25 Captive

Long He opened his eyes weakly. His vision was still a bit blurry. After it cleared up, he inspected his surroundings.

He was in a cave, just like any other cave, dark and gloomy. However, it seemed to be under the ground, since there were drops of ice cold water dripping on his head.

Long He tried to move, in order to get away from this cave. But soon, he discovered that he couldn't even move his head, just his eyes, and nothing more.

He struggled to move his lips, at least to shout for help, but it was useless. He closed his eyes and thought, 'Alright. No need to panic Long He, just calm down and think of a solution.'

Still closing his eyes, he could make the overall position of his body. Long He was in a cross form, as if he was going to be crucified.

"System?" he yelled desperately in his head, "Can you hear me?"

D-d-ding.

[H-host….. T-the….. S-s-system….]

The voice of the system was unclear, and Long He didn't understand a word of what it said. The system stopped taking after only saying three inaudible words.

Long He wondered how he got here, in the cave. Even more…

Where is this cave located to begin with?

He knew nothing about his current condition. Long He remembered only remember a faint scene of him taking the Waterflame sword before passing out.

Now that he thinks of it, is the sword still with him? He tried to look at his waist; thankfully, he saw that it was still in its sheath.

Suddenly, a sense of pain erupted from his back, where the poisoned axe has hit him. Involuntary, he lowered his head and closed his eyes, falling in deep sleep again.

…

A few days passed, and Long He was still asleep. He was still paralyzed, unable to move. Even to a god, this position hurts after staying in it without stretching a muscle.

Suddenly, a cracking noise could be heard, and the stone door of the cavern opened. A tall, heavy muscled, bald, black young man entered, followed by an old man.

The old man was Ilah, the father god! As for the black man, he was just a normal servant.

Ilah snapped his fingers, and Long He fell down from mid-air to reach the surface of the freezing water.

When his body was completely wet, Long He's back wound slowly closed up. He was half awake after his recovery, but not completely.

The servant picked him up and took him out of the cave. When he finally woke up completely, Long He saw himself facing none other than Ilah.

Long He intended to punch the father god, but discovered that he was in chains. Ilah just shook his head and said, "Don't try to break them, Shen He. No one except me could unbound you."

"What do you want Ilah?" growled Long He.

"I just want to talk about some things with you." He motioned for the servants to leave them. When they were alone, Ilah brought a bottle of wine out of nowhere.

"Do you want a drink?" Ilah waited for an answer, but none came. "I will take that for a yes."

He poured wine into two cups and served one for Long He. "How am I supposed to drink with my hands chained?" he asked.

"Oh yes!" laughed Ilah, "I forgot about that!"

With a snap of his fingers, the chains fell from Long He's hands. He could now move freely; well, at least in his seat.

"You know that by freeing me, it will be dangerous for you," said Long He.

Ilah laughed and said, "You are in no condition to say things like this."

"Humph! Anyway, the wine is poisoned, isn't it?"

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so weeks ago. But no, we need to talk. Don't try to scan the wine through the system, it won't work!"

"Why is that? Let me guess, you have put a restraint here?"

"Smart as ever, Shen He. Yes, I have put a restraint that even my system won't work."

A moment of silence passed, and neither of them spoke. Finally, Long He cut the silence by saying, "Who won the war?"

"No one, actually," replied the father god. "Planet Ancient Oak Grove exploded before the outcome of the battle was decided."

"Why have you brought me here?"

"I told you, we need to talk."

"About what?"

"I ask you this, why have you chose to go against me?"

"I will be honest with you, Ilah. From the beginning of my life, it was a simple and restricted one. I didn't even know my father, not to mention the poverty and other factors.

"But when the accident happened, everything changed, and I thought that I was free at last. However, you came, and enforced your rule on me. When you presented me with two choices, they finally gave me the chance to be unrestrained.

"You need to know that a god's dignity and freedom is atop of everything in his life."

Ilah sighed and said, "Believe me, I know how it is to be under the rule of someone, I sincerely do."

"Then why do you force your demigods to do your work?"

"Remember that I am the Godking, the father god, and the ruler of the universe. If I wasn't feared, then how would my rule preserve?"

"You have a point here. But even though, you should make your orders in the form of quests, were the suitable people will pick them up and do the job."

"I don't need your advice. I have more experience than any person in this universe, as well as the experience of ruling. If I listened to everyone's suggestions, then I would be the king no more."

Long He shook his head at how the the father god was acting. He wants to reconcile with the gods, but has his own conditions. "I ask you this one more time, Ilah. Why have you brought me here?"

"To put you in front of two choices again. Stay with me, and you will live; go against me, and you will die. Choose!"

"You tried to kill me even before I was born, then another time when I drowned. Not to mention when you sent Sabertooth to destroy both me and my planet.

"My answer was and will be forever a no. No. No. No. NO!"

"Then you'll die slowly in that cave, and taste the torment of being hold for years!" He said that and hit the table. Immediately, the black servant entered and chained Long He, returning him to the dark cave.