Chapter 246 July 20th, 2032 | Punishment

[A/N: This chapter has a non-sexual scene that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.]

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"Kiera…." Kylie swallowed nervously, walking up to her after practice, "I'm afraid to ask, but I need to know… for Kaze. Is what's happening to Sage intentional?"

Kiera's face relaxed into a frown, and she turned to the woman with a vicious gaze. "Are you incapable of asking Kaze for information? Is the issue trust, or are you afraid of him?"

"It's not that…." The brunette shuddered at the teen's lethal gaze, "I'm just…."

"Conflicted?" The slang riddler asked mockingly.

Kylie swallowed nervously, looking away. "How did you know?"

"Soooooo [this] is what it feels like when people ask Kazey stupid questions." Kiera laughed, "Sage is your childhood friend, yes?"

The brunette's eyes widened in surprise.

Yes, yes, shock, applause, applause—I know about you. You know why that is? While you were busy not doing your job in inconvenient places, I was."

Kylie smiled bitterly, turning away. "I was wrong not to do that. It's just… you understand, right?"

"I don't, Kylie." Kiera replied tersely, catching her off guard, "I'm dedicated body and soul to the person that saved me and pulled me out of the darkness.

You're hanging onto the false mannerisms of a certifiable psychopath who doesn't even know the meaning of friendship.

I'm not sure why you'd think we could understand each other."

"Then let me ask you another question." The brunette requested nervously, "How can I casually accept Kaze hurting the person I've considered my best friend until yesterday?"

"It's easy." The slang riddler scoffed, "Put the two together, think about what caused the problem, and choose."

"It's not that simple!" The brunette snapped.

"It is that simple!" Kiera snapped back viciously, "Agonize all you want, but you must choose.

It's binary, Kylie. One or zero. Required.

Two decisions: the person you pledged your eternity to or the false friend spiraling into serial killer territory.

If that decision isn't instantaneous, you're just as pathetic and unworthy as I thought you were."

"I choose Kaze!" Kylie screamed, bursting into tears, "Why are you attacking me like this?

Is there something wrong with wanting a peaceful resolution with two people you care about?"

"It is when you don't do your job." Kiera replied coldly, "Kazey asked me to explain this to you if you asked.

He called it "trust bonding." I call that necessary because I don't trust you, so I'll clue you in enough that you won't seed false rumors.

Sage talked to Kaze yesterday to complain about me and got shot down. Yes, he's punishing her; no, the punishment isn't death."

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-

"N-No. T-This isn't a game to me… Kazey." Sage stuttered, shaking as the tendrils ripped into her skin, "It was wrong for me to play games with you."

"Hear me, Grave Robber." Kaze scoffed, standing and picking up the 300-pound wolf by the nape of its neck as if it were a ten-pound weight, "This is all you'll eat tonight.

Now leave this shrew before your roles reverse."

He threw the beast into the blood lake, making a large splash. The moment it touched, all the tendrils released their grip around the redhead, and the surrounding plants disappeared below the ground again.

CRaaaACK!

Sage's face smashed into the ground. She tried to catch herself with her arms, but her arms were mangled, making them buckle and break in a gruesome display.

Her blood splattered at the emperor, and she looked at his boots but saw that the blood never hit, pushed away by an invisible force—without evidence.

CRrrRRrreeaakKKkKKkKkkkKk!

"AgGHHHHhHHhhHHh! Sage screamed as her body radiated with a golden light. Her arms rebuilt against gravity, pushing her body up as they mended themselves.

While she was healing physically, his healing only reversed the damage from the last thirty minutes, not healing her meridians.

However, it was enough for her to roll away, allowing her arms room to heal.

"I don't play games, Sage." Kaze confirmed chillingly, gazing into her terrified eyes, "I but I end foolish games people play against me. That's what I'm doing now.

However, unlike most games I end, yours concludes with a choice."

"I-I'm listening." Sage said, fighting to breathe against her violently pounding heart.

She was extremely uncomfortable listening to the lake bubble, having plants underneath ripping a beast apart. It was a harrowing experience.

"I present you with two and only two choices." Kaze declared coldly, "First, you can accept the punishment I already gave you, or I'll let the wolves I locked up outside eat you.

You brought yourself into this forest. I have nothing to do with that."

Chains of anxiety wrapped around her heart like piano wire, strangling it.

Sage realized that her death would be justified accident. He led her into the forest like herding a sheep. "So you want to kill me?"

"It depends, Sage." Kaze said coldly, "Are you going to accept your punishment?"

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-

"What is Sage's punishment?" Kylie asked nervously, feeling an icy breeze brush past her lungs.

"Kazey put me in charge of this training." Keira smiled, "That's it. That's all it's taking to cause this self-destructive breakdown."

Kylie cocked her head in confusion. "Wait, why? Does she hate you?"

Keira shook her head with a slight smile. "Because she's a legitimate psychopath, and I'm a psychopath's worst nightmare."

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-

"I've already agreed to your punishment, so why don't you come back, teach us, and rack up some life debts." Sage swallowed with a pained expression.

"Oh, no." Kaze smiled maliciously, "What you agreed to isn't a [punishment], Sage. It's the law.

Having Kiera teach you is your punishment."

"You know it looks bad when your girlfriend tortures me in front of the cabinet members, right?" She gulped, taking a sharp breath.

"That's a lie." He smiled derisively, "You're in this forest because you got scared of Kiera and refused to participate."

"Why would I be afraid of Kiera?" Sage growled indignantly.

"It's because you can see it, Sage." Kaze smiled mockingly, "The reason I love Kiera so much."

The redhead shuddered, looking away to retain a poker face but failing.

"It's your phobia, isn't it?" He mused bitingly.

"Yes, I feared pissing her off because it'd piss you off." Sage muttered unconvincingly. "But now that you're pissed off, that fear no longer has value."

"It never did." Kaze said coldly, "Since you're incapable of saying it, let me tell you what you fear about Kiera London Snow—you can't manipulate her."

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-

"Why can't she manipulate you?" Kylie asked in perplexion.

"Because I love him—like, a lot. A real lot. The most." Keira smirked, "Kazey's all I want, so she can't bribe me; I trust him without question, so she can't mislead me; and if she betrays him, I'll destroy that floozy even if he won't forgive me."

The brunette looked away bitterly, hearing the teen's bragging undertone. "That's why Kaze loves you so much, isn't it?"

"No, he loves me for all the reasons." Kiera smiled pridefully, "But it's why he treats me like a princess and puts up with my shit. After five thousand years of betrayal and mistrust, I'm a one in a billion he can rely on."

"So that's really it?" Kylie asked, changing the conversation.

"Ye~p." The teen smacked, "Well, there's also the part where I'll save her life in training.

Sage is an extreme narcissist; she can't repay debts with selflessness.

Since she can't control my narrative, she'll spend the rest of her life having someone who can permanently laud something over her without being able to return the favor.

Sooooooooo she's kinda sorta freaking about right now, destroying her meridians, denying training, the whole nine yards.

Oh, and everyone now knows she's a psychopath, so it's permanently ruining her relationships. It's most excellent."

"That's what's going on!?" Kylie cried, panicked, "Kiera, she'll kill herself at this rate!"

"Really?" Kiera asked with wide eyes, "Then let's pray! Bring on the religion; you got any suggestions for a cult with a large book?"

The brunette took a deep breath, and her heart churned with passion again. "Keira, this is what I want to know! Is Kaze pushing Sage to—"

"I'll stop your delusional bullshit right there, hot tits." The slang riddler said coldly, "Kazey is giving us free shit, free housing, free techniques, training, and opportunities.

Don't you dare imply he's helping us and handing a liability a priceless technique just to traumatize her. That would be stupid, and Kazey doesn't do stupid.

Sage would've gone missing in Meridian City if he wanted her to die. She's alive because, for whatever reason, he wants her to be. You should be grateful for that.

If she gets traumatized by priceless gifts, she deserves to be traumatized. After all, It'll prove that she's a psychopath and everything she's said to you is a lie.

You should analyze that."

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-

"So you didn't send Kiera to collect life debts." Sage chuckled with depleted eyes, "You sent her to make her permanently superior to us and destroy our ambitions of ever being the best. Is that it?"

"No, I sent her to do that to [you]." Kaze smiled wickedly, "No one else will feel that way, including Kiera. They're normal people, so they'll be thankful for this for the rest of their lives.

That's the beautiful thing, Sage. This is a punishment only someone with your personality disorder can experience, and complaining about it will only out you as a psychopath. I'm sure you understand that now."

"So you're exploiting my alleged disorder to torture me?" She asked bitingly.

"No, I see no value in torture." He replied coldly, "However, I see endless use cases for trauma.

And right now, I'm seeding trauma in the center of your sadistic desires so that you remember your position before you try feeding them."

"Then just fucking get rid of them!" Sage growled, triggered with primal anger, "I know you have a sketchy technique that can make it happen!"

"Click-click-click." He clicked his tongue, wagging his finger, "The only reason you're still alive after playing games with my reputation is that your psychopathic, business-oriented personality is what Immortal Skye's economy needs right now."

"So I'm your puppet?" She asked bitterly.

"No, Sage." Kaze smiled maliciously, "You've always been my puppet. If you weren't, I'd have used you as fuel for my chalk instead of stopping your sketchy trade with Mandy Mitchell."

"We're not going through this again." Sage scoffed, "I work for my sadistic rewards, Kaze. If you take those away, then I'm useless; you might as well kill me."

"Vice is legal in Immortal Skye, so long as it's in the Underground Bizarre." The emperor replied coldly, "So stop acting out this insipid tragedy and make your choice.

Will you accept your brand and enjoy your vices legally? Or will you get eaten by wolves?"

Kaze snapped his fingers, and the wolves behind the wall yelped in pain and started growling again. "Make your choice and prepare to keep it.

If you don't keep it or take action to betray me, this scene will be intentional next time, and this Grave Robber won't be eating wolves."

The tendrils came peaked out of the ground after hearing his words, making Sage swallow nervously, feeling death close in around her. "I…."

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-

"Kiera, did she do it?" Kylie asked with puffy eyes, "I've heard about the deals she made with Rick, Haley, and others. However, I don't know what you were implying earlier."

"Oh, she tried." Kiera giggled, "But Kazey shut that slut down before she even walked out of the Lu~xe. Sage hasn't done shit that would hurt Kazey's reputation–and she never will."