Chapter 5: Events of the Past
Legend has it that the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares wasn't a structure built by any known past civilizations in the history of Egios. Instead, it was a ruin that appeared out of the blue when a three-star psionic majoring in the rare path of space was conducting an experiment near the area roughly 40,300 years ago.
The history texts state that the earth had opened up like the mouth of a space beast and started emitting energies never-before-seen in the entire Egios. And being curious creatures, a group of five-star psionics quickly arrived at the scene and explored the ruin, hoping to discover treasures and learn new knowledge. But during their exploration, what those mighty beings from 40,300 years ago discovered was enough to scare them shitless and rattle them to their core.
Days later, they escaped from the ruin like a bunch of scared rabbits chased by a mighty beast after losing a few of their colleagues. They then built an extensive psionic tower to seal off and guard against what they had discovered within the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares. But they didn't stop just at that.
Using their authority within the unified government, they also sealed off the entire ruin and the areas around it after declaring that it was a forbidden ground for all psionics in Egios. And for years and centuries, it remained that way until all the powerful psionics that had discovered the place rose to six stars and ascended to the higher planes.
More years passed, and more people forgot about the legend of the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares. Even the high officials in the unified government began taking the fable for granted. And roughly a thousand years ago, after another slight exploration, the unified government decided to convert the ruin into a prison.
The government officials argued that since the mysterious place had properties of torturing the mind, it would be the best place to hold criminals with psionic powers captive. And with that, they started delegating a few guards, who were pseudo-psionics, and a head warden, who was a true-blue psionic, to oversee the matters of the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares. But as a safety measure, they would rotate them after every five decades so as to ensure that they weren't exposed to the radiation from the ruins for long periods.
"What did the ancients find in the Forsaken Temple below? What terrified them and forced them to build this tower at the entrance of the Forsaken Temple?"
Dr. Jeebies mind was racing as he ascended the stairs and headed to the tower's fifth floor. He exuded a calm bearing as he traversed the steps, seemingly as if he'd forgotten that someone was attacking the tower shield from outside. And gradually, the blaring alarm soon became like background music in his ears as he thought about the long-forgotten history of the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares.
"What about the elixir?"
Dr. Jeebies' thoughts drifted, and he started pondering the mystery of the elixir. A decade ago, right after he'd taken over as the head warden of the prison, he'd taken a risk and explored some of the forbidden sections of the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares. Fortunately, his short adventure bore fruit, and he chanced upon the mysterious elixir before facing any dangers within the temple.
After he studied and tested the elixir on various inmates, he quickly discovered that it had mysterious properties. Its contents seemed 'alive,' but at the same time, they were not 'alive.' They could also excite the cells and stimulate the body's potential when injected into a subject. They were, for sure, wonderous properties that Dr. Jeebies had never encountered.
With his scholarly curiosity piqued, Dr. Jeebies soon grew obsessed with the elixir. He studied it for years and tested it on more inmates to unearth its secrets. But his studies didn't bear fruit, and he grew more depressed with time.
Then, a few weeks ago, he decided to inject the elixir into himself so as to have a first-person experience of its effects. He hoped that, even if the experiment went wrong, he would still save himself using his two-star psionic powers.
However, he couldn't have been more wrong.
After the elixir entered his body, it quickly started destroying it from within. Not even his potent psionic energy or mental powers could do anything to curb the detrimental effects of the elixir. It continued destroying his body, and he had a distinct feeling that he only had a few years to live.
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Feeling desperate, Dr. Jeebies quickly took extreme measures. He decided to test the elixir on a few heirs of powerful psionic families yet to awaken their powers. He hoped that, just maybe, the unique psionic genes within their bodies would react differently to the elixir, allowing him a breakthrough that was crucial to saving himself.
But he was again wrong. One of the heirs of the powerful families had perished after receiving the fourth injection. Then, the other one, who happened to be the girl from the Bladerock family, was also not doing well. The elixir was sapping all her vitality, and she would soon die.
"Head warden!" A guard shouted behind Dr. Jeebies as he was still thinking about the elixir. "If we don't hurry, the attackers will break through the tower shield."
"Damn! Shut up and quit panicking." Dr. Jeebies responded with a frown. "The unified government officials from 40,000 years ago built the tower to guard against such situations. I can assure you that not even a five-star psionic can break through the defenses easily. Let's continue to the control center."
And with that said, Dr. Jeebies increased his pace and arrived before a door on the tower's fifth floor shortly. On pushing it open, a slightly narrow and familiar circular room containing a couple of translucent crystal displays presented itself in front of his eyes. But Dr. Jeebies didn't give them any attention. Instead, he slowly walked forward and placed his hand on a glowing crystal-like sphere in the center of the room.
"Tower genie," he mumbled, "Shut down the alarm and show me the scenery outside. Who's attacking the tower?"
As the command sounded, the blaring alarm immediately stopped, and the tower genie projected the scenes outside into Dr. Jeebies' mind. And right then, he saw the bunch of six psionics crazily launching attacks against the tower shield. Be it fire spells, ice spells, or even the rare elemental spells of darkness and light — they were tossing them at the tower like there wasn't a tomorrow.
"Damn!" Dr. Jeebies mumbled. "So, these pipsqueaks are the source of all the mayhem in the tower. They are just three-star psionics. Do they really think that they can break down the tower defenses? Truly absurd!"
With that thought, Dr. Jeebies felt there was no threat to the tower and decided to ignore the attackers, hoping they would go away after some time. But right then, the tower genie detected another intense energy fluctuation at levels beyond which the Egios space could hardly bear. And before Dr. Jeebies could take his hand off the control sphere, it projected another image of a woman floating in the air just a few dozen meters from the tower.
The woman was definitely a beauty with long white hair that glowed under the silver radiance of the moonlight. Her heroic spirit was brimming as she stood there watching the other psionics launching attacks on the tower.
"Damn!" Dr. Jeebies swallowed hard as he observed the woman. "Isn't this Countess Lyriel Bladerock - one of the four-star psionics in the Bladerock family? What is she doing here? Does she know that her niece is here?"
Seemingly detecting something, the woman's brows furrowed together. Her purple eyes immediately shone with intense luster, and she turned to glance straight into Dr. Jeebies mind.
"Dr. Jeebies or whatever you call yourself nowadays!" She spoke. "I know you can see and hear me at the moment. So, I'll make this short. Return my niece, or I'll immediately launch an attack. You have ten minutes." She said all that in a single breath before closing her eyes and ignoring everything around her.
"Damn!" Dr. Jeebies shuddered, taking his hand off the control sphere. "How does she know that the niece is here? Was it one of the guards who sold me out? But that can't be. I'm the only one with authority to communicate with the outside while in the tower."
Dr. Jeebies mind was racing as he thought of how the information might have leaked. He had purchased Myla Bladerock from dark realm mercenaries, who claimed to have captured her from a ship on the Azure Sea, far off in the east. So, following that line of thinking, the countess should have rushed off to the East to save her niece instead of attacking the Forsaken Temple of Merciless Nightmares. She shouldn't have been able to deduce that Dr. Jeebies was the one holding Myla captive.
"Head warden!" One of the guards called out to him, thus interrupting his thoughts. "What's going on? Who's attacking the tower?"
"Lyriel Bladerock, a countess from the Bladerock family!" Dr. Jeebies answered. Then, narrowing his eyes, he asked, "Has any of you communicated with the outside over the past four days? Did any of you sell me out?"
"Head warden!" One of the guards hurriedly exclaimed. "You know well that we can't communicate with the outside unless you grant us permission. So, how can we sell you out?"
"If that's true, then this might be a probe." Dr. Jeebies smiled. "I can't give myself away."
Nodding to himself, he turned to face the guards and said, "Hurry up and transfer the bodies of the two subjects to one of the isolated holding cells in the Forsaken Temple below. From this moment on, we'll deny ever having captured the Maxith brat or the Bladerock girl. Understood?" He glanced at the two guards with a glint in his eyes.
The two guards swallowed hard. "Yes, sir. We understand."
"But what about the countess?" One of the guards hurriedly asked. "What if she attacks?"
"Don't worry about her?" Dr. Jeebies said dismissively. "She won't easily launch an attack on the tower unless she is sure that her niece is here. Moreover, I'll immediately call the chancellor in charge of the prison to handle her. Just focus on transferring the subjects to the cells and leave the rest to me."
And with that said, Dr. Jeebies left the guards to their own devices and placed his hand on the control sphere again. He planned to use the tower's communication systems to contact the chancellor since he was sure the countess would not dare to continue attacking if such a mighty figure intervened.
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