A few hours later.
Brandon walked out with a contented look on his face, leaving with his crew.
Zen watched them leave and felt like he had some new material to work with. These little incidences Zen was causing weren't simply ways to punish Clyde, they were also experiments. He was trying to find new ways to use his skills and he felt like he just found one
Previously, one of Brandon's friends had peeked in to see the scene and seemed to show interest. Zen had succeeded in convincing Brandon to do this to Clyde because deep down he already wanted to,so Zen was simply building on a foundation, but just now, Brandon's friend had shown interest in something he never would have before.
Could it be that he had once again underestimated his skill.
After a while of thinking, Zen realized that at the beginning of it all, that person might have been extremely disgusted to even be in the presence of something like that, but over time, Zen slowly molded his ideals , starting small with the idea that it wouldn't be anything bad to help Brandon do such,however,over time, the thoughts became more and more outrageous until he now seemed even a bit interested.
It suddenly clicked in Zen's mind that he wasn't just changing people's thoughts,he was changing how they thought.
For example, if he ordered a father to kill his son,it would be completely ineffective as all of the man's ideals as well as his thought process would deny such thoughts. However if he started with causing the man to do something kind for his son,then cause said son to be harsh, dismissive and ungrateful,he could create a base of dissatisfaction. Over time he could cause the man to go to greater and greater lengths for his son's approval, and the child to be even more spoilt and uncaring. In the end,all it would take was for the father to snap, and teach his son a lesson while "accidentally" forgetting his own strength, and the deed would be done.
All it would take were a few seemingly insignificant thoughts to change someones entire personality and thought process. As long as he could provide a valid reason for such a thought, the effects would be long lasting, permanent even.
Zen looked at the dark night sky, and then Clyde who had a vacant expression and tears in his eyes and slowly went down the building. It was time. He had already been healed completely by one of his assailants.
Zen pulled up his hood as he entered the alleyway and suddenly took a small device that had a spider on it with him. Zen pulled out the memory card and put it in his watch transferring all files on it to his watch, which in actuality was only one file.
Clyde looked up to see a mysterious figure that was cloaked by the darkness, and felt nothing but shame that someone had found him like this, wishing he could just kill himself right now.
The mysterious figure didn't say anything to him and simply played a recording on their watch, with what had just happened being the background.
Amidst his own screams,Clyde heard.
""Aaaahhh! PLEASE I SWEAR,I WAS ROBBED"
*SLAP!*
"shut up and take it, Sissy bitch!"
"When do you think that asshole will realize that we're the ones who keep stealing the credits"
"Probably AFTER boss has completely ruined HIS asshole"
"His? Fat chance! Like you can call THAT a he"
Clyde's eyes widened as he heard the recording.
He simply layed there, his eyes staring blankly like he was already dead.
Zen didn't say anything and simply left, but not without putting one last thought in Clyde's head.
"Black,I have a question "
"What is it?"
"You're connected to his brain,so when all that was happening, did you feel that too?"
"Firstly,it wouldn't matter, and secondly,no. You're my partner, not him, and I'm quite content with you. I'm happy to share every pain and pleasure with you , our connection is absolute, however for him,i had to turn off a few nerves and receptors in his brain so he'd be unable to detect me, not that he could if I hadn't"
Zen suddenly realized something.
"You turned off his nerves?"
"In a word,yes, and with prolonged direct contact with an unprotected brain,i can do it again. I could even temporarily turn off your brains pain receptors in the middle of battle so we can fight at our peak."
"Then did he actually feel what they did to him "
"Yes,in fact,i actually boosted his pain receptors , and nerves in that particular area multiple times over to really punish him"
Zen once again felt like he had severely underestimated his arsenal. Black had just revealed that he could basically cause Congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis,or (CIPA). He couldn't help wondering where exactly this alien had come from. Zen felt like he finally understand what the system meant when it ranked Black as a member of THE ultimate predatory species. It wouldn't take a genius to realize how much damage a random Synth-morph could do if it was left to its own devices, and even worse was that although Black didn't know why,it felt like it should have a skill or skill set unique to itself, and the same went for every Synth-morph. The only weakness they apparently had was extreme temperatures, vibrations, and their need of a host.
He suddenly caught sight of Brandon and the others and suddenly passed in front of them, nearly bumping into them and simply walking away without saying anything after making sure they got a good look at his face.
Brandon was about to attack when
★That will be my new target ★
And that was all it took. Zen didn't just want to get rid of Clyde, he wanted them all gone, and this simple act had set Brandon and his gang for certain doom at the hands of something they could never comprehend.
Once out of sight, Zen quickly dashed to go get something before going back to where Clyde was before and seeing that he had already gotten up.
Zen looked at Clyde's dead soulless eyes and knew that he could no longer resist.
Zen connected to his mind and realized that his mind was completely empty.
★Go to the forest ★
Zen didn't even have time to finish the command when, like a puppet being pulled on strings,Clyde got up and followed those thoughts, mindlessly going towards the forest.
Zen followed closely behind,occasionally giving precise orders and commands,all which Clyde obeyed immediately, showing just how broken he was.
What came next was the most important part. Zen had to find a way to cause him as much pain as possible in the next few minutes before killing him.
If only the system had been more specific on what kind of pain to cause Clyde,then he would have been done with this already.
Being careful to make sure he wasn't being followed, Zen slowly walked behind Clyde, not bothering to hide or try to be unseen.
After a few minutes, Zen and Clyde exited the city and entered the forest.
Once he had determined that they were deep enough to be unseen, Zen terminated the soul link.
He immediately used his ring to bring out an ability book,a pair of new white gloves,a plastic bag,and a household kitchen knife that had been sufficiently sharpned
He quickly changed his gloves. Zen was a professional in this, and although he wasn't planning on leaving any traces, and was confident in his ability to do so,it was best to be cautious.
On top of that, Black had seperated a bit of its body to coat the handle of the knife, making sure that Zen would never be in direct contact with it. Zen knew what was possible in a world with abilities, and you could never be too careful, he'd learned that the hard way.
"Are we ready, Black?"
"I have no reason to believe otherwise"
Zen nodded and opened the ability book with his currently bare left hand, and stared at it. In a matter of seconds it turned into ash.
The sound of the notification informed Zen that his SP had been refilled, and before the wind could blow away the ashes, Zen pulled out the plastic bag, sealing all the books remains before putting the bag back in the ring.
Zen immediately reactivated the link and immediately began flooding Clyde's mind with all the pain he had gone through in the past two weeks, making sure to exaggerate where he could. The next thing he did was begin flooding Clyde's mind with rage. Zen normally would have had trouble simulating rage due to his general lack of emotion, but due to his new found understanding of the skill, he knew he only had to make him show the signs of rage to begin and encourage the changing of his thought process. In simple terms, give him the symptoms, and the disease itself would follow.
It didn't take long for Clyde to immediately start acting erraticly, screaming and yelling.
Now for the next part.
It was common knowledge that people's emotions could affect the use of their abilities, but not many people knew to what extent. It was sometimes like flexing a muscle,or like how people would clench their fists or teeth when angry. It was instinctual, uncontrollable even.
As for how a teenager without an ability knew this, perks of being raised in the worlds largest terrorist organization.
Instead of working on making Clyde even more angry, Zen decided to do the opposite and remove his influence over him. Since the beginning of this plan, Zen had been working on forcefully burying Clyde's anger, causing it to pile up and accumulate over time due to being repressed, and now that it was all being released at once, Clyde visibly broke down.
★Kill yourself ★
Clyde immediately stopped with his outburst and simply stood staring into space.
Zen watched curiously, unsure what would happen, however he got his answer once he saw Clyde's hands burst into flames.
"He's lost control. Good"
Zen immediately jumped down from the tree branch, revealing himself to Clyde.
"Clyde? What are you doing here?"
Clyde immediately snapped out of his daze and stared at Zen with a crazy look in his eyes
"Y-you. What are you doing here? They sent you,didn't they?"
Zen acted as if he was confused, walking slowly towards Clyde with his hands up.
"What? No! I want to help yo-"
"SHUT UP!"
Clyde slowly limped backwards, pointing his flaming hands towards Zen, and acting like he couldn't feel his hands burning.
"S-stay back! I.. I'll kill you.... and then myself too!STAY BACK"
"He's paranoid , untrusting. And he just said he wanted to kill himself "
Zen thought as he continued giving commands.
Zen suddenly wanted to try something. He had been able to fill Clyde's mind with all those bad memories because he had also witnessed them. He wondered if he could try the same with memories that weren't his.
With that thought, Zen's eyes glowed ominously as a strange feeling enveloped him. He suddenly felt like he could see and influence Clydes mind clearly. He immediately started showing him what could only be described as nightmares.
Perhaps it was due to how broken he was already,or maybe there had been a qualitative change after Zen had done this for the past two weeks,but Clyde could clearly see everything unfold before his eyes, and it terrified him.
He immediately fell to his knees and clutched his head.
"NO! STOP, PLEASE. I'LL DO ANYTHING. WHYYY....WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE? I DON'T WANT THIS, LEAVE ME ALONE. JUST LET ME DIE ALREADY"
Clyde's body suddenly burst into flames as he started screaming out like a mad man.
Deep in Zen's consciousness,Freya felt a bit uncomfortable so she called out to Zen to stop, but for some reason he didn't react.
"Zen? Zen, can you hear me?! Answer me! ZEN! AZRAEL!!!!"
However no matter how hard she screamed, Zen wouldn't budge. His eyes may have been open, but it seemed like Zen wasn't even conscious. For some reason, he was frozen.
In his mad rage, Clyde suddenly threw a ball of fire towards Zen, and although seeing it coming, Freya and Black couldn't do anything about it.
"Move!" A voice suddenly called out as Zen was suddenly tackled to the ground and out of the way.
As his body landed on the ground, Zen regained consciousness.
"Ugh!.... Zaria? "
*Pant* *pant*
"Why did you just stand there?" Zaria asked, quickly focusing on Clyde.
"What's happening?" She asked Zen
Zen dusted his clothes and got up .
"I don't know. Looks like all the stress has gotten to him"
Zaria looked at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"We have to stop him"
"What are you going to do? Turn off HIS ability? What are you doing here anyway?"
Zen asked casually, like everything else happening didn't bother him.
"Is now really the time?" Zaria sighed.
"I couldn't sleep again and came into the woods for a walk. Why are you here?" Zaria returned his question to him.
Zen shrugged
"Same reason "
Zaria didn't have time to question him and asked.
"What do we do now?"
Zen suddenly pulled out the kitchen knife.
"Put him out of his misery"
Zaria looked at Clyde and felt like that was all they could do at this point.
She saw Zen squaring up to throw the knife and panicked.
"You won't get another shot" She warned
"I won't need one "
Zen wasn't worried about the torture section of the quest. Currently inside Clyde's body,Black was causing as much havoc as possible, destroying joints, eating nerves, anything that looked like it would cause pain was on the list.
"Zen, hurry. I can't stay here much longer "
Black spoke, and although he couldn't tell why, Zen felt like it was in pain.
With uncanny accuracy, Zen quickly threw the knife, aiming for Clyde's heart.
Like it had been released from a canon, the knife flew forward like a lethal weapon, and with an obscene level of accuracy and ease,it implanted itself squarely into Clyde's chest, knocking him onto his back.
[Calculating rewards]
Zen didn't even bother reading the the rewards and immediately started running towards the school.
"Why are you running?"
Zaria who had immediately ran after him asked.
"We only have three minutes before the school finds out he's dead, and I don't want to be here when they do".