Page 47 of Demonic Cage
“It’s called makeup,” I say, taking the pencil from him and placing it in the small pocket of my jumpsuit.
Nárs claps his hands in joy.
“New word, new word!” he rejoices, putting his arm around my shoulder.
“Your endurance is terrible. Your concentration is worse than a fish swimming in a river…”
“Keep going!” I beg Kripot, while doing crunches with a stone in my hand because my ‘coach’ says my own weight is not enough for anything. “You motivate me too well!”
“Your activation is careless, like someone who has never fought for anything in their life.”
I groan weakly as the stone lands on my stomach. I’m not strong enough to hold it.Obviously.
“I was being ironic,” I snarl after pushing the stone away, but I can’t fully extend my arm anymore.
The sun is high, and Kripot hasn’t given me a single compliment all day.
“You know,” I begin again after my twelfth and seemingly meaningless crunch, which, according to Kripot, only counts as seven, “you and… Nárs would make a great couple.”
The blue giant’s eyes twitch under the wrinkles for the first time today – that’s the most expression I’ve seen from him.
“Seriously,” I groan as the stone lifts slightly, “you two would complete each other.”
The weight falls on my stomach, squeezing the air out of me, but my comment to Kripot perks me up.
“Or am I wrong?” I ask with a wicked smile.
Kripot withstands my gaze for a while. He might be the only one in this damn hell who can’t fake himself. His face is motionless, but his eyes reveal everything. He’s uncomfortable. To his credit, he quickly recovers. With one hand, he rolls the stone off my stomach and tosses it away as if throwing a rubber ball.
“Run,” he announces, pointing to a painted track that wasn’t there yesterday. Oh, me and that damn mouth of mine!
Kripot makes me run for the rest of the day, only leaving me alone when I collapse. Finally, I can have some water.When I asked for the flask during training, he had shaken his head, saying there isn’t always an opportunity to drink on the battlefield. I have to get used to thirst. Nor can I rest when tired, because there’s ‘no break on the battlefield’.
Despite liking the mace, he forbids me from trying it.
“It makes no sense for you to touch such weapons with such a pathetic, weak body.”
“Shouldn’t I learn to defend myself before a demon reaches me?”
“It doesn’t matter what we try. Before you would manage to pick up the mace, the creature would already be playing with your head. It’s better to use what little time is left for you. Four moonturns from now, you will die. You have no chance against the monster,” he states, presenting it as a fact without hate or pity in his voice.
Blood drains from my face, and I have to grasp the table loaded with weapons. It seemed so unbelievable when Darya said I have to fight a monster. I completely forgot about it. I couldn’t believe it, but now a picture flashes before me – a huge dragon roasting someone with its fiery breath. I don’t understand Darya. I’m just a human. Yesterday, I couldn’t even defend myself from a single demon!
Everyone except him would agree with Kripot that I have no chance of winning. What sick game is the Demon King playing with me? Why is it worth it for him to occupy the time of his subjects just to prepare me for an impossible fight? A fight that is already lost, according to my trainer?
I feel like I’m about to collapse.
“Does Darya want to sacrifice me?” I whisper.
“I don’t exactly know what the Kraldem wants with this fight,” Kripot confesses. “But even if that’s the case, don’t you want to prove him wrong?”
I ponder on this, stroking the knives on the stone table. No one has ever believed in me. They never believed that I could see monsters.
No.
There are two possibilities: Either Darya is just toying with me, or he really does believe in me. But then, why shouldn’t I believe in myself?
I pick up one of the knives from the table. I won’t let them execute me; let an insane demon play with me at his pleasure. It may be impossible, but if I don’t give myself a chance, that’s the greatest sin I can commit.
