I opened my eyes to find a familiar stone ceiling above me.
I blinked twice, trying to clear my blurred vision, which turned out to be pointless.
It was so blurry, I couldn't make out anything.
Then everything came back into sharp focus and I realized where I was. I sat up with a start.
Where was Rebecca?
Where was I?
How did I get here?
Slowly my memories came back to me: my old house, my old life, my wife dead at the hands of some psychopath, and me lying helplessly on the floor, and here I was back again as Job, I was so scared.
Everything hurt and I wanted to cry, to scream.
There wasn't any pain and yet I felt like crying my heart out, I felt like screaming, but nothing escaped my lips.
The sound of my throat hurt so bad and my lungs hurt so badly.
I couldn't breathe properly.
Was I breathing? I wondered. Or am I choking? Am I even alive?
As my thoughts became clearer I realized that my lungs were working and I inhaled and exhaled deeply.
Doing my breathing exercise, It worked though; I felt a lot better than I had felt for a long time.
After a moment I slowly stood up, I was angry, I was furious.
The rage I felt boiled inside me like lava.
My emotions exploded in front of me; Anger mixed with despair.
I couldn't seem to calm my anger or contain the sadness I felt. My eyes filled with tears as anger overtook me, I didn't know whether they were from the shock and the overwhelming pain, or whether they were tears of sadness and fear.
I felt hot and cold all at once.
The sudden rush of adrenaline made me feel dizzy and weak, I swayed on my feet for a moment, and then I collapsed to the ground.
I lay there for a while, my mind racing, my heart pounding, and my breaths coming in short gasps.
I tried to move, but I couldn't. I tried to speak, but I could hardly even breathe.
My eyes darted around the room frantically, searching for something that could help me.
I needed someone to call an ambulance, or maybe a doctor to treat my wounds, and if I could manage to walk then I could at least run home to tell everyone what happened, suddenly a wave bone weary tiredness hit me and I felt lightheaded.
I closed my eyes and forced myself to stay awake.
But it was hard. So very hard.
I wanted to sleep, I really did. But I refused to allow myself to give in to exhaustion's clutches again, but It was too late.
I couldn't do it anymore, I mentally cursed myself as I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy.
And Dreams of terror, despair and guilt took over
****************************************************
High lord Cyphus, stood straight with his hands held behind his back, observing the Radiant, the young boy, carefully.
The boy was floating in a pool of black liquid, his skin glowing with a deep shade of purple, the colour of the dark void, as the liquid drilled right down into the boy's body and absorbed itself into him.
The boy's body wasn't moving having run out of energy a long time ago, when he did twitch and squirm, it was more or less unintentional subconscious movement due to pain rather than any conscious attempt at motion, Black veins covered his entire body pulsating slightly with every beat of the boy's heart.
A Bright Silver viscous liquid ran into the boy's mouth from a snake's mouth held in a firm grip by a Bright, beautiful elven female, who was kneeling before the boy while holding a golden snake, its scales glimmering with the same light emanating from the boy's body.
Another Dozen of the same type the snake carcasses were lying dead all around her, having been drained of booth venom and blood.
The husks rested at her feet twisted, broken, and drained.
Lord Cyphus,his blue eyes piercing holes into the boy as his eyebrows narrowed together, his eyes narrowing further as he observed the child.
"You are stronger than expected," he commented, to no one in particular.
The boy had lasted for a full moon, which had left Lord Cyphus who had seen near about everything surprised and astonished by this.
Usually, most people who had gone through this training would at least die a few times within the first few hours, but the Radiant boy had lasted for nearly a full moon, and it had taken the combined efforts of many of his assistants to keep up with the boy's constant progression rate.
Memories of his own experience came to him,
When he had undergone the transformation ritual during his youth in the Magitek army many many winters ago.
He had only been able to absorb two snakes before he had reached his limit, he also remembered the uproar a girl had caused when she had consumed seven snakes in succession after she had transformed.
She had been dubbed a monster in the skin of a human And that girl had gone to be the strongest general in the history of the Magitek army but what of this boy how many snakes had he consumed Sixteen seventeen?
and by the looks of things the boy hadn't even reached half of his limit yet, he had barely begun to control the power that flowed throughout his body.
His strength was beyond belief! If that girl had been a monster then what was this boy?
"Yes my lord. He is strong, stronger than we anticipated," said an elven woman dressed in a simple white dress, who had just arrived at Lord Cyphus's side, her hair tied loosely at the nape of her neck, a strand of hair hanging over her face. Her cheeks were flushed as she spoke excitedly, her emerald green eyes gleaming brightly as she gazed at her boss and the young boy that was in front of him.
Lord Cyphus glanced at her before returning his gaze to the boy whose back seized up. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and he let loose a shrill yell, his voice cracking as though he had just received a powerful electric shock, his arms flailing wildly before the screams subsided and were replaced with rasping sounds, foam bubbled up quickly at the boy's mouth, blood began pouring out of the boy's ears and nose, his chest rose and fell erratically causing the boy to convulse violently, he maintained his posture for a monent longer then fell limp onto the ground.
Lord Cyphus simply stared down at the unconscious young boy before turning back towards his assistant.
"Prepare another two dozen of the golden dragon vipers. Make sure to take extra care to preserve each viper so it can provide additional nourishment and replenish his energy supply, and bring them tomorrow evening."
Both women bowed in acknowledgment before bowing and departing, their every step clicking against the marble floors.
The boy's body trembled as the last drops of fluid oozed out of his body leaving his body limp but breathing, his body contorting in painful spasms, his limbs twitching uncontrollably.
"What's going on?" questioned a worried voice.
Lord Cyphus looked toward the door where an old woman stood there, she looked worried as well as curious, her back was bent as her frail frame seemed to collapse under the weight of whatever invisible burden she was carrying.
Lord Cyphus's gaze hardened, he took a deep breath as though preparing himself for a harsh attack, but when his gaze fell on the woman who was now looking at him questioningly, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Another new body keeper," said Lord Cyphus with a soft smile that never reached eyes that glared murderously.
"how many more will you harm for this?," questioned Lord Cyphus, ignoring the warning in the woman's eyes.
"none, no one has been harmed," replied the woman softly. "I have not harmed anyone, please don't punish me."
Lord Cyphus remained silent at the obvious attempt at mockery.
The woman swiftly made her way beside him gazing intently at the boy
"You are poisoning him" she snarled as heat began to radiate from her frail body as her eyes narrowed into slits, are old walking stick transformed into a longsword that appeared in her hand.
Her eyes locked with those of Lord Cyphus as she pointed her stick at his abdomen as she raised her voice, her words echoing through the cavern,
"How dare you?!"
Lord Cyphus raised his hands in a calming gesture and said
"Please, calm yourself, my good lady, please don't get upset, I'm merely doing as commanded, the boy is going through the Magitek training"
The sword in the frail hand of the old lady stabbed in Lord Cyphus's direction who effortlessly sidestepped the attack
"This Torture is the famous Magitek's training"
Under other circumstances, Lord Cyphus would have been offended and angered at someone insulting the Magitek's way of life, but currently, he was having trouble believing it too.
"I'm performing as instructed. If it helps, I'm as horrified as you are"
The old woman's eyes filled with disgust and she drew her sword back flooding with mana for a strike that would be.....at best, an annoyance to the high lord Cyphus.
Lord Cyphus held up both hands to show his innocence and pleaded
"calm down keeper, the boy is truly just going under the Magitek training, he isn't being tortured, he isn't even feeling any pain, well no he is feeling some pain but not from the poison or from anything I might have done. He's actually feeling quite normal. In fact, his conscious mind is not even here it is under my spiral illusion, in training in both martial and mystical arts as we speak and even there the boy has not suffered well no he has suffered but nothing too traumatic."
The woman didn't seem convinced. Lord Cyphus turned to look at the boy once more before continuing
"He hasn't lost his mind, he hasn't become insane, he doesn't have suicidal tendencies, nor does he show any signs of having a severe emotional breakdown, he is perfectly fine, nothing could possibly go wrong. Trust me at the first sign of breakdown and would have pulled him out, the boy is made...."
His voice trailed off as the old woman's eyes grew wide, her mouth gaped open in horror, her hand still extended toward her sword's hilt, and her fingers curled into a tight fist, as she stared at the boy in a trance.
"I've never felt such despair, such pure anguish....such complete helplessness!"
She slowly lowered her arm to her side as she staggered back clutching her chest, tears formed in her eyes as the emotions rushed through her as if it was her first time experiencing them.
"I feel as though the gods themselves were crying at his suffering, weeping over his sorrows."
"What have you done, you filthy undead?" the old woman cried out as she ran forward placing his trembling hand on the boy's forehead, trying to feel how warm he was.
Lord Cyphus watched her intently, watching as the old woman's eyes widened as she saw his eyes glowing with gold, her lips parted in shock as her body stiffened like a statue before crumpling down onto the floor, her body jerking from the sudden movement.
He frowned, he should have known better than to give the woman so much credit for such trivial matters.
He moved forward and swiftly reached the woman and sternly scolded
"You are interfering with my task now leave I have much to do and I cannot risk you ruining everything because you had a moment of weakness", before she could reply Lord Cyphus lifted her off the floor gently, and placed her next to him.
The old woman ferociously glared at lord Cyphus with pure hate in her eyes before taking a few steps away to gather herself. The expression on her face betrayed her true feelings, however.
"Very well undead I shall do as you said but I shall report everything to the mistress, EVERYTHING!," said the woman coldly and turned away, silently heading out of the chamber and vanishing into the darkness.
Once she had left Lord Cyphus returned his attention back to the boy.
The boy lay unmoving floating in the black pool his face pale, a thin stream of sweat running across his temples, his dark hair plastered to his forehead as he struggled.
A single tear fell slowly down the corner of lord Cyphus's eyes, he had a lot to do first he must complete the ritual to reforge the boy's body then he must completely educate the boy in the Magitek's way of fighting and learning,
he truly didn't have enough time he closed his eyes re-entering the dream world, where he found the boy sleeping peacefully in his cave.
lord Cyphus now in his animal spirit form took in a deep breath and then bellowed
a loud roar shaking the entire area, his cry reverberating throughout the mountains.
"WAKE UP BOY YOU CAN REST WHEN YOU ARE TRULY DEAD!"