Book Three – Chapter Eleven – Part Ten – Shattering the Collar

Sakdu wordlessly nodded and turned around. The faces of mother and daughter matched, displaying expressions of dread and fear. Their eyes widened at the wounded form of a husband and a father. Their teeth jittered because their mouths couldn’t remain still. Two hearts, one smaller than the other, pulsed and beat as fast as their bodies allowed them to.  

“MAMA!!!!” Fia cried. Mafi teared up as well, unable to form any words in her terrified ramblings.  

Servi only laughed and taunted the former family when Sakdu picked up his daughter by her arm. He had to wrestle it away from Mafi, knocking her to the floor with a headbutt. His mouth opened and crunched down on his daughter's tiny arm. Then he reached down to wrap his remaining hand around Mafi’s neck while walking back to Servi.

They cried and begged for Sakdu to find reason and love, but the Human responsible for it all only sniggered. “How fitting. Here I am forcing you to kill your family. Sure, it’s all fake and not real, but you’re actually doing it! Goddamn, you’re so weak. Your mind should be the one place where you have control over everything, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for you. You're the one who's making me talk like this! The words I'm saying are what you want me to say!!! Man, I wished I could have shown you this before we fight. Sakdu, how could you have let it all end like this?  I don’t even understand it. Maybe you were always this way? Maybe you deserved a life of servitude under a lowly Human.” Servi tapped a finger to her chin while grinning. She stood up. “Ah, I see.  Are you going to throw them into the iron maiden? Well...” Servi shrugged. “It’s better than nothing, I suppose.” 

First came Mafi, who was violently tossed into the infamous object against her vocal protests. The spikes at the rear instantly pierced her back, creating nearly a hundred little streams of blood that poured down her body. Crimson spurted out from her lips as she wheezed and gasped. Sending sir through her body was futile with the number of punctures in her lungs, but Mafi somehow found the strength to utter one last sentence.  

“Sakdu…Fia… I’ll…always…love…y…o…u….” 

“MAMA!!!!!! DADDY, HOW COULD YOU??!!! YOU KILLED MAMA!!! YOU'RE EVIL!!! I HATE YOU!!!! MONSTER!!!! WE COULD’VE BEEN A FAMILY, BUT YOU CHOSE THAT WITCH—” 

“DO NOT CALL HER A WITCH!!!!” Sakdu screamed. He spat out the arm he bit, grabbed his daughter by her narrow waist, and shouted into her face. Strands of spit soaked her face, which did little to hide her fat tears. “THAT IS MISTRESS SERVI!!! I SERVE HER NOW!!!” 

“But!!! But!!!!! We’re your family… Daddy… You love us—” 

The following words out of his mouth crushed what little rebellious spirit Fia had left in her body.  

“I have no family. I only have my mistress,” he proudly declared. Servi hopped out of her seat and blessed her pet with the gift of a knife through the back. It tore through the scales, bone, and all and emerged from the front. If the blade was only a few centimeters higher, it would have pierced Fia’s flailing legs.” 

“OOOOHHHHH, MISTRESS!!!!” he cried. More pain meant more pleasure. Sakdu hugged his daughter close to his chest with one hand. Servi kicked him in the back, pushing him forward. He skated ahead, tripping while trying to regain his balance before he fell into the torturous object.

However, he wouldn’t do it. He had the full ability to stomp his feet and halt all momentum, but the thought of being impaled by his mistress’s object and receiving all of that pleasure at once in so many different spots erased what little reason he had left.  

“AAAHHHHHHHH!!!! IT HURTS!!!!! DADDY, HELP ME!!!!!!! AAAHHHHHH!” When Sakdu smashed into the iron maiden, he had enough force to essentially splatter his wife and snuffed out what little life she had left. With her death at hand, Mafi's visible form vanished, but the guts and crimson were left behind. Fia, on the other hand, became enveloped in her mother’s leftover blood. She didn’t end up smashed because Sakdu’s large hand prevented that.  

Because of that, one would think she suffered the least. However, that didn’t mean the young Kobold was spared from the forthcoming horrors.  

In reality, she received the worst of it. Most of her mother’s smothered remains coated the back of her head, which provided very little resistance. The nails still punctured through her head, poking out her left eye and allowing brain matter to leak from her ears. She then had to face the sight of her father’s excited face. If that wasn’t enough, she had to endure a vile smell that quickly overpowered the sparse space in front of her on top of having a hundred holes in her body. Pain and disgust mixed together, escaping her little mouth in the form of a dying scream. Fia’s small stature meant she didn’t have as nearly as much blood as her father or mother.

That was a blessing in and of itself, and the little girl faded away from her father's final dream. Her bodily form vanished as well, meaning it was just Sakdu alone in the iron maiden. He suffered more agony because of his larger body. In the case of a large object located below his waist, a few spikes went entered through his groin.

Pleasure once again overpowered any and all reason or pain, escaping Sakdu's body in the form of a blast of white ecstasy. There was a problem, though. A spike had blocked his urethra. With no way to release it, the pressure built up like knotted hose pipe. Even as sturdy as a Kobold was, his manhood had no choice but to explode. A wave of white and red splashed about while Sakdu roared like a mating lion. His large tongue flapped around, disgustingly licking the spikes which held the remains of his daughter’s blood, wanting to feel it impale his tongue. 

Since Servi made good on her promise, Sakdu thanked his mistress nearly a hundred times in a differing variety of strained tones while blood continued to pour.

The crimson dripping from his ruptured member sounded like a faucet at first. The flow died down in correlation with his voice, which quickly grew weak as the seconds passed. Eventually, his lower body stopped shaking and thrusting all together.  

Servi, the mastermind, laughed as she spread her arms open, grabbing onto each side of the fearsome iron maiden’s doors. Before slamming them, she chose the time to speak for the last time.  

“Congratulations, Sakdu. You’ve gone beyond the cusp of depravity and into something else far beyond that I don’t even know what to call it. I can’t believe I—a fucking figment of your imagination—ordered you to kill your fucking family, and you actually did it! Why?! You only had to command me to leave, and I would’ve disappeared. You could’ve spent your last moments with the two women you love more than anything in the world, and what did you do? 

“You spent it listening to the words of a pathetic Human. I said it before, but you’re so fucking pathetic, you worthless coward. You fucking imbecile. Maybe the murder of your family was the best thing to happen to you, you waste of space.” The fictional Servi, like the real one, did not mince her words. She spoke with no filter to soften the harsh truths she articulated. She slammed the left door shut, sending a thousand spikes into his back. Closing the right one delivered another thousand. She stood back and watched the iron maiden rumble and shake about. A lustful moan escaped from the sound holes on top, but that died down with a bit of time. 

The red ground below Servi disappeared, causing her to fall into a spiral on a one-way ticket to death. The only thing joining her was the iron maiden, which housed a simple family in its clutches. She was surrounded by so much red it made her sick.

Servi’s black hair fluttered up, smacking against her ears. Though she stared up at where she once stood, Servi knew she would soon arrive at the final stop, which signified the death of the Kobold, who created the once gray void.

“I won’t even say goodbye. Such a spineless man isn’t worthy of my words."

A second after Servi said that, Sakdu ceased to exist in the real world, which meant nothing was powering his final moments in the dream world.  

She and the iron maiden slammed into the ground, disappearing and leaving nothing behind as Sakdu’s last thoughts came to an end.  

It was the furthest thing away from how he wanted to die. How shameful he ended up submitting to the Monotonia before he could accomplish his revenge, but the truth was even worse. He, strong and proud, became nothing more than the pet of a woman, a lowly Human woman, in his final moments. That Human even preoccupied his terminal thoughts, turning the most powerful version of himself into a slave. His final thoughts were all his own, and what he spent them on went against everything he ever stood for.

Surely, there was no worse way for a once-mighty Kobold to perish, but that was the reason why Servi did it in the first place. To her, the greatest revenge was corrupting her foes and forcing them to do what they swore they wouldn’t do. In this case, it was having Sakdu beg a worthless Human and asking him to give up the life of a friend if it meant he would be given pleasure in the form of pain.

For the most part, pure physical torture wasn’t the best method if one wanted to inflict true despair. Servi understood that very well.  

In essence, such creative ways of killing were her own interpretation of the moniker ‘Mad Dog.’ 

“Ah, there it is. I’ve been wondering where it was,” Servi spoke to a tiny red object only she could see. “If you’re here, then I guess it means the big, bad, pathetic leader of the Mafia has finally perished." Servi used her favorite skill to tear the makeshift gag out of Roger’s mouth. She tossed it into the enormous crater behind her. His mouth started to move, powering through the pain of a fractured jaw while saying and repeating a single sentence like a broken record. He didn't have the strength to use any more skills because they were useless. 

“He didn’t mean it… He didn’t mean it…” Roger's face was like a battered crevice with sunken eyes that harbored no light. They stared down at the ground. Even tears no longer fell because he had cried all he could. In a sense, he was empty. Truly, truly, barren of everything that made up a man. With no ego or sense of self, he was a shell of the scientist he once was. The Elf who followed Sakdu everywhere many years ago no longer existed. Being the creator of Monotonia was his legacy, and that would go down in the history of the dark circles of society, but that was all. The Mafia wasn’t the only underground group, but this didn’t concern the others at all.  

At least, that was what Servi believed would happen. She wasn't aware that there were other leaders alive, and it was almost assured the Mafia would continue on in some way when knowledge of its leader's death reached the right people.

“He did mean it, you know?” Servi snacked on a meat stick she had left in her ring. Tearing it off, she handed it to Roger, who was no longer bound by Telekinesis. Servi had shattered his legs moments ago, when she was waiting for Sakdu' soul, but his hands still worked. But he made no attempt at reaching out for it even though Telekinesis only affected his body.

Servi returned the portion of her meal to her hand and happily snacked on it. “He told me I could kill you if it meant I would hurt him. I believe it was his true self talking after being unlocked by the Monotonia. Those are some pesky little devils, aren’t they? Better get rid of them. You created those, right? Ha, I bet you feel stupid as shit right about now.” Servi spoke with her mouth full of fried chicken on a stick as the remainder of the white and red pills in her ring poured out over the hole she made. She didn't ever think there was a reason for those to be used, and it was better to get rid of those things.

“That's that, so that's one less worry. I’m sure there’s some still out there. The distribution facility I found in one of the bases on Arcton had to be the main one. If not that, then one of the primary shipping places. I’ll tell ya, I saw thousands and thousands of those disgusting things. I torched them, so they're gone, but I’m sure they're all over the world. Well, maybe not that far, but I’m sure they’re all around Lando. Maybe Keywater and Westera as well.  

“I don’t think it’s going to be a major worry, though. As you can see by our little battle, I can take care of anything that comes my way. Monster? I'll slice them in half. Armies? I'll just wipe them out with Fulgur Spike and Niadiabola. Dragons? I never fought one before, but if it bleeds, I can kill it. That really goes for anything, I suppose... If I do come across something that doesn't bleed, I can just toss them in that.” Servi waved her arm around, eventually pointing it to the massive hole nearby. “However, I still do not know how I’m going to make you pay. But then again, I need a way to make Carrie pay. Ah, it seems she’s unconscious. There’s no way she’d give me a fun way to take your life because she’s nothing but a little pussy who can’t deal it when the oven gets a little bit too hot. But back to the topic. What if I start by tearing out your earrings? Then I rip off your ears? I’ve always wanted to use a laser in killing, but I doubt I’d find the technology in a backwater place like this. Wait, what about water pressure?” Wait, the technology to create a laser? Laser...? No, just focus on the thing in front of you. 

Servi stood up after finishing her snack and used Create Water. She set the temperature to cold, maximized the pressure, and configured the flow to high. If she was right, then the water had no choice but to shoot out as a highly pressurized jet of liquid that could slice through giant stone blocks. If it could cut through weaker metals...?

“YES!!!!!” Her shouting evidently meant her testing was a success. A thin blue stream of water erupted out from empty air, flying some 200 meters before the pressure died down. But from where she was right next to it, it sounded like the whistle from a steaming teapot. It was loud, too. Loud enough that she was worried it would hurt Momo’s sensitive ears. To fix that, she, unfortunately, had to reduce the pressure more until it softly bummed like a kitten. As a downside, it only reached a measly 100 meters before fizzling out. It was only half as strong, but it was still a highly pressurized stream of water capable of cutting stone.

She flew Roger over to her, healed his body back to full with a few thousand stacks of Remedium Lux, and grabbed onto his thumb, placing it right in the line of fire. The jet of watery death took only half a second to bore straight through his fingernails, skin, and bones, producing a subtle red mist. She pulled him back and held the wound to her investigative eyes. “It’s a clean slice. Now that I know it works, why don’t I have some fun?” 

"We...gave...the...girl a...head...and...said...i...t...was...you...and...that...y...ou...ha...d...die...d..." Roger whispered, using the last of his strength. He finally confessed to Servi what she had known all along. They had played with Momo's emotions, thrashing her mental spirit just to inflict pain on the poor girl.

"I knew you did something to her... Don't think that you're going to die a painless death just because you told me what I already knew..." Servi replied. Her voice was flat and monotone, like she had no emotion in it.

For the next ten minutes, Servi used the jet of water like a carpenter would use a piece of sandpaper to sand down an uneven log. Only in her case, the wood was a person. She started from the hand, methodically removing a few centimeters of skin at a constant pace. First went the rest of his thumb, then his other four fingers. Next came his palm and forearm, and finally, she watered down the rest of his arm until it was simply gone.  

A large part of Roger’s body was coated in his blood. Crimson rained down from his black hair, dirtying his earrings. But no sound escaped from his mouth. There he was, an Elf who had experienced a unique form of torture that resulted in the loss of one of his arms, yet he didn’t make so much as a murmur. The life in his eyes went with the life of his friend when Servi threw Sakdu into the hole.  

“Tch!!” Servi spat and angrily shook his body in and out of the water’s line of fire, resulting in sharp gashes leaking blood. About forty percent of his chin dangled down on a single piece of flesh that refused to break, showing off what was under his jaw. His chest had zigzag cuts. When gravity pulled them down, it was like his torso was bendy and stretchable.

“As much as this should be fun for me, it’s not. I can’t spend any more time with you.” Roger's torturer formed a claw-like shape with her right hand using her thumb, index, and middle finger. The latter two found a home in his eyes while the former discovered a chin to penetrate. With ease, Servi flung him over her into the hole, giving him an assured death, but the blood loss would definitely kill him before the fall had a chance to do it.

With two out of the three gone, the Human turned to look at the last of her victims.