The sound of footsteps woke me up.
I slowly opened my eyes, and the first thing I noticed was the chains binding my hands and feet to a stone chair, my bare chest.
I tried to move, more out of instinct than any real chance of freeing myself, and the results were poor: not only did the chains barely budge, but the chair was firmly anchored to the floor.
The noise must have drawn someone's attention, because shortly after I heard a voice.
"Oh? Already awake? Good, then we can start right away."
I hadn't noticed immediately because the room was very dark, but there was a man on the other side of the room, staring at me.
After looking at him, I studied the room a bit.
There were dried bloodstains on the floor, chains on the walls, and… strangely, very few torture instruments. I had expected a much more frightening place.
On a table behind the man lay a strange crown, a bottle of water, small pieces of ice, some burnt wood, a toothpick, and other objects that honestly didn't seem appropriate for the situation.
I was very angry at the absurdity of the situation I was in.
Were they really punishing me for something over which I had no control???
I could understand being punished for poor performance during training or for attempting to rebel. But punishment just because my potential turned out to be lower than expected? You're kidding me!
Then I had a realization: when someone awakened and experienced being a newly awakened for the first time, it was normal to feel euphoric and think they were invincible—especially considering the age.
I had seen it in Victor, in number 7, and even in myself just a few hours ago.
Probably I wasn't the only one to be punished like this after awakening; I was sure the same thing had happened to everyone, with different excuses each time.
In fact, the instructor called these checks "medical," but everything I had done so far was only answering questions, so it was very likely that this too was part of the control.
The reason? Most likely to remind us of our position.
As I finished thinking, I heard the man's voice again.
"This is the first time we meet, number 33. You can call me Marcus, although you'll probably spend most of our time together screaming. Ehehehehehehehe."
Great, another lunatic.
After stopping laughing, Marcus picked up the crown.
"This will be our playmate for today. Its name is the Crown of Senses, an attempt to create an artifact capable of amplifying the user's senses."
Marcus began walking toward me with the crown in his hands as he continued talking.
"Unfortunately, it had some obvious flaws: the sensory amplification was too extreme." He paused to look at me. "Useless in the field… perfect for my work! The moment I saw it... love at first sight! Eclipse really is the best, I knew joining them was the right choice!"
As his voice grew louder and more fanatical, a crooked smile appeared on his lips.
"Imagine how many new methods of torture can be created with this object! Endless possibilites! And it's especially revolutionary for torturing awakeners, who are biologically more resilient than normal humans. This is incredible!"
When he stood right in front of me, I was "crowned," and I immediately felt a shift in my perception.
"NOOOOW WE BEGIIIIN!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH"
His voice, which had been just a bit loud before, now caused a stabbing pain in my head: it was as if someone had just screamed at full volume into my ears.
From that moment on, hell began: he placed ice cubes on my chest, and I felt frozen, dizzy, with a deep headache.
Then it was the turn of the burning coals: unbearable heat seared my skin and made me faint.
Then the toothpick, the water, screaming, ice again.
Cold, heat, sound, water, heat, water...
I don't know how many times I lost consciousness; the only thing I could distinguish was Marcus's crooked smile appearing every time he saw me awake, ready for another round of torture.
When I felt a weight leave my head, I knew it was over.
"Don't worry…" Marcus whispered with a horrible smile. "We'll see each other again soon."
I didn't even notice when I was taken to my new room.
Only after a few hours was I finally able to recover a bit. Thinking hurt; every idea was confused and shattered by the mere memory of the pain I had endured.
Slowly, I managed to put the pieces back together and return to a rational state.
It had been… horrible, to use an understatement. I hoped I'd never have to endure that kind of ordeal again.
I took back everything I had said before: I was incredibly frightened of the disciplinary room and that monster in human form named Marcus.
Just remembering it sent a cold shiver down my spine.
What shocked me most was that I was in these conditions with an awakened body, yet some of the others had been brought to the disciplinary room long before their awakening… now I understood why they seemed lifeless afterward.
I sighed and decided not to think about it for now. I looked around my new room: a bed, a mirror, a hole of unknown depth, a basin with water to clean my body, and a desk with a diary on it.
It was a spartan room, with no distractions, except for the diary.
Before leaving, the guard who had escorted me hinted that I would have to write daily about my progress as an awakened.
It seemed very important. They even asked if I were unable to read and write, in which case I would have to learn.
It was probably to monitor us and collect useful data, or it served a completely different purpose that I couldn't think of.
In either case, I would be careful about what I wrote.
I opened my eyes wide when a completely useless idea came to me, one that would probably help me maintain a bit of my sanity—or accelerate my descent into madness; I still didn't know which.
I remained still for a few minutes, completely calming my mind.
When I felt ready, I tried to create an illusion: I focused with all my strength to materialize the image I had visualized in my mind.
With difficulty, I managed to create a distorted feather that began to write in the diary, trembling irregularly.
"Dear magical diary of my secrets, today those bastards son of a—"
Not even ten seconds had passed since I had created the illusion before I lost concentration.
It was only a visual illusion of a small object, and I had to use all my focus to maintain it that long, but it was still a good start.
This would be a good training for using illusions and a way to vent my repressed emotions, hoping to avoid completely losing my mind.
I tried again but realized that I had practically exhausted my mana reserves after just one illusion.
I would need time to better understand my new body and other things, like mana regeneration time, my spell limits… I really had a lot to learn.
My goals, however, were clear:
1. Create an escape plan.
2. Kill Daren.
3. !new! Kill Marcus.
I would need a lot of time, especially to study the full structure of the base, the guards' movements, their numbers, their strength levels… but I wasn't in a hurry.
Despite everything, I was confident that Eclipse's training would turn me into a decent fighter, so I intended to use them fully until the day of my escape.
For now, with my exhausted body, it was better to go to sleep.