Chaos Heir

Chapter 1451: Punishment

Raymond never bothered to learn the Niqols’ language. He didn’t strictly need to, since machines more than sufficed as translators, but that made him unable to understand Liiza now.

Liiza also didn’t bother to explain herself. She didn’t care about Raymond enough to describe what the new restrictions entailed. He was only a mortal who should be grateful he had managed to keep any hold on his life at all.

Nevertheless, the rune started to show its effects as soon as Liiza diverted her glowing gaze and did her best to retract her chilling presence to help her husband calm down their daughter.

Raymond became able to breathe, think, and move again, only for a wave of pain to immediately radiate from his neck, spreading throughout his body and making him release a grunt.

The unexpected event interrupted Raymond’s attempt to straighten himself, and a second wave of pain delayed it even further. He didn’t know what was happening, but his lying position made him aware that those strange effects didn’t only affect his insides.

The sitting audience followed something with their gazes, making Raymond take a look at himself. His suit, shoes, and long hair covered most of him, but the few chunks of exposed skin revealed something concerning.

Blood vessels had bulged all over Raymond’s neck, hands, and probably face, stirring as if worms wriggled inside them. Their inflated state added intricate red marks to Raymond’s body, acting as hideous tattoos that he could easily guess converged on his new symbol.

Still, the trigger remained unclear. The blood vessels seemed on the verge of relaxing and deflating when a third wave of pain spread through Raymond, lifting that intricate network of red marks again.

Sadly for Raymond, that was only the beginning. He tried to open his mouth, wanting to question the Prince and Princess about his condition, but a fourth wave of pain interrupted him. A fifth immediately followed, and more arrived, keeping him stuck to the sandy ground.

It reached the point when Raymond’s decorum and pride gave in. As the pain intensified, proper cries began to escape his parted lips. He initially tried to suppress them, wanting to act confident, but the attempt quickly failed as the rune kept activating.

The process fell under the definition of torture, but no one in the audience had a weak stomach. Khan couldn’t even feel any pity. After all, Raymond would have probably kept him trapped in similar conditions or worse if he had his way, and would have reserved that treatment for his daughter, too.

However, some curiosity did appear. Khan had never discussed the details with Liiza, so he didn’t know what that enslavement entailed.

“[The mark reacts to his intentions],” Liiza explained when blue light shone on her while she joined Khan in caressing their crying daughter. “[He thinks about hurting us, it flares. He wishes to get rid of it, it flares].”

Yeza played hard to get, crying even as both Khan and Liiza tried to calm her down. Still, her sobs slowed down as her mother kept caressing her short blue hair.

“[He resents us, it flares],” Liiza continued, leaving a quick kiss on Yeza’s head. “[He somehow devises a plan, it cripples him. He tries to kill himself, it takes away his free will].”

Yeza finally stopped crying, opening her eyes to shine their blue light on her mother’s reassuring face.

“[Even if someone takes his life for him],” Liiza added, “[He’ll keep living as a suffering shade, unable to attain release until I decide it’s time for his natural death].”

All things considered, Liiza had been merciful. She could have avoided setting an expiration date, forcing Raymond to continue living as a shadow of himself even after his natural death arrived.

Of course, Raymond would probably never see it like that. He was a free thinker, pursuing his ideas no matter who he hurt in the process. Now, he wouldn’t even be able to devise plans that could hurt Khan’s family without suffering, limiting his crazy genius.

That was nothing short of a forced reconditioning of Raymond’s psyche from which he had no escape. He would have to adapt to those new rules or suffer eternally. He would have to change, whether he wanted it or not.

“You won’t be able to pursue any thought that might hurt us,” Khan summarized. “Consider it mercy. Like this, you can still be around to watch and participate as humankind strives toward its next evolutionary step.”

Raymond was a smart man. He had already begun to understand the nature of his new condition, even testing how the rune reacted to some of his thoughts.

Khan’s summary confirmed Raymond’s conclusions, but he wasn’t someone who would accept such tight shackles. He was a man of science, finding answers no one else had seen and creating new ones where they didn’t exist.

Nevertheless, the rune flared as soon as Raymond tried to consider finding loopholes. The alien symbol didn’t just react to his thoughts. It was connected to his very subconscious, activating and stopping him before ideas could even begin to form.

As for pushing through the pain, it simply wasn’t possible. Liiza’s symbol wasn’t a mere physical punishment. The waves of suffering made Raymond’s mind go blank, often dispersing what he was attempting to do. Enduring the suffering wouldn’t amount to anything when his brain couldn’t concoct thoughts at all.

As Raymond performed more tests, even triggering the rune on purpose, the terrible truth became evident, making him despair. He had spent his whole life reaching farther than any other scientist, devising all kinds of ploys and tricks to continue working freely.

That was now gone, and Raymond knew it was forever. He only needed one look at the two monsters playing the happy family above him to be sure. He had messed with god-like entities, earning himself an inescapable punishment.

Of course, as the realization settled, anger tried to ensue, only for the symbol to flare again, stronger than ever before, leaving Raymond wriggling in pain on the sand until he fainted.