After an unpleasant couple of days, Sam sits at a sterile table handcuffed to it. His clothes torn up and blooded, the entire room is mirrors while a glaring yet also dull white light comes down from above.

He sits there clenching his fist looking at the person sitting before him; he has spoken to this man several times over the last few days.

“I already told you all I know about my situation. I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about.”

“Just like how you don’t know why several fully trained soldiers suddenly get severely beaten up when encountering you? If you tell us who you’re working with, then we’ll also not hold it against your parents when we do find out.”

“What do you know about my parents?”

“I’ll be asking the questions here, I’ll repeat; why were you missing?, why were you gone so long?”

“I told you, I was taken somewhere by some people that told me it was a mission. It was from the training room one night, check the video surveillance. I was taken by people from our military. I was gone so long because I was trapped.”

“We already checked, you are seen on camera in the training rooms and then leaving. Never returning, where did you go? Who helped you?”

“I don’t know who helped me, they all had masks on. They had security badges too. We went to some dungeon.”

“So you went relic hunting?”

“No!”

The other man stands up, he motions to slap Sam but stops himself and walks out the room. Sam lets out a sigh and rests his head on the table. This has happened 4 times so far, this exact same conversation.

These people simply will not accept his answers as being correct.

A new person comes in and sits down, they look at Sam and smile.

“Sam, we’d like to know something.”

“I have already told you already.”

“Yes but not quite, where did you go?”

“A dungeon.”

“Yes but which, you didn’t say.”

“Ignitech-stellar or something stupid.”

“Ingistellar-tech? When was this?”

“Whenever I left? The trip wasn’t very long.”

“I see. Was there anything notable within the dungeon?”

“Not really, just a bunch of rooms that had a jumping puzzle.”

“Oh, I had heard of people writing about that dungeon. No one had ever come back from it, yet somehow there was always a record of it. Was there anything else?”

“There was a big pool of water that was pitch black, lots of it actually. Some rooms were broken in the dungeon, that’s about it. I don’t think I finished it so it might have been broken.”

“Was there anything dangerous?”

“Some spike traps, some blade traps, some creatures.”

“Were those traps difficult for you? You haven’t even finished bootcamp yet, not even stage 1. Have you hatched your monster?”

Sam frowns, “I think it died, I’m not sure. I have its ability still.”

The man grabs Sam’s wrist, a strange pulse goes through his body. The man frowns pulling his hand away wiping it with some sterilising spray.

“I cannot feel it yet it is still performing its role, you are fortunate.”

“I don’t feel it.”

“So you’re not even stage 1 and escaped the dungeon, by yourself?”

“Yes.”

“What about… creatures or beasts?”

“There were some, I forget how many. Mostly dead by the time I got there.”

“Like this?,” the old man holds out a picture, “do you recognise this creature?”

Sam looks closely at it, it looks like the creature that chased him to the water. It appears to be on the surface surrounded by rubble in many directions. He isn’t sure what to make of this picture yet it’s accurate to the creature he saw.

“I dunno.”

“What do you mean?”

“I might have saw a creature similar to it, it was some time ago. I’ve seen many creatures since then.”

“Ok.”

The man stands up and walks out the door without saying anything more, Sam doesn’t know what to make of his sudden exit after which they force him to sit in this room for an extended period of time. The uncomfortable seat and blaring light create an uncomfortable situation yet he doesn’t feel worried.

The door opens again, several people pile in surrounding him. They’re all wearing armoured uniforms holding riot shields and electrified batons. They hold their position surrounding Sam still handcuffed to the table.

“Isn’t this overkill?” Sam pulling on the handcuffs and pointing at them.

“Silence. You are being moved to secure-wing 2, you are to be tried in 72 hours.”

“What? Why?”

“Your charges will be read at the trial site, now place your hands behind your back.”

“What’s going on?”

“Turn around! Hands behind your back!”

An armoured man approaches Sam, he slams the baton into his stomach.

*OOF*

Sam keels over in pain.

His hands are forced behind his back forcing his body to stretch out causing a large amount of pain to go through his body.

“Cooperate.”

A pair of handcuffs are secured to his hands before being secured to a chain around his waist. The pair securing him to the table come off but he doesn’t have time to adjust as they march him out the door.

Sam walks behind him, limping trying his best to keep up.

*ZAP*

Sam’s body is jolted, he hurries his step and looks behind.

The person with the baton is approaching again, Sam hurries his step to get away from them.

*OOF*

He slams into the back of the guards before him, they turn around while one of them does something with a door.

“Trying to cause trouble?” one of them asks.

“No. I just can’t walk right, I didn’t see you guys stop.”

The people act as if they don’t hear it as they bring out their batons, *WHACK*

Sam gets hit across the face, “No back talking.”

*WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK*

They strike his body all over, nothing too hard to break bones but leave severe bruises on top of his already wounded body. The first strike was particularly violent though, as some teeth flew out.

Sam looks at his teeth on the floor, his feeling in turmoil at this unjust treatment, but all he can do is bear it for now.

The door eventually opens and the people let up, Sam is barely able to stand.

“Move it!”

*ZAP*

They force him to move again, this time he has no energy to react at all as he does his best to keep up. They finally come across the area where the cells are.

Sam is dragged through several secure doors, no one gives him any recognition as they just lead him though all the hallways and guard posts. They eventually stop before a heavy set door that opens automatically when they get near, but slowly.

“You are to be kept in Cell 55-D for a period of no less than 72 hours before which you are to appear before a Judge to be tried in a military affairs court. You are not permitted to speak to anybody prior to this appointment.”

Sam looks at the cell before him, a bed and a toilet/shower in a small cramped space.

“You will receive 4 meals a day, you will be permitted 1 hour of entertainment. Any unauthorised power usage may result in the death penalty, you are to keep this device on your forehead at all times.”

The person presses something on Sam’s forehead; he reaches to touch it but the man speaks.

“That is to remain in place at all times, if it is removed from the skin for longer than 3 seconds an alarm will be sounded. If you need a new device, inform someone via the intercom.”

Someone from behind pushes Sam through the doorway and into the cell, the door slamming shut shortly after.

Sam stands in a daze for a moment, he cannot tell what’s going on.

Why would he be beaten so severely for no reason, why would he sound like he’s suspected of something?

These thoughts go through his mind but he cannot come up with any answers. He collapses on the prison bed. It’s soft and comfortable, this is the first moment of piece he has felt for quite some time. The conditions are horrible, not to mention the state of his body, but this place actually feels peaceful.

Sam drifts off to sleep until, *BANG BANG BANG*

“WARNING, YOU WILL BE PENALISED IF YOU DO NOT ATTEND!”

Sam wakes up, his head groggy and looks around, the room is flashing red with the electric voice coming over it.

“WARNING, YOU WILL BE PENALISED WITH 1 UNIT, IF YOU DO NOT ATTEND!”

Sam looks towards the door, there’s something glowing on it. He attempts to move his body but his pains have caught up to him causing him to lean over in pain.

“YOU WILL BE PENALISED WITH 1 UNIT, ADMINISTERING.”

*ZAAAAP*

A large electric shock jolts him up, it lasts a moment yet he could feel that it if lasted any longer there would be some actual damage. He looks towards a large electrode protruding from a spot on the wall nearby that slides away.

On his feet now, Sam walks towards the door where the glowing section is. He drags his foot steps, slowing making his way to the door.

He leans on the wall and presses the flashing section, the door section disappears revealing some food.

Sam takes the tray and walks over to his bed, there’s 3 bottles on the tray.

He takes up the first bottle, it reads water. He grabs the second bottle, it reads chicken, beef nutricube concentrate. He grabs the third bottle, it reads cake-flavoured water-beverage.

Each of the bottles are a liquid, each of them in a thicker viscosity than the last.

Sam opens the middle bottle first, the nutricube one. He has heard of it before, it’s what most soldiers end up eating and as he tastes it, finds that it has an ok flavour for what it say it is. A strange stringy texture if anything.

He drinks the water which is fine, before looking at the sludge looking cake.

He opens the bottle and sniffs it.

“Chemicals… great.”

He takes a sip, the sweet substance coats his tongue almost numbing it yet it doesn’t travel down his throat as it dries out.

Sam takes a sip of water before putting the cake stuff aside.

“So this is food here, it’s fine I guess. Would be nice if they could send someone to heal my wounds.”

Sam drinks the chicken, beef nutricube concentrate slowly as his mouth is still wounded from the lost teeth before moving onto the cake-mix.

“Here goes nothing…”

Sam throws back his head trying to avoid too much touching his tongue, the sludge goes down his throat causing him to almost cough up a few times. The bottle is done in one big gulp as he closes his mouth.

*BUUUUURP*

Sam takes a drink of water before walking over to the still open door, his stomach is gurgling so he hurries his steps and deposits the rubbish. The hole in the door closes and the lights turn a soft colour.

Sam hurries to the toilet, taking care of business there before laying down on the bed again. His stomach is still in pain but now that it has something in his stomach, it will bring him a whole new world of pain as it goes through his battered stomach and intestines.

He lays there awake, unable to sleep now due to pain and with little other option than to look internally and see what he can do there.

Internally, the little worms are nowhere to be seen. The monster in the middle of his mana-cloud is doing nothing but sleeping with its tentacles curled up. The first timer above it is slowly ticking down reading 4:02:22 while the second one doesn’t move.

It woke up last time that timer ran out yet he wonders what’ll happen this time, he’s stuck here for 72 hours.

The small mana-cloud that had his monster sleeping in it is now reduced to a tiny little orb of energy, the monster is no where to be seen but he doesn’t feel too sad about that. It seems like there might be something with this little orb of energy, it’s still purifying his energy for him.

His mana-cloud’s purity has reached 3%.

He’ll be able to attempt the stage 1 transformation once it hits 70% but there're many things to do before that, there’s doing more of the exercises and unlocking the ML-gates increasing the pre-lit status and doing some mental training exercises.

The benefits of pre-lit mana points are confusing, he always thought that the benefits would be found at the ceremony but nothing happened. There have been a few times when it has been talked about, yet it’s always agreed that more is better.

Sam listens to his stomach gurgling as he exits his internal space, he wont be able to get to sleep anytime soon so he practises sets of exercises trying out the muscle groupings that don’t hurt when he activates them.

He needs to learn how to activate these groupings without conscious effort. This is where practising them comes in, he runs over the basic instructions before relying on his memory and activating the groupings that don’t involve his injured muscles and bones.

He carries on for hours, trying to ignore the pangs of hunger and pain coursing through his body entering a state of bodilessness.

*SCREECH*

Sam’s drawn out of his daze as his the creature carries about, he commands loudly ‘Sleep!’.

The creature reluctantly curls up its tentacles, he’s surprised that it worked so easily yet as he looks up he notices that the second timer is counting down now. It’s going down very slowly, but it’s still concerning, he doesn’t want to work out what that one will do once up.

The lights flicker before turning on brightly, the door lights up and an announcement comes over the cell.

“Wake up call, entertainment will be around in 2 hours.”

Sam struggles up and hurries over to the food, it’s bottles like last time but this time milky substances instead of water. He takes them back to the bed and looks at them for a moment.

He looks at the cake-sludge looking one and says, ‘Devour.’

The bottle’s insides disappear as it’s sucked inwards before it too disappears, Sam looks internally to spot some energy flowing in and increasing the first timer solving a problem yet…

“UNAUTHORISED POWER USAGE DETECTED, LEVEL: x”

The cell starts flashing red and orange as an alarm blares, Sam tries to cover his ears but it doesn’t block anything.

The door opens suddenly as tens of people pile in holding out their batons looking at Sam on the ground, they don’t strike him and the alarm stops blaring.

“Did you use a power?”

“No, your sensor must be faulty or something. I was just eating my food when the bottle disappeared.”

“Why did the bottle disappear?”

“I don’t know. Maybe someone else is using their power and messing with me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Impossible, everyone else is wearing subdermal implants that limits their power usage. They’re not capable of using their power.”

“What am I wearing then?”

“A temporary version of the sensor, only you and two other people are using them. We are aware of what’s going on in this prison at all times. IF you are found lying, you will be penalised over 100 units.”

“Yeah I don’t want to get beat.”

“Ok.”

The guards all file out while looking around at his cell, Sam raises an eyebrow at them actually leaving so easily. The door shuts behind them with a slam leaving him alone again.

Sam looks internally and notices the timer has gone up to 8 hours, he comes back to the cell and eats the food himself while muttering.

“I guess that stuff has lots of energy, wonder if this will work.”

Sam looks at remaining bottle, plain milk which he doesn’t enjoy so will sacrifice now.

‘Stop.’

Everything around him shimmers, his head feels heavy as he looks at the bottle and says, ‘Devour’.

The bottle disappears, ‘Stop Stop’ he says causing everything to return to normal.

Sam covers his ear but after a moment, nothing happens so it means that he has found a small loophole. He finishes off the drink before placing the rubbish away, the receptacle closes upon getting that single piece.

He feels slightly refreshed after all of that but still very sore.

He could, of course, just make a run for it when the doors open, but then he’d be a fugitive forever unable to rejoin the society that is out here, the only semblance of civility on the hostile landscape that is this world. Not even the frontier cities will welcome a fugitive.

The next few days are much the same, Sam eats some stuff while feeding the ancient devouring beast. It does nothing more than eat and sleep, he’s just fortunate that it has the stop function but still seems weird for it to have.

He is half asleep working through the exercises when the door slides open, a whole heap of people pile in as someone announces.

“Your appearance time has been moved up, come with us now.”

Sam’s about to say something but bites his tongue and stands up. They approach him and cuff him several times before also restraining his neck and shoulders. Most of his upper body is restrained now while his feet are free.

“Follow, do not speak.”

Sam follows after them as they walk through the secure posts, Sam didn’t see any of this place but he’s glad that he didn’t see more of it. They lead him out and towards a large elevator where they’re forced to wait.

An oppressive atmosphere comes over everything as the elevator dings, it’s very old and falling to parts.

The group boards it at once, the door shuts and they travel upward quickly for several minutes.

It comes to a secure holding area that looks out at a court-like setting. Several people sit on a raised platform above a person standing in the middle.

Sam is pushed into the holding cell but he doesn’t mind, he’s allowed to watch the scene yet he cannot hear it.

The person doesn’t look much older than him, yet he looks terrified as he stands before the old men.

Suddenly the lights drop and a light flashes from behind the people upon the raised platform, 3 of them are red while two are green. The rest are orange.

The light flickers back on, but the young man is missing from where he was.

Sam doesn’t know what happened, but he has a feeling he’ll find out soon. Another person appears on the stage suddenly. They talk for several minutes in a back and forth, it’s all muted to Sam who is stuck far away.

The lights dim again, this time nearly all of them have a green light.

The lights flicker on again. The man is able to walk out from where he was standing.

Sam yawns, waiting for something to happen when his body suddenly feels like it’s falling, he stands up and looks around and nearly freezes up. He is standing in the hall/court room setup he was just watching.

“Tonak, Sam. ID0001055242. Newly admitted to bootcamp, then absconded a month and a half later after receiving high praise. Accused of; 1 count of being AWOL, 991 count of crimes against humanity, 544 counts of first degree murder, 233 counts of second degree murder and over 3,000 manslaughter charges…”

The list continues for some time, Sam is shocked as he hears the list of everything.

“That is the total of charges against you. There are pending charges to be brought. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty.”

“Ok, you have 90 seconds to state your case.”

“What? I was taken at night by some people that I couldn’t identify but were clearly higher rank than me. I was basically stuffed into an armoured vehicle then pushed into the dungeon. I went through some weird… weird stuff in there, but you’re accusing me of something that sounds like I destroyed a whole country.”

“You are being charged with releasing the giant beast, Chimera L-S-S-V, it caused countless deaths as it destroyed 3 large cities.”

“What beast?”

A large model of the beast that released the beams appears, it spins around showing it firing the beam.

“You recognise the creature. How did you encounter it?”

“It was just there. I don’t know how it got out, but it was just a matter of time. How am I strong enough to release it?”

“So you admit that you know the beast.”

“I know about it but that’s only because it was trying to kill me. All I did was run away from it.”

“Council will commence shortly, anything else you would like to say?”

“What else can I say? I’ve told you all that happened.”

“Ok, Sam Tonak. Wait, a moment deliberations will begin.”

The lights dim, Sam’s heart starts to race as he’s aware of what is coming, yet he can hardly believe that he’s in this situation. The lights start appearing as the people make their decision.

Sam closes his eyes, preparing for the worst.

He opens them and spots many orange lights with only a single light different.

It’s a red light.

Sam suddenly disappears from his spot and appears somewhere else, he doesn’t know what’s going on but a voice comes over his over to tell him.

“You have been found guilty on 22% of charges. Due to several mitigating factors in your favour, your sentence has been commuted from several death to 9 life sentences, you will be retained to a work-camp for military prisoners.”

Sam is shocked by this news, a collar suddenly appears from somewhere and clamps on his neck, several spikes clamp on it before it beeps.

“What…”

That’s all Sam can mutter before he’s hauled off somewhere in some vehicle, unable to do anything about his situation.