NOVEL WEB Chapter 134: Prison Holding
"As you know, Cyrus has been arrested. It's unfortunate, but we can't do anything about it, but a woman came up to us. She said she was some kind of supervisor slash… ummm sponsor of the school and offered me a deal that I couldn't refuse."
"Don't tell me it was something stupid… please don't tell me it was something stupid. I'm begging you."
"I've already thought it over… and in exchange for all of us becoming this new role in the school called Daggers, then she will help ease Cyrus' sentence. She also told us at the court hearing in a few hours, a massive fight may break out between the Cladol family and the Crestsplitter family. And as I took the deal, she will help Cyrus survive as much as she can."
"Is she trustworthy? How can you tell if she's spitting bullshit?"
"I had no other choice… it was too good of an offer not to take, so just believe for once and pray for the best."
…
(Cyrus POV)
They latch to the cell locked behind me, the guard who had brought me here spitting a few insults before leaving. My eyes trailed his suit all the way until he disappeared down the hall, revealing the criminal in the cell across from me.
"So, what are you in for?" He asked, the massive scar slashing across his right eye glowing a dim red. It illuminated the rest of his body as if it was his pure and utter bloodlust leaking through the sealing stones wrapping our wrists.
Ignoring the thug and looking down at my wrists, I trailed my eyes over the pitch-black stone. It was entrancing, capturing my attention and dragging me into its very depths. It took all of my willpower just to look away from it.
"Don't look at the stone. According to a few of my men in here, it's a chunk of the portal leading to the depths of hell. Just looking at it will draw you further and further into a bad destiny… which I assume you wouldn't like… right?"
Abyssal Stone. I'm well aware of it.
In my past life, stones like these were used to seal extremely powerful characters. And not only were they used to lock away the strongest of the strongest, but they were used occasionally within dungeon raids to suppress extremely powerful monsters… although these chains could only take them so far.
Monsters in higher-level raids are something of entirely different beasts. Normally a raid party consists of about twenty people, but when you climb up the ranks and the gap in power between monsters and adventurers begins to grow, only then do you see raids with fifty to a hundred people.
"So, what are you in here for?" The man attempted to ask me again, but I still didn't respond… until I got a bit curious about my surroundings. I knew I was bound to have a court hearing, where chaos will ensue, but I at least wanted to get familiar with this place since I had no idea how long I would be here.
Obviously, the entire thing has been orchestrated by the Crestsplitter family so I doubt I'll have a chance of getting out of it injured, especially when my powers are sealed away. So, I'll just hope some people come to my aid… preferablly my friends or the light temple instead of my own family. If they saved me, I wouldn't be able to stop cringing at my own powerlessness.
"If you tell me why you're in here and how this place works then I'll tell you."
"Are you trying to make a deal with me?" The man smiled. He clearly wasn't a threat, but definitely somebody I would need to keep an eye out for.
"If you don't want, then I really don't care. It's not like I'm here permanently."
"Hmmmmm… Well, if you want to survive in this place then you gotta pay off the guards for protection. If you get jumped by one of the various gangs in here, my guys or even myself won't be able to save you. And most of the guards don't care unless you hand over "
"And how am I supposed to get money? This a prison… I get paid a copper coin a day. How am I going to pay off the gaurds with that?" I raised my eyebrow, but the man only smiled and nodded, meaning in order to survive in here, you have to really survive first. You need to survive until you can actually rack up the big bucks in order to pay off the guards who will then keep you safe.
Click click click click click
But, just as I began to enter a state of deep thought, the bars holding us into our cell were drawn upwards by some kind of mechanism. All of the prisoners were let out and immediately we were funneled down the hall by guards beating and whipping us with their black metal sticks.
"Hey, don't get into any trouble," A voice whispered by me and as I saw the same prisoner who I was talking to before funnel even further into the crowd, I upped my guard. For some reason, I felt like I would need to be wary for these next few hours.
FWOOSH
A gust of wind signaled my entrance into the courtyard resiidng at the very top of a massive skyscraper. The air was thin and atrociously hard to breathe in, so I made sure to manage to my breath while a continuous downpour of rain attempted to beat me to my knees.
Seeing that the clouds were just right above us, maybe only a hundred meters away, I stayed weary of any bolts of lightning. Any shocks and discharges across the courtyard was death. Utter death and electruction before I even got a trial.
"Hey, did you hear about…"
"Yeah, that's the guy, isn't it?"
"How could one kid be so stupid…"
"Well, I guess he had enough of living."
As I stood in the very center of the courtyard, the astro turf beneath my feet slowly beginning to moisten up from its crispy state, I heard various rumors about myself begin to circle around. Even the man who I was talking to before didn't even look my way anymore, knowing I couldn't be saved. And as I glanced back up at the thunderous clouds above, I heard a voice call out to me with a large gathering of inmate following behind him.
"Hey, is it true you killed a child from the Crestsplitter family?" A man with long blonde hair and piericng green eyes approached me. He clearly stood out amongst his lackeys which was almost the entirety of the entire fucking prison population.
Out of everybody on the yard, two-thirds of the present innmates gathered behind the man who was lean and tall. Really tall. He was maybe eight feet tall but wasn't extremely slim, and instead was lean and muscular, his vascularity displaying just how hard he worked to get to where he was.
"And if it is? What is somebody like you gonna do?" I responded, feeling an itch in the back of my mind. My foot tapped against the ground as the man took offense to my provocation and as I began to hum to try and calm myself down, my heartbeat said otherwise.
BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM
My heartbeat echoed like a drum within the cavity of my chest. It rung in my ears, drowning out the screaming and yelling of the leader in front of me. My pupils dilated and the hairs on my body stood on edge.
"Why the hell are you smiling? Are you that excited to get your ass beat?"
Experience new tales on empire
Even as he approached me and got up right in my face, he still didn't do anything nor did his lackeys. They just surrounded me until a small click came from our handcuffs… and just like that, I dodged a punch.
The handcuffs had separated into two separate pieces of stone, wrapping around both of our wrists to suppress our systems. But, that now meant activities like working out and shooting hoops or playing various other sports were now available… including fist fights.
I dodged and weaved through various lackeys, keeping an either incredibly close distance to ones fist so they couldn't generate any power, or an incredibly far distance just so they couldn't land a hit on me in general.
And as soon as I slipped out of the crowd, completly exhausted, their boss pushed his way through before cracking his knuckles and smiling. My uninjured self with maybe only a few scratches stood up straight while my smile faded into a cold expression.
"YOU WANNA GO! LET'S FUCKING GO! STOP RUNNING AWAY AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN YOU STUPID PUNK!"
"You got at least a hundred men behind you… what makes this fighting like a man?"
And then, on that day, a massive stain of blood stretched across the turf residing on that skyscraper rooftop.