5 Futile
Mark took his time to examine his surroundings carefully, he didn't get the opportunity to do so when he woke up because of the old man John.
The room he was in was a dimly lit room with a length and height of around 5 meters and 10 meters respectively.
In front of him was a light gray metal door that must have weighed around 1 or 2 tons, Mark guessed that John was a low to middle-level Divine to move that door with ease.
On the left side of the door was a table filled with laboratory tools, and a few tubes were some kinds of strange meat that were submerged in a greenish-yellow fluid.
The right side was also the same but there were no unidentified pieces of flesh of any kind. Instead, some chemical substances were mysteriously glowing, along with some laboratory equipments like surgical knives, tweezers, scissors,....that were stained with a bit of dried black blood.
According to his calculations, it should have been roughly half a day now, yet no matter how hard he searched for a way out, he got nothing.
He had visualized every possible method to escape, but everything that could prove to be helpful to him was out of Mark's reach.
He silently gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tightly, he wasn't willing to die here like this!
He lost his composure for a second but quickly calmed himself down, he took one last glanced around him before gently closing his eyes and silently thought to himself as a plan began to form in his mind:
'...Can't be hasty, If I can't escape here by myself, then I need to use that old man to my advantage.'
...Mark convinced himself so, but somewhere deep underneath his heart, he was beginning to lose hope.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Creak!
Roughly 12 hours later, the metal door creaked open and bright light shone onto Mark's face, his eyes narrowed slightly.
A dark skin color old man who was wearing a white lab coat, and small round glasses on his nose bridge walked in, he glanced at Mark and smiled amiably:
"You seem to have had quite a good rest, 124. I hope you are ready for our first experiment"
Mark glared fiercely at John with hatred, but the latter didn't say anything and went to the table on the right side.
He picked up something that looked like a syringe and took a tube of chemicals with a blackish-golden liquid and sucked some of it into the syringe.
John turned around and gave Mark a look, then asked him seemingly out of nowhere:
"As you might have guessed, a being can not walk in 2 opposite paths...So, how do you think I'll make it happen?"
"A being can not walk 2 paths at the same time...how about 2 beings in a single body?"
He whispered in a cold tone, his eyes glittered strangely:
"...DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder is a defense mechanism that triggers when humans suffer from a heavy trauma that lasts over a long period of time and causes them to form another persona within themselves."
"...Or simply put it, I'll torture you until your mind breaks and your soul splits into two." He spoke with a carefree smile on his face.
Mark's pupils shrunk to the size of a needle at the old man's words, he realized that the situation he was in was even more terrible than he had expected.
'NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!'
He violently shook his seat trying to get out, but John quickly grabbed his head and injected him with the syringe.
Mark instantly felt his mind turned numb and dull as he listened to John's words while he was looking at the syringe:
"This thing has the effect of numbing down one's mind within 30 minutes. For the next 12 hours after that, all your senses will be extremely susceptible to every sensation."
"...You'll feel more painful than you've ever felt your entire life." John revealed a face filled with sadism and madness.
Mark couldn't even move a single muscle as he listened to the old man's words that seemed to mark the beginning of his seemingly endless days of torture.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12 hours later, in a dimly lit room that was filled with scientific equipments.
A young man was being tied into a chair made out of some sort of metal that had a dark blue light.
...His condition could only be called horrendous. His body was riddled with burns and scars, it made it look like he had been into flaming pits of hell.
...But he was constantly shivering and having muscles spasm, as if he had been thrown into the ice with only a pair of clothes.
His eyes were unsteady and filled with fear and terror.
The young man was naturally Mark, the last 12 hours were the longest torment he had ever experienced in his whole life. The seething pain that spread through his entire being had lasted seemingly for eternity.
In front of him was a dark skin color old man who wore a lab coat with small round glasses on his face, he looked at Mark before saying in a joyful tone:
"Hehe...We've made considerable progress today. Out of all the test subjects, your reaction has been the most prominent one to date."
He walked to the table on the left side of the door and grabbed a tube filled with a
green liquid before returning near Mark.
He removed the muzzles from Mark's mouth and poured the liquid inside his throat, forcing him to swallow it.
Mark's surface wound instantly healed up a little and his body stopped shivering, he seemed to be in better condition than before.
Crack!
As the wounds on the surface healed up, Mark heard the sound of glass slowly cracking a little inside his mind.
The noise was so minuscule that, if not for his current state of body, he would have never been able to notice it.
John silently stared into Mark's eyes, the corner of his lips lifted up slightly:
"It looks like your mind has already started to break, the results are better than I expected."
He slowly walked behind Mark and flipped some sort of switch behind his chair.
Mark felt a mild electric current run through his body nonstop, keeping him wide awake.
"This will make you unable to sleep, pushing your mind further to the brink of ruin." John said with a casual expression.
After that he slowly walked to the door, pulled it open, and slowly closed it while smirking at Mark:
"I'll see you again, 124..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a brightly lit room that has a long wooden table and multiple chairs positioned next to it.
A middle age man wearing a double-breasted suit with a big scar across his lips was sitting calmly on the chair at one end of the table.
His back was facing a large window that had multiple glowing skyscrapers that seemed to touch the night sky.
He had a stern look on his face which made it hard to tell what he was thinking.
Suddenly the door to the room opened slightly, a middle age woman with a curvaceous body who was quite a beauty for her age holding a bunch of paperwork came in.
She bowed slightly to the man and said in an emotionless voice:
"Sir, our men have discovered a secret goverment facility located in the northwest of the city that possesses a large number of quality equipments, materials, and soul artifacts."
When a Corrupted creature or a Divine died, there was a possibility its essences combined with the remains of its soul, will, or body to form soul artifacts.
The type and usage of soul artifacts varied depending on the creature's essences, the remaining will, and the soul of the creature.
These artifacts may be beneficial in battles, supports, or daily life businesses.
The middle age man glanced at the woman, and said in an indifferent tone:
"How's the security of the facility?"
The old woman looked down at the paperwork in her hand for a second, then said:
"The base mostly compose of roughly 200 low to mid-level Divine and around 500 armed Abandoned. It should be no problem for our troops to attack and seize control of the facility."
The middle age man was quiet for a moment, then said:
"...Prepare 500 armed Abandoned and 300 Divine, continue to monitor them and we'll move out in three days if nothing happens."
"Roger." The woman said shortly before turning to leave the room.
After he was left alone, a small smile formed on the middle age man's face as his eyes glittered excitedly.
