"You know what they say..." Kraven snickered. "I didn’t greet Daudi."
"Yes," Aric replied, pacing in front of him. "I’m baffled by such a mystery. The high prince of the realm died hundreds of winters ago."
Kraven yanked on the chains, but the splitting pain controlled his actions.
Aric halted and faced Kraven, closing the distance between them. He lined his finger on the scar starting from Kraven’s jaw.
Kraven flinched as he turned away, but there was nothing he could do except stay still as Aric did sothing no one dared to do aside from his little bunny.
Kraven grimaced as Aric’s hand traced a path of his scar from his chin down to his underjaw, neck, collarbone, chest, and abs, stopping at his lower abdon—and another crossing it, forming a low X.
"Miraculous," Aric praised. "A damage so deep it spilled your guts and stopped your heart in an instant." He touched the chain embedded in Kraven’s abdon to keep his movent restricted and allow more burn into his bloodstream.
Kraven’s teeth clenched as the ache shot through him and each sensation felt like his stomach would spill open.
Kraven chuckled weakly. "I’m flattered by your attraction but I’m not into n. Stop touching."
Aric barked a laugh, pulling on the chain, blood spilled, and Kraven coughed a mouthful.
"The High Prince of the great Empire, Lumindor, was executed four hundred winters ago."
"You made your point. You know my origins, and I guess the Five Court does too. It’s not so much of a secret anymore."
"Yes, it was a shock to find out that you’re alive, under the alias of the Reaper of the Raven Court. They watched your execution that day, imagine their surprise when they found out your identity."
Aric grabbed Kraven’s chin and forced his eyes on him. "You were a re nuisance before, but now they know... they will stop at nothing to obliterate you. They will finish what they started. Wiping out the last Val Thrond bloodline to purify the realm of your madness." Aric released him like he was a piece of rubbish he was done with.
Kraven laughed, but the motion triggered a sharp pain that seized him, making him feel as though he might pass out.
"I know you more as the Reaper, Kraven. I have hunted you for winters." He paced. "And I know you take risks and your thods are... mad. What happened days ago when you almost broke through my restraints? Tell , does a mber of the ravenite sohow an sothing to you?"
"You question a warrior’s commitnt to his companions. I’m not surprised if it’s coming from you," he mused. "After all, you betrayed your own disciple."
"He betrayed first!" Aric growled, grasping Kraven’s hair harshly and causing his head to bend in an uncomfortable position.
Kraven grinned widely in response, and this disturbed Aric. He had tortured him for days, even so, that amusent was yet to be lost.
He wanted to break him beyond reckoning before he delivered him to the Court.
However, these past few days had stressed him more than it did his prisoner.
"I know the feelings of loyalty, and I know more. The sa way you do too," Aric said. "Does a madman have a heart?"
Kraven leaned closer, ignoring as his body pulsed with burn infused by the chains. "I never did, so I’m always curious about others." He leveled his eyes at Aric’s chest and tipped his head. "Do you have one? I want to find out."
A chill dipped Aric’s spine. His only response was to step away because it seed like this madman would rip him apart with his teeth, amidst his restraints.
Despite his fears, Aric’s chest burned in anger, so he pressed harder on the chains and the rune glowed like the sun, as his aura flowed into it.
Kraven took his head back as the pain gripped him, his pulse racing as his insides twisted. A growl tore from his throat until every sound was lost to him.
"Curious about why it feels like your body is scorching? Like your insides are slowly consud away by the glow?"
Kraven’s breathing grew ragged, the sensation busting his head in two, and black dots coated his vision.
Aric’s voice beca distorted. "It’s the runes."
Kraven’s head dropped, his breath unsteady as his body shivered from an unknown cold. His weak gaze moved to the rune engraved on the iron, hot and made it felt like he was being burnt alive.
"You may have walked this realm for hundreds of winters, but you can’t figure out this rune. It belongs to Lifara, the goddess of light and life. It took a great sacrifice to uncover it, but it was all worth it. This is the only weapon capable of weakening your weaves. Noxbane."
Aric squeezed his hand tightly on the iron, and the rune scorched more, getting more radiant and torching up the room.
Kraven’s wails shook the walls, his head moving unnaturally, phasing between his head and that of a shadow that screeched the loudest.
"What is inside you isn’t just the madness you inherited from your father. It beca sothing more when you escaped Daudi’s hand. You’re an embodint of him, in the land of the living."
Kraven bellowed and pinned his eyes on Aric, yanking harshly on the chains despite the pain it rendered, snarling at him like a beast.
The sclera of his eyes blackened, and his silver eyes had an eerie glow like the crescent moon.
"You thought of as a coward because I hid behind my Serpents, but you underestimated , Kraven Val Thrond."
The rune seared into his skin, the agony surpassing anything he had felt in the last few days.
"I shall be known as the Huntsman who defeated the Reaper! The Five Courts shall praise my na. I shall be the one who erased the last of the Val Thronds!"
The last thing Kraven saw before his mind succumbed to the blistering agony was Isadora’s face.
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