Saif's mind is still conscious, but still keeps blinking in and out of awareness. Every now and then he is able to open his eyes and see what's around him, but only for just a moment, and what he can mostly hear is his slow breathing, and a loud ring, but not as loud as his breaths. The first time he opens his eyes, he feels and sees someone carry him on their shoulder. Then a flash of him getting further away from the city. Then another flash and sees the ground of stone they passed before on the way to the wide building. Then he couldn't even move much now and just saw the lower part of the behind of the person who was carrying him, and he could also see part of their legs. Then a glance that made him see the tall build in the city disappearing into the horizon with three consecutive flashes with the first one the city's tallest buildings were still visible, and the next only had a few of the tallest ones, and then the tallest building alone, then it also disappeared into the horizon. Then one of just the pure nothing desert they were now in.
Finally, a flash of the wide building. The one after that was shadows of people moving around him and saying things he couldn't hear from how far and hazy they sounded, even though they were so close. Then of him getting his shirt and bandages taken away and the pants with the holes put on him. Then of him getting tied up and hanging there with him barely being able to look up and see his hands getting tied, and then his head falling from the inability for him to hold it up any longer, and he finds himself again hanging over the ground, but the big wooden bowl isn't still there yet. Then the next flash came afterwards, but quicker this time and he saw his legs being tied up, and the one after that he saw the big bowl being placed under him.
Afterwards, he was able to get himself together bit by bit, as the flashes were becoming more frequent. He started to blink as quickly as he could in his state, trying to keep his eyes open as they just kept shutting again. He found himself back in the dark place, and while moving around his vision, his eyes suddenly widened when he saw the wide building on his left side again. His breathing becomes rapid with his blinking also getting quicker as he is desperate to keep his eyes opened. Again, he saw a shadow in the dark, and when the shadow saw him moving, it walked and disappeared in the wide building. Saif's heart is beating as hard as it can, as it knows of what's to come. He tries to get his hands free out of the ropes that held him, but just like last time, it was of no use. Panic started to grow in his mind. Every thought was quicker than the last. Every action was done as hard as he could. But none of it was of use at all. He didn't know what to do, or what was needed to be done in this situation, and that made him panic even more.
He still felt dizzy from the hit still, but he thankfully was able to fight through it to stay wakeful, as if he slips, he will fall unaware again and won't be able to fight to escape. He was more panicked last time and his moves were more erratic and random with no real thought put into them. But now, because he already had this happen to him before, for some reason he is more calm and collected. He is still panicking, but still, he feels more in control. Like he feels less scared. Why was he calmer? It's slight, but there? He didn't know, but he felt it might have to do with him collecting more of himself, or because he has already lived through this before. Maybe it was actually both. He rotated his hands in a clockwise anti-clockwise motion, trying to slip his hands, but like last time it hurts as the rope keeps scratching on his skin. He closes his eyes from the pain, but keeps trying to escape nonetheless. Like before, he didn't know much, so everything was new and he didn't know what to do with every situation. But now, it may be slight, but he learned more, he knows more, and that puts some confidence that he will this time be able to get through this.
A thought quickly passed through his head when he thought of this, but he dismissed it almost immediately as he needed to concentrate more on the situation at hand. But he still humoured it for a moment. Why did he know all of this would happen? Why did he live through it before? Why did he dream of it? Was it even a dream? As he dismissed these thoughts as he didn't really have time to get a proper answer, he fought the rope on his hand harder, fighting through the pain it causes as he knows this is a life of death situation. Life or... Death... . Death... . What is Death again? As he thought of this a drop of blood falls on his face that fell from his hand on the area that the rope covered. When he tried to concentrate on it with his hazy vision, he squinted his eyes and then found that he ripped his skin trying to escape the rope. The rope turned a deep crimson color with his skin poking outwards from the areas he scratched open. The sight itself made him feel pain from just looking at it. He can't believe he was ripping through his skin but still fought through the pain. Was he that scared? Did he rip off skin last time too and didn't even notice? The ropes felt like sandpaper after all.
As he thinks of this, at the edge of his vision, he finds shadows moving again. He knows it's the robed figures, and they were about to start the end that hurt the most. His heart pounds harder and because of this, he rips through more skin faster, and more droplets of blood fall on his face, slowly dropping one by one, and increasing in rate by each drop. It turned from just a bit of skin gone, to almost no skin at all due to how panicked he has become. He knew there was no use fighting the rope, but what more could he do. He was starting to give up the fight. His head dropping from disappointment and inevitable failure, he falls down on his hands from the sudden drop of his body when it relaxes from him giving up. He felt a sting of pain that ached him from the rubbing of his exposed flesh with the rope with just his falling weight. But he felt something else. His hands, they felt out of place. They didn't feel where they felt last time. More down. He knew it was a small change, but he knew it was there. He dropped down a bit. But how?
He looked back up at the ropes and found his hands had slightly lowered. Due to how much flesh he tore off, it made more space for his hands to be in, so he had made enough space for his hands to slightly leave the ropes, and he was just slightly and barely slipping out. Was this how he was going to get out of this? Before more thoughts went through his head, he found the flames behind the robed figures had been light, and they then started their demonic ritual just like last time with Their chants. Ritual... NO, I am not going to think about that right now!! He knew what he needed to do, rip his flesh off his body so he could escape, but the moment he moved his hands again, he felt a pain he didn't feel before. It was so potent that he rolled his eyes back slightly and actually screamed from a grunt. He didn't understand why he felt all this pain, as before, he was feeling a lot of pain, but not even close to this.
The adrenaline wore off. WHAT'S EVEN THAT??!! Saif's mind races with questions as he can't even understand his own answer, and it was the first time he was this confused. Maybe it has been from his situation or ill understanding of the world, but he still didn't understand why it hurted now. His eyes spring open with red stripes evident on it from his situation and what he already has done as tears were slightly forming on his eyes, but he opened them this time because he heard footsteps, and they can only belong to one in this time. The robed figure that had his axe. He was approaching again. He slowly looked up, hearing in the background the demonic chants of the rest of the robed figures, but somehow he ignored them completely, and all he could hear was the footsteps of the robed figure that will stab him in the heart.
Saif's breathing gets quicker and louder, with his heart rate so loud that all he can hear was the footsteps and it. He then moves his hands again, to rip through more flesh. He ignores the pain, may it have been because of the adrenaline again, but mostly because all that was on his mind is him remembering the pain he felt when he was stabbed before. When the robed figure stopped in front of him and they stopped the chant, Saif knew he had almost run out of time as they were going to stay like this for only a moment, so he needed to leave, and it needed to be now! He continued to tear through himself, but when he stopped for a moment to try to see if he could remove his hand now, he was hit with the fact that he had only slipped through just slightly more than last time. Significantly more yes, but not even close to escaping. Plus, the pain he felt from trying to remove his hands, no, from just hanging there was excruciating on its own. There was nothing more he could do. His fate was sealed.
His body then stopped moving, with his head down, and tears falling from his eyes, as he accepted this fate. He knew there was nothing more he could have done, and then when he heard them starting to chant the three chants, and he knew it was already over. The robed figure then screams the last chant in an insane manner, as he then swings down Saif's axe. Saif closes his eyes and braces for the attack and then the axe pierces his chest. It pierced it lower this time, it may have been because his head was in the way of the swing, but it didn't even matter. His body was again violently convulsing, with his blood gushing out his chest and spreading all around and even spraying the robed figure. He was coughing out blood harshly as he started to vibrate even more out of control, and then slowed down to just contract in waves as he lost more and more blood, like he was convulsing with the rhythm of his heartbeat.
He feels things getting colder, and himself fading. He was feeling so much unbelievable amounts of pain from this, and he was glad it was going to be over by him finally slipping away. It all turned cold, and he then finally died… Again. But he can still see. He sees nothing, but he knows his eyes are opened. He finds that he is in a dark place, but not like the one he was just in. This one feels, safe. He then saw a light emerge from the dark through what looked like an opening to a door. He walked towards it just like last time, and like last time, it got brighter and brighter the closer he got until he stepped through the door and then he... Woke up.