LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 51: Russian Roulette
Esstrey has been preparing for this moment for a while now, not that there's a chance she would ever admit it out loud. She was tasked with finding a proper punishment for insane cultists that do not fear death. To this end, Esstrey prepared a dimly lit room with a table in the center, on that table is a gauntlet with a retractable spike. She invited the accused, and the leaders of all the cults, to her little game show. Necromancers included.
The leader of the Beyonders for this is the woman with the black dress made out of ribbons, it seems she switched out to something more cult like with a spiked robe. She looks around the room with an entertained look, and introduces herself as Plynka. One of the accused on their side follows confidently after her, apparently entertained at the sight of Esstrey's initial intimidation attempt with the room. Plynka's small group is followed by a man who introduced himself as Ronald Flester, the head of the Infernal Host research division. He's treating it much more like a business trip, and was also there when Esstrey first entered the castle. He's still wearing his usual robes, red robes with lightning on them, he's also wearing some accessories this time around. His accused is twirling something in his hand, but Esstrey can only see the movement in his bloodstream, not what he's holding. Lastly, is a representative of the necromancers, they apparently act much more on a council basis without a head honcho, their representative was specifically picked for his observation skills from what Esstrey heard.
Esstrey gestures for the accused to have a seat, and their representatives to take places behind them. The necromancer stands further away against the wall, far enough so that he's standing fully in the dark. The representatives and their accused are on opposing sides of the table, with the gauntlet in the middle.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining our little game show today, the rules of the game are simple, last one of the two accused alive gets to go home. Our method of determining a winner will be using this gauntlet here, modified by the workshop to suit my needs." Esstrey puts two of her oversized fingers in the gauntlet, and puts the gauntlet to her temple. She triggers an internal mechanism and-
*Chik*
"This gauntlet, has a one in six chance to trigger a spike emerging, if five charges were empty, the sixth will always be a hit. You two will be playing until someone dies, if the gauntlet hits the fifth charge, I will reset it and we will play again. Who wants to go second?" Esstrey looks over the table, the Infernal Host accused looks serene, while the Beyonder looks excited. The Beyonder eventually raises her hand like a child who just found out the answer to a teacher's question.
She puts the gauntlet to her temple, and-
*Chik*
Nothing... the Beyonder outwardly looks as excited as usual, but Esstrey picked up a small spike in her heart rate. It's working. She puts the gauntlet in front of the Infernal, and he picks it up while giving the others he can see a wary look, he puts it to his temple, and-
*Chik*
Nothing... he looks at the gauntlet with some curiosity, keep looking, who knows what that gauntlet will truly do? He shoves the gauntlet back to his opponent, who puts it to her skull silently, she's a little less excited now.
*Chik*
Nothing... a small sense of relief goes through the Beyonder as her heart jumped, her lungs let out more air than usual. She forgets to slide the gauntlet to the Infernal for a moment, so Esstrey slides it over instead. He's now looking at the gauntlet like one would at a breaching charge set on their own front door. He slowly puts the gauntlet to his temple.
*Chik*
He puts down the gauntlet a little fast, it clatters a bit as it hits the table, a visible sense of relief going through him. The representatives have small bits of sweat coming from their foreheads as well, if Esstrey is smelling it right, oh she so does love the smell of fear.
"Well done... looks like you made it to the second round without any winners." Esstrey picks up the gauntlet to reset it, and also removes the safety. What? Did you really think she would put that thing to her skull without some sort of safety precaution? Besides, it wouldn't have done if someone died on the second charge, this would have ended too quickly. Esstrey puts the gauntlet in front of the Beyonder.
She looks at it with visible fear in her heart, the room is still too badly lit for anyone to make out details of each other, but the lack of details is now attributing to their collective fear, giving off a sense that the only others in the room are silhouette's. She puts the gauntlet to her temple while her hand shakes slightly.
*Chik*
This time, she doesn't hesitate in sliding the gauntlet over to her opponent as fast as possible, wanting it as far away from her as possible. The blacksmith told Esstrey that it seemed very weird for an assassin weapon, one that only activated once every six times, one that made too audible noises, one with a safety. The safety is there for obvious reasons, but the audible noise and one in six is vital. High enough chance to be a high chance of death, low enough chance to not be guaranteed. The noise is also vital to the game, a loud click that doesn't deflate tension all the way, it only staves off the fear.
*Chik*
In her idle thoughts, Esstrey didn't notice how the Infernal had played again. His breathing is borderline hyperventilating, deep focused breaths are coming from him to the point that the audience notices it as well. He stares at the gauntlet in front of him, if he feared it earlier, that feeling has only increased. Esstrey takes the gauntlet and puts it in front of the Beyonder. She just stares at the gauntlet, her hand shaking without reaching for it.
"Play." Esstrey's tone is cold and commanding, and the two lock eyes for a moment. The Beyonder visibly swallows, and picks up the gauntlet, she puts it to her temple, a singular tear going down her cheek as she maintains eye contact with Esstrey.
*KACHUNK*
A spike goes into her skull, her corpse falls to the ground, while everyone except Esstrey winces at the inevitable development. The Infernal is holding his chest, and the representatives have an elevated heart rate now as well. Esstrey grabs the gauntlet, and sloppily shakes off the corpse attached to it. Then she grabs the corpse, and holds her hand high.
"We have a winner! Congratulations!" She looks at the infernal as she says that, but he doesn't feel like a winner, it feels much more like the person who died and escaped this room is the real winner, especially with how Esstrey is holding up her hand. Esstrey flings the corpse of the woman toward where the necromancer is standing.
"You guys all love recycling, right? Well, the corpse is yours, enjoy." Esstrey waddles out of the room, leaving the various representatives to stew in the consequences of their actions.
She does so love the smell of fear.
