Chapter 74 - Confession

When Glenn, Carter, and the others arrived at the dungeon, they were all taken to the torture chamber where they were brutally beaten for days and nights to give up any information they had. 

Carter, being closer to Tessa, spent the most time in the torture chamber before being released as he had no information that they wanted. 

Each of them was forced to wear a collar that took away their ability to use, sense, feel, and absorb mana. They were completely powerless. 

A few days into their capture, they were forced to work. Each of them was taken to the mines where they slaved away for hours without any breaks in between. Derry wasn't used to such physical labor and collapsed often which led to a beating. Pantera wasn't any different. 

When Lenny, Arnold, and Glenn saw this, they rushed to help their friends, but they too were brutally beaten as they didn't have the power to defend themselves. 

One day, as Carter was doing his daily mining, a person walked up to him. It was a woman who he recognized. 

"Carter? What are you doing here?" She asked as she approached him. 

"Heh, funny seeing you here Kara. Came to bask in the glory of finally being better than me?!" 

"You're still on that? That was over 15 years ago, I grew up, you should too." Carter and Kara had a rivalry that was not healthy at all. He always overshadowed her and she would go to the extremes to put him down. Later, she came to terms with her position and took a job in the Solight family that dealt with their enemies. 

"Whatever, I'm going back to work, leave me alone." He picked up his pickaxe and continued mining. The material they were mining was the same one that could completely separate someone from their mana. The material looked like lead but obviously, it wasn't. 

Weeks passed by and they all continued to mine and slave away. Kara would always watch over the area where Carter was and her heart would ache every time she saw him in that situation.

'Dammit, you dummy. You still don't know that I've always tried to get your attention! Now you're here and I can't bear looking at you like this!' Kara walked over to Carter and asked him a question. 

"Do you want to leave this place?" 

"W-What?!" He momentarily stopped mining as he was thrown off by that question. Carter knew how loyal Kara was to the Solight family so he didn't expect this from her mouth. 

"Do or do you not want to leave this place." She asked once more in a low voice, looking around to see if anyone was spying on their conversation. 

"What's the catch? There's no way you of all people would want me to leave here. I know how you are, Kara, you're probably thinking of a way to get me in trouble like you used to." He looked away and picked up his pickaxe 

"Oh for the love of!" She grabbed his arm, pulled him in close, and kissed him on the lips. She didn't care that he was dirty and dusty. She didn't care he was weak and beaten. From the start, she's always loved him and only acted the way she did because she loved him...and maybe the small inferiority complex she had back then. 

"W-W-What are you doing?!" Carter blushed and backed away, tripping on his pickaxe, falling on his butt. 

"I've been working here for the past ten years. I know the ins and outs, I know the schedules, the shift changes, where the locks are, I know all of it, and I'm willing to risk my life helping you. Why? Because I love you Carter, I always have. I know it didn't seem like it back then but it's the truth, so if I can get you out of here, you have to promise me something." 

"W-What is it?" 

"Marry me you fool. Let's start a family, put this all behind us, start a new life." Her eyes were beautiful when Carter stared into them, just as they had always been. He'd always thought she was beautiful but never thought to seek a relationship with her as she was always causing him trouble, but now, seeing her like this, so mature, he forgot all of what she did in the past and kissed her with passion. 

"I promise! Once we get out of here, I promise to marry you." They both smiled and hugged. 

"But, there is one thing that I need to make clear." He pointed to the mercenaries. "All of them need to come with us. It's the least I can do for them as they helped Lady Tessa and myself." 

"That's not a problem. I'll make plans for the escape. I can't tell you the just of it as there are ways to pry information out of the prisoners but I promise you I will get you out, just continue to be patient." 

[Three Months later. Present Day.] 

When Joren woke up, he was still sitting in the chair. His body ached all over and although he was healed, he was only healed enough to not die. 

"Good you're up, let's continue. This time, I won't go lightly on you as I did yesterday. So let's start this off with a simple question. Where is Tessa Von Solight." Trey asked 

"Y'know, I have a bad history with people named Trey. The last person I knew by that name pretended to be my best friend, fucked the girl I liked, then killed me." 

Trey looked at him with a 'what the fuck are you talking about' expression then shook his head. "Welp, time to hear your screams." He pulled out a hammer and positioned it over Joren's knee. "This might hurt a little." He smiled maniacally then slammed the hammer on his knee. 

"Arghhhhh!!!!! Fahhhgghrhgrgh!!!" Joren felt his knee shattered, bone fragments stabbing him all along the inside of his leg. He couldn't move his leg anymore and the movement he did because he was in pain made his injury hurt even more. 

"Oh calm down will you, we're just getting started." Trey crushed his other knee with the hammer and watched how Joren convulsed in pain with a huge grin on his face. 

"On to the next one." He took out a knife from the bucket of burning coal and started cutting Jorens chest. 

Joren felt the knife not only cut through his skin, flesh, and muscles but also how the heat cauterized the wound only for it to be cut back open. But it didn't stop there. After cutting and stabbing all over Joren's body, Trey moved to something more, traditional in the sense of torture. 

"Ever broken any of your fingers?" 

Joren didn't answer. He was in too much pain to do so. He couldn't even give him an angry look. 

"Wrong answer." Trey laughed 

'Bitch' 

"Let's begin." Without warning, Trey broke Joren's index finger by pulling it back until it snapped. He continued like this with all of his fingers. Then, he broke his legs, ankles, and even his toes. But the torture didn't stop there. He called two large guards and ordered them to beat Joren up. They didn't stop for what felt like hours. 

"Okay, that's enough." Hours later Trey came back to a mangled Joren who was beaten black and blue. He was unrecognizable from before and didn't give off his upbeat energy. 

"Do you want to speak now?" 

Using all his willpower, Joren spat blood at Trey, hitting his apron. 

"We'll try again tomorrow." He took his hammer and clobbed Joren across the face. 

Over the next two weeks, Joren was brutally tortured day and night. When he thought it couldn't get any worse, it got worse. When he thought things would get better, things got worse. When he didn't even think anything, things got worse. There was only so much he could take until he broke, and after two weeks, he finally spoke the truth. 

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." His voice was so weak that Trey had to lean in to hear what he was saying. 

"Hmm? You don't know? But weren't you with her? You said you hid her in the area along the road so WHERE IS SHE?!!!" He slammed his hammer against Joren's chest breaking a few ribs 

"Arghhhhhh!!!! I DON'T KNOW!!! I DON'T KNOW!! I Don't-" He passed out. 

After another week of torture, getting the same answer, Trey called Bia and she arrived to see a broken Joren who kept repeating the words "I don't know." 

"What did you di with her?" Bia demanded 

"I-I-I-I-I threw her." Joren managed to get out. 

Trey didn't like this answer and stabbed him in the thigh with a fire iron that was blazing hot. 

"ArggghhHH!!! I-I-I-It's the truth. I h-hit y-you with the b-big lightning t-then I threw h-her away from t-the battle. I-I only stayed t-to stall f-for time. S-She's probably at the c-capital already." Joren didn't even seem happy when he finally spoke the truth. He was so broken that it just came out naturally. His eyes were already devoid of life and he was just existing at this point. 

"You son of a BITCH!!!!" Bia punched Joren as hard as she could in the chest, breaking all his bones and rupturing all his organs in the area. He puked out a sickly amount of blood and passed out. He was on death's door. 

"What do you want to do with him?" Trey asked 

"Kill him! Feed him to the dogs!" She turned around to leave

"Can I keep him? There are some experiments I want to test out and I need a new test dummy." 

"Go ahead, I don't care." Bia left for the main estate of the Solight family. 

Trey healed Joren with potions, healing magic, and the wood element. He needed to use all of those to prevent him from dying, that's how bad of a state he was in. 

"Congratulations, you won't be tortured anymore. But now you'll be my little lab rat. I can't wait to see how your body will react to all the things I'll be putting in you." He told some guards to take Joren to his cell and left for the day.