Necessity

As he waded through the dust-filled halls leading to sealing chamber, Rethys began seriously questioning his decision to go through with this.

He was currently dragging the corpse of one of the creatures of the catacombs, taking it back to Sevi to cleanse it of whatever it contained that was poisonous to him, so that he may eat it.

It was not a pale wretch, rather a creature that seemed like them but had its entire body covered in stony growths that resembled horns. These horns also covered most of its head, seemingly taking away most of its ability to see or hear, unlike everything else here that appeared to have perfect sight in darkness.

This horned wretch, as he decided to call it, was many times stronger than both its pale counterpart and Rethys himself, yet was defeated through simple attrition. By avoiding its clumsy but powerful claw swipes, and over time releasing his Origin ether towards it, he eventually wore it down to unconsciousness.

Reaching the long hallway leading to Sevi's room, it was now almost time to reap the rewards of his victory.

'Oh I just... can't wait!' He grumbled inwardly.

Entering the room, he set down the heavy corpse before plopping down on the ground himself to catch his breath.

"Well done, Rethys, but be careful when facing this sort of creature going forth. These horned omens are very dangerous daemon hosts of Malice. They are not capable of using their magic efficiently but could still infuse Intent into it, their claws inflicting more than just external wounds." Sevi Commented.

"It's fine, lady Sevi, it can barely see, and I never had to get near it anyway." Rethys Responded.

"It is good that you could manage a confrontation against them, but do try to steer clear of them, especially the ones with glowing horns. Those greater omens are no easy prey." The ancient mage warned Rethys. "Now to move on to what you brought this thing here for."

As Sevi finished talking, Rethys could blood red ether of an unknown element quickly manifest around and inside the corpse of the horned daemon. He knew it was a spell or some such cast by her, but couldn't understand how the ether could function if it seemingly had no connection to her.

"Fascinating... Its body is completely intact, even alive to an extent, but houses no soul. A consequence of your abilities, is it not?" Sevi asked.

"Yes." Rethys answered.

Once the corpse was fully suffused with the crimson ether, he could see its muscles begin spasming before blood flowed out of every pore in its body, floating towards the dark steel blade suspended in the air and being absorbed by it.

As the blade finished absorbing the blood, the heart upon it briefly shone with red light before dimming once again.

Seeing this, Rethys got the feeling that he had made a mistake. His senses reinforced that idea, as he could sense that the ether contained in the dark blade rose in not only quantity but also quality, an almost unnoticeable difference, but not one that would escape his scrutiny.

'It's fine, there was no way around this anyway.' He sighed.

"If you're wondering, I took the liberty of taking my share. Consider it payment for helping you survive." She said, perhaps noticing his wary glare. "It is done. You can feed on its flesh now."

'Wish you wouldn't phrase it like that.' He grumbled before reaching one of the corpse's arms and cutting it off with his knife.

The knife's extremely sharp edge went through the daemon's thick flesh like it was nothing, and as Rethys held the dismembered arm that was supposed to be his first meal in forever, he began to regret every single decision that he took leading up to this point.

"Can't I cook this, lady Sevi?" He asked,

"It is pointless. It would not make it go down easier and I have already done to it all that I could. You came this far, Rethys, you need only take the last step." The trapped mage said.

'Whatever, I ate worse things back then.' He tried psyching himself up. 'It can't be that bad.'

Hoping that his intense hunger would make the twisted flesh taste like the best Aldeno's inns and eateries could offer, he bit into it, only to find it just as vile and foul-tasting as he expected.

'Oh gods, this is putrid!' He thought, but unknown to him, the worst was yet to come.

As he swallowed the morsel, Rethys could feel every small intricacy and detail of the ether in it. It was as if he had done a thorough analysis of what exactly was wrong in the creature from which the chunk of meat came. Except he didn't see or hear said analysis, he tasted every part of it, he felt it deep within himself, and the horrors of this place were never clearer than they were now.

As the feeling subsided enough for things to become tolerable again, he began heaving, his body trying desperately to flush out the abominable thing.

'No you won't!' Rethys himself however, was having none of that.

He didn't go through the suffering of eating that thing just so that he could vomit it back out. From what his senses forced on him, it seemed the extreme nature of the thing he ate was such that it was very filling, so he would only have to go through this pain a few times for his hunger to completely disappear.

Grabbing the arm, he bit into it again and again, ripping out large mouthfuls each time and forcefully swallowing them before washing them down with the water from his canteen.

His eyes teared up at the overwhelmingly wrong sensations running through his whole being, his stomach felt as if it were going up and down his body, and his arms almost moved by themselves to tear him away from the daemon's arm.

But Rethys wouldn't stop, he would see this ordeal to its completion.

Eventually, he felt sated enough and stopped, tossing aside the arm he was eating from.

It was then that the feedback from gorging himself on the twisted flesh hit him in full, crashing into him with mind-shattering intensity.

"Argh!!" He screamed as he banged his head and fist against the cold stone floor in an attempt to drown out the sensations overtaking his mind.

It felt unbearable. He couldn't imagine going through this every time he had to eat, even if he wouldn't need to do it often. The sensations continued to assault him like a blizzard raging around the flimsiest hut, but it held on.

"Rethys! Are you alright?!" Sevi asked, her voice tinged with supposed concern that grated on the young man's already strained nerves.

"I'm... fine..." He groaned.

'It's fine...' He repeated in his mind, he had endured the Origin entity's control after all without losing himself, and comparatively, this was nothing.

As time passed, the torturous ordeal began to lessen and subside, until Rethys could somewhat think again. The relief signaled the coming end of his agony, and before long, his head went calm again.

Finally, he was able to hear his own thoughts again over the discordant sensations that ingrained into him the most unhelpful of insights.

Finally, there was tranquil quiet again.

Finally, he could pass out in peace.

*****

As he woke up from his deep, deep slumber, Rethys extended his hand towards his end table to turn off his alarm, only to be greeted with the sensation of cool, smooth stone. Opening his eyes, he saw alabaster chains hanging above him, as well as the soft white light cascading downwards from ceiling.

'Oh yeah... I'm still here...'

It looked to be a reoccurring theme at this point, waking up with headaches and confusion to the sight of this place. It seemed he wouldn't ever need to sleep at this rate, with things getting so out of hand on a regular basis.

'Great...' He sighed as he sat up and stretched his limbs.

He felt great, fantastic even. His body felt light and brimming with energy. What felt best however was that the horrendous experience he had to go through was all out of his system now, even if every muscle in his body tensed at its memory, he was done with it.

'At least for a few days huh...' He snickered inwardly.

Looking back at his state however, he stopped with the errant thoughts.

Complain as he would about how it was like, his first meal in a while saw him regaining some semblance of vitality, which was a very pleasant feeling.

"How long has it been now actually?" He mumbled to himself.

"It has been about two days since you have arrived here, Rethys." The usual pleasant voice answered.

Looking at the direction the voice came from, he saw once again the same giant blade of black steel, bearing an impossibly beautiful azure gem, and suspended in the air by ivory white chains.

Staring at Sevi's blue gem, Rethys didn't get the usual feelings of apprehension, fear and whatnot that he was used to experiencing in the presence of a being so much more powerful than him.

He then looked around the room and eventually found it. The still very intact corpse of the horned omen daemon he had the extreme displeasure of dining on. Though surprisingly, he wasn't as revolted as he expected himself to be at the sight of it.

It also seemed that Sevi had moved it away to the distant side of the room, away from entrance and from Rethys' spot. He couldn't deny that he appreciated her doing so.

Shrugging away his meandering thoughts, he responded to the trapped mage.

"I see. Thank you, Miss Sevi."

He now had all the necessities of survival in water, food and shelter. Now all he needed was to work on finding a way to get out of Yvtar, somehow, and he didn't like his odds.

If there was one thing he knew in his heart of hearts, it was that he was too weak. For while it was true that his abilities allowed him to somewhat safely navigate the catacombs and also deal with the creatures dwelling them effectively, it was equally true that, Origin element or not, one single slip up would see him dead in seconds.

It seemed thus far that the areas he was familiar with were the fringes of the catacombs where only the weakest dwelt, and, if Sevi's words were to be believed, he would have to get through much, much worse things if he wanted to make it back to civilization.

'It'd be really nice if I could just find a portal leading straight back to Aldeno just... lying around.' He sighed cheerlessly.

Rethys sat there, his eyes blank as he stared into the distance, his fingers rhythmically tapping the cold stone floor.

'I can't just sit around.' He thought, snapping himself out of his sulking.

He needed to get out of this place, and for that he needed to improve his chances of surviving anything he might come across throughout his stay here, be it unlucky encounters or difficult obstacles he'd have to overcome.

He knew how to improve his magic now, and where to find things that could help him, all he had to do was move.

Standing up, he emptied his satchel of everything he brought with him, carefully setting them down on the chamber's floor in an organized manner, before slinging the satchel on his back.

"Heading out again?" Sevi asked.

"Yes, it won't do me much good to just spend my whole time here, even if I was training my magic." Rethys answered.

Checking his bearings, he confirmed that he had his knife, his water canteen, his healing etherstones, as well as the map of the underground. He was almost ready to go, but not quite.

Approaching the pale, bristly corpse of the horned daemon, he reached down towards the arm he had eaten of previously, and cut a piece of meat off of it. He stared at the piece he took.

It was small, barely fist-sized, but from what his senses told him, it was more than he had ate earlier, which was enough to last him a few days at least. Cutting from it the smallest piece, he put it in his mouth and swallowed, only for his head to start buzzing like a wasp's nest.

'Nope, still no good...' He concluded, holding his head in his hands as if to stop the buzzing.

He hoped that he would have acquired some sort of resistance, or grown used to the experience, or something... But no, it seemed that he would have to suffer if he wanted to survive.

'It's fine... not like it changes anything.' He sighed despondently before stuffing the dry chunk of daemon meat into one of the pockets of his satchel.

Double checking the map for his destination, he studied once again the path to one the stashes Sevi pointed him towards.

It was time to move again.