The waves of pain and exhaustion slammed into Tony. The Dire Wounds generated by Adamant Grit were plain to see on his body, a swirled scar on his left elbow and a patch mottled and marred skin on the left side of his abdomen.

A chorus of creaking bone and rearranging flesh snapped Tony's attention back to the present as his left arm finished righting itself, the Ascendant Healing Factor at work. He looked to the announcer, a slim Padinus with garishly accented chitin that he had, somehow, missed when he entered the arena and during the fight he had controlled.

"Can I go now?" Tony grunted.

"Not yet," the announcer declared, "her majesty wishes to speak with you."

"Her majesty can go fuck herself," Tony growled.

The announcer's jaw nearly hit the floor, "How dare you speak of -"

"Stop talking," Tony spat "before I make you."

Serketzi's footfalls halted what was sure to be a solid stream of insults out of the announcer.

"Where did all of that aggression come from, Antonious? You were so timid before..." she observed.

Tony didn't know what to say to that.

"Oh, come on now Antonious, I've missed our little talks. Banter with me," Serketzi ordered.

"Easy to seem timid when someone else is in control. Must be what you want me to be," Tony chided in compliance with the command.

"Much better," she cooed, "my feisty little Ascendant."

Tony's lip curled up into a snarl, "I don't belong to you."

"Oh but you do, the device around your neck, your very presence here in the arena; all under my control. Your future is in my hands," Serketzi answered.

Before Tony could think of what to say, several pairs of hands gripped his arms and clothing and dragged him away. Tony was "deposited" into the Pit Barracks and Jak was on him, again.

"I don't know what you were so worried about, handled Locusnettle just fine!" the craggy man said as he clapped Tony on the back.

Tony flexed his left elbow, eliciting a loud crackle and groan

"Ooh, that sounds bad..." Jak remarked.

"It'll be fine," Tony said, "when's my next fight?"

Jak raised a cliff-like brow, "Unless you're scheduled for 'Chain Fighting' or the current champion, you get one fight a day, that's it."

"Who's the champ? What's Chain Fighting?" were questions that Tony would have asked, had he not been so tired.

"Where can I sleep?" he asked instead.

"Come on , big guy, I'll show you," Jak answered as he threw Tony's arm over his shoulder and half dragged, half helped him out of the barracks. The chamber Jak brought him to was not a private room or a group bunk; it was the infirmary.

Vixie, the elf Tony met during his involuntary stint as a table dancer, was moving between the patients with practiced pacing. She applied cold compresses, administered medications, salves, and soothing words with incredible ease.

"Set him down over there," she ordered Jak. She pointed at a table close to the back of the room where some primitive surgical equipment laid on a standing tray.

"I dunneed surgerrr..." Tony mumbled.

"Okay bud," Jak answered as he hefted Tony off his feet, laid him gingerly on the table as instructed, and left the room.

Vixie approached soon after. She wasn't wearing the table dancer garb anymore, and Tony had to guess that her current get-up was a little more in line with what she was used to. The elf was wearing well used leather armor, stained with various grasses and flora, an apron stained with blood and other humors, and a black surgical mask. Without a word, she drew a curtain around the bed that Tony laid on and leaned in next to his ear, her gleaming eyes fixated on his.

"Blink once if you have technology related debuffs," she ordered.

Tony pulled up his character sheet and focused on the debuffs section.

Collared

Time Remaining: --

You have been linked to an Essence Slave Collar. You must obey the commands of the owner linked to the collar, so long as they are not deemed "unacceptable." Freedom from the collar can only be granted by the controller. It can be taken by other, costly, means.

Tony blinked once.

Vixie rolled her eyes before producing a small pad of paper and a piece of charcoal.

"I hate it here, do you have a plan?" she wrote.

Tony half shrugged, then she pushed the paper and makeshift pencil into his hand. Despite the fatigue, Tony couldn't help but smirk.

"Step 1: Fight, Step 2: Win, Step 3: ???, Step 4: Profit... and by profit I mean get out of here," he scrawled.

Vixie punched him in the ribs and fireworks went off in his vision.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she hissed.

Tony waved his right hand dismissively, his left clutching the ribs on his right side.

"No, it is not okay..." Vixie grumbled. She smacked his left hand away and pressed something against his ribs. The pain, not only from her overly enthusiastic but playful punch, but from all of the impact and damage his sides had absorbed during the fight was just gone. The sensation spread like a warm blanket across all of the parts of him that ached. He opened his mouth to talk, to say thank you, but it didn't work.

"You overdid it by quite a lot, the salve I put on your side is going to take a little bit to work, but in the meantime, all of your non-essential systems are going to shut down. Digestion, basic motor function, hearing, sight, touch, those are all going to work. Smell, taste, fine motor function, speech, those aren't until you're fully healed... well... as much as you can be, considering the Dire Wounds," Vixie explained.

Tony wasn't sure what expression his face made. Vixie's reaction answered that for him.

"Look, mister, I'm doing my best with what I have, you should be back to the ninety-eight percent you have left by the morning. Now, sleep."

Vixie punctuated her order by throwing some powder on Tony's chest; it billowed up into a cloud and, Tony could have sworn, spiraled directly into his nostrils.

Tony opened his eyes, again in the endless while "Loading" space that he'd been in when The Archon had tried to kill him.

"I swear to f-" Tony started.

"Be not afraid... I am not here to harm you..." a voice, eerily similar to the Archon's, said from behind him.

Tony turned to see what could have been confused with The Archon, but wasn't, this... thing... had two less pairs of wings, only three rings orbiting its eyes, and... a number less of those than The Archon.

"Then what is the winged celestial soccer ball here to do?" Tony quipped.

All of the things eyes snapped open at once and glared at Tony as the rings spun up to startling speed.

"You dare to demean me?" it demanded.

"You should see the last guy," Tony taunted as he rapidly queried his menus.

Loading Space

Description: A space where players go when unable to disconnect from Ascendant: Online safely, while their avatars are unconscious. Inventory, Status, Hit Points, Stamina, and Mana are represented, but not affected in-game while in Loading Space

Tony dismissed the screen as the ball of eyes, rings, and wings advanced on him.

"You... you are the Ascendant who has abandoned his vows and spread shame on the Dread Knight Order..." it said, "you are the one who defied and defiled The Archon..."

"And?" Tony asked.

"I am here to aid you..." the thing sighed, its wings dropping as several of its eyes rolled.

Tony burst out, laughing, "You? Help me? Help me do what, exactly?"

"Help you find your freedom, remove that collar from your neck, do Denmas proud, show The Archon that you don't need his blessings to be a badass... those things..."

Tony's laughter ceased immediately, "What's all of that going to take?"

"Surrender."

"I don't know if you know this but -" Tony started.

"Surrender to the fact that you are not in control of everything that is happening, that you are in too deep, that you need help and are too proud to admit it, surrender to your fear and your anger, honor them, and release them, so that you may conquer all of it," the mini-archon leveled.

A hand made of ice wrapped its fingers around Tony's heart and squeezed. Or, that's what it felt like.

"It's okay, Tony. It's okay to be scared and hurt, and angry. Let it out."

The ball floated closer to him, and laid a wing across his back.

"If you keep all of that... energy... locked up inside you, it will fester, take away from your power, and become weakness. You don't want that, do you?"

Tony shook his head.

"Let it out then. Surrender to yourself so you may master yourself."

The wing released him and backed away, giving Tony space.

A thousand things rampaged in Tony's head. Jorogu had abandoned him despite what he had done for her and her people, Serketzi had taken what she wanted from him, Auren had refused to help him, and The Archon had fucked him over on a technicality when he needed the help the most; to name a few.

"Let it out, surrender..." it said.

Tony obliged.

He screamed, he cried, pummeled the ground, pointed his fingers at imaginary figures, roared into the sky.

"There you go Tony, that's good, let it out..."

Achievement Unlocked!

LET. GO.