**Same place, same time.**
**Vulcan**
What a disappointment. The murky goo, resembling a ghostly liquid rubber, turned out to be nothing more than a projector—a primitive contraption meant to simulate sensations. Essentially, a low-budget 5D cinema where they tried to convince me I was in unbearable agony. If I hadn’t been playing the part of a terrified fool, I might have started yawning in genuine boredom.
I’d never seen such an odd method for extracting divine energy from human suffering. I wouldn’t even be surprised if this gift was bestowed upon Marcus by the gnome himself to make his job easier. If that were the case, then it was an outright travesty. Instead of directly affecting the soul—or at least the mind—this gnome had come up with *this*. Frankly, I felt embarrassed on his behalf. Even Ashshuhatt, for all his vile nature, had methods that were relatively quick and effective.
That said, I had to admit Marcus had quite the imagination, albeit deeply twisted. His "tortures" showcased a fervent passion for medieval methods, which he gleefully demonstrated in endless variations. However, they didn’t make much of an impression on me. After all, I’d seen most of these in action before—many times up close—and often endured them in the bodies of my temporary hosts who summoned me to escape precisely such situations. Here, everything was fake, even the pain.
Well, *almost* fake. It did hurt initially, but only for a short time. As soon as I started absorbing the mana being funneled into me, the discomfort dissipated. The transmission of sensations was crude, almost a direct energy input, making it easy to neutralize with my gift.
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It only took a couple of minutes to gauge what kind of reaction they expected from me. After that, I simply lay there, observing the contraptions meant to break me—tools so grotesque even Blood might have winced at their sight. Meanwhile, I methodically drained Marcus of his energy reserves.
The man’s obsessive focus on the process was almost a blessing. He was so absorbed in his twisted artistry that he failed to notice anything amiss.
What made it even better was that Marcus had no way to detect what I was doing. Mana was being consumed? Yes. The test subject convulsed and screamed? Absolutely—fully committed to the performance. To him, everything was proceeding according to plan.
But there was, of course, a twist.
Since the process required close contact, the connection between us was strong, and I had more than enough cursed energy to fuel my absorption. Without hesitation, I steadily ramped up the pressure, drawing more and more life force from Marcus. The fool had established a direct link between himself, his creation, and, by extension, me.
At some point, I sensed a divine presence nearby—a faint, barely noticeable one. Not because its owner was particularly skilled at concealment, but because the god itself was relatively weak. A newcomer, no doubt. The question was: how new? An old failure would be far more dangerous than an overconfident upstart blind to their own limits.
The gnome’s presence here wasn’t incidental. Gods are too lazy for such things. He must have been curious why no divine energy was flowing from me despite Marcus’s best efforts. Well, let him watch. I didn’t mind. He wouldn’t figure it out anyway.
I was certain he wouldn’t kill me either. I knew gods like Ashshuhatt all too well. If anything, this one would double down, determined to “break” me. And that was exactly what I needed. The gnome’s personal involvement in the process meant he fully approved of these methods and believed in their effectiveness. Were it otherwise, his pride wouldn’t have let him witness such a debacle.
Still, his feeding method was laughably inadequate. It was like trying to replace a severed limb with a bedazzled crutch, ignoring the option to simply regenerate it. Instead, he adorned the crutch with rhinestones, painted it in gaudy colors, and declared it a masterpiece.
Marcus continued his work, the gnome watched and fumed, to the point where his grin cracked into a snarl, and I… simply laythere, bored out of my mind.