In many ways, the Torturer was the herald of the arrival of the Shade. He was a serial killer with the Shade ability Soul Torture and the ability made him practically untouchable. He terrorized Merclen for years, killing over 50 people during his reign of terror. What made him even more frightening was that no one was safe. Male or female, young or old, commoner or noble. It didn't matter, everyone was his target. At least that was what everyone thought, but a young, aspiring guard had discovered a clue.

He targeted people with pure souls, though that wasn't completely correct either. Strong souls were his favorite, and before him was the Akashic Oracle and her, a woman who traveled through time and probably had the strongest soul in the country. Ember wondered if Allyana had even been his target at this point.

All around her, everyone was unconscious. Allen walked over to a vase and smashed it. Ember expected warrior-priest to come running but she realized they already had when they started screaming and Allen had used soul torture on them as well. Allen bent down and grabbed a shard of the broken vase and ran the jagged edge across his hand. Blood dripped from his palm and formed into a blade.

He walked over to one of the guards and stabbed him through the chest with the bleeding blade. Ember's eyes widened and she lifted her hand, summoning a ball of flame but before she could release it, her entire body seized up, like her blood was being gathered into a fist.

"None of that," Allen said. "I don't use blood manipulation as often but it still has its uses, especially against Seedlings."

Allen continued walking throughout the room, stabbing each of the guards in the chest one by one, pausing as he stopped at a particular warrior-priest. "It would be so wasteful. Maybe I can come back for them later."

He shook his head. "No, no. I already have the three of you. It'll do no good to be greedy." He then stabbed the warrior-priest in the chest.

Ember struggled to gather her power, but whatever he was doing with his blood manipulation stopped her from using it. It didn't make sense. Why did blood manipulation stop her from using her abilities?

Allen moved to Richard's body next and an ecstatic smile spread across his lips. "Richard, Richard. What to do? I could kill you but that's no fun." Richard didn't say anything. He couldn't since he was unconscious just like everyone else. "I think it'll be tons more fun to see you suffer. To know you couldn't protect your dear Allyana."

He then stabbed Richard in the wrist, then the other one, before cutting the hamstrings in his leg. "There. Something to remember me by."

"Did you enjoy the show?" He turned to Ember. "Really. I'm surprised you're awake. Then again you have the strongest soul I've ever seen. Why is that?"

Ember didn't say anything.

"Well, I'm sure you'll tell me later. For now, why don't you take a nap."

Pain rose through Ember and she could feel her soul resistance push back but it was overwhelmed. The pain was worse than anything she ever felt and when she felt like she couldn't take it anymore everything went black.

----

Ember didn't know how long she had been unconscious but when she woke up, she found herself chained up in what looked like an underground cell. She wasn't alone, both Patricia and Allyana were also there. Both of the girls were unconscious. It looked like her soul resistance helped her recover faster from the soul torture effects. Still, she felt like something deep inside her had been ripped apart and the pain lingered.

A quick look around showed a set of torture devices laid on a table against the far wall. It was close to the door, a big metal thing with no windows. Allen, no, the Torturer, was nowhere in sight.

Ember tried calling on her wind ability but nothing happened. Her powers were still blocked. She frowned. She could move and she didn't feel the restriction on her blood like before, so that meant it wasn't his blood manipulation ability stopping her. So, what was it?

She looked at the shackles around her wrists and saw that there were runes carved in them. She had seen these sort of shackles before. They stopped the flow of magic and were used on Seedling criminals. She wasn't sure how he managed to get these since access to the shackles was closely regulated.

Still, it wasn't the first time she had been locked up in these shackles, and like most magic items there was always a weakness. For the shackles, you had to outpower them. If your soul or magic was strong enough you could break the runes. To prevent this, Seedling prisoners were often drained of their magic though in some cases even that wasn't enough and the kingdom would have to simply execute a prisoner that was too powerful.

In any case, there were no soul slugs around so she didn't have to worry about her magic being drained. Then again, with Allen having both soul torture and blood manipulation, he probably didn't have to worry about that. That was his mistake.

One of the problems of the shackles was though you can overpower them it took a long time to gather the power. Ember had no intention of sticking around for that long. She knew a shortcut.

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"This is going to hurt," Ember said.

Her powers were weak right now so she couldn't even hope to overpower the shackles but there was one power that she had full control of and with the strength of her soul it was practically a guarantee that it would work. But Soul Torture wouldn't work on the shackles, at least not alone, so she would have to try to tap into the pure soul magic within her.

It was time to put Knight Garrick's lessons to the test. She took a deep breath and then used Soul Torture on herself. Pain rushed through her and she started to scream but she bit down on her hand, holding it back as she used the ability.

Her mind felt muddled and she could barely concentrate past the pain but she forced herself to focus. She could feel the loop as she used the ability on herself and with it the corruption as it ate away at her. She pulled herself back to the loop. There was so much soul magic fueling the ability it would've been impossible for her not to sense it.

She reached out and grabbed it and using the soul torture as a funnel, she pushed the soul magic out and poured it into the cuffs. As she did, she could feel her mind falter as the pain grew too much but she bit down harder on her hand, tasting blood as she kept pouring more of the magic into the shackle.

Crack!

The runes broke and Ember was free. Immediately, she stopped using Soul Torture on herself. The pain lingered and she fought against unconsciousness. That's when she heard footsteps racing to the door. She didn't have time. She had to do something now.

She called up her map. "Finder, find Soul torture. Two dots appeared on her map."

The door slammed open and as soon as Allen stepped inside, she took it. Soul Torture slid into her body and merged with her own version of it. She meant to use it right away, but the pressure of the merging of two corrupt abilities after suffering through using Soul Torture froze her in place. The pain sunk into her bones and she could do nothing more than shudder as pain wracked her body. Then the next moment, she was locked in place as the blood manipulation took hold of her.

Allen rushed towards her and wrapped his hand around her throat lifting her from the ground and slammed her into the wall. "What did you do? I can't feel it. It's gone."

Ember could barely think. She knew she couldn't use her ability while under the effects of the blood manipulation. She could try to overpower it like she did with the shackles but her body was too worn out, but then she saw the glint of silver and with it a possible solution.

"Please..." Ember said. "Please..."

Allen pulled her closer. "Go ahead and beg. I'm going to tear you apart until you tell me how you took my power."

"Please..." Ember said. "...die."

With a thought, Mally transformed into a long blade and pierced the man's stomach. Allen jerked back, dropping her, and she slumped to the ground. The blood manipulation holding her flickered. Ember didn't hesitate, she could. She grasped at the opening and she pushed out a surge of magic. Soul torture ripped through Allen and as it poured out of her it was stronger than she had ever felt before. It made her feel like she was rotting from the inside but she didn't stop.

Allen's scream rent the air. Ember tried to keep the ability going but the force of everything that happened to her soul made it practically impossible for her to keep at it. She stopped, falling over.

Allen was left shuddering on the ground but surprisingly he wasn't unconscious. He began crawling across the floor, trying to get away. Ember was too weak to stop him. Instead, she closed her eyes, passing out.

---

When Ember woke up, both Patricia and Allyana were conscious. Their eyes were wide and they looked frightened. The door was still open and it was clear Allen hadn't come back.

"I'm so sorry," Allyana whimpered. "I should've known."

Ember could've said the same. Of course, there was no way she would've known. Though she was the one to take the Torturer down in her previous life, by that point the corruption of using his Shade ability had been so intense his face had been completely unrecognizable.

Still, she wasn't finished yet. Ember climbed to her feet. The shackles were weakened from the broken runes, so she slammed them against the ground, once then twice. Metal cut into her skin and her wrists were wet with blood, but the shackles fell off. She closed her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she closed them but when she opened them again she knew she had to move or she never would.

On shaky feet, she stood up and began shuffling to the door.

"Ember," Patricia said, her voice was strained and wet with tears.

Ember didn't look at her. She couldn't. Not yet.

"I'll be back," she said. She stumbled out of the cell and called up Finder. "Finder, find blood manipulation ability."

Ember looked down at the map and she saw a dot. She began to walk.

---

She found Allen hidden away in a back room using his blood manipulation to recover. He might have already escaped if it wasn't for her use of soul torture.

"Found you."

As soon as she saw him, she took his ability. Right away, she could tell it was a permanent ability and not only that, to her surprise, it wasn't a Shade ability but an Akashic one. It explained why she had never seen him use it in her previous life. Corrupted people eventually stopped being able to use their Akashic abilities and were limited to Shade abilities.

As soon as she took Allen's ability away, the blood manipulation he had been using to hold himself together fell apart and he began to bleed out.

"You took it! Give it back!" His eyes were wide and wild, his lips curled back, giving him the look of a wounded feral dog.

Ember leaned against the wall, exhausted. "Hey. How did you get a Shade ability?"

She waited and waited, but Allen didn't speak. After a while, Ember realized that he couldn't. He was already dead.

Ember stood there looking at his dead body then she stumbled towards him. Dropping to her knees, she searched him until she found a key. She pushed herself up and began the long trek back. It was a struggle and there were several times when she found herself waking up after passing out, but eventually, she made it to the cell where Patricia and Allyana waited for her.

She looked at the two women. They looked scared and in pain. A wave of guilt surged up in Ember but she shoved it down. She dragged herself towards them until she was in front of Allyana. Her body swayed, barely able to stay standing. She reached out, handing the key to Allyana.

"I'm at my limit."

With that, Ember crumpled to the ground, unconscious.