Stygian Mage

Soren kept his head cool and calm as they walked on the streets, moving towards the Liston Family Mansion. He had expected this to happen the moment he realized that he was found out. He was hoping that it wouldn’t come down to this, but now that it had, he had to work with it. Regardless of the situation though, he knew what he had to do. From how Faron acted, and the fact that he was being escorted to meet Ervin Liston, he could tell that they were not going to kill him; at least, not right away. So, Soren only had one thing to do under this situation—survive. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him once they reached their destination, but he was sure that whatever it might be, it wouldn’t be anything pleasant. Even so, he was determined to survive through anything; no matter what he had to do.

……….

Soren saw a few people standing in an orderly manner as soon as they entered the mansion’s gate. They all had a serious expression on their faces as they stood behind a tall man who had long, black, curly hair. Even though Soren had never seen Ervin Liston before, he could tell that this person was him.

As Soren walked closer to that group of people, he saw Ervin’s expression become much more serious than it was before. Soren didn’t have to guess the reason behind it; he knew it was because Ervin had scanned him the moment he had entered the range. His serious expression was proof enough that he had already confirmed Soren’s cultivation level. Obviously, these people were not going to believe something just based on what the princess had said. They had to confirm this, and so, the only person in the Family who had a proper scanning spell came out to greet Soren; Ervin Liston.

“So, it’s true….You hid it quite well, Mr. Farrow.” Ervin said as he nodded towards Faron and Carla.

“I could have done a better job at that but what’s done is done.” Soren retorted with a playful smile on his face, hiding the anxiety deep within his heart.

“You are quite calm about all this. I thought you would beg for your life the moment we met.” Ervin said as a small smile formed on his face too.

“We both know, Mr. Liston; that wouldn’t work. So, why do something useless and waste both of our time.” Soren said as he maintained his calm expression in front of these three Rank 1 Initiators; Ervin Liston was also a Rank 1 Initiator.

“Yes, you’re right. It will not work.” Ervin muttered in a very low voice that only he could hear. He then stared into Soren’s eyes for a few seconds before nodding towards Faron again.

After getting the confirmation from Ervin, Faron nodded back and suddenly grabbed Soren’s elbow, making him walk towards the right direction in a forceful manner.

“You don’t have to be so rough, you know. I am not going to fight against you guys.” Soren said as he was dragged off by Faron.

There was a car standing in that direction; the same type of car that Soren and the others had used for their mission before. Faron made Soren sit in the back as he sat opposite of him; Carla took the wheels.

Ervin watched them drive off from the mansion as he released a big sigh. He was hoping that it didn’t have to come to this. He didn’t enjoy doing this. He was hoping that Soren would agree willingly and things wouldn’t come this far; after all, no sane person would enjoy torturing a man just to break him mentally. But after seeing Soren’s reaction, he was sure that Soren was not the kind to work for them willingly. Now that the situation had already turned out like this, he had no choice but to follow through. He was left with no other choice than to break Soren mentally so that he would become like a puppet; their puppet. Liston Family’s survival depended on this. Ervin was aware of how disastrous it could be to have a ‘Traveler’ for an enemy, and he wasn’t going to take any risk with this matter. Either Soren had to break down completely and wok for them as a mindless puppet, or he had to die.

Of course, there was another option that could become a solution to this situation. This solution was having Soren sign another Blood Contract; just this time, it would be a Rank 1 contract. But that was something that Ervin was not willing to afford; a Rank 1 Blood Contract was not something one could just buy off the street for some pocket change, after all. Ervin would have to pay a huge amount of Mana Crystals even if he were to buy just one Rank 1 contract; something that could damage the financial situation of his family.

………..

The vehicle moved towards the jungle carrying Soren, Faron, and Carla. Soren was sitting calmly on the back seat without knowing what was going to happen to him. He had some guesses about it, but that was all they were; guesses. He was almost sure that they weren’t going to make him sign a Rank 1 contract; he was aware of its market value. That was not something any Family or Organization in this backwater area could afford to spend easily; not to mention, for just one Initiator. But other than that, he could only make some conjectures.

Of course, even if he didn’t make any guesses, everything was going to be revealed as soon as they arrived at their destination. And it didn’t take very long for that to happen.

As the car stopped, Soren got off and looked around the place they were currently in. This place was very similar to the outpost that they had gone to before; for the mission. The black walls covered the perimeter while a tall, black building stood in the center.

“Welcome to the Black Chamber,” Faron said as he stood beside Soren and gazed at the black building in admiration. This was one of the most important places that the Liston Family owned. This place had no monetary value and neither did it have any strategic one. This place only had one purpose; that was to break a person. This building had an underground chamber which was installed with different Spell Formations. Some were defensive; some were restrictive. The defensive Spell Formations protected the building structure against any attack from the inside, while the restrictive formations restricted the person staying inside. The restrictions varied from prohibiting Mana usage to obstructing body movement.

This place was, in fact, a private prison owned by the Liston Family.

As soon as Soren saw the building, a bad feeling started rising in his heart. Although he had expected some kind of restrictions, this went above and beyond all that. He thought that he would be restricted using normal chains and locks, but this went on to a whole another level. From the engravings on the outside of the building wall, he could clearly tell that it was completely covered in Spell Formations. This was not a place that one could easily break out of.

A grave expression finally surfaced on Soren’s face; much to Faron’s delight. Soren knew he had to make some changes to his plan now. Things were different, so he had to adjust to that. Given the facts, he knew it was going to take much longer to do what he had intended to do before; but he wasn’t going to give up no matter how the situation changed.

……….

A tranquil and serene mansion existed in the northern part of the Eastwood Town. This mansion was not huge, yet it wasn’t small. It was surrounded by nature all around, yet, it was not cut off from the town. This mansion was the current residence of Princess Azure.

“Everything will be fine, Azure.” An old man, aged around 50 years, said as he tried to calm down the princess. The fact that her mindless actions might have resulted in destroying someone’s life had hit her quite hard. Not only because she felt bad about destroying a person’s life, but also because she was aware of the consequences that it could bring. She was born in the Royal Family, with four brothers and two sisters. Going by age, she was the second youngest of them all; and the youngest amongst the sisters. But her younger brother was born only a few years ago; this meant that she had been the youngest for a long time, especially when it came to the politics inside the palace. She had survived in that jungle using whatever means necessary, but in the end, she just wasn’t cut out for it.

She had a very kind heart; something that she hadn’t lost as her childhood withered away. She had forced herself to do whatever she could to survive, but it took a toll on her. The pent up pressure made her turn to sexual acts for a release. And as the Royal Family members, especially women, were prohibited from having sex with any outsiders before marriage, she could only turn to her cousins and brothers. At first, the fact that she was committing a taboo made all her other pressure vanish. The pleasure and excitement were enough for her to get high on; not just from the pleasure of sex, but also from the excitement which came from knowing that she was doing something forbidden.

But all her arrangements fell apart as she was just growing used to it. As time passed, she realized that this so-called ‘taboo’ was something that only existed in name. She wasn’t the only one taking part in these acts of ‘taboo’. It was actually a common thing in the Royal Family. Every last bit of the excitement that she felt vanished in thin air as she came to know that there would be no consequences even if she was found out. Instead, she would be praised that she followed the ‘rules’ and kept it in the family.

She was left with nothing after she lost this source of the outlet. She was already aware that she was not the kind to play politics. She wasn’t able to manipulate people as she wished and just watch by the side as they destroyed their own life. She couldn’t become someone cold-hearted and play with a person’s existence.

So, after that, she turned to one thing that could give her the release that she needed—war. She cut herself off from the palace and focused only on her strength. She started taking cultivation very seriously and maintained communication with only a few people. Her mother had already died when she was a kid, and her father, the king, wasn’t the type to be concerned over what his daughter was doing with her time. Her attendant, Livan, was the only person close to her. He was the attendant of her mother before Azure was born, but became her protector after Azure’s mother made him promise to keep her daughter safe. He was the only one that stood by the princess as she survived in that jungle called palace. But he didn’t interfere in any situation even when he knew that she would suffer; this was his way of giving the princess some life lessons. He only kept a watch from the sides and just made sure that she stayed alive.

…

After making sure that her cultivation was enough, and that she had enough power for self-protection, Azure threw herself into the war; of course, Livan followed her. She suffered many setbacks on the battlefield; many of which were life-threatening. But she persevered and plowed through everything that her enemies threw at her. War taught her many things; things that she could never have learned if she had lived a sheltered life in the palace. It had taught her to never underestimate your enemy; never leave an enemy injured; never show mercy on the battlefield; never show your back to an enemy. One of those things also included not letting an enemy live after an unbreakable enmity was formed.

That was what the princess was concerned about. Apart from the guilt that she felt for destroying Soren’s life, she was also concerned if the situation had become irreconcilable. Even though she had been through the baptism of war, her soft and kind heart hadn’t died. But that didn’t mean that she would forget what she learned and would let a potentially dangerous enemy live. Both parts of her had somehow achieved a balance inside her.

“Do you think it can still be solved?” Azure asked Livan in a concerned manner.

“It was an honest mistake. You didn’t know he was hiding his true cultivation.” Livan replied trying to placate the agitated princess.

“If he is the smart kind, he wouldn’t hold it against you. If not, I will end his existence before he could become a danger to you.” Livan continued, giving off a dangerous aura as he said those words.

But his words made Azure calm down. The reason why she was so flustered was that she knew the terror of those so-called ‘Travelers’. She was a Royal Princess, and as such, she had access to a plethora of information; information that wasn’t available through normal means. She was well aware of what a ‘Traveler’ was. She had seen people with a similar aptitude for Mana on the battlefield; they did not have the title of the ‘Traveler’ but their aptitude put them on the same level. The only difference was that ‘Travelers’ had a head start with the help of the radiation in the space crack; given they survived and awakened their Bloodline.

She knew that Soren had used an Initiation Stone to become an Initiator; something that decreased his potential strength in the princess’s mind. But then she learned that he had already cultivated to Rank 0 Layer-9; very close to breaking through to Rank 1. This increased his value to a whole other level in her eyes.

Now, she could either fix what she had done or she could end this potential enemy in his infancy; something that she was very reluctant to do.

“Can we help him somehow? That could mend our relationship.” Azure asked Livan. Although she knew that Livan could kill Soren, she still wanted to take different measures to try and fix their relationship.

…

Of course, all of that was just her side of thought. Soren had never held it against her personally. He was already aware of the risks when he began on this path. Just because he stumbled on a pebble, didn’t mean that he would spend all his strength to destroy that little thing. Not to mention, the Princess and her people were not ‘little’. Soren wasn’t going to create a new enemy just because of this small matter; especially, when the said enemy was of the royal descent.

All that he was concerned about right now was how to break out of the place that he was in; the place which Faron called the Black Chamber, Liston Family’s private prison.

After they arrived here, Faron had brought Soren to the underground and had locked him in one of the ‘prison cells’. There were no physical restrictions on him, but he had to spend a lot of energy to just move around in that cell. The Spell Formation that restricted physical movement made sure that Soren could not move around easily. Also, the moment he entered the cell, he felt a certain force pressurizing his Mana Core from outside. This force didn’t act on him physically, but it made sure that his Mana remained inside his Core; no matter how much he tried, he could not bring his Mana out.

The only relief in all this was that there was a small window near the ceiling. This window was just above the ground level, and such, wind came through it; slightly decreasing the stuffy smell inside the cell.

……..

Soren was sitting on the ground with his head down as he tried his best to cast any spell. After all his trials ended in failure, he started looking for any other way to accomplish what he wanted. He and Isaac started working on finding a method which could be used to either bypass the Mana restriction or let Soren cast his spells in any other way.

Sun went down soon, and the cell was thrown into complete darkness.

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