chapter 9: Prisoner: part 2
Lophin awoke in a state of complete and utter blindness. As soon as he opened his eyes he felt a searing pain and could not see even his hand when placed squarely across his face. He began to probe his ocular area with his fingers. He started first at where their veins would start, circling while gradually closing in on his eyes. Soon he got to where his eyes would be and discovered that they were nonexistent; his eyes had been gouged out, the blood crusted on the inside of his new cavity. Even his eyelids, which he now inspected with great curiosity, surprise, and caution, felt rather dry and weak to his touch. After a few moments, they crumbled into powder in his hands; a white dust now sprinkling them, invisible to their owner. The pain he felt was not only from the slow degradation of his face, he discovered, but from the air reacting to the previously untouched eye sockets. He sat there, trying to weep but could not, as his tear ducts had already gone.
After what seemed a long while had passed, he stumbled up onto his feet and decided to explore his cell as well. He felt around it in a very circumspect manner, not letting anything out of his reach escape his knowledge. Lophin learned that his new prison was about three feet wide, four feet long, and more then eight feet tall. He guessed that his chamber must have an open ceiling as it had no openings on any of the sides and fresh air was constantly circulating in the room. Other than walls of thick granite and cement, there was nothing. Toilet, bed, food, water, these items did not grace his current location. On all sides the granite was rough and abrasive, more than usual. It seemed that someone had built the walls with sharp outcroppings every few centimeters or so, creating makeshift spikes. This meant that the only way Lophin could ever receive rest would be to curl up on the cold floor. Speaking of which, the temperature inside his cell was cold. Strangely enough, its attendant, moisture, did not accompany this abrupt temperature. His cell had become so cold that there was a thin layer of ice grazing all of the walls. But this ice was of the wall's substance itself, compacted even further, no water needed. This being the case one could not feel the ice, only the walls themselves. The beating in Lophin's chest was already slowing, even though his excitement and frightened awe at his living conditions had not ended. He curled up into a ball and lied on the floor, suddenly remembering the previous days with nostalgia. He remembered his fight with Talon and waking up inside an unbreakable box, as well as the people who released him from that casket, whom he believed to have put him in it as well.
All at once he remembered his chakra and tried to channel it into his hand, but nothing came. He felt along the rest of his body feeling a strange seal engraved into his skin. The seal that our protagonist bore is called the Absolute Seal, as its effects could not be altered. This design was tattooed all along his chest and its effects could not receive a counter release, they were much too powerful. The seal itself gradually dissimilates the wearer, starting with the most liquid, yet external portions of their body, namely the eyes. Once these are gone the seal converts all its attention at one point in the skin and burrows down through it. Once inside the body it dehydrates it further and breaks down the remaining substance. The latter part however, is extremely slow, so the seal converts part of its energy into enlarging the hole, so that the body may suffer natural degradation as well. Even so, the process can take up to twelve years, depending on the strength of ones body. There are no further variables than durability in this state of torture.
After another alleged eternity, he heard a creak at the top of the cell, and felt light warm his body. A man then jumped down into the hole, his descent lasting three minutes. Once he had retrieved Lophin he used his chakra to run back up the wall, afterwards presenting his success to Kaiser. Lophin was then dragged by his foot for a distance he measured to be ten feet. When they arrived at the testing compound, Lophin was strapped down onto an operating table.
Lophin could hear the sound of three medic ninja hovering above him, discussing about which test to start with. Then he felt a needle jab into his arm and inject a substance. Soon afterwards his body began to go numb, starting at the point of breach. Lophin's demon then surfaced in order to counter the deadly substance, however Lophin was still too weak and could do naught but fight the other fatal agents they began to fervently pump and inject into his body. His otherworldly power fought off this onslaught and healed all wounds they dealt to him, from bypasses, and cuts, to complex stitching and even removals. They were astonished at his fascinating ability to heal injuries and at even the renewed strength of his organs. They could only guess at what physical force Lophin could exert. Although they still wanted to play with their new toy, the doctors began their true experiments, fitting him with special weights and braces, with which his body would grow for the next three weeks. Each was capable of compacting the equivalent force of a car, and would restrain all other abilities for a week. Before Lophin was taken away, he was given one piece of cloth. The cloth was black and soft to touch, but very durable and could resist the parry of a sword. This Lophin tied around his eyes, in order to stop one of his constant pains.
Three weeks later:
Lophin had become desensitized to every common sensation. Even the deep anger and rage he normally felt when in his demon form were resisted. Each day he slept in his prison until he was to be returned for another complete physical examination, and each day he proved no weaker than the day before. Their stoic puppet had passed his examination and was going to be graduated to something much worse.