Chapter 18: The First Shackle

With the wall to his back and the curtains all around him, Theo was finally alone.

No, that wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t truly alone. What he felt was the illusion of isolation. He knew the truth, he knew that there was still someone else here with him, that this tiny little slice of the world was merely a part of a much bigger room. He knew it all, but still, he fell for it.

The illusion of isolation. Even if it wasn’t real, to him, it was real enough.

Theo breathed out a heavy sigh.

It was time. He had stalled for long enough; he needed to get back to work.

He plopped down onto the bed and quickly pulled the blanket over his body. Theo laid there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. The dim white of the lights, the rough texture of the sheets, even the way the mattress compressed underneath him, he felt it all.

He briefly hesitated, before he suddenly unbuckled his belt. He took the belt, folded it in half, and bit down on the leather.

This should stop me from screaming… he silently thought to himself.

Without any further delay, Theo closed his eyes and concentrated.

He directed his consciousness over towards the runic cage near the pit of his stomach. Almost immediately, he felt the rampaging energy. It struck out at the cage, threatening to break loose. Electricity. The runic cage was formed out of pure electricity, while the energy that it kept locked up was also formed from electricity.

Theo opened a tiny sliver of that cage and quietly watched as a streak of electricity forced its way out.

He then guided the streak towards his head, in the direction of the mind source. Half a second later, he felt a sudden burst of pain. His teeth ground against the leather, while he subconsciously spasmed in place. The bed rattled around while Theo gripped the sheets as if his life depended on it. He struggled to maintain both his sanity and his consciousness.

The next couple of hours passed by in agonizing slow-motion.

Theo entered an endless loop of pain and suffering. It was as if a jackhammer continually kept trying to drill its way through his head. It never once succeeded, but boy did it try.

This was only his first shackle, but it was already so painful. Still, Theo kept persisting. No matter the pain, no matter how frequently he almost slipped into unconsciousness, he persisted all the same.

Break, break, break, break, break already!

Within his mind, an image slowly formed. It was a simple depiction of a lock. Slowly but surely, as the time passed, he could hear it. The sound of creaking. It was like the whining of a dying animal, the squeaking of strained metal. The surface of the lock began to weaken. Still, it resisted. That’s what it was meant to do; a lock was meant to keep others away.

A few more minutes passed.

Suddenly, it cracked. Theo gritted his teeth. He clenched his fists, his nails dug into his palms. A splotch of red dyed the bed sheets. The first crack revealed a dim light shining from somewhere within the lock. The pain intensified, but Theo was filled with renewed vigor.

He guided another streak of electricity towards the lock. The crack widened, but the pain also spiked. This time, Theo could not hold back the groan in his throat. Long and throaty, he sounded like a drowning man in a desert. The pain momentarily short-circuited his mind.

“Are you alright?” Suddenly, a voice called out. It snapped him out of his reverie.

Theo strained to open his eyes. A dimly lit white ceiling. Shadows danced on the surface. For a moment, he was confused.

Where the hell am I?

“Hey kid, are you alright in there?” There it was again. That voice. Where did that voice come from? “Do you need any help?” It asked.

Ah, that’s right… I’m in the infirmary.

He looked around the room. His hands were bleeding, the bedsheets underneath him felt uncomfortable. They were soaked in sweat. At some point, the blanket from before was now sprawled on the floor. He turned towards the noise. He noticed that the partitions were still up. From behind the thin curtain, he saw the shapely silhouette of a woman.

“The first crack appeared…” Theo dazedly mumbled to himself. “I’m almost there…”

“What was that?”

“Ah, no, it was nothing.” Theo reflexively answered. He suddenly remembered the nurse. She was still inside this room. Her voice was tinged with worry. He did not know whether that worry was genuine or merely compulsory. “I’m fine.” He said.

“You sounded like you were in a lot of pain. Do you need to go to the hospital?” She asked. “Or maybe take up that offer for some medicine?”

“No… really, I’m fine.” He shook his head, completely ignoring the latter half of her question. “It was just, it hurts a little bit, my stomach.”

“I thought you said you had a headache?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. My head hurts, a nightmare.” He nonchalantly corrected. “I just need a little bit of rest. I’m sure I’ll get better soon.”

In the face of his insistence, the nurse could only reluctantly agree. “Well, alright then. But if you seriously keep making all those noises like you’re being tortured, then I’ll drag you to the hospital myself.”

Theo bitterly smiled. He did not dare to comment. A few seconds later, he heard the sound of receding footsteps.

He breathed out a sigh. With the temporary interruption all done and handled, he once again tackled the lock.

This time, he completely opened the gates of the runic circle. The rest of the remaining electricity burst forth and chaotically rampaged all over his body. For a moment, a cold numbness washed over his organs, before he gritted his teeth and began guiding the streaks of energy towards his head.

Theo was planning to break the lock in one fell swoop.

The electricity rushed forth like a pack of starved wolves. Sparks flew within his head. His ears were filled with the sound of booming thunder. Raw energy repeatedly struck the crack on the lock. Slowly but surely, the lightning seeped into the lock, further destroying it from the inside.

The crack widened.

One minute, two minutes, five minutes passed. The crack had grown to over twice its original size.

Theo did not have time to celebrate. The whole process was unimaginably painful. He simply did not have a large enough vocabulary to describe just how painful it was.

The crack continued to widen. Finally, after what felt like an eternity’s worth of struggle, only about a fraction of the original electricity remained. As for the lock, only a thin, superficial layer kept it together. With one final strike, he attacked the lock with all of his might.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through his head.

Theo let out a cathartic moan. It echoed all throughout the room, before silence. He felt weak. His body was shivering and his lips were pale blue, but a sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.

He did it. He had done it once again.

He had broken through to the first shackle.

Almost immediately, he felt the change. It was as if the world had suddenly gotten several times brighter. If his previous life was in 360p resolution, then right now, everything was displayed in 8k UHD. The dreariness of existence gave way to a bright and shining universe.

Despite the weakness that proliferated his entire body, his mind felt firm and his thoughts were clear. He was now able to think faster and remember better. There was no easy way to describe it. Theo was simply just… more.

Computational speed, reaction time, and memory. These were the things that the mind shackle affected, improved upon. That alone was already impressive enough, but in truth, those changes were far from the mind shackle’s greatest achievement.

The mind shackle’s greatest advantage was its effect on his senses. Not only did it enhance his original senses, but unshackling the mind-source also gave rise to the possibility of unlocking new senses. A sixth sense to detect outside prana, a seventh sense to identify killing intent, even a mythic eight sense that bestowed the user with premonitions of danger… the possibilities were endless.

Unfortunately, opening just one mind shackle wasn’t enough to unlock a new sense. Still, Theo wasn’t too bummed out. He knew that this was only the first step in a long and arduous journey.

He closed his eyes and breathed out. Theo spread his awareness to his surroundings. Spatial awareness was something that any ordinary person possessed, but Theo’s spatial awareness was heightened to an almost supernatural degree. No, at this point, calling it spatial awareness was an understatement.

It was more like a map of his surroundings, an amalgamation of everything that this world had to offer. A mental image, built by all the sights, sounds, smells, everything that his body accepted. They all came together to form one clear, coherent picture. It was a certain sense of awareness that allowed him to view the surrounding space with an almost crystal-clear clarity.

He called such a skill [Comprehensive Awareness].

Of course, in its current state, Comprehensive Awareness only reached a range of three meters. Any further and the mental image in his head would grow blurrier and blurrier. The absolute range was fifteen meters. After that, he might as well just rely on his eyesight or hearing. Still, it was far more than what his original body was capable of.

He tested out his new-found ability.

Almost immediately, a mental image in his head formed. He was at the center, while an invisible bubble suddenly spread all around him. It moved, encompassing everything within a three-meter radius. Within those three meters, nothing could escape his eye. The bubble grew fainter the further it went,

Theo frowned. As he viewed the room through this periphery, he noticed an oddity.

The beautiful nurse from before.

She was staring in his direction. It was an odd gaze, one that Theo could not quite identify. Abnormal, curious, somewhat probing, the nurse gave him all sorts of impressions, but not one that he could clearly identify. The only thing that Theo could clearly tell was that there was no hostility. That assurance came not from his new ability, but rather from his experiences in Mistelhan.

Whatever it was that the nurse was plotting, at the very least, she did not want to harm him. After giving it some thought, he eventually dismissed his worry. As long as she meant no harm, Theo did not really care what it was she did, nor what her goals were.

Heck, who knows, maybe the lady likes me. Love at first sight? Was it possible? That sort of indecent student-teacher relationship… I don’t particularly mind…

As various thoughts filled Theo’s head, he suddenly heard footsteps. He did not need to use his new comprehensive awareness in order to hear those footsteps. They were deliberately loud, almost as if not enough people could hear it.

A few seconds later, the door to the infirmary suddenly opened.