Chapter 203 Volume IV - Chapter 48: Torture Chamber
"Wake up."
My eyelids slowly opened, then I lifted my head slightly as my vision slowly became clearer.
Again, I was in a room, another room with gray walls. The only difference... This room was more spacious. And in front of me was a table, or rather a metal thing that looked like a table.
I was in a chair, my hands were tied behind my back with handcuffs.
I looked across the table and saw someone sitting there, just like me. He was a dwarf, except he was not bound or restrained like me. He was looking at the holographic screens in front of him.
"Aiden Tenebra, eighteen years old and only an E+ grade."
The dwarf stared at me. The holographic screens suddenly turned to me, then an image began to play.
It was an image of the city under attack. I was in the center, with a crown on my head that looked like it was made of tree branches. I could also see two bracelets on my wrists that also looked like this. Around me was a teal-colored glow, with my gray eyes shining with the same teal color.
As I looked at the image, I noticed a few differences. I had changed differently from the way I had changed before, before I had even acquired Spiritual Ascension, when I was only using it with the logic behind it.
The crown on my head looked more like a 'crown'. I now had bracelets on my arms that looked exactly like my crown. The glow around me was much more intense than before.
After a while, there was a big whirlwind of wind and flame centered on me. The whirlwind grew bigger, more violent, and then suddenly smaller. It shrank to the size of a marble on the tip of my finger, and then I flicked it and a huge explosion shook the area.
The holographic screen shut down. The dwarf looked at me, hard and cold.
"Tell me, what's this? How in the deep earth can an E+ grade human muster such power? This ain't like them Ascension skills y'use, this here's something we ain't never seen before. How'd ye get this power?"
I said nothing, just continued to stare at his face in silence. Then the dwarf smiled slightly.
"I knew ye'd be doin' it this way."
I suddenly felt a force grabbing my head. My head was quickly pulled back so that I could see another dwarf grasping my head with both hands.
The dwarf wore a strange device on his head. Wires were coming out of it and running into his hands where he was holding my head. He had a glove on his hands, and I could feel them, even though I couldn't see them clearly.
At that moment the dwarf closed his eyes. Then my vision blurred and I felt a fluctuation in my mind. Something, a force, was trying to enter my mind. It was moving deep into my soul, trying to break through the barrier protecting my memories.
However, this did not last long. Absolute Mind, which works passively even when my mana is restricted, suddenly kicked in. It literally kicked the force out of my mind and the disturbing feeling receded.
Apart from me, the dwarf holding my head suddenly trembled. His eyes opened rapidly, revealing his shrunken pupils. He stepped back quickly and vomited.
The dwarf across the table had a puzzled look on his face and looked at the vomiting dwarf, completely ignoring me.
"What happened?"
"I... can't be gettin' into his mind."
"Oh?"
The dwarf in front of me clasped his hands together, then looked directly into my eyes.
"An interestin' fella you are."
With that, an intense pain enveloped my body. Then my vision, once again; suddenly darkened.
*******
When I opened my eyes again, this time I found myself on a bed. The bed was not soft in any way. In fact, I was on something metal.
I was tied up, and above me was a large device that covered my head.
Lights came on over the device. Then things started spinning around my head. I tried to struggle, but I couldn't get free. At the same time, I felt a slight headache.
The headache intensified after a while. It turned into a pain as if my head was cracking. Just like before I woke up, I felt a force, one trying to enter my mind.
Yet the Absolute Mind did not allow even that. The passive skill resisted even this device. Nevertheless, the process did not stop. The device spun even faster, my headache became more intense. And the Absolute Mind did not give up. It blocked any force that tried to enter my mind, no matter how violent. It continued to stand there like a solid wall.
Yet it did not stop the pain in my head, which was worse than torture.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours, it had been a long time since my headache took the form of intense pain that never stopped. My head was cracking. I was in pain like a balloon about to burst.
I did my best to resist as my screams filled the room and my headache turned into an agony.
Finally, when the device stopped spinning, the pain retreated. My consciousness, still not shut down by the pain, surrendered itself to nothingness, supported by the presence of the liquid spreading from my wrist to my body.
*******
Suddenly a sharp pain spread through my body. My head throbbed with the same pain as if I had hit something and my eyes opened.
I found myself again in a colorless room, again tied to something.
My hands were spread out to my sides. I was on a tilted table and my feet were tied.
A little... cold? As if I had no clothes on...
I focused in front of me with my still unclear vision. Again, there was nothing in front of me. Just a gray wall...
And behind me... I could hear a sound behind me, the sound of metal on metal.
"Well, hi."
My eyes widened as a voice I didn't know who it belonged to echoed through the room.
I realized where I was.
"Now, I heard you were a bit of a problem. That's why they sent you to me."
The friction sounds echoed behind me again.
"We're going to have some fun with you."
This is... a torture chamber.
My mouth opened, then I closed it back.
If I tell them about the spirits...
No, I can't. I can't lie either... they certainly had something that made them understand it.
If they learn the truth about spirits this early, even faster than they should have when the time comes... then...
I can't do that...
I can't say it.
If I do, if not now, then in the future, when everyone can sign contracts with spirits, they will have an advantage they should never have had.
I... I can't do that.
With these thoughts, something slowly took shape, out of nowhere, except for the only thing I could see, the gray wall.
I found myself in front of me. The old me, my old body. The only difference was that his eyes were not a pale green but a bright purple.
I felt like I was really looking at 'myself' when I looked at him. He was serious, his lips were straight. His expression, his posture... Everything about him was exactly 'me', except for his eyes.
'You won't tell, Aiden.'
He was giving orders. He was looking at me, into my eyes, without moving a muscle.
No... he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at something else.
'You won't say, you won't say anything. You will not open your mouth about anything, no matter what they ask you, no matter what they do to you.'
I felt something moving inside me, it wasn't physical, it wasn't something. It was something slowly existing in the depths of my mind, settling there. It was independent of me, yet 'I' was connected to it.
'Otherwise, you will experience much worse things.'
After these words, as his body slowly turned to dust, someone, someone else, slowly moved to where he was, as if not even aware of his presence.
He was a dwarf, like everyone else here. Yet... he was different. He was wearing a white, bloody apron. Unlike the other dwarves I had seen, he had no bushy hair or beard. His black eyes were slightly squinted on the right side and he had a slight smile on his face.
He was holding what looked like pliers.
"We'll be startin' with simple things."
He looked at my right hand, then coughed slightly and continued, keeping his smile.
"Are ye gonna spill it?"
Suddenly I felt something pressing down on me.. It was as if it had clamped my lips together, preventing my vocal cords from moving.
I tilted my head blankly as I remembered what my wiera side had said.
Is this it?
"I guess not."
Here, am I really in this situation?
I felt a sharp pain coming from the index finger of my right hand, and it was hard not to scream as the pliers squeezed my finger between them, breaking the tip of my finger like it was nothing. I blinked back tears, and silence fell over the room.
Another intense pain shook my being, accompanied by the cracking sounds coming from my middle finger.
Then the ring finger.
It hurt, it really hurt. Maybe I wasn't screaming, yes, but it hurt. I was holding myself back, yes, but it was the first time in my life I was experiencing something like this.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
And yet there was not the slightest desire in me to do what was being asked of me. Whatever my wiera side was doing was working.
"Well, ye be a bit tougher against pain. At least more than most folks... So let's move on to something easier. Did ye intentionally help Dorhud Gen'dai?"
Not a word came out of my mouth, couldn't come out.
I tried to think of other things, I tried to ignore the pain.
For example, why is he asking me about Dorhud?
He's not even a character I remember from the game, he doesn't even exist... He must have died in the battle in the city.
Was he someone important? Did I attract attention by helping someone important without even realizing it?
The dwarf widened his smile as he looked into my eyes.
Then... he continued.
I just waited as all my fingers and toes broke one by one, along with my fingernails. I could only look ahead as my nails tore into my broken fingers. I didn't scream, I tried not to cry, even if tears came to my eyes.
Instead, I gritted my teeth, trying to endure the pain with the help of the Absolute Mind.
After all, he wasn't going to go on like this all night long. After a while, when he realized that he wasn't going to get what he wanted, at least when he was tired, he would leave me alone.
He should have...
"Looks like we're stayin' here for the night... Thanks, I can try other things."
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