Splitter- English Version

22. Ace of Flames

Blackness. Unspeakable nothingness greeted him and the darkness permeated every cell of his body. He was freezing terribly, but his body did not tremble. The cold poisoned his guts, crawled up his chest and forced his heart to submit. Flashes of pain travelled through his body and discharged themselves in glistening rays of light behind his eyelids. Horrible shrieks rang through the void and he couldn't even tell whether the sound was coming from outside or from inside him. The more alert his state of mind became, the more he felt the pain threatening to consume him with its huge fangs. The foul teeth dug deeper and deeper into his flesh, tearing out large chunks of his body that had long since ceased to belong to him and greedily devouring the scraps of skin in one piece. He could hear it bubbling deep beneath him, as if the earth was tearing open at his feet and poisonous hot lava was making its way up through the earth's crust. On its way to find its victim and leave nothing of its existence behind.He wanted to scream, but instead of a sound, small black arachnids emerged from his throat. He coughed and spat, trying to wipe them away with his bare hands, but this provoked the creatures all the more. They crawled towards his eyes and sank their jaws deep into his eyelids. He gagged with exertion and disgust and threatened to choke in his panic.
His hands were numb and he couldn't move them. More and more spiders crawled out of his mouth, nose and now his eyes and fell into the lava at his feet. As each of these creatures burst in the embers, his blood vessels under his skin also burst. Viscous and slow, the blood dripped to the ground, finding its way through the earth's crust, which gradually began to crumble. First small pieces broke off, then larger and larger chunks and suddenly he lost his footing. He stumbled, desperately waved his arms in the air and plunged down into the unknown. He felt the cold air blowing through his hair and chilling his body heat close to freezing point. He thanked the gods that the unbearable pain would soon come to an end. He closed his eyelids and welcomed the impact with open arms.
Nothing moved. The noise had disappeared. And the cold no longer felt so infinitely cold. But the pain was stronger than ever before. He felt dizzy and his guts screamed with pain. He rattled and vomited. His whole body tensed up, he rolled his eyes and choked out the last bit of fluid in vain.Hands began to tug at him and he wanted to push them away. He wanted to go back, he wanted it to be over.'Don't be surprised. It's the side effects of the medicine.' Someone spoke with a foreign accent. The hands let go of him.And he felt the vomit soaking into his clothes, the viscous, stinking saliva dripping from his open lips and even though he was crouched on the hard floor, unable to move, he had never felt so alive before.His mind began to awaken and cold observation spread through him. He was here because he had survived and that gave him infinite satisfaction. He grinned. It wasn't over yet. He swore to himself.
He slowly lifted his eyelids and stared at red, velvet-covered boots. 'Ah, you're awake.' The man said in a calm, cutting voice and looked down at him with impenetrable black eyes. How delightful, he thought to himself. The man nodded to some of the hooded werters, who grabbed him roughly and dragged him to a nearby chair. They bound his arms with black-soaked cloths that reeked acridly of wood tar. His eyes began to water, but Viggo didn't care. He stared at the man for a long time. He absorbed his features and tried to register the slightest trace of facial expression. But the man looked at him with such bored serenity that Viggo, disgusted by the dreariness, threatened to vomit again. 'Well,' Viggo began in a croaky voice, 'I see you did an excellent job guarding my camp. I kindly ask you to untie me and get off my island,' he said with a grin, revealing his bloodstained teeth.The man laughed dryly. 'You're in a predicament, Grimborn. I'm here for a reason. It has come to my attention that you have captured a young dragon rider. The dragon conqueror. That's his name, isn't it?' The man looked boredly at his fingernails, as if the dirt underneath was a thousand times more interesting than the conversation he was having. This gesture could annoy Viggo, but he decided against it for tactical reasons.
'He should still be here or is he already dead?' Viggo replied hoarsely.'He was here. But unfortunately he escaped. And my men haven't been able to track him down yet.'Viggo swallowed. He was lucky. The most precious thing on the island was still alive.'I have no intention of feeding you here, Grimborn. There's hardly any livestock on this island to stay alive and my dragon cubs are hungry. So you have two choices now: either I kill you now or you go looking for that boy.' He finally looked up from his fingernails and emphasised his words by briefly running his hands over his dagger.'You forget one thing, Majestro. This here, Viggo pointed to his chamber with his fingers, is my kingdom, my island, my men. Every crumb belongs to me. Who am I to do the dirty work for you amateurs because you are incapable of holding a crippled boy.'He spat the words at Majestro's feet and refused to admit that the boy was the most intelligent person he had ever met, so he was not surprised that he had managed to escape.'Good, maybe another argument will convince you.' He snapped his fingers and a delicate figure came in. In his hand he held a glowing torch.
'Just as you asked, sir. Is everything done to your satisfaction?' The boy asked in a soft obedient voice and bowed deeply.
'Yes, my child, and now go and cover your ears when you leave the tent.' The boy nodded, hurriedly left the tent and pressed his hands over his ears.Viggo whistled through his teeth.
'Good staff are hard to find, aren't they?' The Majestro waved him off.'You just have to break people soon enough to receive their willless obedience.''But so be it.' He pointed the torch in the direction of Viggo's shackles.
'I'll give you one more chance to prove your loyalty and devotion to me and accept my offer.'Viggo grinned, tapped his fingers on the chair and said, 'I guess you'll have to kill me.''Good, let's start slowly.'He savoured the warmth of the blazing flames for a moment as he stood up and held her against Viggo's tar-soaked restraints. Viggo swallowed, the procedure wouldn't take that long. He survived the demon sword and he could wrestle the Majestro to the ground at an unexpected moment when the bindings were burnt.
The fire crackled through the tar, which grew hotter and more biting by the second. Viggo gasped in pain, clenching his hands into fists, which he immediately regretted, as the hot liquid dripped onto the backs of his hands, where painful blisters immediately formed. His face contorted into an agonised grimace and his gaze slid to the man sitting calmly in the chair, looking at him with satisfaction. Anger spread through his veins and made him forget the biting, hungry pain for a moment.
'Do you like what you see?' Viggo asked him challengingly. A trace of madness was reflected in his eyes. Viggo saw how the Majestro stumbled and the corners of his mouth curved upwards slightly when he saw how far the fire had already eaten into Viggo's flesh. Viggo followed his gaze, his eyes widened in shock and his body realised the pain. It shot through his nerves so suddenly that his body jerked and the blisters that had formed from the burn burst open. This force was released in a scream. He screamed his head off to give the pain in his arms some space. The restraints should have burned through by now, he asked himself in a panic. He didn't know how much longer he could endure the pain, which was only fuelling the flames on his arms. 

He pulled at the restraints and screamed. Even louder and longer than before. Surely his nerve endings would be burnt out at some point. He grinned at the thought. Then the Majestro would have no chance of hurting him painfully on the arms. He seemed to know this, because at that moment he got up and placed a thick, scratchy woollen blanket over Viggo's arms and used it to put out the fire. 'Nooo!' cried Viggo and slumped down. Tears ran down his furrowed face.
 'So, he began, I think you've learnt your first lesson. I'll give you some time to think about my suggestion. I'll be back,' he finished and walked towards the exit.
'So you're just going to leave me here?' Viggo shouted after him, his battered skin burning horribly as he moved. The Majestro pushed back the dragon curtain and stepped through without looking back. The curtain flew back with a crash, blocking Viggo's view of the moon. Full of rage, he punched the back of the chair and regretted it the very next moment. He spat on the floor and black, viscous slime fell from his lips. Viggo's silhouette disappeared into the darkness and so did the pain, which mingled with the acrid stench of burnt wood tar.