The castle within a mountain

He tried to oppose a faint resistance, but Alfred pulled Feliciano on his feet and dragged him along the corridors, once again. The fact that, at least, he was taking him away from the mysterious and creepy soldiers appeared out of nowhere didn't make it any better, although at least they weren't following them. Those expressionless, lifeless faces made them look as they were just pawns in the hands of some unknown master hidden in the depths of that castle.

He kept moaning, a neverending stream of "I'm sorry" and "please don't kill me", in the hope that Alfred would change his mind somehow - but the man had clearly no intention of listening to him. Feliciano wondered if Alfred wasn't just another of the pawns which had to move in that huge chessboard the castle was.

Hadn't he been so terrified at the thought of what the blond would do with him, Feliciano would probably have appreciated the room in which they were now, or at least, he would have been extremely curious to discover how all these shiny and strange glasses objects worked. But now, this was the last thing he needed to know, he thought as he was thrown to the floor and fell on his knees on a pile of cushions.

Shivering with fear, he tried to not look around - he didn't know what was worse, if staring at the weird objects around, imagining how and if they would harm him, or at Alfred, who was obviously going to.

The man reached him holding a glass of red liquid - it sort of looked like wine, but the magic soaking the air suggested that nothing as normal as red wine was going to be found in that room - and although Feliciano struggled, making some of the liquid spill on the ground and cushions, most of it managed its way through his mouth.

The fluid wasn't cold or hot at the taste, but it was as if Feliciano had just swallowed a chalice of liquid flames. It ran through his throat and stomach corroding them, then went down to his legs and arms, burning, making them a hell of pain. The prince found himself laying down on the cushions, mind completely overwhelmed by suffering; although he wanted to scream for the pain, apparently his lungs had been melted too, because he couldn't find the breath to let it out.

Breathless and shaking, each shiver bringing a new wave of pain in his burning body, he looked up at Alfred - the man appeared blurred, and Feliciano realized his own eyes were filled tears.

"P-please stop this... it hurts..." he whispered, his voice broken by a sudden shake of pain "What do you want to do with me...?" he tried to move one hand to wipe his tears away, but the movement only took a new surge of ache and this time a loud moan escaped from his lips.
"You want to turn me... in one of those... lifeless pawns, too...?"



(yeah leave to me the task of torturing my character XD I hope this goes along with what you had in mind though)

Alfred smirked. "No, you're no fun when you are reduced to a mere puppet," and he poured some more for himself; he swallowed the whole content of the chalice without showing any sign of pain. He tipped the chalice to demonstrate that he had drunk all of it. With a lick of his lips he threw the object aside. Feliciano's burning cheeks were grabbed by Alfred's gloved hands and he pressed his forehead against the prince's.

"You- have no idea of what I've been through!" He hissed through gritted teeth.

"All the pain and their measures to gain control over my body and soul. Can you imagine? The commander told me I'm his precious weapon... angel of death as he says in that flowery language of his. And he's going to be the wielder of this weapon -of me. So, I'm his now. He told me to initiate war between the kingdoms, at all cost. And I have to deal with..." He looked down at the trembling and pain filled prince with a mocking smirk that showed profound disgust. "...a worthless prince. Weak. I have no wish to continue with this farce...but too bad I have no choice but to follow the orders given to me."

He pushed and pressed the other against the pillows, hovered above him he said, "And since I have to put up with this ridiculous game, I may as well make it enjoyable. So, play with me your Highness."

His mind was too overwhelmed by pain for him to focus on the fact that Alfred had just drunk the rest of the liquid, apparently without any effect.
Feliciano closed his eyes, he didn't want to look straight into Alfred's, scared of their closeness, of the insanity he could spot there.

His guess was right, anyway, he thought as the man went on telling what had happened to him. Whatever was going on in that castle... they took away willpower and self-conscience from people, reducing them as mere dolls. Alfred was being used, the person who was hurting him really wasn't the man he had met back in the inn... what seemed a lifetime ago.

Feliciano didn't cheer at his own discovery, anyway - he remembered there had been pillows underneath him, but it felt like his whole body was laying on a surface covered in nails, their sharp points piercing his flesh from all the sides.

He opened his eyes again, to plea for Alfred to somehow make that horrible pain stop - he would have preferred his conscience to be taken away, instead of having to suffer like that any longer, but all he found on the other man's face was a smile full of pity and disgust.
Feliciano knew he was useless, he knew he was weak... but he couldn't help feeling pain and terror. Maybe... maybe he was too worthless for Ludwig to risk and come to save him, he thought as his tears started dropping again.

He screamed for the pain when Alfred pressed him on the ground, it felt like every single bone in his body had been smashed into pieces; he didn't even try to struggle to get away from the man, the tiniest movement causing him a cruel, overwhelming pain. He wished he could pass out in that moment, he didn't care of what could happen to him, he just didn't want to know about it: if none was going to rescue him, it didn't matter... but whatever the liquid in that glass was, it wouldn't let his mind and senses black out so easily.

He smiled the smile of the wicked, the curve of his lips screamed insanity and his eyes reflected the man who was sprawled under his hovering body, suffering and powerless. Ah, how easy it would be to take him in his stronger arms and to break him apart slowly, tenderly and efficiently destructive. To think that he had power over the crying prince provided him with the welcomimg illusion that he was in possession of control.

"That's it, scream and cry and beg for mercy. You've awakened the beast in me and now you'll have a taste of my madness," said Alfred breathlessly. Delight overcame him at the sight of tears running down Feliciano's cheeks. He chuckled.

"Shhh, does it hurt?" He asked with a mocking sweet voice. "You're crying my dear little puppet. Let me kiss away your tears." He bent down and caressed Feliciano's neck, then he began licking the unstoppable tears, savouring the warmth and salty taste on his tongue. The hands that were gently stroking the other's neck slowly closed around it and pressed. Alfred giggled as the prince let out a choking sound. "Don't worry, I won't kill you," he whispered in his ear and kissed a wet cheek.

He wondered, what exactly would happen if he added more pressure around the prince's neck and kill him, defying the commander's order. His heart raced in excitement at the notion. Though, his face fell, he wasn't able to. After all, he was only a tool, not better than the commander's men.

"WHY?!"

Feliciano even nodded when the other asked him if it was hurting. Oh, it did hurt, it did hurt so much... burning, although covered in a cold sweat, he wondered whether he was going to die for that pain alone. It felt like all the inside of his body was melting down slowly, it was so horribly and atrociously painful that he couldn't care less if Alfred was making fun of him.
Even the touch of the man's tongue on his cheek caused him a twinge of pain.

He managed to let out a faint "Mercy, please..." before Alfred's hand closed around his neck and started tightening the grip. So, after all, it wasn't the poison what would kill him... and still, even though his body was nothing more than a trembling container of pain, he found himself desperately gasping for air.

It didn't matter if all he could feel was pain, this at least meant he was alive, and he wanted to stay that way as long as possible. Suddenly, he was sure that Ludwig was coming to rescue him - of course he was, he had promised, and besides, Feliciano realized he just knew that the Griffin prince would never leave him alone in the hands of the enemy. He didn't know from where that certainty came, if it was just because of the desperate situation he found himself in, but he needed, he had to survive until the others found him.

He didn't listen to what Alfred was saying - how could he trust him, when he could feel insanity leaking from each word leaving his mouth?

Feliciano raised his hands to grab Alfred's arms, in a weak attempt to push him away, but the other was too strong, he didn't have any chance to get rid of him unless... then Alfred screamed, and Feliciano was almost sure he could hear frustration and anger in his voice, just as if the other was trapped as he was right now.

Then, the magic left his fingers on its own. Feliciano had never used his magic to hurt anyone, nor he knew any spell which could cause harm to others; instinctively, he channeled all the pain he was feeling through his hands and inside Alfred's flesh.

Alfred released his grip around Feliciano's neck as if he was touching fire. He stared down in bewilderment, for a moment he had felt a rush of pain all over his body. Was it the prince's doing? He narrowed his eyes. "So, you've decided to fight back? Good, I was starting to get bored with you anyway."

Instead of backing away and inducing pain from the distance, Alfred once again lowered himself and smiled, his eyes not in their natural colour, showing more and more deformation of his self. Without warning he bit down into the flesh of Feliciano's shoulder. He didn't care if he had to feel pain.

"Let's both feel this numbing pain, a wonderful evidence of our existence," he said before biting down again until he could taste the other's blood. As if tasting delicious, sweet juice, he let his tongue glide over the fresh wound, expression with relish.

"What else can I taste, I wonder?"

Spoiler:

Feliciano almost howled with pain when Alfred's teeth penetrated his flesh. Magic darted again from his fingers against the other's body, but nothing seemed to stop him. He didn't seem to feel pain, or, if he did, that didn't bother him.

"Stop, stop!" he could feel something wet and hot running on his skin, and he struggled to get away from Alfred, but the man was much bigger and stronger than him. He hopelessly banged his fists against the blonde's shoulders, trying to earn a few more moments. Where were the others?

"Help, please, help!" he started screaming - to none, apparently; he knew they were alone in that room and that Alfred had told him none would hear his cries. But he felt like his friends may be just behind the corner, and he couldn't help but calling for them.
"Ludwig, help...!"

Spoiler:

Ludwig saw an odd window in the cave, right where he was certain Feliciano was. He could feel the pain, still, but when he swore he heard him crying out for Ludwig to save him, he knew he couldn't waste time waiting any longer. The other prince might reject him later, and if he did, it would hurt badly, but he couldn't bear to feel him in pain a moment longer.

"Brace yourself!" he yelled to the king before he curled his head down to let his shoulders and the back of his neck take the brunt of the impact as he shattered through what had once been an ornate stained glass window. It became nothing more than a rainbow of splintered glass and metal as the tough feathers at his front deflected the worst of them. He hardly noticed at all as his right and left arms were cut by stray pieces. He also paid only a passing thought to Arthur, who didn't have the protection that Ludwig at least had on his neck and shoulders.

His focus was only on the prince and his attacker.

Landing on the floor of the cave, he lifted his head again and shook it only once to free his feathers of the glass shards. He growled and prepared to pounce on Alfred, hoping he would be distracted enough by his sudden arrival.

The stained glass window was fast approaching, it was pretty obvious they were going straight through it, so Arthur ducked as much as he could to protect himself from the glass. As they crashed though the window, he had little time to react as the griffin curled his head down, he grit his teeth as he felt the stray shards of glass hit his cheek and arms.

They had quickly landed and as Ludwig shook away the glass from his feathers, Arthur climbed off the griffin’s back, his attention immediately on the scene the had just crashed into. Alfred on top of a scared looking Feliciano.

Arthur frowned, barely hearing the growl come from the one next to him.

“Alfred…“ He hardly recognized the man in front of him, he looked insane. He quickly glanced to the scared Feliciano, hoping that Ludwig would pay more attention to the prince so that he, himself, could deal with Alfred. Judging by his stance though, Arthur guessed there was no chance of that.

The crashing sound of splintering glass filled the inside of the rotunda's high walls and ceiling, causing Alfred to jerk his head to the source of the sound. Before his eyes the air was filled with countless colourful splinters of broken glass, which were glittering as they were flying and hitting the ground. His eyes widened at the sight of familiar figures crashing through the high stained glass window. So, they were here.

His grip around the prince tightened and he narrowed his eyes. "Your rescuing team," he said to the prince with a taunt. "Watch me die," he added to no one particular.

He stood up with ease and faced his 'guests' with a smile. The violent expression of Ludwig was hilarious, really. It thrilled him. And then there was...Arthur.

"Welcome," he said calmly.

"Seriously, you guys could have chosen another time to burst in like some epic heroes, can't you see I'm busy?" He said with a pout, for a moment he was just like how he used to be when he was still oblivious, kind and silly Alfred. "The two of us were having fun even..."

Feliciano blinked in surprise as he heard the loud noise coming from above. He couldn't see what was happening, but he easily guessed, as Alfred suddenly turned, that it wasn't part of the man's plan for torturing him, and therefore it was possibly something good.

With the blonde leaning over him, it was almost impossible for the prince to see, but as Alfred announced it was "his rescuing team", Feliciano had no doubt anymore.
He tried to lift himself up leaning on his elbows, as quickly as he could, and the faint shadow of a smile found his way on his face: Ludwig was really standing there, his golden fur and plumage ruffled and partly stained with some blood, looking rather fierce and threatening - even though, to Feliciano, it looked like the most beautiful thing in the world.
He had little time to notice Arthur on the Griffin's side, because his arms gave way and he fell back on the cushions again, with a sigh of pain, but also relief.

So he hadn't been wrong after all, Ludwig hadn't forgotten about him and he had come. It was too soon to celebrate, though, he knew that, especially now that he had discovered that the castle had to be filled with guards in each room. And then, there was Alfred, who definitely was insane.

He slowly rolled to one side, every movement was still a horrible pain to him, but he had to try to warn them.

"Ludwig..."

Ludwig knew there was no time to change back and get changed into his armor. He seriously doubted that Alfred would give him the time to do that. It seemed especially pointless as he had natural weapons at his disposal in his current form. Not to mention that using his claws or beak on the noble would be much more satisfying.

"You hurt him," he said, eyes narrowing at Alfred.He saw Feliciano move, heard him say his name and knew that he was, at least, alive. "Be grateful you didn't kill him. I might not rip you to shreds."

In a quick motion, he began his charge at Alfred and leapt at him, extending his front claws to rip into the man. There was no waiting, not talking. He wanted revenge. Perhaps once he was in a little pain, Alfred would be more inclined to talk.

Eventually, the part of Ludwig that liked his life orderly and controlled would probably frown on his actions at the moment, but that part of his brain hadn't caught up with the rest of him

Alfred did not waste any time and straightened his standing position. "What an animalistic spectacle," he said in an almost singing tone.

The griffin was quickly leaping forward towards him, claws extended and hungry for his flesh. Alfred however had no intention to let his skin be scraped, not now at least. His pride did not allow him to back away, so he stood still with a provoking grin. "Your lover boy missed you big time, little bird."

Suddenly, he stretched out his arm and opened his hand to reveal a faint light emerging from his palm. The light's intensity grew rapidly, the shape of it evolved into a long ray. It materialized and he was now weilding a scythe, his face reflected on the large blade.

He jumped from his position, spinned the heavy weapon in his hands and both attackers were soon to meet each other in the air and collide. They were face to face as Alfred blocked the deadly claws with the steel staff of his scythe. "I want to fight a man, not a bird," he said in a whispering tone and smiled sweetly.

The impact of their collision shook their bodies.

Arthur watched, eyes wide in horror, as Ludwig charged at Alfred. He had no weapon, there was no way he could stand up to the griffin's attack. Or so he thought, as he made a move to intervene, instead he watched as an orb of light in Alfred's hand transformed into a scythe.

He wasn't sure if this magic came from Alfred himself, he had never shown signs of knowing it, but Arthur could tell there was something special about him. Before that ball of light had turned into that scythe, he imagined that's what his magic would look like. It was more likely something the man behind the scene was responsible though.

He looked over to the prince, who had now rolled onto his side. This would be the perfect opportunity to get him away while Alfred was distracted, so he quickly ran over to where Feliciano was lying.

"Are you alright?" He looked like he was in pain, but Arthur could see no wounds. "What has he done?"

((Alfred bit him! He's going to turn into a zombie D8))


Feliciano didn't even notice that Arthur was next to him until he talked; the prince was too busy following with growing horror the clash between Ludwig and Alfred. He knew the Griffin was a strong fighter, but a wound from that blade could be lethal.

He turned to look at the King, realizing that he had been holding his breath so far only when he spoke to answer Arthur's question.

"He gave me... poison, I think." he said faintly. Feliciano had no idea of what the red liquid was, the only thing he knew was that his whole was in burning pain. "It hurts..." he sighed, pausing for a moment.
"There must be someone, or something, controlling him. He doesn't look... sane. And the castle is full of soldiers... we have to go away!" he looked at Arthur with imploring eyes. He tried to move, but that hurt so much that he gave up immediately.
"Please, help me.."

Ludwig's arms ached as the impact with Alfred's scythe shook them both. Though he hadn't managed to injur Ludwig, the force of the impact made his front paws and arms tingle in pain. He glared at the man in front of him. "If you don't want to fight a 'bird' don't piss off a griffin."

He didn't know if this was Alfred's way of saying he wanted to fight Arthur instead or that he wanted Ludwig to battle him in his human form. Ludwig knew there wasn't much chance of that happening. He didn't have a proper spell on his clothes to make them reappear, and he wasn't going to take time to get dressed when Alfred, for whatever reason, seemed to want them all dead.

Ludwig paced around, trying to work the ache out of his legs and to better assess this situation.

(( WAHT? Al... you jerk D8 Feli zombie.. omg ))

"Poison?" Arthur was shocked, to say the least. He didn't know why Alfred had taken Feliciano... but he didn't think he would harm him.. merely scare the poor prince. "I really wish there was something I could do, I don't know what he's given you, so I can't fix it properly!"

Had it been a magical ailment he could helped him no problem, but since it was something Alfred had made him drink, he needed to know what it was before he could help.

Ludwig was now pacing and Alfred, just as Feliciano had said, looked insane. Like he would have no problem with killing them, he noted with a sad frown. He needed to get Feliciano out.

"Here, try this!" He took a small bottle out of his cloak pocket, it was the left over potion he made to help Alfred. He uncorked and held the bottle to Feliciano's lips. "I don't know if it will help you much in any way, it was made to ease pain...so it probably won't cure whatever Alfred gave you, but it might help long enough to get you out."

His brother had gotten ahead of him—and that wasn't good.

Gilbert pumped his wings as quickly as he could, but he could still feel his exhaustion from his fainting spell earlier. The subsequent battle surly did nothing to help. He watched his brother crash into a stained glass window with a human passenger on his back.

Gilbert truly feared Ludwig might be losing his mind.

"Matthew," he called over his shoulder. "Duck down tight to me, we're going in the same way." At least the blond human on his back wouldn't have to deal with flying glass shards.

They tumbled in through the window--Gilbert with his legs up a bit too high for an easy landing. He'd been trying to get as low as possible so his passenger wouldn't have to contend with hanging glass. They rolled into the massive room, Gilbert tucking his wings securely around his charge. There was no way he would be damaging this human who had just flown with him twice. Perhaps in the back of his mind, beyond all that was happening in front of him, Gilbert hoped Matthew might fly with him again someday. He'd so missed flying with someone on his back.

He released Matthew from his protective feather cage, then righted himself quickly and changed into his human form. He'd managed to pay someone for a continuous spell which would clothe and armor him directly after a shift a long time ago. He wasn't like normal griffins anymore. His humanoid form actually conserved energy rather than drained it.

Just another side effect.

He heard a little—that Alfred wished to fight a human. He jumped into the fray as soon as he knew Matthew was steady on his feet. Gilbert should have told West. He should have been the good older brother and taught him about matings with humans. He needed to get Ludwig out of here with Felicianno as soon as possible. He knew his brother wanted to save his mate, but Alfred seemed powerful. If Ludwig were struck down now at this stage in the mating...

...Gilbert feared he may be flying both his brother and the young prince's bodies out of here.

Alfred landed back on the hard floor without losing his balance, though his weapon grazed the small planetarium models, causing those to shatter on the ground, adding to the amount of splinters. He clicked his tongue at the sound and sight of his brother and the other griffin arriving. Alfred spun on his heels and was back facing Ludwig.

"You will have to kill me first if you want to have your little prince back, birdie!" He said, challengingly pointing at the griffin in front of him while letting his tongue trail on the smooth surface of his scythe's blade, smirking. "Come, bring it on!"

Instead of positioning himself on defence, he stood there almost nonchalantly, as if he didn't care whether he would get injured or not. He waited for Ludwig's next move, calculating the best way to slain him. Maybe cutting his neck, he thought.

Glancing aside from the corners of his eyes, he could observe that Arthur had managed to reach Feliciano, probably giving him something to relieve the pain. He lightly snorted to himself, remembering the side effect of Arthur's medicines on him before he caught himself and was back concentrating on his opponent.

Feliciano parted his lips to drink from the bottle Arthur was offering him. He didn't pay much attention to what the king was saying, he didn't care about what that potion was, all that mattered to him was that it could give him some relief, and he was ready to do anything to ease the pain.
Everything was going to be better than the effects of that poison, he thought as he drank the first sips... and then he quickly changed his mind.

He grimaced, turning his head away from the bottle.
"Ewwwwwww! T-this is the most disgusting...!" he cried. For all the gods in the Pantheon, he had never ever imagined that such a horrible flavour could even exist.

But even though it tasted terribly, the potion was quickly doing its job, and the burning pain in his stomach was calming down a bit. Still feeling sick and aching, but at least not as if he was going to die from one moment to the other, he was able to sit up on his own, muttering a "thank you" to Arthur, just in time to see Gilbert and Matthew make their entrance flying through the hole in the glass Ludwig had previously made.

"We have to go away from here! Before the soldiers reach us!" he said louder. And before Alfred could have any chance to use that weapon on any of them, especially Ludwig, since the griffin seemed still very eager to face warrior.

Ludwig tried to size Alfred up to decide where and when to strike him. The man's nonchalant attitude troubled him. Only a person who didn't care about his own fate or perhaps one so well trained they couldn't possibly doubt their own abilities could stand like that. Either situation was bad for Ludwig.

The scythe was out of the question to attack; it was too strong. "Bruder, we need to work together," he said. He needed to go after Alfred's legs, as far away from the easy path of the scythe as possible. With any luck, his brother would attack in tandem.

Gilbert extended his claws and hoped for contact with flesh this time as he flattened his body close to the floor and tried to force Alfred off of his feet, even if he couldn't rip him to shreds.

It was rather difficult to keep an eye on Arthur and Ludwig up ahead. Initially, Matthew thought his eyes must have been playing tricks on him when Ludwig and Arthur went crashing through a stained glass window. And when he saw that the two of them were going to make a similar entrance, he was ducking to avoid the glass that still remained before Gilbert had advised it.

Luckily, it had gone smoothly, though it was easier than the landing, by far. He was a bit dizzy and shaken, but he was unhurt and in one piece; that’s what mattered. Gilbert was very considerate to his passengers, it seemed, and for that Matthew would have to thank him later. The notion of flying wasn’t that terrifying at all anymore, it seemed.

It took a moment for Matthew to get his bearings and once he did, he looked around the large room. The first thing he noticed was Ludwig confronting Alfred who had acquired a scythe at some point. At first he wondered how, but then he realized that the “how” was not nearly as important as the “get a good distance away from the crazed relative with a scythe”.

Instead, he went to where Arthur and Feliciano were, just as the latter shouted about soldiers reaching them. If that was the case, they had better get the prince out of there. From the looks of it, he wasn’t in a good enough condition to deal with something like that.

Spoiler:

Gilbert saw the weapon and came to the same conclusion as his brother without even knowing it. While his brother raised his claws in the split-second, Gilbert briefly jumped up and came back down with one foot headed for the floor to catch himself, and the other leg bent and angled toward Alfred's knees. He hoped the human would be too busy dealing with his brother's claws to properly dodge.

If it worked, he would strike with his full weight onto the closest knee from the side and it would bend inward, breaking it for sure and probably breaking the other knee as it crashed into it. That should effectively take out the blond without killing him or causing him serious injury. He'd be lame for a year, but able to get around on his own in a wheelchair or with a crutch.

Using the staff of his weapon, pushing down with his whole weight, he heaved his body upwards and backflipped in the air, escaping the grasps of the two attacking griffins by mere inches. Though his arm was grazed by Ludwig's claws, his sleeve torn and his skin cut open in long streaks.

Alfred landed in an offside position to his attackers; without sparing a look at his wound he swung his scythe with both hands in the same breath, aiming for Gilbert. Blond locks were damp against his skin, his breath was short. Blue eyes were widened in a manic way and both hands were wielding the weapon with full control.

( I am so sorry D8 I didn't know Feli had replieeed D8 )

Arthur grimaced a little when Feliciano said the potion tasted disgusting. He remember Alfred saying something similar... and then what had happened after. He could only apologise as the prince drank the potion, his own eyes drifting to the fight that was taking place and his concern growing.

Feliciano muttered a 'thank you' as the other griffin carrying Matthew appeared. At least the potion was helping somewhat. But as Feliciano said something about getting out before soldiers reached them and Matthew running towards them, Arthur knew, as he watched the second griffin join the fight, that he couldn't leave.

Even though Alfred was doing just fine, minus the wounds, Arthur couldn't leave while the other was dealing with two griffins on his own. There was no need. Feliciano was safe now.

He turned to Matthew, his concern only showing in the form of a frown. "Will you please take Feliciano to somewhere safe. I can't leave, not yet. Not when..." He didn't finish the sentence, only glanced over to the fight again.

( I shall now do the just thing and commit death by milkshake. I apologise ;7; )