Confinement (2)

Panting heavily, which was a mixture of relief and exhaustion, Evan leaned back on the wall of the cell, assessing his current situation.

'My hands are currently bound together, and the state of my body does not look too good. After fighting through the monster horde, then being stabbed in the chest and then finally being captured by some insanely strong zombie leader. It is safe to say my body went through more than an average warrior would in the span of just a day.'

Inspecting his mana capacity, Evan grimly found that his remaining mana was less than 50% of its current capacity limit.

'That means I only have one shot to get this right. I need to bide my time patiently. Otherwise, if I hasten and make mistakes then, I will be well and truly doomed!'

Testing the strength of the bindings which were clamped tight on his wrist, Evan discovered to his dismay that there was no way he would break these bindings unless a powerful strike collided with it.

A strike that he did not have the scope to carry out.

Closing his eyes, a weary sigh escaped Evan's mouth. Entering a meditative state, he let all distracting thoughts exit his mind as he focused on speeding his body's natural recovery.

There were a few ways in which one's recovery of the body could be enhanced naturally without the need for medicine. Meditation was just one such example.

Through meditation and a particular foundational breathing technique which came along with the Demon Reaper Art, Evan began a period of recovery. A period which would prove key if he wanted to successfully escape from his current confinement.

***

In another cell besides the one Evan was currently residing in, Astrid lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Her once 'lustrous' blond hair became caked in the dirt and grime of the ground she was lying on.

The striking emerald green eyes Astrid possessed now appeared dim, lacking their usual bright lustre.

Gazing at the inside of the cell, Astrid emotionlessly squashed any of the tiny critters and white maggots which dared to intrude upon her body.

On the outside, she appeared like she had accepted the fate of being confined. However, on the inside, it was a tumultuous storm of raging emotions. A storm which jeopardised the balance of her mental psyche.

Inside, Astrid was panicking as she felt the anxiety she was experiencing increase many-fold. Trying to take deep lungfuls of air to calm herself down, Astrid found that even that wasn't working.

Since the cells were on the lowest floor of the derelict building, there was barely any light which managed to pierce its way down to the depths.

As such, Evan and Astrid both found themselves in complete darkness with only a meagre amount of light invading the cell from the tiny cracks on the wall.

Evan, who was used to the darkness as his preferred habitat, as well as being accustomed to the horrifying feeling of nothingness surrounding him, had an easier time than Astrid.

With her hands bound and darkness looming over her, she struggled to calm her emotions as the cell brought back many memories which she wanted to forget. Memories which made her childhood a colossal mess of trauma and hate.

Shivering, Astrid felt as if the darkness encircling her was a living entity attempting to swallow her whole.

Closing her eyes, she tried to stop thinking about the painful evocations which resurfaced after gazing at her surroundings.

Surroundings that suffered from an absence of light.

Unfortunately, the accumulated pain Astrid experienced in her childhood came back in a raging flood, assaulting her incessantly.

Back when she was a little child, after determining that her talent wasn't suitable, her parents proceeded to ignore her existence and locked her up in a pitch-black room for hours on end.

The only way in which she managed to survive this horrifying time was because of a certain kind and selfless servant who pitied her plight.

Gradually, every time Astrid's parents locked her in the dark room and left her to rot in there by herself, Astrid developed an intense phobia of darkness.

She even had trouble sleeping at night in a dark room, where the only way she was even able to go to sleep at all was after expending all her mana.

After suffering through such horrendous treatment, Astrid's psyche was on the verge of crumbling.

However, to her relief but also to her dismay, she found that just before her mental health deteriorated to a dangerous degree, her family abandoned and disowned her.

Left all on her own, Astrid had to find a way to fend for herself in this cruel, unforgiving world that humans now lived in.

Using the scarce connections she had made with the help of her family before she was abandoned, Astrid decided to become a mercenary.

As Astrid made her way up the mercenary ranks and increased her power at the same time, she was slowly healing a little of the mental scars which were mercilessly inflicted on her.

However, all that progress came crashing down after ending up in the gloomy cell due to the mysterious green being.

Sobbing, tears streamed down Astrid's eyes as the intense stimulation of the previous memories, which had haunted her for years, became too much for her.

Hugging herself tightly, she tried to weather through this anxiety attack as there was only one thought that kept her mind barely lucid in this hazy mess of panic.

Revenge.

Astrid wanted revenge for what her family did to her in the past. There was once a time when she contemplated not having her revenge, but that notion was ruthlessly shut down after remembering the series of events which occurred.

She was determined not to be like the naïve young girl of the past.

Astrid would pay back this unsettled debt tenfold and teach her family that their views and ideals of one's innate talent determined a person's worth were incorrect.

This ideal was extremely flawed in her opinion, as a person had no control over what type of innate talent they would receive when they were born.

To Astrid, it was more important for a person to have the necessary drive and will to reach the top.

....Instead of solely relying only on just talent alone.

As such, Astrid was dead set on becoming that type of person to achieve her quest of retaliation aimed at the family who treated her like nothing more than dirt.