In the weeks that followed, the events that took place in this hellhole were beyond unspeakable.

Herman hadn't lied one bit about what he had in store for the children, in order to achieve the extreme stress levels that he believed were necessary to create an 'Altered' he employed only a single tactic.

Torture.

Non-stop, unrelenting torture around the clock. Leon and his small group had stuck together throughout this initial period, managing to acquire cells next to one another and they would provide comfort and support to each other when they came back from one of their... sessions.

Over the past three weeks, of the initial group that had been present during the induction, which they had figured out to be exactly one hundred only seventy were still alive.

Thirty children dead in three weeks... What kind of statistic was that. Out of these thirty most had died during one of their sessions, their bodies no longer able to handle the strain of constant torture and simply shutting down, whilst others had taken their own lives in their cells.

Leon was being dragged back to his cell by one of the guardsmen, despite his body being healed by someone everyone at the facility had simply come to know as the 'Doctor' he was physically drained and couldn't hold up his own body. The guardsman bent open the bars to his cell, threw in Leon's limp body, and bent them shut again before walking away without saying a single word.

Leon lay there for a while, his cheek against the cold hard stone floor. It was the only part of the day Leon had come to find solace, a moment of peace without having to listen to some part of his body be broken or the sound of his own or others' screams.

"Rough day?" asked Ajax sarcastically from the cell across from his, his head resting against the bars of his cell as he sat propped up against the wall.

To be honest, one might think Leon would get annoyed or angry at Ajax's comments but truthfully, Leon felt as if his stupid sense of humor kept him sane at times.

"Electric Chair," Leon replied in his usual deadpan tone.

"Yeah, that one sucks dick, I got off pretty easy today, only had a few fingers and toes broken before I faked passing out and they let me off," said Ajax.

"Wheres Ari?" asked Leon, concerned as he hadn't heard her talk yet.

Over the past couple of weeks, despite the constant rounds of torture, the three of them had grown quite close, mostly out of necessity as, without anyone, it wouldn't be long until they ended up like thirty-eight and if anything, that was what truly terrified them.

"I heard Ari was with Herman today... she probably won't be back 'till later" replied Ajax.

At that comment, both boys just sat there in silence for a little bit, Herman was truly just as deranged as they thought he was, unlike the guards who whilst torturing them made no sort of expression or any kind of reaction at all, at least at first glance due to the white masks they all wore, Herman was different. He genuinely found some sort of sick pleasure in causing the most pain possible for his victims, in fact, out of the thirty people who had died so far, Herman was directly responsible for eight of them.

"That guy really is a fucking nutcase isn't he" Ajax sighed, "I wouldn't be surprised if these fucking 'Altered' he speaks of are just a load of bullshit."

"Honestly, I wonder if there's a point to all this sometimes. If the so-called god of this world truly exists." Leon replied, staring at the floor.

"Fuck God," snarled Ajax, "We were supposedly blessed by that asshole when we gained our abilities, yet we're all weak, every one of us an F-Tier ability user, too weak to give us any sort of true freedom."

Leon had also come to learn that everyone in the facility were ability users, everyone F-Tier with physical inclinations, despite one exception that was. Aria was an E-Tier Elemental ability with an affinity for Nature. This meant she could control a host of living organisms such as plant life and even influence more intelligent species such as beasts. However, being E-Tier so young meant her talent was likely sky-high therefore the fact was kept a secret and she had only just told AJ and Leon last week, both of whom promised to keep the secret until they got out of this place or died. They knew what would happen if Herman was to find out Aria had an E-Tier ability despite being so young, and an Elemental one at that, and the thoughts weren't pretty.

Besides Aria, Leon had found out that Ajax had an F-Tier physical ability with boosts to his strength, however, he still found himself too weak to even budge the metal bars that made up their cells.

As for Leon himself, he felt bad for lying but he had told both Aria and Ajax that he had some sort of F-Tier physical ability, but he didn't know much about it as he ended up in this place on the day of his awakening. Regardless, the answer seemed to satisfy his two companions and they didn't push the issue any further.

Whilst in thought, Leon heard the steps coming back down the corridor and both AJ and Leon peered out of their cells to see who it was.

Aria was being dragged back to her cell by her hair and was swiftly thrown into her cell before the guard left.

No one said anything but both boys could hear Aria sobbing in her cell, both unable to find the words to comfort her at this point.

'When will this nightmare end' Leon let out a sigh.

---

3 years later

No one knew how long they had been in the facility, they counted the number of sessions they had survived rather than attempt to count the days passed. However, after this period of time, only twenty-odd of the now 11-year old children were still alive.

For Leon, up until this date, he had survived his 2700th session, his wall covered in tally marks that he had scraped into the wall using his nails. Despite the constant healing supplied by the doctor, the 3 years worth of physical trauma was now clearly evident in the form of scars littered across his entire body from the neck down mainly from the incisions made on his body during a few of Herman's more creative sessions that left him closer to the verge of death than any sort of true pain.

Herman was getting impatient, decades of trials with no real results had led him to 'accelerate' his research and subjected the children to even harsher forms of torture.

"That marks two thousand six hundred and eight for me," said Ajax in a tone of voice that was starting to mirror Leon's. Over the years, his humor had soured and quite honestly Leon couldn't blame him, at this point they had both resigned to their inevitable deaths in this place, it was only a matter of time.

From Ari's cell, both boys could hear her coughing violently and every few days she would often throw up over her cell. She needed rest but struggled to get any with the sessions only getting more and more regular. Her fit of coughs continued for a few minutes before she stopped entirely and passed out in her cell.

"She doesn't have long left does she," said Leon.

"Lucky her," replied Ajax in a dead-serious tone.

"We already decided that even though we will probably die in this place, we weren't going to give Herman the satisfaction of breaking us," said Leon resolutely, it was the one thing the three of them held as law.

Ajax nodded in response, 'Dead but never broken', it was the phrase that hand kept him sane for longer than he could remember.

Suddenly the door to their corridor of cells swung open and by the crazed ramblings of insults and the irregular footsteps they already knew who it was.

Herman fucking Dest.

He marched over to where the three of them were located before looking over the two boys and his eyes finally settling on Aria who was currently lying unconscious in her cell. Ajax and Leon looked at each other and knew they had to do something, whatever Herman wanted to do with her, they both knew she probably wouldn't last. Just as AJ was about to speak up, Leon held up his hand, signaling for him to be quiet.

"Herman, whatever you want her to do, let me go instead," said Leon as firmly as possible.

Herman backed off from Aria's cell before placing his face as close as possible to Leon's from beyond the bars.

"Are you sure you want to do that little boy?" Herman asked with his signature creepy smile plastered across his expression, "She's probably going to die soon anyway."

Leon held in his rage at how casually Herman talked about what he had done here, his crimes against humanity, if ever discovered, would make even the most steely stomached person wretch thinking about just some of the atrocities he had committed.

"I'm sure," said Leon.

"Very well boy, I hope today lady luck is on your side," replied Herman.

Leon snorted at the comment, Lady Luck? He wouldn't be surprised if she had some sort of vendetta against him.

Herman pulled open the bars to his cell, and Leon stepped out and followed Herman down the corridor.

Ajax looked at Leon's cell, the bars still bent wide open, something that he never usually did unless...

He didn't expect Leon to be coming back.

'Please come back Leo' Ajax prayed.

---

Herman led Leon down the corridor before opening the door to a large open room, probably the biggest space Leon had been in since the induction talk. Inside the room, Leon was surprised to see nine other children, all of who he had seen over the years a few times in passing. He wouldn't consider any of them friends, but he had a deep enough respect for every one of them for lasting up until now.

"You may be wondering why I've brought you all here today instead of your regularly scheduled sessions," said Herman, rubbing his hands together, "You see I haven't been getting the results I wanted so I've decided to try something new!"

Everyone in the room shivered at that statement, Herman's ideas had caused every single person in this room to feel some sort of pain they'd never experienced before and no one was keen to relive the experience.

"To be honest the concept is quite simple" Herman continued to rant, ignoring the atmosphere change in the room, "I'll come back to this room in exactly one hour, by that time I only want to see one person left alive. Fail, and I'll kill you all. Good luck!"

With that Herman slammed the door to the room shut and sealed it using his Earth elemental magic.

For the kids, it felt as if a bombshell had just been dropped on them, for three years they had been subject to all sorts of inhumane activities, but never once were they forced to inflict pain onto someone else, let alone kill.

For what seemed like an eternity, the kids stood in place, completely frozen their eyes darting from one person to another, waiting to see what the first person to move would do.