CHAPTER 7

“Does the hatred you feel ever disappear? Or is it something that never goes away, no matter how many times you try to erase it? What I have always feared the most is myself. Because I, too, have hatred inside me.”

- Naoki Urasawa -

Sarai stared deeply at the knife deep in her left thigh for a second and tried to do her best to either not scream or pass out. She failed at both understandably but came back to quickly, immense pain and pressure cascading all up and down her left leg.

“Why,” she gasped out, breathless and frustrated.

Damian and Valentine were on the opposite side of the room from her, pouring over a map they'd printed out, with a disturbing amount of X's on it. Sarai was no math major but she could put two and two together for what it probably meant. She eyed the keys on the table adjacent, but would have to pull off something miraculous to get to them and use them quickly enough to unlock herself and fight the both of them off.

Keep calm and blah blah, she told herself, with the tiny hope that somehow someone would realize what was happening.

Unfortunately for her, Valentine didn't seem to share the same optimism, and came back and ripped the knife out of her thigh, leaving blood spouting from an opening wound. She then looked at it, shrugged, and walked away.

Sarai screamed at the pain that was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, and retreated to her mind palace. Yeah, that's right, Sherlock shit, anything to avoid the here and now. All survival instincts kicking in left and right. For reasons she couldn't entirely explain at the time, her mind floated to the room that TantaMount occupied.

She was so close.

She was one of the dozen or so players ever that had managed to finally reach the summit of the third mountain, and had geared up to get ready to enter Castle Azure, which no one had ever successfully beaten.

That's right, no one. The game had existed for six years and not a single person had ever made it past the castle before the actual climb of the third mountain. It's what turned so many players off to the game and the reason why so many had quit: there was a tandem boss fight in the castle that was supposedly unbeatable. No one had even really come that close, but Sarai and her companion Solian were up near the strongest in the game, and she figured she had as good a shot as anyone. She'd watch YouTubers and their attempts to try to take them down, and understood the general strategy (or at least what seemed to work best, since no one could beat it).

She wasn't sure why TantaMount had crept into her mind now of all times, but now she was sure. Nothing else could explain it.

It's them.

Damien and Valentine, her kidnappers and torturers in the real world. They were dressed differently, and looked a bit out of place, but she'd watched enough videos of people trying to beat them to know what they were like.

They're the two bosses no one could ever beat.

“It's you two, isn't it”, Sarai tried to get out, but blood was flowing from her leg and she was slowly becoming more lightheaded.

Damien perked up at this though, abandoning his casual swaggering and switching on into full alpha mode. The change was terrifying, and he stalked over to her like a cat finally done playing with a mouse.

He reached down and grabbed her chin and slowly lifted it up so that she was looking directly into his snake-like eyes.

“And what do you think you know, girl”?

He delivered the line with such gravitas that it was almost a slap to her face, despite only being slightly louder than a whisper. The intensity in his eyes was only matched by the glee in Valentine's from the other side of the room, her finely pressed outfit now covered with splotches of Sarai's blood all over.

“Ooooh, I love it when he gets like this”, she mewed, “you get to see his fun side”, and unwrapped a lollipop and popped it into her mouth, hopping up on the counter and tuning in like she was ready to throw on the newest season of Stranger Things.

But being small and non-white Sarai had been dealing with bullies all of her life, and she knew one when she saw one. And that, whether it cost her her own life or not, she would not stand for.

“I know who you are, what you are, and what you're doing”, she managed to get out incredibly calmly, despite the scenario. Her composure seemed to catch even Damien slightly off guard.

“What do you mean, young one?” he smiled a full shark's teeth smile.

“You are Damenocles, and she is Valanastia, and you've found a way into our world, to kill those of us that are strongest in yours”.

Damien and Valentine looked briefly stunned and exchanged a glance, almost looking as though this was something that could be overly concerning. But Damian slowly tilted his head back to her, and the shark-toothed grin returned.

Clap. Silence. Clap. Silence. Clap.

“Credit where credit is due, youngling”, the arrogant drawl returning to Damien's persona, “You might be the only one that's actually figured that out”.

Valentine hopped down off of the counter, tossing the remnants from her sucker in the trash and almost prancing over towards where Sarai was tied up.

“Is it time, Damien? Is it time?!?” she said, giddy with apparent glee.

Sarai looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out her next play. She didn't like her options.

“Almost”, said Damien, “But first, let's see how much she knows about Ozma”.

And pulled a large blade out of its sheath, holding it up in front of Sarai's face.

Without intending to, she gulped, and tried to prepare herself mentally for what was about to happen.

“Time to start the party!!!” Valentine said, bouncing around the tied up Sarai.

She leaned in really close so that Sarai could smell her expensive perfume and sweat from seemingly never stopping her movement, ever.

“Now the fun begins”, she said, coolly.