Chapter 612: Leather And Chained Goth
Laz couldn’t beat the dragon. No matter what thoughts he had, no matter what he tried, he wouldn’t succeed. Even in his own mind, he was at a loss, making his inner child extremely disappointed in his lack of coolness. Laz sighed as he slipped out of his own mind, standing on the now dark field. He knew he had missed dinner, but that didn’t seem important anymore.
’I don’t know any cool attacks... but would that really even help? Yelling out something like Black Flame Inferno before summoning that fire wouldn’t cause it to do anything different. And even then, it’s not like I can throw fireballs. The flame engulfs my body and sure, it can burn things a certain distance away from me, but that’s about it. Sure, it’s dangerous... but it’s not exactly any more dangerous that maybe say a flame thrower. I feel like there are things I am missing about it considering it’s ability to purify things or whatever that is that happens when I use it on a person’s body, but I don’t even know where to start...." Laz said as he took a step forward, moving his sword in a straight lunge, piercing the very air in front of him. He then swung it backwards, completely a slash.
Around and around like a dance, Laz move his body as he moved, not having noticed that he was completely alone.
Until he wasn’t.
A woman stood there, watching from another section of the arena as Laz moved and while she hadn’t intended it, she produced a flute from a pouch at her waist. While watching him, a haunted sound came from the flute as she played, the notes inspired by the scene before her of a hauntingly beautiful young man with a sword, dancing in the moonlight.
As Euterpe played, many other women appeared all around the arena, watching the man in the center as he emptied his mind and focused on nothing but the sword in his hands.
A step forward as he spun his body, the sword flourishing in the moonlight.
A step back as he twisted, avoiding the strike of an enemy.
A quick lunge.
An overhead slash.
Around and around, faster and faster as the faint moonlight which shouldn’t have existed in this world seemed to beam down on him, it’s pale, purple light turning into a shade of red as the sand beneath his feet was kicked up, following the path of the blade.
Two women in particular looked down upon Laz, holding their breath as the music of the flute washed over them.
"He’s still at it."
"We got them to come meet him and he’s still here... playing in the sand?" Artemis said, worried.
They had contacted the sisters they felt they could trust, keeping the secret from their brothers since most of them couldn’t be trusted anyway. Their father had always given preferences to the boys, hence their loyalty to him.
"Hmm... Do you feel it though?" Aphrodite questioned, looking down at Laz.
"Of course I feel it... it’s just... faint. Even for me. As for the rest of them.... are you sure it was the right call to not show them our ascension to godhood?" Artemis questioned.
"We want them to commit themselves without waving this little fact in their faces. For if we do that, many of them would join just to become gods. As for taking care of father and his activities? Why would they really care about it after getting what they want. All I told them was he is the key that can help us. Sure, half of them didn’t come and I expect more of them to walk away after this... but at least, if anyone is left, that means she believes in the cause and in us," Aphrodite reassured her sister.
Laz felt it without seeing it. The red moon in the bright sky. He didn’t know what it meant, but he felt the connection to it.
Without thinking about it, he removed his shirt and spread his arms wide, basking in the cold, blood red light. While in this state, his hair grew long and changed color, his body became covered in the black, tribal tattoos and the red, full moon on his chest began beating, like a heart beat.
Picking up his sword again, Laz began the same dance as before, but this time, it was like he was mirroring the moon above, borrowing it’s light to paint the world with the sword as his blade.
Everyone watching, including Artemis and Aphrodite were shocked.
Laz was weaker than them in terms of energy. But at the moment, he was painting with the light of the moon, carving the very essence of the small dimension they were standing in and cutting space itself.
Like a demon god on a rampage, Laz cut space, destroyed the world and painted it in blood, all while bathing in a slightly golden halo, tinged with the black flame.
As he ended his dance, the music of the flute vanished as well, like it had never been.
Opening his eyes, he knew he was alone again, having only vaguely felt the many eyes resting on him, ones containing a myriad amount of emotions.
But having sensed Artemis and Aphrodite’s among them, he ignored them and had focused only on the dance.
"Asura Paints With Moonlight!" Laz said to himself, having felt the light from the blade cutting space, he knew that something like this could even hurt that bastard dragon, assuming he could do it without the strength of the moon itself.
Afterwards, Laz left the sword in the rack and walked to the room with hot water to clean himself before going to bed. He had been going all day and then some and was beyond tired, not even wanting to eat.
Not that he would be allowed to.
A group of guards came up to his cot inside the massive common cell not long after he had fallen asleep, kicking him awake as they stood there.
"I don’t care what the hell it is, it can wait until morning," Laz said, turning over.
The head guard, who was different from the one during the day, smiled at the two men on his side who went over to the other side of the cot and lifted it.
Or they tried to, not having anticipated how heavy such a thin boy Laz was. It was only after two others had walked over and helped that his cot was lifted off the ground, making him tumble out of it and on to the ground.
Laz was half tempted to pull the blanket over his head and not care, but knew that they would only resort to even more extreme action and that would annoy the others in the room who were trying to ignore his plight and sleep themselves.
Only Jacob looked over in worry, but only long enough to be glared at by the guards before turning his back to them to avoid trouble.
"Fine. Fine. I’m up. I hope someone is dying," Laz said, trying to wipe the tiredness from his eyes.
"You’d better hope the ones who called don’t die, or you will only be able to wish for death," the head guard said in his gruff voice before ordering his men to chain him up and bring him along. Laz didn’t care, having accepted this treatment and went with them.
When they got to where they were going, a large double door that didn’t look a thing like a bedroom, the head guard knocked before stepping back. Out stepped a woman with a cold demeanor, wrapped in leather belts and chains like a dress with a small lantern hanging from a belt at her waist. On her face, she wore a black veil that covered everything but her eyes while her black hair was tied back in multiple dark green bands of silk.
She eyed Laz from top to bottom before taking the lead to his chains and waving the guards away, dragging him inside.
Just before the door closed, Laz heard a guard ask the head guard when they would need to return as it was clear there was fear in his voice.
The head guard responded that they were told they wouldn’t need to return, just as the door shut.
Laz was lead inside by the woman, taking a chance at looking at the green marble walls of a large chamber with various statues of men who were stuck in horrified positions, one that showed they were in extreme fear. Without a chance to observe further, Laz was led to a stair case that went down, giving Laz a strange, slightly creepy feeling.
Still, he didn’t hesitate as she strolled along, bringing the chain with her. It didn’t take long in the damply lit stairwell before they entered another, smaller room.
The first thing about the room that Laz noticed was a massive window, looking out over a field of red and green fire, unlike anything Laz had seen before. It was like a chamber, but not a chamber. Instead, from where he could see, it looked like the place went on forever and if it wasn’t because of the cave like walls on that could be seen from just outside the window, Laz would have thought he was just looking at something above ground.
"Strip," came the order from beside him as he saw the same woman sitting in a chair made of white, polished bones, her hand no longer holding the end of the chain.
Laz didn’t know what to make of the order, so instead he stared at the woman with a rather amused expression, wondering what kind of cosplay she was up to right now.
Seeing Laz disobey her order, the woman lashed out, a chain with a metal hook shooting straight at his face.
With barely a twitch, Laz moved his head to avoid the attack, but kept the same bemused expression.
"IMPUDENT!" The woman yelled, raising her hand as four more chains flung out at him, each with a vicious hook attached to the ends of them.
Laz could have avoided them, but he didn’t, letting the hooks hit his body head on and causing scratches but nothing more. The hooks found no purchase in his skin as they couldn’t even penetrate through it.
Instead, Laz calmly walked towards the woman as she sent more chains and hooks flying his way and then yanking them back, hoping to hook his flesh, but never succeeding.
The only thing it did do was latch on to his clothing and cause it to come ripping away, leading him to be naked in front of her.
Even if she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but stare down at his massive member while he walked towards her, stopping a mere few feet from the chair she was still lounging it, small droplets of blood marking the floor along the way.
"Much more fun when the woman does it, isn’t it?" Laz asked, leaning in close.
"And I have to admit, your choice in foreplay is rather unique... just like mine," Laz said with an evil smile before reaching out like lightning and picking her up by the neck. Laz then pulled back and slammed her forward, causing her to smash into the back of the massive throne like chair as he squeezed tighter, causing her airflow to be cut off.
"It’s nice to greet someone before you try to kill them. So let’s start with that," Laz said as he held her neck tightly, the leather strap around it providing no protection from his grip.
"I’m Laz. And you are?" Laz said with a smile.
The woman in his hand latched out, her claws raking his face as crimson droplets started to flow down it from the shallow wounds.
Laz just squeezed tighter, showing no expression except the smile.
"Persephone," she finally mutters out, hoarsely as it was hard to produce any sound with Laz’s hand there.
"Beautiful name. So Persephone, what did you want from me tonight that couldn’t have waiting until tomorrow morning?" Laz asked, wondering if her story would be a close to his myths as the others.
"Make... me...a.... god!
