Chapter 118 Captured again

Chapter 118 Captured again
The back gate was mere yards away when the sky itself seemed to collapse.

Grand Elder Ragab plummeted like a meteor of dark brown resonance, slamming into the courtyard just ahead of the fleeing group. The impact unleashed a devastating shockwave. Stone tiles exploded outward in a ring of debris. Vandal, Sabine, and the others were hurled through the air like ragdolls. Even the pursuing guards behind them were flung back, tumbling across the lawns in a chaotic heap.

Ragab did not spare them a glance.

Before any of them could recover, an immense pressure crushed down. The air grew thick and heavy, as if the very world had turned hostile. Vandal hit the ground first, Elder Shekini still slung over his shoulder. He tried to push himself up, muscles straining, but the gravity pinned him flat.

In that frozen moment, Vandal's mind connected to the jade-infinity stone. A single, urgent mental pulse through their faint remaining resonance link: Hide the ring. Inside the crystal. Now.

Flowell's voice answered in a twitchy tone, acknowledgment, before the pressure intensified.

Ragab strode forward leisurely, each step measured and unhurried despite his massive frame. The gravity bent to his will alone. He reached Vandal, ripped Elder Shekini from his grasp with casual strength, and tossed the unconscious elder aside like discarded refuse. Shekini rolled limply across the shattered tiles.

"Pathetic," Ragab growled. He raised a hand, and the gravity spiked.

Lungs compressed. Ribs creaked. Breaths became shallow, desperate gasps. One by one, the group's struggles weakened. Sabine's fingers clawed uselessly at the stone. Sera's body seemed planted into the pavement. Jaclynn's pained whimpers were fading.

Jaden's face twisted in deep hatred as his entire body began to resonate with electricity. He was struggling under the weight pressing down on him. Ragab noticed him. He was the only one that seemed to be able to move, albeit slowly.

“You had real potential, boy. A shame you will never live long enough to use it.”

Vandal's vision tunneled, Ragab's suffocating aura pressing down like the weight of the entire building.

Darkness claimed them all.

\---

Cold water slammed into Vandal's face, shocking him awake with a violent gasp. Chains rattled as he instinctively jerked, only to realize he was suspended. His arms stretched painfully wide, wrists and ankles locked in heavy, energy-suppressing manacles. His body ached as if he had been beaten.

The dungeon was dimly lit by flickering echo-lamps. The rest of the group hung similarly in a grim semicircle around him: Sabine, Sera, Jaclynn, Chan, Jaden, Flowell, and Elder Shekini. All chained. All battered.

Grand Elder Ragab stood before him, massive and imposing, holding a now-empty bucket. In his other hand, he casually spun the jade-infinity crystal between thick fingers. It looked dull and lifeless in his grip.

"Tell me everything," Ragab said, voice low and dangerous. "Where are the treasures? What really happened to my sons, Malouf and Anwar? And how do I access this dead stone?"

Vandal's white hair hung in wet strands over his face. He remained silent.

Ragab's expression darkened. He seized Vandal's left hand and snapped the pinky finger with a sickening crack.

Vandal stifled the scream into a guttural growl, teeth clenched until his jaw ached.

"That is only the beginning, boy," Ragab snarled. "I will slaughter every last one of these Unseeing Faith scum in front of you, then kill you last. The audacity to infiltrate my domain and rescue your elders." He leaned closer.

"Now. Answer me boy. Where is the treasure? Something tells me the answer lies with this rock because I do not see a storage ring on you and you had to have one to store all those artifacts and treasures you stole."

Silence greeted his words.

Ragab took the broken finger and twisted it some more, eliciting a pained whimper.

"Answer me!"

"What happened to Malouf and Anwar? And how do you use this crystal?"

Vandal forced words through the pain. "We did not kill them. They died."

Ragab's eyes narrowed. He could sense the half-truth, the mountain of secrets hidden behind it. Without warning, he broke another finger, more viciously this time. The bone shattered with a wet crunch.

Vandal's body convulsed as he finally screamed, but he still refused to elaborate.

A desperate, raw scream tore across the chamber, not from Vandal. Sabine was fighting her binds with everything she had, thrashing against her chains until her wrists and ankles bled raw. Every snap of Vandal's bones seemed to cut deeper into her than any physical wound. Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes burned with hatred for Ragab and something far softer, far more vulnerable, whenever they found Vandal.

The chains groaned and clinked as she struggled, the sound mixing with her raw sobs.

Sera had turned her head away, unable to watch.

Ragab noticed. A cruel smile spread across his face.

"You know that blonde girl loves you, do you not, white-hair?" he taunted.

Vandal said nothing, only shook his head faintly toward Sabine in warning.

Ragab turned to her. "What is your name, girl?"

Silence.

He grabbed another of Vandal's fingers. Crack.

Sabine screamed. "Stop! Please!"

Ragab broke another. Vandal's stifled groan echoed.

"Sabine!" she cried out, voice breaking. "My name is Sabine! Just stop hurting him!"

Ragab's smile widened. "Do you love the white-haired boy, Sabine?"

Vandal shook his head again, barely perceptible. Ragab responded by snapping two fingers at once.

Each crack of bone echoed sharply off the walls. Sweat and blood dripped from Vandal’s chin onto the cold floor.

Vandal's scream tore free again, raw and terrible.

"Yes!" Sabine sobbed. "I love him! I love him! Please! Take me instead! I am the one who killed Malouf and Anwar! Let the others go. Kill me!"

“You? Kill my sons?” Ragab laughed, a deep, mocking sound that reverberated through the dungeon. “Too weak. Too soft. You could not have killed my sons even on your best day.”

He stepped toward her, raising a massive hand wreathed in dark brown energy. "No time for games. Perhaps I will just start with you."

"IT WAS ME!" Vandal roared, voice hoarse. "I killed Malouf. He ambushed us in the Ox Meadow. I tried to help him but he tricked us and tried to kill everyone. Then he came after us again later. He had changed. Revealed he joined some mysterious organization and called himself Divine. He was going to slaughter all of us. I had no choice."

Ragab froze, listening intently as Vandal recounted the brutal confrontation, the revelations, the final blow.

When the story ended, Ragab's eyes gleamed with cold fury. "And the treasures? The crystal?" He held the jade-infinity crystal up again. "It is useless to me. Like a dead stone. How do you access it?"

Vandal hesitated.

Ragab moved instantly. His enormous hand clamped around Sabine's head, fingers like iron bands. He began to squeeze, gently at first, then with building pressure. "If you lie, I crush her skull right here. Talk. Your time is running out."

The dungeon fell deathly silent except for the creak of chains and Sabine's shallow, terrified breathing.