Chapter 58: Torture

Summer lay pinned against the rough, mossy wood of the tree root, the heavy iron-tipped arrow buried deep into her chest. She knew she had messed up, thoroughly messed up.

When she was locked in a life-or-death battle with the Corrosive Thunder Toad, the Void-Winged Raven had dropped from the ceiling to strike at her weakest moment. The giant bird had seized the opportunity to kill her while she was already occupied.

Knowing that monsters down here fought like opportunistic predators, she should have considered that the humans watching from the fog would do the exact same thing. However, in her arrogant eyes, those humans had been far too weak for her to care about at all.

She had completely forgotten a fundamental rule of survival: even an ant could take down an elephant if it found the perfect chance. Now, she was paying the ultimate price for that arrogance.

Externally, Summer maintained her cold, unreadable mask, staring at the approaching group without showing a single trace of fear. But inwardly, she was terrified.

She could not even move her remaining limbs as the heavy shaft pinned her heart to the solid bark behind her back. She felt utterly helpless.

Deep, suffocating regret washed over her mind, heavier than any physical pain she had ever endured. Her power was halved, her gear was destroyed, and her body was completely broken.

Tears welled up in the corners of her dark ruby eyes, threatening to break free. A short distance away, Three sat motionless in a crack near the root floor.

The small puppet could sense its master’s overwhelming distress and grief, but for some reason, it could not move a single muscle. A suffocating, invisible pressure locked its small body in place.

That reason was the tall woman standing right beside Maya.

[That woman is a Mind element user,] the system spoke in her head, breaking its long silence.

[She is well beyond level 50, but her stats are currently suppressed down to level 30 by the dungeon rules. Even so, her elemental intensity and mental aura are far higher than Three’s capacity.]

Summer recalled how the system had tried to warn her earlier about the humans, and how dismissively she had brushed those warnings aside.

The crushing weight of her own hubris pressed down on her chest. ’I am sorry...’ Summer whispered inwardly to the system, her voice trembling with genuine sorrow.

’I am so sorry...’

[Dummy girl, it’s fine,] the system replied, its tone surprisingly soft despite the bleak situation.

’What should I do now?’ Summer asked, feeling completely lost.

[Nothing,] the system answered calmly.

[Just take this as a harsh lesson. I will use a portion of my reserved energy to teleport your core far away the moment your physical form collapses. As long as your core remains intact, you can be reborn—]

The system did not get the chance to finish its sentence. Maya stepped forward and raised her wooden healing staff high into the misty air.

A blinding, golden circle of light expanded directly above Summer’s pinned body.

FLASH!

Pure, radiant holy light rained down upon Summer like a physical waterfall. For ordinary humans, high-grade holy light was a blessing that knitted flesh and healed wounds.

But for a mutated zombie entity like Summer, the pure holy element was absolute poison.

SIZZLE!

An excruciating, burning agony exploded across every inch of her exposed flesh. The holy light sizzled against her pale skin, melting her muscles and searing her open wounds like white-hot iron.

Summer’s back arched violently against the wall, her throat letting out a strangled, muffled gasp as smoke rose from her charred body.

"Look at her writhe!" one of the male warriors laughed aloud, crossing his arms with a cruel, amused grin.

"She was acting so tough when she wiped out those monsters, but now she’s just a pathetic target!" "Keep pouring it on, Maya!" another man cheered, enjoying the grotesque sight.

"Burn that undead filth to ashes!" Maya smiled with unhinged delight, pumping even more mana into her staff to intensify the golden beam.

Ophiliya watched the brutal torture with deep, dark satisfaction. She was in no hurry to grant a quick death to the monster that had humiliated her and nearly cost her life days before.

Watching the ruby-eyed zombie suffer in agony soothed her wounded pride far more than a simple execution ever could.

[How dare they...] the system’s voice flared in Summer’s mind, burning with sudden, uncharacteristic fury.

The system had assumed the human squad would simply execute the defenseless girl to harvest her drop items. It had not anticipated this level of sadistic torture.

[These wretched bugs... How dare they treat you like this!]

’It’s okay,’ Summer replied mentally, forcing her consciousness to remain clear through the blinding, agonizing pain.

’I will take this as a reminder. I will never, ever forget this...’

Ophiliya stepped forward, her expensive leather boots clicking against the bloody bark until she stood right in front of Summer’s pinned body.

She looked down at the mutilated zombie girl with a sneer of absolute superiority.

"See?" Ophiliya sneered, her voice echoing through the hollow root chamber.

"This is the inevitable fate of those who dare cross me. Me, Ophiliya, the sixth heir of the Seven Palaces! How dare a mere backwater zombie try to kill me? How dare you humiliate me?"

Summer slowly raised her head. Despite the holy light melting her flesh and smoke rising from her face, she stared directly into Ophiliya’s eyes without blinking.

Her dark ruby gaze remained freezing, empty, and devoid of submission. Ophiliya was taken aback for a brief second, an instinctual shiver of fear running down her spine.

That fleeting moment of fear instantly infuriated her.

"You vile creature!" Ophiliya barked.

She drew a sleek dagger from her belt and forcefully drove the blade through Summer’s remaining right shoulder, twisting it ruthlessly into the bone.

Summer did not make a single sound.

Her face remained entirely blank, her eyes continuing to stare at Ophiliya without a single twitch of distress. Ophiliya paused, her brow furrowing in irritation as she yanked the blade back out.

She glanced toward her guardian.

"Can zombies feel physical pain?" Ophiliya demanded, wiping Summer’s black blood off her dagger.

"If the creature possesses high intelligence, yes," Vespera replied in her low, composed tone.

"This bitch clearly possesses intelligence," Ophiliya grunted, her eyes narrowing as she studied Summer’s motionless face.

"Why isn’t she screaming?"

"She is suffering in silence," Vespera analyzed smoothly, her sharp eyes scanning Summer’s vital signs.

"Her physical body is undergoing extreme trauma, but her mental discipline is suppressing the vocal response. Young Miss, this creature is far too abnormal. It is better to destroy her core and finish this quickly."

Ophiliya scoffed, waving her hand dismissively.

"What is the hurry? She is completely pinned and gearless. She will die whenever I decide she dies. My anger is far from over. But since she wants to play silent and act unaffected by pain..."

Ophiliya’s cold eyes drifted away from Summer, sweeping across the damp wooden floor until they landed on the small, motionless form trapped near the root wall.

Her gaze locked onto Three.

For the very first time since the ambush began, a sharp flicker of genuine panic flared deep within Summer’s ruby eyes. Her calm fa?ade shattered in an instant.

Ophiliya’s eyes brightened with cruel realization. A mocking, delighted laugh escaped her lips as she noticed the sudden shift in the zombie girl’s demeanor.

"Bring that furry puppet to me," Ophiliya ordered, pointing her blood-stained dagger toward Three.

"Understood, Young Miss," one of the heavy-armored warriors replied.

He stepped over to the paralyzed creature, grabbed Three roughly by its scruff, and dragged it across the floor, tossing it directly onto the bark in front of Ophiliya.

"You dare..." Summer growled through her tightly gritted teeth.

She bit her own tongue so hard in desperate rage that dark, thick blood burst from her lips, spilling down her chin and dripping onto the arrow shaft sticking out of her chest.

"Oh? So you really care about your little pet, don’t you?" Ophiliya laughed mockingly, thoroughly enjoying the sudden, desperate reaction.

Without a second thought, Ophiliya raised her dagger and brought it down in a swift, vicious arc.

SLICE!

The sharp blade severed one of Three’s small, fuzzy ears, slicing clean through its shoulder.

"EEEK!"

A sharp, piteous cry echoed from Three’s small form as black corruption leaked rapidly from the open wound.

"Stop!" Summer cried out, tears finally spilling past her blood-stained eyelashes.

The proud, cold zombie girl who had slain Level 30 mutated beasts without flinching was now sobbing openly, her voice broken and desperate.

"Please... stop! Don’t touch it! Kill me! Just kill me instead!" Summer begged frantically, pulling against the heavy arrow pinning her chest, uncaring as the shaft tore her heart further apart.

"Please! I’m begging you! Don’t hurt it!"

Ophiliya raised her dagger again with a cruel, triumphant smile, preparing to carve off another piece of the helpless puppet.

Three lay on the bloody wood, watching its master—the strong, unyielding girl who had always protected it—sobbing and begging on her knees for its sake.

A deep, violent tremor shook the small puppet’s core.

Despite Vespera’s suffocating mental suppression binding its physical body, Three gathered every single drop of its corrupted mana, burning its own soul thread to break free of the mental chains for a single split second.

Three turned its small, glowing eyes toward Summer, staring at her blood-stained, crying face.

Using the very last of its limited, fragile vocabulary, Three spoke its final words directly into Summer’s mind.

’Take... care... Maa-sta...’

BOOM!

Before Ophiliya’s dagger could descend a second time, Three forcefully overloaded its internal energy network and shattered its own core.

A blinding explosion of compressed illusion energy and raw mana burst outward from the tiny puppet, swallowing Ophiliya, Maya, and the surrounding warriors in a violent, chaotic shockwave.