As Victor made each step, the wooden stairs creaked in pain.
Cain was becoming increasingly agitated as they descended, there was no light, and there was no hope of escaping Victor's grasp. He could do nothing but wait and bide his time.
His mind processed information at lighting-fast speeds thanks to his augmented brain, he created plans but they were thrown away just as quickly as their creation. He simply had no knowledge on hand to combat the unknown disease affecting him.
No matter how much he thought from every angle, he couldn't escape. His hopes reached rock bottom when his captor began to spill his secrets.
Victor was prone to being a blabbermouth, he went on and on talking. Cain didn't listen at first but over time he realized that Victor easily spilled information.
One of these things was the fact Victor confirmed Lina threw Cain under the bus to protect herself from Victor's backlash of selling his information. It wasn't even passively, she went to him to spill everything!
Victor also verified he was already a grade 4! He had broken through a few years ago thanks to some gift he received from the Royal family!
When talking about the Royal family Victor spoke with reverence, he was like a zealot. He might as well have been clasping his hands and praying to the Emperor. No, he would have if he wasn't carrying Cain!
The man spoke with such fervent that Cain began to fear how powerful the Emperor was!
Victor proved himself to be a madman, he was eccentric with all of his screws loose.
The perfect puppet of the Royal family, that's who Victor Kushen was, he had to be! Cain couldn't even fathom why a grade 4 Plague Bearer acted and talked of himself as a lowly slave when mentioning someone who could at most be in the same grade as him.
But Cain didn't have time to continue his inner thoughts about how insane the man carrying him was. He soon saw light and was brought into a damp space.
Water trickled through the ceiling as it landed on eroded tiles.
They were in a hallway with cells on both sides, some of them had people in them while others had bones. Victor kept walking until he came across a desk, beside it was a metal door leading deeper. It appeared that this place was a huge prison that the mayor controlled.
The guard at the desk saw Victor and stood up in shock, "Lord Kushen! What brings you to this lowly place my lord?"
"Your master said I can have some space for this guy." Victor waved Cain like a stiff doll, he treated him as a plaything.
"If the master said so then I will be happy to bring you anywhere in the complex!" The guard seemed eager to get some brownie points with an esteemed guest.
Victor nodded and the guard led the way. The three walked into a massive facility made of iron.
It was high-end, the walls were made of a black stone that seemed to repress sound. The guard and Victor's footsteps were almost nonexistent.
As they continued they walked into a huge auditorium.
They walked along a bridge to the other side, below was a room lined with cells and a cafeteria in the middle. What's more, there were hundreds of prisoners!
"These are the master's products, they are criminals, contaminants, or people who have wronged my master. Of course, we also have their descendants and family, either born here or not. We have 2 other areas like this and the rest are in maximum security as they need to be watched at all times."
The guard explained with due diligence.
"Give me one of those maximum security rooms, I plan to have this guy screaming a lot, can't agitate the prisoners."
Cain got chills hearing what Victor. To get his mind off it he looked below, the prisoners were too looking up and many of them saw Cain. They then began to whisper to themselves.
Exiting the auditorium, the three went deeper into the prison.
Cain witnessed more cells and most contained people inside. However, they didn't truly look like people, some were starved others were mutilated. It seemed like this place was a branch of hell itself.
Finally, they made it to their destination.
"My lord, this room is completely made from Graystone, no one will interrupt you. The only noise that can exit would be through the crevices of the door. You can do as much as you like with your toy."
Victor smirked and entered the room with Cain. There was a metal chair in the middle with restraints. On the wall were many torture devices.
"Okay! First, we search and strip! Then we get you set up!"
The guard already left, leaving Victor to his devices.
Victor unclothed Cain and searched his person. He took everything Cain had on him.
Luckily Cain left many of his things at home, including his weapons, the intelligence bureau badge, and the vials still needed for research like the longevity vial and vial containing the virus from the undead leader.
What he did have on him when Victor searched him were his vials related to combat and the identity token he was given by Nate. They were quickly snatched by Victor.
Cain was then set up in the torture chair, and he felt the uncomfortable metal scratch up against his skin, but because of his already inhumanly thick skin, it was only uncomfortable at worst.
The madman picked out some of the torture tools before walking towards Cain giddy.
"I can't wait for you to tell me all your secrets hehe. Let's start with how you entered the mansion!"
Victor took the tool and tried to pierce Cain's skin. To his surprise, this led to no avail. Victor turned annoyed but then looked up and smirked at Cain who was now the smug one.
"Did you think this could stop me? There are other ways to enter the body for one, but I want to break your spirit. Watch your best defense crumble! Hehehe!"
Watching Victor take out an extremely thin needle, Cain's smirk vanished.
Victor used a hammer and bashed it into the thin needle. The needle was special, it didn't bend at all even being hit at an angle!
After 3 minutes, Victor succeeded and pierced Cain's skin. He then took a rusted knife and poked it in the spot he pierced and used it as leverage to rip open Cain's skin. It was like a man using a crowbar to open a manhole.
It was extremely painful, the rusted knife lifted Cain's skin unnaturally and tore after a few hard tugs from Victor. It hurt like hell but Cain had felt worse pain before. Yet, Victor wasn't done.
The lunatic kept using the rusted knife until he made gaping holes in Cain's skin all over his body, he then put the knife away and took pins to stretch out Cain's skin, opening up his wounds more.
All over Cain's body were stretched pieces of skin as if it were some tanner's animal hide.
First, Victor used Cain's organs as punching bags, only he found that they were extremely resistant to bludgeoning. So he then took needles of different sizes, stabbed them into different organs, and left them in there.
Next, he took a wooden stick and beat Cain's now visible rose-like muscles. He would also position the stick in between his bundle of muscle fibers.
This felt incredibly uncomfortable but Victor would also grab the nerve clusters with his bare hands and twist. At that point, Cain would begin to scream in response to the pain.
Victor took his time, he would cut open different organs and place scraps of rusty metal inside before sealing them back up. He would pull out Cain's entrails and play with them in front of him, Victor even took a small precise knife and cut Cain's nerves.
He did even more disgusting torturous things to Cain that would be considered crimes to record.
It would cause Cain's blood-curdling screams to even reach the prisoners in the atrium, although rarely.
Cain would squeal and weep when Victor worked his magic. He cried and sobbed as he sat in his room alone when Victor left for day-long breaks, he wouldn't get sleep due to the feeling of metal inside him and the agonizing feeling he felt every second he was in that cell.
The old man would use a multitude of ointments and potions to keep Cain conscious and alive. It was a hell that would never end, a nightmare Cain couldn't wake from.
It was so bad Cain couldn't think straight, or maybe Victor had something for that too, to make sure his toy couldn't make any escape plans.
After 3 days, Victor finally stopped. More accurately, he stopped with the tools.
"Good for you for not spilling your secrets, it makes this so much more fun!
"I will be back soon with some goodies that fit my expertise, they just have to be delivered to me first. Till then, ta ta!"
Victor left but Cain was still in agony. Some guards would visit to continue to torture him but they weren't even close to Victor's skill level. It felt more like child's play for Cain, he even felt comfort in it.
Cain had never broken under the torture, but that would stop after Victor returned.
As he stepped back through the door Cain's eyes became unnerving and terrified. Just the look in his eyes alone, someone could feel his indescribable terror.
Victor smiled at those eyes.
He laid down a bag holding many vials within it.
"You know I cultivated these myself. Anyone under their effects has never failed to turn into a husk of themselves, still living but their spirit being nothing but broken shards. I hope you take a long time to break."
Victor took a vial and neared his toy. Cain's anxiety and fear rose, it peaked!
His eyes slowly lost their fierceness and returned to green, they were no longer eerie or had a sense of madness or dread. His eyes were now of that of humans, they held no secrets or mystery.
His emerald eyes slowly became fainter and fainter as his anguish rose. His eyes lost their sanity as Victor forced his mouth open to pour the liquid, all that was left in his eyes was alarm like an animal seeing its predator, he pointlessly struggled acting like a rabid dog trying to escape.
The liquid went down his throat, his eyes became bloodshot in distress. Victor giggled and let go.
Victor listened to the melody Cain then sang. He sat down like an old man listening to a record. Cain's screams were beyond what they were before; it couldn't even be described properly, all that could be said was that his voice held the epitome of suffering.
His cries were so loud and primal that everyone in the complex could hear them even if barely. But no one, guard or prisoner could sleep lightly after continuously hearing his cries of absolute despair.
Cain's screams would continue without end as Victor kept adding more and more of these viruses. His toy's voice only sang louder and louder.
For the guards and prisoners, it was hard to get sleep, anyone who succeeded would have nightmares.
Both prisoners and guards began to call Cain the Black Beast, this was due to his black hair from when the prisoners first saw him and his animalistic beastly screeches and blood-curdling cries.
Cain lost himself in his agony. It was safe to say his mind already crumbled.
He had always walked on the edge of going mad. His mental state from his actions and failures made sure of that, but this was another level in itself.
Victor would only visit every once in a while after that. He long got bored of Cain's instinctual cries. But these cries slowly stopped and hysterical maniacal laughter soon replaced them.
Everyone in the facility began to become even more fearful of the black beast that was held in the deepest part of the prison. The laughter echoed and made anyone who heard it instinctually shiver in fear.