THE CAVE: CONTINUUM
Part Thirty-Three
Rouvelier's three minions enter his cell. One is a large, burly monk which Allen recognizes as Rouvelier's escort when he had first visited him. The other two could be any one of the monks he has seen, or could have been to his cell previously.
He flinches when the beast of a man reaches down to him, expecting to be yanked up by his arm, but surprisingly the large, hairy-hand gently wraps around Allen's thin arm and pulls him to his feet.
Once he is standing, one of the minions' pulls his hands behind his back while the other produces wrist shackles clanging and rattling as he loudly clamps them shut. Allen's wrists are raw from having these shackles on just hours ago during his torture. Now having them back on around his painful wrists it doesn't take much movement to have them start bleeding again.
To Allen's surprise, the three of them look at each other and nod some sort of agreement between them. One of his jailors bends down and lifts the hem of his robe showing a long, white linen undergarment. There's the tearing of cloth as the monk rips off the white hem to his garment and then stands back up.
His jailor removes the hand shackles handing them to his partner. He carefully ties bandages around both his wrists before replacing the iron cuffs. His wrists are still painful, but the bandages prevent the bands from rubbing against the raw sores while at the same time helps stop the bleeding.
They all nod in unison. The large, burly beast man leads the way out of the cell, and one minion gently presses on Allen's back to move forward, out of his chambers. Once they are outside his prison, the minions flank him on both sides. Taking his arms, they move him along to his new destination.
Allen is at a lost as to why these men of Rouvelier's are being so kind to him and he figures it is probably a last gesture of civility—before he dies. He thinks of Kanda and the torment of leaving his husband alone wretches at his heart. He prays to both Gods—Kanda's and his. The more the better, but he does believe Kami would consider them a loving couple and may help him in his time of need.
They climb the wet, moldy steps to the upper floors of the castle, the musty smell clinging inside of his nostrils. Nearing the top, Allen feels a gentle breeze of fresh air caress his bruise, swollen face and inhales deeply, through his nose, into his lungs, exhaling the stale, suffocating air inside—a refreshing treat.
He could see light at the top near the end of the stairway. The minions and beast stop and actually allow Allen's eyes to adjust to the brighter light coming into view. They start climbing again, stopping off and on, so Allen's eyes would not feel like they are burning in their sockets from not being use to seeing brighter light.
Once they reach the doorway, Allen carefully steps onto the stone floor of the open spacious room. He has forgotten how long it had been since he had seen true daylight. It feels like weeks, when in reality it has only been a couple of days at the most.
The triad that has escorted him thus far allows Allen time to take in his new surroundings and rest. His eyes now accustom to the light, sees it is not the middle of the day, but the sun is lowering below the tree line as evening rolls in. So, Rouvelier had been true to his words about Allen having at least a day of torture. The three of them allow him time to stop and look at the sun one more time before continuing on to his death.
'Kanda where are you? Are you close by, or do you still have far to travel to get here?' Allen's thoughts are broken by the nudging of his jailor to begin his last leg of the walk to the death chamber.
Time passes by, it seems it is taking forever to reach their destination which turns out they had walked the length of the castle, because now they are at the far end from where they had started. Looming ahead of Allen are two enormous wooden doors.
'What is this place they have brought me to? What lies behind those old, worn timber doors? By its tremendous size it looks as if it would take many men to even open one of the doors,' Allen's thinking, but as they approach closer, the beast walks ahead and with a grunt, opens one of them.
Allen gasps at the strength of this beast man and prays he will not have to fight him in the near future, though he wonders if the demons he will be fighting would have even more strength then this tall, shaggy, hair creature. He would prefer to have this beast on his side.
The beast man stands at the door welcoming the threesome into the room. Upon entering into the massive area, it's as if Allen has walked into the time zone of the gladiator's era. It's a huge arena with a balcony surrounding the room that could hold a throng of spectators. Instead of an open roof, it is an enclose arena. Where above there are thick and thin ropes hanging and looping in the ceiling, looking as if this could have been an execution site at one time by the way the ropes lined up in a row.
It's as if you could smell the deaths that had happened in this pitiful, oppressed place, because the malevolent aura is strong in the air around him. Allen has now entered into Rouvelier's terrifying world of cruelty, violence and vindictive deportment. His own hellish nightmare about to begin. The jailor removes his shackles and all three retreat behind a metal slatted door.
Allen glances up at the monstrosity that is still called human. He sits straight on his throne, legs crossed, a cup and saucer in his hands, enjoying refreshments as he will watch Allen be torn apart. The young Exorcists can see his eyebrows knit together scowling and his beady, black evil eyes, piercing down and through him as his lips form a smirk.
"Open the gate for the first demon!" Rouvelier barks his orders loud and clear, glaring down at Allen. Allen turns his attention to what fate lies before him.
Looking over at the humongous gate, Allen sees four green, glowing eyes peering out from the darkness beyond the slatted metal bars. Deep, throaty growls are heard above the grinding of rusty metal against metal as the large iron-gate rises with the rattling of chains jangling as they strike together—adding to the odious evil atmosphere.
Once the gate is open a huge paw steps out into the flickering of amber, flaming torches surrounding the arena. Allen's heart pounds rapidly against his chest at the sight of the large paw. Another rumble of the beast's throaty growl becomes louder when the second huge paw steps next to its first.
Allen's not sure if the creature is timid by the flicking of the light as it takes its time to fully appear to him. There is a sword lying on the dirt floor along with a chained mace for weapons—evidently, left for him to use. He slowly picks up the sword to ready himself for an attack.
The growling and snarling creature with four glowing, green eyes finally shows itself. The amber torch flames, glisten off its short, black glossy coat of hair. There is an invisible evil aura that emits from the demon hound and it waves through Allen's body making him quiver to the bone. The mammoth demon hound is but one hound, not two, as Allen first thought, but instead of one head, it has two heads on its body.
Allen had heard of demon hounds in mystic tales, but never thought they could be conjured up from hell. The menacing spectacle in front of him drips with saliva overflowing its canine teeth and down its tongues. He could even see the hound's gums of pink and black with sharp white teeth lining his long mouth—top and bottom.
Both of its head's turn and look directly at Allen and plods over closer to the white-hair Exorcist. The earth trembles under its weight with each step it takes. Before Allen realizes it, the hound swipes at him with its huge paw sending him sliding through the dirt until the stone wall stops him.
He needs to pull himself together and kill this monster before he is killed—the quicker the better. Allen rushes back to where the chain mace weapon is lying on the ground. He picks it up and races at the demon hound. He twirls the spiked ball on the chain above his head, faster and faster, picking up the momentum then swings it forcefully smashing it against one of the front legs of the hound, hearing bone crunch as it falls onto its wounded leg. Not stopping with that, Allen activates his Crown Clown.
"Crown Clown Invocation!" Allen shouts out, his eyes narrow dangerously, his mouth twisted in a snarl.
He takes flight and lands on the wailing hounds back, stabbing it with his razor, sharp, talons into its back making it cry out loudly in wild howls of pain. Allen is on fire right now and wants this thing dead. The hound shakes its body flinging Allen off its back, but Allen manages to land on his feet skidding backwards across the dirt floor, placing one hand to the ground to keep his balance.
The hound takes its hind foot and desperately scratches at its back to rid itself from what must feel like a weapon embedded into its skin. Allen takes advantage of the hound's distraction and grabs the sword off the ground taking flight up underneath its belly piercing its heart several times.
But the creature is so huge it is equivalent to sticking a needle into a large prey to kill it. Falling back to the ground, the hound is still reeling with pain. Allen takes flight again to the fiends back, and when the hound's body flinches and sends Allen up high he uses it to reach the ropes in the ceiling.
He slices the thinner rope that holds up the long, thick, heavy rope and swings down from the ceiling. The momentum allows him to wrap the rope tightly around the hound's neck, enough to crush its windpipe and strangle the creature. There is one last sorrowful, wailing howl before its neck is snapped and broken.
Allen's Crown Clown deactivates and he crumples to the ground in exhaustion, sweating profusely from the battle. His wounds sting from sweat soaking into his bandages on his back that cover his lacerations. He picks himself up off the ground and staggers as he drags his feet to go pick up his sword. Kanda would have a fit if he had seen the way he had treated the sword by striking it into the ground to stand upright.
He's tired, but never too tired to feel the ache in his heart of wanting to see Kanda, once again, before he dies. Allen staggers closer to the sword, but collapses onto the hard ground before he reaches it.
For whatever reason, Rouvelier snaps his fingers and the large, burly beast comes out into the arena and retrieves Allen, carrying him through a normal size gated door. He lays Allen on a stone slab and attends his wounds after he has stripped and washed his body.
After dressing his wounds the beast puts Allen's dirty clothes back on. Slowly, Allen stirs as two monks enter the room with an urn of enhanced water. Allen drinks thirstily from the urn the monk holds for him to drink, stopping him from taking too much at one time.
The monk gives Allen more water, quenching his thirst and parch lips just as he had done in Allen's cell. Tilting his head back enough, Allen recognizes the monk. He chokes on the water when he realizes who this person is—a finder which he quickly brings his finger to his lips to hush Allen.
"Master Allen, I am a finder who has been undercover for the Black Order. I took care of your wounds earlier. We cannot talk now, but I'm sure Kanda is not far away and will be here soon to help rescue you. When he arrives, I'll do my best to aid in your escape," the finder, in Monks clothing, whispers.
The finder drops his head to cover his face and backs away as the beast walks over to put a cold compress on Allen's bruise, swollen eye—which had gotten hit in battle. His body had been badly battered and bruised before he even started battling the creature, but now it seems more places ache and suddenly a stronger pain flashes through his whole body. He knows that he has to go back out there to fight yet another evil, demon creature—the pain has to be set aside.
Why would Rouvelier take the time for him to be tended to and allow him to rest? The only reason Allen could come up with, is he wants to make sure Allen suffers with each demon he battles which gives him the satisfaction of seeing Allen fight for his life. If these creatures don't kill him, then Rouvelier will once he has had enough entertainment.
The burly beast comes over to Allen to help him off the stone slab, now that Allen has rested and had nourishment and water. Allen stops for a moment and the beast stops too turning its hooded head towards him.
"Thank you for your kindness," Allen says, placing his hand gently on the burly beasts arm, and gives it a warm smile.
The creature lowers its head then lifts it and nods to Allen as if saying he's welcome. Evidently the beast is unable to speak. They turn and both continue on to enter the arena once again. 'What creature does Rouvelier have in store for me now?' Allen's thinking as the gated door opens for round two.
To be continued …
A/N: Well, the battle begins for Allen to try to stay alive until Kanda can make it to the castle. His first round was a success and hopefully, Kanda will be there for the second round to help him out. We are coming closer to the end for our loving couple, who have struggled for so many chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and we'll see what the next chapter brings for Allen to battle. Thank you so much for you wonderful comments! I love you all!