The Prisoner [I]

The prison.

Through the corridors dimly lit by dim torches, trapped in walls blackened by dirt and dark green moss, it was possible to see that the wing of the castle's confinement facilities had been built in the form of a dungeon.

It was a kind of prison like those of the medieval era.

Not at all accommodating and clearly uncomfortable, making me get goosebumps all over my body just watching it.

''Ugh!''

The smell of rot, excrement that hadn't been disposed of properly — probably accumulated over the time the prisoners had been there — was in my nostrils violently.

But that's not what bothered me.

In those last few hours I'd spent in this troubled world, I'd seen a lot of things like this, so it was almost like it was nothing.

The smell was tolerable in certain parts.

However, I couldn't help but be speechless at the horrible scene that unfolded before my eyes in that place.

It looked like something straight out of an '80s massacre horror movie.

Had Freddy Krueger by any chance pulled one of his own here? — frankly, jokes didn't feel right now...

''Crap…''

I surveyed the place and the fetid stench seemed to attack me stronger than before as I walked through the place.

Several thoughts crossed my mind, regarding the reason behind it.

It was only logical to think so, but I tried to deny it, even though we were at war with humans and the other respective races on this planet.

For starters, if what I had seen so far were hundreds or thousands of demon bodies, scattered around the corridors of the vast castle, that had been attacked by the heroes who had infiltrated there, then what was here could only be…

Well…

All human bodies and waste.

''Urg...'' I groaned again, covering my nose with a piece of my torn shirt sleeve.

Silently, I analyzed the whole scenario in seconds.

The adrenaline coursing through my veins had temporarily left me more critical and intelligent than I had ever been.

There were no guards here, but it looked like the bastards had killed all the helpless prisoners before they left to fight the bloody battlefield.

The remnants of their actions, left behind as a ''special gift'' to the group of heroes, made me feel the vomit building in my belly and rising up my throat, but I was able to hold it back at the last second.

It was obvious that in a severe war situation they would do anything to get revenge on the people who slaughtered millions of demons.

However, for me, who was a mere human internally, it was difficult to deal with all of this.

''They didn't play on duty...'' I passed another cell and saw.

Most of the corpses had been horribly ripped to shreds from what they had once been, leaving them unrecognizable.

Honestly, they looked like the demons here.

Their bodies were covered in blood, bones protruding everywhere, and rotten, stinking parts being devoured by weird-looking worms.

They were victims of a disaster. Even as the author behind this crazy and disturbing web novel, I couldn't even begin to think what they had been subjected to.

I mean, there was, of course, a clear difference between just reading and writing something and presenting it in person, in the flesh.

The unrecognizable, mangled bodies were very difficult to see, even though I had described it who knew how many times in my past life works.

Was I by any chance mentally ill from adding so much detail to this type of event?

I looked to the side in shock.

Someone had been ripped in half just outside a cell with the bars ajar, his guts and viscera all out, leaking out of his body.

Had he tried to run away?

Sadly, his attempt had apparently failed.

I turned my gaze the other way, restraining myself from cursing myself for the sick things I had written in my past life.

I reached for one of the corpses and began to undress.

''God fucking damn it... damn it...!''

Had the sins I committed in my past life been that great?

Was it to the point that I had to undress a damn corpse, which was still bleeding from several holes in its body, and whose figures were no longer recognizable, just to survive a little longer?

"May this work, please."

I took off my expensive clothes, which were now purposefully torn, laying them on the floor, and grabbed the corpse's clothes to put them on.

I had stripped those ragged clothes off a body that could more easily be described as "pieces of flesh" than a corpse.

I sighed deeply.

I couldn't afford any unnecessary pride, or care about my dignity right now, so I also pulled my pants down and started rolling around on the dirty floor with the rags obtained from the prison placed over my body.

The feeling of having sticky, viscous blood with dirt and dust on your face and limbs was terrible.

The smell then, ugh!

I held back one more time not to vomit. How many times had I controlled myself not to throw up, just in the last hour?

I looked around but didn't find anything like a glassy puddle of water or a mirror.

Therefore, without the opportunity to be able to assess myself in a mirror, I deduced that with all that I had subjected myself to there, I must be looking terribly poor and mediocre.

At the end of the process, my stomach churning, I couldn't take it anymore and got down on my knees.

I searched the prisoners' bodies once more, but nothing useful could be found. It was expected.

''Huuuewek!''

I could hear screams and high-pitched noises coming from outside the confinement facility I was in, which seemed like distant echoes.

I jumped up from the dirty floor.

With that, all my preparations to look like a surviving prisoner were complete.

''So, let's see.'' I said, analyzing the situation as a whole.

For starters, I could either go inside a prison cell somewhere in there and lock myself inside, or just pretend that I had somehow taken advantage of the demons out to battle, to escape.

From now on, all I could do was pray that no one would be able to see through my cloaking magic.

''However, who am I supposed to pray to?'' I wondered, confused. "Wasn't it literally God and his minions responsible for putting me in this hellish place?"

It was a strange and difficult time. Yeah, real shit.

I continued walking through the prison cells in a miserable mood.

The prison, which was once completely filled with captured people, who were housed here for negotiations with the human realms, was now housing nothing but me and human bodies.

Honestly, I knew it was a war, but wasn't it a very rash action to get rid of all possible trading coins there, killing them?

''So, is this what being a demon means?''

And then, snapping myself out of my temporary daze — caused by my nervousness and eagerness — I heard a strange noise ringing through the darkened corridors of the prison.

''Sob… Sob, sob…''

I narrowed my eyes and opened my ears wider than before. I could hear someone crying here, somewhere in this huge prison.

That's it! There were survivors!

I didn't know what or who it was, but there was someone still alive here.

Without thinking twice, I instinctively moved towards the place where that sound was originating.

Fear was dominating me most of all, but I couldn't help but run and go look.

For starters, first of all, I thought it would be the right thing to do to help whoever was alive in this stunning place.

''Fuuuu…'' I sighed in relief.

Those conflicting feelings gave me a sense of responsibility and relief as if they were proof that I was still a normal person.

"Hey…Who…" I started, leaning my head slowly through the cracks in the walls. ''Is anyone there?''

''Urg… Sob, sob. Sob…''

I looked with fear of what might be waiting for me there, but it was no big deal.

It was just a fragile, hopeless, quiet, broken cry, like the faint cry of a small newborn puppy.

I took a step forward.

''Uh... uhh.. hnng...''

As I did so, I could see a little girl crying a lot in a brittle voice as she hugged a bloody figure that looked like an adult human.

''.....''

It didn't take much thought to guess what kind of situation this was.

It was one of the consequences of the things I had so confidently written on Earth.

I looked around; this place was devastated.

It was like the other cells, everything was broken and there was a mass of bodies and cut flesh scattered everywhere.

Just a glance — and although I hated to admit it —, and judging from what was left, it looked like there were six of those humans in there.

They were all dressed in white rags covered in dirt and stains and fresh blood.

The crying girl was not included in that number.

I stared at her for a second — she seemed to ignore me as she cried, clinging to a disproportionately shaped body and her neck crooked in an unnatural and grotesque way.

From the state of the woman in her arms, I couldn't even begin to deduce how these people had died, how painful it had been, and how the hell this child had survived this entire process.

However, it was more obvious than anything that the woman the little girl held was someone precious to her.

'Hey, calm down… We can still get out of here…''

She didn't look my way, moreover, didn't even answer me.

I punched the cell's metal bars violently, trying to get her attention. I had no other option at all.

My hand ached from my low strength and stamina, but after having bumped against the cell, the girl finally lifted her head from the corpse and looked in my direction.

Although she was covered in a strange liquid and blood, I could tell she had naturally red hair and flashy golden eyes.

However, in contrast to that, she was very thin.

The state of her physique was, to say the least, worrying.

''H-huh?! What? Who… who… Who, are you… How…?''

She looked at me suspiciously, very scared and backing away as she spoke.

''Oh, of course!'' I replied, trying to form a fake calm expression. ''I was also stuck here... So don't worry! I'm just trying to help.''

Still looking at me, the girl began to utter unintelligible words, as if she had momentarily lost all reason and sanity.

''Well…''

Even if it was a stupid decision, I wouldn't leave her there.

I started talking once more.

''I'll get you out of there. Then we can get out of this shit-smelling hellish box."

I stared at her fixedly.

Her eyes were glued to mine — her wide pupils showed they were engulfed by immeasurable sadness and a hint of fear.

She mumbled something, seeming to be thinking about something important as she analyzed me from head to toe.

Probably, in her point of view, I was a prisoner dressed in rags, just like she and the others there.

She looked at my arms, legs, face and body.

I was trying to disguise, but not having much success, my shock at the whole terrifying scene, which I had never been exposed to before.

So she seemed to assert something internally and nodded slowly and gently.

She kept a closed, impassive expression on her face, giving off a false air of ice, but I could see her small, pale Caucasian hands shaking.

She seemed to believe me — no, she wanted to believe me.

I was, perhaps, her last hope of getting out of this place alive.

It was understandable though.

'Does she believe me because she thinks I'm in the same situation as her because I've been affected by these visions of bodies?'

Well, at least something I had to believe in for not having the Demon King's bloodline down to my core.

After all, that had only been possible because I wasn't technically the Demon Prince to my heart and mind.

I was actually the dominant consciousness of a receptacle. An spirit in a shell, that is.

''Hm...''

I looked around, looking for an outpost used by the guards, but I didn't see anything.

The girl continued to stare at me.

''Hey, little one. Would you happen to know where they keep the keys to this place?" I asked. ''It would make it a lot easier for me if you knew. But if you don't know, that's not a problem either. I'll find a way to bring them…''

''M-maybe… Maybe it's over there…''

Without saying another word, the little red-haired little girl pointed towards the other end of the prison.

''Thank you very much.'' I thanked her, taking my hands off the metal bars. ''Then I'll be back soon. Wait just a little longer."

She nodded in agreement.

I started walking towards the keys as fast as I could.

I had to get out of here quick — although there was a low chance of that, if a demon found me here in human form, then I was doomed.

Who knew what would happen to that poor child then?

''I mean…''

It was true that I felt compelled to save this child. In short, it was basically my fault for her being in such a chaotic situation.

However, it was also true that I had calculated the gains I would make if I saved her — obviously my chances of survival would increase exponentially if other survivors could testify that I had been trapped here and helped them.

''So, let's go!''

Gasping, I moved on, going in search of the keys.