The two voices went silent, and I could hear breathing from Rex’s body, shallow and labored. If everything I had heard was correct, the vessel was failing.
My mind was in a whirl, a thousand thoughts clashing without any meaningful direction.
Whatever was happening here was far bigger than me or anything I knew. The entire world, my home, the Academy, in fact, the entire continent was in danger.
How did I end up here again? Ah, yes, by surviving much longer than I should.
In the past few loops, I have killed a great many things and seen things that no man should see, and I had thought by now there was not much left that could reach into my chest and squeeze. I was wrong.
Because I understood the shape of what was to come, and the people I knew and loved were being treated as statistics by these bastards.
The continents seemed to be falling into war, demons were arising from the earth, but in the midst of all of these was my hatred for the ones who were tearing my world apart.
I don’t know if this loop would be interfered with if I died inside this pyramid, but I had learned after dying enough times that you should not worry about what you cannot control; however, as long as I could return, they shall not succeed.
Whatever was happening, I don’t know if I was able to stop it, but as long as I returned, then there was still time.
I stepped out of the fog to confront the two that I could hear speaking, and the passage, although massive, opened into a circular chamber that was even more massive, and I was not able to see the far ends of it.
The walls that were nearer to me were covered in symbols that glowed with the same red light as the pyramid’s pulse.
At the center of the chamber, something rose from the floor, a pillar of black stone, faceted like the pyramid’s exterior, extended to the distant ceiling, and it pierced the floor, disappearing into the ground below.
Nailed to the pillar, upside down, was the body of Rex.
I froze, and despite everything that I had seen, there was something so uniquely disturbing about this sight that it took me a moment to wrap my head around everything I was seeing.
Rex was naked and spread-eagled on the pillar, except for his head, which was intact; his body had been degloved. He no longer had any skin.
His palms and feet had been pierced by a long black spike that seemed to be carved out of ivory, and I don’t know why the spikes reminded me of the massive white tentacle outside.
As I watched, pieces of his body flew up into the darkness, defying gravity, and Rex’s body was slowly shrinking.
My eyes flew to his face, and there was no pain on his features, but then I saw a line of tears running up his face, and I knew at that moment that Orath had found a way to channel whatever pain the body was experiencing to Rex.
Commander Rel stood by the base of the pillar, and she had a glowing tablet in her hands that she was busy glancing through and tapping.
"Oh, what do we have here?" The silky voice of Orath emerged from Rex’s mouth, and Commander Rel looked up from her tablet. Her face changed. There was first a look of confusion in her eyes as if she did not recognize me
I mean, I would not blame her. Remaking my body had covered me with dried blood, and the ash and the innards of the demons I had been swimming inside had left me caked with layers of gore.
I had no doubt I looked like what I had been dishing out for a while now... death.
"Elric," she said. "How did you... survive, " she stopped. Her eyes swept over me, noticing all the details of my struggle ot get to this point, then her voice went cold. "You should be dead."
Ah, how could I ever forget this voice or this face?
I moved forward, giving myself a limp and placing on a air of extreme tiredness and sorrow. It was not a hard look for me to pull off, and I coughed, "Survive is a strong word. I’m lucky to be alive."
I took more steps forward, my body was shivering, this place was cold, and although I think with my present body that I did not need to shiver, there was no reason for them to know this information.
Looking at the withering body of Rex pinned to the pillar upside down, I gasped in horror, "What the hell is happening here?"
Rex’s eyes narrowed. He was studying me, and then he smiled, "What master do you serve, Elric? Is it a god or a Sovereign? No one survives the demons without aid from above."
I shrugged, but there was not much resolve placed into it; there was no way I was deceiving these guys, and I never intended to. Everything they said, whether in interrogation or not, was valuable information to me.
"I studied a martial technique to fake my death, that was how I was able to escape the demons and find my way into the pyramid."
Rex’s eyes lit up, and I hated that within them, I saw nothing but the light of curiosity.
"Oh, there is a martial technique like that, hmm, and you can study it as an Acolyte?"
Commander Rel’s face shifted from mild shock at my arrival to cold assessment, and she brought out her staff. "You are lying. No Acolyte could survive the demons, not even with a martial technique."
I glanced towards her before returning my gaze to Rex, "And yet, here I am."
Orath began to laugh, "How interesting, you definitely have secrets, Elric, and in another time, I would give almost anything to pry them from you, but I am afraid that you are interrupting a process greater than you or this continent. Kill him, Commander."
"Oh yes, how could I have forgotten that easy way to order our deaths?" I smiled. It was not a nice smile. "I heard you talking. You should really watch your volume. The acoustics in here are terrible."
Commander Rel raised her staff. The configuration that began to form above it was larger than anything she had used in the camp in the last loop, denser, the spell gathering mass from the fog itself.
Her face had recovered its cold mask, but her eyes were still wide. She may not know what was happening with me, but she would be foolish not to take me as a threat, and as much as I hated these evil fucks, they were not foolish.
"You are a loose end," she said, "Die in peace."
"I would rather not," I smiled, "Instead, I want your heart in my hand."