CHAPTER 101: PRISON BREAK

XENON WINGATE

9 DAYS AGO

The smell of blood coated my nostrils. The sound of a sticky substance repeats on my pickaxe. Blood runs through my tattered leather boots as I look at the dying human guard with the eye of a god and a demon. His spine has been broken by my mining tool, but his arms still have sufficient strength to grab me.

“D-Damn… you… Xenon..."

Suddenly, a dragonoid with a masculine build appeared from the darkness of the mine. He had his pickaxe on his shoulder. When he saw the crawling prison guard begging for his life on me, the dragonoid smashed his tool straight to the human’s head. Brain chunks flew around and splattered on the walls of this man-made cave.

“Don’t let anyone live. The day of our uprising is now.” Lothar Pendragon said as he rested his bloody pickaxe on his shoulder.

“I know,” I muttered. Then I crouched down to check on the prison guard’s body and found a pistol having two spare magazines and a key. I immediately put those items to my dirty coat’s pocket.

Suddenly, about eight dragonoids, all wielding bloody pickaxes, and shovels appeared on this scene. Alder Windstrafe and his dragonoid Emy also made their appearance in this crossroads of the mine.

“All prison guards on this mine has been neutralized silently.” One of the dragonoid said. “But we haven’t found the key.”

“Xenon here already got it.” Lothar laughed. The once-proclaimed Hero of Elysia stood at the center of our circle and made his speech. “This is the time we break out of prison! This is the time we rise up against our oppressors! This is the night we will be free and attain vengeance! Put it all in your heart and soul as we will be free!”

“For our freedom!” One of the dragonoids pumped up.

“For our freedom!” The other dragonoids shouted out loud. 

“Xenon!” Lothar patted my shoulder with full hope and energy. “Where does the key lead to?”

I stared at the key I just got from the dead prison guard and saw a label. It says cafeteria, so I said “Cafeteria.”

“H-Huh!?” All the prisoners were immediately disappointed by what we have discovered. Sure, the first step of our plan is to secure the key from a guard. This is the only key we retrieved from them so I’m not the one to blame.

“Out of all the keys, why the cafeteria?” Alder muttered in dismay. I’m just as frustrated as he is, but I don’t have time to complain.

“We have to make use of this key somehow!” I cried out loud. “It may not be the armory key or the anti-magic bracer key we are searching, but this is still a step for our plan! Tonight, we will raid the cafeteria!”

I immediately ran towards the tunnel reaching the entrance. Without any choice, Lothar and Alder followed my lead. The other dragonoids may have their spirits low, but still, they decided to follow not me, but Lothar Pendragon.

“Are you sure we can trust that human?” A prisoner dragonoid asked Lothar while we run through the rocky corridors. “He acts like he knows what he’s doing, but I doubt him.”

“I trust Xenon with my life.” Lothar smiled. “We should put our past differences aside. Humans, dragonoids… we are all the same in this prison. In this place, there are only factions: the oppressor and the oppressed. We are soldiers without any fealty, and that is what keeps us united at this very point in time. We are nothing. Forgotten, betrayed, abandoned. We are like stray dogs dying in a corner of a street. But with Xenon’s plans and leadership, we will attain freedom.”

“If you’re going to entrust your life to that human, then I will too.” The prisoner Dragonoid smiled back.

“Y-Yay, we will go to the cafeteria and get their doughnuts.” One prisoner said with sarcasm.

On our way out of the mine, there are several prison guards waiting at the entrance. There’s about five of them, and they are awed to see us rushing away.

“Hey! Get back to work-!!!” One of the guards said, but right after he finished his sentence, I put a bullet in his skull with my pistol.

“Rrrrraaaaaaaaaahhh!” Lothar and the other dragonoids charged with their pickaxes and they skewered all the remaining guards with their close-range attack.

Seeing that the uprising has now started, all the prisoners who are in charge of the transport of the magic crystals also made their move. They stabbed the guards to death using their knives, hoes, and machetes. They smashed their heads with a rock or hammer. They used chains to strangle their oppressors. They threw huge chunks of magic crystals to those humans who treated us like animals. Countless screams and grunts started to fill the night air, which is contradictory to the serene starry skies. This place is starting to have a riot vibe, and it gives joy to my heart.

“To the cafeteria!!!” Lothar cried out loud as he pointed the way.

“Hoooaaaahhhh!!!” The prisoners cried with rage.

While the other prisoners slaughtered the guards, we took this opportunity to rush straight to the wall of the penitentiary. The very first room we will have to run over was the cafeteria itself, so we are lucky to have the key. When I opened the door towards that damn place, the dragonoids went rushing in with the same warcry.

There are several guards who are just having their dinner. They are not ready to face us, so we prisoners had the sweet time to massacre them all. Using the guns we stole, the mining tools we had, and some utensils around, we butchered the guard’s stomachs which made their dinners useless. Of course, some of the guards did a number to my comrades with their weapons, but it is not enough to pacify the rage of my fellow prisoners.

“There! The warden!” Lothar pointed out the fat man on the far side of the cafeteria. Just like how he used to look, the warden is still busy chomping hamburgers, fries, and soda float. When the warden saw the chaos, he immediately ran away.

I aimed down my sights and shot the warden. I hit him two times on the stomach, but I guess his layers of fat is somewhat bulletproof that he was still able to get out of the cafeteria alive. However, blood drips every time he drags his feet so his trails would make him easy prey later.

“I’ll get him!” Alder and Emy ran towards the way the warden went through.

It took about three whole minutes to have the cafeteria completely cleared with prison guards. We took up their weapons that were lying around to arm our own comrades. Some prisoners also took their time to eat what was left in the cafeteria. Considering that we prisoners has never been fed properly, we decided to let them be and eat with their heart’s content.

Lothar Pendragon saw the cabinets full of liquor bottles, and it gave joy to him. He immediately pulled out all of those bottles and opened it, then he applied some clothing at the mouth of the bottles. He made all of those liquor as improvised Molotov cocktails. He distributed all of it to each and every prisoner.

“We have to turn junk and liquor into our weapon until we get these Anti-Magic Bracers out of our wrists,” Lothar explained to everybody. “We only have three molotovs for each person, so use your explosives when you think the time is right.”

However, when Lothar turned to me, he was filled with disappointment. He must be taking back his word about entrusting his life for me right now. The reason? I just drank all the Molotov rationed to me. It’s my first time drinking booze for the past five months, and I’m not going to let this chance pass. I gulped, and gulped, and gulped until I don’t have any bottles left to use. The tingling sensation of the liquor running on my esophagus and the alcohol reaching the circuits of my brain gave me the best feeling ever.

“What did I say about using your Molotov at the right time?” Lothar sermoned me.

“You see… I don’t need these weapons anymore.” I said in a slurred speech. I threw the last bottle to the far side of the cafeteria and showed Lothar Pendragon my clean wrists.

“T-That’s!” Lothar’s eyes opened wide. “How did you remove your Anti-Magic Bracers?”

I presented a new key that has been hidden in my hand for the past ten minutes. “The warden dropped this key, and I thought, this must be the key to free us from these rusty bracelets. I tried it, and it worked! Hahaha!” 

“Xenon Wingate… you are certainly a joke. You’re someone who’s so unreadable, but that makes you reliable.” Lothar sighed.

“Oh, am I?” I laughed as I activated my Eye of Deus and Necross at the very same time. “I will do everything I have to kill Eldritch.”

Now that I am free from those restraining bracers, I feel magical energy leaking onto the pores of my skin. I have been charging up nature energy with my Elform for the past months, and I never thought I would get thrice as I have computed.

“Our plan of freedom starts in this very first phase!” Lothar celebrated out loud. “Unleash the god!”

My Eye of Deus and Necross glowed as I made a malicious smile. Now that I can freely use magic, it feels good to be back on a battlefield. My heart pumps to its content as I saw the celebrations of my allies in this very place.

My Eye of Deus glowed and made a crimson pulse all over the area. With this power, I sensed the heartbeats of my dragonoid comrades. Using my heart as a medium to establish a Nexus Link towards each and every dragonoid in this room, I unleashed the nature energy I stored for so long.

“Overloading Vesryn Pulse!”