NSFW chapter!!! I inadvertently tapped into my inner 'S' writing this chapter. If you're squeamish about excess gore, then there's no real progression for this chapter. I can't really put it in a spoiler box this time because the whole chapter is NSFW. I do have something important to ask in the Author's note though. Please take this link to the Author's Note if you choose to skip the chapter.

Chapter 41 – How to Cure the Poison

Over the next two days, Senna continues to torture the prisoners by cooking savory, fragrant food in front of them. Over that time, they have been drooling over the food directly before them, but it only prompted Senna to shove additional food supplement pills down their throats. She forces them to agonize over the delicious food just barely out of reach. The evening of the second day, one of the Prime Minister's guards hunches over in pain. He tries to shift about, but his arms and legs are firmly bound in place with large rocky tendrils.

"AGHHH!! It hurts!" The guard screams unable to suppress pain.

Senna looks up and down his body. She catches his hips shifting excessively with each movement. "There." The tendrils shift as they force the man to stand up while she pulls down his pants. Revealing his underwear, she reveals a large tent from the man's erect penis.

"Oi Senna! What's happening?!" Two guards run over hearing the cries. One guard wearing light armor and a beret atop his head, while the other guard in full armor appear from the campsite.

"SHHHH!!!! Just watch there. It's getting interesting." Senna scolds the two guards without taking her eyes off the man's manhood. She pulls down his underwear and reveals the man's penis. The two guards gasp seeing Senna act so openly promiscuous, but that thought only lasts momentarily in their mind. They immediately notice the oddity in the prisoner's fully erect penis. The shaft of the penis looks completely normal, but the glans looks extremely different from a normal man’s. The prisoner’s glans is as black as night and seems to throb and increase in size with each passing second.

Senna solemnly examines the penis from various angles. The man sweats profusely at the pain without being able to enjoy Senna's examination at all. When Senna stands up, she flashes a devilish smile sending chills down the man’s back. She takes out an unknown potion and forces it down the prisoner’s throat. "This will slow down your blood flow and give you a bit more time.”

"M-m-more time...More time for what?” The guard stutters as he starts to tear up.

“More time before That spreads to the rest of your body.” Senna smiles darkly pointing to the blackened glans.

“S-S-S-Spread…Am I going to die?" The guard pales hearing Senna speak.

"If nothing is done, then yes~ The ingredients in the food supplements do not mix as well as expected. Constantly eating it gradually introduced a kind of poison into the body. It looks like it went through your body fairly harmlessly, but a mix of the leftover supplements and air caused your urine to become toxic. That's why the tip of your penis is poisoned. What’s more, it is spreading to the rest of your body. At this rate, the rest of your body will swell up just like the glans here. Whether your penis will explode from the swelling or not will be an interesting side effect to note down. If that really happens, will your insides also swell to the point of rupture too? I'd say you have under an hour before the poison fully infects the rest of your body." Senna rattles off her diagnosis with a serene face. In contrast, the prisoner’s face completely bleaches white before turning a deep blue. "Well~ it's not like you're alone... you're just reacting a bit faster." Senna replies glancing at the other prisoners. The relaxed men quickly turn blue finding out that they will soon suffer from the same death sentence.

"Do something you Commoner! A noble like me can't die in a place like this!" The Prime Minister yells out. He tries to stand up, but remains rooted to the ground from the numerous bindings on his body.

"Well it's true I can neutralize the poison, but...... Oh! My dear sister is calling. I need to go!" Senna turns and starts to slowly dash away.

"WAITTT!!!" The seven prisoners scream in synchronization.

"You can't leave us like this!"

"That's right! We'll die at this rate!"

“Don’t you have any humanity?!”

“I have a family to get back to!”

“I have to get back to my fiancée!”

“I don’t want to die a virgin!”

“Get back here and cure me you stupid woman!”

Minus the Prime Minister, they cry out trying to appeal to Senna's sympathy. Senna stops and glares back at them angrily. The prisoners promptly shut up after receiving her intense glare. Waving her hand, seven daggers appear in the air above her and shoot forward. They stab into the ground next to each of the prisoners. She snaps her fingers making the binding disappear from the upper half of their bodies. Only the bindings around their legs root them firmly into the ground.

"Just cut it off yourself if you're so impatient. I have more important things to do." Senna icily responds. She dashes off without another word leaving behind the shocked prisoners and guards.

The assassin composes himself first extracting the nearby dagger from the ground. He slashes the rock bindings entrapping his lower body. However, things don't go as planned when the dagger lets off a loud metallic screech. They wince at the ear grating noise. Sparks fly as dagger moves across the tendrils clinging to his legs. On a closer inspection, the dagger cut into the rock, but reveal a dense metal underneath the rock layer. "SHIT!" The assassin curses as he tries to cut the metal again without avail, succeeding only in creating a loud racket. The other prisoners all grab their daggers and try to break free from their bindings. A screeching song soon fills the area with the prisoner's movements.

The armored guard moves to disarm the prisoners, but the beret guard stops him. "Just stay here and watch them. I'll go bring Senna back." The armored guard reluctantly nods as the beret wearing guard leaves. The guard walks towards the King's carriage and finds Senna there calmly brushing Mika's feathers. "This is the important thing you have to do?" He inadvertently blurts out seeing Senna leisurely brushing the perched Phoenix.

"Of course. What else would be more important than caring for my dear sister? Did you need something?" Senna replies without moving her eyes from Mika. Mika contently enjoys the brushing as Senna’s brush runs through her feathers.

"Is it fine to leave the prisoners with weapons like that?" The guard asks.

"Weapons? What's this about?" Captain Lewis interrupts.

"She gave the prisoners some weapons, Captain." The guard obediently reports. Lewis turns to look at Senna.

"They can't break out with such a cheap dagger.” Senna replies calmly. “Plus…I’m watching their movements. In the one in a million chance that they break free, I’ll just restrain them again. It’s not like they can get that far on foot. Besides that…Here.” Senna pauses slightly and tosses a box at the guard.

The guard hurriedly catches it and gives a sigh of relief that he didn’t damage it. He takes at a look at the box in his hand. He opens the box and sees an hourglass. “What’s this?”

“Oh you don’t know about this?” Senna’s gaze finally moves away from Mika to look at the guard. She reluctantly stands up and gives a demonstration with the large hourglass. “You have it stand like this. The sand slowly trickles down to the other half and when the top is completely empty an hour has passed.” She sits back down returning to grooming Mika.

“What do I do with this?” The guard asks in confusion.

Senna spits out a sigh. “That’s the countdown for the time limit. One hour’s count for the prisoner with his pants down and another turn for everyone else. If they don’t cut off the source of the poison, then they give up their chance at staying alive.”

"Cut it off, you mean..." The guard pales hearing her explanation.

"Yes. I wasn't threatening them. That's just how it is. Cut off their manhood or die. Do me a favor and relay that to them." Senna replies waving her hand for the guard to leave. The beret guard leaves quickly to relay her message. The last thing he wants to do is accidentally anger Senna and cause his own penis to be severed.

Captain Lewis looks at Senna with a wary gaze. "Senna, isn't that different from what you told us? You said you would not hurt them." He clearly remembers Senna's promise, but merely questions her out of curiosity. He doesn't fault her for choosing to harm them considering their past actions. The thought of torturing them with food was a far stranger sight for him than physically harming them.

"I'm not harming them." Senna replies with a sinister smile. "They're damaging themselves. I can't really be faulted for any self-mutilation that they choose to do, right?" Her smile is bright and brilliant like an innocent child, but the mere thoughts of her actions fills him with a dark sense of foreboding.

"...W-What if they choose to die instead?" Lewis hesitantly asks.

"They won't. It's only a threat. I'll treat them before it gets to that point." Senna replies resolutely.

"...Then won’t it make it pointless if they figure that out..." Captain Lewis starts to ask.

"I plan to make them believe castration is better than death." Senna replies darkly.

"..." Captain feels a chill down his back and near his groin as Little Lewis shrinks down hiding.

"I have watched several men be pressured into choosing between their lower half and their lives. I know that some are resolute enough to die. So I only have to make dying seem like the worst option." Senna replies.

"Do you do this that often?" Lewis mutters.

"Hmm? Ahhh...I didn't say I made them in the past. I was just part of the audience. A cruel noble did it for his entertainment frequently. How many times did he do it about 10? So that means about 50 men? The sight burns in your mind after the first time, especially when he decided to poison me after as the encore." Senna answers ruefully.

"You have cruel friends." Lewis bitter replies turning his gaze to the side.

Senna shrugs. "I wish I never met him either..."

***

The screeching wail of the daggers has mostly abated as the prisoners clutch their throbbing hands. The daggers have been and frayed from being forced to cut the metal tendrils. The armored guard has his hands cupped over his ears to drown out the harsh sounds. Soon enough, the beret wearing guard returns with a slightly pale face.

"What happened?" The armored guard asks.

"I never want to get on her bad side." The beret guard mumbles. He walks up to the prisoner with the blackened penis. "Miss Senna said you have one hour. Cut off your dick or die." He places the large hourglass on a nearby flat rock.

"What the hell?! WHY WOULD I EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THAT?!" The prisoner immediately yells in response.

"She's too busy to make an antidote, so you need to make a choice. Give up your manhood or die from the poison." The guard solemnly declares.

"That’s complete crap! I’m not going to cut my dick off! Get her over here and fix this!” The prisoner starts cursing. He scoffs at the thought of amputating his dick would cure himself of the pain. He decides to endure the mind numbing pain until Senna comes back and treats them. From what he saw, he believes that she doesn’t seem heartless enough to leave them to die so easily. The others start screaming to have Senna come over and cure them.

“She’s not coming over.” The beret guard points to the hourglass. “That’s how much time you have before it’s too late.”

“Like I’ll believe that!! You’re just trying to scare us into talking!” One of the prisoners scoffs.

The beret wearing guard lifts up his hat and scratches his head. The assassin aside, he knows how arrogant the Prime Minister and his guards can be. They won’t listen to reason until they truly feel like their life is in danger. He relayed Senna’s message, so he decides to leave them be.

30 minutes pass before a mind boggling spectacle fills their vision. The blackened glans of the prisoner's penis has swelled up and clearly started to pulsate abnormally. The size of the prisoner’s glans has easily swelled to three times its previous size. The two guards instinctively back away sensing the impending explosion. The other prisoner's faces blanch seeing the horrible sight before them.

The two guards instincts are on the mark as it ruptures barely a minute later. The man's glans reaches its limits and ruptures. A mild sound of a popping balloon emanates as the glans explode. Blackened blood and flesh fly into the air and splattering everything within a two meter radius of the prisoner, including the other 6 prisoners. Despite the soft sound, the horrific explosion resonates like a roaring boom within the men's mind.

"AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" The man screams in agony as a burst of pain emanates from his lower half. His back arches backwards as he convulses in pain. Bubbles foam from his mouth before his back limply crashes onto the ground. They shiver staring blankly at the unlucky man.

The guards shiver and run away from the scene leaving the shocked prisoners behind. They quickly find Senna and press her for answers. "It’s quite a sight isn’t it? It hurts far more than you would think from just looking at it." Senna calmly replies brushing her own hair now.

"Oh right. I forgot to mention something. You shouldn't stand too close to them. If you get the stained blood on you, then you have a higher chance of suffering from the same problem as them." Senna replies serenely.

“Won’t they die from the blood loss?” The armored guard asks.

“No. The next part will start swelling soon. The blood flow will be cut off as the poison accumulates in the shaft of his penis.” Senna answers.

“It’s not over?!” The beret guard unconsciously yells out.

"Starting with the penis, glans, shaft, and balls will rupture one after the other. After that, the poison begins to infect other parts of the body starting from the legs. Toes, foot, lower leg, and upper leg are all lost in the same way. The arm breaks down in next before finally targeting the head. That's why it's called the Extremities poison. They won’t get that far though. I’ll step in if and cure them of the poison if they really endure long enough for the poison to target their head." Senna gives a sardonic smile as looks at the direction of the prisoners.

The beret guard speaks up trying to break up the dreadful atmosphere. "Se...Miss Senna, wouldn't they try and commit suicide if you push them that far?"

"I'm watching them, so of course I won't let them." Senna calmly refutes.

"What if they lose their mind from the pain?" The armored guard mutters.

"That's true." The beret guard nods his head. They look at Senna to see a look of surprise color her face. Her shock is to the extent that her mouth hangs open as her eyes widen. However, the shock passes as quickly as it came.

Senna composes herself as her expression changes from shock to calm apathy before warping to contempt. "Barely an hour of this light torture can drive men mad, how PATHETIC! In comparison to the 8 years of mind numbing torture that an 18 year old girl can endure, HOW CAN THEY CALL THEMSELVES MEN?! WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT WEAKLINGS WITH SUCH A PATHETIC LEVEL OF FORTITUDE?!" The playfulness in her voice becomes nonexistent as she glares at the two guards. She unconsciously raises her voice as her magic begins seeping out of her body. The two guards and the silent Captain Lewis quickly back away unable to take the full brunt of her yell. Senna storms away in a huff without another word. A few moments later, a column of sand rises into the sky from the desert as an earthquake rattles the vicinity.

"What was that? Who was she talking about?" The armored guard asks. He looks at his comrade, but only receives a head shake. The two of them panic believing they will be next on Senna’s hit list.

“I’ll speak to her when she returns. For now, go and watch over the Prime Minister’s group.” Captain Lewis convinces the guards. The guards nod and quickly rush back to the scene. They return just in turn to see the prisoner’s penis shaft rupture spraying more blood and flesh in the area. The two guards instinctively jump back seeing the flying blood.

In contrast, the other 6 men shiver feeling the fresh blood running down their faces. They instinctively want to distance themselves, but their legs remain firmly planted into the ground by Senna's bindings.

"GGHHHHHH!!!" The man bites down on his lip drawing blood. His vision flashes black as the pain wracks his body. Just as he starts to pass out, his body feels a large jolt that forces him to stay conscious. His body is covered in sweat as waves of pain seeps into every inch of his body. He sees the guards return and weakly cries “…H…elp…” Tears and snot run down his face as he desperately pleas for a cure.

The beret guard feels a pang of guilt seeing his wretched state. He relays the details of the poison to the prisoners forcing them to choose. The prisoner’s eyes bulge looking at the mangled dagger with a shiver. The blade has dulled trying to cut the rock tendrils binding his legs. Various nicks and cracks have formed along the edge ensuring any amputation to be a particularly painful cut. The thought of bleeding to death appears in his mind if he attempted to use that to amputate his remaining testicles. He wants to beg Senna for an antidote, but he knows his time is running out with the sight of his black, bulging testicles.

He resolves himself as he picks up the dagger and strongly cuts off the remaining pieces of his manhood. More tears flow as the pain spreads through his body. The dulled blade of the dagger digs into his flesh, but doesn't cleanly cut it off in a single stroke. The man is forced to quickly saw off his manhood in his desperation. He squirms and agonizes as the cold touch of the metal digs into his flesh, but the thought of becoming a cripple forces him to persist.

With the last cut, black blood begins to freely flow with the amputation. The moment the blood transforms into clean red blood, the hourglass releases a directly at the man's bleeding groin. The burning flesh evokes another scream out of the man as the wound is singed shut. The fire quickly disappears as fast as it appeared after completing its duty leaving a slightly brown burn mark over his newly castrated groin. The man falls over in exhaustion crying in pain and joy from preserving the rest of his body.

The assassin is the most resolute of the other men immediately castrating himself to avoid any excess torture. Similar to the first man, another forms to close the open wound. The other men are less resolute, but quickly fold after experiencing the pain when their glans rupture. They scream in pain as a fireball sears their wounds shut, but have a satisfied expression knowing that their lives are out of danger.

The most reckless of the Prime Minister's guards takes Senna's words for granted. He continues to endure after the poison ruptures his testicles. He wears a conceited smile thinking that the poison has left his body. However, his conceit quickly transform into dread when the rock tendrils removes his boots revealing his blackened feet. He flaps his gums like a goldfish agonizing over the amputation of his feet. The doubled pain of having both of his feet rupture forces him to amputate everything from the knees down.

The men are left in a stupor watching the disturbing spectacle. They shiver and thank themselves for escaping from the agony early on. However, their dread quickly returns when Senna reappears on the scene.

"The information was very useful. Thanks for that." Senna replies with an serene smile at the man's loss. The beret and armored guards inwardly swear to themselves to never go against Senna. The torture she could inflict would be far worse than any treatment as a prisoner of war. She casts some magic healing them and cleaning up the bloody scene. The guards and prisoners are left in shock seeing her heal them to the point that their amputated body is returned to them in one piece.

"After all that, you are restoring their manhood to them." The beret wearing guard blurts out.

"Is that what you think?" Senna replies with the same mocking smile. "I find a cheap substitute for their loss to be far more agonizing."

"Su-Substi-tute?" The beret guard asks in return.

"It's a weak earthen substitute. They can't feel any sensation from their new appendage. Of course they can no longer get erect and satisfy a woman. In addition, it's fragile. A clean hit will make it shatter like glass." Senna replies taunts. She has a particularly joyful smile after crushing the men's hopes.

Ignoring their current state, she tosses them into carriage and erases any remaining traces of the torture. The guards can only return to their duty with the image of Senna's cruel visage burnt into their minds.

Author’s Note

Hello! I’m back. Apologies for the delay. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Sadly, I didn’t do that much writing on my trip. Part of the reason is because I burnt myself out going to various places and wasn’t in the mood to write. The other part is that one of the dorm mates for the hostel I was staying at complained about the keyboard noise, so couldn’t use it much. XD

Speaking of progression, I’m actually mentally debating an important detail that will affect the future characters. It’s full of character spoilers, so if you can’t bear it, then that’s understandable.

Spoiler : I gave Princess Liliana a bit more personality than anticipated. Originally, I planned to make the Liliana’s sister the one that joins Senna in her travels. I haven’t delved much into her personality other than being grateful to Senna and eager to learn. I’m wondering if I should alter that to have the young and curious Liliana be the one to follow Senna instead. I don’t mind much either way, but I need to alter the eldest Princess’ personality depending on which way it goes.

Caveat: I was planning to have some +18 action between Senna and the Princess that joins the group. If Liliana goes, I’ll have to do something to accelerate her age since she’s 8 years old at the moment. But then there’s the young mind in the teenaged body kind of thing, so no clue if that will freak people out.

I set up a Strawpoll this time. Please take it and help me decide.

Thank you.

Lastly, I’ll post up a mini journal with some pics of my trip to Japan. Haven’t started yet, but hoping to have it done in the next 24 hours. See you then~