2175 Strike at Dawn (Part 1)
"Gods, I had almost forgotten how much I love children. Once you are done with them, they don't leave much of a mess."
Solus was shocked seeing how the man had no problem staring at his victims in the face. The shock turned into revulsion when she noticed that his excitement was much greater than the pain the small Demons inflicted upon him.
'Is he getting off it? Does this remind him of what he considers achievements?' She thought. 'By my Mom, whatever Thrud did to this guy it's not enough.'
'Agreed.' The reply crossing Lith's mind sounded like Derek's voice. 'Leave him to me.'
The elemental energy that filled his eyes disappeared, replaced by the blank of the Decay. For the first time since the two sides of his mind had met, Lith opposed no resistance.
The Void had already demonstrated a greater mastery over his Abomination abilities and whatever he wanted to do, Lith had no objections.
The Demons disappeared and the Abomination squeezed through the bars, standing right in front of the inmate.
"Why did you send them away? We were just starting to have fun."
"Look at me." The Void lifted the inmate by the neck so that his reflection appeared on the black slate of the Abomination's face.
"I must say, the seven eyes and the maw look better on me than-" The words died on his lips as the creature turned into a six years old boy and the cell into the abandoned field that he would never forget.
Unlike the Demons before him, the child had a perfectly human appearance and even wore clothes. Yet the color was drained from the face of the inmate and his bravado was replaced by fear.
"This is impossible! You are dead. You have to be. I fucking killed you myself!"
"Why did you do it, big brother?" The child asked as his clothes became covered in blood and a gash appeared on his neck.
"How dare you ask why?" The man had broken out into hysterics as he kept stabbing the boy yet no more wounds appeared on his body. "You were too damn perfect. You always did your chores and homework with a smile.
"It was your fault if Mom didn't love me anymore and kept nagging at me. That's why I killed you. Yet even once you finally got out of my hair, she just resented me more. That's why I kept killing you over and over."
"That's stupid. You're stupid." The small boy laughed from the heart, ignoring his older brother's frenzied attacks.
"Stop laughing at me! Why don't you just die?" Tears and snot ran down his face as even when his arm started to hurt from the stabbing, the childish giggle didn't stop.
"So that's what happened." The inmate froze as a woman in her mid-twenties looked down at him in disgust.
"Mom, no. I swear, it's not how it looks like. I can explain." The inmate knew that the woman couldn't be his mother. She was now old and bitter whereas the person in front of him was young.
Yet she was identical down to the smallest detail to his mother on the day he had killed his little brother.
"There's nothing to explain. You are the failure I always knew you were. You couldn't even kill the right son to make your mother happy."
"Don't say that, Mom. I'm sorry." He fell to his knees, trying to clench her skirt but she stepped back.
"Let's go, Ruthym. Mommy missed you a lot and has prepared your favorite foods." The moment her hand touched the child's, the wound and the blood disappeared.
"What about big brother?" He asked with a pensive look on his face.
"Forget about him. Pharam got what he deserves. Let's go home. Your father too missed you dearly." Then she turned around and walked away.
"Don't leave, Mom. Please, not again! Not again!" Yet neither she nor Ruthym seemed to be able to hear him.
They laughed as they embraced each other, brimming with joy for being reunited again.
"Please, I'll be good! I promise. Look at me, Mom. Look at me!" In a desperate attempt to please his mother, Pharam turned the ice knife against himself, stabbing at his own neck.
Mana was supposed to be incapable of hurting its owner yet a gash matching Ruthym's appeared on his body.
"Look at…" He bled out too fast to even finish the sentence.
"What the heck did you do to him?" Vladion asked Lith who was still standing in front of the prisoner.
Right after staring at the Abomination, the man had gone silent. Then, the inmate's face had turned pale and he had started crying like a baby. After a while, his eyes had rolled back and his mind collapsed.
"I have no idea." Lith answered as the chain that had plunged into Ruthym's chest disappeared and the elemental energy returned to his eyes.
"What I can tell you is that according to my diagnostic spell his body is as fit as a fiddle, yet no matter how much I try, I can't find a mind to form a link with."
'What the heck did you do to him?' He asked the Void who in that form was always a step away from him, like a passenger in the backseat.
'What needed to be done.' The reply didn't clear anything but Lith had no time to waste and no compassion for serial killers.
"Good." Kalla nodded, after confirming Lith's diagnosis with the Eyes. "Now let's go, this is still the first floor and we have many more to clear before reaching the power core.
"Let's hope we don't encounter any more surprises or all the sacrifices of our allies will be for nothing."
The group resumed their exploration, following the map while also constantly checking the floor with Life Vision to avoid getting caught again by a bored genius. The rest of the floor was just a copy of the first section they had entered from.
Corridor after corridor, even classes and laboratories had been converted into holding cells where the prisoners were Awakened and then tamed. The lack of sunlight made it impossible for them to keep track of time.
The isolation and the small cells eroded their will, making them eager to meet their trainers just to hear a voice that wasn't their own. Succeeding in a lesson meant more time in the open and better food.
Those who failed or refused to follow orders, instead, were sent straight back to their cells and would remain there until they had further refined their bodies and eroded their minds.
Lith only had a vague idea of how Thrud's system worked, but seeing how most of the prisoners spent their time training their core and body, begging from time to time to take part in another class, he understood that the criminals were being trained like animals.
And the worst part was that it seemed to be working like a charm.
***
Griffon Kingdom, Kellar Region, City of Belius.
"Thank the gods you're here, my Queen." Iata the Sekhmet gave Thrud a deep bow despite the many wounds covering her body, coughing out a mouthful of blood.
