a demons den

Voices called out from the forest trees and the path had become narrower. It felt as if massive amounts of demonic energy were just looming over him. He looked around to see if there were any signs of Raik hoping that maybe there would still be a chance to get him out of here.

"Syre..."

"Answer me, Syre..?"

"I don't want to be here anymore..."

"It's all your fault."

Whispers continued to echo throughout the forest.

"Let go of me!"

A voice deep in the forest had appeared to be Raik's. He ran towards the voice.

"Syre.. turn back now."

"You're weak Syre.. do you really think you can defeat this monster? You've been lucky until now."

The voices had become a lot harder to ignore and fight off. His head began to ring. He felt the force of gravity had started to pull him down. His vision began to darken.

He looked down and saw a branch had wrapped itself tightly around his body. He reached for his sword and cut off the branch.

He fell at his knees trying to catch his breath.

"Syre.. do you really think you can defeat me.."

The voices grew louder in the forest as he tried to get up. His head and body felt heavy once again. He looked down and was paralyzed with fear as he saw hands reach out from the soil beneath him latch onto his ankles.

The forest had reeked of death and misery. He went to reach for his sword but more hands reached onto his body. He was slowly being swallowed into the ground underneath. Before he knew it, his whole vision had gone dark. His body fell through the ground and he felt a thud as he hit a ground underneath.

He reached out his hands to grasp a sense of what surrounded him. He felt around and felt that the odd circular shape he was in felt like that of an egg.

He helplessly banged and kicked on the surrounding walls that kept him trapped in. He tried to let out a scream but it was received with only silence. He started to notice a feeling of lethargy grow within him. He felt around his body and felt something tug at the middle of his back. There seemed to be a cord there.

"I'm in a syphoning egg."

The realization hit him and he fought feelings of helplessness. He felt his life being sucked right out of him and he could do nothing but surrender.

So this is how it ends. He thought to himself. He entered a state of dizziness and laid on his back.

He had started to come to terms with his fate when he heard a voice reach him.

"Fight."

The space he was in was suddenly filled with light. He noticed he was able to see through the walls entrapping him. There was a figure standing outside of the egg he was in.

"My name is Domino." The figure was tall and had a serious look on their face. It held a pen and book in its hands and looked up towards Syre. Syre noticed the long dark hair on the figure that laid over their shoulders and hid half of their face, but he also noticed that the voice of the figure did not match the voice that he had just heard.

"According to my little book here, your name is Syre, age 17. It seems you're an extremely skilled fighter and it seems your blood is of great importance."

The figure started to scribble something down.

"It's your lucky day, as you have been chosen as talent for the Demons tournament." The figure continued to scribble.

"Demon's tournament? The hell are you talking about?" Syre banged on the wall once again.

"Give me my sword back!" He yelled.

"My name is Domino." The figure repeated and blankly stared at Syre for a moment before walking away.

"You said that already! What is this Demon tournament!? Get me out of here!" At that moment Syre looked around him and saw he was surrounded by a bunch of eggs like the one he were in, they hung from long thick cords and the voices coming from them were all yelling in agony and pain.

He was hit with great tiredness as he felt more of his energy being drained.

He had almost fell into a deep sleep before he was interrupted by a voice.

"Hey, wake up!" He heard a voice come from his left.

Syre couldn't muster up the energy to speak but he tried his best to shift his body over towards the voice.

"If you let yourself fall asleep,  you might never wake up." He looked over towards the egg besides him. He saw the shape of the figure slightly moving and acknowledging him as it spoke.

"My name is Falson, i've been here for quite a while..." He let out a sigh before he continued.

"That Demon tournament that stupid puppet keeps talking about, they have it once a year. The Demons pick out a bunch from their stupid human syphoning farms and challenge each other to a big duel." He exclaimed.

"As long as you stay awake, as long as you need to, for your body to get used to the syphoning, you may have a chance of getting out of here. Fall asleep and you can kiss that chance goodbye. They don't want any weaklings fighting in the tournament. You stay on their good side, keep winning and they'll let you live. Pretty good deal if you ask me, kid." The voice fell into silence.

Syre blankly stared at the space above him.

"Stay awake and win."

He repeated the words over and over. He mind eventually drifted back to the strange voice he had heard earlier.

"I'm going crazy.' He thought to himself.

Time had passed and it felt like Hell. It became almost impossible to stay awake. He closed his eyes and entered what felt like a vivid dream.

First he was met with the strange imagery of a young monk. He then saw a tree.

What? He felt a sense of confusion.

A rapid motion of images started to appear before his mind. It seemed like something was trying to communicate with him.

"Fight."

There's that voice again. He thought to himself.