Rise Of The Godking

He could tell that Sebastian was a.s.suming that he was doing so because of what the man had said about the fate awaiting him. However… the truth was that that shock had pa.s.sed, already, and right now, he was watching as he felt something… strange, surrounding the entire crystal structure.

He was convinced that he had seen it somewhere before, and that he would be able to decipher the true meaning of what he was watching if he was just given time to study it thoroughly. Alas, they were soon in front of the red spot where the others had disappeared, so he had to sigh and allow himself to be chaperoned inside to begin this new life that he had chosen for himself.

He kept his eyes wide open even when they pa.s.sed through the crystal. It was as if they had stepped through a cold shower. He s.h.i.+vered, but the feeling pa.s.sed in barely a second.

They seemed to have reached someplace dark, as his eyes had trouble adjusting. Meanwhile, he decided to use his other senses to find out more.

The first thing he smelled was the overpowering stink of sweat. It was as if a thousand men had been stuffed into a small room and forced to work until they sweated their clothes wet. Then, he felt a wave of wind upon his skin, but it was so hot that he flinched and moved his hand away.

By then he could see what was in front of him, and the sight made him blink with wonder.

A long corridor stretched out in front of them, hewn out of black rock that glowed dimly with a silver light due to little, s.h.i.+ning pinp.r.i.c.ks that were present everywhere like stars in the night sky. It might have made for a pretty sight… if not for the hundreds of slaves slowly walking along it and disappearing into the branches that looked like pools of darkness from where he stood.

Craning his neck, he turned back to see a smaller outcropping of crystal set on a raised platform. All around it, there were a few tables and chairs that were empty, and apart from that, there were only slaves, slaves, and slaves.

Sebastian"s eyes seemed to have adjusted, too, as he continued to help Daneel along. He didn"t speak, now; he just stumbled along, mute, while the others shot all kinds of looks in their direction. A few seemed outright furious about what he had done, while others shook their heads, as if commiserating the wrath of the taskmaster that he had called upon himself.

There were only one or two that looked at Daneel with pity. He made a mental note of their faces, knowing that they were like diamonds in the sand who had to be remembered.

The corridor seemed to go on and on, unto eternity. The more they walked, though, the lesser the branches of the cave grew, until at last, they were walking in between unbroken, rough walls of stone.

It also grew narrow until there was only enough s.p.a.ce for the two of them to pa.s.s along, side-by-side, and with curiosity, Daneel raised his hand and brushed it along the rock. It was rough, but also…warm.

"Stop that. Stop acting like a child. You might only be fifteen, but your childhood is over. The sooner you accept that, the better. The one we"re going to meet will use means that are far less pleasant to tell you the same thing. I don"t know why I"m bothering to tell you this, but here"s some advice: keep your mouth shut and your head down, and it will all be over quickly."

The seriousness in Sebastion"s voice made him furrow his eyebrows and nod, wondering what new demon he was going to face now. Keeping his eyes on the path ahead, he reflected on how this world he had come to was not a very good one, at all.

He didn"t know about the one he had lived in, but he had accepted, by now, that he was some kind of wandering soul that had taken residence in this body after the original Daniel had died. He felt no remorse due to the fate of that man; in many ways, he had deserved it. But in the foreseeable future, Daneel would have to deal with the consequences of everything he had done, and this was a task that seemed insurmountable, at the present.

His thoughts stopped when he looked up and saw that they were nearing some kind of exit that was ablaze with light. This made it so that he couldn"t see what lay there, as the entire cave so far had been quite dark. He s.h.i.+elded his eyes as they entered the halo that was spilling out of the opening, and after taking a few steps forward, he heard a voice that was very different from what he had been expecting.

"Oh, you"re finally here! You don"t know how excited I was when I got the message that young master Daniel is going to come down here… I remember all the times he made awful messes that I had to clean up. Well… fate is a peculiar thing, and I guess it thought that poor little Miss Gogo should get some recompense for all that hard work!"

It was that of a woman, sweet and coying to the ears until she stopped talking, and a cackle went up in the cave. It was so contrasting in nature that Daneel felt like closing his ears to stop the echoes of the laughter from making him go crazy, and as he felt himself being deposited to the ground, he looked up to see where he had arrived.

Shackles hung from the wall, but they weren"t the sort that he had expected based on his memories. They looked like intricately wrought bands of silver that glowed in the light that was falling on everything in the room from a globe at the ceiling of the cave that was as bright as the sun. He had to squint as he looked at it, and he quickly looked away, fearing that he might blind himself. The room was large enough to hold 50 people inside. There was a bed to one side of it, and to the other lay a chair, a desk, and a bookcase. Between them both stood a tall figure, and after studying everything else, Daneel felt his eyes wandered onto her and stay for what felt like quite a long time, as it was quite hard to look away.

Her plump lips were luscious, her skin almost translucent. She was wearing a crimson corset that made her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pop so outrageously that there were almost spilling out, and below, she wore leather pants that left nothing to the imagination. Her long, auburn hair cascaded down her back in curls, and she smacked her lips as she stared back at Daneel.

The gesture made him feel danger.

It pa.s.sed in a second, but the very fact that it had risen inside him was cause for concern. He had already figured out that these hints that appeared within him without rhyme or reason were probably due to the instincts he had inculcated in his previous life, and he was inclined to trust them as that life had somehow magically ended with him turning into a soul that could possess other bodies.

"I was probably a powerful mage killed while fleeing from my enemies, so I did this to ensure that I would survive… but what about the system? Is it a pathway I made for myself to regain my powers? I can think about this later, so, more importantly, why she still staring?"

Her gaze made him uncomfortable, but each time he looked away, his eyes kept wandering back to her. Each time this happened, more and more details about her popped, and slowly, he felt blood rus.h.i.+ng to a certain part of his body.

For some reason, seeing this happen seemed to make her happy. She was clearly at least 25 years old, but she clapped her hands like a little girl and exclaimed, "Aha! I still got it! Oh, you"re gonna be so much fun to be around…"

Beside him, he saw that Sebastian had even turned his back to the woman, as if he was afraid of what her eyes may do. She walked to the wall nearest to her, now, and picked out a shackle that she caressed in her hands.

Her heels clicked on the cobblestoned floor as she reached Daneel. He was still too weak to move, so he could do nothing while she used her hand to gently stroke his face, but when she opened her mouth and spoke again, he couldn"t help but try to choke his head away.

"I"ve been sucking away the energy of slaves for two hundred years, but that was all just business. You, on the other hand…you gave me reason to hate you, so we are going to have so, so much FUN together! But first…time to burn."

In a swift motion, she touched the silvery shackle to his neck…and his entire body felt like it had burst into flames, while his screams echoed in the cavern.