Empire of Blood

Chapter 25: The Dragon and the Snake

Only when tears trickled down her bloodied face did the torture finally end. Content to receive some form of surrender, Medusa slowly walked over and made eye contact. "I always get what I want—you will obey me." Selena only snarled through trembling lips, sweat beading her torn skin, but Medusa scoffed. "The Dark Master doesn't want me to kill you, for he wants to do that himself. However, I can make you beg for death." Medusa then waved her right hand, and a whip appeared in her grasp; Selena spat at the ground near where she stood, willing to accept her dragon state transformation to strike her down. "You will be my little experiment until the Dark Master returns; let's see how much of this you can take before dying. We will start slow."

Without another moment's hesitation, Medusa lashed at Selena with sharp rocks tied at the ends of the knotted thongs, digging into her skin with every flog. Her wounds seared; they were intensifying and brutal. Medusa stopped and waited for a few seconds before she delivered another blow. Selena screamed and tightened her fists to brace herself, but the pain worsened when she clenched. Each lash amplified as her muscles quivered.

Medusa scourged her again and again. Selena lost count after ten, her mind swirling into a black haze, drawing her into Oblivion. She was covered in blood by the end of her beatings, and Medusa's whip ripped her undergarments to shreds until the fabric could no longer hold, leaving her completely naked and covered in crimson gouges.

"I hope this was as much fun for you as it was for me, but I don't want to see you again for a while." Medusa grew bored of her methodical experimentation, and her whip disappeared as she walked out of the torture chamber, leaving Selena chained to the ceiling. Warm sanguine fluid oozed down her copper skin, but Selena winced from the black bruises forming around her wrists and the new wounds opening over the scars on her legs from her first flight with Thor.

Thor.... Saying his name hurt more than the lashes; only the Divines knew what Medusa did to him and Doragon. I'm so sorry.

The dark, damp room trickled with water dripping from the ceiling, matching Selena's beating heart. Each tortured second that had passed grew challenging for her to draw a single breath; Selena slowly suffocated with the weight of her body pulling down on her arms. Although it was a few minutes, she was trapped in her timeless prison, waiting for eternity since Medusa left.

When Selena believed herself to be wholly alone with her tormented thoughts, the dungeon doors swung open. She clenched her fists as Medusa waltzed inside, weaponless this time. "We have much to accomplish, dragon," she hissed and raised a single hand as it glowed red, "Tell me: does this hurt more or less than the whip?"

Before Selena could give her a rude gesture, her organs and bones suddenly burned as if she were engulfed in flames. Surprised by this agonizing fiery pain—as a caster's summoned fire did not affect her—she screamed and howled from Medusa's new form of torture, her insides melting as if tossed into a lake of magma.

Medusa then withdrew for a few seconds, allowing Selena a moment of respite. "Very interesting, but don't worry if you die—the Dark Master will bring you back to life himself." However, her smile faded when she waved her hand, and a sudden cooling and refreshing wave washed over Selena, healing every cut and laceration she had received previously. She finally exhaled in relief, and she flexed her restored limbs.

Medusa interchanged different forms of torture throughout the day, both physically and magically, watching and commenting on Selena's endurance and tolerance to her methods as she switched. "Is this too much? Please, tell me your pain level on a scale of one to ten." Medusa would graciously heal her between experiments, as her uninterrupted trials would have proven too much for Selena to handle.

After hours of these sadistic tests, Medusa finally finished for the day; she raised her hand, and the chains around Selena's wrists disappeared. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the stone floor, but shackles reappeared, keeping her bound to ground level.