The underground chamber wasn't what they'd expected. It wasn't a musty, crampy, claustrophobic catacomb. The first thing that surprised them was how brightly lit the place was. Brighter than any place buried under earth had a right to be. The second thing that surprised them were the wide cylindrical structures built in different spots of the room. They seemed to be made of a silvery metal and carved with intricate lattice work. Blue light shone through the spaces in the carvings while a familiar gentle buzz kept reverberating within the cylinders.

“What are those?” asked Lyam, astounded.

“Containment houses,” Aveline said. “They are made of agmium. It keeps the circle of scent limited to the walls of those containers. And each of those cylinders contain a hundred dust blooms.”

Lyam paused. “Wait, we are going to carry that entire thing with us?”

Aveline chuckled. “Depends, are you strong enough to lift it?”

“This is no time for jests, Aveline,” Lyam said.

The shapecrafter shook her head. She pulled out a piece of chalk from her satchel and drew an outline around the containment house. “We are going to teleport it with us.”

Lyam watched her as she went about drawing a teleportation circuit similar to the one she had drawn in Eisdel. It made sense to take the entire thing, since the circle of scent for a hundred dust blooms would be too overwhelming. And he didn't even want to think about the outcome of being in the vicinity of a hundred unanchored dust blooms.

Aveline was about to start making circles for him and her and the crimson ruby to finish the circuit when she suddenly froze in her spot. Then she collapsed.

Lyam rushed to her side. “Aveline! What happened? Are you okay?” he put a hand on her back as she hunched over, gripping her head.

She didn't answer, she just gripped her head tighter and grit her teeth. “Make it stop!” she cried out. “Get it out of my head!”

Lyam's features creased with concern under his scarf. “At least tell me what's wrong!” he snapped back at her.

“I don't think there is much you'll be able to do for her,” a voice said behind him.

For some reason it sent a chill down Lyam's spine. His throat ran dry and the hairs on his arm stood on end. Slowly, he turned to look.

A man who might've been a year older than Aveline stood at the door. He wore a flowing long coat, a fine silk shirt, britches, hose and his leather boots were lined with golden leaves. Lyam knew that Count De Croy was an old man so this couldn't have been him. But the air with which the young man carried himself, it was obvious that he was of noble birth.

The man glared at Lyam with a contempt so vicious, it made him squirm in his place. Gauging his obvious fear, the man gave a smile that made him look like a wolf. “You seem scared,” he said. “You really thought you could break into my house, hurt my men, blow up the walls and escape?”

Lyam couldn't come up with an answer. He was sure the man didn't expect him to say anything either. Summoning what little courage he could find in himself, he raised his hand and used [stun flash].

Light and sound exploded together at the man in the coat. And when the brightness disappeared, he was still standing there with barely a hint of strain on his face. He cocked his head at Lyam and said, “Was that supposed to hurt?”

Now the boy really froze in his spot. [Stun flash] hadn't bothered this man even a bit? How could that–

Lyam stopped himself. He remembered what the man had just said. You thought you could break into my house…

Sweat broke out on Lyam's back. Could this be…one of those prodigies Lieutenant Nicolas had talked about?

The boy fumbled to fire [syphon burst]. But somehow the man beat him at being swift. He snapped his fingers at Lyam.

“Surrender.”

Lyam screamed as the word echoed inside his head. Even though it was just a word, it felt like a chain coiling around his brain and squeezing him dry of all his resolve.

He felt his strength abandon his body as he kept hearing the word over and over. Lyam shook his head, gripping it tightly. “Stop! Please stop!” he cried out.

###

[Mindshackle] was a vicious skill. Not because it allowed Damien to dip his hands into a person's mind. But because his psychokinetic chains only tightened further when his enemies tried to struggle against his command.

It wasn't that Damien cared for the pain that he caused to those who deserved it. But handling the [mindshackle] was like an elaborate act of walking a tightrope. His focus had to be completely balanced to keep the chains tight around the enemy's resolve. And it only got more complicated when he had to handle different commands at the same time.

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Regular people gave up easily under the force of [mindshackle]. They were no trouble. It was the magic users he had to be careful around. Damien had complete faith in his own abilities to subdue them and get them to submit. What annoyed him was their capability to pull a trick that might rattle his focus just the right amount.

He wasn't sure what the kid's light attack was supposed to do. He assumed it was meant to hurt him mentally. If that was the case, then Damien found it laughable. As a psychokinetic wielder, he was immune against all mind manipulation magic. If this boy or his accomplice were to try any kind of psychic attack on him, they were bound to be humbled, quite brutally.

Damien made fists of both hands, clenching the invisible chains, tightening them around the intruders’ minds. He still kept the force of [mindshackle] fairly light. In any other case, he would've commanded them to kill each other.

But the current situation was rather delicate. For all he knew, these people might be one of those shapecrafters who had been going around abducting children across Brismont. They could lead him to their leader. He would just have to rough them up a bit for information.

He turned his attention back to the intruders. He tightened the mental chain he had casted around the boy, making him scream. Children are easier to break under pressure. He could use the boy as a leverage against the woman.

Damien didn't feel any disgust towards the actions he was taking against the intruders. He had to keep all such feelings out of his heart to sharpen his focus--that's what allowed attacks like [mindshackle] to slice through people's resolve. He sent another command down the chain he had subdued the boy with.

“Identify yourself.”

###

Lyam felt like his jaws were being pried open with a crowbar. An invisible hand was physically forcing him to speak. His mind was filled with a compulsion to talk. His voice threatened to escape his lips, to tell the man what he wanted to know.

The boy fought against the invisible force. The effort was like trying to pull a cart up a mountain with his teeth. Veins stood out on his neck as he suppressed his own voice.

The pain in his head grew more intense. So did the compulsion to speak. Lyam kept fighting against the command.

The man stepped closer to him, his face unreadable. “If you keep resisting, you'll rip your own vocal chords,” the man said. “Speak up and I'll spare you any further misery.”

Lyam's face contorted with fury and desperation. He clamped his teeth together and put all his strength in keeping his mouth shut.

###

Damien had trained himself to keep his expressions indecipherable no matter what was going on in his mind. If he hadn't been on his guard right now, the young lord would've looked shocked.

The child was resisting against the force of [mindshackle]. He still wasn't exerting a lot of force on the boy, because he didn't want to kill the kid. But the boy's capability to fight against his command still had him stumped.

Damien avoided any feelings of frustration. The child wasn't a regular kid. He was also a magic user. Whether it be a shapecrafter or a dust wielder, their consciousness gets rewired to accommodate magic within them.

If he wasn't handling the chains for both of them with both hands, he would've just seized the boy and uncovered his face. But even seeing their faces wouldn't help much if the child was hell bent on never talking.

So he changed tactics. He decided to prey on their fear instead. He turned back to the boy.

“Show your face.”

###

Lyam's eyes went wide. He felt like a wet towel that had been wrung dry. The result of using [dust will] and fighting fifty other men in one night was starting to show. His body now felt a lot more pliant, trapped in the invisible chains the man had cast on him.

No matter how hard he struggled against them, they seemed to pull at his limbs a lot easier. The invisible force raised his hands, bringing them up to his head. He was as helpless as a puppet on strings.

His fingers started to untie his scarf. Desperation to resist kept gnawing at him. He had to stop himself somehow. His hands didn't stop no matter how hard he tried.

In that moment of desperation, Lyam did the first thing that came to his mind. He used [stun flash] on himself.

###

Damien squinted at the bright light. It was the same attack from before. Did the boy really think it could affect Damien? Hadn’t one failed attempt been enough? Then he paused. It took him a second to realize that the child hadn't used it on him.

The young lord's eyes went wide. He realized something else. The chain that he had casted around the boy…was gone.

Damien tried to pull him back under influence with [mindshackle]. But it didn't work. The chains just seemed to slide off the boy's mind as if they were doused in oil.

And then Damien realized that the flash of light was indeed a mental attack. And the peculiar thing about those attacks was when two of them were launched on the same brain, they cancelled each other out. Damien had almost forgotten about it. [Mindshackle] was so powerful and effective in subduing enemies, it had barely ever failed in combat.

He was so stumped, he hadn't even noticed that he had let the other chain fall loose as well. The woman was out of his influence.

Damien was about to cast [mindshackle] again when he heard laughter. Doubt and uncertainty contorted his features.

The boy was laughing.

###

Lyam had no clue as to how it worked. But the chains had left his mind. And on top of that, he wasn't even disoriented despite exposing himself to [stun flash]. Maybe his own attacks didn't work on him? Then how did it even free him from those invisible chains?

He kept laughing. It was absurd but in that moment, he didn't even care how it worked.

All that mattered was that he wasn't under any influence and even though every muscle in his body was still screaming in pain, his mind was clear as rain. And he kept laughing.

Not dwelling on it any further he looked at the wielder who had been holding him and Aveline hostage. He raised his hand at the young lord and finally used [syphon burst].