Since she figured it would take a few hours for Racknar to come out of the trial of the Crown she decided to do chores and errands around the castle. She eventually lost track of time and had nearly forgotten about Racknar when she was walking down a hallway not far from his room when she heard Marionette’s familiar voice screaming from down the hall. “Quickly, someone help! Come quickly!” Elizabeth rushed down the hallway and into Racknar's room to see Marionette standing in front of him as he remained seated in his bed.
Elizabeth froze for a second, unsure why Marionette had made so much noise. “Calm down Marionette. Everything is fine. Racknar was just taking the test the crown gives. If he can't solve it himself I'll just pull the crown off for him.” Marionette looked at Elizabeth. “That's the problem. It won't come off. See?” Marionette grabbed the crown and tried to pull it off but nothing happened. “Move, let me try.” Elizabeth pushed Marionette to the side and made her best efforts to remove the crown but it wouldn't even budge. “Get Davy and Lisa now, tell them it's an emergency.”
Racknar's room became a bit crowded as all the Monster Mashers, Elisabeth, and Lisa Da Vinci all gathered in it. Both Lisa and Davy cast identification magic on the crown and thoroughly read the item description on the blue notification screen. Lisa then does a facepalm. “As long as they are alive, this item can only be removed by the wearer. Meaning unless he croaks we can't remove the crown. So I guess we'll just have to kill him, take it off, and revive him. He's obviously not coming out on his own.”
Davy made a strange face. “That's weird, my notification screen glitched for a bit. Part of it turned red and showed a warning message but I didn't have time to read it.’ Elizabeth rubbed her head in frustration. “I don't get it, Racknar sacrifices what he wants for others regularly. This should have been easy for him.” Davy lets out an exasperated groan. “He does it when asked. If he's not being asked then he won't. Also, doesn't he have to realize it's an illusion first? It's possible nothing has clues him off yet.”
Elizabeth started to pace with both hands lightly pulling at her hair. “No no no no no. This wasn't supposed to go this way. I can't lose him again.” Lisa narrowed her eyes. “Both you and Ariagoria have true resurrection, all we’d need is a diamond worth at least one thousand silver. That golden dragon surely has one. It's not like his death will be permanent.” Elizabeth looked over to Lisa and took a few breaths. “Right, right. Unless he had some reason to not want to be brought back there should be no problem.” Racknar's index finger started to twitch, Marionette pointing it out. “Wait, look! He's started to move.”
Racknar's entire hand started shaking before suddenly shooting up and grabbing the crown. He tossed it on the ground violently causing it to bounce off the floor and at the wall. Racknar dropped from the bed to the floor on his hands and knees shaking violently and started coughing. The coughing escalated into gagging until he started regurgitating thick, black, only bile. Racknar stopped puking and lifted one of his hands and put it in front of his face, still shaking, before slamming the hand back to the ground and violently expunging more black liquid.
Eventually the deluge of black sludge stopped and Racknar returned to coughing. When Elizabeth slowly reached out for him he violently recoiled away and started skidding to the wall and curling up into the fetal position. He then started rocking back and forth, noticeably sobbing. Elizabeth reached out her hand again in concern. “Racknar?” Racknar shouted out. “Everybody out!” Elizabeth was about to object when Racknar interrupted her. “Everybody out, right now! And take that damned crown with you!”
Elizabeth slowly walked to the crib and picked it up. “You heard the man. Everyone out.” Everyone started slowly walking out with Elizabeth taking one last look at Racknar who was still rocking back and forth on the floor before leaving herself. The moment she was out of the room Marionette was on her, pointing at her angrily. “What in the nine hells did you do?!” Elizabeth put her hands up. “All the crown is supposed to do is show you your own desires and trap you in them. I didn't know the wearer could remove it.” Lisa did a hand flourish. “The item description says basically what she said, so I'm not sure why Racknar had such a reaction.”
Davy put his hand on his chin. “Something went wrong. When I used identity something was off about the info box. It glitched red for a moment with some sort of warning message. I didn't get time to properly read it before it changed back but I think it said; item interaction failure.” Marionette tilted her head. “The hell does that mean?!” Davy shrugged. “I've never seen it before but I'm guessing it's as simple as for some reason the item didn't function as intended. It's not Elizabeth’s fault. We should actually be grateful because it's possible the only reason Racknar was able to remove the crown was because it malfunctioned somehow.”
Elizabeth looked to the door as she put her index finger to her mouth with her lips pressed together. “What the hell happened in there?” Marionette sighed. “Well he seems to need time to process what happened, so let's go and come back to check on him later.” Elizabeth bit her lip, suddenly feeling extremely frustrated. All she wanted to do was help Racknar but she didn't know how. She looked at the crown on her hand, it shook lightly. She slowly put it on but nothing seemed to happen at first. Then a green notification screen showed up. “Mark of a true Ruler activated.” She frowned slightly. “I don't deserve this.”
Racknar looked at the battlefield, demons were flooding in through portals and took out his weapons. He started doing his best to cut through as many as possible with lots of lesser demons dropping like flies. However, eventually he was overwhelmed by hellknights and rather than killing him the armies of Lucia took him alive. He was chained up and Lucia came to question and torture him personally. “Your strength is impressive, if you surrender I promise to be merciful.” Racknar spat in her face. “I know all about you, so you can shove it. I'd rather die than surrender to you.”
Lucia looked at her nails. “I did some research on you as well. So I'm going to offer you a deal. Surrender, and I promise not to hurt your friends.” Racknar growled. “Not good enough. You must swear to me that for as long as I live no demon or denizen of hell will enter the mortal realm or harm any of my friends should they travel outside of it. Nor will they through inaction allow harm. Also, although allowed to harm me, no demon or denizen of hell will be allowed to kill me nor through inaction allow me to die.” Lucia smiled. “These terms are… acceptable.” She grabbed his arm and sealed a pact, one affecting every demon and denizen of hell.
Racknar was passed off to different lords of hell, each on subjecting a different torture. Racknar knew that at his level he achieved an ageless body and would not die of old age. Nor would he starve or die of thirst as the demons were bound to ensure he was fed and had water. Since they could not kill him and he would not age, no demon could ever enter the mortal realm again no matter what. So Lucia made sure to put him under the worst tortures any demon lord could imagine in the hopes he'd want death. No torment was enough, as long as his friends were safe they could do whatever they wanted to him. He didn't care what happened to him, as long as his friends were safe and happy.
Eventually he was rotated to Asmodeus once again. She paced back and forth in front of a bed of spikes Racknar was strapped to thinking of how to torture him. “One hundred and fifty years… we've been at this for a hundred and fifty years. I'm running out of ways to torment you. I'm running out of ideas. This has never happened before. You really are something.” Racknar chuckled, bloody and bruised. “You could always give me a break. Torment me by letting me anguish in anticipation of a torment that'll never come. I'm tired of this and a small respite before I am sent to Beelzebub would be nice. One can only watch their limbs get ripped off and eaten so many times before it gets dull.”
Asmodeus put her fingers to her mouth and smiled. “You want a break do you? Well I've not done my normal rotation since you got here so Icould use a return to form. Since you're already strapped to a bed, I might as well use you. She crawled onto the bed of spikes and hovered over Racknar who looked away. “Do what you will to my body, demon. You'll never have my spirit.” Asmodeus chuckled. “That's just fine, I don't need your spirit. Your body should be more than enough to satisfy my needs.” She licked his face. “Though I would prefer a willing participant~”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Time blurred together once again. Another hundred fifty years and Asmodeus had dozens of children born from what she took from Racknar. Their numbers increased Lucia sent her armies to invade Celestia once more. They couldn't invade the mortal realm but others were free game. Realms were taken and prisoners captured alive. The children of Asmodeus would then breed with the prisoners as well as demons from other circles. Celestia, Purgatory, Abyss. The outer circle realms all eventually fell to the new army of hell that only grew stronger with every new species it conquered.
Nine hundred years had passed and Racknar's imprisonment was managed by a Neo Demon descendant of him and Asmodeus mixed with a bunch of different stuff but the spider parts kept as strong as possible through selective breeding. She cut off hip libs slowly with a hacksaw, stopped the bleeding, and tied him to her back like a backpack before taking him through a portal to the mortal realm. “H-how are we here? No demon can come here as long as I live.”
The spider demon laughed. “After nearly a thousand years after taking other realms and mixing with their people many demons today are a different species then what you knew as demons and were born outside of the nine hells. Did you think you were fucking clever? Did you really think we wouldn't eventually find a way around the contract? We're done, it's what we do. And you know the best part? It may have been nearly a thousand years in the outer ring realms, but here in the mortal realm it's only been about three years. Now I'm going to make you watch as I kill each of your friends and their families as slowly as possible. Your sacrifice meant nothing.”
Racknar watched in horror as Neo Demons invaded his home and burned buildings to cinders and ash. Eventually everyone he cared about was captured and brought in front of him. Elizabeth, her husband Leo, their three kids, Davy, Krys'tal, their five kids, Marionette, Gallows, their kid, Ariagoria, Kennith, their two children. Each and every one, regardless of age, was slowly tortured to death in front of Racknar as he was forced to watch. Only after the gory job was done were his limbs restored and the rope cut allowing him to move.
He crawled over to Elizabeth's charged and broken corpse, lifting her now unrecognizable head up as he started to cry and flames started to come off his arms. “This… this can't be happening. This can't be real.” Racknar sobbed. The demon sighed. “Normally I'd at least try to gaslight whoever was in here, but with you? I'm designed to give a person what they desire and make them happy so they don't want to leave. So that when they choose to leave after they've figured it out is a sacrifice. You? You were so ready and willing to sacrifice your own happiness it doesn't even count as a sacrifice. I gave you what you desired, to see everyone happy, and you were still miserable.”
The demon took a few steps forward. “I tried so hard to make you happy, I tried so hard to make this prison perfect. But not once did you ever truly accept it, not once were you satisfied. So I figured if I couldn't make you happy I'd make you as miserable as possible. You didn't care. As long as your loved ones were safe and happy you didn't care. It's frustrating! And depressing as fuck. I just… I don't want to do this anymore. Just set us both free from this torment already.” Racknar was still sobbing. “Right… I remember now. I put on the crown to figure out what I truly wanted. I was hoping to find some secret selfish desire. Something for me. But if you couldn't find anything…”
The demon let out another sigh. “Yeah, I tried. You don't seem to care about yourself at all. You kinda hate yourself but that hate was buried with almost every other emotion you have. So I guess in the end I did find a selfish desire. You just want to be able to feel things. So go, I'll leave you with a gift as an apology for what I've done.” Racknar reached for his head, and took off the crown.
Racknar dropped to his hands and knees, shaking and sobbing when a red notification screen popped up in front of his face. It had a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it and under that the word “WARNING” in all caps. The message itself contained three words. “Item Interaction Failure.” The screen glitched and turned green. “Congratulations! You have unlocked: Gate of Emotions.” Racknar then felt his body become suddenly overwhelmed with every feeling that had been nerfed or unfelt throughout his two lives.
The sudden influx was too much for his body to handle and he started coughing and throwing up a thick black liquid. After expunging a lot of crap when Elizabeth reached out for him he nearly slapped her hand away as he backed away. Retreating to the corner and demanding everyone leave the room as he sobbed. Everyone left the room as he rocked back and forth in the fetal position in a corner. The group stood outside his door with Elizabeth looking back at it. “Let's just… give him some time. Whatever he went through must have been rough.”
Everyone scattered and tried to go about their day but Elizabeth couldn't focus, regularly thinking about Racknar. She wanted to do something for him but wasn't sure what. She didn't even know what he went through in the crown that affected him so badly and putting the crown on herself didn't do anything for her since she already passed the test. If she needed to cheer up Racknar in their old life she'd get him some dice or a miniature for Creatures and Catacombs but in this world he didn't pick up any hobbies.
Elizabeth then had an interesting idea and went to Lisa to help create a magic item for Racknar. The question was; what to make? There wasn't much he needed outside of improvements to his current gear since you could only equip so much. Though he did have four arms so he should be able to physically equip two sets of bracers, the fact he didn't have a second set of the bracers of defense told her there was some sort of restriction preventing him equipping a second set. Lisa has already created modified scrying orbs to replace the sending stones for communication but that wasn't good for a gift. It had to be something personal, something from her.
She then had an idea. Although he essentially had everything he needed there was always the benefit to having other weapons for specific situations. Since he spent a lot of his time traveling via a mount it would be beneficial to get him something built for mounted combat. A lance. Not just any lance but one that would fit Racknar's power tool weapon aesthetic. A set of drill lances with the same variant elemental damage crystal set up as his other weapons.
Lisa has acquired some more adamantine she planned to give to Marionette's father Giuseppe to make an animated armor for extra defences of the castle. However, after seeing Racknar and being given the money by Elizabeth she was more than happy to use it for his gift instead. As Lisa worked on the weapon Elizabeth would regularly check on Racknar, with Marionette doing the same. Racknar would respond by telling them to go away at first, then changing his response to “I need more time.” After a week the weapons were ready and Elizabeth once again came to Racknar's door and knocked.
There was silence for a while. “Who… is it?” Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief. “It's me. I got you something to try and cheer you up but was waiting for you to be ready to see people. Can I come in?” There was a pause before she heard footsteps approaching the door followed by the sound of the lock unlatching. Racknar then slowly opened the door and peeked out at Elizabeth who offered a weak but genuine smile. Racknar opened the door more and took a few steps back. “You may… enter.” Racknar said weakly.
Elizabeth entered the room as Racknar walked to and sat on his bed, eyes to the floor. Elizabeth walked over but remained standing in front of the bed instead of trying to sit on it. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Racknar shook his head softly. “No.” Elizabeth sighed. “Understandable. Can you at least give me an idea of what happened?” Racknar's eyes traced along the floor. “The crown… malfunctioned. It's designed to give a person their desires and make them happy to create a perfect prison but my desire was to see everyone else happy. Despite getting what I wanted I was still miserable.”
Elizabeth had an idea as to what happened now. “It tries to do both but couldn't, leading it to glitch out?” Racknar nodded. “It ended up destroying the world it built for me, as if throwing a tantrum out of frustration. I was forced to watch as everything and everyone I cared about was… pulled and burned. Mutilated beyond recognition.” Elizabeth put her hand over her mouth. “My god… that's horrible.” Racknar nodded slowly. “It felt bad for… everything so it unlocked the emotions I've been unable to feel or willingly buried. I came out and was forced to suddenly feel everything all at once.”
Elizabeth went pale. “From… both lifetimes?” Racknar nodded, still looking at the floor. Elizabeth put her arms out offering to hug Racknar who surprisingly opened his arms and let her. She rubbed his head softly. “I'm so sorry I put you through that, I shouldn't have-” Racknar interrupted her. “There was no way for you to know. Besides, it was just as much my idea as it was yours.” He ran his hand through her hair and gently hugged back as he let out a soft sob. “I just… needed time to shift through my feelings. I still need time but I'm ready to start living life again.”
Elizabeth simply continued to hug Racknar until he pushed her off. “I… I'm not the same person that put on the crown. What I went through… It changed me. I may not have been the best functioning individual but now I'm… broken.” Racknar’s eyes continued to be locked on the floor. Elizabeth put her hand on his chin and lifted it. “You're not broken. Even if you've changed, the core of who you are still remains. That core self, that is what I love. Understand? Now get up and look me in the face. I got something for you.”
Racknar looked at her and stood, still having trouble looking Elizabeth in the eyes. Elizabeth then showed him the two drill lances and he lit up slightly before walking over to them. “Did you have Lisa make these while I was… incapacitated?” Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah. Do you like them?” Racknar picked them both up and felt the weight of them before activating the drill twice in quick succession. “I love them.” He said before binding them to his tattoos and storing them away. A display of just how much he truly enjoyed his gift. Then in another surprise he walked over to Elizabeth and gave her a hug of his own volition. “Thank you. For everything.”
