FIRE

FIRE 18

The once proud Crown Prince couldn't stop thrashing about, yelling and pleading to be released but the five warrior remained deaf to his pleas as they roughly maneuvered his body to the specially built star shaped pole. It's a torture device created by the Great Emperor of Bakura himself and only a few had ever irked the Emperor enough to be the subject of its terrible pain. First securing his hands and legs to the rusty metal cuffs on the four points, they then moved to set the neck brace before moving away.

"Please! My Love, Yunho, please! Save me!" He cried out again, trembling because of fear, shame and cold. He'd been resting when the attack occured and everyone in his palace had been killed forcing him to surrender in hopes of seeing his lover's mercy. It must've been a mistake. Surely, it's a terrible misunderstanding... The Great Emperor of Bakura couldn't possibly want him killed, would he?

But as he lay there naked, strapped to such strange thing in front of his surviving subjects in the middle of the Main Palace, he started to wonder if he's going to survive after all.

Especially as he watched the rising sun that lighted his beloved's face emphasize the Great Emperor's darkened expression. It's not the look of a lover.

The Great Emperor stood, his step majestic as he slowly approached the prisoner. "You're most unfortunate, Crown Prince of Yani. The Queen had killed herself as soon as my army breached the palace and so, that leave us only you to confess your sins... Would you confess and beg for my mercy, Crown Prince of Yani?"

There's something in the way his beloved announced the tittle that troubled the Crown Prince but he couldn't give up now. Not after everything I'd sacrificed. "What sins have I committed?!" He desperately resisted, almost crying by now."I have remained loyal to you, my love, and this is how you repay my affection?!"

By now, everyone must've known the true nature of their relationship but nobody dared to say anything.

"I see." The Great Emperor chuckled. "Oh, I forgot. Win, Do. Tightened the cuffs."

"No please! I-" His voice quickly broke in a painful scream, no doubt feeling the tiny spikes inside the metal securing his limbs slowly appearing and cutting into his skin just deep enough not to pierce through him. It will take hours for it to be fatal, ensuring constant agonizing pain before death would finally claim him. 

The Great Emperor smiled. He then turned to the terrified subjects of Yani. Or well, what was left of them. Due to his lover's plea, he had agreed to spare anyone who surrendered but for others who raised their weapon against his army, the order was simple. No mercy. And he was not disappointed. Almost half of the people left are women and children, the rest are elderly and farming men. "People of Yani! Behold! The reason of my wrath!"

"Please..."

Ignoring the weak plea, he roared. "Once upon a time, I had loved a man known as the Crown Prince of Yani! I had made a promise that we would be together! I had given my word one day Yani would be under my protection and power! I told him nothing would stand in our way but I was wrong! My beloved was betrayed by the people he trusted! He was deceived and left to die in his own kingdom! When he needed them the most, his people failed him! You failed him! None ever realized his imposter! None ever questioned this man who took his place!"

"What?"

The scandalous gasps and murmurs doesn't bother him a bit. "I had intended to torch the whole of Yani for this crime but alas, he would not allow me. You owe your lives to him but your loses to me! And this imposter, the reason for all my sufferings and yours, will pay for his doing today!" The Great Emperor approached him and once again, asked. "Will you confess your sin and beg for my mercy, Park Hyun Chul?"

The man's eyes widened, body trembling harder now but he remained silent other than his whimpers of pain. Stubborn.

"Very well." He pulled at the neck brace, snapping open a mechanism to allow a pointy metal to slightly press under Hyun Chul's chin and another his sternum. If he as much as try to talk or scream or even swallow heavily, the pointy tip on both end would surely rupture his skin and aggravate him more. With time, he could even choke on his own blood and die a horrible death. But that's not all. The Great Emperor had more in mind. "That, is for your lies and silence." He announced cruelly, taking a blade offered by one of his warrior. "And this, is for taking a place not yours... For imposing to be my forsaken beloved." Slowly, almost teasingly, he sliced the man's upper torso just enough to pull at the skin and then, with an inhumane smile, the Great Emperor continued to lazily strip the man's skin off his chest. Hyun Chul's body shook, no doubt in shock and he started gargling but the Great Emperor simply flayed him without a care. It was a gory sight, one that caused so many cries and prayers from the watchers. The man's reddened flesh was revealed, dripping blood everywhere as the people of Yani shook with fear and desperately casted their glance elsewhere. Children began to cry and wail to escape the nightmare.

But The Great Emperor was not yet finished.

Satisfied with the blank gaze and despaired breaths from the source of his misery, the Great Emperor began to peel his flesh.

Layer by layer. 

The shock and blood loss from the unthinkable torture would soon kill the man but as long as Hyun Chul still gasp for air, he would no doubt continue to skin him alive.