The Worst Possible Transmigration (2)

Marina recalled that in this world living beings has dense soul strength and it manifested itself externally as a force called pneuma. The pneuma manifested in different forms for different people, they depended on the kind of vitality a person's soul could absorb from their environment. The pneuma could be elemental, unique, rare, special or common. The book mentioned nothing about Marina's ability as she had passed away by the starting of the main storyline, even though she appeared quiet frequently in Ariel's flashbacks.

Marina decided to give into the maniac's desire and screamed her lungs out each time the lady made any move. The maniac seem to be prepping her for some sort of implantation and Marina was sure that it was not going to be anything good. Her screams seem to satisfy the maniac to the point that the maniac at times even took breaks just to listen to her screams, seeing this Marina upped her acting by a notch. Marina was using this hard earned time to discover her pneuma, but later realized that it's impossible for her pneuma to manifest as she was now in special pneuma restraints.

As her screams grew louder she sensed a strong breeze blowing across her face, at first she thought that it was just her imagination and was focused on going through this body's memories and discovering useful information about herself when she felt the air around her pick up pace, being tied down it started suffocating her. She felt static building up around her, she once again arched her neck to look at the guy tied besides her. Ariel was looking back at her in desperation. He was tugging violently at his restraints. The restraints were customized for the person whom it was supposed to contain, for example a person with the elemental power of fire would be restrained using a flame negating restraint. However, at this moment Ariel's restraints seem like they were a joke. A sudden flash of electric arc blinded Marina for a second and when she could finally see properly again, Ariel had already freed his hands and was working on his leg restraints.

The maniac had already noticed the sudden changes in the room and had already fled the room to fetch help. Neither the maniac nor Ariel seem to be sure of what is actually happening. Ariel seem to have lost his soul, he was tugging at his leg restraints as if he did not care even if he lost a leg. An electric arc flashed and it seem to have split the dental machine itself, thus freeing Ariel.

The freed Ariel stood up like a drunkard and looked at Marina like a weary traveler in desert who had finally seen water. He moved towards her like a zombie and he ripped up her restraints. He then tossed her injured body onto his shoulders like a bag of rice. Marina was so shocked by the turn of the events that it was the pain of the jerk that caused her mind to clear.

As per the book, the death of his lover caused Ariel to suddenly go berserk and cause his pure water elemental pneuma to mutate to accommodate lightning. This was a huge set back for him in the story. As later on in the story he wouldn't be able to become an elemental lord like the hero due to the corruption of soul caused by this mutation. While reading the story Marina had thought that this was one of Clotho's tricks to prevent the story from having two elemental lords at the same time and also giving all the limelight to the hero.

Ariel walked out the room like a drunkard, bumping into everything on the way, blasting out the door. Marina turned to see where they were going and saw that they were currently in a long winding dark corridor with one side open. It was twilight, but she wasn't sure if it was morning or evening. Ariel stopped infront of the corridor railing and took one look down, then as if he was possessed he jumped down. Marina was caught totally unaware, her stomach jumped to her mouth and bile rushed forward.

Ariel landed unceremoniously, but still managed to hold his package in place. Somebody had witnessed their recklessness and raised an alarm. Security was rushing towards them, Marina panicked.

"Ariel, put me down and go get help!"

Marina was no Madonna, but she was sure that they wouldn't be able to escape together. Ariel's new found mutation was the reason why he was able to escape in the original book. So according to her, he should be able to escape by himself and then call for help and save her. She was sure that she would be able to keep herself alive longer as she was not the original host who was very prideful and never uttered a word when she was tortured. But she was not like that, if it called for a performance she was willing to give an Oscar worthy performance.

"Riri, I'll protect you until my last breathe."

Ariel muttered under his breathe. He looked more like a zombie and less like a human being now.

'Darn! This must be the legendary Berserker mode in the novel.'

Marina had previously thought that the Berserker mode was really cool. A person who had gone into Berserker mode is not tied by reason or thoughts, they feel no pain and their power is practically unlimited as it is basically their pneuma taking over the person. But the problem with this mode is that, it depends on how intense your pneuma is, type of pneuma and how much your body is able to handle the pneuma's force. It's basically a swansong, as pneuma usually burned down a person's body and caused irreparable damage to the body.

Marina couldn't help but be moved by this youth's sincerity, even in his Berserker mode all he wanted to do was to protect her. It made her realize how much the youth loved the original host and even felt guilty about taking over her body.

Ariel was moving forward based on his instincts. He flashed his strong electric arcs at whoever approached him as he made his way forward haggardly. Marina wanted to help him, she dug in vain through the host's memories and found a lot missing, which wasn't surprising given the fact that she had been subjected to multiple tortures for about a week now. So, she gave up on the memories and decided recall the original novel's plotline.

Marina recalled that the original body's owner lost her life to a maniac scientist named Drae who was interested in elemental and unique pneuma. Ariel had the elemental pneuma water, so she assumed that she was captured as an extra along with Ariel, and given the maniac's temperament she might have killed Marina to stimulate Ariel. But looking at the current situation it seems like Ariel was the extra and she was the actual subject, otherwise why would she be the one in the operation table and Ariel just tied to the dental machine. He seem to have undergone some severe trashing, but she found from this body's memory that all the blood and tissue samples around them were all from Marina. So, Marina should have had something unique about her that caught this maniac's attention and be given more priority than an elemental.