Ebony had their water source, Volcanic Cinderbloom dew delivered to his cell but the kind guard didn’t feed him.

Someone else, or rather a group of people walked through the seemingly molten cell walls and entered the same room as him. Along with a jar of the dew sloshing around one, they were pinched between one of the men’s two fingers.

“Criminal. Be glad you have value to Lord Gearhart and kept your life.” The one holding his water had a nasal voice.

Ebony’s eyes hadn’t fully healed and were half molten, he didn’t have any mana and the cell didn’t have any mana either. His only mana senses were internal thanks to his ability to sense his chassis. A quick check was all it took to reaffirm that his chassis was in a squeezed state. Exhausted and had nothing to burn to convert into mana but not damaged. His ears were working perfectly fine.

Although he spoke to the kind guard, he kept his mouth shut with this new person. He didn’t know what they were here for so he listened and waited to find out.

“This isn’t the promised dew, we can’t let you die from sulfur poisoning. It’s water. Want it?”

Laying like the dead molten creature he was, Ebony just remained silent. They expected too much if they thought he had the energy to deal with taunts. Though he did.

“Bah, you. Feed him, he’s about to croak.”

Someone else with softer footsteps walked up to his body and knelt. Rather gently touching his lips with the oddly cold jar before uncapping and quickly pouring the fluid down his throat.

‘Good jar, spatial item and it stops water from evaporating in this unbearable heat. The powdered brick has too little nutrients. I can wake my body and heal my molten flesh but…let’s keep it this way so they keep feeding me. Since they want me alive…I guess I can make myself look worse so they improve my treatment. I really need the sustenance if I want to recover from the debuffs and get my mana regeneration going.’

“That’s enough.”

“Telepaths, get to work. Extract everything you can from his mind.”

Ebony’s sense of touch wasn’t completely gone too as he felt 4 different hands touching his head. Three of them balked at touching his hairless head that was squishy and sticky.

‘Telepaths. Their mind mage equivalent. They want to chat with me since I can’t talk physically and my current injured state is perfect for them to keep me contained.’

Ebony couldn’t resist physical attacks or torture even if he wanted to so he had no choice but to allow them to touch his head.

“Are you in there? What’s taking so long?”

“Sir, please give them a minute. This man has strong mental barriers.”

“Then get to work and help your apprentices. This is important and I don’t want any delays.”

“Yes sir.”

Ebony felt something pressing against his mind. They took surprisingly long before he found them entering his mindspace.

‘This is new. They entered my mind with theirs. Though they only got in thanks to the last guy. Since they are not going to kill me…I guess I can put more focus in my mind and see what these people are up to.’ Ebony figured he could send himself into his mindspace. It didn’t hurt to be there and protect himself.

He first entered the core of his mindspace then teleported himself out of the vast shell to the outer layers where his peripheral thoughts would lay bare and loud. He did not know how far away it was in terms of physical distance since the mind didn’t work that way.

It was his mind, he knew where the foreign invaders were immediately upon their arrival. But his ‘physical’ body remained far away as he watched the invaders who similarly had a body. To his surprise, he had sight here and could see the 5 invaders and their features.

Assuming they looked the same outside, there was a pair of ladies with squarish facial features and short hair along with another pair of men who were both bearded. All of them had orange hair.

These four were freaking out.

Hysterically.

‘Why on earth are they shouting and screaming so loudly? It’s annoying, mind magic makes their screams here exceptionally loud.’ Ebony’s mindspace did not shake and the telepath’s screech didn’t travel past their arms' reach.

‘Interesting, so this is what it looks like when my meditation silences out background noise that tries to interrupt my mind.’ These weren’t surface thoughts, he was sincerely wondering.

“Where am I?! Where is this?! Teacher!! Where are you?”

Similar calls were happening amongst the 4 apprentice telepaths. Although they were called apprentices, Ebony doubted they were any less than Grandmasters. It might just be a title in accordance with their status compared to the other man who is also bearded but with light orange hair instead. The older man was busy standing still, eyes closed and sweat drenching his clothes.

Ebony might have been more interested in how their mental forms had clothes than why they were acting hysterical.

“CALM YOURSELVES! This is another creature's mindspace, you must always prepare to meet the incomprehensible! Set your mind. You are you! Recall and steady your perception!”

Ebony sat down, formed tea with a sphere that was his cute mana chassis and drank it. He waited for two decades before the old man’s shoulder relaxed a little. Keeping his eyes closed he tapped his apprentices head. Over 4 decades passed before all of them were able to move and not panic.

‘Telepaths or mind mages in general are a different breed. I suppose that includes me. The passage of perceived time doesn’t affect our minds as much as they would to an Unclassed human.’

“Teacher, this place is…alien.”

“Ya, I thought I was going to turn blind. No, I was about to lose my mind.”

“I don’t know what I was looking at. It's not white. Not black. There was nothing…I just stared into depths but didn’t know what I was staring into.”

“Teacher?”

“Good job holding onto your self-anchor. I do not know what the environment we are in looks like. Just like you, I cannot describe it. This is a very unique mindspace but make no mistake, you should be prepared for that when peering into an unknown creature’s mind. Especially those mindless beings, void creatures and numerous other eldritchs.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

‘They are quite rude.’ Ebony harmless thought after being compared with mindless beings.

Unfortunately for him, he slipped up. This line of thought echoed throughout this layer of his mindspace. They knew he was watching them now.

“Anchor yourselves, let me do the talking. Ehhem. Greetings. I am a servant of the Gearhart, you can call me Elijah!”

‘They are really loud,’ instead of replying, his surface thoughts were transmitted as internal thoughts even though he could have replied without talking.

“Hmm…maybe he doesn’t know we’re here. Let’s go deeper and call out to him. We need more than surface thoughts and we’re clearly on the peripherals.” The teacher, Elijah said out loud and led his apprentices by hand. They didn’t use sight but as mind mages or telepaths, they seemed to know where they were going because they were going in the right direction.

It was a bit cute when they walked hand in hand like a group of children.

Ebony saw that they didn’t send any form of attack on his mind and found himself fading back into his body. His Intelligence and Wisdom stat was reduced right now so his defences and reaction speed to danger were also reduced but he was more worried about his body. Another two men were standing by his body who weren’t unmoving like the telepaths.

There was a slight dissonance when he entered and left his mindspace quickly. The dissonance came from the change in perception of time. In his mind, the trespassers were passing the months and years but a tiny fraction of that time passed in the real world.

‘My reaction speed to internal dangers is slower if I’m not personally present. Cool. But I think I’ll be fine with this group. At their pace…they can’t even pass through the outer layers in a hundred thousand years. That teacher is probably king-ranked. As I thought, meditation-type skills passively enhance mental defences.’

A few minutes passed outside with the two men just watching in silence. Panicked screams were exchanged within his mindspace. A couple more decades passed and they realised they weren’t getting anywhere. They did get closer but only Elijah was convinced. The apprentices lost that conviction over time.

Then they realised they couldn’t come out.

An hour passed outside.

One of the two men who remained silent picked up the hand that slumped on Ebony’s head.

“Sir…he’s gone.”

“Dead?”

“His body is alive but his mind…”

“Bring him out. Send him to their doctors.”

Over the course of the next hour, the rest of the apprentices faced the same end.

“Criminal. I know you can hear me. Let that man, Elijah go.” The guy who sloshed around the jar of water in his face bent to one knee and gripped his chin to force his molten eye to exchange eye contact with him.

“Time is ticking.” Ebony decided to speak up.

“...You will have your water.”

The man seemed to believe that was enough but Ebony knew that they would give him water regardless. They didn’t want him to die after all.

“Another month had passed for him.”

“What do you want?” Veins on his face and neck pushed out. This man was strong. Injured as he was, Ebony’s instincts told him that even if he was in full health he might not beat the man.

“I’m starving to death here. A brick of powder’s not going to keep me alive.” He told no lies. One brick wouldn’t keep him alive, but one a day would be plenty.

“Not a problem. Now let him go.”

‘Can I push it further…let’s do it, it doesn’t matter if I fail.’ He pondered.

“Meat. I need meat.” Actually, he was fine with any food that was high in energy but meat usually contained the densest amount

“Impossible, criminal. Prisoner rations can keep you alive.”

“I need to heal, how long do you think I can survive in this state.”

“That is your problem. You broke our torturer’s tools but to think we didn’t have to torture you, Cinderash’s environment was enough to kill you. You sound alive to me.”

‘Fourteen, did I really break their tools?’ He contacted his clone.

‘Vibrational reflection. Those tools were fragile, can we blame ourselves when they broke after trying to break our skin?’

“I can wait all day,” Ebony replied.

It angered the man further. He released his aether and lifeforce but Ebony saw it as a harmless tooth. They were so obedient to their orders and they clearly thought he was at the brink of death if they so generously provided him water.

“You will get healed. Now release him.”

“Some pants would be nice.” Ebony was not ashamed and he wasn’t asking for underwear. His equipment was taken away but even his clothes would burn unless he melded them with his mana.

“A criminal doesn’t require dignity. You will live without it.”

“What is your name?”

“...” The silence from the man almost made Ebony chuckle.

“Your telepaths aren’t as cowardly as you.”

“Accidents can happen criminal.”

“I have understood and agreed with your stance on this. Accidents can happen.”

Ebony didn’t push his luck any further. It was far from ideal because they benefitted from his recovery. He didn’t doubt that they noticed the increase in his mana output the moment he woke up. He was literally paying for his medical fees.

‘Oh well, I’m not an experienced negotiator. I’d say I didn’t do too badly.’ He allowed Elijah to pull away. The four apprentices shouldn’t be dead, they just turned hysterical and he actively pushed them out of his mind since they weren't able to resist for long.

From their monologues, what they couldn’t comprehend was the lack of colour and the lack of any objects. Transparency so to speak. They assumed that looking at endless depths usually meant pure darkness or white. Ebony didn’t understand their inability to understand. This was his mind for as long as he could remember.

Supposedly, most people had plenty of junk and clutter around their peripheral mind. Clutter refers to thoughts. His mind was too silent for them and even silenced their mind and thoughts.

They did not handle staying in that condition for a few centuries well. A pity. But they should be able to recover if they have proper mental training and defences. A little silence never hurt.

“Elijah? Your boss asks you to go home. Please see yourself out.” Ebony had unnaturally strong mental barriers but he didn’t know how to push out Elijah. He had no choice but to ask the man to leave.

From the moment Ebony had landed on Cinderash, he had been taking a very heavy-handed approach. It was unlike him but he learned the hard way that it was the only way strong people listened. Might makes right seemed to be a universal belief and his passive ways were the reason why people like the Nebulian and the Ezekiel thought he was just a walking cow up for grabs.

Showing some fangs, better late than never.

Elijah awoke and carefully pulled his hand away along with some of Ebony’s skin and dried blood. He had shaky feet but managed to walk himself out.

“How deep did I manage to go?” A voice echoed within his mind where Elijah last left.

“Huh? Maybe a few million years if you can keep up your pace?” Ebony told it as it was.

Elijah started a run’s pace when he no longer had to pull 4 apprentices along with him but the outer layers were the easiest to traverse. There was so much more to cover in his mindspace. It was also questionable if the inner layers were as easy to traverse for an invader. ‘Mind magic is concerning, he left a trace of where he was and is talking with me from there. Does it mean he can invade from his last entry or exit point because he’s already familiar with my passive defences? Tranquility is erasing the mark but better mind magic or telepaths might leave a mark I can’t notice.

“I see. Excuse my rude intrusion, I had orders. Thank you for the unique experience.”

“I appreciate the politeness.”

Elijah did a mental bow and the last traces of him in Ebony’s mindspace disappeared.

They left the cell and Ebony alone with only heat and orange light accompanying him.