Two soldiers held tightly onto Eliot's arms and roughly dragged him somewhere.
[Plague's Kitchen doesn't sound like a good place to be sent to] - He thought.
"Where are you taking me? What is Plague's Kitchen?"- He tried to ask but both guards just ignored him. Outside the throne room was a long corridor decorated in a similar gold mixed with quartz-like crystals. There was no one around and the somehow low temperature contributed to the eerie atmosphere. [Not even servants are around]
"Come on, even the Emperor said that not everybody from other worlds follows the will of the Goddes. What's the matter about not having an ability."
*Smack* -"SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH!" - A strong backhanded slap landed on Eliot's right cheek. The iron glove, part of the guard's armor set, didn't help either and he felt a familiar metallic taste in his mouth. And pain. A lot of it. - "DON'T YOU DARE TO MENTION HIS MAGESTY AND THE GODDES! - He was prepared to slap Eliot a second time but the other guard stopped him. -"We should send him to the Plague's. We can't interpret the Emperor's words but only follow them. Don't dirty your hands with this heretic sh*t stain and let nature take its own course in THAT place." - Eliot didn't like the emphasis one bit.
The rest of the way everyone was silent. The boy wasn't confident about the remaining resilience of his face. After the corridor, there was a staircase with an iron door in the end.
*Tock, tock, tock.* One of the guards knocked and someone on the other side answered immediately. - "Password?"
The guard frowned for a split second. - "Pink Dragon." - He said with a straight face. Eliot heard some noise from the other side and another person with a different uniform, opened the door. He was taller and burlier compared to the two guards. Eliot noticed a one-handed mace strapped on his belt.
"What's up?" - Asked the man.
The guard shoved Eliot forward making him hit the ground. -"A heretic. Emperor's ordered to send him to Plague's Kitchen.
Man nodded slowly.-"Recycling then. Ok, leave this scum to me." - The guards silently left.
"You are young for a heretic trash. Let me guess: no ability, right?"
Eliot nodded and decided to try his luck again. - "Where will you bring me? What place it is?"
"Plague's Kitchen is what would happen if slums, had its own slums." - He took from somewhere a rope and started tying Eliot's hands behind his back. - "And also add to this a deadly miasma which permeates that place. One needs to have a mask to survive for more than one hour there."
"And someone still lives there?'- Asked Eliot, acting surprised. - "Yeah. If in normal slums you have some shady individuals, then in the Kitchen you have guys who even the church doesn't want to touch. For example, the miasma is an artificial product created by the Kitchen's residents themselves to fight off city guards' incursions." - The man forgot for a second that he was talking to a heretic and just went on. -"Just imagine, if they don't mind twisting so much a place where they live, what could they do to other residential areas if stirred needlessly!" - He took a face mask out of a cupboard. It was egg-shaped and covered the whole head completely. A tube connected the part where the mouth should be to a cylindrical container strapped on the man's back. - "Let's go, heretic." - He opened a door and gestured to Eliot to go first. This time the corridor wasn't very long. at the end of it there was a platform. - "Stand on it." - Instructed the burly man. - "Goddes, have mercy of his soul."- And he pushed a button on the wall. The platform opened and with a short scream, Eliot fell downward.
{...}
[Did I blacked out...? What is this horrid smell...]
The boy regained consciousness and tried to move a bit. -"Woooah!" - Whatever he was laying on, was mushy and slippery, so, with a slurping sound, he slid down what now seemed to be some sort of a hill.
Finally regaining his footing a few seconds later, Eliot looked back and thanked both The God and The Goddes for granting him a strong stomach. It was basically a hill made of every imaginable type of rotting filth. Everything around him was covered by a thick layer of greenish fog. [That must be the miasma the guards talked about]
Suddenly he heard something running towards him.
*squick, squick*
A medium-sized dog jumped from the fog aiming directly for Eliot's neck. His hands were still tied but he managed to kick it back.
"F*ck!" - The impact of the creature was stronger than expected and Eliot lost balance falling backward.
*Squick, squick, squick* Arrived from another direction.
From a closer look, Eliot saw that what he assumed to be a dog, was actually a dog-sized rat.
[Great, now there are two of them...] His head became heavier. [Probably the...effect of...the miasma]
'Squicks' were getting closer and multiplying around him.
[At least I will die...unconscius] Was his last thought before the world around him became completely dark.
{...}
Eliot woke up hearing someone humming a song. He opened his eyes and the blossoming happiness of being alive withered away in a second.
He was strapped to a medical table. His shirt was removed and a man was drawing signs and lines on his torso while consulting an old book.
"So...the incision should be here...hmm...no, first I need to inject this muscle with...yes, yes." - He didn't notice that Eliot regained his senses and drew a line around where the heart was. -"Then, I just need to extract the organ, purify it from the miasma..." - He loudly closed the book. -"And the draining even a blind baby gnoll can do it."
[Draining what?!] Panicked Eliot.
"Draining?!!" - The man jumped back from surprise, hit a small table with his instruments on it, and fell to the ground. -"What THE HELL? - he angrily exclaimed. - "How the f*ck you are not braindead like a goddess's paladin?!?"
He stood up. - "Well anyway, not like it changes much..." - He said nonchalantly.
"Hei, hei, hei, man! It changes a lot, wait a second." -For a second he felt at home in this bizarre situation. In his former world instances even worse than this were pretty common.
The man raised his eyebrow. -"Wait for what? For a miracle of body duplication? I need a heart and you happen to have one. The end.'"
"Maybe I am more useful alive than dead?" - The man picked his scalpel from the floor. - "How so?"
Eliot smiled. [If he doesn't budge, I am dead] -"What if I can recover from the effects of the green fog outside without any permanent injuries?"
The man shook his head. -"Bullsh*t. The stuff we concocted at that time can melt a dragon's brain."
[Ok, at least he is receptive to dialogue]
"But here I am, conscious, and with my brain still being solid enough to think and talk."
The man drew closer. -"Fair point. I will definitely study your brain later." The scalpel was placed directly above one of the lines the man drew. - "So, let's start here..."- he mumbled.
"WAIT! I AM ALSO A SUMMONED FROM THE PALACE TO BE A HERO OF GODDES!."
"As if."- Said the man unimpressed. - "What are you doing down here then, *Hero*?"
[DAMNT IT, DAMN! F*CK] - "THEY ACCUSED ME OF HERESY BECAUSE I HAVE NO ABILITY.!" - Scalpel, already two millimeters deep, stopped abruptly. - "What did you just say?"
*Babump-babump-babump* Eliot could hear his heartbeat.
"I was accused of heresy because I have no ability."- The man completely stopped opening Eliot's sternum. - "A summoned with no ability? Ha! If what you are saying is true, then you might be more useful alive."
A drop of blood fell on the ground from his scalpel.