Chapter 8: under the knife

It’s cold. My chest hurt… and I can’t move.

I was entrapped in a stretcher with multiple straps holding me down

I was feeling cold all over my body but the place I was pierced through felt the coldest

Why did she do that? I even helped her, protected her taught her how to fight and even started to fall for her…yet she paid me back with a stab in the chest, not waiting for an explanation on my part not even hesitating. Those eyes of hers when she betrayed me were as cold as her element. She must have had a heart of ice. I have seen no one approach her so I did I have seen no one speak to her so I did, I have seen no one befriend her so I did…

Few sounds in the background were muffled at first but now they began to clear up.

My face was covered so I could not see anything but I could barely hear what some people were saying

“…His body is…heartbeats…fast…eye…”

I could not make what they were trying to do but I understood once I felt this indescribable pain rip through my right eye socket.

I must have been on an operation table and these men must be some sort of doctors.

More pain surged through my right eye as something thin and sharp was making its way into my eye socket and plucking the eye out.

It would probably feel like a never ending pain if someone loses one of their eyes this way. But for me the second it left my skull my entire body felt numb. I felt my entire body shrivel and fade only small heartbeat sounds were what I could hear, then I drifted into nothingness.

I drifted in and out of consciousness too many times to count. And once I finally settled I found myself strapped onto a chair with magical seals and restrains. And few tubes with red liquid passing through them.

My senses were numbed at first but they slowly began to feel alive, only to turn unpleasant discomfort that I felt at first to an unbearable excruciation of pain. I felt that the right side of my face was set ablaze, my throat was parched and my skin felt brittle and harsh.

“He is up” said someone I couldn’t see from this position but I could understand from his voice that he was clearly old.

Another man stepped in and this one I was barely able to see when I raised my head. A light source behind the man shaded his expressions but I could still make out his physic.

He was tall and burly with a well-proportioned upper waist. But it somehow seemed that his clothes were barely fitting and would tear at the slightest of movements.

After my remaining eye adjusted enough to the dimed light I managed to see that he was wearing some sort of apron…the ones you see doctors wear.

The man pulled a chair from the side and sat in front of me.

Then calmly asked

“How do you activate the eye?”

I opened my mouth to protest this cruel treatment saying

“Who the hell are you? Release me this instant!!” although that sounded very threatening and imposing in my head my throat only managed to spell the words in a way that showed utter helplessness…not very convincing I might say.

And that probably was not a very good idea as I was met with a hard punch to the face then the same man asked the same question

“How do you activate the eye?”

“I said release-“and once again I was rudely interrupted with another punch to the face.

Normally I would not feel that much pain from a normal punch but this guy is managing to shake the very foundations of my body with a single hit.

Dazed and disoriented I barely managed to register what the man said after that.

“I only want to know how you got the eye to work. If I hear anything other than what I asked for you only have yourself to blame”

I answered again

“I don’t know what you are talking abo-GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” I screamed in pain from the sudden breaking of my right hand’s middle finger. The man once again asked

“How do you activate the eye?”

I had only one answer to tell him.

“F**k you!” I had to spice it up with a nicely aimed spit that landed between his eyes.

No need to fully describe what happened afterword, but the result was ten broken fingers and a face too swollen to recognise. Probably a few missing teeth too, and a hell of a lot of screaming and pain.

The man became sweaty and probably started to feel tired, he took a handkerchief and started cleaning his knuckles from blood.

Then he calmly said one more time

“How do you activate the eye?”

Normally I would have told him anything to get him to stop torturing me. But the fact that he is asking how the eye can be activated meant that he himself could not do it. So it is better if I remain silent as this information is probably the only thing that is keeping me alive.

Irritated from my silence the man stood up and walked away giving me a false hope of relief.

I could still hear him shout something at another doctor but I was too dizzy at the moment to fully register anything so I passed out. It seems that I have been doing a lot of this lately…

I have lost track of time as the dimly lighted room gave me no clues on it. The only thing I could feel was the constant throbbing at the hole that was previously my right eye.

The same man entered once more, this time he had new clothes and wore a doctor’s coat on top and even smelled differently…

His first words were

“How are we doing today?” which implied that at least one day passed…it is strange that I felt no hunger but I truly did feel thirst.

I remained silent at his question then he added the same old line

“How do you activate the eye?”

Again met with silence he only sighed and began to speak

“You know, kid… I have spent a long time in this trade and I can assure you that I can make anyone speak, be it a man woman or child if given enough time. But you are a special case, as my methods are a bit too extreme you might lose your mind, and that is something I do not want. I know that with time we can figure out how to use that eye, but if I could get the answer right now I can make all of your pain go away…for good. So how about it?”

Silence was my answer and it seemed to be working wonders as no more beating was coming my way when I did not speak. Well that was what I taught.

“Hmm…you know what amazes the most about you Asura? It is not the fact that you have the eye of the wise. But it’s the fact that you are still alive. I for sure was certain that you had died at the Saint Herman orphanage incident ten years ago but look at where we are right now.”

He probably was trying to get a reaction out of me and truth to be told he did

“What do you know about that?” I asked.

“Oh, a lot actually. I was financially supporting it and to be honest I was sure that all of the kids that went under the knife had been cursed to death by one of my colleagues…so how come you are still alive to this day? Test results for your blood came one day ago and I was truly surprised to know that your blood sample showed up to have already existed in our database…what a strange coincidence now not only do I need to know how do you activate the eye I will also require information on how you literally cheated death for ten years.”

So more reasons for me to survive and at the same time to take more beating…wonderful.

I remained quiet.

He then said this

“For your informations. Today marks the thirteenth day that you have been declared dead at the quietus region. Your name is now a smear on the perfect record of Alsa as you have been considered a possessed, the clan head Ryouka Gaz was held to trial yesterday and was deemed guilty as he was responsible for all of that blunder. Normally no king or any of his entourage could be held to trial but that man is a selectee of the people. So he is replaceable and is not above the law. He is imprisoned for treason of the alliance of the four great countries.”

He took a breath and stood up then said

“No one is coming for you. No one will be looking for you. You are dead to them and even if otherwise you are thought to be a devil lord. However I can clearly see that you are still human and it is quite strange that you managed to suppress the possession…another thing I would need to know. So this time I will give you a taste of the upcoming events might you change your mind about remaining silent.”

He took a syringe from the inside pocket of his lab coat and said

“This is Magnolian Vetra serpent’s venom. This serpent is very dangerous and quite powerful. They although small in size are still considered sacred beasts. Their bite is what makes them threatening to almost all living thing. If bitten not only would a human die in less than ten seconds the pain it will cause him is indescribable. This effect is similar to almost all living beings. We took away the effect this poison has on blood so it no longer coagulates it but the pain is still present. So you won’t die but you will wish if you did”

He tapped lightly on the needle with his finger and gently pressed the syringe which made a single drop bud from the tip.

The then took the needle and shook it slightly making the drop of venom land on my strapped hand.

Well he said that the pain was indescribable…it actually was.

That single point made me feel like if my hand had been stomped on by an elephant and set on fire at the same time while being ripped to shreds using rusty and dull chainsaws. Not a good feeling I tell you.

He grinned taking pleasure from my torment and said

“This is your last chance. Tell me what I need to know or suffer from a fate far worse than death.”

Although the pain from that single drop was immense and it didn’t even get into my system yet, I would still prefer to stay alive thus not telling them anything that would make my existence any less wanted. I have been cursed to death since long ago and I still fought the urge to just give up. I will not do so just because of a needle. However, I almost regretted that decision…almost.

The man sighed at my continued silence and injected me with the venom. Feeling it pass through my system and agitating my nerves was not pleasant. Tides of excruciating pain washed over me only to be replaced by stronger ones. The veins on my body swelled and deflated with every heartbeat. I was feeling the full blunt of that poison but could only utter a gruff, as my jaws were clenched tight from pain I could have sworn that I cracked some of my remaining teeth. Pain and more agonising pain lasted for god knows how long yet strange enough I was unable to fall unconscious. The pain was beyond what I could have ever believed and woke me every time my brain tried to shut itself down to prevent harm. Seconds became minutes and minutes be cam hours I lost track of time as my body was convulsing and shaking. My broken fingers could only flail around and do nothing. I tried even under the disorienting agony to use my spiritual energy but to no avail, my body was unable to produce the smallest amount so I was in for a long and a painful ride.

***

(Mr V. POV)

Leaving the room where the new ‘victim’ was held in I could only let out a sigh of defeat.

Damn little bastard making my job difficult, how come someone this young is able to withstand that much pain and for no particular reason? I have spent years in this business and know every way to make a man talk…but this kid is a persistent prick , I should probably just kill him and get over with this…but damn it I need the information and fast.

“Mr V!” someone said but after taking a closer look it seems that he is the man in charge over this facility.

“What do you want?” I said sounding annoyed which I actually was.

He fidgeted a bit then answered

“W-well it seems that the kid’s blood was useless in activating the eye we are probably not going to be able to reanimate it if it is not fused back to a living organism…we should probably reinsert it-“

I had to cut him off because he was beginning to speak nonsenses

“You will not put it back on that kid. Find someone that is compatible with it, it should not be hard. The last I want is that kid getting back that thing…did you see how magnificent its power was? He was able to wield all magic as if he was willing it with a thought. It is true that we had lost a valuable product, but with if we were to harness the full potential of this eye we will be able to change the very fate of these lands”

He asked questioningly and with a tone of mistrust

“To this extent?”

I answered confidently

“Even more!”

Then I walked away leaving the man to do his thing. It is true in fact that that eye is capable of great things. One of them would be the possibility to destroy a portion of the barrier that is holding off the gores from reaching the humans. Reanimating old artefacts or even creating new type of magic…the options are almost limitless and the reward is great.

I reached my destination which was one of the conference rooms that the heads of the organization discuss their matters at. My seat was like always at the left side was empty, and only I was left for the meeting to begin.

The rest of the seats around the round table had holographic images of their appropriate owners.

Mr E, the old man and one who is considered to have spent the longest with this union. And next to him was the figure of a woman she was Ms C. as for the other three they were all men and were too hard to make proper prediction on their origin.

The gruff and old voice of Mr E announced the beginning of the conference.

“Thank you for attending this meeting everyone. As much as I would like to begin speaking about the matters concerning the fabricated incident on the Alikhian soil I have come to find out that Mr V has managed to get a hold of an eye of the wise, so is this true Mr V?”

Damn that old man got the news earlier than I expected…doesn’t matter I was going to tell them anyway.

“I did actually.” I heard more than one sound of amazement after my statement but I had to add the following to not end up in any kind of misunderstanding

“However, we are unable to operate it the person that used to be its carrier was found to have been cursed to death so in fear that the eye becomes contaminated by the curse I ordered the personnel to not put it back and find a more suitable and easier to control person to use it for us.”

Ms C intervened saying

“Wise decision but don’t you think that you will have better chances of making the eye functional if you are to share your privilege with us, I can assure you that we will hold nothing back in order to help you with your experiments”

That vixen…

“I am thankful for your offer but I believe I have all that I need in order to get the eye to function.”

She then said

“But I-“yet her words were cut short as Mr E said

“So be it. Mr V you will have full privilege of working on the eye but you will have to bring results in one month time. If not I will have to remove that privilege and make this a joint project between all of our divisions”

I had to admit it, that man knows what he is doing…it doesn’t matter I should have results before that.

I replied

“Understood”

“Mhmm” said the old man then added “Now as for the incident that happened few weeks ago at Alikh we have been forced to postpone our intervention as the casualties have been less than we had expected. The situation was supressed almost immediately. As you all know the project that Ms C was working on was revolving around a treatment that could subdue the blight’s infection. Ms C would you care to recapitulate on the subject?”

The woman almost eagerly agreed

“Yes sir, although incomplete, results had shown that one injection can prevent death or corruption yet if infected again it will be too late. The idea was to spread the infection in a given area and let the country bid its fortune into buying the antidote. However as Mr E said the plan was put on hold because intervention from Alsa and Astora was immediate, under the guise of aid they pretended to help Alikh in their predicament by sending some of their best fighters and diplomats to secure some of the kingdom’s favours.”

One of the other men spoke

“Can we not re-enact the same event into different areas to optimise our chances into infecting more people?”

Damn idiot can’t even see further than his nose…

“No” said Ms C and then added

“It will be too obvious and too risky, first the multiple incidents will bring too mush unwanted attention secondly there will be a high risk of losing control over the epidemic as we might find ourselves rulers over barren and dead lands and this is the thing we want the least.”

Well said.

“I believe that I might have an idea that can help us, however it will need time” I said

The old man as if intrigued said

“Please, do explain Mr V”

I added

“I have known that the barrier at the fairy forest was actually repaired by the same kid that became a devil lord. And if the eye was able to repair it, then the eye would most certainly be able to destroy it. This way we will have control over the very thing that is protecting these lands opening the path to those monsters at our mere will and forcing countries to beg for its shut down. We will rule the entire plane with a fist of steel.”

“Interesting” said the old man

“This will accelerate our plans enormously…we are counting on you to bring results, worry not the reward shall be magnanimous. FOR WEALTH AND PROSPERITY” added the old man

“FOR WEALTH AND PROSPERITY!!!” said everyone.