Rise Of The Godking

His eyes snapped open with panic, and he took deep, rasping breaths to no avail. He quickly realized that a foot was pressing down on his throat, cutting off all airflow… and as his eyes traveled along it, he came upon a tall, lanky man with long hair and a sick smile on his face.

His strength seemed to have finally returned to him, as he was able to move his hands with enough strength to shove the foot aside. He got up swiftly, coughing, and raised his hands, expecting a fight.

After his eyes adjusted, he saw that the man"s smile was gone, replaced by a goading look that put Daneel on guard. He hadn"t even realized that he had taken a fighting stance; hastily, he put his arms down, and seeing this, the newcomer scowled.

It was only then that Daneel saw that he was holding a whip in his left hand. This, by itself, gave him a hint regarding who he might be, and when he spoke, Daneel confirmed his ident.i.ty from the falsetto he had heard before.

"Oh… we could have had so much fun if you really did hit me! Did you think that you were still a young master who can lounge around all day with no work whatsoever? You"re a slave, now, boy, and that means hard, grueling work! The bell was rung to summon all slaves in your corridor fifteen minutes ago! Now, move, or you will be rewarded fifteen lashes for your tardiness!"

Slamming the whip on his palm with a sharp "THWACK" that echoed in the cavern, the man narrowed his eyes, as if hoping that Daneel would rebel.

Hence, he frowned with disappointment and turned around when all he saw was a docile slave, ready to go to work.

Daneel had already seen that he was in a very unstable position. He had no intention of making life harder than it had to be, so he had taken the obvious decision to keep his head low, for now.

This was the same man who had taken away the old healer before. He seemed to be an enforcer, of sorts, and as he led him through the corridors of the Pit to some unknown destination, all the slaves who saw him cowered, their eyes warily following the instrument of pain in his hands.

Daneel could see that he was enjoying it."THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!", he announced his arrival, and with the sound, many a slave would flinch, as if remembering memories that they had wanted to forget.

Caught up in studying the man, he had almost forgotten about the reason behind him fainting. When it came back to him… he rounded on the system as if it was a person walking beside him and screamed in his mind.

"What the h.e.l.l was that? You shouldn"t go around smacking heads into walls without prior warning!"

[Responding to host. Command was given, so it was carried out.]

The flat answer sent him sputtering.

"Yes, but st-st-still! If a command involves something like that, I should be warned!"

[Direction received. All future commands that will result in host fainting will require double authorisation before they are carried out.]

The indignation didn"t leave him, as he felt like someone who had stormed into a store, intent on having a quarrel, but found a calm storeowner who solved his problem without needing an extra word to be said. The emotion left him, though, when he recalled what the system had promised, and at once, he looked around, trying to see if there was any difference as his magic organ, or whatever it was, had been unlocked.

There was nothing of the sort.

He even trying to squint and look closely at each and every piece of rock and weakened slave that they pa.s.sed, but nothing was different from before. The rocks still glowed faintly due to the stars trapped within them, and the slaves were still starved bystanders of a life that pa.s.sed by with naught but pain and hards.h.i.+p taking part in it.

As the indignation returned, he targeted the system, again.

"What-"

The thought stopped instantly when they reached an exit, of sorts. At first glance, it looked no different than any of the cave gateways that they had seen so far, but on further study, one would see that there was a film on it that was two-dimensional. It looked like a painting that had been inlaid into the opening, and in front of it, a line of slaves were present, apparently waiting for something.

They all moved aside when the two of them arrived. Striding imperiously, the man pa.s.sed through the opening… and disappeared.

Daneel was flabbergasted as he watched the entire thing happen. The reason behind his thoughts grinding to a halt before had been the incredible phenomenon that he had seen around the opening.

Tiny pinp.r.i.c.ks of light of various colors were swimming on the surface into which the enforcer had disappeared. They were like miniature pounds of fish that were frolicking around a lake, and even though it might seem that they were just happily swimming around, there was a certain rhythm and pattern to them that captivated Daneel and made him stand there, agape. He traced the path of each pinp.r.i.c.k, his eyes struggling to follow without getting confused due to the thousands that were present all over the opening, and if not for a shove from behind that rudely interrupted him, he would have gone ahead with his study for hours.

He turned around, his first impulse telling him to destroy whoever had been so insolent. Yet, he quickly saw that it was a remnant of the one whose body he had occupied, so he shoved it aside and saw that the one who had done so was actually Sébastien.

"Get going, or you"ll get the whip!"

He whispered the words, and Daneel blinked before hurrying forward, remembering what he was supposed to do. He had to try hard not to gawk at the particles as he neared them, and when he stepped through, he once again experienced the sensation of being drenched in cold water.

While the teleportation took effect, he swore that he wouldn"t let what had just happened repeat. It would just bring him unnecessary pain, and he was determined to be done with agony being such a major part of his existence.

Only…as soon as he emerged, the most dazzling sight he had ever seen was waiting to take his breath away.

It was a large cavern, with piles of rock lying here and there, indicating that it might have been dug out recently.

Everywhere he could see…shards of blue crystal were present, poking out of the stone and flooding the cavern with azure light.

"PLINK! PLINK! PLINK!", the sound of slaves chipping away at the rocks around the crystals reached his ears, but it didn"t distract him, at all, from the beauty in front of his eyes.

Radiant dots of light were gamboling around each crystal, as if attracted like fireflies to a blazing fire. They dove nearer and nearer to the crystals, with much more speed and strength than those he had seen in the opening. They never touched the crystal, but each time they bathed in its glow, they came away energized before flying around the room happily.

Even the sensation of being whipped did little to bring him away from this new world that he wanted to lose himself in. It felt as if he had been blind until now, blind to the charms of nature waiting to be discovered if one only had the means. With the expression of a child seeing a magic trick for the first time, he stared, and kept staring as the whip flew in his direction again.

Drawing blood, the second lash finally brought him to his senses. Wincing, he turned to the tall man and blinked, trying to get everything he had just seen out of his mind so that he could concentrate.

"Either that beating you got made you stupid, or you"re asking to die. Death won"t come so easily, boy...not when you have so much to pay. Get started! I"ll be keeping my eye on you!"

He could tell that the lanky enforced was itching to whip him again, but something seemed to be stopping him. A nearby slave shoved a small hammer and a large nail into his hands, before directing him to an empty spot. They left him alone, then, so he resumed staring...until the whip returned, and sent him to his knees.

Lying on the floor, Daneel gasped with pain while being screamed. His mind had become muddled due to his fascination that just wasn"t leaving no matter how much he tried. Even now, his eyes locked onto a small, insect-sized crystal in front of him and the pinp.r.i.c.ks cavorting around it, free of all care and concern.

The pain kept radiating throughout his body, and he wanted to make it leave, somehow.

"You...you"re glowing so brightly. You probably know nothing about suffering, right? All you do is fly, fly, and fly...oh, if only I could be as free as you..."

He felt jealous. He wanted to touch them, to make them stop, to make them listen, and to make them understand how lucky they were.

The pain was enough to make him faint, again. In a half-dizzy state, he felt oddly compelled to fulfill his wish...so he reached out with his mind, his subconscious guiding him as he did something he had never done before.

His mind"s touch groped blindly for a few moments, then latched onto the crystal.

For a second, nothing happened. He didn"t even know what he wanted to do. He had meant to touch the particles, but they had slipped away easily. So, he had found the crystal, and he realized that he was jealous of its brilliance, too.

"You have so much within...can"t you share?"

He frowned, vaguely understanding what he wanted, but unable to figure out how he was supposed to obtain it.

Then...he breathed in, and the crystal went dark, before crumbling into nothingness.

The whole world suddenly felt as if it had grown clearer, brighter, louder. The whip came again, and he heard it whistling through the air, its fibers pus.h.i.+ng aside the air as it traveled to its destination.

His mind was fast, his body faster. He knew he could easily catch the whip and render it harmless, but he also knew that doing so might mean death, or worse.

He let it land, and as the pain shot through his body, even it felt muted. Still, he shuddered and got on his stomach, his face to the stone.

While the slaves and the enforced all though that he must be howling silently with pain, his lips broadened...and he grinned.