TORTURE ROOM, DATE[???] TIME[???]
*Creakingg....
The hellbent door opened once again... Illuminating the room, but it wasn't the kind of light that gives—warmth.
It was cold, almost petrifying...
This time he wasn't alone... Kamryn was dragging another chair on which was tied the body of a person; it was still dark, so I couldn't see clearly...
Kamryn smiled ominously, "Hello, our most dear guest, I thought you'd be lonely, so I brought you a friend."
As the tiny bulb on the ceiling flickered and turned— I saw... Her, A person, a girl, probably in her teenage years, 15? 17? But her looks are definitely far younger... her body is slick and thin, malnourished even, her skin is light, and her hair was blonde, ears pointed, but what turned me over — Her eyes, gouged, and bleeding, it wasn't anywhere to be found... she was here longer, evident of the marks of scars all over, as if the same method of pain and regeneration had done to Her— that moment I knew, I wasn't the only one.
I don't know how many, but I know as if some gut instinct that we are not alone.
"How many more..." was a terrified thought I had
"How many more have suffered" I knew right there it wasn't just some gruesome method of interrogation, this is not some sort of twisted police force or whatever, This just plain outright Torture Chamber, and in the other end was that Psychopathic bitch that had enjoyed the pain of others, like some ecstasy, an addiction for blood, and agony...
That thought fueled my reason, I need not to wait longer... I need to escape this hellhole.
Kamryn snapped His fingers.
"Wondering off, are we? Or has the pain finally got through to you, well let's check, shall we..."
The very moment Kamryn grabbed the apparatus, I knew that when he measured me again, it was my one-time moment of escape. I cannot blow this over.
As he pointed the Scope into my eyeball, I began to imagine what I had done earlier.
I smelled the moisture in the air—
"Hydrogen molecules, Spinning Colliding, Heating, and Condensing"
But not yet, I can't be too hasty or else my manifestation might misfire
As I concentrate my thoughts, and conjure it slowly and slowly into reality
Kamryn exclaimed, "Huh, fascinating, KAKAKAKAKAKAKA, Our little RED, is now YELLOW... How in the fraction of one night had you gone into a breakthrough, not even one, but jumped into two spectra levels?"
Rapid ascension, something that took others months to master, well, he's a VISIONARY through and through
"It really seems that I just need to pry you a little more to get that real Kholer hiding behind you."
His utterance, I pay no heed, for that moment one thought surged through my very essence.
"Expand the heat, Particles vibrating, intensifying, the size— make it bigger, enough to burn this shit to the ground."
As my thoughts began to manifest, I saw the air tightly packing, the temperature of the enclosed room rising, and in that split second of Kamryn resting his back after his examination, I knew it was the right time.
NOW!
—
*KZRAKKKKK
A sound not of crisp flame, a stench of burn not of fire, but that of a sudden surge of lightning
it slithered through my body, electrocuting
*kzah....————————————————
My breath vanished, as my sight blurred to a pitch-black darkness, my life began to fade, to die, but not yet, even in death, I was forsaken, forbidden.
"Not yet, you're not, let's resuscitate your hea—" the muffled voice of Kamryn echoing in silence.
I gasped, and gasped for Air...
Finally, my consciousness regained, and the man paid no heed, and what welcomed me was laughter— from a sadistic amusement point of view.
*KAKAKAAAKAKAAKH
"Such a stupid eyesore, do you really think we wouldn't place a countermeasure? Especially against a Visionary? Do you take us for a fool, you blasphemous trash, you cock-sucking fu-"
Hah, Kamryn stopped and relaxed for a moment as if trying to meditate himself into a calmness.
"Well, that was a lesson— a lesson that you could not escape, even with every strength of your power, because in this room, you are nothing, and I am everything."
"So why not try again? You're killing the excitement, you know."
So let's play a game, this time it's different, this time you'll have the power, the choice... a game of torment and anguish.
As he muttered, he began to push the woman towards me, facing me in a deliberate manner.
Let me introduce you to one another.
He stood beside the woman, grabbed her face, and her hand showed more of her mangled body, then Kamryn spoke as if he were her.
a tone of mockery with a hint of psychopathy
"Hello Mr. Kholer, I'am Syleen, and I haven't learned my lesson, you see I stole from His Highness, quite long a go; a bread because apparently"— Then His tone changed "She was hungry," then slapped her nape in frustration.
So, Mr. Kholer, should you help me teach her a lesson???
As he spoke, he placed a deck of cards in front of me
"So here's the game," He spoke
"Each Tarot has a spell imbued in it; all you had to do is pick a card, one is either a punishment or— If she has learned her lesson, then the Grace of the Authors would help you to find the blank card that would set her free."
So, shall we start? Please pick a card... however, just so you know, I am Impatient.
I hesitated, after all his punishments are all torture, I can't — I can't pick at all, 100% chance I'd be condemning her to suffer more, I can't take that, I swore, I —
"Engkk, time's up, mister Kholer, since you don't understand my game, I'll show you an example."
Kamryn picks a random card
He smiled as he showed me,
It was a picture of— I gasped in horror, a burning flesh
I braced myself for I cannot endure to see others suffer...
it starts to get warmer, not in a slow increasing manner, but fast, flashy...
Then—
KRSSSHHH!
Both the girl and my hand set a blaze,
skin fizzling and melting,
Flesh burning and popping...
KRAHHHH..... Ssss... Ha... Ha... SZAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
Both of us cried in agony, in a beg of mercy as we smelled the burning stench of our skins, but we knew it was to no avail. After a Minute or so, it stopped, as our hands began to heal again. By this time, I was familiar with that Damned Restorative Magic.
"See, every time I had to pick the card, both of you would suffer, so it's a pretty bad gamble, don't you think?" Kamryn grinned
"PICK"
In sudden fear and desperation, my muscles twitched, my hands moved
I picked involuntarily
This time it was A pain I am familiar with, A picture of tendrils of bone shooting outward from the skin
"Very good, it seems the girl hasn't learned her lesson yet—"
*CRACK
UHAHHHH!! She cried
*CKREAKK.... VRAEKKK...
"AUGH.. AUGHH.. prease stop, —"
Her bones spiraled outward, blooming like roots of a tree, her arms and legs deformed, and right before her life faded, everything vanished, wounds healed, and cuts closed deep.
"Enafh... preasee... I'll do evfryh -ting " her voice was barely understandable, but her face and tears say it all, a girl begging for forgiveness, and mercy, willing to exchange even her soul for a fraction of time without pain or agony...
I cannot look
My eyes refused, and yet I had no choice
I clenched my jaw and gritted my teeth
As I picked cards one after another, was it cowardice, fear? All I know is not mercy or dignity, for I have no liberty to spare, I had no sympathy to give, for I have been forsaken as well...
each broken bone flashed into my shut eyes
"Murderer"
each scream of pain, of begging, resonated in my ears, the ringing of mercy I cannot give
"IT'S YOUR FAULT"
each stench of blood and tears I smell, remembering, embedding in my very conscience that in the end, I'm still responsible for everything
for only one wish had I in mind
"Please, let me pick the right card this time."
But one after another is just a session of her torture, and an endless cycle of pain
"Mr— prss [please], mscsy [mercy]... schlpp [stop]" Her voice, robbed of any life despite breathing, her words, inaudible, yet understandable—
"ENOUGH!!! PLEASE, I BEG YOU," I screamed
out of desperation, I flipped every card I saw as fast as I could, in hopes that maybe I would pick the right one
card after another
however—
The gruesome truth had spoken
IT WAS AN ILLUSION. THERE WAS NO FREEDOM OR REDEMPTION. IT WAS A FLAWED GAME
FOR EVERY CARD LAYED FLAT WAS JUST ANOTHER TORTURE...
In response to my action, Kamryn activated all simultaneously
He smiled in the corner as the horror unfolded
Teeth plucked off
Fingers cut
Blood dried
Lungs collapsed
After that moment, seconds that felt longer than any day I had spent
The poor woman was unrecognizable, not as a person but as a living being, every inch of her body mangled, some dismembered, torn, or peeled off...
And amidst it all, Kamryn showed a sigh of dissatisfaction
"Not even restorative magic can revive her. Well, it was unexpected, after all, I never thought you'd pick them all in quick succession, HER DEATH WAS ALL YOUR FAULT"
I—
I was in shock, in Dismay, I couldn't grasp a sense of reality anymore, the guilt is like chains choking my throat, No words dare to breathe—
Kamryn dragged her lifeless corpse out of the room, shutting every source of light that passed through.
Every inch of that darkness is like eyes
Staring
Pointing
Blaming
For a Sin I had committed, for the second time, I had murdered someone...
"However, I cannot falter not yet, I must not lose my sanity not in this place"
.
.
.
Minutes maybe... Hours have passed... the darkness is slowly crumbling my sense of time—
The darkness it- it reminded me of the room that brought me, that decorated table and towering chair, I wonder... The man back then, why did he say I brought them there, or is it also part of the power, a domain I control over?
So in my curiosity, I imagine and in there I manifested, like I had brought the room itself into that abyss, a decorated place.
There is the same Table and the same chair, only now figures are missing, and the only one resonating—
[???] I SEE... That's why, that's why you were chosen... You had an extreme mental fortitude, "She" was right after all.
A voice broke the silence, and the darkness...
Who are you???, I asked, Author??? KAMRYN???... Or am I really starting to lose touch with reality?
What arrogance, can't even recognize the voice of the body you stole???
Those words gave me assurance, a response; I wasn't insane, not yet, that is...
I am Nicaisse Kholer, well, the real one, the owner of that body...
"What then, how— wait, you. YOU... You are the reason I suffered," I shouted in anger.
The reason for my Pain, my Agony—
STOP, He said with the deadly glare —
I am not your enemy, you are not of mine... we are simply Pawns of those that hold power, the true OWNER...
"So why am I here???" What is my purpose???
"You already had the answer, written all over, however time shall take its place-"
What?- then as if some static bounced and reflected
[You already had the answer, written all over; however, time shall take its place]
...
"However, she has misjudged you."
His voice echoed like a slow crack in my mind—quiet, but spreading.
"You have the wits. The iron will. So much so that this place had been done simply with your consciousness
But
You are weak..."
NO...
He leaned in, his presence curling like smoke.
"You're harmless."
"Harmless?" I whispered—my throat dry from disbelief.
"Strength is not measured by how much you can wield, but the control despite its abundance, and a Man who has power, yet refuses to use it out of fear or mercy is not Noble, He's simply ...Harmless."
Then he stepped back, into shadow, and his tone shifted like dusk swallowing light.
"That's why I'm here. Like you, I was chosen. But I do not hesitate. I will be your shadow—and you, my light. You will be the kindness. I will be your madness."
I clenched my jaw. My voice cracked with defiance.
"But I am not you. I AM NOT A MURDERER!"
A pause. The silence between us hummed with ancient weight.
"You will understand... soon," he said, almost softly.
"The contract is sealed. And now... we are no longer just Rylee.
And I am no longer just a Kholer."
It seems our time is up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TORTURE ROOM, DATE[???] TIME[???]
My mind did not falter.
Not through the screaming pain, nor the steel-plucked nerves of torture.
And in return—I was awarded.
Not with gold, nor something tangible, but with something rarer: understanding.
I began to see.
Not just the memory I thought powered my Clairvoyance—but what housed it.
It wasn't the recollection.
It was the neuron.
The electric spark. The biological engine behind imagination.
"Good thing I was a persistent learner," I muttered, bloodied lips curling into a weak grin. A shiver of hope, I knew that moment, this was not the end...
"Thousands of neurons fire electrical signals in our posterior cortex when we look at an object. These neurons encode various characteristics of the object, for example, shape, size, texture, and color. This synchronous firing strengthens the connections between the set of neurons, putting them together in what's known as a neuronal ensemble, and when this ensemble lights up, we form a mental image."
But in this world, where imagination becomes reality...
That firing is the spell.
The theory of mental synthesis is all about timing. The brain has to coordinate that firing, to create that Image more clearly and vividly, and in order to strengthen that connection, one could either train the brain, or increase the amount of neurons that would coordinate, distributing the workload while maximizing efficiency and performance
And if you can control the neuron,
you can control the manifestation.
One could do so in natural means, but in this world where laws of reality are different, it is possible to force that process
NEUROGENESIS
This was the key to Spectral Ascension.
Not just mental clarity, but enhanced neural function.
By using Clairvoyance to force neurogenesis, I could multiply my brain's computational strength.
Like upgrading the circuitry of a motherboard
And that's why—from Red, I leapt to Yellow.
Not because of raw power.
But because I rewired myself to handle it, the moment I imagined not something big but something small, but also something clearer, more detailed...
Of course, the price of overuse was steep. At the most basic sense, it causes Fatigue,
However, if one overthinks it, it puts a heavy stress on the Neurons, overheating the brain, and if it is pushed more, it could lead to Neural-Death... hence, no fuel to burn for CLAIRVOYANCE.
The agony of torture is one of them, and I couldn't let that happen, so while Kamryn tortured me, while the pain screamed through every inch of my body, I adapted.
Not by brute resistance—
But by subtle reprogramming.
Restorative Manifestation
Not only can I use my power on my brain, but on every part of my body. In other words, if I can control it, I would be able to alleviate pain internally.
So each time, I was tortured... I manifested, small thoughts surged in my head, not much that it would be detected, but enough to make a change
one after another, I regained control.
I mapped the pain.
Localized it.
And rewrote it.
I started with the nerve endings.
Pacinian corpuscles—pressure.
Meissner's corpuscles—vibration.
Merkel's disks—fine touch.
Ruffini endings—heat.
Krause bulbs—cold.
Each time Kamryn introduced a new torment, I traced the origin and unplugged it.
Until eventually, my body became something else—
A doll of nerve and thought, like I had CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain)
But this was no curse.
It was my armor.
Now, only one problem remained:
The Counter-Spell.
The tether that keeps me from unleashing manifestation.
And once I dismantle that—
[Nicaisee > Rylee] "I will grant them no dignity of death, I will bring Hell."