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Chapter 016: Prisoner of Fate

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It was only 1.2% —but it was energy from an actual and genuine Elemental Dragon, enough to actually torch an entire army of men in a single moment.

Yet the BMA's [Energy Core] used it to power its main drive and make its performance better... so the idea of it was impossible to comprehend.

[Sir, adjustments are enabled with the additional energy to the Energy Core. Recharge time is now at 24hrs before the boost is used up. Our current Energy Levels are at 8%.]

Electra was stunned.

Although it was very simple for her to recreate a lightning prison, or even put more 'essence' into it to make it stronger, the fact remains that it was still really shocking for her to see her innate ability to be rendered useless just like that.

"I will come with you, no need for this prison." Siva said as he accepted the responsibility.

Although he didn't mean to sound arrogantly cool, but seeing him did it and hearing his words made Electra fume in anger —which was still a sight to see on its own.

He knew himself. If he doesn't do this, then there will be the sense of guilt that will torture him for as long as he lives... and although he can't bring them all back to life, at least he can accept punishment aside from death and detention that the Lightning Kirin Tribe will bestow on him.

"Please, lead the way." Siva prompted respectfully.

Electra hissed, clicking her tongue. She stomped her foot on the ground and pointed at the far north of the forest, saying, "There is a passage way over there that leads to an underground cave tunnel to the Inner Continent..."

After she spoke, she summoned a lightning spear on her right hand and a lightning whip on her left.

Then she added, "Escape and I will bring you with me with or without your five limbs." (AN: trivia)

Siva gulped. He didn't doubt it. She would do it for he could really see just what kind of level of self-restraint she had been using to suppress the hate and anger swelling inside her heart.

Electra placed herself behind Siva within a flash of light and without further warning whipped his back that rendered Cortana screaming.

[Ah, that's.... that's good! More! Do it more!]

"Get a move on!"

"Ah!" Siva was surprised by something and he was forcefully pushed to his fours, with his behind on a gallery display for Electra to whip it.

"I don't have time to waste on you. Move it." She said coldly with contempt in her expression... in fact, looking at her now, with a lightning spear that looked like a long stick and a whip on the other hand... made her look more like a real queen of a certain fetish, than a dignified queen of a land.

Then, her whip lashed and hit Siva's hind again.

[More! More! Energy Levels are rising! Her whip is really full of energy, boss... make her whip you a lot more... tell her insults... tell her about how you wanted to slap her butt earlier... tell her about...]

"..."

Siva was stunned.

Just that one whip strike had charged the Energy Core of the BMA with 0.1% power.

—should I listen to Cortana's advice or should I try to maintain my dignity and pride?

A conflict arose from Siva's heart... and mind.

The attack doesn't hurt one bit but there was force in it that makes him lose his balance unwittingly.

On one side, there was the benefit of the Energy Core getting charged up. On the other hand, there was a matter of his dignity being tainted if he let her whip him more like that.

But then again, this chance might not come again, and because he also had his promise to himself to be practical, he decided to forgo the matter of his dignity being tainted and followed his needs of practicality instead. After all, no one knew what he was going through right now.

"Weak." He lowly muttered, embarrassed of the thought and reason why he had to say that. In fact, he was already beginning to regret the decision.

As expected, the 'Dragon Girl' exploded like a real volcano and she yelled at him, "Who are you calling weak!?"

Siva swallowed, "Your whip... if that's the amount of energy you can put into your whip, then you can just forget it for it just stains my dignity being hit by that weak lash."

It wasn't him speaking. It was the "script" provided by Cortana. He was just reading it with a shaky voice and tears on his heart.

He was really regretting it now.

"H-H-How dare you insult me!"

CRACKLE!!!

More 'essence' was put into the whip and it lashed on his back, making Cortana cry in joy.

[Energy Levels charged at 0.2% per whip! These lashings are awesome!]

—I wish you're the one being whipped right now!

This sight continued until seven hours later where the whipping had reached a saturation level and had charged the BMA [Energy Core] to 90%.

Cortana also reported that if he were to maximize the BMA's performance output with this Mana-type energy, he wouldn't have to boost the BMA Core for the next seven days and still get 10km of the BMA's Absolute Domain.

It was fair trade in exchange for the sacrifice his dignity suffered and so he went on and agreed.

Siva had seen himself pass through the ruins he'd last seen almost a month ago, and then went deep in the mountain range behind the ruins, and thru a thicker and more ancient-feeling forest that finally led the two of them into a deep lateral cave filled with vines, moss, and smelled of decay.

—which Siva ignored because he had been used to this kind smell before.

"Jump."

"Here?"

CRACKLE!!!

Electra didn't like being questioned and only made her point again with a lash. The energy was good and all but the force of the physical aspect of that attack was enough to actually neutralize even the weight of the BMA so he was rendered helpless to it, with proof being him in all his fours.

"Jump." She said, looking down at him. Her eyes in that stare-down attitude is all he needed to tell him that she wouldn't speak another word again and will only lash at him again if she were questioned a third time.

Aside from her platinum-silver outfit that does not have any spark of the queenly presence on it; the Electra right now would NEVER FAIL to arouse those guys with interests on these kinds of stuffs.

It was a different kind of queen and it was actually interesting even to Siva's perspective.

—oh shit... what did I just admit to myself?!!

Too late for further thoughts, Electra was on her last dregs of patience so she kicked Siva from the back and followed behind him as they took the fall.

[Boss, this is a really deep fall. Even with the [core] being this charged up, I can't still scan the end of this cave tunnel.]

'More importantly, this is a really straight downward fall from the surface, ain't it?'

[Analyzing scan data. Initializing display.]

After Cortana's prompt, a bluish-green world was revealed in Siva's vision, filled with the edges and pointy ledges of rocks, stones, minerals, and a few more materials which the labels of the scan cannot distinguish.

Night Vision was useless here because of the lack of even the smallest speck of light to reflect it back to his eyes.

What was noticeable, however, is the fact that the edges were all pointing upwards and based alone on how the 10km domain of his BMA had scanned the surroundings, it would seem that this large hole that's 200m in size were created by blasting some sort of something from way deep down below.

And to add more spice to this interesting fact, the blast angle was a straight 90^ line towards the very surface, to where they came from.

'This hole is what she used to get to the surface continents... does that also mean that this hole is connecting directly towards the Inner Continents?'

—are there many more holes like this in Terroa?

The latter thought implied something scary. If there are other holes like these in Terroa, then there is a large chance that the Demon Armada had already long discovered them.

Siva frowned but he kept on falling in a standing position with a straight back and as if he wasn't the one falling and it was his surroundings instead are the ones that've been moving upwards around him.

His falling speed increased further and further as the laws of gravity and velocity applied to him, with the given acceleration of the BMA's weight.

[200 knots and still increasing...]

Cortana's calm assessment was dreadfully scary in a sense. The deeper one goes, the denser the Mana becomes, impeding the breathing, crushing the internal organs, and eventually will crush bones and flesh into a mush of what used to be a person.

But Siva was different, thankfully, for the pressure of Mana does not work on him, for an odd reason, because of his curse. He cannot be affected by a pure Mana pressure generated by something in this deep abyss.

Furthermore, he doesn't need air to live; and since he cannot generate Mana as well, anything purely Mana-made does not affect his constitution at all.

That's why he was very relaxed right now and was still able to think and analyze the situation and his surroundings while still falling.

"Hmp."

CRACKLE!!

Within the silence in the darkness, a flash of light along with a crackling of lightning buzzed above his head and when he looked up, he saw Electra, who he was yet to know the name of, became like a ball of electric sun as her aura radiated light and buzzing electricity that illuminated the entire area in his immediate vicinity.

Just like Siva, she was also falling in a relaxed way as if their current speed was actually so boring and so slow that she could sleep and still wake up with their falling not being finished yet.

"How long do we have to fall like this?" Siva asked with actual kindness, "It's been five minutes but no amount of distance is seemed to be generated by this freefalling of ours."

"You talk so much for a prisoner. Back then, you didn't even say a word and massacred my people so I am surprised that you're talking so much right now... heck, I'm even surprised you have friends."

She was clearly mocking him using the situation in their 'first meeting' back then. She realty hated him and was feeling annoyed by his presence.

Deep in her heart, she could feel it as well. It's like she was a prisoner meeting a warden, or like being a mouse in the presence of a tom.

She really wanted to trash him so hard right now.

But if she did that, then she couldn't prove herself to her mother, to the clan, to the Dragon Race, and to herself... in front of her father's empty grave. It was pure mental reasoning that has kept her from striking Siva down with a lightning strike.

"Don't talk. I don't like hearing your voice." She just said and closed her eyes... waiting.

The wind resistance helped slow their descent but their weights still continued to push through with it, and even made Siva wonder just how she was able to keep up with his falling speed despite being that skinny and seemingly weightless in appearance.

—is it her garb?

Siva felt really puzzled by her. She looked really regal with her clothes but it didn't have any form of a lofty royalty befitting her status. It can be said to be lacking if thinking of her identity as the 'queen' of Anazon Forest —a Danger Zone.

—not even the wind is making her dress flutter...

Siva's cape, despite the flapping effect, wasn't a piece of cloth as well but is actually thinly seamed Black Ironwood Alloy strips the thickness of a hair.

Ten minutes became twenty... Siva finally reached the limits of his acceleration as the wind resistance as well as the pressure of Mana towards the BMA had created an equilibrium between them. If it was just him, he would have accelerated more using his BMA's Absolute Domain, but there was a reason he didn't do it.

He wanted to buy more time to create more Liberty Drones to deploy around him.

An hour passed, Siva had already begun to wonder just how deep this cave was.

Another hour passed by but time continued on...

—this is really impossible. It's been six hours. If we were still falling towards the center of Terroa, then we would have long since reached the core a few hours ago...

—this planet isn't simple...

—this is Spatial Manipulation!

Siva had no recollection of this on his time as the [God] who rampaged in the universe. In fact, Siva's last [memories] were the scenes 'before' the dawn of Ragnarok... with the rest being jumbled images of a fast moving world around him as if he was an unshakable rock and time itself flowed through him as he remained there unmoving... until he heard a knock on the door and a familiar face smiled at him, bringing back the colors he supposed he had lost long ago.

But that colorful world also ended just like that; and he clearly remembered who did it.

Sefirah...

'I may have remembered my time as an Immortal but there is still so much I can't recall during after I was dubbed as the third of the [Trinity Gods].'

—do I really deserve that?

—I really can't remember any of this at all...

Eight hours after he had fallen into the hole, Siva's thoughts were riled up when he heard a yawn not too far away from him. He looked up and saw the Vajra tapping her dainty little mouth.

—she did fucking dared to fall asleep...!!

Siva gritted his teeth.

—and here I was... actually being man enough to face the punishment of the Lightning Kirins only to be slept upon by a mere child...

Siva was (mentally) millions of years old and so in his eyes, even if Electra was thousands of years old —which is impossible since she's yet to grow her horn— she would still be a kid in front of him.

—why can't I draw my wisdom and experiences?

Supposedly, and logically, Siva should be acting like a sage in every matter —tackling things like in a mysterious and sagely manner— but he couldn't bear with it... it wasn't actually his style. In fact, he wondered only just now, he actually didn't have a speck of sageness in him.

Back then, if he had a problem or an issue, he will order someone to solve it for him.

Back then, if he had someone who summoned his ire, he would trample him.

Back then, if he lacked many things, he would only ask the owner of that thing and they will politely gift it to them with a beaming face.

Back then...

Back then........

Back then.................

Back then..........................

Back then, he used force and violence to solve all his problems —which he now couldn't do because he simply didn't have the strength to be arrogant.

He now realized that all those years he had honed his strength to be able to defend himself and fight his enemies, and did nothing else, were wasted.

Siva now only realized that he actually didn't have a speck of sagely wisdom that could help himself on a desperate need of information and tactics. All he knew was clash head on with a problem and force his way forward with brute strength.

—the demons' forces are stronger and numbered more than before...

—brute strength won't help much this time around.

Reflecting upon it, Siva really regretted a lot of few things... but he also knew that things aren't too late so he could still catch up with what he's lacking. He will still pursue strength, true, but he would not just focus on his personal strength, he would also feed his mind and surpass his old limits thru information.

—first things first... I have to learn how to control my own temper.

—I am a prisoner right now...

—I chose to come here and since she can't bind me, she chose to trust my words instead... there wasn't even a point in me trying to trick her or anything...

After listening and watching her finish yawning, the 'calm' Siva asked her a question, "How long are we going to fall for?"

Perhaps she had a good sleep, her expression is still not that stiff and cold so she answered, "By my calculations, we should get out of this tunnel within the next two or three days... but if we can double our speed, then we can cut it by half."

Siva's face twitched.

—two freaking fucking days!? So, just how did this thing ended up in the middle of Terroa?

Asking this question, a sudden realization hit Siva.

—Terroa...

—this kind of spatial magic isn't made by Gabriel since this planet and its first inhabitants, the Dragons, have long since been living in the Inner Continents long before he was even born...

—this is this planet's secret!

—the Devil Gods invaded because they want the four things that Terrans have; their light which is also their life spark; their worlds which are rich in resources; and then the [Memory Crystals] which were born only in a world governed by Terra's Will...

—those are the three things of the four...

—but Gabriel told me about the secret of Terroa...

—is this perhaps the fourth? The planet itself!?

Siva also thought about Gabriel's words which are also words that Janus and his parents said on their short meetings...

. Everything that has a beginning has an end...

—what is the beginning? When was it?

—what will be ending? Why does it have to end?

—why do I know that I am the one ending it?

—who started it all?

—how did everything began? Why start it?

—when is it going to end?

—when should I end it?

...............

.........

......

...

..

.

.

—how should everything end?

*GASP!!

Siva opened his eyes and found himself still in the tunnel, falling, and the bluish-green rendering in his surroundings continued to go up while he fell down.

He panted, again, chased his breath and touched his chest as he felt the lingering sensation of that voice coming from his... heart —no— his soul... it came from the depths of his soul.

CRACKLE!!

"You were planning on attacking me?!!"

The sound of lightning crackling from above him caught Siva's thoughts the brightness of the light it made him glare at it.

—How long?

Siva wanted to know this out of everything.

"How long was I blacked out?"

The lightning spear and a sword were on the girl's hands and her black-less eyes glared at Siva with a menacing intent.

She clicked her tongue, "I shouldn't have fallen asleep... this is a mistake in my part... I shouldn't have trusted you. I was close to dying... I shouldn't have pulled down my guard!"