Mercy

Alkadabuki wakes to horrible pain. Her body thrashes and she feels a burning sensation inside her chest. Her eyes open and she looks around, she is submerged in some kind of liquid. The liquid burns her skin and the burning in her chest she realizes is the sensation of drowning. Panic overtakes her as she struggles, her strength and regeneration are returning, but the drowning makes it impossible to call strength to her limbs and the burning sensation as well as the drowning keeps her regeneration in a constant struggle to prevent her ****.

It is clearly some sort of acidic compound, eating away at her body as fast as her body could regenerate the damage. Her hands slap weakly against the edge of the container she is in, it seems to be a tube of some sort with a ceiling so even if she can swim up there is no way to reach air.

She can vaguely sense something outside the tube and she growls. The acid keeps her blind, she can’tt see, but she figures the tube is probably transparent, whoever is out there is watching her suffer. She swears at them in her mind and then is surprised when she hears a familiar voice respond in her mind.

"Is that any way to speak to your friend?" the effeminate voice asks and Alkadabuki's hope rises.

"M... Master Ariel!" She greets him with surprise.

The sound of shattering glass is accompanied by a rush of movement as the tube breaks and she falls out onto the floor, coughing as her body begins to heal. She looks up to see Ariel standing over her.

"Doom and his friends are at this very moment taking back control of Saluma. You've failed, Alka," he says and she lowers her head.

"I know... but now that you've freed me I can kill him. I can end this!" she says and he looks strangely nervous.

"I'm sorry... I knew this would happen, but... I didn't think about how much it would actually hurt..." he responds and she looks at him with confusion.

"What are you talking about?" she asks and then gasps as he places his hand on her head.

"I'm afraid I can't let you kill him..." he explains and she blinks.

"What? But..." she starts and then cuts off as she looks down, "then what are you doing here?" she asks.

"I can't let you kill him, but I also can't allow him to keep you imprisoned, not as you are currently at least. It's too much power under his control..." Ariel explains.

"Then... Take me away from here?" she asks hopefully.

"I can't do that either... I'm afraid I only have one choice," he answers and Alkadabuki opens her mouth to speak, but then stops as she feels a sudden rush of power.

When she returns to her senses she's lying on the stone floor of the chamber she had woken in earlier, the tube is still broken, she's alive, not drowning or burning but she feels awful.

Her memories are fuzzy and she feels weak. She gets up and looks over her naked body, she doesn't remember much, where she is, how she got there. Her last memory was of waking up excited. She was about to set out on an adventure to kill the demon king with her new friends. Something must have gone wrong. She staggers over to the door leading out of the room after searching around and finding nothing to use as clothing in the room.

As she staggers out she hears a female voice, "Oh fuck you got out?!" She turns to see a robotic woman staring at her fearfully and then the woman raises her trembling hand.

"Wait-" Alkadabuki starts before a beam fires out of the woman’s hand and slams into her chest. Consciousness left her again.