I came to in filth—piss, shit, and a puddle of vomit close enough to touch. The air stung. Somewhere out in the haze, voices shouted and cursed like wild dogs tearing each other apart.
As I lifted my head, a rough hand pulled me up by the hair. The man looming over me had a concrete face—blank and solid, like it never learned how to move. His imperial dog tag dangling from his collar like a leash. Everything about him screamed one thing : i am loyal dog to the Empire
"Wake up, you wretch," he barked, spitting to the side. "After all the trouble you caused, you still think you get to sleep? Look at you." He sneered. "Just a pretty boy with dreams too big for his skull. Now move. You've wasted enough of our time."
He dragged me from the chair, and only then did I feel the cold weight of chains around my neck and ankles. Each step scraped metal against stone.I felt a stinging pain in my throat like I had been choked not too long ago . I tried to speak, but my voice was so hoarse that I only let out a croak . The guard didn't care. He kept dragging me forward.After a few minutes, we reached a door. He gestured. I stepped through.
Blinding sunlight hit me. I blinked, vision swimming—and then I saw them.
In front of me were my companions, kneeling in a line. Chained. Shattered . An executioner stood beside them, axe in hand, face hidden behind a black hood . I didn't collapse. But the guard's shove sent me to the ground with a thud. I could hear their breathing—shaky, ragged, like every inhale hurt.
Then I saw Elias.
His eyes—once full of fire—were swollen, empty. His face was barely recognizable, lip split, skin purpled. But more than the wounds, it was the silence that haunted me. He didn't look angry. He looked… done.
I tried to scream. A fist met my ribs. Air fled my lungs. I tried again, just to be heard, to call out to someone, anyone.
Another strike—this time to my face. Then something cold shoved into my mouth. A gag.And just like that, the world went quiet. Not peaceful—just empty. Like the void had swallowed us whole.
Moments passed before I could think straight. Then I heard a new voice. Refined. Rehearsed. Imperial.
"Esteemed citizens of the Empire," the man announced to a crowd of hundreds of thousands , "today is a glorious day for us all." he paused "For today, we have captured the plague that once infected these streets. Before you stands Ashar Kade—the so-called leader of the rebellion. The face of the filth that tried to plague our great sovereignty from within."
He looked straight at me. a slight grin across his face
"But fear not. For no enemy of the crown and it's citizens shall go unpunished. Today, these vermin will face judgment—for the lives they stole, the lies they spread, and the chaos they wrought in our sacred lands"
He turned to the crowd, voice rising.
"Let this be a lesson. The Empire does not forgive. The Empire does not forget. And the Empire—" he roared, "—does not bleed!"
The crowd howled like starving beasts. They didn't want justice. They wanted a show.
At his command. my comrades were executed One by one. Their heads struck stone like fallen fruit.
When it was my turn, the official raised his hand again.
"And what of the leader of this insidious rebellion?" he asked, letting the words linger
"His Majesty decreed a special sentence. for all he's done to empire and the destruction he brought with him."
He took a breath.
"A hundred days. In a virtual confinement system known as The Hundred Cycles where each day will equate to four years of retribution. Where pain never ends. Where he will suffer, break, and relive it all again. And when the final cycle ends…"
He smiled.
"…he will be released. Not as a hero. Not as a symbol. But as a broken husk. A walking warning of what defiance brings."
He stepped back, letting the weight of his words settle over the crowd, as though they were ashes falling—each word a reminder of my inevitable fate