This was it. The fight for his freedom was about to begin.
"Hey! You two, what are you doing down here at this part of the palace?" A loud voice asked.
As they turned around they were met with the gaze of three guards. Confused Alex started to think of a good lie.
"Well! The king sent us both down here, to get this for him!" He responded bringing something out from his bag and showing it to the guards.
"VERY well, you can go then!" One of the guards said.
Mumbling his way back to the cold, dark cell, Duran's words echoed in his mind: "Don't worry, Alex, we're going to get another chance." It was meant to be comforting; it was some promise that things would get better. But deep inside himself, he knew it was a lie.
Life in this world, controlled by the demon king, was not second chances or hope. It had been about survival-scraping through each day, bearing the pain and humiliation that had become his daily life.
The guards threw him into the cell, slamming the iron door behind him. Alex nearly fell, catching himself on the cold, stone floor. His body was aching in memory of the beatings he had taken time after time.
He could hear all-too-common sounds of footsteps grudgingly fade down the long, meandering corridor as the guards did an about-face and left him alone in the darkness once more.
Alex leaned his back against the rough wall, trying to quiet the shallow breathing that managed to rack his chest.
His body had yet to recover from the last session of torture, but he knew it would be a short while before he faced another round with the devil's instruments of hell. The demon king was sickly fascinated by Alex, who always ran him to the hilt of death, just to see how much he could take before breaking.
Second chance?" Alex spoke low, to himself, in bitterness. "How much more chances left before I crack?
He closed his eyes and tried to rest, though sleep was a luxury in this place. His mind strayed back to the life he once lived before all of this, back to when he had been just some ordinary guy living an ordinary life. How did it all lead here? How did he go from some extremely mundane existence to being the toy of a demon king?
The heavy iron door to his cell creaked open for what felt like a hundredth time that night, just as he was starting to fall into an uncomfortable sleep. His heart sank. They were back. Too soon. He didn't have enough time to recover yet.
"Get up," one of the guards shouted at him, cold as stone walls. "The king demands your presence.
Alex's muscles tensed; his pulse quickened. He knew what this meant: another session, more pain, more suffering. But he had no choice. He struggled to his feet, each movement sending sharp jolts of pain through his already bruised and battered body. The guards grabbed him roughly by the arms and dragged him out of the cell.
The walk to the demon king's chambers felt like it took much longer than usual. The dark hallways twisted and turned in every direction, like a maze in which he could feel the cold air bite at his skin.
He was led into the all-too-familiar torture room: a large, dimly lit space filled with tools meant for one thing-inlicting pain.
There he was, in all his demonic glory: the demon king. His huge form sat on a throne made out of bones of his victims; his eyes seemed to gleam bright, shining red with some sort of sadistic humor. His horns curved menacingly over his head, and his presence alone managed to fill the room with this suffocating dread. Alex felt a knot form in his stomach.
"Ah, Alex," the demon king purred, the sound of his voice much like the rumble of thunder. "It would appear that I have not yet broken you. Impressive, but. frustrating."
Alex said nothing. By now, he had come to realize the futility of words in this room. No amount of pleading and bargaining would alter what was about to occur.
The demon king stood up from his throne and slowly made his way across to Alex. His footsteps echoed ominously through the chamber. "Today," he said, "we'll see just how much more you can take before you finally crumble. You've been. resilient. But everyone has their limits.
The king beckoned to his servants with a wave of his hand, and they unwrapped what surely appeared to be instruments of cruel torture. Alex firmed his fists, expecting what was next. He had endured whippings, burns, and beatings; his body was a topography of scars, each one speaking of the pain he had borne. But today, a chill ran in the air, different from what he had usually faced.
The demon king wasted no more time. His tortures promptly began, with the most brutal of precisions, and a focused drive to break both body and mind. With each strike, there was added pain; with each burn, the bar of agony rose higher. Unbearable pain, his vision started to blur, and he fought to stay conscious. Screams filled the room, though the demon king merely smiled.
Time was passing, though to him, it felt much longer than it really was. The pain screamed from every nerve in Alex's body while his muscles quivered from the raw character of the torture. Just when he thought it could not get any worse, the last blow of the demon king hit with such incredible force that Alex was sure he would die. His body writhed, screaming silently for mercy, for release.
And then, everything was silent.
Alex lay on the cold stone floor, his body broken, his blood pooling. He couldn't move anymore. The pain was no longer something he could feel, as it had reached that level. His breathing was ragged; every breath was a struggle.
The demon king stood over him, watching with cold eyes. "You're on the edge, Alex. I can see it. One more push and you'll be done. But not today. No. I want you alive to witness your final breaking.".
The demon king waved his hand in dismissal, summoning guards to take Alex back to his cell. Alex was dead weight as the guards dragged him through dark hallways, his mind clinging by a thread. They then unceremoniously dumped him onto the cold stone floor of his cell, slamming shut the heavy door and once again leaving Alex in darkness.
But something was different this time. As his consciousness began to fade, there was that weird stirring inside him.
It was as if there was some surge of energy in his veins, alien and familiar at the same time. He couldn't understand it because by now, his body should have shut down due to all the torture, yet it felt as if something was awakening.
His system, which had lain dormant for so long, giving him merely the very basic of abilities and literally the only thing that had ever given him even a shred of hope in this hell of a world, was now evolving due to the brutal torture inflicted by the demon king. And now, finally,
**System Update: Clone Ability Evolution Unlocked.
The words came to him, as clear as day and unmistakable. For a second, Alex wasn't sure if he was hallucinating through the pain because it was a sensation far too real. His system had definitely changed.
Summoning all his strength, Alex willed himself to test this new power. His body shook with all of the energy he was using, the clone ability he had used before. But this time, something was different; he could feel that he could do more, far more than ever before-more than it took to summon a single clone, as he had in times past.
With one final push, he activated it.
And in an instant, the air around him quivered, and before his very eyes, there materialized two. three. no, four replicas of himself. All of them faced one another in a circle around him with the same degree of exhaustion and pain etched on their faces. They were real, not a vision.
"I. I did it," whispered Alex, hardly believing it himself.
The clones knelt beside him, offering what little comfort they could. Though they were manifestations of his power, they were still part of him. And now, for the first time in what felt like forever, Alex didn't feel completely alone.
He lay there, staring at the ceiling of his darkened cell, his mind racing despite the pain.
The demon king had pushed him further than ever before, almost killing him in the process. It was that same brutality, though, that had set something off inside Alex. A new level in his abilities was unlocked, and he had power now-real power.
For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, a flame of hope fluttered within his heart. This wasn't it-the demon king had thought to break him, but in that he had given Alex the means to fight.
Alex's fist clenched, the pain only making his determination sharper. This new clone ability was just the beginning.
If he could summon multiple clones now, who knew what else he might be able to get with time? He wasn't broken. He wasn't finished. And one day, he'd make the demon king regret every moment of suffering he'd caused.
I'll survive," Alex whispered to himself in a hoarse, yet resolute tone. "And when time has come, he'll pay."