Conrad took a deep breath and looked into the eyes of Lina and Elena.
As a Hunter, Elena possessed a far stronger and more developed mental capacity and endurance than normal people, but her condition was far from good right now.
She was barely breathing and struggling to endure the pain.
At that moment, Conrad looked at Lina.
"Level 1", he said.
Lina smiled and focused on Elena's eyes. A few seconds later, a pain similar to a massive migraine spread through Elena's entire body and soul.
She was not used to this kind of pain at all.
"What..."
"This is a Nen ability," Elena thought immediately.
Conrad smiled.
"Looks like Level 1 only creates mild discomfort and isn't very painful," Conrad said.
Lina spread her hands slightly.
"Yeah... Level 1 isn't very useful, but it's enough for testing," she replied.
Conrad walked over to Elena.
"How does it feel knowing the pain you'll experience has no end?" he asked.
Exhausted and drained, Elena shook her head weakly.
"I want you to forgive me..." she said.
Conrad turned towards Lina, acting as if he hadn't even heard Elena's words.
"Level 5."
Lina raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Alright," she said.
A few seconds later, as Lina concentrated, Elena was about to scream before Conrad covered her mouth once again.
Even though she was tied down, even though her legs were broken, every part of her body twisted as if she were being burned alive.
Elena nearly lost consciousness from the agony before Conrad gestured for Lina to stop and removed his hand from Elena's mouth.
"Level 5..."
"Not bad at all," he added.
Lina smiled.
"Still ten times weaker than Level 7, the final stage."
"I don't know any being capable of enduring Level 5 for more than ten seconds," she added.
Conrad nodded.
He looked at the half-conscious Elena.
"Do you regret it?" he asked.
Elena tried to gather her thoughts.
The pain she had experienced was impossible to properly describe. It felt as though all of her skin were being peeled off and stitched back together while her organs were ripped out from inside her body and shoved back in again – and all of it while she remained fully conscious.
Conrad asked again and added before giving Elena time to answer:
"Three seconds..."
"You endured Level 5 pain for three seconds. There's still Level 6 and Level 7."
"Do you regret it?"
Elena had cried so much from pain that no tears remained in her eyes anymore. With dry eyes full of desperation and pleading, she spoke.
"Yes... Please forgive me; I made a huge mistake."
"I'll do whatever you want," Elena said.
Conrad let out a deep breath.
"Hmm..."
"I think this is enough," he thought.
Truthfully, even he wasn't entirely pleased with his own actions. But being attacked through an attempt at control — especially by someone he had at least somewhat trusted — had allowed a seed of rage inside him to sprout and rapidly grow into a tree.
Naturally, the consequences of that were not pleasant.
"Alright..."
"Then I want you to do exactly as I say," Conrad said.
Elena looked into Conrad's eyes with enormous hope, listening with complete focus as if she had found a path to salvation.
"You'll go to Mizaistom and tell him the mission was completed and that I know nothing."
"My friend's ability doesn't care about distance. Whenever we want, we can make you suffer, kill you, leave you in a death-like state through pain, heal you again, and repeat that cycle endlessly," he said.
Elena thought for a few seconds before immediately nodding.
"Okay... Okay."
"I'll do exactly as you say. Please stop hurting me and spare my life now..."
"I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have attacked you. I should never have attempted something like this."
Conrad smiled.
"So you do care about your life after all. Earlier you were saying things like 'do what you have to do,"' Conrad said.
Elena remained silent and said nothing.
Conrad turned towards Lina.
"Heal her," he said.
Lina smiled.
"Right away," she replied.
As soon as Lina spoke, Elena's broken legs, ankle, and every other injury slowly began healing.
The healing was not as fast as Kurapika's Healing Chain, but it was still rapid.
In only ten minutes, everything except Elena's mental exhaustion and emotional distress had disappeared.
Conrad placed a hand on his chin and couldn't help thinking:
"Really an important new ability..."
"Even though it's used for healing, the person Lina heals is also forced into a position where they can be cursed by her."
"If you want healing, then you also have to accept the possibility of being tortured to death by Lina."
"Both Lina's conditions are extremely harsh, and so are the conditions imposed on the person seeking healing from her..."
Conrad understood exactly why such an ability worked and why it was powerful. If someone truly needed healing and sought help from Lina, then they had to place their life directly into Lina's hands.
Without surrendering themselves completely to Lina, they could never be healed by her.
And that, by itself, was an enormous risk accepted by the one seeking healing.
Half an hour later, after Conrad had explained exactly what Elena needed to do and warned her that she would die if anything went wrong, he finally allowed her to leave.
After leaving the hotel, Elena let out a small breath.
"I'm really alive..." she thought with a helpless smile on her face.
"Even making it out of such a dangerous situation while protecting my life is a miracle."
"No matter what happens, I shouldn't try any simple tricks and must do exactly what Conrad said."
"I'm sorry... Mizaistom, sending me to hunt someone over your mistake and putting me in such danger is unacceptable."
Elena fully made up her mind and sent Mizaistom a message through her phone, saying the job was finished successfully and that she wanted to meet with him.