Vengeance of the Returner

Chapter 149: Cinzia's story (5)

A mechanical machine with a black tiny vial in the center attached to several wires glimmering in blue resembling a nervous system connected to a metal rod on the top of the pillar-like machine which possessed circular electric plates around the rod. It was constructed inside the middle of the large hall and it was extremely towering.

Opposite it stood a group of ten, each of them was chained. In the front of the crowd, stood the warden and two jailers.

"Is everyone from basement one here?" The ugly warden asked.

He was fat like a pig and was possessing hair in the sides which he grew long enough to cover his bald head. His button was barely holding onto his body as though they could burst open anytime soon. Nevertheless, he was an ugly bastard in a warden uniform that possessed a trident symbol to his left pocket.

"Yes sir!"

The young jailer saluted and left.

"You bitches had two months' time before execution. We'll have to extract your souls now huh? Line up! The one who volunteers to point out who killed the jailer 100 will be given four months extra."

Grenelle turned towards Cinzia and drifted back her eyes towards the warden.

"You know who that is right you slutty succubus?"

He asked and slowly approached her.

"uhh?"

She furrowed her brows.

"Don't act like you don't know."

He said and dragged her by her hair towards the chair opposite to the pillar-like machine which was in the center.

"Stop Please! I beg you! I have one month left..."

She cried.

"Then answer me."

He said in an annoyed tone.

Sucking souls to brew Dark elixirs is an extremely tedious process. Ranrak's king had been trying to secretly reach immortality. This was the same for the other cities too. Drak elixir creation was banned and considered taboo several years ago by the integrity gods. Though gods had certainly turned a blind eye to these. 

It was fine if they brewed Dark elixirs using heinous and devious people but, they were torturing other racial people who were abandoned as slaves in the name of trespassing into a human's territory. Out of all the other continents Chaos mainland had the lowest population of other racial people. This clears up why there was not much of a threatening approach from Draconian, the elven people, or any other racial people.

They were rather fortunate and this gave them an advantageous position to trample on the other races. Humans were certainly weaker compared to others but they backed it up with the population.

Now, the reason for why they were using other racial people has been given. The next question that may arise is. How are souls extracted and in what way are they connected to Dark elixirs?

As aforementioned souls are complicated materials. They cannot be simply pursued by the naked eye nor simply be felt until one gains perception of their own existence and opens their mind's eye.

They are phenomenal particles that may not be created artificially. They are born by nature and every living thing has a soul though an intellectual being is a somewhat evolved and advanced version that can be broken down from their mortal bodies to extract souls.

"You all know what this is right?"

He asked tying Grenelle to the chair with the straps and metal cuff making her whole body restrained from any movements.

"Please! You promised me you'll let me live at least a few days..."

She said as the corners of her mouth arched up.

"You thought I'll beg? Fucking kill me, you bastard. Thu!"

She spat on his face arrogantly.

Cinzia quietly observed her as suddenly the last conversation she had with her reminded inside her mind that happened Several hours ago.

"Hey, Cinz... I was acting as the leader here for a while now. So I'll be his target and I'll possibly die tomorrow since the warden is bored of me. Please take care of Haela and lead the others tomorrow."

Grenelle said with a warm smile and patted her shoulder.

"You are a strong woman. I know we won't be saved, at least make us die quickly."

'You are strong Grenelle'

Cinzia muttered inwardly as the warden flipped the switch of the machine.

Slowly a beam of wavy blue light fell on her body while Grenelle sat there with a smile on her face. Cinzia couldn't help but act up. She began running towards the warden and head-butted him.

As he fell down she began shouting in a loud voice towards the crowd of ten people inside the hall.

"You all will die! It is obvious! Putting up with these bastards! And suffering in the hope that someone might save you? No hero will come to save you futile beings! Impudence! You stand for yourself!..."

She threw a tantrum as one of the jailers grabbed her and the warden began punching her face.

While she was trying to boost the people to become a suicide squad Grenelle's life was slowly being sucked into the machine.

Her nerves were bulged out and her face was turning unsightly yet, her smile didn't fade.

"Shut up you bitch!"

The warden kicked her, she didn't stop.

"I heard Draconians are proud warriors. Is this what you all do? Beastkin boasts strength? Succubus are tricksters that can manipulate people! Are you kidding me? You are all far stronger than these hoodlums!  Fight back until you die. Die with pride!" 

Basement one contains ten cells in which twenty people reside; moreover the people that were under the scarred soldier's jurisdiction were exactly ten people. This is why only ten people were brought down.

They weren't moved by her speech and just stood there with their heads facing down.

"Should I kill this bitch?"

The soldier asked.

"Let us wait until The succubi gets dried out."

The warden uttered, looking down on Cinzia.

After two minutes Grenelle's skin cracked upon and her flesh began to tear open as tears flowed down from her face. She no longer seemed like a living thing as her body began to erode.

While this happened the machine seemed to have completed its process as an extremely tiny blue drop fell into the small vial. The vial seemed to need at least a hundred souls in order to be filled assuming the quantity it gained.

It was a machine that was engineered from the ancient Eon kingdom's mechanisms that once ruled chaos mainland. It was a far more advanced civilization than the ones that rule Empyrean now. In fact, the communication crystal and the teleportation gates were all the inventions of the Eon kingdom. 

The machine works more efficiently only if a person's soul barrier is cracked or their soul is broken. This is why they torture people to absorb a more quantity of soul.

Soon, Grenelle's head fell down the people that witnessed her life being sucked, hearts stopped beating for a second as their legs trembled. Cinzia didn't feel a thing. She was not able to feel empathy or any emotion she just gazed at the Warden coldly.

Just as he dragged her she pushed his body with the head but towards the machine. It was still on heat so as soon as she pushed him several switches turned on and made the machine shake violently.

"Is this your loyalty! She supported you all!"

Cinzia screamed and deliberately fought him even though she knew it was futile. for some reason, the machine was messed up and released weird sounds.

'I'd rather die!'

She thought and continued to struggle.

At that moment Haela rushed in and thrusted her body onto the machine. Within a second the machine blasted, making the whole hall burn.

Noticing the slight change the others collected their courage and began to fight with the jailers. Though they suffered damage they managed to make them immobile. Meanwhile the hall was enveloped by blue flames and it kept on appearing before the other jailers could put it off.

"The Darkmer caught fire!"

A soldier screamed and locked the door.

Cinzia's face began to burn along with several parts of her body.

'Is this it?'

She mumbled and gazed at the warden who crawled towards the while. Her body was extremely immovable yet, she crawled and tore open his throat with her mouth and fell unconscious.

Did a day just pass like that? Or just a few hours? She didn't know all that. she noticed that a drop of the dark elixir was splattered upon her burn scars which had healed it up and fire had been diminished.

As she scanned the vicinity everyone was dead inside the dark hall that possessed no light. Considering their sufferings they bit their own tongues and died unable to endure any more than that.

She didn't feel remorse nor regret. She noticed the machine was several distances away from her. The only thing that reminded her was the smile of Grenelle who even smiled until she died. She wanted to become stronger both mentally, spiritually, and physically. She was a level three warrior and was always behind her brother's shadow hiding from reality.

She was once again reminded of Damian's request. 

'Take care of our company!'

She could vividly remember the scene where he jumped down to fight courageously. She decided to live and join her company members.

Slowly she dragged her body towards the machine. After an hour she caught the vial with her mouth. She didn't know when they'll open the door so she decided to wait and intake the Dark elixir conservatively.

One day passed, unable to endure hunger she drank it and closed her eyes. Precisely after a few hours a man with a spear walked into the hall and carried her out.

A month later she woke up finding herself in a cozy bed inhaling the smell of fresh herbs. Without fear she slowly rose and scanned her room and found a guy reading a book across her bed.

He possessed a french beard and extremely fit physique and seemed quite immersed into the book that he didn't even notice her waking up.

"Ohh you woke up?"

He asked, noticing her with a grin.

Cinzia's face didn't show any emotion.

"How many days has it been?"

She asked.

"One month... Are you not surprised to see me alive?"

"Ahh! Now that you say that, how are you alive? Or Did I die and enter the afterlife?"

She asked with a straight face without any interest.

"Fuck! Come on now? I can't even believe you joked with a straight face like that!"

He commented and gave her a cup of medicinal soup.

"Drink it up!"

She snatched it and immediately drank it.

Soon she rose from her bed and gazed at the mirror for a while.

"I am sorry. It is all because of me..."

"Shut up. This was bound to happen since I was naive."

She said and smoothened her burn scar.

Knock! Knock!

Someone knocked on the door as Damian opened, Nate entered their vision.

"Wow! You look like a badass!"

He exclaimed.

"Come on bro? Is this how you cheer up my sister?"

Damian questioned with disappointment.

"I just tried to cheer up the cool lady here. But honestly, she is legitly ten x hot now!" 

Cinzia just nodded her head and said.

"Thanks for the compliment. May I know what you need?"

"Just wanted to speak with your brother alone. He is a god now..."

"Seriously?"

"Yes"

She didn't show the slightest interest.

"Can you level me up?"

"Yes, only one though and you'll still need a devil or angel to administer your system."

He leveled her up after a month and Cinzia steadily trained to become stronger. Those who wanted freedom bega joining Damian as a rumor of him granting others spread. He didn't dare reveal how he made it alive. It seems he was the one who saved Nate too. So it was a mystery that was buried with Damian.

After getting to know this fact several people kept on following him. Some even bluntly proclaimed he was a god. Indeed it was true he soloed almost two thousand soldiers when he conquered Lerinare which was ruled by the Royal dynasty.

This was short-lived as Nate continuously demanded power from him. As they went on an adventure to find a way to the Etherworld he was backstabbed by Nate. Nate had already reached godhood at that time though it was a secret he hid with himself. He devoured the Silver spear clan and renamed it Zerast. Several people left and several new people joined him.

Damian restrained them from evil doings and other dirty business while Nate allowed them. 

Fortunately, Cinzia and Rafila saw these coming and left with the most loyal and core members. She couldn't even find his body. Since she might come for revenge at any given moment Nate sent various members and continuously killed her followers.

Both Gregory and Jack couldn't help her and as they wanted to survive they abandoned her. She once succeeded in sneaking into Zerast where she found her brother's head as a decoration in Nate's office that was preserved by various chemicals.

At first, she thought that he couldn't have done that but that stirred up a vengeful emotion in her. Her followers knew they were at a disadvantage yet they came with her. As though Nate was expecting their arrival he slaughtered her members mercilessly. By her clan members' sacrifice, she escaped from there with Damian's head.

She was chased for months and when she hired people she was always betrayed in the long run Rafila also left her. And after several struggles and betrayals, she caught her hands-on Judas temple's location. That was her last hope in order to regain strength and a godly weapon.

***

"Ahh, today is a nice fuckin day isn't it?"

Nix asked, kissing Cinzia's cheek while gazing out of the window through which the orange hue entered the room, making the fluttering tiny particles visible to the eye that glittered like stars.

"Uhhmm Yes..."

She uttered and pulled him back to lay down and tucked into his arm with a smile.