Day of Reckoning 3

The handsome young man dressed in a white suit had the looks of a model, he pinched the crown on his white fedora as he smiled brightly while walking briskly towards Anna. He acted as if he had all the time in the world. As he got closer to Anna who lay powerless on the burning asphalt floor, she shuddered. He had spread his authority around them, making it difficult for both Anna and the rest of his followers to move. They all trembled under his pressure, but of course, the most affected was Anna, she had tried to escape using whatever soul power she had left. Instead, she got her authority sealed and was in a state of panic,' The great one, he's really going to kill me'.

Anna could smell the wax off the shoes which stopped right in front of her. She instinctively swallowed as she did not know what would happen next, she shuddered at the thought of being killed. 'If I had a chance, I might be able to escape.' She didn't doubt The great one's power; The great one she knew enjoyed playing with people's lives. He would capture, and then let people go or give them opportunities to escape from him. It was a sport of sort for him. After creating a false sense of hope, those people would go about with the misconception that he was a trivial being that was not to be taken seriously, she had seen many lives end in such foolishness. They were trivialities which he could take care of instantly, he only stepped in whenever he was incensed. Anna simply thought that it was too quick for him to act, even if she had lost an important soul, it was for this reason that she thought it would take an even longer time before he dealt with her, 'Is this a ruse? Will he let me go?'

'I just need to play along to his tune, I might still be able to escape,' before she should finish her thoughts, a heavy kick landed on her, crushing the entirety of her left rib cage.

Thunk.

"Augh! Ugh." Anna screamed at the top off her lungs, and blood began to stream down her throat.

"Anna, Anna, Anna," he said slowly as he picked her up by the hair, his nails digging into her scalp.

"Ugh, cough, ptui." She groaned, as she grabbed on to the hand which dug itself into her hair, to give herself more support. As he raised her off the ground, the bones from her broken rib cage dug into her lungs whenever she attempted to breathe, making her take shorter breaths as if gasping for air. She could feel her blood slowly trickling into her lungs, she attempted to heal herself, but of course, her authority remained sealed. There was nothing she could do, the metallic taste of her blood filled her mouth as she coughed up more blood. Spitting it out weakly, she let it trickle down her mouth, and in the process she had managed to get some on her assaulters face.

He smiled sweetly at her while beckoning to one of his men, the man arrived quickly, handing a wipe to The great one. He didn't bother to cover himself with his authority, which would prevent his body from being soiled in blood. Rather he enjoyed the taste of torture, and aimed at maximizing to the fullest, he loved getting the blood of his victims on himself, it was one of his greatest pleasures, or in this case, something more. The great evil slowly wiped the blood off his face while enjoying Anna's suffering expression.

"Did you really think you could get away from me, your ruler?"

Anna's world began crumbling before her, any thoughts of escaping, or being released by The great one filtered into nothingness.

'He really will kill me.' Anna shook, she had never known a greater despair. Her body quivered as she went into a haemorrhagic shock; she had bled far too much. The whites of her eyes began to roll back into her head, and she relieved on herself in their very before, the menacing power of The great one had seeped into her entire body, rendering her powerless. The men laughed at her, it marvelled them to see the great Anna Brooks drenched in her excreta. The great one let go of her as the revolting smell assaulted his nose, causing Anna's to fall to the ground.

Bam.

Anna's skull cracked as she fell head first on the asphalt.

"F*** it." Anna thought, she couldn't even faint if she wanted to, The great one had made it that way. Nevertheless, she could feel the gut-wrenching pain tearing through her entire body, it was unfair, she could lose as much blood as possible, suffer as many physical conditions as possible, and as many shocks as possible. Yet, she wouldn't die, because The great one had willed it so. She wouldn't die unless he wanted her to. She had the front-row seat to her humiliating end, yet she had to enjoy it.

It was sickening, even for her who killed her victims in cold blood, 'at least,' she thought, 'I had done it quickly, I didn't let them suffer,' a voice distracted her from her train of thought.

"Where did you think you could run to, Anna?" The great one cleaned his hands with another towel, "even if you wanted to run away, why didn't you run to me, and beg for your forgiveness? I might have forgiven you, you know you are special to me, Anna."

Anna couldn't believe it. The great one is talking to me about forgiveness, and what was that eager look on his face, it was obvious he didn't take her seriously, 'he will definitely kill me if I beg for forgiveness, he will think I'm pathetic and make fun of me, even after my death. At this point, Anna was sure he bared no goodwill towards her, or so she thought.

He reached down and grabbed her face, "I'm really disappointed, to have to hear of this from someone else, and not from you, why didn't you come to me? I waited and yet, you ran away from me."

He pushed her face away, "You even went to that bumbling fool instead of coming to me, your ruler, why?"

"Mph, ugh," Anna could only muffle.

"Pack her into the truck and clean this place up, make sure there aren't any witnesses."

"Yes, Sir," the men left immediately to do their bidding.

"Also, kill everyone who laughed just now."

A shiver ran through their spine.

"Yes, Sir"

The great one sighed.

"I guess I was the only one between us who felt like we were close, you didn't even call for me, not even once." Slight glints of disappointment, frustration, anger, and resentment flashed through his eyes before disappearing, but Anna couldn't see it. She was already unconscious.

Inside a dark dungeon,

A tall figure with horns could be seen cladding a weak life form in his arms. It was Chris.

'Open settings,' Chris thought with his mind, he had realized that he didn't need to communicate with the U. I with words, and instead used his thoughts.

{Beep!}

{Request denied, you do not have enough authority to access the setting for the User Interface}

{Requirement demands that you complete stage 1 of your training to obtain such privileges}

"F***, damn it," Chris bellowed, 'what the hell is this system?' He thought.

{You have 30 seconds remaining}

{Please choose quickly before auto-command activation}

"Ugh, this is crazy, I must be crazy," Chris looked at the window of choices available to him

{Warning! Low-grade dog, is suffering from severe dehydration, and starvation}

{Purchase healing elixir to stabilize your tamed beast's condition}

{The Elixir of Healing

Price – 5 gold coins}

{Purchase ‐ Accept / Decline}

{Take proper care of your tamed beast until it recovers – Accept / Decline}

{Would you like to name your tamed beast? — Accept / Decline}

{15 seconds remaining}

{giving a name to the tamed beast will help strengthen your bond, and slightly improve its condition}

"I would like to name my beast." Chris said, in a lack lustre voice, he held no expectations from the system as it had not helped him in any way. If anything, he felt the best thing it could do was recover the dog's held by at least 1%.

{What would you like to name your tamed beast? Please input your desired name}

"I will name her SIM."

{Input registered, your normal tamed beast bond with 'dog 1' rises to tamed soul beast bond with SIM}

{As a result of naming your 1st Tamed beast, a one-time bonus applies}

{50% of your health, and that of your tamed beast gains restoration.}

{50% of all afflictions affecting you, and your tamed beast receives nullification.}

{5% of the eternal poison in your blood vessels is under cleansing.}

{Your constitution has risen by 1}

{Your tamed beasts' constitution has risen by 1}

{Would you like to purchase The Elixir of healing – Accept / Decline}

{Would you like to take care of your tamed beast – Accept / Decline}

{20 seconds until auto-command}

"I'm poisoned, since when?" Chris was schocked.