Chapter 53: A disturbing memory (1/2)
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As the Title says, this one might be disturbing. skip from the ///// if you don't want the gory and unpleasant memories of our protagonist.
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Walking over towards the stairs leading up to the cathedrals entrance, Jay turned right at their feet and walked towards a white wall located next to it. Passing trough a wide lattice gate he entered the park like cemetery surrounding the cathedral.
The countless gravestones and small statues along the paved paths were of no interest to him.
Jay was only searching the bigger structures to find the Ravencrest Crypt.
As he crossed the distance of the cathedrals length he was surprised to see the scale of this cemetery.
It was at least two hundred yards in length and width, surrounded by a high wall and with a big statue in the middle.
Jay had no idea of whom the sculpture was, but it totally didn't matter to him.
In the back he saw the structures getting bigger.
Stopping his urge to rush over there, Jay passed some other visitors.
It took him not too long and after about half an hour he finally found the crypt he was searching. It was adorned with eerie depictions of hooded and veiled persons wielding all kinds of weapons.
In front of the entrance, Jay eyed the heavy metal door with its engraved sign. It was a shematic raven surrounded by a circle inside and a rhombus.
Jay had seen the outer signs on the banner inside the AI:7, so he guessed them to be the markings of the thieves guild.
Taking out some lock-picking tools he had found long ago, inside some loot in Eldrin Forest, Jay prayed his skill was high enough.
Concentrating on it he inserted the metal hook and the needle into the lock, trying to twist them.
With a high pitch, the first needle broke.
On the second attempt he was less forceful and managed to feel the rings inside the lock. It still took him three more tries and the same number of needles to finally hear a clicking noise from inside.
Turning the handle he opened the door and slipped in after he made sure no one was watching.
After closing the door behind him, Jay looked around in the small, dark room. Only a big stone coffin was placed in the middle and in the back he saw wall graves.
As he activated night vision he saw that behind two of the one yard square marble plates the light was different. Walking over and inspecting them, he found a small rhombic sign with two circles on one of those grave stones.
Pushing against the stones proved fruitless so Jay tried something else.
With his index finger he pressed on the sign and another clicking noise could be heard.
After this the stones could be pushed aside without much force.
Walking down the winding stairs and along a tunnel that both seemed simply dug into the stone decades ago, Jay soon arrived at a small cave.
It was more of a room with three alcoves where some cloth were laid out as makeshift beds.
Embedded into the wall opposite to him, Jay found what he was looking for.
A small statue of Niemira made of a deep black stone stood on a small pillar in a shallow recess to the wall. Using the pillows laid out in front of it, Jay knelt down and closed his eyes.
He had barely begun thinking of her as his surroundings turned dark and he lost the feeling of his body.
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.
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"Thy hast returned to me in less time than expected...."
Hearing a voice in total darkness, Jay tried to listen and locate the source.
"Is it thy memory or my request that brings you here?"
The voice came from directly in front, but Jay still couldn't see or feel anything.
Willing to move forward, he somehow had the feeling it was working. The light seemed to return a little bit.
Suddenly, like lifting a cowl, Jay found himself in a dark cave. A flat well was placed in the middle and held slightly glowing water that tinted the surrounding in a blue hue.
"Welcome to my domain, young one..."
A person walked out of the darkness on the other side of the well.
She wore a dark robe that hid her face on one hand, but the deep slits revealed half her bosom as well as her long and slender legs on the other hand.
Pulling himself together, Jay tried to talk to the goddess who revealed herself.
"Thank you for welcoming me. ...It is both!
I am trying to fulfill your request but will gladly welcome any hint I can get, as well as every tiny bit of my memories." J.
"Quite demanding, are thy not?
Retrieving what was stolen from the thieves may reveal more than thy might hope for.
Thy scratched the surface, but soon might wake a sleeping dog, ...or worse." N.
'Still talking in riddles then?' Jay thought to himself but soon realized the goddess standing in front of him was probably hearing his thoughts.
At least the awkward silence hinted him to think that way...
In the next moment Niemira grabbed her hood and pulled it back, revealing her pale, beautiful but frowning face.
Her silvery eyes reflected the light blue glow from the well beneath her.
The hood still on her dark haired head and the light shining from below should have made her look eerie, but contrary to that she still looked divine.
"I would to help thy more if I was allowed to. We all have our rules to abide!" N.
"No, it was rude of me to think that way. Thank you for your help. I want to fulfill your request, but still need to hear it first. All I know is that I have to help the thieves guild as best as I can..." J.
"Thy art right in your guess. Help the hidden in this city to regain some of their honor and you will help the society of shadows all over the world.
Like a child learning to walk, thy have to take step by step. Think of my words when you return, and always take a single step at once in this..." N.
As she was still talking in phrases he had no clue of what they meant, Jay decided to think about them later.
Any more offenses to the dark goddess would surely wield no good for him.
"I will think of your kind words! I promise to do all I can for the thieves guild and start by searching my target first." J.
"Then I will send thy personally back with a small reward. Please don't hold me responsible for what you will learn! I am truly sorry..." N.
While she answered him, Niemira walked around the well between them and stood directly before him as she finished speaking. Not sure what to make of her last words, Jay got even more confused as the beautiful goddess leaned forwards and gave him a deep kiss after pulling his head forward and towards her.
Not able to react or retaliate, he blacked out after some seconds...
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Jay came to, standing in a dark hall.
But he was no longer Jay.
The body he saw looking down, was not his, at the same time it looked familiar.
He had gotten shorter and instead of toned muscles and youthful skin, he saw a pretty average body of a middle aged man.
It was not a totally bad one, with still a little bit of fitness left, though a some fat had accumulated at the belly.
Even his little friend was not that disappointing, though by far not comparable to his actual tool.
Noticing he was actually nude, a feeling of shyness came over him as he noticed the beings around him watching.
It was a total of seven that stood with him before a big door.
The moment it swung open he walked into the adjoining equally dark room without hesitation.
Even though he didn't want to enter, he walked on. His body felt like it was on auto pilot, as when he wanted to turn his head and look at the people next to him, it didn't move.
It was then when it dawned him, that he got trapped inside his own memories.
In the room, he saw three robed persons standing around some sort of altar, while runes crept from them towards said altar and in a circle around it.
He had seen similar, but way less complex patterns at the summoning in Eldrin...
Walking to the altar, Jay laid down on it.
Just as he leaned back, he couldn't move his body except his head any longer.
Not only him, but also the him in his memory.
As slight panic came up, Jay noticed he could feel everything his self in the memory felt.
Not only feelings, but also the hard and cold surface of the stone he lay on.
As the closest person grabbed his arm and lifted it, just to lay it back in a stretched out position, Jay could feel the slimy and cold surface on the shadowy hand...
The moment the door they entered through closed and a golden shine wandered all over the wall of the dome shaped room, a bright light started to shine directly above the altar and blinded Jay.
The next moment it felt to him like time had stopped.
"It seems Veloron has finished his preparations... How about our three queens?" the god who had just touched him spoke with a deep but scratchy voice right next to Jay.
The next voice Jay heard was one he'd never forget.
It was the voice of Diabella.
"We have finished as well and will leave the rest to you. Try to be gentle to him as he may retaliate in the future..." she said with a light chuckle at the end.
Jay just regained some of his vision and could see three female figures walking towards it and leaving through the door he had just entered from.
Other than those three there had been one more person in this room.
Jay had only noticed her when he turned his head the other way from the door.
Though she was standing with the back towards him, Jay could tell she looked female. More than that, two big, black, feathered wings grew out of her robe.
Only as he regained even more of his vision and stretched his head far back, he could see what she was working at.
And that sight made him pale in horror.
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Three giant humanoid corpses hung from the ceiling before her and she was happily dissecting them.
Judging by the multiple jars and bowls besides her, she had been doing this for quite a while by now.
"Merida, Dear, how about it, are we all set?" ???
"Tsk, shut it Hermanus... The seeker blood had long been drawn from the one you brought. If you take any longer it will spoil! Just tell me when you need the other parts as I will harvest them fresh..." Merida
Whatever those two had been talking about was nothing good, that much Jay knew.
With all the other people around the altar having prepared countless harmful looking tools as well, panic creeped up in Jay.
But like before, his body wouldn't respond to his attempts to move.
It was too late.
"Is everybody ready? I'll infuse the blood with mine additionally and prepare the transfusion then..." Hermanus
"I'll start with the muscle surgery. But i have to say this will probably take longer than we had anticipated..." A rough voice sounded from Jay's other side.
"Okay, tell me when I need to start laying the formations for his magical foundation, Hermanus." came a soft voice from next to the man who talked before.
The next moment, jay felt thick needles tearing the flesh at his left and right crooks of the arms.
A warm feeling, follower by immense pain and a burning sensation started at his right arm.
But the pain got overshadowed in the next second as the skin covering his chest muscles got cut open and the muscles themselves as well.
Jay's only thought was why it didn't start bleeding profoundly but guessed it had to do with the magic circles surrounding the altar.
"I need the first set of muscle-fibres from the Xivales to combine them with his own... Now!" the rough voice sounded again.
"Would you start with the foundation dear? It might help countering the pain he should be in, ...at least a little..." Hermanus
Countering was the right description as a freezing cold feeling entered Jay's body starting from his belly button. Though the finger that entered it might be lethal under normal circumstances, no one cared for it.
Except Jay that is.
But he was no longer only unable to move, he couldn't even utter a single word.
The cold had spread over his whole body a short while later.
It felt like frostbite and if jay didn't know he would survive this treatment, he wouldn't believe anyone who told him.
After half an hour of tearing apart muscle after muscle and god knows how much blood getting pumped into him, Jay passed out to the pain.
He only woke up to the cold changing into a painfully tingling that robbed him of any feeling in his body.
By that time, his body had been cut and stitched back together after his muscles had been tampered with.
The next thing he heard was a sawing noise. In this phase the people surrounding him started working on his bones.
Not sure how long he was out he tried to look down to where the noise was coming from.
Now that he saw what was going on he felt it as well.
The two last robed ones were sawing at is legs and pulling them. Fixating them with brutal looking linkages, the pain only multiplied.
Jay was sure the pain would have let him pass out immediately, but to his surprise it had gotten lessened by the energy coursing through him.
He still passed out over an hour later...
The moment he opened his eyes again, Jay knew something felt off.
Even his eyelids had been hard to move, followed by extreme stiffness and the feel to weight a ton.
It was then when Jay saw that each muscle and joint had long needles sticking deep inside.
One of the robed people that hadn't said a single word had carefully placed the countless needles after the rough one ripped the muscles apart. At least that was what it felt like to Jay.
They seemed to reach the nerves underneath as even the tiniest movement resulted in immense pain.
Enough to have him pass out the moment he tried to lift his head.
What followed as he woke up again, was immense heat that spread through his whole body.
At first it wasn't that uncomfortable, waking him up with a cozy sensation, but the temperature soon felt unbearable.
Lifting his head again, this time without pain and lighter than ever, Jay saw his scar riddled body. The skin had swollen and deformed at more than one location, but what had shocked him, were the countless small leeches that seemed to grow by the minute.
After a couple of minutes Jay was about to pass out due to exhaustion and pain.
His mind wandered to the last two people, who entered the room with him.
They had yet to take part in this torture, and as those were the ones with the horrendous tools, Jay had the feeling this session was far from over.
And right he was...
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone