So before I start this one...

Content warning

Kyo is going to get some screen time here. But if you've been paying attention, he is not having a good time. Like... at all. Most would consider this karma coming to collect. But all the same, he's having an especially bad time.

So, warnings for... lets see... torture, pain, mind break, suicidal themes... Probably a few more.

Chapter 104

(Kyo)

He felt every millimetre of progress Kodori's fingers made into the bare flesh of his solar plexus. Like a hydraulic press descending onto a watermelon, he felt the flesh of his new body deform, flex inward, then finally rip open.

He couldn't even scream as Kodori held his gaze with her own, the molten copper of her bestial eyes pinning him in place just as firmly as the hand reaching under his ribs for his frantically beating heart.

"I need answers." He heard her clearly, even over the sound of his pulse slamming through his ears, "And by the time I let you free, you will be begging me to let you speak them to me."

The jagged glass of her fingernails digging through his chest had already stolen his ability to draw breath, to speak, to scream. But he could still try and escape! It was just another body! He just had to...

"You call me the animal." She said as he tried to cut his soul free again.

It would take time, but even this could be recovered! Even a rat would do! It wouldn't be the first time he'd clawed his way up a food chain just to prove he could!

And he was FREE! The pain, the breathlessness, those accused golden eyes...

"But like any prey that's cornered, you will fight, or flee." She said as his view of the room changed to a ghostly misty soup of second sight and his newly born, newly dead body became dead weight in her hands.

But he couldn't move away. Twisting in place, the mist of his soul looking back down at his former body, he could see a small black spark deep in his chest, "Monsters do three things in my presence Kyo." She said as that black spark started to slowly get bigger. "Fight, flee, or die. The only difference, is how tired they are when the lights go out."

He was being pulled! His soul was caught in the black shape she had in her had as she gripped his body's heart!

"But for now, your true death is on hold." He hardly heard her as he felt himself being pilled into that dark glittering nothingness, "And your first lesson will be pain."

It was like being encased in a mix of broken glass and tar. He could not see, save for the barest pinpricks of light. The only sounds he heard were like the grinding of rusted gears slipping and cracking together as if underwater.

But he could feel.

Claustrophobic pressure of being underground, in the dark, buried under gravel in the bowels of a mountain. The weight was unknowable, but still he would try and move and shift, to escape the pressure, to find some relief...

But every motion, every shift, every twitch... brought agony.

He knew he was dead. That he should have been nothing but an amorphous cloud of smoke. But he could feel everything. A twitch of his hand brought sharp burning itching jagged pain to his entire arm. Trying to scream only filled his mouth with acid and powdered glass. It was so dark he couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed. His hearing was filled with the constant roaring twist of mechanical failure long past critical repair, yet still, somehow, trying to work.

But he was Kyo! Master of the Book! Souls! The System of this useless world!

It took effort, willpower, discipline! But he became still. He ignored the pain, blocked out the sound, became still...

Only to have a small flash of light, brilliant and pure like the first rays of dawn, make him recoil with their suddenness, and start the process all over again.

An eternity passed. And the pain receded.

And for the first time since being thrown under the mechanical mountain of tar and glass...

He could see. And it did not bring him pain. He could just... see.

See a pair of huge golden eyes looking at him. He tried to recoil, scream, and turn away. But that only brought more darkness and pain.

Again, he did not know how long had passed. Days? Weeks? But again, the world became... calm. And his vision returned. This time, he did not recoil from the giant eyes looking at him from the other side of the specimen jar.

"Do you know where we are?" The voice was filtered through a thin layer of water, thankfully clear of grinding metal, but it was Kodori's voice.

Kyo tried to work a bit of sound through a strangely material throat, "H..." He felt himself smiling, though he was unable to move more than his eyes and lips. Even breathing seemed more a reflex than a necessity for speaking. "How... How about you go-"

The world went dark, and a new agony was added to the list, the tar becoming searing hot even as the broken glass flayed the nerves from under his skin.

When he could see next, he felt frostbitten, bald, bloody and damp all at once. And this time? There were two pairs of golden eyes looking at him through the slightly distorted glass between him and her. One pair belonged to her, dressed in a black and green kimono that had been modified in the legs for mobility. The other however, was a massive wolf-man. A head taller than her even while crouched on reverse-knee legs.

"Do you know where we are?" She asked again.

He pushed imaginary air over impossibly cracked and dry lips, "No."

She smiled slightly. Smiled! Smiled! The smug bitch! But then took a half step to the side. Behind her was a familiar stone mural. "How about now?"

The labyrinth? Why... "Why are-"

"Yes or no will do." And again, he was thrown backwards into darkness and pain.

He surfaced into the 'light' of the tiny window to the outside, what he understood as his 'body' numb and broken. Nothing felt like it was in the right place, and even his vision seemed to be from two vastly different places on his body.

Kodori was alone this time. Sitting on a chair and facing him, the Book, HIS book, open in her hand while she moved a finger across the page.

He was about to make a snide remark, a rude comment, but she held up a finger and his voice just wasn't there. Then, she looked up at him, "For someone who seemed so smart, you're having a hard time getting it. So, I'll help you along." Her finger was still pointing upwards, his voice still held hostage, but he focused on that single exposed fingernail, his vision sliding back together and correcting itself.

"Unless I ask you to explain. All my questions can be answered with yes, or no. If you answer my questions properly, and no, you cannot lie, I will give you time off from what I know is an unpleasant experience."

While she'd been talking, he looked around the room outside. A lab? Some of his equipment in the corner there? Was than an anvil?

"Do you understand?" She drew her attention back to that glossy fingernail, and then she lowered it, pointing at him.

He was about to say 'no'. But the word simply wouldn't form. It was like the little spot in his mind that held the word, couldn't hold it down long enough to say.

"Yes."

"Good." She said, that infuriating smile returning to her face.

"You won't hold me here long!" He shouted at the glass wall.

And she frowned, "Consider what you are not seeing, there in the dark, and maybe you'll realize exactly who's in control right now."

Then blackness and pain enveloped him once more.

When next he could see, it was only from one eye. He had no concept of up or down, but the dim view through the glass wall before him gave the impression he was standing, yet half submerged.

And of course, she was there. This time, she had two books, one was his, floating in a little in front and to the side, the other was resting on a table, and she seemed to be copying things from one to the other. Slowly, the sight of his other eye returned, and with it the realization he was on that same table, and looking across it at her.

"Subject's soul seems to be taking longer to recover every time it is brought up for questioning." She said, glancing at him as if to let him know she knew he was watching, and who exactly she was talking about. But, he noticed, that wasn't what she was writing down. Maybe? Her writing was terrible.

He thought about opening his mouth to comment, but that brought her full attention onto him, and body or not, he froze in place like a small prey animal would.

"It's been about a week." She said to him, "Just in case you were curious." This time, before he could answer, she held up her finger again. "Do you know what you are not seeing?" Her finger lowered.

A week! He could hardly fathom how that eternity was only a week!

He felt a pressure at the back of his mind, a small urgency similar to hunger, or the first signs of holding a breath too long. "No?"

The urgency eased off, and he felt a spark of anger. She was manipulating him! He had just enough time to open his mouth to say so, when her hand closed over the 'wall' between them, and she asked again. "How about now? Do you know what you are not seeing?"

Knowing that the 'pressure' was a compulsion to answer didn't help resisting it. But the natural darkness, instead of that jagged glass star field he saw, showed him the 'truth' of what was happening. His 'body' was starting to feel a little warmer too, a strange sensation considering he had no 'body'. "Yes?"

"Explain what you are not seeing."

The compulsion returned, but it was different, more 'words' seemed available to his voice. "The status screen." And giving voice to that fact made him panic. "b-" Light returned, and he found himself looking into those eyes again.

"Shh. Think on that. I have more reading to do."

And the light vanished, plunging him into absolute darkness. But to his surprise, nothing else. No light, no sound, no pain, no motion. Just his thoughts.

Again, light returned, and while his eyes seemed to work properly this time, the view through the window in (slightly watery) 20 20, it took him long moments to collect himself from what felt like weeks of chasing thoughts around inside his head.

Disconnected from the Status System. But he needed that to become a Soul, and move between Bodies. But now he was a soul with no body, and no connection to the Status System. Yet was he still alive? And if he was not part of the System, then how could he exist?

"When you are ready to speak without gibbering madly at what I know is a case of existential dread, you may say yes."

And her... HER! She did this! How? She was supposed to be a new hero! Ignorant! From one of the slower worlds too! Half the time to even learn! And they had even better information control! But then how? Something he didn't know? A hidden artifact? Lore hidden away? Another secret pried from them? But the four of them seemed so useless! He had doubts they even bothered learning to read!

Slowly, that compulsion in the back of his mind grew.

And she beat me! ME! And she stole all my equipment, and my experiments... All of them? Even if she did... how could she have figured them out and improved on it with just a week? Faster time someplace else? No... Could she even read my notes? Impossible! Japanese isn't something you can just... wait...

He looked again, watching her scratch a nice quill across the page. Yes... It was written like some peasant trying to speed-run an exam, but it was unmistakable.

"Yes." He said finally.

She didn't reply for a moment, instead finishing the line, putting the nice quill into a nice pyramid shaped ink pot, before looking up at him. "Good."

That single word felt like he'd just laid down on a comfortable bed after pulling a three day gaming session. But before that feeling could sink in, it vanished and returned him to sensory deprivation.

"This is no longer the labyrinth. It is the Hearth. I have taken it over, and closed it off to almost everything. Nothing happens here without my knowing." She held up her finger again, "Shh. Now, I can tell you and I, as well as the three heroes of the world I ended up in, and Kizuna, were all brought here from the outside. From other worlds. And I am going to cure you of part of your ignorance, right now."

She lowered her finger, "This world is not a game. And everything you ever did to the people out there, and in your labs, was done to real people." She paused, looked away, looked back, and said, "Think on that, old man. While I go back to figuring out the rules the system is missing."

More darkness, more thoughts... He knew, he knew deep down, that she wasn't lying. That her manipulation of him being unable to lie, was something that she herself was incapable of. And, worst of all? She saw who he really was, now that his soul was no longer bound by flesh.

But so what? Even if these were real people, they were still beneath him! All of them were just bits of power, for he himself to gather, to become the greatest, the most powerful, the...

the one who now had nothing... had lost everything... again... All those people, all that time, all that effort... gone. No! Stolen! Again! Just like before! Years of work, sleepless nights, money spent in the online shop, grinding until he couldn't stay awake!

Taken away in an instant. Hacked. No way to recover. Banned.

But this time, there was no window to jump from.

When there was finally something to look at, it was blurry, hazy, covered in frost... But slowly, as his mind returned from mentally exhausted boredom, she spoke. "Subject takes longer to resurface depending on the stresses put on them during down time."

Her voice drew his gaze, and there she was, sitting again, watching him with that infuriating smile on her face. The spike of anger cleared the blurry haze from his vision, and he took an imaginary breath to speak.

And though he was already bracing himself for a burst of pain and a return to darkness, she didn't hold up her finger to stop him. "What are you hoping to prove?"

The smug smile shifted to surprise, "Not the first question I'd thought you'd ask." She nodded, "But since you didn't use your question to throw insults at me, I'll answer. To you personally, I am making sure you understand our relationship. Your death, your true and final death, is up to me."

The look on her face seemed to be encouraging him to reply, "So, you're torturing me for some kind of payback?"

"Aha, that was the question I expected." It took everything he had not to scream at that smile when it returned to her face. "You have answers I want. And while I catch up to where you are academically," She gave his book a pat, "I needed someone to make sure I was doing things right."

"Some backwater savage could never-" He suddenly lost his voice, his mouth filling with jagged molten glass.

"And we were having an actual conversation too." She sighed, "And for your information, this 'backwater savage' has a half dozen university degrees, knows..." She had to count on her fingers, and actually ran out, "Over ten different languages, and I think I know why your soul experiments actually work at all. Not only that, I'm about half a step from making my own Weapon. Even made an Hourglass to link it to."

Her eyes suddenly filled his vision again as he choked on fire and acid, the feeling of a yawning chasm opening up behind him, "Wai-"

A new voice helped drag him back from... from what? It was a blur... He remembered pain, frustration... darkness?

"Interesting." He knew that voice, and with a nauseating, warping twist, he found himself looking through the 'glass' to the outside. "Hello Kyo." It was Ost.

He thrashed in silent anguish as memory and feeling flooded back into his scattered mind, his memories glued back together with remembered torment.

"So this is what you really are. Curious..." A massive hand filled the small view.

"Pretty lady! No touch." Another voice caused the hand to stop, then move away, vanish off screen, "yes... headpats..."

"I'm sorry Kotetsu." Ost said, her face taking up the view again, "He was a very cruel man, and I wanted to... Oh, no need to worry yourself."

"Pity from an animal." Kyo said weakly, though his voice was getting stronger with every word, "Here to gloat?"

"We are all animals, Kyo. We are born, eat, rut, and die. But while I wanted the gift of free will, and used what little I had to soften the purpose I'd been given, you chose to abuse it and attempt to end the world." Ost replied, standing straight and giving him a full view of her, as well as the owner of the second voice, the same little dragon that had killed him with his own magic!

"Blame your creators for leaving you laying about! And yourself for leaving your body unattended! It would have made things harder if you weren't wandering around! Haha!" He cackled for a moment, the act bringing a little more strength, "Possession is nine tenths of the law after all!"

"Why would you even do such a thing? What purpose could you possibly have had?" She asked, still calm.

"Power! Unlimited, unbeatable power!" He laughed, "What other reason is there? I would have succeeded, if it wasn't for that... that..." He paused, "what..."

"Hmm, if possession is nine tenths of the law, what does it mean when you lose yourself?"

The voice filled in the little gap in his mind, and the rest of what he'd forgotten slammed back into place with a near physical pain. "You! If you'd actually taken a little time to read you might have paused just long enough for me to finish my work! Because you couldn't be bothered to educate yourself, to follow the rules you skipped the proper order of things! You cheated!"

Kodori stepped into view beside Ost, the sickeningly cheerful looking dragon-snake slither/crawling from Ost's arm to Kodori's shoulder. "Oh? That almost unreadable tablet in a language that world doesn't use anymore? Pfft, no, I wasn't going to waste time reading that when I already had a way to stop the Tortoise." She put one arm behind Ost, her hand appearing on the other woman's hip, "But, thanks to your help, I'm only one step away from what you were trying to do."

"You disgust me!" Kyo replied, seeing Ost smile at the casual affection, "And how exactly have I helped you? You've been torturing me in this... box!"

Kodori let Ost go, then leaned forward to fill his view with just her eyes, "You know, you remind me of someone. Funny thing, he had something like what you made, and you know what? I killed him too." She backed up just enough so he could see her smile, "Before he died however, I told him something. And before you go back to your thoughts, I'm going tell you something as well."

"What? That you've come up with something new? Fire? Flashing lights? Grinding gears?"

"The the world you tried to take over is..."

(Ost)

Once again, she had been invited to the Hearth. As the Vassal of the Shield, a fancy title for something that could have been boiled down to 'Kodori's friend', she knew her being here was for something important.

So she stood in Kodori's 'great workshop'. It was really just the biggest single room on the mini-world. But it held all manner of things used in creation. Furnaces to melt metals. An anvil made of metal from a broken Hourglass. Glass beakers and tubes for a great Alchemy set. Grinding stones for processing herbs and seeds. Leather racks, a loom (with several weirdly adorable spiders making silk), dress forms, all for making armour. A library of books way at the back. And a table with exactly one thing on it, a little obsidian cube on a stand of brass.

"It's been several days now, hasn't it?" She asked as she listened to Kyo gibber madly in the cube. It was more a feeling than a sound, but she could tell his torment was... fitting.

"Remember. Time is weird here. It's amazing how much work I can get done when time is moving so fast." Kodori said, not turning around to look at her, "Almost done here."

"Ah right. Time moves at almost double speed here. Or is it half speed there?" Ost moved away from the cube to join Kodori in her vigil at one of her glass crucibles.

"Your world experiences one day for every two here. I think I know why too, but..."

Ost held up a hand, "No... do not tell me."

"As you wish." She replied, one of her tails swishing at her, "Back up a little, just need..." She had a small ceramic pot in her hands, glowing nearly white hot, "I think I have it this time."

"I don't think you do." Ost said, not unkindly, just honestly, "That is, if you are trying to make what I think you are making..."

Kodori slowly poured the contents of the crucible out into what looked like an rune inscribed bowl with dimensions similar to an ice cream scoop. For a moment, there was only silence save for the constant machine noise around them, and a bit of a sizzle as the clear molten glass filled the cup.

"That? No no. I'm making something so I can actually do that... Maybe..." She chuckled, "I don't want to sound paranoid..."

She finished pouring, set the pot down on a shelf, and returned to the weird depression that was now filled with cooling crystal.

And suddenly, Ost's status screen got a little error message. "Teleport impossible?" Then another, "Party screen disabled." And another, "Monster system out of range?"

Kodori waited for a moment, nodded to herself, then smiled, "Perfect. This room is now insulated from just about every outside influence, provided the Faraday cage I lined the room with works... Now, let me introduce you to a friend of mine."

(S'yne)

She had left Zeltobe shortly after the match that Rishia had against Itsuki. The Master of Wagers was a little upset, but only so far as 'losing a valued employee' might upset a boss. Otherwise, he and the few good acquaintances she had made while fighting gave her a fond wave goodbye, a small pile of gifts (snacks, a somewhat bored looking knight dragon, and a few other little things one might easily forget to bring on a trip outside of town), and seen her off.

She headed south along the road Motoyasu had taken to get there from the Tortoise Tree, occasionally stopping when the knight dragon sniffed out food, or when ever it felt like it really. For some reason it seemed like they'd given her the 'troublemaker' of the stable. But all the same, she really didn't know if she should hurry or not.

It had been a long time since she had taken a chance on something. Since her world's destruction, and her own personal mission of revenge, the Zeltobe Arena was really just a place for her to gain power, and keep an ear to the ground on the rumour mills. The people she was looking for would certainly cause a stir if they showed up...

As the giant tree came into view, she started to feel a little more... certain. Motoyasu had said Kodori 'understood' her role the instant she arrived with the others. But seeing the tree, a tree that dwarfed the broken mountain hiding part of its trunk, she was catching on to why Motoyasu said what he did with such conviction. From what Rishia had said, Kodori and her party had outright killed the Tortoise, the forth most powerful of the Guardians of this world.

By growing a tree inside its heart.

Who the hell thinks of that? And how the hell did she even pull it off?

And the tree itself was magnificent, smelled nice, and...

She felt the subtle hum in the air before her ears truly understood what she was hearing. And as she crossed into the shadow of the impossibly wide canopy of leaves, her mount snorted in alarm (instead of 'meh don't wanna' like the last few times he stopped) and slid to a halt.

Just in time too, as a person sized bee/man, with four upper arms, two slightly thicker hind legs, and pleasingly green and gold chitin fell from the sky to land in front of her. Of course, her first instinct was to fight, the little pin-pillow stuck to her colourful vest coming free and turning into the metre long shears. But the bee-man held up three of his four arms, and used the forth arm to stick his weapon, a 'boar spear' with a razor fine stiletto point, into the ground.

He then bowed, a distinctly human gesture, and took a step away from his spear towards her, all four hands palm up. Though it was without weapon, it was still a giant bee, and those 'hands' were sharp looking, and yes, it had a stinger long enough to go through her chest sideways.

Her dragon wanted nothing to do with this creature, and gave her a little shake to try and get her out of the saddle. He wasn't getting violent, but he clearly didn't want to be near this big insect. So, she dismounted, making sure to put a little thread from her Weapon on his saddle so she would know where he ran off to, if he ran at all, and stepped forward to meet this creature.

All sharp angles and rounded plates, it had a dangerous elegance to it. "W-static." She tried to speak, sighing when her Weapon chose that moment to malfunction.

In reply, it took one last step forward and touched her hands. A little insistently, it used its hands to move hers (and the giant scissors) up towards its head. Once close enough, its wings buzzed quietly, while feathery antenna brushed at the metal surface of the Weapon.

Through the bones in her hands, she felt a strange 'start, stop' vibration. Words? "static." She replied, frowning at the poor timing.

This time it used all four of its hands, moving the weapon in her hands until the handle touched her forehead. It looked really silly (even the dragon snorted at her in obvious amusement) but then, "I am Gowan. You are expected."

She felt kind of silly, but surprised as well. But then she backed up a step, 'pinched' her Weapon, and pulled a little thread from it. She put one end in her mouth, looped it around behind her ear, and handed the other end to the Bee. "I am S'yne. Kodori said I would be welcome."

"You are." He bowed again, his head not moving, though she got the impression he was looking at the thread pinched between his fingertips. "I can carry you. Or you may bring lesser dragon and walk."

His head moved slightly, and she looked over her shoulder at the grumpy looking knight dragon. Instead of either option, she turned her Weapon into the pin-pillow again, and took a pin from the hundreds stuck into the cheerfully bright pink cushion. "Bring this to where I must go."

He accepted the pin, did a couple very human 'five degree head tilts' at it, then, "Very well." And with a single step back towards his spear, he picked it up and vanished with a sudden thrum of wings and little puff of dust.

She waited until the little pin she'd given Gowan stopped, then activated her skill 'stick a pin in it'. She liked the name better than 'pin swap', so that's what she called it...

Not like she could tell anyone with how badly her Weapon was malfunctioning.

With a little lurch sideways, she appeared next to Gowan, who looked a bit surprised, and a second giant bee that was just a little... bigger. Just as majestic looking with green and gold chitin, but a little bigger than Gowan in just about every way.

And the room she (and the now panicking dragon) were in, was... Was this the heart of the tree itself? High above, she saw dozens of honeycomb 'chambers' capped with something that looked like paper and about as thick as her leg. On the ground was a room with 'living' furniture, with everything literally growing from the floors and walls.

"ah!" A voice said quietly from up a flight of stairs, "Sorry, wasn't quite ready for you to arrive!"

Tall and elegant, this woman wore a long dress that reminded her of something she'd seen... A merchant from Q'ten Lo? It was far more daring than she would ever wear, but this woman had all the leg and curves needed to make it look natural.

"I see you've met Guowang. And this is his partner, Nuwang. I was king of stuck for names, so I went with something that sounded... fitting." The woman was taller than she was by at least a head, but without pausing after getting down the stairs, she stepped forward and took S'yne's hand. "My name is Ost Horai, the Shield Hero's Vassal. You must by S'yne?"

She didn't bother trying to speak, but instead smiled and nodded. Ost's hand felt a little cool, but her warm greeting made up for it.

"Excellent. Now, the first thing I must warn you about. Is you will be moving to another world. You should know what that means, yes?"

Again, S'yne nodded, but did her best to look surprised.

"Well... You know, I think I will let her explain. It might give her an excuse to sit down, maybe eat something. The place we're going is..." It was clear Ost was looking for words, likely to simplify the explanation.

S'yne put her hand over Ost's, giving her a smile and an 'after you' motion of her hand.

"Oh good. It's odd, I'm quite old, being the former Spirit Tortoise, but... She has more of a handle on what's going on than I do!" She sighed, "King, Queen, I should be back soon. Until then, my Authority is yours, here in this House."

Both of the giant insects gave Ost a double 'fist in palm' bow, then vanished with the same supersonic buzz of wings.

"Hold my hand, S'yne. And remember, you are a guest. Cause no trouble, and be welcome at the Hearth."

NOTES!

Yes, Kodori is getting answers, gathering more 'skill' and 'talent' to her side for the next 'big thing'. And Kyo may or may not be just... insane now. No, he's not dead, but he's not going anywhere. :)

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

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