Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Conditioning (2)
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Tatiana Grachel was a priestess who served the ancient gods of another dimension.
Given that she served such profoundly cursed, ancient beings, it was only natural that her mind wouldn't easily break before ordinary hardships.
That ironclad mental fortitude undoubtedly boosted her adaptability to sudden crises as well.
'...Where...'
She arduously scanned her surroundings.
A pitch-black space, filled with inky darkness.
Her head felt numb.
Rifling through her last remaining memories...
"...!"
She immediately clamped her hand over her mouth.
The sensation of her head detaching from her body and rolling across the floor raced up her nerves.
It was a vividly etched scene.
The black abomination right in front of her eyes. The moment it severed her head with a single strike.
She had died.
To Dawood Campbell.
"Mmph... urk..."
Overwhelming nausea surged, and she hurriedly covered her mouth.
Fortunately, even in that state, her resilient spirit continued analyzing the situation.
'Mindscape...?'
That was the conclusion from surveying her surroundings.
A floating sensation impossible in the material world. All physical stimuli from her body felt faint.
She'd heard that entering the mindscape as a 'spirit' felt exactly like this—in theory, at least.
"..."
The problem was why she was here.
She, who had died just recently.
"Oh, looks like it turned out pretty well."
As that thought crossed her mind, a loathsome voice suddenly intruded.
A voice she could never forget.
"As expected of Dean Walter. Second time handing it off, and it's still flawlessly done."
All the more so, since it belonged to the one who took her life!
"Dawood Campbell...!"
She growled his name.
In response, a vicious deathly aura began coursing through her body.
The power she'd built over a lifetime seemed intact even in her spirit state.
Though she lacked a vessel to refine it, her forbidden knowledge of curses remained effective in spirit form—
"Yeah. That's more like it."
Dawood yawned as he spoke.
"Otherwise, you wouldn't be worth using."
With those words, he snapped his fingers.
At that instant.
Intense pain, white-hot and searing her mind, ripped through her entire body.
It felt like her legs were being severed. Like her skin was tearing. Like something 'inside' was ripping her apart and bursting out.
"Ah... aaah...! Aaaaah, aaaah—!!"
She screamed in agony, wrapping her arms around her head and body.
Excruciating torment that made her lose control, writhing on the floor like a worm. Pain so horrific that even her formidable mental resistance to physical and psychological torture couldn't hold it back.
It was as if.
She was experiencing someone else's 'death' while still alive.
And indeed, his following words confirmed that guess was spot on.
"That's what you did to Liru's family."
The Garda clan.
Those whose very corpses were sacrificed to her 'consciousness.'
"I asked Valkasus to replicate it as closely as possible."
He'd made her 'experience' the sensations they felt at death.
Dawood Campbell explained matter-of-factly.
"You bastard...!"
She gnashed her teeth again.
Bloodshot veins bulged in her eyes. She wanted to tear that man apart right now.
But before she could spit out a curse, Dawood snapped his fingers once more.
A different sensation this time. Her body felt like it was burning. Her limbs exploding. Falling from a height and her skull shattering on impact.
"Ah... ha... ah...—!!"
Nausea rose. Saliva dripped from her lips. All she could do was groan in pale-faced agony.
"From now on, I'm going to make you relive every single sensation of the people you killed, one by one."
Facing her like that, Dawood continued in his flat tone.
No emotion whatsoever at her plight. As if it were only natural for her to suffer this.
"If you want it to stop, just promise me one thing. How about it?"
"...What?"
Even as her demeanor turned murderously feral without warning, Dawood replied without a flicker of expression.
"Submit to me. Instead of the Forerunner."
"..."
"Serve me, in her stead."
Even amid the horrific pain wracking her body.
Sparks flew from Tatiana's eyes.
What she'd just heard was utterly unforgivable.
She glared at Dawood with venomous fury.
"Why don't you try...!"
One thing was certain.
They could kill her a hundred, a thousand, hundreds of thousands of times.
Her loyalty to the Forerunner would never waver.
The greatest benefactor of her life. To her, practically a mother figure.
Betray her and serve the man who killed her?
Better for her entire soul to endure this torment for eternity!
"Well, then. If that's what you want."
But.
Undeterred by her desperate resolve,
Dawood continued in the same even tone.
"I'm curious how far that oath of yours will hold."
She would never break.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
No matter how cruelly this man tormented her.
No matter what horrors she endured.
Her mind would never submit!
"Alright then."
Followed by the snap of his fingers.
Another wave of nightmarish sensation swept over her body.
Tentacles wriggling inside her veins.
"...!"
A scream that wouldn't even form leaked from Tatiana's throat as a groan.
"Ah, guh, hngh—!!"
"This one's Allan Bar-Tor's death. Should hurt a bit more than the last."
Dawood Campbell's voice followed.
"I only learned recently, but the mindscape follows different rules from the material world. No time limits for me, no stamina constraints. I can keep doing this to you forever."
For someone spouting such brutal words, he didn't so much as blink.
"I'm genuinely curious how long you can last."
With that,
He snapped his fingers again.
And again.
And again.
"---!!!!"
Tatiana's screams echoed endlessly through the mindscape in response.
●
How much time had passed under that horrific torment?
Tatiana's consciousness was sinking deep.
'...Forerunner...'
Her awareness sedimented.
To a distant place. To the most cherished memory buried in the recesses of her mind—the scene that sustained her 'will' amid this torture.
-Oh, a survivor? Still breathing, huh?
-...Captain. You interested in trash like this? She's half-dead from injuries anyway.
-Eh, the deep-sea folk are all powerful curse-wielders. She won't die from this.
The memory of first meeting the Forerunner.
She recalled the warm hands that took in the naked girl washed ashore—Tatiana herself.
Despite the grotesque appearance, that masked face felt strangely comforting.
-...Who...?
She remembered the response to her groaned question as she was carried on the other's back.
-Hmm... Can't tell you my name. Everyone who knows it ends up dead.
-...Huh...?
-Just call me the Forerunner. That's good enough.
The sole survivor of the deep-sea clan that served ancient gods, massacred by tribal hunters for being 'ill-omened.'
Covered in wounds, homeless. A girl awaiting only death.
The Forerunner took her in without condition. Nurtured her power. Provided the means for revenge.
Her consciousness sank further.
Shifting to the day she truly came to serve the Forerunner as her 'new master'—
"Ah, finally."
And amid that process.
An intruding voice.
"Found it."
Suddenly.
A voice that shouldn't be audible chilled Tatiana's spine.
In her memory.
In her 'conscious memory' with the Forerunner.
Where no one should intrude.
Another person's voice echoed.
'...What...'
At the voice resounding in her head, Tatiana jerked her head up in shock.
Dawood Campbell loomed over her sprawled form on the floor.
A faint smile played on his face.
To her, it was a sinister grin that sent shivers down her spine.
"No, I've got someone around me who's super familiar with ghost states—more than you, even. And a master of sorcery to boot."
With that, Dawood reached out and touched her head.
At that moment.
The memory of first meeting the Forerunner was 'erased.'
"...!"
Tatiana clutched her head in horror.
A pathetic gesture, but her mind was too shocked to care.
"What...!"
The memory wouldn't come.
That warm touch. That first face. Even their first conversation.
Nothing.
Smeared over like thick ink.
"Precious memories become one's will. They let humans unleash endless mental fortitude."
As her eyes shook wildly, Dawood withdrew his hand from her head.
"I figured endless torture would make you recall something like this eventually. Like anyone would. Once you did, I could interfere that far in the mindscape."
He explained calmly.
"The torture was just the means to that end."
Finally.
Realizing this man's intent, Tatiana's eyes filled with horror.
"You... you... you... demonic bastard..."
Her voice trembled as she spat it out.
The expression that hadn't cracked under the harshest torture shattered.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"You're... you're trying to... twist my very 'existence'...!"
Mind manipulation. Brainwashing.
It wasn't just about inflicting pain.
He aimed to steal her 'memories' entirely!
"No, not really."
A mocking reply cut through her desperate cry.
"Just trying it out since you're 'usable.' You did the same to Liru's family, right? Even dragging their souls along."
With that,
Dawood gripped her head again.
"Ah... ah..."
Again.
Another memory erased.
The day the Forerunner first celebrated her birthday—smeared black.
Then, his hand touched her head once more.
"No..."
Another memory.
The day the Forerunner praised her—gone.
The day she was hugged tight, called 'family'—gone.
"No...! Please...! Stop...!"
Another memory.
Another.
All erased.
Continuously.
All of them.
"...!"
How long until she couldn't even scream?
Tatiana suddenly realized a horrifying truth.
She couldn't remember.
Like a dinner from long ago.
There had been someone precious, someone she'd devote her soul to serve.
But who...
'...Who... was it...?'
Tatiana collapsed face-down, her face ashen white.
The physical pain from moments ago was irrelevant now.
Her 'soul' had been hollowed out entirely.
That emptiness filled her completely.
"...No."
She crawled across the floor, writhing.
The head she'd never bowed, even under endless agony, now drooped.
She bowed to this man. Knelt. Would lick his feet if ordered.
"...Please..."
She begged in a frail voice.
"Whatever... I'll do anything you want. Make me a slave, I'll be your slave. Make me your plaything, I'll serve gladly..."
With desperate longing. Offering anything she could give.
"Please... just... don't take this away..."
Her most cherished memories, at least.
The foundation of her being, please.
She begged and begged.
Even with vision blurred by tears, hoping her voice might move him, even a little.
"Fine."
The indifferent words dropped.
"I won't erase them. Never planned to from the start."
"...!"
Tatiana looked up at Dawood with a brightening expression.
"Instead."
At his next words.
"I'll overwrite them."
Her face plunged into despair.
"...Yes...?"
"Overwrite."
To Tatiana, whose eyes had lost their light, Dawood extended his hand to her forehead again.
"I won't erase the memories. Just."
To her doll-like, expressionless face streaming endless tears.
A frosty declaration fell.
"I'll change the object of that loyalty from 'Forerunner' to 'me.' That's why I erased them—to rewrite them."
Over the ink-smeared Forerunner memories.
'Dawood' was overlaid.
This man would take the Forerunner's place. That's what the brainwashing meant.
Seeing Dawood say that, Tatiana finally intuited.
This man, from the beginning.
Had never intended even a shred of mercy for her.
"...Demon."
The word slipped from her lips like a groan.
And Tatiana's consciousness blacked out.
●
Not long after.
In the mindscape, Tatiana Grachel was straining to lick my feet.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Valkasus and Kalliban stared at her and me in stunned alternation.
It must have felt eternal to her, but in reality, only 15 minutes had passed.
That's the utility of the mindscape. Time flows completely differently from the material world.
Good thing I asked Walter for help.
"Wait."
"Ah, aaah... Master..."
"Wait. No."
"Ah, uh, aaah..."
She gazed up at me with desperate eyes.
Pleeease, just let me lick once, they pleaded.
Looks like my plan to overlay her loyalty to the Forerunner onto me worked perfectly.
Almost too perfectly, even.
'...Hold on.'
Doesn't that mean the Forerunner was subjecting her to this nonstop?
That bitch is a real psycho pervert, isn't she?
"...You saying that?"
"...Couldn't agree more."
"..."
Valkasus and Kalliban's stares from the side stung.
"...Why."
"Nah, at this point, it's straight-up art. I'm in awe of you, man."
"I concur, Boy King."
"..."
I knew I had no comeback this time.
Still, I had no choice.
[Item Info]
[ ▲ Tatiana Grachel ] [ Fabricated ]
[ Specialty: Curse ]
[ Form: Wraith ]
[ Fabrication Options ]
▶ Bind as Familiar
▶ Imprint as Enhancement Material on Item
▶ Resummon in Intact Form (Dissipates after 1 use)
Imprinting as enhancement material is a bad choice. Tatiana's fundamentally reusable long-term.
Same for resummon—dissipates after one use. Better to bind as a reusable familiar if possible.
Problem is, binding as familiar without 'consent' incurs massive stat penalties.
Useless if not voluntary.
"...So you straight-up brainwashed her entire mind to make her submit willingly?"
"Yes."
"..."
"She's a bad guy. No guilt doing this—feels great."
Just thinking of what she did to Liru's family makes this deserved.
I felt some guilt using Rana, but with this one? Nothing.
"...Well, you've always been brutally ruthless with enemies. It's gotten worse lately."
"..."
Yeah, well.
Probably influenced by my old job.
Before possessing this game.
Kalliban sighed deeply.
"Anyway, what're you planning to use her for now?"
I already answered that.
"Didn't I say before this?"
Tucking away the lion cuirass containing Tatiana's soul, I continued.
"Next up, heading to the Holy Empire to meet someone."
Archbishop Luminol.
The last person to settle things with before the ordeal begins.
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