"I'm sorry! Please! I won't do it again!"
Nick shouted in absolute terror as he did his best to beg for his life on his broken legs.
BANG!
The next moment, Nick's face was kicked in by a metallic boot.
"Plehs, ahm surry," Nick cried through his crushed face.
"You are the reason why Young Master Wyntor is dead," one of the three armored people in front of him spoke. "Your carelessness is why the Lord is now grieving."
"I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" Nick said through his crushed teeth.
BANG!
The metallic boot crushed Nick's forearm, and Nick began to scream even more.
Nick tried to get his crushed forearm out from under the boot, which was grinding Nick's forearm into a crunchy paste of meat and bone.
"You think saying sorry will help you?" the person spoke calmly and coldly through his black gas mask.
"But don't worry, you won't die today."
The black gasmask was coming closer to Nick's face.
"You will stay alive for as long as the Lord commands it."
"He has many ways to keep you alive when your body begs to die."
"No! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please!"
Nick just kept shouting garbled words through the crushed mess that had once been his face.
"Take him away," the man said as he turned around to walk away.
"No! No!"
Nick just kept shouting as the two other people grabbed him.
The next moment, Nick found himself impaled onto a wooden cross with three spikes.
Two were going through Nick's wrists, and one was going through both his legs.
"Interesting, isn't it?" the disfigured and small man in front of Nick said with a loud but awkward chuckle.
"This is the most popular and famous torture method from the old world!" the torturer said. "We found many depictions of this torture method in the ruins."
"You should consider yourself lucky! After all, not everyone gets to reenact such a monumental piece of history with their own body."
After deciding for a while, the disfigured man took hold of a thin and small knife.
Nick didn't show any reactions.
"Alright, you know how this goes. Just don't move too much, okay?" the man shouted with an awkward laugh.
The next moment, the torturer stepped on a small ladder behind the cross and put the knife on the underside of Nick's right big toe.
And then, he cut into it.
The knife methodically moved towards the center of Nick's foot.
While this was happening, Nick's body was shuddering, but he wasn't saying anything.
"Alright, that's the first one. Keep holding still. If you do a good job, you get a couple of days of peace in the drowning cage."
Then, the torturer slowly cut down from the second toe.
Then, the third, and so on.
Eventually, all the cuts met in the middle of the underside of Nick's feet.
"Now, let's see…"
The next moment, the torturer grabbed both sides of one of the cuts and pulled to the side.
RIIIIIP!
After ripping them to the side a bit, the torturer took hold of the knife again while the other hand kept Nick's skin off from his flesh.
The next moment, the torturer slowly and carefully cut the connective tissue between Nick's skin and his flesh.
Nick gritted his teeth, but they had already been filed into thin needles that weren't aligned with each other, essentially forcing them to dig into the opposite gums when he closed his mouth.
Nevertheless, this was all Nick could do.
"Now, look at this beautiful toe," the torturer said as the skin of Nick's big toe lay on top of Nick's toe like wrapping paper for a present.
"Alright, let's do the second one."
As Nick felt a sharp and intense pain come from his second toe, he just opened his eyes lifelessly.
What greeted Nick was the sight of a human's skin hanging from the ceiling a couple of meters in front of him.
Besides that piece of skin were several more.
There were over ten sets of skins, all having different levels of quality.
They had all belonged to Nick at one point.
He had gone through this torture many, many times before.
Whenever the torturer wanted another set, he would pull out Nick's skin and then bathe him in healing liquid.
After that, Nick would get to relax in a cage that was almost completely underwater.
Only by pursing his lips on the top could Nick get a bit of air, and only when the water was calm.
And worst of all, they had cut out Nick's tongue and vocal cords to stop him from saying The Sentence.
This was his life.
This was what his life would become.
It was hopeless.
It was eternal.
The torture was never-ending.
Nick just closed his eyes again.
"Nick?"
Nick felt the reality shake.
"Hey, Nick!"
The next moment, Nick's mind began to swim, and he felt himself getting transported somewhere else.
Nick opened his eyes, and he saw a white light shining onto him.
"Huh?" Nick said in confusion.
Nick's left arm moved upward and touched his head as he grimaced a bit.
"Everything alright?" Albert asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Nick said as he slowly righted himself. "I feel a bit confused and groggy."
"Also, I think I had a really bad dream, but I don't really remember. It's all foggy."
"Right!" Nick said louder as he looked around the white room.
He spotted the Dreamer standing in one of the corners, looking at him.
Then, Nick to his left.
Albert was standing left of him.
"Are eight hours already up?" Nick asked in a bit of confusion.
"Yep," Albert said. "You slept very calmly. No one would think that you were going through a nightmare."
"You did go through one, right?"
Nick's brows furrowed. "I think so. I feel all exhausted, and I feel like I cried and went through hell."
"But I can't remember. I know that something horrible has happened, but I just don't know what exactly."
"It's a strange feeling."
Albert nodded. "Well, whatever you went through worked. You produced a lot of Zephyx. Want to see?"
Nick slowly stood up and shook his head again.
He was still tired.
"Yeah, sure."