Mental Zone[2]-Higanbana

Slowly opening his eyes in an unknown location, Ruthven found himself standing on top of a completely black liquid-like surface...

"What the hell is this?" lifting his feet one by one, Ruthven checked underneath his feet, trying to get a grasp of what was allowing him to stand on top of liquid like he was.

After seconds maybe minutes of continuous checking, He couldn't find anything to explain his current situation.

"Sigh, What is it that I've done to these Gods?" Ruthven asked, "First It was the White void, and now this!!"

Ruthven scanned his surroundings, hoping that the more time he spent in this liquid-covered place wouldn't impact his age like the white void.

With nothing else to do, He moved forward without a destination in mind...

And after maybe hours, he came to a halt,

Unlike the white void, this place wasn't so deserted, because, from afar, a small flower was growing.

A smile and a sigh of relief quickly came from Ruthven, "Please let it be a non-human eating flower." he strangely said, moving forward to observe the flower.

The closer Ruthven got to the flower, the more its color and shape got clearer.

A thin dark green stern, and on top of it, small red panels carefully hugging against each other.

"Hig... Higanbana!!?"

Cold sweat flowed from his body, shivers crawled up his back and his eyes widened, "Hey!! Hey!! Hey!!! yo.. your kidding me, right!?" without even waiting a second to confirm what he saw, Ruthven turned, and ran away from The Red Spider Lily, or as it was called in Japan, The Higanbana.

Just as quickly as he turned, the direction he was now heading for began to be filled with nothing but sprouting Red Spider Lilies.

Turning once again back to the direction he was about to run away from, Ruthven fell to his knees on the black liquid surface.

"Why is it always me?" Escaped from his shivering mouth as he stared at the more than thousands of flowers before him.

There was a reason for Ruthven's fear of the Red Spider Lily...

Said to originate from Japanese Mythology, The Higanbana was a flower that brought with it chaos, or in simple terms, death followed wherever it grew.

One flower was enough to cause the death of thousands, so what about the thousands of flowers currently in front of him...

Not wasting any time after sprouting, one by one all the flowers around Ruthven bloomed, turning the once dark liquid surface into a light red soft one, with the only tint of black being Ruthven himself.

As the last flower bloomed, time seemed to stop for a while before fast currents blew them all away from their sterns...

Strange, Was the wind in one's Mental Zone?....

But, With the wind guiding them, the flowers twirled around Ruthven like a tornado.

Stuck at the center of it all, Ruthven watched in awe as the flowers flew around him, and minutes later when the wind was slowly calming down.

Ruthven saw what seemed to be a man on the other side of the tornado.

The wind soon calmed, and as all the flowers flew back to the ground, Ruthven's vision was flooded by red-armoured Samurais.

The Samurais that surrounded Ruthven didn't even move an inch, they all stood there, staring deep into his soul.

"Uhmm, C...can.I help you?" Still traumatized by the Red Spider Lilies, Ruthven's shaken voice sounded as his head turned around looking at the army that was surrounding him.

Silence was His answer, as after a few minutes of not moving or doing a thing passed between the two forces.

"Mmm kay, guess I'll get up now." Ruthven said as he slowly got up from his knees, but..

"...What was that!?"

*SHEATH*

Just before he was completely up, the sound of a katana being unsheathed was heard.

At that moment, Ruthven raised his hands, showing surrounded, but as he continued to stand up...

His left hand was cut clean off.

"Arrrrgghhhh!!!!" Taking notice of his cut arm a few seconds later, Ruthven screamed in pain, but his left hand wasn't the only reason why he was screaming...

His right hand was also cut off, another clean cut.

Trying to focus on the pain at hand, Three katanas went through Ruthven's stomach.

What followed next was his legs being cut, one by one.

Stabs at the neck...

Ears being cut off...

Arms chopped off...

Ruthven's body was being turned into minced meat...

Ruthven experienced all these, and yet, He wasn't closer to dying than any other man, the situation was way worse.

Everything that the Samurais cut never stayed detached for long, only a second after being cut, The cut part would regenerate or grow back, putting Ruthven in even more pain.

He screamed and screamed, but nothing changed. He tried crawling away, but that only made things worse. He begged for mercy, only to be brutally tortured.

Tears turned into blood,

Blood into rivers,

And soon...

Rivers into Seas.

Resistance was now futile, Ruthven accepted all the Samurais' blades and held back his screams.

What was the point of screaming if it brought him no salvation?

All he had to do, was become a punching bag for the Samurais as they had their way with him...

But still, He hoped it would end quickly...

*****

[Location: Bloodlands]

At the same time when Ruthven first lost his hand, A change, no, more of a similar circumstance happened to his original body in the Bloodlands.

His Body which lay flat on the ground, lost its left hand, but unlike in the Mental Zone, no screaming was heard.

Ruthven's body only bled, but no response ever came from him.

<WARNING!!!!!>

<WARNING!!!!!>

<The host has been attacked by an external factor...> Before the system could finish, Ruthven lost his right hand.

<WARNING!!!!!> <WARNING!!!!!>

<WARNING!!!!!> <WARNING!!!!!>

<Proper analysis of the situation cannot be performed...> Three stabs appeared on Ruthven's body.

[Preparing Countermeasures for the Situation

[Countermeasures Prepared]

[The system Shall now take Action]

With the system's words, the lost hands of Ruthven quickly grew back, and his stabs were closed but...

it didn't end there.

As more and more fatal injuries appeared on Ruthven's body, the system did its best to make sure it healed him as quickly as possible.

This procedure of back and forth continued for an entire month before the attacks on his body stopped.

*****

[Location: Ruthven's Mind zone.]

A month of continuous brutal torture came to a stop just like that.

Laying in a sea of his own blood, Ruthven stared into the open sky, his dark black eyes without any hints of emotion in them.

His naked body was covered in his blood, with no scars whatsoever, contradicting his most recent experiences.

"Is... it ...over?" He asked with his low and croaked tone, shifting his gaze to the Samurais still surrounding him. ".... A-aren't you gonna attack anymore?"

Yet again receiving silence as an answer, Ruthven sighed and returned his Deadshot gaze to the open sky.

"At least let me... let me rest..." Ruthven said, his eyes slowly closing.

As If responding to his words, The Samurais surrounding him all exploded without a sound, and returned to being the thousands of flowers they once were.

The Flowers at a way faster passing than Ruthven's closing eyes, All flew into his eyes fading away into them, changing them in the process.

".....What is it this time?" were His last words before losing consciousness.