Razeal's lips twitched. His entire face stiffened.
"C–Can I say no...?" he asked weakly, voice trembling.
Then came the desperate attempt: "How about... you forgive me? I'm still a kid, you know? And didn't you just say even if someone murdered their own daughter no one would ever use this material on them? So… why me?"
Every cell in his body screamed at him to run.
But before his body could even twitch
[Warning: Resistance against system-guided progress is strictly prohibited. Any attempt to escape or refuse may result in severe punishment.]
Razeal froze.
"Even you're on her side now?" he thought, biting his tongue. "Traitorous system…"
Telling someone you were going to rip out their entire skeletal structure and replace it with something as insane as Obsidian Agony that wasn't just mad science.
It was evil.
It was like someone casually suggesting, 'Hey, instead of blood, why not fill your veins with acid? It's more useful, helps kill bacteria, maybe even improves digestion.'
Yeah. That kind of deranged logic. But somehow worse.
He could still hear her voice in his head. "Millions of times worse than needles scratching your bones at once."
Just thinking about it made his stomach churn. His limbs went numb.
And yet...
"If you're begging," she said sweetly, "that means you know you can't escape."
She smiled.
"I guess... you'll have to honor your promise, hmm?"
****
Seconds later
Razeal lay motionless on a strange stone platform, his body locked in place, suspended by invisible force.
His breathing was shallow. His fingers twitched involuntarily.
Zara stood above him, laughing. That same unnerving, melodious laugh that always sent chills down his spine.
"This'll be so fun!" she said brightly.
Razeal gulped. "I–I apologize if I offended you in any way… but torturing me like this it's not something a great and respected Lord Madam would do, right? I~I request reconsideration... humbly."
His voice cracked halfway through.
She tilted her head. "Nope. A promise is a promise. Let's try it!"
Razeal's eyes widened in horror. He tried to squirm, but the space around him was unyielding.
"C–Can I at least ask... what are the chances of this succeeding?" he managed, his voice small.
"Zero percent," she replied cheerfully. As if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Wh–WHAT?!" Razeal screamed.
"Then why are we even doing this?! Doesn't that basically mean you want to torture me?!"
She shrugged, nonchalant. "Who knows?"
Razeal stared at her. Was she even human?
Zara calmly continued her explanation, as if she were discussing some casual experiment in a school lab.
"I'll have to make two holes one at the top of your head and one at your feet. Then, I'll simultaneously melt your current bones into liquid and drain it out from below while at the same time injecting molten Obsidian Agony from the top, in the exact structure of your skeleton. All while forming it into solid bone in real time. Without damaging your organs, nerves, blood vessels, or skin."
She smiled. "Precision work."
Razeal's soul practically punched the inside of his body, screaming to be let out.
The process sounded like something a horror god would whisper to an executioner. And now he was about to experience it.
"You.. you're insane! A psychopath! You're trying to kill me, and I'm just an innocent victim here!" Razeal yelled, tears welling in the corners of his eyes.
His body was still frozen in place, trapped on the altar, like a lamb about to be offered to the gods of madness.
"Am I?" Zara hummed.
"Maybe."
She winked.
"And of course you're going to die. Many times, actually. But don't worry. It'll be interesting."
A tear finally broke free from the edge of Razeal's eye.
This wasn't an experiment.
This was an execution being rebranded as progress.
It was that same gut-wrenching fear of being handed over to a trainee surgeon for a life-threatening operation without anesthesia. While conscious.
"Why not at least use magic to numb the pain?" Razeal asked in a last-ditch attempt, clinging to hope. "Can't you, you know... do something?"
Zara smiled again.
"Nope. Won't work."
Her voice was soft, but final.
"Obsidian Agony doesn't just cut the physical it slices through soul and consciousness too. There's no way to stop the pain. You can't use healing magic on acid and expect it to turn into water, can you?"
She giggled, almost lovingly.
"And now, don't cry, little villain."
Her hand reached out.
"Let's start."
"She smiled.
"I'll try to do it with the least number of kills possible," she added in a casual, musing tone. "Though I am curious… if this is even possible."
Her eyes shimmered genuine intrigue dancing in their depths.
"What kind of advantages could it bring, I wonder…?"
She didn't wait for an answer.
Just nerrowed her eyes
When
BOOM.
Without warning, the ground beneath them vibrated.
Every single Obsidian agony every piece of this metal within what had to be a thousand kilometers suddenly began to melt. An eerie, black, viscous fluid oozed out from the crust of the earth and rose into the sky.
Razeal's pupils dilated.
"What... the hell...?"
It wasn't magic. He didn't hear a chant. Didn't sense a spell being activated. She hadn't even moved.
Zara simply stood there it was like world obeyed her.
"If we're doing this," she said with a laugh, "let's do it at the peak of our abilities, shall we?"
Her voice sounded distant like thunder echoing across a stormy field. But her presence was suffocatingly close.
Razeal could only stare up as the night sky vanished.
A river of pure black now flowed above them, swallowing the moonlight, the stars, and even the air itself. It stretched endlessly across the heavens, blotting out existence like a sentient void.
His breath caught.
She's mad...
What is she even doing with that much? That one stone alone was already terrifying...
But what terrified him even more was the ease.
The sheer scale of her control.
It wasn't just quantity it was power so absolute that even gravity surrendered.
She could literally unleash a tsunami of darkness upon an empire, without a single spell chant. She had just blinked and a sea of death had formed.
Razeal watched helplessly as the flowing sky began to shift compressing.
The monstrous black river condensed, folding in on itself, shrinking into something infinitely smaller. He could barely keep track of it, the mass disappearing high into the sky like a collapsing star.
Then
The moonlight returned, falling gently across his face again.
He exhaled, shaky and stunned.
She wasn't exaggerating... he thought. She really hasn't found the limits of how much this material can compress...
The amount that could've drowned an empire had just vanished into thin air.
But it wasn't over.
From the sky, a small orb descended only three or four liters of the blackest, most malicious liquid he'd ever seen, swirling in the air like a demon ready to be born.
It hovered just above Zara's outstretched palm.
"This will be enough density," she said, smiling calmly. "I don't think there's a creature in this reality that would have bones stronger than yours... if we succeed."
The words "if we succeed" echoed in his mind like a curse.
"And believe me when I say this" she added, "even with this density, it's still billions of times lighter than the cheap skeleton inside your body right now."
Razeal's throat tightened. He swallowed hard.
Despite the fear, despite the dread eating away at him he couldn't deny it.
A part of him was getting excited.
Dragon bones wouldn't even compare... not to this. A skeleton forged from compressed agony itself...
He shuddered.
But the question remained:
Will I survive this?
And worse
What if I do?
Because he knew this wasn't just going to be painful.
This was going to be hell.
[Good luck, Host.]
The system's calm voice interrupted his spiraling thoughts.
[Don't worry. I don't think it'll be easy for you to feel much pain.]
[Pain Tolerance: B (16,573 / 1,000,000)]
Razeal blinked.
That number... it wasn't even close.
[With this, you might finally break through to A-Level a threshold you'd likely never cross in this lifetime otherwise.]
He stared at the swirling liquid above her hand, and the altar he was still strapped to.
"Maybe... this really is my path," he whispered.
He didn't know if he was convincing himself.
Or accepting the inevitable.
Let's just hope I don't go insane before it's done.
He gulped hard again.
And said nothing.
"Let's start."
Her eyes suddenly glowed
A deep, bright black, like flames made from void itself. It wasn't light that danced in them, but something far more terrifying the burning essence of darkness itself, alive and staring straight at him.
And then
"Ouch!!"
A small grunt involuntarily escaped Razeal's lips.
His body flinched as a sharp jolt of pain pierced both the crown of his head and the soles of his feet. It felt like a pair of needles no, spears had stabbed into the very polar ends of his body, drilling straight down and up with ruthless precision.
[Pain Tolerance +17]
[Pain Tolerance: B (16,590 / 1,000,000)]
Despite the intensity, he only let out a soft sound. Thanks to his B-rank pain resistance, the pain was bearable barely. The holes had reached deep enough to kiss the bones, yet not even a hairline fracture was made. It was disturbingly surgical.
"Brace yourself, kid," Zara said with a glint of cruel curiosity, almost playful.
She lifted her hand, and the black, viscous liquid the Obsidian Agony floated through the air with eerie grace, drifting toward the exposed area on Razeal's head.
Realizing this was the real beginning, Razeal tried to steel himself.
But the moment the obsidian touched his bone
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
"NO NOOOO NOOOOOOO!!"
A scream tore itself from Razeal's throat, raw and primal, as if his very soul had been set ablaze. His body convulsed violently. The sound that escaped him was inhuman, a twisted, gurgled howl of sheer agony. His vocals cracked his mind fractured.
He couldn't feel anything else. No sound, no breath. Only
Pain.
A total, all-consuming, soul-tearing agony.
[Pain Inflicted +75,909]
[Pain Inflicted +78,976]
[Pain Inflicted +89,667]
His stats surged like a bloodbath through numbers, but none of it mattered.
The pain tolerance stat climbed
Faster than seconds, faster than his sanity could follow.
And then
[Host has died]
The system's usually calm voice echoed out. But even it seemed to tremble faintly as if disturbed by the magnitude of what had just happened.
Razeal reappeared on the raised platform.
His physical, spiritual, and mental states were fully restored. Yet his chest heaved uncontrollably, panic still gripping him from within.
Even just remembering that pain made him feel like he was falling again into a pit with no end.
System kick me out. Fast. FASTTTTTTT!
[Sorry, Host. But you made a promise. You have to continue.]
Then KILL MEEEEEE!!
He couldn't even form full thoughts. His mental voice was fractured words breaking apart, trembling. He couldn't cope with what had just happened.
Half his mind had been lost to that suffering.
The other half just wanted to run.
He had meant it truly meant it when he begged for death.
No one could possibly imagine what he was feeling. It was like every pain imaginable had been condensed and forced upon him.
[Host, don't worry. In this realm, all bad effects mental, physical, spiritual are nullified after each death. Once you leave, there will be no lasting damage. There is no reason to fear.]
But Razeal wasn't even in a state to hear that. Let alone respond.
"Good. 1.45 seconds that's how long you lasted. Let's see if we can push the probability just a little higher than zero," Zara murmured to herself, almost gently.
Then her tone shifted twisting into something darker.
"Now… enough rest. I won't stop until we succeed."
A broken, sadistic smile appeared on her face as she controlled the black liquid once more. It floated with quiet menace toward Razeal, again aiming for the exposed bone.
Just as it touched
[Pain Inflicted +100,909]
[Pain Inflicted +160,976]
[Pain Inflicted +200,667]
[Host has died]
[Host has died]
[Host has died]
...
Screams of agony filled the space echoing through the space but there was no one to hear them.
Zara killed him before he could even react.
So many deaths, and yet not a millisecond passed in between.
Zara stood quietly each time, watching. Emotionless.
She wasn't foolish. She knew brute forcing the process wasn't going to solve anything.
She knew that repeating the same method endlessly wouldn't lead to success.
But this wasn't just blind repetition.
She was evolving each time modifying the flow, controlling the infusion patterns, adjusting the compression depth of the Obsidian Agony fluid by microns.
There were only two possible ways this could work:
One~ If she could refine her control and technique enough to force the impossible into being. Perhaps even perfect the full potential of the [Obsidian Agony] material by herself?.
Two~ If Razeal himself changed.
"If Obsidian Agony reacts violently to all forms of matter," she had once questioned him, "then why not try combining it with other metals? Or calming it?"
Her answer had always been the same:
The human body.
The potential of a human body was limitless especially one like his.
Given enough time, it could adapt to nearly anything.
That possibility, even if microscopic, was real.
Not today?
Maybe not even tomorrow.
But in a billion years?
In a trillion?
Given enough iterations, even the impossible could bend.
After all~
Had she not already created a material that should never have existed?
As for time? hehe
Razeal didn't even get the chance to scream properly this time
He died before the sound could fully form.
[Analyzing physical response to extreme damage…]
[Condition Met.]
[Resistance to Physical Pain Increased.]
[Pain Perception Reduced.]
[Congratulations, Host. Your Pain Tolerance has been upgraded from B to A Rank.] (0 / 100,000,000)
No one was present to hear the system's cold congratulation.
Razeal was too busy being shattered.
[Pain Inflicted: +78,976]
Even with his Pain Tolerance rank rising from B to A, the agony barely dulled. It was supposed to help. It should've made a difference.
But no.
The pain didn't just remain it evolved. It deepened. Intensified.
It wasn't something his mind could compartmentalize or his nerves adapt to. Like tossing an ant into a pond or an endless ocean no matter the body of water, it still drowns. That was him. Drowning. No matter how much tolerance increased, he was leagues beneath what was needed to endure this.
And yet just as the cycle of dying and reviving continued...
Ding!
[Contact with Obsidian Agony Stone detected.]
[Internal Adaptation: In Progress…]
[Resonance Sync: 0.0000000% → 0.0000001% (+0.0000001%)]
---
Sorry guys, late chapter... apologies, I had an exam today and just came home.
And please don't mind me for only a single chapter today. It's 2.5k words normal authors would've divided it into 2 and a half chapters.
And well, how's it going? Is it nice enough? I was trying to make the chapter really full of clarity, depth, and fully make sense not just the same simple stuff again and again.
That's why it takes time.
Also, thank you CoffeeKnight for two colas appreciate it! There we go, our first gift.
Thank you all for reading... if you like it, add it to your library and send power stones and stuff. We are very far behind in the rankings literally can't even see ourselves.
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