The chamber reeked of rust and despair, a festering wound carved into the Lawless City's rotting underbelly. Air hung thick with the stench of blood and mildew. Chains rattled faintly above, suspended from a ceiling lost in shadow, while a cracked pipe dripped water with cruel indifference — each drop a mocking cadence against the stone floor.
Kai slumped in a corroded chair, bolted to the ground, wrists and ankles bound with coarse rope that gnawed into his flesh. Thin trickles of blood ran beneath the restraints. His ever-lasting smokes pouch dangled below his ribs — a glinting prize, the only clean thing left on him. The ghoul had already fixated on it.
The ghoul loomed like a nightmare given flesh — gaunt and skeletal, hollow-eyed, a face carved from hunger. Slowly, he lifted a rusted nail file from a tray of jagged tools and dragged it across his teeth. The sound was a rasping shriek of metal on enamel — a noise that clung to the spine and refused to leave. He never broke eye contact.
"You've got secrets," the ghoul rasped, tapping the file against Kai's chest, just above the heart. "Everyone who survives this long does. But you…" His grin stretched wide, gums blackened, joyless. "You smell like order. That doesn't belong here."
Kai spat — a weak arc that splattered inches short. The ghoul's smile widened, a predator humoring prey. He stepped behind Kai and yanked the back of his shirt down in a single, violent motion, exposing his spine.
A splash of alcohol hit the skin — cold, stinging.
Then came the first cut.
Shallow. Deliberate.
The nail file traced a thin line down Kai's back. He flinched, teeth clenched tight enough to crack. Blood welled and trickled down, each droplet a tiny betrayal of control.
"I could snap your bones," the ghoul murmured near his ear, breath hot. "One by one. But that's cheap pain. No… we'll peel you apart, layer by layer."
He set the file aside and reached for a resonance scalpel — a slim, humming blade outlawed by Sovereign but commonplace here. Its edge was made for one thing: slicing through spirit-bound flesh.
The moment the scalpel touched Kai's shoulder, he screamed — raw and guttural. Not just from pain, but violation. The blade shredded resonance trails beneath his skin, unbranded and vulnerable. His soulprint felt flayed, essence unraveling thread by thread. Blood slid down his arm, pooling beneath the chair.
His vision blurred. Red and black.
Velnix was silent. Cut off.
He was alone.
"You feel that?" the ghoul cooed. "That's me unmaking you. Bit by bit. No guardian. No system perks. Just a boy in a chair."
He dragged the scalpel down Kai's ribs, deeper this time. The blade kissed bone.
Kai gasped, breath strangled by the cord tightening around his throat. He couldn't speak — only endure.
The ghoul reached for a syringe filled with black fluid. "Memory solvent," he grinned, stabbing it into Kai's neck. "Might erase a day. Might erase you. Let's roll the dice."
The chemical burned. Cold fire raced through Kai's veins.
Colors bled into his vision — reds, violets, golds.
kai was filled with raged. He would endure, fueled by spite. He wasn't giving in.
He clenched his fists. Nails digging deep. A tether to himself.
The ghoul wasn't finished.
He picked up a long, thin metal pick — glistening with oil — and slid it into Kai's ear canal with sickening care.
"Mind-space," he whispered reverently. "Everyone hides their name somewhere. I'll find yours. Peel it back like skin."
Kai convulsed. The chair rattled. The pain turned to frost — cold and creeping. It numbed his limbs, but not his mind. He remained fully, horribly conscious.
The ghoul moved to his hand next, prying it open with force.
"Let's see what else you're hiding," he growled, grabbing rusted pliers from the tray.
With slow, steady pressure, he clamped them around Kai's thumbnail — and pulled.
The nail resisted.
Then tore free with a wet rip.
Blood sprayed.
Kai screamed.
It kept going.
Another nail.
Another.
Each yank a crescendo of agony. His screams gave way to gasps, then silence, vision fogged with tears and red haze.
"Still nothing," the ghoul muttered, tossing the pliers aside.
He grabbed a knife — its blade notched and dull — and began peeling the skin from Kai's forearm.
Layer by layer.
Sinew exposed. Blood flowing. The stench of rot and iron thickened.
Kai's body trembled uncontrollably. Hallucinations flared behind his eyes — kunai ropes, screaming civilians, Xae bleeding in the Dead Zone.
Still, the ghoul kept going.
He sliced into Kai's thigh, searching for a bind. "Where's that cigarette trick?" he hissed, twisting the blade deeper into the muscle.
The chair groaned beneath Kai's weight.
His legs buckled.
But the pouch remained untouched. Its magic resisted.
The ghoul snarled and grabbed iron tongs. He heated them until they glowed red, then pressed them to Kai's chest.
Searing.
Popping flesh.
The scent of burning meat filled the air.
Kai arched, a roar tearing from his throat — not in fear, but in sheer, endless pain.
Time lost all meaning.
Minutes stretched like centuries.
Blood loss drained him white.
His breath came in ragged, fading gasps.
The ghoul finally stepped back. Panting.
Hands slick with Kai's blood.
Eyes empty.
[Would you like to transfer soul item?]
[Yes]
[No]
"no" Malakai weakly muttered
"Useless," the ghoul spat.
With one last kick, he knocked the chair over.
Kai collapsed — limp, broken. His vision frayed to red at the edges. One hand — despite the missing nails, the burns, the flaying — still clutched the smokes pouch.
Not by will.
By something deeper.
The ghoul stood above him, frowning. Then grabbed the rope binding Kai's wrists and dragged him across the floor toward a rusted trapdoor.
He flung it open. Darkness gaped below like a beast waiting to feed.
"You don't belong here, props to you for holding out to the point you bored me." the ghoul muttered, voice low and hollow. "Let's see how long you last in the pit."
Then he dropped him.
Kai tumbled into the abyss — broken, bleeding, flayed and scorched.
The void swallowed him whole.
But the smokes remained clutched in his hand —
a silent testament to everything they couldn't take.