The criminal city of Halthor could be considered the vilest city on the whole continent. Its streets were littered with renegades, its houses were filled with murderers and its stores were owned by marauders. The land was scorched dry due to the aftereffects of a large battle resulting in infertile soil. And all the exit routes were watched by bandits waiting for their prey.

To say Halthor was a city of sin and nightmare was an understatement. If not for the prison tower standing in the middle of the city then Halthor wouldn't have one redeeming quality. From the rumours spread, only criminals who were deemed as too hard to kill were locked up and driven insane due to its tortures.

The city lord of Halthor, Halloway Carn developed a special taste in torturing the prisoners. He enjoyed sawing off their limbs with dull knives as they screamed ,cutting them open with a rusty dagger as they begged for mercy and embedding flesh eating bug eggs into their intestines and waiting for them to hatch. What made it worse was that as long as they didn’t die, they would be healed by holy light and preped for torture the next day.

On some days Carn would order the guards to leave the cells and prison gate open so that any prisoner who wanted to leave had the opportunity. But after going through daily torture, their minds have been broken to the point that they could no longer even remember their names let alone thinkof escaping. Nowadays most inmates were nothing more than drooling husks of their former self.

…

Within the deepest layers of the prison lay a large door made of an unknown metal. Large dents could be seen protruding from it. These dents were visibly made by whatever was being kept on the other side. Whosoever made these dents must have used something that had not just a large weight but also a massive amount of force behind it.

‘Sigh’ How long has it been? Three years? Five years? Being unable to tell time is truly aggravating. One minute your studying the connection between vibrational frequency and quantum mechanics, next thing you know your sleeping on a cell floor covered in urine and feces. What makes it worse is that I can no longer tell which feces was here before me and which appeared after I arrived. ‘Sigh’ truly aggravating.

Behind the dented door, a scruffy young man shackled from the neckdown sat in a kneeling position. He had signs of malnutrition and starvation. His body was lean as his ribcage was visible to all in his ripped shirt. His hair was messy enough that you’d assume he was a hobo and his skin was also flaky and showed visible signs of cracking.

Seeing movement from the giant door the young man knew that his favourite warden was here to pay a visit.

Once opened fully, a thin man with triangular eyes and a bald head, slowly walked towards the prisoner but stopped short after stepping in a pile of feces. “Yo warden if ya keep looking like that your face might get cramped and you’ll scare the children away, haha.”

Hearing the prisoner mock him, the warden lifted his feces covered boot and sent it slamming down on the prisoner’s face. “Hehe, warden its just a joke between friends, why so serious.” Wiping away the feces boot-mark on his face, the inmate showed off a welcoming smile.

“Rejoice inmate, the merciful city lord has requested your presence in his manor.”

“Hahahahahahaha, request? Don’t you mean he’s broken all his toys so now he’s ready to break me too? Warden your too funny.” The inmate couldn’t help but sneer once the warden finished speaking. A trace of disgust flashed across his eyes. “Dogs like you only know how to obey their master and we both know who’s holding the leash here.”

Rage covered the warden’s face as he rained multiple blows onto the inmate’s face until his fists were covered in blood. “We’ll be taking you to the city lord tomorrow, try not to die before then.” The warden wiped his hands on a piece of cloth before leaving the inmate sprawled out on the ground.

Crawling up slowly the inmate winced as he felt his numb face. Heheh to think tomorrow would be the day I die. What a pitiful life I’ve lead, mother, father I’ll probably be going to heaven soon.

Dear God if you exist please grant this so simple wish of mine. Have all my possession self-destruct so no one else has the chance to use them, have all my friends fail every romantic relationship they enter for the rest of their lives, so they understand my pain after ditching me time and time again, oh! and have my 3rd grade teacher catch an incurable disease as compensation for all the times he called me an idiot and hit me on the back of my head when I got an answer wrong, I’m sure hitting a child that much will cause them to become stupid but that daft old man wouldn’t relent. So in short if you do indeed exist please grant this dying wish of mine, Amen.

Now with my final prayers done I should get some sleep. Wait! What about my final meal!

…

After being thrown into a cold bathtub and given a fresh pair of prison clothes, the warden and some people the inmate didn’t recognise escorted him via carriage towards the city lords manor.

The city lord’s manor was huge and luxurious, quite the contrast to the broken-down droopy atmosphere emanating from the rest of the city. Its floors were covered in expensive carpets, its ceiling was overflowing with chandelier’s. The paintings on the wall depicted portraits of several different people but considering that everything else in here sparkled the inmate assumed that the paintings must also be worth a lot.

The inmate was lead to a room where a middle-age man in his forties sat behind his desk using a feather and ink to write something on a piece of paper.

That must be Halloway Carn! But judging from his refined disposition he doesn’t seem to remotely resemble the rumours spread by the wardens. “Hmm” looking up from his paper Carn saw the warden and his attendees arrive with an unknown man in a prison uniform.

“Keep his hands shackled and leave us.” The warden and the others heeded his command and did as they were told, only leaving the inmate with cuffs around his wrists. The city lord got up and walked towards his window, ignoring the presence of the other person in the room. “Do you know who I am.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“I can guess.”

“You seem very calm.”

“Must be your imagination.”

“… Quite a peculiar one aren’t you.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

This back and forth between them continued for some time. “Inmate… No the file said you called yourself Daelos Barrigan right?”

“It’s my name after all.”

“Why Barrigan?”

“What do you mean why? A name is a name.”

Is this guy a retard?

“Only nobles, archmages, prestigious knights and royalty are permitted to have surnames. And from what I can tell, you have none of these qualities. So I ask again why Barrigan?”

Only some people have surnames? What a flawed system.

“Its what my parents had as their last name.”

“Your parents are quite arrogant aren’t they. But I guess even trash have to dream.”

Hearing someone badmouth his parents right in front of him caused Daelos’s eyes to twitch. Calming down the fires of rage bubbling up inside him, Daelos took a deep breath and carried on like nothing happened. “Can I ask how long I was locked up?”

“Hmm.. according to the file it’s been 3 years.”

Damn, so that makes me 20, there goes my youth.

“Then may I know why I was locked up?”

Turning away from the window, Carn finally got a good look at the prisoner standing in front of him. “Inmate you don’t seem to understand your current situation do you.”

Dumbfounded, Daelos could only respond with a “huh.”

“Your my prisoner and I’m your master. So where does a worm like you get off questioning his master. I guess the apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree. Trash can only create more trash.” Shaking his head Carn took a seat behind his desk. “Now enough with the chatter, lets get down to business. Do you know why you’re here?”

Trash huh, you wouldn’t be the first to call me that.

“I’m here to die right.” No longer willing to waste any more time with this man, Daelos decided to just get it over with.

“Your right but do you know why you must die?” Carn seemed to be quite giddy with these questions.

Seeing the repulsive glee plastered across Carn’s face, Daelos felt sickened to his stomach.

If I’m gonna die then there’s no point playing his game and acting like a gentleman is there.

With a smile hanging on his lips Daelos stared straight into Carn’s eyes with the utmost confidence. “I gotta die because you’re a twisted pervert who can only get it up by playing with mangled bodies.”

“…”

Not satisfied by the Carn’s response, Daelos continued to vent. “I also heard that your preferred targets are young boys but your unable to get your greasy little hands on them so instead you satisfy yourself with men locked in chains. Oh how noble of you right. I guess commoner trash like me can’t reach your level of perverseness, I guess we truly are inferior in that regard. Don’t you wonder what the other nobles must think? Under your rule this city has only gotten worse, I’m pretty sure they’re laughing behind your back at how incompetent you are. They’d probably agree with me that only a city as broken as this deserves someone of your calibre to rule it and call it home.

Of course Daelos had no idea if any of this was true. He didn’t have much material to work with, so he had to BS his way through. But looking at the livid expression on Carn’s face, Daelos knew at some point he had hit close to home.

In fact most of what he said was true, after years of torturing inmates Carn could no longer be excited by normal means. And as for the other nobles, he knew that behind his back they were laughing at him. He was sent to manage this city as punishment for offending someone he shouldn’t have and until that person was satisfied he couldn’t return to the capital. Initially Carn tried to improve the city by wiping away the trash that infested its streets. But after so many years Carn was certain that the person who sent him here had just forgotten about him and would probably not even recognise him even if he stood in front of him shouting his name.

“INSOLENT!”

“OH GIVE IT A REST!”

The door to the room swung open. The city lord’s attendees rushed in, carrying with them a weird glass ball. “City lord, we have finished carrying out the task given to us.” Bowing to Carn, the attendee presented him with the crystal ball.

Seemingly forgetting the previous conversation with Daelos, Carn received the ball and closely inspected it. A vicious smile emerged at the corner of his lips. “Mr Daelos why do you think I personally tortured all the prisoners in Halthor prison?”

Why did his tone change all of a sudden?

Not waiting for Daelos to answer, Carn continued monologuing. “It’s because I can’t rely on the warden or any of my servants to do the job properly. You see, unlike what you and the rest of the world think of me, I don’t torture people out of pleasure. It is simply a means to an end, and now that both you and the Agnos Requiem are in my hands I can finally finish what I started.”

Seeing the crazed look in Carn’s eyes, Daelos started to feel his body tense up.

“Do you know what the Agnos Requiem is? Probably not, a low born commoner like you probably can’t even read. Well let me explain, the Agnos Requiem is a container of sorts. Originally it was used to contain the power of Laws and other various types of energies, but somewhere down the line someone managed to slowly imprint their will upon it. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but the person who did so specialized in using mental energy and since then the Agnos Requiem has only been able to absorb anything to do with mental energy.”

Mental energy? What kind of unscientific nonsense is he going on about? Sigh I’m surrounded by crazies.

“So I came up with this plan to use mental energy to empower an artefact that will cause me to rule over all.” Opening a draw, Carn took out what seemed to be an unassumingly ordinary silver ring. “Feast your eyes on the Ring of Everlasting torment. With this I will be able to transfer the mental energy stored in the Agnos Requiem and move it into the ring.”

“Wait a second what your describing is just an energy converter, but instead of converting energy from one property to another all your doing is placing it somewhere else. What’s the point of moving energy from one place to another? Are you an idiot or something? All your doing is wasting your time. And that still doesn’t explain why you had to torture the prisoners. What would you gain by doing so? Just admit it, you’re sick sadist who enjoys seeing other people in pain.”

Just as Daelos was about to roast Carn to the point of giving him third degree burns, he paused as realization dawned upon him.

If what this sicko calls mental energy is actually just another word for emotions then he’s not just moving energy from one vessel to another.

“Your converting negative emotions.” Daelos voice cracked as he finally figured out the purpose of Carn’s torture.

Oh god I’m getting swept up in his pace!

Why am I entertaining this madman’s fantasy?

The surprise on Carn’s face couldn’t be hidden when he heard Daelos lay out his reason for torturing the inmates. “For a commoner your quite smart. You are correct, I am indeed transferring negative emotions into this ring.”

“So you intentionally tortured the inmates and put them in that messed up mental state in order to plant seeds of hate, fear, resentment and other negative emotions in them in order to fuel that crystal ball. Wait! But for that crystal ball to absorb that much mental energy it’d need to be close to the inmates as the further away and energy absorber is the less pure energy it is able to absorb. But just being close to them wouldn’t be enough, sooner or later people break. You’d need a way to somehow inspire hope before ripping it away causing more negative emotions to swell… The prison gate! You gave them false hope by leaving it open, giving them the illusion of freedom, then you strike once their positive emotions are at their peak dropping them into a pit of despair. I see! The prison gate is the pole and the prisoners are lightning bolts. You created a lightning rod of despair! And underneath all that the Agnos Requiem is just sitting there soaking in all these emotions.”

Carn stared at Daelos with admiration. “MAGNIFICENT! You are truly extraordinary!, for a low class commoner like you to deduce every step of my plan to the point of understanding the true purpose of the prison gate is unbelievable. Bravo, Bravo.”

This guy… He’s insane! How many people were locked up in that prison? How many people has he broken over the years? How much resentment is trapped in that ball?

“Now then Mr Daelos, since your such a clever boy explain to me why did I leave you for last?”

Last? Why did he leave me for last?

“…”

“Come on now, how can a clever fella like you not figure out something so simple.” From Carn’s tone, one could hear the disappointment.

Daelos was at a loss. Why was he last? What made him so different compared to the others? Carn had been planning this for a long time, so does my appearance change anything.

Daelos felt a wave of anxiousness wash over him. Confusion and fear gripped him as he felt the speed of his heart start to quicken. Think damnit think. No! I have to calm down, panicking won’t help solve this problem. Calm the mind, steady the heart, release the breath.

Okay now, Carn says I’m the last piece of the puzzle meaning that he needs me for his plan to succeed. Problem is I don’t know what he needs me for or the full extent of his plan. If I arrange the current amount of information that I have then all I know is that Carn wants to use the Agnos Requiem or whatever its called to transfer negative emotions into that ring. If I think about all the case studies I’ve read involving mental illness, an average person having so much negative emotions would become irrational, unpredictable and eventually be driven insane. But if that ring can store negative emotions then what would be its purpose? That’s it! A normal person would be driven insane by an abundance of such emotions but if the ring stores all of it then maybe it can also release it! If the ring was somehow able to release those negative emotions at a designated target then…

OH SHIT! The last piece of the puzzle in any experiment is to test the hypothesis and record the results!

Daelos felt drops of sweat flow down his face as he remembered Carn’s question. Why did I leave you for last.

“I’m your test subject.”

“DING! DING! DING! We have a winner, hahaha that one took you a while to figure it out didn’t it. Well congratulations your spot on, your prize is that you will become the first stepping stone on my path to greatness. NOW REJOICE FOR I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE HONOR TO WITNESS THE START OF A NEW ERA!”

Carn danced around his office as if he was jacked up on some kind of stimulant, losing the mannerism of a refined gentleman he had when Daelos first saw him.

Calming his emotions Carn looked towards his attendees and said in all seriousness “Make him kneel.” Carn picked up the ring off the table and held it next to the Agnos Requiem. A burst of blinding purple light blasted out of the Agnos Requiem covering the entire room. Out of the Agnos Requiem distorted ghostly faces of people screaming with twisted expressions seemed to be crawling out and circling the air.

A strong air current appeared out of nowhere causing the organised room to suddenly become a chaotic mess. Papers and objects flew in every direction, even the documents that Carn had been filling out earlier became lost within the chaos.

Daelos watched in horror on his knees as he felt the screams of the damned penetrate into his mind and fill his thoughts with nothing but despair and boundless rage. Carn’s attendees seemed to be having just as much trouble as Daelos when resisting the sudden influx of negative emotions. Their eyes were bloodshot as they grit their teeth till blood started oozing out of their gums. Daelos felt their grip on him loosened as they were too busy trying to stabilize their thoughts.

At the centre of the light, Carn’s maniacal laughter could be heard echoing. Daelos got to his feet shielded his eyes and ran towards the origin of the laughter.

…

Like any other day, Halthor was as peaceful as a city full of criminals could get. What broke this peaceful atmosphere was the sudden explosion of purple light coming out of the city lord’s manor. From within the light came gruesome spectres screaming into the minds of every man, woman and child.

The people of Halthor lay on the ground cluching their heads in pain as they tried to bite their tongues off.

Some used their nails to scratch their eyes out.

Others chopped their limbs off while letting out cheerful laughter.

And other rammed their heads into any spiked objects.

The entire city was in a spiral of chaos and madness.