210: A week later...

A week later...

In a small tavern located in a small fishing village in Geotopia, the mood was a little peculiar. There was currently a small festival in the village, and the mood was jolly, yet in one of the corners of the tavern, the air seemed rather heavy. Seated around this table were Atar, Ephine and Thufrat. After a week worth of effort, their hopes were starting to dwindle. They had promised to find Ark as fast as possible, but they had no idea where he was taken to.  0

Even after spending a lot of money looking for information, they didn't manage to find a single clue about the shadows that took Ark away. They couldn't use the pendant to track him either, which was what Ark had been counting on in the beginning. Although they would never give up their search for him, they could never imagine what he was currently going through. Just the fact that they had no idea where he was or how he was doing was enough to drive them mad. 

Just waiting around for something to happen wasn't really their style, but for now, they had run out of ideas. The only hope they had left was the Torment of the Fallen. It was precisely because of the Torment of the Fallen that they had gathered in this small town. They had paid a generous sum for some information which they would be able to receive shortly. Their contact would arrive the next day, hopefully with something they could use to track down Ark. 

The next day, the weather was rather gloomy. There was no rain, but the clouds had gathered into large dark-grey clumps that obscured the sun. When Ephine woke up that day, she noticed that she had been crying again. Ever since Ark had been taken away, her mind had been in shambles. Her heart hurt and she randomly cried from time to time. The changes alarmed her greatly, but she didn't know what she was supposed to do about it. 

Seeing her own reflection looking back at her with tears in her eyes as she looked in the mirror, she knew that this couldn't continue! No matter what, she had to find Ark, and make sense of her own feelings for him. Matters of the heart was something she wasn't well-versed in, which is why she couldn't make sense of it all. She just wanted Ark to return, and everything to go back to how it was before. 

Atar didn't easily cry anymore, but his heart still felt desolate. First Ark disappeared, and now he had to see his mother crying all the time, it was hard for him. Compared to the others, Thufrat wasn't that sad, instead, he was fuming! The only thing he could think about right now was tearing those goddamn shadows apart with his bare hands. Sadly, his wish couldn't be fulfilled that easily, and he still needed to wait for their contact to appear. 

...

Not that far from Moonhill, an abandoned house stood eerily. The building looked like it had been through the ages, as mould and scorch marks covered the house. It looked like it had been empty for decades, but it was currently occupied by quite the fearsome being. Just like the house itself, the owner was merely an empty husk of what it once was, or at least that's what it looked like on the surface. 

Deep underground, in the basement of this rather decrepit house, heavy breathing could be heard. If light could reach this place, you would probably be able to see a large wolf lying in one of the corners of the room. Across the wolf's body, different wounds could be seen, it had been through dire straits. This wolf was naturally Ark, and for the past week, he had been through hell. 

Normally, wounds like these would slowly recover by themselves because of his physique and magic, but since both were repressed, he could only suffer in silence. Ark's normally bright eyes looked especially dim compared to before, yet his hopes were not completely gone. It would be a lie to say that he was hopeful, but he hadn't given up completely yet. 

The torture he had to endure in this place was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Even though he was covered in physical injures, those didn't really matter too much to Ark. He had experienced similar things before, so at least he could endure it to a certain degree. The real scary part was the torture to his soul. That kind of pain was something he could never get used to, and something that scared him every time that disgusting freak came down here to experiment on him. 

If Ark had to guess, the thing that was experimenting on him had to be a lich. The foul stench of rotten flesh, the voice that seemed to come straight from hell itself, it had to be a lich. Unfortunately for Ark, this discovery didn't really do anything for him. As he was thinking of possible ways to escape this hell, the silver collar around his neck started vibrating. 

Feeling the vibrations against his neck, Ark felt a shiver down his spine, there was only a single instance when the collar vibrated, and that was when the lich arrived! As he was practically shivering, the thick stone door into the cellar slowly opened. A cloaked figure slowly made its way into the room, and as it walked, a weird sound reverberated in the cellar. The lich didn't possess a human body, instead, it was mostly a skeleton, with bits of flesh still hanging on for dear life. 

The stench it brought with it was unbearable for most people, much less Ark, who had a great sense of smell. The pungent smell made him want to throw up, but even if he wanted to, there was not much to be done, it wasn't like there was anything for him to throw up after all. The bony fingers of the lich slowly extended out from beneath its black robe, pointing between Ark's eyes. 

Ark didn't really have any time to react before a soul-tearing pain assaulted his head. All thoughts in his mind simply scattered, replaced with incomparable agony. The pain was way more intense than last time, but it didn't really cross Ark's mind, since he simply had no ability to think right now. If the lich still had an actual face, Ark would be able to see the perverse smile he would probably have right now. 

"Kukukuku, he seems to be coming along nicely, the embryo of his divine soul is already starting to form."

The words that rang inside his head would normally ring a bell inside his head, but Ark had no idea what the lich was saying right now. The pain only grew stronger as time passed, and even though he did his best to resist it, he never could. His will that had always been unwavering started to waver, however, it quickly restored itself. The [Mental Fortitude] skill that he had gotten at the beginning of his journey was finally starting to show its might. 

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