Aklion’s eyes strained against the blinding brightness of the screen in front of him. His limbs were locked down, muscles twitching with involuntary spasms as he tried in vain to twist free of the restraints. The entire setup felt like a sick joke—a dark, industrial room, soundproofed to trap every scream, with an unyielding metal chair holding him prisoner. His eyes were held open, stretched wide by steel clamps that dug into the tender flesh, leaving him no choice but to watch the horrors that unfolded before him. He couldn’t accept that.
System Notification:
Status Effect: Restraints Activated - Vision Locked
Mental Fortitude: -10%
Rage Suppression Engaged: +15%
XP Gain Halted
Stage of Grief: this is a setup
The images started up without warning. Flickering flashes of memory—a battlefield soaked in blood, a roar building from somewhere deep within his chest, and then… her face. Vectora. The woman he’d betrayed, the woman he’d sworn to protect, the woman he’d—
“No!” he snarled, jerking against the binds with all his strength. His arms ached as the steel bit deeper, holding firm as his vision was flooded with a looped scene of him plunging his blade into her eye, over and over, her face twisted in agony, her body collapsing beneath him.
The images seemed almost surreal, warped in ways that made them even harder to process. It couldn’t be true. He didn’t kill her—he couldn’t have. This was a lie, a glitch, something manufactured by the Fates to manipulate him.
System Notification:
Mental Deterioration Detected - Initiating Denial Suppression
Skill Check Failed: Rational Thought (Mental Fortitude -5%)
“You’re lying,” he whispered hoarsely, his voice barely more than a cracked breath. “This isn’t real. This is your damned tech playing tricks on me. Vectora’s alive, you hear me?”
The screen in front of him replayed his own face, contorted with rage, hacking down everything in sight. Her figure was faint at first in the periphery, until she was front and center, and his blade—his own damn weapon—drove into her with merciless accuracy. Blood splattered across his vision in visceral clarity.
System Notification:
Glitch Triggered - Emotional Instability Enhanced
Rage Mode Temporarily Suppressed
He squeezed his eyes shut instinctively, but the restraints pulled them wide open again, refusing him even the solace of darkness. His vision blurred, a mix of fury, grief, and sheer disbelief swelling inside him like a festering wound.
“This isn’t real! It’s not real, you bastards! You think I don’t see through this?”
The footage looped mercilessly, the unchanging brutality of his actions gouging deeper into his psyche with every repetition. His vision swam with tears he refused to acknowledge, while his pulse hammered in his ears, each beat a violent protest against the scenes unfolding in front of him.
System Notification:
Rage Mode Activated - Unstable Power Boost +10%
Damage Resistance Decreased Due to Emotional Instability
Stage of Grief: Fuck you all
The steel chair beneath him creaked as he thrashed against the bonds, the strain making his wrists raw and bloody. Every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire, fueled by the oppressive heat of his rage. He could feel the Rage Mode flooding his system, the INPAXX in his blood enhancing his strength—but the restraints held fast, the metal biting harder into his wrists.
“Release me!” he bellowed, spittle flying as his voice scraped raw. “I’ll tear this place apart! You hear me, you bastards? When I get free, I’ll burn every one of you down.”
The door slid open briefly, a shadowed figure entering the room with cold, calculating movements. One of the Fates stepped into view, observing him with a detached, clinical interest.
“Aklion,” she intoned, voice like ice. “Rage won’t bring her back. Rage won’t change what happened.”
He clenched his teeth, muscles rippling under the constraints as he forced himself against them with a burst of strength, driven purely by the seething anger that bubbled just beneath his skin.
System Notification:
Skill Check Failed: Endurance (Mental Fortitude -5%)
Restraint Status: Still Engaged
INPAXX Overload Warning: Psychological Stability at Critical Threshold
“Shut up!” he roared. “You don’t know a damn thing! You’re all liars—you’re trying to break me. To twist the truth. I didn’t… I didn’t kill her.”
The Fate tilted her head, her expression unreadable as the screen looped again. He watched, helpless, as his blade plunged into Vectora’s eye, his own face a twisted mask of fury in the playback.
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“She was just another casualty in your bloodlust, Aklion,” the Fate continued, her voice steady, controlled. “What difference does it make to you? You’ve slaughtered countless others without a second thought. Why not her?”
His breath came in ragged gasps, the fury barely contained as he snarled, “Because she was mine. I would never—no. I know what you’re doing. You’re twisting the truth. I… didn’t mean to.”
System Notification:
Mental Breakdown Imminent
Effect: Forced Calm Initiated to Preserve Neural Integrity
Skill Update: [Rage Mode Suppressed Temporarily]
A flicker of hesitation, the first chink in his armor. But it was all the Fates needed. They exchanged glances, their collective gaze a chilling mix of pity and contempt.
“Continue the sequence,” one of them commanded softly, and the screen blazed to life again.
Hours passed. Days. Time bled into a monotonous torture of relived trauma and whispered accusations. The loop never stopped; the images were unyielding, relentless in their pursuit of breaking him.
He began to beg, voice broken and barely audible. “Please. Just… just let me go. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll take on any mission, any target—just let me out of here.”
System Notification:
Mental Stability Threshold: Critical Low
Bargaining Detected - Logic Failing
XP Penalty: -500 (Due to Emotional Breakdown)
Stage of Grief: Use it to get out of here
The Fate standing in the room simply watched him, her eyes cold and emotionless. “You’ll do whatever we want, regardless. This is for your benefit, Aklion. Your compliance was always inevitable.”
He gasped, his voice trembling as he whispered, “If I… if I can fix this… maybe there’s a way to bring her back. You have resources, tech, things I don’t know about. Help me. Let me find some way to undo this. I swear, I’ll make it worth your while.”
His mind clung to the threadbare hope, like a lifeline in the darkness. There had to be something he could offer, some compromise he could make. He was willing to give up anything—except the weight of her death on his conscience.
System Notification:
Critical Failure: Logic Check Unstable
Quest Update: Redemption Denied - No Further Negotiation Allowed
The days had bled together in an unrelenting haze of anguish and numbness. He lost track of how many times he was forced to watch the footage—over and over, every detail searing deeper into his mind until he felt hollow, a shell of the soldier he once was. The initial rage that had once burned so bright was now nothing but dying embers, flickering weakly in a dark void of despair.
System Notification:
Emotional Stability: -90%
Mental Deterioration Detected - Severe Depression Imminent
XP Loss: 1000 (Due to Emotional Collapse)
Stage of Grief: Why bother?
He stopped thrashing. The restraints cut into his wrists, his arms hanging limp in defeat. He no longer fought against the clips on his eyelids, no longer turned his head away from the endless loop of Vectora’s death. The grief settled in, thick and unyielding, suffocating any remnants of resistance. There was no fight left in him, no spark. Only the crushing realization that he’d killed the only person who’d ever seen him as something more than a weapon.
He whispered to the empty room, his voice a ghost of its former self. “I did this… I did this to her. She trusted me, and I—”
System Notification:
Depression State: Severe
Skill Reduction: All Combat Skills -50%
Mental Fortitude: -30%
His stats, once a proud testament to his strength, now displayed his downfall with brutal clarity. Every skill, every piece of progress he’d fought so hard to earn, meant nothing in the face of what he’d done. He was broken, irreparably, and the system was documenting his descent, coldly indifferent to his suffering.
He laughed, the sound hollow, almost a sob. “All these stats, all this strength… and I couldn’t stop myself from becoming a monster.”
System Notification:
Critical Self-Reflection Detected
XP Deduction Suspended Temporarily - Emotional Stabilization Attempt Initiated
“Monster,” he repeated, the word a bitter curse. “I am nothing but a pawn, a tool to be used and thrown away.”
For what felt like hours, he sat there in silence, numb to the looped images that played before him. There was no point in resisting, no point in fighting. All he wanted was for it to stop—for everything to stop. He closed his eyes, knowing they would force him to watch again soon, but savoring the brief darkness, the illusion of escape.
And in that silence, he began to question everything he’d fought for. The conglomerate, the missions, the INPAXX that had coursed through his veins like poison, giving him strength at the cost of his soul. Was there any meaning in his existence beyond the death he’d sown? If this was his purpose, then perhaps he no longer wanted to exist.
When the Fates returned, their faces void of any humanity, he felt nothing. He was hollow, emptied of all resistance, all hope. The image of Vectora’s lifeless body had been burned into his mind, and he knew he would carry it until his last breath. But there was something beneath the numbness—a quiet, simmering fury, different from the blind rage he’d felt before. This was colder, sharper, a blade honed in the crucible of his suffering.
They released the restraints, his body collapsing forward as they unlocked the chair, barely catching himself on his arms before he hit the floor. His muscles screamed in protest, bruised and weak from days of confinement, but he welcomed the pain. It was grounding, a reminder that he was still alive—still capable of something.
The first Fate knelt beside him, holding out the vial of INPAXX. “Take this, Aklion. It will help you see clearly, to focus on what needs to be done.”
He stared at the vial, fingers trembling as he took it. The INPAXX was his salvation and his curse, a key that could grant him the strength to carry out the only thing left in him—revenge.
System Notification:
Item Acquired: Pure INPAXX Concentrate (Experimental)
Effects: +25% Strength, +20% Mental Clarity, +15% Combat Reflexes
Warning: Increased Glitch Risk Due to Emotional Instability
Stage of grief: bite their head off
He injected the vial into his neck, feeling the cold rush as it entered his bloodstream. The world sharpened, his senses heightening as the familiar hum of power coursed through him, reigniting the smoldering ember in his chest.
The second Fate looked down at him, her expression unreadable. “You have a mission, Aklion. One last chance to redeem yourself. Eliminate ARES, and perhaps you’ll find the closure you seek.”
He straightened, the weight of Vectora’s death settling into a dark resolve. This wasn’t redemption—there would be no redemption for him. But revenge… revenge was something he understood.
System Notification:
Quest Accepted: Terminate ARES
Reward: +5000 XP, INPAXX Regeneration Module, Potential Freedom
“I’ll do it,” he said, his voice flat, devoid of any trace of humanity. “But know this—when I’m finished with ARES, I’m coming for all of you.”
The Fates exchanged glances, their expressions coldly amused. “We expected no less from you, Aklion.”
They handed him his weapon, the cold steel familiar in his grip. His blade, once a tool of unquestioning obedience, now felt like an instrument of vengeance, a way to channel the rage and grief that threatened to consume him.
System Notification:
Weapon Equipped: Steel Blade of Vengeance
Status Effect: Rage Amplification +10%, Emotional Stabilization -5%
INPAXX Booster Activated: Combat Reflexes Heightened
As he turned to leave, he caught his reflection in a shattered screen—eyes hollow, face gaunt, but something new burned within them, a determination forged in pain. The Fates had broken him, but they had also created something far more dangerous—a man with nothing left to lose.
He glanced back at them, his lips curling into a humorless smile. “When I’m done with ARES, you’re next. One by one.”
Without waiting for their response, he strode out, the cold vengeance in his heart his only companion. The road ahead was blood-soaked and merciless, but he was ready for it.
System Notification:
Mission Objective: Terminate ARES
Secondary Objective: Seek Revenge