As Marcus was growing accustomed to his new 'home', he took a moment to observe it. The only thing present in the room aside from him was the rotten old meat he'd fallen face first into. It was still swarming with roaches that scuttled in and out of the cell.
It was at that exact moment though that his stomach growled.
Marcus grasped his stomach and shook his head.
'I'm not that desperate... at least not yet.'
Turning his face away from the poor excuse for food, he decided to find out if his master was still here or not.
"Master. Can you hear me?
"Are you there?"
Silence.
After waiting for about five minutes, he realized his master either wasn't there or wasn't speaking to him.
'Doesn't matter.'
Marcus moved to one side of the room and entered a meditative pose. He was still angry after hearing the guard's story but decided not to take it out on him just yet. After all, killing the guard like that was too easy a death and Marcus planned to make him suffer as much as possible when next he got the chance.
It would also interfere with the plan he'd came up with.
After all, he swore he'd never be forced into chains again but here he was.
If he was willing to break that commitment to himself, he obviously did so for a reason.
As Marcus meditated for what seemed to be several hours, his hunger only grew and his anger with it. Meditating seemed to not be working as he glared at the spoiled meat that sat only a few meters away from him.
This caused him to seriously contemplate his options. He'd dealt with hunger before, and so he'd probably last longer than most in his situation but would it be long enough?
As Marcus stared at the roaches running in and out of the cell, his eyes widened as he came up with an idea, which caused a slight smirk to creep up his lips.
'If I can make this work, I should be able to last a little while longer.'
Marcus entered a state of complete focus. It was so much so that he didn't even notice the passage of time.
***
A full day had passed and Marcus was beyond exhausted, but it didn't stop the slight grin that was slowly appearing on his face.
Marcus reached out a hand towards the disgusting piece of meat as if trying to grab it from afar; however, the meat wasn't his focus.
Rather his focus was on the roaches continuously scuttling around it.
"..."
The inside of the cell and dungeon were still shrouded in darkness as no light had made it in. Yet, if one could see Marcus's face now, it was contorted in a way that suggested he was struggling extremely hard with something.
Veins were forming around his head and his arms as his hands trembled. His eyes were closed and his arms shook uncontrollably.
After about ten minutes the sight became truly pitiable. One would probably guess the boy had lost his mind due to starvation as he continued to sit there with a hand outstretched to the disgusting pile of meat, but soon enough something happened.
There, right next to the meat, a small tentacle formed beside one of the roaches.
Marcus opened his eyes to stare at the small tentacle of darkness he'd created, but this only lasted for a moment because in the next second he used it to pierce through one of the roaches.
The bug instantly died and was absorbed into the tentacle, and once the tentacle returned to Marcus, he barely felt his hunger ease up but he didn't fail to notice that it did.
The feeling was akin to being trapped in a desert and having found a water bottle with only a sliver of water remaining. One would probably think this would make the thirst one was feeling recede if only for a little bit ,but instead, it only made the parched individual thirstier.
With that, Marcus entered a repetitive cycle of killing the bugs and absorbing them, and after several hours of doing this, Marcus's hunger subsided enough to where his migraine disappeared. He was still extremely hungry though, as he placed his hand on his stomach, but for now, this was enough.
'Finally, I can think.'
Once Marcus's migraine was reduced to a manageable headache and his anger subsided, the tentacle of darkness he'd created vanished and Marcus stood shakily to his feet.
However, it didn't take long for him to collapse back onto the ground, and after realizing he was still to weak to stand, Marcus's eyelids also grew heavy.
With that and the accumulated exhaustion he'd built up, only the sound of Marcus's steady breaths were heard in the cold and dark cell.
***
Approximately twelve hours later, Marcus's body started to make subtle movements as his eyelids flickered open.
Normally, someone of Marcus's age would have become alarmed or distressed by waking up to complete darkness and the terrible stench of the dungeon, but this wasn't the case for the trapped omen.
Maybe in the past, the darkness may have felt foreign and ominous to Marcus, but now, he found himself preferring it to the light of day, and the stench hardly seemed to matter to him at this point.
"Mhm..."
Marcus was far from optimal condition, but the sleep he had gotten did make some of the exhaustion go away, and he'd continue to use whatever creatures scuttled in to abate the terrible hunger he was feeling.
Just as Marcus was about to massacre the bugs that had re emerged though, he heard the sound of a door opening further down the hall.
As the footsteps drew closer, Marcus immediately dispelled his dark tentacle and gazed further out into the dungeon. Though he could barely see through the miniature opening in the door, Marcus was clearly able to see the bright torch light that heavily contrasted with his world of grey.
The person who had entered was a guard. This one seemed far less dopey and unassuming that the earlier two guards Marcus had met.
The individual opened the door to Marcus's cell and shone a torch inside to reveal the sight of the malnourished and ominous looking omen that just gazed at him expressionlessly.
"Disgusting," the guard spoke whilst gazing at the vermin before him.
The guard didn't plan to linger around Marcus for long so he quickly spoke what he had to say so that he could leave.
"Rejoice half-breed, for tomorrow will mark the end of your and our suffering.
Marcus didn't react to the guards words and only continued to stare at the man expressionlessly.
The guard spoke as though he and everyone else suffered just as much, if not more than the boy who now lie weak and starved in a cold-dark dungeon.
And though this seemed unjust from an outsider's perspective, to them, this was the epitome of justice. They were right and just, while Marcus and all other omens were wrong and evil.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
The guard continued to look down on Marcus as he gained pleasure from watching the broken-looking omen before him. He then began to speak again.
"Tomorrow will be the day we purge another of you vile creatures from our land, and further cleanse the kingdom of Uceris. And though we are unable to rid ourselves of that disgusting family, we will savor the fact we can at least get rid of you."
Marcus already knew what 'disgusting' family the guard was referring to and this made him wonder about them for a moment.
After saying what he wanted to say, the guard closed the door and began laughing in a ridiculing tone as he walked away.
"So please, do enjoy your final day on Terra because it will most certainly be your last," the guard spoke with his back to the omen behind him.
With that, the guard closed the door to Marcus's cell and exited the dungeon, and he didn't plan on returning until it was time for the omen's execution.