CHAPTER 113: MY GRAVE

MICHAEL ELDRITCH

2 DAYS AGO

The last five days with the devil is a fate worse than hell for me.

That Xenon Wingate… He’s the devil incarnate. He laughs at my painful screams. He tortures me for his own entertainment and pleasure. During the last five days, he would force me into his grim hide-and-seek play where he assumes of being an “it” every time. I am able to hide away from him for only a couple of hours, but he will still find me. I have no other choice but to run. Every time he catches up to me, he would crush my toes or my feet with his hammer as a penalty. Every time I lose to this painful game, my odds of escaping from him falls down.

He forced me to eat my mutilated body parts as the only source of food. Xenon reserved all the military rations for himself and himself only as he never shared any of those with me. When I ran out of my own flesh to feed, I started starving. One time I tried to steal a normal food from the stockroom, Xenon punished me by punching my stomach over and over again until I puked the food I ate.

Being hungry for days is not the worst of it. I’ve never slept for the past five nights. Xenon would lock me up on the fridge as my resting place during my stay with him. I spent my nights freezing like ice, and even if I was thawed out, I would still shiver like an epileptic. My only way of good sleep is whenever I pass out while Xenon is making a punching bag out of me for no reason at all.

I tried to fight back once. I stole a gun in the stockroom and used it to assault Xenon, and that was the worse thing I have done during the five days. He used his Elform to make an invisible barrier to make him invincible. Fighting him made him infuriated, and as a punishment, he hanged me upside down with my feet impaled on the ceiling.

It would be best if I could kill myself so that I could escape this predicament. But Xenon wouldn’t let me. All the windows are sealed, which means I cannot jump out of the airship. One time I snuck out a scissor to cut my wrist, I was found out by the devil. The devil then used the scissors to cut the right part of my scalp and even my right ear. He then forced me to eat my own golden blonde hair and fried ear as a vague punishment. 

Nobody rescued me during those five days in hell. I failed to send Danielle Keine my current location. All I managed to relay the information about this airship landing on the remains of Vanilla City. My moment of salvation may only be after five days of suffering.

I know my sins, and I fully repent. Every night that I spend on the freezer, I prayed to the heavens to have my life taken away. I regret killing all the people I have killed, and I also regret torturing the people I have tortured. I may have a god complex, but I only wished for the safety of the world. But I guess this is too late.

“Rejoice, my friend. We have arrived a little bit earlier than scheduled.” Xenon has this menacing smile on his face. “Today is the day where you will be free of suffering. Today is the day you die.”

Xenon fetched me from the refrigerator, still shivering from the cold. To make it all worse, he stripped me out of all clothes, and my naked rotting skin can now be feasted by his eyes. I was hugging my own body, shaking with the aftertaste of the cold, as I followed him until the hatch of the airship opened.

For the first time in five days, I finally saw the skies. It’s still dawn and the sun is still rising. We are now at the central part of the remains of the Vanilla City, which is now a huge crater which is filled with thin snow. The early morning winds blew to my skin but it never gets any colder.

“Feels nostalgic, isn’t it?” Xenon smiled innocently.

“A...Awgh…” I muttered. I can’t utter an audible word for my tongue and teeth have been removed from my mouth. 

Xenon walked forward and stomped on the snow as if he’s looking something underneath the ground. While he is busy, the thought of running away from him crossed my mind. However, it is certain that he can still catch me. My feet ache because of my shattered toes, so I wouldn’t be able to run fast or even escape far away. Doing this thing would only lead to more torture, so I decided to stay by his side.

“The snow here looks soft, and the ground looks loom. This is the perfect place.” Xenon said as he clapped his hand. As he makes his palm drift away from each other, I noticed that he’s using his magic to create a standard shovel. He used the shovel to draw a rectangle that is about seven feet long and four feet wide on the snowy ground. Then he gently gave the shovel to my hand. “Now, Mike. Dig.”

I don’t know what this demon is thinking, but I have to obey anyway. I used the shovel to remove the snow and the soil from his instructed dimensions. I don’t know how long I was digging. Thirty minutes? One hour? It’s already three feet deep. As I get busy making a rectangular hole in the ground, Xenon yawned as he gets back to the airship.

“Continue digging, and don’t try to escape. I’ll be fetching some liquor at the stockroom.” He said.

“A-Awa…” I answered back.

When Xenon is gone, the thought of escaping away entered my mind once again. This will be a perfect opportunity. There’s no way Xenon would track me down while he’s inside the airship. I have to run for it!

“Awgh!” I panted as I started to run. However, I soon realized that I should not have done this as this was a trap.

There was a sound of a gunshot that echoes through the eerie snowy wind. The bullet made its way to my back, and I was put down to the ground in an instant. Then I felt spikes spawning from the bullet shrapnel that has been implanted on my back.

“Aaaaawgh!!!” I screamed out loud.

“Mike! I told you not to escape, remember!?” Xenon’s furious shouts can be heard in the distance. I heard him walking towards me, so I tried to use my arms to crawl away. However, the devil has caught up to me again. “How many times do I have to tell you not to run away, huh!?”

Punch. Punch. Punch. He’s ruthless and without conscience. His fists bathed with my blood as he continued to beat my face up. I tried to shield my face with my arms for about ten to twenty punches. When he got tired of it, he grabbed my right arm and ripped it out.

“Awwwwgh! Awa! Awa! Awa!” I cried out loud as I saw the broken bone of my right elbow. The ruptured blood vessels spray out everywhere, making the shallow snow stained with my blood.

“Get over here!”

Xenon grabbed me by the neck and dragged me back to the hole I’m digging. He dropped me to the deepest part of the hole as if he’s going to bury me alive. Now I just realized that the hole I’m digging for the past moments is meant to be my final resting place.

“Be a good boy, Mike. Stay down.” Xenon said as he used his magic to create another shovel. With his new tool, he started to scoop the snow and soil back to the hole with me underneath. Seeing that he’s burying me alive, I knelt down and bowed down, begging him for mercy.

“H-Heooom! F-Fowib meee! Awaaah!!!” I cried out loud. I can’t speak properly, fuck! But still, I have to try!

“Your sins have claimed the lives of many men. No matter how hard you cry, your fate has been decided. This is the day you die, my best friend.” Xenon said with his glaring eyes. He continued shoving me snow and pebbles, making my naked body bathed with dirt.

“Heeewp!” I crawled away from my grave until I reached Xenon’s foot. I cried endlessly as I hugged him with my remaining hand. “Awaaaaagh!!!”

“I told you to stay down!” Xenon spanked me with a shovel. With a powerful attack hitting my head, I felt dizzy and I fell back on the hole. Without any strength left, I watched my best friend bury me alive.

Up in the skies, I saw a ray of light that gave me hope. There are several Alterran airships landing towards our direction in a hurry. They seemed to have found us. Finally. If they managed to persuade Xenon to stop, my survival will be likely. I don’t mind being captured by Alterran soldiers or dragon knights as long as it’s not Xenon.

“Damn I thought I have the luxury time to bury you! What have you done!?” 

Xenon clicked his tongue as he threw away the shovel. He jumped to the hole and grabbed me by the hair, pulling me closer to his face. For the last seconds of my life, I saw how truly terrifying my friend is. His rainbow eyes glowed and dark aura engulfed his body.

In the background, I can hear airship hatches opening. I can hear clanking footsteps and guns being readied around. It comes from all directions, so I am sure we are being surrounded by enemy soldiers.

“This is the Pentagram Knights of the Empire of Alterra. You are completely cornered. Put your arms in the air.” One dragon knight announced with a megaphone.

“Nobody can stop me! Nobody! Nobody!” Xenon cried out loud like a madman as he raised me up in the air, grabbing my hair. With his other hand, he grabbed my neck with a tight grip, crushing my windpipes. I could no longer scream in pain.

“Xen, stop!” I heard a familiar worried voice. It should have come from Serena Maizono.

However, even with the voice of his love, Xenon cannot be stopped. He turned towards the soldiers, the dragon knights, his friends, and his love, and proclaimed his win while raising me up like a trophy.

“My name… is… Xenon… Wingate… And I… have come… to finish… my revenge!”

As Xenon finished his last word, I heard the cracking of my spine, my blood vessels, my throat, and my skin. The ultimate devil ripped out my head away from my neck with his bare hands, resulting in my immediate death.

[Michael Eldritch - K.I.A.]