After riding hard for an hour and a half, the boy arrives at a foot of a mountain. The surrounding area is filled with thick lush trees and heavy vegetation. The boy ties the horse’s rope to a nearby branch and takes off the bag from its back.

“Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

The horse neighs softly.

“No, you can’t come with me. It’s too dangerous to travel up the mountain path in the dark and I don’t want you breakin’ your neck if we fall off a cliff. I know I’ll be fine if we do so, but I don’t think you’ll stick the landing.”

The horse whinnies and nuzzles its nose against the boy’s left palm.

“Yes, I know we’ve made it this far with you letting me ride on your back for the last hour or so. But seriously. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you ain’t exactly light enough for me to carry you back down if you broke your leg. You need to cut down on those carrots first.”

The horse lets out a curt snort.

“Who you callin’ a pussy? I'll leave you at a glue factory and walk the rest of the way home if you keep fuckin' with me. Huh, is that it? Is that what you want?”

“…”

“Yeah, I thought so. Now stay here. I’m already pressed for time as it is.”

***************************************************************

The boy arduously hikes up the mountain while carrying the heavy bag on his back. Truthfully, he could have brought the horse safely along with him during the ascent. But sounds travel dangerously far at night, and the boy didn’t want to tip off the person he’ll be seeing tonight that there are other parties on this mountain. That man is already paranoid as it is, and the boy didn’t want him to tuck tail and run the other way if he feels something is off.

Halfway up the mountain, the boy comes across a pathway. He continues following that pathway until it opens up to a clearing. In that clearing, resides an abandoned hunting lodge. Although the building looks dilapidated and run down, the boy knows that it is a safe and secured place. Anyone uninvited or without proper access will have a hard time getting in.

Which is why the boy started to climb up a nearby tree that had grown too close to the hunting lodge, hops onto the roof, proceeds to make his way careful to the chimney before entering it and scaling down into the building. He had already hidden the bag underneath some bushes near the lodge. No sense lugging it with you when you can easily retrieve it later.

Once inside, the boy takes a chair from beside the fireplace and sets it in the darkest corner of the lodge, away from the main door. There, he sits and closes his eyes to rest while waiting for the last person he wanted to meet in the world.

***************************************************************

Not long after, the boy hears a horse approaching the hunting lodge. Although the paranoid man is trying to be as discreet as possible, the boy knows the man is fighting a losing a battle. Even a heavy sleeper would have been awaken by now from all the noise the man and the animal is making, stumbling and crashing into foliage and undergrowth. Based on the man’s deteriorating mental and physical health and the horse’s labored breath, the boy is surprised that the duo weren’t caught already by their numerous pursuers.

The paranoid man dismounts from the horse, not even bothering to tie the animal to keep it from wandering off. The horse takes the chance and saunters to a nearby puddle. It starts to drink from the small pool of water enthusiastically, as if it hadn’t seen water for days. The man approaches the hunting lodge with tired and staggered steps, and just as he was about to reach the main door, the man suddenly stops.

The boy doesn’t move and continues sitting down, his eyes are still closed through all this.

The paranoid man seems hesitant at the moment. He suddenly decides to circle around the hunting lodge. The man checks to see any signs of intrusion, tempered locks, a broken window, a fresh set of footprints, anything to inform him of recent visitors other than him.

Content with his findings (or the lack of it), the paranoid man relaxes and breathes out a huge sigh of relief. He takes out a key attached to a necklace on his neck. The man unlocks the main door of the hunting lodge and enters the building. No sooner than he done so, something hard hits him at the back of his head.

The paranoid man falls down onto the dusty wooden floor of the hunting lodge with a thud. With his head still spinning from the hit and a ringing noise buzzing in his ears, the man suddenly hears a voice that nearly makes him soil his pants.

“And what sort of time do you call this, young man? Looks like daddy’s gonna have to take his belt off.”

Then everything went black for Master Haithur.

***************************************************************

Master Haithur wakes up with start. The first thing that hits him is the incessant pounding headache coursing through his head right now. Just as the older man is about to move his hand to massage the back of his sore head, he realizes his arm is immobile. It takes Master Haithur a few seconds to realize all his four limbs has been restrained to the armrest chair he is currently confined in.

As Master Haithur’s vision clears up, he sees that he is in a well-lit room. The boy has managed to get a roaring fire burning in the fireplace. The older man tries to turn his neck but slowly comprehends he is unable to do so. Something is binding and holding his neck and head in place.

“Pretty shit day you’ve been having lately, Master Haithur. Getting fired from your respectable job, being chased by bounty hunters and assassins, getting turned away by people who you thought you could count on in your time in need. Did you know they even got a famous bloodhunter on your tail? A rare and expensive service that guy is. Nose like a bloodhound. In a few days he would have tracked you to this place. Lucky for me I got to you first.”

“…”

Master Haithur tries to spit out a curse but something blocks his voice as well. It seems a ball gag has been inserted into his mouth.

“…”

“Oh no no. Finish your sentence, you can still talk. I have the ability to understand you.”

“…”

“No, I’m not a mind reader. How many times must I tell people that- you know what? Yes, I am one.”

“…”

“Well the ball gag is there to stop you from chewing out your own tongue.”

“…”

“It’s because from all the pain I’m about to inflict on you of course. Silly boy, I thought it should have been clear to you by now. You’re the one who taught me we need to take people apart and put them back together before we could understa- oh wait.”

“…”

“That was another conversation in a different lifetime. Silly me. This whole time travel really messes up my perception of time. Plus getting stuck in that Time Abyss for a few millenniums also didn’t help in developing my mental health at all.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Master Haithur could see the boy carefully unpacking a big black leather bag and unloading its contents onto a table one by one. Meticulously, slowly, as if making a big show out of it. Performing on a stage for no one in the audience save Master Haithur who could barely see it happening off-screen.

Knives of various shapes and sizes, a bone saw, a couple of scalpels, a potato peeler…

At the sight of this, Master Haithur begins shaking violently and tries to rock side to side, hopefully to tip the chair over and break it in the process. But nothing happens. The boy, anticipating this futile action, has already bolted the chair to the floor.

“…”

“Invoking the gods’ names in order to strike fear in me? Isn’t that a little hypocritical of you, Master Haithur, considering you barely believe in them yourself?”

“…”

“The gods won’t forgive me for what I’ve done? Master Haithur, if the gods have issues, they won't be with what I've done. They will be with what I'm about to do.”

“…”

“Well, as hard as it is to believe, I’m trying to save your life, Master Haithur. I won’t get in too much on the details but the process of me saving your life is simply by virtue of the fact that I will stop torturing you before you die.”

“…”

“Duh, we’ve already established the fact that I won’t kill you. What you should be more concerned about is that I won’t let you die, even when you want to. More importantly, will there be anything left of you to salvage once I’ve stopped? This is after I’m satisfied that I have bent you completely under my will obviously.”

“…”

“Of course I know pain and torture are not effective ways to turn a man. But you’ve misunderstood one thing, Master Haithur. Torture isn’t about pain. Torture is about getting a message across. And the message being that there’s no coming back from this. Your previous life as you know it is over. Maybe there’s a small part of you that still clings to the hope that you can recover it all and regain your former glory.”

“…”

“But this thing I’m holding right here…” the boys holds out a medical scalpel for Master Haithur to see. “is gonna expel the shit out of that hope.”

“…”

“Now our organization is small, but there’s an opening that I think you would do well there. In fact, if you work hard enough, put all your hours in, strive for excellence, and maybe come in and work during the weekends when I need you too, I can see you as my right hand man.”

“…”

“But the problem with being my right hand man is… that it’s a job that doesn’t require both hands to carry it out. So I’m gonna have to cut one of your arms. And since I’m feeling generous, I’ll let you choose which one I take.”

“…

“So what it’s gonna be, Master Haithur? Righty tighty? Or lefty loosey?”

“…”

“And stalling won’t do you any good. No one is coming to save you. Headmaster Joss isn’t here to stay my hand. Mistress Ricon isn’t present to plead mercy on your behalf. And Synnove… you should be glad I didn’t bring my maid along. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“…”

“Keep wasting my time and I’ll take your dominant hand.”

“…”

“Good choice. Now bite down hard on that pillow. I’m goin in dry.”

***************************************************************

“Wake up! Holy shit! Did you really pass out after I cut your lil’ pinkie finger? Godsdamn. I know you’re exhausted and all, being on the run since yesterday, but really, this is embarrassing. I know girls half your age who would grit their teeth and ask for seconds. Seriously, man the fuck up you big baby.”

The boy take a hot metal fireplace poker from the burning flames and uses it to cauterize the wound. The smell of burning flesh mixed with blood wafts into Master Haithur’s nose.

“…”

“No, we’re not done yet. We’ve barely even begun. You still have your ring finger, your middle finger, the index, thumb, then we move higher.”

“…”

“Between you and me, I’ve calculated you will break down and plead complete and utter loyalty to me after the seventh time I cut into you. But full disclosure, I’m just gonna ignore it and cut and cauterize my way through you several times more. Because we’ve already invited Mr Bone Saw to the party. It’ll be cruel to deny him from joining in the fun.”

“…”

***************************************************************

“I know.”

“…”

“I know. I know.”

“…”

“You’re thinking if you had just boarded that fishing boat heading for the Shahjahad Kingdom instead of coming here, you could’ve gotten away from me.”

“…”

“But you did board that boat, and you did joined that smuggling run into the Alvian Kingdom. And you did travelled to the Khultan Kingdom to surrender yourself to Warlord Graves at his mountain fortress. But here, in the maze of twisty little passages, you didn't make any one choice. You made every choice. And they all led back to me.”

“…”

***************************************************************

“Yeah, I think you’re just about done now.” declares the boy like a proud mother taking out a roasted chicken from the oven, cooked to perfection. He begins administering treatment to the handicapped man sitting in front of him. Disinfecting wounds, applying medical salve and bandaging the stump and putting it in a neat little sling.

The boy then proceeds to release the handicapped man from the rest of his restraints, he also removes the ball-gag from the man’s mouth.

“Here, eat this pill and drink this vial. The pill is for the blood loss and the drink will help you recover your energy.”

“…”

“You’re welcome. Now, for your final test.”

The handicapped man makes a slight movement with his body to show his extreme discomfort upon hearing this.

“Don’t make that face. I’m not gonna cut you up again, not right now anyway- I’m just kidding. It’s just a joke to lighten up the mood. Take it easy, will ya?”

The boy lifts a table (no small feat since he only has one good arm at the moment) and places it in front of the handicapped man. He then puts two items on the table and presents them to the man. One of the item, a vial filled with clear liquid, was the poison the boy took from Joze who used to be Master Haithur’s most beloved disciple. The vial of course, ironically, belongs to Master Haithur. The second item, a test tube full of simmering green gunk, is the face-altering concoction given to the boy by Rolfe Primero.

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the vial filled with poison - the story ends, you keel over and die and I burn what’s left of you along with this hunting lodge. You take the test tube with the green stuff - you learn a new definition of pain, the kind of pain that will make the previous pain, you know, the one I forced you to undergo not too long ago, feel like a love tap.”

The handicapped man extends his hand and reaches over to the vial filled with clear liquid. Just as the man is about to make his final choice, the boy hastily adds

“But wait, I forgot to tell you. This one gives you a new face. And frankly, compared to what you’re sporting now, it’s gonna be an improvement. No, really. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? One side of your face is drooping. It’s like half of your face is made out of wax that got exposed to high temperature.”

“…”

“Yeah I know, I gotta work on my sales pitch, I kinda suck at it. Which is why I need you.”

The handicapped man’s hand continues to hover over the vial filled with clear liquid. The boy decides to make one last attempt.

“What if I told you, I know what happens when you die. You don’t become a ghost. You don’t get reincarnated. You fade into nothingness, into obscurity. If you’re lucky, the memories of you gets carried on by your loved ones. But once the people who love you are dead, your name will be forgotten.”

“…”

“Truthfully, you… me… none of us will be remembered. But the deeds we’re about to carry out will.”

“…”

The handicapped man’s hand continues to waiver in the air before finally falling down to the table to pick its desired object.

***************************************************************

The boy stands alone outside the burning hunting lodge, his eyes never once leaving the flames that is currently devouring the old building. He lets out a heavy sigh. It was a waste to torch down the lodge, but he needed to make sure the people coming afterwards to be delayed investigating the mess here for as long as possible.

As the boy continues to be immobile at the place where he stood, a shadow joins up next to him. The handicapped man has finally tracked down his horse that had wandered off and came back with it in tow.

As the three of them (including the horse of course) continues watching the flames, the boy holds up something in the light for the handicapped man to see.

“What should I do with your rings?” asks the boy

“Do with them as you like. Throw them into the fire for all I care.” is the answer that the boy receives from the handicapped man. Of course, the man didn’t say it out loud. It was the gist of the information that the boy got using his powers.

“Well then, I’ll just carry them on me for safekeeping. Who knows, maybe they’ll be useful in the future.” the boy puts the golden wedding ring and the platinum Ouroboros ring that used to belong to the late Master Haithur into his pocket.

“…”

“You know, I’ve met a lot of rich men in my life, excluding kings of course, but not one who owns a whole mountain and the surrounding forest around it.”

“…”

“Yes, I realize the land belongs to your grandfather from your mother’s side, but still… you’ll inherit it eventually, right?”

“…”

“Heh, I just had a great idea. Once things cool down and you’re no longer being chased, this place looks like it’ll be a swell place to set up our hidden base, don’t you think?”

“…”

“Relax. As long as you follow my instructions, keep out of major cities, and avoid contacting people from your previous life, you’ll eventually be free of your pursuers.”

“…”

“If you’re feeling sad and lonely, don’t be. I will be recruiting other brothers and sisters to join our cause. You’ll be doing the same from your end as well.”

“…”

“You are the first of many.” says the boy as he looks at the burning hunting lodge and smiles.

………

…..

..

********************************************************************************************

END OF DAY 5