Chapter 24 - The Prisoners

LUNA ASTERBELLE’s POV

I held her head, then rubbed my hand on her hair, while the other one was roaming on her cheeks to remove the blood, but it was already dry so it didn’t come off. This can’t be happening. Her lips were already black and her entire face was pale. It was like her blood was sucked out of her.

“What did you do to Yve? How did this happen? Why did you have to kill Yve for the sake of this damn trial?!” I consecutively asked. The tone of my voice got hoarse as I was agitated, and I don’t think that anything can calm me down right now.

Hysterical laughter resonated within the room. It made me crazy!

I quickly stood up as I carried Yve’s head with the use of her long strands of hair, which made her head almost touch the ground. “Open this door,” I coldly ordered.

There wasn’t anyone who responded, which totally tested my patience. The surroundings turned red, in the same color of the blood on Yve’s face, at the same time that sirens flared.

“Open this door!” I yelled. My breathing was heavy now and I couldn’t even feel any pain coming from my bottom lip that I deeply bit.

“I’m sure that you still haven’t noticed, so here’s a little present for you.”

A mirror dropped from the ceiling, directly in front of me. It was the only opportunity for me to examine my current appearance.

I unconsciously released my grip on Yve’s hair, making it roll down like before. I placed my hand on the side of my cheeks, then gently pinched it, just to make sure that I wasn’t in the middle of a dream.

“What…”

I could barely recognize myself in the mirror. There was a short horn forming above my forehead as if I was a demon. My fangs were also seen, and because of it, my lip now has a small hole on it where my blood was spurting out. The left side of my face made me seem older as it now had these lines on it, and it was kind of rough as well.

“You’re almost there, Luna Asterbelle,” said the same man from the phone call. “It seems like what the boss told us earlier was true… that you would be in rage mode once you see someone you held so dearly get their lives ruined.”

“So what if it’s true?! Are you going to use my weakness as an excuse for you to bring the best out of me?” I gritted my teeth.

I thought that I would’ve been able to calm myself after hearing their reasoning, but it turned out to be worse. The beating of my heart started to slow down its pace, it feels like I would be the one who’d end up dead sooner or later.

This first trial sucks.

“We’re willing to use whatever technique there is just to see you fully transform into the rightful beast that you are — a vampire, a demon, and a werewolf… I wonder how you would be able to handle it as you lived more than a decade as a human?”

The mirror instantly broke at the same moment that the door opened. There were a lot of swords clashing upon one another, which was kind of familiar. I remembered the logo on the gun that I brought.

A man who wore a black hoodie approached me. “Nice to finally see you in person, Luna Asterbelle. I’m fed up with only looking at you through the other side of the screen.” he said.

For a second there, I had hoped that it was Eman because of the same type of hoodie that they wore. If he was here, I wonder what he’d do if he was in this situation? My vision turned darker as time flew by.

He clearly didn’t intend to cool me off. It’s like he was actually trying to anger me even more as he smirked at me. “It’s up to you to figure out whether that really is your friend’s head or not. Maybe you two weren’t that close to begin with, considering how you’re unable to differentiate between a real one and a fake creation,” he said.

At that moment, I gasped in realization that I was tricked into believing that Yve’s dead. I have totally forgotten how she turned into a vampire. I’m sure that King Dawn wouldn’t simply allow anyone among his clan to kill my friend. My senses returned to normal and I’ve been able to think clearer.

“You can train me in another way, can’t you?” I asked.

The man got the head from me, then threw it away from us, which unintentionally hit someone from afar. “We haven’t started with it yet, although that was the trial for us to know if you’d last long. Come with me,” he answered at the same time he marched forth.

Compared to before, the people that gathered in the underground lessened. It’s most probably the reason behind why I kept on hearing multiple gunshots earlier. If I didn’t pass whatever criteria they had before, then I might have also been a dead meat by now.

After quite some time, we reached the deepest part of the underground. There were cells all over the walls, while the corners were occupied with various types of equipment that can be used for torturing any creature. The chains that were locked upon the wrists of the prisoners were making so much noise as they harshly bang it onto the railings of their cells.

“What’s going on here?” I murmured in fear of the possibility that I’d be one of them.

“Your first task is —”

One of the gates opened, which let one of the prisoners available to escape this place. Fortunately, he was still locked up with the chains.

“You have to defeat all of them for you to clear the first stage. If you fail to do so, then I’m sorry to say that you’ll replace that dude’s spot,” he explained as a continuation of what he was about to say a minute ago.

I was frozen on the ground, knowing the danger that awaits me. I clenched both of my fists as I sensed my heart’s rapid beating. “It’s impossible… There’s no way that I can beat hundreds of beasts!” I yelled out, in an attempt to protest what I was supposed to accomplish.

“You’ll never know if you wouldn’t try, Luna Asterbelle. Don’t worry, we wouldn’t go too near. All that you have to do is shoot with the gun that your father gave you. It’s not like I asked you to defeat them with your bare fists,” he clarified.

My lips parted as I didn’t think that this would end up as a shooting practice instead.

“Go on now, try it and give it your best shot,” he mumbled, then tapped my shoulder to provide his support.