Dawn- An age of Darkness

Bars.

Black bars. 

Lots of black bars. 

"Why the hell did you have to open your damn mouth?"

There were two pyres in this place illuminating four cells. 

Only one guard was here while the rest of the three cells were pretty much empty. 

The smell though- rot, blood and filth. 

In contrast, even some forests smelled better than this place. 

"We got in, didn't we?" The girl tried to smile but yeah, I wanted to punch her. 

But I couldn't, since my hands were shackled.

When they were about to capture us, I wanted to fight back but, the girl had whispered she had a plan and I had to let them arrest us. 

But now, now I just felt stupid. 

Reason being, I couldn't use mana. These shackles had some sort of mana-binding property. 

"Pipe it down, you two!" The guard banged on the bars, spat on the ground, and again just turned his back. 

There was just one guard here. This place didn't seem like a prison, rather just a temporary place for keeping criminals. 

I guess I could have broken out if I really wanted to, but for the time being I had to play it cool. 

"So, what was your brilliant plan again?" I whispered. 

"You'll see."

Well, I didn't see. 

It had already been over an hour. 

We didn't have much time, and yet, we were wasting time here so frugally. 

Sigh. 

Thud!

'What the-'

The guard fell down on the floor. 

Well, that was unexpected. 

"What the-" I paused. 

"SHH!" The Mollen guy was here and he had keys. He'd emerged from the shadow, a finger on his mouth, telling us to keep quiet. 

He slowly unlocked the cell, then our shackles. 

'This metal could be useful.'

I could use my mana, so I took the shackle and put it in my ring. 

Apparently, it had binding properties only if it was directly locked on to four parts of the body- the elbows and the ankles. Just touching it wouldn't do much, but if I had the shackles in both of my arms, I wouldn't be able to circulate mana, which in turn meant no magic. It didn't completely stop the flow, and if I tried to, I could have just forced Imbuition and broke through, but that would have drained more than half of my capacity.

So, for normal people, that was impossible. Good thing I wasn't normal. 

I'd seen something similar in Alfeim, though at the time they used the stuff on Dick. I'd just thought it was for show and ignored it altogether. 

The Mollen guy also undid the girl's shackles and we got out of the cell. 

"What about him?" I said, pointing at the guard on the floor. 

"Just leave him. We have to get out of here fast!" The Mollen guy said. The guy was a round dude, about my neck size but rather chubby- and quite young too.

"Where's her mother located?"

This was a small stone building. So, we got out almost immediately. 

There weren't any soldiers in sight and the few passersby just minded their own business. 

Life was hard enough; they weren't going to make it extra hard. 

But we couldn't stay here for long. 

"In the central dungeons." Didn't sound nice. "Wait, you're not going to do what I think you're going to do, right? Captain?"

The girl smiled. "Fear not, he's a professional."

Professional of what? 

I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut. 

"But captain…"

"No buts!" The girl held my hand and- "This way." She looked back. "Thanks for the help."

"Of course, captain." I guess the Mollen guy wasn't coming with us. 

Oh well. 

***

We walked around town. 

The houses were shabby, the streets and alleys were dirty and there was a certain smell everywhere like the plumbing system had overflowed or something. 'Oh wait, there is no plumbing.'

Underground houses were also common. 

"The dungeon is just up ahead."

We'd been walking for half an hour. 

This wasn't a small city but it wasn't quite large either. 

The further we went in, the cleaner the streets were. And I could vaguely make out a two-story building in the center. That was probably the lord's residence. 

About five minutes later, I saw a rather well-maintained stone building. 

It was just one-storied but the stone walls looked very sturdy. Though it was rather small to be a prison, much less a dungeon. 

'Maybe it goes underground?'

"It goes underground and there are four floors. Each floor has about ten guards," the girl said. "Sneaking in at night would be our best bet. Or would you like to get captured like last time and then-" 

"NO, its fine." I started walking towards the guards. 

"What are you doing!" The girl vigorously whispered. 

"Look," I looked back. "I don't have all day. I have something to get back to after this." 

I saw her sighing and grimacing through my peripherals but ignored all that. 

With a smile, I just headed for the entrance. 

"Halt, identify yourselves!" the guards shouted. 

"Daarc Green. Slayer of Thamas."

Thamas was the name of the half-demon who'd attacked Alfeim. I remembered her well. No, it was more like I could never forget her. But since the demons knew her pretty well, I figured they'd know me too. 

Almost all the soldiers started sweating. 

"N-nonsense, he's dead!"

I grinned, formed a ball of holy light, unsheathed the new sword, and pointed it at them. "Wanna bet?"

I didn't need to hide. The emperor probably knew I was still kicking. And I had a feeling no matter what he'd be ready for me. 

There was no point in hiding. 

No, it was more like I wanted him to know, I was coming for his head. 

"Do not falter, men! Daarc Green is human, this half-breed is not!" A large buffalo demon came out. "Seize them!"

Well, I guess it didn't matter as no one believed me anyway. 

"Warned you."

I slammed the holy ball on the ground- it was just focused light, nothing more. 

With the men blinded, I closed in and sliced 'em all. All of them fell, the buffalo was next.

"You damn criminal! I'll crush you!" 

"Uh-huh, I believe you."

He swung his mace, or to be more precise, his mace descended, crying to crush my head. 

But I dodged, slashed his elbow and the mace fell on the ground. 

He groaned and tried to punch me with his other hand. 

I blocked it with the sword, almost flew backward, used the wall as footing and launched myself at the demon, slicing at his chest. 

He threw up blood and got on his knees. 

It went down fast. 

As I thought, not only was this body stronger, I was also much faster, and without Imbuition too. 

"Rather, tough, aren't you?" 

He tried to smile with his crooked teeth and punch me again. 

But-

I punched his lights out. 

The girl was behind me, speechless. 

We'd attracted a bit of crowd but as the buffalo demon fell, and I stared around, they all just scattered. 

Anyway, "Ten on each floor, right?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded. 

I grinned. 

And we went in.