried its way into my brain. The world turned black. _____The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I opened my eyes. I felt a huge amount of emotions roil through me, and I took a deep breath to calm myself down. It seems as if I was stuck in a closed timelike curve, or in simpler terms, a time loop. In the former loop I had been in a state of eerie calm, and that made me rationalize the situation around me. It also made my earlier extreme panic disappear completely from my brain. It was as if I had eaten a pain killer, and it numbed down all of my pain and fears that had formerly controlled me. ¡®This situation is incredibly crazy, and crazily impossible. Or is it? Quantum teleportation is possible, albeit incredibly difficult to procure, especially on this scale. A closed timelike curve is also possible, though if it did happen, I shouldn''t be able to retain any memories of earlier loops at all. Though, if I do think about it more carefully, the closed timelike curve is still only a theory, and has not been proven possible yet, so they could work differently from how we believed them to. Emotion could be pretty easily suppressed using drugs, so that eerie calm is a little less of an impossibi-¡¯ My thought were suddenly cut off, and a sharp pain exploded in my head. The world turned black. _____ I opened my eyes. ¡®This is beginning to become a bit annoying.¡¯ I thought. I was back in the state of eerie calm that I had been in two loops before, and now that my train of thought had been cut off, I easily decided to stop trying to figure out the how and why, and focus on the what. ¡®What do I do now? How do I escape?¡¯ Looking around me, I was standing in the center of a courtyard, with smooth gray stones making up the floor. Surrounding the courtyard were high stone walls covered in arches and battlements, obviously showcasing the fact that I was in some sort of fortress or castle. ¡®Just not any castle on earth.¡¯ I thought glumly. The style of the arches and the fact that they were stacked on top of the walls and battlements proved that I was not on earth, as no castle on earth had architecture like this one. At least, as far as I knew. Though considering the fact that an arrow released from a longbow could break through the skull of a human from forty meters away with relative ease, I decisively decided that I was no longer on earth any longer. Somehow. I heard a clicking sound, and I looked up at the wall in front of me to see the knight with the longbow nock an arrow into the string, and raise the bow in my direction. Acting on instinct, I jumped to the side and rolled on the floor, barely managing to dodge the arrow as I heard it thunk beside me. I hastily stood up and looked at the arrow, noting the fact that it had stuck itself into the stone as if it were made of clay. ¡®Well no wonder it could break through my skull, it has the force of a bullet.¡¯ I thought sarcastically. I looked back up at the knight, and was thoroughly surprised to see that he already had another arrow nocked and ready. ¡°Do not move, intruder!¡± he yelled down at me. I ignored him and dodged to the side once again, hearing the arrow wizz harmlessly above my left shoulder. ¡°You''re gonna have to try harder than that, motherfucker!¡± I yelled back. It seemed I had angered him, as he started to commit a rapid fire assault without rest, leading me to sprint away from him as fast as I could. Suddenly, the world snapped, and twenty armored men appeared around me with gleaming longswords drawn in my direction. Before I could react, the one in front of me stepped forward and slashed sideways, cleanly slicing my head straight off of my shoulders. I stared at my limply standing body as my head fell to the floor, and then the world turned black. _____ I opened my eyes. ¡®Now they can teleport!?¡¯ I thought angrily. This situation was beginning to feel a little hopeless. How could I escape from a courtyard that was enclosed in all directions by tall sleek stone walls, while teleporting psychopaths tried to kill me? Is it even possible? I let out a deep sigh of exasperation. ¡®Alright, think logically. If these guys could teleport, why didn¡¯t the archer guy on the wall do so? He could have simply teleported down to me and killed me in a second. Why shoot from a distance? I will assume that that means that he couldn¡¯t teleport. Considering that fact, why would they build a courtyard in the middle of a large establishment containing soldiers, when only the ones who could teleport would be able to enter it? Judging by the fact that the arrows that were shot at me were moving at a similar speed to a bullet, and yet only barely managed to impale the floor of the courtyard by a few millimeters after impact, I am also going to assume that this courtyard is a good place to be used for training. In that case, I could assume that it might only be reserved as a training facility for the ones who had the ability to teleport, or fly or whatever. But then, why would a ¡®normie¡¯ stand guard on the wall? Someone with meh aim, shooting with a longbow, wouldn¡¯t be able to stop a superpowered teleporting fighter from invading the courtyard. That must mean that the super humans aren¡¯t the only ones who use the courtyard, and that normal soldiers use it for training too. If that is the case, then there has to be a normal entrance and exit in this place. I just have to find it.¡¯ Looking around, all of the walls looked the same. They were a deep gray, with a sleek, smooth looking surface that had hardly any large indentations apparent within them. The only ones that were easily visible were the crease lines between the stones, and even those were hardly noticeable. So a door would be a shining bright light surrounded by darkness, yet I still couldn¡¯t find one. ¡®What the hell? Is leaving this place some kind of test or something?¡¯ I thought, annoyed. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something. There was a bump on the wall, barely noticeable, that almost seemed to blend in with the rest of the wall, sorta like camouflage. ¡®Is that¡­ a button?¡¯ My vision popped, and exploded. Then the world turned black. _____ I opened my eyes. ¡°Well, that was rude.¡± I muttered under my breath. I was back in the state of deep calm that I had been in two loops prior, and I was beginning to see a pattern. Every two loops or so, I seemed to attain this odd calm, and that meant that the loops were working based on a constant pattern of mathematical changes. That was good to know. Now, onto the current topic. ¡®Why do they have a nearly invisible button randomly placed in the middle of a wall?¡¯ I thought in confusion. Looking around, I managed to spot the button again; it was placed on the wall behind me, and was positioned at the height of the average person back on earth, being about five feet off of the ground. ¡®Why do I even know that? I must have searched it up at one point due to curiosity.¡¯ I slowly walked towards it, and as I neared, I noticed some odd details. The button was triangular in shape, and instead of protruding from the wall directly, it seemed to almost have been pushed through the wall, and was more akin to a bump. If not for the slight crease surrounding its circumference, I wouldn''t have thought of it as a button at all. How weird. ¡®This adds to the proof that I am no longer on planet Earth.¡¯ I thought glumly. I heard a soft click from behind, and knew that the archer had nocked the arrow into his bow. Quickly, I slapped my hand onto the button, feeling it slowly snap down under the force of my hand, and then I felt a sudden and weird vibration course through my body. Surprised, I stepped back from the wall, barely managing to dodge the arrow that flew in front of my face and landed on the floor beside me, and looked down at my hand. A bright blue liquid pulsed lightly from underneath my skin, directly where I had clicked the button. As I stared wide eyed at my hand, the world around me seemed to twist and twirl, flowing in wild shapes and pressing down on my brain. I felt my mouth open and my voice scream, yet I heard only silence. The world twisted and warped, and then collapsed in on itself, and with a snap, the world turned black. _____ Cell. Groggily, I opened my eyes. A dark gray ceiling welcomed me. I was lying on my back, on a cold, hard floor, and as I slowly sat up I felt small pebbles shuffle uncomfortably from beneath me. ¡°Where am I?¡± I asked aloud. ¡°In a cell.¡± A deep voice responded from behind me. Hastily, I jumped up and spun around to face the owner of the voice, yet saw only darkness. ¡°Who just said that!¡± I yelled into the darkness. No reply. Taking a step back, I raised my arms in front of my head and balled my hands into fists, ready for a fight. In the darkness, I heard a low groan and creak, and the shuffling of feet moving around. ¡°Sorry, I forgot to light the candle.¡± The voice said. I tensed, and clenched my toes to the floor to keep myself steady. ¡®Come to think of it, why am I barefoot? Where did my shoes go?¡¯ I thought, a feeling of dread growing within me. ¡®If I died earlier, why am I not back in the courtyard?¡¯ The shuffling sounds in the darkness grew louder, and then stopped. Suddenly, a bright orange light bloomed in the darkness, and I could see the other side of the room clearly. In front of me were two large bunk beds standing parallel to each other on each end of the room, with foundations made of a polished dark wood, with tan coloured mattresses and tan coloured pillows filling them. A form, reminiscent of a man, lay prone on the top bed on the left, and in between the beds, a tall man stood holding a platter with a lit candle in his left hand and a match in his right. As I stared at him closer, I gasped lightly, and lowered my arms to my sides. His face was a mess of reddened and twisted flesh that folded in on itself, and his eyes were small black beads that stared at me from within deep swaths of rumpled skin. Where his lips were supposed to be, instead were two large pink swells of flesh, with teeth sticking out of them at different angles. His ears were flattened and stuck to the sides of his skull, and a slight amount of black hair lay slickly stamped to the top of his scalp. I stumbled backwards a few steps more, and felt my body bump against what felt like large metal bars held sideways behind me. ¡°W-what happened to you?¡± I asked the man, careful not to speak too loudly. ¡°Burn.¡± He answered, his lips parting slowly and then closing as he spoke. It looked painful. ¡°Burn¡­ how?¡± I asked in response. ¡°Duke Craitor tortured me to find out my use for my master. He failed, and decided to lock me here to rot for the rest of my life.¡± ¡°Duke Craitor?¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°The lord of this castle. Do you not know? From what I heard, you teleported into the ascension courtyard and then immediately collapsed on the floor, spasming like an eel on land. Did you perhaps fail a spell and end up here by accident? How else would you appear here with no knowledge of who owned the place? Are you an idiot?¡± I looked at the man as he finished talking, noticing his attire that consisted of ripped and dirty rags, and then looked up that the other man who laid motionless on the bed, and seemed to be wearing much grander clothes of many colours, made of cotton or silk, and adorned with golden lines at the edges that shined in the glow of the candlelight. ¡°Who¡¯s he?¡± I asked, motioning with my hand towards the man on the bed. The man with the candle turned to look at where I was motioning, and then let out a deep sigh. ¡°Stoney¡¯s his name, or at least, is how he introduced himself. He¡¯s probably some lost noble or something. Anyways, what''s your deal? Why are you here?¡± He looked at me with his small beady eyes, and I saw a glimmer of something move in them. What the hell, does he have parasites in his eyes or something? ¡°Before I tell you anything, I will have to know your name, so that I will have a way of addressing you.¡± I responded absentmindedly, looking carefully for worms in his eyeballs. ¡°Ah, yes, I apologise for the delay, my name is Clarence.¡± ¡°Clarence?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Um, you''re really named Clarence?¡± ¡°Indeed, why would I not be?¡± ¡°It-its just, I didn¡¯t expect¡­¡± ¡°Expect?¡± ¡°Whatever, doesn¡¯t matter, anyways- can you explain again how I got here?¡± ¡°Did I not tell you before? You teleported into the fortress, ignoring the wards somehow, and then fell to the floor and started flapping around like a fish. The Cardinals then dragged you to the changing room, stripped you, found nothing of importance on you, then changed you into standard rags and brought you here.¡± I leaned backwards on the bars behind and began to think. ¡®So, for some reason, the second the loop began I started having a seizure or something on the floor, and that led them to- for some reason, not kill me, and instead bring me to a holding cell. They also stripped me of my belongings, which included all of my winter clothes and my phone, which- for some reason, they deemed useless. Also, in the last loop, I had clicked that weird button, and instead of opening a doorway out there, I had gotten a light blue substance injected into me, which also managed to kill me, and then give me a seizure. This is becoming really confusing.¡¯ ¡°Uh, hello? Are you all good there?¡± Clarence asked, breaking me out of my reverie. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m all fine, I was just wondering¡­ what did you call that courtyard before? The ascension courtyard, or something? What¡¯s that?¡± Clarence stared at me with what looked like an amused expression. ¡°You do not know what an ascension courtyard is? Were you raised in the mountains?¡± He asked lightly. ¡°Just humour me.¡± I replied impatiently. ¡°It is where mortals are given the chance to ascend to power, and reach the rank of Cardinal. The blood of a Predom is injected into them and if their physical foundation is strong enough, they will ascend. If not, they die. Yet you should know that already, as you are obviously a Cardinal- since you teleported into the castle in the first place, and even got past the wards. Even pure blooded Cardinals should know this stuff. Are you from a barbarian clan of the west?¡± ¡®Alright, so I guess I know what people with powers in this world are called. Cardinals. What a dumb name for a superhuman.¡¯ ¡°I am not a barbarian, I think I just somehow managed to lose my memory. The first thing I remember is waking up in this cell.¡± I answered, lying through my teeth. ¡°Ah, memory magic, twisted thing that is. In fact, Stoney here was shot up with that stuff too.¡± Clarence said, pointing towards Stoney with a shaky finger. I looked up at Stoney as he slept. Was that guy even alive? He wasn¡¯t moving at all. Turning to look back at Clarence, I spotted a shift under his eyeballs once more, and noticed for the first time that he had no pupils, only a sclera and iris. ¡°I am surprised. I expected you to be irked by my appearance and believe me wicked. Yet you showed no signs of disgust, only surprise and remorse.¡± He said carefully, as if the words were difficult to share. ¡°Why would I be disgusted? I don¡¯t judge people based on their appearance.¡± I replied heatedly. He looked down at the candle he held in his hand. A moment of silence pervaded. ¡°You would be the first.¡± He muttered, just loud enough for me to hear. We stood there in silence for a few moments, before a movement in my peripheral vision caught my eye. Stoney had moved. Me and Clarence stared at him as Stoney sat up on his bed and stretched his arms up into the ceiling, pushing against it. ¡°Is it morning yet?¡± He asked with a yawn. Information ¡°Yes.¡± Clarence said to Stoney as he continued to stretch, eventually losing his balance and falling backwards on the bed. He slowly sat back up to a sitting position and then turned his head to look around the room. Spotting me, his face broke out in a huge smile. ¡°I see we have a guest! What¡¯s your name, friend, mine''s Stoney!¡± ¡°Uh, yeah, hello, my name is Jared Spurrier. I just got here.¡± ¡°I can see that! And spurrier? What a weird name! What¡¯s a spurrier anyway?¡± ¡°It is someone who makes spurs.¡± ¡°Spurs?¡± ¡°They are metal devices used on horses¡­¡± I paused. ¡®How do I know what a spurrier is? My parents never told me what the name meant and I never looked it up. I wasn¡¯t taught about it at school either. Also, how did I know that an arrow can¡¯t pierce a human skull? I never trained in archery. And the closed timelike curve¡­ How do I know these things? Is it part of my weird power?¡¯ ¡°Hey- Jared, you alright? You kinda spaced out there.¡± Stoner said to me in a loud voice, breaking me from my train of thought. ¡°Oh yeah, sorry, I just¡­ thought of something interesting, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Interesting? What was it, I wanna know!¡± Jared responded excitedly. ¡®This guy is way too excited for his own good. Can¡¯t he just calm down a little?¡¯ I thought with annoyance. Keeping my face neutral, I just shrugged my shoulders in response, causing him to pout. ¡®Seriously? Did he actually just pout?¡¯ ¡°Well¡­ Jared, I would still be interested in knowing how you managed to break past the wards.¡± Clarence said suddenly. ¡°Um, I don¡¯t know if you remember, but I have amnesia, so I don¡¯t remember anything, including how I got here. And can you remind me again what wards are?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, hmm¡­ Apologies, I forgot. You must be quite confused yourself. Well, worry not, me and Stoner here will aid you in the recovery of your memory.¡± Clarence replied. ¡°Wait, you got memory stabbed too?! No way, I¡¯m exactly the same! That¡¯s crazy, three people in the same cell, and two of them don¡¯t even know themselves! What a coincidence!¡± Stoner yelled. ¡®This guy needs a volume button.¡¯ I thought, thoroughly annoyed. Ignoring Stoner, I turned back to Clarence and looked into his eyes again, searching for the worms that I had spotted before. ¡°Is there something on my face?¡± Clarence asked nervously. ¡°No no, it¡¯s just¡­ I¡¯ve been wondering, how did you know what happened to me outside of the cell? Weren¡¯t you in here the whole time?¡± I watched as his eyelids twitched slightly, and he gave me what seemed to be a smile, though I couldn¡¯t quite tell because of his warped flesh. ¡°The guard standing outside the bars told me.¡± I turned around and looked at the thick metal bars that stood between me and a long gray hallway covered in darkness. ¡°What guard?¡± ¡°He comes around every so often to check on us. Real big fella.¡± Stoner replied. I turned back to face the two cellmates and studied each of them carefully. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡®Clarence was likely lying about the guard telling him. He also stated that it was morning, even though we have no windows and there is no clock on the wall. Something else is going on here.¡¯ ¡°Why don¡¯t you go sit on your bed? We reserved the one on the right for any new cellmates that arrive. Get comfortable.¡± Clarence said. I nodded, and slowly walked towards the bottom bed on the right side of the room. I didn¡¯t look away from Clarence as I walked. After sitting down, Clarence carefully set down the candle on the tray on the floor between us, and sat down on the bed below Stoner. ¡°Do you have any more questions?¡± Clarence asked. I pondered for a moment. ¡°Hmm¡­ yes. You said earlier that the ascension courtyard makes people ascend to the rank of Cardinal, and that to do so you have to be injected by someone named Predom so you can get their blood, right?¡± ¡°Not quite. The blood of someone at the rank of Predom is injected into you, not someone named ¡®Predom¡¯. That would be silly.¡± ¡®I see. So Predom is a rank above Cardinal.¡¯ I thought. ¡°Does the ascension process include clicking a weird looking button?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, you are injected the blood via a specialized button that transfers it directly into your bloodstream. I see you are remembering some things now, eh?¡± ¡°Yeah, I guess so.¡± ¡®Even if some of this stuff is common knowledge in this world, I still feel that this guy knows a bit too much detail about things. I¡¯m guessing that he also went through an ascension thingie, or at least observed one.¡¯ ¡°Oh really? I never knew that. I always thought they just made you drink their blood or something. Though, I wouldn¡¯t know, I¡¯ve never been to one.¡± Stoner said. ¡®Spot on.¡¯ ¡°Ah, yes- well, I was lucky enough to see one as a young child, though I do not quite remember where or when.¡± Clarence said. A white line shimmied under his eyes for a second and then disappeared. ¡®That weird eye parasite of his is a tell. He probably just lied. Also, doesn¡¯t this mean that I also went through an ascension thingie? I clicked a weird button and a glowy blue liquid entered my body. Isn¡¯t that the same thing that he talked about? I don¡¯t particularly feel any different.¡¯ ¡°So, ascending basically makes you into a wizard? I mean, teleportation is possible, so doesn¡¯t that mean it gives people the ability to use magic?¡± ¡°Yes, though I am not quite sure what a wizard is.¡± ¡®Alright, so to summarize, I¡¯m in a fantasy world and I¡¯m stuck in a time loop. In some of the loops I feel a weird calm feeling and in others I¡¯m normal. I also somehow managed to get past some ward things when I entered, which made everyone want to kill me. Oh, and how could I forget that I got injected with somebody¡¯s blood and now I¡¯m a wizard. Just great.¡¯ I thought glumly. Suddenly, the world snapped, and a man clad in black armour from head to toe popped into reality in front of me. ¡°Your time is up, intruder, no more chit-chat.¡± The man said in a gravelly voice, before grabbing my arm. Before I could react, the world around me twisted, and I was standing in a gray stoned hallway in front of a large red door, the armored man still grabbing my arm. He let go of my arm and then pushed me into the door, and instead of feeling the pain of impact, I phased through the door as if it wasn''t there and fell down onto the floor beyond it. Luckily, I caught myself with my hands before my head could hit the floor. I felt a sudden sharp pain and knew that my hands were scraped. I quickly stumbled back to my feet and ran back to phase through the red door again, only to bump into it painfully. Rubbing my nose, I looked at the red door in confusion, not understanding what was going on. ¡®How did that door turn from non-solid to solid? That should be impossible.¡¯ I thought. ¡°Come here.¡± A smooth voice called out from behind me. Suddenly, I felt my center of mass shift, and I was yanked backwards through the air, flying across the room. I landed hard on my back and felt the air get knocked out of my lungs. For a moment, I saw stars. Then, as my vision cleared up, a face, immaculate in its features, slowly appeared in front of me. ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Craitor, and I am the ruler of this small fortress.¡± Said Craitor. ¡°Uh, it¡¯s nice to meet you too? My name is-!¡± I was interrupted by my body being yanked into the air once more and righted vertically, facing Craitor. Now that I got a better look at him, he really did look handsome. His face was perfectly carved, and his shimmering blonde hair seemed to glow all on its own. His eyes, red in color, stared at me intently, and as I looked more carefully, I noticed a slight line of white move beneath them. ¡®What the hell?! How many people have worms in their eyes?!¡¯ I thought incredulously. His eyes narrowed. ¡°It seems you have noticed my Claerture, and Clarence¡¯s as well. How intriguing. Now, tell me, why did you invade my establishment? What is your purpose?¡± A bead of sweat fell off my chin. ¡®When did this room get so hot?¡¯ ¡°Answer me, now, or you will receive punishment for your actions.¡± ¡°I- I- I don¡¯t know! I just woke up here, I swear, I have no idea what¡¯s going on!¡± His eyes narrowed further, until they were just slits. ¡°Lack of honesty leads to punishment, boy, and punishment leads to death!¡± In front of my eyes, a ball of red flame suddenly popped into existence, and engulfed my face. Pain, beyond what I have ever felt before, bloomed throughout my brain, and I felt my vision sear white. I screamed, yet heard nothing, as my everything turned to pain. Bright red hot and scorching, my world was a roaring fire. I felt skin drip off of my face, and my bones met open air. The world warped, and turned black.