My eyes slowly opened. The place I was laying on had a hard surface, and the ground kept moving.
'The ground is moving..?'
I slowly lifted myself up and sat. My eyes widened when I saw that my wrists were tied with tight ropes. And I was riding in a carriage with several horsemen riding around me. All of them were wearing knightly armor and looked quite tired.
One of them had realized that I was staring at him. He had auburn hair and a handsome face, he was rather young. Most likely a few years older than me.
I swallowed my saliva and tried to speak. My mouth was dry and my stomach felt empty.
"What is happening..?" I said in a hushed tone to the young knight.
"We found you in a creatures nest. Hundreds of dead people were found along with you. Only you were found alive. Hence what lead us to believe you are the killer."
My face paled and I looked at him rather coldly. What kind of stupid judgement was that?
"I did not kill them! They were most likely the victims of the Memory Thief, I managed to rescue myself out of the mind hex, that is how I am alive! I am not guilty!"
The young knight narrowed his eyes.
"I would also like to believe that you have not killed them. But Memory Thief is a Fallen Devil. There is no way for you to escape its hold. And the creature was not even found in the cave. Which makes you the sole culprit."
"Bullshit!" I ground my teeth against each other. I was still rather tired of the mind hex. There were up to five awakened around me. And unlike those mindless beasts they would be much more harder to battle or outrun.
The only option for me to wait and see where they were taking me. Currently, we were in a forest, the horses were dragging the carriage I was in. The awakened had circled around it, so there was no opening for me to run away to.
I turned my gaze to the young knight once again.
"I am thirsty."
The young man nodded and got a flask out of his pocket. I reached out my tightly tied hands to take it, but then both of us backed our hands away when a whip suddenly sizzled through the air.
Luckily none of us was hit. The young man shot a cold glare at the old man. But the old man did not seem unphased.
"Are you showing compassion to killers now Auro? You are not to give her anything until we reach the grand arena. If I see you trying, my whip wont miss the next time."
This Auro guy gave me an apologetic look and turned his gaze forward.
'Great.. I am stuck with no water..'
With a sigh, I leaned my back against a wooden box. And then summoned the runes.
Name: Vera
True Name: -
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: [Why did you kill me?], [A not so mundane gem].
Echoes: -
I had gained two memories. Both with intriguing names. Is it just me or my spell does not have the best naming abilities? I focused on the first memory, and a new set of runes appeared before me.
Memory: [Why did you kill me?]
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [This short-sword was formed after the brutal murder of a dear friend.]
Memory Enchantments: -
I narrowed my eyes at the description. Did the spell hate me? This description was not really unlike the voice of the spell.
Other than that, why was I able to see the tier and the enchantment of the memory? As long as I knew, other awakened did not see it. Perhaps it had something to do with my weird attribute?
I pushed those thoughts away. I had gained an ascended memory on my first trial, I needed to check it!
Memory: [Not so mundane gem.]
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: IV
Memory Type: Charm.
Memory Description: [To the Memory Thief, she was nothing more than a gem among rubble mundane, dull, and easy to crush. But when the Devil looked again, that gem had grown teeth. And it bit back.]
A smug expression appeared on my face, but I hid it quickly in case the awakened near me were watching. The description was neat, and the memory seemed to be a charm.
Memory Enchantments: [Shapeless], [Conviction]
It had two enchantments. By focusing on them, I could see what they did too
[Shapeless]
Enchantment Description: [This memory can change its shape to conceal itself into many forms.]
[Conviction]
Enchantment Description: [Every hit to your opponent shall increase your speed. The effect ceases once you are hit.]
Both enchantments were useful. I wanted to summon the charm to see what it looked like, but I was paranoid that the guards would catch me.
***
After a long ride, the carriage was finally reaching a stadium. It was not as big as the ones in the real world, but it was still big enough. The main color scheme was read, and many flags hung over the walls of the arena.
"Get off." A rough voice spoke to me. And I followed suit. I got off the carriage and landed on the grass. My feet were bare, and I was wearing tattered clothing.
Auro had also gotten off his horse. Without being able to ask him what was going on, I was pushed forcefully.
I did not fall, the one who had pushed me was the old awakened.
"Walk wench."
I walked ahead, the man followed behind me.
We entered the arena. The inner parts of it was nothing impressive. It was light by small torches, many knights walked along the corridors, be it mundane or awakened.
I was led to a place where there were several iron doors which looked like cells. The old man stopped to open an iron door. I was about to summon my weapon to kill the man, but before that I was pushed from the back and thrown inside the cell.
It only took me a second to turn around and immediately charge at the door which was going to close on me.
"FUCK!"
Thud!
The door closed, before I could reach it. Out of desperation I punched it with all my strength, only for my fist to make a creak sound.
"Argh!"
I had broken one of my knuckles, the skin on it had already split apart and blood was leaking from it.
I winced slightly as I waved my hand to ease the pain. As I looked around the cell, I saw a malnourished man that looked like he was on the verge of dead. There were strange runes glowing on the walls, they were most likely to weaken the awakened that went inside the cell judging by the mans condition.
However I was a mundane human, so I was no affected by it.
Without giving a glance to the man, I took my seat on the corner of the room. I did not know how long it would take them to give us food. But I was extremely hungry and thirsty. I closed my eyes to sleep, the man could not do anything while I was asleep so I was not worried.
Due to the mental exhaustion, I fell asleep relatively fast.
***
'How long has it been..?'
My throat had dried. I could not even form saliva in my mouth anymore. My stomach felt empty. I was feeling nauseous. But when I tried to throw up to relieve the feeling, nothing came. My stomach was empty.
I had slept three times since I had come into this cell. Which most likely meant I had been here for 4 days. That was a dangerous amount of time to go without any food or water. I had banged on the door to many times, but no one came nor the door did not budge. All my knuckles were screaming in pain, bloodied and broken. You could see shattered bones since there was no skin to speak of.
I was feeling desperate. My lips along with my tongue had all dried too. Just what kind of a fist nightmare was this? Most of the population got easy to medium difficulty during their first nightmare, yet here I was. The spell had thrown me right into the hands of a fallen devil, and now it was leaving me to die out of starvation.
Was this fair? This was NOT fair...
I glanced at the awakened man. He was even in a worse shape than I was. I did not know how he was enduring all this. But..
I stood up from the ground, yellow sparks shimmered on my hand as the kodachi appeared in it.
I loomed over the man. With a hoarse voice, I muttered as I bent down to him.
"I am.. hungry.."
[You have slain an awakened beast, name unknown.]
[You have received a memory, Leather Armor.]