Misery took a deep breath as his hands shook. He stood up from his crouching position, his previous amused expression like a cat toying with a mouse replaced with one of trepidation., like a child who failed an exam standing before the door to their house, knowing their parents had seen their report card already.
He clenched his fist as he fought within himself. To go up the stairs and see what set of his nephew who had never seen his great grandmother before, yet still reacted with such rage as if his own family had been killed before him?
After all, Misery grew up with Scathach, so she was more than just a father or mother to him. If he saw what Kiran saw, what would his own reaction be? No rather than his reaction, the simple fact was that Misery was scared.
He was scared to see what they did to his beautiful Nanna. He did not want to feel the pain that would come from seeing his Nanna hurt or suffering. Before entering the tower, he had already steeled himself, but Kiran's outburst caused it all to go to waste.
Misery even began entertaining thoughts of retreating. With Kiran in his Super Warrior form in the real world, even God Serpents would have a hard time fighting him, much less anyone here.
So he wasn't needed, right? Right.
He could just move onto the other task and secure the prisoners here, leaving Kiran to free Scathach. After all, he had trained Kiran for this purpose, and he knew the boy was competent enough. As a guardian, he should let his ward experience some difficulties on their own right?
Misery was about to take a step back when red light exploded once more, shattering the ceiling around their floor.
This caused his expression to become serious as she suppressed his doubts and fears, resolutely using Gae Bolg to free the Pangu Lineage members.
As they all fell to the ground and slowly recovered using their bloodline, Misery glanced at Fengtian coldly.
"Old man, do the right thing."
Misery then rushed up the stairs, knowing he would regret it, but also knowing that he couldn't avoid this.
As for the Pangu Lineage members, they came out of their cells and glanced at each other quietly. Litian went to grab his father and held Fengtian up, but the old man gestured that he was fine to his son.
Litian's eyes flashed brightly as he glanced up to where Misery had gone, then his eyes narrowed.
"Father, should we…?"
The others also had their expressions shift slightly as they understood what Litian was suggesting, but they glanced at old Fengtian.
As for Fengtian, his eyes also flashed, but with a different light. There was complexity and disappointment within, and he glanced back into his cell, where the chains still were.
20 years chained up and beaten by your own family was enough to make any man reconsider life and look through what they did wrong.
On top of that, Misery's words struck Fengtian in a place he couldn't describe, especially when he said that they were members of the Pangu Lineage, so they were not innocent.
The way he even used the term 'Pangu Lineage' was not like he was referring to a proud and noble clan, but a den of thieves who would commit crime for even a pail of sand, much less wealth.
The name of their ancestor and clan was synonymous with evil and filth in his mouth, but none of the others noticed. And when shown benevolence, their first thought was to betray, which made Fengtian shake within.
That was why he eyes were filled with disappointment. Could what Misery said be true? That they were inherently evil because they were from the Pangu Lineage?
And this son of his… someone had just called you an evil snake, and then did you a good deed, then your first action is to prove him right?
Most people tended to say that old men or at least, old people were very stagnant and incapable of change because they were used to a system and were limited by this worldview they had accumulated throughout their lives.
However, everything went both ways. They were naturally limited by that world view, but they were also blessed by it, granting them the ability to grasp the bigger picture.
Fengtian would not lie, he too had done the kinds of atrocities every Pangu Lineage member had done during their time. In fact, his generation was the worst, because they were now the elders during the modern age.
If you though Shangtian or Potian were bad, they were literally just kids compared to them.
Just like Misery had pointed out, He Fengtian, and his family didn't get tossed in here because they had a change of heart and decided to save the suffering citizens of China from the tyrannical Lineage.
They just got into an internal power struggle where one branch wanted to seize the initiative from the other, and they happened to lose.
What if? What if they had won? What if it was Lingtian and his brat Shangtian in here instead of them?
Would he, Fengtian, have changed? Would he have had time to contemplate his actions? To realize where he went wrong and how tarnished the image his lineage had become during this time?
No, he likely would have indulged in even more evil now becoming the ruling branch of the clan.
This was a certainly a rabbit hole of thinking, but Fengtian couldn't escape it.
So the question was, was he evil because he was a member of the Pangu Lineage?
Fengtian understood that his next choice from here would answer that question, not just for him, but for his entire Lineage going forward.
And so, with the big picture in mind, Fengtian sighed and rose to his feet. He idly glanced towards the next floor where Misery had gone and then to his family.
"Let's do the right thing." He said simply, going down below.
........
Misery rushed up the stairs and every step he took made his heart pound like a truck, but he still moved quickly, rushing up and onto the final floor.
Here, he saw a circular, dome like chamber that was like shell of a turtle, only that it was transparent.
There was an old ancestor of the Pangu Lineage currently struggling to hold off an enraged Kiran, who had entered not Super Warrior 1, but his Super Warrior 2 form! That was 20% of his total lifespan gone, and his fighting style was filled with endless killing intent and rage.
Then, there was what his mind had been subconsciously been forcibly ignoring and putting off, but could do so anymore as the highlights of the room were right before him.
Scathach.
Or, what was left of her.
Scathach, the Shadowy One, strongest sorceress in human history, had been separated into pieces, each part fulfilling some dark purposes.
Her legs were used to cultivate flesh, which was routinely stripped off by a machine to feed to beast locked in cages around the dome. These beats were feral, and resembled typical animals but had special markings on them, not to mention that once with the Merlin bloodline could sense magic growing within them.
Due to her physique, her flesh regrew when stripped off, making it perfectly farmable.
Her arms were put over a brazier and set on fire. Due to the presence of magic in her arms being the strongest the flames were lit with a rainbow hue and a strange colorless vapor rose form her arms which was collected by a distillation-like machine, condensing into a grayish white brew that was collected in tanks.
It was used to irrigate four fields of vegetation that shone with magical light, the plants there obviously having shifted from typical purposes to possessing something special.
Her torso, from her neck to just below her upper thigh, was connected to a tube that pierced into her abdomen. The tube was split into three lines, one that harvest and collected blood from her heart to accumulate Merlin bloodline, one that was connected to her spine, harvesting nerves and bone marrow, while the final one was connected to her womb, pillaging her eggs sequentially.
Finally, her head was placed in a vat and connected to some wires that led to a nearby super computer, which was constantly trying to breakthrough her mental defenses and access her memories and knowledge.
Her head had been pierced in gruesome ways and every time the computer failed to access her mind, leeches would be released into the vat who would rip and tear at her face until barely anything flesh was left, allowing it to regenerate before starting again.
This was the fate of Scathach for over 20 years.
The system here was obviously perfected over time and had become almost purely automated, showing how efficient the Pangu Lineage had become in making use of this precious captive.
Kiran had seen this and almost immediately lost his mind, willfully sacrificing his lifespan for more power to punish those who did this to his great-great-grandmother.
So what about Misery?
Misery simply stood there in stupefaction. He expected to see a lot of things, even worse case scenario, Scathach being sexually humiliated, but he had never expected to see this, even in a thousand lifetimes.
It was one thing to see her in pain and harmed , with scars on her body from years of whipping, cutting or the like, and another to see your own fucking parent virtually turned into a living resource, every part of her body subjected to some form of horrific farming method.
And this had been going on for almost 20 years.
Misery felt his chest tighten as breathe left his lungs. No matter how much he tried to breathe, it felt like his lungs had shriveled up and had blocked up completely.
His forehead and back began to sweat profusely, as if he had run 300 miles in 10 minutes while carrying 30kg worth of rocks on his back.
His fair skin began to redden as blood seeped out of his pores in small quantifies along with the sweat. His blood within his vessels was boiling hot - literally - and was pushing through his blood vessels at ten times their usual speed.
If Misery did not have Tier 4 control and a stronger body thanks to his bloodline, he would have exploded into bloodmist on the spot.
As it were, all he did was spit out a mouthful of blood, but he was too busy panting as his completely bloodshot eyes stared at the horror his beloved Nanna had been put through and was still being put through at this time.
So much power and rage was building up within him, but the issue was that he didn't even know what to do.
Rescue Scathach? Obviously, but… how?
More than how… why?
He knew his Nanna best. Calling her meticulous and extremely prim was n understatement. She hated any form of dirt or tarnish on her body, and had cultivated that habit in Misery.
The only time she ever allowed dirt on her person was when young Misery would rush up to hug her despite being dirty from playing all day. Even then, Misery could see that she hated it, but bore with it out of love for her grandson.
So did Scathach herself even want her body that had been tarnished like this back? Would she truly appreciate Misery putting her back together in this mess?
Misery felt lost. Not to mention that the only elder tasked to watch over this floor and make sure she doesn't escape was already barely clinging onto life under Kiran's assault, and that was precisely because Kiran wanted him to suffer despair and fear before he died.
Suddenly, a hand was placed on his shoulder, and it seemed to suck out all of the confusion and violence within Misery's mind and body.
Surprised, Misery turned to see that the phantoms he had collected from Avalon had manifested and were moving towards Scathach's bindings to free her, while one had stayed behind to help him.
The Spirit of Cu Chulainn himself.
Misery took a deep breath as his hands shook. He stood up from his crouching position, his previous amused expression like a cat toying with a mouse replaced with one of trepidation., like a child who failed an exam standing before the door to their house, knowing their parents had seen their report card already.
He clenched his fist as he fought within himself. To go up the stairs and see what set of his nephew who had never seen his great grandmother before, yet still reacted with such rage as if his own family had been killed before him?
After all, Misery grew up with Scathach, so she was more than just a father or mother to him. If he saw what Kiran saw, what would his own reaction be? No rather than his reaction, the simple fact was that Misery was scared.
He was scared to see what they did to his beautiful Nanna. He did not want to feel the pain that would come from seeing his Nanna hurt or suffering. Before entering the tower, he had already steeled himself, but Kiran's outburst caused it all to go to waste.
Misery even began entertaining thoughts of retreating. With Kiran in his Super Warrior form in the real world, even God Serpents would have a hard time fighting him, much less anyone here.
So he wasn't needed, right? Right.
He could just move onto the other task and secure the prisoners here, leaving Kiran to free Scathach. After all, he had trained Kiran for this purpose, and he knew the boy was competent enough. As a guardian, he should let his ward experience some difficulties on their own right?
Misery was about to take a step back when red light exploded once more, shattering the ceiling around their floor.
This caused his expression to become serious as she suppressed his doubts and fears, resolutely using Gae Bolg to free the Pangu Lineage members.
As they all fell to the ground and slowly recovered using their bloodline, Misery glanced at Fengtian coldly.
"Old man, do the right thing."
Misery then rushed up the stairs, knowing he would regret it, but also knowing that he couldn't avoid this.
As for the Pangu Lineage members, they came out of their cells and glanced at each other quietly. Litian went to grab his father and held Fengtian up, but the old man gestured that he was fine to his son.
Litian's eyes flashed brightly as he glanced up to where Misery had gone, then his eyes narrowed.
"Father, should we…?"
The others also had their expressions shift slightly as they understood what Litian was suggesting, but they glanced at old Fengtian.
As for Fengtian, his eyes also flashed, but with a different light. There was complexity and disappointment within, and he glanced back into his cell, where the chains still were.
20 years chained up and beaten by your own family was enough to make any man reconsider life and look through what they did wrong.
On top of that, Misery's words struck Fengtian in a place he couldn't describe, especially when he said that they were members of the Pangu Lineage, so they were not innocent.
The way he even used the term 'Pangu Lineage' was not like he was referring to a proud and noble clan, but a den of thieves who would commit crime for even a pail of sand, much less wealth.
The name of their ancestor and clan was synonymous with evil and filth in his mouth, but none of the others noticed. And when shown benevolence, their first thought was to betray, which made Fengtian shake within.
That was why he eyes were filled with disappointment. Could what Misery said be true? That they were inherently evil because they were from the Pangu Lineage?
And this son of his… someone had just called you an evil snake, and then did you a good deed, then your first action is to prove him right?
Most people tended to say that old men or at least, old people were very stagnant and incapable of change because they were used to a system and were limited by this worldview they had accumulated throughout their lives.
However, everything went both ways. They were naturally limited by that world view, but they were also blessed by it, granting them the ability to grasp the bigger picture.
Fengtian would not lie, he too had done the kinds of atrocities every Pangu Lineage member had done during their time. In fact, his generation was the worst, because they were now the elders during the modern age.
If you though Shangtian or Potian were bad, they were literally just kids compared to them.
Just like Misery had pointed out, He Fengtian, and his family didn't get tossed in here because they had a change of heart and decided to save the suffering citizens of China from the tyrannical Lineage.
They just got into an internal power struggle where one branch wanted to seize the initiative from the other, and they happened to lose.
What if? What if they had won? What if it was Lingtian and his brat Shangtian in here instead of them?
Would he, Fengtian, have changed? Would he have had time to contemplate his actions? To realize where he went wrong and how tarnished the image his lineage had become during this time?
No, he likely would have indulged in even more evil now becoming the ruling branch of the clan.
This was a certainly a rabbit hole of thinking, but Fengtian couldn't escape it.
So the question was, was he evil because he was a member of the Pangu Lineage?
Fengtian understood that his next choice from here would answer that question, not just for him, but for his entire Lineage going forward.
And so, with the big picture in mind, Fengtian sighed and rose to his feet. He idly glanced towards the next floor where Misery had gone and then to his family.
"Let's do the right thing." He said simply, going down below.
........
Misery rushed up the stairs and every step he took made his heart pound like a truck, but he still moved quickly, rushing up and onto the final floor.
Here, he saw a circular, dome like chamber that was like shell of a turtle, only that it was transparent.
There was an old ancestor of the Pangu Lineage currently struggling to hold off an enraged Kiran, who had entered not Super Warrior 1, but his Super Warrior 2 form! That was 20% of his total lifespan gone, and his fighting style was filled with endless killing intent and rage.
Then, there was what his mind had been subconsciously been forcibly ignoring and putting off, but could do so anymore as the highlights of the room were right before him.
Scathach.
Or, what was left of her.
Scathach, the Shadowy One, strongest sorceress in human history, had been separated into pieces, each part fulfilling some dark purposes.
Her legs were used to cultivate flesh, which was routinely stripped off by a machine to feed to beast locked in cages around the dome. These beats were feral, and resembled typical animals but had special markings on them, not to mention that once with the Merlin bloodline could sense magic growing within them.
Due to her physique, her flesh regrew when stripped off, making it perfectly farmable.
Her arms were put over a brazier and set on fire. Due to the presence of magic in her arms being the strongest the flames were lit with a rainbow hue and a strange colorless vapor rose form her arms which was collected by a distillation-like machine, condensing into a grayish white brew that was collected in tanks.
It was used to irrigate four fields of vegetation that shone with magical light, the plants there obviously having shifted from typical purposes to possessing something special.
Her torso, from her neck to just below her upper thigh, was connected to a tube that pierced into her abdomen. The tube was split into three lines, one that harvest and collected blood from her heart to accumulate Merlin bloodline, one that was connected to her spine, harvesting nerves and bone marrow, while the final one was connected to her womb, pillaging her eggs sequentially.
Finally, her head was placed in a vat and connected to some wires that led to a nearby super computer, which was constantly trying to breakthrough her mental defenses and access her memories and knowledge.
Her head had been pierced in gruesome ways and every time the computer failed to access her mind, leeches would be released into the vat who would rip and tear at her face until barely anything flesh was left, allowing it to regenerate before starting again.
This was the fate of Scathach for over 20 years.
The system here was obviously perfected over time and had become almost purely automated, showing how efficient the Pangu Lineage had become in making use of this precious captive.
Kiran had seen this and almost immediately lost his mind, willfully sacrificing his lifespan for more power to punish those who did this to his great-great-grandmother.
So what about Misery?
Misery simply stood there in stupefaction. He expected to see a lot of things, even worse case scenario, Scathach being sexually humiliated, but he had never expected to see this, even in a thousand lifetimes.
It was one thing to see her in pain and harmed , with scars on her body from years of whipping, cutting or the like, and another to see your own fucking parent virtually turned into a living resource, every part of her body subjected to some form of horrific farming method.
And this had been going on for almost 20 years.
Misery felt his chest tighten as breathe left his lungs. No matter how much he tried to breathe, it felt like his lungs had shriveled up and had blocked up completely.
His forehead and back began to sweat profusely, as if he had run 300 miles in 10 minutes while carrying 30kg worth of rocks on his back.
His fair skin began to redden as blood seeped out of his pores in small quantifies along with the sweat. His blood within his vessels was boiling hot - literally - and was pushing through his blood vessels at ten times their usual speed.
If Misery did not have Tier 4 control and a stronger body thanks to his bloodline, he would have exploded into bloodmist on the spot.
As it were, all he did was spit out a mouthful of blood, but he was too busy panting as his completely bloodshot eyes stared at the horror his beloved Nanna had been put through and was still being put through at this time.
So much power and rage was building up within him, but the issue was that he didn't even know what to do.
Rescue Scathach? Obviously, but… how?
More than how… why?
He knew his Nanna best. Calling her meticulous and extremely prim was n understatement. She hated any form of dirt or tarnish on her body, and had cultivated that habit in Misery.
The only time she ever allowed dirt on her person was when young Misery would rush up to hug her despite being dirty from playing all day. Even then, Misery could see that she hated it, but bore with it out of love for her grandson.
So did Scathach herself even want her body that had been tarnished like this back? Would she truly appreciate Misery putting her back together in this mess?
Misery felt lost. Not to mention that the only elder tasked to watch over this floor and make sure she doesn't escape was already barely clinging onto life under Kiran's assault, and that was precisely because Kiran wanted him to suffer despair and fear before he died.
Suddenly, a hand was placed on his shoulder, and it seemed to suck out all of the confusion and violence within Misery's mind and body.
Surprised, Misery turned to see that the phantoms he had collected from Avalon had manifested and were moving towards Scathach's bindings to free her, while one had stayed behind to help him.
The Spirit of Cu Chulainn himself.
