Danmachi: the strange one

(hell) (A few months after Magnus escaped) (Jailer pov)

"So you're telling me he just broke free, killed you, and ran away?"

I honestly didn't think that would happen, after spending a few hundred years around here people usually lose all will for anything and just go with the flow we dictate.

A good example of this is Bob as my runaway toy calls him, with just a handful of muddy water and some of the horse food he started talking as if he was afraid I'd change my mind, which isn't too different from reality.

And that's not a strange attitude here, what is strange is the fugitive himself, who for some reason has kept most of his personality and will intact.

{A/N: Gorlok | Gronk } {image}

"Don't worry Gorlok, it was getting boring anyway, a chase would be a nice change of pace. All we have is time anyway."

Listening to what Gronk said, I feel it makes sense, after all, it's not like he's going anywhere else.

"I know that, but what intrigues me is that he's somehow kept his own will."

"Now that you've said that, I'm curious, why didn't we look at his information plaques?"

Actually, all the unlucky souls who fall here are recorded in various ways, such as stone tablets, parchments, memorials, etc.

Which describe the soul, things like personality, behavior, and way of life. In order to be able to 'work' better, however, for the sake of pride we never look at them, except for a few special subjects, such as our dear fugiti-

"Magnus Crucyus, an interesting guy, has ADHD, and a bit of sociopath in him, but nothing serious. Great resilience and stubbornness, extremely petty and vindictive, he also seems to be a battle maniac and an adrenaline junkie. Straight as a metal pipe with above-average IQ and is extremely adaptable to any situation."

Magnus? Well, don't think I'll give up on you that easily, after all, it's hard to find high-quality toys around here. At least the infernal horses will be of some use now. 

. . . 

I'm seriously upset about the variety of food here, I only have roasted sinner's meat and bone dust. But it's not all bad news, in the months that have passed I've gained some weight, and now I can pass for a living person instead of a rotting corpse.

I look like a person on the verge of starvation.

The only strange part is that the cracks on the left side of my body haven't disappeared, they've just taken on a more refined form, I'm not going to lie, they look quite cool.

The only thing that worries me is that my skin is taking on a grayish hue and some thorns have appeared on my shoulders, apparently due to the consumption of the main food that I eat around here, who would have thought that meat from a sinner who has been in hell for hundreds or even thousands of years would do that? Well, not like I'm going to stop, I'm starving after I've been tortured for at least over 100 years without ever eating anything, i don't refuse free food.

And I'm not sure if it's because I'm in hell or if my body has changed on a fundamental level, I simply can't just die here, it seems everyone here has Deadpool's regeneration on steroids or something, you can be decapitated, disemboweled, shredded, submerged in magma for weeks and simply after a while you'll be whole again, emphasis on whole, not in good condition, if you don't have nutrients to sustain regeneration you come back with only the bare minimum to continue existing, like, just literally skin, bone, no muscles, a parched brain, organs that look more like empty balloons and blood that have more like the consistency of honey.

And that brings us to two gaps that I think I've found in this place during my time here. Firstly, nutrients still matter here, if the body doesn't get sustenance somehow we get weaker and weaker until it gets to the point where you simply don't have enough muscle left to sustain any movement of the body, as if you had full-body paralysis, but much worse, Apart from the discomfort of not being able to move, the pain of the constant torture given by some bastards, you still have to deal with the worm-like pain on your organs being devoured by starvation.

So let's get back to the point, nutrients are important, don't reject any form of food, this includes anyone who is lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a bit of meat on their bones. Secondly, apparently, there really is a way to die here, of the people I've eaten to the bone for lack of meat, I've never seen any come back, and since after all this time I still haven't felt the urge to go to the toilet, I think this really was the end for them, but I'm not sure, I could be wrong.

*Pat* *pat* *pat*

Interrupting me from my thoughts was an extremely skinny figure covered in a tattered and torn cloak, who seemed to be trying to sneak up on me with what looked like a tooth from a familiar creature.

But now is not the time for monologues, after all, although the pain of being stabbed is nothing to me and wouldn't even leave a scar, there's simply no point in wasting nutrients that I can save.

Then, with a quick movement, I dodged the tooth by pushing my attacker's arm with my forearm, letting it pass in front of my face, what I didn't expect was a flash of orange light, and with that, my arm was severed and a deep cut appearing on my beautiful face horizontally, which made me even more alarmed was that my regeneration that should already be growing another arm and healing my face is strangely slow, something that shouldn't happen, after all unlike before, I now have a more than a decent amount of nutrients in my body.

As such, seeing no point in continuing to play around, I swung what was left of my arm at my attacker's face in such a way as to splash blood into her eyes. With her distraction I put all my strength into a punch to her face, something that didn't knock her out, it simply sent her to the ground, seeing this I didn't let her recover.

I fell on top of her throwing punches with everything I had, only stopping when I saw her disfigured face and that whatever had attacked me had stopped moving due to head trauma.

*Huff* *huff* *huff*

What the fuck was that?

Better, what is it? 

What was that orange light?

I need answers, I thought as I looked at my attacker.

With that I approached and took off his cloak completely, giving me a view of his body looking for anything sharp or that could be used against me, finding a few more teeth of what I now recognized as a sandworm as I call them, really nasty little creatures, they hide in the sand waiting for someone to pass by and simply jump on people, usually in the head without letting their victims even react.

I was almost caught a few times, but luckily, I reacted quickly. Anyway, I continued to search the being that I could now identify as a girl by her slender build and the small mounds with two pink buttons on her chest, I didn't look under the rags she was wearing for panties, there was no need.

After the inspection, I found nothing else of note, so I started to think about the girl's strange ability and how to get her to tell me about it, I have nothing to bribe her with and I don't think she would tell me willingly, I also have no way of forcing her to tell me, after all the pain wouldn't do any good, everyone who falls here only has two kinds of fate:

you are tortured for many years until all your nutrients run out, and your executioner loses interest in you and when you can't move or even scream, and leaves you at random for a sandworm or some other strange creature to eat.

That's also the reason why I'm not in a better condition now, almost all the people abandoned by the jailers are eaten to the bone by the creatures here, I couldn't eat the creatures either, I already tried it once, as soon as I swallowed the first piece of meat, a burning sensation hit my mouth all the way to my stomach and shortly afterward a piece of my belly started to sizzle and melt, until the same piece of meat I ate fell to the ground the same way I swallowed it.

Anyway, you also have the second option, after many years of torture you escape before your nutrients run out, which is what I did, although I only succeeded because my executioner wanted to break me mentally, so he periodically fed me a part of the body of a stranger, which at first made me vomit almost every time, something he liked to watch and after seeing me unload what little I had in my stomach and ordered me to eat again, if I refused he would torture me in even more brutal ways and force the food down my throat, after all in his words

"I don't want to lose my best toy"

Bastard, I'm still going to kill you and feast on your entrails. 

*GRRR*

Just thinking about him makes me angry.

*urgg*

Just then I heard a moan of someone waking up, it seemed she's recovered. Well, I was wondering how long I'd have to wait, the time has finally come to satisfy my curiosity, and if she's not cooperative, I can think of a few ways to make her change her mind...

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Please take a look on the auxiliary chapter

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