“What did Nikto make you do?” Karina asked, looking at his new tattoo on his chest.
“Nothing special. Everything as usual. He decorates Arel, in his opinion, deals with him all the time. Drags him down to his unclean friends. Shows them his slave. He drags Arel, not me.”
“Have you been there?”
“I was a little lower last time, a couple of tiers, no more. There is something like a throne room and many lounges. They all gather there.”
“Nikto has some kind of a palace here.”
“Yes. But I don't want to go down there anymore.”
“As well as me.”
“Let him drag Arel, he definitely dragged him across all the worlds. These are the prince's problems. Let them have fun as they want.”
“And how did he decorate him?”
“Shitty. I don't even want to talk about it.”
“But I will see it later.”
“Well, yes, I don't think he will fix it.”
“What?”
“Fuck, I don’t want to remember this.”
“Li-i-is, what did he do to the prince?”
“In general, nothing special, he put a chastity belt on him, so hard, of course, with a metal tube inside the dick, now Arel can cum or piss only when Nikto opens the tap. On the side where Arel had a brand on his cheek, he pulled out all of his side teeth below and above and cut a hole in his cheek.”
“What for?” Karina whispered, her eyes widened.
“Now he can shove his dick into Arel’s mouth through the hole in the cheek.”
“Oh Gods!” And Karina began to cry.
And Lis got angry:
“Why are you crying? Do you feel sorry for him? Do you still like him?! Did you like how he fucked you? Especially with Nikto, I guess? When they two fucked you, simultaneously in all holes. Did you like it, huh? Arel treated you badly, cut your hair off, and you whine over him!”
“I have no grudge against him, and the hair will grow back. It's just hair,” Karina tried to wipe away her tears. “He's like that because he saw only cruelty in his life. He was never treated well. Therefore, he didn’t learn to be good.”
“What are you saying? Why do you always remember only Arel? Always, when it comes to how someone was unjustly beaten and humiliated, everyone always remembers Prince Arel!”
Lis lit a cigarette, and his face turned angry:
“You remember how his father beat him in childhood, how he was bullied in prison, how unfairly he was treated. But if we compare all the facts, they mocked me no less, and I had to endure a lot of humiliations too! But for some reason it seems to everyone that everything is always in order with Lis! And only the handsome prince endured incredible suffering! Arel had a strict father who beat him and raised him. Well, I didn't have a father at all! And I was not a noble master, but an illegitimate half-breed, do you think I was not humiliated? Didn't they tease me? Didn’t they mock at my hair color, freckles? Arel knew from childhood that he was a prince, the chosen one. I also realized very early that I was worse than others, a waste. He was taught by the best masters of military affairs, I was simply taken into the army. And there the commanders were not ceremonious with me, as I was second class, I remained. Why is Arel justified by the fact that his father was too cruel to him and therefore nothing good came of Arel? Why did it come out of me then? Arel became a criminal, and I, the red-headed half-breed, became the commander. Why? Was it somehow easier for me? Was it?”
Karina was silent.
“Good. Then he was bullied in prison for a year, this, of course, is an unpleasant fact. But I also sat in the Reds' prison and they mocked me too, I was not raped, however, who needed me, I’m not so handsome. But they beat me, they kept me in a tight shackle as a very dangerous criminal, on bread and water. Then in a cramped cage. They cut off my finger! Does anyone ever remember this? Everyone remembers that, fuck it, they painted Arel’s face with gray paint and cut off his hair! Disgraced the noble gentleman! Fuck it!”
Lis extended his hand to Karina, which was missing a little finger:
“Do you see this?! Nobody ever remembers this! I couldn’t move in my shackles, immobilized in complete darkness, my vision didn’t fully recover after that, I began to see worse and can no longer shoot as aimed as before. Nobody gives a shit! Because Arel was raped, and he ate shit.”
“Lis, please don't…”
“Let's go further! What other humiliations I went through while I was wandering around restless, okay, let's skip it. I got to Arel, he reigned, and no one mocked him at that time. On the contrary, he mocked others as he wanted. He whipped them. Toby slit his mouth open. He also humiliated me, everyone knows that he put a strip of jester on me, although I was not guilty of anything, but Arel just wanted to. I still have a scar from it, all over my face! Nobody ever remembers this, although it is visible! What difference does it make? Make fun of the red-headed half-breed, throw a stone in the head! He humiliated me in the castle as he wanted, he was not touched. Now, very recent events: Arel again was raped in prison. He was beaten and fucked again. And… damn it, me too! They beat me every day, knocked out all of my teeth, broke all the ribs and all the fingers and toes. Before the court everything was corrected, and even then, that half of the face, which was turned into a mess, didn’t fully recover. And even at the trial it was clear that I was beaten. And they raped me. Not a king with lords as a prince. Just dirty criminals and soldiers. And they pissed on my head too. The only thing is that I didn't eat shit, and thanks for that! They were not so snazzy and, apparently, rarely shit. Therefore, the Gods had mercy. But Arel has been stuffed with shit a couple of times in his entire life, and shit has been pouring on me forever since birth! In front of me, no one bowed, didn’t breathe out: “Prince! Prince, how handsome he is! Descendant of the royal family!” It's not a pity to swallow a couple of pieces of shit for such words! And I was just fucked. Everyone humiliated me all my life! And Arel again humiliated me, painted me like a clown, I resigned myself, you saw that he, and then Nikto made a jester out of me. Arel now wears a nose ring, think about it! I wore bells, I wear the same shit! Nikto humiliates and torments me the same way. Is not it so? I suck and I get fucked whenever they want. How am I better than Arel? Why does it seem to everyone that Arel is being bullied, but not me? Wasn't I even more bullied? Isn't my life the same series of bullying? But you can't see it from me, right? I don’t look humiliated and pathetic, even when painted like a jester. Everyone feels sorry for Arel, but not for me. What difference does it make to me what else they make me wear, take in my mouth. Anything! You are welcome! The prince is a true descendant of the black ancestors – this is victory, success! Half-blood red is a shame, a failure.”
“Please, please stop! Arel for this title, by order of the king, was made sterile,” Karina tried to object somehow, so that it would not seem to Lis that all the bad things happened only to him. “He paid dearly for his nobility.”
“Well, yes,” Lis threw down a cigarette, out of habit, immediately lighting up the next one from her. “But I have a lot of children, according to Nikto, and all from whores and slaves!”
“But you yourself are to blame, you play very hard, you yourself understand it. You yell at Nikto, you call him names. You are very cocky. So you get it,” Karina decided not to develop the topic about his children.
“My wonderful good life made me so, and I will remain so!”
“Stop smoking.”
Karina hugged him, and he didn’t pull away.
“I love you for that! You will become king!”
“And Arel will become a Demon!”
“Well, Lis, well enough. Stop being jealous of him.”
Lis covered his face with his palms:
“That’s all. Sorry. I won't anymore.”
After a while, Nikto brought everyone back. They again stood in the center of the room in the old witch’s cave. And Nikto clumsily sank to the floor and groaned:
“Oh, damn…”
The difference between the way he was in his limit, and what he was again was too obvious. They got used to him fast, strong, without a scar, with a clean beautiful face. And now his face was disfigured again because of Karina's brother. Nikto covered it with his hands. He sat hunched over, not moving, as if coming to his senses, getting used to the limitations of a crippled human body.”
“I can’t, I don’t want…”
“Nik,” Lis asked cautiously, “are you now a human or a Demon?”
Nikto removed his hands from his face and looked at Lis:
“I'm now a Demon in a fucking human body and a human face with this fucking scar!”
He ran his fingers over his scarred cheek.
“How I got sick!”
“You just whine and talk like Karina’s brother usually talks.”
“He used to talks so even when he was a Demon,” Arel inserted carefully, the prince’s cheek was sealed in several layers with a black plaster, “he often said so.”
Nikto looked up:
“Don't look at me like that! Don’t!”
He stood up heavily, continuing to quietly pronounce curses in unclean language.
“But you yourself created humans so imperfect,” said Lis.
“I didn’t create people, they were created by the Supreme Demons and the God of the upper ones.”
“The one who was then crucified, as Lila says?”
“Of course not!”
“They crucified, it seems, the son of the god of the upper ones,” Arel said, “and Nikto is the son of the Devil.”
“And he was badly dented too,” said Lis. “Did this son of God also carry out missions among people in a human body?”
“You don’t understand anything in this, don’t meddle! You have your Black Gods, they are given to you, don’t meddle in the world of dark and light.”
“Well, yes, we are mice. We don’t understand the life of higher beings,” said Lis. “Did you create us just to fuck? Well, then you could have made more holes! Or is it just your personal orientation to fuck people, while others, over there, create artificial demons?”
“Yes,” Nikto snapped, “sing, mice, dance, amuse me! Do you see, Lis, that I have not done anything to you, as I promised, neither to you, nor to Karina, you will no longer be afraid to enter my limit?”
“Maybe you erased our memory,” objected Lis, “you always do that. We don’t know how much time has passed, and where we really were and what we were doing. We are not supposed to know this!”
“You are alive, well, say thank you for that too.”
“Thank you.”
“Let's go to the Estate. Only one day has passed here.”
Pulling his lame leg, Nikto walked slowly towards the exit, and his “mice” followed him…
Chapter two
After the Limit
Lis entered the room saturated with the acrid smell of all kinds of “restoratives” and saw Nikto sitting by the mirror. In the twilight and in some kind of stupor, he, looking at his reflection, was concentratingly pricking a strange sign on his forehead.
“What are you doing! What the fuck!” Lis literally threw Nikto away from the mirror, black paint flowed down the bridge of Nikto’s nose. On his forehead was a symbol that Lis couldn’t understand.
“This is the edge,” Lis groaned, “my strength is gone!” He looked at dumb Nikto, whose eyes were completely blank.
“What are you doing, who have you become, you are insane! Call your khabir, let him put you in order!”
“What for?” Nikto drawled.
“What for?!”
“My only desire, Lis, is to get stoned with all sorts of trash, then pass out, and when I wake up, get stoned again.”
“That scares me,” said Lis. “You look like Squint-Eye now, in your self-destruction. Fuck, you have such great abilities!”
“Abilities? What do you know about my abilities?! They took everything from me, I have nothing!”
“Nik, please,” asked Arel plaintively, who was sitting on the floor, “let me console you, let me touch you.”
“O-oh!” Lis drawled. “Another madman. You're scaring me, this has gone too far. You will die before we make any attempt to go east! You, Nikto, don’t want, and this one,” he looked contemptuously at Arel, “this one I even don’t mention!”
“I will do everything Lis, I don’t want, but I will do everything,” Nikto said wearily.
“Damn, at least put yourself in order to begin with,” Lis snapped displeased. “You're already swollen from the endless drugs. Take care of your body a little!”
Instead of answering, Nikto pulled the chain, allowing Arel to climb onto the bed.
“I didn’t allow you to talk,” he said, and several times, briefly, but tangibly, hit Arel on the face, head and ribs with his fist. Arel wheezed, barely holding back.
“He's already blue, stop it!” Lis shouted.
Nikto didn’t react, but instead took the rope, thrust it into Arel's mouth, passing it between the remaining teeth, tightened it with all his might, tying it at the back so that the rope dug into his face and didn’t allow him to close his mouth. Arel groaned, trying to crawl away, the wide steel collar didn’t let him to bend his head properly, digging into the skin under his chin.
“Send him back to your limit,” Lis couldn’t resist, “let him wait for you there! He distracts you.”
“No,” Nikto said.
“Nik, pull yourself together! Are you a Demon or who?!”
“I am nobody,” Nikto said slowly in syllables, “I don't want anything, Lis. Hush, hush,” he winced, “just don’t start yelling, I will do everything.”
“You can do it already now, you can do more and better! You do the minimum, in a slipshod manner. Without soul. Get out of the body then, I’ll do it faster with Karina’s brother than with you. It seems to me that he will really be more useful now!” Lis gripped his stomach, wincing. “Fuck, my stomach will die from endless nerves now.”
“You have holes in your stomach,” Nikto said.
Pale Lis was holding his stomach with both hands, waiting for the attack to pass.
“Go away for the sake of your gods,” he whispered, “leave the human, we will do everything ourselves.”
“He's blind,” Nikto retorted.
“You're no more sighted,” Lis looked skeptically at the swollen eye of Nikto on the side of the inflamed scar.
“For the sake of your gods,” Nikto mimicked him. “I am your God!” He tried to laugh, but coughed hoarsely: “Unclean warriors will not listen to you yet, Fox, only to me. You are not yet an authority for them.”
“Well, what for do I have it?!” Lis groaned, he let go of his stomach and grabbed his head. “Why am I always unlucky?!”
“I'll do everything, Lis,” Nikto drawled, “just fuck off now, okay?” He with some unhealthy expression on his face pulled Arel by the chain.
“No!” Lis shouted. “Enough! I'll take him from you, this damn prince has made you crazy. You don't want to think of anything but him.”
Nikto buried Arel's face in his crotch.
“Fuck, unhook from him!” Fox couldn’t resist.
“Ver! Ver!” He shouted, and Verniy, oddly enough, appeared on the threshold.
“Ver, I ask you, if you truly love your master, help him get out of this state,” Lis pleaded.
Ver gazed dispassionately at the stoned Nikto, as if he had not seen his sunken dull eyes, festering scar and tangled hair.
“He, along the way, can't wait for you to die,” said Lis disappointedly, “only I don't like it. Only I am worried about you.”
“Ver,” said Nikto aloud, “stir up something from the stomach for Lis. He's bleeding inside there.”
“Fuck,” drawled Lis. Nikto knocked Arel over on his back, lay down on top of him with his whole body, kissing with cracked lips, Arel was moaning, arching towards him.
“Animals, you are animals!” Lis stood up. “I'm leaving. I'll be back tomorrow morning.”