Splash!
"Haa... haaa... haaaa..."
The young man's eyes snapped open as icy water seeped into his bones. He blinked hard, trying to focus.
"Rise and shine," a voice cooed from somewhere above.
His vision was hazy, not just from sleep but from the blood loss, and he couldn't tell what exactly was blurring his sight as it all blended together into a nauseating swirl of confusion.
"Haaah... haaah... Who are—"
His lips parted, the question half-formed, but before the words could escape something slammed into his face with tremendous force.
"Ugh, cough, cough!" Blood sprayed from his mouth, the sheer violence of the impact leaving him stunned, and for a moment he felt as if he'd glimpsed death before being yanked violently back into life.
Ether.
The realization came instantly. That hit had been laced with it, the girl coating her fist to deliver such a devastating blow.
He hawked up a mix of blood and saliva and let it hit the floor.
"What do you want from me?" he croaked, still bold enough to speak even now.
BAM!
Another crushing blow landed, and he felt it coming.
"You don't get to ask questions, I do," came that same cold voice.
His head dropped and his thoughts spun.
"Tell me your accomplices' names. Based on my research you're barely competent in Magictect, just a middling alchemist, so there's no way you breached the forcefield alone. Who are you working for? This is your one chance at a painless death. Stretch this out and you'll beg for death, and not even get it."
Azalea sighed.
A lie, a big one.
He already knew who was speaking, had pieced it together quickly. Class 2B's Annabella Kira von Estellia, one of the top students in the combat mage department, and someone he knew far too well. She had an unhealthy obsession with Auston, and she wasn't alone in that, but it didn't make this situation any better.
She would torture him whether or not he talked. The promise of a painless death was empty, just a ploy to loosen his tongue.
He was in for a long night.
Sobs.
BAM!
It hurt, gods it hurt, and he couldn't move, couldn't shield himself at all.
"F-Fuck..." Blood dribbled from his lips as a fresh cough wracked his frame.
"It seems you prefer the hard way," she said flatly, with no trace of emotion.
"Just kill me," he whispered, his head low, "you're wasting your time, I don't even know who triggered the system bridge."
He remembered this part from the game, the third arc of the first game, the final exam of the second year, but this time it wasn't a simulation. Students had been sent to a real-world location, a kingdom outside Ezram but still part of its territory since it paid taxes. A sudden surge of mountain Corels had ravaged the town, nasty creatures that attacked in swarms and fed on secondary ether. The academy isolated the area with a forcefield meant to keep other ether beasts out, and sent students in to clear the Corels. At first it was manageable, but then someone breached the forcefield and high-tier ether beasts poured in, and that's when the real carnage began.
In the game, no one ever found out who did it, at least not in the parts he had played. So he truly didn't know.
All of this had happened in-game too, only now things were different, because Azalea had actually done it. Out of jealousy, or had he?
"I see," the voice said.
The sharp click of heels followed.
He raised his head, his vision still foggy, but he caught a silhouette, a tall hat and long pink hair cascading in waves, and she placed a small box on a nearby desk and opened it.
His body instinctively recoiled.
"As an alchemist," her blue eyes met his, cold and calculating, "you must know what happens when random, highly toxic substances are ingested, yes?"
Pain, only pain.
"I swear I don't know!" he screamed, the panic now fully rooted in his bones.
"And yet it was you who put Auston in his current condition, fighting for his life," she murmured sweetly, and that sweetness chilled him far more than her blows ever had.
"I... haah... please... damn it, damn it!" She smiled and began picking chemicals from the box, randomly to her, but not to him.
He had studied alchemy since childhood and he knew exactly what those substances were. Kasper's Dew, Morsperge, a deadly combination.
"For the last time," she said, eyes narrowing, "who sent you?"
Clarity surged back into him, his body finally recognizing the full severity of what was about to happen, and those blue eyes, merciless and cruel, locked onto his.
"I... f-fuck, sob, fuck..."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And so it began, torment, true torment.