Hero of Darkness

Chapter 1225: The First Sin

After the battle round finally ended and Morpheus, with his teammate, became the only survivors, a horrifying scenario of the losing children being cut apart gruesomely came into everyone’s sight.

”Yes! That’s more like it. I was getting bored,” shouted the pig-like, large nude man as he munched on another leg of a roasted child.

The match came to a standstill, and the announcer suddenly shouted zealously.

”Now, time for the main course!”

Thud!

He picked up a flat object kept beside him, a thick stone slab, and threw it in the middle of the arena.

”The one who stands last will get to live, and the other one gets to die without being cut by the chainsaws!” he shouted with no regard for human life as if he was elated.

”What?! But we just won the match! Why do we have to fight each other?!” asked the sickly boy, terrified by what he just saw.

And now, they said that he and his teammate had to fight too.

BANG!!

However... before he could turn his head around, something heavy hit the back of his head.

”Argggghhh!!” he groaned after falling on the ground.

And what he saw next horrified him.

It was Morpheus, holding the stone slab in his hand, walking towards him and then sitting on his disoriented body.

”What is your name?” asked Morpheus, his tone cold and eyes lifeless.

”Trevor.” replied the boy, his eyes filled with both shock and fear as he held his bleeding head.

Drops of tears trickled over his cheek as he grasped what was happening.

”Trevor... I’m sorry. But I can’t die here.” spoke Morpheus with a guilty face as a small tear formed in his left eye.

BANG!!

Thud!!

Thwack!!

Again and again, with all his might... Morpheus started bashing Trevor’s head, the latter’s blood splattering over the arena as his small head’s brain matter also spread in chunks.

”ARGGGGHHHH!!” shouted Morpheus loudly.

He kept bashing Trevor’s head until his skull broke, his eyes popped out, and the floor was dyed red.

”ARRRRR!!!!” he shouted like a rabid animal in its purest chaotic form.

”Yes! Yes! Now that’s what I came to see!

Show us your true nature!” spoke one of the female guests as she revelled in this mortifying execution.

The boy Morpheus fought with as a team for over an hour... and their winning, saving their lives from those chainsaws, could be considered a short-lived camaraderie.

But knowing what would happen if they did not comply... Morpheus had acted quickly.

This was the day when Morpheus committed his first sin.

Just this morning, he was criticising others for not having humanity. But when it came to his own survival...

He became the monster himself.

******************

The disturbing scenario of Morpheus screaming his lungs out while killing Trevor, who was already pitiful to look at, and then screaming like a mindless monster... was intoxicating for all these rich and elite people of the world.

And finally, it stopped. The horror, the inhumanity that excited these guests finally ended.

”Take him away. He will be coming back here next week.

So our dear guests, keep your bets ready for this candidate.” said the announcer as if dropping a sales pitch.

[What? Next week?

Am I going to fight another time? Or is it going to be a weekly thing until I die?] thought Morpheus as the grim reality dawned on him.

There was no escape!

What he witnessed today and what he experienced as well as did... was going to be a recurring thing until he died, just like the other kids.

His head turned around as he saw the guards putting Trevor’s corpse and the other kids in a wheeled carriage.

[They’re going to cook them and feed them to other children. One day... I will be lying in that carriage myself.] thought Morpheus as his body shivered.

He was cursed to die in a ditch; the only question was when?

Soon, the guards escorted him to the other end of the arena, where he was handed to men in black robes with pointy hats and large eye holes.

10 Minutes Later...

Morpheus was brought into a different building, much smaller compared to where he had been living, but on an entirely different, isolated end of the settlement.

He was put inside another cell, a bit bigger, and it had a worn-out bed to sleep on, while the toilet was on one end of the cell.

Besides his cell, there were 7 more cells with kids just like him.

Here, after Morpheus finally gained his senses....

”YAAARRRGGGGG!!!” he bellowed like a furious, heartbroken man who had finally lost his mind.

He just traded a cage for another bigger cage. Yet, in the end... his fate was meant to be that of a slave.

The young boy had lived through enough trauma already, but everything he saw and did today broke him.

Morpheus then got up and marched toward the wall on the other end.

Bang!

He banged his head against the wall.

Thud!

He fell on the floor and got up again to do the same thing.

His head started bleeding as the blood went into his eyes, his body dropping on the bed this time as he gasped for air.

Sniff!

Sniff!

As he lay with a bleeding forehead and gasping for air... Morpheus cried with a heavy heart.

Even the smallest semblance of hope was snatched from him.

Just to survive, he killed an innocent boy around the same age as him.

For a while, he had been seeing himself as a weak human being oppressed by the strong. But when his own neck was on the line, he became the monster who killed Trevor, another weak human being just like him.

The only difference was that in this case, Morpheus was stronger and ruthless than Trevor.

In every sense, Morpheus was no different from the people outside the cell. What he hated and criticised... was his own reality now.

”Is he trying to kill himself?” spoke one of the boys in an adjacent cell.

”Don’t bother. Some of us have tried. Besides... they are going to make us fight next week.

Only one of us will get to live anyway. So we will grant your wish and make it swift.” spoke another kid from one of the opposite sides of the cells, in a sardonic tone.

His sarcastic remark wasn’t to belittle Morpheus but to laugh at their misery.

All of them were the survivors of these matches before Morpheus.

And after next week, the cycle would be repeated among the next batch. Many more kids would be killed throughout the years to come.

Monster attacks were happening frequently around many corners of the world anyway, so there was no shortage of orphan children like Morpheus across the globe.

This was going to be a never-ending loop with no shortage of victims to be exploited by people like these around the world.

”How long have you been here?” asked Morpheus, his head still in pain.

Been days. Every day, one of us arrives here. Just like the arena fights, they keep 8 people alive for one final battle.

And once we all die... they will use our bodies to feed those filthy bastards in those seats.” said another boy from the adjacent cell, his voice made him sound a bit older than the rest.

Yet his tone was devoid of hope as if he had already accepted his death.

”I don’t want to die... but I don’t want to kill someone else.” responded Morpheus, wiping off his tears.

”So do we. But what choice do we have? At least, killing each other with our fists will be less painful than being chopped in half by those machines,” spoke another boy who seemed to be around 10 years old.

”I heard from one of the guards that those who die in the finale will be served to fill the bellies of some of the richest people in the world.

I can’t say hearing that makes me any happier,” spoke a boy from the far left end of Morpheus’ cell.

”Even if we try to escape, the whole region is heavily guarded by those soldiers. I heard there are even those high-ranking awakened hunters among the guards.

We really can’t hope to leave this place alive.” said the boy from the adjacent room.

Escaping the tight security itself was close to impossible for them, but outside, there was even more security.

And none of them knew anything outside of their training grounds and the building they were held captive inside.

The worst part was that even if they somehow tried to escape and got close to the bordering walls... Some actual hunters were impossible to beat by powerless kids like them.

For Morpheus and the others... their deaths were imminent no matter what they did.

Meanwhile, in one of the watchtowers of the settlement, placed right at the front wall, was a militia soldier on guard duty.

After checking that no one was looking around his position, he slowly took out a walkie-talkie from the cargo pants he wore.

”It’s confirmed. Next Saturday will be the grand finale.” he spoke in a hushed tone.

”Confirmed,” spoke the person on the receiving end, his voice serious and firm.

”They will finally face God’s judgment!”