As she took in a deep breath, Beatrice continued staring at the spell circle inscribed inside of the book, trying her best to imprint it in her mind.
After staring at the diagram for more than an hour, so much so that her eyes had become bloodshot, Beatrice slowly closed the book before getting up from the bed and closing her eyes.
"This should work," mumbled Beatrice, before beginning to focus on casting the spell she had just memorized.
Of course, things were not so simple, as after over thirty minutes of casting nothing happened, but still, Beatrice continued attempting to cast that spell, not letting her failure get to her.
Several hours later,
Still with her eyes closed, Beatrice couldn't help but feel lightheaded, as exhaustion seemingly washed over her.
'The effects of the potion are almost over, I need to get on with this, and fast,' thought Beatrice.
Opening her eyes, Beatrice smiled, looking at the shadowy clouds around her.
Suddenly, Beatrice opened her mouth, causing the clouds to suddenly begin flowing towards Beatrice, and being swallowed by her.
Feeling her exhaustion be slightly alleviated, a large smile appeared on Beatrice's face.
"It looks like I was right, this spell can somewhat alleviate the effects of the Light Spell, but I need a lot more Torment," mumbled Beatrice as all of the clouds inside of her room had already disappeared.
Suddenly, Beatrice turned her vision towards a certain door.
The Experiment Room
...
Pain is a rather peculiar thing, the primal response of living beings, warning themselves that they had suffered harm, but at the same time, pain itself could do so much more damage than the wounds themselves.
Looking at the extremely huge shadowy cloud that covered half of the room, Beatrice smiled, before opening her mouth, causing the large cloud to suddenly begin flowing toward her.
At this moment, Beatrice felt as if her body was being ripped apart, torn to shreds under a precise scalpel, her inner organs exposed and examined.
James, a random man, was sold into slavery because of his debt, before ending up in Beatrice's laboratory.
But even though James was long gone, his imprint on the world was still very much there.
No great accomplishment, nor achievement, James practically did nothing with his life, but even so, something of him remained left behind after his soul departed from this world.
Pain, despair, and torment, were the three things that James had left behind in this world.
But under the might of Beatrice's spell, these emotions, which were imprinted into the very walls of this room, were forcefully brought out, then merely a few moments later were swallowed by Beatrice.
Suddenly, Beatrice's body slightly shook, as unlike the others, this dark cloud struggled, as portions of James's soul, tainted with pure torment, remained in this room.
Feeling the feeble and fragmented mind trying to escape its fate, for the first time since she had come to the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice's mask slowly cracked.
The rather polite smile she usually had on her face slowly began morphing, becoming wider and wider, before Beatrice erupted into pure utterly insane, manic laughter only a few moments later.
Suddenly, shadows began emerging from all corners of the room, with an extremely large amount emerging from the eight metal restraints in the middle of the room.
...
Hearing the laughter coming from inside of the experiment room, William suddenly got up from the chair, wanting to make sure his Mistress was alright, or if she needed help.
But as she got closer and closer to the closed door of the experiment room, the speed at which William walked became slower and slower, but even so, eventually, William was close enough, so much so that he stretched out his hand towards the door hands.
The moment William's hand touched the handle, his movement suddenly stopped, as another burst of laughter was heard from inside of the room.
"Mistress doesn't need my help right now," mumbled William as he slowly took out his hand from the door handle and began walking back to his chair with his body slightly shaking.
...
As her laughter slowly but surely stopped, the room returned to normal, leaving only Beatrice standing alone in the middle of it.
But compared to before, the experiment room seemed rather different, it was as if the room was recreated, the gloomy atmosphere, which was ever present in the previous experiment room seemed completely gone, and at the same time, something seemed different about Beatrice.
'Torment, Rankless Dark Spell, using the pain, despair, and torment left behind after the death of those in extreme pain as fuel, the mage can either temporarily increase their power, or even use it to achieve feats that were impossible for the mage to achieve with their current power, but be warned, this power may come at a price.'
...
A swarm of dark shadows suddenly appeared in an extremely weird world, if not for the color of the shadows, which were evidently black, and were clearly visible to the naked eye, one might describe this world as pitch black.
But right now, under this contrast, it seemed as if this world was pure white, completely contrary to common sense.
Suddenly, it seemed as if the group of shadows sensed something, as all of them suddenly gathered in one group, before beginning to travel in a certain direction.
As time continued to pass, the shadows, which were incomplete beings, seemed to slowly fuse together, forming a weird black blob.
After an unknown amount of time, the blob arrived at it's destinated, a weird fog, comprised of three parts.
A part of the fog was grey, being completely neutral, at the same time, the grey fog seemed to be slowly devoured by what looked like a black fog.
But just as the blob was about to go to the black fog, it was suddenly attracted by something else, a golden fog, which was seemingly attached to the black fog.