Chapter 4: Estranged

The miserable group felt the full wrath in the venomous tone of the short haired woman. It was not deriving from hate or Immortal’s loftiness toward a bunch of mortals. It was much simpler than that, less personal, as well as degrading...

“C ranked prisoners are the bottom of the barrel, scratch that, they are the mud squashed by the wet, rotting bottom of the barrel!” She abusively yelled. “To you, I’m Head Guard Umber, but you won’t be calling my name, you won’t even refer to me by status. This would be our very first introduction and last interaction, all to make it clear for you what you are, where you came and what I want!”

Head Guard Umber pointed back, to the grand crevasse that now more resembled a pit straight to hell.

“Home”. One word, said in a certain manner, expressed abundant meaning to the listeners.

This would be the place they will live in from this day forth, a Home, but not theirs, like how a dog’s home actually belongs to its owner.

“Follow the rules passed down to you by higher ranked prisoners and never affront the Guards. Do as you are told and you will eat. Disobey and suffer the consequences”. Head Guard Umber stressed. “Here your path is one and not complicated ... Work, dig, meet your quota! Some of you are Core Masters, others are Martial Mortals, the first to wake up is a bodily cultivator! You all had your way to choose your path before coming here. Now, this is your new life and your only path is the one set by the Rakmon Penitentiary!”

Head Guard Umber did her utmost to shatter all hope of the New Earth and Ercas Mir’s survivors. She wanted to see them break and grovel, cry and beg, so she could ruthlessly hammer and mold now their mentality. However, she had less work to do than she assumed.

The isolated years long voyage in the Lunar Splitter’s incarceration vaults, whilst restrained by the Mortal Cuffs that reduce even a cultivator in the Mortal Enlightenment state to as regular a person can be, and under the duress of having all loved ones heinously killed, had already extinguish the will to resist what else this accursed life has to throw.

Surely, if few still possessed a dimming spark of their former selves, their arrival to the penitentiary had made it as good as grabbing onto air.

“Chou Ferk!” Head Guard Umber called.

A door opened in the two storey post and out zoomed a light gray silhouette. A short, fat, three legged man with yellowish skin, yellow hair, black eyes and protrusive fangs. He wore light gray uniforms with a badge and appeared next to Head Guard Umber.

At his arrival, his biddy eyes leered at the survivors. He was a Beginner fifth level Martial Mortal, head and shoulders above all of them, which satisfied him. Batches with cultivator on his level or higher always irritate him, even though those experts were virtually done for the instant they were brought to the penitentiary.

“Take them”. Head Guard Umber ordered.

“Of course, Head Guard”. Before Guard Chou Ferk finished Head Guard Umber disappeared from view.

“Walk in ten rows!” Guard Chou Ferk barked. “Stand in an orderly fashion beside the railway!”

It was a short walk, but Guard Chou Ferk still took advantage of it to say a lot.

“On the Rakmon Penitentiary Star the worldly attribute and elemental energies are cumbersome, refining, controlling and improving the understanding over them are nigh impossible. Even if your affinity to them is extremely high, it would still be a difficult endeavor. Mostly, you will only be able to employ the basics of your three aspects”. He checked the group of humans and beasts’ reaction and spat on the ground for the lack of it, believing that Head Guard Umber extracted all the fun of them. “That being said, in the lifetime you have to spend here you still might make minor advancements or even accumulate some attribute energy. As a preface for that day you will briefly feel good about yourselves, perhaps a bit gutsy to test your superior, heed my warning ... all of us, two hundred and sixty Guards of the Seventh Post, are fifth level Martial Mortals with abundant collection of attribute’s essences. We won’t kill someone for rebellious behavior, but we will make the rest of your life a constant regret. Get it?”

There was quiet, maybe a little mumbling.

“ARE YOU DEAF OR AM I NOT UNDERSTOOD?!” Guard Chou Ferk bellowed, his fiery aura lashed, scalding those near it.

Roughly twenty humans and beasts howled in pain and two even received severe burns.

“WHEN A GUARD SPEAKS, YOU ANSWERS ‘YES SIR’, ‘OF COURSE SIR’, ‘WHAT ELSE SIR’!” Guard Chou Ferk was prepared to lash again, but halted when a white skinned, black haired man with slightly slanted eyes slapped those who fell back to their feet.

“Yes, Sir!” Zechariah yelled, kicking Giant Havreim. “Are you looking for a beating?! Get up and respectfully answer our esteemed Guard!”

“A third level Martial Mortal boot licker”. Guard Chou Ferk smirked. “Hahaha, I like it! Good, for being the first sensible shit sniffer, I’ll reward you with a rank up. Congrats, you get to start your first day as a B ranked prisoner”.