Hourglass (3)

Time contained in a handful of sand. Golden grains strike the glass bottom as they fall. Condensed time became mere grains of sand, falling.

“Ah-…”

The world stops completely.

The hourglass is flipped.

“What did you do?”

“A magic to make her confess.”

“Are you going to mind-control her or something?”

“You’ll see.”

-Move, attack, tear that magician to shreds right now. But no matter how much I commanded, the wraith didn’t move. Feeling something was wrong, Pluton reached out a hand to resist, but she couldn’t do anything as if time had stopped.

She couldn’t even roll her eyes. She couldn’t even breathe. Only her mind was clear in a bizarre sensation as if her body’s functions had stopped.

Trapped in time, her thoughts were split and stretched out long. In her eyes, even I must look like I’ve stopped. Why aren’t you moving? Say something. The silent screams swirl inside, refusing to escape.

– Keueueoeo…

At that moment.

All the souls surrounding her disappeared.

Too many commands were issued, and they couldn’t withstand it and vanished. The judgment made in the stretched-out thoughts overlapped and piled up in the condensed time, leading to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of commands. There was no way the wraiths, forced to obey the commands, could endure it.

And it wasn’t just the wraiths.

The branching of thoughts. The reason why magicians can’t easily use thought acceleration. If you use too many spells in an instant, it overloads. Because of that, you had to calculate only the necessary spells and release them immediately. As an Archmage, I’m free from that danger… but could a weak demon with even its horns broken withstand that?

I grinned and looked into the hourglass.

‘3 seconds… 4 seconds.’

And 5 seconds.

I put away the hourglass.

– Pfft.

“Ah, euh?”

Pfft, a nosebleed burst out. Her body collapsed powerlessly.

She convulsed violently, writhing on the floor.

Glancing at her, her body was excessively stiff. A year’s worth of condensed thoughts burst out at once, overloading her body. It was utterly ridiculous to see her drooling and even pissing herself.

Well, it’s a year. Even just a month of confinement drives people crazy, but a whole year has passed. Of course, only in her world.

“Ah, hee, heeheuk. Ah, ah.”

Choppy words.

Pluton shed tears as she writhed like an earthworm.

“What did you do to make her half-crippled?”

Hajin clicked his tongue, looking at the miserable sight.

“Hmm… it seems like there’s brain damage.”

“Answer me. Did you catch something from the Black Tower Master?”

“Hold your horses. I just increased the perceived time.”

I shut my mouth and turned my head. I saw Pluton trembling on the floor, drooling, crying, and pissing herself. Her condition was too severe to simply say that I increased the perceived time. Hajin said with a suspicious look.

“How much acceleration?”

I squatted down in front of Pluton, who was foaming at the mouth and going crazy, and answered.

“One year in five seconds.”

Hajin shuddered. Based on my extremely me-like way of thinking, it seemed like Hajin was imagining ‘what if’ right now.

Yeah, what if.

What if I was left alone for a year, unable to do anything.

“Ew. I definitely couldn’t handle it.”

“If it were me, I would have assimilated with the world and disappeared. Anyway.”

Overload is a problem, but using human Mana seems to be the biggest issue. The Mana of demons and humans boasts extreme incompatibility.

“I have to fix her. Can you hold her arm?”

“Ah, yeah.”

A slaughterer who couldn’t escape the shackles of time. Pluton lost her body’s functions, consumed by disharmony. But it probably wasn’t beyond repair. She’ll probably be back to normal in two hours. A demon’s body doesn’t break easily.

“Ugh.”

Hajin easily hoisted Pluton up.

“Ah, euh. Hee, heuk.”

“There may be side effects… but I have no reason to be considerate of your circumstances.”

“Ah, ah…”

Return to square one. I spun a thin, long thread at the tip of my finger and inserted it into her ear. I’m going to forcibly remodel her brain.

“Ah, euk, hik?! Kkeu, heeheek.”

Pluton widened her eyes and twisted her body. She bent her hands and toes and stuck out her tongue. Then, if I touched something strange, she would bleed from her nose and piss herself. I smirked at the horrific sight.

I’m reminded of my experience of being brainwashed by a slime. That was, um… indescribable. If I had to describe it, it was a sensation of memories being split like grains of sand, and the body losing control in real-time. If I hadn’t used Copy Ego to preserve my memories, I would have lived as an idiot for the rest of my life. Unlike then, the purpose now is treatment, so it’s not to that extent… but it’s probably similar, even if not to the point of becoming an idiot.

“Keuk, heek, heet?!”

“While I was fixing her, I also changed her body a bit. Now you’re, uhm. About half human.”

“Eu, euk… You, you… To me, what, euh. Euh?”

It was an unavoidable choice because I had to inject Mana. If she accepted human Mana as she was, she would pfft and die.

Anyway. I successfully fixed her brain. Now, what I need to worry about are the side effects, but it didn’t matter as long as she could have a normal conversation.

“Me, where… where did you take me…”

Pluton said with trembling eyes.

“Partial amnesia, huh. Do you remember your name?”

“…”

“Judging by the clear changes in emotion, she’s not a complete idiot…”

She seems to have memory problems since she doesn’t know where this is, but it’s not a serious level. She seems to know who I am, judging by the fear she feels towards me. The rest of her memories will come back over time.

“Good. Let’s move on to the next thing.”

“Ne, next?”

Pluton gasped at the word ‘next.’ Her breathing became rapid, and her body trembled. Unfortunately, it seemed like some of the memories from that time remained. The 5 seconds stretched out to 1 year. The endless days of eternity flashed by like a panorama.

“Ha, don’t.”

Fear.

The only emotion reflected in her eyes right now was fear. It was the fear of life that surpassed the fear of death. A life that extends as much as I want. If I wanted, I could live in a stopped world for a hundred or a thousand years. I don’t know if that can be called life, but…

“Ple, please. Please. I’ll do anything.”

It was enough to break the heart of a demon.

– Thud.

Pluton immediately knelt down and groveled.

“I, I’ll tell you everything I know. Th, that’s right! You guys. You humans?, th, th…”

“The Agents.”

“Right, the Agents! You, you said you were catching demons like me, right…?”

“So?”

I asked back with a satisfied smile.

“Uh, uh…”

Pluton’s face turned pale. She was flustered because my reaction was lukewarm.

I chuckled, looking at her pathetic state.

It was truly, truly perfect education. Except for the fact that she became a little stupid.

“You.”

And suddenly.

I hardened my face and said.

“If you don’t give me useful information… you know, right?”

“No! No. It will definitely be useful. Please, please…”

Pluton shouted almost in a frenzy. How scared she is. I said with a very benevolent expression.

“There’s no need to rush. Even if I interrogate you in an incomplete state of memory, nothing will come out, right?”

“Eu, eu…”

“Don’t worry. There’s plenty of time. Time is…”

I trailed off and intentionally avoided her gaze.

Avoiding her fear-filled gaze, I turned around and saw Hajin.

“Are you done?”

Hajin’s gaze seemed to be contemptuous for some reason… but it must be my imagination.

* * *

“That’s it?”

“Th, that’s all… He, he… I, is it okay now…?”

“Yeah. This is enough. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a lie.”

To be honest, I was surprised.

Pluton was a demon with more connections than I imagined. From demons being tracked by the Holy See to demons who haven’t even received a title. She spilled everything, including their residences, weaknesses, and major activity points. To that extent. She was desperate enough to sell out her own kind.

One surprising thing is that Pluton attacked both humans and demons indiscriminately. Who knew that she had even tortured her own kind, which is why she had the soul of a demon.

“The shells I’ve collected are in the underground of the canyon… Thuh… There’s still a demon being tortured… You can just get rid of them….”

“Thanks for the advice. Hajin. You wrote everything down, right?”

Pluton had become very obedient in the meantime. She was a bit dazed at first, but she became calmer as her memories returned. She must have really hated it. The demon who resisted to the end, saying she didn’t want to die, eventually became a cute puppy.

‘Should I remodel her like Sophia and sell her off?’

She seems like she would be popular with a certain demographic if I handed her over to a brothel.

As I was having such useless thoughts, Hajin scolded me.

“Don’t even think about letting her go.”

“Oh my, how did you know?”

“Oh my my ass… I’m you, how could I not know? I can tell just by looking at your eyes, so don’t pull any tricks and let’s go back quietly. Please.”

“I was just thinking of handing her over to a brothel. Cutting off her limbs and sticking her in a wall to make a disposable toilet.”

“Um. That’s a bit envi… no. Anyway!”

Yeah.

I have no intention of letting her live.

“Then… shall we slowly wrap things up?”

Absolutely.

“Wrap up?”

“Yeah, yeah. The execution is in two days, but it would be boring to end it so blandly, right?”

“Yeah, yeah my ass, haa… So what is it?”

He asked, annoyed by my girly tone. I shrugged and chuckled. This is your future. Anyway.

“I’m preparing a show. A show that everyone can be satisfied with.”

Pluton trembled in the corner.

I playfully stuck out my tongue and said.

“Pluton. Can you come here?”

“Uh…?”

“It’s not that, so don’t be scared.”

Her mouth kept moving. A brief moment of contemplation. Pluton was afraid to move her feet, so she couldn’t move easily. But she couldn’t just stay still. The result would be obvious if she disobeyed me.

– Jiing.

In that short time.

I gathered Mana at my fingertips and engraved a magic circle.

“That’s… ha.”

Hajin looked at the structure of the magic circle and raised the corners of his mouth.

“Fantasy World.”

A magic I had paid attention to a long time ago when I was being tentacle-raped in the Black Rose, Fantasy World. A dangerous yet fascinating technique that shows the target the desires they desperately want. But I didn’t copy all of it. Showing Pluton the desires she wants is a reward, not a punishment.

What I stole from the Black Rose was a precise illusion that was no different from reality.

“Put your forehead out for a moment and close your eyes.”

I stroked her forehead as she hesitantly approached.

“Uh, euh――?”

At that moment.

Pluton made a dazed face and collapsed.

“What kind of illusion did you show her?”

“Hehe….”

Hajin tried to decipher the magic circle I had engraved, but he was horrified by the vast amount of information and stepped back. I chuckled and answered.

“An illusion of serving humans.”

“Why bother? After coming all the way here?”

The training is already over.

But I said I was preparing a show, didn’t I?

“What… it’s not something like a sex slave, is it?”

“Look forward to it. You’ll be able to see it at the execution in two days.”

“Tch. Teasing me.”

There will be no resistance or mistakes.

Because the illusion I showed Pluton was.

“….”

Two hundred years’ worth.