"Hmm. He's doing better than I expected. Maybe it's time to up the intensity a bit? Nah, this is fine for now." (Jandru)
The figure of Kenneth is seen, still tied to the chair by the chains. His body, still thrashing, is battered beyond belief. It was almost a miracle that he hadn't passed out yet. He kept on struggling for the next hour, still having that same vitality, until his body couldn't find it's strength anymore; his body now bloody and almost unrecognizable. What marvelous willpower for a child.
Almost lifeless; the only way one could tell that he was still alive was from the endless tears streaming from his eyes, the slimy discharge from his nose, and the occasional plead of, "Please, Stop...".
Then, as if he hadn't been struggling, his body; all the blood, pain and injuries vanished in an instant.
Only for it to continue once again. Unable to handle it anymore, the body outside of the V.T.G began to swing his head furiously, in an attempt to break his neck. The now-healed Kenneth's body once again soon became unidentifiable, the healed wounds replaced with new injuries.
"*sigh*. Quiet down a bit, will you? I'm not doing this to torture you, I'm helping you. Listen to me, Kenneth. Right now, you've probably already seen your precious people die a few dozen times already. So here's a tip. Don't overthink things." (Jandru)
"Take the first part, for example. You were in a burning Argonsville. Isn't that already peculiar? Argonsville has water heat-seeking cannons that are programmed to extinguish any fires, all of them being stationed underneath the roads and streets. It was already odd that the fire managed to affect inflammable materials, let alone be allowed to spread that big. You keep asking yourself, "What if?", and that leads to an unhealthy mind. What if your family was in danger? In your family alone, there are three, now four, if you count the nee girl you guys took in, magicians. You expect me to believe they couldn't even escape a few embers? Yeah right. The chance of magicians dying to a pesky flame is smaller than me ever getting a girlfriend. So stop overthinking it." Jandru continues on.
"If you're worried about your "parents" dying, then fuck no. What's the chance of them being assassinated by some random idiot who happens to live for the thrill of murder? Fuck, even lower than me getting into a devoted relationship. In addition to the water cannons, THERE'S FUCKING CCTV CAMERAS EVERYWHERE. If they happen to not capture the culprits, your new sister can conjure a portal straight into the Argonsville City Hospital. Maybe even your DOG (for fucks sake) could kill the evildoer before they even bother to attempt to murder your parents." Jandru rants on.
"What about the time when your mother was being fucked in front of you, yet it seemed like she enjoyed it? Hah! Even I'm not a part of your family, yet I can see, despite her constanr chastising towards her husband, she loves him just as much as any normal wife does." Jandru finishes.
"I...." Kenneth's first response in a while was in the form of a single word, showing him having no words to counter Jandru with.
"I'm doing this for you." Jandru sits down on the ground witb a meditating pose, before sighing.
"I haven't told you this yet, but in about a month, something big is about to happen. Big enough that the gods can't interfere with it now, with our current power. Do me a favor, and show me that you deserve to be the Mind God's Apostle. Show me how tenacious you really are!" (Jandru)
Kenneth breaths deeply, taking in everything that just happened. The whole process of inhaling was about thirty seconds long. During it, Kenneth reminisced about his weak mentality. After a brief moment, he exhales, with a newfound resolution.
"Hit me with all you got." He says in a confident tone.
"Hmm. Good. I'm setting the V.T.G to it's absolute limit. None of my followers ever managed to finish this course, but luckily you have a special power. Remember your "Run Amok" spell? That one was actually nice. Never been able to do it myself, cause' I didn't have your eyes." (Jandru)
"What.. were those eyes? I felt like I could fight the whole world with them." (Kenneth)
"Hah. Not too far off. More like you could control the whole world with them. Those, are the True Mind God's Control Eyes. A mouthful, I know. My predecesssor, and former teacher, had those eyes." (Jandru)
It is believed that if all the Gods were to fuse together, there powers would make them both omnipotent and omniscient. This power, while being mighty, was very overbearing on the gods. It was thought to have only been used on the first invasion of Krodoa, orchestrated by the Karman.
Believing the power to be too dangerous to be used by the gods that would continue the generation, the gods' "perfect body" was sealed and all of it's body parts were split into many pieces.
The True Mind Gods' Control Eyes. The First Mind God, which was Jandru's predecessor, had sealed his power in it. Control, not necessarily meaning complete control in the literal form, but comple control mentally, not just on your enemies, but even on yourself.
The eyes. What a wonderful body part to have. They let us see, they let us scan, they let us view our surroundings. Maybe if you had complete control over someone, you'd be the best Mental Magic user.
"What about these eyes? I don't know why they suddenly made me feel fuzzy when I casted "Run Amok". I didn't even have that spell, I just somehow knew how to cast it.
"That's teach's power alright. His favorite move, that "Run Amok". I remember when he'd stop wars between countries just with that spell as if it was a walk in the park. I never really did manage to surpass him in strength, but mostly because I was the only one to resist his Eyes Of Control." (Jandru)
"So.... how do I use it?" (Kenneth)
"Oh, that's easy. I've never actually tried it since I didn't inherit it, but I know the process. In fact, we've already started it." (Jandru)
"Huh? What?" (Kenneth)
"The torture I did on you, of course. Control. Not only control over someone, but also yourself. You couldn't resist tearing up from the first few minutes, are you even fit to be an apostle?" Jandru throws an insult towards Kenneth, but he doesn't react like last time.
"Huh. Looks like you learned something. Good for you. Now, let's get started, shall we?" Jandru places the V.T.G on the still tied up Kenneth. "Ready?"
"Ready." Kenneth closes his eyes, not realising that they had a tint of green in it, barely distinguishable from his brown pupils, but it's still there.
Kenneth's consciousness is sapped away, and he woke up this time, sitting on a comfortable gaming chair, and in front of him, a computer monitor, and a complete PC setup.
"So, uh.. what's the goal here?" He says. Turning on the PC, the black screen turns into a prompt saying,
"Complete at least ten matches worth of gaming, playing Bounter Strike with terrible teammates. Win at least seven of them without playing more than seventeen games.
The first game started, and as the computer had said, he had terrible teammates. None of this affected him a bit until crucial rounds were lost. This made him lose the first game
Playing more passively on the second and third games, he focused on keeping himself alive, and eventually won both of them.
On the forth to seventh, he focused more on playing so safe that he'd stay in a corner, and just wait for a enemy to pass by. He won game four this way. Three games won, four more left.
On the eigth to tenth game, his mental state was alreafy crumbling. Slapping himself to focus, Kenneth would convince himself to not yell at the mic or punch through the monitor.
Losing these three games, he only had seven left to do before he lost.
Taking a thirty minute break, he soon logged back in, and this time, successfully entered "the zone". It was great, there were times when he killed the whole enemy team by himself, fired unbelievable sniper shots, all in all playing so well his team won with ten rounds ahead.
"More! I'll take you all on!" (Kenneth)
Now energized, Kenneth won the eleventh, twelth and fourteenth games.
Three games left to win one more. Knowing he would soon win, Kenneth's mind subconciously stopped working as hard, kicking him out of the zone. Kills that he normally would have gotten easily he failed to get, and he was just a few away from shouting a whole essay at the mic.
On the seventeenth game, Kenneth took a deep breath. Entering a thing similar to the zone was hard, he was lucky enough to actually reach it earlier, so he resolved to do something else.
While browsing through the files, Kenneth had found something weird. It was a cheat file. Believing that his mental state couldn't handle another real game again. He decided to use the cheat file.
"Not my personal way of doing things, but I'm too tired to care." (Kenneth)
"Heh, you only found that now? Well at least you found a way out of the box. Nice job." Jandru's voice resonated in his head.
Didn't seem like Jandru forbid the use of the cheat file. Turning it on, Kenneth hacked his way through the final match, feeling superior at his infinite health.
Finishing the match, Kenneth was sent to the chair from earlier. Except he wasn't tied up anymore.
"What mental fortitude. I decided to abstain from doing even more intense training. You've done good enough for today." (Jandru)
"I've done *sniff* good right?" Kenneth asks, tears falling from his eyes.
"Yeah. Get outta here."
"-ster! Young master!"
"Huh?" Kenneth is awoken by the voice of Catalyn.
"Are you okay? You were crying in your sleep." Catalyn hugs the small body of Kenneth, and pats his head slowlyn
"*sniff* Yeah, I'm okay. You're okay too, right?" (Kenneth)
"Of course." Catalyn hugs him tightly.
"Thanks for this." Kenneth returns the hug and snuggles up closer to her body. Feeling the warmth of a family member, Kenneth manages to sleep, not forgetting his training.
"It's okay." Was all Kenneth heard until his tired eyes gradually shut.
Back in the white space.
"That's nice. He actually finished your training." Illia was drinking tea beside Jandru, who was still chugging wine. Does he ever stop?
"Yeah, it was nice. Maybe I will ease up on the training..." (Jandru)
"Heh. Him crying made you feel bad, right? Maybe you should've thought that despite him being an adult in his past life, he now had the opportunity to receive warm familial love. And you're taking it away from him by using that torture. Hope you think about what you've done.
"Heh. Alright, alright."