William had lost all sense of time.
Minutes blended into hours, and pain became a permanent state—without beginning or end.
His body was strapped to the chair, his head drooping slightly, his breaths ragged, as if each inhale needed permission to escape.
The dried blood on his back clung to his clothes, and every small movement reignited the wound anew.
Kaite stood before him, pacing slowly, like a predator observing a prey that had finished resisting.
In a disturbingly calm voice, he said:
"Do you know what I hate most? Long silence."
William didn't lift his head.
It wasn't defiance… only helplessness.
Kaite sighed, then motioned with his hand.
One of the followers stepped forward and placed a thin, cold metal tool on the table.
"Don't worry… I won't kill you."
He said it as if comforting him, then continued:
"But I will remind you that you're alive… in every possible way."
The tool pressed against one of William's open wounds.
He didn't scream.
Not because he could endure it… but because his voice no longer came.
His body trembled violently, limbs convulsing, air trapped in his chest.
The pain was no longer just sharp… it sank deep, flowing slowly into his bones.
Kaite leaned toward his ear:
"Hold on… the payment is on its way."
The door opened shortly after.
The Third Elder entered, walking with steady steps, a golden card in hand, emanating a faint halo.
He paused, glanced at William briefly… without empathy.
"Still alive, it seems."
Kaite smiled faintly:
"As promised."
The Elder extended the card, but didn't release it immediately.
His gaze met Kaite's, and in a low voice he warned:
"Don't forget… if this boy ever goes out of control, the responsibility is yours."
Kaite took the card slowly, answering confidently:
"If he goes out of control… it won't be anyone's problem."
The Elder withdrew his hand, staring at William one last time:
"High price… for a fragile creature."
Kaite replied without looking:
"Fragile things… either break easily or become something dangerous."
The Elder made no comment.
He turned and left the room as he entered… as if the whole scene were nothing more than a successful transaction.
Once the door closed, Kaite's expression shifted.
No longer formal… but entertained.
He approached William, lifted his chin with a finger, forcing him to look at him.
"Negotiation's over."
Then he added, with lethal calm:
"Now… we just wait until your body gets used to the loss."
He signaled to the followers:
"Give him only one pill. No more."
The pill was forced into William's mouth.
Not enough to heal… only enough to keep him from dying.
Silence returned to the room.
But this time…
The silence was not empty.
Deep within William… the ember remained.
Small.
Hidden.
But still burning.
Time passed without meaning.
He could no longer count hours or distinguish night from day; the place was constant, the darkness uniform, the pain… eternal.
At first, the agony screamed at him, tearing his consciousness, forcing him to cry and plead.
Then… over time, something inside him changed.
The pain did not disappear,
It became dense, deep, like a sea he had been drowning in for ages. The waves no longer startled him… they only weighed down his breath.
His body learned to endure.
His nerves had burned enough to lose their astonishment.
When Kaite noticed that…
Boredom in his eyes shifted into interest.
He turned to the guards and said calmly, emotionless:
"Bring my special set."
No one dared question him.
They left quickly, returning with a heavy black box, engraved with twisted symbols that belonged to no language William knew.
When the box was opened, a suffocating sensation spread in the air.
Strange tools…
Some as thin as needles,
Others twisted like dead entrails,
And among them, things that seemed to move slowly, pulsing with unnatural rhythm.
Kaite sat in the chair across from him, resting casually, staring at William for a long moment:
"Now… we play our final game."
He paused, then continued in a low voice:
"The longest one too… I don't have much time."
William tried to lift his head.
From the changing light, from the weight of his body, from accumulated exhaustion…
He guessed he had spent two or three days in this warehouse.
Two days before that in the chase.
And nearly three weeks since the worlds started overlapping, since the world had ceased to be what it once was.
Kaite picked up one of the tools between his fingers:
"The game is simple."
He stepped closer and added:
"All you have to do… is keep your focus."
He came closer still, his voice a heavy whisper:
"You'll start counting down from a thousand. Each time, subtract seven.
When you reach nine hundred… start counting back up to a thousand, incrementally."
A faint smile appeared on his face:
"And I… will help you."
A shiver ran across William's skin.
He did not speak.
"Start."
—
"One thousand…"
The moment he said the number, the tool touched his body.
Not a stab,
But a slow, precise prick,
As if something was being planted inside him, deliberately.
"Nine hundred ninety-three…"
Another tool.
Deeper.
Harsher.
His limbs began to tremble,
But his voice… continued.
"Nine hundred eighty-six…"
The pain was not explosive,
But constant, suffocating,
As if his nerves were being squeezed mercilessly.
With each number, Kaite changed the tool, shifted its position, observing with fixed, merciless eyes.
When William miscounted once, everything stopped.
Kaite said in terrifying calm:
"Repeat the number."
He recited it correctly this time.
But the punishment did not delay.
A cold tool slid under one of his nails.
His body convulsed violently,
His voice finally broke,
But Kaite did not laugh… he only watched.
As time passed, the world warped in William's vision.
Numbers merged,
The walls seemed to melt,
Then…
Something happened that was not part of the game.
As Kaite moved, William heard a voice…
Before it was spoken.
"If you make another mistake… I will start with the nails, one by one."
He froze.
This was not fear.
Not intuition.
It was thought.
Clear.
Not his.
His body trembled,
But his mind… awakened.
When Kaite extended his hand for the next tool,
William paused for a fraction of a second, then spoke the next number… correctly.
Kaite stiffened for a brief moment.
A moment barely visible.
But William felt it.
"Impossible…"
He heard it.
He continued counting.
With strange precision.
Despite the pain.
Despite the bleeding.
Kaite stepped back, then said with feigned coldness:
"Enough."
But the punishment… was not completely over.
He approached, grasped William's hand.
Pulled out one nail.
Then a second.
Hesitated slightly…
Before stopping.
He said in a low voice, almost admiration:
"It seems you… have learned something."
He left him hanging.
His body trembling,
Hands bleeding,
But his eyes… no longer the same.
William emerged from that game
Body shattered,
Missing two… maybe three nails,
But carrying something new.
A power he had not asked for.
A consciousness he was not ready for.