Steve was beyond shocked! He didn't expect for actual ghosts to appear here, or to be summoned, in other words, and yet here they were! From the sheer look of horror on his kidnapper's face, he could guess that these ghosts were dangerous, so he may have gotten himself into some unnecessary trouble here.
"Damn, that's all it takes to summon shit around here?" He thought.
The ghosts were then surrounding the kidnapper, as if they tried to overwhelm her, but she knew how to counter them, she wasn't hopeless. Her willpower could overcome anything, if she tried.
"Mucol sebah non omalaht ni, earutaerc milo, et oeled!" She repeated.
This was a spell of sorts, in a language that he could not understand, and she chanted it with every ounce of her strength! The results of this spell were apparently plentiful, because then she did the unthinkable! She grabbed one of these transparent ghosts by the throat, in the most literal sense possible, and then she started yelling at them to go away. Now this method of hers was really difficult to understand and or predict, but it was effective, she forced the ghosts to float away! They fled.
Then, she turned around to face Steve, and said. "Well, the ghosts spoke on your behalf, they're ancient guards of the first king. Your destiny seems to be greater than I imagined, twig-boy, unfortunately that won't make things easier for you, because destiny is as bendable as the will of those ghosts that you just summoned."
"What the hell does that mean?" He asked.
"You will tell me what you know, and then I'll sacrifice you. I'm sure that the wise demon, whose name shall not be spoken of, would accept you as a sacrifice. Heck, a boy who's destined to get the crown, he'd be over the moon when he sees you on the other side!" She giggled, menacingly, and then went to get a huge dagger.
…
Steve lost all four of his limbs, because his kidnapper chopped them all off! Now this wasn't too bad, because there apparently were potions that could help him grow his limbs back, in less than two days or so. They were expensive, but she invested them on him, along with a bunch of other potions, just to keep him alive enough in order to get what she wanted out of him.
Right now, she needed information, and Steve didn't have any true information that was worth telling, so he pretended that he was withholding information! That was what made him lose his limbs, as this crazy lady wasn't patient whatsoever!
"You look so ridiculous with your handless arms," She taunted, "It's been 18 hours already, though, so I'm gonna start having fun with you again. You better start talking this time, because I don't have any more health potions to give to you, heck, I gave you so many that they made you a bit fat now! So you'll really die because of your wounds this time, trust me!"
"You're gonna kill me anyway, so what does it matter if I survive these new wounds that you're talking about? Fucking take another one of my lungs if you want to, I made you a deal yesterday, and that's the only deal that I'm willing to follow." He bargained.
Steve sounded confident, and the truth was that this time he really was confident. He had a bit of a trick up his sleeve now, a trick that the system had offered to him within the exclusivity of his mind. When the kidnapper had given him a health potion, the system had then rewarded him with fifty-system-points, and he used forty-five of them to buy a really useful upgrade, an upgrade that technically made him a bit fatter, or thicker! The system came in handy in his most desperate hour, and now, he was waiting for the right moment to put this upgrade into use.
With such confidence, he then also bargained. "If you kill me, you'd have to fight your way to the castle in order to get the same information that I want to give you. I know you can't fight physical guards, so let's work together on this, you need me!"
…
The kidnapper pondered over Steve's offer, for hours. She did so in another room, so as to avoid any pressure from her kidnapee. Now it was weird that she was reconsidering things, because Steve didn't even know her name for example, and yet she may cooperate with him soon. If she did so, she'd be working together with the same guy that she had mutilated, and there truly was no way to describe a relationship like that, it would be difficult. This friendship may sprout today, even if it was to last just a few seconds, she just needed a little push in order to give in to his demands!
A little while later, while she was still thinking about the offer, another entity appeared, and it immediately started screaming, even though it virtually did not have a mouth. This visit came in as a shock for her, she hadn't expected it, and she felt mortified when something this terrifying pulled her out of her train of thoughts, she surely could not 'ponder' this sudden fright! She almost shat herself.
Furthermore, this entity was not as easy to banish either, it would be a hassle to scare it away, so in this particular case, it gave the kidnapper the little push that she had needed in order to cooperate with Steve! She rushed towards the room where he was in, and she jumped over a bunch of her victims along the way, because she hoped to free Steve before the entity could get into that room!
This 'push' to decision-making that she was experiencing was violent, because she had to set Steve free even if she didn't want to do so. This entity that suddenly appeared was really dangerous, it would eventually kill Steve just for the fun of it, and just like that, the 'important' information about the crown would be gone for good. That was the predicament, so she couldn't keep him chained anymore!
"Oh good, your legs grew back." She sighed in relief, and then started removing the shackles from his limbs. "Do you hear that screamer? We have to get out of here, or we'll both die so unnecessarily!"
"Oh, so do like me after all." He teased.
"No, you'll tell me everything you know about the crown." She said, "I will take you upstairs to my house, there are a bunch of altars there so ghosts won't be bothering us."
"Can you give me another starfish potion then, or whatever the fuck you put in those regenerative ones? My hands hadn't quite grown out yet." He requested, and flicked his couple of fingers around.
"Ugh, fine!" She grunted, and grabbed another one of those potions from the table.
Steve had three fingers in total, and since his hands were free now, he could hold the potion himself, and drink it. He drank a lot of them already, so he expected to get his fingers back within minutes, and some of his toes as well. He could already feel them growing.
While she freed his legs as well, she then discovered that the entity had made its way to the room. Its thin, long, and fog-like tentacles were slipping within the room, and if it managed to corner them in this room entirely, then they'd be dead for sure! The kidnapper was cautious of that, so she started yelling out that chant that she had used earlier on!
"Mucol sebah non omalaht ni, earutaerc milo, et oeled!" She chanted, repeatedly.
It worked well enough, the entity's tentacles retracted, and after she removed the shackles from Steve's legs, they were ready to go! Well, Steve was free, but he couldn't really walk. His toes were still missing, and he had spent over a day on that wooden board as well, so he felt beyond numb! He crashed on the ground as soon as he tried to move.
"You're gonna have to carry me, sweet cheeks." He then said.
The kidnapper was cooperative. She quickly threw Steve over her shoulder, ran across the corridor, and kept repeating that spell in order to scare the entity away for just a few more seconds! Steve got one look at the entity, and almost shat himself.
Its tentacles were the least scary part about it. The entity's body was actually a collection of several human bodies, well, it looked like that at least. It bore a dark shade, but it was still mostly transparent so there was nothing physical about the sight, and yet it was still terrifying!
The two of them got out of the basement in one piece. The kidnapper's strong legs had proved especially helpful throughout this sprint, because throughout the basement's staircase, she had leaped four steps at a time! One may even call her an escape artist, but bottom line, they were safe now!
After they got into her house, she dropped Steve on a sitting area that was covered with leather, and started panting extensively. The two of them had experienced quite a shock, and they were just happy that they were alive.
Steve took one look around the interiors of the house, and pointed at something. "You weren't kidding about the altars, woman. What god does that one represent?"
"That's a vase, you tit." She said.