Castus had been chained to the wall, surrounded by magic circles and Darius didn't do anything for a while. For hours he simple left Castus chained to the wall. His first thought was to attempt to conjure up a lock pick and free himself, but every time he expended mana the walls behind him would flare up and alert Darius. This led to Darius conducting a through check of Castus and he had been unable to hide anything from the man. This had been the game they played for the last day.
Today though Darius returned to the chamber with a stack of papers. He placed them on the sole table and walked up to face Castus.
"Heretic, before the cleansing will begin, I offer you one salvation. Sign the contract and you will be spared."
Darius grabbed the papers once more and lifted them in front of Castus. The warning from yesterday rang in his ears. Castus didn't know why that warning had been issued to him. If Darius didn't want him to sign that contract he just simply wouldn't offer it. Maybe he wanted to perform the cleansing instead, but the driving factor that stopped Castus from signing were the magic rings. Everytime he activated his blessing and used mana the rings glowed and when the contract neared Castus, the rings glowed as well. This convinced him that whatever it was, it wasn't something he understood currently.
Castus hung his head low and shook it back and forth. "I don't understand much, but even I can tell that contract is something evil."
His words stunned Darius for a moment before he seemed to rush to anger. "You dare take my kindness for evil? I am offering you salvation through our holy deity and you call it evil." Darius huffed and tossed the contract to the floor. "Very well. You will be cleansed."
Darius walked towards Castus with a dark expression and began chanting in a language unknown to Castus. The chant continued for several seconds before peaking in tone and volume. At the height Darius lifted his gaze from the floor and held a hand out. "Let your lost sheep be cleansed in the holy flames!"
Fire erupted around Castus. The flames licked at his skin and eveloped his body. The instinct of humans is to immediately attempt to put out the fires, but his confines prevented it. The pain at first was tolerable, but it crescendoed into pain like no other Castus had experienced. His body convulsed against the wall as his mind pivoted into survival mode. The wall glowed as water started to appear above Castus, splashing down on his head and covering his body. Darius looking at Castus, raised and eyebrow in surprise.
The water did nothing to help the pain, nor end the flames. This agony continued for ten minutes before Castus' throat had become coarse from screeching in pain. Darius lowered his hand and the flames stopped. Castus lay limp against his confines gazing down at his legs.
'My legs are fine? My clothes are even fine. Was it all in my head?' Castus looked around noticing his body was perfectly fine, minus the bruised wrists and ankles from straining against the shackles. He looked back to Darius, he previous agony gone and replaced with curiosity. "What the hell was that?"
Darius did not answer. He simple walked two paces up to Castus and in a smooth, dominating voice demanded Castus. "Show me your status screen or I'll do it again."
Castus nearly opened it, remembering the pain from before but stopped himself. He looked at himself. His arms. Whatever Darius had done, it didn't actually hurt him. Castus steeled himself, he would never escape or help his sisters if he continued to be a coward. He needed to be strong. He couldn't be pathetic and useless like he had been the night he was abducted. He remembered his resolve. He looked Darius in the eyes and spoke. "Never you damn psycho zealot."
This prompted Darius to, in a fit of rage, cast the spell once more. Creating a cycle. Castus would be subject to those intangible flames for ten minutes then Darius would demand to see his status screen. Castus would refuse and around they would go.
Castus believed he could endure forever, but that was a silly dream. He lasted 4 hours. The threat of the 25th cast of that spell had broken Castus. He opened his status screen and turned it to Darius. Castus cursed at his weakness when he did. He felt guilt and pain from failure. Once again he was too weak. Darius revealed a sheet of paper and a crystalline pen. He scribbled down a copy of Castus status screen and Castus noticed a new skill.
-Mental Attack resistance (inferior): provides the skill owner a minuscule amount of resistance to mental attacks.
Castus sighed realizing the pathetic nature of his resistance. 'All that bravado and I only lasted this long. The skill I gained was only inferior too. Pft. No, your still a child in this world. You will get there. Don't faulted in your conviction.'
Out of all this he had learned an important detail. Whatever Darius used to torture him. It wasn't magic. The circle around him never once glowed during those flames.
When Darius finished jotting down the entirety of Castus' status screen, he pivoted and snapped his fingers. From the doorway the coach man that had brought him to this place came stumbling down into the dungeon.
"Rys, put this collar on him then put him back in the carriage. He's going to the special missions group with you." Rys, a noticeable short man nodded his head and stumbled over to Castus.
Castus looked at the cloaked 3 foot tall man reaching for his neck and obliged the man feeling bad for his stature. Rys spoke in a whisper into his ear as he was sliding the collar on Castus.
"From now on be sure to follow Darius' orders or that collar will cause worse pain than what he just did to you. I'm sorry friend, but welcome to eternal servitude of the church of Sol."
Castus' eyes widened as he wrenched his body backwards trying to escape the collar. He was too late though. It had been firmly clasped around his neck. It dug into his flesh and merged with his neck causing a yelp from Castus.
"Fuck, what was that man." Castus winced at the pain in his neck. Rys, paid no mind and began unlocking the shackles from his arms and legs. Rys upon finishing opened his cloak up slightly and showed the same kind of collar around his charcoal grey skin. "It's a slave collar." Rys spoke with sadness. Clearly he had been a slave for some time.
Castus wished to ask for more answers but Darius returned from above. "Both of you in the Carriage. A space jumper is picking us up." Rys flinched at the sight of Darius, but moved towards the carriage. Castus though thought otherwise and as he finished his ascent out of the dungeon bolted into the words. He made it three steps when he felt his very being shake in pain. He collapsed, on the brink of blacking out and gasping for air. His body screamed at him that if he took another step only death awaited him. He slowly turned his weakened body back to the carriage and slumped down in the back. Resigned to his new situation. Darius smirked at Castus' pain.
'This slave collar is going to make escape a hell of a lot harder. Not only do I have to follow Darius' orders, running away also seems to trigger it.' Castus unconsciously ran his fingers along the cool metal. Stopping at the border of the fusion between metal and flesh. Looking at Darius that scar made a lot more sense now.