Chapter 19: Chapter Fifteen—Solitude

The days melted together as my brain played tricks on me and my ears rang from the absolute silence except for my watch. The ticking comforted me to a certain degree. This room was soundproof, and by the gods, did it do that job well. Maddening was what most would call it. The only sense I could use was touch, and even that sensation rapidly declined. However, I thought Gracen underestimated how much this would affect me—learning to control my anxiety after that disastrous ship ride had built a tolerance to things of this matter. The joke was on her because I did destructive coping mechanisms independently. She wasn’t throwing anything new at me I hadn’t already done to myself. This was very uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t go insane—I hoped.

I thought I was prepared for the endless hours that were only made worse by the ticking of my watch. Once a comfort was now my misery. My ears rang with the striking absence of noise as I clawed at the cold metal floor for some sort of stimulation. It wasn't long before my nails had been filed down to the point of bleeding, but this was okay. My brain craved a sensation outside of my head, even if it was pain.

A couple of days passed—I think—before the door opened, and Gracen walked in, holding the lantern up to my face. She showed no emotion, and I couldn’t judge her reaction, which irritated me. 

My eyes squinted from the brightness. “How would you know the Demon Lord’s ego?”

“Because I helped kill the last one,” she answered as her cloudy eyes looked in my direction. “Arguably the reason we killed him. Of course, Immortal took the final blow.”

Gracen surveyed around like she wasn’t blind, but there was no way she had any significant vision with how whitened over her eyes were. Her pupils were hardly noticeable, and honestly, she resembled a corpse. Taking into account that she had fought the last Demon Lord meant she was not far from being in the ground. The blood magica had to be the reason she was still alive. 

“I think I’ve passed the test?” I said, hoping my optimism wasn’t wrong.  

She just remained quiet as the lantern flickered. “I was mistaken about your mental resilience. People who think they’re powerful will often falter at the moment of truth,” Gracen replied, snapping her fingers as the room edges ignited into a blue flame. The fire crawled up the side to the ceiling, really putting in perspective this room's size; what was this place for? “Test two,” she finished, walking away. 

Test two? How many tests are there? I was never leaving this place. This was my life now. If I knew I was going to die in this basement I would have talked to Chloe beforehand. Also, Gracen had four elements, which was not just rare, but impossible to my knowledge. This is the second question I’ll have to ask Edwin if I lived through this hell. The first was why he didn’t tell me someone from his family was coming to instruct me. I felt the secrecy was not needed, which just made me suspicious. The secrets made me anxious. 

“Wait, how long have I been here?” 

She glanced back. “Two days, and how long you stay entirely depends on you,” she said as a bag was tossed into the room, travelling through flame by the door. The leather satchel sat smoking from the contact. “There is food and water in there—you seem awfully calm for someone who might die from dehydration soon.”

Gracen was right; water was needed immediately. I had been keeping my movements slow and lying on the floor. The coolness of the metal surface kept me from losing unnecessary fluid from sweating. I hadn’t urinated in the corner for a day.

As she approached the wall of fire, it parted, allowing her out before abruptly closing with the door. I stripped down to my underwear before opening the bag to discover bottles of water and dried food. There wasn’t much food, but that didn’t stop me from consuming way too much at once. My body does not like being voluntarily starved.

This exercise was highly unnecessary, but it was also a challenge that I wanted to conquer because of this woman’s attitude. I wanted to see that expression of surprise when all those words of being weak were wrong—proving people incorrect was a favourite pastime of mine. 

I sat, staring at the ceiling. The room was unbearably warm at times. Worrying about falling asleep for too long and dying of dehydration was a serious concern. After about five days, I had rationed my water as much as possible, and I ran out. I wasn’t sure I would make it to the end of day six. I, however, came up with an idea. Releasing my black fire cooled my body off as my fingers felt numb. This was highly mitigated by the room’s temperature, which worsened the more I used my fire, but the moment of relief kept me calm, or at least tricked my mind into not giving up. 

Luckily anima burned clean because I am sure death from carbon dioxide poisoning would have happened already if not. There had to be some ventilation because I would have burned to death by now. This room had to be for interrogation. Everything in it seemed like it was for making someone’s life as miserable as possible without killing them.  

I somehow managed to make it to the last day as the door opened and the blue flame cut out, returning the room to darkness. The lantern swayed over again as she held it over my body. “Test two is… complete, I guess,” Gracen said with no enthusiasm, as if she was disappointed. 

Exhausted, I lay on the ground panting as the metal-masked man tossed a bucket of water on me. I hoped that wasn’t the same bucket I shit in for the first three days. While the water felt nice after baking alive for a week, my dehydration was more noticeable as the urge to lick the water off the floor was present. I abstained from the desperate impulse.   

A woman in nursing attire came over, kneeling next to me. I realised it was Nova from the hospital as she pushed me to my chest with no effort, which I found unusually easy for her size. Her violet eyes focused on the suitcase as she removed a needle from it, pulling a red substance into the syringe. Nova jerked my underwear down and slammed it into my ass cheek without warning. She was just… manhandling me.

“Doctor Federine said he is not to go more than a week without injections,” Nova said, tossing the empty syringe into a bag, and pulling my underwear back up before standing. “He said it was non-negotiable.” 

“Should I care who this man is?” Gracen replied, and I felt such a powerful aura that I was unsure if it was coming from Nova or her.

Nova walked towards the door and stopped next to Gracen’s shoulder. “Cyrus is of very high importance to us all, and I think it goes without saying that if he were to die in a manner not related to fighting the Demon Lord, it would create chaos—unless you plan on fighting the Demon Lord, which if I am being frank would be comical.”

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“Do you know—”

“Who are you? Yes, I do, irrelevant for current events,” Nova finished, walking off towards the door. Gracen was slightly derailed by her response, which took her a minute of thought before returning to me.

“Next, we will use water, and Mister Lawford will provide the elements,” she said, motioning towards the tall, masked man. 

The two left, and a breeze began in the room that soon turned into ice pellets that violently slammed into my side, bruising me quickly. I am brought to my knee, shielding my face as the strings of the frozen projectiles soon have me whimpering in pain. 

How in the world did these people could keep this up; I would run dry of anima in thirty minutes. Were they just sitting outside in chairs, tormenting me for a week straight? Their anima pool had to be insanely large to sustain this barrage. 

At this point, I was done with this test—I sat in a fetal position in the dark, and the water thrown on me froze over, making things much worse. If this was to see how far they could go before breaking me, that moment was soon. Given that I had already been here for over a week, I thought it would be acceptable to wimp out on this test. There was no shame in how long I endured this torture; most would have cracked earlier. However, something didn’t allow me to give up as I fought through what seemed like days. I hadn’t climbed this mountain of misfortune called life to give up now. If I were to save everyone around me, I would have to overcome bumps in the road like this.

As the wind howled in the room, I picked myself up with what little energy I had. Ice crunched under me as I managed to stumble to my feet. The frost pelted against my skin, cutting me when the angle was correct. I put my palms out into the room’s emptiness—the darkness was my space, my home.

The chamber shook as I started drawing the wind and ice into my hands, absorbing the magica with as much effort as possible. This was much harder than releasing it, and it took me hours to soak up the massive pool of magica before the room went silent. My hands felt numb as the sensation of needles filled my fingers. I had figured absorbing everything would cause Gracen to show up, and it did as the door swung open violently an hour later. She would likely scold me for cheating, but I was done with this test.  

Gracen walked over with her lantern. “Took you long enough,” she said, staring at me with her corpse-like eyes. 

“Wait, this is all I had to do?”

I actually saw a grin emerge from her face. “Yes, but it was enlightening to see how resilient you are. After the first test, I would have ended it if you consumed the fire. At least we now know if enemies captured you, you would take some time to falter.”

I let out a long moan. Surviving wasn’t the test. The test was for me to absorb the magica, and I genuinely felt, for the first time in my life, like an idiot. I could have skipped this torment, and I was definitely going to not let myself live this down.

Gracen escorted my beaten body out to Edwin, who stood on the other side with his hands in his pockets and a lantern sitting next to him in the dark. “You realise what you did, right?” 

“Nothing impressive, but I’ll humour the question. What did I do?”

“You absorbed an unbelievable amount of anima and magica,” Edwin replied, impressed. “That room was locked, so magica could not get out or in.”

“Okay? I shrugged, not comprehending his enthusiasm. 

“Look at the wall,” Edwin instructed, and I glanced over at the crinkled metal and busted pipers. 

I stared at it for a while, not understanding. “What does that mean?” 

“You pulled the power out of the wires and water out of the pipes around the room. We had a city-wide power outage because this room drew so much power.”

“Did I hurt anyone?” 

“No, but if that box was not stopping you—and I use that word lightly—you would have,” Edwin answered, picking his lantern up. “You must understand the power you wield is not to be taken lightly. And you are only an infant learning to take the first steps right now. You and The Divinity will wield a godly power together,” Edwin grinned. “We are going to end the Demon Lord for good and much more.”

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