Thadius, looking down at Aoto's body, picked him up this time not by the head but by the foot and began to drag him out of the room before noticing a card lying inside one of the two cages.
The card read "The Black Wyvern." Intrigued, Thadius shoved that card into his pocket and returned to dragging Aoto.
His hands aimed to drag him by the head this time, not his feet, and as Thadius reached his hand down, the halo around Aoto's head reacted.
It condensed into a fine point and started shooting spikes towards Thadius' head, one after the other. It seemed like it was protecting Aoto.
Thadius: Fine then. I didn't want to do it because I knew what this would do, but you left me no choice.
With his foot, Thadius rolled Aoto onto his stomach, facing the ground. He then began to reach back down, but this time for his ears.
Like how Aoto was before, Thadius mounted Aoto, kneeling down, Aoto's body between his legs, hunched over, getting closer to Aoto, and placing each hand directly in front of each corresponding ear.
"Clap"
Thadius clapped his hands with Aoto's head in the middle, the vibrations of the clap held so much force behind them, that when he clapped, Aoto's body started to move around as if he were having a stroke.
His eardrums were ruptured. Aoto remained unconscious, but his body was fully up, wriggling around like a worm.
Thadius: Sorry about this.
The liquid that had been stored in his ears began to flow out. As it flowed, the halo around Aoto's head began to fade out, going from being extremely noticeable to invisible.
Aoto's eardrums would repair themselves after some time. Sound needed to keep Aoto healthy, so Thadius didn't consider the consequences.
[Thadius walked away from Aoto and towards the bodies]
Thaidus: Let's see how many bodies one, two, three, four, I see alright let's get started, shall we.
Thadius began to drag each body, forming a row, and then, turning around, he walked to pick up his Axe.
Grabbing his Axe, Thadius let the Axe's head drag across the floor as he walked, making a terrible noise.
"SHRIK"
The Sound of hard metal scraping across a stone floor.
Thadius now stood at the base of the men's feet, holding his Axe in his left hand, gripping it tightly.
He then took one deep breath in.
Then, raising his Axe above his head, he swiftly began to chop at the bodies.
"Crunch"
"Crack"
As Thadius dismembered the bodies, the Sound of their bones being broken echoed throughout the room, blood and guts splattered all over Thadius' clothes.
After about 2 hours, Thadius had fully dismembered, each body now only having a pile of bones, blood, and intestines lying in a corner of the room.
Thadius' Axe looked dull from the repeated hitting, and he sighed a sigh of relief knowing that the part was entirely over.
Reaching into his pockets, Thadius began scrummaging around for what he called "My eternal Flame".
Grabbing hold of it, he lit his flame up and threw it into the pile, lighting what was left of the Curator and his slaves to ash.
[Thadius brings both hands up to his face and makes a prayer sign.]
Thadius: May they enter into one of the 12, praise be to "B"
After giving his prayers towards the men, he went back to Aoto, picked him up and threw him over his shoulder, just like how the slaves did before.
Carrying Aoto over his shoulders, Thadius began to track out from Arcad back to Nycon.
Whilst carrying Aoto, the repeated bumping of Thadius' course began to wake Aoto up.
Slowly, Aoto regained consciousness, but this time it was different; the world was silent.
[In Aoto's mind]
What's going on while it is silent?
Where did all the noise go?
Soma, are you there?
Aoto's questions were met with no response; he was alone all over again, with no one to hear him call out for help.
Aoto: Why is this happening all over again?
Saddened by being all alone, Aoto pretended to be asleep, not alerting Thadius of his waking.
Aoto watched through his eye discreetly as they began climbing the stairs out of Arcad. As they climbed, Aoto could get a full view of the city below the underground city.
It was hideous, Aoto thought.
Thadius grunted while carrying Aoto. He could see the light from Nycon seep through the ceiling, giving him more motivation to run the rest of the way.
Before he knew it, Thadius had reached the town square and entered the main level of Nycon alongside Aoto.
-Garius' View-
Thadius Siprel is here?
Confused but intrigued at why the Empire's Warlord was in Nycon, Garius devised an idea to save Aoto.
In the dark about everything going on, Garius had no clue that Thadius had come for Aoto and him. Still, Garius's idea was to enlist Thadius's help.
Garius: I'll go searching and find the "Timber Beast" and beg him to help me save Aoto, surely he'll help, I mean, he's regarded as one of this empire's heroes.
Now having an idea of what exactly he planned, Garius ran back to the inn to grab something.
On his way back to the inn, he ended up running down Ribrus Street and passed by the exact same window that Aoto had been, not stopping completely but slowing down to glance.
Garius was captivated just the same as Aoto had been, continuing to run down the street.
In the Inn, Garius began to search around all corners of the room, looking for a bag.
Garius: Where is it? Come on, there's not that much time!
Think Garius, THINK!
WHERE IS IT?
Garius continued to search, noticing that the floor had imprints of a black substance. Confused, Garius traced them to see that they stopped at the foot of Garius' bed.
Getting down onto the ground, Garius looked below his bed to find what he was looking for.
"A bag of marbles"
Garius: YES, I FOUND IT!
The bag held something very special to Garius, a secret he swore not to tell a soul.
Gripping it close to his chest, Garius paused momentarily, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, relaxing all his muscles and letting the world's noise go silent.
After taking a moment to take in the relief of finding what he was searching for, Garius's eye slowly opened to see something he wasn't familiar with.
It was no longer the inn walls but a seemingly endless sea of black with an eye in the sky watching over him.