Chapter 148: Ground rules

"Now that's much better," the woman said. She flew a little closer to me, but not so close that, if I broke out of the bubble, I could get to her with ease. "I have to admit, Devourer, that the tales of your power were less exaggerated than I first thought."

I punched the invisible wall in front of me, but it just threw my fist back at me. As I expected. What was worse, the small test I just made let me know this barrier was as strong as that around the valley.

"When I get free, I will put tourniquets on your limbs so you won't bleed out and then eat them one by one. Slowly, so you could feel every one of my teeth tearing into your flesh," I hissed at her and bared my lips, showing said teeth.

The woman's smile didn't even flinch. She kept accessing me like a fly under a looking glass. "Good imagination. Your combat intelligence also seems to be above average. I wonder how you are with other intellectual tasks. Another thing to test."

'You know, maybe you shouldn't provoke her too much, Master. Saying from a perspective of someone who spent quite a lot of time in a very similar situation.'

I scowled even more. If Pest was going to gloat… but he seemed to be just as unhappy about this entire situation as I was. Which was curious and suspicious. 'I thought you'd be happier to see me caught like a bug in a box, Pest.'

'Yeah, if I wasn't inside of you at that time! What if she notices me and makes an exorcism?'

That was fair. I needed Pest to be as well-hidden as he could be, because anything the celestial didn't know about me meant one more chance for me to escape. 'She doesn't seem to be able to cast spells or sense magic without saying the name of a spell. If she starts casting something like 'Detect Magic' or the like, I permit you to stop the venom-delaying spell until she's done with the inspection.'

'Got it. Trust me, Master, we are on the same side here! And I have these new spells now, so as long as we have some time to prepare, we will totally beat this b… this viper up.'

I hoped so. For now, I just tested the limits of my prison. I had enough space to stand up without touching the top of the barrier, but no more, and it appeared to be spherical. The bottom of it hid underground, and since I wasn't in a hurry to lose even the ground under my feet, I didn't dig it up.

Meanwhile, the celestial finished looking at me from afar and silently thinking whatever she was thinking and clapped her hands.

"Alright. Since you ate everything in my sanctuary, I will have to rebuild it before doing anything with you, anyway."

The next few hours were an enchanting sight. Time and time again, the celestial pointed her finger at places, said her magical words, and made grass and trees grow out of bare ground. Some of them immediately flowered, some went further and gave fruit. The delicious smells would've made my stomach growl if I didn't turn into a puddle of slime long ago to avoid suspicion when I would inevitably have to do that, as was my routine now.

Fruitlessly trying to break free out of the cage sounded very tempting, but I've been doing this for a month. Clearly, I needed a better plan. Even as unclear as biding my time.

After the celestial finished working, it was like I never ran over this place like a horde of mad termites. At least, if you didn't know that the cliffs were, the sides were closer in, and didn't mind the fact that there was no insect, animal, or bird in the entire valley.

The last thing the woman did was using her spells to grow out a copy of her previous lab out of living trees right around me. There was even a cage, also wooden, and mostly symbolic. Inside of it was me, still in the magic bubble.

Only then did the woman stopped glowing and turned off her magic wings. When she came to look at me again, she had a freshly grown apple in hand. I gathered myself together so I would have facial expressions and body language to show how much I hated her.

"I wonder if you are hungry, Devourer. I sure am after all that work." She let out a breath and made a big bite out of the fruit. "I wonder what is the minimal amount of food and water you can live on."

My response for that was a huff and a dark glare. "You think you can break my will with some torture? Don't you know where I came from?"

"Oh, breaking your will isn't in my plans, Devourer. As I said, I just want to find out what you are and how you work before I turn you in. If the process will turn out to be unpleasant or even painful to you, it's a pure coincidence. But since it will be done much easier with your cooperation, I might consider making your living conditions better if you behave."

"So you can turn me in sooner? No, thanks. I don't deal with the suckers of the Twelve Bastards?"

The woman raised her brows. "The Twelve Bastards… you are speaking about gods? Huh. I like your way with words, Devourer. Either way, whether you want or don't want to deal with me, I have to establish some ground rules. My name is Aivena. If you want to call me something derogative again, better think again and use my name instead. When I ask you to do something, you better do it, or I will have to search for a way to make you. When I ask you a question, you answer, or I will have to search for a way to make you. Did you understand all that?"