Power and Fire

49: Nero✔️

"A knife in my heart couldn't slow me down

'Cause power is power, my fire never goes out

I rise from my scars, nothing hurts me now

'Cause power is power

Now watch me burn it down"

- The Weeknd, Travis Scott and SZA in 'Power is Power'

Pain.

Incessant crippling and stinging waves of pain consumed my body as the rusty silver chains held me down, runes and symbols carved around the shining hard material that restrained my wrists and consequently my hands and arms. My feet were also hurt, dried blood caked them as the cutting metal scraped against the already tender skin of my ankles, the flesh being shown, raw and red, it stung like a bitch.

However it was the pain in my chest, enclosing my heart, that made me fret the most. It was torture, they were ripping my soul and shredding it to pieces, energy to fuel their non-sense. I could barely breathe, my ribs seemed to want to puncture my lungs as this outside force applied pressure to my chest cavity, reaching deeper and deeper with sharp nails to scrap my insides, lurking and consuming whatever life I had left.

The chanting around me grew louder and higher by each passing moment. Elders covered by giant bird shaped masks and big dark and hard looking cloaks, their hands were up in the air, aspiring for the higher spirits, to give them strength as they called upon their Goddess to come. I knew that it was only a matter of time until Aurora made an appearance.

Another wave of pain crashed onto me making me curl up in pain, I clutched my head as much as I could, as if would relief some of the pressure that felt on my body. Sane mind, sane body. The flames inside just grew bigger and bigger destroying me in ways that one could never imagine. I closed my eyes as tears fell freely from them, rolling down my cheeks and chin. I watched as the little drop of salty water fell down from my face and made its route towards the dirty gym's ground, it was millimetres away from crashing when suddenly the whole world froze.

A bright light reviving the poorly lightened gym, just like a shooting star.

And as every other shooting star, as soon as appeared it dissipated in the very next second. But that was just the beginning.

The ground started to shake violently as the chanting hit its climax, a high pitched noise filling the room.

"See that Nero?" Clarence said suddenly appearing next to me crouched down onto the floor as if mocking my state.

I curled up again and let out a scream of agony, the sound already sounding deaf to my own ears, now accustomed to hear them.

He grabbed my chin roughly and smirked before almost breaking my neck while turning my head towards my right side, where a huge hurricane of energy swirled violently and powerfully. Its bright color almost blinded me as it kept growing bigger and bigger, a silhouette of a creature unraveling inside the power womb. 

"That is the beginning of the end." He dropped my heavy head and I let gravity decide my movement, allowing my skull to hit the ground with a cracking noise that resonated through the room.

And then another wave of pain came. I felt hopeless, weak. A feeling that I'd had never expected to experience, but as of lately, it's the only feeling that I know. And just like that, I allowed that weakness to rot me. I closed my eyes and gave up on resisting the energy that tried to drain me. I surrendered, it could enter me, scrape me, eat me, kill me. To cease my time of existence in seconds.