Chapter 20 - The Materials

"What is the material?" Drake asked the woman. 

"Kill me!" Savanna shouting at Drake. It was either she would die in his hand or Sora Union. When she had a sister in their hand, losing her life right now seemed like a better choice. 

"You're Savanna, right?" Marven told Drake everything he knew about Zone West. Savanna, the owner of Sora Tower, and the ruler of Zone West. 

"Listen Savanna, if you think it would end like this, you're definitely wrong." Drake smirked sinisterly, "You will feel the pain in every part of your body, and I will keep you alive, rotting day by day while I look for the people closer to you. Your lover, family, and even your pet."

Savanna tried to break loose from Drake, but only made the blade piercing deeper to her skin. "You don't dare."

Well, it was a cheap move threatening someone with the person they loved. But who cares? It's not like he was going to make it real. After all, who said he was a good person. " If you think I don't dare to do that, then I won't be brave enough coming here with my sword on your neck."

"You're bluffing!" Savanna said, gritting her teeth.

"As annoying as it sounds, you're wasting my time." As he said that, Drake took out a bottle of drugs, then forced Savanna to drink the entire fill. 

The taste was disgusting. It flew from her mouth, directly to her stomach. Drake then threw the bottle away. And after a minute, he saw how Savanna's body started changing. She breathed heavily with her heart pounding like it was gonna burst. 

"You are ready." Drake pushed her to the ground, and under his evil intention, he was swinging the sword above her, slashing one of her arms. 

"AARRRGHH!!" He cut deeper her right arm showing her bone and flesh. The pain was overwhelming. Her terrible screams echoed throughout the tower.

 What Savanna drank was a typical adrenaline drug that boosts the sensor of a person's reception of pain. She definitely felt the pain stronger than before. 

"Let's say I'm a kind one." Drake smiled, holding another bottle of drugs. "I have the antidote of that pain. You'll definitely feel no pain after drinking this." 

Savanna who was in agony, dragging her body with her power left. She looked up at Drake from the ground, whimpering with her rough sound, "Please …" 

As she grabbed his foot, Drake squatted down, meeting with her dreary eyes. He slightly laughed, and it was the time Savanna felt Drake was a scary human.

"So what do you think, should I give you this tempting drugs?" He said while dangling the bottle right in front of her face.

Not long after, Drake and Savanna were already in the dungeon. It was Elmon that first said something about how he sensed a bad energy under the ground. Drake then forced Savanna to show the place.

The Dungeon was dark with no sunlight and the dampness was so pungent. The sound of his sole stomping on the puddle was a very fine evidence to speculate how neglected this place was.

"Lead the right way!" Savanna, who had her hands tied up behind her back, was walking right in front of Drake. The other drugs were very effective in other ways. As soon as her tongue touched the liquid, it burned her entire body until she couldn't feel anything beside the dullness. 

They arrived in front of a huge room, with several cell chambers inside. As Drake shoved Savanna inside, he looked around that shitty place. A lot of shackles laid on the ground. He touched one of them and still felt the warmth of human skin. 

"So this is what you said as 'material', huh? No wonder, they were so eager to cover all of this. "Did you use them as your rat experiment?" 

Savanna averted his gaze. All of this was so obnoxious! Why were they not arriving yet? She thought she would just make this man happy and not kill her until the people from Sora Union came. 

Savanna put a tight smile on her face. "What do you mean by rat? Don't you see no one here? We're already freed them long ago. And they are criminal prisoners."

The more Drake listened to this woman, the more absurd it was. Savanna continued with her babbling. "Look, we held them here once as a prisoner, helping the city juridical processing the criminal."

Drake swung his sword and once again placed the blade on her bloody neck. "Should I remind you again what happens if you mess with me? Tell me where's the material!"

"There's no material! It was just the plant and flower for Sora to learn their skill." Savanna still held her head up. 

"Drake, she lied," Hora made his body visible again. That was the second time Savanna was shocked with another foreign creature.

"That.. That's another monster?" She was sure, more scared than before.

"Hey! I'm not a monster, this despicable human!" Hora roared.

Drake let out a long breath, he didn't need this ridiculous drama wasting more of his time. "You only had two options. Feel the pain stronger than before, or show me everything!" 

He intended to force Savanna to eat another drug, but it would be better if she told him everything rather than roaming around in this huge tower by himself. 

With the pressure of Drake threat as well as the dragon before her, Savanna then uttered her secret. "It.. It was in the underground vault."

Savanna showed them the hidden stairs, it was in the corner room behind the old cleaning self. When she misplaced one of the jars, the self was opened in half, presenting the hidden dark stair to the another underground. 

Drake lit the fire torch near him. Even the fire was bright, it was still not enough compared to the darkness before him. Without any delay, he shoved Savanna inward. 

This time, Hora lit the fire at the end of his tail. This different kind of fire, able to shaft the entire darkness into a dimmed light room. Not like in the cave of west forest before, he is now able to use his fire wisely. Of course, Drake was so proud of his dragon. 

Savanna felt her body tremble of fear. She then brought them into a huge room with an old wooden door outside. As Drake opened the door, his wrath was at the peak of his head.

A lot of children were placed inside the room. Even though the room was huge enough, it was a narrow space compared to the number of the children inside.

Most of them were skin and bones. The iron shackles tied their thin hands together. So if one tried to escape, they would drag each other.

"Savanna!" The sound coming from him made savanna and the other children jolted. His tension was no joke. 

He sinisterly looked at her, "You better tell me the truth, what is the 'material'?

Savanna gulped, as she tried to answer Drake's question. "It.. it was something that Sora needed to enhance our ability." 

"I need more than that, Savanna!" 

"That's it. I don't know the details. The Sora Union was the one that handled all of them.They called them 'material' and I .. I.. was.. just providing it."

Drake couldn't stand it anymore. He then did the same thing to her like the other Sora before. "Hallucinate for the rest of your life. As you will hardly breathe, not to mention asking for help, you will gasp for air that will never be enough for how many times you try." 

Drake brought his hand up front, taking almost her entire oxygen. Manipulating the air was surely a skill he learned in the dragon dimension for the last two years. 

As for Savanna, forget about her pain that slowly turned back to her nervous system, she was hardly gasping for oxygen right now.

Same like the other Sora from the main gate, Drake left the oxygen barely enough for her to keep her life. She couldn't imagine, when she started feeling the pain again, she wouldn't even be able to let out a scream.

He then entered the room and closed the door, leaving Savanna alone outside. As he looked at the poor state of the kids, his palm was slightly bleeding from his tight grip, turning his knuckles into white. 

"Close your eyes if you want to live. Don't open it until I say so." He ordered with his dominated energy. And because the never ending abuse those kids had received, there was no reason to not follow the order. 

Drake then brought both of his hands up front, and started chanting the mantra that he learned a thousand times before . As his lips whispered the same melody, the iron shackles were slowly burned, turning them into a dust particle. Nonetheless, no children were feeling the burn on their skin. 

Right after destroy all of the shackles from the kids, he then opened a tube and a cloudy gas was out filling the room. It was the antidote for sleeping clouds that Lara made.

Though the resistance time was only ten minutes, it was enough for the kids to run far away from the tower. Because he knew, he had to tear down everything.