A couple of towns past where the battle was raging… there was a small desolate village.
This was probably once a prosperous village but now it was completely wiped out, all the life and greenery fully sucked out of it.
There were now only burnt remains of former living settlements, ashes of trees and plants, and a dark dreary smoke lingering in the air.
But in the midst of this bleak and abandoned village, there was one small building that somewhat stood out.
It had a little more structure than the other buildings that looked as if they were about to collapse, but also from within this small building, there were some strange noises coming out.
For an outsider, these might sound like loud shrieks of someone random beast but these were actually none other than human beings shouting in utter agony and terror.
Inside the small cramped space, there were about 10 human beings, all chained to the walls.
Their bodies were riddled with countless injuries and blood and puss were leaking out from their orifices.
Not to mention, most of them had a distinct look in their eyes as if they no longer possessed any will to live and might as well be dead already.
It was hard to imagine that people like these would show any emotions at all, yet at this moment, all ten of them trembled slightly.
Why?
Because they could hear the familiar dull thudding of a pair of feet outside the building.
The person coming towards them was definitely capable of entering the building without making any sort of noise but he still did this for additional entertainment.
He liked seeing the people around him tremble in fear.
“Hello, my darlings. How are we doing today?”
The dark elf cackled as he stepped inside, banging open the door as if it was a climax to the dull tune of his distant footsteps.
His vicious dark purple lips curled up into a sneer that eventually became a wide grin seeing everyone quiver and quake in fear.
His mere presence invoked such a strong response and he loved every second of it.
He licked his lips and opened his mouth, cackling loudly again. “Surely, you must be wondering what fun activities are awaiting us today?”
He took out a dagger from the sheath and licked the dagger just as he licked his lips.
He then tip-toed swirling and dancing on the spot as he placed this dagger on each and every head of the humans who were shivering with their faces hung low.
He played around with them by streaking the dagger on their heads zig-zagged.
“Let’s see red, blue, yellow, green, red, black, yellow, silver… hmmm… hmmm… what color should I choose today?”
The dark elf sang in amusement as he did his daily routine but unexpectedly today he noticed that something was off.
His latest acquisition was disappointing to look at. She still seemed as if there was a little bit of fire and life left within her soul.
“Hmmm?” The dark elf raised his brows irately and squatted down in front of this person.
He then reached forward and grabbed the red-headed human woman by her chin. “Did Igalf subconsciously go easy on you because you are tasty to look at?”
The dark elf sneered, talking about himself in the third person.
His vicious eyes dragged on the woman in front of him, looking at her from top to bottom, assessing everything that she possessed.
Long red hair that cascaded down to her butt, sharp fierce eyes that were full of pride, and a curvy and seductive body that made even someone like him drool.
“Tch. Tch. What a waste. What a waste. If only you did not possess such a unique divine affinity…”
“Mmm… I would have definitely made you my concubine and you could have had the time of your life, but alas…”
“We are not fated to be lovers.” He sighed and dropped the chin in his hands abruptly, sending the person crashing back on the wall.
Alex flinched as the impact sent shivers down her spine.
She gritted her teeth and bore the pain, trying to keep whatever sanity that she had left but because of that, the elf in front of her tortured her even more.
Seeing that she was not convulsing in pain like the others, Igalf grinned again and licked his dagger, a vicious glint flashing across his eyes.
The next second he bent down and picked up Alex, scruffing her unceremoniously by clutching her long red hair.
He then dragged her all the way from the wall to a chair that was placed at the center of the room.
“Oops. It looks like I have made everyone wait too long. Shall we start today’s fun activities?”
Talking to himself, Igalf grinned and cuffed her hands and legs to the chair.
This finally made Alex wince in pain and a satisfied expression appeared on his face. “Make it loud, darling. I love it when a woman shouts.”
He then took out a dark violet potion bottle of sorts and washed his dagger inside this bottle.
Without any warning, he then suddenly removed the dagger from the bottle and plunged it into Alex’s thigh in one swift motion.
Dark violet liquid seeped out from the dagger mixing with Alex’s body and blood through the injury.
From the looks of it, this same spot had been injured several times previously and also from the same weapon.
There was now a deep garish scar in the otherwise clean and soft long legs.
And from this scar, thick violet veins sprouted out, spreading the contaminated blood and poison to other parts of the body as well.
“Hmmm? Still no sound?” Igalf looked displeased.
He grabbed her chin again and looked at the beautiful woman and to his surprise, she still stared back at him with the same untamed ferocity.
Her fists were tightly clenched, blood dripping from her nails piercing her palm, her body was shaking and trembling, her teeth were tightly gritted, tears streamed from her eyes, but…
She did not make even one sound. She did not want to give the person the satisfaction of breaking her.
Alex simply stared back at the elf, without even the smallest flicker of fear in her eyes.
She did not know what was happening, what was going to happen, and what was she going to become, but she did not care.
No one was probably even going to come and rescue her.
Mia? These dark elves were far too powerful for that one person to handle. And why would anyone else help her?
She was probably not worth their pity or attention. Why would anyone risk their life just for her?
And knowing how cruel this game was, she was probably either going to struggle here for all eternity or simply die after a while and revive somewhere.
Maybe then she can escape…
But until then… Alex had little to no doubt that this was her only fate. She was all alone here and her brother was all alone there…
More tears streamed out of her eyes.
Several depressing thoughts entered her mind, endlessly taunting her for the mistakes she had committed in the past.
If only she had acted with more patience; if only she did not get so obsessed and infuriated; if only…
But there was no point in thinking about those things now and yet, this was the only thing that she could do at the moment.
Every time, pain coursed through her veins, bones, and every cell of her body, her life flashed in front of her eyes and she allowed herself to drown in the past so that the present was bearable.
This was how she maintained her sanity but this was also how she tortured herself by blaming herself endlessly.
Even though she was strong, she was on the verge of breaking and she did not know how much longer she could go on.
She could feel the various poisons, a sort of black aura that mixed into her bones, body, and still lingered within herself.
Even after the cruel painful torture sessions, the poison never fully went away from her body.
Residues of it stuck to her and gave her a mind-numbing pain that assaulted her from inside out. It was as if someone was scooping out and mixing her insides.
“Cough. Cough.” Unable to bear the pain any longer, something welled up inside her and Alex vomited several mouthfuls of dark putrid blood.
She then felt a small pang of relief but the dark elf who observed this cackled and started twisting the dagger in the same wound, not even giving her that small reprieve.
“Good. Good. You did not disappoint me! You did not disappoint me at all! Your flesh is truly interesting!”
The depravity in the elf’s eyes temporarily disappeared, now replaced with a look of scientific curiosity.
“So when your body is flushed full of toxins, it is automatically pushed out? No wonder divinity is one of the greater affinities.”
“Hmmm… Bah ha ha ha! Be that as it may, I still refuse to believe that nothing will harm you! My poisons will break you!”
Igalf resolutely mumbled gazing at the woman in front of him and, licking his lips with a cruel vicious look in his eyes.