Chapter 41 - Encounter - I
The night was a battle against my own mind. For seven days, my routine had been nothing but intense training, hand-to-hand combat, magic, and an endless cycle of pain and overcoming. And then, I found out I would have a day off.
However, on my first day off, when I should have been resting, fate had other plans.
Tomorrow, I would come face to face with the Demon Queen Selene, the most powerful entity in this realm. The woman whose mere presence had once nearly reduced me to an amoeba.
My body, marked by the efforts of the past week, longed for rest, but my mind refused to relent. Every attempt to sleep was drowned out by feverish thoughts about the meeting that could decide my future.
Dahlia wouldn't be coming tonight either.
I tossed and turned in bed countless times, unable to find comfort. The soft mattress felt like it was made of thorns, and the shadows danced on the walls, shaping themselves into specters of doubt and fear.
For three years, I had been treated like a lab rat, forced to endure brutal experiments. And now, after all that, I was being summoned by the one who could destroy my existence with a single glance. The memories of our encounter were anything but comforting; in fact, they were traumatizing for an analytical mind like mine.
Sleep finally took me, but it was no relief—it was a trap.
I dreamed of the dark corridors of the mines, with echoes of distant laughter and invisible hands trying to drag me into the darkness. A pink smoke began to flood the cavern, and I tried to scream, but no sound came from my mouth.
My blood boiled, and with my nails, I began to self-mutilate. Blood ran down my torso, and at the edges of my vision, within the mist, two eyes stared back at me.
I saw Selene's scarlet gaze piercing my soul, felt the weight of her presence crushing my body, reducing me to nothing.