With one final blow, the beast raised its claw and Alex closed his eyes to prepare for the end. He didn't scream. He didn't try and run. He let go.
But the blow never came.
Instead he heard footsteps rattling metal and the beast roar its retreat. When Alex opened his eyes he saw guards hauling the creature away, just like always. They never let him die.
The creak of the door of his cell was all too familiar. Most likely, Alex thought, this was another guard come to take him for a fight, and so he didn't raise an eyebrow.
But then he had been taken aback as the footsteps which came into the room were a lot more slow, more deliberate in nature. A shadow loomed over him, then a voice he knew spoke.
"You look terrible, hero," the deep voice of the demon king rumbled, amusement dancing in each word.
Alex shifted his head slightly, turning his eyes toward the towering figure of the demon king standing over him.
Smoldering red eyes gleamed in the darkness of the cell; a cold, jeering smile began to spread across his lips.
"Why do you keep doing this?" Alex's voice was little more than a whispered wheeze now, his throat sore from the constant shouting. "Why don't you just kill me?"
The demon king chuckled, the tone dark and sinister. "Kill you? Oh no, that would be far too easy. I love watching you suffer, seeing the hope drain from your eyes little by little. Besides," he said, his smile now wide, "you're useful to me. You still have some mana left in you, and I plan on wringing every last drop out of you before you're done."
Alex closed his eyes as the weight of those words settled upon him like a smothering blanket.
"You're no more than a tool to me, hero," the demon king continued with malice in his tone. "A weak, pitiful tool. But I have to say, watching you break has been entertaining."
Alex said nothing. What was there to say anymore? He had come to that point, beyond which it just wasn't possible to turn back. He was not going to fight anymore, not going to overcome. All he wanted now was for it to be over, all of it-the suffering, the pain.
"Look at you," hunched the demon king, his eyes meeting Alex's. "You are so close to breaking now I can see it written across your face. Don't you worry, though, hero-I'll make sure you will last a little while longer. You're still too useful to me."
The demon king turned toward the cell door with a swirl of his cape. "Rest up, hero. Tomorrow will be another long day."
The heavy oaken door groaned shut once more, leaving Alex to his dark solace. He lay there staring at the ceiling the instant the words of the demon king took precedence in his mind.
"You matter to me, still." A disgustingly crooked compliment, if it was one at all-the one that had the hollow in his chest deepen even further.
He woke the next morning to the loud footsteps outside the bars of his door. It creaked open, two guards entering, their faces just as cold and uncaring as always.
They didn't say a word as they dragged him from the cell and down the long, dark hallway.
Alex didn't resist. What was the point? He knew where they were taking him-back to the arena, back into the never-ending cycle of battles he could never win.
His body still hurt from his last fight, his wounds not yet totally healed, but none of that mattered. The demon king wanted nothing but his suffering.
While walking towards the entrance of the arena, Alex took a deep breath and steeled himself against whatever horror was awaiting him today. The gate went up very slowly, and he was pushed inside.
It was the same arena: cold, cruel, full of mocking spectator's laughter. Yet, it felt somehow different today.
*Boom*
The beast simply picked his left arm and slapped him with it, without him being able to do a thing, in one second; Alex flew meters away.
Alex lay on the cold stone floor from the arena, barely conscious since his vision was blurred by the blood trickling down along his side and coming from the deep wound left on his side by the beast's claws.
His chest heaved with every ragged breath, and his arms felt to weigh a ton on his body; the sword-now useless in his weakened hands-lay just out of reach.
It circled him, growling low, its eyes glowing with savage fury. The crowd was roaring on, awaiting him going down.
He heard laughter and jeers, but they sounded so far, as if he floated away from everything.
"I can't. Keep going." Alex thought-the words barely took form in his head. The pain was so hard, and his body was going to give out.
Closing his eyes, Alex prepared for his final moment as the beast readied the killing blow.
But in that instant of last surrender to the darkness, a strange feeling surged through him: a soft, warm pulse of energy seeming to well from the very core of his brain.
"Do you want power?" a voice whispered in his thoughts, cool and clear despite the tempest raging around him.
His eyes opened wide in surprise, and he blinked, dumbfounded if the voice had been dream or reality.
"Do you want power?" it repeated this time, a little more insistent.
"Wh-who's there?" whispered Alex weakly.
Nobody answered him, but the fire in his body picked up substantially, racking across his body and numbing the pain while sharpening his mind.
It was as if something-no, someone-were reaching out to him, offering him a life saver.
The beast roared once more, its claws up against its strike, but Alex barely registered the danger. For now, all of his attention was riveted on this strange presence inside him.
He could feel it-something strange he had never felt before.
It was intoxicating, immensely powerful, yet it felt-familiar, like it had laid in wait for him all this time.
"Accept me," the voice said. "I can give you the power to survive."
Alex's heart was racing in his chest. Power? Could this be real? Finally, after all that had taken place, would he have some opportunity to fight back?
He had provided a moment of doubt; was he after all to believe this voice? What other option did he, really, have? Nobody else was coming to save him where he was hanging by his last thread.
"What are you?" Alex asked, full of turmoil.
"I am the Clone Lust Nexus," the voice replied with silken efficiency. "Accept me, and I shall bind to thee. Together we will grow strong. We shall leave this hell together.
Alex's brain spun around in puzzlement. Clone Lust Nexus? Never had he heard tell of such. It sounded weird and dangerous as all get out.
"Alright," he muttered. "I accept."
The instant those words had escaped his lips, the fire inside him was ablaze. It seemed a tidal wave of energy careened along his veins, firing every fiber of his body. His frail and bruised body was alive with raw, untapped power.
The fog went away, the sharp pain in his side deadened, and the pressure was pulled from his arms and his legs. The power coursed through him, energy churning around his muscles, ready to strike.
"Good," it purred in his mind. "Now, let's begin."