Chapter 153 (2/2)

Randidly gritted his teeth. This was why he needed strength. Because people like this existed. Because methods like this existed to hurt people. Then again, he had murdered someone to get here, so it wasn’t like this was being used on innocent people…

Randidly smiled sardonically. Sometimes being too self aware hurt him. It hindered his ability to dedicate himself righteously to a thought process.like this, made him realize that there weren’t any true evils in the world. Everyone was struggling under the same yoke, although they went about it in different ways.

So Randidly sat still not conserving his Aether per se, but attempting to keep his Aether from exploding upward in force, filling him and igniting his growth like it had done previously. True, he wanted to train while he was here, but he could afford to take it slow. He could gain an understanding of how much Aether he needed, and only allow that much to flow up into him. It would just take time and experience to narrow it down.

Eventually, morning came, and with it his torturer. Randidly was surprised to find that it was a youthful looking man, who seemed rather bored with the procedure. The man would open the door to Randidly’s cell, while the formation remained active, jingle the keys to his handcuffs, and throw attacks at him. There was a physical component, which was painful, but possible to withstand, but there was also the much more dangerous Battle Intent component, which battered Randidly’s very perception.

Even though he had known what was coming, the strength and maliciousness of the strikes caught him by surprise. It was designed to slowly maim and bleed a person’s psyche, driving to madness and hopelessness.

Randidly had a lot of respect for the torturer too. Battle Intent relied very heavily on image, and the images that ravaged Randidly’s consciousness were off decay and death. Bodies decomposing filled his vision as he was hit with those attacks. Flesh dissolving, bones grinded to dust, all returning to the still and cold earth. In a way, it was extremely painful, for Randidly felt his body go through all of those physical sensations, even though it was a purely cerebral experience, while he was enduring the Battle Intent attack. Within his chest, Randidly could feel his own vastly weaker Battle Intent marshalling itself, and being wiped out before it could even move. But every time it was shredded by the powerful Intent of death, it reformed, more condensed, stronger and more full.

Still, that strength was far behind the torturer’s.

Eventually, after several hours, the torture stopped, the man growing bored and leaving. And Randidly collapsed, breathing heavily. Even though he had known, even though he had prepared for a dangerous way to gain strength…. Never would he have imaged that it was through being tortured. HIs lips curled upward. He supposed that all life was torture, why should this be any different? At least this was honest.

He was slightly concerned with how morbid his humor was turning, but it was hard to be concerned about it when he was struggling to control the Aether within his chest. He let several threads rush up and merge into his body, strength flowing along his limbs. He felt his mind settle into a more formidable structure, and he felt the energy of his Battle Intent purify itself, and grow more robust.

Randidly continued to meditate, channeling energy through his body. The day passed much the same as the previous one had, with Randidly using Meditation and Mana Strengthening to struggle with the bonds on his hands. At the same time as the previous day, during the following morning, the young man arrived again and once more struck Randidly with his Battle Intent.

This time Randidly’s own Battle Intent was able to defend his inner core from any damage, preventing too much dizziness and nausea. But even then, he felt his abilities being slowly ground away, until after an hour, his intent was depleted.

Time stretched onward, leading unto the future.

Randidly continued through this cycle, slowly memorizing the timing and schedule of the the guards, using the free time to practice other skills and moves. His mana based attack were simply absorbed by the formation, creating a more powerful isolating effect from Aether in the air. This was perfect, for Randidly’s purposes, because he was rapidly gaining experience in controlling the Aether in his chest, preventing enough from leaking upwards for the torturer to notice.

Aside from the torturer, Randidly only saw a small slave boy, who brought food around every week. This food Randidly ignored, because it was just slop and stray traces of vegetables. His Vitality was nearing 100, and it was more than enough to allow him to continue without sleep or food. But he did find himself fantasizing in his spare moments about his favorite dishes from before the change came to Earth.

He was a little too hesitant to produce a spear from his ring which he still kept under his tongue, but there was a point that Randidly grew tired of just using spells and he began to bring out bracers and Engrave them.

Weeks passed, and as his Battle Intent was continually brutalized, he finally got both the bear and fish Engraving over 60%. He even began practicing the new sigils he learned from the Willow Tree Spear Style. The animal versions he now had over 40%, although not much more than that. Meanwhile, he made a few attempts at the Shadow Rune, but its complexities continued to elude him, and even after these weeks of grinding, his Meditation wasn’t enough to give him the requisite amount of mana to accomplish the full Engraving in one sitting.

Tortured mentally, plagued by the vicious Battle Intent powerfully associated with death, Randidly continued to grow. He repressed his own intent at one point, after about a month, keeping it from struggling against the invading intent, because it was nearing the level of strength it needed to fight back.

But he resisted, struggling against his mind’s natural instincts to defend itself. But he needed more strength before he broke out. He needed to grow here. So he Meditated, Engraved, and his Battle Intent grew increasingly dense and viscous. All the while, time flowed slowly past..