(Corvos POV continues..)
I eventually awaken from my comatosed state as the bright sun blares through my eye lids. My body still stuck in place, unmoving with all brain activity still pain stakingly slow.
Under me I feel the gentle rock of a boat gliding across the water. If it wasn't for the glare of the sun burning my face, as well as the cotton mouth I was currently experiencing I would have probably been rocked right back into a long slumber right about now. I mean, my brain is probably slow enough to practically be asleep anyway.
Either side of the boat I'm travelling in is a group of building and judging from the designs they all appear to be apart of some sort of factory district that has been run down for a while.
But my slow thoughts come to a halt as I drift to a bridge appearing ahead of me. No, I am definitely not fascinated by the bridge.
But I do feel emotions spike dramatically, almost bringing complete clarity back to my mind from the adrenaline as I see two people. Or more accurately the uniform of the two.
…. The whalers.
And all of the sudden, as quickly as the two appeared, they dissapear once again in a move I'm all to familiar with. Dissolving into particles before reamerging in front of me, now standing on my boat.
What? Do they all possess blink or something, is dauds power to gift his subordinates with his abilities or something?
"This is the one who was with the Empress when she died. Poisoned. Tyvian stuff. Amateur work."
"he'll live."
"That's up to daud."
Weird nasely voices escape theirs masks when they speak, sounding like a really old movie in their tone of voice, something that would have made me laugh if I wasn't passing out again-.
…
..
.
I try and pull my eyelids open but they remain firmly shut as my body is picked up from the boat and placed into some sort of metal box.
Said metal box quickly starts to rise like an elevator, taking me up to the top of a building. Only as I reach the top do my eyelids release my vision from its tight grip and allow me to gaze upon the sight of the dilapidated flooded district. Desolate of all citizens.
The only ones remaining now being weepers, dead or half dead overseers…. And dauds assasssins.
Reaching the top of the building I'm met with the sight of a group of black suited whalers gathered on the access platform. My makeshift elevator also stops rising, bringing me across to them instead of further up this time.
Whoshh
… then the men in red appeared, the air parting in his arrival.
"I know a great deal, bodyguard."
A gravely voice escapes his throat he appears, address me while walking alongside the cage.
"I recognise those marks on your hand."
The cage is brought to a screeching halt, right next to a drop so high that it would even kill me or bring me to near death even with agility two, a fact that once more causes my slowed brain to release a butt load of adrenaline to wake me up.
"A gift from your friend, the one who talks to you in the dark. Talks to you when you visit his shrines. I've visited those shrines too."
A weary and tired look covers the mad assassins face as recalls something of the past while opening the box in his arms and bringing out a familiar blade… my blade.
And looking closer I can see the rest of my equipment inside the box, even my armoured clothing. The only thing missing being my mask attached to my hip.
"….And I know what if felt like to shove a blade into your Empress."
"…"
(Narrator POV)
Corvos brain fires up with even more emotion than ever before. Reaching a height that even surpassed the time he archived his revenge.
He is partially pulled from his poisoned state by pure will and intense emotion, throwing his arm at the man who kick started what could be the worst time of his life.
"ARRERRRRGHHHHH!"
A roar leaves his throat, expressing an anger he felt only once before at a time when such an emotion wasnt even truely his.
But he is easily dodged, countered with but a mere grab of the wrist completely bringing his movement to a halt with a twist of his hand. Not a single expression changing in the assassins face.
"But I don't know you. Who you are and who you fight for."
He hands the box tucked under his arm to a whaler behind him, the whaler who promptly throws the box for with all corvos gear into the depths of who knows where, corvos free hands chasing after it unconsciously.
Leaving only a sword, corvos sword, inside the red clad assassins grip.
"You are a mystery corvo, and I can't allow that"
He tightens his vice like grip on corvos marked hand while extends his arm tight to not allow corvos arm to move, constricting him to the bars of his cage.
"AHHHHHHHH-"
And with a swing or the assassins arm corvos world turns a blinding white as pain racks all over his mind violently.
THUD
An ominous thud sounds as something hits the ground next to the cage besides corvo, right as he is thrown to the back of it, hitting his head in the process of the fall.
CRASHH
Blood trickles down the back of his head in a slow flow, an insignificant injury compared to stump where his hand was before.
"W-what??!"
A weak voice escapes corvos lips as his eye lids start dropping, an assault of multiple types of weakness grabbing hold of his body.
One being the copious amount of blood escaping from his body bringing him closer to blood loss and shock. Two, his direct connection to the conceptual powers of the void being servered, completely disconnected, bringing his body back to its once human nature… powerless once more.
His weak body scrambling on the group, trying desperately to rip off a part of his shirt- awkwardly and with one hand, desperately trying to cover the life blood leaving him, holding on for dear life.
He eventually just takes the whole shirt off and ties a knot over his to cut of the blood flow and cover the empty stump, bringing a halt to the worst of the bleeding. But still, in that brief time between dismemberment and the blood that has been drained from him soaked the bottom of the cage where he lay and was enough to turn him into a pale- grey even, shivering mess.
Clang
A distant clang of metal falling on stone reaches his ears, pulling corvo out of his dissociative survival state.
Only to find daud staring him down with an apathetic look inside his eyes. Wether he is feeling pity for the man who's life he ruined twice now or disappointed due the lack of fight was unknown to both of the men.
"Goodbye, corvo. Let's hop you won't meet me again in your next life."
Click
And with a flick of dauds wrist, a sleeping dart is sent flying out. Hitting the anemic, drugged and mentally unstable man's neck, rendering him back into unconscious.
"…"
"Sir, why not just kill him. Get all this over and done with?"
One of the whalers approached daud from behind to questioning his motives, something that has been happening frequently lately in dauds order. But the assassin receives no answer from the him, he who just stood there staring at his handy work with an almost lifeless look in his eyes.
"…understood. Shall we put him 'there'?"
"…yes. Do that…. I have work to do."
And with that, the man in red has dissapears after once more taking away everything corvo has gained and archived. Returning him to a hell all to familiar…
….
…
..
.
Eventually, corvo wakes up. Finding himself in another strange place, a common occurrence as of recent times, but this place…. It's different, stranger.
The words strange would be a casual way to describe it. That is if you even could. A realm of confusion, a chimeric land of fused structures built by one being, the home of the outside.
The void.
Corvo drags his weary and weak body up the stairs in front of him slowly, gripping the railing stationed on the side of tbe stairs. Upon reaching the top he finds himself inside both a familiar and unfamiliar clearing of broken buildings, a reoccurring theme in this dimension.
And like expected, a man soon arrives in front of corvo.
"Here you are at last, in a ruined and drowning world. Held captive by the man who killed your Empress, the assassin Daud. Even losing the gift I so kindly gave you."
The man stands there stationary, barely moving his floating body at all. The only movements being an occasional hand gesture to affirm his speechs and a weird face splitting half smirk, one that almost always appears on his face during their meeting, as if everything is a amusing joke to him. But how can such a expression be genuine? Would such a monster, such a god, feel the same emotions mortals feel.
"Your friends poisoned you and dumped your body in the river. Did they do it to protect themselves, so no one would ever know what they'd done?
Or was it because they were a single move away from controlling an Empire, and they knew you'd nevertet them manipulate Emily?
Maybe none of these. Perhaps that's just the nature of man."
Corvo goes to respond. To fight back against the almost slanderous words of the outsider, a thing the being in from of him always brings out in front of the people he manifests before.
But he dosent get a chance.
With a casual swipe of his hand, like the gesture of swatting away a bug, corvos consciousness is sent away.
…
..
.
*Squeak* *Squeak*
A series of loud squeaks straight to the ear drum awakens corvo once more from his forced slumber, hopefully for the final time this round, and he finds himself in a different type of prison cell to the usuall ones he has visited.
Sure that might only be like two but it still counts.
Tiredly looking up to the top of his cell he sees a whaler, one of dauds men-or women I suppose, hard to tell in those outfits they clad themselves in.
SLAM
Said whaler drop down a wodden lid onto his cell, drilling it down to lock the palet in place. Trapping him inside before disappearing with blink.
He gives up on straining his neck and brings himself up into a sitting position. But as he puts both hands down on the ground to push himself up, he flinches as pain shoots up his arm.
Looking down at the source of the pain corvo observes the blood covered shirt wrapped tightly on the stump where his hand used to reside with disbelief.
It was only a day, maybe more considering he has been unconscious nearly tbe entire times, that corvo was scaling building, running as fast nearly as a moving as a moving vehicle and teleporting her there and everywhere.
…but now.
He brings his arm up as he usually would when activating his powers, sending mana through his body in the directing of his missing hand then… nothing.
Nothing happens.
His direct connection to the void severed alongside his missing limb, the only connection remaining being the weak link created by his connection with mana and consumption of runes, but that's not something he can use- especially when all his mana does is uslessly travel up around his body with no purpose.
The potential energy now merely a useless source, all with its catalyst ripped away from him.
"….fuck."
Corvo slumps backwards, laying back down with the rats, his expression showing how completely defeated he is.
Not only was his plan to grab Emily and run from the hound pits pub and perhaps leave Dunwall altogether or take control of it himself completely and utterly destroyed, but apparently his control of his body can just be usurped in the blink of an eye- and no one would even notice. Come on! How ridiculous is that.
Along with the fact he was heavily poisoned to the point he can still feel the effects now, as well as his hand being cut off, along with his connection with his powers.
So yeah, he is feeling might depressed.
Having just lost everything for the second time. This time all achievements belonging solely to him and not his predecessors, so it leaves a bigger bitter taste in his mouth.
"…"
But although he has so much to think about, so much to contemplate and process, he has no time to sit around and mope- there's a job to do.
Swatting away the rat trying to nibble on his stump, corvo uses the pain from said stump to further wake up his slowed mind to bring himself to a standing position. Once standing he brings one of the brings scattered across the floor into a pitchers grip… and launched the fucker at the wodden pallet above him, succeeding in cracking it.
"-HUA!"
Corvo continued sending the bricks flying at the wood until it broke apart, creating a massive hole in his cage.
'Now the only problem is getting out.'
With the loss of his powers, the passive ones also went with it, almost leaving him with basically the stats of a human. Well, even without powers corvo was naturally strong along with the fact he was trained trained, but now he is injured, fatigued and very anemic.
Well… nothing some elixir can't remedy.
Grabbing some of the wodden debris corvo began stacking them to create a platform he could use to climb up. But due to being broken and only one pallet, there isnt that much so it barely brings him up.
But after stubbing his toe on a brick he realises tha he had some left and used them to.
Now..
"HUP!"
He jumped, grabbing the ledge with his remaning hand and using all of his upper body strength to pull himself up to the top, leaving the damaged man a breathless mess.
"F- haah-uck sake! This is a lot harder than I rember- hahhh. Perhaps I was to reliant of my powers."
Huffing grumpily corvo picks himself up. Dragging himself over to a table next to a broken platform he finds one of sokolovs elixir and chugs the thing down, finally allowing his constant bleeding to halten and recover some of his stamina and blood.
"Now then…"
He says, picking up an overseers blade.
"Time to wipe out a group of assassins."
A crooked smile appears on the man's face. A smile that would let anyone know that they had fucked up when messing with him and not finishing the job.
A smile that's soon covered by a mask that mirrors his expression.
——
Word count: 2,543
A/N; mc never played the DLC of dishonoured, though he does know some things. Keep this in mind for later.