"I got the results... and I retraced that there is some sort of herb that was used to create those pills, and that herb's extract matched with the poison in your body.", Zoe said.

"And I got to say to whoever made these pills is an absolute genius! I almost didn't even notice the herb extract. I don't even know what type of plant was used!", she added.

"But I will still need the pills to continue studying it, won't you mind..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the boy said, "I won't mind, actually, you can have it!"

"Really? Thank you!", Zoe happily replied and left the room.

When Zoe closed the door of the room, she saw the elven lady was standing by the beam of the door.

"You heard our conversation, Ms. Ariel?", Zoe asked.

"Yes.", the elven lady whose name was Ariel said.

After a pause, she questioned, "What more can you say about the person who created those pills?"

"Hmm, probably such a great master, or..."

"Or a cunning poison concocter?", Ariel interrupted and finished Zoe's sentence.

"Well, yes, after all, if one is a great alchemist, one is also a great poison maker.", Zoe nodded.

"If you excuse me, lady, I'll be going off now.", Zoe courteously bid farewell and left the area.

After the little elf left, Ariel carefully took a peek inside the room.

As soon as she opened a bit of it, she heard sobs from inside the room. Peeking inside it, she saw Edwin laid down on the bed crying, while covering his eyes with his arms.

She immediately closed the door afterwards and commented, "What a weak willpower."

...

Next morning, Edwin woke up earlier today. No light came from outside the window yet.

Now, he could move his legs, but they were still somewhat numb, making him need the support of the nearby furnitures to steadily move.

He approached his white robe amd inspected the codex to see if he could open more pages, however, the book didn't even budge an inch except for the page that was already shown to him.

Soon, he started putting on his robe and boots; with the codex being placed in his robe. After finis.h.i.+ng all the said actions them, he was about to open the door to leave when it was opened by somebody else.

Ariel was surprised when she saw that Edwin was about to leave, "Leaving so soon?"

"Yes.", Edwin nodded.

"Aren't you going to wait for Zoe to check you again?", Ariel asked.

"No, I'm going to leave now.", he said, then Edwin changed his path to avoid Ariel, but the latter blocked his path again.

"Where are you going?", she questioned again.

"To the south, I don't know... just let me through.", he stepped to the side again, but the elf still blocked his way.

"You won't even get out of the forest alive with your current condition.", she rebuked.

"I should've died long ago, you know!", Edwin refuted.

Suddenly, Ariel punched him in the face, and with the latter's current condition, he took a few steps back and stumbled to the ground.

"Are all humans hardheaded like you?", she slowly approached him with an indifferent look on her face.

"Do all elves think highly of their own race as you do?", Edwin said.

"No, why do you always think we are above you humans you puny...", while insulting, Ariel repeatedly stomped on Edwin's chest.

"Ow... stop... *cough*..."

...

After finis.h.i.+ng what she was saying, the elf stopped stepping on Edwin's chest with her foot.

On the other hand, the boy sighed in relief. Though he was repeatedly stomped on the chest by the elf, most of the force was absorbed by the thick codex on his chest under the robe.

Even if Edwin almost wasn't injured the slightest, Ariel ignored it and even reached out her hand to help him up.

After some time, the boy accepted the elf's hand and stood up.

"So... you're not hungry?", Ariel asked.

"No, in fact, I don't feel anything after you kicked me a lot of times.", Edwin joked, starting to smile a bit.

However, there was still no change on her countenance and left the room.

Edwin: "..."

Going out of the room, he was met with a short corridor, the design was still the same as within the bedroom, but the difference was that the quality seemed worse.

After the corridor, he arrived to what seemed to be like a kitchen.

Everything in the kitchen also seemed to be of below average quality.

"What do you want?", Ariel appeared and asked. However, she didn't wait for Edwin to answer and said, "Go sit down, I'll make you the same leaves that you ate last night."

He followed the elf's instruction and sat down on the chair, which slightly creaked.

'So much for being an elf, I thought they are tidy with their things.', he thought.

'Humans have no respect, doesn't even know basic thanking etiquette.', Ariel sneered within her mind.

Before the elf could even start preparing the needed ingredients, a knock came from the door.

"It must be Zoe.", she went to the other room where the door leading outside was.

When she opened the door, she saw an elf wearing white robes with green and gold linings in front of her.

Then two other elves with the same robes crashed through the window in the kitchen. After which, they brought out small poles, which turned into double bladed staffs.

One of the elves slashed down at the surprised Edwin, but the latter jumped back, dodging the attack, leaving the chair in two halves.

The other elf then charged him, however, the elf's staff changed into a pole and thrust it towards him.

He easily evaded that attack, but the other elf's weapon also turned into a pole and swifty stabbed Edwin towards his chest.

This time, he didn't get to dodge because he was still recovering from his injuries.

-bzzt-

Faint but painful electric shocks came from the pole and slowly numbed him. Meanwhile, the other elf also attacked Edwin on his back, increasing the intensity of the shock.

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When the elves retrieved their weapons, Edwin collapsed to the ground, almost unconscious.

However, his consciousness started to fade away, and before he was knocked out, he saw a blurry vision of Ariel entering the room beside an another elf.

"Why?", he muttered, but he pa.s.sed out afterwards.

***

When Edwin woke up again, he saw himself inside some sort of a closed room without any windows. There wasn't a single source of light inside the room, but his eyes adjusted so he can at least check where he was.

His wrists were secured with chains that was connected to the ceiling, while his feet were also tightly secured on the wall.

There were also two other chains in the room, one with a skeleton on it, the other one with a blood puddle under it.

In addition to that, he also saw his gray s.h.i.+rt hanged on the other side of the room.

A sensation of tiredness was all over his body, he couldn't move his body even if he tried his best.

Suddenly, an entrance opened from the other side of the room, and a large, masked elf, wearing black clothes walked in while carrying a small metal stick.

The entrance behind the elf closed as soon as he entered the room.

The elf went in front of Edwin and asked, "Where are your other fellow humans?"

"What other fellow?", the boy weakly asked.

The elf punched Edwin on his stomach with his fist filled with internal energy.

While the sound of bones cracking could be heard, blood seeped out of the boy's mouth as he replied, "I'm not with anybody!"

"Say it, where are your fellow humans?", the elf asked again.

Still, Edwin answered the same question.

-whoosh-

The small metal stick that the elf was holding turned into a mace. Red electric flashes came from the weapon.

The feeling of agitation and fear surrounded him as Edwin's eyes widened, "I'm really alone, I'm really alone, I'm really..."

And by then, shrill screams resonated inside the room.

***

Inside a room...

A thin elf wearing vibrant long tailed vest entered a room and bowed down.

"So, did that human say anything yet?", an old elf sitting behind a desk asked without looking at the newcomer

"Not a thing, sir.", the other elf replied.

The aged elf kept looking at the letters on his table and said, "It's been several hours since that human woke up, that human really knows how to hide things. What do you think about it, chief?"

"I think, that human isn't connected to the other ones we saw. We might have mistaken him to be one of them.", the elf chief answered.

"Oh? I was talking about what we should do to make him tell the truth. Do you really trust that human?", the elder elf put down the letters he was reading and looked at the other elf.

"No! Forgive me, sir.", the chief elf bowed down again.

"Alright, I'll let it off, it's just a trivial matter.", the old elf pulled out a drawer and took a quill and ink from it.

After a pause, the elder elf said, "The council sent me a letter to use that 'object' continuously for a few days. You may leave now."

The chief elf's forehead let out beads of sweat when he heard that 'object', but his face became solemn as the that thing would be used for a few days.

Afterwards, he bowed down again, however, he didn't leave just yet, "Sir, I'm also reporting that Her Highness found out what we really did to that human."

"Hm? Don't let her near that place.", the old elf replied.

"As you command, sir."

***

With the sound of the chains slightly swaying back and forth. Constant pants and sobs could be heard within the secret chamber.

Edwin's hands repeatedly twitched, even though his body was mostly the one that get hit, he could feel the pain up to his chained hands.

The pain he felt was like as if repeatedly getting ripped apart, crushed, minced, and slowly being peeled by giant hands.

"Father... father... father...", Edwin muttered the same words each second.

Some time later, the large elf walked in the room while holding a box and the same small metal rod. The elf placed the box on the floor but kept carrying the rod.

"Where are your fellow humans? Where did you hide the fruit? From where did you came from?", the elf asked. Edwin already heard the same questions for a lot of times.

"I'm not one of them, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not one of them...", Edwin hurriedly answered.

However, the metal rod turned into the mace and the elf bashed it against the boy's chest.

He let out several shrill screams, blood continuously flowed out of his mouth and nose while sounds of bones cracking could also be heard.

The same questions, answers, and torment repeated again and again and again and again, for Edwin, he felt that it would never stop.

When it finally stopped, a puddle of blood formed under the boy, his already dried pants was soaked in blood again. In addition to that, there were also a few pieces of "meat" on the ground.

His ribs were exposed and the boy felt that he could die at any moment from now, but the elf won't let it happen.

The elf retrieved a pill from his robes and planned to heal Edwin with it. However, because the boy's energy pathways were blocked, the elf could only take an another option...

...and that was planting the pill right inside the body.

The boy let out even louder shouts of pain as the elf forcefully pierced through his ribcage and placed the pill inside his stomach.

Meat and flesh grew back and Edwin's body returned back to once it was.

"Still not going to tell the truth?", the elf asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about... I don't know... I don't know...", Edwin wheezed.

The elf let out a sigh and he opened the small box. Inside it was a red thorn, but the elf seemed to hesitate picking it up.

Instead, he wore a glove on his hand and picked up the said object.

"Why... are you even here?", the elf changed the question.

"I-I... I don't know... I don't know...", Edwin kept answering the same question. At the same time, he felt an extreme headache attacking him that barred him from answering with his true purpose.

Still dissatisfied with his answer, the elf stabbed the thorn towards Edwin's chest.

-whoosh-

The thorn grew into a little red plant and its vines pierced through Edwin's back, and even attaching itself to the wall behind him.

Not just that, the vines also stretched and pierced everywhere in his body, to the lungs, to the kidneys, to the heart, to the throat, to his brain. Everywhere from top to bottom.

The vines at some times connect some of his organs to the other organs, some of his organs also got crushed, some were pierced through, some where utterly dislocated, etc.

Nonetheless, he gets healed every time through the vines too, but it also added more to his pain.

Blood flowed out of his orifices at a fast rate.

He wanted to scream the loudest as he can, but he couldn't even let out a squeak, less likely a yell, because his throat was filled with blood.

The suffering he was going through right now couldn't be explained by mere words.

Meanwhile, the elf turned around and ignored the boy's wide eyes, as if they were going to get remove from their sockets.

-clang- -clang- -clang-

The loud rattling sound of the chains holding the boy, made them elf extremely uncomfortable.

In the end, the elf couldn't take it anymore and left the room. The elf couldn't even turn around to see the b.l.o.o.d.y mess behind him!

The mark on Edwin's palm grew brighter and turned blood red, but the boy didn't notice it because of the unexplainable pain he was feeling.