Death's Door 4 Volume 1: Chapter 4- Tragedy

On the other side of the shadow pa.s.sage, Desolai and Nur emerged in a peculiar place. The place looked rather strange. Everything was visible due to the torches hanging on the walls. The torches were decorated with skulls. There were skull on the walls as well. The floor and the walls seemed to be made of thick stone, they had dull l.u.s.ter to them that made it seem like they reflected portion of the light emitted by torches, illuminating things nearby.

What caught Nur's attention however was the fact that this place had countless chains attached to walls, complete with cuffs. The walls were covered with some sort of brownish red dye. Nur cautiously touched it.

It was sticky. He came closer to torch in order to see it better. 'No way, this is…' All of his body shook in terror.

"Desolai, what is this?"

"Human blood, a freshly spilled it seems" She replied. In her line of work this kind of thing was not unusual. The places where human beings die tend to be rather b.l.o.o.d.y.

"Growse!" Nur wiped the blood on his hand upon a cleaner wall. By doing so he came to face to face with a large skull that decorated the said wall. Needless to say, he reacted by instinctively jumping away.

When he did that, he finally noticed someone hanging on the wall by the chains. Desolai was already looking at this person. This person was wearing rags that covered only the body, with arms and legs exposed. She was semi-conscious. Her hair looked ragged and torn at many sides, and her body was covered in dried blood. Yet, miraculously Nur couldn't see any injury on her body.

She was breathing raggedly. She was chained to a wall, cuffed by her hands and feet, and another one on her neck. She couldn't even move. She was suspended in the air. Her eyes were half closed. Her jet black hair with several strands of white partially covered her eyes.

Nur came closer to her. She didn't react.

"Remember, she can't see you" Desolai reminded him.

"Right" Nur mumbled incoherently. He gave upon notion of trying to get the prisoner see his existence. "Who is this?"

"Asul Jem, the one we came to reap" Desolai replied.

Expression of horror filled Nur's face. "She is the one who is destined to die today?"

"That indeed is the case" Desolai replied.

"When exactly?" Nur asked.

"Tomorrow morning."

"But it's evening right now!" Nur said exasperated.

"It's better to be early than come too late" Desolai explained. "This way the is no chance for her soul to become a malevolent spirit for I am there right at the moment her soul leaves her body."

"I see" Nur thought that Desolai was rather good at her job.

"Not meaning to alarm you, but there are people coming" said Desolai.

"Not alarmed my a.s.s, of course I am freaked out!" Nur was already on the edge from seeing this horrifying torture room. He didn't need more nightmares than he already seen.

"Just stand near me and watch." Desolai said in authoritative tone.

"Ok." Nur said sulkily.

A minute later a group of men wearing masks came in to the room. Nur noticed they had strange tools in their hands. The tools included a saw, knife, and some strange metallic contraption resembling a pair of small tongs.

As soon as they entered they took a piece of cloth and tied it around Asul Jem's mouth. Asul Jem was already awake. She was shaking uncontrollably. Yet, the chains prevented her from moving. They took the chains off the wall and took Asul Jem and put her on top of a table. They restrained her limbs while they did so. The chains were attached to the table making Asul Jem just as trapped as before.

One of the men took the saw and began slicing her leg. He started to slice off near the thigh region. She was screaming while he did that but the chains were holding her down while the rag on her mouth prevented her from making noise.

The leg was completely sliced off. One of the men just took the leg and put it in a basket. Then an equally b.l.o.o.d.y action of cutting off her other leg followed. Curiously the slices were made just below the clothing as if the cloth was designed for this.

The screams kept intensifying. Both legs were taken.

Then the hands were promptly chopped off below the shoulder with large knives.

Lastly, her eyes were scooped out with small pincers. Blood was coming down through her eye sockets.

Then they took her by the chain on her neck and let her hang on the wall.

Nur, who was watching all of this with eyes filled with horror, looked at Desolai who was watching it as though it was an everyday occurrence.

"What just happened?"

"A harvest of her body" Desolai replied.

"She will die! Why in the world did they do this to her?" Nur was furious just thinking of potential reason for such evil.

"The fact that she will die is obvious. As for why, I believe I can enlighten you on that matter." Desolai's matter of fact reply made it obvious she bore no sympathy for human kind. Even with knowing next to nothing about his past, Nur knew what was happening right now was not right, but such notion seemed foreign to Desolai.

"Please do so." Nur replied, barely able to contain his anger.

The torturers took the body parts in baskets and carried them away. One of them was holding two eyeb.a.l.l.s in his hand. They promptly left the room.

As soon as the door was closed Desolai began.

"Human beings are motivated by many things, and one of the most prominent of them is aspect of greed. When someone has something that others do not, others develop the urge to take the certain something from the said someone. She is just another victim of such phenomenon."

Nur was listening to Desolai's explanation but his eyes were fixed upon the mutilated body hanging by the neck on the wall. She was still alive. How horrifying.

"Unfortunately for her, she was born with special ability of semi-immortality due to the fact she is the one who inherited the ability of Sacred Stallion."

"Semi-immortality?" Nur asked, not able to understand.

"Observe closely." Desolai pointed at Asul Jem.

When Nur approached Asul Jem, he noticed her eyelids were twitching. When she opened them slightly, Nur saw a pair of perfectly functional eyes. 'No way, her eyes were gouged out! I saw it myself.'

"Desolai, please explain!" Nur asked.

"This girl's ability allows her to regrow any part of her body she has lost, heal any damage to herself or others, effectively making her immune to any known diseases. As long as her heart is intact that is." Desolai was speaking as if she was talking about some sort of a book instead of a living being which made Nur feel as though she was rather disconnected from humans on emotional level. Then Nur reminded himself that Desolai is a s.h.i.+nigami after all.

"Why did are they doing this to her?" Nur said as he watched as Asul Jem's limbs slowly regrow.

"To obtain her power of course. Her powers are within her entire body, so by implanting parts of her body to themselves they allow themselves to take a portion of her ability."

"They are stealing her limbs and eyes in order to use them themselves?" Nur's fury was intensifying, but it was no longer was directed towards Desolai's nonchalant indifference, but towards the torturers.

"And occasionally internal organs other than the heart. They do this to her every day, you know."

"Every day? This is insane! How is she still alive?"

"Her ability is both a blessing and a curse. She can't die unless her heart is taken, but she must feel the pain every time she is harmed every day. They took so many parts of her for months. Every day she grows her body parts back, every evening they are torn off her, again and again. But today is different."

"It's horrifying enough. How can it be more so?"

"Oh, you will be surprised. They have harvested enough of her body parts for themselves, now all that's left for them to do is to take her heart- the source of her power. Then she will die. No matter how tragic, that is her fate"

Nur's eyes opened wide at the implication of Desolai's words. He was looking at the body of Asul Jem that already regrew her limbs back but her eyes seemed so bleak, so weak, so broken. She was used for harvesting and now she was going to die. No hope for the present, no hope for the future. Just long and painful waiting for death.

It was obvious why Desolai was concerned with her soul becoming a malevolent spirit. She definitely would hold grudges even after the grave.

Somehow, Nur wouldn't blame her.

He approached her. Tears were streaming from his face. He instinctively made his hand tangible to touch Asul Jem's face. She was trembling. Fear, perhaps from pain or maybe she already knew what awaited her next and was scared.

Watching her like this, Nur said something unexpected.

"Desolai, give me your scythe!"