The darkly armored guards were ordered back into the adjacent rooms to wait for further orders. I watched them leave through the jiggly walls and disappear leaving me alone once again with the ever-staring Gauss. He gave me a sip of sweet juice before making his way back to the bench.

“What now?” I asked him with a shaky voice.

“We wait, of course.”

“Wait for what? For me to die?”

There was no answer and for once I didn’t really care. I could feel my eyelids growing heavy and felt the relief of sleep overcome me. It had been a long time since I had been the one to choose sleep rather than it just happening.

When my eyes again peeled open, I gave one last attempt to beg the Almighty to let this all be just one big nightmare. I prayed will all my soul for this to be true. But of course, it was not.

Gauss was within a few inches of my nose which gave me a terrible start. I didn’t mean to punch at him but it also wasn’t my fault he had scared me. With a black blur, I sent a right cross towards his jaw. He caught the fist, of course, but what I heard I did not expect.

There was a sick crunching noise as my right fist broke bones in his hand. I watched his face grimace from the pain but nothing more. He dropped his arm and mine.

Wait, how had I punched with my right arm?

I looked down and screamed. I tried my best to squirm away from the black limb but it was all too well attached to my torso. It was thin, as thin as a writing utensil perhaps. And black. Oily black. But the worst part was the fingers. There were only three of them with each of them being a little thinner than the arm. A white dagger shaped fingernail protruded from the tips of the digits extending out about an inch. I flexed the hand and felt massive power there.

Could I use this demonic extremity to escape? But where would I run to? Not to my chapel, that was for sure. But they said they knew of father. Should I just stay here then? Or were they just telling lies? No, these people could not be trusted. So far, they had brought me nothing but pain with few or no answers as to what the hell was going on.

Gauss could see escape in my eyes. He dodged backward as I yet again sent another swift punch at his face. Guards were already pouring back into the room, pushing me down hard by the shoulders. I swept one off his feet with a wide swing of my black arm. I pushed another and he was sent flying across the dungeon.

But more guards came.

Soon, I wasn’t able to see anything but dark armor as they pushed me down to the ground with all their might. I felt something hard crash down on my new hand, pinning it with such a force that I knew that it would be impossible to be free from.

“Hand me a sword,” said Gauss.

“No!” I screamed. “No! Not again! Please!”

No answer came meaning my pleas were futile. My mind went into panic mode as it sought to find a way out of this mess. The back of my head was aching as they pressed it hard into the cobble sending tears to my eyes and making it hard to think. One of the guard’s hand slipped from my sweaty cheek and onto my mouth making it hard to breathe.

I could feel the skin prickle on the demonic arm as it waited for the oncoming blade. It was beyond nerve-wracking knowing that you were once again about to be dismembered.

And when I thought all was lost, a verse from the old scriptures formed into my head. And when they had formed in my head then they formed in my throat.

Before I knew it, I yelled, “Put on the full armor of the Almighty, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes!”

There was a period of silence. The guards holding me down went completely still.

“What did he say?” asked Gauss.

I repeated the verse to him but this time I did not shout. “Put on the full armor of the Almighty, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” I said this to him in the same way that I would if I’d been preaching a sermon. The words on my lips gave me a little courage and my breast felt a little warmer.

“Let him go,” I heard Gauss say.

The guards did so and backed away from me. Gauss was there, holding his sword low. For a second there I really thought he was about to end me. He could have done so with ease, just one big sweep of that sword would have done me in. I imagined half of my body sliding one way while the other slid the opposite way.

Then, Gauss continued the verse, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

He too was familiar with the ancient scriptures.

“Carve this verse into a leather band and place it over this demonic arm of mine,” I said, leaning up. “I am sure that it will help me to control it.”

Gauss surprised me by nodding. Then, he gestured for one of the guards by his side. He spoke to the side of this man’s helmet but I could not hear his words. Then, once again, all the guards exited leaving just Gauss and me alone in the cold room.

We didn’t speak for what seemed like hours. With nothing better to do, I resorted to playing with my new limb. Whether it was curiosity or that I was still half crazy from lack of food I wasn’t sure but I picked it up. Dropped it. Picked it up. Dropped it again.

I squeezed the tiny fingers together. The grip was strong, very strong. I poked at one of the claws but winced as I drew back blood with the slightest of taps. This was truly an evil thing that was now attached to me. Again, I asked myself: What the hell was going on?

The loud footsteps of heavy armored feet snapped me out of my lazy experiments with my arm. Men rounded the corner from each side covering the walls to the sides of me and soon the wall behind me. They saluted to Gauss who stood from his seat. He walked to the middle of the room and stared down at me. His eyes were hard.

He held his hand outwards, his palm facing up. More clattering came from the back halls and yet another guard came walking briskly into the room. What he had in his hand made me jump to my feet only to be swarmed yet again by the black armored guards.

“Hold him tight!” Gauss commanded. He looked at me again, his eyes softer now. “This is going to hurt, Ira, but it is the only way we can be sure. A simple leather bracelet can be removed but this cannot.”

The guard handed Gauss a red-hot iron brand, smoke steaming from the top of it. The brand was a jumble of thin backward words that I could not read, but I didn’t care! I had to get out of here! I didn’t want to be touched by that thing. No! I wanted to live! No more pain! No more pain!

I knew the arm had been strong but I did not know that it had the power to send six men flying backward, but that’s exactly what it did. They slammed hard against the wall, each slumping limply to the ground.

With my amazement still set on what I had just done, I did not see Gauss jab at me with the brand. It stuck the forearm of my demonic limb, pressing it firmly to the ground. Brown smoke lifted from it and filled the air, all the strength had instantly been zapped out of it.

The pain was not instantaneous but took a while to build but when it did my whole world turned upside down. My head arched back as I let out a horrific scream, spit flying from my mouth and onto the armored guards holding me. The pain was white hot and crawled from my arm to my shoulder, to my head, down my spine, and into my legs.

And yet, I sat still, the sizzling sound and the smell of frying rotted meat filling the dungeon. One of the guards gagged making a few others do the same. I had never smelt burnt skin before but I somehow knew that this was not that smell. This was much worse. This was… an evil smell.

The heated brand was released but the pain did not subside. In fact, it grew worse. My bloodshot eyes peered down at my trembling arm and there read the verse I had spoken hours ago, cauterized onto my body.

Gauss had given me the armor of the Almighty.