Dion opened his eyes slowly and was unsurprised by his location. He doesn't know if his jailer was aware of his consciousness leaving but any time he comes back, his body is healed.
But they did not clean his body, leaving dry blood all over and a stinky, sweaty smell oozing from him. His clothes stank.
Dion looked around the dark, dimly lit cave that never saw the light of day. Then he quickly inspected the shackles and chain for any weak point or link. Apart from being rusted, Dion couldn't discern anything. Maybe his eyes and experience were not up to par to discover the weak links.
Breaking free through that method was out of options.
He moved to the next idea — wriggling his hands from the binding of the shackles.
But Dion quickly dumped that after multiple trials. Dion did not dislocate his thumb because he guessed that it would still be pointless.
'I guess we take the passive choice,' Dion thought.
The sound of crunching metal reverberated through the room, causing Dion to raise his head. The man entered, as he always did, carrying his familiar box. However, something was different this time. With a solemn expression etched upon his face, the man produced a white crystal, unleashing a blinding and overwhelming brightness that flooded the room. Dion instinctively squinted, his eyes unaccustomed to such intense illumination after spending so long in darkness.
The sight of the man's sorrowful countenance sent a shiver down Dion's spine.The sight of the man's sorrowful countenance sent a shiver down Dion's spine.
'I'm bloody dead,' Dion thought as he observed the man's fallen face.
When the man got close to Dion, he looked at Dion with an unreadable expression.
Then he placed the box on the floor
"Boy, your release has come. I will supply your blood with black crystal and drain it all. This is the day you die. Happy, right?" He shone his yellow teeth at Dion with a creepy smile.
Dion's eyes widened and his dark, bloody face shuddered in horror.
"I know. It's a horrible way to die by drawing your blood and the absorbed black crystals with it, but just see it as the price before making it to the celestial realm. See it as a torment for a moment to become immortal for eternity. Not bad, right?" With an eerie smile, he continued.
"Why am I even telling you this? Is it because you survived the longest? Let's get started before nightfall," he mumbled to himself before squatting to drop and unlock the box.
'Things changed. I need to get out of here. I thought I had time to train. Keys! Getting the keys and using my newly, almost non-existent combat abilities to break out,' Dion thought and his eyes began roaming the man's body.
His eyes fell on a bundle of keys attached to the man's waist. A sharp gleam flashed inside his dull eyes.
"These are healing potions." The man raised a green bottle.
The man pointed at a red bag. "There are blood bags in case you run out of them." a pile of red, tennis ball-sized stones. "And these are blood crystals if you need one during the process. Let's get started. We will be spending a long time today,"
He came to Dion's side and inserted the black tennis-sized, black stone into the back slot of the chair.
Dion screamed in agony. He was no stranger to the agonizing feeling running in his vessels. The pain that threatened to destroy his sanity. If not for the chains that wrapped around and strapped him to the chair, he would have been writhing on the floor.
Vessels began popping with spurting of black blood. His clenched fist loosened.
The pitch of Dion's scream increased.
'I-If I want to l-live, I would have to do it now.' Dion's scattered thoughts still calculated a way of survival.
"You know, I never wanted to do this job. But man has to survive," the man spoke with his eyes still focused on the back of the chair.
The key was dangling on the man's waist like a fatal temptation to Dion. A temptation screaming, 'This is the key! Take me if you can! This is your chance to survive! Your chance out of the nightmare!'
Dion's bloodshot eyes stared hard at the bunch of keys, and he made his decision.
Tilting his head to the side to gather momentum, Dion sharply head-butts the man's waist in between his anguished scream. The man merely moved three steps to the side. During the short process, Dion used his teeth to grab the keys and spit them into his open palm before turning it downward. The pain brought him back and he continued yelling.
All the events happened in two seconds.
The man returned and gave Dion a sharp slap that stunned him a bit. Unfortunately, the pain from the black crystal was superior to the slap.
"Fool," the man snapped at him before he returned his focus to the black crystal placed in the back slot.
'Luck is on my side,' Dion thought.
Although he can't say he's used to the pain, being placed in the situation made him adapt slowly.
Dion began his plan while screaming to mask the sound of the dangling keys. Dion was lucky that his hands were tied to the front and not the back.
Sweat — because of anxiety and pain — ran down his face. If he gets caught now and the man takes the key, he's done. Unfortunately, he needs to free himself now before he becomes a bag of bones.
With shaky hands from fear and pain throbbing in his veins, he inserted the first key his hand touched but it was the wrong one. He strenuously switched to the next one.
Concentrating while in pain that threatens to drive him insane takes all his willpower.
Blood that ran down his arm washed over the keys.
The process continued with Dion screaming with wide and bloodshot, eerie eyes that looked like they would pop out.
They were on the third black crystal and each took about thirty minutes to flow into his body.
Trying the bundle of keys coupled with the torture was slow.
He nearly gave up many times in opening the shackle as all the keys seemed to be wrong. The pain was already wearing his concentration.
Suddenly, the key turned and Dion lost his voice for a moment.
Then he screamed fiercely like the pain multiplied but it was a scream of joy. His voice was already coarse from the non-stop screaming.
After the man was done with the crystal placed in the back of the chair, he suddenly stopped and began walking towards the door.
Dion's breathing stopped.
His heart halted for a moment.
He prayed silently.
The man unconsciously touched the side of his waist for his keys.
Dion cursed, 'Fuck me! This is where luck runs out.'