Chapter 329: Mental Deterioration

Claudia entered the chamber, her serpentine eyes gleaming with manic delight. Her burned arm had healed during the past month, but the scars remained—permanent reminders of the Heavenly Flame’s wrath. She walked with a predator’s grace, her hips swaying slightly as she circled the stone chair where Kael sat bound and broken.

She stopped in front of him, tilting his chin up with one finger. His silver-flecked eyes were half-open, glazed, barely tracking her movement. She smiled.

"I will ensure he cooperates," Claudia said, her voice smooth, carrying the warmth of a snake coiling around warm prey. "For different reasons."

She wanted information about his bloodline. And if they could break him—no, when they broke him—he would obediently become a puppet for the Heavenly Flame. But most of all, she simply enjoyed watching strong things break.

She pulled a syringe from the metal table beside her—the suppression drug inside glowing with sickly green light. She tapped the syringe twice, then pressed the needle into Kael’s neck.

HISS.

The green liquid spread through his veins, visible beneath his skin as it traveled down his arms, across his chest, up to his temples. His Void Body Refinement’s passive healing deadened. His body became mortal in its vulnerability.

Claude and the Clown departed the base, heading to a separate Shadow Vatican facility to report what had happened. Viper was left in charge of Kael’s interrogation.

After they left, Claudia turned to Kael with a maniacal expression. She walked to the metal table beside him, her fingers trailing across the array of instruments she had prepared. Glass vials of sickly green, deep purple, and black liquids. Syringes filled with condensed venom. Small, parasitic insects in sealed containers, their mandibles clicking against the glass—click, click, click.

Kael’s eyes opened fully. His silver-flecked irises contracted as consciousness returned, slow and disorienting. He tried to move—the rune cuffs flared—HUMMM—sealing his mana and aura completely.His muscles strained against the bindings, but without mana or aura reinforcement, his physical strength alone wasn’t enough to break Rank 6 suppression formations.

Claudia selected a deep purple vial—the Venom of Thousand Cuts. She held it up to the dim light, watching the liquid swirl inside like living shadow. She approached Kael, her serpentine eyes fixed on his.

"We are not the wrong ones," she said, her voice soft, almost tender. "The wrongness is in the world. This fucking universe. And we are going to break it."

She injected the venom directly into his forearm. The liquid entered his bloodstream—HISS—and within seconds, the pain began. It started as a tingling sensation, then escalated into burning, then into something beyond burning. Every nerve ending in his body fired simultaneously. Every pain receptor screamed at maximum capacity. It felt like ten thousand blades cutting him from the inside, each one slicing through a different nerve pathway.

Kael’s body convulsed, his veins turning purple, his skin blistering from within as the venom attacked his cells. His jaw clamped shut so hard his gums bled.

He gritted his teeth. Refusing to scream.

Viper watched with fascination, then disappointment.

"Not screaming? Let’s fix that."

She signaled her assistants—three masked cultivators in dark robes who had been standing in the shadows. They moved forward, preparing syringes, vials of colorful poison, and cages of venomous insects. One assistant opened a sealed container, revealing Soul-Borer Beetles—insects the size of fingernails, their bodies covered in barbs, their mandibles designed to burrow beneath skin and feed on spiritual energy.

Viper picked up three beetles with long tweezers and placed them on Kael’s bare forearm. They immediately dug in, their barbs hooking into his flesh as they tunneled beneath the surface. Kael’s body arched—ARCH—his spine bending impossibly, his wrists straining against the rune cuffs until the metal cut into his flesh.

Viper and her assistants laughed watching him wiggle in pain.

"Tomorrow," Viper said, her voice sweet, "we try something stronger."

Days passed. Viper escalated systematically. Each day brought a new poison, a new torture method, a new experiment on Kael’s resilient body.

Day three. She injected him with Abyssal Serpent Venom—a poison that attacked the nervous system directly, causing every nerve to fire simultaneously at maximum intensity. Kael’s body locked up—every muscle contracted to its absolute limit. His eyes bled.

Viper watched, taking notes, her expression scientific yet manic. She recorded the venom’s effects on his Void Body Refinement, on his bloodline’s dormant defenses. She administered the cure just before his heart stopped—the antidote a warm, amber liquid forced down his throat. The pain receded like a tide pulling back from shore. Kael gasped, his body drenched in sweat, his chest heaving.

Day five. She introduced him to the Pain Garden—a collection of venomous plants cultivated by the Shadow Vatican over centuries. She pressed his bare skin against Thornbite Flowers—HISS—each thorn injecting a different neurotoxin into his bloodstream. His skin turned a rainbow of colors—purple, green, black, red—as the multiple poisons interacted and conflicted within his body. His body convulsed—SHAKE—foam gathering at the corners of his mouth—FROTH. His fingers clawed at the stone floor—SCREEEE—nails cracking, fingertips bleeding, leaving bloody trails across the surface.

Viper’s assistants recorded everything, their masked faces turning to each other with what could only be described as enjoyment—HAHA—their laughter mixing with the sound of Kael’s body writhing against stone.

Day seven. She injected him with Dreamshadow Extract—a drug that trapped the victim in their worst memories while keeping their body awake and sensitive to pain.

While Kael’s mind drowned in Damian’s memories, Viper applied physical torture simultaneously. Burning brands pressed against his skin—HISS—the smell of charred flesh filling the chamber. Acid drops placed on his arms—SIZZLE—the skin bubbling and peeling. Bone-breaking pressure applied to his fingers one by one, each snap accompanied by a wet, grinding sound that echoed off the walls.

The combination of mental agony and physical pain pushed him to the edge. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Day ten. She injected him with Soul-Corrosion Venom—a poison that directly attacked the soul itself. Kael’s soul space trembled—RUMBLE—his Soul Manifestation form flickering, cracking at the edges. The pain transcended the physical. The very essence of who he was been eaten away.

Kael’s mental state deteriorated. He stopped responding to Viper’s questions with defiance. He stared at the ceiling with empty eyes, his lips moving without sound.

Viper leaned close, trying to hear his whispers.

Viper’s assistants commented that he’d been mumbling for two days straight. Viper checked his vitals—his body was shutting down.

She administered a large dose of restorative elixir—GULP—the golden liquid stabilizing his vital functions but leaving him suspended in a half-death state.

Viper left Kael in his half-death state. She chained him back to the wall—CLANK, CLANK—the shackles closing around his wrists. She departed, her assistants following, their footsteps fading down the corridor.

The chamber fell silent.

Kael’s body hung from the chains, his head bowed, his hair falling across his face. His lips still moved, whispering in a dead language to an empty room.