CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE: PRAYERS UNANSWERED

Mouse was dragged by the two Witches, who had been cackling since the very moment they captured him. ‘If these Witches think this net will hold me, they have another thing coming. I will burn this thing to pieces.’ Mouse thought to himself, as he went to access his Inventory to retrieve some [Firebombs]. When Mouse tried to open his inventory though, nothing happened. Mouse tried again, using the mental command and tapping on the icon through the drop-down menu. A slight panic started to settle in, as Mouse went to check what else wasn't working. He opened up his status screen to check and that worked. So did the other information screens but when he tried to open his inventory, nothing happened. ‘What the hell is going on!?’ Mouse yelled in his head. Mouse finally noticed a notification icon on his screen, that appeared when he was first captured and bound up in the net by the Witches. He clicked on it and it cleared up why he couldn’t open his inventory, much to Mouse’s already fractured mood.

[Warning! You have come under the status effect [Bound]. You have been captured by a [Sealing Net]. Your movements have been limited and you cannot access your inventory or equipped items while under this effect.]

“Well god damn...” Mouse Grumbled before he continued, “Where are you taking me!?” Mouse shouted at the Witches, after realizing he wasn’t getting out of the net anytime soon.

“Don’t worry little boy, we are taking you to a nice room in our dungeon. Where one of our sisters will ask you some simple questions. If you answer them honestly and quickly, you will get a muffin. If you don’t, we will strip you of your skin to make a blanket for Mother.” One of the Witches dragging Mouse answered, she stopped cackling and instead took on the tone of a mother calming a small child from a nightmare, which in Mouse's opinion, was far more horrifying than the endless cackling.

“Oh shit... somebody save me. Jesus, Budha, Ganesh, Gabriel. Somebody... I don’t want to be a blanket.” Mouse mumbled in fear, after receiving his answer.

The Witches dragged Mouse towards the manor walls side entrance, they paused for a moment a few miles in front of it, to mutter an incantation into the air, that allowed them to pass through the invisible walls of the [Mana Field]. They continued on until they reached the gate, which gradually lifted with the creaking and whining of rusted gears. After crossing the threshold and entering the manor grounds, Mouse could see what laid behind. A gruesome scene was on display; the half-chewed remains of many men were strewn about the main courtyard. Mouse could only make out some of the details, from his awkward bundled up position in the net, he could make what appeared to be a ripped-up torso only a few feet away. The piece of flesh had a cracked and chipped breastplate with the insignia of [Baroness Mengrel] etched on the front. It was an image of a deer like animal with a horned head between two trees, with the crown of the trees touching.

Mouse wiggled around to get a better look at his surroundings, he saw multiple Demons of all different colours and sizes roaming the courtyard as they feasted upon the remains. Some were in the processing of chewing and ripping into hunks of meat, while others were spitting out bones, or using them to pick their teeth. Scraps of armour were also lying-in heaps on the ground, with all of them having the horned insignia etched on them. ‘They let the Demon’s feed on their own soldiers?? If that’s how they are treating their allies... Then I am definitely in for a world of hurt.’ Mouse lamented to himself, as the Witches dragged him through the courtyard, allowing him to see a group of living humans, they appeared to be soldiers, who were in the process of begging and pleading to the surrounding Witches as to why [Baroness Mengrel] was doing this to them.

One of the soldiers that were lined up with the rest, shortly flew into a rage, as the sight of one of the kneeling soldiers being snatched by a demon to be shortly devoured, appeared to be his tipping point. The injustice his men were going through at that moment appeared to give him strength and he quickly broke through the rope that bound him with a vigorous shout. The warrior had the mark on his breastplate to denote his rank as a Sergeant, clearly depicting that his strength should be above the average warrior. The soldier stood to his feet and in a fluid, motion spun on his heel and struck one of the Witches that was standing close to him with a fist filled with fury. The Witch was knocked off her feet, dropping the sickle blade that was in her hand, allowing the released Sergeant to pick it up and chop the downed Witch’s head off the one swipe. The surrounding Witches all hissed and uttered incantations towards the Demons still sitting around and feasting. One Witch that looked older than rest, with skin as thing as paper and long string white wisps of hair, stood out from the slowly encroaching circle. She beckoned with her hands for the other Witches to calm and stop their chanting, while she took a step forward to size up the resisting soldier.

“Sergeant Biden, why must you fight us? You should know that your small band of men don’t have a chance of fighting off the Imperium army on our doorstep. You should be happy that your men are making the appropriate sacrifice with their bodies. With their flesh, they can help strengthen our Demons and their blood and souls are even now being used to complete our great Mother Mengrel’s plan of salvation.” The Witch proclaimed, her raspy and high-pitched voice, felt to Mouse like fingernails across a chalkboard.

“You god damned Monsters! My father swore my whole family line to Baroness Mengrel after she saved his life. He would be rolling in his grave and crying rivers of tears, if he saw the state that the once pure and wise daughter of House Mengrel had turned into. I still hold onto my family’s vow to never do the Mengrel house any harm, however I now believe I must save her from the harm she is doing to herself. Delphine had been poisoned by those corrupted bastards in the North and you disgusting stains on mother Gaia’s land! I will kill all of you, even if I have to burn my soul into oblivion!” Sergeant Biden shouted, with spittle flying everywhere and his neck muscles bulging from the strain.

The Witches and Demons surrounding the Sergeant all roared or hissed in response to his words. With the sickle in one hand and his hand over his heart, the Sergeant looked to the sky.

“Mars, God of War and watcher of all soldiers. Please bless your believer and give him the strength to smite these corrupted fiends! Blessing of Mars, [Barbaric Strength]!” Sergeant Biden shouted to the sky and raised his hand that previously covered his heart to the sky.

The two Witches that were pulling the bundled-up Mouse through the side door had stopped at the far end of the courtyard, allowing Mouse to watch this tragic scene. After a moment of oppressive silence and with Sergeant Biden hand still reaching to the sky. Nothing happened. The Witches started cackling at the Sergeant who looked around with a face full of confusion.

“What the hell is going on!? Mars! I beseech you, grant me this blessing! [Barbaric Strength]!” Sergeant Biden screamed into the sky again, his voice held a tone of pleading in it this time.

“You can forget about getting your blessings, the gods have abandoned you! But don’t worry, the [Horned One] has not. Your powerful blood will be the final catalyst, do not fret.” The old white hair Witch explained with a broken toothed smile.

The Sergeant’s face paled after hearing the Witch, he looked to the sky as all the furious strength he had accumulated was released, his very aura looked to deflate, like a jumping castle losing air. The once mighty looking Sergeant appeared to age on the very spot, as tears fell down his tired face, trailing down his cheeks and across his square jaw before falling to the already bloodied cobble ground.

“We have been forsaken; the light of the Gods is beyond our grasp now... why...” The Sergeant mumbled, the surrounding soldiers who were still struggling watched this scene and they too lost all strength.

“Good! Now, [Crytaox]! Finish this.” The withered old Witch commanded, as she pointed one of her gnarled-up fingers towards the now kneeling Sergeant.

A large abomination appeared from the crowd of Demons, it was close to 9 feet in height and looked to be the amalgamation of multiple bodies stitched together. Its skin was coarse and pale, appearing like sand paper, with some spot's darker ore paler than the others. The large bulbous arms were filled with long trailing stitch marks, that was the collection of multiple arms stitched together, hands and fingers sticking out here and there. The arm ended in a multi digit appendage, the size of a grown man's entire head. One of the very arms were currently reaching out towards the kneeling Sergeant Biden, the ten hands in one hand, grabbed a hold of the Sergeants head with no resistance and pulled him up high into the air.

“Take him inside [Crytaox], Mother Megrel is waiting for him and do not take a nibble of him on the way. There is plenty of men left for you to eat and I even kept a couple of the little ones in the dungeon you love so much to snack on later.” The White-haired Witch said to the creature with a pointed look.

The stitched together monster, who was in the processing of literally taking a bite out of the Sergeant stopped mid-way and its beady little eyes, on the round egg-shaped head, began to shine at the mention of the little ones. With the Sergeant in one hand, it ran at its fastest speed, with its multiple limbed legs, straight through the main entrance double doors. The creature was not caring at all for the fact it was dragging the half-conscious Sergeant across the floor, leading to a trail of skin and blood in its wake. The Witches who remained in the courtyard looked towards the aged one, as if waiting for signal.

“Let the Demons feast!” The old Witch screeched out.

“Yes, Mistress Dirlis!” The Surround Witches all cried in unison, before ordering the demons to continue their feast.

The demons all roared and began to tear and fight over the fresh soldiers who were bound with Sergeant Biden. The Witches encouraged this tormented display, a few even got caught up in the violence and blood lust and dived into the pit of feasting demons to take a couple bites themselves.

Mouse who was bundled up closed his eyes and shuddered at the sight before him. “This game is to fudging real.” Mouse muttered to himself.

The Witches next to him cackled along wither their sisters and begun their journey again. After watching the sad scene between the betrayed Sergeant of [Baroness Mengrel]’s troops and her coven, the two Witches dragged Mouse down a small set of steps and into an iron door below the manor. The Witches brought Mouse into a dimly lit corridor and through a set of iron doors, before coming to a door that was twice as large as the others and looked to be heavily locked. There was an entrance to the right that led to a set of stairs going up, Mouse guessed they must lead into the interior of the manor. The two Witch captors, banged on the iron door in a rhythmic pattern. There was a small window near the top of the door, that slip open, a pair of wrinkly old eyes peered out at the two Witches and Mouse, before sliding the window closed again. With the sound of multiple still bolts sliding the door opened with a rusty whine and revealed the innards of a muti celled dungeon.

The Witch on the other side pulled the door open fully allowing the two Witch captors and Mouse inside, before closing the door behind them and sliding the bolts back in place. The new Witch was somehow the ugliest one Mouse had seen yet. She was so hunched, it looked like she was constantly bowing. The warts and boils the covered her face made her almost unrecognizable and her skin appeared to have cracks coming through, from which black goo slightly leaked. Before Mouse could move further, the new Witch looked down at him and started conjuring a spell in one of her hands. Mouse started sweating at the sight, thinking that mass of mana formulating at the end of her bony fingers was going to be painful. Mouse used [Inspect] to see how powerful this Witch was.

[The Hunched Jailer – LVL 20 - (Elite)]

HP – 500/650

MP – 1000/1000

Mouse wondered for a moment why the Jailer’s HP was already damaged but supposed it had something do with her cracked skin. His thoughts were interrupted when the Witch finished her spell after her five second chant and the green mana ball shot at him, accompanied by the spells name.

“[Complete Disarm].” The Jailer muttered in a raspy voice devoid of liquid.

Mouse closed his eyes and clenched his teeth at the sight of the spell heading towards him. Once the spell hit Mouse, he braced himself for some form of pain but only felt his body become lighter for reason he couldn’t figure out. The sound of something clattering to the ground in front of him made Mouse open his eyes to take a peek. In front of the Witches, at their feet, was a pile of equipment from Mouse’s inventory. All his currently equipped items were there too, like his armour, crossbow and knives were laying at the Witches feet. Mouse saw a notification pop at the corner of his vision and mentally clicked on it, receiving the following message.

[You have been affected by the spell [Disarm]. Due to your [Bound] status, you cannot resist its effects. All current items have been taken from you inventory.]

Mouse was left in nothing but his under tunic that came to his knees. They even took his shoes. The Jailer picked up his items and threw them in a large wooden chest next to the door, before sealing the chest with a set of keys that hanged in a chain around her neck. She then turned to the two Witches that captured Mouse.

“Where do you want this one? And do you want him prepped for a sacrifice?” The Jailer Witch asked.

“Put him a cell on his own. No need for any prep work, we will summon Sister to come and torture him for information on those Imperium worms outside. The last couple of captured soldiers didn’t know much and died shortly after Sister just got started. This one looks special though and is dressed differently, I think he is also one of those Travellers. Should be able to get something more useful out of him.” One of the Witches explained to the Jailer, as they began to drag Mouse down the hall following the Jailer.

Mouse looked around as he was dragged and noticed that the cells on either side of the hall, had multiple people in various states in them. One cell close to his, was even filled with children, all of them looked dirty, scared and above all else, hungry. Mouse was eventually dragged into a cell at the very end and thrown on the ground. The net that kept him tightly bound was now loose and he was able to struggle out of it. The two Witches that captured him grabbed up the net after Mouse was out and looked at the struggling Mouse, they both sneered at him before turning away. As Mouse quickly scrambled away from them, until his back hit the stone wall.

“Sister will come see you soon little one. Remember our warning, if you don’t want to became my night sheet, tell her everything.” One of the Witches said, as she left Mouses cell and followed the Jailer back to the entrance, who opened the dungeon door for the two Witches and closed it behind them.

The jailer swept her eyes over all the prisoners for a moment and Mouse could feel the malice and silent threat leak out of her gaze when her eyes landed on him. The Witch didn’t make a noise before she sat in a chair after re-locking everything and took out what looked to be a tome and begun reading. Not paying further attention to the happenings in the cell.

Mouse stood up after he saw the Jailer wasn’t doing anything else besides reading. At his slight scared expression turned into one of anger, now that his captor’s eyes weren’t on him, he raised his shoe-less foot and kicked an almost perfectly round piece of stone in his cell, that bounced against his jail cell wall and rolled out into the hall way in front of his cells entrance. Mouse almost yelped in pain but shut his mouth before he made to much noise. He lifted his foot with one hand and started to hop around in a pain while rubbing his foot with the other.

“Damn it! I thought I was supposed to be lucky!” Mouse vented in frustration, as he hopped around on one foot in the cold, wet, smelly cell.