Stygian Mage

Soren lay in his cell with weak groans of pain coming out of his throat. His naked upper body was full of bruises and cuts. Although these wounds were not life-threatening, they caused him a great amount of pain. In a strange way though, these wounds were only limited to his upper body area, his lower body and his face were completely intact.

His current situation was the result of a ‘torture’ session which he had just gone through. It had already been a few days since he was brought here. The torture sessions had started soon after the Liston Family was done deciding his fate. Although Soren had some guesses before about what was going to happen to him, his current situation went above and beyond all those.

Every single day, he had three ‘torture’ sessions; this was his current routine. One session right when the sun was about to rise, another when the sun was at its peak, and the final one when the sun was about to set.

When it would be time for a session, a few people would come to his cell to bring him to a certain room in this building. He would then be tied to a metal chair with chains that would completely restrict his movements. The session would then start and would go on for at least an hour.

The first few sessions were held by only Faron. But then the girl, who introduced herself to Soren as Carla, took over. Initially, Soren had noticed a hint of hesitation in her actions, but as the pain became unbearable, he forgot all about that.

And like that, his torture sessions continued as usual. On some days, it was Faron; on other days, it was Carla.

….

Soren dragged his bruised body towards the wall and sat up straight with its support. Right now, just this small action was enough to make him pant and groan. He then closed his eyes and the images of the torture session went through his mind. The whole thing felt very weird to him. They never asked him anything, they never questioned him about anything, and they never forced him to do anything. The only things that anyone could hear in these sessions were Soren’s screams.

They just kept hurting him. They used different tools for different purposes, but the end result was always Soren’s screams. Soren didn’t know why, but they only focused on his upper body; his face and his lower body were kept intact.

Back in his cell, Soren opened his tired eyes and looked around. It was night time right now, and the cell was completely covered in darkness. This was the time he waited for every day. His last session of the day was over, and he would not be disturbed anymore. So, this was the best time he could do his stuff without anyone finding out about it. He let out a weak breath and then started his daily routine of ‘Devour’. He had been doing this ever since the day he arrived here. Due to the restriction on Mana in this place, he could not use it for long. Not only that, but the amount of Mana gathered in every use was also much less than what it used to be. But regardless, he persevered on.

His CP rose very slowly, but it definitely rose. Soren knew it would take much longer for his CP to reach 98-99% at this rate, but he had no other option if he wanted to survive through this.

After some time, Soren started to feel the stress and knew it was time to stop. He then started doing the second part of his routine. He brought both his hands behind him and cast <Dark Bolt> using the Mana which had gathered around him because of ‘Devour’. The weak spell left his hand and hit the wall behind him; his actions were well hidden by his own body so there was very little chance for anyone to notice something, given they could see anything in the dark in the first place.

The withering property of the spell acted on the brick joints of the wall and weakened them. Soren knew it would take him a long time to weaken the whole wall, so he had decided to just weaken the places where bricks were joined together. After they were weakened enough, he could pull them all out one by one and create an opening. 

Soren cast the spell once again after the previous one was over; he repeated the process until he started feeling fatigued. Casting a spell with Mana which was not his put a huge burden on his mind; it was not something he wanted to try under normal circumstances. For the final part of his routine, he used what was left of the Mana and cast <Cold Touch> on his upper palate. This was to keep the ice up there frozen.

Soren did these things daily after the last torture session was over. Everything he did was for the sake of survival.

………

A few more days passed like that. Soren continued living the same routine every day. But some things changed. The target of the torture had now shifted from his upper body to his lower body. Cuts, bruises, and burn marks covered every part of Soren’s legs. He even had pins inserted in between his toenails and the skin a few times; the pain became so unbearable that Soren had fainted at that time.

Soren had pleaded with them again and again to stop. He had even agreed to work for them willingly and was willing to sign a higher-ranked contract to make the pain stop. But all he got in response was silence and some more torture. He was at his wit’s end. While he was using his spell to weaken the walls in his cell, he was not sure that he could hold on till that was finished.

His miserable days passed like this.

During this time, he saw some new faces in his torture sessions. Although he didn’t recognize any of them, they all had one thing in common. The way they tortured him felt like they were taking out all their frustration on him. Faron and Carla, especially Faron, were completely emotionless when they hurt Soren. But these people beat him with passion; he had become a sandbag for them at this point. The only thing that didn’t change was that they alternated between his upper body and his lower body; they left his face intact. Slowly Soren got used to the pain; his pain tolerance was going up. But as he thought he could bear it all, they increased the intensity of the tortures. They never let his pain come to an end.

Soren had stopped pleading at this point. He knew it was of no use. He had somewhat figured out what they were trying to do; they were going to break him. If someone had told Soren this a few weeks ago, he would have laughed at them; he was confident that he would not give in so easily. But now, he was not so confident. His will was wavering each day. Although he was determined to see this through and survive on the other side, he was not sure his mental strength would hold on till then.

The only good thing about all this was that he got to eat good food daily. Although he had to finish his daily business in the same cell, it didn’t decrease his appetite. Soren could guess the reason behind the good food; they wanted to keep him on edge and not do any permanent damage to his body.

….

One ‘normal’ day, Soren sat in his cell with the support of the wall. The window of the cell was on his left side while the metal gate and walls were on his right. Weak and diffused sunlight was entering the cell through the window, making the small dust particles floating inside visible.

Wan!!

Suddenly, he heard a weak but high pitched barking sound. It sounded like a bark made from a pup or a cub of some animal. Soren weakly lifted his head to look at the window; that was where the sound was coming from. He saw a white-furred pup covered in the dirt looking at him through the metal bars of the window.

After taking one look, Soren ignored the little Beast and closed his eyes. He was in too much pain and was too tired to play with this pup.

Isaac, which Beast is this?

Talking to Isaac was Soren’s only time-pass in the cell. Although Isaac was not sentient yet, Soren still enjoyed talking to him during his rest time. While the topic they talked about was completely random, they all were about what they would do after breaking out of this place. This had kept the hope alive in Soren’s heart and also slightly distracted him from the pain.

“It is a Snow Fox’s pup, Master,” Isaac said in his usual emotionless voice. Although Soren’s development in ‘Intelligence’ had also helped Isaac develop, he was still not at a complete sentient level. But it was not like he was not showing signs of such development; his actions when they found out about Soren’s ‘Vitality’ damage were proof of that.

Wan!

Wan!

The white-furred pup didn’t stop after he saw Soren ignoring him. Instead, he continued to bark at him unceasingly.

Wan!

Wan!

He only stopped when he was out of breath but then continued again when he recovered. He seemed to have some interest in Soren; the Beast wasn’t willing to back down at all.

Soren, getting slightly annoyed by all the whimpering and weak barking, tried to shoo off the pup. But it was to no avail; the pup continued. Soren tried his best to not pay any attention to it but the high pitched noise was just not something that he could ignore.

The pup continued to bark at Soren from the window and it annoyed him more and more. The situation became so weird that Soren forgot all about his pain, all about his situation, and just wanted to drive this little creature away.

And so, he shouted, “Fuck off, I’ll kill you if you make one more sound.”

Soren’s shout startled the little pup as he abruptly ran away while making whimpering noises. Finally, Soren had his silence and peace. But this shouting and body movement had taken a toll on him so his breathing became slightly rough.

Soren sat there in silence, his breathing rate slowly returning to normal. Now that there was nothing to grab his attention, he started to feel the pain once again. Even a little twitch in his body increased his pain by several folds. He tried to forget about it all but it was not so easy. The pain kept reminding him of the situation he was in. Soren was very close to falling into complete despair; he did not know how much longer he could hold on.

Wan!

Suddenly, Soren heard the same noise which had irritated him before. The annoying little Beast had returned. Soren’s shout had startled him before but after seeing that Soren was not coming after him, he returned to that window again.

Wan!

And it started once again.

Soren gritted his teeth harder and harder with every bark that the little fox made. He was totally annoyed right now. He tried shouting at the beast a few more times, but nothing worked. After getting startled by the shouts and running away, the fox would always return back.

Things continued like this for a while. Soren’s shouting stopped working on the Beast entirely. Now, whenever Soren shouted, the Beast not only did not run away, it started barking even more loudly.

At last, Soren released a defeated sigh and let things be. He realized that he could not do anything about it from inside the cell. The only method Soren could think of was to go over to the window and hit the Beast whenever it came close, but Soren decided not to do it. He was not willing to spend energy on such a useless task. So, he just let the little fox bark as much as it wanted.

…

Days and nights kept changing places as time passed by.

Soren’s routine had slightly changed in these few days. Whenever he came back to his cell after a torture session, the little fox would be waiting for him near the window. Although Soren was very annoyed by him at the start, he gradually started to get used to this little Beast. The presence of the fox gave Soren a sense of peace and serenity that he hadn’t had since the day he arrived there. The fox made him forget all about his pain and his situation. He had gained a new ‘talking’ companion now. Although they still had the language barrier, it neither stopped Soren nor the fox. None of them understood each other, of course, but they didn’t stop ‘talking’ to each other. Soren had even asked Isaac to translate what the Beast was trying to say; it was a joke, but it nonetheless proved the huge contrast in Soren’s attitude from before.

….……

It was night time and Eastwood Town was lit with small light bulbs. But there were places that were covered in darkness with moon and stars as their only source of light. A shadow covered in a dark cloak was moving at a high speed in one of those dark alleys. From how fast the shadow moved, one could easily tell that this was an Initiator; and a high ranking Initiator at that.

After making a few turns and checking for any tails, the shadow slightly slowed down and finally came to a stop as it reached a certain alley.

“I don’t like coming to these kinds of places. Make sure to pick a better place next time.” A sharp and feminine voice cut through the darkness as it slightly echoed in this empty alley.

This sentence was meant for the shadow that had been rushing here, but the person in the shadow knew better than to reply to the young miss’ selfish ranting.

“He is currently being held in the Liston Family’s Black Chamber. He’s getting tortured daily and their final aim is to break his mind. What do you want me to do, Miss?” The person in the dark cloak said with a high pitched and slightly sweet voice; it was clear that this person was a woman.

“I want him dead.” The girl who the shadow had referred to as the ‘Miss’, gritted her teeth and spat out those words with deep hatred.

It was crystal clear that this girl hated the person that was being mentioned; that person was Soren.

“It would instead be a release for him if we kill him, Young Miss. Wouldn’t it be better if we let the Liston Family keep torturing him?” The person in the shadow moved forward and removed the hood of her cloak.

Although it was completely dark in that alley, the light from the moon made it so that it was barely enough to see this person; this person was Carla, the same Carla who worked for the Liston Family. And the ‘Young Miss’ that she was currently referring to was the eldest daughter of the Abbate Family; the one whose lover Soren had assassinated in the club.

“But they will keep him alive after breaking him. I want him dead. I want him to suffer before he dies. I want to hear his screams as I cut him, little by little. I want him to feel pain for every second that he lives.” Words full of hatred came out of this young girl’s mouth one after another. It was very clear that she truly hated Soren.

Carla knew this girl’s nature so she wasn’t surprised by the things she heard. She knew that the guy Soren had killed was like a plaything for this eldest daughter of the Abbate Family, Dina. But regardless of what he was to her, she could not tolerate someone else killing him; not to mention the place and situation he was killed in. When the news and the details of his death had gotten out, everyone who knew her had made fun of her; the guy had just died in a very embarrassing situation. Dina hated being made fun of; she hated being laughed at; she hated when someone undermined her; she hated when someone looked down on her. So, as a result, all her hatred was transferred to the person who started all this; Soren.

…

Carla didn’t disturb Dina as she brought out all the hatred inside her through words. Finally, after a while, Dina calmed down.

“Ok, let him be for now. Keep an eye out on his situation. If you think he’s about to give up and break down, kill him. Kill him in the most painful way. And tell him my name before he dies.” Dina said after calming herself down.

Carla simply nodded as she heard the order from Dina. A hint of hesitation then appeared on her face as she struggled to decide if she should speak up or not. Finally, as Dina was about to leave, Carla gathered all her courage and spoke up.

“Young Miss, may I know if my brother is all right?”

Her brother was her life. Her brother was the only family she had left in this world. He was the reason she was working as a spy for the Abbate Family. Carla even had to create a fake persona for this, which she maintained in front of the others. That was because the things she was ordered to do by the Abbate Family were things that she could never bear to do with her kind nature. She had to create a persona of someone who was crazy and bloodthirsty which acted as a shell for her. It protected her kind nature, which she only brought out in front of her brother. Without that outer persona, her mind would have collapsed completely and she might have just become a crazy killing machine. But as she was now, she could protect what little of that kind and caring nature of hers remained; or at least, that’s what she thought.

She hadn’t realized it yet, but that fake persona was not fake anymore; it hadn’t been for a long time. It had already become a side of her that she just wasn’t willing to accept. She lived in a world that was based on the survival of the fittest. Her fake persona might have been fake in the beginning, but that was what kept her alive; what kept her brother alive. And at this point, it had already become an intrinsic nature of hers.

“He is fine. He has gone out hunting with his group to catch some Beast cubs. Don’t worry about him. You just do your job, and he will be safe.” Dina replied and then walked away.

Carla stood there with a wry smile on her face. The group that Dina mentioned was the group that her brother belonged to. Her brother was very happy to be in this group which was made up of Abbate Family’s low-level Initiators. But what he didn’t know was that this group was the Abbate Family’s way of keeping him a hostage. The people who her brother thought of as teammates were there to make sure he stayed alive and retained his value as a hostage. Her brother was very naïve and was not the type of person to ever doubt his teammates; he would even fight with his sister if she said something against them. As such, she had to maintain the status quo. Even if she wasn’t willing to, she had to; for her brother. 

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