The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Seventy Nine

She seemed shocked at the notion, her face displaying innocence as she mockingly placed a hand on her chest.

"Me? Slay gods?" She took a slow step towards the gods and two men in the arena.

"I didn't slay them." Her smile returned almost instantly. "I drained their souls. Leaving little snacks behind and convincing these pests that they are heavenly pieces."

She took another step, and the two men seemed even more perplexed.

Her face was quite the sight, her expression ever changing as though she couldn't decide which was more suitable for the occasion. This was not the Macey they knew. It was part of her, but the Macey they had taken back then was as warm and considerate as she was calculating. This... Thing... Was an imitation. A cold imitation.

She settled again on seeming offended. "I had thought you would be happy. After all, you were the ones that stole me from my life when I was eighteen. You kept me for hundreds of years to train me in a sphere that stills time. You were the ones that killed me, over and over again." She smiled again, seeming excited at the memories. "You killed my first husband. You killed my children. Because of you I bargained my soul away to death itself."

She now stood infront of them again.

"I don't quite think even you thought it would be so easy to let me fall." She placed a hand to Gaelik's cheek."You wanted to know what happened to me? Shouldn't you already know since you just came from the realm of the dead?"

A tear appeared in the middle of nowhere and she stepped towards the increasingly large tear. Inside they finally saw it. A younger looking version of the being before them hung limply by her wrists. Her flaming red hair had dulled, horns filed down to stumps and one ear ripped. Whatever clothing she had once had on were ripped to shreds, hanging by bare threads.

A dull thudding of hooves sounded. The clanking of chains and hiss of something dragging along almost grinded against their eardrums. A beast unlike any they had seen before slowly stepped towards her, and they could see the girl in the tear slowly lift her head. She had no eyes to look out of.

Her voice came out a mere whisper.

"Clickity clack, it hits  her  back. Blood drip, drip, dripping into black. No wings, no wings, the scales begone. We no longer need you, hornless brawn."

She smiled deliriously as the beast made noises that almost mimicked what she had said a moment before. It repeated the sounds again and again as it approached so slowly it was almost agonizing. They stared at the beast with hooves like a horse and the stature of a man. It had four arms and one alarming head. It's face was that of a beast torn and sewn together and torn again, no longer recognisable. In one of its hands a long chain whip with spikes at least five cm long at the end dragged after it.

"Dash, dash away. You will never escape, we came to play."

The hand lifted as it mimicked the sound again. It was no longer clear if she was merely repeating something she might have heard before or if it was mimicking her. A strong lash of its arm forward rocked the whip towards her with it. Her skin broke immediately, oozing thick red blood as she made no other sounds. It ripped the whip from Her skin, taking large chunks with it as it tore through her body. However, this immediately healed to leave a bright pink scar.

She smiled eerily, some blood pooling in her mouth and coloring her teeth a brilliant red. A broken wing behind her back moved slightly, showing a mere stump. The vision changed only slightly. Scales adorned only the most necessary parts of her body, but even they were a bare minimum coverage over the scarring she seemed to have engraved over her skin. Another being stood before her. The man laughed heartily as he threw a liquid onto her skin that seemed to bubble and boil the skin away before it slowly replaced itself with scarring.