One Day

It has only been a day after Akai discovered about the death of Captain Halido. During this time, Nia had only just defeated the white robed monster, although nobody would ever know about it.

Akai strolled around the city as if he was royalty. His red and black armor with detailed engravings reflected upon the sun's holy light. He couldn't sense any dragon in the city, even though, King's city covered a large area of land. Dragonslayers also patrolled the city looking for anybody that was suspicious. Crows perched themselves atop of every building. Their caws echoed as regular people walked around following their normal routines. Akai breathed in the air. It was a nice change of pace from sitting at his desk. He watched as two of his dragonslayers began to harass a woman wearing a hood and robes. Akai thought that she may have been some kind of monk, but he knew that it wasn't a dragon. He ignored them and walked by.

Meanwhile, in the dark and dank dungeons underneath the den of dragonslayers, Miura was busy interrogating the prisoners. It was covered in black feathers and crows constantly on watch.

One of the rooms contained Nera, while the other held the rest of the villagers chained to the walls side-by-side. Nera wasn't in any chains, but her body was filled with dirt. Her cell was just as big as the other rooms, but hers had a rug, table, bedding, and a bucket. Akai ordered the other dragonslayers to give Nera some furniture, yesterday, and they brought them into her cell. Akai couldn't care about the other villagers. Nera's cell faced the stairs up to the door, while the others were in a cell in front of her to her right side. The other cell was crowded with men, women, and children. All of them tired, exhausted, and hungry.

The other villagers' bodies were bruised and dirtied, but the witch didn't start to torture any of them.

The day before, she only checked whether all of the prisoners were there. Then, she let her crows watch Not yet. She didn't even ask any questions. Only watched them. Miura smiled in anticipation of what she was going to do. Finally, something she would enjoy, she thought.

A rat crawled out of one of the cracks, and a swarm of crows tore the the rat apart. It's entrails dragged around the room and pieces of the rat were eaten away.

A crow flew to her shoulder and gave out a loud caw that echoed within the tight dungeons. The crows stayed silent afterwards.

"Now, as your warden, I hope to make life here as comfortable as it can get," she said in sadistic tone. She looked down on all of them as if each one of them were just bags of meat.

"But I'm also here to get some answers. I need to know where that dragon is and one of you will tell me."

Nera looked at her and shouted while shaking the metal bars, "Nobody here knows where the dragon is! There's nothing you can get from us!"

"This same speech? Didn't we already do this, yesterday?" Miura replied in a condescending tone as if speaking to a child.

Miura then reverted her tone back to her sadistic side of her. She licked her red lipstick and grinned.

"You're lucky that Akai has feelings for you, Nera. Otherwise, you would be the first. Instead, I will ask these nice bags of meat."

She opened the cell door, while they could only watch. She enterred and stared at the first prisoner in her sight. A dirtied man with a swollen eye. She said in a gentle voice, "Let's start with something easy. What's your name?"

"M-my name is... James Hedeger."

"Relax, James," Miura said while leaning down. Her face was pale, but was also gentle.

"No. Don't hurt him!" the prisoner next to him yelled. Miura looked over and it was a woman.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt him. I'm a mage. I'll be able to tell whether or not you're lying. So, tell me, miss, what is your name?" Miura asked maintaining her pleasant smile.

The woman shook in fear. She wasn't any more relaxed, but she muttered, "Helena Hedeger."

"Oh, you two are related? What a coincidence that you are both next to each other," Miura remarked.

"We're, uh, married," James said.

"How nice. It must be the power of love that allowed you two be next to each other," Miura said and then looked at the other villagers. There was a whole assortment of people that she could play with.

She stood up and said, "I am your warden, but that doesn't mean that you're all in a prison. When the dragon is found, you can all go home. I already know that you people hid a dragon, so let's not try to hide it."

Nera looked at Miura and asked, "Why is Akai doing this? Why are you doing this? We welcomed you both into our village. We healed Akai's wounds. We gave you both a place to stay. So, why?"

Miura turned her head towards Nera.

"I was glad that your people were naive enough to let us stay. If it was any other village, things might have been different. Akai might have died, and my plans ruined. But that didn't happen because fate is on my side. Akai must have told you what he saw, Nera. A world of ash. If it wasn't for me, he would never have gone down this path."

"So, you've been manipulating him!? You turned him into that monster!?" Nera shouted.

Miura chuckled and said, "You were just a distraction for him. He knew that there was a bigger picture. Everything that I told him was true. My visions of the future. My visions that I allowed him to see. My visions that reminded him of what needed to be done."

Miura sighed and continued, "But alas... the future hasn't changed. Even after killing so many dragons. I don't think you could even imagine the amount of dead dragons that he trampled upon. All for the sake of changing the future."

"I see. So, he really believes that what he is doing is right. Akai believes that he can prevent that future from coming."

"Correct, Nera. You're a great listener."

"But even so... Akai's noble beliefs doesn't justify his actions. And you, Miura, led him down that path. I can forgive Akai, but not you. Why do you want to change the future?" Nera asked.

Miura frowned and said, "I'm the one who is supposed to be interrogating. I don't have to answer your questions, little girl."

Miura turned her head back towards James and Helena. Miura looked down on them. Nera could only watch from her cell.

"James, tell me where the dragon is and I'll let everybody go."

James muttered, "I- I don't know. I don't know."

"You don't know," Miura said and she looked at every other villager, "Who would know? Hmm?"

She then looked at a small girl. A child.

"Maybe, I should just ask the children. Children are told to never lie," she said as she walked towards her menacingly.

"Wait! Stop! Nobody here knows!" Helena shouted and Miura froze in place.

She looked back at her and smiled.

Helena breathed heavily in fear and said, "I can tell that you just want to hurt us. But please don't hurt the children. Hurt me instead."

Miura smiled and looked at Nera. The witch said, "So, it seems that your people are a bunch of masochists."

The witch looked back at Helena and leaned down to her level. She said "I promised I wasn't going to hurt you..."

There was a silence that fell over the dark dungeons.

"...but if you insist..."

As she finished her sentence, the crowd of crows cawed and lifted their wings. They all swarmed towards the woman.

Helena closed her eyes in fear, but the crows never came to her. The screams echoed throughout. The constant cawing of crows. Helena opened her eyes and looked to her husband. One set of screams came. Every other prisoner froze in fear. Nera shut her mouth with her hands as tears flowed down.

Helena watched as the crows scratched and pecked out her husband's eyes out while his screams tore through everybody's frozen bodies. The swarm of ravens created a black coat around the dungeons as if they were bats. And among them, Miura stood out with her pale white skin. He dress of chains. She began to smile menacingly as everybody around her was a toy to her. Helena could only watch as the crows ripped out one eye and then the other. Then, the crows went after the rest of his face. Blood burst out of every corner of his face. Fear overtook them all. Not a single scream came from them. Every one of them were frozen in terror.

Helena tried close her eyes and move her face away from the brutality, but Miura grabbed Helena's face and forced her to look holding her eyes open.

"I hope this pleases your masochistic senses," Miura excitingly said as blood rushed through her her entire body. The witch hasn't been able to feel like that for such a long time, ever since she turned herself into Akai's servant.

As the crows finished, James was still alive. He was barely breathing, but still alive. His face was torn to shreds. His eye sockets empty. They could see red tissue and ligaments. Some parts of the skull were visible. Yet, the man was still alive. The crows flew away and perched themselves atop of whatever they could hold onto and watched.

Miura let go of Helena's face and turned away from them. Everybody was frozen, but Helena was far more shocked. She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed.

"This is just a dream. This is just a dream. This is just a dream," she muttered to herself.

As James tried to speak, blood started to spurt out of his mouth. Helena was unable to comprehend what horror she had just witnessed.

"You monster!" Nera yelled in anger, "You and all of you dragonslayers! You're all disgusting monsters!"

"Ooh. Seems like somebody here has some bark. However, unfortunately, I can't test whether or not you have any bite," Miura said as the other men, women, and children were unable to move an inch. Miura was ordered not to hurt Nera, but the witch knew other ways of inflicting pain. Akai should have been more specific on his order, she thought.

Nera growled and shook the metal bars, but they wouldn't budge. Miura and her crows only watched in silence.

As James' breath was hoarse and rough, he struggled to maintain himself. The unbearable pain that coarsed through his body. He made one final breath, until surrenduring himself.

As soon as he made his last breath, Miura's pupils narrowed. She turned her back on Nera and stared at the prisoners.

Nera wondered what the witch was doing. It looked as if she was in a trance.

In the next moment, the swarm of crows cawed and stormed the room filled with prisoners. They all began to scream as Nera could do nothing, but watch. The crows pecked and scratched against every single person. While everybody panicked and screamed, Helena was frozen in place as she repeated the same words even as the crows began to bite and claw at her skin. The crows attacked relentlessly and without mercy. Even the shrieks of children could be heard as their bodies were torn apart by a black cloud.

"It's beautiful," Miura said.

Nera felt like she was trapped in an endless abyss of suffering around her. While everybody else were being eaten alive by ravenous crows, she could only watch from her cell.

As Miura turned around and faced her, Nera could only feel dread at seeing the witch's face. Miura's eyes were covered in squirming maggots.

"Finally. I've never seen something so beautiful before. Don't you agree, Nera?," Miura said joyously as blood and maggots dropped to the ground from her eyesockets. She gave a pleasant smile while the blood of the villagers seeped throughout the dungeon. Reality twisted around her as a black curtain of crows and a blanket of chains surrounded every corner of the dungeons outside of Nera's cell.