She Belongs To The Devil

She took a step closer to Theodore and tugged his sleeve. And she whispered to him in a voice full of pain, "Theo! This is not the time to be joking around. My wounds are getting worse, please… I have to get back to my Palace before the test starts. Please take me back."

Theodore rolled his eyes and pushed away Adeline\'s grip from his sleeve. And he spoke in an agitated tone, "And there she goes again, ordering me around like she is my master. Ugh! I hate this woman so much. Always sticking to me like a leech."

Now, Adeline was furious by the way Theodore was talking down to her. She was trying her best not to faint and he was behaving like a rotten being from Hell. She shouted while breathing heavily, "Theodore! I am standing right here. Don\'t you dare talk as if I am invisible to you! And stop this nonsense already. I am tired of your sick joke. If you want to help, then help. If you don\'t want to do that, then get lost!"

Theodore burst into a series of grim cackles. And he spoke in between his laughs, "Do you still think that this is a joke? Are you that blind because of my love? Oh, human!"

Then all of a sudden he grabbed Adeline by her neck and brought his face close to hers. He stared into her teary eyes with his glowing red eyes and he whispered, "I am tired of playing with you. That was why I sent Izel to kill you."

Adeline\'s face was turning red because of the lack of air. She was struggling to get out of Theodore\'s grip around her neck but she was failing at it.

He sniffed her like a sickly dog and said, "Don\'t you get it till now? I only kept you close to me because you were my greatest source of that sweet sweet aura that I desire. You used to emanate the strongest aura of revenge and you used to satisfy me so much."

Adeline\'s eyes were wide open hearing that confession from Theodore. She wanted to shout at him and kick him but there was barely any energy left in her body.

And suddenly, he threw Adeline to the ground and spat. "But now, you no longer emit the aura I desire. So you are no longer useful to me." He gave a grim smirk to Adeline and spoke in a threatening tone, "Now I will let Izel finish what he started. Thank you for your service, last-born of Dragomir."

There was a deafening silence in the cave for a while.

And out of the blue, loud laughter from Adeline echoed throughout the cave. She was lying flat on the floor while spreading her arms and legs as though she was in great relief. Tears were flowing nonstop from her eyes but she was laughing to her heart\'s content instead of crying.

Theodore furrowed his brows and asked sternly, "Did I just say a joke to you? Why the Hell are you laughing like this?"

Adeline had already believed whatever Theodore had said to her. She could feel her heart getting smashed into a million pieces because of his cruel words. And she was about to cry because of heartbreak.

However, his last phrase got stuck in her mind – \'last-born of Dragomir\'. She tried to recall him mentioning her name, and he had not done that even once. He had not even mentioned one of her nicknames like \'little human\' or \'little Princess\'.

And that was when she knew that this Theodore was not real.

She recalled what her father had said when he had revealed the secrets of the test. "There are four levels in the Test of Worthiness. The first level of the test is the Test of Fearlessness. In this level, the Deity will make you live your worst nightmare and will make you fight the enemy that you fear the most. You will only pass this level if you do not show any fear and face your fears head-on. And you will move on to other levels only if you successfully pass this Test of Fearlessness."

Adeline got tricked because her father had not warned her that they would be abducted before the test and they would wake up in their fear.

She also recalled what Theodore had said while warning her about her Deity. He had mentioned that this Deity was the Master of Illusion and was also known as the Trickster. Everything made sense now. Adeline slowly put together the pieces of the puzzle. 

Now Adeline knew what was really going on. "I am already in the test," she thought.

She sat up to see \'Theodore\' and she laughed at that imposter, "You almost got me with this elaborate and grand performance... But you don\'t even know my name, do you?"

\'Theodore\' was caught off-guard when Adeline threw that question at him. And he stuttered, "Of-of course I know your na-name. Why wouldn\'t I know the name of my human pet?" He looked in the direction where the Ghoul was and clapped his hand twice. Then he shouted, "Izel, get your arse over here. Finish this woman now!"

Adeline got up on her feet and inched closer to that imposter. She could hear the screeching sound made by that Ghoul\'s claws but she didn\'t focus her attention on that. She looked into his blood-red eyes and mocked him, "Oh, stop this act already. You are really horrible at doing your job. You should at least know the name of your victim."

She narrowed her eyes at him and said with great confidence, "You are not real." She looked at her bloodstained hands and whispered to herself, "None of this is real."

And the moment she believed that everything that she was seeing was not real but instead was a very convincing illusion, everything around her began to crumble down. And \'Theodore\' burst into a million pieces of golden dust.

She looked at her palms and there was not a single drop of blood on them. She looked down and felt the sides of her stomach where she was fatally wounded by the Ghoul, her wounds had magically vanished and her clothes were also not stained with blood anymore.

All of a sudden, everything around her began to turn white. The light became brighter and brighter until it was too blinding to see. Adeline covered her eyes with the back of her palms. And when she felt that the light had returned back to normal, she flickered her eyelids and slowly opened them.

Adeline found herself in the next location of the test.. She had moved on to the second level of the test.