Chase let out a horrible scream of agony, panting as the sound of chains scraping against the floor and the yanking of wood echoed throughout the dungeon halls.
'Damn this...' Chase scowled, leaning forward with frantic breaths escaping his terribly dried lips.
He was about halfway to the barred off door when he heard something resembling a doorknob from up the dark shadowy stairs above.
Chase took one last breath, bracing his entire body before tensing, lowering, and exploding forward with a drastic burst of Axis energy.
The bed snapped, the chains snapped, and a large chunk of the stone wall erupted, shaking the entire room.
But Chase smiled, rubbing his now freed wrists before kicking the broken chains on the ground below him.
The sound of footsteps quickening their pace came from the stairs...
Chase frowned, leaning against the wall closest to the bars.
Then the pressure of a familiar figure's might collided with Chase's energetic field, giving him a terrible shot of nausea.
"Filth..." The dark voice of Veximus muttered, just as his armor clad fist slammed into the wooden surface beneath the bars from the opposite side.
Chase flinched, watching as part of the wooden door caved in beside him.
"You will be escorted to the court shortly..." Veximus grunted, spitting on the floor in front of Chase's cell before turning and leaving.
'The hell is his problem?' Chase winced, rubbing his shoulder with annoyance.
He looked down to see the broken ivory armor that remained on his body, with a tattered white T-shirt appearing below several missing chunks of the armor, and to top it all off, Chase's pants were singed so badly that they threatened to shrivel up and tear with every movement.
Chase frowned, taking his right and grabbing a small piece of the cloth around his waist.
'Technically... If I just force my Axis pathways to generate energy for a non-living entity...' Chase gazed at his charred pants, slowly closing his eyes as Axis energy began to pour into the fabrics and leathers of his pants.
He grabbed his entire pocket and tried to rip, smirking in satisfaction at his new trick.
"Guards... Clear out..." A tired feminine voice mumbled, causing both of the guards that stood on the far end of the hall to immediately retreat out of the dungeon...
Chase could tell this because of the annoyingly loud rattling of armor and clanking of swords.
He sighed, adjusting his shirt and running his hand through his hair before a voice spoke up.
"Time to go..." Natalia knocked several times in the midst of one of the longest yawns Chase had ever heard.
He waited a few moments, allowing her to knock a couple more times.
"You have to open the door..." Chase eventually spoke up with disappointment in his tone.
"Oh... Right." The sound of keys jingling announced to all of the other prisoners that one of their newest inmates was about to be brought before the court.
Chase heard singing as the door slowly swayed open...
"♬Heeee whooo brokeee the lawwwww... Vows tooo payyy thyyy crime.... From iceee to mountainsss thaww.... Until fire burns through time... Down in the dungeons of Jenah... Only death comes to mind...♬" The low harmonic voices of the prisoners on opposite sides of the dark halls surrounding Chase's cell... They quite frankly caused Chase quite the intimidation when exiting his prison...
"Do not mind them..." Natalia frowned... glaring down the unlit hallway with dissatisfaction on her face.
"What do we do if things go bad?" Chase asked, tucking a small makeshift dagger into his boot.
"Probably just die." Natalia responded blatantly, checking down at her vox several times with a strange focus highlighted in her eyes.
Chase sighed.
"No pressure, right?"
"Not that I'm aware of..." Natalia shrugged, before finally leading Chase down the hall and past all of the prisoners, each one looking more and more brutalized than the last... Horrible scars, no doubt from torture covering each one's shirtless body in unique ways...
"The son of Blaze..." One of the voices gurgled lowly beyond all of the echoing chants...
Chase turned his gaze, making eye contact with an old man in the far back of one of the more crowded cells.
"I said... Pay them no mind..." Natalia's voice rose up, causing Chase to naturally flinch and return his gaze to the hall before them.
Eventually they made their way through hallway after hallway, each one reminding Chase more and more of just where exactly he was.
Lavish black stone walls surrounded a vibrant crimson carpet that lead through hall after hall... The underground corridors no doubt covering the entirety of the city in terms of scale...
Finally they arrived at a pair of giant onyx doors... Outlined in a golden trim with several different crests drawn in dried blood along its surface...
Chase grimaced as they slowly dragged open... Scraping against the cold ground loud enough to make even Natalia wince.
A trumpet sounded.
"Allow the prisoner of war the grace of kneeling!" A jester said, wearing the colors of the royal family.
Natalia threw Chase at the floor before the one and only king of Seh Jenah...
"King Phillip..." Chase looked up from his forced kneeling position, flashing his teeth at the slothful king of gold...
His dry platinum blonde hair rustled as the king lazily waved one of his black gloved hands, an annoying smirk plastered on his obviously noble face with deep golden eyes piercing straight through Chase.
His body was draped in fine reds and even deeper crimsons with golden chains that could provide an entire kingdom with food for a good month...
But what really stood out was the golden hourglass chained around his neck... Something ominous about it was screaming at Chase to pluck it from Phillip's grasp in that very moment.
Veximus muttered from one of the several seats in the circular court surrounding the spot which Chase knelt at the center, just before the throne which looked onward at all things within the room.
Natalia was seated beside Veximus now, wearing a look of vast uncomfortability she slowly nudged away from the Vex of Seh Jenah...
A brutish titan wearing an eyepatch sat on the right of King Phillip, his expression looking so bored that he would rather start a killing spree than sit on that seat.
On the left of Phillip sat the current head of House Freznov... And that just so happened to be Jack of House Ember... Who was seated beside Phillip with great anticipation behind his black bird styled mask.
"Speak your mind... I can tell its strangling you with questions..." Phillip chuckled with young arrogance that blatantly lied of his true age.
Chase frowned.
"What do you plan to do with me...?" Chase started it off hot, causing Natalia to immediately widen her eyes... Just as Jack almost spat his tea all over the table before him.
Phillip chuckled.
"Hand you over to The Grand Paladin and call it a day..." Phillip shrugged with a matter of fact expression.
"I mean what else did you expect?" He finally smiled as he looked down at what he saw as his own bargaining chip.
"I would like to veto this decision..." The man on the right of Phillip suddenly spoke up.
Jack's body instantly twitched in response.
"What?" He asked, looking at the titan in confusion.
"Jack's concern is completely validated, what do you mean Veto, Great Callahan...?" Phillip asked with clear spite.
"I will not allow this kingdom to hand anything as valuable as this over to that man... Is the king of this world not at the peak of his power already?" Callahan's angry voice rose over the council, his giant fist casually pressing into the table with enough force to slowly bend it.
"I agree with Callahan." Jack shrugged, leaning back in his seat with an overstimulated expression.
"Luckily for me... I do not care for your attempt at democracy... This kingdom runs because I myself am the source of its sustenance... You will not outvote my presence..." Phillip simply laughed, before pointing at Chase and asking...
"Do you have anything else you want to know before you become The Cosmic King's lab experiment...?" Phillip asked with the annoying lift of his chin.
Chase frowned.
"Are you aware of the countless enslaved beast kin below that Coliseum at this very moment?"
Chase grit his teeth in anticipation, hoping that somehow this duechebag was capable of doing the right thing... But sadly...
"No..." Phillip's sinister grin told Chase everything he needed to know...