"Huh," I exclaimed as I tried to walk back, but my body was stuck in place, unable to move. I was quite literally at the mercy of something that I had no idea what it was, something that was expressing its desire for my life, and I was unable to do anything about it.
[However, regrettably, it appears that the time is not quite ripe for me to pilfer your soul away. It's a bit disappointing, really,] he said as he moved his head away and leaned back in his chair.
As he moved, my body too gravitated closer to him until I was standing right on the palm of his left hand.
[Hmm, what to do with this predicament... I can't very well keep you captive here, as that would utterly defeat the purpose of waiting. Yet, the thought of releasing you and risking your premature demise is equally unpalatable. Quite the conundrum, isn't it?] he said, his face turned towards me, while his chin rested on his other hand.
"H-how abo-ut let-tting m-me g-g-go?" I spoke once again, stuttering out my words, my body now drenched in sweat, and my internal body temperature steadily increasing.
[Pray tell, human, enlighten me. What could I possibly gain from that? Surely you must have a compelling reason,] he spoke in an amused tone, bringing me closer to his face.
"Y-you j-just s-said it, d-didn't you? Th-that I-I am n-not r-ripe or s-something l-like th-that, s-so i-it w-would b-be b-better, r-right, f-for m-me t-to g-go o-out a-and r-ripen b-before y-you k-kill m-me or s-something?" I muttered out, my teeth clattering every so often as I spoke.
[And how would that work, exactly? Is there any assurance you'll return here once you 'ripen'? Or do you even possess the discernment to know whether you are ripe before you start to decay? It's rather amusing to think you could,] he spoke, as I clearly felt from his tone that he was toying with me, as he likely already knew the answer to his questions.
"W-would y-you h-have n-no w-way t-to g-guarantee th-that yourself?" I replied.
[Fortunately for you, I do indeed possess a method to make your suggestion a reality,] he said as he used the index finger on his right hand to poke my chest for no longer than a second, which caused it to start sizzling the moment his finger moved.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," I screamed as blood and tears started to roll down from my eyes, and the agony that I felt on my chest continued to increase. Slowly, the leather tunic that I had been wearing fell off me, and smoke started to rise from the left side of my chest.
The pain, I think, lasted for a good 5 minutes, during which my nails had deeply gouged into my palms. Unable to move then, all I could do was keep tightening them. My face was covered with my blood, which came from the tears of blood that came out of my eyes, and a mouthful of blood that I had coughed out. And then there was the smoke coming out from my mouth; clearly, something inside me was burnt, but what exactly, I didn't know.
The largest change, however, was the massive burn mark that covered the entire left side of my chest, a wing in a circle, had been tattooed onto me, irrespective of my desire to have it or not.
[Rejoice, human, for you've been graced with the chance to live another day. Consider yourself fortunate, as I shall summon you again when I deem you sufficiently ripened. For now, bask in the pride of having encountered a fallen angel as magnificent as myself,] he said as he shook his right hand, which was hovering above me, and flicked me.
*pak*
***
"Captain, you have to see this," a soldier called out to me while I had been resting in the castle's medical quarters. After our great escape from all those beasts yesterday, only about 50 of the 200-odd cadets had survived, a quarter of what we had expected for reinforcements. Those who had survived were left with enough trauma to follow them for life.
"What is it, Private Peter?" I said as I groaned and got up from my bed, covered in bandages, and wore a light white tunic to cover me while I left the room with the bald soldier.
"I don't know how he did it, but that son of a bitch survived somehow," Private Peter said, causing me to look at him puzzled as to which son of a bitch he was referring to, for I knew quite a few. Also, what the hell was this man talking about? After yesterday's debacle, I was not in the mood for jokes.
"What in Zeus' name are you talking about, Peter?" I said as I slowly walked behind him.
"It's hard to explain if you don't see it yourself," Private Peter said as we exited the walls of the fortress, outside was a small setup, which stood out like a sore thumb. Quite a crowd had gathered around there.
"The fuck," I cursed as we moved closer to the tent, and the colonel was standing
right outside the tent, talking to one of the soldiers who had arrived with me yesterday, with a concerned look on his face.
"SALUTE, CAPTAIN HUGH MARSHALL REPORTING," I said as I offered a short salute to the colonel, who nodded, acknowledging my existence, and spoke.
"Captain, this right here is the most interesting of occurrences. You must head in and see it for yourself. The general is in there too, waiting for you," he said as he urged me to enter the tent.
"The general, sir?" I replied with a confused look on my face.
"Yes, now don't keep him waiting. That old man isn't one who is fond of waiting for people," the colonel responded in a way that would have been considered insubordination had it not been the case that the old man in question was also the grandfather of the colonel.
"Yes, sir," I replied, swiftly moving into the tent.
"Oh, Captain Hugh, you have arrived, I see. That's good. Come here, look at this young lad. I believe he is one of the soldiers that you were escorting, correct? According to some of the soldiers that survived alongside you, at least that is the story I heard," the gigantic, white-haired, silver-bearded man in his blue military uniform adorned by medals said as he turned to me with an amused look, pointing at the body of a man, covered in the vilest of substances a person could imagine. Had it not been for the fact that the general had pointed out he was a man, I would not have known if this person was even a man, and had it not been for the periodic ups and downs of his chest, I would have believed it was a corpse.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't really look at his face from here," I said as I had only entered the tent, and from my angle, it was difficult to tell the face apart from the body.
"Ah, yes, of course. Do come and take a look. This involves you too, after all," he said with a smile on his face as he took a step back.
"Yes, sir," I said as I walked forward and took a look at his face.
"The fuck—" were the only words I could utter as I looked at his face.