“You… I’m gonna kill you.”

Did I just… say that? When had I gotten so aggressive?

The man, Borno, only chuckled at my outburst.

“Kids these days need to learn a lesson.”

Chuckling once more, he mouthed something and I fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that I had no longer been restrained or locked in a room. In fact, I was out in the open.

It was dark, and I could see the lights of a distant village flicker on. I seemed to be on some small clifftop, overlooking a seaside village. A large forest lay to the right of it and a desert on the other. What strange geography this place had. Never had I seen or heard of a town as strange as this one. Were we still in Hell?

Looking around, I realised that behind the grassy hill I sat on was some sort of campsite. All that blacking out had really taken a toll on me and I felt an oncoming headache. What was going on now? I needed some answers.

Standing up, I brushed off the damp grass that had collected on my legs and turned toward the campsite. This could be the Nexus army’s camp, I knew.

I wanted to run.

Run away as far as I could from these evil people.

But without food, water and any idea where I was, how could I?

Surely, I would die.

Hesitating once more, I looked back toward the village in the distance. Maybe I could ask for directions or food from them? The thing was, a large wasteland lay between me and them. From here, I could already see the forms of winged creatures hunting in the night.

My shoulders drooped.

The only logical choice was to go to the campsite behind me, whether or not they were my kidnappers. Slowly, I trudged towards the light of the campfire, wary, in case any attackers were looking for my head.

“So you do have common sense after all.”

A slim figure stood to my left, fading out of the night. Gana. Again?

“What do you want now? Haven’t you done enough to me?”

Somehow, he seemed amused.

“Don’t worry, torture is over for now.”

For some reason, I felt less intimidated by him now. I guess it came with assurance that if he wanted me dead, he could easily do so, and he hadn’t killed me yet, so I was safe. For now, at least.

“So what now?”

I may have felt less intimidated, but I was still wary of him, and I stepped back slightly.

“I guess I’ll give you an explanation of what we did to you, and why.”

An explanation? He must have been kidding.

“Or do you not want one?”

If he could’ve raised an eyebrow, I’m sure he would’ve.

“No, no. I do want one.”

Oh god, I must have sounded like a little child eager for candy.

“I expected so. Come with me.”

He began walking to the campsite, which disappeared?

“Uh, what’s going on?”

Ignoring me, Gana walked forward and tapped the air.

My jaw dropped.

“The heck?

Originating from the place which he tapped, the campsite scenery seemed to flip, tile by tile and spread out around me, into a familiar room. The spider room.

“How…?”

My jaw dropped and eyes almost burst out of my head, being so shocked. Had I been in this room the whole time? This time, the walls weren’t black, but white, and reflected the light emerging from the roof.

Suddenly, a door slid open open from one of the walls, revealing a fat man, Borno, and a slim bug-like person, Calvin.

“Hey… W-what are they doing here?”

“To explain.”

They two chairs each, the comfortable ones with nice padding, and set them down in front of Gana and I.

“Take a seat.”

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Gana gestured towards the free seat, then sat on his own, opposite to me and next to the other two.. The other two had already sat down on theirs, both facing me. This felt like an interrogation.

“Let’s start from the beginning.”

“If you’re willing to give me an explanation, can’t you bring me back to my friends? You killed my mother. You burnt down my village. What makes you think I’m just going to stay here and listen to what you’re saying?”

I chose my words carefully, though I had every intention of running.

“Because you want to live.”

This time, it was the person named Calvin who spoke. He did it quietly and subtly, a look of pity on his face. This was sick. These people ruin my life, then they want to pity me?

“F***k you.”

I stuck up my finger and proceeded to stand up. I didn’t know where I was going to go, but I needed to show these people - and myself - that I could do what I wanted.

“Sit down.”

Gana’s voice was eerily quiet.

“No.”

Oops, I might have forgotten that he was more than a hundred levels above me.

“I said sit down.”

“No. What’re you going to do? Kill me? If you were going to, you would have just done it later.”

This time, I was really pushing my luck. But I knew that if this were true, and he couldn’t kill me, I was safe here.

“I said SIT DOWN.”

At the words ‘sit down’, an invisible force pushed me down onto the chair, trapping my hands to my side.

“Shut up and listen.”

It looked like I couldn’t move my mouth either.

“We come from Nexus. We’ve been living in Hell for the past thirty or so years. We kidnapped you to help us.”

Help? Was this guy serious?

“Be a slave, is what he’s trying to say.”

Borno spoke up, a smile on his face. That sadistic piece of shi-

“We’re going to help you become strong. You’re going to climb the tower with us. We killed your family because you won’t ever be seeing them again, regardless. In fact, if we hadn’t killed them, you’d probably be forced to do it yourself.”

What did he mean? There was no way I’d kill my own family and friends…

“I don’t know if you’ve realised, but I’m not the one in command here. The one in command of this department is a man named Kairo. Believe me, he’s a whole lot worse than I am. One of his rules for new recruits, such as yourself, is for me to slaughter someone you love in front of you.”

Gana seemed to sense my urge to speak, and undid the bind for my mouth.

“But why?” I burst out. “Why would I even want to join your stupid army anyway, at the death of my own family?”

“It’s not what you want to do. It’s what you have to do.”

This was getting even more confusing by the second.

“If you disobey, we wipe your mind. Simple as that. You become like one of those shells in the myths everyone talks about, except you’re not a myth. You do what we say, with no control over your body. Why do you think you’re not tied up? It’s because we can take control over your body anytime we want. You don’t own it anymore. None of it. Your mouth, your arms, your legs. We can stop it all if we want.”

“W-what? That’s impossible!”

“Impossible? You think that’s impossible? Let’s take your little fun with the giant spider. How do you think we got that death loop going? It’s because we control you, and the room. I’ll let you in on a little secret. In this room, anyone outside with the control panel can do whatever they want with you. This is a training room used for simulating experiences. It’s walls are made up with aura that can spawn in certain creatures, just like the ones you fought. It resets when you die, because you have the room’s aura in your bloodstream.”

“But that’s not possible…”

My mind was about to explode.

“Little boy. You’ll soon find out that a lot of things aren’t impossible.”

A hollow realization came over me. My life was over. I had become a puppet to these evil people. But they weren’t done.

“The thing that was injected into you? It was my blood, with my aura. Unluckily for you, this room runs on my aura.”

Gana must have seen the confusion on my face, because he explained.

“Oh did you not know? Your blood is aura. Your aura is blood. This is just one of the discoveries,” he gestured towards the room, “along with this room of Nexus. In fact, the entirety of Hell is so primitive compared to Nexus. Technology that you little Hellians couldn’t dream of exists up there. You’ll find out more eventually, if you still have your mind when that time comes.”

Already, my brain was working hard to think of a way to escape this terrible situation. Gana had said that control over my body only worked in this room... Unfortunately, his next sentence crushed my hopes.

“Oh and, by the way, even if you get out of this room, I can still control you. Anywhere. Since you’ve got my blood in you, my perk, Blood Flow, allows me to control my blood, even if it’s outside my body.”

Oh come on. How had he gotten such an overpowered perk?

He seemed finished with his explanation.

“So. Are you going to do this willingly, or do you want me to wipe your mind?”

This whole time, Calvin had looked at the floor, hands restless on his knees, not making eye contact with me. Borno had just grinned at me the entire time, soaking up my reactions as if he were drunk and they were wine.

“Do I have a choice?”

That was it. I was defeated. The future that lived ahead of me was bleak. A slave? Really? Was that all I was really destined to be?

“I’m glad you understand.”

With that, Gana stood up and began to walk out of the room, accompanied by the two other men.

“Wait!”

My hand stretched out towards them and I frowned, surprised I was able to move.

“Yes?”

The cold, minimalist Gana was back.

“What did you brand me with?”

Borno answered for him, a hint of a laugh in his voice.

“Oh little boy, that means you’re Nexus property.”

Nexus… property? Oh. A slave mark. Of course.

“What's your name, boy?”

Gana stopped before the exit, turning around to face me.

“I-Ikite.”

What did he want my name for?

“Food will be delivered to you in the next hour, along with a mattress and a few other furniture. I suggest you take care of it, because you won’t get any others. Ikite."

With that, he stalked out of the room and the door slid back into place.

So here I was.

In this cell.

Alone.

Hopeless.

* * *

Gana plastered a note outside the cell door with the word 'Ikite' written in sloppy handwriting, then strode down the hall, passing dozens of cells as he made his way to his lodgings. Things were going smoothly so far. Once all the new recruits were properly trained, he could begin the journey to the core, which would take a month or two.

His army.

His army, which would lead him back up to Nexus.