Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

"Grr... how dare you?!" said Myr.

He pointed the palm of his hand at Dag, who was thrown back, until he slammed into the back of the cage, pushed by an invisible force.

It seemed as if a gust of strong wind made him fly away like a leaf falling from a tree.

He wasn't used to facing someone with magical powers.

After banging and falling to the ground, Dag stood up, staring at the shaman and Hjalmar with a look of defiance, to emphasize his belief in what he had just said.

"Listen, you insolent… you've had enough attention for today. Myr will conduct experiments on you until our top masters tell us what to do," Hjalmar said.

"The Xis told you to catch me?!" said Dag, in shock.

"Thanks to our Xis Lords, I figured that you took possession of this" Hjalmar replied, pulling the horseshoe pendant out of his pocket.

"That pendant belongs to me, I earned it in combat!" replied Dag.

"Our masters know my ambitions. They know that after all these years I have become much more powerful than the false King that those poor deluded people worship like a God... so they directed me to you, to the No.10 emblem. With this emblem, I will finally be able to begin my social ascent to the throne!" said Hjalmar, full of himself.

Dag was really annoyed.

"You're doing everything wrong," he said.

"Uhm?" said the King, doubtful.

"You don't have to trust them. For them, we are only guinea pigs, inferior beings on which to experiment! You don't know anything... you don't know how cruelly human beings are treated on earth. You don't know how much they believe themselves above us. Since we were born we have been brainwashed, so that we can recognize the Xis as the only protagonists of our salvation, but that is not the case!" continued Dag.

The King Of Bones came up to him, looking upset at him.

"I'm tempted to kill you now, with my own hands" Hjalmar said, growling in anger.

Dag came up with his face until he touched the bars of the cage, inches from Hjalmar.

"So…why don't you do that? You wouldn't be different from them" Dag said, taunting him.

Hjalmar began to be blind with rage. Dag's insolence had to be punished, he could not allow him to speak to him in that way before his subordinates.

The King kept staring at Dag, full of rage.

"What kind of ruler are you? You can't even decide for yourself, you have to ask the consent of others" Dag continued.

"Your majesty, don't let this foolish little boy distance you from your faith. Ignore his provocations. I'll handle this. He will wish to be dead himself" Myr said, trying to calm Hjalmar.

"Do you see it? Without someone to tell you what you need to do, you're less than insects to me!" Dag continued undaunted to provoke him.

Hjalmar's face turned as red as fire.

"Silence!" added Myr, who, with a gesture of his hand, made Dag fly away again, letting him fall back to the ground.

The man behind them stepped forward and said: "It's true, your Highness. Maybe you should..."

Hjalmar grabbed him by the head and lifted him from the ground. Clutching his head in his hand, the man began to scream in pain: in a few seconds, his skull cracked into a thousand pieces that flew everywhere, soiling the blood room.

"No one asked for your opinion," Hjalmar said as if the man now deprived of his head could listen.

He released the man, whose corpse fell to the ground, lying on the floor as if it were an empty bag.

The girl was still standing next to them, sitting on the ground, her eyes wide for what she just witnessed.

Dag was blood-soaked, like everyone else.

Before he could add more, the King told him: "We'll see you soon, it's not over with you. You will be punished properly".

Dag continued to stare at him, never looking away.

"His majesty, in the meantime we can punish him in another way..." chuckled Myr.

Dag looked at him carefully, trying to understand his intentions.

"Our Lords have yet to tell us what his fate will be. But this young slave... it's not worth much and he seems to care about her particularly much," he continued, pointing his finger at the girl.

She rose from the ground, her back against the bars of the cage.

"Please, no! I didn't do anything!" she said, agitated.

"What do you have in mind?" asked Hjalmar to Myr.

"Tomorrow will be our usual weekly ritual to get in touch with the supreme Xis. We could offer them a small human sacrifice, to pay homage to them for their goodness towards us! In that case, we may also ask them to make a quick decision for the boy, so if they give us confirmation, you can kill him with your own hands!" the shaman continued.

"No! No, please! Don't do this to me!" said the girl, praying with her hands.

"As usual, your ideas are excellent, Myr. That's what we're going to do. The girl tomorrow will be sacrificed to please our Gods," Hjalmar concluded.

Dag was speechless.

The Renegades were petty men, without honor.

They wanted to kill him right away, but because they couldn't do it, they wanted to hurt him at all costs. The only way to hurt him at that time was to hurt the girl.

Dag looked at her.

She reciprocated her gaze, looking at him fixed in the eye.

Her big eyes once again asked for help to Dag, who felt responsible for the sad fate the innocent girl was facing.

Dag tried to reassure her, without saying a word.

He wouldn't let her die, now he was even more determined to free himself from that dilapidated cage.

"Renegades!" yelled Hjalmar, calling his men to report.

Two warriors came out of the left aisle.