This realization triggered a chain of very unpleasant speculations... but this wasn’t the right moment to start pondering over them.
Evidence of infection detected. What exactly did that mean? That black substance I’d seen — Darkness, wasn’t it? According to Miko, it was some sort of xeno virus which had come from the Black Moon. Could the Possessed have contracted it up there? Having said that, both Gnarl and Evyl looked perfectly human, nothing like those two poor bastards whom Darkness had risen from the dead after it had poured out of the Black Sarcophagus.
Evyl stepped close. Her cold disinterested stare made me uncomfortable. This is how you look at a lab rat you’re about to vivisect. Considering she hadn’t hesitated to do all these things to her own body, what kind of things could she inflict on somebody else’s? In any scenario, I was facing an excruciating interrogation session and the consequent study of my genetic material, followed by a slow and horrid death. Dying at Gnarl’s hands would probably have been a better option than being sent to Evelynn Mail’s lab.
“Good boy, so nice and quiet,” Evyl purred in a low voice which sent shivers down my spine. “You don’t seem to be afraid, do you? That’s good. Let’s have a little talk, shall we? What’s your name?”
I kept silent while rummaging desperately for available options. They thought I was a clan tribute, a regular human with a powerful Source — which was the exact reason I was still alive. The moment they realized I was an Incarnator, the situation would change because they’d start to employ the means capable of defeating one. And that would be the end. An open confrontation with the Possessed left me zero chances. Which meant I had to play along and suffer in silence while biding for time looking for an opportunity to escape. So I had to do my best to convince Evyl I was just an ordinary tribute.
Talking to her made sense in only one case: if I wanted to play for time and pull the wool over her eyes. But she didn’t look stupid; doubtful I’d be able to pull her leg for very long. What would a regular tribute do in my case, a proud heir of Fenrir clan? Most likely, he’d preserve a dignified silence. Very well. Let’s start by playing the unbending hero. That should look believable enough.
Evyl breathed a languid sigh. “You don’t want to talk. It’s so boring. I’ve seen it so many times before. Look, I’ll tell you now what’s gonna happen next. You think you have a will of steel and the balls to match. Well, you don’t. Breaking a man is the easiest thing in the world. Do you know how much time it’ll take you to start singing? A couple of minutes, if that. Then you’ll be begging me to stop.”
I had no doubt she was telling the truth. She must have had lots of experience. What other options did I have, then? The most obvious was attacking her with a Flash while I still had enough Azure. Even if the energy of Ra didn’t kill her outright, it would definitely deal her some heavy injuries and stun her to boot. That would give me some grace time — hopefully enough to break free from my bonds and finish her off.
Which was exactly where the problem was. My duel with Gnarl had rendered me more or less disabled — doubtful I’d even be able to get back to my feet without help. My sprawled arms and legs were secured with steel clasps which made an integral part of the operating table. I had no doubt that Evyl had had enough practice dealing with patients who’d needed to be securely immobilized.
Besides... the Flash could also hurt the werefox trapped in the cage. Not that I was so concerned about her — but at the moment, I viewed the creature as a potential ally. Both of us were prisoners of one and the same enemy. Also, her phenomenal agility and reactions had left a lasting impression on me. If I managed to get her out of the cage, she could create a lot of problems for the Possessed.
“Pretty boy... handsome body. Would be a shame to damage it, wouldn’t it?” Evyl ran a thoughtful hand down my torso. Her touch would have been almost gentle had it not been for the five bleeding lines left by her sharp dark-blue nails.
“I don’t enjoy hurting people,” she continued, then giggled and added with a crooked grin, “Well, maybe just a little bit.”
Her fanged grin and the weird glint in her eyes were a clear indication of her hovering on the edge of insanity. You can’t preserve the clarity of mind when trapped in an inhuman body constantly altering with the effects of A-energy. It did leave its stamp on you. Miko had been right warning me against the consequences of implanting myself with incompatible genomes.
She pressed something, causing the table to slowly rise to the vertical position. Once it reached the seventy-degree angle or so, it stopped, leaving me lying on a slanted surface.
The change had caused an excruciating pain in my broken wrist and kneecap. I let out a loud groan, unable to suppress it.
“Here we are singing already,” Evyl commented. “So what’s your name now?”
I didn’t reply. She pensively rummaged through a small steel toolbox filled with all kinds of surgical tools. Scalpels of every possible shape and size; bone files; needles, scissors and tongs...
“The areas that guarantee the best results are eyeballs, dental pulp, fingers, eyelids and the crotch area,” she said confidentially. “The latter is especially popular with the Rogues. Those guys have some imagination! What would you prefer, sweetheart?”
She finally made her choice. Smiling, she showed me a pair of curved nippers. Their serrated edges glistened ominously.
“If you don’t have any personal preferences, I think we’ll start with your fingers.”
I closed my eyes and tried to relax and distance myself from what was about to happen. This was only my body. This was only pain — a body’s reaction to physical damage. I wasn’t Sven Greyholm. I was Grey, an Incarnator, an incorporeal entity which could change its hosts at its first whim.
Still, my sangfroid didn’t help me much. As soon as Evyl began her manipulations, an all-consuming pain shot through my body, snatching me out of my stupor and reminding me that these were my fingers, my hand, forcing me to scream and groan as I convulsed in my bonds trying to escape the agony.
“Shame about your hand, don’t you think? I know it’s only the left one...”
She’d been right. I’d only lasted a few minutes. I could think of myself as an unbending hero all I wanted but the reality was, an unbearable pain quickly reduces you to a shrieking cornered animal which would do anything at all just to stop the torture.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you,” my executioner drawled. “Come again? What did you say?”
That bitch! Now I really hated her with pure unadulterated hatred. I hated all of them — the Possessed, the Rogues, everyone! If only I could, I would have killed them in a dozen various ways.
Still, she was stronger. All I could do was whine in pain, spitting blood. “Sven... Sven... Greyholm!”
She bared her teeth in a grin. “Good. Very good, Sven. Good boy! The first words are the most important. Are you from the City? How did you end up in Fort Angelo?”
“Legion’s... raid... I was... the only... survivor...”
“How interesting,” she drawled. “Mind telling me more about it? Your destination? The name of your leader? Which cohort were you? How many Warriors and Enchanters did you have?”
“I... I can’t... remember...”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to, sweetheart. You’ll absolutely have to,” she almost sang, once again raising her instrument of torture.
It suddenly occurred to me that this might have been the exact reason why the old “me” had wiped his own memory clean. He must have expected something like this to happen. You can’t be tortured into revealing something you don’t know. He was trying to protect some vital information, the key to which was hidden in that Tower of Void back in the city, inside the mirror which was behind the heron...
I had to keep his secret, whatever the cost. “I really... can’t remember!”
“You still have four more fingers, sweetheart. Please try to make an effort.”
Pain comes in plenty of shades. It c
an be slow and nagging; it can pierce you like a sharp needle or sever you like a serrated blade. That day, I learned all about its many varieties. I couldn’t think straight. A panic seized me. I just couldn’t see a way out of this.
While she was trying to extract information from me, I feverishly opened the Status tab and skimmed through the list of my abilities.
STATUS: Incarnator
Project Stellar
Name: Grey
Rank: Recruit (commendations: 2)
Total Azure count: 7850/14300
Source: Energy Type Ra
Special Abilities : Speck of Light (1), Reinforcements with Light (1), Flash of Light (3)
Physical modifications: Source Upgrade (5); Bone Structure Upgrade (1), Muscle Tissue Upgrade (1), Metabolic Upgrade (2), Nervous System Upgrade (2)
Genetic Modifications: Binocular Vision (Ptar Genome)
Available Neurospheres : 1
Available Genomes : Hydra Genome, Bottom Crab Genome, Rattus Genome
What of this could save my bacon? Hydra Genome wasn’t available yet. Ditto for Crab: all I could implant straight away was Impermeability to Radiation which was pretty irrelevant at the moment. The Rattus Genome I’d received while fighting rats in Fort Angelo’s underground tunnels didn’t offer anything of particular value, either.
Warning! The integrity of your host’s body has been compromised! Current integrity: 98.2%
The drop in Integrity below 30% will render your host’s body unfit for any further incarnations.
Evyl seemed to be finally getting fatigued. She turned to the garms in their cages and hurled them the bloodied scraps which had only recently been my fingers. Whining, the monsters greedily attacked the treats.
Evyl watched them with a smile. “These babies are constantly hungry,” she explained. “It breaks my heart to look into their begging eyes...”
I’ll kill her. Hatred throbbed in my skull. Viscous blood dripped to the floor from my mangled hand. The giant cyberwarg — her bodyguard — walked over to us and licked the floor greedily. I could hear his bloodthirsty grunting below, right next to my feet.
Bastards. Scumbags. Fucking Shivas.
What else could I use? The Reinforcements with Light were still too weak. Should I invest my only neurosphere into a muscle tissue upgrade and try to force my way free?
And then what? She was still stronger than I was.
That left Flash of Light.
“I don’t like the fluctuations in your background Azure levels,” Evyl suddenly said. “What do they teach you at Timus these days? Do they help you develop your clans’ techniques? Summon fire and wind? Stop your own heartbeat? You need to know that these tricks aren’t worth jack against an authentic Incarnator. Never mind. Let’s see what you’ve got in there.”
She laid the bloodied nippers aside and produced the same fat rod of silvery steel which she’d used to torture the shapeshifter girl with.
“Keep still,” she warned me. “Otherwise it will hurt.”
The sharp probe with a slanted tip snapped out, sinking into my neck. I hissed with a new bout of pain.
Azure extraction process initiated
Azure lost: 380...
Azure lost: 450...
Azure lost...
The pale blue A-energy bar in my interface began to shrink in leaps and bounds.
That witch was somehow syphoning my Azure! That’s what that thing was for!
Seething with fury, I jerked my head, trying to pull the needle out, but Evyl’s dark blue nails dug into my face with inhuman force, immobilizing me.
“Keep still, I said!” she hissed.
After about half a minute, she pulled the needle out herself. I watched her snort in surprise, staring at a steady blue light which had replaced the blinking green one at the rod’s other end.
You’ve lost 3456 Azure
Total Azure count: 4394/14300
“That’s some healthy Azure content you’ve got, honey,” her voice rang with surprise. “The battery’s fully charged! You must have a very powerful Source.”
Finally, my interface highlighted the rod in her hands, supplying information:
Universal telescopic Azure extractor
An Azure Artifact
???
The extractor’s back end opened up. Evyl reached inside, producing the already-familiar Azure capacitor made of beryllium bronze and altered glass. According to my interface, it contained 5000 Azure. It was identical to the ones I’d received from Stellar for completing my missions. My heirloom cryptor had a whole slotful of already-spent ones.
So that’s how you charged them, restocking the supply of the Incarnators’ universal currency?
“How very interesting,” Evyl muttered as she walked off and nonchalantly set the glowing battery on one of the shelves. “What a powerful Source. An incredible amount of Azure for a regular human. I bet you have more where this came from. Fancy sharing it with me?”
That’s when I realized I couldn’t wait any longer. Another extraction would bring my Azure stocks down to zero, rendering me unable to reincarnate or activate an ability. Which would be the end of me.
You could see Evyl was a professional. She would indeed squeeze me dry and unravel my story thread by torturous thread. Very soon she’d know everything about my memory loss, my true nature and the secret stash somewhere in the City. I shouldn’t be too optimistic: Incarnators weren’t immortal, after all, and I was pretty sure that the Possessed had the means of capturing and eliminating even the likes of myself.
A new empty battery clicked into the extractor’s handle. A flashing red light came on.
“Keep still, sweetheart,” Evyl cajoled me while bringing the sharp needle to my neck.
I drew a deep breath, relaxing every muscle. Once she got really close, I went for it.
Chapter 3
Speck of Light!
THE LITTLE TONGUE of flame flickered on, swirling in the air just next to my mangled hand.
Evyl startled. Too late: the little spark had already slid into the little space between us — then unfurled in an all-consuming explosion of Flash of Light.
A wave of scalding heat surged over me, blinding my eyes behind my tightly squeezed eyelids with its raging white flame. Luckily, the solar flare of Ra couldn’t hurt its own creator; all I could feel was a powerful gust of hot wind.
The fire hissed and roared; I heard some high-pitched sounds followed by popping and cracking. Evyl must have been instantly swept aside, away from me.
In an instant between two heartbeats, not waiting for my eyesight to restore, I summoned my cogitor:
Wake up, Miko!
Almost simultaneously, I activated my only neurosphere, selecting Muscle Tissue Upgrade (2). According to its description, it improved both my muscles’ strength and conditioning. I just hoped it was enough to help me break free from my fetters. A shitty plan, I know, but it was the only one I had!
I had to give Miko justice: she jumped straight in. Now that I’d betrayed my true nature by openly confronting my torturess, we couldn’t stop halfway: we had to employ all of our reserves.
As if reading my thoughts, Miko instantly took stock of the situation and did a quick calculation.
“Grey, the muscle upgrade isn’t enough! You need to release one hand, at least! Do it! Just rip it!”
She instantly conjured up a quick 3D picture, showing me what I had to do. By mauling my hand, Evyl had in fact helped me: with enough effort, I could squeeze the long-suffering stump of my hand through the steel cuff. That’s what desperate animals do when they’re caught in a steel trap: they chew their trapped limb off.
I was an Incarnator. My body was only a tool. My spirit was stronger than my body’s animal instincts.
“Grey, NOW!”
Mustering up all of my willpower, I yanked my hand as hard as I could, ripping skin to the bone. A mind-boggling pain pierced my body but I had no choice. It was do or die.
I screamed
my head off. The pain blinded me for several seconds. Then I felt unexpectedly light when my bloodied stump had finally broken free.
“You did it! Well done! Prepare to reincarnate! I’m stopping your heart!”
Activation No 13...
Repairing the damage to your host’s internal systems...
Success! Incarnation complete!
Current Azure count: 2794/14300
I opened my new eyes.
Evyl’s lab was consumed by fire. The lighting had gone off; all I could see was clouds of smoke wafting in semi-darkness. Sparks flew from machines and severed cables; the electromagnetic impulse had disabled all the electronic equipment. Everything within several paces was scorched; the flames licked greedily everything that could burn. The garms thrashed about in their cages, ablaze.
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series Page 3