Torture

(Three years later)

Denac awoke in his room made of ice. He could feel the chill of the ice - a feeling that he'd become accustomed to over the past three years. He checked the time on his bank, 06:00 it read. This meant that he still had about 15 minutes until Ivo would show up to take him for breakfast.

"Thankfully I managed to land a hit yesterday...it's been too long since I've had a good steak," Denac said to himself "there's also another two years for that nonsense deadline. Whatever that's about."

After speaking to himself, Denac took out one of his books and started reading to learn one of the spells in it. Currently, he was trying to learn a support type spell called "Gravity Lock". This spell would lock the target's altitude, so could be used on allies or oneself to stop themselves from being knocked back, or it could be used on enemies to stop them from jumping or climbing. This spell was quite complicated, and he had been working at it for the past three days.

*jingle*

*creak*

Denac heard the door opening so he put the book away, almost understanding the spell to use it.

"Get up!" A voice barked at him as soon as the door was opened.

"Who are you? You're not Ivo." Denac asked the lithe but muscular frostwalker standing In front of him.

"Ingoit, your trainer for the next week while Ivo is on holiday with his family," Ingoit responded, in a snappy tone. "I gave you an order, now follow it!"

"Okay, okay," Denac responded in an intimidated tone.

"Cut the lip, Ivo may be soft but I sure as hell won't be." Ingoit snapped at Denac.

***

(10 minutes later, in the training hall.)

"Are we not going for breakfast?" Denac asked Ingoit inside the training room as he was setting it up for them to spar.

"Here," Ingoit said irritably as he threw a bread roll at Denac. "you're lucky to get even that."

"Thanks, I guess." Denac retorted.

After Denac finished his meagre meal, he got ready to fight Ingoit. He knew Ingoit was stronger than him as he couldn't sense how strong he was, which meant that he was at a higher rank than him. Denac managed to achieve the rank of Knight within the past three years under the tutelage of Ivo, as well as being able to train in the same room as an anomaly every day.

As soon as Denac prepared for the fight, Ingoit went over to one of the walls and grabbed a bo staff from the racks on there. He tested its weight by twiddling it around his body, before putting it back and pulling out another one. This time, it was the perfect weight for him to use.

Before he even said for them to start fighting, Ingoit had struck Denac on the elbow, causing immense pain to spread through his body.

"Eina...why?" Denac questioned his actions.

"Simple, in a real fight you start as soon as you're ready, not wait until someone says to begin," Ingoit responded condescendingly. "now then let's try that again shall we?"

This time, Denac didn't wait, he struck forward, swiping both hands in front of him as two purple mirrors opened on either side of Ingoit. Denac's hands disappeared and reappeared on either side of him, striking towards him while he was in a neutral stance. Two mirrors were the extent of how many Denac could make even after three years of training with the spell. Moreover, Ivo had taught him how to cast without chanting, this was a skill that was learned naturally at higher ranks, but could be taught to those lower though, just required them to be gifted.

Unfortunately for Denac, Ingoit had disappeared and had struck his other elbow after casting a spell on him - "Pain amplifier". This time, the pain that Denac felt radiating through his body was unlike any he'd experience before. His body felt like it would shatter. Every bone felt like it was about to break into a million tiny pieces at the slightest breeze.

"Eina...why?" Denac questioned, tears forming in his golden eyes.

"Simple...you need to learn to take a hit." Ingoit cackled as he struck Denac again, this time in the chest.

After striking Denac for the third time, Ingoit rubbed his hand along the length of the staff, after doing so the staff began to glow green.

"Now then...let's have some fun," Ingoit said maniacally as he brandished his now poisoned staff.

While getting up from the floor, Denac felt another impact on his back. Moreover, he could feel the poison burning its way into his skin, causing him to spasm and foam at the mouth from the pain.

Denac accepted his fate in that moment.

His fate to be tortured within an inch of his life by a man who found it fun.

Ingoit however had other plans.

"Aww, done already? Well, that's no good," Ingoit said in an irritated tone as he extended his hand towards Denac. "Venomancy - Purge. Psychomancy - Rejuvenate. Hemomancy - Mend."

Ingoit cast three recovery spells on Denac. "Purge" to remove the poison, "Rejuvenate" to remove his mental fatigue and "Mend" to repair his body.

He chanted to increase their effectiveness.

Within 30 seconds of Ingoit casting these spells, Denac felt like he was at his peak. However, he shuddered as he realized that Ingoit only healed him to extend his own fun.

Before he could even get up, Ingoit was attacking him. He decided not to take it lying down, so cast a spell on himself, "Chronomancy - Accelerate", which increased the target's ability to move. He hoped it would be enough to at least block one strike.

He'd learned how to deal with a staff, and it largely benefitted him anyway. He needed to get in close to limit Ingoit's ability to build up momentum.

Ingoit's attack missed him. This was good, it meant he was fast enough, if only just about. This meant he had a chance.

As soon as the attack missed, Denac took his opportunity to attack. He grabbed Ingoit by his blue hair and pilled him into an elbow, breaking Ingoit's nose. Blood splattered everywhere. Or so Denac thought. In reality, his elbow shattered upon contact, tearing his flesh with the bone shards. Due to the adrenaline that was finally kicking in, he could barely feel the amplified pain of his elbow shattering.

His celebrations were cut short as he felt a strike to his coccyx. Moreover, he threw up some blood due to the poison that was afflicted to him from touching Ingoit's hair and fell unconscious.

***

(Within the Dragon's Abyss)

"So, it seems that you're in a desperate situation for my wards to drag you here."

Denac heard the deep, guttural voice of the dragon that he'd grown somewhat accustomed to over the past three years. Every night whenever his body went to sleep, his soul appeared here.

In unusual cases such as this, the dragon's wards had gone off to tell him that Denac was in danger and need of some guidance.

"Yeah...how did you know?"

"I put wards the first time you ever appeared here. They allow me to perceive the outside world from your point of view. One will even drag you here if your body sustains enough damage. Now tell me, what's going on out there?"

"Apparently Ivo is on holiday so now I'm being trained by his second in command. That man is a maniac. He beat me within an inch of my life, only to heal me in the name of his fun," Denac replied. "wait a minute, if your "ward" can drag me here when my body gets close to dying, why didn't it bring me here earlier?"

"Simple, your life wasn't at risk...this time something must've been done to cause our life to be at risk, for example, a poison that was fast-acting."

"Maybe...he did cast a poison spell on me." Denac corroborated.

"It doesn't matter, in any case, I'll explain what I mean by you being a candidate, as well as some stuff that you get due to your candidacy. Firstly, summon your bank and look real closely at it."

Denac did as told.

"Wait, what's this blue in the centre?"

"No one's ever noticed that surprisingly, but it simply means that you have an affinity for Dracomancy, the strongest element in this dimensi-"

"Wait, doesn't that mean that I have four affinities?"

"I was just about to get to that. Simply put, you require four elemental affinities to be able to reach the rank of Nomad, three worldly affinities, and one universal affinity. The only being that is close to being a Nomad who can become one is Ignis, just so you know. Truthfully, it's not that rare for someone to have four, but it's not discovered that often."

"Okay, but why isn't it discovered often?"

"Because that tower you have in this world, one of those is created when the first person in a world reaches Ruler rank, and to get books and scrolls of universal elements, one needs to be at floor 500 or higher. Furthermore, they need to be able to have an affinity to gain books and scrolls of these elements, so they're insanely expensive just to see if your child has one. On the other hand, banks can pick them up, like how yours has the blue in it, others will have different colours."

"Okay, but what about this helps me right now?"

"What I'm about to teach you...why do you think the element that you have is called 'Dracomancy'?"

"Is it because it's dragon magic?"

"You're sharp...but yes, it is. Now then, before I teach you some spells, do note that due to the nature of this magic, you need to control it impeccably well."

"Okay, but if I'm going to be learning some spells aren't you worried about my body waking up?"

"Nope, one year here is one second out there...when I want it to be."

"Okay, what's the first spell?"

"It's a spell called Hide, put simply it'll turn your skin into scales. They'll be about as tough as that of a young dragon when you first learn it, but we can improve on this. Then the second is called Draconic Storm, this spell is highly destructive, so be extremely careful about control, and never use it unless you're in a building created by a ruler's power. It will decimate the landscape. Put simply, all this spell will do is to cause a storm of the different worldly elements used by dragons to surround you and act as both protection and offence. If this doesn't kill him, then he'll be extremely injured and easy to finish off."

"Okay, thanks I suppose I should start practising them right now?"

"Yup, just give me a second to transfer all the information into your soul."

"Wait, you can do that?"

"How do you think Nomads can bring some random person up to Ruler rank in a matter of minutes?"

"Makes sense, I gue-Arrrrrrgh."

Denac's soul collapsed, grasping its head as thousands of years worth of knowledge was instantly given to him. Before the pain disappeared.

As soon as the pain had subsided, Denac got to work learning and practising the new spells.

***

(In the training room of The Frozen Palace, 10 seconds after Denac had fallen unconscious)

Ingoit could see Denac's body begin to move, as he awoke from his unconscious state.

"Heh...looks like the kid is sturdier than I expected, no matter." Ingoit spoke as he prepared to strike Denac repeatedly with his staff.

Before he could do anything though, he could feel himself heat up, before cooling within the span of one second. Then he was thrown back as his body started to convulse from the poison that Denac had inflicted upon him. He couldn't do anything but think about how Denac could beat him as his life faded from his eyes.

Stood alone inside a crater about five feet deep, caused by his own spell. He looked at the heavily burned, frostbitten and pierced body with spikes of blood and bone showing through the body that was Ingoit.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't feel any pity for this man who'd made his day torturous. If anything, he thought that this death was too good for him.

With that in mind, Denac returned to his cell to train, leaving the training room in the mess caused by his spell.