On a small grassy yard, a pubescent boy sat in a tucked position, rocking back and forth. On his back is an egg cradled in a harness made of simple leather and metals fittings. Gradually the color on his face faded from a healthy bronze to a ghostly pale. Coupled with the boy's white skin is a pair of wide dimmed eyes, making it easy for anyone to tell his state of mind. Terrified.

This unfortunate boy is obviously Arbor.

Deep in his mind he kept telling himself to think of a way to move, to start thinking of a way to get out of his predicament. For the first time since he had reincarnated, Arbor felt that his life is actually in danger. One of his seniors had always been watching over him and was within distance to save him if things got risky. Just earlier when he was on the run there was a life saving device that produced a shield around him, but that was now cracked.

Thus, Arbor was unable to see a bright side to turn too.

As he watched the unknown person in front of him move their hands in a mysterious way as if they were pressing buttons, moving objects out of the way in front of them. Ten seconds after the person began, a barrier filled with numerous shapes and runes. Coincidently, Arbor had recognized all of these. But he was unable to piece them all together, due to his lack of practice at constructing and destroying formations.

Twenty seconds. The formation started to glow in a golden color. Five seconds later, the formation appeared to burst as another layer appeared. Another fifteen seconds passed as the person broke through many more layers of the formation at an astonishing speed. Arbor lost count after seven as his eyes were unable to follow the rapid actions of the person in front of him.

During these last ten seconds a thick layer of cold sweat formed over Arbor's body as he watched his killer taunt him as he slowly broke the last layer of the formation and stared him in the eyes. Step by step he leisurely closed the short distance of fifteen feet that separates them.

“Welcome to my world of pain. The world of a thousand tortures, where every hour here is one second outside. This is my ultimate formation that has been perfected through thousands of killings.” A sweet tender voice spoke from behind the bloody mask of the person approaching him. A woman! And not a seductive one at that. He was unable to make out any physical characteristics of a woman.

As she spoke, the woman extended her arms and with it the world around Arbor changed. The next thing he knew was that he was hanging in mid air fully spread, naked. He struggled as he found that he was cemented in place, unable to move.

“You are hundreds of millenniums too young, and far too weak to be able to even twitch your finger, darling. It's a shame that you are so cute and could be a gorgeous man depending on how puberty would have treated you. I hear that you have the potential to be a dangerous fellow to our cause. Thus, we were all sent here to kill you.”

The woman took out a whip and cracked it a few times before hitting Arbor once on the bottom of his right foot. Simultaneously a cut appeared on his left foot. After the first hit, another thong appeared on the whip. The popper got a little bit more fine.

Arbor whimpered in pain as he ground his teeth.

The lady raised her hand and cracked the whip again. This time cutting Arbor’s palms. Two cuts appeared on both palms, a smidge smaller than the ones on the souls of his feet. Once again, another thong appeared as the popper became smaller.

This process continued. On the eighth hit, the webbing between his fingers and toes were sliced. The tenth hit cut the directly underneath his fingernails. Every slash avoided any major vessel or artery. While there is not much blood dripping from his body, Arbor still found himself in a terrible amount of pain. Every whip cut a sensitive part of his body. Even his genitalia. After the fifteenth hit, she finally stopped.

Crying out in agony as tears pour out of his eyes, Arbor pleaded, “Please, stop, I don't know who you are or why you are doing this to me. I promise to stay clear of you and the organization you are part of.”

The lady appeared in front of him and caressed the side of his face, “If things were that easy, I could let you go. But, we simply can't let you live, as we do not know what your future may hold. This is not a risk we are willing to take.”

She stuffed a pill into his mouth and forced him to swallow it before retreating into a lounge chair that suddenly appeared.

All of a sudden Arbor felt a magical feeling coming from down there as he started to get excited. Concurrently, each and every small laceration began to amplify the sensation they were causing ten fold. Unfortunately Arbor is now experiencing great pain with great pleasure. Images of sexual encounters of his past life rushed through his mind before being abruptly interrupted by excruciating pain.

As time went on both sensations grew in intensity. One giving a euphoric feeling, the other, miserable. Additionally Arbor began to feel something building up inside of him during the time he felt the exciting feeling. He felt his body on the verge of giving up and collapsing.

By now Arbor had been in this lady’s world for just fifteen minutes and had a mixture of emotions running through him. He had no time to think about life and death, if he would get out of this, who would save him, nothing.

“It’s a shame that Haoshe is so stringent on recruiting. Otherwise you might have a saving grace at this point. You would never have had to suffer this pain or pleasure.” She took a bite of an apple then continued, “Although it is a good thing for us because we might be on the losing end if there was more on your side. We have killed hundreds of your seniors before and will continue to do so. There is strength in numbers. It is pitiful that Haoshe can’t revive people whose souls have perished. Although, we have yet to confirm how he was able to summon you from that pitiful realm. But, none of that matters, as you only have forty-five minutes left to live.”

After she took another bite, She left the chair and floated towards Arbor. She smiled underneath her mask as she flicked her wrist. Arbor became caged in by mirrors on all sides. The mirrors formed a geodesic polyhedra shape. From the outside of cage Arbor heard the woman speak, “The first step is to make the physical body suffer. By doing so mental fatigue sets in. You just want to give up.” The woman hit the mirror in front of her. Arbor suddenly felt a pain deep inside his body. No it wasn’t his body it is something else. His being. His soul.

“Due to the recovery rate of your body, as it is feeble, your pain won’t subside quickly. You also don't have the mental fortitude to mentally recover fast enough. You’re still too young.”

By this time the wave that passed through his body had deflected off of the wall behind him. Part of it separated from the larger portion from it. The smaller part hit a couple walls before passing through Arbor again. This time the pain is not as heavy. Seconds later, the larger portion passed through him. Arbor roared in pain.

“Next, you need to inflict pain on the person on a different level that is seperate from the first part. The soul. Don’t worry, I have calculated the amount of strength needed to just keep you awake and alert. Even if you try you won’t black out or die. Yet.”

The force and timing behind the soul attacks came at random occurrences. The special structure of the cage reflected the wave around in different directions sporadically. He never knew when or how hard he was going to get hit.

At this point Arbor was unable to think at all. His mind was completely blank. He looked lifeless. Blood oozed from his seven orifices, his eyes bloodshot, and his mouth slacked. If there wasn’t a force holding his head up it would be hanging down.

Sporadic screams came from Arbor each time his soul was attacked. For fifteen minutes this continued on. Next, he found himself laying down on the ground without the slightest strength to move. Even if he could move he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do anything.