Chương 113: The Demon Worshippers Cage

Now I was on the run, fully knowing that whichever side won that cave battle would come after me. I managed to make it into a small town of twenty-six thousand souls. Active sounds echoed all around, filled with the noise of panic as the newly arrived soldiers of the Tang-affiliated sect created an inescapable net to catch me. They were hunting me relentlessly, having seen how brutally I killed their comrades. It made perfect sense that they wanted me dead.

I used this vital time to recuperate from the damage as much as I could, closing my eyes and breathing heavily while the soldiers searched every area twice to find me. Soon, I heard them checking pots nearby and approaching the stable I was hiding in. I knew I could startle the horses to create a distraction and escape through the open window, but as they drew closer, I realized I needed just two more minutes to recover. And so, I made my move. The horses stampeded out, catching the soldiers completely by surprise.

I dove out of the window into an alley and ran, nearly making it through their lines, but their net was already closing. Two soldiers blocked my path. I shoulder-bashed one before they could fully react and sprinted back into the vast, deep forest. Behind me, whistles blew and shouts echoed, calling everyone to my location. A new rush began. I took to the trees and started branch-hopping again, but this time they were better prepared. They had an Animo reader with them.

As they rapidly closed the gap, I knew I had to take that man out. I jumped from branch to branch with my sword-axe while still maintaining my Vestuto. It was not as powerful as before, but it was enough to take them by surprise. I needed to defeat the Animo reader in the back, but to my surprise, he was strong. Very strong as he was ready for my ambush. I barely blocked his surprise slash and was forced to combat him while the other soldiers caught up.

In a stroke of quick luck, I managed to land a clean cut across his legs before jumping back up into the trees. The problem, however, was that one of the guards landed a deep cut on my back that I could not block. Blood began to drip down my armor. Still, I pushed the pain aside and continued running to get out of the pursuers' range. It took so long. I kept running for what felt like an eternity. The flight through the forest was relentless, moving from branch to branch, leaf to leaf.

The canopy above remained thick, blocking out most of the sunlight, while the air grew heavy with the scent of damp moss and crushed leaves. My lungs burned, my legs ached, and the cut on my back stung with every single movement as blood continued to seep out. An entire day passed in this manner. Finally, my body reached its absolute limit, and I could feel my eyes about to shut down against my will. Reaching the end of my physical endurance in the late afternoon, I found a broken, abandoned house.

I hid my body beneath the collapsed floorboards and closed my eyes. Driven by an overwhelming sense of frustration and the desperate hope that this hiding spot would be enough to keep me safe from everyone, I fell into a deep slumber. Two days and two hours passed while I slept through my exhaustion. When I finally woke up, I found myself in a place of complete darkness, locked inside a metal cage. I was naked. Perplexed and disoriented, I wondered where the hell I was.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom and I looked around, I noticed the Animo reader whose leg I had cut earlier. He had recovered from the wound but was now trapped inside the darkness with me, looking incredibly beaten and weak. I asked him what had happened. He told me that his comrades had found me the day before. They had dragged me out of my hiding spot and were about to head back, but on their way, they were ambushed by demon worshipping scum.

These creatures were performing dark rituals and worshipping their leader like a benevolent god, but everyone knows that their so called god is malevolent one. The high priest Name is Belepho. I was still perplexed. Where the hell was I? Was this a building's underground or a cave? The cage was freezing cold, its metal bars thick and rusted in places. When looking straight out the front, you could see an altar stained with the remnants of dried blood.

Atop it lay a closed black book, and right behind it stood a massive mosaic depicting a monster with two horns, scaled skin, and golden-red eyes that seemed to look right down on us. The air was heavy with the smell of damp stone and something foul, like a mixture of old blood and heavy incense. Torches flickered on the stone walls, casting long, dancing shadows across the floor. The room was now for sure underground, a cavern carved deep into the heart of the mountain. Heavy chains hung ominously from the ceiling.

Looking around, I noticed other altars lined against the walls, each carved with strange, unrecognizable symbols. Dark robes hung from iron hooks nearby. The entire place felt profoundly wrong. It held a deeply evil energy, as if the very air we breathed had been poisoned with darkness. The Animo reader sat quietly in the far corner of the cage. His injured leg was bandaged poorly, his face was heavily bruised, and his eyes looked completely hollow. He shifted slightly and started to converse more.

"They found us yesterday," he said, his voice weak as he huffed for air, his stomach beaten black and blue.

"They dragged you and us here. I tried to fight them during their ambush, but there were too many of them. Demon scum. Since I have been here getting beaten, I have seen what they do. They perform rituals of darkness. They take people in small numbers to the mosaic altar and offer them to the thing they serve. Their god wants the meat without the blood. A dark veil takes what remains. When it spoke, it hurt my ears. That is how they worship their leader like a god.

The one who performs the ritual is this Belepho guy, a madman who thinks he can become something greater than humans. They experiment on people to communicate better with that evil god of theirs, calling forth his power to enhance their own. They are even selling their own souls." I gripped the metal bars, my naked body feeling cold and vulnerable, but my anger burned hotter than any shame.

"How long have I been out?" I asked, my voice rough. The damage from the previous fights still lingered, leaving a faint green tint on my skin and a weak, slight shake in my limbs whenever I moved.

"Two days," he replied.

"You were out cold. They thought you were dead at first. Then they saw the power inside you, the Suren blood. They want to use you for their rituals today or tomorrow. Belepho wants strong vessels to sacrifice for greater Animo gains, as that is the deal he made with his god. He thinks he can ascend further that way, turning any of us into his fertilizer." I leaned back against the bars, the metal feeling cold against my bare skin. Emotions swirled in every direction.

There was rage at being captured and at having needed to fall asleep, mixed with a sudden fear of what they might do to my body. I could not help but think this might be my actual end, a boring one, sacrificed for someone else's gain instead of falling in a battle of the strong against the stronger, measured as a true man reaching for the skies. With that desperation building on my face, it slowly turned into fierce determination.

"I will not be fertilizer for a madman's god," I told him, my voice low against the bars.

"I have clawed through too much blood to be cut open on that mosaic like a gift. There are still things I have to achieve in this life before I offer it to anyone else. The people I lost do not get to stay dead for nothing. Not for my mistakes. Not for Belepho." The Animo reader looked at me, his eyes tired and heavy.

"You are different from the others, Suren, you know. Even those I have hunted down over the years gave up their flames to fate before death. Most are arrogant and proud. You... you carry guilt with you. It is like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Why?" I stared at the flickering torch, watching the light dance on the stone walls.

"Because everywhere I go, people die either protecting me or others, simply because I exist. Because I am a reckless person. Because I keep chasing strength, and it costs everyone else. I just wanted to protect something with my own power. Being strong enough means you can hold what you hold dear to you. But instead, I just bring chaos to those protecting me." The emotion was raw in my tone as the truth spilled out.

"But I will not stop. I cannot. Not until I am strong enough to end it, and to make sure no one else has to pay for my existence." He nodded slowly.

"Then we have that in common. I hunted because the Tang paid well. Now I am here, a prisoner just like you. The world has a funny way of balancing the scales." We talked for an hour, sharing our stories. The Animo reader, whose name was Fouenzo, told me about his life, hunting for the Tang and the rewards he had gained to help his smaller sect survive. However, it was a brutal existence, as they were not entirely destroyed by those very same Tang in the end, but rather forced to live completely at their mercy.

They had to fulfill every single wish of the sect, or heads would roll and family members would mysteriously disappear. He spoke of his deep regret for being weak himself, trapped under their iron thumb. I told him of the Rift, the road, the losses, and the pearls. I also shared a crucial reason with him: if I were about to die and could not make it out alive, he had to help restore the Golden Tooth using the Body Reformation Art. The conversation helped.

It grounded us both and reminded me that I was not alone in this active, looming darkness. The cage felt a little less suffocating, and the fear became a little less sharp.

"We will get out," I said.

"Together. And then we will end Belepho and put a stop to this crazy madness of his." Fouenzo smiled faintly.

"You have the fire of a true warrior, even while naked in a cage. The world needs more people like you, and fewer like me who simply gave in to the strong." The torches flickered on the walls, and the distant sound of chanting began to echo through the cavern. The demon scum were preparing something. But I was ready. The power from Altburn still hummed in my veins, along with the Betrunkener title and the price I had paid for the promise to become mightier. I would survive this.

I would grow stronger, and I would make sure that all the losses had meaning. This cage would not hold me forever. The darkness would not win today.