…
Ango and the rest of the prisoners had felt intense tremors shaking the walls, and had heard a great commotion but did not know what was going on. Hours passed and the commotion died down and they couldn't feel much anymore. They felt confused at first but then something happened.
Inside his cell, which was made out of thick enchanted wood, Ango was shaking none stop, not because of pain, cold or fear, but because of excitement. He could finally see rays of the sunlight in the air, and feel their warmth on his skin again after all this time.
He was never a fan of the sun, the light always burned his skin and the sun being out had always meant 'time to work'. But after two years without any light, constant torture and solitude, he welcomed the feeling. While relishing the feeling, his nose twitched.
'what's that smell' he would have said it out loud but since the last time he had tried to chew his tongue, they had gagged him.
*Cough cough
After a few moments, he squinted his eyes and caught a glimpse of what was happening. He realized that the palace was burning and falling apart and he was stuck in the cell, the only thing in this wretched world that he could call "His". His excitement of seeing the sun after so long was immediately extinguished by the scorching flames.
At that moment he heard a voice yelling "Release the slaves and the prisoners so that we can have them clear a way out to outside". Ango was excited when he heard the first half of the sentence but after hearing the rest of it he chuckled at his misfortune of being born a human and thought to himself
'I guess this is it isn't it? my final day in this wretched world, I finally get to die. There won't be any more torture'
As he got lost in thought, a guard came and began taking prisoners one by one to clear the way to the outside. Ango didn't know the reason but they had considered it was safer for them this way, they were wounded and exhausted and it would take only a few people to kill them; most of the prisoners were either elves or dwarves with the sole exception of Ango.
Ango's cell was at the end of the row, the closest to the torture chamber. It took around an hour for the guard to reach his cell, it was a familiar face, strangely enough, the guard was Lambert and he was wearing the armor of the palace guards. The armor was nicked and broken in some places, signs of battle and he seemed exhausted.
'What the fuck is this bastard doing here, why is he wearing palace guards' armor?' Ango didn't know but during the war, he had shown promise and had become a palace guard, away from the battlefield. He was surprised to see a human, since he knew they were ordered to kill all of them but didn't recognize Ango. He unlocked Ango's chains and gag, so he could move and breathe and moved him forcefully.
Ango could barely walk with wounds covering his body but Lambert didn't have the time nor the patience to walk so slowly. So he kept pushing and dragging Ango till they made it outside of the dungeon. Exiting the dungeon, the light and the heat assaulted him but Lambert didn't give him any time to adjust and pushed him forward.
"Move, hurry now"
Along the way, Ango saw the corpses of many slaves, prisoners, and soldiers; elves, and dwarves all lying there with their bodies scorched black. Some of them even had short arrows and vines inside their bodies, either a courtesy so that they would not suffer or the result of a battle, some of those seemingly dead bodies were still alive and were struggling with all they had just to take one more breath of this cursed world's air.
Through the holes in the palace walls he could see that the entire city was burning. Ango knew nothing about the war that was going on but seeing the corpses of so many elves and dwarves gave him some ideas, the elves might not have lost the war, but they had lost this battle. As far as his eyes could see was fire and ruin, metal arrows bigger than horses sticking out of the walls, metal balls embedded into the ground, bodies of dwarves skewered by wooden poles and much more. He saw flying beasts overhead, diving and taking corpses away to eat, he also saw a headless body wearing the lord's outfit fixated to a tree with metal poles.
After a while they finally reached the place where everyone had gathered, all of them elves, some guards, some nobles and some ordinary elves. They were quite a distance away from the palace now and only a little was left to the gate but the way was in too terrible of a condition but there was no other way available. As Lambert kept pushing him, he could see the anxious and fear-stricken faces of the elves, most were wounded and exhausted with tattered clothes and damaged armor. This was an expression that he had never seen on their faces before. They always had a look of pride and arrogance, always looking down on everyone. Seeing them like this made him rejoice and a wide grin appeared on his face. A thought entered his mind " so they can be frightened too hah". But then he suddenly felt a burning sensation on his skin, he was just an arm's length away from a wall of dancing flames.
One of the guards among the group came forward and said with an oppressive tone "Pick up something off the ground and begin clearing the way this instant. If you can clear the path to the gate then we'll set you free. Otherwise, I will break your legs and throw you into the fire so you can see the flesh on your bones become scorched black while you still live, I will make sure of it"
Ango took a moment to catch his breath, eyes flickering with hope he grabbed a piece of a relatively long and still burning wood. Even putting out the fire that small proved difficult since he was injured but after putting out the fire on it, he used it as a walking staff and used it for clearing the way.
'He is lying but if I clear the way I can run away and they won't come after me, why would they' this was the thought going on in his head.
There were two others that were clearing the way, two ordinary elves but they were at the end of the rope and gradually passed out either from the lack of air or weakness, their bodies were gradually consumed by the flames, their mouths letting out silent screams. Ango gave them a glance but didn't make a move, he was too tired to help them, and even if he had the energy, he was far more concerned about his own freedom than helping strangers, and elves at that.
Sometimes he was forced to push the still burning huge lumbers out of the way which burned his skin, opened his injuries and strained his atrophied muscles.
There he was amidst the dancing flames, consumed by fires of hope to clear a path to his freedom. He went on and on and on, his palms burnt black and his clothes in tatters and scorched; he was exhausted, and weak due to the constant torture in the past two years. Healing required nutrition and if they did not exist in the body or were no replenished then the healing spell would take them away from the body itself, healing the wounds but deteriorating the body.
…
By the time they reached the palace gate, Ango's clothes were half-burned, the skin on his left forearm was scorched and its tendons were visible. His face and body were blackened by the smoke and his hair was gone, burned away and he was coughing none-stop and gasping for air.
It took a few moments for the elves to catch up to him since they had put a distance between Ango and themselves. After reaching there some of them began to cheer and sigh of relief, some of them gasped at the sight of the corpses of their soldiers but most began running toward the gate the moment they saw it.
'I should now runaway, before they decide to kill me, I just need to catch my breath Ango thought amidst his endless coughs and struggle for air, hope flickering in his green eyes.
While Ango was still gasping for air, Lambert walked up to him. Ango raised his head to look at him with a wary expression, but
'Son of a bi-'
The moment his train of thought reached there, he was suddenly kicked in the chest and thrown to the flames. As he was in midair he caught a glimpse of Lambert's face, he had a grin on his face, ear to ear.
Time crawled to a stop for Ango, he could see Lambert's face getting distorted by the flame between them, he could hear the voices of the elves talking about survival and luck and then the only thing he could hear was the roar of the giant flame.
Ango's world became one of fire, …. Of endless fire and purgatory. He kept screaming, running wildly around himself trying to put out the fire on his body but he couldn't escape this inferno. His throat dried up and he couldn't scream anymore. he began hearing faint sounds of laughter.
He was running out of energy but he used every ounce of it to run, walk and then crawl toward the sound of laughter. The moment he got out of that fiery hell, his body went limp and he fell to the ground. The flames were still on his body. The left side of his body was burned so much that the bones and tendons underneath were visible and the pain was stabbing him like needles.
As he was gasping for air with a lipless mouth and trying to cope with the pain, he could see the elves as they were leaving the tree castle and he could see the still-grinning face of the guard.
'If I live, I will kill you one day, I will skin you alive, feed your parts to yourself, grind your bones while you're alive, burn you, pierce you, tear you apart and leave you alive, until you beg me for death'
He wasn't able to even feel rage as the only thing in his mind was pain, a pain that wouldn't even let him lose consciousness but he made a promise, a cold solemn promise to himself that he would pay everything back.
Even an hour later when the flames on his body were extinguished, he was still twitching in pain. He was on the brink of death but could not die, death by fire was not an easy thing.
'I just want to die' he would have cried but he no longer had any tears, he was denied that too.
Around that time a giant eagle could be seen flying around the castle attracted by the smell of burning flesh. It suddenly dived down and grabbed a body and then started flying away.
Feeling something pierce his sides and legs, Ango wanted to scream but he didn't have the energy to do it.
'Why won't you let me die … just let me die'
As the eagle was flying, Ango could see the forest down blow, the infinite green, the wide river traveling from the peak of the mount "Crown" and through the forest.
He was taking in the view, forgetting for some moments that he wanted to die as his body was being cooled down by the wind and his pain was subsiding a bit. Suddenly a gigantic shadow appeared on the forest and overshadowed the eagle.