This is the darkest chapter so far. If you don't like violence, skip it. I'll include a brief descriptor at the end.
Archer awoke in the Emperor's castle, his head throbbing and his body slick with a cold sweat. Clutching his eye, as the pain stretched from that point to his whole skull, he shivered in fear. He was not supposed to be here. He had been banished until he caught the human. Technically, he was not supposed to be in range of the Emperor's reach at all, but that was impossible if he wanted to complete his mission.
Craning with his neck with his one good eye, Archer peered up at the throne in front of him. Emperor Belos sat, his fingers drumming on the arm of his chair. Bowing his head once more, Archer could hear the Emperor stand up and step in front of the boy.
"Holter," Belos said, his voice a soft purr, "Why are you so scared?"
Archer looked up confused at the new name, before a voice that was not his own escaped his lips, "Sir, I saw-"
Picking up the boy by the shirt, Belos raised the child above his head. He pulled down Archer's right hand and shoved his thumb where his eye once was. Archer heard the same voice scream as pain rippled from his eye socket to his head, to his core.
"You saw!" Belos screamed, "This is what happened the last time you saw!"
Archer was thrown across the throne room. He slid until his back hit a stone wall. He tried to get up, to run, but all his body did was cower behind their Golden Guard Cloak as the Emperor approached him once more.
"What a shame," Belos sighed as he slipped a dagger from his robe, "I did rather like how obedient you were. . ."
Suddenly Archer's body twisted in pain and his one good eye started to lose sight. He could feel his strength weakening and he could no longer move despite the throbbing pain coming from his abdomen. Slowly the world started to fade, and then he woke up.
Archer has a lucid nightmare of witnessing the demise of one of his past iterations. He wakes up after the demise of Holter.
