CHAPTER 8 ‒ Forced Awakening

Everyone stood still, not daring to move. Just a single twitch of a muscle, and one feared that Chiyo would choose them as a test subject.

Everyone silently wondered what this apparatus was, yet no one needed to ask. It was torture. Even if the chair served a purpose, for anyone who sat in it, it was pure torment.

Chiyo stared at us. Her gaze swept through the crowd, full of hope. Suddenly, the hope in her eyes vanished.

"What's this? No one volunteering?" She placed her hands on her hips, looking offended.

"I've heard so many great things about you. But now you're disappointing me." She walked through the room, examining each person one by one.

"You don’t have to be afraid." she assured them with a slight smile.

"This is only to awaken your magic. It’s a much more efficient method than the brutal training you have to endure."She stepped back into the center and waited. She must have thought her little speech would motivate someone, but she was wrong. The disgust from the sight and the smell still lingered in the room. No one wanted to be a part of it.

Her expression darkened the longer the silence stretched on.

"Alright! Then let's do it this way. Who has already awakened their magic?" She scanned the room. None of the four stepped forward until Kyodai finally dared to take a step.

"Ah, very good! We have a volunteer!" She moved closer to him, inspecting his body. "You have an impressive physique. Is your magic something physical?"

"Something like that..." Kyodai hinted.

Curiosity appeared on Chiyo’s face, and she looked like a child finally allowed to open their present.

She commanded one of the soldiers to tie Kyodai to the chair, and he obeyed without question. Sweat beaded on Kyodai’s forehead from fear. The restraints were tight. Veins surfaced on his arms.

"Good, then let's begin." She took the freshly brewed liquid from her desk and poured it into a large vessel, from which tubes led to the chair. Then, she placed her hand on the lever above the vessel and pulled it down. Through the transparent tubes, the liquid could be seen flowing. It appeared almost completely black, yet something shimmered within it ‒ something secret Chiyo had been working on for the past weeks.

The tubes led to the chair, but not directly to Kyodai. Instead, they connected to the magic circle on the floor.

Everyone watched in tense silence, and when the liquid reached the end, everyone expected a reaction. Indeed, the magic circle began to glow, but nothing else happened. Kyodai had prepared himself for the worst, yet now confusion was visible on his face.

Suddenly, a small spark flashed in front of Kyodai’s face, and in the next moment, a shock ran through his body. His muscles tensed, and he tried to break free, but it was in vain. He tugged at the restraints, but they didn't budge. Slowly, but steadily, blood flowed from the wound I had inflicted on him during training. The blood slowly gathered around his neck and hardened. As Kyodai moved, it cracked, and he screamed in pain.

Then. Silence.

Kyodai didn't move.

Everyone in the room tried to process what they had just witnessed.

Chiyo, however, stepped closer with gleaming eyes and examined the result.

"This is beautiful!" She approached and traced her fingers over the dark plate on Kyodai's neck.

"It almost looks like a form of armor, yet it's made from your own blood... How fascinating... Can you control the amount?" Chiyo looked down at Kyodai, who was still sitting motionless.

Without hesitation, she swung her hand and slapped him across the face. "How dare you not answer when an elder asks you something?"

Kyodai's head shot up. He was awake again.

"What... what happened?"

"Do you feel any change?" Chiyo asked the question as if she were a concerned doctor, but in truth, it was something else entirely.

"My neck... it feels stiff." He tried to move it, but to no avail.

"Aha, I see. The iron content is most likely too high. You’ll need to learn how to regulate it, or else you'll end up nothing more than a tin can." She stepped back and raised the lever again.

The magic faded, and with it, Kyodai’s black plate dissolved. What remained was a neck stained with blood.

The soldier untied Kyodai and dragged him to the corner of the room, where he simply dropped him onto the floor like a sack of potatoes.

But the most important thing was: He had survived.
"As you’ve seen, all of this is just to awaken your magic. If you’ve already awakened it, then there’s no problem. It only hurts a little."

However, with Kyodai, it seemed like much more than just 'a little'.

"If it's still dormant in you... then... that's a different matter. But with a lot of... luck and the right attitude, you will awaken your magic." Chiyo was a person who was impossible to read.
Sometimes she behaved childishly, other times she was as serious as a researcher.

After Kyodai, Akai and the other two who had awakened their magic followed. Akai didn’t scream, as the pain was manageable. This was probably because she had already awakened it for the third time. However, her veins burst from an overload of magic. The other two fared no better. The woman nearly went blind, and the man burned himself. All three were discarded beside Kyodai like worthless trash ‒ exactly what they were in this world.

Those who had awakened their magic came through with injuries, but the rest of us felt the pure horror.

Chiyo’s gaze swept through the crowd again and landed on Namida, when suddenly Yogore stepped in. He was restrained, and the liquid began flowing again toward the magic circle.

What followed was horrifying. Yogore started spitting blood and vomiting. His skin took on a sickly, brownish tint, and his hair began to fall out in patches.

Everyone thought it was over for him. He was going to die. He would become a part of the remains. Namida began to cry. Heavy tears flowed down her cheeks.

His skin melted, and a dark, viscous mass dripped from his body onto the floor. Just when we thought it was his body, Chiyo stepped closer and examined it. She seemed pleased and stopped the magic. His body stabilized again. He was thrown into the corner, still alive.

This gave the others hope, hope they clung to... too soon.

Yogore’s sacrifice had done nothing, for Namida was chosen next. When the magic circle began to glow, Namida’s screams were unbearable. Everyone covered their ears. It wasn’t just screaming; it was roaring, it was a cry for help, it was shrieking. Her eyes began to glow bright blue, and then suddenly, it went quiet.

No magical reaction, no thick plate on her neck, or scars appearing out of nowhere. Nothing.

And suddenly, the body began to decompose. One last tear was visible on Namida’s cheek before she became a part of the magic circle. A part of those who were unlucky.

She was dead.

A new smell spread through the room. This time, the others, including myself, could no longer hold it back. In the next moment, vomit lay at our feet, and some could no longer stand. Their legs gave out. One of the soldiers quickly left the room.

"Hm. A failure." Chiyo's statement was calm, as if she had conducted an experiment on a pigeon, and it hadn't worked. But this... this was a human life. And it had been extinguished.

"Well, failures happen. Maybe I need to increase the amount of magical white essence?" She was lost in her thoughts, but still waved to the soldier to continue.

A hesitation passed through his movements, but he obeyed. More out of fear than loyalty.

For some, nothing happened, except for inhuman pain. They were the lucky ones.

Three others awakened their magic through great pain. They were also lucky.

Six more people died that day, becoming a grotesque mass of flesh, hair, and various fluids.

By luck or misfortune, I was last, and I saw it all. The images would never leave me. Namida's tear-filled gaze had been burned into my brain and would haunt me until the end.

As I was bound, there was no one watching me. All those who had survived were lying injured and in pain in the corner. The soldier turned away, and only Chiyo's gaze met mine.

"Then I suppose we're almost done for today. The results were actually better than I expected; three awakenings is a significant improvement compared to the last mixture." Chiyo placed her hand on the lever and pulled it.

I will die.

The thought dug into my consciousness and wouldn’t let go.

I will die.

I watched as the shimmering liquid got closer, almost touching the magic circle.

I will die.

As the glow began, my eyes started to water. That was it.

The pain surged through my entire body. My muscles tensed. My breath stopped. I lunged forward, but there was no escaping. The pain was unbearable. Worse than anything I had ever experienced. My consciousness flickered before my eyes, and I stood on the edge of losing it.

I don't want to die.

A voice echoed in my mind. It wasn’t mine.

I wanted to experience so much more.

Another voice. A different one.

Wait... Arrrghhh!!!

They grew louder and louder, more and more.

I felt countless gazes, but there was no one.
I felt countless hands, but there was no one.
I felt so much warmth, but...

I opened my eyes. I was conscious. I was still bound. My body... was unharmed.

The pain, gone.
Chiyo’s face was so close I could feel her breath. Her eyes, wide with... astonishment?

"Interesting..." She didn’t seem amused. She didn’t seem serious. She only seemed confused.